MORMON DOCTRINES. — They believe that God has a real body of flesh and blood the same as a man, but a body perfect and glorified. His wisdom and knowledge are not so infinite that they cannot be increased, so that if the world had to be made over again, experience would suggest improve-ments. He lives in a place called heaven, but is not the supreme ruler of the whole universe. The God we worship is the God of the solar system only. There are Gods many and Lords many, and probably one superior to ours. He has many wives, from whom are produced the spirits of all flesh, that afterwards become embodied hu-man beings by earthly marriage. It was he, himself, who visited the Virgin Mary and became the father of Jesus Christ. (Please to note that I hate to write down all this, but cannot help stating what was told to me, and, also, that these are doc-trines known to the more advanced Mor-mons, and not generally taught in the schools.) A man is a portion of the body and soul of the Deity, just as our sons descend from us— and is as eternal as the author of his being. He is born to a lofty destiny, and may rise to be a God, even the very God, but only by obeying the pre-cept and following the example set to him of having many wives. God rules over several varieties of disembodied spir-its. The perfect, who have proved on earth that they can rule well their many wives and families. Second, the imperfect who have failed in their duty to the church on earth by being bachelors, or having an imperfect and incomplete family govern-ment. These will be the servants of the higher powers, and can never attain to high honors. Third, the disembodied spirits, children of the ruling powers who are wait-ing until men and women call for them to occupy earthly bodies, whose souls must wander through many ages in Hades, till they have atoned for their guilt, and may be received into a lower condition of hap-piness. There is neither hell nor eternity of punishment in the Mormon creed.
[Cor. Scottish American Journal.
