to live according to the light given them; those who have had to
suffer the results of their sins; those who have been of Moses,
of Paul, of Apollos, and of any one of a multitude of others, but
not of the Christ.

We hold that there is a wide difference between salvation and
exaltation; that there are infinite gradations beyond the grave
as there are here, and as there were in the state preceding this.

"Mormonism" is frequently spoken of as a new religion, and the
Church as a new church, a mere addition of one to the many sects
that have so long striven for recognition and ascendency among
men. It is new only as the springtime following the darkness and
the cold of the year's night is new. The Church is a new one
only as the ripening fruit is a new development in the course of
the tree's growth. In a general and true sense, "Mormonism" is
not new to the world. It is founded on the gospel of Christ
which antedates this earth. The establishment of the Church in
the present age was but a restoration. True, the Church is
progressive as it ever has been; it is therefore productive of
more and greater things as the years link themselves into the
centuries; but the living seed contains within its husk all the
possibilities of the mature plant.

This so-called new, modern gospel is in fact the old one, the
first one, come again. It demands the organization and the
authority characteristic of the Church in former days, when there
was a Church of God upon the earth; it expects no more
consideration, and scarcely hopes for greater popularity, than
were accorded the primitive Church. Opposition, persecution, and