........................ They have no religion, nor idolatry, except that they all believe power and goodness to be in heaven. They firmly believed that I, with my ships and men, came from heaven, and with this idea I have been received everywhere, since they lost fear of me. They are, however, far from being ignorant. They are most ingenious men, and navigate these seas in a wonderful way, and describe everything well, but they never before saw people wearing clothes, nor vessels like ours. Directly I reached the Indies in the first isle I discovered, I took by force some of the natives, that from them we might gain some information of what there was in these parts; and so it was that we immediately understood each other, either by words or signs. They are still with me and still believe that I come from heaven. They were the first to declare this wherever I went, and the others ran from house to house, and to the towns around, crying out, "Come! come! and see the men from heaven!"
Letter Of Columbus To Luis De Sant Angel
Announcing His Discovery (excerpt)
Christopher Columbus
1493
Translation: Professors Hart and Channing
"Ah! that time, madame, I was able for one instant to be alone with you; that time you were about to tell me all, the isolation of your life, the griefs of your heart. You leaned upon my arm; upon this, madame! I felt, as leaning my head toward you, your beautiful hair touched my cheek, and very time that it did touch me, I trembled from head to foot. Oh, queen, queen! You do not know what felicity from heaven, what joys from paradise, are comprised in a moment like that! I would give all my wealth, all my fortunes, all my glory, all the days I have to live, for such an instant, for a night like that! for that night, madame, that night you loved me, I will swear it."
Three Musketeers - (excerpt)
Chapter XII
Alexandre Dumas
1844
Leader of the Chorus. Weak mortals, chained to the earth, creatures of clay as frail as the foliage of the woods, you unfortunate race whose life is but darkness, as unreal as a shadow, the illusion of a dream, hearken to us who are immortal beings, ethereal, ever young and occupied with eternal thoughts; for we shall teach you about all celestial matters; you shall know thoroughly what is the nature of the birds, what the origin of the gods, of the rivers, of Erebus, and Chaos; thanks to us, even Prodicus will envy you your knowledge.
At the beginning there was only Chaos, Night, dark Erebus, and deep Tartarus. Earth, air, and heaven had no existence. First, blackwinged Night laid a germless egg in the bosom of the infinite deeps of Erebus, and from this, after the revolution of long ages, sprang graceful Eros with his glittering golden wings, swift as the whirlwinds of the tempest. He mated in deep Tartarus with dark Chaos, winged like himself, and thus hatched forth our race, the first to see the light. That of the Immortals did not exist until Eros had brought together all the ingredients of the world; and from their marriage Heaven, Ocean, Earth and the imperishable race of blessed gods sprang into being. Thus our origin is far older than that of the dwellers on Olympus. We are the offspring of Eros, there are a thousand proofs to show it. We have wings, and we lend assistance to lovers. How many handsome youths who had sworn to remain insensible have opened their thighs because of our power and have yielded themselves to their lovers when almost at the end of their youth, led away by the gift of a quail, a waterfowl, a goose, or a cock!
And what important services do not the birds render to mortals? First of all, they mark the seasons for them, springtime, winter, and autumn. The screaming crane migrates to Libya - it warns the husbandman to sow, the pilot to take his ease beside his tiller hung up in his dwelling, and Orestes to weave a tunic so that the rigorous cold may not drive him any more to strip other men. When the kite reappears, he tells of the return of spring and of the period when the fleece of the sheep must be clipped. Is the swallow in sight? All hasten to sell their warm tunics and to buy light clothing. We are your Ammon, Delphi, Dodona, your Phoebus Apollo. Before undertaking anything, whether a business transaction, a marriage, or the purchase of food, you consult the birds by reading the omens, and you give this name of omen to all signs that tell of the future. With you a word is an omen; you call a sneeze an omen, a meeting an omen, an unknown sound an omen, a slave or an ass an omen. Is it not clear that we are a prophetic Apollo to you?
(More and more rapidly from here on) If you recognize us as gods, we
shall be your divining Muses. Through us you will know the winds and the
seasons, summer, winter, and the temperate months. We shall not withdraw
ourselves to the highest clouds, like Zeus, but shall be among you and shall give to you and to your children and to the children of your children health and wealth, long life, peace, youth, laughter, songs and feasts; in short, you will all be so well off that you will be weary and cloyed with enjoyment.
........
Leader of First Semi-Chorus. If there is one of you spectators who wishes to spend the rest of his life quietly among the birds, let him come to us. All that is disgraceful and forbidden by law on earth is honorable among us birds. For instance, among you it's a crime to beat your father, but with us it's an estimable deed: its considered fine to run straight at your father and hit him, saying, 'Come, up with your spur if you want to fight.' The runaway slave, whom you brand, is only a spotted francolin with us. Are you Phrygian, like Spintharus? Among us you would be the Phrygian bird, the goldfinch, of the race of Philemon. Are you a slave and a Carian like Execestides? Among us you can create yourself forefathers; you can always find relations. Does the son of Pisia want to betray the gates of the city to the foe? Let him become a
partridge, the fitting offspring of his father; among us there is no shame in escaping as cleverly as a partridge.
........
Leader of Second Semi-Chorus. There is nothing more useful nor more
pleasant than to have wings. To begin with, just let us imagine a spectator dying with hunger and weary of the choruses of the tragic poets; if he were winged, he would fly off, go home to dine and come back with his stomach filled. .....Is it not the most priceless gift of all, to be winged? Look at Diitrephes! His wings were only wicker-work ones, and yet he got himself chosen phylarch and then hipparch; from being nobody, he has risen to be famous: he's now the finest gilt cock of his tribe.
........
Second Semi-Chorus (singing). Happy indeed is the race of winged birds who need no cloak in winter! Neither do I fear the relentless rays of the fiery dog-days, when the sivine grasshopper, intoxicated with the sunlight as noon is burning the ground, breaks out into shrill melody. My home is beneath the foliage in the flowery meadows. I winter in deep caverns, where I frolic with the mountain nymphs, while in spring I despoil the gardens of the Graces and gather the white virgin berry on the myrtle bushes.
The Birds (excerpts)
Aristophanes
414bc
Translation: Dudley Fitts
Exaltation consists of an inheritance in the highest heaven of the celestial world, where alone the family unit continues and where each recipient gains for himself an eternal family unit, patterned after the family of God our Heavenly Father, so that every exalted person lives the kind of life which God lives and is therefore one with him. (PM, p.130)
The name of Jesus--wondrous name--the name by which revelation comes and angels minister; the name of him by whom all things are and into whose hands the Father hath committed all things; the name of him to whom every knee shall bow and every tongue confess in that great day when the God of Heaven makes this planet his celestial home. (PM, p.300)
And what teaching about eternal life compares with the doctrine of John 17:3: "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent," which means that to gain eternal life we must become like the Gods of heaven, knowing and experiencing as they do, and living in the family unit as does our own Eternal Father. (PM, p.521)
Eternal life is to receive the fulness of the Father; it is to be like him; it is to live as he lives; it is the greatest of all the gifts of God; it is the object and end of our existence. (PM, p.568)
........
In the true and full sense of the word Zion and Jerusalem are probably synonymous terms. Enoch built Zion, a City of Holiness, and Melchizedek, reigning as king and ministering as priest of the Most High God, sought to make Jerusalem, his capital city, into another Zion. As we have seen, Melchizedek himself was called by his people the Prince of peace, the King of peace, and the King of heaven, for Jerusalem had become a heaven to them. And interestingly, according to the linguistic scholars and specialists, Salem means peace, and Jerusalem means city of peace, or sacred Salem, and Isaiah's designation of Jerusalem as the holy city is said to mean, literally translated, the city of holiness. (MM1, p.85,86)
To complete our vision of the concept of holy cities, as the New Testament account records, there will also be a day a celestial day, when this earth becomes a heaven in the full, complete and eternal sense, when the celestial New Jerusalem shall be with men. It was John, also, who saw this "holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, Having the glory of God." This is the city having twelve gates and twelve foundations, "and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb." This is the city with streets of pure gold, "as it were transparent glass." Of it John says: "And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it. And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life." (Rev. 21:10-27.) (MM1, p.92)
Paradise--the abode of righteous spirits, as they await the day of their resurrection; paradise--a place of peace and rest where the sorrows and trials of his life have been shuffled off, and where the saints continue to prepare for a celestial heaven; paradise--not the Lord's eternal kingdom, but a way station along the course leading to eternal life, a place where the final preparation is made for that fulness of joy which comes only when body and spirit are inseparably connected in immortal glory! (MM4, p.222)
........
After the Millennium plus a little season--perhaps itself another thousand years--during which men turn again to wickedness, then cometh the end, not of the world, which occurred at the Second Coming, but the end of earth. Then the final battle against Gog and Magog, the battle of the Great God, will be fought. Michael will lead the armies of heaven and Lucifer the legions of hell. Again there will be a new heaven and a new earth, but this time it will be a celestial earth. This earth will then be an eternal heaven, and the meek, who are the God-fearing and the righteous, shall inherit it forever and ever.
In their state of glorious exaltation, earth's inhabitants will then be as their God. They will have eternal life, which consists of life in the family unit and the possession of the fulness of the power of the Almighty. This is the final day toward which all things point. (ML, p.22,23)
When the elect are exalted, when the family unit continues in the highest heaven of the celestial kingdom, when the Saints have spirit children in the resurrection, then the cycle begins again. It is, as it were, the age of the Sabbath, an eternal Sabbath in which there is rest from the toil and sorrow that went before.
Exalted parents are to their children as our Eternal Parents are to us. Eternal increase, a continuation of the seeds forever and ever, eternal lives--these comprise the eternal family of those who gain eternal life. For them new earths are created, and thus the on-rolling purposes of the Gods of Heaven go forward from eternity to eternity. (ML, p.22,23)
In the Lord's view, and from his eternal perspective, the course and way of life here set forth is the norm. It is the way men should live. It is the way many--perhaps most--do live on the endless earths that roll through the immensity of space. It is a perfectly normal thing for faithful and righteous people on all earths to raise the dead, to be caught up to the third heaven, to see and hear unspeakable things. It is the way all men will live during the Millennium, when, as we suppose, more people will dwell on earth (perhaps many times more) than have dwelt here during all of the preceding six thousand years. (ML, p.38)
Did Enoch's Zion, filled with righteous souls, once grace the earth? So shall it yet be. He and all his city shall return to dwell in peace on earth with those who once again can abide the laws which caused the ancient ones to be translated. Was the earth once new, glorious, and paradisiacal in nature? So shall it be again. The earth shall be renewed. There will be a new heaven and a new earth whereon dwelleth righteousness. (ML, p.89)
It is the day of the new heaven and of the new earth, when the desert blossoms as the rose and all the earth becomes as the garden of the Lord. (ML, p.301)
When the Millennium is ushered in, there will be a new heaven and a new earth. It will be renewed and will receive again its paradisiacal glory. The islands and continents will come together again, and there will be one land mass, as it was in the days before it was divided. It will become again a terrestrial sphere. As it was baptized in water in the days of Noah, so it shall be baptized by fire in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. The entire vineyard will be burned and the wicked will be as stubble.
Finally, when all things relative to the salvation of men are completed, it will become a celestial sphere, to be inhabited by saved beings to all eternity. (ML, p.356,357)
After our Lord comes and the new heaven and the new earth are a reality, then the earth will bring forth bounteously to support the billions of our Father's children who shall soon find lodgment on its surface. We do not know what changes will cause this to be. Our knowledge is limited to a few slivers of revealed truth here and there throughout the canonized word. .....If the great ice masses shall flow down before them, it presupposes worldwide climatic changes. And if the deserts are freely watered, conditions will be far from what they now are. It could be--we do not know, we can only speculate--it could be that the axis of the earth will become upright and no longer have the twenty-three-and-a-half-degree tilt that causes seasons. It could be--we do not know--that such was the case in the beginning, which might account for the great glacial ages about which scientists speculate. The first mention in the scriptures of "seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter," as we know them, is found after the flood of Noah. (Gen. 8:22.) At this point, it is wise to state that there is much more that we do not know than that which is known about many things that were anciently and that will be again.
The change in the earth itself is described in Isaiah on this wise: "Thorns and briers" shall prevail in the land, "Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest." Then righteousness will prevail, "And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places," saith the Lord. (Isa. 32:13-l8.) "The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing. For in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water." (Isa. 35:1-7.) "I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert," saith the Lord. (Isa. 43:19.) "For the Lord shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody." (Isa. 51:3.) (ML, p.625,626)
There was a new earth and new heavens when the Millennium commenced. This (will be) a second new heaven and new earth; it is the celestial earth and its heaven. The language in each instance is similar, but the meaning is different. In one instance the new earth is the paradisiacal earth; in this case it is the celestial globe. .....All forms of life shall then be immortal; all shall come forth from death and live in a resurrected state forever; the resurrection applies to men and animals and fowls and fishes and creeping things--all shall rise in immortality and live forever in their destined orders and spheres of existence. (ML, p.695,696)
Telestial law is the law of evil, carnality, and corruption. Those who so live develop telestial bodies, which can stand telestial glory, which is found in a telestial kingdom. Terrestrial law is the law of decency and uprightness from a worldly standpoint. Those who conform to this higher order thereby create for themselves terrestrial bodies, which in turn can stand terrestrial glory and go to a terrestrial kingdom. Celestial law is the law of the gospel; it is the law of Christ. It calls upon men to forsake the world and rise above every carnal and evil thing. It calls upon men to repent and be baptized and receive the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit of God. It requires that they become new creatures of the Holy Ghost. Only those who so live acquire thereby celestial bodies; only such bodies can stand celestial glory, and this glory is found only in a celestial kingdom. Since the final destiny of this earth is to become a celestial globe, it thereby becomes the ultimate and highest heaven for all the faithful who have lived on its surface.
One of several identifying characteristics of those who live a celestial law and hence will have an eternal inheritance on this earth is to call them the meek of the earth. In the scriptural sense the meek are the God-fearing and the righteous. Jesus said of himself: "I am meek and lowly in heart." (Matt. 11:29.) The meek are those who keep the commandments and are fit persons to associate with Him in whom meekness was perfected. Hence the psalmic word, given of old, "The meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. . . . The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever. (Ps. 37:11, 29.) And hence the Beatitude, spoken by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth." (Matt. 5:5.) (ML, p.697,698)
And this brings us to the part celestial marriage plays in gaining eternal life. .....Eternal life or exaltation grows out of the continuation of the family unit in eternity. Exalted beings--who shall sit with God on his throne and be as he is--shall go to the highest heaven in the celestial world. Such is the sole and only place where the family unit continues. There they will have eternal increase, meaning spirit children in the resurrection forever and ever. Those who go to all lower kingdoms do not and cannot have such an increase.
In the resurrection all shall come forth from their graves. Every living soul will be resurrected; all will gain immortality. Those who believe and obey the fulness of gospel law, having been raised in immortality, will also be raised unto eternal life. The difference between those who have immortality only and those who have both immortality and eternal life is one thing: the continuation of the family unit in eternity. Those who go to the highest heaven in the celestial world will have eternal life because the family unit continues. Those who go to the lower two heavens in that kingdom, or to the terrestrial kingdom, or to the telestial kingdom, will have immortality only. (ML, p.707,708)
the above excerpts are from-
Bruce R. McConkie's Messiah series including:
The Promised Messiah (PM)
The Mortal Messiah, I-IV (MM)
The Milennial Messiah (ML)
(c) 1978-81 Desert Book Company
Salt Lake City, Utah