Show WHAT IS MAN discourse delivered in inthe ahe tabernacle Taher satt sail lake cu city sunday january 27 1895 by AY ELDER B H ROBERTS fRK PORTED BY ARTHUR WINTER the ne choir sang Z s 0 my father thou that dwell wt est the hymn to which we have just S listened produces it seems to me one f of the most holy influences that can jv burrou surround ad the saints of god and that aft doubtless for the reason that it touches one of the most lofty themes connected T with the gos gospel el of the lord jesus f christ and it has suggested to me this 6 J afternoon a theme in connection with PJ tho the gospel that I 1 believe to be one of 1 the most instructive and inspiring that ia the mind of man can contemplate if y the therefore belore I 1 can obtain through your your y faith and the goodness of our father in heaven his spirit I 1 will speak upon kind it and as an aid to its introduction will read to you one of the psalms of david the esth 0 lord ou our r lord how excellent is th thy y name in all the ea earth rth who hast bast set thy glory above the heavens f out of the mouth of babes and suc klings finast thou ordained strength because of thi thine n e bemies efte ne mies that thou lightest might est still the enemy an and d 14 the ave avenger oger when I 1 consider thy heavens the work of y thy fingers the moon and the fhe stars which thou what is man that thou art mindful of him fand the son of man that thou test him for thou bast rn made ade him a little lower than oe he angels and hast crowned him with glory dmd d honor thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy bands thou hast bast put all things HiX inder his feet f all sheep and oxen yea and the beasts ot the 4 afield ifield A the fowl of the air and the fish of the sea arid whatsoever basseth through the paths of abe was seas 1 0 0 lord our lord how excel excellent leat is thy jame in all the earth I 1 david doubtless as was his habit judging from many expressions in his writings had been contemplating the lie fleaven fc eaven svens the vastness ot of them and th the e xi f greatness aan ess of gods power as witnessed therein ein for he says in another place 0 4 g s abe he heavens declare the glory of god ay and the firmament his handi work dav unto day ereth speech and night un unto tonight night knowl efte edge there is is no speech nor language mafere chere their voice is not heard their the ua is tone gone out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world turning irom from a contemplation of the great works of the creator and looking upon man in in his insignificance very naturally he gave expression to the thought hought contained in this psalm what is is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou test him but notwithstanding there seemed to be in the mind of the poet the idea of the insignificance of man yet he was careful to observe that god had exalted him above the rest of his creatures that live upon the earth he took note that the beasts of the field all sheep and oxen the birds of the air and the fish of the sea were all placed under the dominion of man indeed if you follow the thoughts of the prophet david upon this subject you will vall discover that in his mind this superiority in man and his dom dominion over the other creations of god argued for him some special relationship to deity true there are some animals which in particular things seem superior to man that is there are some swifter of foot than he be others of keener sight still others of more sensitive smell but in none is there that combination which stamps man with superiority which of the animals has ne not subdued and made subservient to his will sone yield their strength some their speed to serve him and all pay him homage by submitting to his dominion nor has man been content with subduing the animal creation alone he is fast obtaining a mastery over the elements of nature the winds and ocean currents have long been his servants the element of fire adds to his comfort and aids him in his labors in a hund hundred ed ways he has made the lightning bear his messages he annihilates distance he weighs the sun the moon and the stars in his balances and tells us the materials of which they are composed however great their distances all this argues for man a superiority over omi other earth creatures and this supe bority bonty coupled with special favo favors rs r s conferred upon man by deit deity proclaims some special relationship t between him and god man naturally desires to discover that relationship and has often asked what is man that god is mindful of him of 01 his wisdom however this i is a task that man cannot perform a problem that he cannot solve if you doubt what I 1 say then I 1 pray you take lake the results of philosophical in investigation on the subject set re revelation on aside and what have philosophers to oner offer as a solution absolution of the problem of life iffe one of the greatest geniuses genius that has arisen among men des describes cri bes lite as a w walking shadow a poor player that struts and frets his bis hour upon the stage and then is heard no more it is a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying signify ing nothing one of our great modern skeptics col ingersoll said life is a narrow vale between the cold and barren peaks of two eternities we strive in vain to look beyond the heights we cry aloud and only answer r is the echo of our wailing cry from the voiceless lips of the in dead there comes no word M As man by searching cannot find out god so the wisdom of man is inadequate to the solution of the question propounded by david what is man that though art mindful of him and the son of man that thou test him you ou cannot solve the question by human wisdom it is only by turning to revelation that we can get a satisfactory answer to the great question and that gives an answer to which the spirit of man is responsive accepts it and claims it as its own and is satisfied with that solution it is one of the evidences evid ances of divine inspiration in the great modern modem prophet who under gods direction laid the foundation of this latter da day work that he was enabled through revelation to make anwer answer s to this question and throw a flood of light upon the problem I 1 take it that tha t no one present here today is ignorant of the great fact of death we have met with it in our experience peri ence in in some form or other there are parents here who have lost children there are children who have lost V parents oa rents brothers who have lost sisters sisters who have lost brothers and if perchance er chance there should be any who cave have not come in contact with death in these near relationships then all at least have lost friends all nave have looked upon the dead and as we gazed into the cold marble faces of those whom we loved who is there that has not been struck with the thought on such occasions that what he gazed upon was but the temple or the house in which the soul he loved had dwelt the casket only was before him the jewel was gone we need not engage in any fine spun speculations about the existence of the spirit I 1 take it that no man has looked upon the dead who has not been impressed with the truth to which I 1 now invite your attention we may take it as a tact conceded that man is dual in his organism composed not merely merel y of the gross materials that make up the body of the flesh and bone there is the m nd or spirit as well this 1 I thi thia e ego within man and that is is more properio pro property peri the man is just as much a fact as the existence of the body in death we see these the spirit and body separated our inquiry will lead us to consider man in his dual organism as composed of spirit and body when jesus was upon the earth and his disciples came to him and said lord teach us how to pray as john also taught his disciples ci ples the reply of the son of god was when ye pray say our father which which art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be donel doncon on earth as it is in heaven 11 etc all that concerns me in this prayer at this particular moment is the invocation our father which art in heaven Is that unmeaning verbiage or did the son of god by emp employing loving that language intend to express the exact and true relationship which in some way exists between man and god I 1 take it that jesus christ did not deal with words without meaning but that he used language which expressed great truths however simple his words and indeed the simpler the language most generally the more sublime it is the words our father which artin art in heaven mean something they mean that atod god is in some way the father of mankind we know that we have earthly fathers and mothers who brought US into existence and hence with some the question may arise how can god be our father the apostle paul gives us a solution of this problem he I 1 e says furthermore we have had lathers fathers of our dur flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence shall we not much rather be in subjection to the father of spirits and live here I 1 say is a solution to the question our earthly parents are but the parents of our boales bodles bodies but god the father of spirits is our father ather also our father in heaven so that man not only has a dual organism but a dual parentage 9 e an earthly R parentage 4 11 and a heavenly parentage 9 e this is easy enough to prove from the scriptures sometimes men took offense at the teachings of jesus christ the scribes pharisees phan pharis sees ees and sadducees frequently did so and when he taught them the necessity of being obedient to the precepts of the gospel they gathered about them their robes and said we have abraham to be our father then jesus astonished them by saying before abraham was I 1 am why said they thou art not yet fifty years old and hast bast thou seen abraham and they construed his language into blasphemy even his disciples could no not always comprehend the great truths jesus announced teaching them some doctrine on one occasion that they did not readily receive he said to them doth this offend you what and if ye shall see the son of man ascend up where he was before again just previous to his crucifixion when the culmination of his great mission was drawing nigh and when he sought strength to meet the ordeal through which he must pass he retired by himself and prayed to the father and said 1 I have gl rifled thee on earth I 1 have finished the work which thou davest me to do and now 0 father glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I 1 had with thee before the world was here he speaks not only of an eki existence stence he had before he in the flesh but speaks also of a glory unto which he had 1 tt tta amed ined one that was so sweet in his recollection that teat he desired above all things that he might rise out of the conditions of sorrow and affliction in the midst of which hi he was then plunged and go back to that glory which he had with god be fore the world was on this point too there is another passage of scripture that ought to be considered god who at sundry times and in divers manners in times past unto the lathers fathers by the prophets hath bath in these last days spoken unto us by his son whom he hath bath appointed heir of all things by whom also he made the worlds not only did jesus have an existence with his father before he lived on earth not only did he have a glory there but he had been employed by his father the god of heaven in in creating worlds not one world but many and all this in that existence which preceded his existence upon the earth so far as men could see jesus was not unlike his fellow man he had form and dimensions he had height and breadth he had flesh and bones he was warmed with the same fire chilled by the same winds he was often an hungered preeminently eminently pre he was the man of sorrow and acquainted with grief in everything he seemed to share the physical qualities that characterized other men and my point of argument is that if jesus resembled other men in these physical respects and his spirit had the pro pre existence that is here proclaimed for it in the scriptures may not all the children of men have bad an existence in the same way since he resembles us so much in our physical organism in the attributes of the soul and the qualities of the mind may it not be that we resemble him in the matter of pre existence why it is so proclaimed in the scriptures it is said as already quoted we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we pave them reverence shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the father ot of spirits and live indeed the lord says to one of the prophets before I 1 formed thee in the belly I 1 knew thee and before thou earnest camest out of the womb I 1 sanctified thee and I 1 ordained thee to be a prophet unto the nations this is the language used in respect to the prophet jeremiah that prophets spirit existed in the heavenly kingdom before it was formed in the womb god knew it and he knew that that spirit had the qualities to make a prophet unto the nations hence he called him and or bained him before he was born to occupy that exalted position there is also in the book of abraham a statement made that is truly grand abraham in this record says now the lord had chewn unto me abraham the that were organized before the world was and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones and god saw these souls ahat they were good and he be stood in the midst of them and he said these I 1 will make my rulers for he stood among those that were spirits and he saw that they were good and he said unto me abraham thou art one of them thou wast chosen before thou I 1 I 1 wast born he in other words was just like jeremiah and ind like the son of god the noblest and the best of them all chosen and ordained to the work that he performed in this life the prophet joseph enlarging upon this theme declared that not only did mans spirit have a pre existence but that when the plan of salvation was formed we were all present we saw the savior chosen we voted to sustain and uphold him in that capacity and doubtless it is because of this circumstance that condemnation will come to those who reject him for all the light and intelligence unto which man attain ed in his preexistent pre existent state has not been blotted out and obliterated by his coming to this world sometimes like the fragments ot of a half forgotten dream knowledge and i intelligence unto which whick man had attained in his pre existence comes back to him he hears whisperings directions which come to him in part at least from a recollection ot of those ideas and knowledge that he had in his preexistent pre existent state even the heathen philosophers ahers teach these things the great cicero commenting comm entine on the teachings of plato declares it to be the teaching of plato that the facility with which children learn so rapidly acquire so much knowledge and do it so quickly arises out of the fact not that they absolutely learn ideas but that which we call development and intellectual tel growth in intha this life is merely the recollection of their former ideas all of gods truth has not been slotted blotted out in this world not even in its darkest ages but here and there gleams ot of its light have shot forth to direct men inert towards awards god there is a wonderful amount ot of information that runs side by side with this doctrine ot of the pre existence of mans spirit there is a world of knowledge unfolded when this principle is recognized I 1 can now understand how it is that sometimes in spite of all adverse circumstances there are spirits that rise from the lowliest and most unfavorable conditions to grandeur and nobility of heart and head the philosophers of the world in accounting for character have laid I 1 believe too |