Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, Nov. 12, 1876.

I am pleased to see so large a company assembled together, notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather; it shows to me that there is an interest in the minds of the Latter-day Saints in regard to their future salvation. We, as a people, have passed through many scenes trying and afflicting to our natures, which we have endured because of the anxiety of our hearts to obtain salvation. People who are sincere will manifest their sincerity in undergoing great tribulation, if necessary, for the sake of being saved. This mortal life is of small consideration, compared with eternal salvation in the kingdom of the Father. There is nothing pertaining to the things of this present life that is worthy of being named, in contrast with the riches of eternal life. Jesus, in speaking upon this subject when he was on the earth, asks this question: “For what is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” There is nothing so precious, nothing of so great importance, as that of securing, in this life, the salvation of our souls in the world to come. Far better is it if we can gain salvation by passing through various scenes of affliction and persecution in this world, than to give way to its pleasures and vanities, which can only be enjoyed for a season, and afterwards lose that eternal reward which God has in store for the righteous.

It is true we look upon our future reward in quite a different light from the religious world generally. We look for something tangible, something we can form some degree of rational conception of, having a resemblance in some measure to the present life. But how very imaginary are the ideas of the religious world! I do not now refer to the heathen world, but to the enlightened Christian nations, the two hundred million of Christians now existing on the earth. If you ask these people about the future state of man, some will give you one idea and some another, all more or less, perhaps, differing from each other, but in the main they all agree, namely, that it is a state entirely spiritual, that is, unconnected with anything tangible like this present life, an existence which cannot be conceived of by mortals.

You may think I am misrepresenting our Christian friends. I will therefore say that for many years now I have been engaged, more or less, in the study of religion, and have therefore read quite extensively the ideas of the religious world. I have not accepted the ideas of a few individuals belonging to the various sects, but I have appealed to their standard writings, their articles of faith, which are adopted by the various religious bodies and known as their creeds. For instance, in the articles of faith of a great many of the religious sects, an idea like this is set forth—that there is a Being who is entirely spiritual, called God, and that Being is described as consisting of three persons, and these three persons are without body, without parts and without passions. Such is the God that is worshiped by the Methodists—a people whom I highly respect, and whose meetings I attended in my early youth more than those of any other religious denomination. The three persons that compose this one God are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, all of whom are said to be without bodies or passions; and in connection with this, one of the cardinal doctrines of their faith, they tell us that one of this holy Trinity, namely Jesus, was crucified, dead and buried, and that on the third day he arose again from the dead and ascended into heaven.

When I was a boy, attending the Methodist meetings, I, as many now do who are of maturer years, accepted sincerity for truth. But when I grew to manhood my attention was called to this article of faith; I tried in all earnestness to comprehend it, but could not, and cannot to this day. It is one of those incomprehensible things which cannot be grasped by the human mind. You, my hearers, try now with me for a few moments to comprehend, if you can, a being consisting of three persons, and these three persons without any body, parts or passions. I had been taught, when studying the exact sciences, that everything that existed was composed of parts, that there could not exist anything as a whole unless it existed as parts. I could not, therefore, understand how it was that one of these three persons could be crucified if he had no body; how it was possible and be consistent, with reason, for him to lay down his body—something he never possessed—and arise again from the tomb, taking up that same body. This is indeed a mystery!

Now it so happens that the Scriptures do not teach anything so absurd, so irreconcilable and so contrary to our senses. This is a man-made doctrine, the creation of uninspired men. The Methodists did not originate this doctrine—it existed and was widely believed in before the days of the good man, John Wesley.

The Latter-day Saints believe that there is a true and living God, that this true and living God consists of three separate, distinct persons, which have bodies, parts, and passions, which belief is in direct opposition to this man-made doctrine. We believe that God, the Eternal Father, who reigns in yonder heavens, is a distinct personage from Jesus Christ, as much so as an earthly father is distinct in his existence from his son. That is something I can comprehend, which I conceive to be the doctrine of revelation. We read about Jesus having been seen, after he arose from the dead. Stephen the Martyr, just before he was stoned to death, testified to the Jewish people that were standing before him at the time, saying, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God.” Here, then, the Father and Jesus, two distinct personages, were seen, and both had bodies. We find numerous other authorities bearing out this same idea. I do not intend to dwell upon this subject, because the greater portion of this congregation understand the scriptural view of this subject; hence it is not necessary to speak lengthily on it. We may, however, say a few things with regard to the passions of these personages.

It is declared, as part of the belief of the Methodists, that God is without passions. Love is one of the great passions of God. Love is everywhere declared a passion, one of the noblest passions of the human heart. This principle of love is one of the attributes of God. “God is love,” says the Apostle John, “and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.” If, then, this is one of the great attributes of Jehovah, if he is filled with love and compassion towards the children of men, if his son Jesus Christ so loved the world that he gave his life to redeem mankind from the effects of the fall, then, certainly, God the Eternal Father must be in possession of this passion. Again, he possesses the attribute of Justice, which is sometimes called Anger, but the real name of this attribute is Justice. “He executeth justice,” says the Psalmist; also, “Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne.” Justice is one of the noble characteristics of our heavenly Father; hence another of his passions.

We have it recorded too in this sacred Bible, that God was seen by ancient men of God. Jacob testifies as follows: “for I have seen God face to face.” I know that there are other passages of Scripture, which would seem to militate against this declaration. For instance, there is one passage which reads, “No man hath seen God at any time.” This is in direct contradiction to the testimony of Jacob. The way I reconcile this is that no natural man can see the face of God the Father and live, it would overpower him; but one quickened by the spirit, as old father Jacob was, could look upon God, and converse with him face to face, as he says he did, he must have seen a personage, a being, in his general outlines like unto himself; man, as Moses informs us, having been created in the image of God.

We might refer to many other passages of Scripture, bearing on this subject. The Prophet Isaiah saw God; he saw not only the Lord, but a great congregation in connection with him, so that his train filled the Temple. He is always represented by those who have seen him as a personage in the form of man.

Having cited a very few evidences, let us inquire into the character and being of God, the Eternal Father. We are the offspring of the Lord, but the rest of animated nature is not; we are just as much the sons and daughters of God as the children in this congregation are the sons and daughters of their parents. We were begotten by him. When? Before we were born in the flesh; this limited state of existence is not our origin, it is merely the origin of the tabernacle in which we dwelt. The mind we are possessed of, the being that is capable of thinking and reflecting, that is capable of acting according to the motives presented to it, that being which is immortal, which dwells within us, which is capable of reasoning from cause to effect, and which can comprehend, in some measure, the laws of its Creator, as well as trace them out as exhibited in universal nature, that being, which we call the Mind, existed before the tabernacle.

But says one, “That does not look reasonable.” Why not? Do you not believe that the Spirit will endure forever? O, yes. You may ask, what becomes of the spirit, separated from the body of flesh and bones, when this body lies in the grave? Has it life and intelligence and power to think and reflect? Let us hear what was said by those who sat under the altar, who were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held, as seen and heard by John while on Patmos. “And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost time not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” The Lord tells them that they should “rest yet for a little season.” These faithful servants of God are anxiously awaiting the time when the Lord will avenge their blood? Why? Because that will be the time when their bodies will be redeemed, they look forward with great anxiety to the time when they shall be again identified with the fleshly tabernacle with which they were known and distinguished while on the earth—hence this prayer.

Here we find another and further existence for the spirits of men who exist in heaven, who are capable of thinking, of using language, of understanding the future, and of anticipating that which was to come. Now, if they could exist after they leave this tabernacle, while the tabernacle lies moldering in the dust, why not exist before the tabernacle had any existence? Was it not just as easy for an existence to be given to spiritual personages before they took possession of bodies as it is for them to exist after the body decays? Yes, and these are our views, founded upon new revelation; not the views of uninspired men, but founded upon direct revelation from God.

Where did we exist before we came here? With God. Where does he exist? In the place John denominated heaven. What do we understand heaven to be? Not the place described by our Christian friends, beyond the bounds of time and space, for there is no such place, there never was, nor ever will be; but I mean a tangible world, a heaven that is perfect, a heaven with materials that have been organized and put together, sanctified and glorified as the residence and world where God resides. Born there? Yes, we were born there. Even our great Redeemer, whose death and sufferings we are this afternoon celebrating, was born up in yonder world before he was born of the Virgin Mary. Have you not read, in the New Testament, that Jesus Christ was the firstborn of every creature? From this reading it would seem that he was the oldest of the whole human family, that is, so far as his birth in the spirit world is concerned. How long ago since that birth took place is not revealed; it might have been unnumbered millions of years for aught we know. But we do know that he was born and was the oldest of the family of spirits. Have you not also read in the New Testament that he is called our elder brother? Does this refer to the birth of the body of flesh and bones? By no means, for there were hundreds of millions who were born upon our earth before the body of flesh and bones was born whom we call Jesus. How is it, then, that he is our elder brother? We must go back to the previous birth, before the foundation of this earth; we have to go back to past ages, to the period when he was begotten of the Father among the great family of spirits. He became, by his birthright, the great Creator. God, through him, created not only this little world, this speck of creation, but by him the worlds were made and created. How many we know not, for it has not been revealed. Suffice it to say, a great many worlds were created by him. Why by him? Because he had the birthright, he being the oldest of his father’s family, and this birthright entitles him, not only to create worlds, but to become the redeemer of those worlds, not only the redeemer of the inhabitants of this our earth, but of all the others whom he created by the will and power of his Father.

But says one, “By that expression one would infer that other worlds have fallen as well as our own, having doubtless been placed in a state of temptation, and if so it would be fair to presume that there was a Garden of Eden to each of these worlds, containing all kinds of fruit, among which was the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, and that they became fallen precisely in the same manner as ours did, and consequently they would need a redeemer; and, therefore, the people of these worlds would be redeemed and saved according to their diligence and faithfulness in keeping the commandments of God?” Have you not read in the first chapter of Genesis of two persons appearing on this earth before man was made, when one who was God, said to the other, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness?” Does not that bespeak a pre-existence of another personage besides the Almighty? And have you not read too in the same chapter that “God created man in his own image; male and female created he them?” When? It is said to have been on the sixth period, or, according to King James’ translation, “on the sixth day.” Do you mean to say, we were all in existence on the sixth day? Yes. But on the seventh day, we are told in the following chapter, “there was not a man to till the ground.” Is it not very singular that all should have an existence on the sixth day, and on the following day there was not a man in existence to till the ground? Why not? Because man was not yet placed in this temporal creation, but he had an existence then in heaven, where we were begotten. You and I were present when this world was created and made—you and I then understood the nature of its creation, and I have no doubt that we rejoiced and sang about it. Indeed, the Lord put a very curious question to the Patriarch Job, apropos of this. He said to him, “Where wast thou when I laid the foundation of the earth?” Where wast thou, “when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”

Supposing Job to be living now, and this same question put to him, and supposing too, that, instead of answering it himself, he were to seek to the learned Christian world for enlightenment on the subject, what do you think would be the nature of the answer he would receive? It would be, in effect, “Why, Job, when the Lord laid the foundation of the earth, you had no existence, for you were not born.” Why did not Job so answer the Lord? It was because he understood something about man’s pre– vious estate. He was wise in making no reply to the Lord, for doubtless he felt himself unable to do so. But we find that Moses understood the subject, for at the time the children of Israel transgressed, he and his brother Aaron fell upon their faces before the Lord, and Moses, pleading with great power and faith in behalf of the children of Israel, used these words, “O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh,” etc. He understood that God was the Father of our spirits, and he addressed him as such. I think too that the Apostles in ancient days must have had an idea of the pre-existence of man, judging from a certain question which they put to the Savior. It is said that “as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?”

Let us now consider this question in connection with present modern ideas, and we shall at once perceive how utterly foolish it will appear. To state the question fairly in other words we might say, Master, was this man born blind because he had sinned? The very nature of this question would indicate, to those even who do not believe in the principle, that this blind man had an existence before he was born into this world, and that he was capable, too, of committing sin. To show yet more clearly that the principle of man’s pre-existence is founded on biblical authority, I will quote you part of the Savior’s prayer to the Father, just prior to his crucifixion—“And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” Here we find Jesus actually referring to the time he dwelt with his Father before he took upon himself a body of flesh and bones. He also says, “For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but, the will of him that sent me.” He came down from the presence and abode of his Father. On another occasion, while addressing the Jews, he says, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am.” He was, in fine, the first-born of every creature, and consequently the eldest of our Father’s family.

If, therefore, it be now admitted that our elder brother had a previous existence with the Father, why should it be thought unreasonable that the rest of the family should have a pre-existence as well as the Firstborn? He was born according to man in the flesh, and why not his younger brethren have a similar birth with him in the spirit?

But now this carries us back still further, and invites us to ascertain a little in relation to his Father. A great many have supposed that God the Eternal Father, whom we worship in connection with his Son, Jesus Christ, was always a self-existing, eternal being from all eternity, that he had no beginning as a personage. But in order to illustrate this, let us inquire, What is our destiny? If we are now the sons and daughters of God, what will be our future destiny? The Apostle Paul, in speaking of man as a resurrected being, says, “Who (Jesus) shall change our vile body, that it might be fashioned like unto his glorious body,” which harmonizes with what John says, “It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him.” Our bodies will be glorified in the same manner as his body is; then we shall be truly in his image and likeness, for as he is immortal, having a body of flesh and bone, so we will be immortal, possessing bodies of flesh and bones. Will we ever become Gods? Let me refer you to the answer of the Savior to the Jews when accused of blasphemy because he called himself the Son of God. Says be, “Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? If ye called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the Scriptures cannot be broken.” This clearly proves to all Bible believers that in this world, in our imperfect state, being the children of God, we are destined, if we keep his commandments, to grow in intelligence until we finally become like God our Father. By living according to every word which proceeds from the mouth of God, we shall attain to his likeness, the same as our children grow up and become like their parents; and, as children through diligence attain to the wisdom and knowledge of their parents, so may we attain to the knowledge of our Heavenly Parents, and if they be obedient to this commandment they will not only be called the sons of God, but be gods.

In the 1st verse of the 14th chapter of Revelation, we are told that John saw one hundred and forty-four thousand persons standing with the Lamb upon Mount Zion, and they had a peculiar name written in their foreheads—even their Father’s name, him whom we call, in our language, God. Then there will be written upon the foreheads of these hundred and forty-four thousand this insignia, the Father’s name and they will be gods; and they will associate with him as do the Father and his Only Begotten, that is, the only son begotten in the flesh.

From this we can draw the conclusion that God, Our eternal Father, who is a spiritual being, has a body of flesh and bones, the same as his children will have after the resurrection.

Says one, to carry it out still further, “if we become gods and are glorified like unto him, our bodies fashioned like unto his most glorious body, may not he have passed through a mortal ordeal as we mortals are now doing?” Why not? If it is necessary for us to obtain experience through the things that are presented before us in this life, why not those beings, who are already exalted and become gods, obtain their experience in the same way? We would find, were we to carry this subject from world to world, from our world to another, even to the endless ages of eternity, that there never was a time but what there was a Father and Son. In other words, when you entertain that which is endless, you exclude the idea of a first being, a first world; the moment you admit of a first, you limit the idea of endless. The chain itself is endless, but each link had its beginning.

Says one, “This is incomprehensible.” It may be so in some respects. We can admit, though, that duration is endless, for it is impossible for man to conceive of a limit to it. If duration is endless, there can never be a first minute, a first hour, or first period; endless duration in the past is made up of a continuation of endless successive moments—it had no beginning. Precisely so with regard to this endless succession of personages; there never will be a time when fathers, and sons, and worlds will not exist; neither was there ever a period through all the past ages of duration, but what there was a world, and a Father and Son, a redemption and exaltation to the fullness and power of the Godhead. This is what Jesus prayed for, and he did not limit his prayer to his Apostles, but he said, “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.”

But says one, “Does not that oneness mean one person?” No; Jesus meant that those who believed in him through his servants, might be able to come up to that fullness and glory and power and exaltation which he inherited, even to the fullness of the celestial glory, to be crowned with God the Eternal Father, and with his Only Begotten, to be made equal, as it were, with them, in power and dominion; agreeing with some modern revelations God has given through the Prophet Joseph Smith. He said all they that receive this Priesthood, that is, those who receive the testimony of the servants of God, they receive me; and whosoever receives my Father, receives my Father’s kingdom; whereupon all that my Father hath shall be given to him. This is a glorious promise, to be joint heirs with the Son of God in the inheritance of all things, even the fullness and glory of the Celestial world, their bodies eventually to become glorified, spiritual bodies of flesh and bones, the same as God the Father.

Before the earth was rolled into existence we were his sons and daughters. Those of his children who prove themselves during this probation worthy of exaltation in his presence, will beget other children, and, precisely according to the same principle, they too will become fathers of spirits, as he is the Father of our spirits; and thus the works of God are one eternal round—creation, glorification, and exaltation in the celestial kingdom.

How many transformations this earth had before it received its present form of creation, I do not know. Geologists pretend to say that this earth must have existed many millions of years, and this assertion is generally made by men who do not believe in God or the Bible, to disprove the history of the creation of the world, as given by the Prophet Moses. We will go further than geologists dare to go, and say that the materials of which the earth is composed are eternal, they will never have an end.

What is meant by creation? Merely organization. In six days, we are told, God created this world, also every living thing that then existed. Did he create any of these things out of nothing? Did the materials then originate? No, there is no Scripture to be found within the lids of the Old and New Testament, or Book of Mormon, or Doctrine and Covenants, or in any of the revelations of God, ancient or modern, that even intimates such a thing, for such was not the case; but go to the creeds of men and you will find these things taught. I was taught them in my youth; they were instilled into my young mind, and of course I believed them. But as I matured in years and thought, especially after I began to study the Hebrew language, I learned that the material of which this earth was made, always did exist, and that it was only an organization or formation which took place, during the time spoken of by Moses.

How many transformations this earth passed through before the one spoken of by Moses, I do not know, neither do I particularly care. If it had gone through millions on millions of transformations, it is nothing to us. We are willing, for the sake of argument, to admit that the materials themselves are as old as geologists dare to say they are; but then, that does not destroy the idea of a God, that does not destroy the idea of a great Creator, who, accord– ing to certain fixed and unalterable laws, brought these materials, from time to time, into a certain organization, and then by his power completed the worlds that were thus made, by placing thereon intelligent and animated beings, capable of thinking and having an existence; and then again, for various reasons, he destroys their earthly existence, until finally he exalts them from their former condition, and makes them celestial in their nature.

This is the destiny of this globe of ours; it will eventually attain a state of organization that will no more be destroyed. When? After God has fulfilled and accomplished his purposes, after it has rested from wickedness one thousand years, during which time Satan will not have power to tempt the children of men, during which time the faithful will reign, as kings and priests on the earth in their resurrected bodies, when, too, the kingdom and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven will be in possession of the Saints of the Most High; not only in the possession of those who are mortal Saints, but also in the possession of those who are immortal Saints, appearing as they will in their resurrected bodies, rising up as rulers, as kings and priests, upon the face of our globe.

A government administered by such men will be one that can be depended on; in that respect it will be very different from the political nations of mortal man. Then there will not be the contention we now have, for all things pertaining to the government of God’s kingdom will be conducted in order and on the eternal principles of righteousness.

The Twelve Apostles who were called by Jesus, and who ministered in his name while they tarried on the earth, will sit upon twelve thrones hereafter, and judge the twelve tribes of Israel. There will be nothing intangible or etherial about these thrones, they will be just as real as any kingly throne of the earth. And the Twelve Apostles will rule over the twelve tribes of Israel for the space of a thousand years, having, as they will have, their celestial bodies, and they will eat and drink at the table of the Lord. He will be here also, he will be King of kings, before whom all must bow, all must acknowledge his power—and that will be for the space of a thousand years.

By and by, when the time comes for this earth to die—for there has been a great deal of wickedness here—Satan will be loosed to go forth again to deceive, for there will still be some of the Saints mortal, who will be subject to temptation, and even Satan will not only try to deceive the mortal Saints, but he will gather together his armies around the camp of the Saints.

Then another time comes, when a great white throne will appear, and he who sits thereon will be glorious in his majesty and power, from before whose face the earth will flee away and no place be found for it. Will he annihilate it? No, not a particle of the earth will be annihilated, not a particle of the earth was ever originated, consequently not a particle of it will go out of existence; but it will flee away to its original element, in the same manner as the human body would were it burned at the stake. The elements would be diffused among original matter, so with the elements of our earth when it undergoes its change. John was not satisfied with only seeing the earth pass away, but he saw still further, even until he beheld a new heaven and a new earth, for, said he, the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. Again, he testifies further, saying, “And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.”

This creation, when made new, will be inhabited by immortal beings, who will no more be subject to death, consequently there will be no more pain or sorrow, nothing to mar their peace or to prevent them from entering into the fullness of happiness and joy.

This, I say, is the destiny of this earth, and the Lord has told us that the time is nigh at hand. In other words, this is the last dispensation, and we are preparing for the work of the Millennium. When the thousand years are passed, the earth will be made new—it will then become a heaven, the habitation of the former and Latter-day Saints, as well as all they who prove themselves faithful who will be born during the Millennium. How long will they inhabit it? Forever.

When I was a boy, nineteen years old, I first saw Joseph Smith; I attended a Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, on the 2nd January, 1831. At that Conference the people desired him to inquire of the Lord for them —they were anxious to know his mind and will. They were at that time comparatively few in number, not being more than two hundred. Joseph Smith sat down at a table, and received a great revelation, which is now contained in this Book of Doctrine and Covenants. Part of it, in relation to a land of promise, reads as follows—“And I will give it unto you for the land of your inheritance, if you seek it with all your hearts. And this shall be my covenant with you, ye shall have it for the land of your inheritance, and for the inheritance of your children forever, while the earth shall stand, and ye shall possess it again in eternity, no more to pass away.”

When I sat and heard that revelation, as it was uttered by the Prophet Joseph, and written by his scribe, I thought to myself, that is a very curious doctrine for I had not then learned that this earth was to become our future home and heaven, and I did not think Joseph Smith knew it. But it seemed so curious to me to bring myself to believe that the Lord was going to give us part of this earth, to possess it, and our children after us, while time should last, and to retain it through all eternity, never more to pass away. This was so different from anything I had been taught—I was utterly confounded—to think that my Father in heaven would come and live here on this earth! But when I came to read the Bible on this subject and found how numerous the passages were promising that the Saints should inherit the earth forever, I was perfectly astonished that I had never thought of it before. “Blessed are the meek,” says the Savior, “for they shall inherit the earth.” The meek have been driven into the dens and mountains of the earth, having had to hide themselves up from their persecutors, while the wicked, the proud and the haughty have inherited the earth. Yet here is a promise that the meek shall inherit this earth, which all of course would readily admit has never had its fulfillment. Then again I was still more confirmed of the truth of this doctrine when finding other corroborative passages. David, for instance, in his 37th Psalm, says, “The wicked shall be cut off. The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell thereon forever.” I go back to the Books of Moses, and there ascertain that the earth is promised to the Saints forever. I came to the Acts of the Apostles, wherein the martyr Stephen, in answering the charge of blasphemy, tells of Abraham, how he came to leave his own country, and how that the Lord had promised him a land for an inheritance which “he would give to him for a possession, and to his seed after him,” and yet he never possessed any of it, “no, not so much as to set his foot on,” and this same promise was confirmed to Isaac and Jacob. And when I read in the Revelation of John about the new song that he heard them sing in heaven about their coming back to the earth (Rev. v, 9, 10), I was fully confirmed that the new revelation was from God. One portion of the song which John heard the angels sing was, “For thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our God kings and priests; and we shall reign on the earth.”

How very plain it is when we once learn about our future heaven. We do not have to pray, according to the Methodists, for the Lord to take us to a land beyond time and space, the Saints secure abode. How inconsistent to look for a heaven beyond space! The heaven of the Saints is something we can look forward to in the confident hope of realizing our inheritances and enjoying them forever, when the earth becomes sanctified and made new. And there, as here, we will spread forth and multiply our children. How long? For eternity. What, resurrected Saints have children? Yes, the same as our God, who is the Father of our spirits; so you, if you are faithful to the end, will become fathers to your sons and daughters, which will be as innumerable as the sands upon the seashore; they will be your children, and you will be their heavenly fathers, the same as our heavenly Father is Father to us, and they will belong to your kingdoms through all the vast ages of eternity, the same as we will belong to our Father’s kingdom.

He that receiveth my Father, says the Savior, receiveth my Father’s kingdom, wherefore all that my Father hath shall be given to him. It is a kind of joint stock inheri– tance, we are to become joint heirs with Jesus Christ to all the inheritances and to all the worlds that are made. We shall have the power of locomotion; and like Jesus, after his resurrection, we shall be able to mount up and pass from one world to another. We shall not be confined to our native earth. There are many worlds inhabited by people who are glorified, for heaven is not one place, but many; heaven is not one world but many. “In my Father’s house are many mansions.” In other words—In my Father’s house there are many worlds, which in their turn will be made glorified heavens, the inheritances of the redeemed from all the worlds who, having been prepared through similar experience to our own, will inhabit them; and each one in its turn will be exalted through the revelations and laws of the Most High God, and they will continue to multiply their offspring through all eternity, and new worlds will be made for their progeny. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, Aug. 26, 1876.

A little upwards of forty-six years ago, the Lord our God, through the administration of holy angels, organized his Church in the State of New York, and called men to the ministry, commanding them to go forth as missionaries, and preach to the people of the United States. They, in obedience to the command, went forth in their weakness, commencing their labors in the State of New York, and succeeded in baptizing believers, and organizing branches of the Church. From that day to the present, the Lord has been with his servants, and with the people who have embraced the message they proclaim.

In connection with the establishing of this Church, the Lord inaugurated the Gathering, which is peculiar to the dispensation in which we live. This work of gathering of the people, has continued for forty-six years, and we can behold its results—a people settled throughout these mountain valleys, numbering a hundred and fifty thousand.

I have often reflected upon the early prophecies that were given through our Prophet, Joseph Smith, whom the Lord called to organize his Church in this last dispensation, and have often marveled at their literal fulfillment. I will refer to some of them.

It is well known that the Book of Mormon was translated by Joseph Smith, from certain plates which he discovered, deposited in a certain hill, anciently called Cumorah, which is situated in Ontario County, State of New York, having previously been shown the place in open vision. This book was translated, and its first edition of five thousand copies was published, before the organization of this Church. It was stated in that book, that a Church should arise, and the people who should embrace the Gospel which it contained, should be gathered together into one body. For the fulfillment of this, I have only to refer you to the people, the body of this Church, inhabiting these mountain vales. This prophecy also speaks of the extent of this future work—it should not only be preached to the people of this American Continent, but it should be proclaimed to every nation, kindred, tongue and people, under heaven, and the gathering should be from all these nations.

An impostor may prophesy, but he cannot fulfill his own prophecies. If Joseph Smith was an impostor, as the world say he was, how could he know beforehand of the rise of this Church, and that the Gospel would be preached in all parts of this nation? Still more, how could he know, that it would go to every land, and be proclaimed throughout every nation of the earth, and even to those inhabiting the islands of the sea? Has this been fulfilled? All you have to do is to make yourselves acquainted with the fact. You will find that the Gospel mes– sage has been carried out by our missionaries to the nations of Great Britain and Ireland, to France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and the countries of Scandinavia, to Austria and Russia, to Asia and Africa, to Australia and the island of New Zealand, and the various islands of the South Pacific Ocean, as well as to the Sandwich and Society Islands. Among all these nations, this work has gone in fulfillment of prophecy, published before there was any Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Joseph Smith, therefore, so far as the fulfillment of his prophecies is concerned, has so much to establish the divinity of his mission.

Let us refer still further to the prophecies contained in the Book of Mormon. We read in that book, that not only a Church should arise, etc., but that the blood of the Saints who should embrace its faith, should cry from the ground to the God of heaven, against the inhabitants of this nation. How unlikely a thing to be fulfilled! Here, upon this land, is one of the most free governments given to man, bestowing upon all, civil and religious liberty. In other lands, persecution existed in consequence of men’s religious convictions; here all religious societies enjoyed the freedom of religious liberty to the fullest extent. If an impostor were going to prophesy, would he not be most likely to predict something that would suit the popular feeling of the people, something that would naturally come to pass? But for him to prophesy that the blood of the Saints, who were yet unconverted, should cry unto God for vengeance, against a people who glorified in their freedom, who could believe it? The people said such a thing never could come to pass; Joseph Smith must be an im– postor. But how long was it before this met with its fulfillment? History shows that three years after the rise of this Church, the Latter-day Saints, numbering some twelve hundred persons, were settled in Jackson, one of the western counties of Missouri, where they possessed flourishing homes, which they had made out of the lands they had bought of the United States Government, and which they had paid for, and where, in consequence of their having preached the ancient Gospel, which had been restored to the earth through the ministration of angels, they met with serious opposition, insomuch that they were finally driven en masse from their possessions, their homes were torn down and destroyed, their animals were shot down as you would shoot the wild beasts of the forest, their hay stacks were burned, and their corn fields despoiled, and many of the Saints were also shot dead by the hands of their persecutors. What for? Was it because they had committed crimes that merited this treatment? No, their court records do not show a single instance of our people having broken the laws. Was it polygamy? No, for the principle of plural marriage was not known among us then. They said, “You proclaim that God is a God of revelation. We do not believe it. You say that God has reorganized his Church on the earth, according to the ancient pattern. We do not believe it. We do not wish such doctrines, we do not wish our families corrupted by believing in them, for prophets, and new revelation, and miracles are all done away with; therefore you must leave us. We have pledged ourselves, our lives, and all we possess, to drive you from our midst.” Perhaps you strangers may think I am telling you that which is false. It is written and printed by our enemies, and forms part of history; and it furnishes another testimony proving the divine calling of the boy who was inspired of the Lord to translate that book.

After we had again established ourselves in a new country, and built up a beautiful city, and when all was peaceful and prosperity attending us, this same Prophet, on assembling the Elders of this Church on a certain occasion at Nauvoo, told us that we would have to flee to the Rocky Mountains for safety. The fulfillment of this prediction is apparent to all. I might mention scores of others, and in no instance has that man uttered a single prophecy that either has not already been fulfilled, to the very letter, or will not have its fulfillment in the due time of the Lord. I will mention another prophecy, which was printed in several languages, and published among the various nations in whose languages it was printed, which was twenty-eight years reaching its fulfillment. The Lord revealed to the Prophet, Joseph Smith, that there would be a great rebellion between the Northern and Southern States, commencing in the State of South Carolina, and that it should terminate in the death and misery of many souls. This, as you all know, has been literally fulfilled. When I was a boy, I traveled extensively in the United States and the Canadas, preaching this restored Gospel. I had a manuscript copy of this revelation, which I carried in my pocket, and I was in the habit of reading it to the people among whom I traveled and preached. As a general thing the people regarded it as the height of nonsense, saying the Union was too strong to be broken; and I, they said, was led away, the victim of an impostor. I knew the prophecy was true, for the Lord had spoken to me and had given me revelation. I knew also concerning the divinity of this work. Year after year passed away, while every little while some of the acquaintances I had formerly made would say, “Well, what is going to become of that prediction? It’s never going to be fulfilled.” Said I, “Wait, the Lord has his set time.” By and by it came along, and the first battle was fought at Charleston, South Carolina. This is another testimony that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of the Most High God; he not only foretold the coming of a great civil war at a time when statesman even never dreamed of such a thing, but he named the very place where it should commence.

I have not time now to notice any others. I wish, however, to say more particularly to the strangers present, that God informed us immediately after the organization of this Church, that this Gospel should be preached first to the nations of the Gentiles, and then the Lord would call in his servants and give them a special mission to the scattered remnants of the house of Israel, that are among the Gentile nations. You have not heard of our trying to convert the Jews. Why? Because God has decreed and determined that he will fulfill the times of the Gentiles first, in accordance with ancient prophecy. When that time arrives, the Lord will have prepared some of the Jewish nation to receive the Gospel, and then they will gather to their own land, and rebuild their city upon its former site. You doubtless will remember those words of the Savior referring to the Jewish nation, which can be found in the 21st chapter of St. Luke—“For there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” How and in what way will the Lord fulfill the times of the Gentiles? There must first be a revealed message, a Gospel message, sent to them. The preaching of this message is referred to in the 14th chapter of Revelation, by the Apostle John, who in vision saw the angel in the act of bringing it to the earth. And we are told it was to be preached to all nations which may be said to be composed of the two peoples known as the Gentiles and the Jews. But the Lord has said that “the last shall be first, and the first shall be last.” Jesus came to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but they rejected him, and the Apostles were moved upon to say, “Lo, we turn to the Gentiles;” and they did so, the Jews having proved themselves unworthy of eternal life, “and the kingdom of God shall be taken from you,” says the Savior, “and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.” The Gentiles, to whom the Gospel was to be given, received it, and the gifts and graces of the Church, which were before enjoyed by Israel, were now manifested among the Gentiles. But behold, they corrupted themselves, after having received the kingdom, and Paul perceived the decline of their faith, which was the beginning of the great “falling away,” which he, in his second epistle to the Thessalonians, said must be before the day of the Lord came. Also in the 11th chapter of Romans, Paul speaks of the Gentiles who had received the Gospel as the wild olive tree, having been grafted into the tame olive tree, and cautions them in this language—“Because of unbelief, they (Israel), were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear. For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.” This, with other prophetic warnings of a similar character, was disregarded.

I will refer you to another ancient prophecy contained in the 4th chapter of the second of Timothy—“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables;” and who, he says, in the previous chapter, shall “have a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof; from such turn away.” It seems, then, that this people, whom Paul speaks of, were to have a form of godliness; they were, in other words, to be a pious people, professedly a very religious people, but were only to possess a form, lacking all power; to be destitute, therefore, of Apostles and Prophets, miracles, etc. How long was the people to continue in this state? John informs us that this state of things would continue a long time; that, instead of the Church, another great power should arise, to be called “Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots, and abominations of the earth, presenting in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and filthiness of her fornications; which should be drunken with the blood of the Saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.” And this power was to prevail against the Saints and destroy them. How long was it to exist? Until another angel should fly through the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to commit to the earth, with power to again administer its ordinances. To whom is the angel to bring the Gospel? The Scriptures say, the first shall be last, and the last shall be first. The Gentiles were the last to receive the Gospel in ancient times, but on its restoration by the angel in the last days, they are to receive it first, and then the Jews. But before the Jews receive it, the following words of the Savior must be fulfilled—“Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled,” when the Gospel again will revert to that people. What do you think will bring about the fulfillment of the times of the Gentiles? It must be the promulgation of the Gospel, which the angel brings, which is to be sounded in the ears of the Gentile nations; all those receiving it are to gather out from this spiritual wickedness called Babylon the Great, because God has decreed her downfall. The overthrow of Babylon is spoken of in connection with the bringing of the Gospel by the angel, who declares also, “the hour of his judgment is come.” Judgment upon whom? First, upon the Gentile nations, when their times are fulfilled. In what way? By visiting upon them famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes; nation rising against nation in war, etc., until the Gentile nations are overthrown. Or, to speak in the language of John, who declared that after the angel shall bring the Gospel, another angel shall follow, crying with a loud voice, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication; she is fallen like a great millstone, cast into the depths of the sea, and no more place found for her.

How long will it be before the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled? This is a question I cannot fully answer. It will be in the generation that the angel comes. Forty-six years have already transpired, since the Lord sent his Gospel message to the Gentile nations; and for upwards of forty years the Saints have been gathering out from the midst of Babylon, in fulfillment of another prophecy of John—“And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.” Remember, strangers and all, that this gathering of the people was not to result from a cunningly devised fable, or the natural scheming of man; but it should be in consequence of new revelation—a voice from heaven, commanding the people to come out from those nations where the Mother of Harlots has her seat. For it is written in the Revelation of John, that the great waters upon which the millions called Babylon sit, are nations, and multitudes, and tongues, and people. “Come out of her my people.” Why? That ye be not partakers of her sins. How great are her sins? “Her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.” Come out from Babylon, lest you be made partakers of her plagues. Death and mourning, lamentation and distress, will be visited upon all the inhabitants of the earth. But blessed are they who come out from Babylon, for they shall stand in holy places and not be moved, having kept the commandments of the Most High.

But if you Latter-day Saints who have received the message of the everlasting Gospel, and who have, in obedience to the voice from heaven, gathered out of Babylon, if you pollute yourselves by turning again to the vanities, wickedness, and corruptions of the people from whose midst you have been delivered, then, says the Lord, “Behold, judg– ment shall begin at the house of God,” it shall begin with you Latter-day Saints, and then will go forth to the nations and kingdoms of the earth, weeping, wailing and lamentations among all people, which will come to pass just as literally as that foretold by the Prophet Joseph Smith, concerning what should take place between the North and the South.

These plagues named in John’s revelations, will take place literally—“The Lord God will curse the waters of the great deep, and they shall be turned into blood.” “The sea shall become as the blood of a dead man, and every living thing in the sea shall be destroyed.” And the time will come, when the seven angels having the seven last trumps will sound their trumps literally, and the sound thereof will be heard among the nations, just preparatory to the coming of the Son of man; and all the judgments foretold by John, which are to succeed the sound of each of the seven trumpets, will be fulfilled literally upon the earth in their times and seasons. And the wicked will gnaw their tongues for peace, and will curse God, wishing to die because of their pain. These are they who repented not when the gospel was preached to them, and who became hardened in their iniquities, which were overflowing, in order that God might visit them according to all that had been spoken by the mouths of his ancient Prophets.

What will become of the Latter-day Saints? When the judgments shall have ceased, which will be visited first on the house of the Lord, they who remain will spread forth, increase and multiply; and they will build upon this continent a great and magnificent city, called Zion, or the New Jerusalem. And they will build a Temple within that city, upon which a cloud will rest by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night; and upon all the assemblies of the people of Zion the Lord will create this glorious appendage, and will shed forth his loving kindness. This is the destiny of Zion, as foreseen by Isaiah and David, and many of the Prophets who have predicted concerning her.

Says one, I will wait to see if God will do these things. But peradventure, while waiting, you may be cut asunder, and your portion appointed among the unbelievers, where there are weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth. Woe unto them who wait to see if God will really fulfill the prophecies of his servants, and who repent not of their sins! But, blessed are they who repent as soon as they hear the sound of the message, and who turn unto the Lord their God with all their hearts, for they shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, which bears record of the Father and the Son, and they shall be prepared for the dispensation of his providences, and hail his coming with great joy. The people of the antediluvian world waited one day too long; they waited until the flood came, when it was too late, and they were swept away, eight persons only escaping. The Savior, speaking of his second coming, said—“As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded. But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is re– vealed.” Did the Lord raise up a Prophet and warn the antediluvians by new revelation? He did: and he did the same in the case of the people in the days of Lot. Will he do the same prior to his second coming? He will. He is doing it by means of his Gospel; revealed for the purpose of saving all who receive it, who gather to a place of safety, as Noah and those who believed his message did. But the day will come when the Lord will not spare any who remain in Babylon; that will be, however, when this prophecy of Isaiah is completely fulfilled—“I will gather them from the east, and from the west; I will say to the north, give up, and to the south, keep not back; bring my sons from afar, and my daughters from the ends of the earth, even every one that is called by name.” All this is to take place in the very dispensation in which the angel should bring the Gospel, which is the dispensation of the fullness of times. The Apostle Paul also refers to the same great event, in the following language: “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.” It is the purpose of God then, not to confine the gathering to earthly Saints alone. “What,” says one, “are immortal beings coming down from heaven to live on this earth?” Certainly, and thus fulfill numerous prophecies in the Scriptures; one of which is, “They shall reign on the earth.” Who are these persons? They are they whom John heard singing in heaven about it. They said, “Thou hast redeemed us out of every nation, kindred, tongue and people, and hast made us unto our God, kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.” What a glorious song! While we are singing about going to heaven, all heavenly beings are singing about coming back to earth to live and to reign. Why? Because this is their inheritance, they have been made worthy through the blood of the lamb, and their Redeemer will be their King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and to his dominion there shall be no end. When this takes place, then will be fulfilled the saying, that all things which are in Christ, both in heaven and on earth, shall be gathered together. The wicked, too, shall be gathered, but in bundles ready for the burning.

Marvel not, therefore, Latter-day Saints, that you have been exalted out from among the Gentile nations! Marvel not that the Lord has said to the North, give up, and to the south, keep not back, bring my sons from afar, and my daughters from the ends of the earth! Marvel not at the Savior’s parable of the gathering of all kinds of fish and bringing them to the shore! By and by, angels will come among the Latter-day Saints who have been gathered from the nations, and they will pluck out one here, and another there, putting them into their place. The separation of the fish will take place; the bad will be cast away, while the good will be reserved in vessels for the Master’s use.

May the Lord who has redeemed us from among the nations bestow upon us the rich blessings of his kingdom, which he has decreed to bestow upon his people in the latter days! And may this people spread forth on the right hand and on the left; may they enlarge the place of their dwelling, and stretch forth the curtains of their habitation, until they shall become a great mountain, as the Prophet Daniel has predicted, and fill the whole earth, until the kingdom and the dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom, under the whole heavens; shall be given to the Saints of the Most High God! Amen.

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, Aug. 20, 1876.

We have heard, this afternoon, the testimony of one of our young brethren, Elder Mathoni Pratt, who has just returned, rejoicing in the truth, from his first preaching mission abroad.

When speaking of his late experience, my mind was carried back to the days of my youth, when, at the age of nineteen, I went forth to the world to preach the great principles embraced in the faith of the Latter-day Saints. I, too, felt my weakness, being then very timid and bashful, never having been accustomed to public speaking. But the Lord, in whom I placed my trust, gave me strength according to my faith and perseverance, to proclaim the truth to the people. The Holy Ghost, which had been given me, brought to mind the Scriptures of eternal truth, in the very moment needful to present them to the people. Passages which I had merely read, in my early school days, came as vividly to my mind as though I had committed them to memory. This was in fulfillment of a promise of God to all his faithful servants. The Lord, through new revelation, has commanded his servants, who go forth as missionaries in this last dispensation, to take no thought before– hand what they shall say, for it shall be given them in the very moment what they shall say. This has been verified in very deed in my experience. Sometimes, in consequence of my weakness, I would take forethought upon some few subjects, but after rising to express these things to the people, they would be taken from me.

There are many promises which God has made to his servants in these latter times, and in connection with these promises he has given many commandments which we are required to observe and keep. One of these commandments, given to his missionary servants in the year 1832, reads as follows: “Verily I say unto you, let no man that goes forth to preach my Gospel, from this hour, take purse or scrip.” We therefore went forth, as the ancient Apostles, taking no thought for the morrow what we should eat, or what we should drink, or wherewithal we should be clothed. For, said the Lord, consider the lilies of the field, they toil not, neither do they spin, and the kingdoms of this world, in all their glory, are not arrayed like one of these. There was another promise made in connection with these commandments: “They who go forth without purse or scrip, and are faithful in all things, shall not be weary in mind, neither in body, limb, nor joint, neither shall they go hungry or athirst.”

This is another great promise which has been verified upon me to the very letter. I have gone to foreign nations, without one farthing to either procure food or a night’s lodging, and God has opened up my way, so that I have lacked no needful thing. This is not only my experience, but the experience of thousands who have also tested, in like manner, the truth of this promise. In the early rise of this Church, I sometimes had to sleep out in the open air, the same as our Savior had to do, as he said, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head.” And so it hath been with many of his latter-day servants. Yet we experienced no particular inconveniences by being obliged to sleep at night on the ground; neither have we suffered when calling on the people from time to time, as servants of God, to obtain food, any more than Elijah did, when he fasted forty days, or Moses when he was forty days and forty nights without eating or drinking. There was a power over and in those ancient servants of God, that satisfied the cravings of the appetite, in passing through such circumstances, and such power was not withheld from us.

After the Lord told us how to go forth to the world with this Gospel message, he said, He that receiveth you, receiveth me; and he that receiveth me, receiveth my Father; and he that receiveth my Father, receiveth my Father’s kingdom. He also said, He that rejecteth you, and your words and testimony, rejecteth me; go away from him and cleanse your feet with pure water, and bear testimony of it to your Father, and return not again to that man or house; and whatsoever village or city you enter do likewise. And another great promise, made in connection with this, is that every soul that believes on your words, and is baptized in water for the remission of sins, shall receive the Holy Ghost, and these signs shall follow them that believe. In my name they shall cast out devils, heal the sick, open the eyes of the blind, unstop the ears of the deaf, and the tongue of the dumb shall speak; and if any man administers poison to them, it shall not hurt them.

The promise, therefore, unto all who receive this Gospel, is that they shall not only receive remission of their sins, but they shall also receive the Holy Ghost through the laying on of hands; a promise which God alone can fulfil. Suppose this Church was an imposition, and this Gospel message not divine, would not the people who have rendered obedience to its requirements have proved it long ago to be false? Certainly they would, and the message itself, with its advocates, would have died away and come to nought. Would they have continued, as many have done, for over forty years in this Church; and would the people, numbering in this Territory about one hundred and fifty thousand, have gathered as they have done from nearly all the civilized nations, to the great interior of this continent, if the promises made them through this Gospel had not been fulfilled. No, you might have preached and promised, but it would have been of no effect. There is a vast cloud of witnesses, not only these of this congregation, but I speak of the entire people.

Do you know, Latter-day Saints, that this work is true? You do. How do you know it? Not merely because the men who proclaimed it told you it was true. How then do you know it? You know it by virtue of your obedience to the message; you have done the will of the Father, and you have realized the fulfillment of the promise; so that it is not a matter of guesswork, of mere opinion; you know beyond a single doubt that it is the work of the living God.

Suppose an impostor was to undertake to preach this Gospel, offering the same promises to believers, which of course would not be ful– filled. Do you not therefore see that it would be impossible to gather such people together from the different nations? But, when the promises are realized, the people receiving something they never before experienced, when those effects are strictly in accordance with the words of God, then they have a testimony that cannot be denied. But says one, “We hear people belonging to the different Christian sects and denominations say that they receive the spirit of God; you say the same. How are we to judge between you and them?” I would answer in the language of the Apostle John, who, in the first verse of the fourth chapter of his General Epistle said, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” The true spirit imparts signs to all believers. Do the Methodists, the Baptists, the Presbyterians, or any of the Christian sects receive a spirit of this kind? Do they lay their hands on the sick, and are the sick healed? If they do then they are true believers; but if they do not, it shows that they have been deceived. Do they even profess to have these signs? No. Why? Because they know they are not in possession of them; and in order to excuse themselves with a view of making everybody believe they are true believers, they say these signs were only to follow the servants of God in the first age of Christianity. Let us examine carefully the written word, to see whether this is so or not. Jesus, as is shown in the 16th chapter of St. Mark, commencing at the 15th verse, said to the Eleven Apostles, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them: they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” Were the believers here referred to confined to certain individuals? No, this Gospel message was to be preached to every creature in all the world, and the promise was to everybody that believed and obeyed. Some argue that when the Gospel was first introduced, it was necessary that these signs should follow the believers, in order that all the world might be convinced of its divinity; but that when the Gospel had been fully established, by signs and wonders, they were no longer needed. This is believed in and accepted as truth by the great majority of the Christian world. This being the case, I have often wondered why there were not more infidels in the world, than we have a knowledge of. Because a man inclined to infidelity might say, “If you do not believe in one part of the Gospel, what use is there in my believing any of it? If you can take upon yourselves the right to do away with a part of the Gospel, why may not I do away with the whole of it?” The signs which the Savior promised should follow believers are just as much a part of the Gospel as salvation itself is.

But how shall we “try the spirits?” I do not know of a better and surer way than to follow the word of God. In ancient times hands were laid on the head of the baptized believer and the Holy Ghost was given, and it produced certain effects, insomuch that when the hands were taken from the heads of the individuals thus blessed, often times they would speak with other tongues, and prophesy, foretelling future events, etc. And the effects of the Holy Ghost were so miraculous and manifest that a certain sorcerer, named Simon Magnus, doubtless thinking it would be a great acquisition to his catalogue of wonders, offered the Apostles money, if they would empower him to perform the same. But Peter said unto him, “Thy money perish with thee; repent of this thy wickedness,” etc. “For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.” There was a power attending the demonstration of those men of God, in ancient days, that left no doubt in the minds of those who experienced it; they knew that it was a power not from man.

After the Lord had commissioned the Elders of this Church, some forty-four years ago, to preach this Gospel to all nations, he promised that to those who would believe and obey their words, should be given power to do many wonderful works, they should open the eyes of the blind, and unstop the ears of the deaf, and the tongue of the dumb should be made to speak, and the lame man should be made to walk, etc. Has this promise been fulfilled, Latter-day Saints? Yes, you know it has been literally fulfilled. You yourselves when living in a scattered condition, in places where the Gospel found you, have laid your hands upon the heads of your little children and others, who were sick, and, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by virtue of the holy Priesthood, you have rebuked the sickness, and you have seen the sick restored to health. You have also witnessed the deaf restored to their hearing, and the blind receive their sight. By these and other manifestations of the power of God, you knew that we were the servants of God, and that our message was divine. The world say that Joseph Smith was an impostor. I would ask, Can there be any more effectual means of detecting an impostor, of determining the truth or falsity of his profession, than for him to make to public promises of this kind? If he were an impostor, the signs spoken of would not follow believers, and the power to perform these wonderful works would not be given to those who obeyed his words. Do you not know, strangers, that an impostor would carefully avoid giving such unmistakable proofs of his impositions? Yes, he would be as cautious as the Methodists, and the rest of the so-called Christian denominations, for they do not even profess a belief in them, much less to declare themselves to be in possession of them. But the fact that these signs do follow believers, that this power does exist, is testimony sufficient, and it is a testimony to all the world, that this Gospel message which we preach is divine, and that God is able to do today the same as he did anciently; and you, Latter-day Saints, are witnesses concerning these things.

Having examined the message that these missionaries proclaim, let me speak a little upon another subject. If you now travel over the broad face of the Christian world, and ask the several Christian sects if they have inspired Apostles in their church, who receive revelation as they of old did? The answer will be positively no. Why do you not have them, are they not part of the Gospel? Hear what the Lord has said upon this subject through the Apostle Paul—“God hath set some in the Church, first Apostles, secondarily Prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.” And these are members of the body called the Church. Yet you say you have not the first member necessary to constitute the body. God has certainly set in his Church Apostles. Where are they, and where are their revelations? When there happens to be some difficulty on points of doctrine among you, do you go to the ministers you profess to have, requesting them to inquire of the Lord concerning the matter? Oh no, you say, the canon of Scripture is full, and there is to be no more revelation. No wonder, then, you have not the first officer of the Church; he would be to you a superfluous member, if there is to be no more revelation. But how do you know this? Has the Lord ever said that the time would come when he would have no more inspired Apostles in his Church? Says one, My minister says so. I would advise you to go to your minister and ask him where he obtains his evidence to prove that the canon of Scripture is full. You will find that he will appear dumb, because no man can put his finger upon a single passage of Scripture proving such an assertion. Perhaps some have tried to believe it, by quoting certain verses from the last chapter of the Revelation of the Lord to St. John, when on the Isle of Patmos; I have had them quote it to me. You will recollect that John, while on the Isle of Patmos, ninety-six years after the birth of Christ, received wonderful revelations, the Lord commanding him to write them. He wrote them on parchment, and upon the closing up of the scroll the Lord says, “If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book.” This is often quoted, per– haps without knowing or considering that John, after his release from Patmos, as history informs us, wrote the Gospel of St. John. Supposing that John was questioned on this point, how do you think he would have explained himself? He would have said that that caution had reference to the book written on Patmos. He would have said further, that the caution was against man’s adding, but that God has the right to give to his people line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, and there a little, book after book, yea, even ten thousand revelations, or more as he may deem proper; and he never pronounced a curse against himself, but that man has not the right to add a single word. The same language may be found in the book of Deuteronomy, which of course has a direct bearing to the five books of Moses, without any reference whatever to the succeeding books of the Bible. May not the same objection be just as consistently raised against all the books of the Old and New Testament which follow the last book written by Moses, containing the same caution, as against the new revelation of today? Surely the people who lived in and after the days of Moses might just as consistently have objected to receiving any further revelations from the Lord, because of the caution referred to appearing in the Book of Deuteronomy, as the people of today have for objecting to receive any new revelation, because the same caution appears in the last chapter of the revelation on Patmos. Both have reference to particular books only, and it is absurd and folly in the extreme for men claiming to have any knowledge of God, and the great plan of salvation to interpret it otherwise. And it can be for no other reason than to attempt to cover up the state of apostasy which the whole world is in, that causes the ministers of the various sects to quote this passage as they do.

There is another passage of Scripture which I will refer to, in connection with this; it reads as follows: “When Christ ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men. And he gave some Apostles; and some, Prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,” etc. It is acknowledged that you have not Apostles as part of your Gospel. Let us inquire further. Have you got Prophets? No, you assert there is to be no more Prophets. Have you workers of miracles or healers of the sick? No. Have you discerners of spirits, or speakers with tongues, or do angels minister to you? No, you assert that these are all done away. Do you not know that all these constitute the body of the Church of the living God, and that all these are necessary to form the whole, so that one part or member cannot say to another, “I have no need of you?” What then have you got? You reply, We have teachers and pastors. Then you consider that you have the body of Christ among you? You reply, “O yes; we are the Church of Christ.” Who authorized you to do away with these essential parts of the body or Church of Christ? Have you not been instructed of the Lord through the mouth of his Apostles, that “If all were one member, where were the body?” If pastors and teachers are the only members you have, how is it possible that the body can exist among you? The Apostle, in thus comparing the human body complete with all its members to the body or Church of Christ, said—“The head cannot say to the foot, I have no need of you,” etc. By what principle of right, therefore, can the legs or feet, which may be said to represent pastors and teachers, say to the head, which represents the Apostles, “I have no need of you?” You say you have only a couple of the members of the body, and that you have received no further revelation from God, the canon of Scripture being full, authorizing you to do away with the other members. Where then is the Church organization as established by the Savior? Nowhere, among the sects, upon the whole earth, neither has it been for many generations past. You say, we are uncharitable. We are only comparing your church organization with that of the Bible. We are told to “Try the spirits,” and I know of no better way than to do so by the Word of God. Remember that he who dwells in the heavens will judge you by his words in the great day of judgment. You pastors and teachers, you who profess to be authorized of God, how will you feel in that great day, when you shall appear before him to be judged out of the books? When you hear him declare that he placed in his Church, first Apostles, then Prophets, etc., and when he shall ask you the reason why you did away with them, how will you feel, what will you say? Your only answer can be that “we did away with them, because they were unpopular, and because we had not faith sufficient to obtain revelations ourselves, and in order to hide our apostasy we said they were no longer needed.” Remember, all ye, the testimony of the Savior—“My words shalt judge you in the last day.”

The Lord has restored his everlasting Gospel, with all its gifts and blessings, and in all its fullness, and has called men and commanded them to publish it among the inhabitants of all the earth. Judge ye whether it be the Gospel, or whether it be a man-made system. If it be false, prove it to be so; bring forth your strong reasons; otherwise lay your hands upon your mouths, and let your tongues be dumb. There may be imperfections in some of the people who represent this Gospel, for the wheat and tares are to grow together until the second coming of our Lord, when he will separate them; but there are no imperfections in the Gospel; it is perfect so far as God has seen proper to reveal himself to the human family. Will an imperfect system save the people in any part of the world? No. If the Gospel we preach is not true, there is certainly among you none true; and we, therefore, are only one among the others; for we know they are not true, because the written word testifies against them. But we present to you a system which is perfect, and which we know to be true, because the promised signs follow the believers.

This Gospel must be preached to all peoples everywhere, fulfilling the prophecy of John the Revelator, contained in the 14th chapter of Revelation. Judge ye whether that day has come or not. We declare that the angel referred to there has flown, and we bring forth the evidence of the witness who saw and conversed with him. And we are commissioned of God to carry the Gospel to all nations under heaven, bearing testimony that it is the eleventh hour—the last time that God will ever send laborers into the vineyard. We testify that when this Gospel is preached faithfully to all the world, then will the end of the wicked world come; then shall the Son of Man come, sitting upon a white cloud, as predicted in the same chapter. Then woe to the nations that reject this warning message, for they shall be visited with consuming fire, and all that shall be found doing wickedly shall be burned up. This is the dispensation of the fullness of times that should come in the last days, gathering out the Lord’s elect from the four winds of heaven; a dispensation of the Lord’s judgments spoken of in connection with the flying of the angel in the midst of heaven; and these judgments are nigh, even at the door. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the Fifteenth Ward Meetinghouse, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, March 26, 1876.

I will read a few passages of Scripture in the forepart of the 40th chapter of Isaiah. [The speaker read the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 9th, 10th and 11th verses.]

The particular portion of these words which I have read, to which I wish to call the attention of the congregation this afternoon, is that relating to the preparation for the coming of the Lord, I mean the second coming, when the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ came into the world some eighteen centuries ago in a very humble, meek and lowly manner. He came to teach the people the principles of the Gospel, and to open the way whereby salvation might be brought about in behalf of the human family, by offering an atonement before the Lord, his heavenly Father, for the sins of the world. When he came in that humble manner, he considered it important to send a messenger before his face to make preparations for that event, so that the people might not be altogether unprepared, and taken unawares concerning the work he was then to do on our earth. Hence a great Prophet was raised, generally known by the name of John the Baptist, who went forth before the Savior, calling upon the people to repent, testifying that the kingdom of heaven was at hand, baptizing them for the remission of sins, informing them that there was one standing among them that was greater than he. Although he was a great prophet, yet he did not consider himself even worthy to unloose his shoe latches, and although he was commissioned to baptize the humble, penitent believer for the remission of his sins, yet that personage that stood among them should baptize them with fire and with the Holy Ghost. That same Jesus, after the way had been prepared, went forth preaching in the land of Palestine, and the regions around, testifying of the things pertaining to the Gospel, choosing men, sending them forth before him, without purse or scrip, to declare the glad tidings of the Gospel to the people.

After awhile, after having been persecuted and driven hither and thither, and mobbed and scorned and cast out in many places, he was at length taken by the religious people of that day, those who were considered most pious—the high priests, Pharisees, Sadducees and many others, and was brought before them in judgment, and was condemned to die upon a cross, and after having carried the judgment into execution and put him to death, Jesus rose again on the third day, and appeared, not openly to the world, but to a few chosen witnesses; and just before being taken up into heaven he said unto eleven of these men—“Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature; he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned.” And while he was giving them their commission and instructions and blessing them he was taken up into heaven, and a cloud received him out of their sight. And two angels stood by them on that occasion, and they said—“This same Jesus whom ye have seen taken up into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” That is, he was received into a cloud, taken up in a cloud, and when he comes the second time he will come in a cloud, personally, with his resurrected body, the same as he ascended in the cloud. This was the testimony of these two angels who stood by on that occasion. It is of this second advent, and the preparations therefore, that I desire to speak this afternoon.

Jesus will come in a cloud, or as is expressed here in the 40th chapter of Isaiah—“The glory of the Lord will be revealed and all flesh shall see it together. It is also expressed in the revelations of St. John, that when he comes in a cloud every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him. It seems then that the second advent of the Son of God is to be something altogether of a different nature from anything that has hitherto transpired on the face of the earth, accompanied with great power and glory, something that will not be done in a small portion of the earth like Palestine, and seen only by a few; but it will be an event that will be seen by all—all flesh shall see the glory of the Lord; when he reveals himself the second time, every eye, not only those living at that time in the flesh, in mortality on the earth, but also the very dead themselves, they also who pierced him, those who lived eighteen hundred years ago, who were engaged in the cruel act of piercing his hands and his feet and his side, will also see him at that time. Now an event of so great a character as the one of which I am speaking must necessarily have a preparation. If the Lord would prepare the way for the first coming, when he came apparently as a man, like other men; if he considered it important on that occasion to send one of the greatest Prophets that ever lived among men, why not also send Prophets or inspired men before the face of his second coming, to warn the inhabitants of the earth and prepare them for so great an event? I know what the traditions of the religious world are in regard to this matter—they consider that the day of Prophets has gone by, and that no more Prophets, Apostles, Revelators, or inspired men are to appear among the children of men. But it is very evident from a vast amount of Scripture that might be quoted, that there will be many Prophets in the latter days; indeed the time will come when the spirit will be poured out upon all living—all that have not been destroyed from the earth, all flesh; and the effects of that spirit, when it is poured out, will be to make Prophets of the people. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your old men shall dream dreams by the power of that spirit, and your young men shall see visions, all by the operations of the spirit that will be poured out upon all flesh. This is a prediction that must be fulfilled.

Prior to the time, however, when the spirit is poured out upon all flesh there will be an angel sent from heaven, and that angel will bring the everlasting Gospel to be preached. When I speak of the everlasting Gospel I mean the same one that was preached eighteen hundred years ago; and authority will be given to some of the children of men to preach that everlasting Gospel among the nations; and when that shall take place I have no doubt but what there will be many Prophets raised up, because the true Christian Church has always been characterized by Prophets. There never was a genuine Christian Church unless it had Prophets and Prophetesses; indeed, in ancient times Prophets were so numerous in one branch of the Christian Church, that Paul had to set them in order, and send them an epistle and tell them not to all get up and prophesy at once, but that if a thing was revealed to anyone he was not to get up and declare it while another one was speaking, but he was to wait until the first got through speaking, and then he should prophesy; for, said Paul, the spirit of the Prophets is subject to the Prophets. That is, when the spirit came upon Prophets in ancient times, it did not exercise a supernatural power upon them to force them from their seats to stand up and declare their prophecies the moment they were revealed, but that the spirit that was given to them was subject to them, so that they could stay upon their seats until the first Prophets got through prophesying. That was the order of the Christian Church when God ever had one upon the earth—Prophets were very numerous in that church.

But by and by the time came when the Christian Church apostatized and turned away, and began to follow after their own wisdom, and the Prophets and Apostles ceased, so far as the affairs of the Christian Church on the earth were concerned. Revelations, and visions, and the various gifts of the spirit were also taken away, according to their unbelief and apostasy; but in the latter days God intends to again raise up a Christian Church upon the earth. Do not be startled, you who think that God will no more have a Church on the earth, for he has promised that he would again have one, and that he would set up his kingdom, and when he does you may look out for a great many Prophets and inspired men; and if you ever see a Church arise, calling itself a Christian Church, and it has not inspired Apostles like those in ancient times, you may know that it is a spurious church, and that it makes pretensions to something that it does not enjoy. If you ever find a church called a Christian Church that has no men to foretell future events, you may know, at once, that it is not a Christian Church. If you find a Christian Church that has not the ancient gifts, for instance the gift of healing, opening the eyes of the blind, unstopping the ears of the deaf, causing the tongue of the dumb to speak and the lame to walk; if you ever find a people calling themselves a Christian Church and they have not these gifts among them, you may know with a perfect knowledge that they do not agree with the pattern given in the New Testament. The Christian Church is always characterized with inspired men, whose revelations are just as sacred as any contained in the Bible; and, if written and published, just as binding upon the human family. The Christian Church will always lay hands upon the sick in the name of Jesus, in order that the sick may be healed. The Christian Church will always have those among its members who have heavenly visions, the ministration of angels, and the various gifts that are promised according to the Gospel.

But as there has been no Christian Church on the earth for a great many centuries past, until the present century, the people have lost sight of the pattern that God has given according to which the Christian Church should be established, and they have denominated a great variety of people Christian Churches, because they profess to be. They say, “We have built chapels unto the name of the Lord; we call our Churches Christian Churches, they are called the Church of Christ, St. John’s Church, St. Paul’s Church, St. Peter’s Church, and after others of the ancient Apostles;” and one who had never studied the pattern which God has given of the Christian Church would almost really believe that they are Christian Churches.

But there has been a long apostasy, during which the nations have been cursed with apostate churches in great abundance, and they are represented in the revelations of St. John as a woman sitting upon a scarlet colored beast, having a golden cup in her hand, full of filthiness and abominations, full of the wine of the wrath of her fornication; that in her forehead there was a name written—“Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots.” This kind of a church has existed in great abundance, for as John the Revelator says, she was to have her dominion upon many waters, and she was to make all nations drunken with the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

Now, we do not dispute but what such churches have existed and exist at the present time, and that the nations of the earth have been cursed with their filthiness and abominations, and with the pride and wickedness they have practiced before the Lord of hosts. I have no doubt but what some few honest-hearted persons have been taken in by them, because they were so numerous and so popular on the earth. But they lack all the characteristics of the ancient Christian Church, having numerous forms of godliness, but denying the power thereof. That is, they deny revelators and Prophets, deny the power to foretell future events; deny that any person, in these days, has the power to have visions or revelations from heaven, as the members of the Christian Church anciently did.

Inasmuch as there has been such a long apostasy, and the earth left without any church of God upon it, we might naturally suppose that, before the second advent of the Son of God, there would be as a preparation for his second coming a Christian Church again organized, and I will now refer you to some prophecies upon this subject in the Bible. We will first turn to the 14th chapter of the Revelation of St. John, where we find a prophecy about the second coming of the Son of God. The 14th verse says—“And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of Man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle,” &c. We have not time to read all the events connected with this personage that was sitting upon the cloud, and coming in great glory; but we will go back a few verses and see if there is any preparation to be made before he comes in this cloud. In the 6th verse he says—“And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come. And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”

Here then, we perceive the nature of the preparatory work for the coming of the Son of Man sitting upon a cloud. The Gospel is to be preached to all nations, and that Gospel, when it is restored to the earth, must be restored by an angel from heaven. Now the Gospel that was introduced in the dispensation before John received this revelation, was not restored by an angel from heaven; Jesus himself came and preached the Gospel, as well as John the Baptist, and his Apostles preached it, and they were commanded in that day to preach it among all people, nations and tongues; and they fulfilled their mission, according to Paul’s testimony, for he, in speaking of the extent to which the Gospel had gone before his martyrdom, says that the Gospel was preached to every creature under heaven, “whereof I, Paul, am made a minister.” It seems then, that it was sent forth very fully in that day and age of the world. And then came the great apostasy; and after this apostasy should continue for many long centuries, then an angel should come. Just before the personage should appear in the white cloud, the angel should come and bring the Gospel, and the Gospel should be preached to them that dwell on the earth, to every people, kindred, tongue and nation. What does this indirectly prove? It proves that there was no nation, no people, no kindred, no tongue, upon the face of the whole earth that had the everlasting Gospel when the angel should come; because, if there had been any people, however obscure they might be, however distant they might be from what are termed civilized nations, if there had been any people on the earth who had the Gospel, they would have a Christian Church, with Apostles and Prophets and all the gifts of the spirit therein. But inasmuch as every nation, kindred, tongue and people on the whole earth was completely destitute of the Gospel, and of the Church as organized in ancient days, it was necessary to restore it anew from heaven, and it is predicted that that should be done by an angel.

Has any such event transpired? This is a very important question. To whom shall we go and make the inquiry in regard to the coming of the angel? Someone may perhaps say that we had better make the inquiry of some Christian people, they would be most likely to give an answer. Very well, let us go, then, to the oldest Christian Church, so called—the Roman Catholics, and ask them. Let us go to their cardinals and archbishops, or even to the head man of all that church, who sits in what is called the chair of St. Peter, and ask him, or any other of their great men—“Sir, do you believe that an angel has come from heaven with the everlasting Gospel to preach to all nations, kindreds, tongues and people since the day that John delivered that prophecy? What will be the answer? It will be—“No, we do not believe in any such thing, we claim that we are preachers of the everlasting Gospel; and we hold the regular succession of the authority that was committed in the first century of the Christian era, and that the Gospel had been preached from that day until this, and that the Christian Church has existed among all nations, and there has been no necessity for an angel coming from heaven with it.” “Very well, you do not believe that any angel has come with the everlasting Gospel?” “Oh, no, that is contrary to our faith and belief.”

Go to the next oldest Christian Church, one that broke off from the Roman Catholics, called the Greek Church. Go through all the great nation of Russia, and ask them the same question, and they will answer, like the old mother, that no angel has been sent: “We did not receive the Gospel that we preach by an angel from heaven.” Very well, we will leave you, then, and we will come down to the modern Christian Churches, that came out from the Catholic Church two or three centuries ago, and ask them the question; go to Luther and Calvin, and all the various reformers that seceded from the Church of Rome in the 16th century, and ask each one in his turn, and each will have the same answer. “Martin Luther, did you receive the Gospel which you preach from an angel sent from heaven?” “Oh, no,” says he, “we got our ordination from the church that we dissented from; we once belonged to the Roman Catholic Church, but we found out that they were very wicked and abominable, and that they were the ones John spoke of, that should have ‘Mystery, Babylon’ written in the forehead, that have been drinking of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and we have come out from that church.” “Well, Mr. Luther, did you get any ordination in that church?” “Yes, we got an ordination.” “And that is your authority, is it? No angel was sent to you from heaven to restore the authority and the Gospel?” “No, we got our authority from the mother church.“ “Well, do you think the mother church is very wicked?” “Yes, the most wicked and corrupt people on the face of the earth.” “Then you got your authority from the most corrupt people on the face of the earth, did you? What is it good for? And, by the by, if they have authority to confer upon you the Priesthood, and that gives you a right to baptize and to administer the ordinances, have they not also authority to excommunicate you? Were you excommunicated from their communion?” “Oh, yes, they exercised their authority in cutting me off from their church and casting me out.” “Very well, then, they took away all the authority they pretended to give you, did they not?” “Yes, they took it away, but still we claim it through them, and that is the only way we get the chain of authority back to the Apostles.”

Some of the Protestants, however, do not argue in this way; they say that they get their authority from the Bible, independent of any church. Well, let me say to some who claim their authority in this way, “What part of the Bible called you by name, William? You have been ordained, have you, to preach the Gospel and baptize? Who ordained you? Who gave this authority to you? Who commissioned you?” Says William—“Well, I really did not get the authority from the Roman Catholics, or from any church later than the Roman Catholics, but I got it from the Bible.” “What part of the Bible?” “Why, that saying of Jesus to his eleven Apostles. Just before he was taken up in a cloud, Jesus said to them—’Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.’” “Well, how do you know, William, that that meant you? If it meant you, did it not mean your neighbor also, and every male person who has lived on the earth since the days of the Apostles? How do you know that it meant you? Did God ever give you a new revelation?” “Oh, don’t mention it, we do not believe in any new revelation, or in inspired men in our day.” “Very well, then, you do not think that God has sent any angel to restore the Gospel, and authority to preach it to the children of men?” “Oh, no, none but a poor deluded sect called Mormons away up in the mountains of America believe any such thing; they profess that God has sent an angel from heaven to restore the Gospel and the authority of the Priesthood, but we do not believe that God sends angels in our day.”

This is about the way you would get answered by all the various churches that have lived during many hundreds of years past, in regard to their authority; they have no more authority than a heathen priest. Why? Because they have denied all the fundamental powers and principles of the ancient Christian Church.

Says one—“Well, if they have no authority, then all our baptisms are illegal.” Certainly they are; to be baptized by a man who has no authority, no matter how sincere I may be, would avail me nothing, I might as well go and baptize myself. “Well,” says one, “you Mormons believe, do you, that God has actually sent an angel, and has again committed to men the everlasting Gospel, and authority to preach it and administer its ordinances?” “Yes, and we not only believe it, but many of us know with a most perfect knowledge that he has done so, having received our knowledge from God himself.” “Then the Lord, you think, has fulfilled that passage in the 14th chapter of Revelation, and that he has actually sent an angel to restore the Gospel to earth?” “Yes.” “How long since?” Some forty-six years have passed away since the angel came and committed a record of the Gospel, not merely given in a verbal manner, but caused to be translated a record that contained the everlasting Gospel in all its fullness. The ancient Israelites, who once inhabited this country, were acquainted with the Gospel. Jesus did not confine his labors altogether to Palestine; but after his crucifixion and resurrection, he came to America, and appeared among its people, and taught them the everlasting Gospel, the same as he had before taught the people of Palestine, and he commanded them to write this Gospel upon plates of metal; they did so, and they established a Christian Church according to the pattern that God gave to them, and their writings have been brought forth. How? By the administration of an angel from heaven, an angel sent to reveal this record containing the fulness of the everlasting Gospel.

Inquires one—“Did this angel give any authority to Joseph Smith, and to others to whom he revealed himself, to baptize?” Not at all. He revealed the record, and Joseph was commanded to translate it by the aid of the Urim and Thummim that was with it, and he was told that it would be sent to all nations, kindreds, tongues and people. But he did not give Joseph Smith authority to preach that Gospel, neither did he give him authority to baptize, or to lay on hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, and the probability is that the person who held the keys to reveal the everlasting Gospel did not have the authority himself—it is not all angels that have this authority. Peter, James, and John had the authority, and after the book was translated they were sent. What for? Not to reveal the Gospel, for that was revealed by another angel prior to that time; but they were sent to lay their hands upon individuals, and ordain them to the Apostleship. No one can say that Peter, James, and John did not hold the Apostleship, and that people could not be ordained under their hands. They ordained them to the Apostleship, and they commanded, in the name of the Lord, that they should preach the Gospel, and ordain others to the same power and authority which was conferred and restored from heaven. They were commanded to preach the Gospel to all of the nations and kindreds of the earth. That was the way that the Lord restored the everlasting Gospel.

What have we been doing since the authority was restored? Forty-six years have now passed away, and what has been done during that time towards fulfilling the prediction uttered by John the revelator? Much has been done. In the midst of the most severe persecution, the servants of God have gone forth and preached the Gospel to a great many nations. They were commanded to go to and labor with the Gentile nations first, without purse and scrip. “Go and preach the Gospel as mine ancient Apostles did, without purse and scrip; and go to the Gentiles first. Warn them thoroughly, and teach them concerning my Gospel.” They have done so, and for forty-six years they have continued their missions in the Gentile nations.

The Lord also told them that when the fullness of the Gentiles had come, when their times were fulfilled, then his servants should be sent to all the scattered remnants of the house of Israel, who should be grafted in again; but first, the fullness of the Gentiles must come in. You know that Scripture which says—“The first shall be last, and the last shall be first.” Now the Gospel, when it was preached in ancient times, was preached first to the Jews, the house of Israel, to those of Israelitish origin, and when they counted themselves unworthy of eternal life, and rejected that Gospel, “Lo” says Paul, “we turn unto the Gentiles.” The Gentiles, then, heard it last; they were last to embrace the Gospel of the kingdom, and the Jews first, that is, as many of them as would believe and repent. But in the last days, when the angel brings the Gospel, it is reversed, and it is preached first to the Gentiles, to bring in their fullness, and to fulfil their times, and then it will be sent to the house of Israel.

In the 21st chapter of Luke, our Savior, in speaking of the evils that should befall the Jewish nation, says, “And they (the Jews) shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations; and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” This has been fulfilled literally upon the Jewish nation, and they have been scattered, according to this prediction, among all nations. Many of them were destroyed by the edge of the sword. Jerusalem was taken some seventy years after the birth of Christ, and has been in possession of the Gentiles from that day to this. Jesus told them that such should be the fact, that Jerusalem should be in the possession of the Gentiles, and should be trodden down by them until a certain period—until their times should be fulfilled.

The great object of the angel in restoring the Gospel was, in the first place, to fulfil the times of the Gentiles. Inquires one—“What do you mean by that?” I mean that God will send this Gospel, restored by an angel, to every nation, kindred, people and tongue in the Gentile world before he will permit his servants to go to the scattered remnants of Israel; and they will labor with, preach to and declare the work of God to the Gentile nations, and seek to bring them to a knowledge of the ancient Gospel, and to organize a Church among them, so far as they will hearken to and receive their testimony. Then, when the Gentile nations shall reject this Gospel, and count themselves unworthy of eternal life, as the Jews did before them, the Lord will say—“It is enough, come away from them, my servants, I will give you a new commission, you shall go to the scattered remnants of the house of Israel. I will gather them in from the four quarters of the earth, and bring them again into their own lands. They shall build Jerusalem on its own heap; they shall rear a Temple on the appointed place in Palestine, and they shall be grafted in again.” Now that, in short, is the nature of this great latter-day preparatory work for the coming of the Son of Man.

Now let me quote another passage that corresponds with one I have already quoted. Paul, in the 11th chapter of his epistle to the Romans, speaks of the proclamation of the Gospel to the Jews first, and because of their unbelief, Paul says they were broken off as branches of the tame olive tree; “and,” says the Apostle, addressing his epistle to a Gentile church, “you have been grafted in the stead of them;” in other words, the kingdom has been transferred from Israel to you Gentiles, and it is committed into your hands, and you are beginning to bring forth the fruits of that kingdom, the gifts of the kingdom are made manifest among you, just as they were among Israel in the days of their righteous– ness. “But,” said Paul—“They were broken off by unbelief, and you Gentiles stand by faith. Be not highminded, but fear, for if God spared not the natural branches, if he did not even spare the tame olive tree—the natural branches—take heed lest he also spare not thee, for you are only wild branches grafted in contrary to nature. Take heed lest he also spare not thee, for behold, therefore, the goodness and the severity of God; on the house of Israel, that fell through unbelief, severity; but towards thee, or in other words, towards you, the Gentiles, the goodness of God is extended if you continue in his goodness.” It was on that condition—if you Gentiles continue in his goodness; otherwise, says Paul, you also shall be cut off, just the same as Israel were. You also shall be cut off, and they also shall be grafted in again, for God is able to graft them in again. For if God spared not the natural branches take heed lest he also spare not thee, etc. Then he tells them a mystery. He wanted those Gentiles to understand a certain mystery, and that was that blindness in part had happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in, and so all Israel shall be saved. As it is written—There shall come out of Zion a deliverer who shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. “And this shall be my covenant unto them, saith the Lord, when I shall take away their sins.”

It seems then that Paul understood, by the spirit of prophecy, that if the Gentiles apostatized, if they did not continue in the place where they were grafted, if they did not continue in the goodness of God, if they became highminded, they also were to be cut off, just as they have been for many long generations that are past; cut off from all the ancient blessings of the everlasting Gospel through the apostasy of their ancient fathers.

But the Lord intends to make a change, and that change is to send forth this Gospel from heaven to be preached to the nations of the Gentiles, to give them one more chance, if they will have it, to bring in their fullness; and when that time has come, and the servants of the Lord find that the balance of them harden their hearts and reject the Gospel of life and salvation, then the Lord will graft in all Israel, and they will be saved, being restored again to the tame olive tree, and bringing forth the fruits thereof. Thus will be fulfilled the ancient covenant that God made with them pertaining to the latter days. Have you read that covenant that Paul quotes from? One of the ancient prophets, Jeremiah, delivered the prophecy, as recorded in his 31st chapter—“Behold the day shall come that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers, when I took them by the hand and brought them forth out of the land of Egypt. And this is the covenant I will make with them saith the Lord—I will write my law in their hearts, print it in their thoughts, and they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord.”

Now did all Israel and all Judah know the Lord, from the least of them to the greatest of them? Had they no more need to say, every man to his Jewish neighbor, know ye the Lord? Was that the case anciently, when the Lord offered them the covenant of the everlasting Gospel? No; instead of all Israel and all Judah knowing the Lord, from the least to the greatest, they were the very ones that were cut off and lost the privileges of that covenant. But in the latter days when the fullness of the Gentiles is brought in by the proclamation of the Gospel committed by the angel, then is the time that the Lord will renew this covenant, and the same Gospel that he offered to them eighteen hundred years ago, and which they rejected, will be offered to them again, and all Israel will be saved. As it is written—“There shall come out of Zion a deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.”

It seems, then, that the Lord, when he shall fulfill this prophecy, will have a Zion on the earth. Enquires one—“What do you mean by Zion? I mean the Church of God, that is what I call Zion. God will have a Church on the earth—a Zion, and out of that Church a deliverer will come for and in behalf of all Israel, not only the Jews—the two tribes and a half that were scattered after Christ, but the ten tribes that were taken away out of Palestine some seven hundred years before Christ. All Israel—the whole twelve tribes—will come to the knowledge of the truth when God sends this deliverer out of Zion, proclaiming the Gospel of the latter days for their salvation.

Connected with this everlasting Gospel is another very marvelous event preparatory to the second advent. What is that? Every Christian upon the face of the whole earth will be gathered from all nations, and all will be assembled in one. Says one—“There are none of our Protestant denominations gathering; the Roman Catholics do not gather; the Greek Church do not gather, and I do not know any Church, except you Mormons, that gather out.” Now, let us see what is said about this gathering. I have told you that the Gospel should be committed by an angel; I have told you that it should be the hour of God’s judgment—a peculiar time of judgment, in which the nations are to be visited with sore and terrible judgments. Now let us read further—“Another angel followed, crying, Babylon is fallen, because she made all nations drunk with the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” Who is Babylon? I have already explained that Babylon is a great power that should be in the earth under the name of a church, a woman—that generally represents a church—full of blasphemy. She had the inscription of her name upon her forehead—“Mystery, Babylon, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth.” What is to become of her? Where does she sit? Upon many waters, says John; and to interpret this to the understanding of the people, the waters are many people, nations, kindred and tongues where the woman hath her seat. These churches are scattered over the wide face of the earth, and this is called Babylon. Another angel is to follow the one that brings the Gospel, after it has been sufficiently preached, and proclaim the downfall of this great and corrupt power in the earth. Well, will all the Christians that are there perish, or will they be gathered out? Hear what John says—“I heard a great voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, oh my people, that you partake not of her sins, that you receive not of her plagues, for her sins have reached to the heavens, and God hath remembered her iniquities.” Then there is only one way to escape, is there? We can’t stay in Babylon and be spared from these judgments, can we? Not at all. Why not? Because her sins have reached to the very heavens. Look at her abominations, her whore– doms, her murders, her priestcraft, her false doctrines, her forms of godliness without any power; look at them, all the nations are following after, and consider it popular to follow and embrace these doctrines. “Come out of her, oh, my people.” What people? God had no people in Babylon until the Church was organized, he could not have; he sent his servants to organize his Church, that there might be a people called his people. But when that Church is organized among these nations, kindred, tongues and people, its members are not permitted to remain where they are. This is not an invention of a learned company of divines, saying it will be a good thing for us to gather in one; it is not something invented by human wisdom; but the Revelator John says—“I heard a voice from heaven.” What, a new revelation, John? Yes, a voice from heaven. God was again to speak, before the downfall of Babylon; and this should be the voice—“Come out of her, O my people.”

Who has been fulfilling this among all those calling themselves Christians? Have the Roman Catholics? Have the Greek church? Have the Protestants, in any of their denominations, been gathering out from all the nations of the earth? No, but you find one people doing it. Who are they? The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, organized on the earth by divine authority. They have gone forth proclaiming these things among the inhabitants of the earth. Instead of saying to the people—“Tarry where you are,” we say to them—“Arise, make preparations, and gather out from this corruption.” This has been the proclamation to the people of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, and every other country the people of which have received the Gospel, and they have been commanded not to tarry, but to obey the word of the Lord, and gather as soon as possible.

But where shall they gather to? Is there anything indicated in prophecy about where they should gather? Yes. Daniel saw a Church organized in the latter days, in a mountain or high place of the earth. Read the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, in the second chapter of Daniel’s prophecies. The king could not recollect his dream when he awoke, and he sent out to all the wise men, musicians and astrologers, and requested them to tell him what his dream was, and then give him an interpretation. But they could not do it. Finally a man of God, a humble man, by the name of Daniel, besought the Lord, and the Lord revealed to him the dream and the interpretation thereof. Nebuchadnezzar, it seems, had seen a very great image before him; the head of that image was gold, the breast and arms of silver, the belly and thighs were of brass, the legs of iron, and the feet part of iron and part of potter’s clay. He saw it in all its terrible majesty composed of these different metals, together with potter’s clay. Then, after Daniel had described to him what he had seen in his dream, said he—“Thou sawest until that a stone was cut out of the mountain;” not out of some low country of the earth near the sea level, “but thou sawest until that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and it rolled forth, and smote the image upon the feet, that were part of potter’s clay and part of iron, and the feet were broken to pieces. Then were the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver and the gold broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloor, and the wind carried them away and no place was found for them.” What became of the stone? The stone that smote the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

Well, what was the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream? He told the king that the head of the image represented the kingdom then organized; that after him would come another kingdom, that of the Medes and Persians, represented by the breast and arms of silver; then a third kingdom should follow, the Macedonians; then a fourth kingdom, which should be great and terrible, compared to the iron kingdom, which everyone admits was the great power of Rome, which flourished and had power and dominion over the whole earth. Out of that kingdom grew other kingdoms represented by the feet and toes of the image; these kingdoms had not all the greatness and strength of the former kingdoms represented by the image, but they were partly strong and partly weak.

Now what is the location of this great image from the days of Nebuchadnezzar until now? You go into Asia and you will find there the descendants of the old Babylonian empire still in existence. Come a little further westward, and you find still the descendants of the Medes and Persians who once flourished and exercised dominion over the earth. A little further west you find the descendants of the third, or Macedonian, empire still in existence. Come further still, into Europe, and you find the feet and toes of the image in the latter-day kingdoms of the earth, which have branched across the great deep and have planted themselves in America. Are they partly strong and partly broken? Yes. Some of them have some strength apparently, and they have among themselves all the characteristics of miry clay with the iron, for they are divided one against another, and they have to keep up their standing armies because they are afraid of one another. But where is the stone from the mountains? Where is that kingdom that is called the stone? In the interpretation the Prophet says—“Thou sawest until the kingdom of God was set up, and it smote the image upon the feet,” and so on. It does not commence its attack away in Asia, where the head of gold or its descendants live, neither in any intermediate part, but it commences at the very extremity of this great image, as it spreads out to the west, and commences upon the feet and the toes; it is there where the stone is cut out of the mountain without hands, it is there where the God of heaven should set up a kingdom, as Daniel says, that should never be destroyed, neither shall it be given into the hands of another people, but it shall stand forever. Not like the former-day kingdom that was set up, before the Roman empire had attained to its zenith of power. The former-day kingdom of Christ was set up in the days of the Apostles; that was overcome and destroyed out of the earth. The beast made war upon them and prevailed against them, and they were banished from the earth, and the woman upon the scarlet-colored beast seems to have had dominion among all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, more or less. But in the latter days the kingdom of God was to be built up on the earth, that should never be destroyed; it was not to be like the former-day one, but it should stand forever, while all these other kingdoms should not only be destroyed, but, like the chaff of the summer threshingfloor, should be carried completely away, and no place should be found for them.

That is the destiny of all the nations. A great many wise men, and statesmen, have meditated deeply upon the past, present and future of the nations, and have no doubt inquired in their own minds with a great deal of seriousness—“What will be the end of these political powers? What will be the end, for instance, of this great republican government of ours? What will be the end of the governments organized in Europe?” These questions, no doubt, have occurred to thousands and tens of thousands of reflecting men. The Bible answers the question. No kingdom, no form of government of human invention will be permitted to stand. When God has fulfilled the saying written by the Prophet Daniel, there will be one universal kingdom, and only one, and that will be the kingdom of God, and Jesus himself will be the great king.

Inquires one—“What do you mean by this breaking to pieces? Do you think Daniel meant that they should go forth with physical force and subdue all the nations?” No, I do not think any such thing; but when the Lord God sends his holy angel from heaven with the everlasting Gospel and then ordains his servants to the Apostleship, and sends them forth among the nations of the earth, and they proclaim the Gospel of the kingdom among the people, if the people will not hear, the Lord himself will break them in pieces. It will be the message that he sends that will ripen them for destruction.

And the location of his kingdom was to be in the mountains, so says Daniel. Now you can understand that saying in Isaiah, which I read at the commencement of my remarks. When describing the glory of the Lord to be revealed and all flesh seeing it together, preparatory to that work, Isaiah says there was a certain people that should get up into the mountains. “Oh Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain.” That did not mean a city called Zion, for it is not to be supposed that a city would travel up into a high mountain; but it meant a people, a people who were bringing good tidings. What good tidings? What can be more glorious tidings to the inhabitants of the earth than the everlasting Gospel sent by an angel, to say unto the people that if they will repent of their sins and be baptized in water for the remission of their sins, they shall receive the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost by the laying on of the hands of the servants of God? What can be more glorious in its nature than a proclamation of this kind to the nations of the earth? Hence when the people come out of great Babylon and gather themselves together, they will gather into the mountains to fulfill this prophecy.

Any other prophecies about their going to the mountains? Yes. Read the 18th chapter of Isaiah. Isaiah, when standing in Palestine delivering his prophecy, looked off to the southwest and saw the rivers of Ethiopia, or Africa; and after having seen these rivers in vision he also sees a land shadowing with wings away beyond the rivers of Ethiopia. What kind of a land was that, away beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, from where Isaiah stood in Palestine? Why it is a land that had the appearance of wings. You have been struck doubtless, with the great resemblance that North and South America have to the two great wings of a bird. While Isaiah was thus gazing upon a land away beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, it looked so much like the wings of a bird that he says—“A land shadowing with wings, away, beyond the rivers of Ethiopia.” Well, Isaiah, what have you to say about that land? Why, says he, there is a proclamation to be had there. How extensive, Isaiah? To all people. Hear the words of Isaiah. Says he, “All ye inhabitants of the world and dwellers on the earth, see ye when he lifts up an ensign on the mountains.” Not on the low places of that land shadowing with wings, next to the seashore, but in the mountains. What is the nature of this ensign? It is characteristic of a standard, often spoken of by the Prophets, and called by the name of standard. Isaiah speaks of it as an ensign in a number of places. What would naturally be a standard? The kingdom of God is a standard to which the people rally and gather together. Does it affect all people, Isaiah? Yes. “All ye inhabitants of the world.” What could be more extensive than that? “And dwellers on the earth, see ye when he lifts up an ensign on the mountains, and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye.” What else is to take place, Isaiah? He says that a severe judgment is to take place on that land shadowing with wings. What kind of a judgment, one that is to be very severe, Isaiah? Yes, for he says—“Afore the harvest, when the bud is perfect, and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruninghooks, and take away and cut down the branches. They shall be left together unto the fowls of the mountain and to the beasts of the earth; and the fowls shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them.” When will this be, Isaiah? After this proclamation, after all the nations of the world have heard it, after the people have heard the sound of the warning message; then the first among all the nations where the extremities of the image have sent forth one of its governments, there will be the commencement of a most terrible judgment, so much so that the people on that land will not have time to bury their dead, and the fowls shall summer upon them. Why is all this? Because they will not hearken when that sound goes to all people; they will not repent of their sins; they will not receive the message that God has sent by his angel, he therefore visits them first, because they are the first to hear those glad tidings. No wonder, then, that Zion, that brings good tidings, was commanded by the ancient Prophet to get up into the high mountain.

Let us go a little further, and see what immediately follows this. Isaiah says—“For behold the Lord God shall come with a strong hand.” What! The coming of the Lord going to take place after Zion has gone up into the mountains? Yes, that is one of the great events that will transpire, when the people of the nations are careless and indifferent, when they are eating and drinking, buying and selling, and their minds wholly swallowed up with the various occupations of life. “Behold, the Lord comes with a strong hand, his arm will rule for him and he will reward his people; then the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all flesh will see it together.”

But one of the great preparatory works in that dispensation of the gathering of Zion to the mountains, will be the construction of a great highway, which is to be cast up in the desert. Let me ask you who have been across these mountains, from Omaha for many hundred miles westward, what kind of a country is it? Is it a country of orchards, vineyards, and alluvial soil, that is calculated to flatter the agriculturist? Says one—“No, I never saw such a barren plain for hundreds and hundreds of miles. In the day time, when we had an opportunity of looking at it, it had all one appearance, and was a vast sage plain and desert.” Now Isaiah said that when his people should get up into the mountains a highway should be cast up in the desert. “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” What! Is it made for the Lord? Yes. What is the Lord going to do with it? He is going to gather his people from all the nations on this highway through the desert. Do you want to know anything more about this highway? Read another chapter in Isaiah; he gives more particulars than what I have mentioned.

What I have read in the 40th chapter of Isaiah about the highway in the desert, is only one thing connected with it. In another chapter he says—“Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people. Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.” Here is the same thing spoken of again, only it speaks of tunnels, or, in other words, gates—“Go through, go through the gates.” I have no idea but what Isaiah, in gazing down upon future generations, saw the time when a long train of carriages would be whirled across a continent, without any apparent animal force or power. He perhaps did not understand the modern terms for tunnel through a rock, and hence he calls them gates. “Go through, go through the gates; prepare the way of the people; cast up, cast up a highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people.” Then comes in this universal proclamation—“Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed from the ends of the world.” Now, from the ends of the world, we should naturally suppose that, Isaiah, standing in Palestine, and delivering this, would see a work that was to transpire on a very distant land. He could find no better language to describe it, than the expression “to the ends of the world.” Not a work to transpire in Palestine, in his own neighborhood, but, “Behold the Lord should proclaim from the ends of the world, to all people, Behold, your salvation cometh.” That is, the Lord was coming with a strong hand, and this proclamation coming from the Lord was to be sounded to all the inhabitants of the earth, a standard was to be raised, and a way prepared by this highway being cast up.

There are a great many in this congregation who took part in casting up this highway. We built the most difficult portions of this railroad, through these mountains, some four hundred miles in extent. Did you work with a good cheerful heart when you were engaged in gathering out the stones, and when you were making these gates that Isaiah speaks of, through which he saw a long train of carriages dart into the mountain, losing sight of them for a time, then seeing them come out again with great speed, from the mountain? How could he describe it any better than by saying—“Go through, go through the gates?”

But what kind of a people were these to be who should be gathered from the ends of the world by this proclamation? Read the next verse—“They shall call them the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord.” Says one—“Well, you are called anything else but that; instead of being called a holy people, you are represented, by the priests and everybody else, as a very unrighteous people.” Very well, the Lord will, in his own due time, enable you to distinguish between the righteous and the wicked. “Behold, they shall call them the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord; and behold, they shall be called, sought out, a city not forsaken.” How different from old Jerusalem! Was that sought out? No; Jerusalem was built up a long time before Israel came out of Egypt, and was there ready for them to take possession of when they entered the Holy Land. Was Jerusalem ever forsaken? Yes, forsaken for many generations. But not so with Zion, that should get up into the mountains; they should seek out a location, so much so that the city should be called “Sought out;” and instead of being forsaken, as many people suppose the “Mormons” will be, the Lord God will protect them. According to the words of Daniel, the kingdom shall not be destroyed, neither shall it be given to another people, and it shall stand forever. All these characteristics are being fulfilled.

Would you suppose that the House of Jacob, the ten tribes of Israel, can be gathered from the four quarters of the earth, and brought back to their own land, without the lifting of this ensign? No. Read the 11th chapter of Isaiah. There he says—“I will lift up an ensign for the nations, I will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and I will gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four quarters of the earth.” Until the Lord God sends forth this proclamation to all the inhabitants of the world and dwellers on the earth, in vain may we look for the redemption of the outcasts of Israel and the dispersed of Judah. Israel, the ten tribes, called the outcasts, will never return, the scattered Jews will never be restored, until such an ensign is raised. Isaiah, in the fifth chapter, speaks of that ensign—“I will lift up for the nations an ensign from afar.” Why not lift it up in Jerusalem, Isaiah? Why not lift it up in Palestine? Why not commence the work in Asia? Says Isaiah—“I will lift up an ensign to the nations from afar.” How far? Away off to the ends of the earth, from where Isaiah then was.

After this ensign is raised, he speaks of how swiftly the people shall come—“They shall come with speed swiftly.” Is that the way you came, Latter-day Saints? When you crossed the ocean, how did you come? In steamships; and when you crossed through the United States to Omaha, how did you come? In steam cars. And when you crossed these desert sage plains, how did you come? With speed swiftly through most of the desert, just as Isaiah said you would in his fifth chapter.

Many people thought that when the railroad came, “Mormonism” would be done away. But such a supposition shows their ignorance. Why, bless you, this people in the year 1847, when the pioneers crossed these plains without any track to guide them, were looking for this great highway then. Yes, I recollect, almost every day when I could get an observation of the sun (for we had two sextants, and artificial horizons, and mountain barometers, and one circle of reflection), taking the latitudes and longitudes of all the prominent places, crossing this great desert; and not satisfied with getting the latitude and longitude we had our mountain barometers and attached and detached thermometers and took the altitude above sea level of all the prominent places on the route of this great highway which was to be cast up for us in the midst of the desert. Thus this people were the first to talk about this great highway, and we never lost sight of it. We petitioned Congress for its construction twenty-five years ago; our Legislature, knowing the minds of the people, sent our memorial to the National Legislature, and requested them to cast up the highway across this country. Our memorials were, for awhile, treated with silence; but by and by, when the proper time comes, the Lord will stir up Congress and the great men and capitalists of the nation to go forth and construct this highway. Did we not rejoice and thank the Lord our God for fulfilling that which we had been expecting, and praying for so diligently? We certainly did.

We might continue our remarks, as there are many things connected with this great preparatory work which, did time permit, we would be glad to lay before the people. I will quote a passage or two more in relation to the gathering. Paul saw this gathering, and he calls it a new dispensation that should come after his day. He says that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he would gather together in one all things in Christ, whether they be things in heaven or things on the earth. The dispensation of the fullness of times, then, was to be characterized by the gathering of all persons that were in Christ. All the righteous dead that are in heaven, whose bodies are asleep in the grave, together with all the Christians on the earth, will be gathered in one in that dispensation. Fulfilling another prophecy in the 43rd chapter of Isaiah, where the Lord says—“I will say to the north give up, and to the south keep not back; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth, even every one that is called by my name.” Will it leave a Christian behind? Not one. Go and search New York, Philadelphia, and all the eastern States, and the middle and southern States, and then all Europe, for a Christian after this prophecy is fulfilled, and you can’t find one. Why? Because they are all gathered in one. How? By new revelation. The Lord says, “I will say to the north give up.” The Lord’s going to speak, the Lord is going to utter something—“I will say to the south keep not back. I will say, Come ye, my sons and daughters, from the ends of the earth, even every one that is called by my name.” What an awful condition the world will be in when there is not a Christian among them. Amen.

remarks by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered at the Forty-Sixth Semi-Annual Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Saturday Morning, Oct. 9, 1875.

It is with peculiar feelings that I arise on this occasion to speak a few words to this vast assembly. While listening to the sacred words of the prayer that has been offered up this forenoon in the dedication of this large building as a place of worship, and the dedication of the ministry who administer therein, my heart has been full of joy and satisfaction, and, while listening to these glorious words, my mind was led to reflect upon dedications of houses and tabernacles of the Most High in former ages of the world, and also upon the peculiar manifestations oftentimes connected with those dedications.

The Lord our God accepts the dedication, by his servants the Priesthood, of those things which he has ordained and established; and though he may not always manifest that acceptance in a visible manner, so that all the people may see, yet there is a peculiar manifestation that we can feel if we cannot see, which whispers to us that God is manifest in his works, ordinances and institutions, and in his own buildings that are built with an eye single to his glory, and in his name. It is an easy matter for the Great Jehovah to manifest himself, if he pleases so to do, upon a mountain or hill, or in the secret closet; or while we slumber upon our pillows by night, the visions of eternity may be opened to our minds, and we may receive great consolation, joy and peace, through the manifestations given us by the gift and power of the Holy Ghost. But then, the Lord has oftentimes laid out a great work for his people to perform, and when that work is performed by the sons of men with all their hearts and might, and with all the strength, ability and power that God has given them, it is then that he shows forth his approbation from the heavens, and fills them with a peculiar feeling of joy and gladness that it is impossible for language to describe. How often have we felt these peculiar feelings and sensations pervading our minds, when we have assembled on occasions something similar to the present one!

I look back to the first Temple that was built in this generation by command of the Most High, some forty years ago, in the State of Ohio, in Kirtland, according to the pattern which God showed by vision. When that was completed, and the servants of God were called in from the east and west, and north, and south, and entered that sacred edifice, God was there, his angels were there, the Holy Ghost was in the midst of the people, the visions of the Almighty were opened to the minds of the servants of the living God; the veil was taken off from the minds of many; they saw the heavens opened; they beheld the angels of God; they heard the voice of the Lord; and they were filled from the crown of their heads to the soles of their feet with the power and inspiration of the Holy Ghost, and uttered forth prophecies in the midst of that congregation, which have been fulfilling from that day to the present time.

It was in that Temple that the visions of the Almighty were opened to our great Prophet, Seer and Revelator, Joseph Smith, wherein the future was portrayed before him, wherein keys were committed to him in relation to this great Latter-day dispensation, and the power of God was made manifest through the holy Priesthood sent down from heaven. In that Temple, set apart by the servants of God, and dedicated by a prayer that was written by inspiration, the people were blessed as they never had been blessed for generations and generations that were passed and gone. Why? Because that work was of God. God had raised up a mighty Prophet; God had brought to light great and glorious revelations; God had sent down the holy Priesthood from the heavens; the Lord our God had established his kingdom on the earth; he, therefore, gave unto his servants power, wisdom and strength that they might administer among the people and do them good.

Since that time buildings have been reared to the name of the Most High, and the Priesthood have been called together, and the councils of the Priesthood have been blessed, endowments have been made manifest, and ordinances of endowments, keys of endowments, signs and tokens of endowments, and principles that were calculated to give joy and to impart happiness, for the Lord had commanded, that in the midst of Zion, life for evermore should be poured out upon the fallen sons and daughters of his people.

Now another occasion is afforded us of dedicating a large and commodious Tabernacle, which has been built to the name of the Most High. God is here; God is with his servants, with the quorums of the everlasting Priesthood, and his Spirit is here; and the prayer that has been offered up is accepted by the heavens, and we rejoice and give praise to God who has redeemed us, who sits upon his throne, whose bowels of mercy yearn towards all of his sons and daughters; whose bosom is filled with compassion towards all his people. We praise his name, and though we have not the opportunity of giving expression to the joy and thanksgiving of our hearts, still we feel to say—“Hallelujah to the Lord God Almighty, who sits upon his throne, who reigns forever and ever, for he will bless his Zion, he will extend forth her borders, he will pour out his Spirit upon his ministry, and he will fulfill and accomplish his work unto the uttermost.” Amen.

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, Aug. 30, 1875.

I will read the latter part of the 32nd chapter of Isaiah, commencing at the 13th verse. [The speaker read from the 13th to the 20th verse inclusive.]

It is very evident from these predictions of the Prophet Isaiah, that he, by that spirit which opens the future, was able to see the calamities that would come upon the house of Israel, and not only upon the people, but also upon the Promised Land, the land of Canaan, now called Palestine. A curse was predicted upon that land, that instead of bringing forth those things that were necessary to sustain a people, it should bring forth briars and thorns. We are also told that this desolation should remain for a long period, until the Spirit should be poured out from on high, until, in the purposes of the Most High, he should pour out his Spirit, and that would produce a great change upon that land, but until that time it was to be desolate. All the houses of joy in the Jewish city were to be desolate, and, as it is recorded in other passages in Isaiah, they were to be the desolations of many generations. Not the desolation of seventy years, as happened to Israel in their Babylonish captivity, which only comprised about one generation, but the desolations were to be for many generations, during which that land was to lie uncultivated. The latter rains were to be withheld, and the land was to become dry and parched up, bringing forth thorns and briars, and this was to continue until the Lord poured out his Spirit from on high.

It seems, then, that the Lord had a particular set time in his own mind, when he would again pour out his Spirit from on high upon his people, and more especially upon the house of Israel; and when that time arrives, there will not only be a great moral reformation among the people, but we are told that the revolution will extend to the land also, for the Prophet says here, that when the Spirit is poured out from on high, the wilderness shall be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be counted for a forest. What are we to understand by the prediction that the wilderness shall be a fruitful field when the Spirit is poured out from on high? We are to understand the same as is recorded in the thirty-fifth chapter of this prophecy, a small portion of which I will read. Speaking of the gathering of the Israelites in the latter times, he says—“The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon; they shall see the glory of the Lord and the excellency of our God.”

Now, to comprehend that this is to be a latter-day work, and not a work that was to take place soon after the prediction was uttered, we will read the following verses—“Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, be strong and fear not; behold your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; he will come and save you.”

That has never been fulfilled; but preparatory to the time when God will come with vengeance to sweep away wickedness from the face of the earth, the house of Israel will be gathered back to their own lands, and the people of God will be permitted to dwell in the wilderness, and that wilderness will become a fruitful field. It is even said that the desert should rejoice because of those who are gathered, and should blossom as the rose.

Now that is something that has been fulfilled during the last quarter of a century, here in this wilderness, barren, desert country. The great latter-day work has commenced, the kingdom of God has been reorganized on the earth; in other words, the Christian Church in all its purity and with all its ordinances, has been reorganized upon the face of the earth, and the time has at length come when the Spirit of God has been poured out from on high. Until that period arrived, there was no hope for Israel, no hope for the land of Palestine, no hope for the redemption of the tribes scattered in the four quarters of the earth; but when the wilderness should become as a fruitful field, when the spirit should again be poured out from on high, through the everlasting Gospel of the Son of God, then the people should be gathered together by the commandment of the Lord. As is here stated, his Spirit should be the instrument in gathering them together. “My mouth, it hath commanded this great gathering.” Then we may look out for a change upon the face of the land where this gathering takes place; we may look for the deserts to become like the garden of Eden, to blossom as the rose that blossoms in rich and fertile gardens, to blossom abundantly, and the desert to rejoice with joy and singing. We are to look also, soon after this period of time, for the great Redeemer to come. “Say to them that are of a fearful heart, be strong, fear not, behold your God will come with vengeance; he will come and save you,” having reference to his second coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and with great glory, attended by all the angelic hosts; coming in flaming fire to consume the wicked from the face of the earth as stubble, to burn them up, both root and branch, while the Saints that are left will go forth upon the face of the earth and grow up as calves of the stall, and tread upon the ashes of the wicked.

The Prophet says that, when Jesus comes with vengeance and destroys the wicked, redeems the desert, and causes the wilderness to become a fruitful field, then the lame man shall leap as a hart, the tongue of the dumb shall speak, the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped, for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert, and the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water.

A great many people enquire of the Latter-day Saints—“Why is it that you do not heal up all of your sick and those who are afflicted among you?” This question is often asked. Says the enquirer—“If you are the true Christian Church; if God has indeed sent his angel from heaven, as you Latter-day Saints testify that he has; if he has indeed organized his kingdom on the earth for the last time, preparatory to the day of his coming; how is it, if you have those gifts that they had in the ancient Christian Church, that all your lame and blind and dumb, and those who are afflicted are not healed up?” I answer, for the same reasons that the ancient Christians were not all healed. If they had always been healed in ancient times in the Church, they would have been living now. The time came for them to die, and they did die, notwithstanding all the faith of the ancient Christians, and notwithstanding they had power to say to the lame—“Be thou healed,” and the lame would leap as a hart; notwithstanding they had power, in the name of Jesus, to command blindness to depart from the children of men, and to command all manner of plagues and pestilences and they were subject to their command in the name of Jesus, yet, after all, the ancient Christians died. Why did they not heal them, keep them along, and not let them die? Because that was not according to the order which God had es– tablished. When a man or woman is appointed unto death you, nor I, nor Peter, nor James, nor Paul, nor John, nor any other man of God can heal them in the name of Jesus. Why? Because God has otherwise determined. But that did not do away the gift of healing in ancient times; that gift was abundantly made manifest, notwithstanding there were many who were sick who were not healed.

So in the latter-day kingdom, when the spirit is poured out again from on high, when God begins to manifest these ancient gifts again among his people, and the blind among them are made to see, and the deaf to hear, and the tongue of the dumb is made to speak, and the lame is made to walk—when all these things begin to take place among the people of God, still there will be many, very many, that will not be healed, otherwise the prophecy will not be fulfilled.

At the very time the Savior makes his appearance and comes with vengeance, there will be the sick, the lame, the blind, the dumb, the maimed, and those afflicted with all manner of diseases. The Prophet says that when he comes and finds them in this condition, “Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be unstopped, the tongue of the dumb speak, and the lame man shall leap like a hart,” &c. So there will be something left for Jesus to do, when he comes in flaming fire, to heal all the sick who have not faith to be healed prior to that time. But when Jesus comes, he brings all the Saints with him; he raises the righteous dead from their graves, not as he raised Lazarus into mortality, but he raises them up, male and female, with immortal bodies, to reign here on the earth during the period that he himself shall reign, during the great Sabbath of creation, the millennial reign of one thousand years.

Now, we would naturally suppose that during that period of a thousand years everybody would have the power of faith to be healed. But no, though the Son of God is there, though the righteous dead with their immortal bodies are there, yet old men will die even then, for it is according to the design and purpose of the great Jehovah. Though there will be no one to fall asleep in infancy; though none of the youth will die in that day; though there will be no middle-aged persons upon whom death will lay his powerful grasp, yet the aged, or, as Isaiah says in his last chapter but one—“The days of my people shall be as the days of a tree, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. A child shall not die until he is a hundred years old.” We would naturally suppose that, the Lord being here, all the resurrected Saints being here, he would not let them die when they become old; but he lets them pass away according to the decree that was made when man fell and was cast out from the presence of the Lord. They must die, the penalty must come upon them.

But with regard to the wilderness that is here spoken of—“Water shall break forth in the desert, springs of living water, streams also in the desert, and the parched ground shall become a pool and the thirsty land springs of water”—have you seen anything of the nature of this prediction fulfilled? Latter-day Saints, how was it with this wilderness twenty-eight years ago this summer when the pioneers entered this land, and when several thousands followed them in the autumn of that same year? What did you, who were appointed to explore the country, find? Many places parched up, looking as though there had been no water or rain from heaven for many years. You began to form your settlements on the streams that ran down from the melting snows in the mountains; and in a very short period of time you began to send forth your settlements, north and south and west. Occasionally you would find a little spring that would break out from under the threshold of the mountain, sufficient to water perhaps an acre of ground, and only one family could go there and settle. What do you find now? The same streams that would only water one acre of ground then—you know I am speaking to people who know for themselves, for they have seen it—the water in those very localities is now sufficient to water from one hundred to five hundred acres. What do you think of that? Have you realized that the hand of the Lord is with you?—that he has indeed fulfilled that which he spoke by the mouth of his ancient Prophet, when he said—“For in the wilderness waters shall break forth and streams in the desert, etc.?” He meant just what he said, and you have come hither and proved his words to be true.

I recollect traveling through this country, some three or four hundred miles, in the early days, soon after we had begun to branch out from this city to the north and the south, I found sometimes on a little stream of water from two to three families, and one or two of them would be talking about breaking up and going elsewhere, because there was not sufficient water to enable them to raise what was necessary to sustain themselves. Now we visit the same settlements and what do we find?—flourishing villages containing from thirty to fifty families. What is the matter? The Lord has fulfilled that which he spoke, causing streams in the desert.

I recollect that the pioneers, in the month of July, 1847, went over onto the north point of the west mountain to see the Great Salt Lake, to see what it looked like, what was the nature of the water, &c. We went to a place that has been called for many years “Black Rock,” a rock that is out in the lake a few rods from the shore. We concluded that we would go out to this rock to see what the depth of the water was beyond it. We did so, on dry ground, the waters of the lake being then several feet below the place where we walked to the Black Rock. What do we see now, and what have we seen for several years past? The path on which the pioneers traveled on foot to Black Rock is now covered with water ten feet deep. Showing that Salt Lake has risen some twelve or fifteen feet during the last quarter of a century. What is the meaning of this? Can you tell? Says one—“I should have thought the lake would have become lower.” That would be a very natural supposition; for our people have gone to work and made scores and scores of canals to carry on to their farms the water from the mountains that formerly ran into the lake, and hence the lake has had very little water running into it compared with what it would have had if the streams from the mountains had not been so diverted. But God has said that he would make the wilderness a fruitful field, and streams in the desert, and he has fulfilled his promise.

Pioneers, if any of you are here today, let me ask you a question—When you came down from the mouth of Emigration Canyon, where Camp Douglas is now situated, into this region of country, in July, 1847, what did the ground appear like? Did you dig down and make any experiments? “O yes, in many places.” How far did you dig down? “Some of us dug many feet to see if there was any appearance of moisture.” Did you find anything? What was the appearance of the soil? It looked as though there had been no rain for many generations. What do we find now? We find this same parched-up soil, for some five square miles, where Salt Lake City is located, converted into fruitful gardens, planted with apple, pear, peach, plum, and other kinds of fruit trees adapted to the climate, and in the spring season of the year, in the months of May and June, this locality is like one vast garden full of blossoms, so much so that strangers are astonished beyond measure to see such a large extent of country so much like a garden.

Now let us see what Isaiah says about it, for he looked upon it as well as you, if he did live twenty-five hundred years ago. “The Lord shall comfort Zion, he will make her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody.” Indeed! Did you see it, Isaiah, as well as the people that live in our day? Did you see a people go into the desert and offer up thanksgiving and the voice of melody? Did you see that desert and wilderness redeemed from its sterile condition and become like the garden of Eden? “O yes,” says Isaiah, “I saw it all, and I left it on record for the benefit of the generation that should live some two or three thousand years after my day.” But Isaiah, are we to understand that the people are to be gathered together in that desert, and that the gathered people are to be instrumental in the hands of God, in redeeming that desert? Yes, Isaiah has told us all this. We will go back to what we read in his thirty-second chapter—“Until the spirit be poured out upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest. Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness and righteousness remain in the fruitful field.” What fruitful field? Why, the wilderness that will be converted into a fruitful field. “The work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness, and assurance forever; and my people shall dwell in peaceable habitations, and in sure dwellings and in quiet resting places.”

Was that the way we dwelt in Missouri or Illinois? Did we live in quietness and with assurance continually in those States? Oh, no, we were tossed about; as Isaiah says—“tossed to and fro and not comforted.” That was the case with Zion while down in the States, and that was in accordance with a modern revelation, in which, speaking of Zion, the Lord says—“You shall be persecuted from city to city and from synagogue to synagogue, and but few shall stand to receive their inheritance. But when the time should come for Zion to go up into the wilderness things would be changed; then my people shall dwell in peaceable habitations, in sure dwelling places, and in quietness and assurance.”

Will they have any capital city when they get up into the mountain desert? O, yes. Isaiah says here—“When it shall hail, coming down on the forest, the city shall be low in a low place.” How often have I thought of this since we laid out this great city, twenty-eight years ago! How often have this people reflected in their meditations upon the fulfillment of this prophecy! They have seen, on this eastern range of mountains and on the range of mountains to the west of this valley, snow and storms pelting down with great fury, as though winter in all its rigor and ferocity had overtaken the mountain territory, and at the same time, here, “low in a low place,” was a city, organized at the very base of these mountains, enjoying all the blessings of a spring temperature, the blessings of a temperature not sufficient to cut off our vegetation. What a contrast! “When it shall hail, coming down on the forest, the city shall be low in a low place.” That could not be Jerusalem, no such contrast in the land of Palestine round about Jerusalem! It had reference to the latter-day Zion, the Zion of the mountains.

Says one—“Is there anything in Isaiah that speaks of Zion being located in a high or elevated region in the mountains?” Oh yes, let us read and see what he says about it in his fortieth chapter: “Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God.” Then he goes on to speak of the second coming of the Son of Man, and he says—“Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” The same as you have made, or assisted in making, the great highway through this desert region, and constructed highways here in the desert called the iron railroad. “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”

Says one—“That meant his first coming, John the Baptist, etc.” Let us see. “Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill shall be laid low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places be made plain, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.”

Did that mean his first coming? Was the glory of God then revealed? Did all flesh see it together? No; it has reference to the second advent, the coming of the Lord in his glory and in his power, when every eye shall see him. Then the mountains shall be laid low, then the valleys shall be raised up, then the rough places will be made smooth, then the glory of God will be made manifest to all flesh living, and every eye—the wicked and the righteous—will behold him, and they also who pierced him.

But before that day what will take place? We will read the 9th verse in the same chapter. “O Zion”—something about Zion now, before the Lord comes—“O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountains.” Did you come up into these high mountains, you people of the latter-day Zion? What did you come here for? Because Isaiah predicted that this was the place you should come to, you should get up into the high mountain. He foretold it, and you have fulfilled it. “O Zion, that bringest good tidings.” What good tidings? What tidings have you been declaring the last forty-five years to the nations and kingdoms of the earth? What have you testified to, you missionaries? Your missionaries have gone from nation to nation and from kingdom to kingdom, proclaiming to the people that God has sent his angel from heaven with the everlasting Gospel to be preached unto all people upon the face of the whole earth. This is what you have been proclaiming. Is not the everlasting Gospel glad tidings to the children of men? I think it is, and especially when it is brought by an angel to prepare the way for the great and glorious day of the coming of the King of kings and Lord of lords. It is good tidings that people who receive this everlast– ing Gospel, are commanded to get up into the high mountain. You have fulfilled it, you have been at it now for twenty-eight years, coming up from the eastern slope, from the great Atlantic seaboard, and gradually rising and ascending until you have located yourselves in a place upwards of four thousand feet above the level of the sea. And here in the Zion of the mountains you have founded a great Territory, with some two hundred towns and villages, with your capital city “low in a low place,” where the temperature of spring prevails, while all the rigors of an arctic winter are beating upon the tops of the mountains in our immediate vicinity.

But lest any should suppose that this getting up into the mountains was a former-day work, let me read the next verse—“Behold the Lord God will come with a strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him. Behold his reward is with him and his work before him.” Not coming to be smitten and spat upon, and despised, and to hang upon a cross, as was the case in ancient days; but the Lord God is to come with a strong hand, and his arm is to rule in that day as a king, as a lawgiver, as a mighty potentate to reign over all the kingdoms of the world, which will then become the kingdoms of our God and his Christ, I mean that portion of them that are not swept off with devouring fire.

But I said that this people, called the Zion of the mountains, that were to cause the wilderness to blossom as the rose, were to be a people gathered from the four quarters of the earth. Can it be proved? Yes. I will refer you to the 107th Psalm, where it is said—“Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for he is God, and his mercy endureth forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy, and gathered them out of the lands from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south”—a gathered people. Let us see what this people were to do. “They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way. They found no city to dwell in.” I wish you had all been with the pioneers in the year 1847. When we started out, in the dead of the winter of 1846, upon the prairies of Iowa, after leaving the great Mississippi, and getting out about fifty miles from that river, we did not as much as find a foot track, and no signs of a human habitation. We wandered over that uninhabited territory some four hundred miles, until we reached the Pottawattamie and Omaha tribes of Indians, then located on the Missouri River. Then, early the next spring, we started forth (one hundred and forty-three pioneers), with our faces still westward, and went up on the north side of the Platte River several hundred miles. Did we find a road most of that distance? No road at all. We found tens of thousands of buffalo and their paths; we found a great many hostile tribes of Indians, who sought very diligently to take away our horses and mules, and to cripple us in this manner. But we continued our journey, and at length came through these mountains, after having crossed at the South Pass, and come forth to a little fort called Fort Bridger. We then started into an unknown country, still bending our course southwesterly, for there was a rumor, and not only a rumor, but it had been testified, that there was a great inland sea, called the Salt Lake, in the midst of the great American desert. We had heard this rumor, and had read some of Fremont’s travels in the midst of hostile Indian tribes. We came forth into this desert, wandering in the wilderness in a solitary way. Who were they that thus wandered? People that had been gathered but from the east and the west, from the north and the south, redeemed from the hand of those who sought to destroy them. “They wandered in the wilderness, in a solitary way, and they found no city to dwell in.” How different this was from the ancient Israelites when they entered the land of Palestine! They found numerous cities, built by the former inhabitants of the land. Jerusalem was a city that had been known for a long period before the Israelites went into that land, built up by its former heathen inhabitants. They found large vineyards, with grapes and fruit in great abundance, and cities, towns, and villages spread throughout the land, which the Lord God gave them for their possession. How different was that from the latter-day work, when the redeemed of the Lord should gather from the four quarters of the earth, and wander in a wilderness in a solitary way; they were to find no city to dwell in.

Did we suffer anything? Yes. Did the old Prophet speak of these sufferings? Yes. “Hungry and thirsty, their souls fainted in them; then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses, and he led them forth by the right way.” Yes, when our food gave out; when the crickets came in here by armies; when tons and tons of them poured in on the little crops first planted, ready to devour everything before them, and we were living on quarter rations, what did we do? We cried unto the Lord in our distress, in our hunger and thirst, believing that he would have compassion on us, and open some way for our relief, and he did so—he sent forth large flocks of gulls that lit down upon these crickets and devoured them up, and thus the crops of the people were saved.

“Well,” says one, “does this have reference to the same desert and wilderness that you have been reading about?” Let us see. “Let them exalt him, also, in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders. He turns rivers into the wilderness, and water springs into dry grounds, and a fruitful land into barrenness for the wickedness of them that dwell therein.” Now notice the next prediction—“He turns the wilderness into a standing water, and dry ground into water springs, and there he makes the hungry to dwell.” What for? “That they may prepare a city for habitation.” Though we did not find any cities already built here, we had to prepare one, and we have done so, and a very fine one indeed it is, and the wonder and astonishment of strangers who come here and see what has been done in the midst of a desert. The Lord predicted it, and you are the ones who have fulfilled it. “That they may prepare a city for habitation.”

What else? Were they to be lazy and indolent? No. That they may “sow fields and plant vineyards, which may yield fruits of increase. He blesseth them also, so that they are multiplied greatly, and suffereth not their cattle to decrease.” Strangers, if you want to know how fast we are multiplying, just go through our settlements, and look at the numerous children in our Sabbath schools; you never heard of such an increase and multiplication, and the Lord foretold that it would be so.

There is another very curious thing concerning this people who should come into the desert wilderness. Isaiah says—“He setteth the poor on high from affliction.” Now, a great many of this people were very poor on arriving here; they had been robbed five times of all they had, and driven out. After having been thus plundered, we came here very poor; but the Lord “setteth the poor on high from affliction, and maketh him families like a flock.” What a wonderful prophecy this is! A poor man to have not only a family like a flock, but even families. If you do not believe it strangers, go through our Territory, and see the large families, and in some cases you will find in the same vicinity six or eight different families, with their houses and farms, all belonging to one man, and he perhaps a poor man when he came here. “He setteth the poor on high from affliction, and maketh him families like a flock. The righteous shall see it and rejoice.” What! The righteous see this and have joy in it? So says the prophecy. “But,” says one, “I should have thought everyone would have been disgusted with it.” To think that a man should have a family or families like a flock, while the righteous see it and rejoice! What else? “And all iniquity shall stop her mouth.” That has not yet been fulfilled. “Whosoever is wise and will observe these things, even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord.” That is, those who observe these things are called a wise people, those who have gathered from the east, and the west, and the north, and the south, that wander in the wilderness in a solitary place, finding no city to dwell in, hungry and thirsty, poor, stripped, robbed, plundered, forced into the desert, driven by their enemies, that very people should multiply exceedingly, the families of the poor man should become like a flock, and the people should rejoice in the midst of all their afflictions, while all the wicked should eventually stop their mouths. That will be their destiny sooner or later.

We will now return to our text, the 32nd of Isaiah—“Blessed are ye that sow by the side of all waters, and send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass.” Why did Isaiah say that a blessing should be given to a certain people that should happen to sow by the side of streams of water? Why did he not bless the others who lived on the hills and mountains, as they do all over our States and many other countries of the globe? Because he saw, in looking at this people, that they, in their location, were to go into a desert, and the redeemed of the Lord would be under the necessity of getting along the sides of streams; they could not go out several miles from a stream or spring and trust to the rains of heaven; no, the rains do not come here, or did not when we first located, so as to bless those who would naturally desire to reside far from a stream of water, but we were all under the necessity of getting down close to the side of some stream of water. What for? That it would be handy to build little canals to get water out to throw over the land. “Blessed are they who sow by the side of all waters and send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass.”

We have read these words of the ancient Prophet, in order that the Latter-day Saints may call to mind how completely the Lord is fulfilling every jot and every tittle, so far as time will permit, of that which he caused to be spoken, by the power of the Holy Ghost, through his ancient Prophets. Strangers think it very curious that this people should have such large families. If such were not the case, we would not be the people predicted about that were to be so blessed; but we are that people, and it is in vain for us to undertake to turn the hand of the Lord to the right or to the left. He has his own eternal course to pursue, and all his purposes he will fulfil, and there is no power beneath the heavens that can stay his almighty hand. He will fulfill that which he has spoken, in order that there may be no room for infidelity in the four quarters of the earth. There are a great many infidels nowadays, and I do not wonder at it. Looking at modern Christendom, without any Prophets, inspiration, gifts, or the ancient powers of the Gospel, it is enough to make three quarters or nine-tenths of the people infidel in regard to religion. But the Lord is going to leave the people without any excuse, for every jot and tittle of that which he spoke by the mouths of his ancient Prophets he will bring to pass in its time and in its season. Zion is destined to fill the mountains in the last days; Zion will become, as Isaiah says, in his 60th chapter, a great people. A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation. The Lord shall bring it forth in its time, says Isaiah, and in the same chapter he speaks of the future glory of that people, and declares that while darkness should cover the earth, and gross darkness the minds of the people, Zion should arise and shine. These are the words of the Prophet—“Zion shall arise and shine, for the glory of the Lord has risen upon her. The Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.”

Inquires one—“Is Zion going to become popular, so that Gentiles and kings and great men will come to her light?” Yes, certainly; and not only Gentiles, kings and great men, but many of all the nations of the earth have got to come to Zion, and, according to this very chapter, that nation and kingdom that will not serve Zion shall perish, and be utterly wasted away. Has there ever been such a people as this since the day Isaiah lived? There never has; but such a people and such a time are coming, and Zion will be that people. “The Gentiles shall come to thy light and kings to the brightness of thy rising. Thy gates shall be open continually, that men may bring the forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought.”

It will be a time of great plenty of the precious metals. In those days God will give the keys of the treasures of the earth and he will open them up to the people, Isaiah says, in this connection—“For brass I will bring gold, for iron I will bring silver, for wood brass, and for stones iron.” Gold and silver will be so plentiful that they will be used for the pavement of streets. But the covetous may say—“That will be a fine chance for us to steal; if you get pavements made with gold and silver we shall be along after them.” I think you will not. Why? Because God will be there, and I do not think you will have any chance to steal; for it is said in the fourth chapter of Isaiah’s prophecy, that in that day every dwelling place in Mount Zion and all her assemblies shall have a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night. Do you think you would like to go into a city where every dwelling place is lighted up with a pillar of fire by night, and undertake to dig up the pavements? I think you would not have the heart to do it, you would fear that light would go forth from the presence of the Lord, and consume you, as it did many rebellious and wicked ones among the Israelites. Gold will be very good for pavements, if they are only constructed properly; and Mount Zion will be a very beautiful city, one of the most beautiful that has ever been on the face of the whole earth. It is spoken of by the Psalmist David, in the 50th psalm and also in another psalm—“Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.”

You Christians quote the Psalmist David, and sing about this in your chapels and meetinghouses, and you sing about the desert becoming like the Garden of Eden, and joy and gladness being found therein; you have it all fixed up so that it makes melody in the ears of your respective congregations. You sing about the fulfillment of these prophecies, but let a man of God be sent forth by the inspiration and power of the Almighty to warn you concerning the great day of the Lord that is coming; and concerning the fulfillment of these prophecies, and you will gnash your teeth upon him. He reads to you the same things that you sing, and brings forth the same testimony and the same Scriptures that are, every Sabbath day, repeated in your hearing, and yet you stone him and close the doors of your synagogues and chapels against him, and cry “False Prophets,” “delusions,” “false teachers,” and every evil epithet you can possibly invent to prejudice the minds of the people against him. Why? Because he comes to you with the truth; because he comes to you as a messenger from heaven; because he comes to you, testifying that the Lord God has spoken by his own voice, that he has sent his angel with the everlasting Gospel to be proclaimed to the nations as a preparatory work for the great day of bringing in the fullness of the Gentiles and the salvation and gathering of all the house of Israel. You cannot bear the truth, you will not hear it, and you cast out the servants of God, and stir up prejudice against them. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, July 25, 1875.

I will read a few verses in the latter part of the fourth and in the forepart of the fifth chapters of Paul’s first epistle to the Thessalonians. [The speaker read from the 13th verse of the 4th chapter, to the 6th verse of the 5th, both inclusive.]

I have read these few passages of Scripture relating to the great day of the coming of our Lord, according as it is predicted by the mouth of the ancient Apostle, and also concerning a very important event which will then happen, namely, the resurrection of the righteous dead—those who are in Christ; and also another event closely connected with the resurrection—namely, the ascension of the Saints then living upon the earth, to meet the Lord at his coming. These events are looked for by most of the Christian world, indeed we may say that all the Christian world, who do not spiritualize the Scriptures, are looking for events similar to those here described. They believe, according to the New Testament, that there is a time fixed in the mind of the Almighty, when the heavens shall be parted as a scroll is parted when it is rolled up, and that the heavens, invisible to us now, will be unveiled before the eyes of all people; that the armies of heaven, the spirits of just men made perfect, through obedience to the law of God, will be revealed; that the angels who stand in authority in the presence of God and do his bidding, will also be numbered with that great company which will be revealed from the heavens. We also believe, and so do the inhabitants of the Christian world at large, that there will be an audible sound of a trump—the trump of the archangel—in the heavens at the time this grand scenery is opened to mankind; that at the sound of that trumpet the dead in Christ will come forth from their silent dusty tombs; that at the sound of that trump the Saints then living will be instantaneously caught up to meet the Lord in the air. This doctrine is believed in by Christians generally who do not spiritualize altogether the sense and meaning of the Scriptures.

It may be well for us, in the examination of that great event, the second coming of Christ, to refer to some of the predictions of inspired writers in regard to the time of our Savior’s revelation from the heavens. I do not mean to say the day nor the hour of his coming, for that is unknown, no man that lives on the face of the earth knows anything about the day or the hour; neither will there be any man on the earth prior to the coming of the Lord who will know the day and the hour, for it is hidden from mortal man. However, the age in which that great event will take place is very clearly revealed in both the Old and the New Testament. That age is to be characterized by certain events, predicted by the inspired writers, which are unmistakable in their nature, and which can be easily understood by all, both learned and unlearned. These events are to be so conspicuous that I presume there will not be a nation, people, kindred or tongue upon the face of the whole earth but what will know that, according to the Scriptures, some great event is about to take place, for every people in that day will be more or less enlightened in the Scriptures, for before that great day shall come, missionaries will be sent to the uttermost parts of the earth, to testify to all people con– cerning the Gospel of the Son of God, and they will cry in the ears of all living, saying unto them—“Prepare ye, prepare ye, for the great and coming day of the Bridegroom.” They will have a preparatory message to deliver to all nations.

When the Lord, in the meridian of time, came and took upon himself a mortal body, he saw proper to send as his forerunner one of the greatest Prophets that ever was born into our world—John the Baptist, and he went, announcing, by the inspiration of the Spirit and by the power of his holy calling, that there was one to come after him who was mightier than he, whose shoe latchet he was not worthy to unloose; and that when he should come he would thoroughly purge his floor, and that he would baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost. Said John—“I merely come to prepare the way. I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord and make his paths straight. I come preaching unto you repentance, and baptism for the remission of sins, but he who comes after me, holding higher authority and a greater Priesthood, shall baptize you with a baptism that is greater than that of water—the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost.”

Now, if the Lord, when he came the first time, in his humility and meekness, born in a manger, of parents of low estate, saw that it was necessary to prepare the way before him by raising up one of the greatest Prophets that ever came into the world, why should it be thought unreasonable that he should also raise up a latter-day Prophet to prepare the way before one of the mightiest and grandest events that ever has taken place, or that ever will take place on our earth in its temporal condition? If the heavens are to be revealed; if the face of the Son of God is to be unveiled; if the glory of his countenance is to outshine the sun in his strength; if he is to come in flaming fire, while the very heavens themselves shall shake by his power, and the earth reel to and fro like a drunken man, the mountain themselves, feeling his power, are sunk and the valleys are raised up; if all these grand events are to attend the second advent of the Son of God, is it unreasonable that he should raise up a great Prophet in the latter days to make preparations for so great an event? Or will he let the world pass on in blindness and darkness without any signs of the times, without any warning voice, without any inspired man sent of God to wake them up from their condition, and to prepare the way for his coming? To me it looks consistent and reasonable that such a preparatory work should be sent forth among the children of men, and it looked consistent to the ancient inspired writers, hence they have left an abundance of testimony on record in this good book (the Bible) concerning this preparatory work.

One of the means which God will use to prepare the way before his second coming, is to send angels from heaven with a proclamation, not to benefit a few individuals, not for one nation alone, but to all the inhabitants of our globe, and that too before he comes. Do you want to know where this prediction is recorded? Let me refer you to the fourteenth chapter of the revelations given to St. John on Patmos. Did St. John behold, in vision, the coming of the Son of God? He did. How does he describe it in that fourteenth chapter? He said, as you will find by reading the chapter through, that he saw one sitting on a white cloud, having a sharp sickle in his hand. He had reference to the time when Jesus should come in the clouds of heaven; however, before John saw the personage sitting on the cloud, he saw a preparatory work commence, as it is declared in the sixth verse, in which the Prophet says—“I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, unto every nation and kindred and tongue and people,” declaring that the hour of God’s judgment was come.

Now if that angel does not come and bring the Gospel, then the Son of Man will not come; no trumpet will sound and call forth the nations of the righteous from their sleeping tombs; there will be no destroying the wicked as stubble from the face of the earth; no shaking of the heavens and causing the earth to tremble and to remove to and fro. None of these events will transpire if no angel comes, for one is just as certain as the other; and to show that one is to precede the other, there must be a time for this everlasting Gospel to be preached to every nation, kindred, tongue and people after the angel appears with it. That will take some length of time, however rapidly it may go forth, for the mere preaching of the Gospel would be of no benefit, unless there were persons authorized to administer its ordinances. The angel might preach, but who could obey it? No one. It is true that we might repent if we heard the angel proclaim it by his own voice, as he flew from nation to nation and from kingdom to kingdom; and we might also believe in Jesus Christ, but how could we be baptized for the remission of our sins? Would the angel come down from heaven and take every believing penitent person and baptize him himself? How long would it take an angel to go over all the nations and baptize all the penitent believers? It would take ages and ages for him to do it personally. But it is very evident to every one who reflects upon these passages, that when that angel comes with the everlasting Gospel, there will be authority given to man on the earth to administer the ordinances of that Gospel, to build up the Christian Church again on the earth as it was built in ancient times, a Christian Church organized according to the pattern that God has given in the New Testament; a Christian Church having Apostles inspired from heaven; a Christian Church with Prophets called of God to prophesy future events; a Christian Church possessing the gifts and graces of the ancient Gospel in all their beauty, power and fulness, as they were possessed in ancient times. These works and these ordinances must be administered by man, and not by the angel who brings the Gospel. Will that be a preparatory work?

What other preparations are necessary to be made besides the preaching of this Gospel to all nations? Supposing that among the nations of the earth there were to be raised up a true Christian Church, is there anything particular for that Christian Church to do after having received the ordinances of the Gospel in order to more fully prepare them for the coming of the Son of God? I answer, yes. The Christian Churches built up in the four quarters of the earth after the angel comes, will be required to gather from all these nations unto one place. That is something which no Christian denomination believes in, or if they do believe in it they do not practice it, for the members of Churches called Christian remain in the respective nations where they receive the truth; it is true that individuals may emi– grate, but as Churches they do not. But the Scriptures, speaking of the great day of the coming of the Lord, say there is to be a gathering from all the nations of the earth unto one place of those who have taken upon them the name of the Lord Jesus. That great gathering is referred to in the chapter I have quoted from, also in another chapter in which, referring to the downfall of spiritual Babylon, it is declared that there shall be a gathering of the people, and that too by inspiration, by the command of the Almighty; it will not be left to the wisdom of man, but it will be directed by—“Hear ye the word of the Lord,” as declared to John on the Isle of Patmos. He says—“I heard a great voice from heaven saying—‘Come out of her, my people!’” What people? “My people.” Who are God’s people? Those who obey the everlasting Gospel which the angel brings by authority. “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities;” and now, you who are Saints, you who have obeyed the Gospel restored by the angel, come out of her, for the Lord is going to punish great Babylon. How is he going to punish her? By casting her down, and causing her overthrow. After speaking of the bringing of the Gospel by an angel, the very next verse says—“There followed another angel.” What, two angels come. Yes, and mark the message of the second one. “There followed another angel, saying, ‘Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.’”

The description of this fall of Babylon is given in various places in John’s revelations. Awful and most terrible judgments will fall upon Mystery Babylon the Great. She is to be punished with plagues of various kinds; a grievous sore will fall upon her people, so much so that they will blaspheme God, but they will not repent of their sins. They are to be punished with having the fountains and rivers turned into blood, and the waters of the great ocean are to become as the blood of a dead man, and every living thing that is therein will die; and one of the last plagues and judgments that will be poured out upon her will be devouring fire, and she will sink as a millstone, and her name will be blotted from under heaven and all that are connected with her.

Before these terrible judgments are sent forth upon the nations of the earth, God will save all who receive the everlasting Gospel by gathering them to one place, where they can serve him and keep his commandments. He will not merely give them some idea, by reading the Scriptures, that he desires them to gather, but John says there will be a great voice from heaven proclaiming—“Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.”

Then there is to be a gathering of the people of God in the latter days? Yes. Do you marvel to see this people coming forth from all the various nations, leaving the homes of their ancestry, the graves of their ancient fathers, leaving their acquaintances and friends, and gathering up here into these mountain vales? Do you see it? Do you marvel at it? Remember, O ye inhabitants of the earth, who are looking upon these things, that you are beholding the fulfillment of prophecy, prophecy spoken by the Apostle Paul, in the first chapter of his epistle to the Ephesians. Paul saw the gathering; he saw that it would be a new dispensation, a dispensation to come after his day. Let me repeat Paul’s words—“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.” Thus you see that all things in Christ are to be gathered together in one. What does this include? Are the inhabitants of heaven to be made one with the inhabitants of the earth that are in Christ? Yes. The dispensation of the fullness of times is to bring about one of the grandest events that our earth has ever experienced—the union of all things in Christ, both in heaven and upon earth. Are the Saints in Christ? As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ, consequently if you are in Christ, if you live in the dispensation of the fullness of times, you will be required to take part in this great and grand gathering together of those who are on the earth. But how about all things in Christ in heaven, are they to come too? That is what I have been explaining. When Christ comes the inhabitants of heaven will come with him. The spirits of the righteous of all dispensations, who have not already received a resurrection, will then come forth, and when the trump of the archangel shall sound, the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then those spirits which appear in the heavens will take possession of their renewed immortal bodies which will spring forth from the tomb, and they will be with those who are gathered here on the earth. Then the dispensation will be complete—all things in Christ, whether in heaven or on earth, will be gathered in one.

Enquires one—“Do you really think that we poor mortals, frail as we are with all our imperfections, that have come because of the fall, are going to associate with those high and exalted beings that dwell in the presence of God in the eternal worlds? Are we to be gathered with them?” Yes. Why not be with them? If our hearts are pure as their hearts are pure, if we have received and obeyed the truth, and have been sanctified by it, shall we not have boldness in that day? Or shall we hang down our heads, and shrink with shame, before the face of Him who sits upon his throne. If we have received the truth we shall look upon the face of our Redeemer with all the joy that we look upon the face of a kind and benevolent parent here on the earth. There will be no fear, no shrinking, but we shall feel that he is indeed our Redeemer and that we are his sons and his daughters, and that, having obeyed his doctrine, we are prepared to associate with him and to dwell in his presence. Oh, how happy the ancient Apostles were when they saw their risen Redeemer! There was no shrinking. They were out fishing on a certain time, and when they had learned that their Redeemer was on the shore, and calling to them, they could not wait for the ship to reach the shore, but they must plunge into the sea, to try and get there as soon as possible. Their Redeemer was there, and instead of shrinking they were eager to behold him once more. Then, do not, for a moment, suppose that the people of God who keep his commandments and live in the latter days, in the great and grand dispensation of gathering, will shrink when the heavens shall unveil the face of the Son of God. They will be prepared to take these resurrected beings by the hand, and they will go forth and salute Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, for they are in the kingdom of God. Jesus said, although they were polygamists, that they are in the kingdom of God. We shall be very glad, in the day when the heavenly hosts are revealed to men, to take them by the hand and to sit down with them, as Jesus has said—“Many shall come from the east and from the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.” It will be some pleasure then to be in the company of polygamists, will it not?

Now, as I go along with item after item of the work preparatory to the coming of the Savior, I want to ask what the belief of this people is, and whether we are or are not fulfilling the word of the Lord which I have quoted? Joseph Smith brought forth the Book of Mormon—the Lord calls it the everlasting Gospel, because it is the same Gospel which Jesus himself preached to the ancient inhabitants of this continent, and to the people who dwelt anciently on the continent of Asia. It was brought forth in these latter days by his power, by an angel sent from heaven, and revealed to this generation. And have missionaries been sent forth? Yes. What for? To carry this Book of Mormon, containing the everlasting Gospel, to every nation, kindred, tongue and people. And these missionaries, as far as time would permit, have fulfilled the missions that were given unto them.

We first began to preach this Gospel in the little town where this Church was organized with six members only, on the 6th day of April, 1830. A few missionaries then began to teach in the neighborhood, next in the county, next in the adjoining county, next in the adjoining States, next in the adjoining Territories, next in British America, and finally across the great ocean among the European nations. Have these missionaries visited and preached to any other people besides those living on the continent of Europe, and those of the United States and the Canadas? Yes. They have preached this same Gospel contained in the Book of Mormon on the Islands of the sea, in Australia, New Zealand, the Society Islands, Sandwich Islands—where thousands have received this Gospel and been baptized. Missionaries have also carried this everlasting Gospel to the northern portions of Europe—Norway, Denmark and Sweden; also into the German States, to Austria, Italy, Switzerland, France, some of the islands of the Mediterranean, to Hindostan, and in fact wherever there has been a sufficient degree of liberty to permit the proclamation of the Gospel, thither have missionaries, called of God to declare the message of life and salvation to the people, been and proclaimed it.

Wherever we have preached this Gospel, the word has so been published by command of the Almighty, saying—“Come out, my people, from the nations you now inhabit.” “Where shall we go?” “Go to the place which I have appointed by revelation, by the voice of my servants, by my own voice—to the mountains of the new world, where my kingdom shall be established as a stone cut out of the mountain without hands.” Daniel predicted that, in the last days, the kingdom of God should be established upon the earth, and that, in its commencement, it would be like a little stone cut out of the mountains without hands, but that it would gradually gain power and greatness among the people; and the reason that you have gathered to these mountains from the various nations in which you obeyed the Gospel is that you may assist in establishing and building up that kingdom spoken of by Daniel. Not a week has elapsed since some seven or eight hundred, from the northern regions of Europe, arrived in our city. A few days after their arrival we look around and we scarcely notice that there is any addition. Where are they? Friends have taken them by the hand and invited them to their homes. Any more coming? Yes, numerous hosts are coming. We have sent across the Atlantic ocean between one and two hundred ships, most of them loaded, to the fullest extent that the law would allow, with Latter-day Saints gathering together to one place in fulfillment of the predictions of the ancient Prophets.

Says one—“How long will this continue?” Until the people are thoroughly warned. At the present time there are some nations who will not permit any religion to be proclaimed within their borders except that which is established by law. When God shall cast down thrones, which he will soon do; when he shall overturn kingdoms and empires, which time is very near at hand, then other governments will be formed more favorable to religious liberty, and the missionaries of this Church will visit those nations. Already we find greater religious liberty advocated in the northern portions of Europe where formerly imprisonment was the penalty of declaring any other religious doctrine than that which was permitted by their laws. Austria, that great Roman Catholic power, containing thirty-one millions of Catholics, is increasing in religious liberty. Spain, which for centuries has persecuted everything but the established religion, where countless martyrs have been tortured and put to death by the so-called “Holy Inquisition,” is at present forming a constitution which proposes to grant a large share of religious liberty. And so we might enumerate what God is doing among these despotic powers, overturning and changing long-established usages and institutions, that His servants may go by His own command, to deliver the great and last message of the Gospel to the inhabitants of the earth, preparatory to the coming of his Son.

After the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled, which period is set in the mind of God, another scene will open up before the world, in the grand panorama of the last days. What is that? The downfall of the Gentile nations. Says one—“Whom do you call Gentiles?” Every nation excepting the literal descendants of Israel. We, the Latter-day Saints, are Gentiles; in other words, we have come from among the Gentile nations, though many of us may have the blood of Israel within our veins. When God has called out the righteous, when the warning voice has been sufficiently proclaimed among these Gentile nations, and the Lord says “It is enough,” he will also say to his servants—“O, ye, my servants, come home, come out from the midst of these Gentile nations, where you have labored and borne testimony for so long a period; come out from among them, for they are not worthy; they do not receive the message that I have sent forth, they do not repent of their sins; come out from their midst, their times are fulfilled. Seal up the testimony among them and bind up the law.” What then? Then the word of the Lord will be—“O, ye, my servants, I have a new commission for you. Instead of going forth to convert the Gentile nations, go unto the remnants of the house of Israel that are scattered in the four quarters of the earth. Go and proclaim to them that the times of their dispersion are accomplished; that the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled; that the time has arrived for my people Israel, who have been scattered for generations in a dark and cloudy day, to gather unto their own homes again, and to build up old Jerusalem on its former heap. And then will commence the gathering of the Jews to old Jerusalem; then the ten tribes in the northern regions, wherever they may be, after having been concealed from the nations for twenty-five hundred years, will come forth and will return, as Jeremiah has said, from the north country. A great company will come, and they will sing in the height of Zion, and “flow together for the goodness of the Lord, for wine and for oil, and for the young of the flock; and their souls shall be as a watered garden, and they shall not sorrow any more at all.” What a happy time for them, when they come from their cold quarters in the north! The Jews dispersed among the Gentiles will not come and sing in the height of Zion, or but very few of them, they will go to Jerusalem. Some of them will believe in the true Messiah, and thousands of the more righteous, whose fathers did not consent to the shedding of the blood of the Son of God, will receive the Gospel before they gather from among the nations. Many of them, however, will not receive the Gospel, but seeing that others are going to Jerusalem they will go also; and when they get back to Palestine, to the place where their ancient Jerusalem stood, and see a certain portion of the believing Jews endeavoring to fulfill and carry out the prophecies, they also will take hold and assist in the same work. At the same time they will have their synagogues, in which they will preach against Jesus of Nazareth, “that impostor,” as they call him, who was crucified by their fathers.

After awhile, when tens of thousands of them have gathered and rebuilt their Temple, and reestablished Jerusalem upon its own heap, the Lord will send forth amongst them a tremendous scourge. What will be the nature of that scourge? The nations that live in the regions round about Jerusalem will gather up like a cloud, and cover all that land round about Jerusalem. They will come into the Valley of Jehoshaphat, east of Jerusalem, and they will lay siege to the city. What then? The Lord will raise up two great Prophets, they are called witnesses, in the Revelation of St. John. Will they have much power? Yes, during the days of their prophesying they will have power to smite those who undertake to destroy them, and until their testimonies are fulfilled they will be able to keep at bay all those nations besieging Jerusalem, so that they will not have power to take that city. How long will that be? Three and a half years, so says John the Revelator. If any man hurt them, they shall have power to bring upon that man, nation or army, the various plagues that are there written. They will have power to smite the earth with plague and famine, and to turn the rivers of water into blood. And when they have fulfilled their prophecy, then the nations that have been lying before Jerusalem so long, waiting for an opportunity to destroy the city, will succeed in killing these two Prophets, and their bodies, says John’s revelations, will lie in the streets of Jerusalem three days and a half after they are killed. What rejoicing there will be over the death of these men! Those who have been waiting so long and anxiously for this to take place, will no doubt send gifts one to another, and if the telegraph wires are not destroyed, they will telegraph to the uttermost parts of the earth that they have succeeded in killing the two men who had so long tormented them with plagues, turning the waters onto blood, etc. But by and by, right in the midst of their rejoicing, when they think the Jews will now certainly fall a prey to them, behold there is a great earthquake, and in the midst of it these two Prophets rise from the dead, and they hear a voice up in the heavens saying—“Come up hither;” and they immediately ascend in the sight of their enemies.

What next? Notwithstanding all this, those nations will be so infatuated, and so determined to persecute the people of God—as much so as Pharaoh and his army in ancient days—that they will say—“Come, now is the time to pitch into the Jews and destroy them.” And they will commence their work of destruction, and they will succeed so far as to take one half the city, and while they are in the very act of destroying Jerusalem, behold the heavens are rent, and the Son of God with all the heavenly hosts appears, and he descends and rests upon the summit of the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east. And so great will be the power of God that will then be made manifest, that the mountain will divide asunder, half going towards the south, and half towards the north, producing a great valley going east and west, from the walls of Jerusalem eastward.

What next? The Jews that are not taken captive by these nations, will flee to the valleys of the mountains, says the Prophet Zechariah; and when they get into that great valley, where these personages are who have descended, they expect to find the Deliverer which their Prophets have spoken of so long. But they do not for a moment suppose that it is Jesus, oh no, Jesus was an impostor. The personage they have been looking for some eighteen hundred years is the true Messiah, and now, say they—“He has come to deliver us.” But how great will be their astonishment when, while looking at their Deliverer, they see that his hands are marred considerably! Say they, one to another—“There are large scars in his hands; and there is another large scar in his side, and behold his feet, they are scarred also!” And, as the Prophet Zechariah has said, they will begin to enquire of him—“What are these wounds with which thou art wounded?” And he replies—“These are the wounds with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.”

What then? Then they begin to believe, then the Jews are convinced, I mean that portion of them who formerly despised Jesus of Nazareth, and being convinced they begin to mourn, and they mourn every family apart, and their wives apart. The family of the house of Levi apart and their wives apart; the family of the house of David and their wives apart, and all their families that remain will mourn, they and their wives apart, and there will be such mourning in Jerusalem as that city never experienced before. What is the matter? What are they mourning about? They have looked upon him whom their fathers pierced, they behold the wounds, they are now convinced that they and their fathers have been in error some eighteen hundred years, and they repent in dust and ashes.

The next step for them will be baptism for the remission of their sins. They look upon him whom their fathers pierced and they mourn for him as one who mourns for his only son, and, as Zechariah says, they are in bitterness for him. But repentance alone would not be sufficient, they must obey the ordinances of the Gospel; hence there will be a fountain opened at that time on purpose for baptism. Where will it be opened? On the east side of the Temple. A stream will break out from under the threshold of the Temple, says the Prophet, and it will run eastward, and will probably pass directly through the deep valley made by the parting of the Mount of Olives. It will run eastward, and as you go down from the Temple a few thousand cubits it increases so rapidly that it becomes a great river that cannot be forded.

This is the fountain that Zechariah says is open to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of David for sin and uncleanness. “How is it that” says one? “Water for sin and uncleanness?” Why yes, baptism for the remission of sins. Then the Jews will receive the Gospel and they will be cleansed from all their sins by being baptized in water for their remission. Then will be fulfilled the words of the Prophet Isaiah, when speaking of Jerusalem—“For henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.” But the name of the city from that day will be—“The Lord is there;” that is, the Lord will be personally there, there with his Apostles and with all his ancient Saints, for Zechariah says that when he comes and stands his feet on the Mount of Olives, all his Saints will come with him.

We have found out the place where Jesus will descend, and we have found out who comes with him. Now we enquire will he remain on the earth after he thus descends? Yes, he will remain on this earth as literally and personally as he went around in ancient times, and taught the people from house to house and synagogue to synagogue. And in that day there shall be one Lord, and his name one. There will not be any heathen gods, for there will be no heathens; no idolatrous worship, but one Lord, and his name one.

And this water which breaks out from the threshold of the Temple, will not only run eastward but westward also, and there will be a great change in the land there, certain portions rising up, others lowered, rough places made smooth and mountains cast down; and half the waters of this spring which will burst forth, will go towards the former sea and half to the other sea; in other words half towards the Dead Sea and half toward the Mediterranean.

From that day forward there shall be written upon the bells of the horses and upon the vessels of the house of the Lord—“Holiness to the Lord;” and thenceforth all the people who are spared from the nations round about, will have to go up to Jerusalem year by year to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts.

These are some of the grand events spoken of in this Bible; these are events that the Latter-day Saints believe in, and that so far as it lies in their power, they are trying to fulfill. If we are not Jews we are not required to go to old Jerusalem, but we are required to build up a Zion; that is spoken of as well as the building of Jerusalem. Zion is to be built up in the mountains in the last days, not at Jerusalem. Read the fortieth chapter of Isaiah, where he speaks of the glory of the Lord being revealed, and all flesh to see him when he comes the second time and how the mountains and hills should be lowered and the valleys be exalted; and in the same chapter the Prophet also says that, before that great and terrible day of the Lord, Zion is required to get up into the high mountains. Isaiah predicts this. Says he, in his fortieth chapter—“Oh Zion, thou that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountains.”

Thus you see that the people who organize Zion through the everlasting Gospel which the angel brings, have good tidings to declare to all the inhabitants of the earth. But these people are required, according to this prophecy, to get up into the high mountains. You Latter-day Saints are four thousand three hundred feet above the level of the ocean, scattered over four hundred miles of Territory, north and south, and you are extending your settlements continually, and are building up some two hundred towns, cities and villages in the mountains of the great American desert, fulfilling the prophecies of the holy Prophets.

By and by you will leave this country. Says one—“What, are the Mormons going to leave Utah?” Oh yes, most of us; we are going to leave, but we shall disappoint some of you. You want to know which way we are going? We are going by and by eastward. I do not say that we shall go directly from this city eastward, but we shall, after a while, be in Jackson County, in the western borders of Missouri. Why are we going there? Because it is the great central gathering place for the Saints of latter days, for all that will be gathered from South America, Central America, Mexico, the Canadas, and from all the nations of the Gentiles—their headquarters will be in Jackson County, in the State of Missouri. We shall roll down from the mountains, and though we may be considered but a little stone cut out of the mountains without human ingenuity, without mankind under– taking to carry on this work of their own accord, the time will come when God will cause the stone of the mountains to roll, and then it will roll down and build up the central city of Zion, and that, too, long before this gathering from the distant nations shall cease. I do not know how much before the ten tribes will come from the north; but after Zion is built in Jackson County, and after the Temple is built upon that spot of ground where the cornerstone was laid in 1831; after the glory of God in the form of a cloud by day shall rest upon that Temple, and by night the shining of a flaming fire will fill the whole heavens round about; after every dwelling place upon Mount Zion shall be clothed upon as with a pillar of fire by night, and a cloud by day, about that period of time, the ten tribes will be heard of, away in the north, a great company, as Jeremiah says, coming down from the northern regions, coming to sing in the height of the latter-day Zion. Their souls will be as a watered garden, and they will not sorrow any more at all, as they have been doing during the twenty-five hundred long years they have dwelt in the Arctic regions. They will come, and the Lord will be before their camp, he will utter his voice before that great army, and he will lead them forth as he led Israel in ancient days. This long chain of Rocky Mountains, that extends from the cold regions of the north away into South America, will feel the power of God, and will tremble before the hosts of Israel as they come to sing on the heights of Zion. In that day the trees of the field will clap like hands, says the Prophet, and in that day the Lord will open waters in the wilderness, and streams in the desert, to give drink to his chosen, his people Israel. And when they come to the height of Zion they shall be crowned with glory under the hands of the servants of God living in those days, the children of Ephraim, crowned with certain blessings that pertain to the Priesthood, that they could not receive in their own lands. In that day will be set apart twelve thousand out of each of these ten tribes—one hundred and twenty thousand persons ordained to the High Priesthood, after the order of the Son of God, to go forth to all people, nations, kindreds and tongues, for the salvation of the remnants of Israel in the four quarters of the earth, to bring as many as will come unto the Church of the Firstborn. Thus God will have twelve thousand out of all the tribes of Israel to fulfill his purposes; and when they have completed his work here on the earth, they will be called home to Zion, be crowned with glory and stand upon Mount Zion and sing the song of the redeemed, the song of the hundred and forty-four thousand, and the Father’s name will be written in their foreheads.

By and by, when all things are prepared—when the Jews have received their scourging, and Jesus has descended upon the Mount of Olives, the ten tribes will leave Zion, and will go to Palestine, to inherit the land that was given to their ancient fathers, and it will be divided amongst the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. They will go there to dwell in peace in their own land from that time, until the earth shall pass away. But Zion, after their departure, will still remain upon the western hemisphere, and she will be crowned with glory as well as old Jerusalem, and, as the Psalmist David says, she will become the joy of the whole earth. “Beautiful for situation is Mount Zion on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.”

Zion will be caught up when Jesus comes, to meet him. Jesus will descend not only upon the Mount of Olives, but he will descend and stand upon Mount Zion. But before he stands upon it, it will be caught up to meet him in the air. Will the buildings of Zion be caught up? Yes. And its land? Yes. And Jesus will stand upon Mount Zion, according to the prediction of John the Revelator, and he will reign over his people during a thousand years; and his associates will be the resurrected righteous of all former dispensations, those, among others, who dwelt on this continent before the flood. Says one—“Do you mean to say that America was inhabited before the flood?” Yes, Adam dwelt on this continent. I do not know that the Garden of Eden was here, but we know from what God has revealed to us, that before Adam closed his days he dwelt on a certain portion of this continent with a great number of the righteous. All the righteous that lived on this continent before the flood, those who lived upon this continent who were righteous, who came from the Tower of Babel after the flood, and lived here some sixteen hundred years, before the nation was destroyed. All the Prophets, and wise, and good men of these several periods, will be permitted to reign as kings and priests upon this western hemisphere during the period of Christ’s reign on the earth. The Israelites, too, the remnants of Joseph, the forefathers of these poor degraded Indians, who are righteous, will come forth also to reign as kings and priests on this land.

We might continue this subject much further. We might portray before you the duties that will be performed by these resurrected righteous who reign as immortal beings on this continent and on the eastern continent. We might portray some of the great doings that will be accomplished by the King of kings and Lord of lords, when he shall sit upon his throne in the Temple at Jerusalem, surrounded by his Twelve Apostles, who will also sit upon twelve thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel. We might also relate to you concerning the judges and the thrones of those that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the word of God, who will reign on the western hemisphere as well as on the eastern; but time will not permit us to continue this subject any further.

May God bless the Latter-day Saints in the kingdom of God established here in the tops of the mountains; bless you in your residences, in your towns, in your cities, in your villages, and throughout the length and breadth of the land, and increase and multiply you as the stars of heaven that cannot be numbered, until the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our God and his Christ, and the Saints shall reign forever and ever. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, July 18, 1875.

I will read a few verses in the 29th chapter of Isaiah, commencing at the 18th verse. [The speaker read from the 18th verse to the end of the chapter.]

That which I wish to call to your mind, more particularly, on the present occasion, will be found in the first verse that I read—“In that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book.”

The Latter-day Saints are a peculiar people among the inhabitants of the earth of the present age, peculiar in many things, peculiar in many religious notions and views. We profess to believe in this book, the Jewish record, called the Bible. We are not peculiar so far as this item of our faith is concerned; but in addition to the Bible, we believe in another book, called the Book of Mormon, which we believe to be equally sacred with the Bible. Some may, perhaps, call the Book of Mormon a bible, and in one sense of the word it may be called that, for it is a collection of sacred books, the same as the Jewish record is. The difference between the two records is merely in the history, and in some of the prophetic writings. The Bible professes to be a history of the people who lived on the eastern continent, while the Book of Mormon professes to be a history of the people who lived in ancient America. We have denominated the Jewish record the Bible, because it is a collection of books said to have been written by inspired men. I do not see any reason why we should not also, as Latter-day Saints, call the Book of Mormon a bible, it being a collection of books written by Prophets and Revelators. Perhaps, however, the world, or those who are strangers to the evidences concerning these two books, may object, and say that we have no right to call the Book of Mormon a bible, unless we can bring such evidence to substantiate its divinity as we can concerning the Jewish record. But supposing that we are in possession of similar evidences concerning this book in relation to ancient America, as you are in regard to the Bible, the history of the people of Palestine; supposing that we can bring forth as many evidences and substantial testimonies to prove the divinity of the Book of Mormon, as you can to prove the divinity of the Jewish record, then why should we not include it among the sacred books, and denominate it a bible, as well as call the Jewish record such? I will, this afternoon, by the assistance of the Spirit of God, endeavor to lay before you, Latter-day Saints, and strangers who may be present, some of the evidences that we have concerning the divinity of this book which we esteem so highly—the Book of Mormon.

In the first place, I will give you a very brief statement concerning the manner in which the Book of Mormon was found. In the year 1827, a young man, a farmer’s boy, by the name of Joseph Smith, was visited by an holy angel, as he had been for several years prior to this time. But on this occasion, in the fall of 1827, he was permitted to take into his possession the plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated—the angel gave them into his hands, permitted him to take them from the place of their deposit, which was discovered to Mr. Smith by the angel of God. With this book, called the Book of Mormon, was a very curious instrument, such a one, probably, as no person had seen for many generations; it was called by the angel of God, the Urim and Thummim. We know that such an instrument existed in ancient times among the Jews, and among the Israelites in the wilderness, and that it was used to inquire of the Lord, and so sacred was that instrument in the days of Moses, that Aaron, the chief priest of the whole house of Israel, was commanded to place it within his breastplate, that when he should judge the tribes of the house of Israel, he should not judge by his own wisdom, but should inquire of the Lord by means of this instrument, and whatever decision the Lord, by aid of the Urim and Thummim, should give, all Israel should give heed to it. The same instrument was in use, many hundred years after the days of Aaron, by the Prophets of Israel. David inquired by means of an instrument of that kind, concerning his enemies, who pursued him from city to city, asking the Lord certain questions—whether his enemies would come to the city where he happened to be, and whether he would be delivered up to them by the people of that city; and the Lord gave him all necessary instruction, and by this means he was delivered out of the hands of his enemies from time to time.

But it seems that, before the coming of Christ, for some reason, probably through wickedness, the Urim and Thummim were taken away from the children of Israel, and a prophecy was uttered by one of the ancient Prophets, before Christ, that they should be many days without a Priest, without the Urim and Thummim, without the ephod, and without many things that God blessed them with in the days of their righteousness; but that in the latter days God would again restore all his blessings to the people of Israel, including their counselors and their judges as at the first.

With these plates that Joseph Smith, the Prophet, obtained through the instructions of the angel, he also obtained the Urim and Thummim, and by their aid he copied a few characters from the plates, and translated them. He was not a learned man himself, but an ignorant farmer’s boy, scarcely having the first rudiments of education. He could read and write a little, and that was about the amount of his educational acquirements. After having copied a few of the characters from these plates and translated them, he committed them into the hands of Martin Harris, a man with whom he was acquainted, who lived not far from his neighborhood; and Martin Harris took these few characters and their translation to the City of New York, to show them to the learned, and if possible to get some information in regard to their meaning. This was in the year 1827. Martin Harris was then a middle-aged man, being about forty-six years of age. On arriving in New York City, he visited the learned Dr. Mitchell, professor of languages, and obtained some information from him in relation to the manuscript which he held, and was recommended by Dr. Mitchell to see Mr. Anthon, professor of ancient and modern languages, probably one of the most learned men in ancient languages that ever lived in our nation. Mr. Harris went to see Mr. Anthon, and showed him the characters. The professor examined them and the translation, and, according to the testimony of Martin Harris, given from this stand, he gave him a certificate that, so far as he could understand the characters, the translation seemed to be correct; but he wished further time, and desired that the original plates should be brought to him. Mr. Harris then informed him how Mr. Smith came in possession of the plates—that he did not find them accidentally, but that an angel of God revealed to him the place of their deposit. This was after Martin Harris had obtained the certificate from Professor Anthon, and just before Mr. Harris took his leave of the learned gentleman; the latter having ascertained how Mr. Smith came in possession of the plates; that part of them were sealed, and that the Lord had given a strict command that they should not be shown to the public, but only to certain witnesses; I say that, the professor, having learned this, wished to see the certificate again; Mr. Harris returned it to him, and he tore it up, saying that there was no such thing as angels, or communications from the Lord in our day, and upon Mr. Harris telling him that a portion of the plates were sealed, he very sarcastically remarked, that he could not read a sealed book.

Mr. Harris left him, and returned, some two hundred and fifty miles or more, to the neighborhood where the plates were found, and informed Mr. Smith of his success with the learned, after which the Lord gave a special command to Joseph, unlearned as he was, that he should translate the record by the aid of the Urim and Thummim. Mr. Smith commenced the work of translation. Mr. Harris, acting as his scribe, wrote from his mouth one hundred and sixteen pages of the first translation, given by the Prophet.

The work was continued from time to time, until finally the unsealed portion of the Book of Mormon was all translated. In the meantime Martin Harris, Joseph Smith, the translator of the book, Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer, four persons, retired to a little grove in the year 1829, not far from the house of old father Whitmer, where this Church was organized. They retired to this grove for the special purpose of calling on the name of the Lord, and they all knelt down and commenced praying, one by one, and while thus engaged they saw an angel of God descend from the heavens, very bright and glorious in his appearance; and he came and stood in their midst, and he took the plates and turned over leaf after leaf of the unsealed portion, and showed to these four men the engravings upon them; and at the same time they heard a voice out of heaven saying unto them, that the plates had been translated correctly, and commanding them to bear testimony of the same to all nations, kindreds, tongues and people to whom the translation should be sent. In accordance with this command, Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer and Martin Harris have attached their testimony after the title page of the Book of Mormon, testifying to the appearance of the angel, signing their names and testifying to the correctness of the translation; testifying to having seen the plates and the engravings upon them, and to the voice of the Lord, which they heard out of the heavens.

Now let me say a few words concerning the nature of this testimony. This testimony was given prior to the publication of the book, and also previous to the organization of the Latter-day Saint Church. The book was printed early in 1830, with their testimony. Thus you perceive that this work, this marvelous work, was not presented to the inhabitants of the earth for their belief, until God had favored them with four persons who could bear witness to what their eyes had seen, what their ears had heard, and what their hands had handled, consequently there was no possibility, so far as these four men were concerned, that they themselves could be deceived. It would be impossible for four men to be together, and all of them to be deceived in seeing an angel descend from heaven, and in regard to the brightness of his countenance and the glory of his person, hearing his voice, and seeing him lay his hands upon one of them, namely David Whitmer, and speaking these words—“Blessed be the Lord and they who keep his commandments.” After seeing the plates, the engravings upon them, and the angel, and hearing the voice of the Lord out of heaven, every person will say that there was no possibility of either of these men being deceived in relation to this matter; in other words, if it were to be maintained that in their case it was a hallucination of the brain, and that they were deceived, then, with the same propriety might it be asserted that all other men, in every age, who profess to have seen angels, were also deceived; and this might be applied to the Prophets, Patriarchs, Apostles, and others who lived in ancient times, who declared they saw angels, as well as to Oliver Cowdery, Martin Harris, and David Whitmer. But says the objector—“No, those who testify that they saw angels anciently were not deceived, but they who come testifying about such ministrations in the latter days may be deceived.” Now let me ask, is there anything logical in such reasoning as this? If these, in the latter days, who testify to having seen angels, were deceived, all who testify to the same things in former days might have been deceived on the same grounds. And then, if these men, whose testimonies are attached to the Book of Mormon, were not deceived, it must be admitted that they were impostors of the most barefaced character, or else that the Book of Mormon is a divine record sent from heaven; one or the other must be admitted, there is no halfway in the matter. If they were not deceived—which they could not possibly have been according to the very nature of their testimony—then there are only two alternatives—they were impostors, or else the Book of Mormon is a divine revelation from heaven.

Now let us inquire what grounds there are to suppose that they were impostors? Forty-six years have passed away since this angel appeared and showed the plates to these individuals. Has anything transpired during this time that would give us any grounds to suppose that they were impostors? For instance, has either of these witnesses, or the translator of the engravings on the plates, ever, under any circumstances, denied his testimony? No. We have some accounts in the Bible of men of God, some of the greatest men that lived in ancient times, denying the things of God. We read of Peter cursing, and swearing that he never knew Jesus, and yet he was one of the foremost of the Apostles. His testimony was true so far as seeing and being acquainted with Jesus was concerned, and in regard to the divinity of Jesus. Why? Because God had revealed it to him and yet he denied it. “Blessed art thou, Simon Barjonah,” said Jesus, speaking to Peter, “for flesh and blood have not revealed this unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven.” Peter knew, just as well as he knew that he had a being, that Jesus was the son of God, it had been revealed to him from the heavens and though he afterwards, through fear, in the presence of the high priest, cursed and swore and denied it, yet the former testimony that he had given was true.

Now did either of these three men or did the translator of the Book of Mormon, ever deny the truth, as Peter did? Did they ever in any way deny the divinity of the Book of Mormon? Never, no never. Whatever the circumstances they were placed in, however much they were mobbed and ridiculed, however much they suffered by the persecution of their enemies, their testimony all the time was—“We saw the angel of God, we beheld him in his glory, we saw the plates in his hands, and the engravings thereon, and we know that the Book of Mormon is true.” Joseph Smith continued to bear this testimony until the day of his death; he sealed his testimony as a martyr in this Church, being shot down by his enemies, who were blackened up and disguised, in order that they might not be known. Oliver Cowdery did not live his faith as he should have done, and he was excommunicated from this Church during Joseph’s lifetime. Did he still continue to hold fast to his testimony? He did. Never was he known to swerve from it in the least degree; and after being out of the Church several years, he returned to Council Bluffs, where there was a Branch of the Church, and at a conference he acknowledged his sins, and humbly asked the Church to forgive him, bearing his testimony to the sacred things recorded in the Book of Mormon—that he saw the angel and the plates, just according to the testimony to which he had appended his name. He was rebaptized a member of the Church, and soon after departed this life.

Martin Harris did not follow up this people in the State of Missouri, neither did he follow us up to the State of Illinois; but we often heard of him, and whenever we did so we heard of him telling, in public and in private of the great vision that God had shown to him concerning the divinity of the Book of Mormon. A few years ago he came to this Territory, an old man, between eighty and ninety years of age, and spoke from this stand, in the hearing of the people. He then located himself in Cache County, in the northern part of the Territory, where he continued to live until last Saturday, when he departed this life in his ninety-third year—a good old age. Did he continue to bear testimony all that length of time—over forty-six years of his life? Did he, at any time during that long period, waver in the least degree from his testimony? Not at all. He had a great many follies and imperfections, like all other people, like the ancient Apostles, like Elijah the Prophet, but after all, he continued to testify to the very last concerning the truth of this work. Nothing seemed to delight him so much as to tell about the angel and the plates that he had seen. It was only a short time prior to his death that one of our Bishops went in to see the old man; his pulse was apparently sluggish in its movements, and nearly gone, but the sight of the Bishop seemed to revive him, and he said to him—“I am going.” The Bishop related to him some things which he thought would be interesting, among them that the Book of Mormon was translated into the Spanish language, for the benefit of a great many of the descendants of Israel in this country, who understand the Spanish language, in Mexico and Central America. This intelligence seemed to revive the old man, and he began to talk about the Book of Mormon; new strength, apparently, was imparted to him, and he continued his conversation for some two hours, and in his last testimony he bore record concerning the divinity of the work, and was rejoiced to think that it was going forth in another language, that those who understood that language might be made acquainted with the wonderful works of God.

I will here state that Martin Harris; when he came to this Territory a few years ago, was rebaptized, the same as every member of the Church from distant parts is on arriving here. That seems to be a kind of standing ordinance for all Latter-day Saints who emigrate here, from the First Presidency down; all are rebaptized and set out anew by renewing their covenants. There are thousands of Latter-day Saints who have gone forth into the baptismal font, and been baptized for their dead kindred and friends. Martin Harris requested this privilege, and he was baptized here in Salt Lake City for many of his kindred who are dead. I mention these things in order that the Saints may understand something concerning this man who has just left us, almost a hundred years old. God favored him, highly favored him. He was among the favored few who went up from the State of Ohio in the summer of 1831, and journeyed nearly a thousand miles to the western part of Missouri, to Jackson County. The Prophet went at the same time, and that was designated as the land where the Saints should eventually be gathered, and where a great city should be eventually reared, called the city of Zion, or the New Jerusalem, and that the Saints should be located throughout all that region of country. God gave many commandments in those days concerning what might be termed the United Order; in other words, concerning the consecration of the properties of the Church. These things were given by revelation through the Prophet. Martin Harris was the first man that the Lord called by name to consecrate his money, and lay the same at the feet of the Bishop in Jackson County, Mo., according to the order of consecration. He willingly did it; he knew the work to be true; he knew that the word of the Lord through the Prophet Joseph was just as sacred as any word that ever came from the mouth of any Prophet from the foundation of the world. He consecrated his money and his substance, according to the word of the Lord. What for? As the revelation states, as an example to the rest of the Church.

As I have already mentioned, one more witness remains who saw that angel and the plates. Who is it? David Whitmer, a younger man than Martin Harris, probably some seventy years of age, I do not recollect his age exactly. Where does he live? In the western part of Missouri. Does he still hold fast to his testimony? He does. Many of the Elders of this Church, in going to and fro among the nations, have called upon him from time to time, and they all bear the same testimony—that Mr. David Whitmer still, in the most solemn manner, declares that he saw the angel and that he saw the plates in his hands. But he is not here with us; he has not gathered up with the people of God. That, however, does not prove that his testimony is not true, by no means.

Now then, let me bring forth some predictions or prophecies concerning these three witnesses. In the forepart of the Book of Mormon, we have a prediction that there should be three witnesses; it was uttered nearly six hundred years before Christ by a man, a Prophet of God, who came out of Jerusalem and came to this American continent; and in speaking of the last days, when this record should come forth to the human family, he foretells that there should be witnesses who should know of a surety concerning its truth. I will read what he says, “And it shall come to pass that the Lord God shall bring forth unto you the words of a book, and they shall be the words of them which have slumbered. And behold the book shall be sealed; and in the book shall be a revelation from God, from the beginning of the world to the ending thereof. Wherefore, because of the things which are sealed up, the things which are sealed shall not be delivered in the day of the wickedness and abominations of the people. Wherefore the book shall be kept from them. But the book shall be delivered unto a man, and he shall deliver the words of the book, which are the words of those who have slumbered in the dust, and he shall deliver these words unto another.”

Now this man spoken of was the translator, Joseph Smith; and the delivering the words to another had reference to what I have already related—the delivery of a few of the words of the book to Martin Harris. “He shall deliver the words unto another; But the words which are sealed he shall not deliver, neither shall he deliver the book. For the book shall be sealed by the power of God, and the revelation which was sealed shall be kept in the book until the own due time of the Lord, that they may come forth; for behold they reveal all things from the foundation of the world unto the end thereof. And the day cometh that the words of the book which were sealed shall be read upon the house tops; and they shall he read by the power of Christ; and all things shall be revealed unto the children of men, which ever have been among the children of men, and which ever will be even unto the end of the earth. Wherefore, at that day when the book shall be delivered unto the man of whom I have spoken, the book shall be hid from the eyes of the world, that the eyes of none shall behold it save it be that three witnesses shall behold it, by the power of God, besides him to whom the book shall be delivered; and they shall testify to the truth of the book and the things therein. And there is none other which shall view it, save it be a few according to the will of God, to bear testimony of his word unto the children of men; for the Lord God hath said that the words of the faithful should speak as if it were from the dead. Wherefore, the Lord God will proceed to bring forth the words of the book; and in the mouth of as many witnesses as seemeth him good will he establish his word; and wo be unto him that rejecteth the word of God!”

This was translated from the plates, and written in manuscript, before Martin Harris, David Whitmer, or Oliver Cowdery ever saw this angel, but there was a promise; it was on record; it was in the manuscript that three witnesses should behold it by the power of God. That prophecy, as I said before, was delivered nearly six hundred years before Christ. There was another prophecy delivered nearly a thousand years afterwards, which I will also read—“And now I, Moroni, have written the words which were commanded me, according to my memory; and I have told you the things which I have sealed up; therefore touch them not”—speaking to the translator that should find his records—“therefore touch them not in order that you may translate; for that thing is forbidden you, except by and by it shall be wisdom in God. And behold, ye may be privileged that ye may show the plates unto those who shall assist to bring forth this work; And unto three shall they be shown by the power of God; where– fore they shall know of a surety that these things are true. And in the mouth of three witnesses shall these things be established; and the testimony of three, and this work, in the which shall be shown forth the power of God and also his word, of which the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost beareth record—and all this shall stand as a testimony against the world at the last day. And if it so be that they repent and come unto the Father in the name of Jesus, they shall be received into the kingdom of God. And now, if I have no authority for these things, judge ye; for ye shall know that I have authority when ye shall see me and we shall stand before God at the last day.”

Here then were two prophecies delivered about a thousand years apart, translated before the three witnesses saw the angel. It was in consequence of these prophecies that these men went out to the grove to pray. You may ask me why they went there to pray? Because they had read these things, and they saw that there were to be three witnesses that should know by the power of God, being revealed to them from the heavens, concerning these matters, and they felt anxious that God might show them these things, that they might be the favored three.

Were there any others who saw these plates? Yes. How many? Eight; all of whom are now dead except one, John Whitmer, who is still living. They saw and handled the plates, and saw the engravings upon them, and they testify of the same to all people to whom the work should be sent. How many does this make? Three witnesses, eight witnesses and the translator, twelve in all, twelve who saw and bare record of the original. Now I ask everyone in this house, Saints and strangers, have you as many witnesses that have seen the original of any one book of the Bible, the Old and New Testaments? Have you one witness even that has seen the original from which any one of those books was transcribed? No, not one. You have the transcription of scribes from generation to generation; you have the translations from these manuscripts handed down from generation to generation, and transcribed one copy after another, until they have passed through, perhaps, thousands of copies, before the art of printing was known. But you believe the Bible, do you not? Replies one—“Oh yes, we believe that, but as to the Book of Mormon we doubt very much about that.”

Well, now, let me ask, is there anything inconsistent in a people receiving the testimony of twelve witnesses who saw and handled the original of the Book of Mormon, when they, at the same time, believe in the Bible, the original of which was never seen or handled by any man of this generation? In other words, which of the two is most consistent to believe in? The Latter-day Saints believe in both, because we know the Bible is true, for the Book of Mormon testifies of it, and we have obtained a testimony of the divinity of the Book of Mormon; and hence, as that book speaks of the Bible, we know that the Bible is true. When the people, mentioned in the Book of Mormon left Jerusalem, and came to the land of America, they brought the books of the Old Testament with them from the history of the creation to the prophecies of Jeremiah, and in their writings made on this land, they speak of the divinity and truthfulness of the Old Testament scriptures. Hence we, as Latter-day Saints, know one book to be true just as well as we do the other. But with the world it is different, for as they never had this testimony, the truth of the Bible rests to them entirely upon secondhand testimony. But we will pass on to other testimonies.

I will now refer you again to the 29th chapter of Isaiah, from which I read concerning a book, the words of which were to be heard by the deaf—“In that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book.” What book do you mean, Isaiah? He means the one that he had just been speaking of in the 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th verses—“And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot: for it is sealed: And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned. Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precepts of men: Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.”

Here we perceive the nature of the book that he mentions in the 18th verse, and we learn something about the way that it was to be brought forth; that the words of the book, not the plates themselves, not the original, but the transcript, a copy of the words, the words of the book would be delivered to the learned, requesting them to read it.

Martin Harris, who has now gone from our midst, was the honored instrument in the hands of God in fulfilling this prophecy, as I have already related, giving you the names of the learned to whom he presented these words. I have also related to you the conversation in the interview which Mr. Harris had with Professor Anthon; when he learned that an angel had appeared, and that part of the book was sealed, in a kind of sarcastic way the Professor remarked—“I cannot translate a book that is sealed.”

Now notice the next sentence—“And the book is delivered to him that is not learned.” Not the words of the book, not a few sentences, but the book itself is delivered to him that is not learned, saying—“Read this I pray thee.” And what did he say? “I am not learned.” He felt his weakness. That was the exclamation of Joseph, when he was commanded to translate the engravings on the plates. He looked upon himself as too weak to engage in a work of this description, and the Lord answered him in the very words made use of by Isaiah. When Joseph said—“I am not learned,” the Lord said—“Forasmuch as this people draw near to me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, and their fear towards me is taught by the precepts of men, therefore behold I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder, for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.” And Joseph fulfilled the commandment of the Lord, and Martin Harris wrote the first 116 pages of manuscript; and Oliver Cowdery and others also wrote from the mouth of Joseph, while he was engaged in translating. Was not this a marvel– ous work? What could be more marvelous? A young man, a ploughboy, a boy that had scarcely any education, only as he obtained it in a country school; a man who had never studied theology, probably had never read the Bible through in his life. A young man of this description to be called upon to translate a language that was spoken by the ancient inhabitants of this country! A marvelous work indeed, and a wonder and an astonishment to the people. Isaiah says the people would wonder about it. He says—“Stay yourselves and wonder, cry ye out and cry, they are drunken but not with wine; they stagger but not with strong drink. For the Lord hath poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes; the Prophets and your rulers and the seers hath he covered.” That is the condition of the people; or as is expressed by Isaiah in another place, “Darkness covers the earth, and gross darkness the minds of the people.” The Prophets are covered; the seers are covered, the revelations of God that were given in ancient days are covered to them. They are taught, not by inspired men, not by communications and revelations from heaven, but by the precepts of men, is the fear of the Lord taught to them.

“In that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness.” A great many people, perhaps, would want this spiritualized; but, whether it is spiritualized or not, I can bear testimony to one thing which I have seen with my own eyes, and that is that those who were deaf, so deaf that they could not hear the loudest sound, have been instantaneously restored by the administrations of the Elders of this Church, and thus the deaf, the literally deaf, have been enabled to hear the words of the book.

The eyes of the blind, not those alone who are spiritually blind, but of those who are blind physically, should see out of obscurity and out of darkness, when that book was revealed. Now I know that this, too, has been the case, and many in this congregation know it and have seen it; some have seen those who were born blind restored to their sight by the power of God since this book came forth. Thus have been fulfilled, literally, the words of our text.

“The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord.” There have been a great many meek persons among all Christian denominations, we do not dispute this; good, honest, upright persons, meek, humble, prayerful souls; but they wandered in darkness; they hardly knew which way to turn. One was crying, “Lo here,” and another, “Lo there;” another, “This is the way, walk ye in it;” and another, having an opposite doctrine—“We are the true Church, come and join us.” Thus they have been distracted and their minds crazed, comparatively speaking; yet they were anxious beyond measure to know the will of God. This book, when it came forth, was to set them in the right track. “The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord.” In what way? “Because,” says the Prophet, in the 24th verse, “they who erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they who murmured shall learn doctrine.” However much you may have erred, because you have been taught by the precepts of men; however much you may have walked in darkness and blindness, with the Prophets, seers, and revelations of God covered, and no voice of inspiration in your midst; however much you may have groped in outer darkness, yet if you have been meek before the Lord, you will come to understanding when this book makes its appearance, and not till then.

But will this take place in the latter days? Does it not refer to some former age of the world? Read what is said in the 20th and 21st verses, and you can judge of the age of the world in which this book was to come forth. “The poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.” Not the rich particularly, unless they have a mind to; but the poor are to be gathered out from the nations to get homes for themselves. “For the terrible one is brought to nought, the scorner is consumed; and all that watch for iniquity are cut off, and they that make a man an offender for a word and that lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate.” All these are to be swept off. Has any such period ever arrived since Isaiah uttered this prophecy? No; but when a certain book should come forth it should bless the meek and lowly in heart, for their joy should increase in the Lord. And the poor among men be gathered out from the nations. Then, behold and lo, all that watch for iniquity shall be swept off from the face of the earth; there will be a clean sweep of them. As it was in the days of Noah so will it be in the days of the work preparatory for the second coming of the Son of man—every wicked person will be destroyed from the face of the earth, showing clearly that the revelations of this book refer to a latter-day work. Also in the fourth verse, in speaking of the people who should write this book, the Prophet says they shall be brought down, shall speak out of the ground, their plates, their books, their records, their writings, should come out of the ground—“Your speech shall be low, out of the dust,” the same as the Book of Mormon was taken out of the hill, anciently called Cumorah, in the State of New York.

Again, he says that the multitude of all the nations that fight against the people of God, shall become like the dream of a night vision, shall be as a hungry man who dreams, and behold he eats, but he awakes and his soul is faint; like a thirsty man that dreams, and behold he drinks, but he awakes and his soul hath appetite. So shall the multitude of all the nations be that fight against Mount Zion.

Now, we do not care how many persecutors there are; if they include all the nations, kingdoms, and governments of the earth, it matters not. The multitude of all the nations that fight against Mount Zion will become like the dream of a night vision—be swept away. That agrees with what I have already quoted—that all who watch for iniquity, all the scorners, and all who fight against the work of God, will be consumed from the face of the earth.

Now how is this book to affect the house of Israel? Is it for their benefit particularly? They have been a long time scattered, a long time abroad among the nations; are they to be affected by this book that is spoken of by Isaiah? Yes. Read the 22nd verse, which I have already once read before you—“Therefore, thus saith the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale.” Why? Because this book comes forth to bring the house of Jacob from all the nations and kingdoms of the earth; and this will commence just as soon as the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled; not until then. We must be warned first; we Gentiles must hear the word first; and when we count ourselves unworthy of eternal life, and fight against the book, and against the Zion and people of God, behold the Lord will then remember the house of Jacob, and they will no longer be ashamed, as they have been for about seventeen centuries past; they will no longer wax pale, as they have done wherever they have been scattered, for the Lord says, in the 23rd verse, that Jacob, when he shall see his children, the work of his hands, in the midst of him, that is, gathered out from among the nations, they shall sanctify my name, and shall sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel.

Where will this work commence among the house of Israel? Among the remnant that we call the American Indians, who are the literal descendants of Israel. They seem to be more sunken and degraded than all the rest of Israel, but God will stretch forth his hand and will bring them to the knowledge of the truth. The descendants of Manasseh, and the descendants of Ephraim, are also mixed in with them, and they also will be brought to the knowledge of the truth, as the Lord has said by the mouth of Jeremiah, concerning the great latter-day work and the restitution of the house of Israel—“Ephraim is my firstborn.” In the great latter-day work, then, the Lord will search after the descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh, and will bring them also to the knowledge of the truth.

Do you wonder, then, that after forty-five years have passed away since the organization of this Church, and the voice of warning went forth to the Gentile nations, that God, in his mercy and power, should commence a work among this remnant of the house of Joseph, that wander as a multitude of nations upon the face of this continent? Recollect what Jacob said, concerning the seed of Joseph, in the 48th chapter of Genesis—they were to become a multitude of nations. They never were a multitude of nations in Palestine, neither in Asia, Europe, nor Africa, and if the prophecy is not fulfilled upon the great western continent, it will not be fulfilled at all. But it has been fulfilled on the continent of America; and we behold throughout the whole of its vast extent, from the frozen regions of the north, to Cape Horn in the south, a multitude of nations. Who are they? They are principally the remnants of one tribe, the remnants of the tribe of Joseph, and they are a multitude of nations in the midst of the earth. The Lord has commenced the gathering and restitution of the house of Israel among the very lowest specimens of humanity, and he will raise them up first, to carry on his great and marvelous work. The tens of thousands of Ephraim, and the thousands of Manasseh, will push the people together to the ends of the earth. Ephraim will not do the work alone, but he will be assisted by Manasseh. The Indians, the Lamanites, who will take hold in this great latter-day work, are the horns of Joseph, not to scatter the people, but to push them together. Where? To the ends of the earth, the 33rd of Deuteronomy says, and I have no doubt that when Moses saw this continent in vision, he called it “the ends of the earth.” There was to be a gathering there; they were to be pushed together; instead of being gathered from the nations of the earth back to Palestine, they were to be gathered in the latter days away in some distant country, that Moses designates by the term “ends of the earth.”

It is for this reason that God promised, by the mouth of Moses in the 33rd chapter of Deuteronomy, that he would give to Joseph a land more precious than the land of all the other tribes—a land of all climates, blessed with the precious things of the earth, and a fullness thereof; with the precious things brought forth by the sun, and the precious things brought forth by the moon, with the chief things of the ancient mountains, and the precious things of the everlasting hills. All these were to be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separated from his brethren. “Blessed of the Lord be his land”—that was the promise that God gave to this one tribe, a land far superior to the inheritance of all the rest of the tribes. Jacob, who lived a long time before Moses, pronounced a similar blessing, as recorded in the 49th chapter of Genesis. When blessing his twelve sons, and telling them what should come to pass in the latter days, he says concerning Joseph—“He is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall.” That is, his branches should not stay in Jerusalem, or in Palestine, or in that land alone, but they should run over the wall to some distant country. Hence he says, in the same blessing, “The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors, unto the uttermost bounds of the everlasting hills, and they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separated from his brethren.”

I suppose that Jacob saw this land as well as Moses, and he designates it a land afar off; the utmost bounds would signify a very distant land. He said this land was over and above, what his progenitors gave to him and he would give it to Joseph. No wonder that Moses said—“Blessed of the Lord be his land, for the deep that coucheth beneath.” For if Moses had a vision of it, he would look down through the earth and see that the great Pacific ocean rolled under his feet, that it couched beneath, and he would speak of it in that light, as it was revealed to him. No wonder that the Prophet Ezekiel, in speaking of the great latter-day work and the restitution of Israel, prophesied concerning the records of Joseph, that they should come forth, and be united with the record of Judah, to bring about that great work. The precious things of heaven were to be given to Joseph on this land. Blessed of the Lord be his land for the precious things of heaven, more precious than the fullness of earth, more precious than the productions of the various climates of the earth, more precious than the grain, and the gold and silver of the earth. The precious things of heaven revealed to the people of Joseph on the great land given to them unto the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills.

Said the Lord to Ezekiel—“Son of Man, take thou one stick and write upon it, for Judah, and for the house of Israel, his companions; then take another stick and write upon it, for Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for the house of Israel, his companions, and join them one to another into one stick, and they shall be one in thine hand.” Then he said to Ezekiel—“When the people shall say unto thee, tell us what thou meanest, say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God, behold I will take the stick of Joseph, written upon for Joseph, and I will put it with the stick of Judah, and they shall become one in mine hand. Just the same as the two sticks were one in Ezekiel’s hands, so the Lord would make these two books, of Judah and Joseph, one in his hand.” What to do, Lord? What are you going to do when these two records are joined in one? “Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God, behold I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone. I will gather them on every side, I will bring them into their own land, I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel. They shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all.”

Has that ever been fulfilled? “Oh, no,” says one, “that has never yet come to pass;” and it never will until the Lord brings forth the writings of Joseph and joins them with the Jewish record. Then we may look out for the restitution of Israel; as soon as the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled, we may look out for the day of the Lord’s power, when he will cause the very powers of heaven to shake for the benefit of his people. The powers of eternity will be moved to bring about the great work of the restitution of the house of Israel. Then the mountains shall tremble, and the little hills shall skip like lambs, as is prophesied by the Psalmist David. Then all things shall feel the power of God, and his arm will be made bare in the eyes of all the nations, until the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God, manifested in behalf of his covenant people Israel. It will be emphatically the day of the Lord’s power.

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, on the Occasion of the Attendance of the New England and New York Editorial Excursion Party, Sunday Afternoon, July 11, 1875.

I will call the attention of the congregation to a portion of the word of God contained in the 19th chapter of the Gospel according to St. Matthew. [The speaker read the 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 verses.]

I have read these passages of Scripture in order to dwell, this afternoon, if the Lord will, and his Spirit shall so direct my mind, upon the subject of marriage, and to show wherein the people called Latter-day Saints differ in their views from other Christian denominations in relation to this great and divine ordinance, and to make such other remarks, not particularly connected with the subject, as the Spirit of the Lord may direct.

First, however, before taking up this divine ordinance, it may be well to state, in brief terms, some of the views of the Latter-day Saints in regard to the doctrine which they have embraced. I shall endeavor to be very brief on every point, in order to enumerate, as far as possible, the variety of doctrines and principles which we have embraced, that are peculiar to us as a people. I will commence by saying, that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has not grown out of the various religious societies that now exist, or that have existed, in Christendom; neither has it grown out of any of their institutions. Our Priesthood, our doctrine, our authority, the organization of our Church, and everything connected therewith, have been something revealed directly from the heavens. Perhaps you may inquire—“Have you not been guided more or less in relation to these principles by the book which is called the Bible?” I answer that, in the organization of the kingdom of God on the earth in the nineteenth century, we have been guided by direct revelation to us from heaven. We do not profess that our doctrines and principles are entirely distinct and something entirely different from those which are recorded in the Bible, we are far from making any such profession; but we believe that the same God who organized his kingdom in ancient times, and revealed his will to the inhabitants of the earth, has revealed, in these last days, principles in accordance with those revealed in former times, and that he is a consistent Being, and that he would not communicate a Gospel for the inhabitants of the earth to observe in the 19th century that was not revealed and understood in former ages. The same Gospel, therefore, which God has revealed anew in our day, when compared with the Gospel contained in the New Testament, is found to accord in every principle, and in all its ordinances and institutions, with ancient Christianity.

This Church was organized on the 6th day of April, 1830. The very day of the month on which it should be organized was pointed out by new revelation; the officers that were placed in the Church were appointed, and the names of many of them were given by new revelation. The duties of these officers were also appointed by direct revelation from heaven. God organized the Church with Apostles in it, the same as he organized his ancient Church; he organized it with Revelators and with Prophets, inspired from on high, the same as he organized the ancient Christian Church. He commanded the people to believe in his Son Jesus Christ, as the great Redeemer who died in the meridian of time for the sins of mankind. He commanded, by new revelation, that we should believe in the same Redeemer and in the same atonement; he commanded us to repent of all our sins, forsake all unrighteousness, cease to do evil and learn to do well, and to reform our lives in every respect, the same as he commanded the people in the ancient dispensation of the Gospel. By new revelation we were commanded to be baptized by immersion in water, for the remission of our sins, the same as he commanded the people in ancient times to attend to the same divine ordinance. By new revelation, he commanded his servants the Apostles, and those to whom he gave power and authority, to lay hands on all baptized believers, and to confirm upon them the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost, the same as was practiced among the Saints in ancient times. By new revelation the Lord promised that certain signs should follow the believers among all nations, kindreds, tongues and people to whom this Gospel should be sent. All that would believe, men and women, were promised certain signs, among which I will name that they should cast out devils, speak with new tongues, and if they should take up serpents, or drink any deadly thing, it should not hurt them, they should lay their hands upon the sick and they should recover. The same promise was made by our Savior under the ancient dispensation of the Gospel. He commanded his servants, in these days, to go forth and preach to the Gentile nations first; and when we had faithfully borne our testimony to them, and they were sufficiently warned, then we were to turn to the scattered and dispersed remnants of Israel in the four quarters of the earth, and preach the Gospel to them. He commanded, by new revelation, that his servants should say unto the inhabitants of all the earth that would believe, repent, be baptized, and receive the Gospel of the Son of God, that they should leave their respective nations, and gather together in one place, which the Lord, by new revelation, should appoint.

All this was given by new revelation. Does it agree or disagree with the Scriptures contained in the Bible? Judge ye for yourselves. Did the ancient Christian Church have inspired Apostles, who had power to call upon God and receive new reve– lation from him? So does the modern Christian Church, which God has reorganized on the earth; claim to have the same officers, Apostles, not in name merely, but inspired from heaven, to receive new revelations, as the ancient Apostles were. Is there any disagreement, then, between the former pattern and the latter-day pattern? Did the ancient Christian Church have a multitude of inspired Prophets, men and women, who could prophesy concerning future events? So the latter-day Christian Church, organized by new revelation, has an abundance of Prophets and Prophetesses to whom the future has been opened, and they foretell future events; hence there is no disagreement between the ancient pattern and the latter-day pattern. Did the Apostles lay on hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost, and did the Spirit of God descend from the heavens, and fall upon the baptized believers through the laying on of hands? So in the latter days have the same blessings been given among all the nations and people and kindreds and tongues, wherever this Gospel has been preached. No difference, then, so far as this is concerned.

Did the ancient Christian Church have a great variety of members possessing a variety of spiritual gifts? So does the latter-day Christian Church believe in the same thing. Did any in the Christian Church presume, in ancient times, to take unto themselves the authority of the ministry, without being called of God by new revelation? Never, no never! All were called by new revelation to officiate in the various offices of the Church, after the same pattern that Aaron was called. “No man,” says Paul, “taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God as was Aaron.” Everybody knows, from the history given, how Aaron was called by new revelation. Have any among all the peoples and nations of the earth authority to administer baptism? Yes. Who are they? Those who are called by new revelation, and none else. Have any authority to administer the Lord’s Supper among all the Christian nations of the earth? Yes. Who are they? Those to whom the Lord has spoken, whom the Lord has called as he called Aaron. Have any Christian denominations who deny new revelation, authority to administer this sacred ordinance? Not one upon the face of the whole earth. Are ordinances, administered by those who deny new revelation, accepted by the Most High? Not one of them. Why? Because God does not sanction that which is not appointed by him.

Perhaps some may inquire, if this does not cut off the Christian Church from the face of the earth? I answer, it does, unless God has a Christian Church with revelators and Prophets in it, and whose officers are called by new revelation. Inquires one—“Do you mean to say that we have had no true Christian Church on the earth for a great many centuries?” I do mean to say this, unless there have been persons authorized, according to the requirements of the holy Scriptures. If we can find a Church anywhere on the face of the earth that has Apostles in it, and revelators, and inspired men, then we have a true Christian Church; but if we cannot find this, then we have no such Church. If we can find a church that has the gifts and the signs spoken of by the New Testament, we can find a true Christian Church; but if we can’t find such, we have no reason to believe that there is such a Church on the earth. “But,” says one, “we call ourselves Christians.” That is a very easy matter; but calling yourselves Christians or Christian churches does not make you such. Inquires one—“Is it not contrary to the Scriptures to suppose that the world would be left for so many centuries without a Christian Church?” No; it is in accordance with the Scriptures, for they foretell the Apostasy, the falling away and the darkness that should reign over the nations, and show that instead of having true teachers, men would heap to themselves teachers without authority from God, uninspired men, whose ears would be turned away from the truth unto fables. This great apostasy commenced about the close of the first century of the Christian era, and it has been waxing worse and worse from then until now. A short time after the death of the last of the Apostles, the Christian Church, what few of them remained, were persecuted from mountain to mountain, from den to den, from one cave of the earth to another, and from nation to nation until they were entirely exterminated and rooted out of the earth. Well, what was left? An apostate Christianity, a Christianity without revelators, without any voice of God, without any Prophets to unfold the future, without visions, without any communications from the heavens. Apostasy succeeded the Christian Church and has borne rule over all the nations of the earth; and these Scriptures have been fulfilled; for they say that a certain power should arise, and make war with the Saints and overcome them, and they should be given into the hands of that power.

But is our earth always to be left without the Church and kingdom of God, and without Apostles, Prophets, or a voice from the heavens? No. John saw in his vision on Patmos how the Gospel should again be preached among the nations, after great Babylon should arise, after she should persecute the Saints and destroy them from the earth, and present her golden cup full of filthiness and abominations for all nations to drink thereof.

After he had seen this, he saw how the Christian Church should again return to the earth. In the fourteenth chapter of Revelation and sixth verse, he says—“I saw another angel flying through the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach to them that dwell on the earth, unto every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment is come.” And another angel followed this one that had the Gospel, saying—“Babylon is fallen, is fallen.” Why? Because she hath made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

Immediately after this the Son of Man was seen by John, sitting upon a white cloud, coming in his glory and power to destroy the nations of the earth. Here, then, were three great events portrayed by the ancient Apostle John, which should take place just prior to and at the time of the coming of the Son of Man. The Gospel is to be brought by an angel. For whom? For all people. Now, if there had been any people, nation, kindred, or tongue, in any part of the earth that had the Gospel, and had the authority to administer its ordinances, there would be no necessity for this angel’s coming, all we would have had to do, would be to hunt up that people, and there, among them, we should have found Apostles, Prophets, revelators, and men having power to call upon God, and get revelation; and then persons would be called by new revelation to the ministry. But no such people existed, and hence, when the angel brings the Gospel, it has to be preached to all people, nations and tongues, under the whole heavens.

Now the Latter-day Saints have happened to live in the day when the Lord has sent this angel, and when he has again established his Church, and has commanded his servants to go forth, calling them by name, to preach the Gospel to the people, without purse and scrip, to organize his people among all nations and to say unto them—“Gather out from all these nations unto one place.” “But,” says one, “what does this mean? Did the ancient Apostles and the ancient Christian Churches gather?” I answer that the same doctrines which they taught are taught in these days; yet when it comes to some of the great temporal principles of salvation, God has varied in his plans in every dispensation. To Noah a command was given to build an ark; that was the way in which was to be effected the temporal salvation of all believers in his day. Abraham was commanded to leave his country, kindred and friends; that was a command of a very different character to the one given in the dispensation of Noah. In the days of Moses, another command was given quite different from that given to either Noah or Abraham, and so on down. In the days of Jesus, so far as temporal salvation was concerned, the believers were permitted to remain at Corinth, Ephesus, Galatia and in all the countries wherever the Christian Church was organized; there was no gathering in that day. But the last dispensation is to be a dispensation of gathering together of all of the people of God. It is spoken of by Paul in the first chapter of his epistle to the Ephe– sians, where it is said “that, in the dispensation of the fulness of times, the Lord will gather together in one all that are in Christ, whether they be in the heavens or upon the earth, that they may all be gathered in one.”

Now if this angel who brought this Gospel from the heavens, and commanded this Church to be organized, had left out this gathering together in one, we would have had reason to suppose him to be an impostor. Why? Because the great essential feature of the latter-day dispensation was a gathering together in one of all things in Christ. That is the reason why these vales are filled with inhabitants of different nations and tongues; they have heard in different parts of the earth the sound of the Gospel which God has brought to light in these latter days by an angel; they heard the voice of the Lord calling upon them to flee from Babylon, and to gather together in one, and that is why they are here. This agrees with the testimony of John, that, after the angel came, the Gospel should be preached to all nations. He heard a great voice from heaven, saying—“Come out of her, my people, lest ye be partakers of her sins and receive of her plagues; for her sins have reached to the heavens, and God hath remembered her iniquities.” That voice, recollect, was not to be a cunningly devised fable, got up by a certain number of divines or theologians, according to their own wisdom; it was to be a voice from heaven, a new revelation, commanding the people to do this. About a hundred thousand of the Latter-day Saints, dwelling in this mountain region, building up towns and cities for some four or five hundred miles in extent, have heard the voice of the Lord from the heavens and have gathered out. You have heard the proclamation, when the latter-day kingdom was established, to take your lamps and go forth to meet the Bridegroom. Instead of staying in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, or among the islands of the sea, you have been commanded to take your lamps and gather out; this is like the fish net that was cast into the sea, and “gathered all kinds, both good and bad.” “Do you mean to say,” says one, “that there are some gathered among you who are bad?” Yes; if there were not the parable of our Savior would not be fulfilled. But by and by there will be a sorting out, and the bad will be cast away unto their own place, while the good will be gathered into vessels and be saved.

This will be fulfilling the words of the Prophet Isaiah, in the 43rd chapter—“I will gather them from the east, and from the west, I will say to the north give up, and to the south keep not back. Bring my sons from afar, and my daughters from the ends of the earth, even every one that is called by my name.” Says one—“Do you really think there will be no Christians left in the north, nor in the south, nor in the east, nor in the west, but that everyone that is called by the name of the Lord will be gathered in one?” Yes, that is what we believe, and that is one of the peculiarities of what the world call “Mormonism,” we do not believe there will be a Christian left on the whole face of the earth, but what will be gathered together. “Well,” says one, “if that is true, if Isaiah told the truth about that, and the day is at hand for his prophecy to be fulfilled, the nations will truly be in an awful dilemma, when every Christian is gathered out.” I think they will, I think you draw a very correct conclusion.

Why does the Lord gather them out? As the Prophet Isaiah has said in another place, he gathers them out to the mountains, and they say one to another—“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob.” What for? “That he may teach us of his ways, and that we may walk in his paths.” It seems, then, that the Lord will have one people somewhere on the face of the earth, up in some mountainous region, who are going to teach the nations his ways, and how to walk in his paths.

Now, if we can find out where that mountain is where the Lord is going to have a house built, and to which the nations shall gather, it will be well for us to open our eyes and to see whether we are gathering together to learn the ways of the Lord.

Perhaps you may enquire, “What peculiarities are to be taught in the mountains different from what are taught abroad?” I answer, undoubtedly there will be a great many; and among the rest is that of marriage, and now we come to the words of our text. You may ask, “Do you not marry here in the mountains, as we do in the East?” In reply, I will say, in the first place, that marriage is a divine ordinance, as you see by the words of my text—“What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” Now how does the Lord join together persons in marriage? Does he ordain a justice of the peace, who avows himself to be an infidel, and does not believe in God, or his Son Jesus Christ, or in the Gospel of life and salvation? Has such a man the authority of God to join the sexes together in marriage? Suppose that such pronounce the marriage ceremony, what has the Lord to do with it? Does the Lord inspire the infidel—one who has no faith nor con– fidence in him, to join together the sexes in marriage? I think not.

But suppose we pass by the infidel who holds the authority of the civil law to administer the ordinance of marriage, are there not many persons among the Christian nations, who do believe in God and his Son Jesus Christ, who are justices of the peace, and who have authority, under the civil laws of the country, to administer the ordinance of marriage? I answer—there are many who hold this authority under their respective governments; we do not dispute this. The infidel I was speaking of, who is a justice of the peace, has authority by the laws of his State or county, to administer and officiate in the ceremony of marriage. But God has nothing to do with it; it answers the ends of the civil law, and that is as far as it goes.

Now suppose you take those persons who are not infidels, but who profess to believe in God, and they hold authority, under their various governments, to pronounce a man and woman husband and wife, has the Lord anything to do with that? He has if he has appointed that minister or justice of the peace; if he has given him a revelation authorizing him to officiate in the ordinance of marriage, then he has authority to do it, according to the mind and will of God. But on the other hand, if God has said nothing to him, he has no divine authority—and if he is a sectarian he is sure to reject all revelation, unless it happens to be in the Bible, and the Bible calls no man by name in the 19th century to officiate in marriage, neither in baptism nor any of the ordinances of the Gospel—his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ does not give him divine authority to administer the ordinance of marriage. Nevertheless the individuals whom he marries are mar– ried according to the laws of the country, and the marriage is legal so far as the laws of the country are concerned; but if God has not spoken to those men, if he has not given them revelation authorizing them to do this, their ceremony, so far as God is concerned, would be just the same as though it was administered by a heathen priest, just the same as though it was ministered by an infidel, for God has nothing to do with it.

Who is it then, that the Lord joins together? It is those who are married by one authorized of God to officiate in that sacred and holy ordinance, and the Lord could not do this, without he gave new revelation; hence you begin to understand what our views are as Latter-day Saints in regard to the nature of marriage. Inquires one—“Do you mean to say that there have been no marriages legal in the sight of God for nearly seventeen hundred years past, among all the nations?” Yes, that is what we say. Those old and middle-aged men, who were married in the nations before they heard the sound of the Gospel, were married legally according to the laws of man, and their marriages will stand all the controversies of the law, and their children are legal heirs to their property; but they are not joined together of the Lord.

Now let us come to a marriage where the Lord officiates. It is indirectly referred to here, in this 19th chapter of Matthew—“In the beginning God made them male and female.” And who officiated in the first great marriage ceremony? It was the Lord. Probably, if there had been any man on the earth at that time who held the keys, authority and power, the Lord would not have come and officiated directly; but inasmuch as the marriage was between the first pair who dwelt upon the earth, and there was nobody else to officiate, the Lord took it in hand to officiate himself; and after he had formed the woman he brought her to the man, and the man said—“This, now, is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh, therefore she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man.”

Now let us inquire in regard to the perpetuity of this first marriage, for all Christendom, and I do not know but all heathendom, have got the curious idea into their heads that marriage pertains only to this little speck of time called our present life, and that by and by the grim monster Death will come along and part man and wife asunder, and that is the end of the marriage union. Such is the idea of all Christendom, and that is the way they marry; it is after this form that justices of the peace, the professed ministers of the Gospel, and all the judicial authorities of the various states, territories, nations, countries and empires of the world have officiated in the marriage ceremony—“I join you together,” or, “I pronounce you husband and wife,” as the case may be, “until death shall you part.” Oh indeed! It is a very short time to be married, is it not? We might die in the course of a day or two after being married, then the contract is run out, no more claim after that, according to their ideas. But now, in relation to this first marriage between Adam and Eve, who were they? Two immortal beings. What! Does God marry immortal beings? Yes. We have no account of his coming officially to marry a couple of mortal beings; I do not know that we have any such account anywhere. But these two personages, Adam and Eve, were immortal. Says one—“I never knew before that immortal beings were to be connected as husbands and wives, I thought marriage pertained to mortality, and until death should us part, and that was the end of it.” I know that we have had a great many erroneous ideas about baptism, about the laying on of hands, about marriage, and about a great many things, all of which came in consequence of the darkness that is spread over the nations, since ancient Christianity was rooted out of the earth. Two immortal beings—Adam the bridegroom, Eve the bride, stood up together, and the Lord gave the bride to the bridegroom. For how long, I wonder? If he had learned the ceremony of these Protestant and Catholic denominations, he might have said—“I pronounce you husband and wife until death shall separate you.” No, I think he had never learned that; death had not then come into our world; the forbidden fruit had not been eaten then; there were no fallen beings then on the earth, no mortality yet upon the face of our fair creation, but two immortal beings who were capable of enduring to all ages of eternity were united together in marriage.

This, then, was marriage for eternity, not for a little speck of time, not for a hundred or a thousand years, not for a million years, but for all eternity, to be as durable in its nature, action and effects as the immortal beings themselves. “But,” inquires one, “are you sure that Adam and Eve were immortal?” I am; the Scriptures inform me that by transgression sin came into the world, and death by sin. If sin had not come into the world there would have been no death. “But, do you really think that Adam and Eve would have been alive today?” Yes. Can you reflect in your minds upon a period in the future, when they would not be immortal, when they would be overcome? Can you point out the time when they would no longer be husband and wife? Never. When did the Lord give the commandment to be fruitful and multiply, etc.? He gave it to them as immortal beings. Supposing it had been possible for Adam and Eve, before they fell, to have had children, what kind of children would they have been? Would mortal children have descended from immortality without any transgression? Would people of flesh and blood and bones come into the world from immortal parents? No. We must suppose, then, that when God said to Adam and Eve, “be fruitful and multiply” that he spoke to them as beings that were not fallen.

Perhaps you may enquire, how long would they have multiplied and fulfilled this commandment? I answer, as long as eternity endures. Can you tell how long that will be? “Do you mean to say there would be no end to their increase?” None at all. If they had fulfilled that great commandment, and had multiplied their posterity, their children would have been immortal, as well as the parents, and there never would have been a period throughout all the endless ages of eternity but what they would have continued to increase their children—their own sons and daughters.

Perhaps you may say—“I really thought that mankind now, over the face of the earth, were fulfilling that great first commandment.” You have been highly mistaken; we have not one of us fulfilled it. “Do you mean to say that all these people here who have been married and have multiplied sons and daughters throughout all this Territory, have not been fulfilling the command given to Adam?” Not one pair of us, we were not in a condition to do it; we shall be by and by, however, when we get our immortal bodies, as Adam had his. But while we are here, we are permitted to multiply—what? Poor, weak, pusillanimous, fallen, sickly bodies, calculated to last at the longest, seventy, eighty, or a hundred years, and then crumble back to their mother earth. Are you going to substitute such an offspring as this to fulfill the great first commandment that was given to immortal man? Oh no, the Lord will accept no such substitution as this.

But how can we fulfil the commandment then? I will tell you how—be married for all eternity, as your first parents were, and then, when you come up in the morning of the first resurrection, and God again restores to you your bodies, male and female, you can fulfil that commandment that was given in the beginning, to the first immortal pair.

Shall we continue to multiply through all eternity? Yes; there never will be a time when those who are really married for eternity will cease to multiply their species, not children subject to pain, disease and death, but children of immortality. Millions on millions will be multiplied, worlds without end, by each pair of immortal parents, and their children will be as immortal as themselves. Then the commandment will be fulfilled.

Perhaps some of you may say—“Your remarks explain a certain passage we have often read, the 11th chapter of Paul’s first epistle to the Corinthians, and 11th verse, which says—’Neither is the man without the woman in the Lord, neither is the woman without the man in the Lord.’ We never knew what that meant before, but it seems that you Latter-day Saints have got a clue to it.” It seems then that if we wish to fulfil the object of our creation, and if we are truly in the Lord, then we must go into the eternal worlds as married, not for time; not by some justice of the peace that is an infidel; not by a man that has no right to join us together under the revelation and authority of the Most High; but we must be married for eternity by a man who has the right to speak, being commanded of the Lord, holding the keys of authority and power, who can say to the man and woman, I pronounce you husband and wife for time and all eternity. Then you will be married according to the pattern given; then you will have a claim upon each other after death. But have married people, in the nations, a claim upon each other after death? I mean those who have not been married after the pattern and authority of heaven. By no means. Their contracts are made only for a little space, some twenty, thirty, fifty or seventy years, as the case may be, then death comes along and the contract runs out; and when you come up in the resurrection who are you? Have you any wife there? Oh, no. Why not? Because you were not sealed or married, to each other by divine authority, that is the reason. What position will you occupy? If you have been pretty good people and have kept the commandments of God as far as you understood them, and have done well in many respects, you may have the opportunity of becoming angels; but there is quite a difference between angels and those who have the privilege of endless increase, and of being crowned as kings and priests in the eternal worlds. Whom do you suppose you will reign over? Will you get somebody else to multiply and spread forth their offspring, and then give that offspring to you? Will you go to your neighbors and say—“Come, you were married for eternity when you were back in yonder world and you have come forth, having a claim to your wife or wives in the morning of the resurrection. I did not attend to that matter while there, and I was not married there according to the first pattern that was given in the Bible, and inasmuch as I failed in doing this will you, neighbor, give me part of your children? I should like to be a king, and have some subjects to reign over, will you part with some of your children?” “Oh no,” says the neighbor, “if you neglected, in yonder world, the divine ordinances pertaining to the probation, you must bear the loss, I cannot spare any of my children. They belong to me; they are under my patriarchal government, they will be my kingdom and I shall reign over my own offspring forever and ever.”

What will this poor man do then? Why he will have to be an old bachelor, if we may use the expression, and continue that way to all ages of eternity. He will do for a servant, and they will have a great many servants there. A man of God has a great kingdom, and his kingdom spreads forth, and his subjects multiply like the stars of heaven, or the sands upon the seashore, and he will naturally want some who have bodies of flesh and bones to go and minister for certain purposes; and those who have deprived themselves of the benefits of marriage for eternity, will do first-rate for that, if they have been righteous enough to get into a position where angels are.

There were some in the days of our Savior righteous enough for that, but through the apostasy that had prevailed some three centuries before he came, they had lost the authority of obtaining this higher glory, and when Jesus spake to them about the resurrection of the dead, he said—“In the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage.” To whom was he talking? Not to the righteous, but to some of the members of the pious denominations that happened to exist in that day, that had in some measure lost the spirit of the Lord. Such never having been married for eternity in this world could rise no higher than angels in the next world; and if they became righteous enough to become celestial angels, they would be servants forever. Servants to whom? Those that are worthy to receive a kingdom and a glory, that have attended to their ordinances and to the commandments of God, and have been led by him in all things pertaining to marriage as well as other things.

Let us now come to another item that grows out of marriage for eternity. For instance, there are a great many in this congregation who were married by the Gentile laws, by justices of the peace and various other officers, in England, Scotland, Wales, Denmark, and in the various nations of Christendom. They come up here with their wives, many of them just as good people as can be found anywhere on the earth. Were they married by divine ordinances? Did God join them together? No. Are they, therefore, to be condemned? No. Why not? Because God did not send the word to them. When the word goes forth from the Lord Almighty to a people, and light comes into a nation and among a people, then comes condemnation if that light is rejected, but not till then.

The word of the Lord told you to gather up here. What for? That you might, among other things, be married according to the law of God. I am endeavoring to tell you some of our peculiarities. We do believe that every man who gathers up with the Saints, whether married by the Gentile law or not, should be married by one holding divine authority to officiate, and thus have the ordinance, the ministration sealed on earth that it may be sealed in the heavens; then it will stand; but everything that is not done by the authority of God will not stand, but will be shaken; and when the day of the resurrection shall come, it will only be that which God has appointed that will endure the test. In that day, when they come up out of their graves, there will be no chance for people to be married, any more than there will be for them to be baptized. If people do not get baptized here in this life, they will have no chance to be baptized there. And Jesus says, that if you are not born of the water and of the spirit, you cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven, that is, into the highest kingdom, the highest glory, the third heaven; you cannot enter there, consequently you must not put off baptism until the resurrection day, and say you will attend to it then, for that will be too late for baptism, and also for marriage.

Here is another question. A great many of those good people abroad, who, with their ancestors, back for seventeen hundred years, while God had no authority or Church on the earth, have gone down to their graves, without knowing anything about the pattern of marriage as recorded here in the Bible, which is eternal in its nature. What are you going to do with them? I answer, it would look rather hard if there was no provision made for them, would it not? There are about seventeen centuries or generations, and if we compute a thousand million of people for every generation, coming upon and passing away from the earth, we shall have about fifty thousand million altoge– ther, who have gone down to their graves without baptism, without the administration of the ordinances, without divine authority to administer in their marriages! Do you suppose that the Lord has made no provision for all these things? All must have a chance. There is not an individual that ever lived upon the earth, from the days of Adam down to this time, whether it was among the heathen or savages, who never heard of Jesus or of the true God, and who went down to his grave in total ignorance; there never was a man or woman on the face of the globe, but what will have an opportunity, either in this life or in the life to come, to obey and enjoy the benefits of the Gospel of Salvation.

“But did you not say that there was no opportunity for them to attend to these ordinances in the life to come?” I did. “Then why did you say, that there will be an opportunity for them?” There is quite a difference between having an opportunity, and attending to the ordinances. You cannot attend to the latter in the life to come. Parties who have died in this generation or in the generations passed, without having an opportunity to be baptized by a man holding authority, will have an opportunity of hearing the Gospel in the life to come; but they cannot attend personally to the ordinances thereof. Why? Because God has ordained that men, here in the flesh, shall be baptized in this life; or, if they die without a knowledge of the Gospel and its ordinances, that their friends in the flesh, in the day of his power, when he brings forth the everlasting Gospel, shall officiate for them, and in their behalf. This is another peculiarity of the doctrine of the Latter-day Saints—baptism for the dead.

You see a Temple building here, east of this tabernacle, and a great many inquiries are made respecting the nature of this building. Some suppose that we are going to hold meetings in it, and preach to the people; but no, that pertains to the tabernacle. God has pointed out the uses of a Temple by new revelation, the same as he pointed out the object of a tabernacle in the days of Moses, and the object of the Temple of the Lord in the days of Solomon; and among those objects he has told us that in the basement of the Temple there should be a baptismal font. What for? That those who are living here on the earth may be baptized for and in behalf of those who die without a knowledge of the Gospel.

Does that reach back to all generations who have died in ignorance? Yes. To all our ancestors? Yes; it reaches back to our fathers, our grandfathers and their progenitors away back to ancient days, when the Priesthood was upon the earth. Baptism for the dead! The same thing was attended to in ancient times, so that we have not got a new pattern, it is the old pattern renewed. Paul says, in the 15th chapter of the first of Corinthians—“Else what shall they do who are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all, why are they then baptized for the dead?” Sure enough! It was a strong argument to prove the resurrection of the dead, that the people who belonged to the ancient Christian Churches had the privilege of going and being baptized for those who had died before the Gospel came among them.

Now do you not see that we are not so uncharitable as a great many would suppose? Instead of sending all the generations who lived in former ages to hell, because they did not happen to hear the Gospel, and because there was no Christian Church upon the earth; I say that, instead of sending them all to an endless hell, God has made provisions that the living may act for and in behalf of the dead. The ordinances thus attended to here on the earth in behalf of the dead, will be recorded and sealed here by proper authority; and what is thus recorded and sealed here will be recorded and sealed in the heavens in behalf of those individuals; and if those spirits who are in prison and in the eternal worlds will repent when the Gospel is taken to them, they can have the benefit of the ordinances administered for and in their behalf here, and they will have part in the first resurrection.

Then again, if baptism for the dead is true, every other divine ordinance is equally true and necessary for the dead, for one is just as consistent as the other. The laying on of hands in confirmation upon a person that is living here in the flesh, for and in behalf of those who are in their graves, is just as consistent as baptism for the dead.

Again, if our fathers and mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers, have died without being married by divine authority, the same authority that would cause a people to act for the dead in relation to baptism, would cause them to act for and in behalf of the dead in relation to their marriage ceremonies too. Such a plan gives them all a chance. For there are no marryings, nor baptisms, nor confirmations, in and after the resurrection. The resurrected dead can do none of these things; but if it is done here for them, and they will accept of it, it will be acknowledged in the heavens. Hence, here is another peculiarity of the Latter-day Saints pertaining to the Temple, the house of the Lord to be built in the tops of the mountains in the latter days, as Isaiah says in the second chapter—“Many people shall say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us of his ways, that we may walk in his paths.” A Temple, therefore, instead of being a place for teaching and preaching, is a place for the administration of holy ordinances.

Another question. A great many have wondered why so many people in the eastern, southern and middle States have been stirred up for a number of years past in searching out their ancestors. Now the Lord does a great many things unknown to the people, and this is one of them. The people do not know why they are interested in their ancestry, but they are wrought upon by some invisible operation, and they feel very anxious to know about their progenitors. I think that some four hundred different families have already got extended family records, tracing their ancestry back from generation to generation to the first settlements of the New England States, and then back into Old England if it is possible, to make out the connection. Do they know what they are doing this for? No; they feel wrought upon, that is all they know about it. Now I will tell you why it is, for a great many of the people in this congregation, and many who are scattered through the villages, towns and settlements in this Territory, emigrated from the New England States, and they had fathers and mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers, and ancestors, now in their graves, who were just as pure, upright, virtuous and honest in their feelings as we their children are. Now we are going to act for them. We have not time to search up all these genealogies, but all we have to do is to go and get the books which the Lord has wrought upon them to get up, containing the names of hun– dreds and thousands of the dead, and we will receive baptism, confirmation and marriage for eternity, and all the ordinances of the Gospel for them, that they, if they will receive what is done for them, may come forth in the resurrection, and inherit all that their children will inherit. Why? Because they were worthy of it. Our pilgrim fathers were a good people, just as worthy as we are, but unfortunately they did not happen to live in the time that God has set for establishing his kingdom on the earth, and sending his angels from the heavens.

Thus you see that this Gospel reaches after the dead as well as the living. Our Savior set the example in regard to this matter, for we are told that when his body lay in the tomb, his spirit was not idle; and instead of going off into the heavens and sitting down there for three days and three nights in perfect idleness, he had something to do, and while his body lay in the tomb, his spirit went and opened the prison doors in which were confined those who were drowned in the flood. What! Were they in prison? Yes. Did Jesus truly visit them? Yes. Did he preach to them? Yes. Where have we this recorded? In Peter’s declaration. He says that, “Jesus was put to death in the flesh, but quickened in the spirit, by which he also went and preached to the spirits which were in prison, which sometime were disobedient when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing.” Oh indeed; He went to those old antediluvians then, that had not received their resurrection, and preached to them. What did he preach to them? The following verses tell us what he preached. What would you think he preached? Says one—“If he followed the ex– amples of our sectarian preachers, he would go and tell them that their doom was irrevocably fixed, that they were cast down to prison, never to be recovered; that as the tree falls so it lies, and that there was no hope in their case.” Well, that was not the kind of preaching that Jesus did to the antediluvian spirits. “For, for this cause,” says Peter, “was the Gospel preached to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, and live according to God in the spirit.” Though they were in the spirit world, without any bodies, yet they had the privilege of hearing the same Gospel that Jesus preached to those here in the flesh. They could repent, for that is an act of the mind; they could believe in Jesus, for that is also an act of the mind; but the spirits could not be baptized, for that is an act of the body, it is something that pertains to this life. Jesus could preach repentance to them, he could preach the same Gospel to those antediluvians that he had preached to men in the flesh, and they could then be judged according to men in the flesh, and live according to God in the spirit. Men in the flesh could be baptized for them, and they could come forth and receive all the blessings of those who received the Gospel in the flesh.

There are a few more remarks which I would like to make, if time will permit, upon a subject which grows out of this eternal marriage or union between the male and the female. For instance, here is a good young man who courts up a wife in the kingdom of God. He says to her, “Let us go and be married for time and all eternity, according to the requirements of heaven.” Very well; they are agreed in it; they attend to the ordinance, and it is sealed upon their heads and recorded for their benefit. We will say that, in the course of two or three months after this marriage, some accident befalls the wife and she dies. They loved each other and were married for all eternity, and he mourns over the fact that in his youth, in the very prime of his manhood, he is left alone, a widower. Now is it right for him to marry another wife after having been married to one for time and for all eternity? Is it right for him again to receive a young lady for a wife? “Oh, yes,” you answer, “it is perfectly right, because that would not be living with two on the earth at the same time.” Very well, he goes and marries again; and now the question arises, suppose that they only marry for time, or until death shall part them—we will suppose this, because the man already has a wife on the other side of the veil—what is to become of the second wife in the morning of the resurrection? Can you answer that question? If he only marries her for time, she has no husband when the resurrection comes. Perhaps she is just as good a woman as the wife the man married first for all eternity. What are you going to do with her? Shall she be left in a condition where she can have no posterity, no endless increase, no kingdom in connection with a husband, and no husband? Shall she be left throughout all the future ages of eternity without any such privilege, while the first wife, no better than she is, is married for all eternity, and inherits all the blessings arising therefrom? Would not there be partiality in this? There certainly would. How are you going to remedy this? We answer, when this widower takes this second wife, let her also be married to him for time and all eternity, the same as the first; then, by and by, when the resurrection comes, there come up the two women. What will you do then? This introduces plurality into the next life, does it not? Polygamists in the next world? It certainly does; and these two women, both having received this man as their husband for all eternity, one of them will now be in just as good a condition as the other.

Let this principle be extended. There are some cases in life where two women might die, and a man be still left in his young days without a wife, and he marries a third and perhaps a fourth; in the resurrection they are contemporaneously his wives. Plurality, therefore, would be perfectly consistent in the world to come, but, “Oh,” says a sectarian, “how awful it is in this world!”

Thus you see that the very moment we admit the eternity of marriage, the very moment that we admit that Adam and Eve were immortal beings, when they were married, and we undertake to follow that pattern, plurality necessarily comes along; either marriage has no bearing upon eternity, and no bearing upon immortality and immortal beings, or else plurality of wives necessarily must exist in eternity.

Says one—“Turn it about the other way, then we shall have plurality of husbands.” Let me say to the congregation that the object of marriage is to fulfill the commandment which God gave to immortal beings. Could a woman multiply faster by having two husbands? Everybody knows that in this respect there is a difference between the male and the female. In this life, at any rate, if one woman had two husbands, instead of making her more fruitful, the probability is that it would prevent her raising any offspring at all; and if she did, how would the father be known? And hence, God has strictly forbidden, in this Bible, plurality of husbands, and proclaimed against it in his law.

I should be glad to touch upon a great many other points, in relation to plurality, but time will not permit. You have heard partially explained some of the peculiarities of the faith of the people called Latter-day Saints. Now what is necessary in regard to polygamists? Our enemies say, “There should be a law passed that all polygamists should be shut up in prison from five to ten years, as the case may be, and pay a heavy fine.” Very well; this is the voice of the people. But does the voice of the people rule in a manner that is inconsistent with the Constitution of our country, by taking away the rights of the minority? Is it the order of our government that the minority must have their rights wrenched from them because the majority decide against them? Let me ask, suppose the majority of the people should decide against infant sprinkling, many look upon that with the utmost horror, and it is only a small minority in our nation that believe in that awful doctrine, suppose the majority should take it into their heads that those who practice infant sprinkling should be imprisoned, they have the same right to do that as to do the other thing which I have named.

Again, there is a certain class of people, and they are far in the minority in this great nation, who believe in dancing on the Sabbath day. I allude to the Shaking Quakers. Would it be right to pass a law against this small minority, and say they shall be imprisoned, because the voice of the people in general happens to denounce their practice of dancing as a crime? “But then,” says one, “polygamy is a crime.” Who told you so? Does the Bible tell you so? Oh no, neither the Old nor the New Testament; no Prophet, no revelator, no Apostle, no man of God, nor Jesus himself, nor any angel ever denounced it as a crime, but on the contrary they advocated it, and the Lord himself administered in this divine ordinance. He gave to Jacob his four wives and children, so Jacob tells us in Genesis.

Then we might continue and show that every Christian denomination in the United States possesses peculiarities which the majority do not believe in, and which they are convinced should be denounced by the civil law as criminal, and that those who practice such peculiarities ought to be imprisoned for doing so. But because the majority of people condemn a principle, that is no proof that it is a crime. Supposing that the great majority of the people condemned the principle of baptism by immersion, would it be right to pass laws punishing those who practice it? No, the Constitution of our country was framed to protect the people in every item of doctrine that they might glean out of this Bible, and instead of condemning these doctrines as criminal, all the States and all the Territories ought to leave Bible principles as matters of conscience; especially the great principle of marriage should be left open and free to all, either to marry one wife, or two or three, or a dozen, as the case may be, only making laws in relation to criminal abuses of the marital state, and in regard to property, how it should descend to the children, etc. But the very moment that they pass laws that are proscriptive and restrictive in their nature, condemning principles that are not condemned in the Bible, taking away the privileges of the people to believe that which is contained in the word of God, religious liberty is in danger, and there is no telling where that infringement will lead to. By and by they may have a blending of Church and State; and no one must believe anything, unless it be doctrines or creeds got up by the State, or by Congress, or by some legislative body; and everybody must bow to that, or be fined, or imprisoned, or be burned, butchered, or hung.

That our great, and free country may never be afflicted with such a species of despotism, is my most earnest prayer. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Morning, April 11, 1875.

If the congregation will give their attention I will read a few passages from the last chapter of Isaiah, commencing in the middle of the 18th verse. [The speaker read from the 18th verse, commencing—“It shall come,” &c., unto the end of the 20th verse.]

There are some very great and important events predicted in these few lines which I have read, concerning the gathering of all nations and tongues, but more especially the gathering of the house of Israel, a sign being promised—that when that period shall arrive, in the purposes of God, a sign shall be given to the children of men, that they may know when these great events are to take place. In this passage we are not told what the sign shall be, we merely have it promised; but we would naturally draw the conclusion that it will be something of a peculiar character, something that can be distinguished by the nations, kindred and tongues of the earth preparatory to the great gathering that is promised in the Scriptures of truth, “I will set a sign among them.” And after setting this sign he will send missionaries to Tubal, to Javan, to the isles that are afar off, “to Tarshish, Pul and Lud, and to them that draw the bow.” And it is said concerning the missionaries who are thus sent forth, that “they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles.” Then, when the sign is set, the missionaries are sent forth and the glory of God begins to be declared among the Gentiles, the Lord will bring about the gathering of his people Israel, bringing them upon horses, in chariots, in litters, upon swift beasts and upon mules to his holy mountain in Jerusalem; and he will gather all nations and tongues when that dispensation shall come.

The Lord has set that sign; the Lord has sent forth the messengers here spoken of to the various nations, as predicted, and already the voice of these messengers is heard in the uttermost parts of the earth, declaring the word of the Lord among the Gentiles, preparing them for the great event predicted by the mouth of Isaiah the Prophet.

Do this people desire to know what the sign predicted by the mouth of Isaiah means? Do you wish to know the nature of that sign? Let me refer you to the words of the everlasting God that have been uttered from the heavens, declared in this record brought forth in the last days, the Book of Mormon. Let us refer to a prediction uttered by the mouth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, when he appeared personally upon this great western continent, and taught the ancient nations of America. He has told us by his own mouth what the sign should be for the gathering of all the dispersed of his people, the house of Israel. I will read the words of our Savior to the ancient inhabitants of this western continent. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, all these things”—the things which he had been speaking about to the multitude—“shall surely come, as the voice of the Father hath commanded me. Then shall this covenant which the Father hath covenanted with his people be fulfilled; and then shall Jerusalem begin to be inhabited with my people, and it shall be the land of their inheritance. And verily I say unto you, I will give you a sign that you may know the time when these things shall be about to take place, that I shall gather in from their long dispersion, my people, O house of Israel, and shall establish again among them my Zion. And behold this is the thing which I will give unto you for a sign, for verily I say unto you that when these things which I declare unto you, and which I shall declare unto you hereafter, of myself, and by the power of the Holy Ghost, which shall be given unto you of the Father, shall be made known unto the Gentiles”—that is, when this book, called the Book of Mormon, should be made known unto the Gentiles—“that they may know concerning this, my people, who are a remnant of the house of Jacob, and concerning this, my people, who shall be scattered by them in the latter days. Verily I say unto you when these things shall be made known unto them of the Father, and shall come forth of the Father from them unto you.”

Now, such is the sign. First, this work will be made known to the Gentiles, and will come forth from the Gentiles unto the Indians. “For it is wisdom in the Father that they should be established in this land, and be set up as a free people by the power of the Father, that these things might come forth from them unto a remnant of your seed, that the covenant of the Father may be fulfilled which he has covenanted with his people, O house of Israel. Therefore when these works, and the works which shall be wrought among you hereafter”—that is, the works which were performed during the first three or four centuries of the Christian era on the American continent, recorded in their records called the Book of Mormon—“when these works and the works which shall be wrought among you hereafter shall come forth from the Gentiles unto your seed, which shall dwindle in unbelief because of iniquity.”

Now this dwindling in unbelief of the American Indians is very evident even to the antiquarians of our country, all of whom will admit that once a civilized nation dwelt on this continent. No learned man living disputes this. Why do they suppose any such thing? The ruins of their ancient cities, palaces and temples, proclaim in the ears of all living that once there dwelt on this hemisphere a great and powerful people, who were civilized and understood the art of constructing beautiful and substantial buildings. But now, O! how degraded, fallen and sunk into the very depths of darkness are the descendants of that once great, powerful and exalted people! “They shall dwindle in unbelief because of iniquity;” because they rejected the Gospel. In the fourth century of the Christian era they apostatized from the religion of their fathers; they were cursed by the Almighty, a skin of darkness came upon them; they were cursed in all that they set their hands to do, and the withering curse of the Almighty has been upon them from generation to generation, until the present day. They were to dwindle in unbelief because of iniquity.

“For thus it behooveth the Father that it should come forth from the Gentiles, that he may show forth his power to the Gentiles, for this cause, that the Gentiles, if they will not harden their hearts, that they may repent, and come unto me, and be baptized in my name, and know of the truth of my doctrine that they may be numbered among my people, O house of Israel.”

Such is the object of bringing this work forth to the Gentiles first. That is why God prepared the way for a great and powerful nation, free from all other nations under heaven, to be established here on this continent. The great purpose which God had in view was to set up a kingdom in the latter days in which there should be full and complete religious liberty and freedom of conscience, that the kingdom might go forth unto the ends of the earth; “and when these things shall come to pass, that thy seed”—the American Indians—“shall begin to know these things. It shall be a sign unto them, that they may know that the work of the Father hath already commenced, unto the fulfilling of the covenant which he hath made unto the people, who are of the house of Israel.”

Now then, here is a prediction in Isaiah, that before the Lord gathers Israel he would set up a sign, showing not only to us but to all people, nations and tongues in the four quarters of the earth that he is about to gather together all the people of the house of Israel. That sign is when these American Indians shall begin to know the Gospel taught and practiced by their ancient fathers. “When that day shall come it shall come to pass that kings shall shut their mouths, for that which had not been told them shall they see, that which they had not heard shall they consider; for in that day, for my sake, shall the Father work a work which shall be a great and marvelous work among them; and there shall be among them which will not believe it, although a man shall declare it unto them. But behold, the life of my servant is in mine hand,” &c.

We will now pass on to the next page. “And then shall the work of the Father commence at that day, even when this Gospel shall be preached unto the remnant of this people”—unto the Indians—“verily I say unto you, at that day shall the work of the Father commence among all the dispersed of my people, yea even the tribes which have been lost, which the Father hath led away out of Jerusalem, yea the work shall commence among all the dispersed of my people, with the Father to prepare the way whereby they may come unto me; that they may call upon the Father in my name, and then shall the work commence with the Father among all nations in preparing the way whereby his people may be gathered home to the land of their inheritance. And they shall not go out in haste, nor go by flight, for I will go before them saith the Father, and I will be their rearward.”

Forty-five years have passed away since God brought forth this sign, the Book of Mormon, and sent missionaries to the nations—to Tarshish, Pul, Lud, Tubal, Javan, and to the islands afar off, that have not heard his name neither have seen his glory and these missionaries have declared his glory among the Gentiles. Forty-five years of proclamation to the nations of the Gentiles! Forty-five years of warning to all nations and tongues! Now after so long a period has elapsed since God brought forth this wonderful sign, he has begun to work among the remnants of the house of Israel, the American Indians, upon this continent, by his own power. What is it that has stirred them up to believe in this work? Has it been your exertion? Not altogether; yet, no doubt, you, in some small degree, as far as your faith would permit, have helped on the work among these wild tribes. You have sought to recover them, you have fed and clothed them to some extent; you have told them occasionally about the records of their fathers; you have tried to bring them to repentance; but, after years of labor, you have said—“Alas! Alas for them! What can be done to reclaim a people so far fallen into the depths of ignorance and corruption?” Your hearts have been almost discouraged so far as your own labors were concerned. But how soon and how marvelously, when the time had come, has the Lord our God begun to operate upon them as nations and as tribes, bringing them in from hundreds of miles distant to inquire after the Elders of this Church. What for? What do they want with the Elders? They want to be baptized. Who told them to come and be baptized? They say that men came to them in their dreams, and spoke to them in their own language, and told them that away yonder was a people who had authority from God to baptize them; but that they must repent of their sins, cease their evil habits and lay aside the traditions of their fathers, for they were false; that they must cease to roam over the face of the land, robbing and plundering, and learn to live as the white people.

Who are these men who have been to the Indians and told them to repent of their sins, and be baptized by the “Mormons?” They are men who obtained the promise of the Lord, upwards of eighteen centuries ago, that they should be instruments in his hands of bringing about the redemption of their descendants. The Lord God promised them the privilege of working for and in behalf of their descendants in the latter days; and they have begun the work. All this was foretold in this record, the Book of Mormon.

Now I will read a little for the benefit of the Latter-day Saints, for though they have this record lying upon their shelves. I fear there are some who are careless about reading its contents, and perhaps do not understand the signs of the times, and the fulfillment of the purposes of God, which are here so clearly set forth. Jesus appeared on this American Continent soon after his resurrection, three different times that are recorded, and how many other times that are not recorded, I do not know. But he showed himself to them and brake bread with them. But the third time he came to the Twelve whom he had chosen on this land—as he was about to leave them he put a very important question to them. He said unto his twelve disciples, speaking unto them one by one—“What is it that you desire of me, after that I am gone unto the Father?” And they all spake save it were three—“We desire that after we have lived unto the age of men, that our ministry, wherein thou hast called us, may have an end, and that we may speedily come to thee in thy kingdom.” And he said unto them—“Blessed are ye because ye have desired this thing of me; therefore after that ye are seventy-two years old ye shall come unto me in my kingdom; and with me ye shall find rest.” And when he had spoken these words unto the nine, he then turns to the three and said unto them—“What will ye that I shall do unto you, when I am gone to the Father?” And they sorrowed in their hearts, for they dare not speak unto him the thing which they desired. And he said unto them—“Behold, I know your thoughts, and you have desired the thing which John, my beloved, who was with me in my ministry, before I was lifted up by the Jews, desired of me. Therefore more blessed are ye, for ye shall never taste of death.” These three men had the promise that they should never taste death; “but,” said the Savior unto them—“ye shall live to behold all the doings of the Father unto the children of men, even until all things shall be fulfilled according to the will of the Father, when I come in my glory with the powers of heaven. And ye shall never endure the pains of death; but when I shall come in my glory ye shall be changed in the twinkling of an eye from mortality to immortality; and then shall ye be blessed in the kingdom of my Father. And again, ye shall not have pain while ye shall dwell in the flesh, neither sorrow save it be for the sins of the world; and all this will I do because of the thing which ye have desired of me, for ye have desired that ye may bring the souls of men unto me, while the world shall stand. And for this cause ye shall have fulness of joy; and ye shall sit down in the kingdom of my Father; yea, your joy shall be full, even as the Father hath given me fulness of joy; and ye shall be even as I am, and I am even as the Father; and the Father and I are one; And the Holy Ghost beareth record of the Father and me; and the Father giveth the Holy Ghost unto the children of men, because of me.”

What a glorious promise was made to these three men! Did they receive any change? Yes, they did; not to immortality however, but a change sufficient was wrought in their bodies that death should not have power over them. But let us read a little further, it is very interesting. “And it came to pass that when Jesus had spoken these words, he touched every one of them with his finger save it were the three who were to tarry;” that is, he touched the nine who were to preach until they were seventy-two years old and who were then to be taken home to God, “and then he departed. And behold, the heavens were opened, and they (the three) were caught up into heaven, and saw and heard unspeakable things. And it was forbidden them that they should utter; neither was it given unto them power that they could utter the things which they saw and heard; And whether they were in the body or out of the body, they could not tell; for it did seem unto them like a transfiguration of them.” That is the way that they received their partial change. “But it came to pass that they did again minister upon the face of the earth; nevertheless they did not minister of the things which they had heard and seen, because of the commandment which was given them in heaven.”

Now these men lived in the first century of the Christian era on this continent; and when that generation all passed away they also lived in the second century of the Christian era, and ministered to the ancient inhabitants on this land. And when the second century had all passed off the stage of action they also lived in the third century; and in the fourth century the Lord took these three men from the midst of the remnant of Israel on this land. Where did he take them? I do not know, it is not revealed. Why did he take them away? Because of the apostasy of the people, because the people were unworthy of the ministration of such great and holy men; because they sought to kill them; because they cast them into dens of wild beasts twice; and these men of God played with these wild beasts as a child would play with a suckling lamb, and received no harm from them. They cast them three times into a furnace of fire, and they came forth therefrom and received no hurt. They dug deep pits in the earth and cast them therein, supposing that they would perish; but by the power of the word of God that was in them, they smote the earth in the name of the Lord, and were delivered from these pits. And thus they went forth performing signs, wonders and miracles among this remnant of Israel, until their wickedness became so great that the Lord commanded them to depart out of their midst. And the remnant of Israel, from that day to the present—between fourteen and fifteen centuries—have been dwindling in unbelief, in ignorance, and in all the darkness which now surrounds them; but notwithstanding their darkness and misery, the three Nephites, for many generations, have not administered to them, because of the commandment of the Almighty to them.

But are they always to remain silent? Are there no more manifestations to come from these three men? Are they never again to remember the remnants of the House of Israel on this land? Let us read the promise. “Behold, I was about to write the names of those who were never to taste of death, but the Lord forbade; therefore I write them not, for they are hid from the world. But behold I have seen them.” Mormon saw them nearly four centuries after they were caught up into heaven, and after they received their partial change. Mormon saw them and they administered unto him. He says—“Behold, I have seen them, and they have ministered unto me. And behold they will be among the Gentiles, and the Gentiles shall know them not.” They will, no doubt, call them poor deluded Mormons, and say that they ought to be hooted out of society, and that they ought to be persecuted, afflicted, and hated by all people. “They will be among the Gentiles and the Gentiles shall know them not. They will also be among the Jews, and the Jews shall know them not. And it shall come to pass when the Lord seeth fit in his wisdom that they shall minister unto all the scattered tribes of Israel, and unto all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, and shall bring out of them unto Jesus many souls, that their desire may be fulfilled, and also because of the convincing power of God which is in them. And they are as the angels of God, and if they shall pray unto the Father in the name of Jesus they can show themselves unto whatsoever man it seemeth them good. Therefore, great and marvelous works shall be wrought by them, before the great and coming day when all people must surely stand before the judgment seat of Christ; Yea even among the Gentiles shall there be a great and a marvelous work wrought by them, before that judgment day.”

Now, having read these things, let us come back again to this spiritual movement that we hear of among the remnants of Jacob, in these western deserts, in the northwest hundreds of miles, in the west and in the southwest. It is not confined to hundreds, but thousands testify that men have appeared individually in dreams, speaking their own language and, as Brother Hyde said last Tuesday, these men tell their descendants what their duties are, what they should do, and how they should hunt up this people, repent of their sins, be bap– tized, etc. And the parties who have been thus instructed time and time again, have fulfilled the commandments that they received, and some of them have come hundreds of miles to be baptized, and they are now desirous of laying aside their savage disposition, their roaming habits, and they want to learn to cultivate the earth, to lay down their weapons of war, cease stealing and to become a peaceable good people.

The work thus commenced will not stop here. The Book of Mormon says—“When thy seed shall begin to know these things, it shall be a sign unto them, that they may know that the work of the Father hath already commenced unto the fulfilling of his covenant which he hath made with his people who are of the House of Israel.” This remnant, the American Indians, do not comprise all Israel, they are but a small remnant of one single tribe, namely the descendants of that Joseph who was carried into Egypt. Away in yonder north countries, where I do not know, but away in those regions are ten tribes of the house of Israel. How do you know they are in the north country? Because this Bible has told us that in the latter days they should come out of the north country, and if they were not in the north country they could not come from there. Jeremiah says in his thirty-first chapter—“Behold I will bring them from the north, the blind and the lame with them, and the woman with child; they shall come, a great company out of the north countries.” Where will they go to? Will they go immediately to Palestine, where they formerly had their inheritance? No. Jeremiah tells us where they will go; he tells us there is to be a place called Zion before these tribes come out of the north countries, and when they come with a great company, the blind and the lame with them, and the Lord God leads them with supplication and with tears and with prayers, bringing them forth from those dreary, desolate, cold arctic regions: when that day shall come there shall be a Zion prepared to receive these ten tribes, before they finally go back to Palestine. Is there anything in the Scriptures about this? Yes. In the same chapter of Jeremiah we read that “they shall come and sing in the height of Zion.” Zion, then, will have to be built up before they come; Zion will have to be reared somewhere and prepared to receive them; and it will be a holy place, and it will be a holy people who will build up Zion, so much so that the Lord will bring these ten tribes in to the height of Zion, into the midst of it.

What will then take place? They shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord, for the wheat, the wine, the oil, for the young of the flock; their souls shall be as a watered garden, and they shall not sorrow anymore at all. Why? Because they have got among a good people, where there is no need to sorrow; they have come up into a land that is choice above all other lands, a land that brings forth wheat, and grapes for the producing of wine, where flocks, herds, &c., are multiplied, and their souls will be like a watered garden, and all the sorrows they have experienced for twenty-five hundred years, in the cold regions of the north, will be done away; and they will not sorrow anymore at all.

This same thing is predicted in the sixteenth chapter, as well as in the thirty-first of Jeremiah. The Lord says in the sixteenth chapter—“Behold the days shall come when it shall no more be said the Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;” but instead of that saying, there will be another more glorious saying, namely, that “the Lord liveth who brought up the children of Israel from the north country, and from all other countries whither he has driven them.” But will that do away the former saying—“The Lord liveth who brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt?” Yes. Some may suppose that as the Jews retain that saying to this day it never would be done away. The Jews, wherever they may be scattered, whether in Christian lands, or among the heathens where they are anxious to convert them to idolatry, say, “We worship that God who brought up our fathers out of the land of Egypt, and wrought signs, wonders and mighty deeds in bringing them forth, leading them through the waters of the mighty deep into the Promised Land, Palestine.” But notwithstanding they have retained this saying, it will be one day done away, superseded by the manifestations of God’s power in bringing Israel from the north country and all other countries whither they have been scattered, and gathering them to their own land. The Israel of the latter day has got to cross the sea dry-shod, just as ancient Israel did. It is thus predicted in the eleventh chapter of Isaiah. After saying that the Lord would lift up an ensign for the nations, he declares, “I will gather the outcasts of Israel and the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth, and I will cause them to pass through the river in its seven streams, and I will smite the tongue of the Egyptian sea, and an highway shall be cast up unto Israel that was left from Assyria, like as it was to Israel when they came out of the land of Egypt.” They shall go over dry-shod. They will not have to refer back three or four thousand years to the miracles wrought anciently by the God they worship, but they will tell of things wrought in their own day, which have taken place while they themselves live. “The Lord liveth that brought up Israel out of the north country; the Lord liveth who, in our day, smote the tongue of the Egyptian sea, and also the river Nile in its seven mouths; the Lord liveth who, in our day, cast up a highway in the midst of the great deep, for his chosen to come over.”

Now I will quote a parallel prophecy, delivered to Joseph Smith, one of the greatest Prophets who has lived on the earth in any generation, save it be our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Some forty-three years ago, in speaking of the lost ten tribes of Israel, the Lord says—“They who are in the north countries shall come in remembrance before the Lord; and their prophets shall hear his voice, and shall no longer stay themselves; and they shall smite the rocks, and the ice shall flow down at their presence. And an highway shall be cast up in the midst of the great deep. Their enemies shall become a prey unto them, And in the barren deserts there shall come forth pools of living water; and the parched ground shall no longer be a thirsty land. And they shall bring forth their rich treasures unto the children of Ephraim, my servants. And the boundaries of the everlasting hills shall tremble at their presence.” To show that they come with power, they come on a highway cast up for them; the ice feels the power of God and flows down, making room for them; and the barren deserts of the north, wherever they may go and need water, will yield forth pools of living water to quench their thirst. As they come to sing in the height of Zion, the everlasting hills, this great Rocky Mountain range, extending from the arctic regions south to the central portions of America, will tremble beneath the power of God at the approach of that people. Then will be fulfilled the saying of David, that the mountains shall skip like rams, and the little hills like lambs, before his people. The very trees of the field will clap like hands, as the Psalmist David has said. Then will be fulfilled the passage that was quoted yesterday by brother Woodruff—“Sing O heavens, be joyful O earth, and break forth into singing O mountains, for the Lord hath redeemed his people,” &c. And when they get to Zion they will begin to say—“The place is too strait for me, give place to me that I may dwell;” then the saying will go forth—“Behold I was a captive. Zion was a captive, moving to and fro, tossed to and fro, and not comforted. Behold I was left alone.” But where have this great company been, where has this mighty host come from? They have come from their hiding place in the north country; they have been led thence by the Prophets of the Most High God, the Lord going before their camp, talking with them out of the cloud, as he talked in ancient days with the camp of Israel, uttering his voice before his army, for his camp will be very great. So says the Prophet Joel, and his prophecy will be fulfilled. When they return to Zion to sing in the height thereof, “They will fall down there and be crowned with glory by the hands of the servants of the Lord, even the children of Ephraim.”

Now what does this mean? A people that have had such mighty power, a people before whose camp the Lord of hosts has been seen, and his glory by day and by night; a people before whom the mountains and the hills tremble and flee; shall a people of that description fall down and be crowned by another people? Who are this other people, that is, these highly favored children of Ephraim? What particular blessing has the Lord for Ephraim? He holds the birthright. “Ephraim is my firstborn,” saith the Lord in the 31st chapter of Jeremiah. The firstborn in the great latter-day work, holding the keys of blessings for all the twelve tribes of Israel. God has an order in his kingdom. Certain blessings can be received in one way; other blessings are ordained to be received in another form, by certain authorities that are appointed, and who hold the keys pertaining to these blessings. God did not take away the birthright of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel, and transfer it to the heads of the sons of Joseph for a purpose that was of no particular account; but he transferred the birthright from Reuben to Joseph that they might hold it as the firstborn among all the tribes of Israel, to bless them in the latter days.

How long will they who come from the north countries tarry in the heights of Zion? Some time. They have got to raise wheat, cultivate the grape, wine and oil, raise flocks and herds, and their souls will have to become as a watered garden. They will dwell in Zion a good while, and during that time, there will be twelve thousand chosen out of each of these ten tribes, besides twelve thousand that will be chosen from Judah, Joseph, and the remaining tribes, one hundred and forty-four thousand in all. Chosen for what? To be sealed in their foreheads. For what purpose? So that the power of death and pestilence and plague that will go forth in those days sweeping over the nations of the earth will have no power over them. These parties who are sealed in their foreheads will go forth among all people, nations and tongues, and gather up and hunt out the house of Israel, wherever they are scattered, and bring as many as they possibly can into the Church of the firstborn, preparatory to the great day of the coming of the Lord. One hundred and forty-four thousand missionaries! Quite a host. All this has got to take place. There are persons in this congregation who will be in the midst of Zion, when the ten tribes come to Zion from the north countries, and will assist in bestowing the blessings promised by the Almighty upon the heads of the tribes of Israel. There are servants of God in the midst of this congregation who will lay their hands upon many of each of these twelve thousand, chosen out of the ten tribes, and set them apart as missionaries to visit the nations of the earth and hunt up the remnants of the seed of Jacob.

Having spoken concerning the gathering of the ten tribes, I will refer again to their Prophets. “Their Prophets shall hear his voice.” Do not think that we are the only people who will have Prophets. God is determined to raise up Prophets among that people, but he will not bestow upon them all the fulness of the blessings of the Priesthood. The fulness will be reserved to be given to them after they come to Zion. But Prophets will be among them while in the north, and a portion of the Priesthood will be there; and John the Revelator will be there, teaching, instructing and preparing them for this great work; for to him were given the keys for the gathering of Israel, at the time when he ate that little book while on the Isle of Patmos. At that time, John was a very old man; but the Lord told him that he must yet prophesy before many kingdoms, and nations, and peoples, and tongues, and he has got that mission to perform, and in the last days the spirit and power of Elias will attend his administrations among these ten tribes, and he will assist in preparing them to return to this land. Whether missionaries will be sent from Zion to hunt up these dispersed tribes in the north I do not know; but one thing I do know, from that which is reported by those who have tried to find a passage to the pole, that there is a warmer country off there, and that birds of passage go north to find a warmer climate. That I know from the writings of intelligent men who have been on voyages of discovery. And I know, furthermore, that they have crossed by means of dogs and sledges a certain portion of this great band of ice and have come to an open sea, which proves that there is a warmer country further north. There is a tract of country around the pole, some seven or eight hundred miles in diameter, that no man among the nations that we are acquainted with, has ever explored. But how much of that land may be fit for habitation I am not prepared to say, for I do not know. I know it would be a very easy matter for the Lord God, by the aid of great mountain ranges encircling them around about, to produce a band of ice which would prevent other nations and people very easily reaching them. I also know that it would be a very easy matter for the Lord God to cause deep and extensive valleys, very deep in comparison with high ranges of mountains around them, where the temperature would be comparatively mild, the same as in these mountains here. We see all the rigors of an arctic winter on our eastern ranges of mountains, while at the same time here are deep valleys in which there is a comparatively warm climate, which makes me think of that which was spoken by the mouth of Isaiah the Prophet in referring to the latter-day work. He says that “when it shall hail, coming down upon the forests, the city shall be low in a low place,” where the climate is warm.

Let me say a few more words in regard to certain things that have already taken place, predicted in the Book of Mormon by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, when he appeared on this western hemisphere and taught this remnant of Israel. He told them of certain events which should transpire before the remnants of Joseph should be converted. He says—“Verily, verily, I say unto you that I have other sheep which are not of this land”—meaning America—“neither of the land of Jerusalem, neither in any parts of that land round about whither I have been to minister. For they of whom I speak are they who have not as yet heard my voice; neither have I at any time manifested myself unto them. But I have received a commandment of the Father that I shall go unto them, and that they shall hear my voice, and shall be numbered among my sheep, that there may be one fold and one shepherd; therefore I go to show myself unto them.” After leaving this continent, he went to the lost tribes and placed one measure of leaven in the meal that was in that country, having already planted a little leaven among the Jews at Jerusalem, and another little portion of leaven here in America, after which he goes to the lost tribes, and plants leaven in the third mess of meal, and left it to work. He says—“I command you that ye shall write these sayings after I am gone, that if it so be that my people at Jerusalem, they who have seen me and been with me in my ministry, do not ask the Father in my name, that they may receive a knowledge of you by the Holy Ghost, and also of the other tribes which they know not of, these sayings which ye shall write shall be kept and shall be manifested unto the Gentiles, that through the fulness of the Gentiles, the remnant of their seed, who shall be scattered forth upon the face of the earth because of their unbelief, may be brought in, or may be brought to a knowledge of me, their Redeemer. And then will I gather them in from the four quarters of the earth; and I will fulfill the covenant which the Father hath made unto all the people of the house of Israel.”

Now I want you to take particular notice of the following paragraph, or a portion of it, which I will read. “But wo, saith the Father, unto the unbelieving of the Gentiles”—having reference more particularly to the Gentiles of this great nation—“for notwithstanding they have come forth upon the face of this land, and have scattered my people who are of the house of Israel; and my people who are of the house of Israel have been cast out from among them, and have been trodden under foot by them; And because of the mercies of the Father unto the Gentiles, and the judgments of the Father upon my people who are of the house of Israel, verily, verily, I say unto you, that after all this, and I have caused my people who are of the house of Israel to be smitten, and to be afflicted, and to be slain, and to be cast out from among them”—just as our forefathers have done for two or three generations past in smiting, destroying, casting out and driving the poor American Indians—“thus commanded the Father that I should say unto you: At that day when the Gentiles shall sin against my gospel”—meaning sinning against this fulness of the Gospel, that is the Book of Mor– mon, when it shall be sent forth in the latter days—“when the Gentiles shall sin against my gospel, and shall be lifted up in the pride of their hearts above all nations, and above all the people of the whole earth, and shall be filled with all manner of lyings, and of deceits, and of mischiefs, and all manner of hypocrisy, and murders, and priestcrafts, and whoredoms, and of secret abominations; and if they shall do all these things, and shall reject the fulness of my gospel, behold, saith the Father, I will bring the fulness of my gospel from among them.”

This prophecy has been fulfilled. It was delivered and in print before there was any Latter-day Saint Church in existence. Now how did Joseph Smith, a farmer’s boy, know naturally anything about the Lord’s taking this work—the Book of Mormon—and this people who believe in the fullness of the Gospel and the bringing of them out from this Gentile nation to these solitary regions? How did he know this so far back as the year 1830? How did he know this before the Church was organized with six members? Yet it has all come to pass. How unlikely it was for such a thing to come to pass, if there was no God in it! If the Gentiles should reject this Gospel which the Lord has brought forth by his power; “and shall be lifted up in the pride of their hearts above all nations, peoples, kindreds and tongues, and shall be filled with all manner of lyings, deceits, mischiefs, hypocrisy, murders and whoredoms, and shall reject the fulness of my Gospel, Behold, saith the Father, I will bring the fulness of my Gospel from among them.”

For twenty-seven years the Lord has been fulfilling this directly before the eyes of all this nation. Little did they think when they came upon us in Nauvoo, and drove us out from our homes and firesides and told us to flee away beyond this great chain of rocky mountains, that they were fulfilling this great prophecy uttered before this people had an existence. “I will bring the fulness of my Gospel from among them;” and mark the next sentence—“and then I will remember my covenant.” When? When he gets the people out from the midst of this nation. “Then I will remember my covenant which I made unto my people, O house of Israel, and I will bring my Gospel unto them.” Has it been fulfilled? Yes. It is over a quarter of a century since the Lord brought us out, and laid a foundation for us to live here; and we have been enabled by his power to erect towns villages and cities, to open up farms, and begin to live, and we have got a broad foundation laid; and now, the next thing is—“I will bring the fulness of my Gospel unto thee, O house of Israel;” that is, unto the Indians; in other words—they shall come unto a knowledge of the fulness of my Gospel. “Yet if the Gentiles will repent and return unto me, saith the Father, behold they shall be numbered among my people, the house of Israel.”

That is the only hope that we Gentiles have. No hope for us whatever, no hope for this great and powerful nation, only by being numbered with these poor, degraded, despised, outcast, dark, and benighted Indians. Are you willing to be numbered with them? In what respect? Not to come down to their customs and habits, their uncleanness, filth, wickedness, darkness and ignorance; but be numbered with them in the inheritance of this great continent, which was given to them by promise, the same as Palestine was given to Abraham and Isaac. God gave it by the mouth of Jacob, who pronounced it upon the head of his son Joseph, it was promised that he should have a separate land from that given to Abraham and Isaac. Read it in the 49th chapter of Genesis. The Lord gave North and South America to these Indians, nearly six hundred years before Christ. And he promised that the Gentiles, in the latter days, who should come upon the face of this land, if they would repent when this Gospel should come forth unto them, they should have the privilege of receiving their inheritance in common with this remnant of Israel—these Indians. But if they did not repent there is another decree. And what is that? “They shall be utterly cut off from among my people.” Thus it is predicted and you have read it for forty-five years. In another place the Lord says—“If they will not repent, behold I will cut off the cities of their land, I will throw down all their strongholds, and I will cut off their horses out of the midst of them, and I will execute vengeance and fury upon them such as they have not heard of.” In another place, which I have not time to turn to and read, it says—“And it shall come to pass that every soul that will not repent of their sins and come unto my beloved son, will I cut off from among my people, O, house of Israel, and it shall be done unto them even as Moses has said, they shall be cut off from among my people.”

Now Moses has told us of that time, and it is repeated again in the 3rd chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, that the Lord would raise up a Prophet, and it should come to pass that every soul that would not hear that Prophet should be cut off from among the people. We are told that that Prophet was Jesus, and we believe it. Jesus Christ was that Pro– phet, and the day is to come, as sure as the Lord lives in yonder heavens, when every soul that will not repent, and receive his work, will be literally cut off from among the people, just as Moses has predicted. And it shall come to pass that “kings shall shut their mouths, for that which had not been told them shall they see, and that which they have not heard shall they behold,” a marvelous work and a wonder, a work that the Lord would perform in the latter days. A strange work, a strange act, so-called by Isaiah the Prophet.

O that I had time to go into the numerous prophecies in the Book of Mormon, and point out the desolations that are to come upon this nation and this generation, if they do not repent! But every jot and every tittle that has not been fulfilled since the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, will be fulfilled to the very letter. Zion will arise, clothed with the glory of her God; the Lord will be her defense; he will be her shield and her buckler; and the power of his own right hand will protect his people. And it shall come to pass that every nation, and every kindred and tongue and people that will fight against the people of God, and against his Zion, will perish out of the earth, and all nations that “fight against Mount Zion shall become as the dream of a night vision. Like a hungry man who dreams and thinks that he eats, but he wakes and his soul has appetite;” so, in the latter days, it shall be with not only one nation but all the nations that fight against Mount Zion. God has stretched forth his hand to exert the powers of the heavens, and he will fulfill and accomplish his work; and there is no power beneath the heavens that can stay his almighty hand. Amen.