of the spirits of the whole animal Blessing, and honor, and glory, and creation are disorganized by the death power, be unto him that sitteth upon of the body, but are capable of feel- the throne, and unto the Lamb forever ing, thinking, moving, enjoying, suf- and ever." (Rev. 5: 13.) From fering, out of the body as well as in these passages we learn that every it. They are eternal, and will exist fowl and fish, beast and creeping forever, capable of joy and happiness. thing, will be in the possession of The spirits of both vegetables great wisdom and knowledge; they and animals are invisible to the nat-will know about God and His throne, ural eye; we, therefore, do not know and about the Lamb, and they will or comprehend their nature as per- talk, in an intelligent manner, about fectly as we do many other substances His "honor, and glory, and power." which are more directly tangible to Now they could not possess wisdom, our senses; for this reason Solomon knowledge, language, and underinquires, "Who knoweth the spirit of standing, concerning the attributes of man that goeth upward, and the spirit God and of His Son, unless they have of the beast that goeth downward." an intelligent mind or spirit as well as (Eccles. 3: 31.) By this passage man. Solomon shows plainly that the beast has a spirit as well as man.

:

Having proved that each indi vidual of the vegetable and animal kingdom contains a living spirit, possessed of intelligent capacities, let us next inquire concerning the shape or

That vegetables as well as anianimals have spirits, is clearly shown from the fact that they have capacities for joy and rejoicing. The form of these spirits, as represented Psalmist says, "Let the field be joy. in various parts of the Scriptures. ful and all that is therein then shall The immaterialist considers all spir. all the trees of the wood rejoice be- itual substance to have neither form, fore the Lord for He cometh, for He nor magnitude, nor any relation to cometh to judge the earth." (Psalm space or duration. We shall not at96: 12, 13.) As "all that is in the tempt in this article to refute these field," and "all the trees of the wood absurd notions, but shall assume that rejoice," we are compelled to believe all spiritual substance is material, that every vegetable, whether great having form, and magnitude, and all or small, has a living intelligent spirit the essential properties of other matcapable of feeling, knowing, and re- ter; and that in addition to these, it joicing in its sphere. One of the in- possesses the capacities of intelli spired writers informs us that the an-gence and self motion. imal creation are endowed with great That the form of the spirit is in wisdom. He says, "There be four the likeness of the tabernacle, is things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise: the ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer; the conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks; the locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands; the spider taketh hold with her hands,, and is in kings' palaces.' (Prov. 30: 24-28.) John heard the whole animal creation praising God, and making use of in. telligent language. He declares that "every creature which is in Heaven and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all *See my treatise on the Absurdities of that are in them, heard I saying, Immaterialism.

evident from the description of the spirit of Samuel, which appeared to Saul and conversed with him. The spirit of Samuel was first seen by the woman with whom Saul was conver sing. "And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice : and the woman spake to Saul, saying, Why hast thou deceived me? for thou art Saul. And the king said unto her, Be not afraid for what sawest thou? And the woman said unto Saul, I saw gods ascending out of the earth. And he said unto her, What FORM is he

of? And she said, An old man spirits must have had form, or John cometh up, and he is covered with a could not have seen them: they were mantle. And Saul perceived that it capable of speaking with a loud voice was Samuel, and he stooped with his and of wearing white robes. If a face to the ground and bowed him- spirit have no form, it could neither self." (1 Sam. 28: 12-14.) It will speak nor wear clothing. We have be perceived that the form of Sam- already seen that the spirit of Samuel uel's spirit was that of "an old man,” was clothed with a mantle, while "covered with a mantle." Now this those that John saw, had white robes could not have been Samuel's body, given to them. These passages for that was mouldering in the grave; prove that the spirits of men are in therefore it must have been his spirit. the shape or image of the fleshly taberFrom the form which this spirit had, nacle, and that the spirit of the Son Saul was enabled to "perceive that of God, before he took upon himself it was Samuel." Saul, after bowing flesh, did resemble man, and was in down to the ground with reverence the likeness or shape of his fleshly before Samuel, entered into conver. body, into, which he afterwards ensation with him; and Samuel prophesied unto him, and told him what should befal Israel, and that he and his sons should be slain the next day and come into the spiritual world with him.

When the three Hebrews were cast into the fiery furnace, Nebuchad. nezzar was astonished, "and said, lo! I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the FORM of the fourth is like unto the Son of God." (Dan. 3: 25.) This fourth personage walk. ing in the fire must have been the spiritual body of the Son of God, or some other spiritual body resembling him in form. The form of this spiritual body resembles also the form of man, hence he exclaimed, “I see four men loose."

tered.

The shape or form of the spirits of beasts is in the image of their natural bodies. When Elijah was escorted to heaven, he had the honor of riding in a chariot drawn by horses. (2 Kings 2: 11, 12.) When the king of Syria sent horses and chariots, and a great host, to take Elisha, the prophet, and carry him a prisoner into the Syrian army, the servant of the prophet, seeing his master surrounded by such a formidable host, was very much alarmed for his safety, and cried out, "Alas, my master! how shall we do? And he answered, Fear not for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee open his eyes that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes The revelator, John, saw the of the young man, and he saw; and, spirits of the martyrs, which he de. behold, the mountain was full of scribes as follows: "And when he HORSES and chariots of fire round' had opened the fifth seal, I saw under about Elisha." (2 Kings 6: 15–17.) the altar the souls of them that were These horses shone with the bril slain for the word of God and for the liancy of fire. They were spiritual testimony which they held; and they horses, under the management and cried with a loud voice saying, How control of an army of spirits riding in long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou chariots. These spirits of horses not judge and avenge our blood on must have been in the same shape as them that dwell on the earth? And the natural bodies of horses, or else white robes were given unto every they would not have been recognised one of them; and it was said unto as belonging to that species of anithem that they should rest yet for a mals. They were exceedingly nulittle season until their fellow ser- merous, so that "the mountain was vants and their brethren, that should full" of them.

be killed as they were, should he ful. John says, "I saw Heaven openfilled." (Rev. 6: 9-11.) These ed, and behold a WHITE HORSE ;

and He that sat upon him was to the original magnitude of their was called Faithful and True, and in respective spirits, after which the righteousness He doeth judge and growth ceases. When the spirit make war. "And the armies which first takes possession of the vegetawere in Heaven followed Him upon ble or animal seed or embryo, it conWHITE HORSES, clothed in fine tracts itself into a bulk of the same linen, white and clean."-Rev. 19: dimension as the seed or tabernacle 11, 14. Thus, we perceive, that the into which it enters: this is proved Son of God, himself, and all the armies from the fact, that the spiritual body of Heaven, occasionally ride on horse of the Son of God, seen by Nebuchad back; and, therefore, there must be nezzar, was of the size of man, and thousands of millions of horses in yet this same spiritual body was Heaven; and as no horses, pertain afterwards sufficiently contracted to ing to this earth, had then received a enter into, and to be wholly contained resurrection, these, doubtless, were within an infant tabernacle. In like the spiritual bodies of horses whose manner, every other spirit, whether natural bodies had returned to the vegetable or animal, is of the full size dust. of the prospective tabernacle, when As we have proved, that the spirit shall have attained its full growth; its of men, and of horses, and of all and, therefore, when it first enters manner of beasts, and of creep- the same, it must, like the spiritual ing things, and of birds, are in the body of the Son of God, be greatly shape of their mortal tabernacles, it diminished from its original dimenis reasonable to infer, analogically, sions. Spirits, therefore, must be that the spirits of grass, of herbs, composed of substances, highly elasand of trees, are in the form of the tic in their nature, that is, they have natural bodies of the respective vege. the power to resume their former tables which they once inhabited; dimensions, as additional matter is and that those vegetables which are secreted for the enlargement of their now living, are inhabited by living tabernacles. It is this expanding spirits in the form of themselves. force, exerted by the spirit, which All spirits have magnitude, as gradually developes the tabernacle well as form, which can be clearly as the necessary materials are supshown from the Scriptures. Those passages, that have been already When the limb of a tree or of quoted, proving that spirits have form, an animal is severed from the main also prove that they have magnitude. body, the spirit, occupying that The Spirit of Samuel, as seen by limb, is not severed from the other Saul, and the spirit of the Son of parts of the spirit, but immediately God, walking in the fiery furnace, contracts itself into the living porwere, both, of the size of men. The tions of the body, leaving the limb spirits of horses, beasts, birds, and to decay. The contraction of spirit. creeping things, were, not only of ual bodies is still further proved, from the shape of their respective natural the fact, that a legion of wicked bodies, but were evidently of the spirits actually huddled themselves same size as those bodies when full together in the tabernacle of one grown; otherwise they would have man. These wicked spirits, being been represented, as infants instead fallen angels, were actually in the of men, as colts instead of horses, &c. shape and size of the spirits of men; The tabernacles of both animals therefore, they must have been exand vegetables continue to grow ceedingly contracted to have all enor increase in size, until they attain tered one human body.

plied.

THE PRE-EXISTENCE OF MAN.

(Continued.)

23. The celestial beings who dwell | 25. In the Heaven where our in the Heaven from which we came, spirits were born, there are many having been raised from the grave, in Gods, each one of whom has his own a former world, and having been filled wife or wives which were given to with all the fulness of these eternal at him previous to his redemption, while tributes, are called Gods, because the yet in his mortal state. Each God, fulness of God dwells in each. Both through his wife or wives, raises up the males and the females enjoy this a numerous family of sous and daugh. fulness. The celestial vegetables and ters; indeed, there will be no end to fruits which grow out of the soil of the increase of his own children: for this redeemed Heaven, constitute the each father and mother will be in a food of the Gods. This food differs condition to multiply forever and ever. from the food derived from the vege. As soon as each God has begotten tables of a fallen world: the latter are many millions of male and female converted into blood, which, circulat. spirits, and his Heavenly inheritance ing in the veins and arteries, pro- becomes too small, to comfortably acduces flesh and bones of a mortal commodate his great family, he, in nature, having a constant tendency connection with his sons, organizes a to decay while the former, or celes-new world, after a similar order to the tial vegetables, are, when digested in one which we now inhabit, where he the stomach, converted into a fluid, sends both the male and female which, in its nature, is spiritual, and spirits to inhabit tabernacles of flesh which, circulating in the veins and and bones. Thus each God forms a arteries of the celestial male and fe. world for the accommodation of his own male, preserves their tabernacles from sons and daughters who are decay and death. Earthly vege. forth in their times and seasons, and tables form blood, and blood forms generations to be born into the same. flesh and bones; celestial vegetables, The inhabitants of each world are when digested, form a spiritual fluid required to reverence, adore, and which gives immortality and eternal worship their own personal father life to the organization in which it flows. who dwells in the Heaven which they 24. Fallen beings beget child-formerly inhabited.

sent

ren whose bodies are constituted of 26. When a world is redeemed flesh and bones, being formed out of from its fallen state, and made into a the blood circulating in the veins of Heaven, all the animal creation are the parents. Celestial beings beget raised from the dead, and become cechildren, composed of the fluid which lestial and immortal. The food of circulates in their veins, which is these animals is derived from the spiritual, therefore, their children vegetables, growing on a celestial must be spirits, and not flesh and soil; consequently, it is not converted bones. This is the origin of our into blood, but into spirit which cir. spiritual organization in Heaven.culates in the veins of these animals; The spirits of all mankind, destined therefore, their offspring will be for this earth, were begotten by a spiritual bodies, instead of flesh and father, and born of a mother in Hea. bones. Thus the spirits of beasts, of ven, long anterior to the formation of this world. The personages of the father and mother of our spirits, had a beginning to their organization, but the fulness of truth (which is God) that dwells in them, had no be. ginning; being "from everlasting to everlasting." (Psalm 90: 2.)

fowls, and of all living creatures, are the offspring of the beasts, fowls, and creatures which have been redeemed or raised from the dead, and which will multiply spirits, according to their respective species, forever and ever.

27. As these spiritual bodies, in all their varieties and species, become

numerous in Heaven, each God will | sand years of its temporal existence, send those under his jurisdiction to take it will amount to seventy thousand bodies of flesh and bones on the same millions. During the early age of world to which he sends his own sons the world, there were many centuries and daughters. As each God is "The in which the amount of population God of the spirits of all flesh," per- would fall short of this average; but taining to the world which he forms; during the Millennium, or the last and as he holds supreme dominion over age of the world, the population them in Heaven, when he sends them will, probably, far exceed this averinto a temporal or terrestrial world, age. Seventy thousand million, he commits this dominion into the therefore, is a rough approximation hands of his sons and daughters, to the number of inhabitants which which inhabit the same. the Lord destined to dwell in the

28. When the world is redeemed, flesh on this earth. It will be seen, the vegetable creation is redeemed from this estimation, that about and made new, as well as the ani- seventy thousand million sons and mal; and when planted in a celestial daughters were born in Heaven, and soil, each vegetable derives its nour- kept their first estate, and were ishment therefrom; and the fluid, counted worthy to have a new world thus derived, circulates in the pores made for them, wherein they were and cells of the vegetable tabernacle, permitted to receive bodies of flesh and preserves it from decay and and bones, and thus enter upon their death; this same fluid, thus circu- second estate. lating, forms a spiritual seed, which 30. It must be remembered, that planted, grows into a spiritual vege. seventy thousand million, however table; this differs from the parent great the number may appear to us, vegetable, in that it has no taber- are but two-thirds of the vast family nacle. This is the origin of spiritual of spirits who were begotten before vegetables in Heaven. These spiri- the foundation of the world: the tual vegetables are sent from Heaven to the terrestrial worlds, where, like animals, they take natural taber. nacles, which become food for the sustenance of the natural tabernacles of the animal creation. Thus the spirits of both vegetables and ani. mals are the offspring of male and female parents which have been raised from the dead, or redeemed from a fallen condition, with the world upon which they dwelt.

other third part of the family did not keep the first estate. Add to seventy thousand million, the third part which fell, namely, thirty-five thousand mil lion, and the sum amounts to one hundred and five thousand million which was the approximate number of the sons and daughters of God in Heaven before the rebellion which broke out among them.

31. If we admit that one personage was the Father of all this great 29. The number of the sons and family, and that they were all born of daughters of God, born in Heaven the same Mother, the period of time before this earth was formed, is not intervening between the birth of the known by us. They must have been oldest and the youngest spirit must exceedingly numerous, as may be have been immense. If we suppose, perceived, by taking into considera- as an average, that only one year intion the vast numbers which have tervened between each birth, then it already come from Heaven, and would have required, over one hundred peopled our planet, during the past thousand million of years for the same six thousand years. The amount of Mother to have given birth to this population now on the globe, is es- vast family. The law, regulating timated in round numbers at one the formation of the embryo spirit, thousand million. If we take this may, as it regards time, differ conestimation for the average number siderably from the period required for per century, during the seven thou the formation of the infant tabernacle