Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, August 4, 1872.

Sometimes I am in the habit of taking a text, but at present there is no passage of Scripture which presents itself to my mind; I therefore, commence speaking and, through your faith and prayers before the Lord, I trust that something may be given to me that will edify, and benefit the congregation. The subjects pertaining to the kingdom of God are so numerous that, sometimes the great difficulty in the mind of a servant of God who attempts to address the people is to know the mind and will of the Spirit in regard to what shall be said. If I know my own heart, I have no desire to speak my own words or to impart unto you my own natural wisdom; but it is the earnest desire of my heart that I may impart instruction according to the mind and the will of the living God. This I cannot do unless God shall grant unto me the inspiration of his Spirit at the very moment, and this will depend in a great measure upon the hearers as well as upon the speaker. If the people have faith in God, and pray unto him, exercising that faith, he may give them something that will be instructive to their minds; but if they have not faith the Lord may not see proper thus to impart.

We are permitted, Latter-day Saints, to live in a very peculiar age of the world. It is called by us, the dispensation of the fulness of times. Many dispensations have been revealed to the inhabitants of the earth in past ages, and God has given, from time to time, since the creation, much instruction to the people. What I mean by a dispensation, is power, authority and revelation given from Heaven to direct and counsel men here on the earth. This has been given at different ages of the world, and the instruction which God has given has been in accordance with the circumstances of the people, the revelations and instructions which he has given being different at one period from those given at another. When I say different, do not misunderstand me. Many of the revelations of God are unchangeable in their nature, and are adapted to all dispensations; but many commandments have been given that were adapted only to the dispensations in which they were revealed. I will name some of these.

For instance, when some sixteen hundred or two thousand years had passed away, from the creation, the world had become very much corrupted in the sight of God, so much so that what little history we have on the subject informs us that all flesh had corrupted its way upon the face of the earth. God gave a new commandment in that period, differing entirely from all former commandments. It was not adapted to any dispensation that had preceded it, neither would it be suitable for any future dispensation: it was intended for that particular period only. The Lord commanded his servant Noah to build an ark, according to certain rules and dimensions that he gave unto him, for, said the Lord, “I intend to destroy all flesh with a flood, except those who shall gather together into the ark which you shall build.”

This was a new commandment. If there had been any sectarian preachers who then lived, and perhaps there were—for preachers who have not been sent of God seem to have been numerous in all dispensations—they would perhaps have reasoned with Noah in relation to this new revelation and commandment, and said to him, “What is the use now, of getting new revelation from God? You will not dispute, Noah, but what Enoch was saved and translated to heaven. He had enough revelation to save him, and cannot we be saved in the same manner that he was, without having any new revelation communicated to us?” I mention this, because such arguments are used at the present day in reference to the new revelations which the Latter-day Saints carry forth to the world. The people say, “You believe in the Book of Mormon as a new revelation, and that God has given new commandments. Have we not enough? Were not the people who lived in the days of Enoch, Abraham, Moses and the Prophets, in the days of Jesus and the Apostles, saved? And if they had enough to save them, if we follow the instructions which they received, what is the use of obtaining another book, called the Book of Mormon, or new commandments and revelations?” This has been brought forth as an argument ever since my youth to my certain knowledge, in all countries where I have traveled and attempted to communicate to the world our ideas about new revelation. The same arguments might have been used in the days of the flood—“Enough has been given; Enoch has been saved and translated, and if we follow the revelations given to him, why may we not be saved without having any thing new?” But Noah would have answered, and very properly too, “God designs to accomplish something now that he did not accomplish in the days of Enoch, nor in the days of Abel and Seth, nor in the days of any of those ancient worthies—he intends to bring destruction on all flesh that will not repent, by overwhelming this world of ours in a flood of water. He intends to pour out his indignation and just wrath upon those who corrupt themselves in his sight; and he has provided a particular way of escape therefrom, by which you may, if you will, be saved from this judgment, and that way has to be made known by new revelation.” We will pass on, however.

Soon after the days of Noah, we find that certain men lived upon the earth, whose names are recorded in this sacred history (the Bible), who were called to be the chosen servants of God, and whom the Lord blessed in a peculiar manner. I refer now to the Patriarchs, and more especially to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, three very worthy men, so worthy that the Lord chose them as repre– sentatives of the faithful in all future ages, and declared that all who should be saved in future ages should became their seed, either springing directly from their loins, or being adopted, through the Gospel, into the family of Abraham, who was to be called the father of the faithful: that is the father not only of the faithful who lived from his day until the coming of Christ, but of all who should live after Christ who followed in the footsteps of this ancient Patriarch and embraced the same Gospel that he taught, and they should have a claim on the promises that were made to him.

Now, did the Patriarch Abraham receive anything new from God, or was there enough already given? Perhaps many may cry, “Enough to save Noah, Enoch, Abel, and all persons who would walk before the Lord according to ancient revelation, without anything new.” But there was not enough adapted to the circumstances by which Abraham was surrounded. Why? Because the Lord designed to call Abraham out from his father’s house, from his friends and country, and to lead him into a strange land. Abraham might have searched all former records and revelations, but here was a duty he never could have learned therefrom—“Depart from thy father’s house!” It could not be found written in former revelations, hence the circumstances required new revelation, and God gave it by commanding this great man—the father of the faithful—to leave the land of Chaldea and to go forth into a country where he never had been. Abraham was obedient, he went forth and traveled to the country that we call Palestine—a small territory east of the Mediterranean Sea. And having arrived in that land, he might have searched all former revelations in vain to have learned what his duty was then, for there were certain duties required of him then in regard to which the revelation given to him in his native land did not enlighten him. One of these duties was to go forth upon a certain eminence or mountain in Canaan. He did as he was taught. It was a peculiar commandment. I have never been commanded to do so, neither has any other person in this congregation; neither was any person who lived before Abraham but he, and he alone needed new revelation to find out that he was to go to the top of a certain mountain. When he got there another new revelation was given to him, commanding him to look to the east then to the west; and then to cast his eyes to the north, and to the south, and then, behold, a great promise was made to him by new revelation, namely, “All the land which thou seest shall be given to thee and thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession.” No such promise could he have found in any former revelation: this promise was adapted to that peculiar individual, and to the circumstances in which he was placed.

We would imagine that Isaac, having his father’s revelations right before his eyes, and knowing all about them, would say in his heart, “I need not trouble myself about inquiring from God and receiving anything new from the heavens. My father was a good man; he was saved, and I shall content myself by giving heed to the old revelations.” But Isaac did not reason in this way; and the Lord had some new revelations to communicate to the son of Abraham, and one of them was to confirm the promise that had been made to his father. One might naturally suppose that the revelation made to his father was broad enough and covered the case without being confirmed, for it declared that the land promised to Abraham should be given to him and to his seed after him, and we might suppose that that included Isaac, and that there was no need of a new revelation to him on the subject; but if it did include him, Isaac was not fully satisfied, he would not place his dependence on something that had been said to some other man, but wanted to know for himself whether God intended him to possess that land, and there was no way for him to obtain this knowledge except by direct communication with the heavens. He obtained it, God renewing the promise to him that he had made to his father Abraham.

By and by comes along the grandson of Abraham—Jacob, who, not satisfied with the promises made to his grandfather and his father—Abraham and Isaac, and not considering himself safe to depend on promises made to somebody else, came before the Lord and plead with him, and the angels of God came and visited this lad, and he saw a ladder reaching from the ground on which he slept to the very heavens, upon which the angels were ascending and descending; and he, on that occasion, obtained a confirmation of the promise made to his father and grandfather.

It is unnecessary for me to trace the history of these patriarchs, or to mention the various times when God thought fit to communicate a new revelation unto them, according to the circumstances in which they were placed. We might relate the revelations given to Jacob after he went down into the country of Laban, where he married his four wives. We might relate to you the various revelations God gave to him during his sojourn in that land. We might also relate to you the revelations he received after he left that country with his four wives and his children. When he came to the brook Jabbok, sending over all his family before him, he stopped back, and the Lord condescended to give him a new revelation. An angel came down, and Jacob and this person laid hold of each other, the same as men do occasionally now, to try each other’s strength, in what is termed wrestling. These two persons wrestled together all night long. The angel did not see proper to take any advantage of Jacob by miracle, but he wrestled with him as one man would another; and it seems that neither of them overcame the other. The angel did not succeed in throwing Jacob to the ground, neither did Jacob succeed in throwing the angel to the ground; but after contending together all night, the angel at last put forth his finger and touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh and lamed him a little, and by this means was enabled to overcome him. After being thus lamed, Jacob found that he had been wrestling with an angel of God, and, said he, “I will not let thee go unless thou bless me;” and God, through the mouth of that angel, gave to him the same great and glorious promises than he had given to his father, and also blessed him as a prince, because he had power to wrestle with an angel all night and prevailed with him.

Some suppose that this was the first conversion of Jacob; but, be this as it may, Jacob, prior to this time, had many great revelations from God. After wrestling in this manner on one side of the brook Jabbok, he started the next day to overtake his family, and he placed his four wives and their children in a certain order, preparatory to meeting his brother Esau. By and by Esau comes along with quite an army of men, and he meets the forward company, consisting of Bilhah and Zilpah and their children—two of Jacob’s wives and their polygamous offspring. He continues on until he meets Jacob’s third wife, and finally he comes to the fourth and her children, with whom Jacob was, and turning to Jacob he says, “Who are all these women and children?” Jacob answered, “These are they whom God hath given thy servant.” What! God give to Jacob more than one wife, and a number of polygamous children! Is that so? Well, Jacob says so, and we are informed that he was then converted, that this meeting between Jacob and Esau took place, and this declaration of Jacob was made after his conversion at the brook Jabbok. Now, would you suppose that a converted man would make such a declaration, about his wives and children as Jacob made to Esau, if it had not been true? If a man now-a-days declares that God has given him more wives than one, and a host of polygamous children, he is accused of blasphemy, yet Jacob, after wrestling with an angel, declared that such was the case with him: he knew it was so and he acknowledged the hand of God. After he reached the land of Canaan we find that God continued to give to this man revelation after revelation, suited to the circumstances; and thus we may trace the history of the dispensations of God to man.

I will now touch, in short, upon the history of Moses, who lived several hundred years after Jacob—at a period when circumstances called for commandments and revelations different to any that had ever been given before. After having slain the Egyptian, Moses fled from the house of Pharaoh, and went down into the land of Midian, and dwelt there forty years. At a certain time, when he was herding the flocks of his father-in-law, Jethro, he saw a bush burning with a very brilliant flame. This excited his curiosity, and he drew near, and saw the bush apparently burning, and yet not consumed. As he drew nearer God spoke to him out of the burning bush, and told him to take the shoes from his feet for the place on which he stood was holy ground. He never could have found out by former revelation that the ground whereon he stood was holy. This God, who appeared in the burning bush, or the angel, as the case may be, had something for Moses to do that he could not possibly learn from former revelation, and that something was to arise and go down into Egypt and deliver God’s people—the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—from the hands of their enemies. Do you not see that it required new revelation to inform him of this fact? He was obedient to the commandment, for taking Aaron with him, he went down into Egypt and stood before the king, and then commenced a series of new revelations that were wonderful and marvelous in their nature. The revelations of today, however, would not suit tomorrow, and those of tomorrow would not suit the next day. Why? Because God had something new to perform every day, and that which was given yesterday would not be adapted to the work God saw fit to perform today or tomorrow, hence, as often as the day rolled round new revelation had to be given to Moses to make known to him what the Lord required at his hand, what his mission was, what he was to do in the house of Pharaoh and before all the Egyptians. Having accomplished these wonders, by new revelation, Moses and the whole house of Israel, some twenty-five hundred thousand in number, left the land of Egypt and came forth to the eastern border of the Red Sea.

If there had been sectarians in that large company, they would doubtless have reasoned with Moses on this wise: “Moses, what an abundance of revelation God has given in former times, and have we not enough for our guidance now?” I say if there had been Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, members of the Church of England, or of any of the several hundred different sects into which Christendom is now separated, this would have been their argument, for their argument now is—“We have enough, and do not need any more.” But Moses and the children of Israel were not influenced by such considerations, for they were placed in circumstances that required something new. The Red Sea was before them, and there were mountains on the south and on the north, and on the west the Egyptians were pursuing them, and the inquiry with them was, “What shall we do?” God gave them revelation. He did not tell them to search previous revelations for that was all that was necessary, but he gave them revelation telling them what to do, and that revelation was, “Stand still, and see the salvation of God?” If they had not got this new revelation they might have been so confused that, instead of standing still, some would have run for one mountain, and some for another, some this way and some that; but a new revelation made them understand that their duty, instead of fleeing, was to stand still and see the salvation that God would work out for them. Moses was commanded to smite the waters of the Red Sea, and he did so, and they were parted asunder by the power of the Almighty and, as we are informed in another place, they stood up like walls on either side of the path on which the children of Israel traveled through the midst of the sea. We would naturally suppose that water would not do this, but it was a miracle wrought by the power of the Almighty. He placed the waters, like solid walls on each side of his people, and they walked through dry shod, while the Egyptian army, in trying to pursue them, were overthrown in the midst of the sea.

Then comes another new revelation—given by inspiration—to sing how the Lord had overthrown the enemies of his people, how the Lord had magnified his great power and preserved his people from the Egyptian nation, and delivered them from bondage. The hosts of Israel traveled along from the shores of the Red Sea until they came to the foot of Mount Sinai, where, by new revelation, they camped; and at a certain time, the Lord, by new revelation, called Moses up into the mount; and when he got there the Lord saw fit to write a certain code of laws on tables of stone, and, after keeping Moses in the mount forty days and forty nights, he sent him down, and when he got down he found that the children of Israel had corrupted themselves in the sight of the Most High, for they had made unto themselves gods, certain golden calves, and they were worshipping them. Aaron had caused the people to strip themselves naked, and they were dancing around the calves. Moses was very angry, not with that kind of anger which fills the bosoms of foolish men and women; but that principle of justice which burns in the bosom of the Almighty, burned in the bosom of Moses, and he threw down the tables of the covenant which he had brought from Mount Sinai, and they were smashed to pieces. He called for those on the Lord’s side to come out from the midst of that company and stand with him, at the same time commanding them to gird on their swords and put to death those who were not for the Lord. That was a new revelation, and a curious one, was it not? After all this had taken place, the Lord called Moses a second time up into the mount by new revelation, and again gave him tables of stone and laws written thereon. He kept him there the second time forty days and forty nights, without eating or drinking anything. One would suppose that he could not have stood so long a period of fasting—eighty days and eighty nights, forty each time. When he had obtained the tables the second time he came down and stood before the children of Israel, and his countenance shone with such brightness that they were filled with fear, and fled from before the presence of Moses. They could not endure the glory of his countenance, and they besought Moses that the presence of the Lord might not be made manifest in their midst. “Do you, Moses, go and talk with the Lord. You can converse with him, and let us know what the Lord says, but do not let the Lord come and converse with us, lest we be destroyed.” We find that they had so corrupted themselves in the sight of God that he, who would have delighted to converse with all the people, as one man talks with another, was obliged to hide his presence from them, and to send Moses to teach them. Moreover their corruptions had become so great that the Lord, in his wrath, swore that they should not enter into his rest. This was made known to them by new revelation while in the wilderness, or they never could have learned it. The Lord also informed them that he would not go up in the midst of their camps. Said he, “I will not go up in the midst of this people, because they have corrupted themselves in my sight, lest I break forth and consume them in a moment;” “but,” said he, “I will send an angel before you, and you must hearken to his voice, but my presence shall not go with you, you are too corrupt.” By and by we find that an angel was left with them, and a cloud by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night, guided all their camps. The voice and presence of the Lord were made manifest to Moses, and Moses conversed with the Lord as one man talks with another, and during forty years in the wilderness he from time to time received revelations and communications to guide the people. Do you not see that under these circumstances, during the whole of that forty years, there was not one year—probably not one month, and it may be, not one day but what new revelation was necessary? The code of laws given on Mount Sinai was not sufficient without new revelation.

We might trace the history of the people of God, if we had time, but I see we have not, from the days of Moses to the days of Joshua, Gideon, Samuel, Barak and various other ancient worthies, all of whom received revelation. If we come to the days of Gideon we find that he was a man who had seventy sons, and how many daughters, I do not know. The Lord conversed with Gideon and sent an angel to him to tell him that he would raise him up as a mighty man of valor, to go forth in his might and in his strength to deliver his people Israel from bondage. We might relate all these things to show forth that the bondage of the children of Israel called forth new revelation from heaven, and that because of it the Lord spoke to and commanded his servants what to do for the deliverance of that people; and if he called upon a man who had so many wives and children, he did not consider that that man was a criminal and unworthy of receiving communication from him, but on the contrary, it is clear that the Lord considered him the most worthy man in all Israel, and on that account he sent his angel to him. And this noted polygamist, of all the thousands of Israel was entrusted with the mission of delivering that people from their enemies. God wrought special miracles by his hand in order to accomplish this great work, though he was a polygamist.

But we will pass on, and come down for some two thousand years to the days of our Savior. One would naturally suppose that when the Son of God himself came from his father’s glory to dwell here on the earth in the flesh, and began to teach by the power of the Holy Ghost, the things of his Father, that during the three and a half years of his ministry among the people, they, of course, could say, “Now we do not need any more revelation, we have enough; the Son of God, of whom our law, its ordinances and sacrifices were typical, has at last come and has offered himself on the cross, and having finished the work given him to do, is there any more need for new revelation?” The conduct of the Apostles is the best answer that can be given to this, for we find them, like all their predecessors, from the days of Adam until their day, seeking from time to time for guidance by new revelation. We read of Philip going to the city of Samaria, preaching there awhile and baptizing men and women; but not having the authority to administer in the higher ordinance of the laying on of hands, the Christians at Jeru– salem, hearing that Samaria had received the Word of God, sent Peter and John to administer the ordinance of the laying on of hands for the higher baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost. When Peter and John reached Samaria they found there was great joy among the people, for many of them had been converted; but their joy was not because of the baptism of the Holy Ghost, for the next verse says, “For as yet he was fallen on none of them,” only they had been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, but neither man nor woman had received the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost. But the Apostles laid their hands on them and the Holy Ghost fell on them.

Now, here was Philip in the city of Samaria. He had preached the Gospel there, where should he go next? He had probably fulfilled all the duties required of him there. He was not hired to preach in that city for so much a year, and to stay there to the end of his days. No, he needed a new revelation. All the revelations that Jesus had given were not sufficient to guide Philip in regard to his next duty, the Lord, therefore sent an angel to him to tell him to go down into the south country. He never would have learned this fact by any former revelation. While Philip was on his way to the south he saw a chariot before him and here again a new revelation was given to him—“Draw thyself near to that chariot.” He did so, and having taught the Gospel to its occupant, as they rode along, they came to some water and, the man having believed what Philip had said, wanted to be baptized. The chariot stood still, and Philip and the eunuch both went down into the water, and the eunuch was baptized, and they came forth out of the water. Now then, how could Philip know but what it was his duty on that occasion to still speak with the eunuch, get into the carriage and ride along with him and give him further instructions? But no, the Lord had something else for him to do, and the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, and he found himself at Azotus. I do not know whether or not this Spirit actually caught up Philip, body and spirit, and wafted him quickly from the place where the eunuch was baptized to the city of Azotus. I should not be surprised, however, if this was the case, for we have something very similar in the Old Testament Scriptures, and the promise is that they who wait on the Lord shall mount as it were on eagle’s wings, and they shall run and not be weary, and walk and not faint. I do not know but this was the case with Philip. At any rate, the Spirit of the Lord carries people, by new revelation, whithersoever he will.

On another occasion we find that Barnabas and Saul, not having inquired of the Lord concerning their duties, but they probably had been reading the Old Scriptures, which were sufficient for instruction for righteousness, and to make the man of God thoroughly perfect to every good work. I say that probably Barnabas and Saul had been reading these, and having failed to inquire of the Lord, and to get new revelation, they started out with the design of going to a certain city, but the Lord checked them. Said he, “Do not go there!” How important it was to get new revelation! “Do not you go to that city, I have another work for you to perform;” and they were then told where to go. Talk to the Christian ministers today, or to any that have lived for centuries past, and if they had made up their minds to go to any place, they would never think of the Lord checking them, or forbidding them to go, by new revelation, for they all say that the canon of Scripture is full, and that no more new revelation is needed.

Many other instances of a similar character might be named, but time will not permit. We find, however, that, after all that God revealed through Jesus, and to the Apostles, for ninety-six years in the first century of the Christian era, they had not enough, and the Lord then gave the book of John’s prophecy on the Isle of Patmos. John was commanded to write it on parchment, and in this book a great many new revelations were promised to be given in the latter times. One of these was that an angel should come from heaven having the everlasting Gospel to preach to all people, nations, kindreds and tongues, declaring that the hour of God’s judgment had come. Here was a promise or prediction that a new revelation should be given by an angel from heaven, and so important should it be that it should be proclaimed to every creature under heaven. A great many people say, “We have the everlasting Gospel in this book—the Bible—called the canon of Scripture, collected together by the monks, cardinals, bishops and great men of the Roman Catholic Church, some four centuries after Christ. They bound together in this volume all the books they had that they did not condemn, and they declared that this was enough, and there was no need of the Lord saying anything more. But these very Scriptures themselves contradict their compilers—those wicked men who sat in judgment on the word of God, setting aside this book and that book, this manuscript and that manuscript, and binding the remainder together. I say that they put some things into this very book, which prove that God would again make known his will to the children of men in latter times; that he would again give new revelation, not for the benefit of one or two individuals, but for the benefit of his creatures universally.

Notwithstanding we have the Gospel written here in this book, yet that Gospel, without the power and authority to administer its ordinances, is a dead letter. We might believe the Gospel, we might believe that Jesus is the Christ by reading this book, we could repent of our sins by reading the proclamation of repentance here recorded; but we could not be baptized for the remission of our sins, neither could we have hands laid upon us for the baptism of the Holy Ghost by reading, and that is part and portion of the Gospel of the Son of God, just as much as the written word that proclaims these things to the children of men. Take away the power and authority to administer that word, and you at once leave the dead letter of the Gospel, and it would benefit none of the children of men, so far as obeying it is concerned. They might be benefited by repenting and believing, and so on, but they could not embrace the Gospel, they could not get into the kingdom of God, for “except a man is born of the water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” You could not be born of the water unless there was a man authorized by new revelation to administer the baptism of water, neither could you receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost only by the ordinance God has instituted; hence the necessity of the restoration of the authority to administer the ordinances of the Gospel, and this is why God has restored it after the earth has been without it for seventeen hundred years. No man among all the nations, kindreds and tongues of the earth, during that time, has had this authority, neither the authority to administer the Lord’s supper, which is a part of the Gospel, neither in any other ordinance.

God having foreseen this long period of darkness, foretold by the mouth of the Revelator, St. John, that he would send an angel from heaven with the everlasting Gospel, and when that angel came and committed that Gospel to man on the earth, it should be proclaimed to all people under heaven, the same as the Elders of this Church are now doing it. The Book of Mormon, containing the everlasting Gospel as it was published to the ancient inhabitants of America, has been brought forth by the power of God, and his servants have been sent forth to preach it, and, not only to preach it, but, having authority to administer its ordinances; yet the world tell us we need no more revelation, we have enough if we only follow the Scriptures, which Paul said to Timothy were sufficient to save him. But in the Christian world you cannot be saved by following the Scriptures, from the fact that you cannot follow them without authority from God to administer the ordinances. You be baptized by a man having no authority by new revelation from heaven, and your baptism is illegal, and your pretended adoption into the kingdom of God is not acknowledged in heaven, for God has not authorized the administrator, and what he has done in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, cannot be sealed and recorded in heaven for your benefit. No wonder, then, that the world has dwelt in darkness for so many centuries, for the earth has become so corrupt, and the heavens have apparently become as brass over the heads of the nations. No Pro– phet, no angel, no inspiration, no Revelator, no man of God to say, “Thus saith the Lord God” unto the people. No wonder, then, that the Lord, before the great day of the coming of his beloved Son from the heavens, should send an angel to prepare the way before his face! This he has done, and the proclamation is going forth, saying to all people, nations and tongues, “God has sent an angel, and he has sent him to prepare you and us for the great day of the coming of the Son of Man, wherein there will be more revelations given than have ever been given in all former dispensations.”

Tell about the canon of Scripture being complete, what nonsense! What absurdity! Where is there any proof of any such thing? God has yet to give revelation enough to fill the earth with his knowledge as the waters cover the great deep. He has yet to pour out his spirit upon all flesh that dwells on the face of the earth, and make a revelator, prophet, or prophetess of every man and woman living, and if all their revelations are written, this book, the Bible, will be like a primer compared with them. “In the last days,” saith God, by the mouth of the Prophet Joel, “I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and upon my servants and my hand maidens in those days will I pour out of my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. Your old men shall dream dreams and your young men shall see visions.” Supposing they write their dreams as Daniel wrote his, and suppose they write their visions as Isaiah wrote his, and suppose they write their prophecies as all the Prophets have written theirs, would they not be just as sacred as this canon of Scripture? I say they would. I would be bound just as much to receive the revelations of each man and woman among all flesh as I would those of a person who lived two or three thousand years ago. A revelation given to a living man in my day is just as sacred as one given to a man who has been dead some three thousand years. God is a consistent being, and he reveals himself according to his own mind and will, and in the last dispensation, he will continue to reveal line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, bringing forth a record here, unfolding the history of another people there, bringing to light the bible of the ten tribes who have been absent from the land of Canaan for almost three thousand years. Their bible has got to be brought to light, and when they return they will bring their written revelations, prophecies, visions and dreams with them, and we shall have the bible of the ten tribes, as well as the bible of the ancient Israelites who lived on this continent, and the bible of the Jews on the eastern continent, and these bibles will be united in one, and even then the people will not have enough revelation. No, every man and every woman will have to be a revelator and prophet, and the knowledge and glory of God will cover the earth as the waters cover the bosom of the great deep. And by and by, as a kind of climax to all this, the revelation of the Lord Jesus himself will take place from heaven in flaming fire, to take vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel. That will be a revelation that the wicked cannot abide, a revelation too great for them, and that will pierce them to their inmost soul. That will be a revelation that will consume them in their wickedness, as stubble is consumed before the devouring flame, and he will reign here, king of kings and lord of lords for a thousand years.

Do you suppose that he will give no new revelation during that time, but that he will sit on his throne like the idols in some of the heathen nations? Do you suppose that the Lord Jesus, that intelligent being, by whom the Father made the worlds, is coming here to reign king of kings, and to sit down on his throne in the temple at Jerusalem, and upon his throne in his temple in Zion, and abide there as a statue from generation to generation, for a thousand years, and when the people come up to ask him a question that he will not say a word, only to tell them they have enough? Do you suppose this will be the case? Oh no, my friends, the Lord Jesus will converse the whole thousand years with his people, and give them instruction. He will reign over the house of David, over the children of Israel, over the twelve tribes, over Zion and over all the inhabitants of the earth, that is over all who are spared in that day, giving counsel here, instructions yonder, revealing something there, and so on, and the amount of revelation that will be given during the thousand years will no doubt be ten thousand times more than is contained in this Bible, and yet say the world, “No more revelation!”

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, April 7, 1872.

When I look over this vast congregation, assembled in the body of this house as well as in the gallery, it seems to be an impossibility to make all hear; and to give all an opportunity to do so it will be necessary that the closest attention be given and that shuffling of feet and whispering cease. I suppose there must be congregated here something in the neighborhood of twelve thousand persons, and there are but very few voices or lungs that are able to reach such a multitude, and edify and instruct them. I know from former experience in speaking from this stand, that it requires a great exertion of the lungs and body to speak so as to be understood, and this great exertion of the physical system is calculated in a very short time to weary also the mind, therefore I may not be able to address you for any great length of time.

It is now forty-two years since the organization of the Church of Jesus Christ on the earth. Forty-two years ago, on the 6th day of April, the Prophet Joseph Smith was commanded by the Lord Almighty to organize the Kingdom of God on the earth for the last time—to set up and make a beginning—to form the nucleus of a Government that never should be destroyed from the earth, or, in other words, that should stand forever. The founding of governments, of whatsoever nature they may be, may be considered in the estimation of some, very honorable; but there is no special honor attached to a man who is called upon by the Almighty to found a Government on the earth, for it is the Lord who works by him as an instrument, using him for that purpose. That, of course, is honorable. Perhaps there never was a work accomplished among men of so great and important a nature as that of the foundation of a kingdom that never is to be destroyed. About six thousand years have passed away since the Government established by the Patriarchs, or by the first man, was commenced here on the earth. From that time until the present vast numbers and descriptions of Governments, some Patriarchal in their nature, others taking the form of kingdoms, others of empires and so forth, have been organized here on the earth. During that long interval of time whenever a man has founded a Government he has been greatly honored, not only by the generation among whom he lived, and in which he formed the Government, but he has been honored generally by after generations. But nearly all the Governments that have been established have been thrown down—they have been only temporary in their nature—existing for a few centuries perhaps, and then overthrown. It is not my intention this afternoon to examine the nature and forms of these various human Governments, but to state in a few words that there is now organized on the earth a Government which never will be broken as former Governments have been. This will stand forever. It began very small—only six members were organized in this Government on Tuesday the 6th day of April, 1830, that is according to the vulgar era; according to the true era it was some two or three years longer. The Christian era, that is in common use now among the human family is called the vulgar era, because it is incorrect. Jesus, it is acknowledged by the most learned men at the present day, was born two or three years before the period that is now commonly called the vulgar Christian era. It is also acknowledged by the greater portion of the learned men of the day, who have carefully examined the subject, that Jesus was crucified on the 6th day of April; and according to the true Christian era it was precisely eighteen hundred years from the day of his crucifixion until the day that this Church was organized. Why the Lord chose this particular period—the anniversary of the day of his crucifixion for the organization of his kingdom on the earth I do not know. I do know that he has a set time in his own mind for accomplishing his great purposes; but why he should purpose in his own mind that precisely eighteen hundred years should elapse from the day of the crucifixion until the day of the organization of his church, we do not know. Suffice it to say that this is the interval that elapsed. The Book of Mormon gives the exact interval from the day of his birth to the day of the crucifixion, and by putting these two periods together we can ascertain the true Christian era. There is a great dispute, however, among chronologists in regard to this matter; many of them say Jesus was born one year before the vulgar era, others that he was born two years before that. Four different chronologists, mentioned by name in Smith’s Bible Dictionary, place the period three years before the vulgar era; others place it at four years before, some five, and some have placed it seven years before the present vulgar era. If we take a medium between these combined with the testimony of a great many who have written upon the subject, we find, as I said before, that it makes precisely eighteen hundred years between the two great events that took place, namely the crucifixion and the building up of his kingdom in these latter days.

God has seen proper in the progress of this kingdom to restore to his servants holding the priesthood every key and power pertaining to the restitution of all things spoken of by the mouth of all the Holy Prophets since the world began. One of the first things that he condescended to restore was the fullness of the everlasting Gospel, just according to the prediction of the ancient Prophets—by the coming of an angel from heaven. Mr. Smith fulfilled that prediction, or rather it was fulfilled to him. He declares, in language most plain and positive, that God did send an angel from heaven and committed to him the everlasting Gospel on plates of gold; or in other words, he had it revealed to him by this angel, where the plates of gold were deposited containing the everlasting Gospel, as it was preached to the ancient inhabitants of this American continent, by the personal ministry of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This was the restoration predicted by John in the 14th chapter of Revelation, where it is declared that such an event should take place. John says that he saw, in vision, an angel come from heaven to earth, to restore the everlasting Gospel. No people on earth, prior to the advent of the Prophet Joseph Smith, ever testified to the fulfilment of John’s prediction. If you make the inquiry of the various Christian denominations, whether Catholic, Greek or Dissenters, they will tell you unitedly that no such event characterized the rise of their churches; we have therefore their testimony, proving that God never fulfilled this portion of his word through them; but on the contrary the united voice and testimony of all these Christians, from one end of the earth to the other is that the Bible contains the Gospel, “And we have preached the Gospel,” say they, “as we found it recorded in the Bible,” and no angel to restore the authority to preach the Gospel, to baptize, to confirm by the laying on of hands, to administer the Lord’s Supper, or to restore or give authority to organize the kingdom of God on the earth, was necessary.” To this we reply, the history of the Gospel is one thing, and the authority to preach it and administer its ordinances is another. We can read its history in the New Testament; and we can also read there how the ancient servants of God organized the Church in their day; we can read what ordinances they performed or administered among the children of men; we can read what was needful for the organization of the Christian Church eighteen hundred years ago. We have the history of all these things in the Scriptures, but for some seventeen centuries past prior to the coming of this angel, there has been no authority to preach it; no Apostles, no Prophets, no Revelators, no visions from heaven, no inspiration from heaven; no voice of the Lord has been heard among the nations during the long interval that has elapsed since the putting to death of the ancient servants of God, and the destruction of the ancient Christian Church. Joseph Smith came to this generation testifying to the fulfillment of that which God predicted in the Revelation of Saint John—the restoration of the Gospel. But says John the Revelator, “when it is restored it shall be preached to every nation, kindred, tongue and people.”

Is there any prospect of this Gospel being thus extensively preached among the inhabitants of the earth in this generation? We need not refer you to the missions that have been taken by the Elders of this Church. Their works speak for themselves. Behold this vast congregation of people assembled here, and nearly all who inhabit this Territory. Why are they here? Because the angel has brought the everlasting Gospel, and because the servants of God have been commissioned and sent forth with the sound of the Gospel among the various nations and kingdoms of the earth; and because they have succeeded in preaching it among vast numbers of people, and gathering them out from the midst of the nations. But it has not yet gone to all nations, kindreds, tongues and people; but wait a little longer, it will shortly go, for just as sure as it has already been preached to nearly all the nations of Christendom, so will it go to every other people—heathen, Mahomedan, and every class, whether in Europe, Asia, Africa, or the uttermost parts of South America, the frozen regions in the north, or the numerous islands in the great western and eastern oceans. Every people must be warned that the great day of the Lord is close at hand; every people must know that the Lord God has spoken in these latter times; every people must know something concerning the purposes of the Great Jehovah in fulfilling and accomplishing the great preparatory work for the second advent of the Son of God from the heavens. Here then is the fufilment of one prophecy. Let us now come to another.

John, who saw this angel restore the everlasting Gospel to be preached to all the nations, declares that another proclamation was closely connected with the preaching of the Gospel. What was it? “The hour of his judgment has come”—the eleventh hour, the last time that God will warn the nations of the earth. “The hour of God’s judgment has come,” and that is the reason why the Gospel is to be so extensively preached among all people, nations and tongues, because the Lord intends through this warning to prepare them, if they will, to escape the hour of his judgment, which must come upon all people who will refuse to receive the divine message of the everlasting Gospel.

We will now pass on to another prophecy. Another angel followed. What was his proclamation? Another angel followed, and he cried with a loud voice, saying: “Babylon is fallen, is fallen. She has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication,” &c. Spiritual Babylon the Great, “the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth.” “Mystery Babylon”—that great power that has held sway over the nations of the earth—that great ecclesiastical power which has ruled over the consciences of the children of men, she is to fall and is to be destroyed from the face of the earth. Will the righteous fall with her? No. Why not? Because there is a way for their escape.

Now mark another prophecy. “I heard a great voice,” says John, “from heaven, saying, ‘Come out of her, O my people!’” Out of where? “Mystery Babylon, the Great”—out of this great confusion that exists throughout all the nations and multitudes of Christendom. “Come out of her, O my people, that ye partake not of her sins, that ye receive not of her plagues; for her sins have reached to the heavens, and God hath remembered her iniquities!” Is this being fulfilled? Do you see any indications of the people of God coming out from “Mystery Babylon the Great?” Yes, for forty-two years, and upwards, God has commanded his people, not by something devised by a congregation of divines, or by human ingenuity, but by a voice from heaven which has been published and printed, requiring all who receive the everlasting Gospel to come out from the midst of great Babylon. One hundred thousand Latter-day Saints, approximately speaking, now inherit these mountain regions. They are here because of this prediction of John, because of its being fulfilled, because of the voice that has come from heaven—the proclamation of the Almighty for his people to flee from amongst the nations of the earth. I need not say any more in regard to this prophecy; it is in the Bible, and is being fulfilled before the eyes of all people.

Let me refer now to another prophecy. Daniel the Prophet has told us that in the latter days after the great image that was seen in dream by Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, representing the various kingdoms of the world, should be destroyed, and those nations should pass away and become like the chaff of the summer threshingfloor, the Lord would establish an everlasting Government here upon the earth. The Lord God saw proper to reveal to his servant Daniel the nature of this Government. He represented it as having a very small beginning—as a stone cut out of the mountain without hands, which stone should fall upon the feet of the image, and they should be broken in pieces. After the destruction of the feet all the image should fall—the legs of iron, the belly and thighs of brass, the breast and arms of silver, the head of gold—representing the remnants of all those ancient nations—the Babylonians, Medes and Persians, and the Greeks; also the remnants of those that once constituted the great Roman empire—those now in Europe and those of European origin which have come across the great ocean and established themselves here on the vast continent of the west, all, all were to be destroyed by the force of this little kingdom to be established by the power of truth, and by the authority that should characterize the nature of the stone cut out of the mountains. “In the days of these kings,” says the Prophet, “shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, neither shall it be left to any other people, but it shall stand forever,” etc. The Prophet Daniel uttered the prophecy; Joseph Smith, by authority of the Almighty, fulfilled it, so far as the organization or setting up of the kingdom was concerned.

Let me refer now to some other prophecies. I do not want to dwell long upon any of them. We are told in the prophecies of Isaiah that before the time of the second advent, when the glory of the Lord should be revealed and all flesh should see it together, there should be a Zion built up on the earth. The Prophet gives the following exhortation to that Zion—“O Zion, thou that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain.” Here then is a prophecy that, in the latter days, God would have a Zion on the earth before he should reveal himself from heaven and manifest his glory to all people; and the people called Zion are exhorted, in the 40th chapter of Isaiah, to get up into the high mountain. Here we are in this great mountain region, in a Territory called the mountain Territory. Here we are on the great backbone, as it were, of the western hemisphere, located among the valleys of this great ridge of mountains, which extends for thousands of miles—from the frozen regions in the north, almost to the southern extremity of South America. Here are the people called Zion, gone up into the high mountain, according to the prediction of the Prophet Isaiah. Isaiah uttered the prophecy; Joseph Smith also prophesied the same thing, but died without seeing it fulfilled. His successor, Brigham Young, lived to be the favored instrument in the hands of God, of taking the people from those countries down in the States, those countries upon the low elevations of our globe, and bringing them up here into this vast mountain region. Thus the prophecy was uttered—thus it has been fulfilled.

We will pass on to some other prophecies. In the eighteenth chapter of the prophecies of Isaiah we have a prediction about a time when the Lord should make a great destruction upon a certain portion of the earth. The Prophet begins the chapter by saying, “woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is be– yond the rivers of Ethiopia. Recollect where the Prophet dwelt when he uttered this prophecy—in Palestine, east of the Mediterranean Sea. Where was Ethiopia? Southwest from Palestine. Where was there a land located beyond the rivers of Ethiopia. Every person acquainted with the geography of our globe knows that this American continent was beyond the rivers of Ethiopia from the land of Palestine, where the prophecy was uttered. A woe was pronounced upon that land, and that woe is this: “For 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 mountains, 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.” But first, before this destruction, there is a remarkable prophecy. Says the Prophet: “All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains, and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye.” From this we learn that, before this great destruction, there is to be an ensign lifted up on the mountains, and this, too, beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, from Palestine. This is the reason why Zion in the latter days goes up into the mountains, in order that an ensign might be lifted up on the mountains. This prophecy was uttered some twenty-five hundred years ago, and has been fulfilled before the eyes of the people in our day.

But more in regard to this ensign; we find that it was not an ensign to be lifted up in Palestine, for in the fifth chapter of his prophecies, Isaiah, speaking of it says—“The Lord shall lift up an ensign for the nations from afar.” What does this mean? It means a land far distant from where the Prophet Isaiah lived—the land of Palestine. Now there is no land of magnitude or greatness that is far off from Palestine that would answer the description of this prophecy any better than this great western hemisphere; it is located almost on the opposite side of the globe from Palestine. The Lord, then, was to lift the ensign on a land that was far off from where the Prophet lived; and that ensign, we are told, should be set up on the mountains, and that, too, on a land shadowing with wings. When looking on the map of North and South America it has oftentimes suggested to my own mind the two wings of a great bird. No doubt the Prophet Isaiah saw this great western continent in vision, and recognized the resemblance to the wings of a bird in the general outline of the two branches of the continent. On such a land, on the mountains afar off from Palestine, an ensign was to be raised. But remember another thing in connection with this ensign—See how extensive the proclamation was to be—“All ye inhabitants of the world and dwellers on the earth, see ye when he lifts up an ensign on the mountains.” It was to be a work that was to attract the attention of all people, unto the ends of the world.

“But,” enquires one, “what do you call an ensign?” Webster gives the definition of an ensign or standard—“Something to which the people gather; a notice for the people to assemble.” In other words it is the great standard of the Almighty—the great ensign that he is lifting up in the shape of his Church and kingdom, on the mountains in the latter days, with all the order and form of his ancient system of church government, with its inspired Apos– tles and Prophets and with all the gifts, powers and blessings characterizing the Christian Church in ancient days. That is an ensign that should attract the people unto the very ends of the world.

With the establishment of this ensign God has not only restored the Gospel, but the keys of gathering the people together and building up Zion, and he has also restored other keys and blessings that were to characterize the great and last dispensation of the fullness of times. What are they? The same as predicted in the last chapter of the prophecy of Malachi. That Prophet, speaking of the great day of burning says, “Behold the day shall come that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud and they that do wickedly shall become as stubble, and the day that cometh shall burn them up saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.” This is something that has never been fulfilled yet. But mark! Before the Lord burns all the proud and those who do wickedly, he has told us be would send Elijah the Prophet. He says, “Behold, I will send unto you Elijah the Prophet, he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” Recollect, this is to be just before the day of burning, before the great and notable day of the Lord should come.

Elijah, the Prophet, then, must come from heaven—that same man who was translated in a chariot of fire, and who had such power while on the earth that he could fight, as it were, all the enemies of Israel that came against him; he could call down fire from heaven and consume the fifties as they came by companies to take him. That same man was to be sent in the last days, before the great and notable day of the Lord. What for? To restore a very important principle—a principle which will turn the hearts of the children to the fathers, and the hearts of the fathers to the children. Has that Prophet been sent to the earth, according to the prediction? Yes. When did he come, and to whom did he come? He came to that despised young man, Joseph Smith. According to the testimony of Joseph Smith, the Prophet Elijah stood before him, in the presence of Oliver Cowdery, and gave them these keys. What is included in this turning of the hearts of the children to the fathers and the hearts of the fathers to the children? There is included in it a principle for the salvation of the fathers that are dead, as well as for the children who are living. You have heard, Latter-day Saints, for years and years, that God has given keys, by which the living in this Church might do, not only the works necessary for their own salvation, but also certain works necessary to the salvation of their ancestors as far back as they could obtain their genealogies. What can be done by us for our fathers who have lived and died during the last seventeen hundred years, without hearing the Gospel in its fullness and power? Hundreds and thousands, and millions of them were sincere and honest, and served the Lord the best they knew; but they lived in the midst of apostate Christendom, and never heard the Gospel preached by inspired men, neither had they the chance of having its ordinances administered to them by men having authority from God. Must they be shut out from the kingdom of God, and be deprived of the glory, joys and blessings of celestial life because of this? No, God is an impartial being, and when he sent Elijah the Prophet to confer the keys I have referred to upon Joseph Smith, he intended that this people should work for the generations of the dead, as well as for the generations of the living; that these ordinances which pertain to men here in the flesh might be administered in their behalf by those of their kindred living in this day and generation. In this way the Latter-day Saints will be baptized and receive the various ordinances of the Gospel of the Son of God for their forefathers, as far as they can trace them; and when we have traced them as far back as we can possibly go, the Lord God has promised that he will reveal our ancestry back until it shall connect with the ancient priesthood, so that there will be no link wanting in the great chain of redemption.

Here then was a restoration in fulfillment of the prediction of Malachi, and for this reason Temples are being built. The Temple, of which the foundation is laid on this block, is intended for that purpose among others. It is not intended for the assembling of vast congregations of the Saints, but it is intended to be for the administration of sacred and holy ordinances. There will be a font for baptism, in its proper place, built according to the pattern that God shall give unto his servants. It is intended that, in these sacred and holy places, appointed, set apart and dedicated by the command of the Almighty, genealogies shall be revealed, and that the living shall officiate for the dead, that those who have not had the opportunity while in the flesh in past generations to obey the Gospel, might have their friends now living, officiate for them. This does not destroy their agency, for although they laid down their bodies and went to their graves in a day of darkness, and they are now mingled with the hosts of spirits in the eternal worlds, their agency still continues, and that agency gives them power to believe in Jesus Christ there, just as well as we can who are here. Those spirits on the other side of the veil can repent just the same as we, in the flesh, can repent. Faith in God and in his son Jesus Christ, and repentance are acts of the mind—mental operations—but when it comes to baptism for the remission of sins they cannot perform that, we act for them, that having been ordained to be performed in the flesh. They can receive the benefit of whatever is done for them here, and whatever the Lord God commands his people here in the flesh to do for them will be published to them there by those holding the everlasting Priesthood of the Son of God. If, when the Gospel is preached to them there, they will believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, they will receive the benefits of the ordinances performed on their behalf here, and they will be partakers, with their kindred, of all the blessings of the fullness of the Gospel of the Son of God; but if they will not do this they will be bound over in chains of darkness until the judgment of the great day, when they will be judged according to men in the flesh. We are here in the flesh, and the same Gospel that condemns the disobedient and the sinner here, will, by the same law, condemn those who are on the other side of the veil.

We have an account of baptism for the dead, as it was administered among the ancient Saints. Paul refers to it in his epistle to the Corinthians, to prove to them that the resurrection was a reality, “Else,” says he, “what shall they do who are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why then are they baptized for the dead?” It was a strong argument that Paul brought forward, and one that the Corinthians well understood. It was a practice among them to be baptized for their dead, and Paul, knowing that they understood this principle, uses an argument to show that the dead would have a resurrection, and that baptism or immersion in water, a being buried in and the coming forth out of the water, was a simile of the resurrection from the dead. The same doctrine is taught in one of Peter’s epistles. About preaching to those who are dead, Peter says that “Jesus was put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit, by which also he went and preached to the spirits in prison, which sometimes were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was preparing.” Indeed! Jesus himself go to the dead and preach to them? Yes. Go to the old antediluvian spirits, and preach to them? Yes, preach to spirits who had lain in prison over two thousand years, shut up and deprived of entering into the fulness of the kingdom of God because of their disobedience. Jesus went and preached to them. “What did he preach?” He did not preach eternal damnation, for that would have been no use. He did not go and say to them, “You antediluvian spirits, I have come here to torment you.” He did not declare that “I have opened your prison doors to tell you there is no hope for you, your case is past recovery, you must be damned to everlasting despair.” This was not his preaching. He went there to declare glad tidings. When he entered the prison of those antediluvians, Peter says he preached the Gospel. “For for this cause 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.” Yes, the inhabitants of the spirit world—far more numerous than those in the flesh—must hear the glad tidings of the Gospel of the Son of God, that all may be judged by the same Gospel and the same law; and if they will receive it be blessed, exalted from their prison house, and brought into the presence of the Father and the Son, and inherit celestial glory.

This, therefore, is among the greatest of all the keys that God has revealed in the last dispensation—the saving of the generations of the dead, as well as the generations of the living, inasmuch as they will repent. Shall we stop here? Perhaps I have spoken sufficiently long. There are other principles, just as important in their nature, that must be restored in the latter days, but I have not time to dwell upon them. I have reference now to the restoration of that eternal principle—the marriage covenant, which once was on the earth in the days of our first parents, the eternal union of husband and wife, according to the law of God, in the first pattern of marriage that is given to the children of men. That must also be restored, and everything in its time and in its season must be restored, in order that all things spoken of by the mouth of all the holy Prophets since the world began may be fulfilled. But we will leave this subject for some future time. There must, however, be a restoration of the eternal covenant of marriage, and also of that order of marriage which existed among the old Patriarchs, before the prophecies can be fulfilled, wherein seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, “we will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel, only let us be called by thy name to take away our reproach.” That must be restored, or the prophecies of Isaiah never can be fulfilled. A great many other things might be named which must be restored in the dispensation of the fulness of times. It is a dispensation to restore all things, it is the dispensation of the spirit and power of Elias or Elijah, “to seal all things unto the end of all things” preparatory to the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

The wicked as well as the righteous will feel the power of these keys. The wicked as well as the righteous must be sealed to that end for which they have lived. The wicked, who have disobeyed the law of God, must be sealed over unto darkness, until they have been punished and beaten with many stripes, until the last resurrection, until the last trump shall sound. But the righteous, in the flesh and behind the veil, will come forth in the first resurrection, but prior to that great event they will cooperate in their labors for the consummation of the purposes of the Almighty so far as necessary to prepare the way for the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to reign here, personally, on the earth for the space of one thousand years. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, March 10, 1872.

The speaker who addressed you this forenoon, referred to another book, that is called the Book of Doctrine and Covenants. I will select a few words from that book this afternoon—a part of the 8th paragraph, of the 21st section, being a revelation given to the Prophet Joseph Smith, in September, 183l. The word of the Lord to the Prophet reads thus: “For, behold, I say unto you that Zion shall flourish, and the glory of the Lord shall be upon her; And she shall be an ensign unto the people, and there shall come unto her out of every nation under heaven. And the day shall come when the nations of the earth shall tremble because of her, and shall fear because of her terrible ones. The Lord hath spoken it. Amen.”

Much has been said since the rise of this Church in regard to the Zion of the latter days, and much more might be said, for after we have said all that we can say, as far as God has revealed, I presume that we shall not be able to portray scarcely anything compared with the glory and greatness and the excellency and the beauty of that people and of that city that are called Zion, to be built up on the earth in the latter times.

The first question that naturally presents itself to the mind in regard to Zion is this: What is Zion? What are we to understand by its term? Is it a city? Is it a people? Is it a good people or a bad people? What may we understand by the term as used in the Scriptures? There are a great many ideas among the children of men in reference to this term, especially among all Christian denominations. I presume there is not a people on the whole face of the earth who profess to be Christian but what have their definition of the term Zion. If we go to the Catholics they tell us that they are Zion—that they are the only people whom the Lord acknowledges as Zion. If we go to the Greek Church, that has existed contemporary with the Catholics for many centuries, and inquire of them what their understanding is concerning Zion, they will tell us that it is the Greek Church. You go to all the Protestant denominations that have dissented from the Catholics and from the Greek Church and inquire of them what Zion is, and the answer of the greater portion of them will be, it is the various Christian denominations, such as the Lutherans, the Church of England, the Methodists, the various order of Baptists, and the various Christian denominations that have arisen during the last three or four centuries. Go to the Latter-day Saints and inquire of them what Zion is, and they will tell you it is the Church of the living God wherever it can be found. Consequently in order to ascertain what Zion is it is necessary for us to understand what the Church of the living God is, and try to distinguish between that Church and all other Churches. I shall endeavor, in a very few words, to mark out some of the distinguishing features between the true Church of the living God and Churches built up by human wisdom; and when we have ascertained what the true Church is we shall then have learned what the true Zion is.

I will begin with some of the first principles which God has revealed, and which it is necessary for mankind to obey before they can constitute a part and portion of Zion. Before Zion, or the Church of the living God, can have any existence on the earth it is very important and necessary that there should be divine administrators. What I mean by this is, men having a divine mission, a divine call—being called of the Lord by the spirit of revelation to build up Zion on the earth. And when I speak of men having a divine call I do not mean those who have merely an impression, as a great many ministers among all religious denominations say that they are called of God because they have an impression that God has sent them, and they go forth and preach their peculiar doctrines, as a mission which they have to deliver to the people. One man who says he is sent of God preaches baptism by sprinkling; another man sent by the same God, or who professes to be, teaches baptism by pouring water on people. A third man, who says he is sent of God, and has an impression to preach, preaches that baptism by immersion is the only true mode, and is to be administered to those who have experienced religion, and have obtained forgiveness of sins. A fourth man comes forth and says he is called of God, and has a divine mission, and the way that God has taught him is to be baptized by immersion for the remission of sins.

Now we must not undertake to suppose that God is the author of all these different methods, and that he sent all these different ministers. If he sent any one man to baptize by sprinkling, then those who baptize by immersion are false teachers, running of their own accord. If he sent any one man to pour water on those who are candidates to be baptized, he has never sent any persons to sprinkle, neither to baptize by immersion; and if we can ascertain who it is that is sent, and what the form of ordinances is that are to be administered, then we shall understand something towards the first principles of the building up of Zion on the earth, or, to come more directly to the point, concerning these divinely authorized messengers. How should true messengers of heaven be sent? In what way has God always sent them? By divine revelation. Now there never was a dispensation since God made man on the earth wherein a message was sent forth to the human family unless there was revelation connected with that message, unless the ministers who bore that message forth to the human family were divinely called by revelation, new revelation I mean. I need not go back and trace the callings and the gifts of God unto the patriarchs before the flood, nor those who lived immediately after the flood, nor in the days of Moses, nor in the days of the prophets who followed Moses; nor in the days of Jesus, nor in the days of the Apostles. All these are before the people, the callings and the gifts that were manifested in those days among the various dispensations which God has introduced among the human family. In all these various dispensations God has directly spoken from the heavens; he has communicated his will to the human family. He has raised up revelators and inspired them, he has filled his servants with the spirit of prophecy, that they should foretell the future. He has inspired them to write revelations, and hence in all these different dispensations the God of heaven has thus authorized the children of men to build up his Zion on the earth, and without these no such thing as Zion can be built up among the children of men.

Those persons were not only called by revelation, but they also were guided after they were called by the spirit of revelation in all their travels. Sometimes when they, of their own accord, would have a disposition to visit a certain city, town, neighborhood or nation, the Spirit would speak unto them and say: “Not so, that is not the place for you;” and they would be constrained by the Holy Ghost not to travel in that direction, but to go to some other city that that same Spirit should designate and point out to them. Thus they were guided and directed where they should go, what they should preach, what form of doctrine to deliver to the people, what kind of ordinance to administer to them; every particular was given by revelation from the Most High.

Let us stop right here and enquire. Have there been any Christian denominations for the last seventeen centuries that have enjoyed this spirit of divine revelation? If there have been, then Zion existed on the earth during the period this spirit of revelation was enjoyed. When this spirit of revelation ceased Zion ceased; when people ceased to be called by direct revelation, and the Scriptures ceased to receive any additional books, then Zion ceased among the children of men. When mankind came to the conclusion that their own wisdom was all-sufficient, independent of any more revelation, Zion ceased from off the earth.

How long is it since Zion ceased? For everybody will admit, among all Christian denominations, that there has been no revelation for some seventeen hundred years—among all the Protestants of the present day, among all the Catholics that lived before them and that now live, and among all the different peoples and nations and tongues that have received the doctrines of the Catholics, or of the Greek Church. They all admit that, they all testify and acknowledge that God has had no inspired men on the earth since the days of the Apostles, consequently he has had no Church on the earth, for whenever the Church of God exists there exists prophets and men who are capable of writing Scripture; there exists men who have communion and fellowship with God; there exists men to whom the Lord communicates his will by the ministration of holy angels and by his own voice. Therefore when these things ceased, and men ceased to be inspired to write Scripture, and the Scripture was pronounced full and complete, sealed up as it were, that moment the people called Zion are banished from the face of the earth; or in other words the Church of the living God has no existence thereon.

There was a Zion on the earth in the first century of the Christian era. They were Christians; they believed in Christ; they worshiped Christ, they received his ordinances, they were filled with the spirit of revelation, they had their inspired prophets and revelators; they had their heavenly visions; they had the ministration of angels; they could hear the voice of God; they could behold in heavenly vision the face of the Lord Jesus Christ after he had ascended to his Father and was glorified at his right hand. They bore testimony that they had seen him, that he had conversed with them and that he had communicated his will unto them. These were Christians; that was the Christian Church; that may be pronounced Zion.

What existed after this? The Apostles were put to death; they were hunted from nation to nation; they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins in the dens and caves of the earth, of whom the world was unworthy. Their followers were put to death by hundreds, by thousands, by tens of thousands; and after a while there sprang up a people that pretended to be Christians—followers of the meek and lowly Jesus, having no apostles, no inspired men, no revelation, no ministration of angels, none of the characteristics, except a few forms, of the Christian Church as it existed in the first century of the Christian era. This class of men, calling themselves Christian, uniting with the various forms of the pagan religion, adopting many of their cere– monies and institutions, became very popular, and finally some of the pagans embraced Christianity and were placed, as it were, upon the throne, and what they termed Christianity became very popular indeed. How long has this order of things existed, this dreadful apostasy, this class of people that pronounced themselves Zion, or Christians, without any of the characteristics of Zion? It has existed for some sixteen or seventeen centuries. It has spread itself and grown and gone into the four quarters of the earth. It is the great ecclesiastical power that is spoken of by the revelator John, and called by him the most corrupt and most wicked of all the powers of the earth, under the name of spiritual Babylon, or in other words Babel, which signifies confusion. This great and corrupt power is also represented by John as presenting a golden cup to the nations, full of all manner of filthiness and abominations.

She is termed, in other places, by the same prophet, “The whore of all the earth,” making the nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

Some three centuries ago there came out some excellent men, named Martin Luther, John Calvin and many others that might be mentioned, who protested against the wickedness and abominations of the Church wherein they had been educated, and of which they had been members. Because of their protestations against the mother Church they were called Protestants. They pronounced her the whore of all the earth; they declared that she had no authority, that she had none of the blessings and gifts which characterized the ancient Christians. They came out and established other Churches. The Lutheran Church prevailed in Germany and various portions of northern Europe. The Calvinist Church or Presbyterian Church was also established. Henry the Eighth established and became head of the English Church. Wesley, at a later period, established a Church which has grown to great numbers at the present day. But among all these Churches where are the characteristics of Zion? We hunt for them in vain. Go to all these 666 different Protestant denominations that have come out from the mother Church, and inquire of them, Have you inspired men among you? And their united voice is that God speaks no more in our day; no other message is given from heaven; no voice is heard from the eternal worlds; no angels are sent in these days; no inspired apostles are raised up to establish the Church and the Kingdom of God; no men are filled with the spirit of prophecy to portray the events of the future, or to accomplish and perform the work of God in our day. We enquire, “What have you?” “Oh we have 666 different denominations and we have surnamed ourselves Christians. We are Bible Christians.” How mistaken they are! Bible Christians were those who believed in having apostles and inspired prophets among them. Bible Christians could receive more revelation and add more books to the Bible; Bible Christians could converse with the Lord, and oftentimes beheld the face of Jesus; they could commune with holy angels; they had authority from God to lay hands upon those whom they baptized, for the reception or baptism of the Holy Ghost. This was what constituted ancient Zion; but inquire for these characteristics among these 666 different Christian denominations and they will tell you they are all gone, they have not any of them amongst them. Now suppose we take their word for it! I do, I really believe them. I think they tell the truth when they say they have no inspired men. I believe them when they say they have neither prophets nor apostles among them. Why do I believe them? Because they have received no new books in addition to the Bible, and whenever God had a people on the earth they were constantly giving new books, inspired from on high, and when that ceases we draw the conclusion that inspiration has ceased.

Under these circumstances what is to be done? If the world has thus apostatized, and there has been no Church of the living God, no Zion among the nations for the long period I have named, what are we to expect? Is the world always to remain in this condition? Has God spoken for the last time? Were the few favored Christians who lived in the first century of our era the last ones who were to be favored with a message from heaven? I think not, the Bible tells us a different story altogether. That book tells us that there is to be one of the greatest dispensations ushered in upon the face of the earth that ever has been since the creation of man, and I profess to believe the Bible. When I read the words of the Apostle Paul about the new dispensation that should take place after his day, I believe it. You will find in the first chapter of his epistle to the Ephesians that in the dispensation of the fulness of times he shall gather together in one all things that are in Christ, whether they be in heaven, or here on the earth. A dispensation of gathering, a dispensation called the dispensation of the fulness of times, a dispensation in which the very heavens, and all the spirits of men that are behind the veil are to be gathered in one; all things that are in Christ to be gathered in one, preparatory to the great resurrection that will take place in that dispensation.

The dispensation that was introduced in the days of the apostles was not a dispensation of gathering. When the apostles went forth to build up the Church of Christ at Corinth or at Ephesus, in Galatia or any other part of the earth, the Christians all remained where they received the Gospel except those who were driven into the mountains by the persecutions of their enemies. But in the last dispensation there is to be one feature characterizing it that did not characterize the dispensation established by the ancient apostles, namely the gathering together of the people—all that are in Christ from the ends of the earth. When that dispensation is introduced Zion will be introduced again, the Lord will bring again Zion.

Many of you who are Bible believers have read a great many prophecies about the Zion of the latter days and how the Lord should bring again Zion, which seems to intimate that Zion was once on the earth, that it was lost from the earth for a certain period of time, and that the Lord was going to restore it once more. Let us hear what Isaiah has said on this subject: “Thy watchmen shall lift up their voice, with the voice together shall they sing, for they will see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion.” But perhaps strangers may inquire, How are we to know the period or age of the world when the Lord shall bring again Zion, or in other words restore his Church to the earth? What are the signs of that day, that we may discern the signs of the times? I will tell you how you may know that period. If you will go to the 102nd Psalm of David you will find a clue to that period. I think I will read a little of that psalm for the benefit of strangers. “When the Lord shall build up Zion he shall appear in his glory.” I think this gives a clue to the period, for everyone will admit that the Lord has not yet appeared in his glory. We are looking for him. The Christians of all denominations expect that he will appear in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. The Latter-day Saints expect this in common with all other Christians. But before he appears in his glory he is going to build up Zion, that is, Zion must again be built up on the earth: and if there is not a Zion built up on the earth before he comes, or in other words, if there never is to be another Zion built up on the earth, then he never will come. But when we see the day arrive that the Lord begins to establish his Church on the earth once more, characterized by apostles and prophets, and introduces a dispensation of gathering, wherein all in Christ shall be gathered together in one; when the period of time shall come that the watchmen in that Zion shall see eye to eye and with the voice together sing, we may know that the Lord is coming in his glory, and is near at hand.

We will read a few other passages in the same psalm. “Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favor her, yea, the set time, is come.” The Lord has a set time for a great many of his purposes. A set time for the scattering of Israel; a set time for Jerusalem to be trodden down by the Gentiles until their times are fulfilled; a set time for the stone out of the mountain to be cut without hands and the kingdom of God to be organized on the earth; a set time for the coming of the angel with the everlasting Gospel to be preached to all people, nations, kindreds and tongues; a set time for the Lord to favor Zion, as is here declared. “For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favor the dust thereof. So the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth thy glory.”

Now do not mistake, any of you strangers, and think that this was fulfilled in the days of David. It was written for a period long after his day. This shall be written for the generations to come. “And the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord.” That is, future generations of the earth—those who live at that peculiar period of time when the Lord should again build up Zion on the earth. For “he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from heaven did the Lord behold the earth; To hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those who were appointed to death; To declare the name of the Lord in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem.” But, says one, “That means the first time he came.” Let us read the next verse and see if it really means that period. “When the people are gathered together, and the kingdoms, to serve the Lord.” Now, were the people gathered together in the days of the first coming of Jesus? No. Were the kingdoms then assembled to serve the Lord? No. Recollect that Paul predicted that in the dispensation of the fulness of times, all things in Christ are to be gathered together in one. Then the heathen nations and the kingdoms of the earth shall be gathered. What for? To be taught in his ways, and instructed to walk in his paths.

We will now quote another passage that has reference to the same great event. It is contained in the 2nd chapter of Isaiah the prophet. “And it shall come to pass in the last days”—recollect now it is a work of the latter time—“It shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.” When was this fulfilled? Every person with any reflection whatever, that has the least particle of faith in this prophecy, knows that it never has been fulfilled. The Zion that was built up in the days of David and that he dwelt in, the Zion that was in existence at Jerusalem 1,800 years ago was thrown down. Zion was plowed like a field, as the Prophet Micah predicted it would be. The houses, palaces and mansions in Jerusalem that were called Zion were all thrown down, and the beautiful Temple was also torn down and not one stone left upon another. But in the last days “The mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the tops of the mountains, shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.” This shows that it will be a work that will attract the attention of the nations. It will not be a work like that which is performed by erring humanity, by men without inspiration; but a work of the Lord our God. When he shall build up Zion he will appear in his glory; when he builds up Zion he will bless the inhabitants, the habitations, the palaces, the gates and everything round about that Zion, and the towers within that Zion, all will be blessed according to the testimony of the prophets.

But let us read a little further to show more fully that this was a work of the latter days. “And all nations shall flow unto it and many people shall go and say ‘Come ye and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.’” Two separate and distinct places. The whole of the twelve tribes of Israel are to return back to Palestine in Asia and rebuild their city of Jerusalem and a temple within that city before, and preparatory to the coming of the Lord. Ezekiel, in describing the latter-day building of Jerusalem, says, “And the name of the city from that day forward shall be ‘The Lord is there.’” After the rebuilding of that city it will never be forsaken, or plucked up. As Jeremiah says in his 31st chapter, “It shall never be plucked up or thrown down henceforth and forever.” It will stand while all the generations of the earth shall stand when the house of Israel shall return and rebuild it under the direction of the Almighty.

But Zion is also to be built up. Another city, not old Jerusalem, but a new Jerusalem, called Zion, upon the great western hemisphere, preparatory to the coming of the Lord. “Out of Zion shall go forth the law,” says the prophet. What law? A law to regulate the nations, a law teaching them how to be saved, a law informing the kings and emperors and the nobles of the earth how they can save themselves, and how they can save their dead. When the mountain of the house of the Lord is established on the tops of the mountains they will gather from all those nations to this house of the Lord, to be instructed in his ways, that is to learn how to save themselves, and how to save their ancestors from generation to generation. How to be baptized for the dead, according to the custom practiced by the ancient apostles; how to administer for and in behalf of the dead. The temple of the Lord, the house of God, that we heard of this morning, is built for that express purpose. See what follows: “And he shall judge among the nations, and rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”

Now every person will acknowledge with me that such an order of things has not yet been fulfilled. It is the Millennium, it is that glorious period of rest when Jesus, personally, will reign on this earth, when his throne will be built in the temple at Jerusalem, when he will descend on the Mount of Olives on the east of Jerusalem accompanied by all his Saints, as you will read in the last chapter of the Prophet Zechariah: “The Lord thy God shall come,” says Zechariah, “and all his Saints with him, and he shall stand his feet in that day on the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem to the east; and the Mount of Olives shall divide asunder, half of the mountain moving towards the north, and half towards the south, and there shall be a very great valley,” and so on. And when he descends with all his Saints on that mountain, and this great convulsion of the earth takes place, then will Jesus proceed down to the new gate that will be built on the east side of the temple—the east gate of the temple, and he will enter into that temple and will seat himself on the throne that will be built in that temple. Ezekiel when describing this, in the 43rd chapter of his prophecy, says, or rather the Lord through Ezekiel says, “Son of man behold the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever. And they shall no more defile my name,” and so forth. Here is a prediction that, in that temple will be a certain apartment dedicated and set apart for the throne of the Lord, where he will sit, as the Prophet Zechariah and many of the Apostles have predicted, on the throne of his father David, and judge the whole house of Israel. Dwell with them personally, be in their midst. Where will be the twelve Apostles that wandered about with him, when Jesus comes and sits upon that throne? They will also be sitting upon thrones. Where? In Palestine. “Ye who have followed me in the regeneration shall sit upon twelve thrones, and shall judge the twelve tribes of Israel, and you shall eat and drink at my table at the time you shall do this.” What? Immortal beings sitting upon thrones, having a table set for them and eating and drinking at the table of Jesus in Jerusalem? Yes, this is what is promised, and what we are looking for; this is the order of things that will come when Zion is fully established on the earth preparatory to that order of things. No wonder that nations will no longer lift up sword against nation! No wonder that kings will no longer fight against kings, and emperors against emperors! No wonder that they will beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruninghooks, for it will be a day of peace and rest, of which our present Sabbath is typical. As there is one day out of seven set apart, sanctified and ordained as a day of rest, so there is one thousand years set apart as a day of rest out of the seven thousand which will constitute the temporal existence of our earth. That will be the time when the Lord Jesus will reign as King of kings and Lord of lords. That will be the time when the kings and nations will come up to Zion and also to Jerusalem. The kingdoms will be gathered together to serve the Lord.

Supposing some of them should happen to refuse, those that live off a great distance should conclude to refuse, and not go up to worship the Lord of hosts, let us see what will be– come of them. After having spoken of the Lord coming with all the Saints with him, and standing his feet on the Mount of Olives, the prophet says: “And it shall come to pass in that day that the light shall not be clear or dark, but it shall be one day, which shall be known to the Lord; not day nor night, but it shall come to pass that at evening time it shall be light. And it shall be in that day that living waters shall go out of Jerusalem, half towards the former sea, and half towards the hinder sea; in summer and in winter shall it be.” Again he says, speaking of Jerusalem, “Men shall dwell in it. There shall be no more utter destruction, Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited. And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet; their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongues shall consume away in their mouths.” Again he says: “And it shall be that whosoever will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them there shall be no rain; and if the family of Egypt go not up that have no rain, there shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. In that day there shall be upon the bells of the horses ‘holiness unto the Lord.’” We see then that the nations of the earth around about Jerusalem will be under the necessity, by the law which God has ordained, to fulfil these prophecies, to go up once a year for the purpose of beholding Jesus sitting upon his throne in the midst of Jerusalem, and of beholding the twelve Apostles as they sit upon their thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. From year to year they will have to go up for the purpose of worshiping him. By and by some of them, perhaps, will get it into their hearts that there is no use in their going up. “What is the use of our taking this long journey to Jerusalem?” and they will begin to say within their hearts—“We can serve God here in our own land just as well as going up to Jerusalem.” Just as soon as they begin to apostatize in this way the Lord will send a plague, a famine, that is, withhold the rains of heaven, so that their lands will be parched up, and if the family of Egypt, that have no rain, refuse to go up, there will be a peculiar plague set apart for them, namely, the same kind of a plague that will come upon the various nations that gather up against Jerusalem to battle just before the Lord comes and stands his feet upon the Mount of Olives. It will be no judgment, no calamity whatever for no rain to be given to the land of Egypt, because they depend on the waters of the Nile, by irrigation they overflow the land, hence it is no particular consequence to the people of Lower Egypt to have no rain.

I mention all these things in order that the Latter-day Saints may be re-refreshed in regard to the great events that must take place in the latter times, and that strangers who are in our midst may have a more full understanding of the views of the Latter-day Saints in regard to the ancient prophecies. You see we are looking for the building up of Zion on the earth, for the lifting up of the standard of the Lord, an ensign for the nations; or in other words, as I read at the commencement of my remarks: “For behold Zion shall go forth and become the joy of the whole earth, and the glory of God shall be upon her and the day shall come when the nations of the earth shall fear and tremble because of her, and shall fear because of her terrible ones.” Why? Because the Lord himself will be in the midst of Zion, before he comes on the Mount of Olives.

Now here is the difference between Zion and old Jerusalem. The Jews, or many of them, will gather back to Jerusalem in a state of unbelief in the true Messiah, believing in the prophets but rejecting the New Testament, and looking for the Messiah to come, honest-hearted no doubt, many of them. And they will rebuild Jerusalem after the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. While in that state of unbelief Gog and Magog, the inhabitants of Russia and all those nations in northern Europe and northern Asia, a great multitude, will gather against the Jews before Jesus comes, and they will fill up the great valley of Armageddon, the great valley of Jehosaphat and all the surrounding valleys; they will be like a cloud covering the land. Horses and chariots and horsemen, a very great army, will gather up there to take a spoil. For you know when the Rothschilds and the great bankers among the Jewish nation shall return back to their own land to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, carrying their capital with them it will almost ruin some of the nations, and the latter will go up against Jerusalem to take a spoil. And they will succeed in taking half the city captive; and when they are in the act of destroying that city, behold the Lord will come with all his Saints, and he shall stand his feet on the Mount of Olives, “And in that day” says the Prophet Zechariah “shall the Lord go forth and fight against all those nations that have fought against Jerusalem, and their flesh shall consume away upon their bones, their eyes in their sockets. This great calamity comes upon the Jewish nation in consequence of their unbelief in the true Messiah.

Not so with Zion, she will be built upon the great western hemisphere in North America, and become a righteous people long before the Jews will gather home. Zion will be built up by the gathering of the Saints from all the nations and kingdoms of the earth. Zion will be built up, her habitations will be reared, her Temple will be built and the glory of God will rest upon them long before these great events in connection with the house of Israel will be fulfilled. Hence there is a difference between Zion and Jerusalem in the latter days.

We will now read something more about this Zion. Isaiah, as I have already quoted in the second chapter, has told us about the house of the Lord, and the great peace that should come, the beating of swords into ploughshares, &c., and then he goes on to portray the blessings that are to come upon Zion. He says, “In that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread and wear our own apparel, only let us be called by thy name to take away our reproach. In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely.” Thus we see that Zion is to become glorious. The branch of the Lord, the branch of his own planting, established by his own power, the building up of a people and city by his own instructions and administration by the inspiration of his servants, the establishing of Zion no more to be thrown down. And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion and upon her assemblies a cloud and smoke by day, and shining, flaming fire by night; and upon all the glory shall be a defense and there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the day time from the heat, and for a place of refuge and for a covert from storm and from rain. How often I have quoted this passage! I am not tired of quoting it yet. It is among the great events of the latter days; it is among those marvels and wonders that are just at hand. A Zion to be built up; a city of Zion having habitations, and upon these habitations a supernatural light by night, and a supernatural cloud by day. No such event has happened since this prophecy was uttered by the Prophet Isaiah, it remains to be fulfilled in the latter days. No wonder then that the Lord said to Joseph Smith in the year 1831, that is, before we were a great people, while we were only a few hundreds, well did the Lord inspire him to say that Zion should become great and glorious and the day should come that the nations of the earth should tremble because of her, and should fear because of her terrible ones; for the glory of God shall be there, and the power of the Lord shall be there when the day comes that the city of Zion is clothed upon with the glorious appendage that is herein predicted; when the branch of the Lord becomes beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth excellent and comely, when that day shall come that seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, “We will eat our own bread and wear our own apparel, only let us be called by thy name to take away our reproach,” when that day shall come that the Lord God shall show forth his power in Zion—upon her Tabernacle, upon her Temple, her meeting places, her residences, palaces, towers, walls and gates, when that day shall come it will astonish the nations even unto the ends of the earth. Thus you see the reason why the kings of the earth will go up to Zion. They would not go if there was not something very extraordinary happened. Do you suppose the kings would forsake their thrones and their earthly glory and go up to the mountain of the Lord to be taught in his ways and instructed in his paths, and that many nations would say, “Come let us go up to the house of the Lord,” if there was not something very extraordinary manifested in the midst of Zion? You might go and preach to them, as the sectarians preach, until you were greyheaded, and you could scarcely get near the throne of a king, much less would you be able to persuade him to leave his kingdom and throne and go up to Zion. But when the Lord begins to move, and show forth his power, when he begins to light up the habitations of Zion, when he comes to Zion to turn away ungodliness from Jacob, then I think the nations will begin to wake up.

Let us read a little more about the glory of Zion in the 59th and 60th chapters of Isaiah. I told you a little while ago that Jesus would come to Zion and would show forth his glory there, while the Jews would be reserved for a great chastisement and would be afflicted by the nations gathering against them, fighting against them and taking half the city captive, and so on. Now let me read a prophecy in the latter part of the 59th chapter of Isaiah. “So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him. And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord. As for me, this is my covenant with them saith the Lord; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words that I put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth even forever. Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.” You notice here, then, that the Redeemer is to come to Zion, at the time when every habitation is lighted up with his light, and to all that turn from transgression in Jacob.

Now let me here remark that this remnant of the house of Israel or Jacob, which we term the American Indians, are eventually to become a righteous branch of the house of Israel; when the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled, they will be numbered among the people of the covenant made with ancient Israel, they will be a branch of the Lord, beautiful and glorious, excellent and comely, and the power of the Lord will be upon them. In that day Jesus will come to them, they being a remnant of the tribe of Joseph. Then will be fulfilled that which was predicted by the Patriarch Jacob upon the descendants of Joseph. Speaking of Joseph he says, “Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall: The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him: But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence is the Shepherd, the stone of Israel.)”

When Jesus comes to Zion as is here predicted, in the 59th chapter of Isaiah, he will come in the character of a great shepherd. Not in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory; but appearing in the midst of Zion and administering to the remnants of Joseph in the character of a shepherd. From thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel. Now we all know that Jesus sprang from Judah; but here is a declaration that from Joseph is the shepherd, the stone of Israel. That is, he will come the second time as a shepherd. He will gather his flock, or as the Psalmist David has said, “Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock, stir up thy strength and come and save us.” He will come as a shepherd, he will stir up his strength and show forth his power and the remnant of Joseph will be led by their shepherd, long before the Jews are redeemed. “Arise and shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.”

What condition do you suppose the wicked will be in in those days, even all the inhabitants of the earth except Zion? “For behold darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the people; but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.” What a difference between Zion and the rest of mankind! Darkness covering the whole four quarters of the globe. Why darkness? Because the salt of the earth is gathered out; the children of light are gathered together to Zion, and those who are left behind are in darkness, that is, a great many of them. No doubt there will be honest ones, and vast numbers who will come to Zion, notwithstanding the darkness that covers the earth.

We will read the next verse: “And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.” “Thy gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought. For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted.“ What! No people or nation left that will not serve Zion? Not one. What will become of this great republic with its forty millions of people, and which is spreading forth continually? If they will comply with the ordinances of Zion, repent of their sins and be prepared for this great and glorious day, God will save them; but if they will not they will be utterly wasted away. Thus have the prophets declared. “The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee; and shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet, and they shall call thee, The city of the Lord, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel.” Now here is a little comfort to you miners: “For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron: I will make thy officers peace, and thine exactors righteousness. Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders.”

Wars will cease in those days. “The sun shall no more be thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory.” Zion will not need the sun when the Lord is there, and all the city is lighted up by the glory of his presence. When the whole heavens above are illuminated by the presence of his glory we shall not need those bright luminaries of heaven to give light, so far as the city of Zion is concerned. But there will be a great people round about, dwelling in other cities that will still have need of the light of the sun and the moon; but the great capital city where the Lord will establish one of his thrones—for his throne is not to be in Jerusalem alone, it will also be in Zion, as you will find in numerous places in this Bible. When therefore, he shall establish his throne in Zion and shall light up the habitations thereof with the glory of his presence, they will not need this light which comes from the bright luminaries that shine forth in yonder heavens, but they will be clothed upon with the glory of their God. When the people meet together in assemblies like this, in their Tabernacles, the Lord will meet with them, his glory will be upon them; a cloud will overshadow them by day and if they happen to have an evening meeting they will not need gas light or lights of an artificial nature, for the Lord will be there and his glory will be upon all their assemblies. So says Isaiah the Prophet, and I believe it. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, February 11, 1872.

It is quite unexpected to me to be called upon this afternoon to address this congregation; but inasmuch as I have been solicited so to do I cheerfully comply with the request. It has also been suggested that there would be several strangers present this afternoon who would desire to hear some of the evidences in relation to the Book of Mormon, and although it is a subject on which we have spoken during the week just passed, and have set forth many evidences in support of the divine authenticity of this book, still it may not be amiss to repeat some of these evidences and give some reasons to those who are present why this people receive this book as a part and portion of the revelations of the Most High. Our traditions, which we received from our fathers, have naturally inclined us to reject all revelations, or all pretended Scripture except that which happened to be compiled in the Old and New Testament. I had this tradition in common with the rest of mankind who profess to believe the Bible; but when I came to examine this tradition which I, as well as millions, had imbibed, I found it to be only tradition and without any substantial foundation. I cannot possibly imagine how to reconcile the supreme goodness, wisdom and mercy of the Almighty with the idea that a few of the inhabitants of our globe, dwelling in one small region called Palestine, should be the favored few to whom revelation should be vouchsafed. I cannot reconcile this idea with the view that we take of the character of the great Being whom we worship and serve. When I contemplate the vast number of millions that must have swarmed over this great western hemisphere in times of old, building large cities, towns and villages, and spreading themselves forth from shore to shore from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the frozen regions of the north to the uttermost extremity of South America—when I contemplate all these people as human beings, beings that have immortal souls and form part of the brotherhood of all nations, descending from the same parents, created by the same Creator, I cannot believe that all these nations have been left in darkness, deprived of the light of revela– tion from Heaven, and having no knowledge concerning God; but I must believe that God, who is an impartial Being and presiding over all the inhabitants of the earth, would have respect to the people of ancient America as well as of ancient Asia. Consequently, in accordance with the views that we would naturally entertain concerning the attributes of the Great Jehovah, we believe that he has in these latter times, in the generation in which we are permitted to live, condescended to bring to the knowledge of the people another book, another divine revelation containing the history of his dealings with the generations that are past and gone on this western hemisphere. The book which I hold in my hand (the Book of Mormon) contains nearly as much information as the Old Testament. It is a book of five or six hundred closely printed pages. This book, the Latter-day Saints believe to be the Bible of the western hemisphere; a compilation of sacred books, books delivered by divine inspiration in ancient times to prophets, revelators and inspired men who dwelt upon this continent, both in North and South America. We believe that it was written, mostly by a branch of the house of Israel, a part and portion of the chosen seed, the descendants of Abraham who were led forth to this continent some six hundred years before Christ from the city of Jerusalem, brought by the special providence, miracles and goodness of the Almighty. A colony with whom there were several prophets; a colony of Israelites who believed in the law of Moses, and to whom the Lord manifested himself in a peculiar manner. They were brought forth from the land of Jerusalem in the first year of Zedekiah, King of Judah, six hundred years before the birth of our Lord and Savior. By revelation from the Lord they traveled southwest from the city of Jerusalem, and after reaching the Red Sea they continued along its eastern borders and afterwards bent their course eastward, arriving at the Indian Ocean. There they were commanded by the Almighty to build a vessel, the pattern of which was given to them by revelation, building it as Noah built the Ark—under the direction of the Almighty. On board this vessel they embarked, and were guided by the Almighty across the great Indian Ocean. Passing among the islands, how far south of Japan I do not know, they came round our globe, crossing not only the Indian Ocean, but what we term the great Pacific Ocean, landing on the western coast of what is now called South America. As near as we can judge from the description of the country contained in this record the first landing place was in Chile, not far from where the city of Valparaiso now stands.

After landing on the western coast of South America, they divided into two colonies, one colony called Lamanites, the other called Nephites. These names originated from two brothers, the name of one being Laman, the name of the other Nephi. The Lamanites became a very wicked and corrupt people. The Nephites believed in the law of Moses, in God, in the spirit of revelation and prophecy; they believed in visions, in the ministration of angels, and they sought to serve the Lord with all their hearts, and they were exceedingly persecuted by the Lamanites. The Nephites, by the command of the Almighty, made sacred records on gold plates, and on these plates they were commanded to engrave their history, their prophecies, the dealings of the Lord with them from generation to generation.

Being so severely persecuted by the Lamanites, the Nephites were commanded of the Lord to depart from their midst, that is to leave the first place of colonization in the country which the Spanish now call Chile. They came northward from their first landing place traveling, according to the record, as near as I can judge, some two thousand miles. The Lamanites remained in possession of the country on the South. The Nephites formed a colony not far from the head waters of the river Amazon, and they dwelt there some four centuries, increasing and spreading forth in the land. The Lamanites, in the South and in the middle portions of South America, also spread forth and multiplied, and became a very strong and powerful nation. Many wars existed between the two nations, in which hundreds of thousands were destroyed. Finally, in the course of generations, the Nephites fell into wickedness; they departed in a great measure from the law of Moses and from the precepts of truth which had been taught to them by the prophets in their midst. A certain portion of them who still believed were commanded of the Lord to leave their brethren in consequence of their wickedness; they did so, and those who still remained faithful, under the guidance of prophets and revelators, came still further northward, emigrating from the head waters of what we now term the river Amazon, upon the western coast, or not far from the western coast, until they came on the waters of the river which we call the Magdalena. On this river, not a great distance from the mouth thereof, in what is now termed the United States of Columbia, they built their great capital city. They also discovered another nation that already possessed that country called the people of Zarahemla. They also were a branch of Israel who came out from the city of Jerusalem five hundred and eighty-nine years before the coming of Christ, in the eleventh year of the reign of Zedekiah, at the time he was taken captive, and the Jews were carried into Babylon. One of the sons of Zedekiah, King of Judah, being commanded of the Lord, left the city of Jerusalem with a colony, who were brought forth and landed north of the Isthmus and journeyed southward, passed through the narrow neck of land which we term the Isthmus into the United States of Columbia, and formed their settlements there, and when discovered by the Nephites had dwelt there near four hundred years.

The Nephites and the people of Zarahemla united together and formed a great and powerful nation, occupying the lands south of the Isthmus for many hundreds of miles, and also from the Pacific on the west to the Atlantic on the east, spreading all through the country. The Lamanites about this time also occupied South America, the middle or southern portion of it, and were exceedingly numerous. I will here observe, that from the time the Nephites consolidated themselves with the people of Zarahemla, they had numerous wars with the great nation of the Lamanites, in which many hundreds of thousands perished on both sides.

About fifty-four years before Christ, five thousand four hundred men, with their wives and children, left the northern portion of South America, passed through the Isthmus, came into this north country, the north wing of the continent, and began to settle up North America, and from that time a great emigration of the Nephites and the people of Zarahemla took place year by year. I will here mention one thing which perhaps may be startling to indivi– duals who are unacquainted with the antiquities of this country, that the Nephite nation about this time commenced the art of shipbuilding. They built many ships, launching them forth into the western ocean. The place of the building of these ships was near the Isthmus of Darien. Scores of thousands entered these ships year after year, and passed along on the western coast northward, and began to settle the western coast on the north wing of the continent. I will observe another thing—when they came into North America they found all this country covered with the ruins of cities, villages and towns, the inhabitants having been cut off and destroyed. The timber had also been cut off, insomuch that in many places there was no timber by which they could construct their dwellings, hence the Nephites and the people of Zarahemla had to build their houses of cement, others had to dwell in tents. Vast quantities of timber were shipped from the south to the people on the western coast, enabling them to build many towns, cities and villages. The latter also planted groves of timber, and in process of time they raised great quantities, which furnished them with sufficient for building and other purposes. Forty-five years before the coming of Christ there was a vast colony came out of South America, and it is said in the Book of Mormon that they went an exceeding great distance, until they came to large bodies of water and to many rivers and fountains, and when we come to read more fully the description of the country it answers to the great Mississippi Valley. There they formed a colony. We know that to be the region of country from the fact that these plates were taken from a hill in the interior of the State of New York, being the descendants of those same colonists that settled in the valley of the Mississippi. When we speak of the valley of the Mississippi, let me say a few words to inform the minds of my brethren and sisters from foreign countries who may not be so fully acquainted with the geography of our land. The valley of the Mississippi does not mean a small valley like these valleys here in the Rocky Mountains, but it means a vast area of territory some fifteen hundred thousand square miles in extent, enough to accommodate several hundred millions of inhabitants, almost a world of itself. There the Nephites became a great and powerful people. In process of time they spread forth on the right and on the left, and the whole face of the North American continent was covered by cities, towns and villages and population.

But we will hasten on. They having kept the law of Moses, I mean the Nephites, looked forward, according to the testimony of their law, for the coming of the Messiah, that is the great Prophet of Israel which Moses had told them the Lord would raise up unto them. They looked for that great Prophet to come and shed his blood, for their sacrifices and burnt offerings pointed to a great and last sacrifice, the sacrifice of the Son of God. The Nephite nation, therefore, had a testimony given to them concerning that future Messiah that was to come; a sign was given to them on this American continent that they might know the very day on which he was born. The night before Jesus was born this continent had no darkness. There was one day, and then a night and then a day without any darkness at all—it was as light as day during the period which is generally called night. This was prophesied or predicted by their Prophets as a sign that they might no longer be in sus– pense about the coming of their great Prophet. After the birth of Christ there were signs given to the people concerning his crucifixion. The inhabitants of this land were not in ignorance about the great atonement that was wrought out on Mount Calvary. It was not in vain that they kept the law of Moses, and offered up their burnt offerings and the shedding of the blood of beasts and fowls, pointing forward to the atoning blood of Jesus, they knew when the great and last sacrifice was offered here on this land. However, it was a day of sorrow to them, for most of the people at that time had become very wicked. They had stoned and killed the Prophets and persecuted them exceedingly, and had become so corrupt and had deviated so far from the law of Moses and from the prophecies that God had given to them, and the righteous precepts that had been taught them by their Prophets, that the Lord in his anger destroyed many hundreds of thousands of the people at the time of the crucifixion of Jesus. The Prophets told the people that when Jesus should be hung on the cross there should be a terrible convulsion and great earthquake on this continent, that many of their towns, cities and villages should be totally destroyed, some of their cities should be sunk and buried in the depths of the earth, that mountains should rise up and come over and fall on certain cities, that other cities should be sunk and waters come up in the place thereof, that other cities should be destroyed by tempest and whirlwind, that others should be burned by fire. Another great sign was given to them concerning the period during which Jesus was to remain in the tomb—that from the period of the crucifixion until the time of the resurrection thick darkness should spread over all the face of this continent, darkness like that of Egypt, that could be felt by the people. No sun, nor moon, nor stars were permitted to shine on that occasion, not a glimmer of light, three days and three nights of darkness.

All this took place at the crucifixion of Christ. The judgments came as predicted by the prophets. The rocks upon nearly all the face of this continent, prior to that event, were not found disrupted as at the present day. Those who have traveled through these mountainous regions and looked at the various strata of rocks find many of them turned up edgeways. This must have been caused by some terrible convulsion. You will see it on every hand in these mountains. It is not something peculiar to our vicinity, but the same thing occurs throughout all the vast region called the Rocky Mountains. From the frozen regions of the north until you penetrate through the Isthmus into the Andes, and then on to the end of this continent in the south, we find these disruptions, seams and cracks among the various strata of rock. Before the coming of Christ this was not so. Many mountains existed after the crucifixion where there were deep valleys before, and the whole face of the land was changed. No wonder then that our miners here in these rocky regions, and in various portions of Montana, California, and Nevada, occasionally, after digging several hundred feet, find remains of human arts. They find these things, and they have published descriptions of them in the papers in California and elsewhere, and in consequence of these discoveries they begin to calculate that the earth must be so many hundred thousand years old, and some of them conclude that it must be millions, in order to account for the phenomena which have been observed. But geologists should leave these things out of the question and should begin to inquire what has produced these terrible convulsions of nature, what has thrown up these vast ridges of mountains, what has sunk down valleys? What is it that has disrupted and apparently thrown the western continent into such terrible convulsion as to place the rocks on edge and rend them asunder? If they would inquire into these things it would be no marvel to them to find the remains of the ancient arts of men sunk far beneath the surface of the earth. I would say to them that, peradventure, they may yet find, when the Lord shall again convulse this continent, as he assuredly will do, throwing down the mountains and raising up the valleys, at the time of his second coming, for then, says the prophet Isaiah, the mountains shall flow down at his presence. Then, says the prophet David, the hills and the mountains shall melt like wax before the presence of the Lord. I say when this great and terrible convulsion shall come we may find cities rising, as it were, from the bowels of the earth, disgorged and brought to the surface. It need not surprise the inhabitants who then live to see cities brought up from the depths of the lakes and from the depths of great waters; to see mountains removed from their places and uncovering ancient cities that have been covered up for generations. All it needs then is a convulsion, a terrible catastrophe of nature to produce the effects that are sometimes ascribed to long ages of the slow working of the elements. But to go back to the history.

At the time of the crucifixion the Nephites dwelt in North America and also occupied a portion of South America; and after that event, the more righteous portion of those among them who were spared and also those among the Lamanites who had not altogether forsaken the truth, began to remember the prophecies, recorded upon their plates of gold, that after the crucifixion, and after all these terrible judgments had come upon them, their Messiah, of whom Moses had spoken, should render himself visible to the inhabitants of this continent. They tell us that they assembled themselves around a certain temple that the Lord had preserved in the northern part of South America, and were wondering about the great convulsions of nature that had taken place.

While they were thus conversing, pointing out and explaining to each other what had taken place, both in the north and in the south as far as they had explored, while they were thus conversing in all humility about Jesus, who had been crucified in the land of their fathers, they heard a voice coming out of the heavens. At first they could not comprehend it; but it excited their attention—the attention of about twenty-five hundred men, women and children, and they all gazed steadfastly towards the heavens, and while they were thus engaged the voice spoke again the second time and the third time, saying unto them,” Behold my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” and they saw Jesus descending out of the heavens clothed in a white robe, and he came and stood in the midst of that large assembly of people and he said unto them, “Behold, I am Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of the heavens and the earth, the God of the whole earth.” After he had thus spoken to them he told them how he had come in the land of their fathers, and how he had been crucified by the Jewish nation. He then called the multitude to come and see the wounds in his hands, in his feet and in his side, and they saw these wounds, and heard the voice of their Redeemer, and they knew of a surety that he was the Son of God, of whom their prophets had so long prophesied. Jesus commanded them no longer to kill sacrifices and shed the blood of beasts and fowls, for he himself had been offered as a last final sacrifice according to the types that were given in the law of Moses, and that he had shed his blood for the remission of sins; and then he introduced among them the gospel in all its fulness and plainness. Oftentimes has my heart been filled with joy inexpressible when I have read the words of Jesus on that occasion, declaring to them his gospel, and unfolding to them that they must have faith in him as the only Redeemer, as the only being who could atone for the sins of mankind; that they must repent of their sins and become as little children, and be baptized by immersion for the remission of their sins; that if they would do this they should be baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and when they should receive the Holy Ghost it should impart unto them special gifts in order that they, through the exercise of these gifts, might be perfected and prepared to return into the presence of their Father and their God.

Jesus chose twelve disciples on the American continent. They are not called apostles in the Book of Mormon, but disciples. I have no doubt, however, in my own mind, that they held the office of the apostleship, for they exercised all the functions of apostles. They had power not only to baptize with water, but to lay on hands for the baptism of the Holy Ghost, which latter was one of the functions granted, in ancient days, unto the office of an apostle. These twelve Nephites who were called by the personal ministry of Jesus, were commanded to go forth and preach the Gospel on all the face of the North and South American continent. They were to build up his Church; they were to teach the people that they should no more worship God by the ordinances of the law of Moses, but according to the words which that prophet had delivered to them, even Jesus who appeared in their midst.

After Jesus had administered unto them the first day he withdrew and ascended into heaven, saying unto the people, “Behold I will visit you again on the morrow.” The people who were present on that occasion spread the news of the Savior’s visit as far as they possibly could during the remainder of the day and through the night, and people gathered from all quarters as far as they possibly could, so as to be at the place where Jesus should appear to them. On the next day he came again, and the next day the disciples separated the vast multitudes that came together into twelve bodies, and they taught them, for they could not be assembled in one body and all be able to hear the sound of one man’s voice. For this reason they were separated into twelve bodies and the Twelve taught them. They taught them the words of Jesus about being baptized by immersion for the remission of sins, and about the gift or reception of fire and the Holy Ghost. After they had taught the people the Twelve went forth, being commissioned of the Almighty, into the water and baptized great numbers. After this Jesus came again and ministered to them and blessed them, and taught them still further concerning his doctrines, and also prophesied many things that should take place during that generation, and for many generations to come. Many times after this Jesus showed himself to the Nephite nation. These twelve disciples went forth, according to the commandment of the Lord and ordained others, and these ministers thus ordained went forth on all the face of the continent, and so great were the witnesses, so powerful the manifestations of healing the sick, opening the eyes of the blind and the power that was displayed among the American Israelites that the greater portion of both Nephites and Lamanites were converted, indeed—in process of time they were all converted—and they dwelt in righteousness nearly three centuries. We have but a very short history, however, in the Book of Mormon of the righteousness of the Nephites and Lamanites during those three centuries. We are merely informed that they had all their property in common, that there were no rich nor poor among them, during all that period of time, that they were a humble people and worshiped the Lord their God in the name of Jesus, and they were a people who sought diligently to comply with every commandment and revelation from heaven. After about three generations had passed away they began to apostatize, not to dwindle in unbelief, but to reject, willfully, the principles that had been revealed to them, which were very great indeed; for during that period of time, according to the little information that we have, the Lord gave them many precious revelations, which were recorded on their plates which were not permitted to come forth in this record, being too great for us or for any people to receive who dwell not in righteousness. But the people began to apostatize and turn away from such great light, and their condemnation, of course, was greater than that which would have come upon them if they had been in darkness and ignorance. Sinning against so great light they speedily ripened themselves for destruction. They began to separate again into Lamanites and Nephites, and they made two great, grand divisions.

About three hundred and seventy-five years after the birth of Christ, the Nephites occupying North America, the Lamanites South America, and wars having existed between them for nearly fifty years, the Lamanites began to overpower the Nephites, and they drove them northward from the narrow neck of land which we call the Isthmus of Darien, burning, destroying and desolating every city, town and village through which they passed. The Nephites continued to flee before their conquerors until they came into the interior of the State of New York. There, the king or commander of the Nephites wrote an epistle to the Lamanites and requested an armistice for four years, for the purpose of gathering in all the Nephite nation into that one place. The king of the Lamanites granted this armistice, and during these four years they had no battles, but were occupied very diligently in gathering the whole Nephite nation into that one region, and the Lamanites gathering the whole Lamanite nation into the same region of country. Many millions on both sides were here gathered together, and when the four years had expired, hostilities were renewed, many battles were fought and the Nephites were overpowered, men, women and children being hewn down. The great and last battle, in which several hundred thousand Nephites perished was on the hill Cumorah, the same hill from which the plates were taken by Joseph Smith, the boy about whom I spoke to you the other evening. A few Nephites dissented over to the Lamanites and joined them, and a few escaped into the south country. Mormon, one of the prophets of the Nephites, who had the records in his possession, be– ing commanded of the Lord, hid up the records in the hill Cumorah before the battles commenced. I mean all the records except an abridgment. The gold plates from which the Book of Mormon was taken are only an abridgment from vast numbers of other plates which were hidden up by Mormon in that hill. This abridgment, reserved and not hid up by Mormon, he gave to his son Moroni. He and Moroni both surveyed the destruction of their nation; they fell, wounded among the vast numbers on that hill, but their wounds were not fatal and they survived and for a short time kept themselves hid. Mormon, however, was afterwards discovered and destroyed by the Lamanites. Moroni continued from three hundred and eighty-four years, the date of the destruction of his nation, until four hundred and twenty years after Christ, that is the last date given in this record. Moroni tells us, as a prophet of God, that he was commanded of the Lord to hide up these records in the hill Cumorah, not in the same place where the other records had been hidden by his father Mormon, but in another place, for the Lord had promised the prophet Moroni that he would bring these records to light in the latter days, when he should bring forth a great and powerful nation upon this land. The Lord showed all these things to these ancient prophets, and they understood our history and wrote about it before ever Columbus discovered America. Moroni informs us that after the Lord should establish in the latter days a great and powerful nation of the Gentiles on the face of this land, and should deliver them by his power out of the hands of all other nations, then the Lord would bring forth this abridgment, these plates which Moroni was commanded to hide up; that the records should be revealed, that the individual who should discover them should, by the aid of the Urim and Thummim, be able to translate the records from the language in which they were written into our language, that these records should be brought forth expressly to accomplish the great purposes of the Lord in the last days in regard to warning all the nations of the Gentiles first, and that they might have the Gospel preached unto them in its ancient purity, as it was preached on this great western hemisphere, in order that the fulness of the Gentiles might be brought in, then their times should be fulfilled. After the times of the Gentiles should be fulfilled by the coming forth of these records, the prophet informs us that the records should be sent to all the scattered remnants of the house of Israel in the four quarters of the earth, and that then the Lord would set his hand in power to deliver his people Israel from all the nations and kingdoms under the whole heaven, and that he would bring them back to the land of their fathers.

But before Israel can be gathered, these records, according to the predictions contained in them, must be sounded abroad, not only to the great and powerful nation, the Republic of the United States, and the Canadas, but to all the nations of the Gentiles, that all may be left without excuse. Already the time has far gone by for this warning to the Gentiles. Forty-two years out of the generation has already passed, and the same generation to whom these records were revealed shall not pass away until the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled. When that period shall arrive, as I said in my lecture during the week, there will come a day of the Lord’s especial power, the day of power spoken of by the psalmist David where he addresses the Lord, saying: “Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power.” Israel have never been willing to receive Jesus from the day that they were cut off as bitter branches that brought forth no good fruit, until the present period. Generation after generation has passed away, and they still remain in unbelief, and they still remain in their scattered condition among all the nations and countries of the earth. But when the day of the Lord’s power shall come, when he shall send forth his servants with the power of the priesthood and apostleship to the nations and to the scattered remnants of the house of Israel that dwell in the islands of the sea afar off, he will show forth his power in that day in such a conspicuous manner that all Israel, as it were, will be saved. As it is written by the Apostle Paul, “Blindness in part hath happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in, and so all Israel shall be saved.” All Israel in that day will hear the voice of the Lord and the voice of his servants; all Israel, in that day, will see the arm of the Lord made bare in signs and mighty wonders in effecting the restoration of his chosen people to their own land. Then will be fulfilled that which is spoken of in the 20th chapter of Ezekiel concerning their restoration: “For with a mighty hand, saith the Lord, and with fury poured out will I rule over you, and I will gather you out of the nations and from the countries wherein you were driven with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm and with fury poured out. And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face. Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord God.” That has never been fulfilled, but it will be fulfilled when scattered Israel return to their own land. A similar scenery is to be enacted to that which was enacted when Israel were brought forth out of the land of Egypt, while they were in the wilderness. Go back to that period and behold the Lord descending upon Mount Sinai, speaking with the voice of a trump in the ears of twenty-five hundred thousand people, the thunders rolling, the lightnings flashing and the voice of Jehovah heard by a whole nation. You marvel at this, it was great and wonderful; but another day is to come when those sceneries enacted in the wilderness of the land of Egypt will be almost entirely forgotten, swallowed up in the greater manifestations of his power, not alone on Mount Sinai, but among all the nations of the earth. Wherever Israel is scattered there will the servants of God be, and his power working wonders, signs and miracles for the gathering of that people and restoring them to their own land. And when they are gathered together in a vast body the Lord intends to take that multitude into the wilderness before he permits them to go into the land of their fathers, and when he gets them into that wilderness, he says, “I will plead with you face to face, like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt.” Yet we are told by the present generation there is to be no more revelation, no more miracles, no more manifestations of the power of the Almighty, no more the voice of God speaking from the heavens, no more of the manifestations of his glory, or the showing of himself personally to his people. How wonderfully this generation of Christendom will be mistaken in that day when Israel will go again to their own land, and when the Lord God shall stretch forth his hand to the nations of the Gentiles, saying, “Your times are fulfilled, my servants have been sent forth in your midst, they have declared the word of the Lord to you all the day long, but you would not hear or receive their testimony, now the summer is ended and your times are fulfilled. Now will I gather my people Israel from the four quarters of the earth.”

Here let me say again, according to the Book of Mormon, many of those great islands that are found in the Indian Ocean, also in the great Pacific Sea, have been planted with colonies of Israelites. Do they not resemble each other? Go to the Sandwich Islands, to the South Sea Islands, to Japan—go to the various islands of the Pacific Ocean, and you find a general resemblance in the characters and countenances of the people. Who are they? According to the Book of Mormon, Israelites were scattered forth from time to time, and colonies planted on these islands of the ocean. In that day the isles will sing with joy; in that day the isles of the sea will wait for the Lord’s law; in that day the isles of the sea will rejoice, for they will give up their inhabitants, and they will be wafted in ships to their promised land, and God will show forth his power and gather millions of people from these numerous isles of the ocean, and he will bring them back to the land of their fathers. These poor degraded Lamanites, or American Indians, that are now so far sunk beneath humanity, are to be lifted up by the power of the Almighty when the day shall come for Israel to be restored, for God will not forget them. They are descendants of the tribe of Joseph, and consequently they are numbered with the people of the covenant. God will remember the covenant which he made with our ancient fathers. These Lamanites, these American Indians, will come to the knowledge of the cove– nant, and they will arise and will build upon the face of this land a magnificent city called Jerusalem after the pattern and in the same manner that the Jews will build old Jerusalem. That is what the Lamanites will do, and we will go and help them too, for it is predicted in the Book of Mormon that when this work should come forth, when the time fully arrives for the redemption of this small remnant of the house of Joseph, “As many of the Gentiles as will believe, they shall assist my people, who are a remnant of the house of Israel, that they may build up on the face of this land a city that shall be called the New Jerusalem, and then, behold, the powers of heaven shall come down and be in the midst of this people, and I also will be in your midst.”

That is what the Lord intends to fulfil on this land. Jesus is coming here as well as to many other places. When the New Jerusalem is built on this land, Jesus will visit that city. His glory will be upon its dwelling places. Isaiah the Prophet has declared that upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion there shall be a cloud and smoke by day, and a shining, flaming fire by night. This will not only be on the New Jerusalem, but on the Holy City that is built up on the land of Palestine; and when the people have repented and become sufficiently righteous, and made preparation for the coming of the Lord Jesus, he will come, and they will behold the Shepherd that is promised to them.

Did you not know that the house of Joseph had a Shepherd promised them? He was promised by the old Patriarch Jacob, as you will find in the blessing which he pronounced on his twelve sons. He called them up one by one, beginning with the firstborn, and blessed each one in his turn, until he came to Joseph, upon whom he pronounced a special blessing. “Joseph,” said Jacob, “is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall. The archers have sorely grieved him, shot at him, hated him, but his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob. From thence is the Shepherd or Stone of Israel.”

Notice now, Jesus was not born of the tribe of Joseph, he was a descendant of Judah according to the flesh, but still the promise of a Shepherd or stone of Israel is from the house of Joseph. The same Jesus that was born of the tribe of Judah is to come, in the latter days, in the capacity of a Shepherd for the restoration of the remnants of the tribe of Joseph. This agrees with what is contained in one of the Psalms of David: “Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock. Stir up thy strength and come and save us.” Yes he will come and save them, and he will come in the character of a Shepherd too. “I also will be in your midst.” The powers of heaven shall come down then, and be in the midst of this people. This agrees with what I have already quoted, only I did not quote it in full: “Blindness in part hath happened to Israel, until the times of the fulness of the Gentiles be come in, and so all Israel shall be saved. As it is written, Behold the Deliverer shall come out of Zion, and turn away ungodliness from Jacob.”

Did Jesus, when he came of the tribe of Judah, turn ungodliness away from Jacob? He tried to do so, but they would not hear him, and instead of turning them away from their ungodliness they put him to death, and brought upon themselves and their children for many generations the curse of the Almighty. Not so when this prophecy of Paul is fulfilled, when in the latter days, after the fulness of the Gentiles is come in, the Redeemer comes in the character of a Shepherd, he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob, for so great will be his power and so wonderful his administration in that day, that Jacob will rejoice and Israel will be glad, and the Lord will bring forth deliverance, as he says in the Psalms of David, out of the midst of Zion. “Oh,” says David, “that the salvation of Israel was come out of Zion, when he bringeth back the captivity of his people! When he shall do this, Israel shall be glad and Jacob shall rejoice.” He will accomplish this work in his own way, in his own time, and according to his own purposes, fulfilling every jot and tittle of that which has been spoken by the mouths of his ancient Prophets.

I thought when I rose to my feet I would bring forth some of the evidences of the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon, but I have been led otherwise, and I find I have not time to do so this afternoon. I have given you a statement, however, of the arrival on this great continent of a colony of Israelites, and have given you a very brief outline of their history from six hundred years before Christ to four hundred and twenty years after him. I have told you that they worshiped according to the law of Moses until they were taught and received the Gospel. I have told you concerning three generations of righteousness, concerning the destruction of the Nephite nation in the interior of the State of New York. I have told you a few of the purposes that God designs to fulfil and accomplish by bringing forth this record. I have told you that it must go forth to the Gentiles, and fulfil their times and bring in their fulness. I have told you that the servants of God would then be sent forth to the islands of the sea, and bring Israel from the four quarters of the earth. I have told you that that would be a day of the Lord’s special power, in which he would plead with Israel as he pleaded with their fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt. All these great events must come to pass, according to the predictions of the prophets, in order to prepare the way for the glorious advent of the Son of God from the heavens.

If time would permit, we would be glad to enter into the evidences of the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon; but, no doubt opportunities to dwell upon this subject will present themselves hereafter. In the meantime, may the blessing of the Almighty God rest upon all the Latter-day Saints throughout these mountain vales, and throughout the whole earth! And shall we confine our blessing to the Latter-day Saints? No. May the blessing of Almighty God rest upon the honest-hearted among all nations, kindreds, tongues and people upon the two great continents of our globe, and the four quarters of our earth, that they may come to the knowledge of the truth and be prepared for the great and wonderful events that are to take place in the last days, preparatory to the coming of the Son of Man. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, February 4, 1872.

I will call the attention of this congregation to a portion of prophecy which will be found in the 44th and 45th verses of the 2nd chapter of the book of Daniel:

And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.

Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.

I have often, in my remarks in former times, addressed the Latter-day Saints upon these passages; but as there are some strangers in our midst who have not, perhaps, heard our views in regard to setting up the kingdom of God in the latter times, it may not be amiss for us to set forth before them the views of the Latter-day Saints in regard to this prediction. We have, during the last six thousand years, or nearly so, had a very great variety of human governments established on the earth. Governments began to be established in the days of our first parents. As they lived to be very aged—or almost a thousand years before they were taken from the earth, they saw their children multiplying around them in vast numbers, and governments began to be established. Among those governments, however, was maintained also the government of God—a patriarchal government, that continued with the righteous from the days of Adam down till the days of Enoch, and for a short period after his days. This government was patriarchal in its nature, or, in other words, directed and dictated by the Creator of man—the great Lawgiver. He directed and counseled his servants, and they obeyed his counsels. In other words, a divine government existed on the earth in those ancient times; but at length, about the period of the death of Adam, or a little after, human governments rooted out of the earth the government of God, mankind apostatized from the great principles which were revealed from heaven, and all flesh corrupted its way in the sight of God to that degree, that the just anger of their Creator was kindled against them, and he decreed that they should be swept off from the face of the earth by a flood of waters. Again, after this great destruction, a divine government was organized on the earth, Noah being the great Patriarch, Revelator, and Prophet, to whom was given laws and institutions for the government of his poste– rity. This order, however, continued only for a short period of time, and human governments again prevailed. The Lord sought, from time to time, in the midst of these human governments, to select a people who would give heed to his law and be governed by him as the Being who had the right to govern; inasmuch as he had created the earth and the inhabitants thereof, he had the right to give laws and institutions for the government of man. But few, indeed, there were that gave heed to these divine institutions. The Lord, at length, called out a people from Egypt, and took upon himself the power, and gave revelation to them in a very conspicuous and wonderful manner. He came down in the sight of some twenty-five hundred thousand people, and gave them laws; they heard those laws proclaimed from Mount Sinai. Male and female, old and young, throughout all the hosts of Israel, had the opportunity of learning something in regard to the laws of heaven. However, they quickly corrupted themselves in the sight of God, and while Moses yet tarried in the mount, not being satisfied with the laws which God had revealed, and which he intended to give unto them, they devised institutions of their own. They gathered together their jewels, their gold and their silver, and so forth, and began to make gods of their own for the people to worship, among which we have an account of two calves that were made by Aaron, while Moses was yet in the mount talking with the Lord and receiving oracles and laws for the government of that people. Having received these laws, written upon tables of stone, Moses departed out of the mount, by the command of God, to go down and visit the people. The Lord had told Moses that they had corrupted themselves, and he went down, being filled with the justice of the Almighty, or, as it is written, his anger was kindled against the people, which I interpret as a spirit of justice. He found that they had made gods and bowed down before them, and said—“These be the gods, oh Israel, that brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.” However, a revolution was performed in the midst of the people, and Moses succeeded in bringing most of the people to their senses again, that they were willing to receive the divine law. Their sin however was so great, that the first law which the Lord intended to bestow upon them, namely, the law of the Gospel, was withheld.

Now here is something, perhaps, that may be a little new to strangers, to hear the Latter-day Saints say that the Gospel of the Son of God was withheld from the people of Israel. But in proof of my assertion, I will refer you to Paul’s declaration to the Hebrews, wherein he says—“The Gospel was preached unto them in the wilderness as well as unto us; but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.” From this we learn that the children of Israel, at first, were not placed under the law of carnal commandments. They were not placed under the law which exacts an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and if a man smite thee on the cheek, turn and resist the evil. This was not the first law that was given to Israel. The law of the Gospel, the same Gospel that was taught in the days of Christ, was given to them first, with this one exception—the children of Israel were required to look forward to the coming of their Messiah, and to the atonement that he should make upon the cross, that they, by faith in the future atonement that was to be made, might be partakers of the blessings of the Gospel. But having hardened their hearts against Moses and against God, the Lord determined to take away this higher law from the midst of the children of Israel, and give them a law which is termed by the Apostles the law of carnal commandments—a law by which they should not live. They could have lived by the law of the Gospel; they could have entered into the Lord’s rest by that law, even into the fulness of his glory; but having transgressed the higher law, God gave them an inferior law adapted to their carnal capacity. This law is mentioned in the 20th chapter of Ezekiel, in these words—“Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live.” Why is it that the Lord gave to Israel statutes, and judgments, and laws that were not good? Because they were incapable of receiving anything greater or higher. He gave them this law as a schoolmaster, to school them and bring them to the higher law, namely, the law of Christ, and they continued under this law, under this condemnation for a long time, and the Lord swore in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest in consequence of having broken the higher law.

Moses again went up into Mount Sinai, and was gone a second time forty days and forty nights, without eating and drinking, and received this law, this carnal law that is generally denominated the law of Moses, upon second tables of stone, the first covenant having been dashed to pieces, or in other words the first law, the higher law of the Gospel contained on the first tables, was destroyed and the covenant broken, and a new law was introduced. Incorporated on the second tables of stone were the Ten Commandments, which pertain to the Gospel, which were also on the first tables. In addition to these Ten Commandments which pertain to the Gospel, were many of those carnal laws that I have been speaking of. By this second code of laws it was impossible for Israel to enter into the fulness of celestial glory, in other words, they could not be redeemed and brought into the presence of the Father and the Son; they could not enter into the fulness of that rest that was intended to be given to such only as obeyed the higher law of the Gospel.

After the days of Moses the children of Israel, from time to time, corrupted themselves before the Most High; they would not abide even in the lower law; but there were a few individuals in the various generations of Israel, such as Prophets, Schools of Prophets, &c., which received the higher law, and obtained the higher priesthood, and were blessed of the Lord, and had the privilege of entering into his rest, being filled with the spirit of prophecy and revelation, having the power not only to prophesy and to obtain revelation, but to come up by virtue of the higher law, into near communion with the Father and the Son, having the privilege to behold, by vision, the face of the Lord.

About six hundred years before Christ the children of Israel, or rather the house of Judah, that was still left remaining in the land of Palestine, had again so far apostatized from the Lord their God, that the Lord threatened, by the mouth of the Prophets, that he would destroy that great city Jerusalem, and that the people should be led away captive into great Babylon. We find this was fulfilled. But eleven years previous to this great captivity, the Lord led one of the Prophets, whose name was Lehi and his sons, and one or two other families from the land of Jerusalem to this American continent. That was about six hundred years before Christ; of these families the American Indians are the descendants. But we will leave this branch of Israel on the American continent and return again to the house of Judah. While they were in captivity in Babylon the Lord raised up Daniel, the Prophet, from whose words I have taken my text. Daniel had the great privilege given unto him of knowing concerning the rise and fall of kingdoms and empires, of beholding the kingdoms of the earth, from his day, down until that universal kingdom of God should be established on the earth never more to be destroyed.

First, Nebuchadnezzar, the heathen king, was visited by the Almighty in a heavenly dream, but his dream was taken from him, and he could not remember it when he awoke. He called for the wise men of Babylon—the astrologers, soothsayers, magicians and the wisest men that could be found, requesting them to tell him his dream, and then give him the interpretation of it. The dream left a deep impression on the mind of this great heathen king, and he believed that it was something of great importance, but still it could not be remembered.

I will here remark, by the way, that the heathen nations in those days were not so far corrupted, and had not so far apostatized from the religion of heaven but what they believed in dreams and in revelations, and thought there might be something contained within them that related to the future that would be advantageous to understand. What man, at this day, at this enlightened era, among the Christian nations, is so near to the Lord as to acknowledge new revelation, as did Nebuchad– nezzar? Far have they fallen beneath the standard of heathen idolaters!

King Nebuchadnezzar was so earnest in regard to this matter that he sent forth a decree that unless the wise men of Babylon would interpret to him his dream and also tell the dream itself, he would destroy the whole of them. I suppose he had not much confidence in them, and consequently concluded that if they could not tell the dream he could not put confidence in their interpretations. When Daniel heard of the decree of the king, to destroy all the wise men, he sent in a request that the king would not be quite so hasty in his measures, but give him a little time, during which he and his fellows besought the God of heaven that they might know concerning the dream and the interpretation thereof. The Lord heard the prayers of his servants and revealed to Daniel concerning the dream, and also gave him the interpretation. Daniel requested to he brought before his majesty the king, and he promised to give the dream and the interpretation. He was brought in before him, and addressed him in language something like the following—“The wise men, astrologers, soothsayers, magicians, &c., cannot interpret the dream, O king, neither is there any wisdom in me that I can; but there is a God in heaven who is able to give the interpretation thereof. Thou, O king, art a king of kings, and the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, and dominion over all the nations. Thou art a part and portion of the dream; or, in other words, you represent a portion of the dream you had. Thou, O king, sawest and beheld a great image. This image’s head was of fine gold, the breast and the arms of silver, the belly and the thighs of brass, the legs were of iron, the feet were part of iron and part of potter’s clay. Thou sawest until that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, which smote the image upon the feet that was part of iron and part of clay, and brake them to pieces, then was the iron, the clay, the silver, the brass and the gold all broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloor, and the wind carried them away, and there was no place found for them, but the stone that smote the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. This was the dream—he then gives the interpretation. “Thou, O king, art this head of gold.” That is, the kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar, that bore rule over all the earth, was considered the head of gold. “After thee shall come another kingdom represented by the breast and the arms of silver.” That is the Medo-Persian kingdom. After that another kingdom still inferior, called the kingdom of brass, forasmuch as gold is better than silver, silver more precious than brass, so these kingdoms, that were to arise, to succeed each other, were to be inferior as time should pass along. The third kingdom, of brass, represented the Macedonian empire; then after that another kingdom, great and terrible, whose legs were of iron, strong and powerful. The fourth kingdom bore rule over the earth; that is admitted, by all commentators, to be the great Roman Empire, and by the division of the Roman empire into two divisions, representing the legs, and afterwards into the feet and toes. I shall not go through and bring up historical facts to show the particular divisions that grew out of the Roman empire, but will merely state that the present modern kingdoms of Europe that have grown out from the Roman empire represent the last vestiges of that great and powerful empire of Rome; that is, it fills up and makes the image complete. First the head of gold—the Babylonian empire; second, the breast and arms of silver—the Medo-Persian empire; third, the belly and thighs of brass, the Macedonian kingdom; fourth, the great Roman empire represented by the two legs of iron, the eastern and the western empires of Rome. Afterwards a division of the Roman empire into feet and toes, constituting all the modern European governments and those governments that have grown out of the European governments located in North and South America.

Do we wish to understand the geographical position of the great image? If we do, we must consider the head located in Asia; the breast and the arms of silver a little west of the great Babylonian Empire, the belly and thighs of brass still westward; the legs of iron and the modern kingdoms composing the feet and toes, part of iron and part of clay, as extending throughout Europe and branching across the Atlantic Ocean, and extending from the East Sea even to the West, from the Atlantic unto the Pacific. This will constitute the location of the great image, running westward.

The image being now complete, all that we need now is to find something that will represent the stone cut out of the mountain without hands, something distinct entirely from the image, having no fellowship with it, that has not grown out of it, and that has no authority that comes from it, but a distinct and entirely separate government that should be established in some mountain. “Thou sawest until that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands.” What shall that stone do? It shall smite the image upon the feet and toes. Not upon the head at first, not upon the breast and arms of silver, not upon the belly and thighs of brass, not upon the modern kingdoms of Europe that have grown out of the legs of iron, but shall smite upon the feet and toes of the great image; there is where it is to commence its attack.

Now let us inquire, for a few moments, how or in what manner this kingdom, called the stone cut out of the mountain, commences this severe attack. Is it to be with weapons of a carnal nature, with sword in hand and weapons of warfare to wage a war against the kingdoms or governments of the earth? No, indeed! Connected with the kingdom or stone cut out of the mountain without hands is a power superior to that of carnal weapons—the power of truth, for the kingdom of God cannot be organized on the earth without truth being sent down from heaven, without authority being given from the Most High; without men again being called to the holy Priesthood and Apostleship, and sent forth to publish the truth in its naked simplicity and plainness to the inhabitants of the earth. This truth will be the weapon of warfare, this authority and power sent down from heaven will go forth and will proclaim the message of the everlasting Gospel, the Gospel of the latter-day kingdom, publishing it first among the nations that compose the feet and toes of the great image. Will they be broken to pieces? Yes, when this message is published to them. When they are sufficiently warned, when the servants of God have gone forth in obedience to his commandments, and published in their towns, villages, cities, States and governments these sacred and holy principles that God Almighty has sent down from heaven in the latter times, it will leave all people, nations and tongues that hear the Gospel, and the principles and message pertaining to that kingdom, without any excuse. It will be a warning that will be everlasting on the one hand, or on the other, either to the bringing of the people to repentance, reformation and obedience to the Gospel of the kingdom, or the judgments which are predicted in this prophecy of Daniel will be poured out upon the heads of those nations and kingdoms, and they will become like the chaff of the summer threshingfloor, even all those kingdoms that compose the great image; for be it known that the remnants of the Babylonish kingdom, represented by the head of gold, still exist in Asia; the remnants of the silver kingdom, of the brass kingdom, and the kingdom of iron still have their existence; but when the Lord Almighty shall fulfil this prophecy, the toes and feet and legs of iron of that great image, or all these kingdoms, will be broken in pieces, and they will become like the chaff of the summer threshingfloor; the wind will carry them away and no place will be found for them.

This prophecy of Daniel will give a true understanding of the matter to our wise men and statesmen, and all who desire to know the future destiny of the American government, the European governments, and all the kingdoms of the earth. Their destiny is total destruction from our earth, no matter how great or powerful they may become. Though our nation may grasp on the right hand and on the left; though it may annex the British possessions, and extend its dominions to the south and grasp the whole of this great western hemisphere, and although our nation shall become as powerful in population as in extent of territory; its destiny is foretold in the saying of the Prophet Daniel, “They shall become like the chaff of the summer threshingfloor, the wind shall carry them away and no place shall be found for them.” So with the kingdoms of Europe, so with the kingdoms of Western Asia and Eastern Europe.

Let us now say a few words in regard to this stone which shall be cut out of the mountain without hands. Now there must be something very peculiar in regard to the organization of the latter-day kingdom that is never to be destroyed. All these other governments that I have named have been the production of human hands, that is, of human ingenuity, human wisdom; the power of uninspired men has been exerted to the uttermost in the establishment of human governments, consequently all has been done by human ingenuity and power. Not so with the little stone. Man has nothing to do with the organization of that kingdom. Hear what the Prophet has said: “In the days of these kings the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom.” It is not to be done by human means or power, or by the wisdom of man, neither by mighty conquests by the sword; but it is to be done by him that rules on high, who is King of kings and Lord of lords; by him that suffered and died upon the cross that we might live; by him whose right it is to reign and govern the nations of the earth. He it is that will give laws; he it is that will give commandment; he it is that will organize that kingdom, and it will be done according to the pattern in all things. Has there been any such kingdom organized since the day that the Prophet Daniel delivered this prophecy? I know that there are some who believe that the kingdom spoken of under the name of the “little stone” was organized 1,800 years ago by our Savior and his Apostles. I do not know why they believe this, unless because it is fashionable. There is no evidence to prove any such thing. Indeed that kingdom that was organized 1,800 years ago was organized altogether too soon to accomplish the prophecies that are here given. The two legs of iron, and the feet and toes were not yet formed, and remember that the stone is not cut out of the mountain without hands, until this great image is complete, not only the head, breast, arms and the legs, but the feet and the toes also; they all become complete before the kingdom called the “stone” is made manifest. Now the feet did not exist, and did not begin to exist until many centuries after the days of Christ. What did that kingdom do that was built up by our Savior and his Apostles? Did it break in pieces any part of that great image? No. What, did that image do to that kingdom? It accomplished the prophecies of Daniel—made war with the Saints and overcame them. Very different from the latter-day kingdom! The powers of this world, under the name of the great image, made war with Jesus, with the Apostles, with the former-day Saints, with the kingdom that was then established and overcame them, not only in fulfilment of what is declared by the Prophet Daniel, but also what is declared by John the Revelator; and those powers obtained dominion over all people, nations and tongues, and made them drink of the wine of the wrath of the fornication of Great Babylon, and they became drunken with her abominations. Instead of the kingdom of God then being built up in fulfilment of the prophecy of Daniel 1,800 years ago, the nations of the earth overcame it and rooted it out of the earth. But mark the words of the text: “And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed.” Very different from the former-day kingdom; “and the kingdom shall not be left to other people.” All these human governments have been changing hands, and have been left to some other people. The Babylonish kingdom was left to the Medes and Persians, the Medo-Persian kingdom to the Macedonian, the Macedonian to the Roman; but the latter-day kingdom shall not be left to another people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. “Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountains without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, fire clay, the silver and the gold; and the great God hath made known unto thee what shall come to pass hereafter; and the dream is certain and the interpretation thereof sure.”

Having learned, then, that the kingdom built up by our Savior and his Apostles did not fulfil this prophecy; that that kingdom itself was rooted out of the earth, and every vestige of its authority destroyed, and that nothing in the shape or appearance of the kingdom of God has existed for some sixteen or seventeen centuries past, inasmuch as this is the case and all nations without any such Church, without any such kingdom, without any authority to baptize or lay on hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost; without authority to administer the Lord’s supper; without the authority to build up the kingdom of God; without Prophets, without Revelators, without inspired Apostles, without angels, without visions, without the revelations and prophecies of heaven, which always characterize the kingdom of God; I say inasmuch as this is the case, and darkness has covered the earth and gross darkness the people for so many generations, no wonder that, in the wisdom of God, the time should at length arrive to send another messenger from heaven. No wonder that an angel should be commissioned from the eternal heavens from the throne of the Almighty with another message to the inhabitants of our globe! For do you suppose that this latter-day kingdom that is to be set up without hands will be set up without any communication from heaven, without any new revelation, without any Prophets, without any Apostles, or inspired men? Do you suppose that God will accomplish a work of this nature and yet the heavens be veiled over our heads like brass? Oh no. When the glad time shall come for God Almighty to organize and set up the latter-day kingdom on the earth, he will make it known by sending an angel—and in no other way, for that is the way pointed out in prophecy.

If a man rises up, like John Wesley, Martin Luther, John Calvin, or Henry the Eighth, and undertakes to organize a new church and new creeds, &c., without receiving the ministration of an angel, you may know that the ecclesiastical governments that they may form on the earth, are not the kingdom of God. But when a people shall rise on our earth, testifying that the Lord God has sent an angel from heaven, with the everlasting Gospel to be preached to every people, kindred, nation and tongue, on our globe, with the proclamation that the hour of God’s judgment is at hand, that people are worthy of being listened to, at least it should call forth the most careful investigation of all people, nations and kindreds under the whole heaven. But when they do not come in this way, they are not even worthy of being listened to, for we know that they are not the kingdom of God.

John the Revelator tells us that when the kingdom of God is to be established on the earth, before the coming of the Son of man, before he should unveil his face in the clouds of heaven, he would send an angel with that Gospel. Now, query, has he done so? Go make the enquiry if you are not satisfied. Ask the Roman Catholics if God has sent that angel predicted in the 14th chapter of the revelations of St. John to reestablish his kingdom on the earth, and they will tell you no; they will tell you that the kingdom of God has continued on the earth, that it needs no reestablishing, that they have maintained in unbroken succession the authority of the apostleship from the days of Peter down until the present time, and that they will retain it while the earth shall stand; that there will be no angel sent with the everlasting Gospel to organize the kingdom anew. Well, then, we have their testimony that they are not the kingdom of God, for they have denied many of the great characteristics belonging to the kingdom, such as the gift of new revelation, the gift of prophecy, which was always in the kingdom of God, and have bound up a few books and called them the full canon of Scripture. And if a Prophet should arise among them and undertake to give more Scripture, they would exclude his Scripture and him with it, as being a heretic and fanatic. They are not the kingdom of God then.

Go then to the Greek Church and make the same inquiry of them. Has God sent an angel to you Greeks? I mean the millions in Russia who profess the Greek religion, and they will tell you about the same thing as the Catholics—that God has said nothing since the days of the Apostles.

No inspired men among them and no additional Scriptures by Prophets and Revelators.

Then go to the 666 different Protestant denominations that have come out from these ecclesiastical powers and inquire of them if God did send an angel to those who founded their several denominations, and they will tell you nay. Most of them will say that God does not send angels in the latter times, that he has no Prophets, no Revelators, and that there is no need of any further light from heaven. Go through all the ranks of Christendom and make diligent inquiry for a people that answer the description of John’s prophecy, namely a people that bear testimony that an angel has come with the everlasting Gospel. By and by, in your inquiry you will get away up here into the heights of the Rocky Mountains, or as some term it the backbone of the American continent; inquire of the people you find here, ask of them at their great headquarters, Salt Lake City, whether they believe that God has established his kingdom by sending an angel in fulfillment of the revelations of St. John, and you will hear one united voice throughout all this city among the Latter-day Saints, saying that God has sent an Angel from heaven with the everlasting Gospel to be preached to every nation, kindred, tongue and people. Make the same inquiry in the hundred towns, cities and villages throughout this Territory, and there will be a united voice of all the Latter-day Saints to this one same great fact. We therefore contend, and rightfully too, that we are the only people in America, in Europe, in Asia, in Africa and in the islands of the sea that are testifying to the fulfillment of the prophecy that was uttered by John the Revelator. We have no need, then, to inquire whether all these contending sects are the kingdom of God or not, for this is the only people that bear a testimony, to the coming of the angel with the Gospel. Consequently this is the only people that need engage our attention or investigations in regard to setting up the latter-day kingdom; and if we, by our investigation, find that this people answer the description, not only of John’s prophecy, but of Daniel’s prophecy and all the prophecies throughout the Old Testament in regard to the establishment of the kingdom of God, then certainly the doctrines and principles of this kingdom are worthy the attention and obedience of every good person.

If we had the time we would examine the doctrines of the kingdom, to see whether the doctrines that were brought by the angel in these latter times agree with the doctrines that were taught 1,800 years ago; but we have not time to do that on this occasion. Suffice it to say that if the former-day Saints taught faith in God, repentance, baptism for the remission of sins, the reception of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands; if they taught these things in former days, be it known unto all people, nations, and tongues that the angel has commissioned his servants to preach the same things in these days. If the former-day Saints taught the necessity of having the various gifts of the Gospel, such as the gifts of vision, the ministration of angels, prophecy, revelation, healing the sick, speaking with tongues, the interpretation of tongues, and all the various gifts mentioned in the New Testament; if they taught these things in former days, the Latter-day Saints have been commissioned to teach the same things in our day, consequently there is no difference so far as doctrines, ordinances and the gifts are concerned.

Did the Prophets in ancient times testify that when the kingdom of God should be organized, the Saints should be gathered from the four quarters of the earth, that all that were called by the name of the Lord should be brought out from the north and from the south, and from the east and from the west, even the sons and daughters of God should be brought from all nations? The Latter-day Saints teach that the same angel which brought the Gospel, the same God that has set up his kingdom on the earth in the latter days has commanded his servants that go forth with these doctrines, to gather out his elect from the four winds of heaven. Did the ancient Prophets testify that another book should come forth, another revelation to accomplish the great preparatory work to build up the kingdom of God in the last days? The Latter-day Saints testify that the angel that has brought the Gospel has delivered to them another book containing that Gospel in all its fullness and plainness, fulfilling these prophecies.

May God bless you. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, December 10, 1871.

There is a large assembly of people now seated in this Tabernacle, and it will require a good deal of attention and stillness on the part of so large a congregation in order to hear distinctly and to understand what may be advanced. I have been in the habit for a few months past of selecting a text from the Scriptures. I do not do so this afternoon, for the reason that no particular text has presented itself to my mind; nevertheless I shall endeavor by the assistance of the Spirit of the Lord to speak upon subjects as they may be presented to me at the very moment. What they will be I know not. It is my earnest desire, however, that I may be favored with the faith and prayers of all good people who may be present, that peradventure the Lord may be merciful to us and shed forth a great abundance of His Holy Spirit to assist us on this occasion.

It is a strange thing to the greater part of the civilized world to see, or rather to contemplate, so many scores of thousands of people gathering together in the interior portions of North America, in the Rocky Mountains or vicinity, all of one religious faith. It is a marvel, and produces a great deal of wonderment among the people, to understand what is the cause of this great assembling or gathering together, what it means, what the object is, what purpose is to be accomplished, what the designs of the people are and so forth. It is attracting the attention not only of our own nation but of many other nations—this fleeing out, this gathering together of a people from so many parts of the world and coming together in the interior of this new world, in a country which, to all human appearance, was one of the most difficult countries in the known world to be settled. They wonder how it is that an influence can be exercised over the minds of so many people, among so many nations, to get them to leave the homes of their fathers, their native countries, their associates and friends, and go forth for thousands of miles upon railroad conveyance, and cross the ocean, and then pursue their journey for thousands of miles still further into the heart of a desert. This is a curious thing when we reflect upon it. I will here observe, however, that it is not the influence of man that has brought this great event about; man is not the origin of this great gathering which you see in the Territory of Utah. If you do not believe what I say, let any other society, I don’t care how much talent they may have, how much human wisdom they may possess; let them attempt to accomplish a similar thing and see whether they can succeed. Take all the learning that is in the world, combine it together, send forth the most learned and talented orators among the nations, exercise all the human power and influence that God has given you, and attempt to accomplish a work similar to the one which is now before your eyes, and see if you can succeed. It can’t be done; it never has been done, to my knowledge, since the days of our Savior. We have no account in history of any religious society gathering out from so many nations into one region of country since the days of the Savior.

Do you wish to know the secret of this great gathering? Do you wish to know why it is that this influence has been exercised over the minds of the people? I will tell you: it is because God, who is in yonder heavens, has spoken in our day, this is the secret. It is because he has sent forth angels, messengers from heaven, who have appeared to men here on the earth, and have conversed with them. It is because God, by angels, and by his own voice, has sent forth messengers again unto the human family with an important message, a message more important, in one sense of the word, than any which has before been delivered to man—a message to prepare the way before the face and coming of his Son from the heavens.

Strangers may inquire, what has this great gathering to do with preparing the way before the coming of his Son? Could you not all remain scattered abroad among the nations and be prepared just as well? I answer, that if God had commanded us to remain among the nations in our scattered condition, that would have been right, and acceptable before him; but on the other hand, if God has spoken, as we declare that he has, and his voice has been heard, and messengers have been called and sent forth by divine command, and revelation has been given, not only for the people to obey the gospel but also to gather out and assemble themselves in one, then we could not be prepared for his coming without obeying the divine command. It all rests, therefore, on this point: has God spoken concerning this matter? Has he really instituted this thing? Has he given divine revelation in the 19th century? Has he sent forth his angels? If he has, then the work that is before you is the preparatory work for the coming of the Son of God. If he has not spoken, as we declare that he has, then a similar work will have to be performed in the future by some other people; for the very work which you now perceive—the gathering together of so many thousands, is clearly predicted by the ancient prophets; and if we are not the people fulfilling these predictions, then another people must rise hereafter under similar circumstances to fulfil them, before the Son of God will come from the heavens, to reign here as King of kings and Lord of lords.

Much has been said about the coming of our Lord to reign here on the earth for a thousand years. We have now in the United States and in Great Britain, and other parts of the world, those who call themselves Second Adventists, who say they are going forth in order to prepare the way before the coming of the Lord. But are they fulfilling the predictions of the ancient prophets contained in this Bible? By no means. The first predic– tion to which I will refer you, upon this subject, that now occurs to my mind, is one that has been often repeated, for some forty-one years, by this people; but it is of so much importance and interests this generation to that degree, that I never feel tired of repeating it. It will be found in that prophecy that was delivered to John on the Island of Patmos. He saw in vision, as represented in the 14th chapter of his prophecy, the Son of Man sitting on a cloud with a sharp sickle in his hands, clothed in glory and in power, and he saw angels at the same time, and one of them cried unto him that had the sharp sickle in his hands, that he should go forth and reap down the earth; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. Here was a view of the coming of the Son of Man. But before this, there was a preparatory work to perform, the nature of which is explained in the same chapter. This preparatory work is what I wish to call your special attention to on this occasion.

It was no less than a messenger that was to fly through the midst of heaven—an holy angel, not something to be spiritualized, or that we can interpret according to our own views, not some great and renowned man that was to be raised up here on the earth, but an angel. “I saw another angel,” says John, before the coming of Christ, before he saw that personage sitting on the cloud. “I saw another angel flying through the midst of heaven.” Not a person raised up to go and preach here, and fly among the inhabitants of the earth, but flying through the midst of heaven. What particular message had this angel to convey, and to whom was he to convey it? John says, that this angel whom he saw flying through the midst of heaven had the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth. To show how extensively it was to be preached, mark the next sentence: “To be preached unto them that dwell on the earth, unto every nation, kindred, tongue and people.” Does not this include all? Does not the prediction take within its scope all mankind in the four quarters of the earth? It verily does. What was connected with this everlasting gospel that the angel should have to be thus extensively preached among the inhabitants of the earth? What other prediction was uttered on that occasion? The angel proclaimed that the hour of God’s judgment had come. He had the gospel to restore, however, before that judgment would fall on the nations. They must first hear it, they must first be warned, they must first receive the opportunity and privilege of receiving the message, after which, if they do not receive it, the angel said that the hour of God’s judgment has come. Consequently we learn from these predictions some three or four very important things. First: that when the gospel is again committed to the inhabitants of the earth it is to be by an angel. Second: that when it is thus committed, it must be preached to all people under the whole heavens, without any exception of tongues or languages or races. Third: we learn that the hour of God’s judgment was immediately to follow this preaching of the everlasting gospel.

Now mark what is predicted in the next verse. This was the first message; but John says: “I saw another angel follow him.” There were two angels then, the first one with a message of the gospel of peace, proclaiming peace to the inhabitants of the earth, and then judgment immediately to follow. The second angel had no message of peace, but this was his proclamation; “Behold, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” We learn that a certain power, under the name of Great Babylon, is to meet with a total downfall after the gospel had been preached, that was to be brought by an angel. A third angel followed, and declared that all who would not receive the message of truth should be cast down, and should be punished, and the smoke of their torment should rise up forever and forever. After having predicted the coming of these three angels he then proclaims the coming of the Son of God sitting on a cloud, of which I have spoken.

Now we have this important message to testify, and we testify it in all boldness, we testify it before the heavens, we testify it before the earth, we testify it in the name of the Lord God who has sent us, in the name of Jesus Christ who has redeemed us, that that angel has already come, that the 19th century is the favored century in which God has fulfilled this ancient prediction, uttered by the mouth of his ancient servant. God has indeed sent that angel, and when he came he revealed the everlasting gospel.

But I know what now rises in your hearts, I know what the strangers who are before me will say in their hearts, what they now think. Some of you now say in your hearts, we have the everlasting gospel contained here in this book, the New Testament, and we have had it for some eighteen centuries or more, and consequently what was the use of another angel having the same everlasting gospel to commit to the children of men when we already had it? Now was not that in your hearts? I will venture to say that there were some in this congregation who were thinking of something very similar to this. Let me say in answer to this query that God has revealed the everlasting gospel anew. But what reason or purpose had he in so doing, say some, have we not sufficient written on the subject in the Bible? Have we not the Gospel in great plainness, and why should he reveal it anew? I will tell you why. What is written in the New Testament in relation to the everlasting Gospel is not as it was when it was first revealed; and as a testimony that it is not very plain, let me refer you to some five or six hundred different religious views, all founded on this same book, which you say contains the everlasting Gospel. Why all these views, why all this distraction of faith? Why, for instance, does one sect believe in sprinkling, another in pouring, another in immersion, another rejecting baptism entirely, another baptizing those who profess to have obtained forgiveness of sins? Another class baptizing expressly for the remission of sins? Why is it that all these sentiments and religious notions prevail? Do not all these classes profess to found their faith on the New Testament, which they say contains the everlasting Gospel? O yes. It shows clearly and plainly that there is something lacking. There are just as many sincere people, no doubt, who believe that sprinkling infants is the correct mode of baptism, as there are who believe in baptizing adults by immersion. One class is just as sincere as the other; one professes to believe and have confidence in the New Testament as well as the other. Now there must be something that is not quite so clear in the New Testament, or there would not be so great a diversity of opinion and sentiment.

We again refer to the everlasting Gospel that the angel should bring! What might we expect when the angel comes? Could we not reasonably expect that when God sends an angel from heaven with the ever– lasting Gospel he will make it so plain that there can be no misunderstanding in regard to any ordinance or any principle that is connected with it? That is what I should expect. The causes why these things are not so plain now in the New Testament, are these: the New Testament has been handed down, or its manuscripts, for a great many centuries, transcribed by the scribes of different generations. No doubt many of these were sincere and good men; but they have made, in the course of so many centuries, many great perversions in the text, in the original word I mean, in the Greek text, and also in the Hebrew so far as the Old Testament is concerned. I am not referring to the English manuscripts, but to the text written in what is termed the original Greek or Hebrew. These Greek and Hebrew manuscripts being transmitted from generation to generation, and transcribed and altered more or less, have fallen at length into the hands of the people of latter times in a state wherein they very much contradict each other. It is declared by the most learned archbishops and bishops, and men of great learning who have gathered together thousands of these ancient manuscripts and compared them one with another, that there are thirty thousand different readings of the original text. Not merely a different reading in one or two phrases, but of the original text, taking the Old and New Testament as a whole. When King James, in his day, set a great number of learned men apart to translate the Bible into the English language, they gathered together such manuscripts as they could get hold of. By examining them they of course did not know which was correct. They found them differing one with another in thousands of instances. Which were the most correct they, without inspiration, never could learn; but they did the very best they knew how. They are not to blame for those errors. They were men of integrity; they collected, according to the best of their understanding and knowledge, the manuscripts in existence and translated them according to the best information they had concerning the original languages. Hence originated this present English Bible, King James’ translation. I am astonished when I look at this Bible, to find it so correct; I am astonished, and it has been a mystery to me that it can be so correct with such an abundance of contradictions in the original manuscripts. As a general thing the meaning has not been altered much, but it has been altered sufficiently to produce all the confusion at present existing throughout Christendom. All these different denominations have arisen, founded on the same Bible and on the same text. What may we expect then when God sends an angel? Must we expect that he will give us a confused mass of something that we cannot understand? Or may we not rather expect that he will impart to us the plainness and simplicity of his word, and call that the gospel, and call upon the nations of the earth to receive it? I answer that so far as reason is concerned, and good sound judgment, that is, so far as I can judge concerning reason, reason would say that the God of truth would communicate a message in perfect plainness, that could not be misunderstood by those who desired to know the right way.

Well, such was the fact. I hold in my hand a record containing more writing than the New Testament; and this book, from the beginning to the end, was written by divine revelation, comprising history, prophecies and the Gospel. It was written by an ancient people, a portion of the house of Israel, who dwelt in ancient America. Prophets and inspired men wrote this record on plates of gold. They inform us that Jesus administered on this American continent in person, as well as on the little land of Palestine. They inform us that after his resurrection and ascension from the land of Jerusalem to his Father, he descended on this American continent, that he taught them here at different times, appearing to them often, delivering to them his everlasting Gospel in plainness and simplicity. He commanded them to write that Gospel upon the plates that they kept their records on at that time, and which had been already handed down among them for about six hundred years. This book also informs us concerning the preaching of the Gospel among the ancient Americans—the ancient inhabitants of this country; that twelve men were called, not apostles, or rather that they were not called apostles, but disciples. Twelve disciples were chosen in ancient America and preached the Gospel that the Son of God revealed to them in person. They proclaimed that Gospel in the four quarters of this Western hemisphere, in other words, on what we call South and North America; they built up the Church and Kingdom of God in this land, and millions of the people received the Gospel. They kept a record of this fact three hundred and eighty-four years after the coming of Christ. Mormon, who had charge of the records, after making an abridgment on other plates, in consequence of the apostasy of his portion of the nation, delivered the abridgment or the plates that contained it, into the hands of his son Moroni, a faithful prophet and servant of God, but the other plates he hid up in a hill in what we now call the State of New York. Moroni beheld the downfall of his nation, their destruction by the hands of another branch of the house of Israel, a powerful nation on this continent. The nation that kept these records was destroyed. Moroni, who was the last prophet entrusted with the plates, had to flee from place to place and hide up in dens and caves in order to preserve his own life. These records, four hundred and twenty years after the birth of Christ, were hidden up, at least that was the last date given on them. With them was deposited a sacred instrument that was possessed by the people on this continent, called the Urim and Thummim. Many predictions were uttered, not only by Moroni, but by many previous prophets, that these records in the last days, should be brought to light by the ministration of holy messengers; that God would bring them forth in order to prepare the way before the coming of his Son from the heavens. This, therefore, is the book that that angel whom John saw flying through the midst of heaven has revealed to the inhabitants of the earth. This is the sacred book that contains the everlasting Gospel revealed by the angel. This is the sacred book which God has commanded his servants to publish to the four quarters of the globe as a witness unto all nations before the Son of Man comes. This is the sacred book that contains the words of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ when he appeared on this American continent. This is the sacred book that will go forth, warning all people, nations and tongues before the Son of Man appears in his glory. If they receive it they will be blest, if they receive it not, then will be fulfilled that which was spoken by the mouth of John the Revelator concerning the hour of God’s judgment coming upon them.

Does this book do away with those differences that exist in regard to many points of the doctrine of Jesus? Does it make it plain so that there is no chance of building up two different denominations from the doctrines it contains? I answer yes, there cannot be established two different denominations founding their ideas on the doctrines of this book. Why? Because the doctrine is so plain in every point that it is impossible for any person with common sense not to understand it just as it is delivered and revealed. Hence you perceive that, that which we would naturally expect and reasonably hope for when the angel came is realized, namely, a doctrine so plain that all the learning and wisdom of man could not wrest and twist and turn it and make it appear two different things. For instance, let us take the simple ordinance of baptism, what does the Book of Mormon say in regard to that one ordinance? Jesus, when he came to the American continent, they not having seen the true order of baptism in the same light that the Jews had in Palestine, condescended to point out to them how they should be baptized. He says, first, you must believe in me and repent of your sins and become as a little child and go forth and be baptized for the remission of your sins and you shall receive the Holy Ghost; and then, to show how this ordinance was to be performed, he says that inasmuch as anyone shall come forth desiring the ordinance of baptism, having repented of his sins, having believed in me, even Jesus Christ, you shall go down into the water and you shall baptize him in my name; you shall immerse him in the water, and come forth out of the water, and then he shall receive the Holy Ghost. Showing the ordinance also through which and by which the Holy Ghost should be given, namely, the laying on of hands. Now I ask, is there any possibility, with words penned as plain as these words are recorded, to build up two different denominations in regard to the mode of baptism? No, they could not do it; there could not be one sprinkling, another pouring and another baptizing by immersion; neither could there be those who would require individuals to first experience religion and then be baptized; but “be baptized in my name for the remission of their sins, and then they shall receive the Holy Ghost.”

Perhaps the strangers will say, that is plain enough, we admit your argument that, if that be a revelation from God, there could not be two different denominations built up on that. I will say further that in regard to a great many other points of doctrine this book is just as plain and just as simple. Supposing you could grant all this, supposing you should say, strangers, we will admit that it is very plain in the Book of Mormon; but the great question with us is, is the Book of Mormon a divine revelation? That is the question that we want answered. The plainness we don’t dispute, we know that it is so plain that a wayfaring man though a fool need not err therein; all that we want to know in regard to the matter is, has God given that book, or is it an invention of man? What evidence have you to offer, inquires the stranger, to prove the divine authenticity of your book? You have the testimony of Joseph Smith. He says that an angel came and revealed to him the Book of Mormon, and that he was commanded by the Lord Almighty to go and get the plates, according to the vision that was shown to him at the time the angel came and conversed with him, that he obtained the plates, and he says he translated them by the Urim and Thummim. This all rests, perhaps you may think, upon his testimony alone. Well, supposing it did, has God ever condemned the world for not obeying one servant when he only had one witness? I answer yes, in some instances. He was going to condemn the great city of Nineveh on a certain occasion through the testimony of one man called Jonah. “In forty days this great city shall be destroyed,” says Jonah. Jonah finding that the Lord sent but one witness with such an important message felt almost discouraged, and when he was on his way to deliver it to a great people and city, he felt that he would almost rather die than go as a single and solitary witness with a message of so much importance, and he besought the people to throw him overboard. They did so, the Lord having produced a furious wind, frightened the people, and they, according to their old traditions, thought somebody was on board that ought not to be there. Jonah told them that he had rejected the commandment of the Lord, and if they would throw him overboard the winds would cease. They did so, and the wind did cease. A fish was prepared and it swallowed up Jonah, and the fish was commanded of the Lord to go and vomit up Jonah on the land, which he did. Very obedient, much more so than many people are now-a-days, or have been in former times. This fish was obedient to the command of the Lord and went and did what the Lord commanded, and Jonah was thrown up. The word of the Lord came to him to go and fulfil his mission. He went and preached to the great city of Nineveh, and told the people what the Lord intended to do, and the people repented in sackcloth and ashes, from the king on his throne down to the least of them; they all turned and repented of their sins, and the Lord had compassion and did not execute the judgment on them because of their repentance. Now, what would have been the consequence if they had rejected this one man’s testimony? The consequence would have been their overthrow. Jonah might have told them that God had sent him, and he might have preached to them that he had been swallowed up by a whale, and that God had given commandment to the fish to vomit him up on dry ground! What would they care about that? They would have said, “Jonah is crazy, insane, he must be insane,” and they might have rejected his testimony, and brought death and destruction on the whole city, consequently God may send but one witness.

But he sometimes condescends to give more. We have four witnesses who have written and whose writings have descended to our day, concerning the resurrection of Jesus Christ—one of the most important events that has ever happened in our world. Four men who saw Jesus after his resurrection have testified in the New Testament to his resurrection. “Oh, but,” says one, “we have more than four men.” I think not, I can’t find but four who have written. No women have written, for we have not any women’s epistles or writings in the New Testament. “But,” says one, “do you mean to say that the twelve apostles have not handed down their testimony? I do say so. I have no doubt but what they did testify of his resurrection, but they have given us no account. Four of the eight writers of the New Testament saw Jesus after his resurrection, and all the Christian world at the present day believe that Jesus rose from the dead because those four men testified that he did so. But does not Paul say that he was seen by him, and afterwards on a certain occasion after his resurrection by five hundred of his brethren? Yes, we suppose that he said so, because the writer of the Acts of the Apostles says that Paul said so; but it all rests on the writer of those Acts, whose name is supposed to be Luke. Luke says that Paul saw Jesus; Luke says that he was seen by five hundred, or at least he says that Paul says that he was seen by five hundred. Well now, such a great and important fact as the resurrection of the Son of God rests upon the testimony of four witnesses, and they are dead. You cannot cross-question them, you can’t ask them if their testimony is true, you can’t go to them and enquire about the particulars in relation to it; but you have to take the testimony of four witnesses who are dead and have been for eighteen hundred years; yet you believe the great fact, I do, and so do the Latter-day Saints, on their testimony.

Again, we find that it is written in the New Testament, the words of Jesus on the same subject, that in the mouths of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. Indeed, is that so? Are two or three witnesses sufficient to condemn the whole world of mankind, and to leave them without excuse? Jesus says so: every word shall be established in the mouths of two or three witnesses. This is in accordance with what took place in the days of the flood. Noah, Shem, Ham and Japhet were the only witnesses that went forth to warn that generation of a terrible judgment that was to come on all flesh if they did not repent. They did not receive the testimony of those four men and consequently they were overthrown by the flood. God does therefore condemn the children of men by the number of witnesses that seems to him good to communicate, or through whom to communicate, a message to them.

Now then, let us come back again. Here was Joseph Smith, a boy, his very youth ought to testify in his favor, for when the Lord first revealed himself to that little boy, he was only between fourteen and fifteen years of age. Now, can we imagine or suppose that a great impostor could be made out of a youth of that age, and one that could reveal the doctrine of Christ as he has revealed it to this generation? Would he stand forth and bear testimony that he had seen with his own eyes a messenger of light and glory, and that he heard the words of his mouth as they dropped from his lips and had received a message from the Most High, at that early age? And then, after having declared it, to have the finger of scorn pointed at him, with exclamations, “There goes the visionary boy! No visions in our day, no angels come in our day, no more revelation to be given in our day! Why he is deluded, he is a fanatic;” and to have this scorn and derision and still continue to testify, in the face and eyes of all this, while hated and derided by his neighbors, that God had sent his angel from heaven. Can you imagine that a youth would do this? Select out some of our little boys here, fourteen years of age, can you imagine it to be possible for them to be impositions of this description? I think not. The very youth, then, of this first witness that I have named, testifies in his favor! Did God send forth servants to publish this Book of Mormon, containing the everlasting Gospel, to all the nations and kingdoms of the earth without giving more witnesses than this one I have named? No, he was more merciful to this generation than he was to the city of Nineveh; he sent more than one. He would not even permit this book to go forth as a divine revelation to this generation until he had raised up three other men—Martin Harris, David Whitmer and Oliver Cowdery, besides Joseph Smith. “But,” says one, “perhaps they were deceived, while Joseph Smith was the impostor, they might have been sincere men!” Let us see whether they could be deceived men, and yet their testimony be given as it is here recorded. They have testified to all nations, kindred, tongues and people unto whom this work shall come, that, “we, through the grace of God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, have seen the plates which contain this record, and we testify with words of soberness that God sent forth an holy angel from heaven, and he showed unto us the plates from which this record was taken, and he commanded us to bear record of the same and to be obedient unto the commandment of God. We bear testimony of these things, and we do know if we are faithful in Christ we shall rid our garments of the blood of all men,” and so forth. I have repeated to you part of the testimony of these three men.

Now is there any chance for deception here? An angel to be sent forth from God, an angel to come down from heaven clothed in glory and brightness! An angel to take these plates and turn them over leaf after leaf and show the engravings thereon! An angel to proclaim to them that they must bear testimony of it to all people, nations and tongues; and at the same time to hear the voice of God out of the heavens proclaiming that it had been translated correctly! Any chance for deception here, so far as they are concerned? Were they deceived? If so, you may as well say that Peter was deceived, that Paul was deceived, that James was deceived, that all the writers of the New Testament were deceived, that all the writers of the Old Testament were deceived, when they testify that they saw angels, for one stands on as good and sound a foundation as the other; and if the very nature of the testimony as recorded by the ancient writers shows the impossibility of their being deceived, so does the nature of the testimony revealed in the last days show the impossibility of these individuals being deceived. Here then were four men before this church had any existence, four special witnesses, raised up to testify to the truth of the divinity of the Book of Mormon.

Were these all the witnesses God gave before the rise of this church? No, no! There are eight other witnesses whose names are recorded, attached to their own testimony, a testimony which they give expressly to go forth in connection with this record, or in all the translations of this record to every people, tongue and nation under the whole heavens. What do they testify? They testify in words of soberness that they have seen the plates from which this record was translated, that they have handled these plates, that they saw the engravings on these plates, that they had the appearance of ancient work and of curious workmanship, and they bear this testimony in words of soberness, and give their names to go forth to the whole world of mankind. I ask if either of these twelve witnesses have denied their testimony from that day to this? Never, in no instance. Neither of these twelve men, whatever has been his circumstances, wherever he has been, has ever denied his testimony from that day to this. Forty-two years and upwards have passed away since those twelve witnesses, four of whom saw the angel, gave their testimony.

What other witnesses have you besides these? On the strength of this testimony other persons believed in the everlasting Gospel and went forth and were baptized, repenting of their sins, for the remission of them. And God commanded his servants whom he had called and ordained to be apostles in this church and kingdom, to lay their hands upon them, and said that they, the candidates, should receive the Holy Ghost through that ordinance. Did they receive the Holy Ghost? They testified that they did. They prophesied—they were filled with joy and light, and with a spirit that they never had experienced before. They testified that they had received the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost, in fulfillment of the promise. Did God reveal to them anything by this spirit that came upon them through obedience to the Gospel? Yes. What did he reveal? He revealed to them the divinity of this work, the truth of it, and they knew as well as these witnesses whose testimonies are recorded that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. They knew that no human being by human means could confer the baptism of the Holy Ghost, as they testified they had received it, consequently they became witnesses in their turn, and many of them were sent forth as messengers and missionaries to preach to their neighbors, and into the regions round about, to declare what God had commenced to perform and accomplish in the midst of the 19th century.

By and by thousands received the work. Did they receive the Holy Ghost? Yes, every person who repented sincerely before God, who had faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and came forth humbly, and was baptized by immersion by those whom the Lord had called and appointed by revelation, did receive the Holy Ghost, by the laying on of the hands of the servants of God. These would constitute thousands of more witnesses in addition to those that I have named.

But let other witnesses speak, besides all these who had received a revelation of the divinity of this work. What other witnesses did God give? He gave the same witnesses to the Church after it was built up that he gave to the ancient Church. What did he give to the ancient Church? He said to his apostles, as recorded in the last chapter of Mark, “Go ye forth and preach the Gospel in all the world to every creature, he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe.” Notice, now, certain signs were to be given not only to the twelve men to whom he was speaking, but all the world that should believe their testimony, making millions and millions of witnesses. “These signs shall follow them that believe: in my name they shall cast out devils.” These believers, not you apostles to whom I am speaking alone, but all that believe the Gospel which you preach, “they shall cast out devils in my name; they shall speak with new tongues, if they shall drink any deadly thing or take up serpents it shall not hurt them; they shall lay their hands upon the sick and they shall recover.” What glorious signs to follow the Christians, or all believers in Christ! What has become of all the Christians in all the centuries that are past and gone? Where are they? If there have been any they have had these signs following them. What, do you mean, Mr. Pratt, to unchristianize the world? O no, I am only quoting the words of Jesus. If there have been any Christians in the world for the last seventeen centuries, these signs have followed them. They have laid hands on the sick and the sick have recovered; they have cast out devils in the name of Jesus, for recollect the promise is to all believers, not to a few or a part of them.

Notice the two promises: First, salvation—he that believes (that is—all believers throughout the world), and is baptized shall be saved. Will you pretend to say that that promise of salvation was limited to the days of the apostles? “O no,” answer all the Christian sects with one united voice, “the promise of salvation is for all Christians in the first age, in all future ages throughout all the world.” Very well, come to the next verse, “These signs shall follow them that believe.” “Ah,” says the Christians, “that is not for us, that is limited to the days of the apostles; that was not intended for the Christians of the second, third, fourth or fifth century, or for the people in our day. No, all we have to do is to claim the first promise and reject the last.”

Well, we are not so foolish as all this, although taught by our forefathers, and the pretended Christians around us, that these signs would not follow the believer, yet we were just simple enough to believe that Jesus told the truth, and, consequently, when the servants of God went forth and taught the everlasting Gospel that an angel had brought from heaven, the Lord confirmed the word by signs following. To whom? To those who believed. He promised that they should have certain signs, and they got them, and this was a confirmation to them. Every man and every woman might know whether he or she was a believer or not in the Gospel; if they obtained the signs they were believers; if they obtained no gifts or no signs there was lack on their part, they were not Christians in the full sense of the word.

Don’t you think we would have been discouraged after forty years’ trial if God had not fulfilled the promise? I think we should. I do not think you would see this large congregation here in this desert mountainous country, I have no idea you would find such a people here in such a forbidding country as we now occupy, if God had not, in numerous instances among the nations in which you formerly dwelt, fulfilled his promise, and given you the promised blessing. This therefore, is another evidence, besides the evidence and testimony recorded in the Book of Mormon, an evidence which hundreds and thousands enjoy at the present day. Hundreds and thousands have seen with their eyes and have experienced the power of God as manifested in the various gifts.

This is what constitutes the true Christian Church. This is what distinguishes Christianity from all spurious doctrines, and separates the true from spurious Christianity. This is the great distinguishing point, it is the power of God made manifest through the preaching of the everlasting Gospel. It is this which has gathered this people out from among the nations. It is because their sick have been healed in their own country; it is because thousands of this people, now in this Territory, have been healed themselves. It is because God has shed forth his power by the ministrations of his servants and proved to them with testimonies they never can deny that the Lord God of Israel has spoken from the heavens. Blessed be the name of the Lord our God! Praise his name for evermore, that he has again sent the Gospel in its fulness to the earth. We should praise his name because he has not only restored the Gospel, but the power and authority to preach it, and administer its ordinances! Power and authority sent down from heaven and conferred upon weak mortal man to baptize for the remission of sins! Power and authority sent from the eternal heavens to build up his Church here on the earth; and we see divine power and authority accompanying those who he has thus called and to whom he has thus revealed himself. Consequently our Gospel does not come with the cunning craftiness of man’s wisdom. Though we may be poor, illiterate men, taken from our common avocations of life and sent forth by the Lord Almighty to proclaim his Gospel, we have one thing the world has not got. Though we may not be able to proclaim the Gospel in eloquence of language and in the power and wisdom of the world, we have a power that is superior to that—we have the power of the Almighty God. We have his angels to go before our face, his Spirit to dwell richly in our hearts, and his presence to go with us and be with us on our right hand and our left. It is he who performs the work; it is he who proclaims to the inhabitants of the earth by the mouths of his servants, saying, “Repent, and prepare the way for the great day of the coming of the Lord from the heavens.”

Will they hear? No, like the people in the days of the flood, they eat, they drink, they are engaged in merchandise and in the traffic of this world, and the voice of inspiration and the power of Almighty God that are being made manifest among the people will not reach their stubborn and hardened hearts, until the Lord, by and by, by his judgments, will pour out his indignation upon all nations. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday, August 20, 1871.

I will read a few sayings of our Savior, recorded in the second, and third verses of the 14th chapter of the Gospel according to St. John:

“In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.”

“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”

It is not very customary for the Latter-day Saints to select a text and to confine their remarks to the subject matter thereof; yet I do not know that there is any particular harm in doing so, provided we do not limit the operations of the Spirit of God upon ourselves. It is my most earnest desire, when addressing a public assembly, to understand the mind and will of God in relation to what should be said to them. No man, by his own wisdom, understands the wants of his fellow creatures in all respects, but the Spirit of the Most High understands the circumstances of all the people, and that spirit, having all power and wisdom, is capable of moving upon the hearts of His servants to speak in the very moment what is most adapted to the condition of the people.

I listened with great interest this forenoon to the many subjects which were briefly touched upon by Elders Woodruff and Smith, one of which, in a particular manner, seemed to rest with considerable bearing upon my mind: that was the condition of mankind in a future state, and the principalities, powers, glories, dominions, and exaltations that will be enjoyed by the true Saints. This is a subject of special interest to the Latter-day Saints, and we should look forward with feelings of great joy in anticipation of the future, and we should understand what is necessary for us to do in this short life, to secure the great blessings promised to the faithful hereafter. Jesus, in the passage I have read, has informed the world that there are many mansions in his Father’s house. This, however, was not spoken especially to the world, but to the Apostles and Disciples who were gathered around him. The Father’s house! There is a great deal comprehended in these words. Where is it, and what kind of a house may we conclude it to be? Are we to understand by the term house, used in this passage, small buildings such as are erected for our residence, here on earth, and if not, what are we to understand? I understand that God is a Being who, as the Scriptures declare, inhabits eternity. Eternity is His dwelling place, and in this eternity are vast numbers of worlds—creations formed by His mighty hands; con– sequently when we speak of the Father’s house we are to understand it in the Scriptural sense, in the idea that is conveyed by many of the inspired writers. It is declared in many places that eternity is His habitation. He is not the God of one little world like ours; He is not a Being who presides over a few isolated worlds in one part of eternity, and all the rest left to go at random; He is not confined to the worlds that are made, comparatively speaking, today; but all worlds, past, present, and future, from eternity to eternity, may be considered His dominions, and His places of residence, and He is omnipresent. Not personally; this would be impossible, for a person can only be in one place at the same instant, whether he be an immortal or a mortal personage; whether he be high, exalted, and filled with all power, wisdom, glory, and greatness, or poor, ignorant, and humble. So far as the materials are concerned, a personage can only occupy one place at the same moment. That is a self-evident truth, one that cannot be controverted. When we speak, therefore, of God being omnipresent we do not mean that His person is omnipresent, we mean that His wisdom, power, glory, greatness, goodness, and all the characteristics of His eternal attributes are manifested and spread abroad throughout all the creations that He has made. He is there by His influence—by His power and wisdom—by His outstretched arm; He, by His authority, occupies the immensity of space. But when we come to His glorious personage, that has a dwelling place—a particular location; but where this location is, is not revealed. Suffice it to say that God is not confined in His personal character to one location. He goes and comes; He visits the various departments of His dominions, gives them counsel and instruction, and presides over them according to His own will and pleasure.

But if eternity is His house, habitation, or residence, what are the mansions referred to by our Savior, mentioned in the text? I understand them to be places that the Creator has constructed like this present world of ours; for this world, in its future history and progress, will no doubt become one of the mansions of the Father, wherein His glory will be made manifest as it is in many other redeemed worlds. I consider that this idea of mansions has reference more especially to celestial mansions, or worlds that have been redeemed and made celestial. God has formed more worlds than can possibly be enumerated or numbered by man. If it were possible for man to count the particles of this little earth of ours; if he were able to enumerate the figures that would express these particles, it would scarcely be a beginning to the number of the mansions which God has made in the eternal ages that have passed—mansions that were made, first temporal and afterwards redeemed and made eternal. Mansions, no doubt, constructed somewhat similar to the one we now inhabit; and in the eternal progression of worlds they rise upwards and still upwards until they are glorified and are crowned with the presence of Him who made them, and become eternal in their duration, the same as our earth will eventually become. We know, according to the declaration of the Scriptures, that our earth was made some few thousands years ago. How long the progress of formation lasted we do not know. It is called in the Scriptures six days; but we do not know the meaning of the scriptural term day. It evidently does not mean such days as we are now ac– quainted with—days governed by the rotation of the earth on its axis, and by the shining of the great central luminary of our solar system. A day of twenty-four hours is not the kind of day referred to in the scriptural account of the creation; the word days, in the Scriptures, seems oftentimes to refer to some indefinite period of time. The Lord, in speaking to Adam in the garden, says, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die;” yet he did not die within twenty-four hours after he had eaten the forbidden fruit, but he lived to be almost a thousand years old, from which we learn that the word day, in this passage, had no reference to days of the same duration as ours. Again, it is written, in the second chapter of Genesis, “In the day that He created the heavens and the earth;” not six days, but, “in the day” that, he did it, incorporating all the six days into one, and calling that period “the day” that He created the heavens and the earth.

When this world was formed, no doubt, it was a very beautiful creation, for God is not the author of anything imperfect. If we have imperfections in our world God has had nothing to do with their introduction or origin, man has brought them upon himself and upon the earth he inhabits. But however long or short may have been the period of the construction of this earth, we find that some six thousand years ago it seems to have been formed, something after the fashion and in the manner in which it now exists, with the exception of the imperfections, evils, and curses that exist on the face of it. Six thousand years, according to the best idea that we have of chronology, are now about completed; we are living almost on the eve of the last of the six millenniums—a thousand years are called a millennium—and tomorrow, we may say, will be the seventh; that is the seventh period, the seventh age or seventh time; or we can call it a day—the seventh day, the great day of rest wherein our globe will rest from all wickedness, when there will be no sin or transgression upon the whole face of it, the curses that have been brought upon it being removed, and all things being restored as they were before the Fall. The earth will then become beautified, not fully glorified, not fully redeemed, but it will be sanctified, and purified, and prepared for the reign of our Savior, whose death and sufferings we have this afternoon commemorated. He will come and personally reign upon it, as one of the mansions of his Father; and after the thousand years have passed away, and wickedness is permitted again, for a short season, to corrupt the face of the earth, then will come the final change which our earth, or this mansion of our Father, will undergo. A change which will be wrought, not by a flood of waters, or baptism, as in the days of Noah, cleansing it then from all its sins; but by a baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost, which will sanctify and purify the very elements themselves. After the seventh millennium has passed away the elements will be cleansed, or in other words, they will be resolved into their original condition—as they were before they were brought together in the formation of this globe. Hence John says, in the 20th chapter of Revelation: “I saw a great white throne and Him that sat thereon, from before whose face the heavens and the earth fled away, and there was no place found for them.”

Now, this fleeing away of the literal heavens, and of the earth on which we dwell with all it contains, will be similar to the destruction or death of our natural bodies. We might say, with great propriety, when a man is martyred or burned at the stake, his body has fled away, its present organization is dissolved, and its elements are resolved into their original condition, and perhaps united with and dispersed among many other elements of our globe; but in the resurrection these elements are brought together again and the body reorganized, not into a temporal or mortal tabernacle, but into an eternal house or abiding place for the spirit of man. So the earth will pass away, and its elements be dispersed in space; but, by the power of that Almighty Creator who organized it in the beginning, it will be renewed, and those elements which now enter into the composition of our globe, will again enter into the composition of the new heavens and the new earth, for, says the Prophet John, “I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had fled away.”

He then beheld two cities, as is recorded in the 21st chapter of Revelation, descending from God out of heaven. The first one is called the New Jerusalem. The description of this city is not given in this chapter; we have no information regarding its size, or the number of its gates, and the height of the walls; all that we know is that John saw it descend out of heaven. Afterwards he was taken off into a high mountain and saw a second city descend out of heaven. A description of this, called the “Holy City,” is given. The number of the gates, the height of the walls, the nature of the houses, the streets, and the glory of the city are plainly given in the revelation. But when the first city, called the New Jerusalem, descended, he heard a voice say, “Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, henceforth there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, for the former things have passed away and all things are made new.” This will be the final transformation of this earth, and when that is effected it will become one of the mansions of our Father. It will be redeemed, or, we might say resurrected after it passes away. That renewed state will be eternal, it will never be changed; and it will be the eternal residence of those disciples to whom Jesus was addressing the words of the text.

Where will Jesus be? What is the particular creation assigned to him? I answer that our globe will become the abiding place of all the Saints from the days of Father Adam until the time that it passes away and is renewed again and becomes glorified, after which the tabernacle of God will be with men, and he will wipe away all tears from their eyes, and this creation from that time henceforth and forever will be free from sorrow; and from that period to all the ages of eternity there will be no more death, for death will be swallowed up in victory. The curse that came by the Fall will be entirely removed, and God, Himself, will light up the world with His glory, making of it a body more brilliant than the sun that shines in yonder heavens.

Some may inquire, “Do you think the sun is a glorified world?” Yes, in one sense. It is not yet fully glorified, redeemed, clothed with celestial power, and crowned with the presence of the Father in all the fullness and beauty of a celestial mansion, because it is still subject to change more or less. If it were fully glorified; if it had passed through its temporal existence and had been redeemed, glorified, and made celestial, and had become the eternal abiding place of celestial and glorified beings, it would be far more glorious than our eyes could behold, the eyes of mortality could not endure the light thereof. We can endure and rejoice in its present light and glory. It gives light and heat to the surrounding worlds, and thus renders them fit habitations for intelligent human beings. But were it glorified, as it will be hereafter, and as our earth will be, men such as we are, clothed with mortality, would be overpowered, we could not stand in the presence of its glory without being consumed. This earth, therefore, is destined to become one of the heavenly mansions.

And now, with regard to its being the place of the habitation of the Saints forever and ever, let me quote some proofs in relation to it from the Scriptures. Jesus, in his great and beautiful sermon on the mount, has told us of the blessings that should rest on his people, among which he says, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” This certainly could not have had reference to this temporal existence, for look at the meek who lived on the earth in the first ages of Christianity. Did they inherit the earth? No. What was their destiny? To wander about in sheepskins and goatskins, dwelling in the dens and caves of the earth, not being counted worthy by the wicked to receive an inheritance with them, yet Jesus said, “They shall inherit the earth.” When? If they do not inherit it before death they must after the resurrection. In proof that they will inherit it after the resurrection, let me refer you to the testimony of John, recorded in the fifth chapter of Revelation. John saw a great company of Saints in the presence of God the Father, and except those who were resurrected at the time of the resurrection of Christ, they were the spirits of men. They were singing a beautiful song, the purport of which was emigration. They had it in view to emigrate from their present home or location in the celestial paradise to some other place, and their song reads something like this: “Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof, for thou wast slain, and by thy blood hast redeemed us from all nations and kindreds and peoples and tongues, and hast made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth.” This is the place of their future residence, and they rejoiced much in the anticipation of returning to their mother earth, the place of their nativity; they rejoiced exceedingly at the prospect of getting back again to their old homestead. They were absent a little season because of the wickedness that covered the earth, they were absent a little season because death overpowered their mortal tabernacles. The Fall had brought them down to the grave, but they rejoiced that the grave would no longer hold its captives. These spirits from all nations, kindreds, tongues, and peoples were rejoicing in the great day when they should receive their resurrected bodies and return again to their old homestead—the earth, to receive their kingdoms, thrones, and dominions. “We shall reign on the earth!” Not come to be persecuted and driven about as the meek always have been when the wicked have had power; not come to be scattered, peeled, and driven, as the ancient Saints were; not to be sawn asunder, beheaded, persecuted, and buffeted, as the servants and Saints of God have always been; but they will come here to reign: “Thou hast made us kings and priests unto God, and we shall reign on the earth.” The period during which they were to reign, as mentioned in the 20th chapter of Revelation, was one thousand years, and this was the introduction to their eternal reign. “Blessed and holy is he who hath part in the first resurrection,” for on such the second death can have no power, and all such shall be priests to God and to Christ, and they shall reign with Him a thousand years. In their song they did not stretch forth to that eternal reign on the earth which will commence after the one thousand years have ended and the earth has passed away and been renewed. That was too glorious a theme to be recorded by John and for the inhabitants of the earth in their corrupt and fallen state to become acquainted with. If they rejoiced with such exceeding great joy in the prospect of returning to reign only for a thousand years, before the earth was fully redeemed, glorified, and made new, how much greater would be their joy, and how much more glorious would be the song, if they could see themselves made kings and priests to God, and knew they were about to commence a reign on the earth which would endure throughout the countless ages of eternity.

To prove that mankind, when they come out of their graves, will come into possession of the earth, let me quote a very familiar passage from the 37th chapter of Ezekiel. Ezekiel lived in the midst of a people who had apostatized in a great measure from the religion of their fathers, and who began to think that their hope was lost, and that they were cut off from inheriting the promises made to their fathers, because they saw that their fathers for many generations were dead and gone, and neither they nor their seed had come into possession of the Promised Land, according to the prediction made in the days of Abraham and Jacob. You recollect that the Lord promised Abraham and Jacob that they should have the land of Palestine for an everlasting possession. Not only their seed, but they themselves, Abraham and Jacob, were to inherit it everlastingly. Well might the Jews, when considering these promises, and looking upon the bones of Jacob and their old forefathers, who were righteous men, bleaching, as it were, in their sepulchers, be ready to find fault and say: “Our bones are dried, our hope is lost, the promise is not fulfilled, and we are cut off from our portion—that is the promised land given to us for an everlasting inheritance.” The Lord, to do away with such wicked and erroneous notions which were prevalent among the apostates of Israel, carried Ezekiel into the midst of a valley full of bones, and then told him to prophesy unto those bones and to say unto them: “O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord unto these bones: Behold I will bring up flesh and sinews upon you and will cover you with skin,” etc. And Ezekiel prophesied as he was commanded, and as he prophesied there was a great noise and a shaking and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And while he was examining these numerous skeletons, without either flesh, sinews, or skin, “Lo, the sinews and flesh came upon them and the skin covered them above, but there was no breath in them.” Then the Lord said unto the Prophet: “Prophesy unto the wind, son of man, and say to the wind, thus saith the Lord God, come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain that they may live. So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them and they lived and stood upon their feet, an exceeding great army.”

Now, if we were to go to uninspired men and ask them the meaning of this, they would say it was the conversion of sinners to newness of life; but the Lord had another interpretation, which you will find in the following verse: “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel,” including the old patriarchs, including their forefathers for many generations. The people in Ezekiel’s day said, “Our bones and the bones of our fathers are dry, and our hope is lost, for we are not brought into the inheritance of the land of Palestine, etc.,” but the Lord, by this parable of the valley of dry bones, wished to do away with this lack of faith among Israel, and His interpretation of it was this: “Behold, I will open your graves and I will bring you up out of your graves, and will bring you into the land of Israel.” Notice now, the Lord did not say He would take them off to some unknown region in the immensity of space, according to the notions of some of our modern poets, who look forward to a heavenly place beyond the bounds of time and space. When a boy I used frequently to attend the Methodist meetings, though I never joined any religious society; but I recollect a very beautiful hymn they used to sing about being wafted away to a heaven of some kind. I will repeat two or three lines of the hymn:

“Beyond the bounds of time and space, Look forward to that heavenly place, The Saints’ secure abode.”

I did not, at that early period of my life, see the inconsistency of this, and being very much charmed with the beautiful tune, I thought, of course, that the words were all right, until I, in after years, reflected upon the subject, and began to understand about the future residence of the Saints. I then could not understand the description of the heaven they sang about, I could not comprehend how any place could be located outside the bounds of space, which is illimitable, and has no bounds, consequently I concluded that it was merely the poet’s flight, and that it was not a scriptural doctrine, for when I came to the Scriptures, I found that the heavenly place spoken of by the ancient prophets that we are to look forward to is in our land, if we can find where that is. There are a great many people, though, who will not have any land, for the Lord never gave them any. A great many generations have lived without securing any land except by human laws, that the Lord never had anything particular to do with, and only permitted for the good order of society. But all human laws must perish when the Lord comes, for then the world will be governed by divine laws, and blessed are the people who have secured their landed estates from the Great Creator, who owns the earth, having created it by His own power, and who can give it to whomsoever He will. He gave to the righteous among the house of Israel the land of Palestine and the regions round about, and He says: “Behold I will open your graves and bring you into your own land, and you shall know that I am the Lord.” When the Lord has brought them out of their graves and has placed them in the land which He gave to their fathers they will fully comprehend that He will fulfil His promise. I would like to dwell on this subject further, and in doing so to refer you to the 37th Psalm, and to many sayings of the Lord to Moses about inheriting the earth forever, and so on; but we will pass by that to some other things that are on my mind.

We heard this forenoon that, when the Saints come into the possession of their everlasting inheritance and are exalted as glorified and eternal beings, to the increase of their posterity there would be no end. “No end!” What does that mean? It means that it will be eternal—that there never will be a period throughout all the future ages of eternity, but what they will be increasing and multiplying, until their seed are more numerous than the dust of the earth or the stars of heaven. They will multiply throughout all the ages of eternity, and the earth will be their headquarters. There is another principle connected with this. “What is it,” inquires one? They will not only people worlds, but they will create them. There is room enough to accomplish this when we consider that space is boundless. There is no end to the worlds that might be formed, for the materials existing in space from which to form them are infinite in quantity, and consequently can never be exhausted; for that which is infinite can, by no process whatever, be exhausted, no matter how many millions or myriads of creations may be formed out of it; and, consequently, though millions and millions, through their observance of the higher law that pertains to exaltation and glory, should be counted worthy to receive this earth as their everlasting inheritance; and should these millions and millions multiply their seed until they are as the sands on the seashore for multitude, yet there is room in boundless space for new creations and materials enough for the creation of new worlds, and for this innumerable offspring to spread forth and people them. Certainly they could not all dwell here: the earth would be overrun by them after awhile, but this would be one of the heavenly mansions, and their headquarters. And here comes in another doctrine. This forenoon you heard many of the principles and doctrines touched upon wherein this people differ from the outside world. I will now briefly call your attention to one.

We believe that we are the children of our parents in heaven. I do not mean our tabernacles, but our spirits. That being that dwells in my taber– nacle, and those beings that dwell in yours; the beings who are intelligent and possess, in embryo, all the attributes of our Father in heaven; the beings that reside in these earthly houses, they are the children of our Father who is in heaven. He begat us before the foundations of this earth were laid and before the morning stars sang together or the sons of God shouted for joy when the cornerstones of the earth were laid, as is written in the sayings of the patriarch Job. In the midst of all the patriarch’s trials the question was put to him: “Job, where wast thou when I laid the cornerstones of the earth, when the morning stars sang together for joy?” Job did not pretend to answer the question, but left it for the Lord. But the question was highly suggestive of a pre-existence, and of the fact that Job existed before Adam was placed in the Garden of Eden. Not his body, but the living being who inhabits the body, who thinks and reasons, and moves the body by his will, and that lives when the body is moldering in the dust; that being or those beings who shouted together when the cornerstones of the earth were laid. Why did they rejoice and shout together for joy when the cornerstones, or rather, when the nucleus was formed around which the materials of this globe were gathered together? Because, being intelligent, and knowing the path that led to immortality and exaltation, they saw a prospect before them of walking therein. But the point to which I wish to direct your attention now is a fact of a pre-existence—a principle believed in by this people, and which is new to them and the world generally; but it is not new, for it was taught in ancient times, and is a scriptural doctrine. Solomon says when the body is laid down the spirit will return to God who gave it. Now would there be any sense in that doctrine if we had never been there before? Could I say I will return to China, when I have never been to China. No, the word “return” would not correctly express the idea. If the spirit returns to God, it has been there before, and we are only strangers here, having been sent forth from our Father’s house to one of His mansions in its imperfect state. What for? To try us and give us experience, to place us in a school in which we may learn some things that we never could have learned if we had stayed at home, where we were at the time this earth was formed. By and by we will return home again. There is something comforting in the anticipation of returning home when we have been away for a long time; but if we never had been in heaven, in our Father’s house; if we never had associated with the heavenly throng and had never beheld our Father’s face we could not realize the feelings we now realize when we reflect that we are going back to where we once dwelt. Happy thought, to think that the memory, now clogged so that we cannot pierce the veil and discern what took place in our first estate, will by and by be quickened again and that we will wake up to the realities of our past existence. When a man goes to sleep at night he forgets the doings of the day. Sometimes a partial glimpse of them will disturb his slumbers; but sleep as a general thing, and especially sound sleep, throws out of the memory everything pertaining to the past; but when we awake in the morning, with that wakefulness returns a vivid recollection of our past history and doings. So it will be when we come up into the presence of our Father and God in the mansion whence we emigrated to this world. When we get there we will behold the face of our Father, the face of our mother, for we were begotten there the same as we are begotten by our fathers and mothers here, and hence our spirits are the children of God, legally and lawfully, in the same sense that we are the children of our parents here in this world. We are so called in the scriptures. It is written in the epistle of James: “Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the father of our spirits?” Again, we read that Jesus was with the Father from before the foundation of the world; and in his last prayer he prayed that he might be restored to that glory which he had with the Father before the world was.

Now, who is Jesus? He is only our brother, but happens to be the firstborn. What, the firstborn in the flesh? O no, there were millions and millions born in the flesh before he was. Then how is he the firstborn? Because he is the eldest—the first one born of the whole family of spirits and therefore he is our elder brother. But why these spirits came to inherit mortal tabernacles is a question worthy of consideration. This world is full of sin, sorrow, affliction, and death, and mankind see nothing, as it were, but mourning and sorrow, from their birth until they go down to the grave; then why send these heavenly spirits to dwell in mortal tabernacles, corrupt, fallen, and degraded as we are in this world? It is to learn, as I have already said, certain lessons that we never could learn up in yonder mansions. Learn to understand by experience many things pertaining to the flesh that we never could learn there, that when we should be redeemed by the blood and atonement of our elder brother, the firstborn of every creature, and brought back into the mansions whence we emigrated we might appreciate that redemption, and understand and comprehend it by experience and not by precept alone. We might bring up many arguments with regard to experimental knowledge. Who that is born blind can know by experience, or in any other way, the nature of light? No one. You might tell the blind man, who never saw the first glimmer of light about its beauties, you might speak of its various hues and colors, and of the benefit of being able to see, but what could you make him understand? He would not know light from anything else, and when you had talked to him for a hundred years about the beauty of light, he would not have a comprehension of it. Why? For the want of experience; he must experience the sense of sight or he cannot understand its worth. When his eyes are opened and the light beams forth upon the optic nerve it creates a new experience, by calling into play a new sense, and he learns something he did not before comprehend. He could not learn it by being taught. So in regard to coming from yonder heavenly creations to this world. We learn by our experience many lessons we never could have learned except we were tabernacled in the flesh.

But another and still greater object the Lord had in view in sending us down from yonder world to this is, that we might be redeemed in due time, by keeping the celestial law, and have our tabernacles restored to us in all the beauty of immortality. Then we will be able to multiply and extend forth our posterity and the increase of our dominion without end. Can spirits do this? No, they remain single. There are no marriages among spirits, no coupling together of the males and females among them; but when they rise from the grave, after being tabernacled in mortal bodies, they have all the functions that are necessary to people worlds. As our Father and God begat us, sons and daughters, so will we rise immortal, males and females, and beget children, and, in our turn, form and create worlds, and send forth our spirit children to inherit those worlds, the same as we were sent here, and thus will the works of God continue, and not only God himself, and His Son Jesus Christ have the power of endless lives, but all of His redeemed offspring. They grow up like the parents; that is a law of nature so far as this world is concerned. Every kind of being begets its own like, and when fully matured and grown up the offspring become like the parent. So the offspring of the Almighty, who begot us, will grow up and become literally Gods, or the sons of God. Here is another doctrine wherein we differ from the world, perhaps not so much differ either, for they do sometimes believe in that passage of scripture which speaks of Gods. “If they call them Gods unto whom the word of God comes,” says Jesus, or words to that effect, “why then do you find fault with me because I make myself the Son of God?” If those prophets and inspired men, such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Samuel, and others to whom the word of God came were Gods in embryo why do you find fault with the only begotten of the Father, so far as the flesh is concerned, because he makes himself the Son of God? We, then, shall become Gods, or the sons of God.

This puts me in mind of a certain vision that John the Revelator had on the Isle of Patmos. On that occasion he saw one hundred and forty-four thousand standing upon Mount Zion, singing a new and glorious song; the singers seemed to be among the most happy and glorious of those who were shown to John. They, the one hundred and forty-four thousand, had a peculiar inscription in their foreheads. What was it? It was the Father’s name. What is the Father’s name? It is God—the being we worship. If, then, the one hundred and forty-four thousand are to have the name of God inscribed on their foreheads, will it be simply a plaything, a something that has no meaning? Or will it mean that which the inscriptions specify?—that they are indeed Gods—one with the Father and one with the Son; as the Father and Son are one, and both of them called Gods, so will all His children be one with the Father and the Son, and they will be one so far as carrying out the great purposes of Jehovah is concerned. No divisions will be there, but a complete oneness; not a oneness in person but a perfect oneness in action in the creation, redemption, and glorification of worlds.

I thought I would make a few remarks on these subjects, inasmuch as they were broached this morning. You begin to understand, strangers, what the Latter-day Saints’ views are in regard to the multiplication of the human species to all ages of eternity. You begin to understand what is meant by that passage in the New Testament in the writings of Paul, that the man is not without the woman in the Lord, neither is the woman without the man. You will find it in the eleventh verse of the eleventh chapter of Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians. Here is a mystery which the whole religious world perhaps have not understood. They suppose that old maids and bachelors are just as honorable in the sight of God as though they were married. It is not so according to the words of Paul. If a man be in the Lord he must not be without the woman and the woman must not be without the man. Why? Because there is an eternal union to exist in the marriage covenant between the male and female to carry out and fulfil those great purposes of which I have been speaking—namely, the peopling of the mansions of our Father in the future. And those mansions will multiply to all eternity; there will be no end to the increase of worlds, and no end to the inhabitants of those worlds; and the father of the spirits who go forth, take tabernacles, and are redeemed, will be king over his own sons and daughters in the eternal worlds, through all the ages of eternity. He will not go and rob his neighbor of his children to set up a kingdom of his own. He must have a woman in the Lord, and the woman must have a man in the Lord if they ever carry out the great and eternal purposes of which I have been speaking.

Much might be said in this connection with regard to the doctrine of plurality of wives. There is a difference between the male and the female so far as posterity is concerned. The female is so capacitated that she can only be the mother of a very limited number of children. Is man thus capacitated? Was not Jacob the patriarch of old capable of raising posterity by all his wives? He certainly was; and were not many of the ancient prophets and inspired men capable of raising twenty, forty, fifty, or a hundred children, while the females could only raise a very limited number on an average. In the resurrection, when the four wives of Jacob come out of their graves, will he divorce three of them and only keep one? Or will they all multiply and spread forth their dominions under the old patriarch while eternal ages shall last? And would a monogamist have power to fill a world with spirits sooner than a polygamist? Which would accomplish the peopling of a world quickest, provided that we admit this eternal increase, and the eternal relationship of husband and wife—after the resurrection as well as in this world? In that state they do not marry nor give in marriage. Why? Because marriage is an ordinance that has to be attended to here, and unless it is secured in this life for eternity it cannot be secured in the resurrection, for they neither marry nor are given in marriage there. They do not baptize after the resurrection, they do not confirm and administer the ordinances pertaining to this life after the resurrection. All these things have to be attended to here, then we have a claim to the blessings here and hereafter. If a man would obtain an eternal increase and eternal kingdoms without number for his posterity to inhabit, under the direction and control of Him who is King of kings and Lord of lords, he must secure the right to these blessings in this life. When Adam and Eve were married they were married for eternity, from the very fact that they were united together before they fell, before death entered into the world. Death was not considered in the marriage covenant. The first example of marriage on record was between two immortal beings—two beings who would have lived until now if they had not sinned, and the end of that marriage covenant would never have come; but notwithstanding this, throughout the whole Christian world, when the marriage ceremony is performed the minister stands up and says: “I pronounce you husband and wife until death does you separate;” when death separates you the marriage covenant is at an end. Can they live together after the resurrection by virtue of these covenants made by uninspired men? No. Why? Because they were only married for a certain definite period, and that was until death, when that comes the time is run out. The covenant is no longer binding. It is not legal in the sight of heaven for eternity. But when a man is united to a woman by virtue of that priesthood which has power to seal on the earth and it is sealed in heaven, their marriage covenant is not dissolved, but it will stand and be good and lawful as long as eternity endures, just like the covenant entered into by our first parents. Perhaps you may think that Brother Pratt is rather enthusiastic and fanatical in his ideas to suppose that immortal beings can multiply; but I would ask any person who has read the first and second chapters of Genesis if the command which was first given to multiply was not given to two immortal beings who had not yet fallen? If, therefore, two immortal beings, were then commanded to multiply, why should it be thought incredible that immortal beings who are raised from the grave and restored to all that which Adam and his wife possessed before the Fall, should have the power to do the same?

Then again, it oftentimes happens that a monogamist, or the man with but one wife, loses that wife; and by the Scriptures he is permitted to marry again. If he loses a second wife it is lawful for him to marry a third wife, and so on. Now if we admit the eternal covenant of marriage between the first pair—two immortal beings, and that they were commanded to multiply, then, if the same order of marriage is to be continued, and we become immortal, and all the man’s three wives who have died in succession come up out of the grave, must he divorce all but one, or will he have them all? And if he must divorce any, which must he divorce, and which must he claim? Does not everything that is consistent and reasonable, and everything that agrees with the Bible show that plurality of wives must exist after the resurrection? It does, or else there will be a breaking up of the marriage covenant.

I do not know but I ought to apolo– gize for detaining you so long; but the subject is interesting to my own mind and I trust it has been interesting to the hearers.

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, June 18, 1871.

Let me call the attention of this congregation to a portion of the Word of God contained in the 46th and 47th verses of the last chapter of the Gospel according to St. Luke—

“And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:

“And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”

These are the words of our Savior to his disciples after his resurrection, and just before he was received up into heaven. The Apostles who heard these words had gone forth among the Jewish nation and preached in their numerous cities, towns and villages the Gospel of the kingdom, declaring that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. They had gone forth crying repentance in the midst of the people, and had pointed them to Jesus as the Messiah, and now, after the resurrection, when Christ, in fulfillment of the prophets, had been sacrificed for the sins of the world, a new commission seems to have been given them. Jesus said unto them, “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature;” and in another place—the last chapter of Matthew, the commission reads: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”

These Apostles received a divine commission to preach the Gospel of the Son of God to every people under the whole heavens, first to the inhabitants of Judea and Jerusalem. They were to commence there to fulfill this great commission; they were not permitted to go forth and begin the great proclamation, to open the door of the kingdom in all its fullness and glory, until qualified; but were commanded to tarry, as it is recorded by one of the evangelists, at Jerusalem until they were endowed with power from on high. Then they were to go forth to all the world and proclaim repentance and remission of sins, the Gospel of the Lord Jesus in its fullness, Jerusalem was to be the tarrying point, until then.

We accordingly find, as is recorded in the first and second chapters of the Acts of the Apostles, that they did tarry in that city, waiting for the power that was needful to enable them to carry out the commission which had been given to them. They could not fulfill the duties of that great mission without power from the heavens; they needed something more than human power; they needed that Spirit from on high which was promised them just before the crucifixion of Christ. Said he, “It is expedient for me that I go to the Father for your sakes, for if I go not to the Father the Comforter will not come; but if I go to the Father I will send him unto you.” Without this Comforter it was impossible for them to accomplish the duties of that great and solemn commission that was given them by our Lord himself. They needed the Comforter for various purposes. Jesus had told them that it should take the things of the Father and show them unto them; and that it should lead them into all truth and show them things to come. That is, it should make prophets and revelators of them, and inspire them to deliver the word of God to the inhabitants of the earth. Without this they could not magnify and honor the office of the Apostleship, which was the ministry to which they had been ordained. They needed the spirit of revelation, they needed power to commune with the heavenly hosts, with God the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ, that they might be able to impart their will to the inhabitants of the earth, according to the heed and diligence which mankind might be disposed to give unto them.

On the Day of Pentecost, a great feast which had been observed by the Jewish nation for many generations, there were gathered at Jerusalem, not only the Twelve Apostles, but also all the disciples of Jesus who had not apostatized, to the number of about a hundred and twenty souls—those of the ministry, the Seventies as well as the Twelve. They were gathered together in one place, in an upper room of the Temple; and they were engaged in fervent prayer and supplication before the Lord. What for? For the endowments and qualifications necessary to assist them in the work of the ministry. While they were thus assembled, praying and exercising faith with one accord, in the Lord and in his promises, they heard a sound as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting, and there appeared to them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them—that is, upon the hundred and twenty souls that were present, and they were filled with the Spirit of God, baptized with the Comforter, with the Holy Ghost and with fire; they were immersed in it, really baptized by immersion.

After having received the Holy Ghost or Comforter it immediately began to make manifest a supernatural power upon those men of God. They were unlearned men, most of them, or most of the principal ones, at any rate, were unlearned; they had been engaged, as we heard this forenoon, at the business of fishing, and no doubt had lacked the opportunities for the acquisition of learning which many of the scribes, pharisees, high priests and religious people of that day enjoyed. The Apostles and disciples of the Lord Jesus were not doctors of law and divinity, they had not been educated and qualified for the ministry in any theological school, seminary or university, but they received the Spirit of God, which manifested unto them the will of Heaven, and though they understood only their mother tongue, the power of the Spirit bestowed upon them enabled them to speak in the various languages and tongues of the earth, and to declare the things of God therein on that occasion.

There was then assembled a very great company of Jews, also proselytes, who had come from the surrounding nations to Jerusalem to keep the feast of Pentecost, according to their usual custom, and they heard of the marvelous work that was transpiring in the midst of this little company, and they heard unlearned men declaring, in the several tongues in which they were born, the wonderful works of God. This was marvelous; it was not the result of human power, but it was by the operation of the Holy Ghost. However, in that large congregation there were some who were disposed to accuse the disciples of folly. The followers of Jesus did not belong to the popular orders of the day. They were not high priests; they did not belong to the learned scribes or pharisees, but it was known that, as a general thing, they were illiterate men, and when the people saw this extraordinary manifestation of the power of God through them many ascribed it to the effects of new wine; said they, “It cannot be anything else,” and they accused them of being actuated on that occasion with the spirit of intoxication or drunkenness. But Peter, with the Eleven, stood up in the midst of the thousands there assembled, and opened the proclamation of the Gospel at Jerusalem according to the commission they had received, and what we wish to understand this afternoon is how, or in what manner, did he preach on that occasion? In other words, what was the plan of salvation he declared to the thousands of the children of men then gathered together? If we can find this out, we can ascertain what the Gospel is.

When they were accused of being under the influence of new wine, Peter, holding the keys of the kingdom, stood up and said, “This is not the effect of new wine, as ye suppose;” and as an argument to prove that they were not intoxicated he informed them that it was only the third hour of the day. In those days, probably, people did not get drunk at all hours, as they do in these, and according to the custom then, the third hour was too soon. Well, if the effects now made manifest to the people are not the results of drinking new wine, to what do you ascribe them? Said Peter, “This is that which was spoken of by the Prophet Joel, who says, ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy; your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions, and upon my servants and handmaidens will I pour out of my Spirit, in those days, and they shall prophesy; and I will show wonders in the heavens above, and signs in the earth beneath, blood and fire and vapour of smoke; the sun shall be darkened and the moon shall be turned into blood, before the great and notable day of the Lord shall come.’” Here, then, was a prophecy repeated by the Apostle Peter to prove what was the cause of the effects manifested on that occasion.

There is one thing in relation to this quotation from the prophecies of Joel to which I wish to call your special attention. Peter did not say, this is the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy, for we all know that it was not then fulfilled. The Spirit was not poured out upon all flesh; all men and women were not made prophets on that occasion, consequently the prophecy was not fulfilled. Peter said, “These cloven tongues of fire, and this Spirit that has been poured out upon these hundred and twenty individuals is the same Spirit which Joel said should be poured out in the last days upon all flesh.” That promise, down to the nineteenth century, has never been fulfilled; the Spirit has never yet been poured out upon all flesh, making all men and women living, prophets, seers, revelators, &c. The work was begun on the Day of Pentecost; but the sun was not darkened on that occasion, nor the moon turned into blood; the signs that were to precede the second coming of the Son of God were not then shown forth, and consequently the prophecy was not fulfilled. It yet remains to be fulfilled. I would like to ask what are we going to do with the whole Christian world which declare that there are to be no more prophets, revelators or inspired men, when the word of the Lord through Joel says all flesh are to become prophets—that is, all who are spared on the earth, for there will be a tremendous destruction before that is fulfilled? The wicked will be swept from the earth, and all who remain will become revelators, prophets and inspired men, getting visions and revelations and foretelling the future. What shall we do with the sayings that have gone forth and been inculcated and promulgated by numerous sects and parties, that the day of visions, revelations and prophecies has passed? But we will pass on.

After having quoted this prophecy, to show that the Spirit that man should receive under the Gospel dispensation was to give them revelation and prophecy, and to show that the Spirit then being poured out was that spoken of by Joel, the Apostle refers to what David the psalmist said about Jesus, and about his sufferings, death and resurrection; and having quoted what the prophets—witnesses that were dead, had to say about the Holy One, they, as living persons, the oracles of God then in the midst of the people, bore witness that Jesus was the very Christ, and that the Jews had put to death the Holy One; these combined testimonies convinced many that Jesus was indeed the Messiah. This was not a popular doctrine in those days, as it is now. There are millions at the present day with whom it is popular to believe in Christ; they do so traditionally, and because it is customary in the nations where they were born; they believe it because they have had millions of copies of the word of God published in their midst, and spread broadcast over the nations of Christendom. But in those days very few believed it, the very great majority of the people believed him to be a wicked impostor, and regarded him as the offscouring of all things, the friend of publicans and sinners; and they said that he cast out devils by the power of Beelzebub; they called him a Sabbath breaker, a wicked man, and so on; and the most religious people of those days were his greatest persecutors, and as they had influence over the rest it was very unpopular indeed to believe that he was the true Messiah. But the arguments brought forth in the first Christian sermon after the resurrection of Christ were sufficient to send conviction into the hearts of many thousands of people. They believed or professed to believe in their ancient prophets, and when they were quoted in relation to Jesus, and the testimony of living witnesses was borne they cried out, in the anguish of their hearts, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” As much as to say, we see that our nation has crucified Jesus, the Christ; we thought he was an impostor and that he ought to die, but now we are convinced that he is the Holy One, and that he has indeed risen from the dead; and is there any salvation for our nation, seeing that it has put Jesus to death? These were the feelings of sincere, sin-convicted persons on that occasion, and they cried, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?”

I sometimes think that if they had lived in our day they would have had so many ways pointed out to obtain the forgiveness of their sins that they would not have known which way to turn, and perhaps would not have had much confidence in what was said to them on the subject. But these men, being under the influence of the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, knew precisely what these convicted sinners should do in order to obtain the pardon of their sins. Now mark the answer, and see if it agree with the ways taught by the Christian sects. Peter said unto these inquiring souls, who believed and were pricked in their hearts, for belief comes before repentance, for a person who did not believe would not repent. Peter said, “Repent.” What more? “Come to the mourner’s bench?” Oh no, that is not written there. Come here to the “mercy seat, and be prayed for?” Oh no, nothing of that kind was said. Then what else were they to do besides repent? Said Peter, “Repent and be baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of your sins, and you shall receive the Holy Ghost.” What do you mean, Peter, by the Holy Ghost? Do you mean that same Holy Spirit—the Comforter that you have just received, and that has rested upon the hundred and twenty individuals who are followers of Christ? Yes, for he had just told them that it was the effects of the Holy Spirit which they had been witnessing, and they, no doubt, felt anxious to receive the same, for the Holy Spirit was that which would enable them to prophesy, see visions, dream dreams, and guide them into all truth, reveal unto them the things of the Father, and show them things to come, hence it was a Spirit greatly to be desired, and they wished to know how they might obtain it; and here was the path. It is very plain and very simple. Can it be wondered at, then, that so few in Salt Lake City wanted to go to the “Mourner’s bench,” at the Methodist camp meeting, after having heard and obeyed these principles. No. They have heard these principles for years and years, and having tested them, the fables of sectarianism possess no charms for them.

Seeing then that the pardon of sins is what the penitent soul desires, how is he to obtain it? By being baptized. What? Do you mean to say that sinners can obtain pardon by being baptized in water? “What effect,” inquires one, “has water in washing away sins?” It would have no effect whatever if God had instituted some other way; but, seeing that he has not, but has commanded sinners, first to believe that Jesus is the Christ; second, to repent of their sins; and third, to be baptized for the remission of their sins in his name, that is the right way; and though the water, independent of the blood and atonement of Christ and the commandment of God, has no efficacy whatever to wash away sins, yet it has great power because of these things, for the man that complies with this ordinance witnesses to God that he believes in Jesus and his Gospel and is willing to comply with its requirements. But if men should say, “There is no efficacy in water, and we will take some other way to obtain the pardon of our sins; the water is only to answer a good conscience towards God, and is not particularly essential,” do you think they would obtain the pardon of their sins, after hearing the Gospel preached in its purity and fullness by a man having authority from God? They might pray until they were as old as Methuselah, “Lord pardon, forgive and blot out our sins,” but do you think the Lord would hear them. Not at all. Why not? “Is it not written,” says a person of this class, “that the Lord is more willing to give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him than earthly parents are to give good gifts to their children?” Yes, but it must be remembered that this is written of those who have believed, repented, and obeyed the Gospel; it was not written concerning unbelievers and the disobedient. When they have once believed in Jesus Christ and have been baptized for the remission of their sins, they can call upon God in all confidence and he is more willing to give his Holy Spirit unto them than earthly parents are to give good gifts unto their children, and you know how willing they are to do that, for they like to see their children joyful and happy. So it is with our Heavenly Father. He likes to see his children who have repented and obeyed his Gospel joyful and happy, and he is willing to give good gifts unto them; but he never can to those who do not keep his commandments. They may pray until they are greyheaded and they are about to fall into their graves and their sins would not be pardoned.

But again. Peter informs the inquiring believers on the Day of Pentecost that if they would repent and be baptized they should not only receive the remission of their sins, but they should also receive the Holy Ghost. Was this promise only to the people then present? No, for if we read the next verse we find that “the promise is to you and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even to as many as the Lord our God shall call.” Is not that promise universal—to every people, nation, kindred and tongue, Jew and Gentile, bond and free? Yes, the promise is to all the Lord our God shall call; not only to the three thousand baptized on that occasion, but to all afar off. Does not that scope in all languages, nations, kindred and ton– gues? Yes. What! Shall they all receive the Holy Ghost? Yes, if they will comply with these conditions. Shall they all be pardoned if they will repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of their sins? Yes. Now, what effect would that vast multitude expect to follow the reception of the Holy Ghost by them? Supposing this congregation had been present eighteen centuries ago at Jerusalem at the first Gospel sermon preached after the ascension of Christ, and that, in the anguish of your hearts you had inquired what you must do to receive the pardon of your sins and how you could obtain the Holy Ghost, and what effects that Holy Ghost would have had upon you, would you not have expected to receive something precisely similar to what the hundred and twenty had received upon whom it was poured out? Could you have expected anything else? No. But it is very different with the Christian sects today; they think the Holy Ghost will perform everything ascribed to it except the supernatural powers and effects; but when it comes to revelation, prophecy, dreaming dreams, foretelling future events, casting out devils, healing the sick, discerning of spirits, speaking in and interpreting other languages and tongues, they boldly declare, as I heard in my boyhood, and again during the past week, that these wonderful and miraculous gifts were only intended for that day and age of the world. All the other effects are to continue, but they are to cease. The Spirit is to purify, sanctify, justify, to give love, joy, peace, long-suffering, patience, hope, and all these great and glorious effects that are promised in the word of God; but when it comes to these other effects, they are all to be done away. By whom? By Christendom, by those professing to be the teachers and leaders of the people. By what authority do they do these things away? Can they find within the lids of this Holy Bible, from beginning to end, that a period should ever arrive, so long as there was one soul on the earth to be saved or pardoned of its sins, that these miraculous effects should cease. No, they have taken this responsibility upon themselves, and it is a very fearful responsibility indeed to say that they are done away. I would not dare to do it, I should be afraid of fulfilling that prophecy delivered by Paul, when he says that, “In the last days perilous times shall come; men shall be lovers of their own selves, proud, boasters, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, incontinent, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.” I do not, want to come under the declaration of Paul; I do not want to be numbered with those who fulfil this prediction that he uttered about the people of the latter days. He was not speaking altogether of the wicked world that made no profession of religion. He was not referring to atheists and deists, and those who did not profess Christianity; but of professed religionists, people who profess to believe in the Bible and in Jesus, having the form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.

If you can tell me any way by which the power of godliness can be more effectually denied than to do away the effects of the Holy Spirit as they were manifested on the Day of Pentecost and in all the Christian churches so long as there were any on the earth; I say if there is any more effectual way of denying the power of godliness than to do away with this power and say it is not necessary, I do not comprehend it. I, myself, should not know how to deny the power of godliness any more effectually than to say these things were done away. And yet when I was a youth, before I was nineteen years of age, I used to attend Methodist meetings mostly, though I never joined any society; and I heard these ideas advanced from their pulpits; there was to be no such thing as healing the sick in the name of Jesus; no such thing as foretelling future events; no such thing as obtaining new revelation, for the canon of Scripture was closed; no such thing as receiving the gift of discerning of spirits, or beholding angels and ministering spirits; no such thing as speaking in other tongues or languages by the Spirit of God. I heard all these things preached then, and I heard them again last week at the Methodist camp meeting here in this city. I did not know but spiritualism, so-called, had made a change in the world during the last forty-one years; but I find that the same old story still exists as in the days of my youth. They still cry, “All these things are done away, they are not necessary in this age of the Christian world.”

Who told you they were not necessary? Has God spoken anew and told you that revelation had ceased to exist? Why, no, that would be a contradiction in terms, that would be a new revelation, if he had spoken anew. How did you find out, then, that they were not necessary? I cannot find it in the Scriptures, indeed I find directly to the contrary—that they are necessary; and here let me quote a passage that was quoted this forenoon, in the 4th chapter of Ephesians. Speaking of the gifts that Jesus gave, the Apostle says when he ascended up on high he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. I have already repeated the gifts he did give through the inspiration and power of the Holy Ghost, that was made manifest upon those who obeyed the Gospel. He gave, says the Apostle in this fourth chapter, some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, pastors and teachers besides all these other miraculous gifts I have named.

Now let us see if we can ascertain from the following verses how long these gifts were to continue in the Christian Church. That will settle the question. They were given, said he, for the perfecting of the Saints. Before we proceed to the other reasons for which they were given, let us examine this first for a moment: “They were given for the perfecting of the Saints.” I have heard Christian ministers, that ought to know better, misleading the world and their congregations, by declaring that these gifts were given to convince the world of mankind who were unbelievers in ancient days, and to establish Christianity in the earth, and the latter once done on a firm foundation, they were no longer needed.

We will now see what Paul says. “They were given for the perfecting of the Saints.” Indeed! Are there Saints in these days in New York, in the New England States, in the Southern and in the Northern States, in Great Britain and in the nations of Europe, and among all the nations of what is termed modern Christendom? “Oh, yes,” says one, “we have over two hundred millions of Christians among all these nations.” Indeed, then you have these gifts, I suppose; for remember they were given for the perfecting of the Saints. Do you mean to tell me that there are Saints, and they have all become perfect? “Oh, no,” says one, “we do not pretend to say that the Roman Catholic, the Greek Church, and all the various denominations of the Protestant Churches have become perfect yet.” Very well, these gifts were given for the perfecting of the Saints, and if you are Saints where are your gifts? For does it not follow that if you have no gifts you are either perfect Saints or not Saints at all? For if you are not perfect Saints these gifts must be among you. Do you know any way to perfect Saints independent of these gifts? I do not. If the Bible has taught any other way I have never happened to find it. I know of no way in which Saints can be perfected without inspired Apostles and prophets and the gifts here named. But see the inconsistency I am now about to point out! Here are five gifts named that Jesus gave when he ascended up on high. The first one is an Apostle, the second is a prophet; then come evangelists, pastors and teachers; and we might go on and enumerate eight or ten more gifts that were given. Now, why split these verses in two? I ask all Christendom why do they separate these verses in two, and say, “We will believe that pastors and teachers and evangelists are necessary in all ages of Christendom to perfect the Saints, but when it comes to the other two gifts—Apostles and prophets, they are not necessary?” Why? Because it involves a miraculous power. An Apostle must have revelation and the power of inspiration to get more Scripture; and if this were allowed it would overturn their creeds, and the power of godliness would again be upon the earth, and the Christian sects cannot bear the idea that there should be any such thing as the power of revelation or vision, or the power to understand the future; no, that is all done away. Has Jesus told you to make this separation in the gifts, to retain some of them and say the others are done away? Is there any more right, in the nineteenth century, than of a preceding period, for the head, in the human body, to say to the hand, “I have no need of thee?” No, the hand is just as necessary now as in the first century of the Christian era; hence evangelists, pastors and teachers, which are still believed in as being necessary to perfect the Saints, have no right to say to the Apostle or the prophet, “We have no need of thee in the Church.”

But the gifts of the Spirit were not only given for the perfecting of the Saints; there was another object in view—they were for the work of the ministry. Now I presume that the two hundred millions of Christians will not pretend to deny that the work of the ministry is needed; and if the work of the ministry is needed then are inspired Apostles and prophets needed, for they were given for the work of the ministry as well as to perfect the Saints; so long, therefore, as the work of the ministry is needed there should be inspired prophets and Apostles on the earth.

A third object for which they were given was the edifying of the body of Christ. Now I really believe that the body of Christ, if it can be found on the earth, needs edifying, unless its members have come to that perfect day that is spoken of in the 13th chapter of Paul’s first epistle to the Corinthians. Let me refer to that chapter, for it furnishes an additional proof that these gifts were to continue in the true Church; not, of course, among apostate Christendom, among those who have no authority. Speaking of charity, the Apostle says—

“Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

“For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.

“But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

“When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

“For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”

Now, here is proof positive; this shows how long these spiritual gifts would be needed. Now we know in part and prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect is come that which is in part shall be done away. As much as to say that while the Church remains in this mortal state we are but children in Christ Jesus. Here we only know in part and prophesy in part; we speak in tongues, and so on; but when that which is perfect is come that which is in part shall be done away. Now can anyone tell me whether that day of perfection has come for the Church or not? If it has, these gifts should be done away; but if not, they should still remain. Can we find any clue in the words I have quoted to the nature of the period when the Saints shall come to perfection! Yes. Here in this life, we only know in part, we prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away. Now we see through a glass darkly, that is while the Church is in this mortal state; but when that which is perfect is come we shall see face to face. This shows that we shall be in our immortal state before these gifts are done away—I mean in the true Church, of course they will not be in false churches; but in the true Church they will always exist, until we know even as we are known; when we come into the presence of the Almighty, when the veil is rent asunder, and we look upon the face of God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. We shall not know in part in that day, nor prophesy in part; neither shall we heal the sick there; there will be no gift of healing needed, for there will be no one to be healed. Neither shall we speak in tongues then; tongues will cease; for the Lord will turn unto his people a pure language. They will have the language of angels, the language of God the Father, and will all understand one another and will have no need of the gift of tongues.

Here, then, are evidences that the Christian world cannot get rid of; here are testimonies that condemn the whole of them; not only those of this generation, but all who have lived during seventeen centuries that are passed who have had the wickedness in their hearts to say, “The power of godliness is not needed in our day,” and that the canon of Scripture is closed, and there must be no more prophets to receive new Scripture.

The gifts which I have been describing are the effects of the Holy Ghost. Now we hear almost every society praying the Lord to send the Holy Ghost. Their cry is, “Let the Holy Ghost come down upon us now; let it be with us this very moment; let us have its influence and enjoy its operations now.” But they know nothing about it; they have never received the Holy Ghost, neither can they until they comply with the Gospel ordinances—repent of their sins and be baptized for their remission. “But,” says one, “do not you remember good old Cornelius? Was he baptized?” No, He received the Holy Ghost before baptism. But had he any promise of it before? No. The Lord, on that occasion, had a special object in view, which is named in the history of the transaction. Cornelius seems to have been the first Gentile, whom the Apostle Peter, in opening the door of the Gospel to the Gentiles, was commanded to visit. The Jewish nation was exceedingly prejudiced against the Gentiles. Peter happened to have six proselytes from the Jewish nation with him on that occasion. Oh, how bitter they were against the Gentiles! They thought the Gentiles had no part or lot in the matter; and notwithstanding the commission that the Lord had given to the Apostles, he had to work a miracle to convince Peter, so strong were the prejudices of the Jews that the Holy Ghost and the Gospel blessings were not for the Gentiles. You recollect Peter’s vision, in which the Lord let down a sheet by the four corners, full of all manner of beasts, clean and unclean, and Peter being commanded to arise, slay and eat; and his not being willing to do it because it was contrary to the law of Moses. But he was told that the Lord had cleansed the contents of the sheet, and he was forbidden on that account to call it common or unclean. You recollect that the Lord sent an angel, as he always does when he has a Church on the earth, to a certain man called Cornelius. This man had been praying, he wanted to know how to be saved. The Lord had heard his prayers, and had sent an angel to him, and the angel said to him, “Cornelius, thy prayers are heard, and have come up before the Lord as a memorial. Now send to Joppa for one Simon, whose surname is Peter, and he will tell you words whereby you and your house will be saved.” What! Cornelius not in a state of salvation, and he a praying man? No doubt he was in a state of salvation, so far as he understood; but he was ignorant and did not understand how to get into the celestial kingdom. He knew nothing about the birth of the water and of the Spirit, that we heard about this forenoon, without which no man can enter into the kingdom of God. Yet he had given much alms, and his prayers had come up as a memorial before God, and the Lord had pity on his ignorance and sent an angel to him. But the angel did not see proper to tell him what to do to get into a more full state of conversion; he simply told him to send for Peter—a man of God, promising him that he would tell him how to be saved. Peter, being warned beforehand, by the vision, went down to the house of Cornelius, nothing doubting, taking these six Jewish converts with him, full of all their Jewish prejudices. When Cornelius had given an account of the visit of the angel to him, Peter began to preach Christ and him crucified, and while he was speaking the Holy Ghost fell on Cornelius and his household, and they spake with tongues and magnified God.

Do you suppose that the Holy Spirit could have been retained by Cornelius supposing he had refused to obey the ordinances of the Gospel? No, it was only given as a witness and testimony to convince the Jewish brethren, who were with Peter, that the Gentiles might have salvation as well as the Jews; for when they began to speak in tongues, under the influence of the Holy Ghost, Peter turned to his Jewish brethren, and said, “Who can forbid water that these should not be baptized?” And he commanded them, in the name of the Lord Jesus, to be baptized. What, a command? Yes. Had Peter the right to give that command? Yes; for the angel of the Lord had said to Cornelius, “He shall tell you words whereby you and your house shall be saved,” and his command to them to be baptized was some of his words unto them.

Supposing that Cornelius had said, “Oh, baptism is not essential, it is not among the fundamental principles of salvation; it is one of the nonessential, outward ordinances, etc., and is of no consequence. I have received the Holy Ghost, I am a Christian, I believe in your words; I have offered my alms to the poor, and they have come up before the Lord; I am good enough, there is no need for me to be baptized,” how long would the Holy Ghost have remained with him? Just the moment that he had refused to obey this commandment the Holy Ghost would have fled from him and his house. The only way for him to retain the gift that comes through obedience was to be baptized, though on that occasion it was given without promise, and without baptism. Baptism, recollect, is for the remission of sins, and the Holy Ghost comes afterwards; but on this occasion it was given before it; but he could not have retained it, it would have left him, and he would have been in seven-fold greater darkness than before had he refused to obey the words of this inspired messenger. The Jewish brethren could not forbid water after the manifestation of the power of God on that occasion; their prejudices were done away by a miracle.

Now, because the Lord varied on that one occasion and gave the Holy Ghost before baptism, how many there are who want to do away with baptism, and to seek some other way for those who are convicted and laboring under a feeling of sorrow and mourning for their sins; but there is an ordinance connected with the receiving of the Holy Ghost. If there is an ordinance connected with the baptism of water, so there is in relation to the higher baptism; and the Lord made his servants, the Apostles, ministers not only of the word, but also of the Spirit. They were able ministers of the Spirit; that is, they had authority to administer the Spirit. They could not do it of themselves; but when God calls a man and gives him authority by revelation and sends him to preach his Gospel, and people listen to that Gospel and are willing to be baptized, that man has the right to baptize them; and if he is ordained to the Apostleship or to those offices that have the power to administer the higher ordinance of the laying on of hands, and he lays hands on, God will acknowledge that ordinance. He will acknowledge baptism by giving remission of sins; and he will acknowledge the laying on of hands by sending from heaven the gift of the Holy Ghost. Indeed, in ancient days, when Paul went to Ephesus he found certain persons there who had been baptized. They thought, no doubt, they were very pious, and perhaps concluded that they were in a state of salvation. They had heard of and received what was called John’s baptism, but when Paul asked them if they had received the Holy Ghost since believing they said they had not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. Then Paul perceived that they had been taught by some impostor—some person who had no authority, who pretended to be preaching John’s doctrine, who had told them nothing about the Holy Ghost. John, when he baptized the people, told them there was one coming after him mightier than he who baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire; but these Ephesians had been taught by some person who had no authority, and who had left out a part of the doctrine of salvation, as preached by John, just as the Christian sects do at the present day. Paul saw that their baptism was illegal, and he preached unto them Jesus Christ, and when they had heard this they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, and when Paul laid his hands upon them the Holy Ghost fell upon them and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.

Again, when Philip went to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to the people, he had no right to administer the higher ordinances of the laying on of hands; he had not been ordained to the power. He had the right to baptize them in water and he baptized a large number of men and women among them; and when the Apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God they sent unto them Peter and John, who, when they came down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost, for as yet he was fallen on none of them; and they laid their hands upon them, and they received the Holy Ghost.

Do you not see that this higher blessing of the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost comes through the laying on of hands, which is an ordinance just as much as baptism by water, both of which have to be administered by a man called of God, or the Lord will have nothing to do with it.

We have thus pointed out to sinners, this day, how they may be converted. How do you like it? Is it according to Scripture? If it is not reject it; but it is the same doctrine that we have taught for forty-one years in this Church. It is the same doctrine that has been published by the Latter-day Saints throughout the length and breadth of our Union; it is the same doctrine that we have carried to the nations afar off; it is the same doctrine that the Lord sent an holy angel to deliver to Joseph Smith—a youth, and commanded him to preach, and ordained him to the Apostleship, commanding him, by revelation, to ordain others; it is the same doctrine that tens of thousands have received. Do they receive the promises? Is the Holy Ghost given? If it is, all these gifts are given; and if the Latter-day Saints are not in possession of these gifts, they are not in possession of the Gospel, and are no better off than the Baptists, Methodists or Presbyterians, and we all know they have not the Gospel; we all know they have not the power of God among them. They do not believe in it, they say it is done away. We all understand this. Well, Latter-day Saints, you are no better if you have not these gifts. But you have had forty-one years’ experience, and I think you know whether you have them or not. If you have, blessed are ye; but if you have them not, it is time you waked up and began to hunt around for the Gospel if it can be found on the earth. If you have not these gifts, then the angel has not come with the Gospel according to promise; but if you have, the angel of God has flown through the midst of heaven and committed the everlasting Gospel to the children of men, and you have been the receivers of it. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, March 26, 1871.

I will call the attention of this congregation to a portion of the word of the Lord contained in the first five verses of the fortieth chapter of the prophecies of Isaiah—

“Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.

“Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.

“The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

“Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places 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.”

These are the words of the inspired Prophet Isaiah, most of which remain to be fulfilled. The first two verses contain a prediction not yet fulfilled: ‘“Comfort ye my people, saith your God; speak comfortably to Jerusalem, cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”

Every person who is acquainted with the history of the inhabitants of Jerusalem very well knows that this prediction has never received a fulfillment. In consequence of the wickedness of that people, and the great transgressions that they committed in the sight of heaven in rejecting the Lord, their true Messiah, great and severe calamities and judgments came upon them, and have continued upon them and their posterity until this age of the world. In other words, all those curses which are pronounced in the Book of Deuteronomy upon the head of Israel have literally been fulfilled during the past eighteen hundred years. I have no need to enter into particulars with regard to that devoted race; but I will state, very briefly, some of the judgments that they have endured.

After the Prophet Isaiah had delivered this prophecy they suffered severely at the hands of the Babylonians, who, about six centuries before Christ, came against the Jews and Jerusalem and destroyed many of their nation, and carried the remnant of them into captivity to Babylon, where they remained some seventy years. They then returned and rebuilt their city and temple, and were chastened at various times from that period until their Messiah came, in fulfillment of the prophecies and predictions of Isaiah concerning the first advent of the Redeemer. He came, as he, himself, expressed it, to his own, but his own received him not. They looked upon him as a base impostor, as a Sabbath breaker, a gluttonous man and a winebibber. Instead of being a moral character, in their estimation, he was a friend of publicans and sinners, and associated with them instead of with those who professed to be religious. They persecuted, hated and reviled him; and finally succeeded, in fulfillment of prophecy, in crucifying him.

Jesus, before he was crucified, said unto the Jews, “I say unto you that the kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and shall be given to a people who shall bring forth the fruits thereof.” As much as to say, “You once enjoyed the fruits of the kingdom; you once had in your midst inspired men, prophets, great and holy men who spoke as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost; you once enjoyed all the blessings and gifts of the kingdom of God; in the days of your righteousness you enjoyed these fruits in abundance. But, alas! You have departed from the laws of that kingdom; you have forsaken the religion of your fathers; you have turned your hearts away, you have apostatized from the truth, and the fruits that were enjoyed by your fathers no longer exist among you. Your fathers were in possession of all the miraculous fruits and blessings and gifts of the kingdom. They could prophesy and see visions; they could hear the voice of the Lord speaking to them; they could enjoy the power and gift of the Holy Spirit; work miracles in the name of the Lord; heal the sick; cast out devils and perform all these miracles that are recorded in the Old Testament; and these were the fruits of that kingdom which you, the Jewish nation, once enjoyed; but because you have rejected your Messiah, rejected the testimony of the prophets concerning him; rejected the testimony given in the law of Moses, and those great types pointing to the Messiah, you, in turn, shall be rejected, the kingdom shall be taken from you, and it shall be given to a nation who shall bring forth the fruits thereof.”

Again, Jesus says, before he was crucified, when looking upon Jerusalem, the capital city of the Jews, “O, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered you together as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, but ye would not.”

Again, after enumerating their wickednesses, pointing out their apostasy, and pronouncing a great variety of woes upon them, he finally delivers a prediction of this nature upon the heads of this devoted people, “There shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people; they shall be destroyed by the edge of the sword; they shall be carried away captive into all nations, and Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”

This was literally fulfilled upon their heads. Titus, the Roman general, laid siege to that city and overcame the Jews, eleven hundred thousand of whom were killed, and ninety-seven thousand taken into captivity, many of the latter being afterwards persecuted and killed by their enemies; thus a poor, miserable remnant were scattered abroad among all the various nations and kingdoms of the earth. Jerusalem, their beloved city, where their temple was built, where the name of the Lord was placed, and from which they had been warned by the mouth of the prophets, where the voice of inspiration had been heard; where Jesus himself, who spake as never man spake, ministered for many months. That city was delivered up to the Gentiles, and overcome by them; the stones of their beautiful temple were torn down to the very foundation, and the city passed into the hands of the Gentiles, and has remained in their possession from that day until the present time, which, I think, is now precisely 18 centuries since that people were scattered and became a hiss and a by-word among all nations. It was said this morning that they invoked the curse of the Almighty on their heads when they said, at the crucifixion of the Savior, “Let his blood be upon us and upon our children.” The Lord took them at their word, and his blood has been answered upon their heads, and upon the heads of their children, and their children’s children, until eighteen long centuries have rolled away.

When will the time come for this great curse to be removed from the Jewish nation? When shall it be said that “her iniquity is pardoned, she has received at the Lord’s hand double for all her sins?” When shall the message go forth, in the words of our text, “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God? Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, for she has received at the Lord’s hand double for her sins.” I ask the question; where shall we get the reply? In what way will this comforting message be delivered to the inhabitants or the earth? When shall this glorious cry go forth concerning this persecuted, downtrodden people? When shall Jerusalem be rebuilt in all its beauty and glory by the hand of the people who have been so long scattered among the nations? When shall that beautiful and holy temple be again reared upon its former foundations, and the glory of the Lord be manifested in it? There is such a proclamation to be made manifest, such a message to go forth by Divine authority and power, and to be delivered to the children of men, comforting the inhabitants of Jerusalem and declaring that her warfare is accomplished.

Before this great message for the redemption and salvation of the Jewish nation can ever go forth, there is a certain work to be performed on the earth, certain purposes to be fulfilled, and until that is fulfilled and accomplished, Jerusalem can never be rebuilt, and the Jews can never return as a nation. A decree has gone forth by the mouth of the Son of God himself, that that city should be in the possession of the Gentiles, and that it should be trodden down by them, and that the Jews should be scattered among the nations until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. Who, among all the inhabitants of the earth, can tell us how the Lord will bring about the fulfillment of this prediction in regard to the Gentiles? Who is able to declare when the times of the Gentiles will be fulfilled? Who knows anything about it, unless it be revealed from heaven? We might pore over the pages of the Bible, understand many of the prophecies that have been fulfilled, and be able to treasure up in our hearts and commit to memory all the predictions of the prophets, and yet, without new revelation, no person would be able to decide when the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. We might, of course, by carefully searching the prophecies, judge of the particular period of age of the world in which that would take place; but to come to the exact year is out of the power of human wisdom, it cannot comprehend it; nothing but new revelation can put us in possession of this important knowledge. In vain may attempts be made, by the organization of societies, for the amelioration of the condition of the Jews; in vain will societies be organized for their restoration to their own land and the rebuilding of Jerusalem, until the Lord’s time arrive.

It may not be amiss to declare, in a very few words, the belief of the Latter-day Saints, in regard to the fulfilling of the times of the Gentiles; that is, what we understand by the fulfilling of their times. We believe, as was said this morning, that before the times of the Gentiles can possibly be fulfilled, a proclamation must come from heaven and be sounded in their ears—namely, that an angel must come from heaven and bring the everlasting Gospel, not for the Jews, the descendants of Israel, alone, but for every nation, kindred, tongue and people. Gentiles and Jews, all must hear it, for the prediction is that when the angel comes forth with that message from heaven, it is to be preached to all nations, kindreds, tongues and people. This, of course, includes Gentiles as well as Jews. We cannot, therefore, suppose that the times of the Gentiles will be fulfilled until after that event takes place. When the angel comes, when the servants of God are sent forth by Divine authority with a proclamation, and have fulfilled that prediction by declaring the everlasting Gospel to all the nations and kingdoms of the Gentiles, then their times will be fulfilled, and not before.

What would be the use of sending the Gospel to the Gentiles if their times were fulfilled and there was no hope or chance for them to receive salvation? The very declaration—that an angel shall come forth with the Gospel in the latter days before the destruction of the wicked, and that that Gospel is to be preached to Gentiles as well as Jews, is proof and evidence to every reflecting mind that believes the Bible that the Gentiles will have an opportunity, until that message is delivered and the prediction concerning it fulfilled. When that is done the law is bound, the testimony is sealed, so far as they are concerned.

When the Almighty, in the present century, sent forth an angel from heaven, as we heard this forenoon, and restored the Gospel and the authority and power to preach it and administer its ordinances, and organized this Church on the earth, and sent forth his servants to all nations so far as they would open their doors to receive them, they were fulfilling the commands of the Most High given by the angel. We have been forty years, since the angel came, fulfilling that prediction; how many more years the Lord may bear with the nations and kingdoms of the Gentiles before they are cut off I do not know. How many more years will pass over our heads that we will have the privilege of declaring the fullness of the everlasting Gospel among the nations of the Gentiles is not revealed. All that we know on the subject is what the Lord told us some forty years ago, that the times of the Gentiles would be fulfilled in the generation in which he established his Church, that is, that before the generation living forty years ago have all passed away the times of the Gentiles will be fulfilled. And what then? The prediction of Isaiah, in another place, will be literally fulfilled—the “law will be bound up and the testimony sealed” so far as sending the Gospel to the Gentile nations is concerned.

What will be the next work to be performed? The Jews will then come in remembrance before the Lord. That is, the set time for their deliverance and restoration will have come, the period predicted by the mouth of the ancient prophet in which the Gospel shall be proclaimed to them. In testimony of this let me refer you to the eleventh chapter of Romans, in which the Apostle Paul has touched upon this subject very plainly. We will read a few passages, commencing at the 13th verse:

“For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:

“If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them.”

Again he says, speaking of Israel—

“And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;

“Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.

“Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.”

Thus the kingdom was taken from Israel and given to them (the Gentiles) and they brought forth the fruits of it. Says Paul again—

“Well; because of unbelief they 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.”

A great warning to the Gentiles—the house of Israel—the branches of the tame olive tree were broken off because they ceased to bring forth the fruits of the kingdom of God. As much as to say, Because they ceased to bring forth the fruit that pertains to the tame olive tree, they were broken off through unbelief, therefore you Gentiles, who are now grafted in, being branches of the wild olive tree, take heed and beware lest you fall after the same example of unbelief. If thou standest by faith, boast not against the branches, etc.

Paul says—

“Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou shalt be cut off.”

Now, here is a definite prediction: if ye continue in his goodness, the goodness of God will be extended to you, though you are Gentiles, though you are grafted, contrary to nature, into the tame olive tree, but if you do not continue in his goodness, if you lose your faith, as the house of Israel lost it; if you cease to bring forth the fruits of the kingdom, as they have done, you also shall be cut off. And they also; that is, the Jews, if they abide not in unbelief, shall be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again; but if they were cut out of an olive tree, wild by nature, and were grafted, contrary to nature, into a good olive tree, how much more shall those which be the natural branches (meaning the scattered Jews), be grafted into their own olive tree? For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part has 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 Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.”

You see, the Lord has a blessing in store for Jacob—the literal seed of Israel; but we cannot go to them until the Gentile fullness has come in, until their times are fulfilled, then all Israel will be saved, by a Deliverer sent out of Zion; in other words, there will be a Zion again on the earth. The earth has been destitute of a Zion for about sixteen centuries. No Church of God, no prophets, no inspired Apostles, no voice of God from the heavens, no ministration of angels; none of the ancient powers and gifts, all the fruits of the kingdom of God that existed in the first century of the Christian era banished from among the Gentile nations, and the cry among them all is, “That the power of godliness, as manifested in the first century of the Christian era, is no longer necessary.” They have a form of godliness without the power thereof. The power then manifested, say they, is not to be enjoyed by the people of our day and age.

Having, then, lost their faith and ceased to bring forth the fruits of the kingdom, the prediction has gone forth that they also shall be cut off. But when? Not until the Lord sends that angel from heaven with the everlasting Gospel, and sends forth his servants by Divine authority to preach the Gospel to all the nations and kingdoms of the Gentiles. When that has been done it brings condemnation wherever the sound of it goes and the people reject it. But a few will receive it; a few will gather together and they will build up Zion, and out of that Zion will come a Deliverer who will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.

Who will be that Deliverer? Certainly Jesus, when he came eighteen centuries ago, did not turn away ungodliness from Jacob, for they then were filling up their cup with iniquity. They have remained in unbelief from that day to this; hence, there did not come a Deliverer out of Zion eighteen centuries ago. But the Zion of the last days, that Zion that is so frequently and so fully spoken of by the ancient prophets, especially by Isaiah, is the Church and kingdom of God; and out of that Church or kingdom or Zion is to come a Deliverer, who will turn away ungodliness from Jacob after the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

Paul further says—

“As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the father’s sakes.”

Again he says, in the 30th verse—

“For as ye in times past, believed not God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief; even so have these,” meaning Israel, “also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.”

This shows that the proclamation which goes to Israel must come through the Gentile nations; that is, through those whom God may select among the Gentiles, that through the mercy and kindness of the Gentiles, or those who receive the message in the latter days, the house of Israel may be saved.

This is what the Lord has in store for his servants. You young men who sit here on these seats will live to see the times of the Gentiles fulfilled; you will live to see the time when the Lord will give you a direct command from on high to no more go into the cities of the Gentiles to preach unto them, the law having been bound, the testimony sealed; and the mission which you will receive, young men, will be to go to the scattered remnants of the house of Israel among all the nations and kingdoms of the Gentiles. To search them out and proclaim to them the message restored by the angel, that it may be preached to Israel, as well as to the Gentiles. That is your destiny; that, young men, is what the Lord will require at your hands. We have labored, in the midst of persecution, for forty years past in trying to establish Zion among the Gentiles.

Will the Gentiles be entirely cut off? Oh no, there will be a great many, even when Israel are gathering, who will come along and say, “Let us be numbered with Israel, and be made partakers of the same blessings with them; let us enter into the same covenant and be gathered with them and with the people of God.” Though the testimony is bound, and though the law is sealed up, yet there will be an opening for you to come in. But you will have to come of your own accord, there will be no message sent to you, no ministration of the servants of God expressly directed to you. When the times of the Gentiles are filled, through the mercy of the believing Gentiles, the house of Israel must obtain mercy; that is, through the messengers that will then go forth and fulfill the first verses of my text—“Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God.”

Individuals are now sitting in this Tabernacle who will carry this message. The young among us will go forth to the ends of the earth and declare to the scattered remnants of Israel, wherever found, the comforting words that, “The times of the Gentiles are fulfilled, that the day is come for the covenant which God made with the ancient fathers of Israel to be fulfilled;” and you will have the pleasure of gathering them up by thousands, tens of thousands, and hundreds of thousands, from the islands of the sea and from all quarters of the earth; for that will be a day of power far more than it is while the Gospel continues among the Gentiles.

“But,” inquires one, “have you any testimony from the Scriptures to prove that that day will be a day of power?” Hear what the Lord says by the mouth of the Psalmist David, “Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power.” They are not willing now and have not been willing for eighteen centuries past. But when the day of his power comes they will be willing to hearken, they will gather up to their promised land, for it will be the day of the Lord’s power. In what respect will there be power manifested then? As power was manifested when the Lord brought Israel from the Egyptian nation into the wilderness of Sinai and spoke to them by his own voice, so will the power of Almighty God be made manifest among all the nations of the earth when he brings about the redemption and restoration of his people Israel; or, in other words, the former display of power will be eclipsed, for that which was done in one land, among the Israelites and Egyptians in the wilderness, will be performed among all nations. So says the prophet. Let us quote prophecy to show what the day of the Lord’s power means, when the people of Israel will be willing. The first to which I will call your attention will be found recorded in the 20th chapter of Ezekiel, commencing at the 33rd verse—

“As I live, saith the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you:

“And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out.

“And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face.

“Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord God.”

This will be when the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled, and you Elders of Zion are sent to the house of Israel. You will go in the Lord’s power, and so great will be that power that you will have influence over them. You will tell them that their warfare is accomplished, that their iniquity is pardoned, and that they have received at the Lord’s hand double for all their sin; and the Lord will bear witness of this by his mighty power, with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm will the Lord do this, and with fury poured out. Poured out upon whom? Upon all the nations and kingdoms of the Gentiles who will not receive the truth, their times being fulfilled. It will be expressly the day of the Lord’s judgment, or, in other words, the hour of the Lord’s judgment, that is spoken of in the 14th chapter of Revelation, when the angel brings the Gospel.

It is not only a Gospel to be preached to all the nations of the earth, but in connection with it you will have to make proclamation connected with it, to all people, to fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment is come. And as these judgments come, kingdoms and thrones will be cast down and overturned. Empire will war with empire, kingdom with kingdom, and city with city, and there will be one general revolution throughout the earth, the Jews fleeing to their own country, desolation coming upon the wicked, with the swiftness of whirlwinds and fury poured out, recollect, as it was poured out on the Egyptians.

Let us read the 35th verse—

“And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face.”

“No more miracles,” say this Christian generation; “no more power to be made manifest; we have a form of godliness, but we don’t need this display of power.” This is their cry, with all these prophecies staring them in the face.

“I will bring you into the wilderness.”

Bring whom? The house of Israel which are gathered from all these various nations. “I will bring you into the wilderness, and there I will plead with you face to face as I plead with your fathers in the wilderness, in the land of Egypt.” How did he plead with them there? He plead with them by his power, by splendid miracles, by his own voice he caused Mount Sinai to tremble under the sound and power of his voice, while lightnings and thunders were made manifest before all the congregation of Israel. He spoke to them by the voice of a trumpet which, when the twenty-five hundred thousand of the hosts of Israel heard, they fled, and stood afar off—they were afraid and fearful, because the Lord had descended upon Mount Sinai. So will he plead with Israel in the latter days, and show forth his mighty hand and power, when he gathers them from the nations; and he will give revelation as he did to their fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt.

But as a still further testimony of the power that will be made manifest in the restitution of Israel, let me refer you to another passage, which is contained in the 11th chapter of Isaiah, “He shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.” Here is a declaration that the two great kingdoms of Israel—its “outcasts,” the ten tribes, scattered seven hundred and twenty years before Christ, and the “dispersed of Judah,” dispersed among all nations, shall be gathered. But before he gathers them he will set up an ensign—an ensign is to be raised in the latter days especially for the gathering of Israel.

Again, says the Prophet, “And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea.” How? “With his mighty power shall he shake his hand over the river and shall smite it in the seven streams and make men go over dry-shod. And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people which shall be left, from Assyria like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.” The same thing, not a spiritual, but a literal transaction, as the Lord smote the tongue of the Egyptian sea in ancient days, and caused his people to go through on a highway in the midst of those mighty waters which stood like walls on each side of the assembly of Israel. So in the latter days he will not only cut off the tongue of the Egyptian sea, but the river in its seven streams will also be divided and men will go through dry-shod. This is the testimony of the prophets concerning the events that are to take place when the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

But in regard to this ensign, the Lord has never said that he will lift it up before the time comes to gather Israel. And now let us inquire where will it be lifted up; in what part of the earth will he commence the great work? He must begin it among the Gentiles, as I have already said, and as Isaiah tells us in the 49th chapter—a standard or ensign, to which the people will gather, will be reared among the Gentiles. Recollect this is something to be commenced among the Gentiles, not among the Jewish nation, not away yonder in Palestine or Jerusalem. “Thus saith the Lord God, behold I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles and set up my standard to the people”—the same ensign that Isaiah speaks of in the eleventh chapter—for a standard and an ensign are synonymous terms.

Now, notice what follows, as soon as this standard is raised among the Gentiles, “They shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried on their shoulders;” that is, those who receive that standard, or who embrace the work and gather to the standard, “shall bring thy sons in their arms and thy daughters on their shoulders.” Will the kings of the earth help on this work? Yes, for the prophet says, “And kings shall be their nursing fathers and their queens thy nursing mothers.” What more about the Gentiles? “And they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet.” Israel is to be honored: the Lord will require even the kings of the Gentiles—their great men, lords, nobles and rulers to bow down and lick up the dust of their feet, for he intends to make Israel the head and not the tail.

To show still more fully the place where this ensign or standard is to be raised, let me refer you to the 18th chapter of Isaiah, wherein you will find these words, “Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia.” In the 3rd verse of that chapter, after uttering the prediction concerning the judgment to come upon that land beyond the rivers of Ethiopia from Palestine—a land that has the appearance of shadowing with wings, like North and South America, the prophet says, “All ye inhabitants of the world and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains, and when he bloweth with a trumpet, hear ye”—something that the Lord considered worthy of the attention of all the people of the earth. It was not to be sounded to one nation alone, not a work like that of ancient days—to be done among the Egyptian nation alone, but “all ye inhabitants of the world and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifts up an ensign on the mountains, and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye.”

Now Webster and other lexicographers in their definitions of the word “standard” say it is something to which the people rally and around which they gather, as you Latter-day Saints have rallied to these mountains from all the various nations and kingdoms of Europe; from Australia, Southern Africa, Hindostan and other parts of the earth. Here the “standard” has been lifted up, the “ensign” has been raised; the angel has come, the voice of inspiration is again heard; the Church of the living God is again reared; Zion is rising in the earth; the times of the Gentiles will soon be fulfilled, and when that epoch arrives all the inhabitants of the earth will be required to see, understand and listen to that which God is doing in the midst of the mountains. He is raising up a people there that are called his Church, his kingdom, that never is to be destroyed, but is to continue forever.

This agrees with the testimony of the Prophet Daniel. In his second chapter we are informed that Nebuchadnezzar, the king, had a dream in which it was revealed to him concerning the kingdoms of this world, down to the latter days. Daniel came forth before the king, related the dream and gave the interpretation thereof. Said he—

“Thou, O king, sawest, and beheld a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible.

“This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass,

“His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.

“Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.

“Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.”

The mountain referred to by Daniel is the place where the standard is to be raised and the ensign is to be reared; the same place whence the proclamation was to go to all the dwellers on the face of the earth requiring them to listen to the same, and to see the stone that was cut out of the mountains that was eventually to fill the whole earth; while the great image representing all human governments was to become like the chaff of the summer threshingfloor.

Are there any statesmen in this congregation, among the strangers who are visiting in our midst, who are desirous to know the future destiny of the nations, kingdoms and governments of our globe? Read the prophecies; there you will find portrayed the destiny of all governments organized by human wisdom; they are to become like the chaff of the summer threshingfloor—the wind is to carry them away, and no place is to be found for them, from the head of gold to the feet and toes of iron and clay, all are to be broken to pieces together. And what is to remain in their stead? A stone cut out of the mountains without hands—little in its beginning, insignificant in the estimation of the great and powerful kingdoms of the world; but it is to roll forth, become a great mountain and fill the whole earth and to continue forever. Hear what the prophet has said—

“And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.”

The kingdom that was set up eighteen hundred years ago by our Savior and his Apostles was destroyed out of the earth in fulfillment of the prophecies of Daniel and John the Revelator. They said that the powers of the world would make war with that kingdom and overcome it. That has been fulfilled to the very letter. The kingdom of God, with its inspired prophets and Apostles, was rooted out of the earth, also the Priesthood with all its powers; and instead thereof churches, creeds and governments have been reared and built up by human wisdom; but the kingdom of God that is to be established in these last days, instead of being overcome and destroyed out of the earth, is to stand forever; it was not to be delivered to another people, that is, it is never to change hands, but once established, once organized on the earth, it is to continue from that time henceforth and forever, while the kingdoms of this world will vanish away like the dream of a night vision.

Now we begin to understand the latter part of our text. Not only is Israel to be saved; but “prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert an highway for our God.” What do we want with an highway in the desert? We have already read about the highway through the Red Sea, and through the seven streams of the river of Egypt that is to be cast up like it was in ancient days; but what need have we for a highway in the desert? It is for the ransomed of the Lord to pass over. What ransomed of the Lord? Those who are ransomed from among the nations, by the proclamation of the everlasting Gospel, those who listen to the angelic message that comes from heaven; they who have toiled with ox teams, mule teams and handcarts and wheelbarrows to get themselves here, to lay a foundation of the work of God in the midst of this desert. They need a highway here, that the balance who are to come hereafter, and they will come by hundreds of thousands, may come swiftly, and more speedily than by handcart conveyances. And this puts me in mind of another passage in regard to the highway connected with the proclamation of the Gospel to all the world.

Isaiah says, “Cast up, cast up an highway, gather out the stones, lift up a standard for the people, prepare ye the way of the people, for behold the Lord hath proclaimed unto the ends of the world, say ye to the daughter of Zion, behold thy salvation cometh; behold his reward is with him and his work is before him. They shall call them a holy people, the redeemed of the Lord; and they shall be called, sought out, a city not forsaken.” What a curious work to take place in the latter days! A highway to be made, and the stones to be gathered out! When these men, sitting here on these seats, were working out in these rugged mountains for some two or three hundred miles fulfilling these prophecies, did you blast out the rocks and gather out the stones?

Another thing connected with the prophecy says, “Go through, go through the gates; cast up an highway,” etc., I have no doubt that the prophet saw the construction of this highway in vision, in fact he must have seen it or he could not have predicted it to such a nicety. He must also have seen these trains crossing this great continent, “dodging” into what seemed to be holes in the mountains, and after watching a little while see them come out at the opposite side. He did not call them tunnels in those days, but said, “Go through the gates,” etc.

In order to show how swiftly the people would come on this highway in the latter days let me refer you to the 5th chapter of Isaiah and the 26th verse, “He will lift up his ensign to the nations from afar, and will hiss unto them from the ends of the earth; and behold they shall come with speed swiftly.” Not with handcarts and ox teams as we did for many years; but they are to come from the ends of the earth swiftly. But he tells us that an ensign is to be lifted up. All these predictions center in one: The standard, the ensign, the proclamation, the casting up of the highway, and the coming with speed swiftly, all concentrate, as it were, into one, to fulfil the great purposes of Jehovah in the latter days.

“Lift up an ensign to the nations from afar!” Where was Isaiah when he delivered this prophecy? In Palestine. Do you think you could get much further from Palestine and have an ensign raised up from afar? It is not an ensign that is to be raised up in the land of Palestine, right where the prophet predicted it; but he saw from afar, from a great distance, the great work God would perform in the latter day. “Lift up an ensign for the nations;” not for one nation, not for a few people; but it was a work that was general in its nature—an ensign or standard the raising of which was to affect all the inhabitants of the earth. And when this is accomplished an highway was to be built and be made straight in the desert—an highway for our God. Why? Because, says our text, the glory of the Lord was to be revealed and all flesh was to see it together. This does not refer to the first coming of the Messiah, but to that great advent spoken of by all the prophets when he shall come in his glory and power, when the mountains and hills that are on the east, west, north and south of this valley will be leveled; when the crooked places shall be made straight, and the rough places plain; and when the glory of the Lord will be revealed; and, instead of a few seeing it, as they did in ancient times, “all flesh will see it together;” for every eye shall see him when he comes in his glory and power to reign as King of kings and Lord of lords. Amen.

Discourse by Elder Orson Pratt, delivered in the New Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, April 9, 1871.

Brethren, sisters, and strangers, I wish to address you for a few moments this forenoon, and to speak upon those things that may be put into my mind. We, all of us, believe that our God is a God of order, that all things that are conducted by him are conducted in the most perfect order, according to law. Hence it is written somewhere in the New Testament, I think in the 14th chapter of Paul’s 1st epistle to the Corinthians that: “My house is a house of order and not a house of confusion.” What we mean by this is, that everything pertaining to the salvation of men, which is acceptable in the sight of heaven, must be in accordance with strict law. In other words, that the Lord designed a work among the human family according to those laws that were ordained by him from before the foundation of the world. If he desires them to be baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost, he has ordained a law through and by which mankind may be made partakers of the blessing. If he is willing to extend mercy and pardon to the children of men he has ordained a law, namely, faith in his Son Jesus Christ, in the atonement that he wrought out in the ordinances and institutions of the Gospel that he established, requiring the human family to repent, and reform their lives, to put away their sins, break off from every manner of evil and enter into a covenant with him to serve him faithfully, and to manifest their repentance by obeying a certain ordinance, then comes forgiveness. That ordinance is baptism, which must be performed according to the pattern and law of heaven; it must not be varied from. Sprinkling will not do; pouring water on the head will not do; baptism administered by a man having no authority from heaven will not be accepted; it must be administered according to law, order and authority, by one who is commissioned, to whom the Lord has spoken and to whom he has given revelation and called to perform that work, then it will be acceptable, and will be acknowledged in heaven, and be recorded in the archives of eternity; and when the books are opened it will be found in those books that that man or that woman has complied with the order of God’s house, given heed to the institutions and ordinances of his kingdom, and having continued to do so to the end he or she can be saved.

God has also ordained that when he bestows upon the children of men spiritual gifts that they must be received in order; they must be given according to the laws and institutions of the church, through the administration of that authority and power that he has established here on the earth. Hence, Paul, in writing to the saints in his day, said to them on a certain occasion that he greatly desired to visit certain branches of the church in order that he might impart to them some spiritual gifts. Why not receive these spiritual gifts in some other way? Why not receive these great and choice heavenly blessings according to our own will? Because God is a God of order and his house is not a house of confusion. If he desires to bestow any great, choice heavenly gift upon his servants and handmaidens he has ordained an authority and set that authority in his church, and through the administration of the ordinances that pertain to that heavenly gift they may be made partakers thereof.

God has promised in the sermon on the mount a very great blessing to the pure in heart—“Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” How great is the blessing that is here pronounced! They shall see God. God is a being who is willing to reveal himself, even to his children here on the earth. If they will abide by law, give heed to the ordinances that he has ordained, and walk in consistency with the principles that are revealed, they may come up to that high privilege here, in time, that the veil will be taken away and their eyes can look on the face of the Lord, for they are pure in heart. I know it is written in other places that no man hath seen God at any time. In the book of Exodus it is written that “no man shall see my face;” and then again, the same book says that Jacob saw God face to face and talked with him. Again it is written that Moses talked with the Lord face to face as a man talks with his friend. How shall we reconcile these passages of scripture? If we take the scriptures in their true import, and according to the general tenor of their reading, they are easily reconciled. No natural man hath seen God at any time. A natural man could not behold the face of the Lord in his glory, for he could not endure it; but when a mortal man or woman here on the earth has put away the natural or carnal mind; when he or she has put away all sin and iniquity, and has complied with the laws and commandments of God, then, like Jacob of old, he or she may see God face to face, and, like Moses, talk with the Lord as one man talks with another. It is written here in this book which you and I have received as a part and portion of our rule of faith and practice, “The Book of Covenants,” as follows: “Verily thus saith the Lord: It shall come to pass that every soul that forsaketh his sins and cometh unto me, and calleth on my name, and obeyeth my voice, and keepeth my commandments, shall see my face, and know that I am; And that I am the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world; And that I am in the Father, and the Father in me, and the Father and I are one.” Again it is written in another revelation: “And inasmuch as my peo– ple shall build up a house unto me in the name of the Lord, and do not suffer any unclean thing to come into it, that it be not defiled, my glory shall rest upon it; Yea, my presence shall be there, for I will come into it, and all the pure in heart that shall come into it shall see God. But if it be defiled I will not come into it, and my glory shall not be there; for I will not come into unholy temples, etc.”

I have read these sayings, in order that the Latter-day Saints may perceive that God is willing that you and I and the least of those that are called Latter-day Saints, if they will purify themselves before him and call upon his name, keep his commandments, obey his institutions, comply with the order of his house, regulating their lives and conduct by every word that proceeds forth out of his mouth—may rend the veil, and be permitted to gaze upon the face of our Redeemer and Creator. This was the privilege of the Saints of God in times of old. Paul in addressing the Saints who lived in his day writes thus:

“Ye are come unto Mount Zion, unto the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, unto God the judge of all, and Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant.”

What high privileges and great blessings were conferred upon those former-day Saints! They had been enabled by their faith to come up before God and claim, not only those common spiritual gifts that are imparted to the church for the mutual edification of its members, but they were also permitted to rise still higher, by virtue of their faith, and gaze upon the heavenly Jerusalem, to come unto mount Zion, to the city of the living God. They could behold the face of God, the face of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the faces of an in– numerable company of angels—the Church of the Firstborn, and mingle themselves, as it were, in their society. All these things were obtained through obedience to the laws and institutions that God had made manifest in the midst of his house.

When the Lord commanded this people to build a house in the land of Kirtland, in the early rise of this church, he gave them the pattern by vision from heaven, and commanded them to build that house according to that pattern and order; to have the architecture, not in accordance with architecture devised by men, but to have everything constructed in that house according to the heavenly pattern that he by his voice had inspired to his servants. When this was complied with did the Lord accept that house? Yes! They having complied with the order and built the house according to the pattern, the Lord condescended to grace that house with his presence. In that house the veil was taken away from the eyes of many of the servants of God and they beheld his glory. In that house the Lord Jesus Christ was seen by some of the Elders of the Church in heavenly vision standing upon the threshold of the pulpit, proclaiming himself to be Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the Great I Am, &c. And he gave keys of instruction and counsel and authority to his servants, declaring unto them that he accepted that house at their hands, and inasmuch as they had been faithful in the performance of their duty in building a temple to his name, he blessed them therein. He also proclaimed unto them that from that house his servants should go forth armed with the power of his priesthood, and proclaim the Gospel among the various nations, and that many people should come from the uttermost parts of the earth and praise the name of the Lord in Zion, and in the midst of his house. Thus did the Lord, when we fulfilled on our part, fulfil his promises on his part. So, in the latter days, when the Lord our God shall permit us to build that house of which he has spoken in the paragraph just quoted from the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, it shall come to pass in that day that all who are pure in heart that enter into that house shall see God. Thus we perceive that the Lord chooses to have a house built unto his holy name, wherein he shall manifest his glory and power.

When Moses reared a tabernacle in the wilderness of the land of Egypt according to the pattern that God gave unto him did the Lord acknowledge it? He did. Did he show forth his power and glory in that house? He did. Did a cloud rest upon it by day and a pillar of flaming fire hover over it by night? Yes! It was done according to the pattern and according to the heavenly order and commandment of the Great Jehovah. So, when the servants of God in the last days shall build a house in the tops of the mountains, he will acknowledge it if they build it according to the pattern which shall be revealed from heaven, on the spot that the Lord shall designate by his own voice, and in the time and in the season, proclaimed by the Almighty. It shall come to pass in that day, also, that the Lord will show forth his glory in that house, and the fame thereof shall go forth to the uttermost parts of the earth: all people, nations, languages and tongues, kings upon their thrones, and many nations will 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 is, that he may inform our minds concerning the order and laws that pertain to his house and kingdom, that everything may be done by law and authority, that what is done here on the earth may be acknowledged and recorded in the heavens, for the benefit of those who believe.

I have about five minutes more. We read in the scriptures of divine truth that the Lord our God is to come to his temple in the last days, as was quoted yesterday by Elder Penrose. It is recorded in the 3rd chapter of Malachi that “the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple.” This had no reference to the first coming of the Messiah, to the day when he appeared in the flesh; but it has reference to that glorious period termed the last days, when the Lord will again have a house, or a temple reared up on the earth to his holy name. “The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple, but who shall abide the day of his coming? Who shall stand when he appears? For he is like the refiner’s fire and like fuller’s soap. He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver upon the sons of Levi; that they may offer an offering unto the Lord in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord as in days of old and as in former years.” The Lord intends to have a temple not only in Zion, but, according to this, in old Jerusalem; and he intends that the sons of Levi shall receive their blessings—the blessings of their priesthood that were conferred upon them in that temple; and he is determined that the ministers in that temple shall be purified as gold and silver is purified, and he is determined to sit as a refiner’s fire in the midst of that temple. So it will be in the temple in Zion, for behold in the last days the Lord will rear up Zion upon the American continent, and he will also rear up Jerusalem on the eastern hemisphere. Zion on the western continent will be the place where the Lord will also purify and cleanse these two priesthoods—the priesthood of Levi and the priesthood of Melchizedek—the lower and the higher priesthood—and they will be filled with the glory of God upon Mount Zion in the Lord’s house.

Let me read a few passages in the Book of Covenants. Thirty-nine years ago a revelation was given, a passage or two of which I will now read; “A revelation of Jesus Christ unto his servant Joseph Smith and six elders, as they united their hearts and lifted up their voices on high. Yea, the word of the Lord concerning his church, established in the last days for the restoration of his people, as he has spoken by the mouth of his prophets, and for the gathering of his saints to stand on Mount Zion, which shall be the city of the New Jerusalem. Which city shall be built, beginning at the temple lot, which is appointed by the finger of the Lord, in the western boundaries of the State of Missouri, and dedicated by the hand of Joseph Smith, Jun., and others with whom the Lord was well pleased.”

I now notice another prediction: “Verily this is the word of the Lord, that the city of the New Jerusalem shall be built up by the gathering of the saints, beginning at this place, even the place of the temple, which temple shall be reared in this generation. For verily this generation shall not all pass away until an house shall be built unto the Lord, and a cloud shall rest upon it, which cloud shall be even the glory of the Lord, which shall fill the house.”

We will now read an item from the sixth paragraph: “The sons of Moses,” that is, those that pertain to the two priesthoods, “the sons of Moses and the sons of Aaron shall offer an acceptable offering and sacri– fice in the house of the Lord, which house shall be established in this generation, upon the consecrated spot as I have appointed—And the sons of Moses and of Aaron,” that is, those who receive the two priesthoods, “shall be filled with the glory of the Lord upon Mount Zion in the Lord’s house, whose sons are ye; and also many whom I have called and sent forth to build up my church. For whoso is faithful unto the obtaining of these two priesthoods of which I have spoken, and the magnifying their calling, are sanctified by the Spirit unto the renewing of their bodies. They become the sons of Moses and of Aaron and the seed of Abraham, and the church and kingdom, and the elect of God,” etc.

Here then we see a prediction, and we believe it. Yes! The Latter-day Saints have as firm faith and rely upon this promise as much as they rely upon the promise of forgiveness of sins when they comply with the first principles of the Gospel. We just as much expect that a city will be built, called Zion, in the place and on the land which has been appointed by the Lord our God, and that a temple will be reared on the spot that has been selected, and the cornerstone of which has been laid, in the generation when this revelation was given; we just as much expect this as we expect the sun to rise in the morning and set in the evening; or as much as we expect to see the fulfillment of any of the purposes of the Lord our God, pertaining to the works of his hands. But says the objector, “thirty-nine years have passed away.” What of that? The generation has not passed away; all the people that were living thirty-nine years ago have not passed away; but before they do pass away this will be fulfilled. What is the object of this Temple? The object is that the Lord may, according to the order that he has instituted, unveil his face to his servants, that those that are pure in heart and enter into that temple may be filled with the glory of God upon Mount Zion in the Lord’s house; and, finally, whatever we may be called upon to do, whether it be building temples, cultivating the earth, organizing ourselves into cooperative companies to carry out the purposes and designs of Jehovah; whether we are sent abroad on missions or remain at home, it matters not, all things must be done in order, all things must be performed according to law, so that they will be acceptable in the sight of heaven, and be recorded there for the benefit of the people of God here on the earth. Why? Because God is a God of order; he is a God of law. God is that being that sways his scepter over universal nature and controls the suns and systems of suns and worlds and planets and keeps them moving in their spheres and orbits by law; and all his subjects must comply with law here on the earth, that they may be prepared to do his will on the earth as his will is done by the angelic hosts and those higher order of intelligences that reign in his own presence. Amen.