Orson Pratt

“ If the word of the Lord is truth, and whatever is truth is light, and whatever is light is spirit, I want to embrace it, and hold fast to it. Again, he says, when giving a revelation to the servants of God: "That which you hear is the voice of one crying in the wilderness? In the wilderness because you cannot see him. My voice because my voice is spirit, and my spirit is truth, and truth abides forever and has no end." ”

“ He is the light and life of all things; and by reason of that light and life which he has purchased for us by his own blood, you and I have the privilege of working righteousness, which we never would have had without the atonement. We could not have done anything acceptable in the sight of God, without his atoning blood. That is the very foundation of the redemption of the children of men; without it, this would have been a lost and fallen creation, and not one could have been saved. ”

“ We sang praises in the presence of our Father and God; before we had tabernacles of flesh and bones. We then assembled ourselves together as we do here on the earth; we then accompanied our Father and God and his Son Jesus Christ, on the grand and glorious mission of the formation of the world we now inhabit. Did we know anything about the object for which this world was created? Yes, we knew that it was created expressly for us, and we sang and rejoiced over it as much as the people of God now rejoice, when they erect a temple or tabernacle to his name. ”

“ There is such a thing as a father, through his foolishness, plunging not only himself but all his children into a slavery from which he cannot redeem himself or them, so far as their bodies are concerned; but with Adam's children this was the case with both their bodies and spirits, for the Book of "Mormon" says that all mankind, through Adam's transgression, became subject not only to a temporal death—the separation of the body and spirit, but also to a spiritual death, eternal in its nature. ”

“ I believe that God—I mean God the Father is a material personal being; that he has a body and a spirit united together; that his spirit within his body is material; that he is a personage just as much as every man in this congregation is a personage; and let me go still further and say that he is a personage of flesh and of bones. Perhaps that may shock the ideas of some of the outsiders and they may think that to get over their immaterial god, without body or parts, we have gone to the other extreme. ”

“ I have said that God is love, and that he is truth because the revelations say so. I have said that he oftentimes represents himself by his attributes. The same as when he says I am in you; but he does not mean that his person, his flesh and bones are in us. When Jesus says I am in the Father, he does not mean that his person is in the Father. What does he mean? He means that the same attributes that dwell in his own person also dwell in the person of the other. ”

“ When we look at our fellow man we behold him erect in the form of God. To be sure there may be many deformities among men and women, produced in many instances, perhaps, by wickedness, disease and by accident; but in the general outline there is resemblance among all the human species, and there should be in as much as their Father and God is indeed their Father, as any in this congregation are the literal fathers of their children. We, who compose this congregation, are all one family, and only a very small portion of the family of our Father and God. ”

“ Because we were spiritually dead, and can a person who is dead work righteousness? Can a person who is dead to everything good, holy, upright and Godlike, who is in captivity to Satan, work righteousness? Could a feast of salvation be prepared for him in that dead state, unless there was some redemption or atonement made to bring life to the world to impart to the human family? Light and life have come upon all men. Jesus is that light and life ”

“ Could man have redeemed himself? Could one man have shed his blood for another, and said to the grave give up your dead? No. Why not? Because all were fallen; all were under the dominion and power of Satan. ”

“ When you erect a tabernacle to the Most High, you expect to enter at times, and be feasted with the words of eternal life, and to partake of the blessings of God. So it was in regard to the creation of this world. ”

“ Why, then, may not all the inhabitants of the world, whether in their infancy or not, inherit death as well as these children who suffer through diseases entailed upon them by their forefathers? Not as a matter of justice particularly, but something that comes upon them in consequence of the fall of man. It is handed down among them. Now, that would be a very unpleasant condition if they were always to remain in that state. They are plunged into slavery, as it were, by one man; hence the Redeemer steps forth and rescues them from that slavery. ”

“ I know there are some people who do not believe God has a face like unto man, or in other words that we are in his image and likeness. There has been a great variety of views among the inhabitants of our globe in regard to the being or beings whom they have worshipped and called God. ”

“ Hence, being begotten by an Infinite Being, he could do that which no other man could do—redeem from spiritual death and the captivity of Satan. Hence it is said that "through Jesus came life and light into the world." If it had not been for Jesus, darkness would have reigned eternally over this creation.
Talk about works of righteousness redeeming us without the atonement! ”

“ We are exhorted to develop and perfect those attributes of God that dwell within us in embryo, that we may more and more approximate to that high state of perfection that exists in the Father and the Son. ”

“ When I say rescues them, I do not say that he does it at once, before they have had a chance to know the difference between good and evil, between the bitter and the sweet, to contrast between happiness and misery. It is wisdom that they should suffer, even should it be from hereditary disease, that they may gain experience. ”

“ When we came forth into this world, and took upon ourselves bodies of flesh, they were fallen bodies—subject to pain, sickness, sorrow, mourning, trials, and finally death, or dissolution. This death that came upon the bodies of the children of men, was brought to pass by the transgression of one man and woman, that is, by our first parents; as it is written, "By the transgression of one sin entered the world, and death by sin." ”

“ It matters not whether it is the little infant that dandles on the knee that has never sinned, or the youth, the middle-aged or the old, all have to feel this great penalty that has been inflicted upon all the posterity of Adam by reason of his transgression. ”

“ Why should they be subject to death because their father some six thousand years ago sinned and transgressed?" I answer this by asking you a question, Why is it that children, oftentimes to the third, fourth and fifth generation, suffer from lingering diseases here in this life, because their forefathers were licentious, and broke the laws of life and happiness? ”

“ Attribute can not exist without substance; everywhere it shows its bearing and relation to substance and person, and if in any of my preaching or teachings I have ever conveyed the impression that attributes could exist separate and apart from substances I never intended to do so. ”

“ Now let us come along to the plan of redemption, and see how it is that we are exalted and brought back into the presence of God, and become as it were, gods, then we can form some idea concerning our Father and God. ”

“ If they had sinned and were all made innocent through the blood of the atonement, and through the sufferings of Jesus in the spirit, as well as in the flesh, that would prepare them to come into this world without having any stain upon them. ”

“ The time will come when the faith of this people, the pure in heart, will be sufficiently great that when they build a house to the name of the Lord, and do not suffer any unclean thing to enter therein, that the Lord will come and grace it by his presence, as well as by the presence of his angels. ”