In its doctrine of God, "Mormonism" is Christ Theistic. It accepts Jesus Christ as the incarnation of Deity. He is God manifested in the flesh (I Tim. 3 :16) ; a complete revelation of Deity in personality and in form; in intellectual and spiritual powers, having all the attributes of the Father, and possessing all power in heaven and in earth. (Heb. :1-3, Matt. 28:18.) There is but one God-nature, or essence, but many may be partakers of that one nature (II Peter 1:4) ; may be, in fact, incarnations of the God nature. "I and my Father are one," said Jesus (St. John 19:3o; also St. John 14:17). The Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Ghost is accepted as illustrating this principle of one divine nature and a plurality of persons participat ing therein.
Proceeding from the presence of these divine personages is a "spirit" which "fills the immensity of space." "The light which is in all things, which giveth life to all things, which is the law by which all things are governed, even the power of God." (Doc. and Coy., Sec. 88:6-7.) This "the True Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world" (St. John 1:9) ; also is called the "Light which is the life of men" (St. John 1 :4; id. 8:13). This Spirit is God immanent in the world (Doc. and Coy., 88:7-13) ; is everywhere consciousness, all seeing, all knowing; is an all-pervading and active Will ; is possessed of all the quali ties and attributes of God, save only form; and is in all who attain unto like perfect participation and fullness of the divine nature.
It is the declared purpose of God to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. Essential to this is the inseparable union of spirit and element, the spirit and its bodily garment, constituting the perfect soul. (Doc. and Coy., sec. 88:15-16; id., sec. 93.) Hence man's earth-life and his experi ence in the midst of broken harmonies; his death and his resur rection to immortality; all of which is necessary to his progress, that he may acquire the knowledge and have the wisdom which such experiences alone can teach. Man finds himself, and proves himself worthy of that eternal weight of glory, which it is God's purpose to grant to him; or by his failure to react to God's intent, he learns that he must abide in lesser degrees of glory on planes of existence in keeping with his limited capacity, or his unwillingness to make progress. In the Father's house are many mansions, of infinite degrees of glory, of which sun, moon and stars in all their infinitude of brightness are spoken of as being typical (I Cor. 15; Doc. and Coy., sec. 76).
The means of attaining unto all that God has designed for man in his earth life are acceptance of and obedi ence to the gospel, of which Jesus Christ is the centre and circum ference. He is the Redeemer and Savior of men, the resurrec
tion and the life. By Him is brought to pass the forgiveness of sin, the resurrection to physical immortality, and the spirit birth into union with God.
The Mormon Church organization and government arise out of the priesthood. Priest hood is regarded as power delegated from God to man by which man is authorized to act in the name or the authority of God. The Aaronic priesthood has to do mainly with temporal affairs, the collection of tithes, the distribution of charities, the general care of its properties and the administration of the outward ordinances of the gospel, water baptism and the administration of the Lord's supper. The officers of this priesthood are bishops, priests, teachers and deacons. There is a general presidency over this priesthood known as the presiding bishopric of the Church, consisting of three high priests of the Melchizedek order, one of whom is the bishop, the other two counsellors. This bishopric is designated by the first presidency, ordained by them, and ac cepted and sustained by the vote of the Church. The Melchizedek priesthood has mainly to do with spiritual affairs, the proclama tion of the truth to the world, and bearing witness of it, and exercising in the higher phases of Church activities administrative, legislative and judicial functions, even including supervision of temporal affairs. The officers of this priesthood are apostles, prophets, seers, revelators, patriarchs, high priests, seventies and elders. The two great duties of the Church are to make proclama tion of her truth, and perfect the lives of those who receive it.
Territorially the Church holds a world-wide jurisdiction. It is the church universal—catholic in the widest sense. In America where the Church is intensively organized, a central place is recog nized as Zion, located in Jackson County, Mo. Here a holy city is yet to be built by the Church, a New Jerusalem, into which will be gathered those of all nations. This will be the centre of administrative activities of the church universal, and the site of the chief temples. Other cities and settlements grouped conveniently for local administration purposes, outside of the central place, are to be, and now are, called "stakes of Zion." To supplement the work of the priesthood there are The Na tional Womans' Relief Society; the Sunday Schools; the Young Ladies' Mutual Improvement Associations; Primary Association, promoting mid-week child culture; and Religion Classes provid ing training side by side with secular education. The Church maintains a school system comprising high schools, seminaries and college grades, where, respectively, Mormon theology is made part of the Church school curriculum. (R. Sm.)