Truth Never Changes Volume 13, Number 4, The Church Established by Revelation; The Law of Adoption; Autobiography of Solomon Chamberlain; Relationship of Mormonism to Christianity; Wilford Woodruff's Prophecy of Destruction; Vision of Newman Bulkey; Miracle on the Mississippi; Quote; Editorial

TRUTH NEVER CHANGES

A PUBLICATION IN THE SPIRIT AND TRADITON OF TRUTH MAGAZINE

Y     VOLUME 13         APRIL  2010        NUMBER 04      Y

THE CHURCH ESTABLISHED BY REVELATION

Delivered by Elder Anthony W. Ivins,
at the General Conference of the Church,
Assembly Hall, Salt Lake City, Sunday, October 6, 1895

               

‘Wherefore behold, the days come saith the Lord, that it shall be no more said that `the Lord liveth that brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt.'

                It affords me a great degree of pleasure when I contemplate the conditions of the Latter-day Saints to be able to see in these conditions the fulfillment of the words of the Lord. 

IN THIS ISSUE: THE CHURCH ESTABLISHED BY REVELATION………………………..…...98 THE LAW OF ADOPTION………………………………………………………....102 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SOLOMON CHAMBERLAIN…………………….107 RELATIONSHIP OF MORMONISM TO CHRISTIANITY…................111 WILFORD WOODRUFF’S PROPHECY OF DESTRUCTION………..….115 VISION OF NEWMAN BULKEY………………………………………………….116 MIRACLE ON THE MISSISSIPPI………………………………………………...118 QUOTE……………………………………………………………………………………119 EDITORIAL……………………………………………………………………………...120 RECOMMENDED SITES…………………………………………………………...125

This prediction which I have read was uttered some six hundred years  before the birth of our Savior by the Prophet Jeremiah, indicating to us that the time would come in the history of the world when the great miracle which was wrought by the God of heaven in leading up Israel out of affliction and bondage, under the direction of His servants, Moses and Joshua, and establishing them in the land of their fathers, the land which had been given to them, promised to them, would be measurably forgotten in the greater work which would be accomplished when God should gather Israel from all of the different nations of the earth--not from Babylon, not from among the people where they had been held for a limited space of time, but from the north and south, and from all the nations of the earth whithersoever they might have been scattered.  Those who are acquainted with the scriptures, who have studied the history of the descendants of Abraham, know how, after they had been led up by Moses and established in the Land of Promise, the House of Israel were taken captive by the Asiatic nations who came up against them, and, because of dissensions, and transgressions and their hard-heartedness, were scattered among all the different peoples of the world.

                Now, my brethren and sisters, two things of particular import and interest in connection with this scripture attract my attention.  The days will come when it shall be no more said, "The Lord liveth that brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, but the Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from the south"—the Lord is He who must accomplish this work; the Lord is He who hath power through the instrumentality of His servants that He might call, to accomplish in the latter days a work which should be a "marvelous work and a wonder among the inhabitants of the earth."  The testimony of the Elders of Israel to the world is--our testimony to you is--that we live in the day when these words of the Prophet Jeremiah, uttered hundreds of years before the birth of our Savior, are in course of fulfillment.  Our testimony to the world is that this people, the Latter-day Saints, are a people of destiny; they are fulfillers of prophecy; and from the very inception of the work, from the very day that Joseph Smith received revelation from God, every movement that has been made, every act of this people under the direction of the servants of the Lord, has been by the guidance and direction of the Lord.  Go back and review the history of the Latter-day Saints.  Not when the Prophet Joseph Smith had received the revelations of the Holy Ghost, not immediately after heavenly messengers had appeared to him and ministered to him, did he presume to organize the Church of God in the earth.  He did not even assume to preach repentance and baptism for the remission of sins.  But the time came when through the grace of God, John the Baptist came, authorized by the Lord Jesus Christ, and conferred upon his head the keys of the Aaronic priesthood, which gave him the right to preach the gospel and to baptize with water for the remission of sins.  But he could not then organize the church; he could not then have conferred upon the people the most priceless of all gifts, the Holy Ghost, by which they might be led into all truth; but the Lord sent others, and the keys of this power were conferred upon him and the organization of the church was perfected, and made so perfect that not in all the opposition that the church has been required to meet, not in all the criticisms of this faith, has anyone been able to indicate in one single instance, not in the most minute detail, any deviation from the plan that was established by the Savior of the world Himself when He ministered among the Jews.  I ask you, my brethren and sisters, we ask the world--would it have been possible for man, no matter though he might have been educated, no matter how great might have been his learning--has any man who may have been a reformer, has any man who has established a religious creed based upon the gospel of Christ as it is found here in the scriptures, been able to evolve a plan that was so perfect in every detail?  We know that they have not, and yet this prophet of the Lord, this untutored boy, under the direction and by the blessing of God, organized and established the church in perfection in every detail.

                The one point in particular to which I wish to call your attention is this, that this is the work of the Lord, that God has set His hand the second time to gather Israel.  It would afford me pleasure, were there time, to go into the details of the scattering of Israel, to trace their history, and then go on and read scripture after scripture to you showing that God's people must be gathered in the very manner in which they are being gathered today; and, furthermore, that they must be gathered to this place, in order that the word of the Lord might be fulfilled and His scripture verified.  The work, my brethren and sisters, has only commenced.  Think of its magnitude.  When you reflect for a moment that upon the 6th of April, 1830, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized with only six members, and today there are assembled vast multitudes, probably more than twelve thousand Latter-day Saints in the two buildings which are occupied for this conference, it ought to be a living witness to the world that God is in this work, that He has made bare His arm in the eyes of all nations for the redemption of His people.  Can the work be retarded?  Can its progress by stayed?  No, not more than the work of the Lord could be retarded in times that are past.  Just so sure as the prophecies which have already been verified in the past history of the world, will all the predictions which have been made as they refer to the future of the world be fulfilled; and woe to him who raises his arm or his voice against Zion and attempts or endeavors to stay the progress of this work.

                I know no more beautiful illustration of the weakness and inability of man to stay the progress of the work of the Lord than that which is given us in the history of Jerusalem.  Jesus said to His disciples, when they asked him for a sign of his coming and of the end of the world, among other things, that Jerusalem should "be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles should be fulfilled."  He called their attention to the Temple which had been built by Solomon and said that not one stone should be left upon another that should not be thrown down.  We know that later the army of Rome devastated the city of Jerusalem.  We know that that temple was destroyed, and its very foundation stones were ploughed up, and not a vestige of it remains.  We know that today the Mosque of Omar marks the spot on which it stood; and yet the Lord has said that the time will come when that temple shall be rebuilt, when Jerusalem shall be inhabited again by His people, when songs of praise and gladness shall be heard again upon her streets.  But it was not to happen until the times of the Gentiles should be fulfilled.  Judea was under the dominion of Rome.  Rome was at one time governed by the Emperor Julian the Apostate, a man who hated the Christian as he hated his bitterest enemy.  His greatest desire was to show to the world that Christ was not a prophet, that he was not the Savior of mankind, that his words were no greater, and no more importance need be attached to them than to the words of any other man.  In looking over the declarations of the Savior, he saw this prediction:  "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled;" and this man, who had at his command the combined wealth of the then civilized world, who had at his command armies which had conquered almost the whole civilized world, issued an edict, promulgated a decree, in which he granted to the Jews the privilege of returning to Jerusalem, building up their city and reconstructing their temple.  There has never been a time in the history of the world when the Jews were not wealthy enough to have rebuilt that temple.  There has never been a time when they had not sufficient patriotism to have accomplished it, had the way been opened up by the Lord to have it done.  When the decree was issued by Julian, the Jews went in great multitudes.  They carried their treasure with them.  They labored cheerfully, believing that the time had come when the words of the prophets would be fulfilled, that the blessings which had been promised to their fathers would be verified.  Julian was not content with this.  He said:  "In order that I may make this thing sure, in order that I may demonstrate that my word is greater than the words of Jesus of Nazareth, I will go up myself."  And he went, with his treasures, with his army, and his whole efforts were directed to the accomplishment of this work which he had set out to do.  But the times of the Gentiles had not yet come in.  Jerusalem was yet to be trodden under foot until that time should arrive, and that temple was destined not then to be built.  It was utterly impossible for him to accomplish that work.  Impediments were thrown in his way of such great magnitude, that he could not possibly overcome them, and that, after exhausting his treasure and exhausting his energy, he returned to Rome, broken in spirit and in health, and he was obliged to admit, when his end drew nigh and death claimed him, that the Galilieean had triumphed, had been greater than he; and so, my brethren and sisters, will the Galilieean prove to be greater than all the nations of the earth combined.  So will Israel be gathered, despite the efforts of men to prevent it.  So will Zion be built up, so will the centre stake of Zion be redeemed, and a temple be built there to the name of the Most High.  That rock which was rejected by the workmen is to become the chiefest of the corners, and whosoever shall fall upon it will be bruised and smitten, and upon whomsoever it shall fall, he will be ground to powder.  This fact ought always to be kept before the Latter-day Saints, that they are engaged in the work of the Lord, and not in the work of man; that as the borders of Zion are extended, as her stakes are strengthened, they see the development of the work of the Lord and not the development of the work of man.

                My testimony to you is that the Gospel has been restored, that the Latter-day Saints are fulfillers of prophecy, that they are a people of destiny; that God's kingdom is established in the earth, just as John the Baptist said it was when he laid his hands upon the head of Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, that the keys which he conferred upon them should not be taken from the earth again until the sons of Aaron should offer an offering in righteousness.  There never was such a promise made in any other dispensation.

Never was the Gospel upon the earth before when it was said by the Almighty in bringing it there, that it had come to stay, that it had come for the last time.  This is the land of promise, this is the land that the Lord promised our fathers that he would gather Israel to in the latter days.  He has brought us here to be taught in his ways, to learn to walk in his paths, to set an example before the world which shall ultimately convert it to the truth and conquer the whole earth.  It is a great saying that a little handful of people--and we are only a handful yet--shall revolutionize the whole world, but it is a fact that such results will follow.  No power on earth can prevent it.  No one can realize the strength there is in a few men united together for a common purpose, and that is the condition of the Latter-day Saints.  One purpose, inspired by one spirit, filled with one hope and desire, and that hope and desire the regeneration of mankind, that they may make them better, that they may overcome evil, a Christianity that makes real Christians of men and women.  Not Christians who profess to save men in their sins, but to bring them out of sin, redeem them from it, make them better, make them happier, make them love one another, make them love the whole world, fill their hearts with charity and longsuffering and kindness toward the whole world--this is the religion of the Latter-day Saints.  These are the blessings that will follow if we faithfully observe the commandments of the Lord.

                May we live, my brethren and sisters, to see his work triumph and Zion established in the earth, is my prayer in the name of Jesus.  Amen.

THE LAW OF ADOPTION

Delivered by President George Q. Cannon,
at the Sixty-fourth Annual General Conference
of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,
held in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City,
Sunday Morning, April 8, 1894

I am sure that every Latter-day Saint who has heard the announcement made by President Woodruff will feel thankful in his heart for that which the Lord has made manifest through him.  This subject of adoption is one that has engaged the attention of the Saints, to a greater or less extent, for some time.  It was revealed by the Prophet Joseph that there is a principle of adoption by which one generation will be sealed to, and connected with, another, and in his words which have been read he foreshadows the welding together, by this principle of adoption, of the various dispensations. It is a revelation that the Lord gave through him.  He said:--

                And again, verily I say unto you, if a man marry a wife, and make a covenant with her for time and for all eternity, if that covenant is not by me, or by my word, which is my law, and is not sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, through him who I have anointed and appointed unto this power--then it is not valid, neither of force when they are out of the world, because they are not joined by me, saith the Lord, neither by my word; when they are out of the world, it cannot be received there, because the angels and the Gods are appointed there, by whom they cannot pass; they cannot, therefore, inherit my glory, for my house is a house of order, saith the Lord God.

                On this account, marriages of the children of men are only binding as between themselves while the covenant lasts.  Our fathers made their covenants with our mothers for time, and when time ended of course the covenant and the union ended also.  Now, the Holy Spirit revealed that this being the case, every man and woman, and every child born as the offspring of these unions, would stand separately, unless a new bond was formed.  Without this should be done, there would be no binding link to unite woman to man and children to parents; for all the obligations and all the covenants had terminated; and, therefore, members of families would each stand separately, without any connection of a binding character between themselves.   Of course, there was what we call the bond of blood existing (there is no blood, however, in resurrected beings); or, in other words, there was the bond that arose through kindred.  That would remain.  The Lord has taught us, however, that this is not all that is required; that there must be an authority exercised by which parents should be bound together, and then their children bound to them.  We have been taught also that through the revelation of the Priesthood and its bestowal upon men, and the exercise of that Priesthood in sealing wives to husbands, the children begotten in these marriages are born, as we phrase it, in the covenant, that is, they are recognized by the Lord as legitimate children of the covenant.  He having recognized the marriage of their parents, having given the authority to man on the earth to bind on earth, and that bond should be sealed in heaven.  In this way the Latter-day Saints are being bound together in the new and everlasting covenant, wives being sealed to their husbands, and children, the offspring of these marriages, being born in the covenant, under the blessing and the recognition by the Almighty of the bond that exists between their parents.  Thus you see that there is a new order of things growing up among us.  It is not necessary, where parents are thus sealed together by the authority of the Holy Priesthood for time and for eternity, that their children should be adopted or be sealed to them.  They are legitimate heirs of the Priesthood and of the blessings of the new and everlasting covenant.  But not so with those who have been born outside of this covenant.  There has to be some ordinance performed in order to make them legitimate; and that ordinance, the Prophet Joseph revealed, was the ordinance of adoption; that is, that which covers the ordinance or law, although we do not use the word adoption when we seal children to parents; we call that sealing.  But to illustrate the principle and explain the law, the word  "adoption" is used.  You will find it frequently in the Scriptures, and it has become a subject among us that has been very much thought about; and every man and woman, who has wished to do all that is required of them in order to obtain all the blessings that can be had through obedience to the commands of God, has desired to understand something about the principle of adoption.

                We are told in the words that were read in our hearing that one dispensation must be linked to another, or, in other words, that the dispensations given to the children of men must be united; that we must all be united to our father Adam; that there must be a bond of union between us and our great parent; and that that will be done through the ordinance of adoption where children are not born in the covenant.

                Hence it is that it falls to our duty to trace up our lineage; and, as has been beautifully explained this morning by President Woodruff, it is our duty to be sealed to our parents, that our lineage may be preserved; that we may preserve our families in direct descent, and trace them back, ascending lineally until we reach, if it be possible, our ancestors who held the everlasting Priesthood, and who were either born in the covenant or who were sealed to their parents under the law of adoption when the Priesthood was upon the earth.  This has to be done by this generation and their successors.  It is the labor devolving upon us as a people to perform this.  The Prophet Joseph revealed this, but he died before it was fully explained.

                When President Young died, the St. George Temple was the only one finished, and it had barely been dedicated when he passed away.  There is not a doubt in my mind that, had he lived, his mind would have been directed to this great subject and he would have inquired of the Lord to know that which was right; for in the minds of many there has been a feeling of doubt in regard to this principle of adoption as it was being practiced among us.  I well remember myself in my boyhood days that which President Woodruff has referred to--the spirit that was manifested by many at the dedication of the temple at Nauvoo when the ordinances were administered there.  Some men though to build up kingdoms to themselves; they appeared to think that by inducing men and women to be adopted into their families they were adding to their own glory.  From that day until the present, I have never thought of this subject of adoption without having a certain amount of fear concerning it.

                There is nothing in the Gospel of Jesus Christ that leads to disunion.   There is no true principle of the Gospel that will produce division.  There is no true principle of the Gospel that will separate this people and divide them.  And this revelation that God has given to His servant, the President of our Church, removes all the danger which seemed to threaten us through an imperfect understanding of the manner in which the law of adoption should be carried out.

                To illustrate this point, let me suppose that the First Presidency of this Church were to seek to build up families for themselves from among this people, each one seeking to have men and women sealed to him in order that he might have a large following; and suppose each of the Twelve Apostles was to do the same; and suppose the High Priests and the brethren officiating in the temples were to do the same, what would be the result?  You can see at once that in a little time we would be divided into tribes and clans, each man having his own following, and each following looking to the man to whom they had been adopted for counsel and for guidance, and in this way the governing authority of the Holy Priesthood in our midst would be divided and lessened.   Who cannot understand the danger there would be under such a condition of affairs.  But how to obviate it, how to remove it so that it should no longer exist!  God has removed it by making it plain that it is the duty of every man to be sealed to his father, where his father is not a man that has proved entirely unworthy.  And when such a case arises--which will be very seldom—we have the man in our midst who has the keys of the Priesthood and unto whom this question can be submitted for him to decide what should be done.

                My brethren and sisters, I have this belief concerning us: that it was arranged before we came here how we should come, and through what lineage we should come.  We were not born of the seed of Ham; we were not born of some questionable race; but as the Lord has taught us in the eighty-sixth section of the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, our Priesthood has been hid with God.  That section says:--

                Therefore, thus saith the Lord unto you, with whom the Priesthood hath continued through the lineage of your fathers, For ye are lawful heirs, according to the flesh, and have been hid from the world with Christ in God; Therefore your life and the Priesthood hath remained and must needs remain through you and your lineage, until the restoration of all things spoken by the mouths of all the holy prophets since the world began.

                I am as convinced that it was predestined before I was born that I should come through my father as I am that I stand here.  And if God chose to give to Wilford Woodruff's father the honor of begetting him, and it was so arranged before they were born, who shall step in and deprive him of the honor which God gave to him, and give it to somebody else?  Reflect upon it and you will see that it would lead to endless confusion if this were done.  We would be broken up in families and in our lineage, and there would be no distinction, consequently it would result in great confusion.  Paul says, "that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him; in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will."  I believe we were predestined to come here.  I believe that it was arranged that we should come here as we have done.  No doubt when we trace our ancestors back, we will find that they trod in muddy places.  We shall find that there was wickedness among them.  There can be little doubt about this, because they were human beings; they were exposed to temptation and to sin. Nevertheless, that was the arrangement; and when we meet with cases about which there will be question, we can then inquire of the Lord concerning them, and whether it would be right to continue the sealing of the children to them, and through them to somebody else, or whether there shall be a break in the link; for we shall all be linked together as a chain.  One generation will be linked to another by the power and authority of the Holy Priesthood until we get back to the time when the Priesthood was upon the earth, and when the authority to administer these ordinances was among men in former times.

                Another thing that what we have heard to-day will effect.  There has been a disposition manifested among our people, to some extent, for some men and women to gather up all the names of families they could find, whether they were related or not, and perform ordinances for them.  I am a believer in this when it does not interfere with the rights of heirship.  We should do all we can for those for whom we have friendship, or to whom we are attached in any way, and who have no living representatives that we know of in the Church.   But you can see the advantage of pursuing now the course that is pointed out by the word of God to us.  It will make everyone careful to obtain the connection, and to get the names properly of the sons and of the daughters of men, to have them sealed to their parents.  It will draw the line fairly.  It will define the lineage clearly.  "But," says one, "that may take a long time."  Well, we have got a thousand years to do it in.  We need not be in such hurry as to create confusion.  The Lord will give us time enough to do it all; and when we have [80] gone as far as appears possible, He will give to us opportunities that, at the present time, we are ignorant of; and we will find that everything will be made plain, and each man will trace his genealogy clear back, and we will know our connection, and what to do in relation to these matters for the Lord will reveal it to us.

                My brethren and sisters, suppose that each of us should seek some great man in the Church to be sealed to.  For instance, we would like to be sealed to the President of the Church, because it would be a great honor to be adopted to him, and we think, "well, that man is much better than my father.

I would rather be adopted to him than to be sealed to my father.  I do not think very much of my father or my mother."  Now, I think, when we feel that way, that we are, to a certain extent, despising the arrangement which the Lord has made.  We should not despise our origin.  On the contrary, we should seek to preserve it, and honor those who have given us birth.

                It always has seemed to me, in reflecting upon this, that the Prophet Joseph honored his father who begot him; yet Joseph was the man chosen by the Almighty to stand at the head of the entire people of this dispensation.  We all have to look to him.  Every Apostle, and every great man in the Church, must of necessity turn his eyes toward the Prophet of God, whom He chose to lay the foundation of this work.  You don't find anything in Joseph's life nor in his history, as it is recorded, that would give the least idea that he thought himself of so superior a nature that he could not honor his father and mother.  In fact, I remember well the Prophet, in speaking about the sepulcher that he had prepared near the temple-block, describing the joy that he would have in rising from the dead and striking hands with his father and with his kindred, and how delighted he would be to come up in the resurrection and grasp them by the hand.  That spirit attended him in all his allusions to his kindred, to his father and mother especially.  There is no doubt in my mind that the Prophet Joseph would be sealed to his father.  He will honor his father and mother, He will be sealed to them, and they and their lineage will doubtless be connected with him by the sealing ordinance as the head of this dispensation.  They will have to be connected with him by some link or bond that will be created, if it does not already exist, as we all will be connected with him because he is the head of the dispensation.  But as a son he will be connected with his parents; he will honor his parents; and in his turn he will be honored by his ancestry and all who come within the range and under the jurisdiction of this dispensation.  All such will necessarily be sealed by some bond to the Prophet Joseph.  In this way we shall all be united; and there can be no question on our part as to the propriety of being all connected with Joseph, carrying up every lineage directly as far as we can, and then linking them on to the head of the dispensation.  There need be no jealousy, then.  There need be none to say, "Well, I am sealed or adopted to a greater man than you.  I am adopted to Joseph, or to Brigham, or to John Taylor, or to Wilford Woodruff, or to this man or the other man."  There will be no need to pride and plume ourselves on the fact that we are adopted to these various men, and thus divide the people asunder in their feelings, creating to a certain extent a feeling of rivalry which does not belong to the Gospel of the Son of God.  Every man that reflects upon it can see that this revelation which God has given through his servant Wilford Woodruff removes that danger out of our pathway and prepares us to go forward and honor our kindred and do everything we can for their salvation, concentrating our feelings upon our ancestors, and not upon somebody else's ancestors.  In thus honoring our parents we also observe that ancient law which was given by God to the children of Israel, and which has such a great blessing attached to it:--

                Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

                Why should a man come to one of the Apostles and be sealed to him and then trace his genealogy through him and his ancestors, and neglect his own?  There have been some cases of adoption, I suppose, where the parties have not felt clear in their minds concerning this.  This light, however, that we now have clears it all up and makes it plain; and we can see and understand it.

                God bless you, in the name of Jesus.  Amen.     

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SOLOMON CHAMBERLAIN

Solomon Chamberlain, 1788-1862
Autobiography (1788-1850) Holograph, BYU

                [This account was written by Solomon Chamberlain at Beaver City, Utah, July 11, 1858.] 

I was born July 30th, 1788, of goodly parents in Old Canaan, Connecticut.  My father's name was Joel Chamberlin [Chamberlain], born in Tolland, Connecticut.  Sarah Dean, his wife, born in same state.  By her he had six sons and three daughters.  When I was about 20 years old, which would be about the year 1808, I went to the house of Philip Haskins and took one of his daughters to wife, by the name of Hopee [Hope] Haskins, of goodly parents.  By her I had one son, and two daughters.

                My father was an honest, hard-working man, a farmer by trade, and earned his bread by the sweat of his brow, and accumulated considerable property, and died when I was about 8 years old, and my mother died about 10 years after.  What little property I received from my father's estate did me little or no good, and I began the world like my father, earned my bread by the sweat of my face.  I soon learned the cooper's trade and worked the most of my days at that.  From the time my father died, till I was 19 years of age I lived a very wicked life.

About that time, I had a vision of hell, and which alarmed me very much, and I reformed and had another of three heavens, and their glories, and the third one, far exceeded the others.  My visions so alarmed me, I was in sorrow and repentance for many days, on account of my sins, I thought I would give all the world if I could find a man that could tell me what I should do to be saved.  I sought much, but could find none.  I thought I would go to the Presbyterian Minister and enquire of him, I accordingly went, and asked him what I should do to be saved, he appeared like a man astonished, he said I must wait the Lord's due time, and in His own due time he would bring me in.  As all others had failed I thought I would go to God and plead for mercy, and if I went to hell, I would go praying, and I cried unto the Lord night and day, for the forgiveness of my sins.

Like Enos of old, till at length the Lord said, "Solomon, thy sins are forgiven thee. Go in peace and sin no more."  My heart then leaped for joy unspeakable, I now joined the Methodist Order, and thought they were the rightest of any on the earth.

                About the year 1814 or 1815, the Reformed Methodists broke off from the Episcopal Methodists.  I was in hope that they were right.  [This last sentence was crossed out in the original manuscript.]  I found them to be more right than the Episcopal, and joined them.  About this time the Lord showed me in a  vision, that there were no people on the earth that were right, and that faith was gone from the earth, excepting a few and that all churches were corrupt.  I further saw in vision, that he would soon raise up a church, that would be after the Apostolic Order, that there would be in it the same powers, and gifts that were in the days of Christ, and that I should live to see the day, and that there would a book come forth, like unto the Bible and the people would [be] guided by it, as well as the Bible.   This was in the year of 1816.  I then believed in gifts and miracles as the Latter-day Saints do, for which I was much persecuted and called deluded.  This vision I received from an angel or spirit from the eternal world that told me these things.

                About the time that Joseph Smith found the gold record, I began to feel that the time was drawing near, that the Lord would in some shape or other, bring forth his church.  I made some inquiry through the country where I traveled if there was any strange work of God, such as had not been on the earth since the days of Christ.  I could hear of none.  I was living about 20 miles east of where the gold record was found, on the Erie Canal.  I had occasion to go on a visit into Upper Canada.  I took boat for Lockport, when the boat came to Palmyra, I felt as if some genie or good spirit told me to leave the boat.  This was a few miles from where the record was found.  After leaving the boat, the spirit manifested to me, to travel a south course.  I did so for about 3 miles. I had not as yet heard of the Gold Bible (so called) [Book of Mormon] nor any of the [Joseph] Smith family.  I was a stranger in that part of the country, a town where I never before had set my foot, and knew no one in the town.

                It was now about sundown, and my guide directed me to put up for the night, which I did to a farm house.  In the morning, the people of the house asked me if I had heard of the Gold Bible [Book of Mormon].  When they said Gold Bible, there was a  power like electricity went from the top of my head to the end of my toes.  This was the first time I ever heard of the Gold Bible.  I was now within half a mile of the Smith family where Joseph lived.  From the time I left the boat until now, I was wholly led by the Spirit or my genie.  The women spoke considerable of the Gold Bible that Joseph Smith had found.  When she mentioned Gold Bible, I felt a shock of the power of God go from head to foot.  I said to myself, "I shall soon find why I have been led in this singular manner."

                I soon made my way across lots, to Father Smith's and found Hyrum walking the floor.  As I entered the door, I said, "Peace be to this house."  He looked at me as one astonished, and said, "I hope it will be peace."  I then said, "Is there anyone here that believes in visions or revelations?"  He said, "Yes, we are a visionary house."  I said, "Then I will give you one of my pamphlets, which was visionary, and of my own experience."  They then called the people together, which consisted of five or six men who were out at the door.  Father Smith was one and some of the Whitmer's.  They then sat down and read my pamphlet.  Hyrum read first, but was so affected he could not read it.  He then gave it to a man, which I learned was Christian Whitmer, he finished reading it.  I then opened my mouth and began to preach to them, in the words that the angel had made known to me in the vision, that all churches and denominations on the earth had become corrupt, and no church of God on the earth, but that he would shortly raise up a church that would never be confounded nor brought down and be like unto the Apostolic Church.  They wondered greatly who had been telling me these things, for said they  we have the same things wrote [written] down in our house, taken from the Gold record, that you are preaching to us.  I said, "The Lord told me these things a number of years ago."  I then said, "If you are a visionary house, I wish you would make known some of your discoveries, for I think I can bear them."   They then made known to me that they had obtained a gold record, and just finished translating it here.  Now, the Lord  revealed to me by the gift and power of the Holy Ghost that  this was the work I had been looking for.

                Here I stayed 2 days and they instructed me, in the manuscripts of the Book of Mormon.  After I had been here two days, I went with Hyrum and some others to Palmyra printing office where they began to print the Book of Mormon, and as soon as they had printed 64 pages, I took them with their leave and pursued my journey to Canada, and I preached all that I knew concerning Mormonism, to all both high and low, rich and poor, and thus you see this was the first that ever printed Mormonism was preached to this generation.

                I did not see anyone in traveling for 7 or 800 miles, that had ever heard of the Gold Bible (so called).  I  exhorted all people to prepare for the great work of God that was now about to come forth, and it would never be brought down nor confounded.  As soon as the book was printed, I took 8 or 10 of them and traveled for 8 days, and sold one in that time.  About this time I thought if I could see the Reformed Methodists I could convince them of the truth of the Book of Mormon.  I accordingly went to one of their conferences, where I met about 40 of their preachers and labored with them for two days to convince them of the truth of the Book of Mormon, and they utterly rejected me and the Book of Mormon.  One of their greatest preachers so called, by the name of Buckly, (if a mistake not) abused me very bad, and ordered me off from their premises.  He was soon taken crazy, and died a miserable death.  At this conference was Brigham and his brother Phineas Young.  They did not oppose me but used me well.  On my way home I stopped at their camp meeting, where I found one of their greatest preachers, whom I contended with concerning the Book of Mormon, by the name of William Lake, who utterly condemned it and rejected it, who spurned at me and the Book and said, if it was of God, do you think He would send such a little upstart as you are around with it?  But he soon after died a poor drunken sot.  While on my way home I stopped at a Free Will Baptist Church, and preached to a large congregation, and they received the work, but there was no one to baptize them.

                The Church was not yet organized, but was soon after, April 6th, 1830.  A few days after, I was baptized in the waters of Seneca Lake, by Joseph Smith, (and)  emigrated same spring to Kirtland, Ohio, and in the fall of 1831, emigrated to Jackson County, Missouri, and in the beginning of the winter of 1833, was broken up by mobs, and driven out of the county and suffered the loss of all things, with hundreds of my brethren and sisters.  (and) Settled again in Clay County and was there broke up and suffered the loss of 3 houses and my plantation.  (and) Again settled in Caldwell County and was broke up and also in Daviess County, and was driven out of the counties in the coldest part of the winter and suffered the loss of all things.   And great was the suffering of the Saints while in Missouri, that I was a witness to and many times had my life threatened, and sometimes been knocked down, and some of my blood spilt [spilled] by mobs.  We were driven from the state of Missouri, and  settled in Illinois, at Nauvoo, where we remained in peace for several years, and built a temple.  On June 27, 1844, our Prophet and Patriarch was murdered, and about the year 1846 we were broken up and had to flee to the  Rocky Mountains.

                April 2, 1847--this day the Pioneers began to leave the Council Bluffs or Winter Quarters for the valley of the lake to make the road and hunt a place for the saints.  I, being one of them and was unwell when I started, I suffered much of cold and hunger.  When we got to Green River, I was taken sick with the mountain fever, the second time, and got a little better, and was taken down with the cholera, or cholera morbus, and was brought to the point of death, and for 6 days and nights I took nothing into my stomach but cold water, and that distressed me much.  The road was new and rough, and we continued to travel, and it seemed I must die, and I longed for death, my fare was coarse, and scant.  When we got to the valley many of us were out of provision, July 24th here we stayed about one month.

August 26 we started for Council Bluffs, for my outfit to go back with, I had but 2 quarts of parch corn and 3 quarts of coarse cornmeal.  I was sick all the way back, and suffered everything but death.  Many times I had nothing to eat, and sometimes I had a little poor buffalo bull meat.  We returned back to the Bluffs about the last of October, and found my family well.

                In the spring of 1848, I moved to the valley.  I shall have to omit many dates because of my negligence in recording them.  The wife of my youth died at Winter Quarters just before I started to the valley with the Pioneers.  I said, then all my happiness as to the things of this world is gone, and so it has proved to this time.  I am now alone, except my little daughter 8 years old.  I have endeavored to magnify my calling as well as I knew how.

                Somewhere about the year 1850, I thought I would go to California, as gold digging was cried up very much, and get gold to make myself and family comfortable, as I was in poor circumstances.  I accordingly went, the North route, and made my stand this side of Sacramento, on Weber Creek.  I went up this creek about 5 miles, and began to dig for gold.  I made one dollar per day, board was one dollar per meal in this place.  This morning I found myself in the woods, and but one mule, to help myself with.  I now found if I stayed any longer, I should have to sell my mule, and live on the proceeds thereof.  As digging was poor at this time, and the large streams were so high, there could be no digging on them for a month or more.  I now thought I would ask the Lord what I should do, as I was now alone, and far from home, I knelt down and asked the Lord in faith what I should do, and the  voice of the Lord came unto me as plain as though a man spake, and said, if you will go home to your family, you shall go in peace, and nothing shall harm you.  I rose up and started with my one mule, and left all that I had, a chest of clothes, and my rifle, in a store and said nothing to no man where I was going.  I took the Lord at his word and put myself over the California mountains with no weapon but my pocket knife.  This year the Indians were more troublesome than ever they were before or since.  They were killing and being killed every night.  I put my trust in God, and in the power of the priesthood, which carried me safe through, although I came all the way alone, me and my one mule.  So the Lord was as good as his word in bringing me safe through.

                I now will return back and speak of my ordinations.  In the spring of 1830, I was ordained a Priest, under the hands of Hyrum Smith.  I remained in that office about 10 years.  I magnified it to the best of my ability.  I then was ordained an Elder, and remained in that office until the first conference after the death of Joseph, by the council of Brother Brigham [Young] and under the hands of George Miller, I was ordained a High Priest and still remain in that quorum and the faith and confidence in the doctrine and principles of the Church are as good as ever they were, and in all the authorities of God's Kingdom, and am perfectly satisfied with all things as they roll along.  I feel as though my years were not many more in this life, yet if I could live and be prepared to return to the land of my inheritance in Jackson County, it would rejoice my heart.

I am endeavoring to live every day in a way that I am willing to meet the Judge of all the earth at any time.  May God bless all that blesses the authorities of the Church of Christ and all honest hearted Saints, and may God curse all that curses the authorities of the Church of Christ and honest hearted Saints.

Even so, Amen.

RELATIONSHIP OF MORMONISM TO CHRISTIANITY

Delivered by Elder B.H. Roberts, Salt Lake City Tabernacle, Sunday, April 29, 1894.

When requested by the brethren presiding in this meeting to address you, I expressed a dread of the task.  It seems to me that I feel more at home in speaking to those who have no faith in the Gospel; because then I know that the principal thing to do is to incite faith in their minds.  I happened to remember also that this congregation is privileged to hear the servants of God who are peculiarly blessed both with natural endowments and with the Spirit of the Lord, which enable them to instruct and encourage you in your duties.

However, I am persuaded that anything which will increase the faith of the people is profitable to be considered; for not only is it the object of preaching, to create faith in the hearts of those who do not believe, but its purpose is also to strengthen the faith in the hearts of those who already believe.

                I think it profitable for Latter-day Saints to consider the relationship which "Mormonism" sustains to the rest of the religious world, as well as to try and comprehend the separate principles of which it is composed; and by becoming acquainted with that relationship, learn its importance and its grandeur; and by becoming acquainted with its importance and grandeur, learn to love it; and by learning to love it, learn to live in harmony with its requirements.  For it seems to me  that the only incentive needful to create devotion and love for the work of God is simply to know it; and that love, if pure and undefiled, will lead one to obey its requirements.

                The world, so far, has failed to read altogether the deep meaning of this religious phenomenon called "Mormonism;" but while it has not clearly understood its meaning, it has nevertheless struck at it.  It has a wonderful message to bear to the world, this "Mormonism."  It is a marvel and a wonder, just as one of the ancient prophets said it would be.  It is a bold work, for it declares the whole modern Christian world in error and apostasy.  To understand the relationship which this wonderful work sustains to modern Christianity it will be necessary to refer briefly to the views entertained of the Christian religion by the great divisions of Christendom.

                It is believed by the Roman Catholics that St. Peter, before the close of the first century, established the church at Rome; and from his seat of authority in that city governed the whole Church of Christ.  They contend that to this Apostle (and in that they are right) there was a certain primacy accorded by his fellow Apostles; that unto him had been given the keys of the kingdom of heaven, with the power to bind on earth and have it bound in heaven, and to loose on earth and to have it loosed in heaven; and that the other Apostles were subject to his presidency.  Hence, their theory is that the church which he founded, and over which he immediately presided, also had a certain primacy which should command the respect of all the other branches of the church and be recognized as the head of the Christian societies.  Catholic tradition tells us that there succeeded to Peter one Linus, and after Linus, Anacletis, and after him, Clement of Rome; and so they will read you a list of the bishops who have succeeded to the presidency of the Church of Rome from Peter to Leo XIII, who now occupies the chair of St. Peter, succeeding to that primacy allowed to Peter by the Apostles.  Thus they insist that there has been a continuous and unbroken line of authority from the days of Peter until now.  Running parallel with that line of divine authority has come also a continuation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, in all its essentials to salvation.  And if there have been additions of rites and ceremonies, they have sprung from seeds sown in apostolic days—additions which contribute to a more successful worship of Deity, and an increase of spiritual life and morality in the church.  This I understand to be the contention of the Catholic Church, and the claims which it makes that the Catholic Church of today is identical with, in fact, a continuation of the church founded by the labors of the divinely appointed Apostles of Jesus Christ.  And though the church may not always have been healthy, it has at least continued to live.

                The position of Protestant Christendom is radically different to that of the Catholic Church.  Protestants agree with Catholics that Jesus established His Church; that He brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel; that He divinely commissioned Apostles to preach the Gospel and evangelize the world.  They believe these messengers of salvation visited many parts of the earth and carried the light of the Gospel with them wherever they went.  But after a lapse of time abuses crept into the Church, corruption abounded, the simple form of Church government was transformed into a most splendid hierarchy, but one that was as corrupt as it was splendid.  Idolatry crept into the Church; and image worship usurped the services of the true God.  The laws of the Gospel were disobeyed; its ordinances were changed; and the Gospel was so far corrupted that the Master, when He came to look upon the Church He had founded, could not recognize it.  Protestants insist that all sects, all parties, all divisions of Christendom were sunk in abominable idolatry—and that for more than eight hundred years.  Such is the statement of the first great body of the Protestant sects--the Church of England.  (See Homily on Perils of Idolatry, p.3)

                Another great reformer, explaining how it was that the Christians lost those spiritual gifts, so characteristic of the Saints of God in New Testament times, refuted the poor excuse that the reason why miraculous gifts ceased among Christians in the third and fourth centuries was because the whole world had become Christian and there was no further need of these extraordinary manifestations of the Holy Ghost.  He calls attention, in his discourse upon this subject, to the fact that not one tenth part of the world had become Christian when these gifts and graces departed from the Church, and that those who were converted, in the main, were only nominally Christian.  Said he, the reason why the gifts were no longer to be found in the Church was because the Christians had turned heathens again and only had a dead form left.  This was John Wesley, one of the first of Protestant reformers.  (Wesley's Works, sermon 89.)  I do not mean first as to the time in which he began his work, but first as to the results which followed his labors.  Protestants teach, then, that there has been a universal apostasy from the Gospel of Christ, and a destruction of the Church He founded; but Protestants would have us also believe that in the Reformation that occurred in the sixteenth century, under the leadership of Martin Luther and his associates, the errors of Rome were pushed aside; and that the Christian religion in all its simplicity and its beauty was restored to men; that the Gospel was rescued from absolute destruction and again proclaimed in power to the world; and that from that time, the sixteenth century, until now, the Gospel light then burning dim and low has been growing brighter and spreading until the whole earth is likely to be filled with its glory.  That is their contention.

                What I wish now is to point out the relationship which Mormonism sustains to this great controversy.  No one that is acquainted with the history of the Church of Christ, in the first centuries of its existence, can doubt for a moment that, as Protestants claim, abuses and corruptions crept into the church.  Grievous wolves had entered into the fold, not sparing the flock.  False teachers arose, by reason of whom the way of truth was evil spoken of.  The people heaped to themselves teachers, having itching ears, and they turned their ears away from the truth unto fables.  There arose a power that became exalted above all that is called God, or that is worshipped.  That power sat in the temple of God, showing to the world that it was God.  It ruled the nations with a rod of iron; and instead of that mild government in the Church of Christ, which uses persuasion, knowledge, long suffering, kindness and love unfeigned as the sources of its power, it pushed aside these forces of government and usurped tyrannical powers, and placed its foot upon the necks of kings.  The beautiful religion founded by Jesus Christ was replaced by the splendid forms of worship that were inaugurated to meet the demands of a pagan multitude of converts, until you could no longer recognize the simple Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.  The darkness which brooded over the world, the ignorance and superstition that abounded in the "Dark Ages," proclaim beyond all successful contradiction that the light of the Gospel had been withdrawn from the earth because of the corruptions of the people.  That is the message which Mormonism bears to the world.  It proclaims a universal apostasy from the true Christian religion.  And to the various divisions of Protestant Christendom, Mormonism has this to say:  that divine authority and the Gospel of Christ once having been taken from the earth, there is but one way by which that divine authority and the Gospel of Christ can be restored, viz.:  by re-opening the heavens, and committing a new dispensation of the Gospel and the priesthood to men.  That is what Mormonism claims to be, a new dispensation of the Gospel of Christ.  It is not a new religion.  It is the old religion brought again to the earth.  It possesses all the simplicity of primitive Christianity; all its ordinances, all its gifts and graces, all its hopes and aspirations, and all its certainties and assurances concerning the reality of life, both here and in the life that is to come.  That is what Mormonism is.  That is the relationship it bears to the religious world, and to this great controversy between Protestants and Catholics.

                Now, as I take it, the task imposed upon the Latter-day Saints is to bear testimony of this great fact to the world; to extend a knowledge of this gospel to all people;  that all the children of men may rejoice in the truths we have learned by accepting the revelations of God in this New Dispensation.

We cannot claim that this truth is ours in any selfish sense.  We cannot hug it to ourselves as being peculiarly our own.  That course is the way to lose it, or, at least, to lose the sweetest and best blessings that come from it.  I do not know that my thought is clear to you, and perhaps I had better illustrate what I mean by repeating to you one of the legends common among the peasantry of Russia--a legend I had the good fortune to hear Prince Serge Wolkonsky, of Russia, relate last summer.  It is said by this legend that a poor woman condemned to eternal torment once saw an angel flying through the midst of heaven, and she called to him.  So bewailing and distressing was her voice that the angel stopped in his flight to hear her complaint.  Said she to him, "When you get to the Throne of God, I wish you would tell Him that there is a poor mortal down here suffering more than she can endure, and ask him to give me relief."  At that the angel continued his flight and when he came into the presence of God, he related how he had been arrested on his way by the wailing cry of a poor woman, who was suffering more than she could endure.  "Well," said the Lord, "return to her and ask her if in her lifetime she can remember to have done one good deed."  The angel returned and put the question to her.  The poor woman was perplexed, for she had indeed led a wicked life.  For a long time she struggled with recollection, until at last her face brightened.  "Oh," said she, "I have it.  I once gave a carrot to a hungry beggar."  This was reported by the angel to the Lord, who commanded him to return and to take a carrot and let her take hold of one end of it, "And," said he, "if it is strong enough to pull her out of her torment she shall be delivered."  The carrot accordingly was extended to the poor woman; she laid hold of it in good earnest and the angel commenced to pull.  To her infinite delight she found that she began to rise out of hell.  Some of her fellow sinners, standing around and seeing that she was likely to escape, laid hold of her garments, and they too began to be drawn out of torment.  Others, seeing this, also laid hold, until the poor woman began to be alarmed lest the carrot should break.  She began kicking and screaming and cried, "Let go!  Let go!"  but they clung the harder and seemed determined not to miss this chance of escape.  The poor woman at last in her desperation cried out, "Let go! The carrot is mine!"  And no sooner did she say "The carrot is mine," that it snapped, and they all sank back into hell.

                Behind this simple legend stands a great truth.  It illustrates the thought I want to carry home to your hearts.  This great truth, the fulness of which is contained in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is not ours in any selfish sense.  We cannot cry, "It is mine;" for the moment we do it, selfishness creeps in, and selfishness is the death knell of salvation in the soul of man.  No; the truth is God's just as the good deed of the poor woman's was God's.  It is not for us alone, but for all the children of Deity.  Our first duty is, having found the way of escape from the consequences of sin; and having had born within our breasts aspirations that reach up to God and His Throne—I hold it to be our first duty to proclaim these glad tidings to all the world, that our Father's children may lay hold of the truth, and by clinging to it be saved in the Kingdom of God.  The truth will not break; it is strong enough to bring all the children of our Father in heaven into that degree of glory that their intelligence is capable of enjoying.  Jesus read aright the truth when he said, "And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me."  The power of his atonement and of the Gospel growing out of it is sufficient for all mankind.  And the favored few who are the first to put their feet upon the rounds of the ladder of truth, leading upward to God, should look around and induce as many to join them as possible in the grand procession.

                One of the grand things about this New Dispensation is that it is a work in which all may take part.  I care not how humble their lives may be, there is not one but may join in the great work.  It is not confined to the few gifted sons of Israel, clothed with the Priesthood, and called to travel in the world and cry repentance to the people, proclaiming the glad tidings that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored.  One of the chief thoughts that came to me in connection with completing the Temple that stands on this block was this:  It is a sermon in stone, a sermon that will affect more people than the voice of any elder, however successful he might be in the ministry.  It is a sermon preached by the whole people.  Every man, woman and child that has contributed a mite towards the erection of that structure has a voice in the great sermon which it preaches.  In like manner individual actions may contribute to the character of a people; and Mormonism will be better known hereafter from the character of the whole Church and the work which the Church performs than by any individual labor that will be done in the way of preaching the Gospel.  May the Lord bless you, Amen.

Wilford Woodruff's Prophecy of Destruction

"You are to become men and women, fathers and mothers; yea, the day will come after your fathers and the prophets and apostles are dead and passed away into the spirit world, you will have the privilege of going into the towers of a glorious temple built unto the name of the Most High (pointing in the direction of the bench) east of us upon the Logan bench. And while you stand in the towers of that temple, and your eyes survey this glorious valley filled with cities and villages, occupied by tens of thousands of Latter-day Saints, you will then call to mind this visitation of President Young and his company. You will say, 'That was in the days when Presidents Benson and Maughan presided over us; that was before New York was destroyed by and earthquake; it was before Boston was swept into the sea, by the sea heaving itself beyond its bounds; it was before Albany was destroyed by fire.' Yea, at that time you will remember the scenes of that day. Treasure them up and forget them not."

President Brigham Young followed and said, "What Brother Woodruff has said was Revelation and will all be fulfilled."

(Source: Olsen, Nolan P., Logan Temple: The First 100 Years, pp. 11-12, quoted from Wilford Woodruff's Journal entry of August 22, 1863).

Vision of Newman Bulkley

I retired to rest about nine o'clock in the evening. In a short time I drowsed off to sleep, and it seemed as if the spirit of mydead wife was hovering round about me.

Suddenly I awoke. Sleep departed from me, the vision of my mind was open, and I beheld the members of the senate of the United States. While in session they were hurled from the hall by an unseen power. They rallied again, and the second time were thrown from the hall. They rallied the third time and were again thrown from the hall with such violence that a great number of them were killed. All those that remained alive had the name "edmunds" printed in their foreheads. (See Senator George f. Edmunds' bill against polygamy, March, 1882, "Essentials in Church History." P. 592)

Next I saw a whirlwind commence in the center of the house of representatives which increased until it frightened all the members out of the house. They scattered to various parts of the United States, and the inhabitants of the city of Washington, D. C. Became frightened and scattered until the city became almost desolated.

Then I saw a great tumult commence all over the United States, which ended in a great deal of blood being shed. And a great many of the people who had heard our elders preach and had believed what they had heard, but had not had the courage to embrace the gospel when they heard it, gathered what little effects they could take with them and came to this people in the Rocky Mountains.

Then I saw many thousands of women and children take refuge in the timber, hazel rough, or any place they could conceal themselves from the turmoil that was going on in the United States. And when word reached this people of their situation, there were hundreds of Seventies called upon to go and hunt them up and bring them to this people in utah. (See Wilford Woodruff's vision on the desolation of Washington, D. C.; New York, etc., and refugees to the mountains of Zion. Also the Cuardesto, Cardston temple vision.)

Then the government of the United States patched up their difficulty and elected a new congress which assembled to do business. The crusade still continued against the Latter Day Saints. Our enemies attributed all their troubles to the saints, and crusaders raised such a howl and sent forth their petitions to congress so that the first business they did was to order one hundred thousand of the best and most able bodied men that could be found to come against us. (See S. M. Farnsworth's vision on dark clouds from the east. Also Koyle, on "Army Worse Than Johnston's".)

When this became known to the saints, instructions were sent forth for all of the inhabitants of the territory to gather into valleys, as near as possible to the temples. And the people gathered into Salt Lake, Cache, Utah, and Sanpete counties, and to St. George, until there was a family to nearly every acre of land and all the country around was filled with our people. Water broke forth where before there had been no water, so that all the land could be cultivated . (See D. And C. 133:29) (Will the ten tribes come to rescue?)

I also saw that all the old men who had honored their priesthood became spry again. (See D. And C. 84:33-34. Renewal of bodies promised.)

I also saw that the greater number of those who had gone into polygamy for principal thereof had to go to prison, while those who had embraced it for lust escaped, as the officers appeared to care nothing about them. (True both for the past and future.)

I saw no preparations of any war-like demonstration in the midst of the saints, but all appeared to have the spirit of peace and contentment. When the soldiers came near our borders, the United States officers and all the gentiles were seized with fearfulness, and left in haste by night and by day, until they all got outside of the borders of this people and united with the soldiers. Then the army surrounded this people on every side, so that there was no possible way of escape. Then they raised their standards and sent forth a proclamation to all who wished to save their lives to come to them for protection. About one third of our men and as many women as they could persuade to follow them went over to the army and joined it. (See Heber C. Kimball on "great test and sifting to come.")

Then I saw the preparations commence for the entire destruction of the saints. It consisted in their gathering together all the combustible material they could obtain and making a complete wall around this people. It looked to me to be some fifty feet high, and from six to ten rods wide at the bottom.

During the time of their gathering this combustible material, our people were laboring in the temples, endowing men with the fullness of the blessing of the priesthood for their protection. (Possibly second or third endowments).

When the enemy had fired their combustibles, these men endowed with the fullness of the holy priesthood walked along like sentinels at their posts and waved their hands. The flames, smoke and ashes that were intended for the destruction of the saints turned upon our enemies. And when this combustible matter was consumed and the fire and smoke had cleared away, lo and behold, the enemies of this people were not to be found. (See D. And C. 45:70 "Let us not go up against Zion, etc.)

During all this time, our people were laboring in the temples day and night, endowing the elders of israel with the fullness of the blessings of the holy priesthood until they got the number of fifty thousand endowed. During this time the temple in Salt Lake City had been completed, (certain rooms not yet completed) and in one of the rooms situated in one of the towers, Jesus and Joseph, with their council, were sitting.

Then preparations were made for the fifty thousand to go down to the center stake in zion, with Jesus and Joseph at their head, riding in their chariots of fire. They seemed somewhere about six to ten rods above the earth. (See D. And C. Sec. 103:20-21.)

While all these scenes had been transpiring, the remnants (or Lamanites) of the land had gathered in from all quarters of the Rocky Mountains, and some had come from South America. When our brethren passed down to the center stake of Zion, the remnants went forth and redeemed the Land of Zion. (See 3 Nephi 21:23.) I saw the foundation of the temple laid there, which had the appearance of a bright luster. The chariots of pillar of fire went over the temple block and remained about it, shedding forth its light to those below. (A cloud by day and pillar of fire by night.)

When my attention was drawn back again to the mountains, I saw that the young men and the middle aged men had been called away upon different missions; and the old men and women and children had to do all the farm work. All those who were laboring to build up the City of Zion in Jackson County had to be sustained from these valleys, with the exception of the remnants of the House of jacob.

The buffalo and other game had returned upon the plains to feed them until they could be taught the art of agriculture. (See D. And C., Sec. 101:55 On "young men and middle aged.")

The earth in the valleys was sanctified and cleansed so that it brought forth in its strength. Instead of its bringing forth from 15 to 40 bushels of grain per acre, it brought forth from 100 to 200 bushels. The water broke forth in parched ground, (see sec. 133:29) And all the valleys were filled with the Saints of the Most High who had gathered in from the nations of the earth to be schooled in the temples that are now built, to prepare them to go forth to the center stake of Zion.

Miracle on the Mississippi

It was a day in July, 1839, that many lay sick along the banks of the Mississippi river, and Joseph walked up on the east bank to the lower stone house, occupied by Sidney Rigdon, and he healed all the sick that lay in his path.  Among the number was Henry G. Sherwood, who was nigh unto death.  Joseph stood in the door and commanded him in the name of Jesus Christ to arise and come out of his tent, and he obeyed him and was healed.  Brother Benjamin Brown and his family also lay sick, the former appearing to be in a dying condition.  Joseph healed them in the name of the Lord.  After healing all that lay sick upon the east bank of the river as far as the stone house, he called upon Elder Kimball and some others to accompany him across the river to visit the sick at Montrose.

                Many of the Saints were living at the old military barracks.  Among the number were several of the Twelve.  On his arrival, the first house he visited was that occupied by Elder Brigham Young, the president of the quorum of the twelve, who lay sick.  Joseph healed him, when he arose and     accompanied the Prophet on his visit to others who were in the same condition.  They visited Elder Wilford Woodruff, also Elders Orson Pratt and John Taylor, all of whom were living in Montrose.  They also accompanied him.  The next place they visited was the home of Elijah Fordham, who was supposed to be about breathing his last.  When the company entered the room the Prophet of God walked up to the dying man, and took hold of his right hand and spoke to him; but Brother Fordham was unable to speak.  His eyes were set in his head like glass, and he seemed entirely unconscious of all around him.  Joseph held his hand and looked into his eyes in silence for a length of time.  A change in the countenance of Brother Fordham was soon perceptible to all present.  His sight returned, and upon Joseph asking him if he knew him, he, in a low whisper, answered, "yes."  Joseph asked him if he had faith to be healed.

                He answered, "I fear it is too late; if you had come sooner I think I could have been healed."  The Prophet said, "Do you not believe in Jesus Christ?"  He answered in a feeble voice, "I do."  Joseph then stood erect, still holding his hand in silence several moments, then he spoke in a very loud voice, saying, "Brother Fordham, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to arise from this bed and be made whole."  His voice was like the voice of God, and not of man.  It seemed as though the house shook to its very foundation.  Brother Fordham arose from his bed and was immediately made whole.  His feet were bound in poultices, which he kicked off.  Then putting on his clothes, he ate a bowl of bread and milk and followed the Prophet into the street.  The company next visited Brother Joseph Bates Noble, who lay very sick.  He was also healed by the Prophet.  By this time the wicked became alarmed, and followed the company into Brother Noble's house.  After Brother Noble was healed all kneeled down to pray.  Brother Fordham was mouth, and, while praying he fell to the floor.  The Prophet arose, and looking round, he saw quite a number of unbelievers in the house, whom he ordered out.  When the room was clear of them, Brother Fordham came to and finished his prayer.  (Wilford Woodruff’s Journal, July, 1839)

“Let the Twelve Apostles and the Seventy Apostles and the High Priest Apostles and all other Apostles rise up and keep pace with the work of the Lord God, for we have no time to sleep”                                                                                                                                     (Wilford Woodruff, JD 4:147)

E    D    I    T    O    R    I    A    L

DISCOURSE BY PRESIDENT GEORGE Q. CANNON

Delivered in the Meeting House, Heber City, Sunday Morning, August 26th, 1883.

(REPORTED BY JOHN IRVINE, JD, 26:316.)

WE are becoming a great people that is, compared with what we have been not very great compared with the world; but, nevertheless, we are increasing very rapidly; the rising generation is very numerous; and it requires exceeding diligence and watchfulness on the part of those who have the people in charge as shepherds to see that the means of instruction and counsel are in proportion to the growth of the people.  If this were not the case we should soon have a generation of young men and young women ignorant of the principles of life and salvation, and of the policy and polity of the work of God that he has established on the earth.

                It is very necessary that as a people we should have with us the spirit of revelation from God, and not only should we have it ourselves, but it is also necessary that we should be taught by those whom God has called to preside over His Church and to lead in the affairs thereof.

                Our position is in many respects critical.  We are surrounded by enemies who are constantly on the alert, and who are doing all in their power to thwart the work of God, and to destroy its influence on the earth.  This being the case it is exceedingly necessary that every means which God has placed within our reach for our improvement and for the advancement of His work should be used by us.

                The prophecies concerning Zion which are on record are full of promises concerning the future growth of this people, concerning the glory that shall rest upon Zion.  But these predictions and promises are all conditional.  They will be fulfilled if we place ourselves in a position to merit their fulfillment, or to bring them about.  If Zion fails to come up to the requirements which God has made of us, then the fulfillment of these glorious promises will undoubtedly be deferred.  It is therefore of importance that the Latter-day Saints should come up to the standard that God has given to us that is, fulfill the requirements which he has made of us.

                Now, there are many points upon which we need correction.  We are guilty of many things that are not in accordance with the mind and will of God.  There is a certain policy if I may use that phrase; I use it to convey the idea to your minds connected with the building up of Zion, a policy which God has sought to enforce upon us from the beginning until the present time.  It is to a great extent the same policy that He urged upon and endeavored to enforce in the midst of Israel, when He led Israel out of Egypt.  When He inspired Moses to take the steps that He did towards the emancipation of the children of Israel from the thraldom (sic) of the Egyptians, He had a definite purpose in view, and that was to make them a nation of His own, a people who should acknowledge Him as their God, and He wished to make a distinct race of them.  For forty years He led them through the wilderness teaching them, counseling them, pleading with them, training them, in order to relieve them as far as possible from the old traditions with which they were burdened.  There was no other object in view than this that is, I may say this was the principle object.  He wished to separate them entirely from all the nations of the earth by whom they had been surrounded, and to make them a peculiar people, a people who would look upon Him as their law-giver, and who should look to Him for all the instructions and counsels and directions that they needed; but because of their rebellions, and their unwillingness to be thus submissive, He caused every man over 20 years of age who left Egypt, to die in the wilderness except two.  You remember, doubtless, the circumstances which brought about the preservation of the lives of these two.  The rest over 20 years of age all perished in the wilderness, they not having faith sufficient to receive the promises and to gain the end that they started out for when they left Egypt.  A new generation grew up during the 40 years of travel in the wilderness a generation that had to a great extent forgotten the traditions of Egypt, that had forgotten the idolatry of Egypt, and the evil practices of Egypt, and then when this was brought about, God led them unto the promised land, and He made of them a nation, a peculiar people.  They became His people.  He placed His name upon them, although they failed as a generation to come up to the fullness of power that He designed they should have.  In other words, they failed to come up to the possession and exercise of the Melchisedec Priesthood.

                Now, God in like manner has designed in these days in laying the foundation of Zion to establish a new order of things on the earth; to gather us out from the nations of the earth; to make us a peculiar people; to make us a holy and a pure people upon whom He could place His name and through whom He can accomplish His great designs and purposes on the earth; to make us a distinct people from every other people that lives upon the face of the earth, and through us to establish and perpetuate a new order of things on the earth which shall be preparatory to the ushering in of the full reign of righteousness through our Lord Jesus Christ.  It is for this that the heavens have been opened.  It is for this that God the Father and Jesus the Son have descended.  It is for this that angels have come and ministered unto men.  It is for this that the Gospel has been restored; that the Priesthood has been given to men; that the authority to administer the ordinances of life and salvation has been restored from the heavens.  It is for this that the spirit of gathering has been poured out upon the inhabitants of the earth who have received the Gospel, which has impelled them to do as we have done, to gather together as we are gathered together at this time in these valleys, and it is for this that all that you witness connected with this work, the power that is manifested, the deliverances that have been wrought out it is for this that these have all been accomplished.  God has chosen this people and has given unto them a mission.  But I ask myself, who of us comprehend it?  Who of us rise to the full conception of its importance, and who understand the mind and will of God in these mighty works of which we are the witnesses and connected with which we are actors?  We have been pleaded with all the day long by the voice of Prophets, by the voice of inspiration, I may say by the voice of God through His servants.  We have been told with the greatest plainness, the mind and will of God concerning us and the objects that He has had in view in gathering us out and placing us in the position which we occupy.  But, like the Israelites of old, the flesh pots of Egypt have been sweet to us; the leeks and the onions of Babylon we have hankered after.  We have lusted after these things.  We have lusted after that which God has commanded us to forsake, and we have not become emancipated from the love of Babylon.  It has been in our hearts.  It has influenced us in our actions.  It has governed us in our policy, and it has been the great labor of the leaders of this Church to endeavor to uproot this accursed lust that has been in the hearts of those who are called Latter-day Saints for that which they have been commanded to forsake.  God has commanded us to forsake Babylon.  He has called us out from Babylon; but though we have come out from Babylon we have brought to a great extent Babylon with us, the love of Babylon, the love of that which God abhors, and which He commands us to forsake.  We have brought it with us, and to a great extent we cherish it.  And this is the great obstacle in the way of building up Zion.  At the same time I do not wish to speak discouragingly to my brethren and sisters upon this point.  I know that there are many, very many in this Church, who have sought with all the faith and diligence of which they are capable to love the Lord, to love Zion, and to do everything they could to build it up in the earth.  I know this.  We have constant testimonies of this in looking at the Saints, in mingling with them, and in witnessing the spirit they possess.  But, my brethren and sisters, I sometimes feel that it is with us as it was with our fathers whom God led out of Egypt, for we are the descendants of that people.  Like our fathers we shall have to undergo the same ordeals that is, ordeals that shall have for their objects the accomplishment of the same ends, and I do not believe that He will allow a generation of people to grow up and witness the accomplishment of all that he has spoken concerning Zion who are not perfectly willing to do that which He requires at their hands.  I believe the old generation will pass away.  I believe that like our fathers the bodies of the Saints of God will be laid by the wayside in the various places where they live if they do not exercise faith to receive the blessings that God designs to bestow upon us as a people, and that He will raise up a generation as He did in the case of our fathers, which shall have the necessary faith, which shall be divorced from the old order of things sufficiently to go forward and accomplish the mind and will of God concerning Zion.

                To-day look over the entire field that we occupy.  Examine the condition of the Latter-day Saints from the far north to the extreme south; examine the evils which surround us and with which we have to contend, and that threaten the perpetuity of the institutions of Zion.   Examine our condition in its true light, in all its aspects and in all its particulars, and what will be the conclusion that will be reached respecting our circumstances?  It will be this: that there is no evil to-day that menaces Zion that we feel it difficult to cope with, that threatens the supremacy of our rule in this land to which God has led us, that is not traceable to ourselves and that does not have its origin in the reluctance of the people to comprehend and to obey the counsel which God has given through His servants ever since we came to these valleys.  I leave it to every one of you to decide for yourselves under the spirit of God if this statement which I make is not abundantly true and sustained by facts.  It is a sorrowful statement to make, but it is nevertheless a true statement.  We have no dangerous or threatening evils to contend with that have not had their origin in the disobedience of some of the Latter-day Saints to the counsel which God has given them.

                God intended when He led Israel out of Egypt, that there should be no intermarriages between Israel and the nations which surrounded them, and a great many of the evils that came upon Israel were due to this.  I may say, however, for the men of this Church, that there have been but comparatively few instances (probably because there have not been so many temptations for them) of their taking wives who were not of the Saints.  They have not married strange women as did many of the Israelites, as did Solomon the wise king, which God gave to Israel.  He married strange wives, and through these marriages he was led away into idolatry in his old age, and the anger of God was brought upon him and his house because of this.  Many of the evils that fell upon Israel were due to intermarriage on their part with women who were not of their faith, and who were from nations who did not have the same worship that Israel had.   Marriages of this nature are contrary to the command of God.  We are commanded not to marry with those who are not of our faith, and no woman ever did it, no girl ever did it that has not sooner or later had sorrow because of this.  God is not pleased with such marriages, and it is not in the nature of things to expect blessings to follow such intermarriages.

                I have not time to dwell upon the many points wherein we have failed.  To build up Zion should be the thought of every heart to labor to establish the cause of God in the earth, to be a compact people.  But we have violated this counsel, until today, in some places, it is questionable who shall rule the Latter-day Saints or those opposed to them.  Now, you all know that the policy of this organization which God has given us is not one that is hostile to strangers.  I would not be understood in making the remarks that I do on this occasion as having any disposition to excite hostility in the minds of my brethren and sisters against those who are not of us, we never have had that feeling.  No man who has any of the spirit of God within him, and comprehends the nature of God's work, will have that spirit.  But there is a great difference, remember, between hostility to those who are not of our faith, and our sustaining and upholding and taking them in our arms and caressing them and bestowing favors upon them that should only be bestowed upon the household of faith.  For instance, if there were two stores in this town, one occupied by a man who is not of our faith, and another occupied by a man who is of our faith, a man whose whole interests were identified with Zion, whose whole thought was to build up Zion and to advance the cause thereof on the earth, would I be an enemy of the man not of us because I did not patronize him, but patronized and sustained the man who is of us?   Certainly not; it would be no mark of enmity on my part to him.  I might have and would have a preference for my brother, for the man who was identified with me and who was laboring for the same end; and this is the spirit we should have.  There are a great many Latter-day Saints who have not been able to discriminate sufficiently between these two spirits.   They have imagined that because we are not hostile we must therefore be very loving, and they do not see the line of demarcation which God has drawn and which He wishes us to observe.  There is a line and that line ought to be observed by us. 

Joseph said in the beginning that it was the duty of the Elders of this Church to labor constantly to build up Zion and not to build up that which is opposed to Zion.  That embodies in these few words the policy that we should observe.  It is not my business; God has not required it of me that I should build up anything that is opposed to Zion, but on the contrary that I should always keep in my thoughts and be influenced by it in my actions that which will advance the cause of Zion, and that which will not retard it or operate against it in any manner.  We have erred in this direction in the past.  There is a class of people among us who have thought more of money than they have about Zion.  They have gone where they could get the best bargains regardless of the effect it would have on the public weal.  They only looked to their individual benefit and aggrandizement.  There are many such among us throughout our settlements, and particularly in Salt Lake City.  They have bought and sold, they have traded, they have done that which seemed right in their eyes, that would promote their own personal benefits regardless of the effect it would have upon the public, and I believe that that is a sin in the sight of God with the light and knowledge that we have.  I believe that the man who does that grieves the spirit of God, whether he does it on a large scale or on a small scale.  I believe that such a man, unless he repents, will not live to reap the blessings and benefits that God will bestow upon those who labor for the building up of Zion.  I believe he will perish just as our fathers perished in the wilderness, and will not live to enjoy the blessings God has in store for the faithful.  I would rather my brethren and sisters, stand before you clothed as these Indians are who wander through our settlements; I would rather be clothed in deer skins or in goat skins; I would rather be destitute of those things that men place so high a value upon and be sure that I had the blessing of my God, be sure that I would secure, by continuing faithful, exaltation in His kingdom, than to have all the wealth that this world can furnish.  I would rather have the peace of God in my heart; I would rather have the blessing of God and His Holy Spirit resting upon me than to have a thousand things, however grand they might be, bestowed upon me and be destitute of the favor of our God.  That is the feeling I have.  I know it is pleasant to have good things; I know it is pleasant to have beautiful surroundings; I know it is a sweet thing for us to be able to supply our families' wants, and when they ask to have it in our power to give; but there is something higher, something nobler, something better than this, and that is the favor of our God.  We should labor so as to have this, and at the same time if we do, we may rest assured that all the rest will be added to us.   He will not leave us destitute.  He will not deprive us of the blessings of the earth.  On the contrary he will impart those blessings to us, and not only to us but to our children after us.  For we live not for ourselves alone, but we live for our posterity.  We hope to be faithful so as to gain the favor of God, that our posterity after us will be remembered in the days of trial and in the days of tribulation and of calamity that are to come upon the earth, a desire that every faithful man connected with this Church must have if he understands the promises and blessings of God.  His desire must be that, so long as the earth shall stand, so long as time shall endure, he will never be destitute in any generation of a man who will bear the Holy Priesthood; that he will have a representative in all the generations to come, the generations from now until time shall cease.  In order to obtain this promise and this blessing men must be faithful unto God; men must labor and struggle as our fathers did through whose faithfulness we have received those promises, and through whose faithfulness, also, we have received the Holy Ghost that we now enjoy this day; that we, like them, shall gain the favor of God so effectually that he will confirm upon us and our posterity after us the blessings he confirmed upon Abraham our father, those blessings that shall be felt throughout all the generations to come as long as time shall endure.  That is our privilege as Latter-day Saints, and we should live for it, and God will help us to obtain it, if we are faithful, if we do that which is right before Him.

                In conclusion, my brethren and sisters, I entreat you as a servant of God, in the name of our Lord and Master, to love Zion with all your hearts, and not allow any other love to enter therein.  Love this work.   Devote yourselves to it.  Love our God.  Love Him supremely and He will never desert you.  Keep His commandments, no matter what the sacrifice may be.  Keep every commandment of God, and stand before the Lord blameless, so that you will not be condemned, and if you will do so He will lead you and all of us back into His celestial presence and crown us with glory, immortality and endless lives, which I pray may be our happy lot, in the name of Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Recommended Sites 4thefamily.us (Open chat & polygamy & Mormon doctrine discussion) fullnessradio.acrobat.com/fullness/ (Internet broadcast Wednesdays 8pm MST.  Discussion of deeper mysteries of the Kingdom of God.) allofthegospel.com  (An in-depth website offering extensive Fundamentalist Mormon information and works)

 

Holiness

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To The  

Lord

TRUTH NEVER CHANGES
Volume 13, Number 04
April 2010