I have heard of a man who was cut off
because he would not believe that Adam was our Father. "Well, but was it
not so?" Its being so does not change the fact we are sinners and need
salvation, and such preaching does not help men and women to repent of their
sins. I call all that preaching senseless which cannot be applied. When we get
where such things are needed, we shall be better able to understand them. We
want men to be sober, temperate, just, honest, virtuous, and pure, always doing
right, rising in progressive intelligence, and helping their fellows to rise
also; and to accomplish this we must teach them to be so—teach them principles
which they can comprehend and apply. . . . As for believing that Adam was our
God, I do not know but that we are gods; only, if it is so, we are very young
yet. But could we ever feel that we are the children of a God who watches over
us with more care and solicitude than we can bestow upon the little ones who
call us fathers here on the earth, would not our desires and object be to win
the continued love of such a Parent by leaving off everything wrong, while we
would seek to fill up the whole aggregate of our judgments with knowledge that
is pure and holy, that we might become like the Father and be prepared to dwell
with him. Then it is well to think that God is our Father; and whether it be
Adam or anyone else, ever struggle upwards, upwards; always keep your hearts
and faces upwards . . . (Francis M.
Lyman, "Minutes of a General Conference in Birmingham," The
Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star 24, no. 7 [February 15, 1862]: 100)
