John Taylor

“ A man may travel over the earth, he may visit towns, cities, and villages, and gaze upon oceans, seas, rivers, streams, mountains, valleys, and plains; upon landscapes and different kinds of scenery, and make himself acquainted with all the vegetable world, and these pictures and this intelligence is carefully laid away somewhere. He may study chemistry, botany, geology, astronomy, geography, natural history, mechanics, the arts and sciences, and every thing in creation which man is capacitated to receive and store it away in his memory from the time of his youth up to old age. ”

“ If a man sees a thing, how does he see it? There is something very remarkable in the construction of the human eye; it is something like these photographic instruments that receive impressions, only he gazes upon them and his eye takes them in, and the scene he gazes upon is actually imprinted upon what is called the retina of the eye; and one thing after another is recorded, until thousands, and tens of thousands, and millions of things are laid away through that medium, and he is enabled to see any of these things whenever he pleases ”

“ When we get into the eternal world, into the presence of God our Heavenly Father, his eye can penetrate every one of us, and our own record of our lives here shall develop all. I do not say that he will take trouble to read everybody. ”

“ The philosophy of man, of the earth, and of the things with which we are surrounded, is deep—it is abstruse; it is difficult of comprehension even by the most enlightened mind and the most comprehensive and enlarged intellect. ”

“ It is not because somebody has seen things, or heard anything by which a man will be judged and condemned, but it is because that record that is written by the man himself in the tablets of his own mind—that record that cannot lie—will in that day be unfolded before God and angels, and those who shall sit as judges. ”

“ Man sleeps for a time in the grave, and by-and-by he rises again from the dead and goes to judgment; and then the secret thoughts of all men are revealed before Him with whom we have to do; we cannot hide them; it would be in vain for a man to say then, I did not do so-and-so; the command would be, unravel and read the record which he has made of himself, and let it testify in relation to these things, and all could gaze upon it. ”

“ We have been led generally to suppose that the light which enlighteneth the understanding of man is what is termed of an intellectual character, and differs materially from the solar light, or the light of the sun; but if we examine these things critically, we shall find that there is mixed up with the philosophy of the heavens and the earth things that have been altogether out of the reach of human philosophy; that all true intelligence, all true wisdom, all intelligence that is of any use or benefit to the human family, proceeds from the Lord ”

“ President Young remarked, and we are informed in the Scriptures, and that was one of the things that led me to reflect about some of these matters, as well as in our own revelations, something like this, that "God sees and knows the acts of all men." We read something like this, "But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment." Now, this is a remarkable declaration. Look at the millions of human beings that inhabit this earth, and that have inhabited it from the creation up to the present time. ”

“ There have been men afflicted by what the physicians call catalepsy; they lose their senses for a period of time, sometimes for years, and in that state they are entirely ignorant of their former existence; they do not know any events that transpire, they cannot read their own register; but the moment their senses come to them, they reflect and begin at the place they left off when they became deranged. Man sleeps the sleep of death, but the spirit lives where the record of his deeds is kept—that does not die—man cannot kill it ”

“ We look at things again on natural principles, according to things that we can judge upon by our natural senses. A man gazes upon a thing in the day-time, he goes to sleep, his senses are gone, he wakes up in the morning, and he remembers the things he had forgotten in his sleep—they are remembered as fresh as ever. ”

“ The body itself is a very remarkable structure or machine. Let me refer to some few items associated with it—to the mediums through which we receive the intelligence of which we speak. For instance, the eye. ”

“ We are made in the image of God, we were designed by the intelligence of God, and the organs we have are the same kind of organs that the Gods themselves possess. I consider that the body and the spirit are connected together in some inscrutable, indefinable, and intelligent manner ”

“ It is difficult, however, to find words to convey ideas correctly in relation to these matters; our language is meagre when we speak of heavenly things, because it is made for earthly beings, and not for the heavenly; and therefore it does not embrace with that distinctness and clearness those heavenly forms of speech which might convey to our intelligence more clearly those ideas we can better reflect upon than we can express. But, suffice it to say that there are two natures, if you please, mixed up in the human body ”

“ We frequently talk about our Father who is in heaven, and we delight to dwell upon our relationship with him, and anticipate with pleasure the time when we shall behold his face, regain his presence, and rejoice with him, with the Savior, and with the spirits of the just made perfect, in the eternal world. ”

“ If a man has acted fraudulently against his neighbor—has committed murder, or adultery, or any thing else, and wants to cover it up, that record will stare him in the face, he tells the story himself, and bears witness against himself. ”

“ There is something peculiar in the organization of man, particularly in regard to his mind. We can think, we can reflect, we can conceive of things, we can form our judgment of events that are transpiring around ”

“ I think we read somewhere, that if our own conscience condemn us, God is greater than our conscience; "if our own hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts." If I be a father and have charge of a family, it beho [o] ves me to know what kind of an example I set before them, and how I conduct myself; it beho [o] ves both fathers and mothers to know that they are making a record of their doings that they will not be ashamed of. It beho [o] ves children to know what kind of a course they take towards their parents, and towards the building up of the kingdom of God upon the earth. ”

“ My understanding of the thing is, that God has made each man a register within himself, and each man can read his own register, so far as he enjoys his perfect faculties. This can be easily comprehended. ”

“ There are men who profess to be phrenologists and physiologists who profess to read character, and perhaps some man, from a knowledge of human nature and from a study of the human mind, can, upon natural principles, unfold a great many things. ”

“ Again, on theological subjects, a man will remember not only all the doctrines which he himself believes, but also the doctrines of various systems of religion that exist in the world, and be enabled to separate, to describe, or define them. ”

“ The Lord has revealed a great many good and great things unto us, but yet we seem scarcely to appreciate the privileges with which we are surrounded and blessed, nor to comprehend exactly our true relationship to our Heavenly Father. ”

“ My voice causes a vibration in the atmosphere, the same as when a stone is thrown into the water; the water undulates, and a succession of waves are produced, which, if undisturbed, spread in continuous increasing circles, until the disturbing force is exhausted. ”

“ Our sense of hearing is also another remarkable instance of the peculiar sensitiveness of the organs of the human system. While I am speaking to you, there is not in this vast assembly a man, woman, or child that does not hear my voice at this time ”

“ If you have studied mechanism, your mind will go to the place where you saw a certain machine, and you will go to work and make one like it. If you have travelled in cities, you can tell what kind of houses and streets composed the different cities you passed through, and the character of the people you associated with ”

“ Men talk about this registry being in the brain, but mens' heads do not get any larger. When men get what is called the "big head," it is because there is nothing in their heads. The heart gets no bigger, the body no larger, and yet all these records are laid away somewhere. ”

“ There are some ideas that have occurred to me lately in relation to man, if I could only express them, which I consider have been revealed by listening to the communications of others, and through the inspiration of the Spirit of the Lord. ”

“ It is supposed, generally, by the best authorities, that from eight hundred to a thousand millions of people live upon this earth at the same time, that is, this has been the case for a great many generations at least; they are coming and going continually, they pass into the world by thousands and tens of thousands, and go out of it in the same way daily ”

“ I was very much pleased with some remarks made by President Young in relation to our Father two or three weeks ago, wherein he describes him as being like ourselves, and possessing the power to associate with us, and, that if we were to gaze upon him we should see a person like ourselves ”

“ Now, then, according to this, man would be what may be termed a natural and a spiritual being—a being connected with the tabernacle that is associated with this earth, and earthy, and another being that is connected with the heavens, or heavenly ”