Show THE INCREASED POWERS AND capacities OF MAN IN HIS FUTURE STATE A r x ma ca rm U 30 BY ORSON lc delivered tho the young mens meng literary association OGDEN cirr tuesday E evening van ng january REPORTED BY DAVID AV EVANS I 1 HAVE been requested by brother richards ble Bic hards to address the young mens literary association organized here in ogden together with such individuals as should be present on tile the occasion I 1 do so cheerfully although I 1 must say in the collim commencement ene cne emerit of my remarks that I 1 have had no time whatever to digest the subject I 1 propose to speak upon this evening other duties nave have been so nume numerous including those in the legislative assembly that I 1 have scarcely had a moments leisure to devote to its consideration the subject upon which it has been proposed proposed posed that I 1 should address you is dro Ero i the increased capacities and powers rowers of man in his 1 future state it 1 ina isa i a subject which is theological in its natorp nature and cannot br be treated altogether in in a scientific point of view for all that wo we know concerning the future state of man is by divine revelation and in III no other way hence we shall be under the necessity from the very nature of the subject to appeal to the tile revelations elat ions which god has given both ancient and modern in relation to the future state of man and the capacities pa cities with which he will be endowed in the world to come however there may be connected with this subject many scientific ideas by way of illustration wo we find ourselves here in this world in the enjoyment of intelligence light and truth tenth in some measure far above any creatures which god has made placed here upon the earth among the myriads of its creatures man seems to tb be prominent in fact the masterpiece of creation a being eil cri endowed dowed with intelligence and reasoning powers and with more or less power over all other beings and creatures upon the face of the earth but withstanding his intellectual pow irs fers and faculties man in his present condition is a poor weak fra frail lly liy fallen being subject to afflictions pains accident and sickness and after a while he passes off from this stage of action the inquiry naturally arises among all people t whether this being ing called man exists after this body crumbles back to its mother earth and whether the intelligent lart part of man continues to exist or whether it iti dies with tho the body there are many reasons reasons to suppose that man will exist in a future state those who believe in a supreme being capable of brodu producing cing eing I 1 man and the earth upon which he dwells might almost without the aid of revelation naturally aily alIv conclude that man being the workmanship of the hands of that supreme being was not intended to pass away and be forgotten with the termination of this brief existence but that he was intended to live hereafter but when we search the sacred records on this subject we find an abundance of evidence and proof to thoroughly satisfy ourselves that when we lay down these bodies to rest in the rave mire if we are saints we lay them nave own n with the expectation and with the full aru assurance ranee ranco and hope that they will be resuscitated and will again live in a more perfect form than what they exist at the present time we look for this we hope for it we pray for it we re seek with all our hearts to be prepared for this future state of being belag and the tho first resurrection when we examine divine revelation upon tile tilo subject of tho the resurrection we find that every part of this mortal tabernacle that is laid down in the grave so far as needful to constitute a perfect body will be resurrected we ve are informed to this effect in various revelations but more especially in the book of mormon and I 1 suppose that the young men who organized this association believe in that sacred and divine record as well as in the Bib leand also in the book of doctrine and covenants therefore I 1 shall address myself to them then as to persons who are believers therein in the book of mormon wo we find alma discoursing upon the resurrection of the dead and also amu lek and they both testify that the bodies we la lay y down in the grave will come forth again that every part will be restored to its perfect frame both those prophets declare that every limb and joint will be restored though the body crumble back to mother carthand eart hand the bones the most solid portions of the human system willbe will be dissolved andre and return again to the dust they declare that the materials will be brought together and reconstructed that bone will como come to its bone and that the flesh that now clothes these bones and the sinews and skin which cover the flesh will also be restored ezekiel the prophet in in the chapter of his bis prophecy says that bones and flesh sinews and skin will all come forth and be made out of the dust into a perfect tabernacle and everything will be restored to its perfect frame and so particularly do the prophets amu lek and alma discourse upon this subject that they declare that not even one hair of the head shall be lost some perhaps er haps might suppose that as tte the human tabernacle is ia composed of certain familiar elements such as hydrogen oxygen carbon and the various ele eie elementary mentar y principles that exist around us when the body is dissolved adf and those various elements are scattered and driven to the four winds as in the case of the burning of a bod body y and those elements enter into hito the 1 composition of vegetables and the tile vegetables are e iten eiten by anima Is ing to increase their fie fl shanda eshand again aln ain these animals are eaten by hum human an beings that these continual t transfers ra ns of matter from one state and condition to another would preclude the idea of the resurrection of the same body again but there are several things to be considered in relation to this matter wo we have a revelation in the book of doctrine and covenants called the olive leaf which says yo which have been quickened by a portion of the celestial glory shall in that day receive even a falness ful ness even yo yc shall receive your bodies which are the same bodies that you now have this seems to be so plain that we weare are obliged to admit that eliat we shall receive the same bodies now the fact that tile the particles which compose our bodies undergo so many transmutations trans mutations after we leave this mortal existence entering into the flesh of ing to build up the bodies of other othen human beings woud would almost seem especially to tile the minds of infidels in opposition to the idea of a resurrection re and I 1 do not believe that every particle that is ever incorporated in the systems of human crea tares will be resurrected with them I 1 have no such idea but a r sufficient amount of the particles which have once been incorporated in the system will be used by the almighty in the resurrection to make perfect and complete tabernacles for celestial spirits to dwell in theider that every particle that ever entered into the composition of our mortal bodies will be resurrected is incon si stant for who does not know that a man often changes in weight for instance when wilen lie is ail an infant lie he weighs but a few pounds he continues to increase in flesh through tile the food that he partakes not only in flesh but also in tile the size of his bones until he attains perhaps a hundred and ninety pounds pound sin in addition to the tenor ten or twelve pounds that he weighed in infancy then again lie wastes away by some long lingering lingerin g sickness and after having been several months brought down he weighs himself and finds that ho he has lost sixty or sevel seventy ity pounds 0 ands of flesh where has it gone 9 somewhere it has lias disappeared again lie he revives from his sickness and ho he begins to recruit by partaking of various kinds of nourishment and by and bye lie he weighs perhaps two hundred pounds an other fit of sickness overtakes him and lie loses fifty or sixty pounds in weight nga aga inand thus in tile the course of a long life by intervals of sickness and health perhaps some twelve or fifteen hundred pounds of matter have departed from his body and been renewed again through the food that he has eaten then again wo we are in the habit of taking knives or and poring paring our nails every little while so much so that we can safely say that in the course of a year we cutoff cut oft or pare from our fingers and lockas the case may be perhaps an inch of pail and this batca man who lives to be seventy two years of age would pare off seventy two inches of nall nail which would be six feet now can we suppose that when a man rises from tile the dead that he will come forth nails six feet longbaugh ter I 1 cannot conceive any such thing and yet this is a portion of the body and men in the resurrection will wilt have nails the same as they have here but I 1 expect they will be of a reasonable re rea rei length and a sufficient portion of the nails of his fingers and toes will be resurrected to make handsome comely nails on the fingers and toes toce while all the rest will be surplus and unnecessary then again we are in the habit babit of having our hair shingled this custom is generally commenced in a childhood say three or four years old and continued through life and in the course of a year perhaps four or five inches of hairway be cut from the head and castaway cast away agay now in seventy two year sif a man did not lose his hair altogether lie he would perhaps cut off something like twenty f four bun bur feet of hair and beard can we nye suppose chatin that in the resurrection we thail shail come forth with our hair and beard a rod long I 1 do not look for any such thing when therefore we ive read in the book of mormon that every hair of the head shall be restored I 1 do not expect that the whole of the matter that has been incorporated in the tile hair or in the beard will be restored but I 1 look for a sufficient quantity of the material once existing in the hair and beard to be restored to make one appear comely for the hair is an ornament it is said by some whether true or false I 1 shall not pretend to say that independent of sickness and losing and regaining 0 our flesh a robust man once in seven years throws off olf the greater portion of the materials of his body that even the very bones of our bodies give out material which is thrown off and find so much so that when a part of a bone is taken away it ai replaced by the ordinary process of partaking of this may or may not bo be so I 1 do not pretend to lo say although it is generally believed by scientific men physicians and those who have made experiments that this is the case now supposing it is true a man who lives to bo be sev enty seven years old would change his entire body eleven times during the course of his life do we suppose that when man comes forth north in the resurrection lie will possess all tile the flesh lie has gained and lost by sickness and regained in health and all that he lie has lost and recovered in these septennial changes 0 if so he would possess one or two tons of matter in in his physical system as a tabernacle for the spirit to dwell in I 1 do not for a moment suppose any such thing but all this except the amount really necessary to make a perfect proportionate tab ninale for thespina the spirit to dwell in will bu matter what becomes of this surplus matter the tho beasts fowls fowl sand and fl fash fish i sh and all living creatures are to be resurrected and ir if nian man lias has had incorporated corp orated in his system in the tile course of his mortal life nine tenths more matter than to make a perfect resurrected body why not let that surplus matter go where it belong belongs to the tile beasts acasta or of tile the field to the fowls of the air and aud the tho fish of tile the sea bea that they may receive their tabernacles aliu and be resurrected it is said by some that there are certain portions of tile the body which do not dissolve if there are I 1 do not know anything about it the bones dissolve and the flesh sinews sinewy skin teeth and hair and every par parl part of the human body which we are acquainted returns to dust if such be the case there must be a restoration for if the body did not dissolve thera there could not be a restoration we will now pass along and ask in regard to the tiie condition of til the body after its resurrection will it then be subject to pain sick siek sickness less and sorrow no we are told in scripture upon which wo we hound found our arguments that when tile the new heavens beavens and tile tilo new earth uro lire in vie wie god will make all things new and anil there shall be no more sorrow nur nor pain neither shall there be ally any more death but pain sorrow weeping and death will be done away consequently the immortal body will be free from all those evils that have havo come by the fall let us examine another tiling thing in regard to the immortal body will it baab be absolutely sol necessary to receive nourishment by rood food I 1 do not ask whether whet lier iler immortal beings will viii partake of food that is an another otier subject but will it bo be necessary to partake of food to sustain aid and preserve the immortal body we read that immortal beings have eaten food that even our first parents adam and eve before they fell while they were yet immortal were permitted to enter into the myrden garden of eden and that they had bad food to eat cat of a vegetable nature that they were permitted to eat of all the fruits of the garden except one but was that absolutely necessary essaiy that they might remain immortal beings I 1 doubt it very ver much immortality was stamped their very systems and anti they would have been this day alive had they not transgressed the commandments of god whether they had eaten food or not ili in the beginning the beasts of the field fed upon vegetables in the tile first chapter of the book of genesis we read and god said behold I 1 have given oven you everz every herb bearing seed which is upon he the face of all the earth and every tree in in the which is the fruit of a tree yi yielding elding seed to you it shall be for meat and to every beast of the earth and to every fowl of the air and to everything that creep cree peth etli upon the tile earth wherein there is life I 1 have ilven fiven given every green herb for meat in n those days while adam and eve were immortal the beasts fowls and fish did not destroy each other which would indicate immortality if in those days the lion ilon on would eat the lamb jamb the wolf the kid and anti ravenous beasts would devour their fellow beasts it would have been an indication that mortality existed then in the earth but there was no such thing ds as mortality when mau man was first placed in tile the garden of eden neither beast of the tilo field fowl of theair the air nor fish of the sea was then subject to td death deat libut but all like man mail were immortal and yet they partook of food but their food was of a vegetable nature we read that after jesus rose roae from the dead I 1 lie appeared to his disel disciples while they tiley were out fishing and he be called them to the shore and said Children have havo ye any meat they soon roon discovered that it was tho the lord llord who ha I 1 appeared to them and they cime cimo to tile tiie shore and bruil broiled ed some bome fish fishon oil a fire of coals and jesus partook with them yet lie was vas an immortal being but whether it was necessary for him to eat in order to sustain himself is another question but can immor tal beings live without food yes even the children of mortality can cat I 1 live without food when the lord sees see s proper for |