John Andreas Widtsoe

“ True, the understanding that will give him full mastery over nature will come little by little. In the end, man shall know all that he desires. Even in that happy day he shall not be able to change one law of nature; only by intelligent control may he apply nature's laws to desired ends. With this certainty man may go onward hopefully. Nature is inexhaustible and man shall not, in all the endless ages, explore it completely; he shall only in the eternal days become more conscious of its infinite majesty—thereby comes the everlasting joy of man. ”

“ The very essence of things must forever be the goal, towards which intelligence strives. Nevertheless, man also knows that to approach by slow degrees, but steadily, the full knowledge which gives unmeasured power over natural forces, is the way of progress. So he is content to let each day speak one new word of the unknown meaning of the universe.
The universe is one. All things in it are parts of one whole. The dominating spirit of the vastness of space and of its contents is the dominating spirit of the least part of that which constitutes the whole. ”

“ The equality of man on earth must be the equal opportunity to progress. From the point in the eternal journey that each man now occupies, he must be allowed to move onward, unhindered by other persons, and must be allowed to exert his inborn powers to the full, for his help on the journey. None must stand in another's way. On the contrary, the spirit of the Gospel makes clear that the Great Plan cannot be fulfilled, the earth's destiny cannot be completed, and our highest progressive rewards cannot be obtained until all the spirits of man have been brought under the Gospel rule. ”

“ These eternal realities, no doubt, in their essence, lie beyond the full understanding of man, just as time and space transcend human understanding. This conception, carried far enough, leads to a gospel or life philosophy which is unshakable, because it rests upon eternal certainty. Without certainty, man is, in the great affairs of life, merely the driftwood of existence, moved hither and thither by the wind of doubt. ”

“ The plan is complete.
**Eternal Matter.** The saddest feature of manmade religions is their lack of security. One man constructs one theology; another a different one, and men flock hither and thither, accepting the one that appears, for the moment, to be the best, without the deep feeling that the one finally accepted is absolutely the one and only correct system of thought. Yet, this is logically absurd, for a house is either red or not red; a stick is straight or not straight; a man has truth or only the semblance of truth. ”

“ Man is at the head of the creations on earth. It is his duty to make proper use of them all. Whoever teaches that any part of the universe is not for the benefit of man, is in error.
**Man's Conquest of Nature.** It is the simplest of present-day doctrines that the vastness of nature makes it impossible for man to comprehend more than the minutest part of it. Yet, in the true philosophy of life, nothing is more certain than that the greatest mystery of nature may at some time be understood. The great purpose of man's existence is a complete understanding of all the mysteries of nature. ”

“ Man does not understand God fully, yet an understanding between man and God does exist in that, God in the course of his progression has gone over the road that we are traveling and therefore understands us fully. He understands our difficulties, our hopes, our sorrows, our faults and our follies. God is supreme, and his justice is perfect; his love is unmeasurable and his mercy without end; for his justice and love and mercy are tempered by the memory of his own upward career. God's relation to man is, in a literal sense, that of father to son, for we are of the same race with God. ”

“ True, the knowledge already possessed by man is so large that it can in nowise be transmitted, in all its details, to one man. The efforts of humanity are directed, therefore, to the devising of general statements, or laws, which embody the meaning of a multitude of facts, while they are yet easily intelligible to the human mind. More and more important will become the repositories of such general principles containing the knowledge of mankind. The Bible, in its various books, presents such great underlying principles of our knowledge relating to several very important phases of earth-life. ”

“ Though he might walk an forgetfulness of the past, and have no visions of the future, he would yet be allowed a free and untrammeled agency as he walked in the clearness of the earth's day. While upon earth he might learn much or little, might accept a law or reject it, just as he had been, privileged to do in all the days that had gone before. ”

“ Every personal philosophy makes the man the center. To love our neighbor equally well—"that's the rub." His will is not our will; his ways, not our ways. Yet, only by the progress of all, can each gain the greatest advancement. The fundamental conceptions of a universe filled with eternal matter and forces, and a host of individual intelligent beings, make it clear that only by complete harmony of all intelligent beings can the interests of each be served, in the work of subjugating, by intelligent conquest, the forces of universal nature. ”

“ Many will not be brought into an understanding harmony with the holy spirit; others merely find it so hard to be brought into tune with the infinite that they would rather be without the messages than to do the necessary labor of acquiring harmonious relations with the holy spirt. Those who can not feel and in part commune with the holy spirit, are blind to the larger part of the universe, which lies outside of the circumscribed world, swept by our immediate senses. In terms of the unseen forces will the earth at last be cleared of all its mystery. ”

“ Hence, on this earth, stripped of all power, and left, as it were, helpless in the midst of contending universal forces, man must search out the nature of the things about him and determine their laws before he acquires power over nature and thereby brings himself into a condition of joy. In the face of the impending change called death, man is possibly more determined to acquire the power that will lift him from the grave and give him an eternal association with all the elements of the universe, including his earthly body. ”

“ Such a Church, alone, can appeal to the human understanding. A Church without authority is limp and helpless. Authority is the final test of a true Church. Does it attempt to officiate for God? Does its Priesthood possess authority? From the beginning, the Church of God has been given direct, divine authority so that its work might not be questioned. The angel walked with Adam, God spoke to Abraham, Jesus in person came on earth, the Father and the Son came to Joseph Smith,—in all ages, when the Church has been fully established, the Priesthood has been conferred by authoritative beings. ”

“ This wide dissemination of the truth, in all ages, explains the fact that practically every life philosophy proposed by man contains some of the truths of the Gospel. In every system of theology and in every sect there is a certain measure of truth, for all have drawn from the one fountain. All, no doubt, seek for truth, and believe that they have found it; but, in fact, they have only fragments, picked up here and there and worked into a system. The full truth must encompass the complete philosophy of man and the universe, including the authority to act for God in the working out of the Plan. ”

“ Of one thing the Gospel, as well as science, is perfectly certain, namely, that the energy in the universe is indestructible. Changed it may be, from heat to light, from light to electricity, from electricity to magnetism, or from any form to any other form of energy, but destroyed it can not be. Like matter, energy had no beginning and can have no end. God, possessing the supreme intelligence of the universe, can use energy in accomplishing his ends, but create it, or destroy it, he cannot. Undiminished, everacting, universal energy will continue through all times. ”

“ If so much work is done, so much time and energy expended and so much care bestowed upon the salvation of the dead, how much more should we help and support and love the living. The living must always be man's first concern. This principle, carried into our daily lives, means that we must continually and at our own sacrifice help each other. Then only will the sacrifice for the dead not be in vain.
Work for the dead is no doubt symbolic of the great universal law that things of the universe move onward together, not singly. ”

“ Such a life adheres, automatically, to the law of progression, and is therefore moving on to the great destiny of supreme power and accompanying joys. The only purposeless life is the one that does not use its faculties. It matters little what tasks men do in life, if only they do them well and with all their strength. In an infinite universe, one cannot possibly learn all or do all, at once. ”

“ Some are far ahead, some lag behind, each and all according to individual effort. However, throughout the vast eternities, all who are conscientiously moving upward, though it be ever so slowly, will in time reach a point which is absolute perfection to our mortal conceptions. Then, all will seem as if precisely alike. Whether or not we reach a given point at the same time, all men have a common destiny. ”

“ The restraint of man in the exercise of authority derived from eternal laws, is as compelling as the restraint of nature, because they are parts of the same whole.
**The Life of Law.** Obedience is nothing more than a compliance with truth. Truth is of no consequence to a man if it is not used. The moment truth is used, obedience begins. Man, and the Church to which he belongs, are active organisms, interested in progress. When truth is given them, promises to use that truth should be required, else all is in vain. Lives conforming to law, alone, are moving onward. ”

“ God, exalted by his glorious intelligence, is moving on into new fields of power with a rapidity of which we can have no conception, whereas man, in a lower stage of development, moves relatively at a snail-like, though increasing pace. Man is, nevertheless, moving on, in eternal progression. "As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become." In short, man is a god in embryo. He comes of a race of gods, and as his eternal growth is continued, he will approach more nearly the point which to us is Godhood, and which is everlasting in its power over the elements of the universe. ”

“ Such an attitude is required to admit the existence of a God or a plan of salvation. Such a faith yields to man a comprehensive possession of the universe, and may establish a philosophy of life that conforms to every law of nature. The man who has no such faith stands before the plan of salvation as before a sealed book. He can not open it, nor opened, can he read it. A faith that admits the universe, seen and unseen, enables man to accomplish great things; in fact, all who have done the great labor of the world, have had such a faith. The law of faith is a general law. ”

“ The price to be paid for advancement is vigorous self-effort. The active will precedes every step of progress. To exercise the will means labor, which may well be represented by "the sweat of the brow." The so-called curse, however, carries with it the magnificent promise that man, by the exercise of his powers, may subdue the earth, and make it serve all his needs. In a universe controlled and directed by the intelligent God, there can be no question but that, ultimately, the intelligent will shall control for its own use not only the things of this earth but all the forces of the universe. ”

“ Whatever a man has gained on earth, will rise with him in the resurrection. All that he gained in the spirit world, before he came on earth, will likewise rise with him. All men will be saved, but the degree of that salvation will vary even as our varying work on earth. There will be glory upon glory, and there will be different degrees of advancement, some like unto the sun, some like unto the moon, while other glories will differ even as the infinite stars of the heavens differ in the brightness. ”

“ To those whose lives are ordered well this is a blessed conception; but to those of wicked lives, it is most terrible. He who has the receiving apparatus, in whose hands the key is held, may read from the record of the holy spirit, an imperishable history of all that has occurred during the ages that have passed in the world's history. This solemn thought, that in the bosom of the holy spirit is recorded all that pertains to the universe—our most secret thought and our faintest hope—helps man to walk steadily in the midst of the contending appeals of his life. We can not hide from the Master. ”

“ It matters not then, to what a man give himself. In everything and anything may the riddle of the universe be read, if the search be continued long enough. Modest in his possessions, yet courageous in his hope of ultimate conquest, he stands before the things of his life, small or great, knowing of a surety that in them lie the truths that overwhelm the universe. ”

“ As he progresses from childhood to manhood, and as his slumbering faculties are awakened, he becomes more fully aware of the vastness of his universe and of the futility of hoping to understand it in detail.
Nevertheless, conscious man can not endure confusion. From out the universal mystery he must draw, at least, the general, controlling laws, that proclaim order in the apparent chaos; and, especially is he driven, by his inborn and unalterable nature, to know, if he can, his own place in the system of existing things. ”

“ As man observes phenomena and reasons upon them and applies them he grows in knowledge. Where he formerly had one fact to use, he now has many. This is the essence of his complexity. A carpenter with one tool does less and poorer work than does one with a full kit of modern tools. Likewise, man, as he gathers experience, becomes more powerful in using the forces of nature in the accomplishment of his purposes. With this thought in mind the great law becomes a law of increasing power, of progressive mastery over the universe. ”

“ The great mission of the Church must be to bring all men into the truth. This is the cementing purpose of the Church.
**The Hope of Today.** However, men are not saved merely by being taught the truth. They must live it in their daily lives. Life, indeed, is an endless succession of days, each of which must be a little larger in development than the preceding one. Each day must be well spent. The Church must help, every day, in all the affairs of the day, from the food man eats to his highest spiritual thought. Each day must be a step onward to the eternal exaltation which he desires. ”

“ This is out of harmony with the law of progress. The weak must seek strength for themselves, and should invite the assistance of the strong. The weak may help the progress of the race by accepting, as a gift, the assistance of the strong. There is no shame in accepting gifts, in learning from those who have more than we have, providing our own powers are used to the full. If the strong will not give to the weak, in the right spirit of helpfulness; or if the weak will not accept the help proffered for their advancement, the whole onward movement will be slowed down. ”