The following are excerpts from:
W. W. Phelps, Deseret Almanac,
for the Year of Our Lord, 1852 (Salt Lake City: W. Richards, 1852)
BIBLE ASTRONOMY
The
nearest “fixed-star” must be Mount Paran, mentioned by Habakkuk, the fruitful
world of glory where the “holy One” came from; or rather Kolob, where our
Father in the Heavens resides in the midst of his glory and kingdoms.
The
next nearest “fixed star,” also mentioned by Habakkuk, must be Tamen, the world
of perfection where God came from to do the works of his father, spoken of by
John the Revelator, [Rev. 1.6,] which Father of God and grand father of Jesus
Christ, must now be living in one of the eternity of eternites—which closes the
Lord’s prayer in the Greek version, and is mentioned by John, {Rev. 19-3
&c.]
If,
as Paul says, there are “Lords many, and Gods many,” and each has the control
of a renewed or resurrected world, which continually shines as a “fixed star;”
Heaven must be a large blessed universe of intelligent worlds. What say the
learned D.S.’s. on this head? Paul ascended to the third Heaven, and heard
things unlawful to utter then,--but all things are to be revealed in the last
days.—Open the windows of Heaven. (p. 5)
NEWS FROM THE POLES.
The
story is, a Polish lady one time said, women where I live have easy times. As
it is six months day and six months night,--one day for the space of
about thirteen hundred miles diameter, is a year long, and only three
meals a day, makes but little work for the women. A year being 365 years, the
age of a person, like prophetic time, goes by time; and after one has lived
there 25,500 years—it only makes 670 polar years, or nearly so. (p. 7)
15—Jehovah
copies with wicked men,
And in their evil hour,
He thrusts them down to hell in wrath,
And then they learn his pow’r.
16—When wicked nations fall, their’s joy,
And God doth sit and laugh:
And angels have their sacred sport,
To blow them off as chaff. (p. 8)
WINE.
Mix
with 12 gallons of water the whites of 12 eggs, and after it has boiled half an
hour, and been well skimmed, add 5 gallons of purified beet molasses, tinctured
with an ounce of Lemon essence. Boil this compound about 10 minutes; and when
cool enough, add a sufficient quantity of yeast to ferment it: as it works in
the cask fill up it if should bow over; and when the hissing ceases, hang it
tight. After this wine has stood four or five months, bottle for use.
In
the season of grapes, or elderberries, or even service berries, a pint of the
juice of either may be added to a gallon, which will improve the wine. Try it.
(p. 13)
The
Queen of Heaven has a husband. (p. 15)
J.
& H. Smith martyred in 1844. Who atones for the blood of the Prophets? The
next generation will answer that. (p. 15)
A BIG NEGRO.
The
King of Dahomey in western Africa, is undoubtedly the biggest Negro in the
world, of pomp, power, and women may be called big. The King’s word is
the law. All unmarried females are his; and he usually keeps three thousand
wives, many of whom are annually exchanged or sold, and their places filled
with younger ones. (p. 15, italics in original—this is important as Phelps
takes exception with unauthorized polygamy and ill-treatment of women; cf.
Jacob 2 and Deut 17:17)
With
God, truth is the passport to life. (p. 17)
The
cock crows by inspiration; Peter thought so. (p. 21—this shows us that Jesus’ prediction
should be understood as a promise of how God would intervene in the world, not
simply revealing something in the then-future that was “fixed”)
THE MOON.
Every
one, perhaps, is not aware how the earth appears to the inhabitants of the Moon.
As more than three fifths of the earth is covered with wate, and being nearly
13 times larger than the moon, a full earth must be a grand sight! The earth
light there must be sufficient ot read and work by. Again, as the moon
always keeps the same side to the earth, those who live on the back side,
must naturally enjoy themselves in taking pleasure rides to the Frontier, to
view through their telescopes, and Urim and Thummims, the earth’s grandeur, and
glory, and some of the curiosities of their next worldly neighbors.
If
revelation is as prevalent there as it was here in the days of Enoch, there
must be some joyful seasons, in preparing, like their friends the Mormons, for
a general jubilee of all the worlds, or rather, all the sanctified resurrected
creations of our Father’s district of eternity.
It
will considerably eclipse Queen Victoria’s chrystal palace fair. (p. 23)
He
that pays no tithing does not lay up treasures on earth, much less in heaven;
think of that, will yet? (p. 25)
Nobody
on earth knows Satan’s nativity (p. 27; those with horrible mothers-in-law
would disagree!)
THE THREE GREAT WANTS.
The
three great wants of human life--
“Tobacco,” “liquor,” and a wife”--
Are very tempting wants to some;
They chew, they spew, they stew,--I vum.
The first, enjoyed, brings on the drouls;
The next, alas! makes wise men fools;
The third, O fear! like wells with damps
Benumbs their bliss with home-made cramps.
Ye lakes of spit, and blotch’d fac’d coons:
Ye lank-jawed blades for homey moons,--
Is faith in all your outs and ins?
be sure the Lord forgiveth sins.
Ye tea and coffee drinkers, think
How cov’annt breakers wink;
Quit drink? O yes! They cry, and lack her:
But O! what begging for tobbacur! (p. 36)
RULES FOR MYSELF
.
. .
Second.—I will live as if I were expecting to die
soon.
.
. .
Fourth.—I will never try to be rich, but use means
for comfort. (p. 36)
PHILOSOPHY OF THE HEAVENS.
In
presenting the solar system table, we wish to consider three things as doubtful,
and unworthy of the confidence of saints:
First. The influence of signs, stars,
&c., according to the wisdom of the world.
Second. The conjectures of the Christian world upon
the heavens above and the regions “beyond the bounds of time and space.”
And
Third. The philosophy of attraction
and repulsion; attraction and gravitation, or empty space.
For
the grand reason, that the earth and every planet or system in the heavens, is
governed by law, and controlled by the power of God, or Gods; from whom
proceeds ‘light to fil the immensity of space;’ for there is no space without a
kingdom.
That
every world, or system, is a living animal, whose life giving, or life
moving power, is in itself, as much as the same powers are in man, animals,
trees:--even all created—“whose seed is in itself.”
Talk
not to me of universal laws, and attraction and repulsion, to govern the bodies
above, or below! What a confusion of worlds there would have been, in such a case,
when Joshua commanded the “sun and moon” to stand still, and the earth ceased
to roll for at least a day!
Again,
what becomes of philosophical nonsense, when the earth is suddenly jogged back “ten
degrees,” as in the instance of Hezekiah? Only forty minutes slow o’clock,
at one instant’s sudden back action!
No
more matter on the earth at one time than another! O fools! and slow of
understanding! Did Enoch’s city and people weigh nothing? They left this earth.
After the resurrection, Jesus took his body and went to his Father. That body
was a part of the world, but it is gone!
No
universal law, of man’s seeking, governs the work of God. Every world “rolls on
its wings,” and is controlled by a God, whose laws are executed by the
angels:--as guardian angels; as “angels holding the winds:” as angels holding
the “vials of wrath;” as angels having a “everlasting gospel to preach.”—and,
as quick as sight or thought, a look, a sign, or a hint to God in Kolob, Tamen,
or any glorified kingdom, brings assistance, the earth and hell cannot
demonstrate.
"Beware
lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the rudiments
of the world, and not after the doctrine of Christ.”
Well
may it be said, “man was created upright,” but he has sought out many foolish
theories, aided by Lucifer; whose perigration from one world in another,
furnish astronomers, philosophers, doctors and priests, with an ocean of words
and hypothesis, which, like the spider’s web, entangles flies, but the fow’s of
heaven fly through unimpeded. (p. 37)
Gad
ordained under the hand of Esaias.
Jeremy
“ “ Gad. . . . The Israelites “ Moses.
And,
in this channel, the Aaronic or lesser priesthood contained until John.
JESUS
CHRIST, the Son of God, at the age of 30 (.A.D.) restored the Melchisedek
priesthood.
Peter
held the keys in connection with the Twelve in Asia, &c., which priesthood
was lost about 570
.
. .
The
earth remained without the priesthood, according to the Bible, 1260 [years]
JOSEPH
SMITH ordained to the Melchisedek priesthood by Peter, James, and John, (for John
is not yet dead) 1830
Which
priesthood, under the direction of President Brigham Young and Counsel, is in
full and successful operation in the four quarters of the world, 1852 (p. 38)
The
first token of God—The Rain bow.
The
second do “ “ The earth is divided by oceans.
The
third do “ “ The rocks rent after the crucifixion.
The
fourth do “ “ The book of Mormon, as truth springing out of the earth.
The fifth and last do—When the rain bow disappears—
Then
look out for the clouds of heaven “in flaming flame.” (p. 45)
TIME.
Time
is the ocean of existence, filled with elements and life for improvement by man.
The presence and absence of the sun give days and nights—and the journey of the
earth in her circuit, multiples seasons and years; and years and ages make the
eternity; and eternity enlarges the scope of universal pleasure amid the glory
of Gods.
Again,
it is revealed that one of our Father’s days 1000 years in Kolob is 365,000
[years]
Then
a week of his years, by the count of heaven is 2,555,000,000 [years]
Two
billion, five hundred and fifty-five millions of years! Just the length of
eternity, as the martyred prophet said.
Now
upon the principle, suppose eternity is multiplied into itself, we shall have 6,638,025,000,000,000,000
[years]
As
the eternity of eternities, mentioned in the Greek version of the New
Testament.
Six
quintillions, six hundred and thirty-eight quadrillions, and twenty-five
trillions of years for a little season of perfection among the Gods.
Ho
saints” is this a beginning for eternities of eternities of all the stars that
now glitter in the upper deep? Me thinks you all answer, no, no NO! No man in the flesh knows the
beginnings and endings of one God. (p. 47)