“There is an eternal law of progress which holds good always and everywhere.  It has been operating all through the ages of the past.  Now, let us take one of these Intelligences away back in the far distance past and place him in the path of progress so that the eternal law of growth and advancement will operate on him.  I care not whether you apply the result to Intelligences as individuals or as the race.  Given time enough, this endless and eternal advancement must result in a state of perfection that those who attain to it may with truth and propriety be called Gods.  Therefore, there must be a God, yes, many Gods living and reigning throughout the limitless regions of glorified space.

“Here is corroborative evidence:  I read in the Doctrine and Covenants, Section 88:  ’All kingdoms have a law given; and there are many kingdoms; for there is no space in the which there is no kingdom; and there is no kingdom in which there is no space, either a greater or a lesser kingdom.  And unto every kingdom is given a law; and unto every law there are certain bounds also and conditions.’

“There is a hymn in our hymn book in which W.W.  Phelps expresses this idea beautifully.  Let me read it: 

  ’If you could hie to Kolob,
    In the twinkling of an eye,
  And then continue onward,
    With that same speed to fly.

  ’Do you think that you could ever,
    Through all eternity,
  Find out the generation
    Where Gods began to be?

  ’Or see the grand beginning
    Where space did not extend? 
  Or view the last creation,
    Where Gods and matter end?

  ’Methinks the Spirit whispers: 
    No man has found “pure space,”
  Nor seen the outside curtains,
    Where nothing has a place.

  ’The works of God continue,
    And worlds and lives abound;
  Improvement and progression
    Have one eternal round.

  ’There is no end to matter,
    There is no end to space,
  There is no end to spirit,
    There is no end to race.

  ’There is no end to virtue,
    There is no end to might,
  There is no end to wisdom,
    There is no end to light.

  ’There is no end to union,
    There is no end to youth,
  There is no end to priesthood,
    There is no end to truth.

  ’There is no end to glory,
    There is no end to love,
  There is no end to being,
    Grim death reigns not above.’

“The Latter-day Saints have been adversely criticized for holding out such astounding hopes for the future of the human race; but let us reason a little more, beginning nearer home.  What has the race accomplished, even within the short span of our own recollection?  Man is fast conquering the forces of nature about him, and making these forces to serve him.  Now, we must remember that duration extends ahead of us in the same limitless way in which it reaches back.  Give, then, the race today all the time necessary, what cannot it accomplish?  Apply it again either to an individual or to the race, in time, some would attain to what we conceive of as perfection, and the term by which such beings are known to us is God.  I can see no other logical conclusion.”