| 651 by man unto belief, the belief in the eternal judgment of God is very easy.
"From this it will be seen that anyone of sufficient capacity to receive, retain, and exercise a faith like the foregoing is assured of salvation; and that none of greater capacity are, by reason of this increase of their power, entitled to more than a salvation. If this idea had been fully indorsed [endorsed] and always kept in view, we believe that much of the confusion and wild visionary fanaticism that has to some extent characterized many of the devotees of the latter-day work, would have been avoided. But this having been lost sight of, many of those who became satisfied that they had been received into favor with God, presumed that if they possessed superior capacity to others, they were, or would be, received unto something more than life everlasting; in fact, some have acted in a manner to warrant the conclusion that they supposed that the possession of those superior qualities gave them such immunity that they could not sin, and that the practice of what would be crimes in men of commoner mould [mold] would be pardonable or permissible in them.
"A man may believe much more than what has been here enumerated, but this seems to be the minimum unto salvation. To this agrees the statements found in the New Testament, 'He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved,' 'He that believeth on me shall not perish, but shall have everlasting life.' The teaching of the Book of Mormon is the same: 'He that receiveth my gospel, and is baptized, the same is my disciple, and belongeth to my church. . . . the same shall be saved;' 'And this is my doctrine, and the doctrine of my church.' The commandments of God in the Book of Covenants do not contradict these, but enforce them: 'And this is my gospel, repentance and baptism;' 'Say nothing but repentance unto this generation.'
"Every other means offered by men to men as the way of salvation is not accredited of God, and confusion and defeat must inevitably follow its teaching. No man is, or can be authorized to teach other systems as the means of salvation Jesus is 'the way, the resurrection, and the life.'
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