Hidden mystery unravelled ...

Preface

Intelligent and observing- men plainly see that a reform in religious thought is imperatively demanded. As the world changes in all other respects, so it changes in the matter of its religious convictions. The more advanced and enlightened the people the more refined and beautiful are their conceptions in all that relates to the Supreme Being and the future state of man. Many of the creeds to which the sects of Christendom still cling are found to be retrogressive in their teachings. They smell of the must of the Dark Ages. They are known to be against the spirit of the age, and at variance with the plain teachings of the Book of Books. For this reason "men are running to and fro," pushing their investigations and greatly increasing their knowledge in this and other departments. The desire to know more of God and His will concerning us is causing men to publish the products of their researches.

It is not claimed for this little volume that it is an exhaustive discussion of the subject in hand, but it is claimed that he who gives this a careful reading will find in it a clear and satisfactory solution of many questions that till now have been "hidden mysteries." The book is given to you for your profit, and with the prayer that God will open your minds to the truths herein set forth.

C. W. S.

Guthrie, July, 1891.

Most fortunate and happy brother, you can scarcely conceive the exquisite pleasure it gives me to meet you here in our exalted and glorious haven of blissful rest and endless joy. Oh! how inexpressibly happy, with what unspeakable ecstacy I greet your joyous coming. But I shall not attempt to tell you of the boundless pleasure we experience on meeting one of Earth's redeemed in our own celestial home. Nor shall I hope to hear you e'xpress your own great happiness on reaching, victoriously, the home of the rescued, of the redeemed and the saved of your gracious and blessed Lord and Savior. And now please accept my most hearty congratulations on the glorious achievemen«t of your gracious Lord in calling you from the paths of sin and exalting you to the throne of glory. O, my fortunate Lord did you but know the glorious future before you, your mighty soul could not contain its boundless bliss.

Ah! my angelic friend, how little can a new-born spirit, just entering upon the bliss of

Heaven, realize the rapturous joy his future holds in store for him. But I am inexpressibly happy. My highest earthly conception of Heaven's boundles bliss was as naught to the reality.

Thus I heard this august angelic being commune with one of Earth's redeemed soon after its arrival in the etherial home of the blest. Then with rapt attention I listened, but can record only the salient features of their angelic converse.

Ah! but thou, so recently from Earth, how oft have I looked with longing eye upon that waywa^-d and wandering orb, and asked myself again and again how long, oh, how long will Earth's denizens grovel in darkness and refuse to see the glorious light shining from the countenance of their loving Savior.^* But then, we know, of course, that when the Father's own good time shall come, the light of life shall shed its refulgent splendor o'er all Earth's hills and vales, and all the Earth, redeemed of the Lord, and saved, shall come up a mighty host to praise the Lord in ecstacy for the mighty salvation which He will have wrought among the children of men.

Oh! how good is our God; how gracious is His adorable son. How much to be loved, how much to be reverenced, adored and praised, for the greatness of their boundless goodness to the children of men.

"Praise the Lord, O, my soul!" Exalt His holy name, adore Him all ye sons of men; for He is worthy of all adoration. How do I rejoice and magnify my happiness as I behold all the grandeur and glory of this blissful abode. But come, my dear angelic teacher, pray tell me all about Earth's mysteries. How came its condition thus.? Dost thou know whence it was, and how it hath in sin become so deeply involved.? Ah! well I remember when the planet, we now call Earth, was a great glowing, luminous ball, as the sun to the Earth now is, and I have watched its long and dreary progress ever since, to see what the Father's holy purposes might be with reference to it. And I shall be but too happy to recount to you some of its strange experiences and to compare them with the story of inspiration. And thus you will see how very readily doth mankind accept error for truth, with what astonishing pertinacity they defend the wrong, how unwillingly they accept the truth 54id how far their great teachers have come short of a correct understanding of the words of inspiration. And thus with me thou canst not help but wonder that things are as they are, and thou must say as I have ever said, "The ways of the Lord ara past finding out;" but all His ways are right, and his efforts are crowned with imperial success. And yet, while His works are progressing and unfinished, astounding mysteries doth appear, and ages pass by, then, out of the chaos comes astounding and glorious achievements which doth most highly exalt His great and holy name. Dost thou behold that nebulous body in the distant space so far away?

I do, my beloved, I do!

When first I saw the Earth, thus it looked and stranger still it grew. I watched it while ages passed, and it thicker grew, and gases formed, and breaking forth in fiery flames, it burned as a glowing furnace, while down through illimitable space it fell. And then I looked again, when long ages had passed away, its burning fires had ceased, and it burned no more; but a dark and gloomy body, it rolled on through space hardening on its surface and forming itself into a round and solid globe. And then I saw again that great eruptions occurred upon its surface, and vast volumes of flames burst forth; and again, the Earth was as a sun, but on its face appeared large spots of solid surface where no^ fire burned. Spots such as are now seen upon the sun's bright disc, so that the Earth was then much like the^Earth's sun is now. And the time of myriads of years rolled by, and then the Earth was as a sun no more. But again its fires ceased to burn, **and darkness covered the face of the deep," and thus, at intervals immensely long, one change succeeded another, until the thirteenth change had come, when the earth fully, fitted for human habitation, revolved in its present orbit around the sun, and man was seen upon its face. But, l^erhaps, you wonder how this recital can be made to agree with the story of bible inspiration as told in the book of Genesis. But a little impartial examination will show that this account and that of the bible are both the same, except that they are expressed in different words. Let us see. Inspiration sought to impart an immensity of information in a very few words, and it must be admitted that volumes might be written without securing more fully the object. And now, I will tell you why so many critics, quibblers and skeptics, have Isought to refute the bible and, coming in conflict with religious error, bigotry and intolerance, have fertilized the earth with human blood. This was a necessary and inevitable refining process through which the human race must pass in its developement; from it there was no escape. But when the grand and glorious future of that race, in its perfected state, is comprehended, it will be seen how immensely is the means justified by the end. But these disputations arose mainly from the fact that the religious world has always misunderstood inspiration and have given to it many impossible meanings which they have accepted without pretending to understand. But, believing that the word taught THEM, they felt bound to accept them under pain of punishment for unbelief if they failed to believe them. And, feeling that there was no other sin so great as unbelief, they sought to compel all to receive and conform to their teachings. Ruinous absurdity, from Avhich the earth is now but just emerging.

Think how great, how astonishingly great, must be the vanity, the egotism, nay the lunacy that assumes to know the mind of God, and to lay down a creed to which others must subscribe. Are these people infinite in wisdom, infallable in theory that they assume to tell others what they must believe.-^ Preposterous! preposterous! ! "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord." Let no man assume this function of the Great Jehovah's, nor attempt to inflict vengeance where God himself hath not deigned to interfere. Nay, leave the matter of vengeance with God. If it is to be exercised, he will know just when and how justly to apply it. Man's function is to reason calmly and think earnestly and pray fervently that he may gain Just so much of truth as will make him happiest on earth, and best fit him for God's own purposes with him hereafter. But he must not interfere with his fellowman in his efforts to secure a like good, nor must he suppose that the same knowledge or the same truths must be possessed alike by both, or by all, or that that, which is necessary for one, is even desirable for the other. And yet, while each must labor to help the other, according to his greatest knowledge and ability, he must not attempt by force to restrain or control. All this must be left to God. Such is the condition into which the race must be brought through the fires of contention. ''Offenses must needs come", but woe to those engaged in them, for they bring their own dreadful consequences. But they produce their refining effects, and so the race moves on.

The great difficulty in understanding the bible has arisen from the fact that every theological system has been founded on fundamental error, and the deductions from these false premises could not fail to be erroneous and conflicting. But before returning to my answer to your questions, I wish to impress your mind with this great truth, that there are no truths outside of nature. And that truth is the only quality or property in nature possessing a single elemevA oj value. While error is utterly worthless, and is destructive of value just in proportion to the amount of it in any thing or theory, truth is absolute value. Thus, while truth is value, error is the absence of value. And everything is good or bad, valuable or valueless, in the ratio of its truth to its error. Hence, seek the truth, be sure you get it, and be satisfied with nothing else. But do not be so sure you have it as to refuse to seek further. Do not take it on anybody's authority, but prove it from nature. The labor of seeking will be of great value to you. To resume my answers to your questions: The second period of darkness was ended in a manner similar to the first, except that the Earth's surface had become much thicker and harder, and the water of the ocean had largely] formed and naturally collected in the lower places. But its crust was not sufficiently hard to prevent its internal gasses from bursting forth in mighty flames in many places. But before these gases had broken through, the Earth's crust had been pushed out and shoved up into great irregularities, forming what are now called mountain ranges.

The vast flames of fire both warmed and lighted the solid ground which, at distances great enough from the source of heat, brought forth, first the simple kinds of vegetation, as grass and herbs, and finally, as the fires died out, the accumulated quantities of gases in the Earth having been exhausted largely, and the Earth's crust cooled off, shrubs and trees appeared and then the fires became so nearly extinct that the Earth was again in darkness. Its crust continued to harden, but its internal heat continued to produce internal gases, and these again burst forth in flames, in fewer places and burned with less violence until they were growing extinct; when the Earth was arrested in its aimless fall by the attraction of the sun, which now, for the first time, appeared to illuminate the rapidly darkening Earth. While myriad ages rolled on the Earth floated in space, being drawn hither and thither by the attraction of different bodies, till the sun, as it were, lost its hold on it, and it passed again into darkness, rolling on through space. But having assumed a kind of elliptical orbit, it was again brought into the light of the sun, under whose influence its orbit was greatly modified and largely reduced in extent. While the Earth's crust had greatly hardened, yet there were very many volcanic fires, but these were greatly diminished in extent and power, and allowed vegetation to perfect itself, while the sea produced great varieties and vast quantities of piscatorial life. The fowls of the air flourished, and builded their nests in the abundant foliage. Thus, for a period much shorter lO than some that had gone before, the Earth's fifth age of light was terminated by its drifting too far from the sun to receive its light. But this period of darkness was of much shorter duration than others before it, and then it came again into the sun's light and much more nearly into its present orbit, and during this period of light great varieties of animals, adapted to its then condition, were brought into existence, and man, a crude and peculiar being, was developed; not the man you see on the earth now, but differing from him in many particulars and gradually developing into a greater intelligence. And then, again, for a very short time the Earth sped away into darkness, but soon was drawn back again into the sun's light and gradually came into its present orbit. The other great etherial bodies also, having gotten into their present orbits, the universe was now fitted up for man's more perfect developement. And then God, through angelic agency, selected one who has been called Adam, and fitting him out from the race of men then on the Earth, he made him the first son of God, and perfected for him a helpmeet from whom it was designed to develop a race of men immeasurably htgher in the scale of existence than were any before.

But, Adam failed to maintain the exalted position to which he had been assigned. For