Truth Never Changes Volume 10, Number 11

TRUTH NEVER CHANGES Volume 10                     November 2006 Edition                      Number 11

YIn The Spirit and Tradition of Truth Magazine Y

The Gifts of the Holy Spirit

            One of the persistent themes in the fascinating story of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint in Tonga is the remarkable Tongan language skills acquired by the foreign missionaries.  Taken from the history of John Alexander Nelson, Jr., the following story represents the collective experiences of hundreds of foreign missionaries to Tonga over the last century, who have become poto vave ‘I he lea faka-Tonga (fluent very quickly in the Tongan language).   The gifts of language and healing among bothe the foreign and local missionaries have profoundly influenced the quality of missionary service in each generation.

           

On March 12, 1910, 21 year-old John Alexander Nelson, Jr., arrived in Pago Pago to begin his service as a missionary in the Samoan Islands.  In 1013, just a few days before he was to return to his home in Canada, he received another mission call, this time to be the president of the Samoan Mission which still had jurisdiction over the Church in the Tongan Islands.

           

IN THIS ISSUE The Gifts of the Holy Spirit……………...….380 Commentary On………………………..…384 Excerpts…Prison Diary of Arnold Boss…….385 Differentiating the Purpose & Positions of the Church & the Priesthood of God…………….389 An Event in New Zealand………………...…392 Maori Chief Predicts………………………...393 Latter-dayMiracles……………...…………..397 Editorial……………………………………..399

Young, nervous, and unable to speak Tongan, President Nelson made his first 600 mile voyage to Tonga three months after his formal appointment as president of the mission.  This visit among the Tongan Saints was less than satisfying.  “There seemed to be some discontentment about my being chosen as the Mission President,” he later wrote in his personal history.  “I did not have the understanding of the Tongan language.  They felt they were being discriminated against by not having their own president.”

           

            President Nelson felt so keenly their disapproval of the “man from Samoa” who could not speak Tongan that, when he returned to ‘Apia, he wrote directly to the First Presidency, the Joseph F. Smith, Anthon H. Lund, and Charles W. Penrose:

           

                        Dear President Smith and Counselors,

I have just returned from a tour of the Friendly Islands, or the old Tongan Mission and everywhere I went, this question was put to me: “Why can’t we Saints in Tonga have a mission of our own and a president who can speak our language?”

                                    Sincerely your Brother,

                                                John A. Nelson

           

            The First Presidency responded by saying that the time was not right to divide the mission and instructing him to continue handling the affairs of the Church in Tonga from the Samoan Mission headquarters: “We want you to go back to Tonga, in the course of your travels, the Lord will bless you.”

            President Nelson’s next visit to Tonga occurred in the latter part of 1913.  Upon his arrival he was invited to speak that very evening to a large congregation of Wesleyans on one of the outer islands, possibly ‘Otea.  Feeling deeply his inadequacy in the language, President Nelson initially turned the invitation down.  “I do not know enough language to do you any good,” he said to Elder Jaynes who was pressing him to make an appearance at the meeting.  Elder Jaynes persisted, however, and he reluctantly yielded.  In his heart, he pondered the promise of the First Presidency of the Church: “The Lord will bless you.”

            When they arrived at the little island, the villagers with their minister were already filling the large thatched Wesleyan chapel.  President Nelson describes the event:

Elder Jaynes took a seat with me at one end of the large hall, near the only door where a person could enter standing up.  The little bench, on which we sat, was the only seat in the Church…After a second song was sung Elder Jaynes gave a discourse on the first principles of the Gospel.  When he had finished his sermon, he told the people that President John A. Nelson was going to speak to them in the Samoan language, since he did not understand or speak Tongan.  These people did not understand Samoan anymore than I understood Tongan.

As I arose to speak, a woman appeared in the doorway to my right.  I motioned for her to come inside.  Since she was a Tongan woman, I assumed she had come to attend the meeting.  She shook her head, indicating that she did not wish to sit down.  Consequently, I left her standing near me in the doorway.  Elder Jaynes later said that he did not see her.

I had thought I would give a few sentences of greeting in the Tongan language then switch to Samoan.  Just as I had ended the few sentences I knew in Tongan, intending to switch to Samoan, the woman in the doorway seemed to give me the words of the Tongan language.  It was as though as I could see the words as they came from her mouth, from her lips, to me and I grasped them and went right on speaking Tongan.

It was a revelation to these 300 or more people who were sitting on the grass and in the chapel.  Those who were sitting on the outside began to come in.  They realized that I had not known the Tongan language, as Elder Jaynes had announced this fact as he introduced me.

When the Lord gives a gift, he doesn’t do it haphazardly.  It is given in its complete form.  I was speaking the Tongan language as fluently as any native.  There was no hesitancy in my speech.  The natives were astonished.  Elder Jaynes looked at me in great wonderment to realize that I was speaking in Tongan.

I bear my testimony to you, that I spoke to that group of people for nearly an hour, in their own language.  I told them of the restored gospel.  I told them of the Prophet Joseph Smith.  I told them of their lineage; that they were Israelites and the Lord loves them.  Because of this love, he had called missionaries to come 7,000 miles from America to teach them the great plan of salvation.  This plan had been restored to the earth in these latter days, through the instrumentality of the Prophet Joseph Smith.

After the people sang one more beautiful song, Elder Jaynes closed the meeting with prayer.  He thanked the Lord for our being there and for the experience we had just witnessed: the gift of tongues to a humble servant of the Lord.  It is one of the greatest testimonies of my life.

After the meeting, the minister came up and congratulated me.  I told him that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has all of the gifts and powers that were in the Church when Christ was upon the earth.  I told him that the gift of healing and all of the other blessings enjoyed by the prophets of old, had been re-established and sent to the earth again for the benefit and blessings of mankind.  He seemed to enjoy our discussion.  However, I realized that people do not join the Church just because of a miracle.  I never saw the woman in the doorway again.  Elder Jaynes repeated that he had never seen her at all.  There was a beautiful spirit and wonderful feeling of friendship and love felt and expressed by many.

The next day at our conference, I spoke fluently in the Tongan language, not lacking for a word.  I did not need an interpreter.  The letter that I had received from the First Presidency of the Church, which said, “Return to Tonga, and the Lord will bless you” was certainly true.  He did bless me.

As we traveled from island to island and from branch to branch, many of the people followed us.  They were so eager to hear the words of their Mission President, who had been given the gift of tongues, the gift of the Tongan language.  This was not only a blessing to me, but also tot he Tongan people.  I learned to read the Bible translated into the Tongan language and I studied so that my pronunciation would be perfected.

From that time on, I never needed an interpreter to deliver my messages to the Tongan saints.  I never heard again the request, “Why can’t we have a mission president who can speak our language?”  As true as I live today, I bear testimony that the gospel of Jesus Christ as revealed to us in this day and time, through the instrumentality of Joseph Smith, is true.  It is the one and only true plan of salvation that God has revealed tot he people on earth today.

When I returned again to Samoa, I wrote the First Presidency of the Church of my gift of the Tongan language, for it was indeed, a gift.  I have always recognized this experience as the most precious testimony and gift that the Lord has ever given me.

            President Nelson recorded an additional testimony in a letter to his daughters June 15, 1959:

            My dear daughters:

            I have been thinking about a testimony that I desire to write to you about.  I have thought of it a hundred times, but have never told it in public.  It is very sacred to me and I have always given the Lord the credit for the accomplishment of a very wonderful blessing bestowed upon a very faithful Samoan sister.

            In the month of June, 1914, while I was presiding over the Samoan and Tongan Missions, I called a Samoan man and his wife, Afatasi and Losa, to go on a mission to the Tongan islands, six hundred miles from the Samoan group, where they had to learn a new language.

            Afatasi was an Elder and a very powerful speaker in his own tongue.  Losa was a wonderful mother of several children and a good Latter-day Saint.  However, she was blind.  We had just finished a missionary meeting in the chapel, where these lovely people were both set apart for their missions to Tonga.

            I had gone upstairs tot he office.  The mission office and several  apartments for the missionaries were on the second floor.  For some reason, I arose very suddenly from my chair in the office and walked to the head of the stairs, just as Losa was coming up, feeling her way alongside the wall.  Just as she was about to take the last step up, I reached down and put of fingers of my right hand on her eyes and in the name of Jesus Christ, I commanded her to receive her sight.

            The outcome of this was she went on her mission with the full vision of her eyes.  She could read and write as well as any school girl.  She performed a wonderful work among the Tongan women and the Lord gave her another special blessing, the gift of the Tongan language, as well as the gift of her eyesight.  Her dear husband was also a wonderful missionary and did a great work among the Tongan people.

            I testify that I was but an agent for the Lord.  It was not my power that bestowed her eyesight, but the power of Jesus Christ.  I heeded the Spirit’s direction and was the instrument in the Lord’s hands to perform this sacred miracle.

            I know the gospel of Jesus Christ is true.  I bear this testimony to you, my dear daughters, in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior, Amen.

—COMMENTARY—

ON

CELESTIAL HIERARCHY

Celestial Hierarchy, as defined in the tenth edition of Miriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary is as follows: a traditional hierarchy of angels ranked from lowest to highest into the following nine orders: angels, archangels, principalities, powers, virtues, dominions, thrones, cherubim, and seraphim.

We, as Mormons, when we are sealed in marriage, are promised the “blessings of thrones, and dominions, and principalities, and powers, and exaltations…”

I have read in other works that the seraphim are the highest order of angels.  We all know of the cherubim—Strong’s Concordance defines those angels as “the burning ones.”

But what of the different “orders” of angels—is the above definition correct?  Is that what is meant, when in the right Scriptural context—that they are angels?  Let us look at different Scriptures:

All thrones and dominions, principalities and powers, shall be revealed and set forth upon all who have endured valiantly for the gospel of Jesus Christ.  D&C 121:29

…and all dominions shall serve and obey him.  DAN 7:27

For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by him, and for him; COL 1:16

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Jesus Christ our Lord.  ROM 8:38-39

Could these be angels, which those who rise to exaltation inherit?  Can the Gods accomplish their designs without servants?  No.  Is this what is meant in the portion of that promise?

Ye shall . . .inherit thrones, kingdoms, principalities, and powers, dominions, all heights and depths—…and they shall pass by the angels, and the gods, which are set there, to their exaltation and glory in all things, as hath been sealed upon their heads, which glory shall be a fulness and a continuation of the seeds forever and ever.

Then shall they be gods, because they have no end; therefore shall they be from everlasting to everlasting because they continue; then shall they be above all, because all things are subject unto them.  Then shall they be gods, because they have all power, and the angels are subject unto them.  D&C 132:19, 20

To reap the rewards and reach Godhood, the Lord has clearly defined that no man can attain to this glory, except we abide His law.  (D&C 132:21).

I do not pretend to know the definitive meaning of the above passages of Scripture.  But I do believe that if we make a covenant in the House of the Lord and are given a promise, then we, as those candidates, who are to reap the fruits of that Covenant, must try to comprehend them to the best of our ability.   You, dear reader, can decide for yourself.

Excerpts From The

PRISON DIARY

OF

ARNOLD BOSS

PART VI

           

…September 24, 1945

This is probably the most significant event I have ever lived to see.  The most historical, the most tragic and sorrowful.  Another manifesto was signed today by Presidents John Y. Barlow and Joseph W. Musser of the Priesthood Council, followed by Edmond F. Barlow, Albert Timpson and Oswald Brainisch.

We left our cells this morning to work on the outside—that is all who are now at the Old Prison (Sugarhouse).

John Y. Barlow, Joseph W. Musser, Edmond F. Barlow, Morris Kunz, H. K. Cleveland and Louis Kelsch left shortly after 6 am.  These brethren sat on the outside of the walls.  Myself and Brother Timpson left for the cannery about 8 am.  Charles F. Zitting and O. Brainisch stayed in their cells.  They felt sick.  Just as Dell and I left for breakfast, Louis came back to get his coat.  He said he was directed to go to American Fork today with the truck to pick peaches.

At dinnertime, we came in from the cannery to eat.  Those of us after eating went and sat down on some benches nearby.  I sat on one of these benches alone as Joseph returned from dinner.  He came over and sat down with me.  He felt cold towards me, yet seemed to want to speak.  We sat saying nothing for about four minutes.  Joseph finally spoke and said, “We are going to sign the paper today.”  With that he handed me a printer’s copy of the third manifesto.  I said nothing.  I took the copy and read it through.  I saw it was a very close copy to the original one.  It differed in some slight words, some phraseology had been changed, but in the main it was just the same.  I folded the paper and put it into my pocket; I was greatly affected over it in my feelings, but still kept silent.

Following this, President John Y. came down to where we were sitting.  He said, “Joseph, I wonder if Carman is in?” 

Joseph replied, “He may be.”

John said, “I will go and see.”  He came back and said, “Carman is now in.”

With that, Joseph arose and as he placed his hand on my shoulder (asked), “Are you going along to sign?”

“No I won’t go,” I said.

John led out, Joseph followed.  Edmond and Adelbert Timpson were next.  They went into Carman’s office and stayed there for some little time.  The other brethren had previously been called to the cannery.

While the brethren were in the office, Captain Smart called out, “All my men—let’s go!”

I left.  That was all I saw of the four men until after, when Dell Timpson came back into the cannery.  Dell told Morris and Fred Cleveland, John and Joseph had gone to the Point of the Mountain to submit the third manifesto to the brethren out there.  As soon as I learned Morris and Fred knew what had taken place and what the brethren went south for, I said very little.

When we had closed for the day and went back to our cells, Joseph and John had not then come back.  We washed and cleaned up.  I told Brother Zitting what had taken place and left for supper.  About the time we left the cannery, the truck had returned from American Fork and Louis was told by Morris what had taken place.  After we had eaten, John and Joseph had returned. Hey were by their cell doors waiting for them to be opened.  I looked at Joseph—his face was an ashen-whiteish color.  He looked unhealthy and somewhat subdued.

…Brother Charles told me, “I went to John Y’s cell after supper to try and get his views.”

John told Charles he could sign the paper now, because several changes had been made in the last.  He said when they got outside, several changes would be made, among them, the Saints would have to break up and scatter.  Evidently meaning, go into other states.

Charles told me he was astonished over what had taken place and over what he was told, like President Joseph F. Smith was in 1890 when the Saints voted overwhelmingly at the tabernacle to sustain what Wilford Woodruff had done.  Charles said, “It was a revelation to him that all the men at the Point of the Mountain had signed the document.”  He said, “I thought when the showdown really came, Brother John Y. Barlow would not sign it, but now, he had.  Ten of the original fifteen had signed the paper.  Of the four members of the Council, two signed, two did not.”

DECLARATION OF POLICY

To Whom it May Concern:

The undersigned officers and members of the so-called Fundamentalist religious group do hereby declare as follows:

That we individually and severally pledge ourselves to refrain hereafter from advocating, teaching, or countenancing the practice of plural marriage or polygamy in violation of the laws of the State of Utah and of the United States.

The undersigned officers of the religious group above referred to further pledge ourselves to refrain from solemnizing plural marriages from and after this date contrary to the laws of the land.

Signed

1) John Y. Barlow                                                      2) Joseph W. Musser

3) A. A. Timpson                                                        4) Edmond F. Barlow

5) Oswald Branisch                                                   6) I.W. Barlow

7) Albert E. Barlow                                                   8) Rulon C. Allred

9) J. Lyman Jessop                                                     10) David B. Darger

11) Heber K. Cleveland

The following refused to sign it: Charles F. Zitting, Louis A. Kelsch, Morris Q. Kunz and Arnold Boss.

            Friday, September 28, 1945

            …In the evening I went into his cell.  He was washing his wrist with Epsom saltwater.  I asked if I could rub it with linament. This I did.  John was in pain and seemed downcast.  While with him, I said, “John, I hope when you leave you won’t hold any feelings against me for not being able to sign that document.  I hope the Lord will give you enough of the spirit to see what is in my heart and that (my) motives are honorable.  I cannot sign and be true to my God, to my family and conscience.”

He said, “That is alright.  I told you all from the first to act as you felt led, and you know.  I have not urged you to sign the 3^rd document when it had in it what the first one had, with some changes.  And you told me, the Lord told you not to sign it.”

            He said, “You will notice some changes were made.”

            I said, “Yes, but the heart of it all is still there.”

            He took the two papers out and indicated the changes.

            I said, “John, did you dictate the last document?”

            He said, “I dictated some parts of it which I wanted changed.”

            I got from his remarks Joseph had redrafted the rest.  I said, “You know Frank Jensen said, document number two was out entirely; it is No. 1 or nothing and that he had embodied into it the demands of the enemy.  Those are the things I wanted to ask you.  Thanks John.”

            He told me, “I can now see how undesirable characters can be kept out of this principle.  And you know they were in it.  And it is just possible they were the cause of most of this trouble we have been going through.”

            I said, “Yes, I have wondered many, many times why certain men got wives sealed to them.”

            He said, “I can see why Wilford Woodruff did what he did, and I think what we have signed will bring similar results.  You noticed we changed the wording so it does not read WE SUSTAIN THE PRACTICE OF LIVING PLURAL MARRIAGE, just the principle.  So hereafter, we can say when we inquired about it, this is the principle and we have not taught it as strongly as God has in Section 132 of the D&C.  So they want to know about the practice of it, we can say, that is for you to decide.”

            I pressed no further questions.  John had told me he heard today that David Darger at the Point of the Mountain was quite sick.  John said, “It wasn’t the signing of the Manifesto where Wilford Woodruff sinned; it was in the setting aside of his wives, except one.  So Lorin told us.”

            …Tuesday, October 2, 1945

           

            …In the afternoon, Rulon C. Allred and Joseph Lyman Jessop came in from the Point of the Moutain to have their pictures taken.  We engaged in remarks with Lyman on how he came to sign that document.  He said, “John and Joseph came out there, met with all of them and argued strongly for its signature.  Joseph was pronounced that it should be signed.  Some held out against doing so, among them himself.  Not succeeding, Joseph walked away a distance then returned and said, ‘I tell you as a servant of the Lord it is the will of the Lord you should sign it.’  That brought the remaining signatures wanted.”

Lyman said, “I was still in doubt for John had told us previously, the Lord had revealed to him not to sign that paper.  I have spent restless nights over it before its signature and since.”   He told us he had fasted for two days since signing it to get a definite answer, but received nothing.  He does not know what to do.  He seems to be troubled and disturbed…

Differentiating

the Purpose & Positions

of the

Church & the Priesthood of God

Brother Rulon Clark Allred, circa 1972

Brother ____ has asked us to explain or differentiate the positions of the Church and the Priesthood of God.  This I will attempt to do, with the help of the Lord, because it is a subject that is vital to every serious Latter-day Saint.  Without such an understanding we are led to excess.

I would like to begin answering the question by saying that in 1829 the Lord restored the Priesthood of God to the earth when He sent Peter, James and John to confer upon Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery the Apostleship.  And so, the first agency to come through the veil in our dispensation was the man—the Priesthood.

A year later the woman was taken from the side of the man—the Church was organized agreeable to the law of the land according to the commandments.  This church is the “woman” mentioned several times in the scriptures.  The Lord created the first man, and organized him or sent him first; and then took from his side the woman.  And it was intended that she should be one with her husband; but she has her free agency, free to unite with him on the democratic principle as much as or as little as she chooses.

It is true that the Lord restored the Gospel for the last time in our dispensation.  And He has given promise that the restoration would be vindicated, that all of the agencies which have been re-instituted in our day would remain upon the earth, and that if necessary He would cut the time short in order to save some flesh.

In 1835 there was a child conceived in Kirtland, Ohio.  Now I didn’t say that the child was born then, but it was conceived then—the product of union of the man and woman that I have previously described.  It wasn’t until 1844, in the spring, that this child was actually born—this man-child, which is the Kingdom of God.

So the Kingdom of God is not the Church.  It comes out of the Church, as Brigham Young said.  Coming out of the Church has the meaning that it is a child, or the issue or the offspring of the man and woman.

It is an interesting thing that first you have the man; second the woman and then the child: and it takes all three to make the House of God.  No house is complete unless there is at least a man, woman and child; and it has to be a man-child for obvious reasons.

Now the day Joseph Smith was murdered, he indicated that that child was in existence.  And he taught that he was in the same fix that the Savior had been in His day, namely, that he had made the mistake of telling the truth about his enemies, and Joseph said that from then on we shall have to be careful that we don’t tell all the truth.

He said, however, that the child and his mother would go into the West, and there he would grow and become a man, and eventually obtain unto sufficient strength that he could defend himself and his mother.

When John speaks of the beast waiting for the birth of the man-child, it generally is assumed to mean that the Son of Man was to be caught up into Heaven while the Church entered the Dark Ages.  This is not untrue, but such an interpretation only partly fulfills the scriptures, for when the Latter-day Saints (after the restoration of authority from God) fled from the United States into the wilderness, there is a more complete fulfillment.

Thus the Church and her son—that is, the Kingdom of God now invested with the Priesthood—fled into the prairies and deserts for the express purpose of bringing that child up until he had his own strength.  This has reference to political strength: and when the boy is a man, completely grown, he will protect his mother, but he will no unjustly favor his mother over all other churches.

When the Kingdom of God is fully established, it will protect all churches in their inalienable rights.  Furthermore, every church, kingdom, corporation, nation—every corporation or individual entity—will have to obtain or function under a charter from the Kingdom; yet, in turn, will be protected in its proper right by that political organization.

In Joseph Smith’s day, he attempted to teach the celestial law to the Church, first privately, and then at least to the High Council level.  He was, of course, unsuccessful and was put to death for his efforts.  George Q. Cannon said that in the Prophet’s time a division occurred: the great body of the Church rejected the Celestial law, while a handful of men sustained Joseph, later becoming the leadership of the Church in Utah.  If we carefully examine the history of the Church, it will become apparent that the Latter-day Saints were so heavily traditionalized in their former teaching that almost all of them found it impossible to accept the higher things.

There is a principle by which God works that rules in these matters, and that is this: when He gives His word He always first gives the celestial law, and His children have their agency in conforming to it; if they are willing to accept it, He always sustains them and gives a testimony and bears them off in His own way and in His own time to the victory that is promised the faithful; but from those who harden their hearts, as explained in the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants, He takes away the higher light and gives them a lesser light or lesser law.

But the lesser law, albeit from God, is always accompanied under these circumstances by delusion.  The delusion could be stated as follows: I will obey the second law, or lesser law, but, through my diligence, I will obtain the blessing which accompanies the higher law.  It is amazing that millions of people believe in the concept of the bargain, yet it is an incorrect one.  The scripture that says that there is a law irrevocably decreed upon which all blessings are predicated.  The generic law, in all cases, is faith.  Then it goes on to say that when we receive a blessing (that is, a particular blessing) from God, it is by obedience to that law (the singular law) upon which that blessing is predicated.  And we oft times make the mistake of thinking that by obedience to law “A” we can obtain the blessing that accompanies faithful observance of law “B”!  This is unscientific.  It is illogical.  It is untrue, and it is contrary to the law of the Gospel.

We have in Franklin D. Richards and Brigham Young, such statements as : If the people in our day (this dispensation) would not accept the law which their Moses (the Prophet Joseph Smith) first gives them, they will peradventure receive a law of carnal commandments—a lesser law not administered to them according to endless lives.

This is precisely what has happened.  There has been a handful of people from the beginning who rallied about the Prophet and who would keep the fulness of the Gospel alive.  There has been a great majority of people who would be unwilling to suffer the annoyance, the discomfort and the persecution of espousing unpopular principles and of literally attempting to live them on the earth.

I am here reminded of what Lorenzo Snow said in the Temple Lot Case, when the prosecuting attorney asked him: “You state now that Joseph Smith was sealed or married to your sister in April, 1843, and this so called revelation was given in July, 1843?”  Lorenzo answered: “I stated that Joseph Smith took my sister for a wife when he had a wife living, and that was prior to the giving of the revelation.”  (Previously he had stipulated: “Before the giving of that revelation in 1843 if a man married more wives than one who were living at the same time, he would have been cut off from the church.  It would have been adultery under the laws of the church and under the laws of the State, too.”)

Then the attorney, in his glee, said: “Well, what kind of position did you put your sister and Joseph Smith in?”  Then Lorenzo returned: “It put them in a first-rate, splendid condition for time and eternity.”

We find that Joseph Smith publicly denied these things, and his purpose was to save the Church.  Brigham Young, in Nauvoo (as I understand) publicly denied that the Latter-day Saints had anything to do with plural marriage, so John Taylor in the French Mission.

When the Prophet was killed, the Kingdom of God (and the Prieshtood) brought the Saints across the plains into disputed territory, later called Utah.  The Church didn’t.  The Church was organized in the State of Illinois (and perhaps a few other places), and it had no authority to cross a state line.  The Kingdom of God, as a political body, did; and it was that body that organized fifties, tens and so forth, bringing the people across the wastes.  When they got there, Brigham Young promised them that, if they would be faithful in a covenant to keep the commandments of God, they would never again come under any other government than that of the Kingdom of God.  And he straightway took the steps to establish a provisional government for Deseret, the Council of Fifty in the Kingdom of God being the actual power behind the movement.  Men who held positions in that Kingdom were also in the Deseret structure.

Because Brigham Young was also the temporal or civil ruler, he was able to bring celestial marriage out into the open.  With all his urging, and he really did get after the people at times, very few of them would embrace the celestial law.  The Latter-day Saints had no excuse in the matter because, during the period while it was not against the law of the land, they still wouldn’t observe it.  Sadly Brigham used his influence, sacerdotally and civilly, to very little avail.

In John Taylor’s day, the Government had now come in.  They had taken steps to destroy the Mormon people.  In 1885 he went into the Underground, directing the Church and these other organizations from obscurity.  He lived there two years, the last year he was very sick—dying while in hiding.  From about the time John left public life, he no longer authorized plural marriage in the Church.  Interestingly enough, he, himself, married in 1887; there is a recent article that says he married five times in his last year.

John Taylor was the one who sent men into Chihuahua, Sonora, Coahuila, Alberta and other places to find refuge and establish colonies, principally for those who were living plural marriage.  He also set men apart in the Church as such.  He set many patriarchies apart, presidents of stakes, presidents of temples, bishops, etc.; he designated many of these men to continue the principle of plural marriage in a private way.

Of course, John Taylor called men in 1886-1887 to continue the higher law independent of the Church; but he instructed them from the outset not to begin to act until authorized to do so.  In other words, it was a quiescent situation: it was to be sedentary.  They were to hold it until they were authorized.

Tow of the involved men were his own counselors in the First Presidency of the Church.  It is thought by some that when Wilford Woodruff comes on the scene, the keys of the Priesthood go immediately from him to the group of men called in the ‘80’s, but this is incorrect.  That authority went from Wilford Woodruff to Lorenzo Snow to Joseph F. Smith and then from Joseph F. Smith to that group of men I mentioned.  And it was from Joseph F. that John Woolley and Lorin Woolley, the surviving members of that “group”, received isntruction to begin to talk and to function in the calling which they had conditionally received from John Taylor, the Prophet Joseph Smith and the Savior.  (To Be Continued…Bold print added for emphasis)

An Event in New Zealand

In New Zealand, we decided to dedicate the land upon the top of a place called One Tree Hill that overlooks the city of Auckland…The Spirit was very strong…I walked up the hillside in the graveyard and had the Spirit fall upon me strongly.  From the top of the hill, I could see the city of Auckland.  I knew that this was sacred ground and the place where we should dedicate the nation of New Zealand.  We returned there several days later and the Spirit was very strong again.  The Spirit fell upon me and told me that the fulness of the Gospel was to go out to these, the Polynesian people.

…I was overwhelmed immediately with the feeling that a mighty, mighty work was about to open up to these people.  They are Lamanite, and they are on the verge of receiving these principles en masse.  The Lord is about to speak to the inhabitants of the islands of the sea, as prophesied in the Doctrine and Covenants.

MAORI CHIEF PREDICTS

In March, 1881, a convention was called of representative natives of the Ngatikahungunu Tribe of the Maori race for the purpose of discussing political, social, and religious problems of racial importance.  The convention was held at a native village near Masterton, New Zealand, in what is known as the Wairarapa district.  The meetings of this conference were convened in a historic, native meeting house, the name of which was Ngatauewaru, meaning, the “Eight Years.”

Many of those in attendance were old enough to have seen the coming of the first Christian missionaries to New Zealand, and all were devout adherents to one of the several churches which had already been established among them.  Some were Catholic; some of the Methodist faith; and some of the Presbyterian belief.  As the history of Christianity among them was reviewed by the speakers, the question arose as to the necessity of the existence of more than one Christian church—if all Christianity was of Christ, why were not all Christians affiliated with but one church?  Why, if prior to the coming of Christianity to their shores, a unity of religious belief and practice obtained, should there now be, with the so-called ‘greater light,’ a diversity of belief and a confusion of ideas?  It was evident to the native mind in view of the difference in doctrinal and religious profession of the several churches that not more than one of them could be the recipient of divine inspiration nor be recognized as the Church of Christ.

The great native leaders assembled at this convention could conceive of nothing of more vital importance tot he well-being of the race than to know the answer to the questions: “Which is the church?  Which one should the Maori join so there will be once again a unity of religious belief among them?  Where was the power of God unto salvation for the Maori race?”

The questions were discussed and debated at great length, but the answer evaded them.  At last it was moved, and the motion approved, that the all-important question should be propounded to one Paora Potangaroa, the wisest chief and most learned sage among them.  To him, the question was directed: “Which of the churches is the church for the Maori race?  Which of them should we join?”

Potangaroa’s answer was one word, “Taihoa,” which means, “wait,” or “wait awhile,” and which, in this instance, implied that he would answer the question later after he had given the matter serious consideration.  The old sage then left the assembly and retired to his own residence, which was nearby.  There for three days he was occupied in prayer, fasting and meditation about the problem which had been presented for his solution.  He was aware that the true answer would not come without prayerful meditation and without invoking divine aid.  After having been thus engaged for three days, he returned to the convention and addressed his people.

Freely translated these were his words: “My friends, the church for the Maori people has not yet come among us.  Its missionaries will travel in prayers.  You will recognize it when it comes from the rising sun.  They will visit us in our homes.  They will learn our language and teach us the gospel in our own tongue.  When they pray they will raise their right hands.”  After saying these things, as a partial answer to the question, he called Ranginui Kingi to act as scribe and to write what the chief was about to dictate as a further answer to the inquiry of his people concerning which church would bring salvation to the Maori.  That which was written was called by the sage: “A covenant for remembering the hidden words which were revealed by the Spirit of Jehovah to Paora Potangaroa, and which words were proclaimed by him to the people assembled at the ‘eight years house’ located at the head of the island: and these hidden words of the Spirit were proclaimed on the 16^th day of March, 1881.”  In March, 1881, when these words were reduced to writing, the missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had not yet come to his people.  The “covenant” continues: “First this is the day of the fulness (1881.)”  Later in the year of the fulness of the gospel did come to this people.  The missionaries came from the “rising sun.”  They traveled in pairs.  They lived in the homes of the people.  They learned the Maori tongue and taught the people the gospel in their own language.  When they prayed, they raised their right hands-al of which Potangaroa had foretold when he told his people that the Church for the Maori had not yet arrived.  Continuing, the “covenant” sets forth: second, the year of 1882, he said, would be the year of the “sealing” (or the year they would learn of the sealing ordinances).  Third, the year 1883 will be the year of the “honoring”—of “great  faith”—as it is written: ‘render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.”  (Romans 13:7).  The year 1883 was a year of great honor and great faith among the people of Ngatikahungunu, the tribe of the sage and chief, Potangaroa.  Members of other tribes of the race also joined the Church in considerable numbers during the same year.

The “covenant” says further: “This covenant is to be remembered by the generations which follow after us.  And the fruits of that which is set forth above (in the covenant) are—we are the lost sheep of the House of Israel.  (We will learn of) the scepter of Judah; of Shilo; of the King of peace; of the day of judgement; of the kingdom of heaven; of the sacred church with a large wall surrounding; of the increase of the race; of faith, love, peace, patience, judgement, unity.  All of this plan (contained in the covenant) will be fulfilled by the people of Ngatikahungunu Tribe during the next forty years.”  Then follows the date “March 16, 1881,” on which the covenant was written: and the name of the scribe, “Ranginui Kingi.”

At the top of the “covenant” is drawn in ink an “all-seeing eye,” also a drawing of the sun rising beyond the ocean, indicating the east, from which direction Potangaroa said the missionaries of the true Church would come.  The words in the covenant, “the sacred Church with a large wall surrounding” of which they would learn, are descriptive of the Temple Square in Salt Lake City.  The drawing of the “all-seeing eye” is also significant in this respect.

Missionaries had been doing work among the people in New Zealand prior to 1881, but only with one or two exceptions, among the Europeans.  It was in 1881, the year Potangaroa said “the fulness” would come, that Elder W. M. Bromley of Springville, Utah, arrived in New Zealand to preside over the mission, and he was told before leaving home “that the time had come to take the gospel to the Maroi people.”

At the conclusion of the “covenant” it was set forth that all that was written would be fulfilled by the Ngatikahungunu Tribe within the next forty years.  Forty years from 1881 would be 1921.  During that period of years the only Maori people who received all the covenants of the fulness of the Gospel came from that one tribe.  Thousands belonging to all native tribes of the Maori race had joined the Church, but only Church members belonging to the tribe referred to in that “covenant” came to the temples during that forty-year period and thereby fulfilled all the ordinances.  After 1921 Latter-day Saints from the other tribes started coming tot he temple and since that date have received the blessings of the sealing power in considerable numbers.  As it was stated in the “covenant,” they would learn that they were the “lost sheep of the house of Israel.”  Also they would be assured of “the increase of the race.”  During the years prior to 1881 the population had been consistently declining, and there were those who prophesied that within fifty years time the Maori race would be extinct.  Believing that the Maoris were of Israel, the Latter-day Saint missionaries reassured them that their numbers would increase, and since that time the population has more than doubled.

To commemorate the occasion of Potangaroa’s prophecy, and the writing of the “covenant,” a cement monument was erected in the historic meeting house where the convention was held, and the “covenant” was placed in the monument.  In the year 1929, members of the Ratana Church, a sect of New Zealand origin, destroyed the monument for the purpose of recovering the “covenant.”  They were expectantly hoping that they would find in the “covenant” prophetic utterances with reference to the establishment of the “Ratana” movement and would thereby be able to convince the natives that their sect was the church for the Maori race.  When the monument was broken into, however, there was no “covenant” to be found.  Not having been hermetically sealed in the stone, time and moisture had damaged it beyond any hope of recovery.

During the year 1944 when the writer was presiding over the New Zealand Mission, he attended a Church conference in the same vicinity where the convention of 1881, had been held, and the incidents referred to above took place.  While speaking at one of the meetings of the Church gathering, Brother Eriata Nopera told of his being present, as a very young man, at the convention of the leaders of the Ngatikahungunu Tribe in 1881, and of hearing the prophecies of Potangaroa about the coming of the true Church to the Maori people.  At the close of the meeting a Maori sister requested her husband to proceed immediately to their residence a mile or so distant and bring back a document which he would find rolled in brown paper at the bottom of her trunk.  Upon his return he handed the package to his wife, and she then invited Brother Nopera and the writer to accompany her to another room where she handed it to brother Nopera.  Upon unrolling the brown wrapping paper, he discovered that it contained a photographer’s picture of the “covenant” which had been sealed up in the cement monument in Ngatauewaru meeting house in 1881.

A photographer doing business in Masterton in 1881, having heard of the prophecies of Potangaroa and the written “covenant” was to be placed in a cement monument, asked the natives for permission to photograph it.  Permission was granted and thus a true copy of the “covenant” was preserved.  It had been in the possession of one family down through the years and concealed from public view as a sacred document until it was presented to Brother Nopera in 1944.  It is now in the possession of the writer.

Potangaroa was only one of several native prophets who foretold the coming of the Latter-day Saint missionaries to the Maori people.  (Matthew Cowley Speaks, pp. 200-205)

 Latter-day Miracles

I went into a hospital in New Zealand to bless a woman who didn’t belong to the Church.  She was dying.  We all knew she was dying.  Even the doctor said so.  She was having her farewell party.  Ah, that’s one thing I like about the natives.  When you go, they give you a farewell party.  They all gather around.  They send messages over to the other side.  “When you get over there, tell my mother I’m trying to do my best; I’m not so good, but I’m trying.  Tell her to have a good room fixed for me when I get over there—plenty of fish, good meals.”  My, it’s wonderful how they send you off.  Well, there they were, all gathered around this poor sister.  She was about to be confined, and the doctor told her it would kill her.  She was tubercular from head to foot.  I had with me an old native, almost ninety.  She was his niece.  He stood at the head of the bed and he said, “Vera, you’re dead.  You’re on your way out.  I’ve been to you, your home, your people, my relatives.  I’m the only one that has joined the Church.  None of you has ever listened to me.  You’re dead now; if you’re going to live,” he turned to me and said, “Is it all right if we kneel down and pray?”

I said, “Yes.”  So we knelt down.  Everybody around there knelt down.  And after the prayer we blessed her.  The last time I was in New Zealand she had her fifth child and she’s physically well from head to foot.  She has not joined the Church yet.  That’s the next miracle I’m waiting for.

Well, now, this is just psychological effect, isn’t it?  There’s nothing to this priesthood business.  It’s only psychological effect.  But where was the psychological effect on that little boy in the County Hospital who was so unconscious he didn’t even know we were praying over him?  He wasn’t even conscious of what we were doing.

I was called to a home in a little village in New Zealand one day.  There the Relief Society sisters were preparing the body of one of our Saints.  They had placed his body in front of the Big House, as they call it, the house where the people came to wail and weep and mourn over the dead, when in rushed the dead man’s brother.

He said, “Administer to him.”

And the young natives said, “Why, you shouldn’t do that; he’s dead.”

“You do it!”

This same old man that I had with me when his niece was so ill was there.  The younger native got down on his knees, and he anointed the dead man.  Then this great old sage got down and blessed him and commanded him to rise.  You should have seen the Relief Society sisters scatter.  And he sat up, and he said, “Send for the Elders; I don’t feel very well.”  Now, of course, all of that was just psychological effect on that dead man.  Wonderful, isn’t it—this psychological effect business?  Well, we told him he had just been administered to, and he said: “Oh, that was it.”  He said, “I was dead.  I could feel life coming back into me like a blanket unrolling.”  Now, he outlived the brother that came in and told us to administer to him.

I’ve told the story about the little baby nine months old who was born blind.  The father came up with him one Sunday and said, “Brother Cowley, our baby hasn’t been blessed yet; we’d like you to bless him.”

I said, “Why have you waited so long?”

“Oh, we just didn’t get around to it.”

Now, that’s the native way; I like that.  Just don’t get around to doing things!  Why not live and enjoy it?  I said, “All right, what’s the name?”  So he told me the name, and I was just going to start when he said, “By the way, give him his vision when you give him a name.  He was born blind.”  Well, it shocked me, but then I said to myself, why not?  Christ told His disciples when He left them they could work miracles.  And I had faith in that father’s faith.

After I gave that little child its name, I finally got around to giving it its vision.  That boy’s about twelve years old now.  The last time I was back there I was afraid to inquire about him.  I was sure he had gone blind again.  That’s the way my faith works sometimes.  So I asked the Branch President about him.  And he said, “Brother Cowley, the worst thing you ever did was to bless that child to receive his vision.  He’s the meanest kid in the neighborhood, always getting into mischief!”

God does have control of all of these elements.  You and I can reach out, and if it’s His will, we can bring those elements under our control for His purposes.  I know that God lives.  I know that Jesus is the Christ.  I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God.  And if there ever was a miracle in the history of mankind that miracle is this Church which has grown to its present greatness in the earth.  And your institution here stems from the prayer of a boy who was persecuted, who was driven from pillar to post, whose life was taken, who has been branded as the greatest fraud that ever lived on the American continent.  This Church from that kind of fraud is the greatest miracle of modern history.  And it’s a miracle of God our Father…(Matthew Cowley Speaks, pp.246-248)

E   D   I   T   O   R   I   A   L

I have been reflecting, as of late, the circumstances which have brought us as a people into the wilderness—the reason we have gathered in this desolate place to build Zion.  We stood up for correct principle, and as a result, an apostle of the Lord closed the door to any possible future blessing.

I recall at my excommunication trial in the Church, how I had expressed a desire to remain a member—at that time, I was inactive, but I knew one day my heart would change.

The Bishop later advised that he had taken my request into prayerful consideration, but felt impressed by the Spirit of God that I should be excommunicated with the rest of my brothers and sisters and our parents.

Now, I believe him, but the feeling of hopelessness I felt as I read and re-read the excommunication letter—to stand up for correct principle and then to feel abandoned—thrown away like a piece of trash.

Then my parents and siblings moved to Utah.

I stayed in Arizona and worked two full-time and two part-time jobs, trying to make ends meet in fulfilling a house payment, a car payment, and the cost of living.  I felt my spirituality begin to wane; I felt that hunger that only the Spirit can fill, so I attended the LDS chapel in Coolidge, and felt a bond with other brethren in the same line of work as myself—I worked in an INS Detention Processing Center in Florence—and we were all Mormon. 

Well, except, me.

In my heart I was a true-blooded fifth generation Mormon, but there was the small problem of my having been excommunicated in October of 1990.  I couldn’t lie about my membership being recently revoked.

After that Priesthood meeting—the Church has block schedules, and that was the third meeting of the day—I left the building and moped to my car.  I heard a man call my name and turned to see the Bishop of the ward jogging in my direction.  Seeing his excitement, I felt a glimmer of hope lift my spirits, but it sunk like a stone when he said, “I know all about you and your family.  I’ve done some checking up on you and I want you to stay away from this chapel, I want you to stay away from my members and don’t you dare speak to them!”  With that, he executed an about-face and marched away.

Never in my life have I felt so alone—little was I to know I’d feel it again. 

It seemed only a short while later that I received a letter from my father inviting me to ask the Lord if I needed to stay in Arizona or come to Utah.  I made it a matter of prayer and fasting and learned that if I stayed in Arizona, I would lose the blessings in store for me in Utah.  The Lord opened the doors and I was able to quickly move there—being in the group was like breathing a breath of pure oxygen.  The elation I felt—the joy of learning the deeper things of the Gospel—the mysteries of Godliness.

  The Lord blessed me there, and it seemed I received more there, than I ever did as a member of the corporate Church.

It wasn’t long after that we were again called by our consciences to stand up for correct principle—and again we were discarded—like trash along the highway. 

We stood for correct principle, and as a result, an apostle of the Lord closed the door to any possible future blessing.  Who will marry me now?  I thought to myself.  How am I going to get my temple blessings?  I again felt those feelings of forlornness, of separation.

But another apostle of the Lord opened that door. 

I had a dream where I received my endowments in a red brick store like that of the Prophet Joseph’s, but this store belonged to Brother Joe Thompson, and I, in my excitement, shared that dream with others—only to be rebuked.  But scolding aside, the Lord sent me that dream. 

My endowment—the administration of that blessing was to come from the auspices of Joseph Blaine Thompson—and like those early brothers and sisters, who received their blessings outside a temple, so would I. 

Three years later, I again returned to Arizona, and since then, the Lord has blessed me more than I could ever imagine being blessed within the Church or the Group. 

I still feel the pangs of loneliness from lack of the society of my brothers and sisters there.  But I know the Lord has called me here.  We have been called here, which I know is another part of the Lord’s vineyard. 

The Spirit of God does not lie.

I know I have other blessings in store for me.  I know those promises will one day be fulfilled.

I take comfort in the words of my father: “If one apostle closes the door to your blessings, seek the Lord and another apostle will open that door.”

Qadosh L’Adonai

Y

Holiness to the Lord!

TRUTH NEVER CHANGES

VOLUME 10, NUMBER 11

NOVEMBER, 2006