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“It was the design of the councils of heaven before the world was,” the Prophet
explained, “that the principles and laws of the priesthood should be predicated upon the
gathering of the people ... to build unto the Lord a house to prepare them for the
ordinances and endowments.”
Brigham Young placed life in its cosmic setting, man’s origin being in eternity. He
began by stating that man “is composed of two distinct elements; the first is a spiritual
organization in eternity, the second is a natural organization on this earth, formed out of
the material of which this earth is composed.” And he affirmed that “the Spirit of Christ
lightens” mortal men “and instructs their pure spirits, which are organizations in the germ
and in their growth, to become independent beings, even sons and daughters of the
Almighty” in the new birth which Christ’s Gospel provides. Then, when faithful people
“receive the Gospel,”––“having been adopted into the family of Christ through the bonds
of the everlasting covenant” and “made ...free”––“they receive ... the Comforter, that holy
unction from on high ... in whom there dwelleth unity of faith and action, and in whom
there cannot be division or confusion.” In this new stage of life their goal is to “become
eternal fathers, eternal mothers,” in the Divine Nature, or glory of God, having power to
give divine truth and life to others. And, Brigham continued, in the resurrection they will
then “go from glory to glory, from power to power; they will never cease to increase and
to multiply world’s without end.” And he added: “When they receive their crowns, their
dominions, they then will be prepared to frame earth’s like unto ours and to people them
in the same manner as we have been brought forth by our parents, by our Father and
God.”