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God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and
sits enthroned in yonder heavens! That is the great secret. If
the veil were rent today, and the great God who holds this world
in its orbit, and who upholds all worlds and all things by His
power, was to make himself visible, — I say, if you were to see
him today, you would see him like a man in form — like
yourselves in all the person, image, and very form as a man; for
Adam was created in the very fashion, image and likeness of God,
and received instruction from, and walked, talked and conversed
with Him, as one man talks and communes with another.
In order to understand the subject of the dead, for consolation
of those who mourn for the loss of their friends, it is
necessary we should understand the character and being of God
and how He came to be so; for I am going to tell you how God
came to be God. We have imagined and supposed that God was God
from all eternity. I will refute that idea, and take away the
veil, so that you may see.
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Here, then, is eternal life — to know the only wise and true
god; and you have got to learn how to be gods yourselves, and to
be kings and priests to God, the same as all gods have done
before you, namely, by going from one small degree to another,
and from a small capacity to a great one; from grace to grace,
from exaltation to exaltation, until you attain to the
resurrection of the dead, and are able to dwell in everlasting
burnings, and to sit in glory, as do those who sit enthroned in
everlasting power.