the Book of Mormon Shall Come Forth_.
The first Nephi, fifth century B. C., writing of the conditions which
would obtain when the Nephite record should come forth to the world
says:
The things which shall be written out of the book shall be of great
worth unto the children of men and especially unto our seed, which
is a remnant of the house of Israel. For it shall come to pass in
that day, that the churches which are built up, and not unto the
Lord, when the one shall say unto the other, Behold I, I am the
Lord's; and the others shall say, I, I am the Lord's. And thus
shall every one say that hath built up churches, and not unto the
Lord. And they shall contend one with another; and their priests
shall contend one with another, and they shall teach with their
learning, and deny the Holy Ghost, which giveth utterance. And they
deny the power of God, the Holy One of Israel: and they say unto
the people, Hearken unto us, and hear ye our precept; for behold
there is no God today for the Lord and the Redeemer hath done his
work, and he hath given his power unto men. Behold, hearken ye unto
my precept; if they shall say, There is a miracle wrought, by the
hand of the Lord, believe it not; for this day he is not a God of
miracles; he hath done his work. Yea, and there shall be many which
shall say, Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die; and it
shall be well with us. There shall also be many which shall say,
Eat, drink, and be merry; nevertheless, fear God, he will justify
in committing a little sin, yea, lie a little, take the advantage
of one because of his words, dig a pit for thy neighbor; there is
no harm in this. And do all these things, for tomorrow we die:
and if it so be that we are guilty, God will beat us with a few
stripes, and at last we shall be saved in the kingdom of God. Yea,
and there shall be many which shall teach after this manner, false,
and vain, and foolish doctrines, and shall be puffed up in their
hearts, and shall seek deep to hide their counsels from the Lord;
_and their works shall be in the dark, and the blood of the Saints
shall cry from the ground against them_. [29]
This prophecy in substance is repeated by Mormon, including the
singular prediction that the Book of Mormon should come forth, "In a
day when the blood of the saints shall cry unto the Lord, because of
secret combinations and works of darkness." [30]
A more vivid description of Christendom in the early part of the 19th
century could scarcely be written than that given in these passages.
I shall be told, however, that it is a description which even an
imposter could easily give circumstanced as was Joseph Smith. His
experience through announcing his first revelation was sufficient
to test the manner in which Christendom was prepared to receive an
alleged new revelation, and he was sufficiently familiar with the
prevailing "Christian" notion that the days of miracles were past,
to formulate the part of the foregoing arraignment dealing with that
subject. He also knew something of the pride and haughtiness of
Christian sects, and with this knowledge as a foundation it can with
some reason be urged that he could easily write the description of
Christendom found in these quotations from the Book of Mormon. There
is one item within the prophecy, however, both in the first Nephi's
writings and also Mormon's that Joseph Smith could not know except
through the inspiration of God, viz., that "the blood of the Saints
shall cry from the ground" against this corrupted Christendom. The
people of the great American Republic, would as soon have been brought
to believe in the return of the age of miracles as to believe that the
time would come when the blood of Saints would cry from their soil to
the God of Sabaoth for vengeance against any of them. Had not the day
of religious persecution, at least within the enlightened republic
of the new world, forever passed away? Had not the great government
of the United States, destined to dominate by its influence the
American continents--had it not been founded upon the broad principles
of religious and civil freedom? Were not the rights of conscience
guaranteed by specific provisions both in the national constitution and
in the state constitutions? Was not America in those days especially
heralded as the asylum for the oppressed of every land? Was it not the
boast of our statesmen that a nation had at last been founded where
religious freedom was recognized as the chief corner stone in the
temple of liberty? How bold indeed must that man be who would--while
the people were yet enjoying this very feast of liberty--rise up
and say that the blood of Saints should cry from American ground to
God for vengeance! Yet such is the prediction of these old Nephite
writers, whose words were translated into the English language by
Joseph Smith. And the only question to be considered here is--since
the reality of the prophecy cannot be questioned--has the prophecy
been fulfilled? Let the blood of those Saints who were killed and who
died from the effects of exposure during the expulsion from Jackson
county, in 1833, answer. [31] Let the blood of David W. Patten, one of
the twelve Apostles in this last dispensation, together with the blood
of young Patrick O'Banion and Gideon Carter, slain at Crooked River,
Missouri, in 1838, answer. [32] Let the blood of the innocent men, and
children martyred at Haun's Mills, in Missouri, answer; [33] let the
innocent blood of all those whose lives were sacrificed at DeWitt and
in and about Far West and during the expulsion of some twelve thousand
Latter-day Saints from the state of Missouri in 1839, answer. Let the
innocent blood of the Prophet Joseph Smith himself and that of his
brother Hyrum slain at Carthage prison, in June, 1844--while under the
plighted faith of the state of Illinois for their protection--let their
blood answer. Let the blood of many others that were slain in Nauvoo
and vicinity during the two years following, and also the martyrdom of
many who died from exposure and want in the enforced exodus from Nauvoo
to the Rocky mountains--the victims of "Christian" tolerance--answer.
Let the blood of Elder Joseph Standing, killed by a mob in the state
of Georgia, 1879,--answer. Let the blood of Elders John F. Gibbs and
William Berry who were murdered in Tennessee while in the very act of
opening a meeting for the preaching of the gospel, answer; as also the
blood of their two friends, the Condor brothers, who were shot down in
their father's house while trying to protect these Elders from their
assailants. Let all these instances of martyrdom testify of the truth
of this prophecy of the Book of Mormon; for these martyrdoms were
endured for the word of God which it contains, and not for any crime
alleged against those who suffered. Nay, in nearly all these cases
crime was not even alleged.
A singular thing connected with these martyrdoms is the fact that in
no instance have the perpetrators of these murders been brought to
justice. Perhaps it is fitting that it should be so. It seems to make
the martyrdom more complete; and more fully meets the terms of the
prophecy since, according to that prophecy, the blood of Saints in the
day when the Nephite scriptures should be brought to light, was to cry
unto the Lord from the ground for vengeance, clearly foreshadowing the
fact that man would not avenge it.
V.
_Because my Word Shall Hiss Forth, Many Shall say "A Bible! A
Bible_!"
Another item of interest in the coming forth of the Book of Mormon is
the predicted clamor that should be raised against it. Here follows the
prophecy--the Lord is speaking to the first Nephi:
Behold, there shall be many at that day when I shall proceed to
do a marvelous work among them; * * * when I shall remember the
promises which I have made unto thee, Nephi; * * * that the words
of your seed shall proceed forth out of my mouth unto your seed;
and because my words shall hiss forth many of the Gentiles shall
say, A Bible, A Bible, we have got a Bible, and there cannot be any
more Bible. [34]
It is notorious that this cry was raised--and even now is raised at
times--against the Book of Mormon. It was relied upon not only as
the chief but also the all-sufficient argument against accepting the
book, as is abundantly proved by reference to the arguments of the
Elders in answer to the objections urged against it. [35] For example
in Orson Pratt's most excellent work, "Divine Authenticity of the Book
of Mormon," there are such headings as these--and in the body of this
work under the respective topics he meets and entirely overthrows all
sectarian argument that the Book of Mormon ought to be rejected because
it claims to be a new revelation: "To Expect More Revelation is not
Unscriptural;" "To Expect More Revelation is not Unreasonable;" "More
Revelation is Indispensably Necessary."--(a) for Calling the Officers
of the Church--(b) To Point out the Duties of the Officers in the
Church--(c) To Comfort, Reprove and Teach the Church--(d) To Unfold
to the Church the Future; "The Bible and Traditions Without Further
Revelation an Insufficient Guide." From these topics may be gathered
the class of objections urged against the Book of Mormon; and as Elder
Pratt so admirably treats that subject, I do not deem it necessary to
enter into that field, since all may inform themselves how complete
the victory of the Elders has been in that controversy by reference to
Elder Pratt's works. I am interested in the matter here only to the
extent of pointing out the fact that the prophecy that the Book of
Mormon would be met with the cry--"A Bible, a Bible, we have a Bible
and there cannot be any more Bible," has been fulfilled. [36]
Closely associated with the sectarian notion of the cessation of
revelation and miracles is also the idea that the Hebrew scriptures
comprised all the records in which God had vouchedsafed a revelation
to man. That is, the Hebrew volume comprised the whole of sacred
scripture. In 1829 at the city of Cincinnati, during the very great
debate which there took place between Alexander Campbell and Robert
Owen--an unbeliever in the Bible,--on the Evidences of Christianity,
the following very positive question was submitted in writing to Mr.
Campbell:
Are the books composing the Old and New Testaments the only books
of divine authority in the world?
To this question Mr. Campbell gave this very emphatic answer--and up
to that time at least, I do not hesitate to say that he voiced the
sentiments of all Christendom; and this was the answer of Mr. Campbell:
"I answer, emphatically yes." [37]
The "yes" Mr. Campbell writes in italics.
The foreging should be modified by this explanation, viz: all divisions
of Christendom are not agreed upon all the books that comprise what
is called the Bible. It is well known that the Catholics regard as
canonical some books which the Protestants hold to be apocryphal,
and in addition to the written word of God, I am mindful that the
great Roman Catholic church adds the unwritten word of God. In other
words, the traditions of the church are regarded as the word of God.
The Protestants generally accept the books of the English authorized
version of the Holy Scriptures, translated in 1611, and known as
King James' Translation, pointing out by name those books which were
regarded as of doubtful origin and which for that reason they call the
apocrypha. The Roman Catholic church accepts the books enumerated in
what is known as the Douay edition of the Bible, of 1609; revised and
corrected in 1750. It would therefore be proper to say that each of
these great divisions of Christendom would claim that the list of books
comprised within the respective editions of the Bible which they accept
are the only books of divine authority in the world.
The answer which the Lord in the Book of Mormon is represented as
making to this sectarian view of revelation; as also to this clamor
against the Book of Mormon, is in every way worthy of him:
Thou fool, that shall say, a Bible, we have got a Bible, and we
need no more Bible. * * * Know ye not that there are more nations
than one? Know ye not that I, the Lord your God, have created all
men, and that I remember those who are upon the isles of the sea;
and that I rule in the heavens above, and in the earth beneath;
and I bring forth my word unto the children of men, yea, even upon
all the nations of the earth? Wherefore murmur ye, because that ye
shall receive more of my word? Know ye not that the testimony of
two nations is a witness unto you that I am God, that I remember
one nation like unto another? Wherefore, I speak the same words
unto one nation like unto another. And when the two nations shall
run together, the testimony of the two nations shall run together
also.
And I do this that I may prove unto many that I am the same
yesterday, today, and forever; and that I speak forth my words
according to mine own pleasure. And because that I have spoken one
word, ye need not suppose that I cannot speak another; for my work
is not yet finished; neither shall it be, until the end of man;
neither from that time henceforth and forever. Wherefore, because
that ye have a Bible, ye need not suppose that it contains all my
words; neither need ye suppose that I have not caused more to be
written; for I command all men, both in the east and in the west,
and in the north and in the south, and in the islands of the sea,
that they shall write the words which I speak unto them: for out
of the books which shall be written, I will judge the world, every
man according to his works, according to that which is written. For
behold, I shall speak unto the Jews, and they shall write it; and
I shall also speak unto the Nephites, and they shall write it; and
I shall also speak unto the other tribes of the house of Israel,
which I have led away, and they shall write it; and I shall also
speak unto all nations of the earth, and they shall write it. And
it shall come to pass that the Jews shall have the words of the
Nephites, and the Nephites shall have the words of the Jews; and
the Nephites and the Jews shall have the words of the lost tribes
of Israel; and the lost tribes of Israel shall have the words of
the Nephites and the Jews. And it shall come to pass that my people
which are of the house of Israel shall be gathered home unto the
lands of their possession; and my word also shall be gathered in
one. [38]
I say this answer is worthy of God to utter, and worthy of man to heed.
It lifts us entirely out of narrow, sectarian views of revelation,
and breathes a universal spirit of interest and love for mankind. It
carries within itself the evidence of a divine inspiration. Its very
worthiness of God is a testimony of its truth. How petty and unworthy
in contrast with it is that sectarian Christian view that would limit
God's revealed word to the few books contained in the Bible! How
partial and unjust does that same sectarian view of revelation make
God appear! If there is one doctrine more emphasized in the teachings
of the New Testament that another, it is that God is no respecter
of persons; "but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh
righteousness, is accepted with him." [39] With this fact in mind let us
test the two conceptions of God's dealings with man in the matter of
revelation. The narrow, sectarian, "Christian" view, and the Book of
Mormon view; and this for the purpose of ascertaining which would be
the more worthy of God, which most like him.
We have learned in the previous chapters of this work that America
was inhabited by highly civilized races before the discovery of it by
Europeans; that in the western world there flourished civilizations
equal to those of the same period in the eastern hemisphere; cities
that, judging from their ruins, equalled in greatness Tyre and Sidon
and Nineveh and Babylon; and empires that rivalled in power and extent,
Egypt, Persia and Macedonia. Millions of God's children through
successive generations lived in them and died and were buried. The
sectarian view of revelation would ask us to believe that God sent
prophets and holy men to teach and instruct his children in the eastern
hemisphere; that he revealed to them something of his own character
and attributes; that by revelation direct from heaven, accompanied
by demonstrations of his own marvelous power, he made known to them
something of the object of their existence, and gave them the hope of
eternal life; that in the meridian of time he sent his Only Begotten
Son among them, in order that life and immortality might be more
clearly brought to light; that the matchless Son of God by example as
well as by precept taught the inhabitants of the old world the way of
life--the divine will--in a word, taught the Gospel--organized a Church
to perpetuate his doctrines--commissioned apostles and others to carry
on the work of salvation; and thus made ample provisions for carrying
the Gospel throughout Asia, Africa and Europe--for the Church of
Christ in the East was organized where these natural divisions of the
old world center--yet, while the Lord made all these efforts for the
instruction and salvation of his children in the eastern hemisphere,
this sectarian idea that the Bible contains all the revelation God has
ever given would compel us to believe that he altogether neglected
his children of the western world! No prophet was sent to them with a
message to explain the mystery of existence, to let them know whence
their origin, the object of their existence, or bid them indulge the
pleasing hope of immortality. No angel from the bright worlds on high
came to reveal the splendor of heaven, or show the path which leads
to endless bliss; no messenger came even from the wilderness crying
repentance to them, and making the announcement that the kingdom of
heaven was at hand; no Messiah of gentle mien, yet of serene majesty,
taught them the mystery of the divine love which works out man's
redemption, healed their sick, raised their dead, or even so much
as blessed their children. No; according to the sectarian Christian
theory of the extent of revelation, God neglected them entirely--left
them to perish in darkness and ignorance and unbelief; unknowing and
unknown! Is such a view as this worthy of God? Does it comport with
the attributes of impartial love towards his children? Is it not a
travesty upon the qualities of justice and mercy as we believe those
qualities to exist in God? Does it not smack rather of man's bigotry
and narrowness, and above all, of human ignorance?
Turn now to the Book of Mormon theory of revelation as set forth in the
words just quoted from the writings of the first Nephi, and couple with
them the words of another Nephite prophet:
Behold, the Lord doth grant upon all nations, of their own nation
and tongue, to teach his word; yea, in wisdom, all that he seeth
fit that they should have; therefore we see that the Lord doth
counsel in wisdom, according to that which is just and true.
What a contrast in the sectarian and Book of Mormon view of revelation!
The one so narrow, and so contracted to limits unworthy of God! The
other so world-embracing, noble, generous, and worthy of God! The one
so exclusive as to limit divine inspiration to the prophets of the
Hebrew race; the other so broad as to include all the great teachers of
mankind--
"The Bactrian, Samian Sage, and all who taught the right."
In these Book of Mormon passages we have the grandest conception
respecting God's dispensations of his word found in human speech. They
recognize God's obligation--born of his Fatherhood and love--to make
known his word and will in some form to all nations and races of men.
They recognize as constituting a noble brotherhood of God-inspired
men, the sages of all races and ages, who have taught their fellow men
better things than they knew before. The wise men among Assyrians and
Egyptians as well as the shepherd-patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
are to be regarded as inspired of God. Jethro, the priest of Midian,
though not of Israel, as well as Moses, possessed divine wisdom; and
even counseled the Hebrew prophet-prince, to the latter's advantage.
The sages of Greece, from Thales to Socrates, Plato and Aristotle,
belong to the same glorious band. So also the great teacher of India,
Siddhartha, Buddah--the enlightened; Kongfutse, the teacher of God's
children in China; Mohammed, the prophet of Arabia; the teachers of
philosophy and reformers of Europe--some professed Christians, some
not, some even making war upon apostate Christendom; but I include all
those within the honored band of the God-inspired who have come with
some measure of the truth to bless mankind, to alleviate somewhat the
hard conditions in which men struggle, and who have raised the thoughts
and hopes of man to higher and better things. "The path of sensuality
and darkness," says a profound modern teacher of moral philosophy, "is
that which most men tread; a few have been led along the upward path;
a few in all countries and generations have been wisdom-seekers or
seekers of God; they have been so because the Divine Word of wisdom
has looked upon them, choosing them for the knowledge and service of
himself." [40] Not that these teachers, sages, prophets have each come
with a fullness of truth; or that they possessed the gospel of Jesus
Christ with divine authority to administer its sacred ordinances; not
so. Such truths as they possessed were often fragmentary, and mingled
with them was much that was human, hence imperfect, and confusing.
But so much of truth as they possessed was God-given, and they but
instruments of God to set it free that the truth might bless mankind.
Our Book of Mormon passages only require us to believe concerning this
world-band of inspired teachers, that they come with that measure of
God's word which in the divine wisdom it is fitting that men among whom
they are called to labor should receive; and this doctrine in relation
to the dispensation of God's word to man is so generous and noble
in its scope, so far above the narrow, sectarian conceptions of the
age and vicinity where the Book of Mormon was brought forth, that it
constitutes a striking evidence in support of its claims.
VI.
THE LOST BOOKS OF THE BIBLE.
Closely connected with this matter of the world's clamor against the
Book of Mormon, and their protestations in favor of the Bible, is
the declaration of I Nephi as to the treatment of that same Bible by
Christendom. In one of the great visions granted to this Nephi, and
expounded by an angel, he beholds a book, the Bible, go forth from the
Jews to the Gentiles. Now Nephi's account of the matter:
And the angel of the Lord said unto me, Thou hast beheld that the
book proceeded forth from the mouth of a Jew; and when it proceeded
forth from the mouth of a Jew, it contained the plainness of the
gospel of the Lord, of whom the twelve apostles bear record; and
they bear record according to the truth which is in the Lamb of
God; wherefore, these things go forth from the Jews in purity, unto
the Gentiles, according to the truth which is in God; and after
they go forth by the hand of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, from
the Jews unto the Gentiles, thou seest the foundation of a great
and abominable church, which is most abominable above all other
churches; for behold, they have taken away from the gospel of the
Lamb many parts which are plain and most precious; and also many
covenants of the Lord have they taken away; and all this have they
done that they might pervert the right ways of the Lord; that
they might blind the eyes and harden the hearts of the children
of men; wherefore, thou seest that after the book hath gone forth
through the hands of the great and abominable church, that there
are many plain and precious things taken away from the book, which
is the book of the Lamb of God: and after these plain and precious
things were taken away, it goeth forth unto all the nations of the
Gentiles, yea, even across the many waters which thou hast seen
with the Gentiles which have gone forth out of captivity: thou
seest because of the many plain and precious things which have been
taken out of the book, which were plain unto the understanding of
the children of men, according to the plainness which is in the
Lamb of God; because of these things which are taken away out of
the gospel of the Lamb, an exceeding great many do stumble, yea,
insomuch that Satan hath great power over them. [41]
It is disputed, by some, that any such thing as here described has
taken place with reference to the Bible, and labored arguments are made
to prove that contention. [42]
Into that contention it is not necessary to enter at length. It will be
sufficient to show that there are many books referred to in the several
books comprising the Old and New Testaments that are not to be found in
that collection. Books that are spoken of as containing revelations;
books written by prophets and apostles, and evidently as much entitled
to a place in the canon of scriptures as those that are now there. What
has become of them? Who is responsible for their absence? Pointing
to the excellence of those books we have is no compensation for the
absence of those we have not. So long as the books of scripture we
hold in reverence, as containing the word of God, speak of other books
and epistles that contained revelations from the Spirit of God that
are not in the Bible, it is useless to contend that our collection of
sacred books, called the Bible, contains the whole word of God. These
absent books may, as Nephi declares they do, contain many precious and
plain parts of God's truth, which would have preserved the Christian
world from many of the doctrinal errors into which it has been plunged
for want of knowledge. Again I ask, who is responsible for the absence
of these books? Nephi declares that "a great and abominable church"
is responsible for their absence, that that church took them away. I
do not believe that Nephi here had reference to any one of the many
divisions of Christendom. Nephi, in fact, recognized the existence of
two churches only. One he styles, "the church of the Lamb of God;" and
the other he bluntly calls "the church of the devil." [43] "And whoso
belongeth not to the church of the Lamb of God, belongeth to that
great church which is the mother of abominations; the whore of all the
earth." [44]
The church then that withheld from the world the part of the word of
God, as developed in the teachings and writings of the apostles, was
undoubtedly apostate Christendom; massed under the general title of
the "great and abominable church," without reference to any of its
divisions of sub-divisions; and that is the power that withheld and
destroyed some parts of the scriptures. In proof of which I cite the
following references to sacred books and writings both in the Old and
New Testaments, which are not to be found in it.
First, books of the Old Testament:
The scriptures that existed in the days of Abraham, older than the five
books of Moses, for Abraham was before Moses. These scriptures are
referred to by Paul as follows: "And the scriptures foreseeing that God
would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the Gospel
unto Abraham." (Gal. iii: 8).
The book of the covenant, through which Moses instructed Israel. (Exo.
xxiv: 7).
The book of the wars of the Lord. (Num. xxi: 14).
The book of Jasher. (Josh. x: 13, and Sam. i: 18).
The book of the manner of the kingdom. (Sam. x: 25).
Books containing three thousand proverbs, a thousand and five songs, a
treatise on natural history by Solomon. (I. Kings iv: 32, 33).
The acts of Solomon. (I. Kings xi: 41).
The book of Nathan the prophet. (I. Chron. xxix: 29).
The book of Gad the Seer. (I. Chron. xxix: 29).
The book of Nathan the prophet. (I. Chron. xxix: 29 and II. Chron. ix:
29).
The prophecy of Ahijah, the Shilonite. (II. Chron. ix: 29).
The visions of Iddo the Seer. (II. Chron. ix: 29).
The book of Shemaiah the prophet. (II. Chron. xii: 15).
The story of the prophet Iddo. (II. Chron. xiii: 22).
The book of Jehu. (Chron. xx: 34).
Second, books of the New Testament.
It is evident from the preface of St. Luke's Gospel, that "many"
who were eye witnesses of the things most surely believed among the
Christians, took it in hand by means of writing books to set them forth
in order. (Luke 5: 1-4). But of the writings of those eye witnesses, it
can scarcely be said that we have the works of "many" of them.
Jude, speaking of some characters which he likens unto "raging waves
of the sea foaming out their own shame," says, "And Enoch, the seventh
from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with
ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to
convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds
which they have ungodly committed, and all of their hard speeches which
ungodly sinners have spoken against him." (Jude 15, 16). From this it
appears that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, was favored with a vision
even of the second coming of the Son of God, and prophesied of judgment
overtaking the ungodly at that coming. This prophecy of Enoch's was
in existence in the days of Jude, "the servant of Christ," or else he
would not be able to quote from it. May not this prophecy of Enoch's
have been among the "scripture" with which Abraham was acquainted,
mentioned above?
There should also be another epistle of Jude. That writer says, "When
I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it
was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should
earnestly contend for the faith once delivered unto the saints." (Jude
3). We have but one epistle of Jude yet he wrote another epistle to
the saints on a very important subject, "The common salvation," and he
"gave all diligence" in writing upon it. Would not the epistle on the
"common salvation" be as important as that one we have from Jude's pen?
Paul, in writing to the Ephesians, states that God made known unto him,
by revelation, a certain mystery; "as," says he, "I wrote afore in
few words whereby when ye read ye may understand my knowledge in the
mystery of Christ." (Eph. iii: 3, 4). Here Paul evidently refers to
another epistle which he had written to the Ephesians, but of which the
world today has no knowledge. This epistle contained a revelation from
God.
When the great apostle to the Gentiles wrote to the Colossians, he
gave them these directions: "When this epistle is read among you, cause
that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans, and that ye
likewise read the epistle from Loadicea." (Col. iv: 16). Here, then,
is another epistle of Paul's, the Epistle to the Laodiceans, which he
himself refers to, but of which the world knows nothing, except this
reference to it--it is not in the Bible.
In the first letter to the Corinthians you find this statement: "I
wrote unto you in an epistle, not to keep company with fornicators."
(Cor. v: 9). That book, then, which the world has so long regarded as
the first epistle to the Corinthians, is not really the first epistle
which Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, for in the quotation given
above, taken from the so-called First Epistle to the Corinthians, the
writer speaks of an epistle which he previously had written to them,
in which he counseled them "not to keep company with fornicators."
Doubtless many other instructions and important principles were
contained in this other Epistle to the Corinthians.
How many other books and epistles, written by inspired men of those
days, were suppressed by "the great and abominable church"--apostate
Christendom--we may not know, but these here incidentally mentioned
have certainly been suppressed. Moreover, I have not mentioned all that
are spoken of. I have carefully avoided referring to any about which
doubts can be entertained, or which could be said to form parts of the
books we have. Deeming it better that the list of absent books should
be shorter than to mention any of which it could be said they are to
be found as fragments, or portions of the books now in the Bible, but
known by other names. [45]
It may be urged, with reference to the Old Testament at least, that
it came from the Jews to the Gentiles in its present form, and that
it was not the Gentiles, not the apostate church of the third and
fourth century of the Christian Era that mutilated in any form the
Old Testament scriptures. But let us not take too narrow a view of
Nephi's vision-prophecy, concerning the corruption of the word of God,
or the power which he saw corrupting it. It may be that he had in
mind in his vision as much the apostate Jewish church as the apostate
Christian church, and looking upon the question from that view point
we know this: that a century or two before the advent of Christ the
Jews apparently had grown weary of the honorable mission which God had
given to them; namely, that of being his witnesses among the nations
of the earth; and their leading teachers, especially in the two
centuries preceding the coming of the Messiah, were taking every step
that their ingenuity could devise for harmonizing the truths which God
had made known to them with the more fashionable conceptions of God
as entertained by one or the other of the great sects of philosophy
among the Romans. The way had been prepared for the achievement of this
end, in the first place, by the translation of the Hebrew scriptures
into the Greek language (the first great instance of the "Book that
proceedeth forth from the mouth of a Jew" going to the Gentiles), which
version of the Old Testament is usually called the Septuagint, or the
LXX. This latter name is given to it because of a tradition that the
translation was accomplished by seventy, or about seventy, elders of
the Jews. The most generally accepted theory concerning it, however,
is that it was a work accomplished at various time between 280 B. C.
and 150 B. C. The books of Moses being first translated as early as the
time of Ptolemy Philadelphus, 284-264 B. C., while the Prophets and
Psalms were translated somewhat later. It is not, however, the time or
manner in which the translation was accomplished that we are interested
in, but the character of the translation itself; and of this, Alfred
Edersheim, in his "Life and Times of Jesus, the Messiah," in the
division of his work which treats of the preparation for the Gospel,
says of this Greek translation:
Putting aside clerical mistakes and misreadings, and making
allowance for errors of translation, ignorance, and haste, we note
certain outstanding facts as characteristic of the Greek version.
It bears evident marks of its origin in Egypt, in its use of
Egyptian works and references, and equally evident traces of its
Jewish composition. By the side of slavish and false literalism
there is great liberty, if not license, in handling the original;
gross mistakes occur along with happy renderings of very difficult
passages, suggesting the aid of some able scholars. Distinct
Jewish elements are undeniably there, which can only be explained
by reference to Jewish tradition, although they are much fewer
than some critics have supposed. This we can easily understand,
since only those traditions would find a place which at the early
time were not only received, but in general circulation. The
distinctly Grecian elements, however, are at present of chief
interest to us. They consist of allusion to Greek mythological
terms, and adaptations of Greek philosophical ideas. However few,
even one well-authenticated instance would lead us to suspect
others, and in general give to the version the character of Jewish
Hellenising. In the same class we reckon what constitutes the
prominent characteristics of the LXX version, which, for want of
better terms, we would designate as rationalistic and apologetic.
Difficulties--or what seemed such--are removed by the most bold
methods, and by free handling of the text; it need scarcely be
said, often very unsatisfactorily. More especially, a strenuous
effort is made to banish all anthropomorphisms, as inconsistent
with their ideas of the Deity. [46]
Later the same authority points out the fact that the Septuagint
version of the Hebrew scriptures became really the people's Bible to
that large Jewish world through which Christianity was afterwards to
address itself to mankind. "It was part of the case," he adds, "that
this translation should be regarded by the Hellenists as inspired like
the original. Otherwise it would have been impossible to make final
appeal to the very words of the Greek; still less to find in them a
mystical and allegorical meaning." [47]
The foundation thus laid for a superstructure of false philosophy there
was not wanting builders who were anxious to place a pagan structure
upon it. About the middle of the second century B. C., one Aristobulus,
a Hellenist Jew of Alexandria, sought to so explain the Hebrew
scriptures as "to bring the Peripatetic philosophy out of the law of
Moses, and out of the other Prophets." Following is a sample according
to Edersheim, of his allegorizing:
Thus, when we read that God stood, it meant the stable order of
the world; that he created the world in six days, the orderly
succession of time; the rest of the Sabbath, the preservation of
what was created. And in such manner could the whole system of
Aristotle be found in the Bible. But how was this to be accounted
for? Of course, the Bible had not learned of Aristotle, but he and
all other philosophers had learned from the Bible. Thus, according
to Aristobulus, Phythagoras, Plato, and all the other sages, had
really learned from Moses, and the broken rays found in their
writings were united in all their glory in the Torah. [48]
Following Aristobulus in the same kind of philosophy was Philo, the
learned Jew of Alexandria, born about the year 20 B. C. He was supposed
to be a descendant of Aaron, and belonged to one of the wealthiest
and most influential families among the merchant Jews of Egypt; and
he is said to have united a large share of Greek learning with Jewish
enthusiasm. He followed most earnestly in the footsteps of Aristobulus.
According to him, all the Greek sages had learned their philosophy from
Moses, in whom alone was all truth to be found. "Not indeed, in the
letter," says Edersheim, "but under the letter of Holy Scripture. If in
Numbers xxiii: 19 we read 'God is not a man,' and in Deut. i:31 that
the Lord was 'as a man,' did it not imply on the one hand revelation
of absolute truth by God, and on the other, accommodation to those who
were weak? Here then, was the principle of a two-fold interpretation
of the word of God--the literal and the allegorical. * * * * * * To
begin with the former: the literal sense must be wholly set aside,
when it implies anything unworthy of the Deity--anything unmeaning,
impossible, or contrary to reason. Manifestly this canon, if strictly
applied, would do away not only with all anthropomorphisms, but cut the
knot where difficulties seemed insuperable. Again, Philo would find an
allegorical, along with the literal, interpretation indicated in the
reduplication of a word, and in seemingly superfluous words, particles,
or expressions. These could, of course, only bear such a meaning on
Philo's assumption of the actual inspiration of the Septuagint version."
When one thinks of the mischief that may arise from such perversions of
scripture by the application of Philo's principles of interpretation,
we do not marvel that some of the Jews regarded the translation of the
Seventy "to have been as great a calamity to Israel as the making of
the golden calf." "The Jews who remained faithful to the traditions
of their race," says Andrew D. White, "regarded this Greek version
as profanation, and therefore there grew up the legend that on the
completion of the work there was darkness over the whole earth during
three days. This showed clearly Jehovah's disapproval." [49]
Referring to the Talmudic canon of interpretation of the Greek
versions, Edersheim says, "they were comparatively sober rules of
exegesis." But "not so," he remarks, "the license which Philo claimed,
of freely altering the punctuation of sentences and his notion that, if
one from among several synonymous words was chosen in a passage, this
pointed to some special meaning attaching to it. Even more extravagant
was the idea that a word which occurred in the Septuagint might be
interpreted according to every shade of meaning which it bore in the
Greek, and that even another meaning might be given it by slightly
altering the letters."
In all this one may see only too plainly the effort to harmonize Jewish
theology with Greek philosophy--an effort to be rid of the plain
anthropomorphism of the Hebrew scriptures, for the incomprehensible
"being" of Greek metaphysics.
Thus not only is it evident that books are omitted from the Hebrew
scriptures, but by faulty translations and by false interpretations the
pure stream of God's revelation has been corrupted. In pointing out the
purposes for which the Book of Mormon was written, I said, among other
things, that its purpose was to restore to the knowledge of mankind
plain and precious truths concerning the Gospel which men have taken
out of the Jewish scriptures, or obscured by their interpretations.
And this I insist it does, and in proof of the assertion refer to the
many great truths mentioned in the preceding chapter; those truths
concerning the purpose of Adam's fall; the object of man's earth-life,
the doctrine of opposite existences and the whole scheme of the
Gospel. To these I may add, also, that the Book of Mormon reaffirms
and by reaffirming authoritatively restores the great truth of the
anthropomorphism of God. That is, it affirms that in form God is like
man; or, in other words, and in a better form of the comparison man was
created in the image or likeness of God. It restores also the great
truth of the anthropopathy of God. That is to say, in mental, moral,
and spiritual attributes God is like man; or, more correctly speaking,
man is the offspring of Deity, and possesses the mind attributes of
God, differing only in the degree of their development. Man is of the
same race as God--the offspring of Deity. This is not taught in any
formal manner, but is to be learned from the whole tenor of the book.
With reference to the form of God, the Book of Mormon has two very
important and very emphatic passages on the subject. The first Nephi,
in a great vision given to him of the future, was attended by a spirit
who gave him explanations, as the several parts of his vision passed
before him. And now Nephi's account:
And it came to pass that the Spirit said unto me, Look! and I
looked, and beheld a tree; * * * and the beauty thereof was far
beyond, yea, exceeding all beauty, and the whiteness thereof did
exceed the whiteness of the driven snow. And it came to pass after
I had seen the tree, I said unto the Spirit, I behold thou hast
shown unto me the tree, which is precious above all. And he said
unto me: What desirest thou? And I said unto him: To know the
interpretation thereof; for I spake unto him as a man speaketh; for
I beheld that he was in the form of a man; yet, nevertheless, I
knew that it was the Spirit of the Lord; and he spake unto me as a
man speaketh with another. [50]
The second passage alluded to is found in the book of Ether. The
prophet Moriancumr, the brother of Jared, when about to depart with his
colony in barges across the great deep, had prepared certain stones
which he prayed the Lord to make luminous, that they might have light
in the barges while on their journey. He had approached the Lord with
great faith, and expressed full confidence in the power of God to do
the thing for which he prayed; and now the Book of Mormon statement of
the matter:
And it came to pass that when the brother of Jared had said these
words, behold the Lord stretched forth his hand and touched the
stones, one by one with his finger; and the veil was taken from
off the eyes of the brother of Jared, and he saw the finger of the
Lord; and it was as the finger of a man, like unto flesh and blood;
and the brother of Jared fell down before the Lord, for he was
struck with fear. * * * And the Lord said unto him, Arise, why hast
thou fallen? And he said unto the Lord, I saw the finger of the
Lord, and I feared lest he should smite me; for I knew not that the
Lord had flesh and blood. And the Lord said unto him, Because of
thy faith thou hast seen that I shall take upon me flesh and blood;
and never has man come before me with such exceeding faith as
thou hast; for were it not so, you could not have seen my finger.
* * * And when he had said these words, behold, the Lord shewed
himself unto him, and said, Because thou knowest these things you
are redeemed from the fall; therefore you are brought back into my
presence; therefore I shew myself unto you. Behold, I am he who
was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people.
Behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son. In me shall
all mankind have light, and that eternally, even they who shall
believe on my name; and they shall become my sons and my daughters.
And never have I shewed myself unto man whom I have created, for
never has man believed in me as thou hast. Seest thou that thou art
created after mine own image? Yea, even all men were created in
the beginning, after mine own image. Behold, this body, which you
now behold, is the body of my spirit; and man have I created after
the body of my spirit; and even as I appear unto thee to be in the
spirit, will I appear unto my people in the flesh. [51]
The following passages, when combined, may be regarded as a further
revelation of the truth here set forth: III. Nephi xi: 24, 25, xxvii:
27, xxviii: 10, I. Nephi xi: 8-11, and Ether iii: 6-16. [52]
VII.
_No Gentile Kings in America_.
The prophet Jacob, brother of the first Nephi, addressing himself to
the Nephites, said:
Behold, this land, saith God, shall be a land of thine inheritance,
and the Gentiles shall be blessed upon the land. And this land
shall be a land of liberty unto the Gentiles, and there shall be
no kings upon the land, who shall raise up unto the Gentiles;
and I will fortify this land against all other nations; and he
that fighteth against Zion shall perish, saith God; for he that
raiseth up a king against me shall perish, for I, the Lord, the
King of heaven, will be their king, and I will be a light unto them
forever, that hear my words. [53]
There are many decrees of God concerning America as a choice
land, which will be noted in the place I have assigned for their
consideration, but here I am concerned only with this remarkable
prophecy, viz., that the land of America (both continents) is
consecrated to liberty, and there shall be no kings upon the land "who
shall rise up unto the Gentiles." Note the limits of the prophecy. It
is not extended to the native races of America, but to the Gentiles who
shall inhabit the land. That is to say, there shall be no kings upon
the land "who shall rise up unto the Gentiles."
A rather bold prediction this, whether the utterances he accredited to
Jacob, in the first half of the 5th century B. C., or to Joseph Smith
in 1830. In any event the prophecy, so far, has been fulfilled; and
today from the frozen north, Alaska, to the straits of Magellan in the
south continent, the "new world" under the consecration of God, is
blessed with freedom, and republican, not monarchial, institutions,
obtain.
It may be objected that this prophecy has failed because of two
notable attempts to establish monarchies in the New World by European
governments, one in Brazil, the other in Mexico. Let us investigate
these two attempts.
By an accidental discovery along the east shore of South America, by
Cabral, a Portuguese navigator, (1500 A. D.,) that section of the south
continent now known to us as Brazil, became a colony of the kingdom of
Portugal. It remained so until 1822, when Dom Pedro, the son of King
John VI., of Portugal, sided with the people of Brazil in declaring the
independence of the country, and was crowned Emperor under the title of
Dom Pedro I.
His rule, however, was tyrranical, and the people at length rose against
him, in 1831, dragged him to the public square of Rio de Janeiro and
forced him to remove from his head the imperial crown, and thus his
reign ended in public disgrace.
His son became emperor under the title of Dom Pedro II. As he was a
child of but six years when his father abdicated in his favor, Brazil
was governed by regents until 1841, when the Prince, having attained
his majority, was proclaimed emperor. It is said of him that from the
first he proved himself an intelligent, liberal and humane ruler, and
during his reign Brazil made great advancement in civilization and
material prosperity. He was so strongly attached to constitutional
forms, and governed so entirely through his ministers, that he can
scarcely be regarded as a monarch at all. In November, 1889, he
acquiesced in the wishes of the people, abdicated his throne in favor
of a republican form of government, and retired to Portugal. Since that
time Brazil has remained a republic.
The attempts to establish monarchy in Mexico arose under the following
circumstances: In 1862, France, Great Britain, and Spain sent a joint
military expedition to Mexico to enforce payment of certain claims.
When their ostensible object was attained Great Britain and Spain
withdrew; but Napoleon III, Emperor of France, confident that the war
between the states of the American Union would end in dissolution of
the Union, regarded the conditions as favorable to the establishment
of a Latin empire in the Western world which he hoped would be a
counterpoise to the Anglo Saxon republics; and invited Archduke
Maximilian, brother of the Austrian Emperor, to accept the crown of
the proposed new government, Napoleon promising to maintain an army
of twenty-five thousand French soldiers for his protection. This
proposition the Archduke accepted, and was hailed emperor of Mexico.
Meantime the United States government refused to recognize any
authority in Mexico except that of the deposed President of the
Republic, Juarez; but in consequence of the civil war then at its
heighth was unable to resist this flagrant violation of the Monroe
Doctrine. [54] The civil war closed, however, notice was served upon the
French emperor that his soldiers must be withdrawn from Mexico, and
he judged it expedient to comply, though it was a dastardly desertion
of Maximilian, whose situation at once became precarious. In vain his
faithful consort, Carlotta, journeyed from court to court in Europe
intreating assistance for her husband, and denouncing Napoleon's
dissertion of him. Her successive disappointments finally overthrew her
reason. No hand in Europe was raised to maintain monarchy in Mexico.
Juarez, the deposed President of the republic of Mexico, made short
work of the empire. He captured Maximilian, and had him shot as a
usurper, June 19, 1867. The event cast a gloom over all Europe, but no
king nor potentate sought to avenge the execution. May it not be that
those nations were as much awed, though unconsciously, by the spirit of
the decree of God concerning the land of America, as by the policy of
the government of the United States laid down in the Monroe Doctrine?
And, indeed, may not the Monroe Doctrine itself be regarded as a
heaven-inspired decree by a competent national agency to make of effect
the old Nephite prophecy, "there shall be no kings on this land?"
"The French empire," says Ekwin A. Grosvenor, professor of European
History in Amherst College, and author of "Contemporary History of
the World"--"The French empire never recovered from the shock of this
Mexican failure."
The Emperor, Napoleon III, engaged in a war with Germany in 1870, in
which himself and France suffered the most humiliating defeat ever
inflicted on a modern state or its ruler. He himself was captured at
the surrender of Sedan and imprisoned for sometime at Wilhelmshohe,
near Cassel. Meantime he was deposed by the French people who
established a Republican form of government, in place of the Empire.
Some two years after his imprisonment he died an exile at Chiselhurst,
England. The Empress, Eugenie, was also forced into exile and was for
same years the guest of England. On June 1, 1879, Napoleon's son,
Imperial, the only son of the Emperor, was killed by the Zulus in south
Africa, thus blotting out, we may say, the entire family of the French
Monarch, and fulfilling in a marked manner the terms of this prophecy:
"And he that raiseth up a King against me shall perish."
The foregoing attempts in Brazil and Mexico to found monarchies in the
New World cannot properly be regarded as proving the failure of the
Book of Mormon prophecy. The monarchies existed for a short time only,
and were so precarious while they lasted, and ended so disastrously
for those making the attempt to establish them, that they emphasize
the force of the prophecy rather than prove its failure. They are as
slight exceptions tending to prove a rule. It is not said in the Book
of Mormon that attempts would not be made to set up kings, but that
such attempts should end disastrously for those making them; and that
no kings should be established, that is permanently established, in the
new world. Surely no candid mind will read this prophecy and consider
all the facts involved in the attempts to establish monarchies in
America, but will say that they have ended disastrously, and that this
prophecy has been verily fulfilled.
Footnotes
1. Vol. I, Chapter xx.
2. "There is more solid proof in favor of a prophet being divinely sent
when his words are fulfilled than in all the miracles he can work."
(Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Vol. X., 194.) "Prophecies
are permanent miracles, whose authority is sufficiently confirmed by
their completion, and are therefore solid proofs of the supernatural
origin of a religion, of whose truth they were intended to testify:
such are those to be found in various parts of the scriptures relative
to the coming of the Messiah, the destruction of Jerusalem, and the
unexampled state in which the Jews have ever since continued--all
so circumstantially descriptive of the events that they seem rather
histories of past than predictions of future transactions," Soame
Jenyns, "A View of the Internal Evidence of the Christian Religion," p.
313.
3. Ether xiii.
4. Omni i: 19-22.
5. The matter is dealt with more at length in Volume I., Chapter xx.
6. Moroni x: 4, 5.
7. John vii: 16, 17.
8. So confident was President Brigham Young in the matter of the Holy
Spirit bearing witness to the truth of the Book of Mormon that on one
ocassion he said: "Nothing short of the Holy Ghost will do us any
lasting good. I told you, in the beginning of my remarks, the truth as
it is in heaven and on earth, as it is with angels, and with prophets,
with all good people, and with every sinner that dwells upon the earth.
There is not a man or woman who on hearing the report of the Book of
Mormon but the spirit of the Almighty has testified to them of its
truth; neither have they heard the name of Joseph Smith but the spirit
has whispered to them, 'He is the true Prophet.' It is the spirit
which is invisible to the natural mind of man, that produces effects
apparently without causes, and creates mysteries, marvels, and wonders
in the earth. These things we behold, but we cannot with the natural
mind account for them, nor divine their ultimate end." (A discourse by
President Young, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, June 13,
1852, "Deseret News." Vol. 4, No. 6.)
9. Matt. iii: 16; John i: 32-34.
10. I. Cor. xii: 3.
11. John xv: 26.
12. John xiv.
13. John xvi.
14. I. Nephi xiii: 35-37.
15. "Leaves from My Journal," Edition of 1909, pp. 84, 85.
16. F. D. Richards, Church Historian, in a sketch of the life of
Wilford Woodruff, "Improvement Era," Vol. I, p. 871.
17. "Leaves from My Journal," Edition of 1909, pp. 88, 89.
18. "Leaves from My Journal," Edition of 1909, pp. 95, 96.
19. "Life of Heber C. Kimball," Orson F. Whitney, p. 402, 403.
20. "Life of Heber C. Kimball" (Whitney), pp. 34, 35.
21. St. John xvi: 13.
22. "My First Mission," p. 23.
23. Chapter xvi.
24. Ibid, chapter xviii.
25. Ibid, chapters xx, xxi, xxii, xxiii of "New Witnesses," Vol. I.
26. Ibid, chapter xxiv.
27. II. Nephi xxvii: 12, 13.
28. Ether v: 3.
29. II. Nephi xxviii: 2-14.
30. Mormon viii.
31. Church History, Vol. I, chapter xxxi.
32. History of the Church, Vol. III, chapter xii.
33. Ibid, chapter xiii. Seventeen were killed outright, twelve were
savagely wounded. All that were killed had to be hurriedly thrown into
an old well and buried without ceremony.
34. II. Nephi xxix: 1-3.
35. See New Witnesses, Vol. I, chapter viii; also Vol. II., ch. xxxvii,
and notes.
36. Those who would have further evidence upon the subject are
referred to all the early controversial literature of the Church, and
especially to a Public Discussion between Elder John Taylor and three
sectarian ministers in France, which "Discussion" is published with
the early editions of Orson Pratt's works, and in which, among other
similar passages occurs the following: "Rev. Mr. Carter. But the great
consideration is, that these persons (Mormon Elders) pretend to add to;
and supercede the Word of God. Now the Bible is the sheet-anchor of
Christians, and it neither needs the Book of Mormon nor any other book,
nor the assistance of Joe Smith or any other Joe. The awful voice of
prophecy has spoken for the last time, and the cause of inspiration is
closed."
37. Evidences of Christianity, p. 352.
38. II. Nephi xxix: 7-14.
39. Acts x: 34, 35.
40. The teacher alluded to is Frederick Denison Maurice, Professor of
Modern Philosophy in the University of Cambridge. I feel much indebted
to this teacher myself, and cannot recommend too highly, I am sure, his
"History of Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy," two volumes, London,
Macmillan & Co., 1872.
41. I. Nephi xiii: 24-29.
42. See "Golden Bible" (Lamb), Appendix "A," pp. 323-340.
43. I. Nephi xiv: 10.
44. Upon this subject I have elsewhere said: "The church of the
devil" here alluded to, I understand to mean not any particular
church among men, or any one sect of religion, but something larger
than that--something that includes within its boundaries all evil
wherever it may be found; as well in schools of philosophy as in
Christian sects; as well in systems of ethics as in systems of
religion--something that includes the whole empire of Satan--what I
shall call "The Kingdom of Evil." * * The question was once submitted
to me, "Is the Catholic church the church here referred to--the church
of the devil?" "Well," said I, in answer, "I would not like to take
that position, because it would leave me with a lot of churches on
my hands that I might not then be able to classify." So far as the
Catholic church is concerned, I believe that there is just as much
truth, nay, personally I believe she has retained even more truth
than other divisions of so-called Christendom; and there is just as
much virtue in the Roman Catholic church as there is in Protestant
Christendom; and I am sure there is more strength. I would not like,
therefore, to designate the Catholic church as the church of the
devil. Neither would I like to designate any one or all of the various
divisions and subdivisions of Protestant Christendom combined as such
church; nor the Greek Catholic church; nor the Buddhist sects; nor the
followers of Confucius; nor the followers of Mohammed; nor would I
like to designate even the societies formed by deists and atheists as
constituting the church of the devil. The Book of Mormon text ought to
be read in connection with its context--with the chapter that precedes
it and the remaining portions of the chapter in which the expression is
found--then, I think, those who study it in that manner will be forced
to the conclusion that the prophet here has in mind no particular
church, no particular division of Christendom, but he has in mind, as
just stated, the whole empire of Satan, and perhaps the thought of the
passage would be more nearly expressed if we use the term "the Kingdom
of Evil" as constituting the church of the devil. "(Defense of the
Faith and the Saints," Vol. I, pp. 30-31.)
45. Such is Lamb's argument on this point. "Golden Bible," p. 325.
46. "Jesus, the Messiah," By Edersheim, Vol. I., pp. 27-8, eighth
edition.
47. Ibid, p. 29.
48. Ibid, p. 36.
49. "A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology," Vol. II, pp.
289, 290. By the way, may not this tradition about the three days'
darkness over the whole earth at the completion of this regarded
profanation of the Jewish scriptures, when they thus went forth for the
first time to the Gentiles, be a misapplication of the prediction which
Nephi declares was spoken of by the old Jewish prophet Zenos--whose
works Lehi's colony carried with them into the wilderness--whom Nephi
declares "spake concerning the three days of darkness which should
be a sign of his [Messiah's] death unto those who should inhabit the
isles of the sea" (I. Nephi xix: 10)? May not the matter referred to
by Professor White be an interpretation of this old Jewish prophecy
concerning the three days of darkness?
50. I. Nephi xi: 8-11.
51. Ether iii: 6-16.
52. See collection of passages in the author's "Mormon Doctrine of
Deity," pp. 213-217.
53. II. Nephi x: 10-14.
54. This "Monroe Doctrine" derives its name from a message sent to
Congress by President James Monroe, in 1823, in the course of which he
said: "The American continents, by the free and independent condition
which they had assumed and maintained, are henceforth not to be
considered as subjects for future colonization by any European power."
He further declared that any attempt by a European power to oppress
or control an independent American nation would be regarded as "the
manifestation of an unfriendly disposition towards the United states."
CHAPTER XLII.
INTERNAL EVIDENCES--THE EVIDENCE OF PROPHECY, (Continued.)
The first Nephi, speaking of his people in the fifth century B. C.,
makes a number of prophecies respecting things that shall take place
in the last days, following the coming forth of the scriptures of his
people [i. e. the Book of Mormon] to the Gentiles. These predictions
are found on one page of the Book of Mormon; and are at once so
numerous and of such high import as to make that page unique in
prophetic literature. With one exception, viz., the vision of Daniel,
recorded in the second chapter of his prophecies, which deals with the
succession of the several great earth-empires, I do not believe an
equal number of prophecies of such high importance can be found within
the whole range of prophetic literature in the same amount of space,
and I here reproduce that page as it stands in the current editions of
the Book of Mormon:
II NEPHI.
3. And now, I would prophesy somewhat more concerning the Jews and
the Gentiles. For after the book of which I have spoken shall come
forth, and be written unto the Gentiles and sealed up again unto
the Lord, there shall be many which shall believe the words which
are written; and they shall carry them forth unto the remnant of
our seed.
4. And then shall the remnant of our seed know concerning us, how
that we came out from Jerusalem, and that they are descendants of
the Jews.
5. And the gospel of Jesus Christ shall be declared among them;
wherefore, they shall be restored unto the knowledge of their
fathers, and also to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, which was had
among their fathers.
6. And then shall they rejoice; for they shall know that it is
a blessing unto them from the hand of God; and their scales
of darkness shall begin to fall from their eyes; and not many
generations shall pass away among them, save they shall be a white
and a delightsome people.
7. And it shall come to pass that the Jews which are scattered,
also shall begin to believe in Christ; and they shall begin to
gather in upon the face of the land; and as many as shall believe
in Christ shall also become a delightsome people.
8. And it shall come to pass that the Lord God shall commence his
work among all nations, kindreds, tongues, and peoples, to bring
about the restoration of his people upon the earth.
9. And with righteousness shall the Lord God judge the poor, and
reprove with equity, for the meek of the earth. And he shall smite
the earth with the rod of his mouth; and with the breath of his
lips shall he slay the wicked;
10. For the time speedily cometh, that the Lord God shall cause a
great division among the people; and the wicked will he destroy:
and he will spare his people, yea, even if it so be that he must
destroy the wicked by fire.
11. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and
faithfulness the girdle of his reins. [1]
A few lines extending on the next page completes the picture of peace
and happiness that shall ultimately be diffused over the earth in that
day:
12. And then shall the wolf dwell with the lamb, and the leopard
shall lie down with the kid; and the calf, and the young lion, and
the fatling, together; and a little child shall lead them.
13. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie
down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
14. And the suckling child shall play on the hole of the asp, and
the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice's den.
15. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for
the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters
cover the sea. [2]
Let us now consider this prophetic page item by item.
I.
_Many Shall Believe the Words of the Book_.
For after the book of which I have spoken [i. e. the Book of
Mormon] shall come forth and be written unto the Gentiles and
sealed up again unto the Lord, there shall be many which shall
believe the words which are written.
Whether this declaration be accredited to the first Nephi, five hundred
years B. C., or allowed no other authorship than Joseph Smith, and no
greater antiquity than 1830, when the Book of Mormon was published,
it is equally prophetic in character. And if it be insisted upon that
it had no earlier origin than Joseph Smith's utterance of it, then
it becomes all the more remarkable as a prophecy; for by the time it
was put forth by him, he had very good reason--human reason--to doubt
if the Book of Mormon would be extensively believed, or believed in
at all; for by this time such opposition had appeared against it,
and such ridicule and derision heaped upon himself and associates;
and everywhere there had been such a manifestation of opposition to
the forth-coming book, that naturally one would wonder if it would
be overwhelmed by a universal ignoring of it. Still there stands the
prediction:
There shall be many which shall believe the words which are written.
The only question is, Has it been fulfilled? In answer we have only
to point to the present membership of the Church in all the world,
say three hundred thousand people. But to the number of those who now
believe it, and hold it to be a volume of sacred scripture, there must
be added all those who have died in the faith; and again those who once
accepted it in their faith and afterwards, by transgression, lost the
spirit of the work and departed from the Church; but who, singularly
enough, in the majority of cases, still continued to assert their faith
in the truth of the Book of Mormon. And then to all those numbers there
must be added that still greater number of people who have been brought
to a belief in the Book of Mormon, but who have not had sufficient
moral courage to forfeit their good standing among their fellows, and
make other sacrifices involved in a public profession of their faith.
Let the numbers of these several classes be added together and beyond
question the prophecy has been fulfilled. Many have believed in the
Nephite scriptures.
As a further instance of the wide acceptation of the Book of Mormon,
it should be mentioned that it has passed through many editions in
the English language, both in America and England; and has also been
translated into and published in the following languages: French,
German, Danish, Italian, Dutch, Welch, Swedish, Spanish, Hawaiian,
Maori, Greek and Japanese.
II.
_The Book of Mormon to be Taken to the American Indians--"and They
Shall Rejoice_."
Following the declaration that "many shall believe the words which are
written" is the statement, "and they shall carry them forth [the words
of the ancient Nephites] unto the remnant of our seed." That is to the
remnant of the seed of Lehi, the American Indians. And then follows
this:
And then shall the remnant of our seed know concerning us, how that
we came out from Jerusalem, and that they are descendants of the
Jews. [3]
And the gospel of Jesus Christ, shall be declared among them,
wherefore, they shall be restored unto the knowledge of their
fathers, and also to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, which was had
among their fathers.
And then shall they rejoice; for they shall know that it is a
blessing unto them from the hand of God; and their scales of
darkness shall begin to fall from their eyes; and many generations
shall not pass away among them, save they shall be a white and
delightsome people.
Here we stand in the midst of prophecies. By which I mean that some of
the predictions have been fulfilled, and others are yet to be fulfilled
in the future, and involve the coming to pass of very remarkable
events. Before calling attention to the parts that have been fulfilled
I cite the prophecies under this subdivision as evidence against the
claim that is sometimes made against the Book of Mormon, that all its
prophetic parts end about the time the Book of Mormon came forth, viz.,
in 1830. The prophecies that many shall believe the book; that they
shall carry its messages to the American Indians; that the Indians
shall rejoice in the things the book makes known to them; that not
many generations from that time the Indians shall become "a white and
delightsome people"--as also indeed the prophecies relating to the
Jews--all concern events that are to take place subsequent to the year
1830.
But now to take up the several prophecies being treated together under
this sub-title II.
The "many" who believe the Book of Mormon, according to the prophecy,
are to carry it forth unto the remnant of Lehi's people, the American
Indians. It is notorious that they have done so. The Church had been
organized but six months when in fulfillment of a divine appointment [4]
a mission was sent to the Lamanites consisting of Oliver Cowdery, Peter
Whitmer, Jun., Parley P. Pratt, and Ziba Peterson. On returning from
that mission Elder Pratt, after recounting their travels through the
western states of the American Union, gives the following summary of
what was done: "Thus ended our first mission in which we had preached
the Gospel in its fulness and distributed the records of their
forefathers among three tribes, viz., the Catteraugus Indians, near
Buffalo, N. Y.; the Wyandots, of Ohio; and the Delawares, west of the
Missouri." [5]
Since that time numerous missions have been undertaken among the
Indians which have met with more or less success. Since the Church
has been located in the Rocky Mountains various tribes have been
visited by the Apostles and other Elders, and some success has been
attained in colonizing Indians and teaching them the ways and arts
of civilization. Some success has also attended the preaching of the
Gospel among the natives in Mexico; and similar efforts, though as yet
unfruitful, have been made in some of the states of Central America.
It is more than likely that the Sandwich Islanders are descendants of
Nephite colonists who went from America to the Hawaiian Islands, about
the time of Hagoth's migrations in ships from the shores of the land
Bountiful--near where the isthmus of Panama joins the South American
continent. Their traditions and racial peculiarities all favor this
view; and if our supposition be true, then the success of preaching
the gospel to the descendants of the Nephites has been considerably
augmented, for a number of thousands of these islanders have embraced
the gospel, some of whom have gathered to the stakes of Zion, and
others have been established in a prosperous colony in their own land.
While success in bringing the native American race to a knowledge of
their forefathers and an acceptance of the written work of God revealed
to their forefathers has been limited, yet it has been sufficiently
extensive to fulfill the terms of the Book of Mormon prophecies, and
certainly sufficient to create the most sanguine belief in a further
fulfillment of it.
"Then shall they rejoice." This declaration, of course, indicates that
the native American races would believe the message of the Book of
Mormon; and so indeed they have, as is witnessed by the fact of many of
them joining the Church of the Latter-day Saints.
In his account of the first mission to the Indians, Elder Parley P.
Pratt gives the substance of an address of Oliver Cowdery's to the
chief of the Delaware tribe of Indians, and the leading men of the
tribe, who had assembled to hear the message which the missionaries had
to deliver; Elder Pratt also gives the substance of the chief's reply,
in which the latter especially expresses his gladness [6] at the message
delivered to them. Elder Pratt represents the Chief as saying:
We feel truly thankful to our white friends who have come so far
and been at such pains to tell us good news, and especially this
new news concerning the Book of our forefathers; it makes us glad
in here"--placing his hand on his heart. "It is now winter; we
are new settlers in this place; the snow is deep; our cattle and
horses are dying; our wigwams are poor; we have much to do in the
spring--to build houses and fence and make farms; but we will build
a council house and meet together, and you shall read to us and
teach us more concerning the Book of our fathers, and the will of
the Great Spirit. [7]
During the sojourn of the Church at Nauvoo representatives of several
tribes of Indians called upon the Prophet Joseph from time to time. One
notable instance was the visit of a number of Pottawatamie chiefs in
the summer of 1843, of which visit the Prophet in his journal gives the
following brief account:
I had an interview with several Pottawatamie chiefs, who came to
see me during my absence. [8]
Elder Woodruff's journal gives the following more elaborate account of
this event:
The Indian chiefs remained at Nauvoo until the Prophet returned
and had his trial. During their stay they had a talk with Hyrum
Smith, in the basement of the Nauvoo House. Wilford Woodruff and
some others were present. They were not free to talk, and did not
wish to communicate their feelings until they could see the great
Prophet.
At length, on the 2nd day of July, 1843, President Joseph Smith
and several of the Twelve met those chiefs in the courtroom with
about thirty of the Elders. The following is a synopsis of the
conversation which took place as given by the interpreter:
The Indian orator arose and asked the Prophet if the men who were
present were all his friends. Answer, "Yes."
He then said: "As a people we have long been distressed and
oppressed. We have been driven from our lands many times. We have
been wasted away by wars, until there are but few of us left. The
white man has hated us and shed our blood, until it has appeared
as though there would soon be no Indians left. We have talked with
the Great Spirit, and the Great Spirit has talked with us. We have
asked the Great Spirit to save us and let us live, and the Great
Spirit has told us that he had raised up a great Prophet, chief,
and friend, who would do us great good and tell us what to do; and
the Great Spirit has told us that you are the man (pointing to the
Prophet Joseph). We have now come a great way to see you, and hear
your words, and to have you tell us what to do. Our horses have
become poor traveling, and we are hungry. We will now wait and hear
your words."
The Spirit of God rested upon the Lamanites, especially [upon]
the orator. Joseph was much affected and shed tears. He arose and
said unto them: "I have heard your words. They are true. The Great
Spirit has told you the truth. I am your friend and brother, and I
wish to do you good. Your fathers were once a great people. They
worshiped the Great Spirit. The Great Spirit did them good. He was
their friend; but they left the Great Spirit, and would not hear
his words or keep them. The Great Spirit left them, and they began
to kill one another, and they have been poor and afflicted until
now.
"The Great Spirit has given me a book, and told me that you will
soon be blessed again. The Great Spirit will soon begin to talk
with you and your children. This is the book which your fathers
made. I wrote upon it (showing them the Book of Mormon). This tells
me what you will have to do. I now want you to begin to pray to the
Great Spirit. I want you to make peace with one another, and do not
kill any more Indians; it is not good. Do not kill white men; it is
not good; but ask the Great Spirit for what you want, and it will
not be long before the Great Spirit will bless you, and you will
cultivate the earth and build good houses, like white men. We will
give you something to eat and [something] to take home with you."
When the Prophet's words were interpreted to the chiefs, they all
said it was good. The chief asked, "How many moons it would be
before the Great Spirit would bless them?" He [the Prophet] told
them, "Not a great many."
At the close of the interview, Joseph had an ox killed for them,
and they were furnished with some more horses, and they went home
satisfied and contented. [9]
One other thing in these several prophecies should be observed, the
very emphatic implication that the native American race will persist.
The prevailing idea, however, is quite to the contrary. I may say
it is the universal opinion that the native American race is doomed
to extinction; and, in fact, that it is now on the high way to that
finality. Against such general opinion, however, the Book of Mormon
utters the surprising declaration not only that the American race shall
not become extinct, but that fallen as its fortunes are, and degraded
as it is, yet shall it become, and that before many generations pass
away, "a white and delightsome people!" Than this declaration I can
think of nothing more boldly prophetic, nor of any inspired utterance
which so squarely sets itself against all that is accepted as the
probabilities in the case. But with complete confidence we await the
time of the fulfillment of God's decree; of its signal triumph over the
opinions of men.
III.
_The Jews Shall Begin to Believe in Christ, and to Gather_.
And it shall come to pass that the Jews which are scattered also
shall begin to believe in Christ; and they shall begin to gather in
upon the face of the land; and as many as shall believe in Christ
shall also become a delightsome people.
There was nothing in the affairs of the Jews in the early decades of
the 19th century that would lead any one to suppose that there was to
be any marked change in the sentiments of that people towards Jesus of
Nazareth; or that the time had come when there would be any disposition
on their part to assemble upon the land of their forefathers--which is
evidently meant by part of the prophecy just quoted. Yet the prophecy
immediately before us makes both these astounding predictions; and,
what is more to the point, both are now in progress of fulfillment.
First let us consider the change which the Jewish mind is undergoing
respecting Jesus of Nazareth.
To show the sentiment quite prevalent among the Jews during the life
time of the Prophet Joseph, and to show that he was quite aware of its
existence, I quote an entry from his journal under date of May, 1839.
"Tuesday, May 21, 1839.--To show the feeling of that long scattered
branch of the House of Israel, the Jews, I here quote a letter
written by one of their number, on hearing that his son had embraced
Christianity:
RABBI LANDAU'S LETTERS TO HIS SON.
Breslau, May 21st, 1839. My Dear Son--I received the letter of the
Berlin Rabbi, and when I read it there ran tears out of my eyes in
torrents; my inward parts shook, my heart became as a stone! Now do
you not know that the Lord sent me already many hard tribulations?
That many sorrows do vex me? But this new harm which you are about
to inflict makes me forget all the former, does horribly surpass
them; as well respecting its sharpness as its stings! I write you
lying on my bed, because my body is embraced not less than my
soul, at the report that you were about to do something which I had
not expected from you. I fainted; my nerves and feelings sank, and
only by the help of a physician, for whom I sent immediately, am I
able to write these lines to you with a trembling hand.
Alas! you, my son, whom I have bred, nourished and fostered; whom I
have strengthened spiritually as well as bodily, you will commit a
crime on me! Do not shed the innocent blood of your parents, for no
harm have we inflicted upon you; we are not conscious of any guilt
against you, but at all times we thought it our duty to show to
you, our first born, all love and goodnesss. I though I should have
some cheering account of you, but, alas! how terribly I have been
disappointed!
But to be short; your outward circumstances are such that you
may finish your study or [suffer] pain. Do you think that the
Christians, to whom you will go over by changing your religion,
will support you and fill up the place of our fellow believers? Do
not imagine that your outward reasons, therefore, if you have any,
are nothing. But out of true persuasion, you will, as I think, not
change our true and holy doctrine, for that deceitful, untrue and
perverse doctrine of Christianity.
What! will you give us a pearl for that which is nothing, which
is of no value in itself? But you are light-minded; think of the
last judgment; of that day when the books will be opened and hidden
things will be made manifest; of that day when death will approach
you in a narrow pass; when you cannot go out of the way! Think of
your death bed, from which you will not rise any more, but from
which you be called before the judgment seat of the Lord!
Do you not know, have you not heard, that there is over you an
all-hearing ear and an all-seeing eye? That all your deeds will be
written in a book and judged hereafter? Who shall then assist you
when the Lord will ask you with a thundering voice, Why hast thou
forsaken that holy law which shall have an eternal value; which was
given by my servant Moses, and no man shall change it? Why hast
thou forsaken that law, and accepted instead of it lying and vanity?
Come, therefore, again to yourself, my son! remove your bad and
wicked counselors; follow my advice, and the Lord will be with you!
Your tender father must conclude because of weeping.
A. L. LANDAU, Rabbi.
That the sentiments of this letter respecting Jesus and Christianity
are not peculiar to Rabbi Landau, but are representative of the
sentiments of the Hebrew race at that time, I may quote the words of
Dr. Isadore Singer, editor of the "Jewish Encyclopaedia," written in a
letter to George Croly, author of "Tarry Thou Till I Come"--a version
really of the legend of the "Wandering Jew" published in 1901. The
letter here quoted was received from Dr. Singer in reply to one from
the author of "Tarry Thou," asking the question, "What is the Jewish
thought today of Jesus of Nazareth?" Dr. Singer, answered:
I regard Jesus of Nazareth as a Jew of the Jews, one whom all
Jewish people are learning to love. His teaching has been an
immense service to the world in bringing Israel's God to the
knowledge of hundreds of millions of mankind. The great change
in Jewish thought concerning Jesus of Nazareth, I cannot better
illustrate than by this fact:
When I was a boy, had my father, who was a very pious man, heard
the name of Jesus uttered from the pulpit of our synagogue, he and
every other man in the congregation would have left the building,
and the rabbi would have been dismissed at once. Now, it is not
strange, in many synagogues, to hear sermons preached eulogistic of
this Jesus, and nobody thinks of protesting--in fact, we are all
glad to claim Jesus as one of our people.
ISADORE SINGER. New York, March 25, 1901.
The question submitted by Mr. Croly to Jewish theologians, historians
and orientalists resulted in quite a large collection of Jewish
opinions of Christ, all of which are published in the appendix of
"Tarry Thou;" and of which the following communications are thoroughly
characteristic:
The Jew of today beholds in Jesus an inspiring ideal of matchless
beauty. While he lacks the element of stern justice expressed
so forcibly in the law and in the Old Testament characters, the
firmness of self-assertion so necessary to the full development of
manhood, all those social qualities which build up the home and
society, industry and worldly progress, he is the unique exponent
of the principle of redeeming love. His name as helper of the poor,
as sympathizing friend of the fallen, as brother of every fellow
sufferer, as lover of man and redeemer of woman, has become the
inspiration, the symbol and the watchword for the world's greatest
achievements in the field of benevolence. While continuing the work
of the synagogue, the Christian church with the larger means at her
disposal created those institutions of charity and redeeming love
that accomplished wondrous things. The very sign of the cross has
lent a new meaning, a holier pathos to suffering, sickness and sin,
so as to offer new practical solutions for the great problems of
evil which fill the human heart with new joys of self-sacrificing
love.
KAUFMAN KOHLER, Ph. D., Rabbi of Temple Beth-El.
If the Jews up to the present time have not publicly rendered
homage to the sublime beauty of the figure of Jesus, it is because
their tormentors have always persecuted, tortured, assassinated
them in his name. The Jews have drawn their conclusions from the
disciples as to the Master, which was wrong, a wrong pardonable
in the eternal victims of the implacable, cruel hatred of those
who called themselves Christians. Every time that a Jew mounted to
the sources and contemplated Christ alone, without his pretended
faithful, he cried with tenderness and admiration: "Putting aside
the Messianic mission, this man is ours. He honors our race and we
claim him as we claim the gospels--flowers of Jewish literature and
only Jewish."
MAX NORDAU, M. D., Critic and Philosopher. Paris, France.
The Jews of every shade of religious belief do not regard Jesus
in the light of Paul's theology. But the gospel of Jesus, the
Jesus who teaches so superbly the principles of Jewish ethics, is
revered by all the expounders of Judaism. His words are studied;
the New Testament forms a part of Jewish literature. Among the
great preceptors that have worded the truths of which Judaism is
the historical guardian, none, in our estimation and esteem, takes
precedence of the rabbi of Nazareth. To impute to us suspicious
sentiments concerning him does us gross injustice. We know him to
be among our greatest and purest.
EMIL G. HIRSCH, Ph. D., LL. D., L. H. D. Rabbi of Sinai
Congregation, Professor of Rabbinical Literature in Chicago
University, Chicago, Ill., January 26, 1901.
Later, viz. 1905, Dr. Isadore Singer, himself made such a collection of
Jewish opinions on Jesus, which were published by the "New York Sun,"
and of which the following are typical:
It is commonly said that the Jews reject Jesus. They did so
in the sense in which they rejected the teachings of their
earlier prophets, but the question may be pertinently asked, Has
Christianity accepted Jesus? The long hoped-for reconciliation
between Judaism and Christianity will come when once the teachings
of Jesus shall have become the axioms of human conduct.
DR. MORRIS JASTROW, Professor of Semitic Languages in the
University of Pennsylvania.
I look upon him as a great teacher and reformer, one who aimed
at the uplifting of suffering humanity, whose every motive was
kindness, mercy, charity, and justice, and if his wise teaching and
example have not always been followed the blame should not be his,
but rather those who have claimed to be his followers.
SIMON WOLF, President of the Independent Order B'nia B'rith.
If he had added to their [the Jewish prophets'] spiritual bequests
new jewels of religious truth, and spoken words which are words of
life because they touch the deepest springs of the human heart, why
should we Jews not glory in him? The crown of thorns on his head
makes him only the more our brother, for to this day it is borne by
his people. Were he alive today who, think you, would be nearer his
heart--the persecuted or the persecutors?
DR. GUSTAV GOTTHEIL
The foregoing sentiments do not indicate the acceptance of Jesus by the
Jews at his full value as the Messiah, or as the express revelation
of God to man, or as God manifested in the flesh; but they do give
evidence of a very marked change of sentiment among the Jews toward
Jesus of Nazareth--and surely mark a "beginning" of belief in Christ,
which has but to enlarge to become an acceptance of him as Messiah,
so long expected by their race; and surely they indicate in quite a
remarkable manner the _beginning_ of the fulfillment of the part of the
prophecy here being considered, that declares that "the Jews which are
scattered shall also _begin_ to believe in Christ."
Moreover some few families of Jews have believed the gospel as
presented by the elders of the Church in this dispensation, and are
identified with the Latter-day Saints; among them Alexander Neibaur,
who joined the Church in England in 1840. He afterwards emigrated to
Nauvoo, and the family came with the saints to Utah. Several of his
sons and grand-sons have filled honorable missions for the Church in
preaching the gospel. He is the author of the following well known
hymn, published in the "Times and Seasons," in May, 1841:
Come, thou glorious day of promise,
Come and spread thy cheerful ray;
When the scattered sheep of Israel
Shall no longer go astray;
When Hosannas
With united voice they cry.
Lord, how long wilt thou be angry?
Shall thy wrath for ever burn?
Rise, redeem thine ancient people,
Their transgressions from them turn.
King of Israel,
Come and set thy people free.
O that soon thou would'st to Jacob
Thine enliv'ning spirit send;
Of their unbelief and misery
Make, O Lord, a speedy end.
Lord, Messiah,
Prince of Peace, o'er Israel reign.
Glory, honour, praise and power,
Be unto the Lamb for ever;
Jesus Christ is our Redeemer,
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Praise ye the Lord!
Hallelujah! Praise the Lord.
Again:
And the Jews which are scattered * * * shall begin to gather in
upon the face of the land.
Of course the idea that the Jews will sometime be gathered to the lands
possessed by their forefathers is no new thought. It is not presented
here as such. The Old Testament scriptures are full of predictions
concerning the return of the Jews to Palestine of which the following
are samples:
And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and
they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them. [10]
The house of Jacob shall possess their possessions. [11]
For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God; the Lord they
God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all
people that are upon the face of the earth. [12]
The Lord shall inherit Judah his portion in the holy land, and
shall choose Jerusalem again. [13]
For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob and will yet choose Israel,
and set them in their own land. [14]
Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I will take the children of Israel
from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them
on every side, and bring them into their own land; and I will
make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel;
and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more
two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any
more at all: * * * and David, my servant, shall be king over them;
and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my
judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them. * * * Moreover I
will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting
covenant with them: and I will place them and multiply them,
and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. My
tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and
they shall be my people. [15]
The fulfillment of these predictions has been the hope of scattered
Israel, and from time to time societies have been formed to keep
alive such hope as the promises inspired. It may be thought that said
Jewish societies have accomplished but little. But really that little
was much. They nourished in secret and through ages of darkness that
spark of hope, the fire of which, when touched by the breath of God
shall burst forth into a flame that not all the world shall be able to
stay. These efforts in the past have made possible a larger movement
which is now attracting the attention of the world, known as the
"Zionite Movement." In reality this is but the federation of all Jewish
societies that have had for their purpose the realization of the hopes
of scattered Israel.
The Zionite movement proper, however, may be said to have arisen within
very recent years, since it was in 1896 that it held its first general
conference. This at Basel, Switzerland, in August 1896. Since then its
conferences have been held annually and have steadily increased both
in interest and the number of delegates representing various Jewish
societies until now (1905) it takes on the appearance of one of the
world's great movements. It is not so much a religious movement as a
racial one; for prominent Jews of all shades of both political and
religious opinions have participated in it. After saying through so
many centuries at the feast of the Pass Over, "May we celebrate the
next Pass Over in Jerusalem," the thought seemed to have occurred
to some Jewish minds that if that hope was ever to be realized some
practical steps must be taken looking to the actual achievement of the
possibility--hence the "Zionite Movement."
The keynotes of that movement are heard in the following utterances of
some of the Jewish leaders in explanation of it:
We want to resume the broken thread of our national existence; we
want to show to the world the moral strength, the intellectual
power of the Jewish people. We want a place where the race can be
centralized.
LEON ZOLTOKOFF.
It tries to restore the old solidarity, the old unity, of Israel;
not with a view to any mere monetary aggrandizement, but for the
purpose of securing the right and the opportunity for the Jews to
live and to develop. It believes that this is possible only if
there is some spot on earth which the Jews can call their own, and
which can be a place of refuge, legally secured by international
obligations, to which the oppressed of Israel may flee whenever
necessity arises.
RICHARD J. H. GOTTHEIL.
It is for these Jews (of Russia, Roumania and Galicia) that the
name of their country (Palestine) spells "Hope." I should not be a
man if I did not realize that for these persecuted Jews, Jerusalem
spells reason, justice, manhood and liberty.
RABBI EMIL G. HIRSCH.
Jewish nationalism on a modern basis in Palestine, the old home of
the people.
MAX NORDAU.
Palestine needs a people; Israel needs a country. Give the country
without a people to the people without a country.
ISRAEL ZANGWILL.
To find for the Jews a legally established home in Palestine.
BASEL PLATFORM.
In a word, it is the purpose of "Zionism" to redeem Palestine, and give
it back to Jewish control, create, in fact, a Jewish state in the land
promised to their fathers.
A few years ago negotiations were entered into with the Sultan of
Turkey, within whose political dominions Palestine is included, for
the purchase of the Holy Land for the Jews, and some announcements in
the press by Dr. Herzel, of Austria, just previous to the assembling
of the Zion conference in 1902, for a time justified the high hopes
that were entertained of securing the promised land by purchase. These
hopes, however, were doomed to disappointment by reason of a sudden
change coming over the ruler of Turkey with reference to the matter.
It is more than likely that his advisors persuaded him that the
establishment of a Jewish state under his suzerainty would be adding
one more perplexing feature in the administration of that heterogeneous
collection of such states which already constitute the loose-jointed
empire over which the Sultan presides, by the sufferance of the
European powers. The matter of the Sultan's present refusal to grant,
or sell Palestine to Jews is not a serious difficulty in the progress
of such a wide spread movement as Zionism, however, for ere now the
Lord has changed the hearts of rulers in order to bring to pass his
great purposes, and may do so again. So Israel Zangwill, one of the
most enthusiastic leaders in the movement, views that subject; and in
like spirit also he views the difficulty of obtaining the necessary
millions to purchase the land. On this subject he says:
It matters little that the Zionists could not pay the millions,
if suddenly called upon. They have collected not two and a half
million dollars. But there are millions enough to come to the
rescue once the charter was dangled before the Zionists. It is
not likely that the Rothschilds would see themselves ousted from
their family headship in authority and well-doing. Nor would the
millions left by Baron Hirsch be altogether withheld. The sultan's
present refusal is equally unimportant, because a national policy
is independent of transcient moods and transcient rulers. The only
aspect that really matters is whether Israel's face be or be not
set steadily Zionward--for decades, and even for centuries.
An interesting feature at the last Zion conference held in August of
1904, was the tender by the British foreign minister, Lord Landsdowne,
on behalf of the British government of a tract of fertile territory
in Uganda, British East Africa, for the establishment of the Jewish
colony. It is an elevated tract of country extending some two hundred
miles along the Uganda railway, between Man and Nairobi. It is said
to be well watered, fertile, cool, covered with noble forests, almost
uninhabited and as healthful for Europeans as Great Britain. This
tender on the part of the British government was a cause of some
confusion in the Basle conference, and is now a cause of great anxiety
to the Zionists. It is a Jewish state in Palestine, not a colony in
East Africa that the great body of Zionists are looking forward to;
and when it was moved in the conference that a commission of nine be
appointed to look into details and decide upon the advisability of
sending an expedition to investigate the proposed site of the colony,
even this preliminary step was so opposed by the Russian delegates
that they arose en masse and left the conference hall, in protest
against such a movement. The commission, however, was appointed and the
investigation is in progress. Since the close of the Basel conference
many of those interested in the proposition have been searching their
scriptures and some claim to have found prophetic warrant for such a
movement and come to regard the settlement in Africa as a preliminary
to the final movement into Palestine. The prophecies supposed to
justify this view are to be found in the following from Isaiah:
In that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the
language of Canaan, and swear to the Lord of Hosts; and shall be
called, the city of destruction.
In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the
land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord.
And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of hosts
in the land of Egypt; for they shall cry unto the Lord because of
the oppressors, and he shall send them a savior, and a great one,
and he shall deliver them.
And the Lord shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know
the Lord in that day, and shall do sacrifice and oblation; yea,
they shall vow a vow unto the Lord, and perform it. [16]
Whatever many come of this proposed colony scheme in Africa it can
never be regarded as more than an incident in progress of this great
movement among the Jews. [17] The land of their final inheritance is
Palestine, not Africa, nor Egypt; and if the Jews shall halt for a
time in the land of Uganda, under the benign protection of the British
government, it will be only a temporary abiding place, where, however,
they may obtain a very necessary experience in controlling a state and
bringing their people to a unity of faith and practice under the old
law of Israel.
What I am concerned with in this strange movement among the Jews,
however, is not the details of it, but the fact of it; and the further
fact that "Zionism" is doubtless the inauguration of a series of
movements that shall culminate in the complete fulfillment of this
great Book of Mormon prophecy.
In addition to the prediction of the Book of Mormon which brought the
subject of the gathering of the Jews to their land vividly before the
Prophet Joseph's mind, he claims that in the Kirtland Temple, in 1836,
Moses, the great Hebrew prophet, appeared to himself and Oliver Cowdery
and conferred upon them the keys of the gathering of Israel, and the
power of restoring the tribes to the lands of their fathers. [18] Acting
under the divine authority thus received, Joseph Smith sent an apostle
of the Lord Jesus Christ to the land of Palestine to bless it and
dedicate it to the Lord for the return of his people. This apostle was
Orson Hyde, and he performed his mission in 1840-2. Again in 1872 an
apostolic delegation consisting of the late President George A. Smith
(cousin of the Prophet) and the late President Lorenzo Snow were sent
to Palestine. The purpose of their mission in part is thus stated in
President Young's letter of appointment to George A. Smith.
When you get to the land of Palestine we wish you to dedicate
and consecrate that land to the Lord that it may be blessed with
fruitfulness preparatory to the return of the Jews in fulfillment
of prophecy and the accomplishment of the purposes of our heavenly
Father. [19]
Acting, then, under the divine authority restored to earth by the
Prophet Moses, this Apostolic delegation--as well as the Apostle first
sent--from the summit of Mount Olivet blessed the land, and dedicated
it for the return of the Jews. It is not strange, therefore, to those
who look upon such a movement as Zionism with faith in God's great
latter-day work to see the spirit now moving upon the minds of the Jews
prompting their return to the land of their fathers. To them it is but
the operation of the Spirit of God in their souls, turning their hearts
to the promises made to the fathers.
Meantime, and quite apart from the Zionite movement, changes are taking
place in the promised land that augur well for the fulfillment of this
Book of Mormon prophecy. For instance, the British Consul reports
for 1876 give the number of Jews in Judea at from fifteen to twenty
thousand. Twenty years later, viz. in 1896, the same authority gives
the number of Jews at from sixty to seventy thousand; and what was more
promising for the future both for the people and the country inhabited,
this new Jewish population was turning its attention to the cultivation
of the soil, which but requires the blessings of God unto it to restore
it to its ancient fruitfulness, and which will make it possible for it
to sustain once more a numerous population. [20]
Thus in the preparations evidently being made for the return of the
Jews to the land of their forefathers, and their beginning to believe
in Jesus, this remarkable Book of Mormon prophecy is in the way of
fulfillment.
IV.
_The Work of the Lord to Commence Among all Nations to Bring About
the Restoration of His People Israel, and a Universal Reign of Peace
and Righteousness_.
And it shall come to pass that the Lord God shall commence his work
among all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people, to bring about
the restoration of his people upon the earth.
The 19th century of the Christian era, especially the last three
quarters of it, will be regarded as a most wonderful period of human
progress. [21] An age of inventions and discoveries in all departments
of human knowledge and human activities. During that time, through
human invention, machinery was so multiplied and made to serve the
industrial requirements of man that we may say that the race was
emancipated from the drudgery under which it had sweltered for ages. In
field and factory machinery was made to perform the labor which in ages
hitherto had been done by human hands. Husbandry, by reason of so much
machinery being applied to agricultural pursuits, became a gentlemanly
occupation as compared with the farm drudgery of former years. The
increased product in all lines of manufactures multiplied comforts and
placed them within the reach of all, so that the standard of living
among the common people was immensely improved.
This period also witnessed great advancement in the matter of
transportation. On land it developed from the ox team and horse
carriage to the automobile and lightning express train, capable of
covering from fifty to seventy and now ninety miles per hour. It saw
Europe and America converted into a net work of railroads, binding all
parts of the respective continents together with easy, safe, and swift
means of traffic, and carried to the markets of every city the various
products of all the countries of the globe.
Water transportation within the same period developed from the slow
sailing vessel, dependent on the winds and ocean currents to the modern
"ocean greyhound" capable of making its way against both ocean current
and winds at a speed never realized by the sailing vessel with both
wind and ocean currents in its favor. The stormy Atlantic, to cross
which in the early years of the century was a tedious and dangerous
journey of many weeks, by the close of the 19th century was a matter
of five days pleasure trip. All mystery and dread of "old ocean" had
disappeared, and men no longer mourned the fate of "those who go
down to the sea in ships," since ocean travel is far less dangerous
than overland travel, and the oceans so far from being regarded any
longer with the old time awe and mystery are now looked upon as merely
convenient highways for the commerce of the world. By the speed of
ocean travel we may say that all the continents and islands of the
globe are married.
Running parallel with this development of transportation on land and
sea, is what may be called the growth of our instantaneous means of
communication. At the opening of the period we are considering the pony
express and mail coach were our most rapid means of communication,
and looking back to those days such means of communication seem
marvellously inadequate to civilized life. At the close of the century,
however, by means of ocean cables and telegraph lines, and telephone
instrumentalities--to say nothing of the more wonderful wireless
telegraphy now coming into use--we are in instant communication with
all the great centers of civilization, and each morning may read the
world's daily history gathered by these agencies for our instruction.
In the same period, in the matter of illumination, we went from the
tallow dip and farthing rush light to gas and electricity. From the
slow working hand press to the lightning Hoe multicolor printing press,
capable of printing, in different colors, folding, pasting and counting
from twenty-four thousand to one hundred thousand impressions per hour!
Within our period improvements in telescopes have revealed new wonders
of the universe. Improvement in microscopes have revealed wonders
undreamed of in former times both in organic and inorganic nature.
In the laboratories of the world new mysteries of light and heat and
other elementary forces of nature were revealed. Substances which
aforetime had been regarded as opaque were found in some lights to be
transparent. Indeed in all the arts and sciences such progress was
made as had not before been made in a period of a thousand years. [22]
There seemed to have come an awakening of intellectual power in men,
and the whole world was transformed by means of it. Political liberties
were enlarged, old tyrannies were rendered for the present and future
impossible in many countries, because of the consciousness of inherent
power in the people.
Our period witnessed also the rise and progress of the peace movement.
A movement whose chief purpose is to substitute peaceful arbitration
as a method of settling international differences for the dreadful
arbitrament of war. The first peace society was formed in America
early in the century--1815--and while not attracting much attention at
first, the movement gradually increased in importance until at last it
arose from a merely national movement to an international one, as is
evidenced from the fact that at its great conference at the Hague in
1899 there were accredited representatives from the following nations:
United States, Great Britain, Russia, Germany, France, Austria-Hungary,
Belgium, China, Denmark, Holland, Italy, Japan, Sweden, Norway, Persia,
Portugal, Roumania, Servia, Siam, Switzerland, and Turkey. It was this
conference of 1899 that finally established the world's permanent court
of arbitration at the Hague, to which several important international
questions have already been referred and settled. And while the peace
movement and arbitration has not yet relieved the world from recurrence
of dreadful wars, still the establishment of the permanent court for
international arbitration is a mighty stride in the interest of the
world's peace. It gives more than hope. It establishes confidence that
the time will come when there will be a disarmament of the nations,
and the old prophet's dream figured forth in his vision of the nations
beating their spears into pruning hooks and their swords into plow
shares will be realized, and the nations shall learn war no more.
It cannot be that this wonderful transformation of the world within our
period has no significance. A new era has certainly dawned upon the
world. Old things are passing away. All things are becoming new. Surely
such changing conditions in material things prophesy corresponding
changes in men as individuals and in their community life. These
material improvements will doubtless be met by corresponding
improvements in moral and spiritual wellbeing. There is undoubtedly
a close connection between this influx of intellectual light and
the splendid opening of the great new dispensation of the gospel of
Jesus Christ. When the Lord renewed divine communication to man in
the visions and revelations granted to Joseph Smith, there seemed
to have accompanied this influx of spiritual light the intellectual
light of which I have been speaking, and which has accomplished such
transformations in the affairs of men and nations as are here noted. To
the spirit which is in man the Spirit of the Lord has given inspiration
to some purpose. It is not difficult to believe--nay to conceive the
contrary seems impossible--that the Lord, according to the Book of
Mormon prophecy, has commenced to bring about the restoration of his
people Israel upon the earth, and to usher into the world that blessed
reign of truth, peace and righteousness so long hoped for; so long the
theme of poets, sages, statesmen and prophets; when with righteousness
the Lord shall judge the pure and reprove with equity for the meek of
the earth; when the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard
shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion, and the
fatling together, and a little child shall lead them; when the cow and
the bear shall feed, and their young ones shall lie down together; when
the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and the suckling child shall
play on the hole of the cockatrice's den; when they shall not hurt nor
destroy in all God's holy mountain; when the earth shall be full of
the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea; when man shall
know how sweet and pleasant it is for men to dwell together in unity
and peace; and when, to correspond with these moral and spiritual
conditions of the world, the material forces and resources of the earth
shall be developed; distance annihilated; all the ends of the earth
brought together in instant communication; poverty and crime banished;
when labor shall have its own and the idler shall not sit in the lap
of luxury, a burden to labor, but all shall contribute by intelligent
industry to an enlightened world's necessities. The realization of the
dream has long been deferred, but we are taught by scripture that if
the vision tarry, wait for it, for it will come. Surely we may wait in
confidence when in such a marked manner as here indicated the hand of
God is to be seen fashioning and directing those events which shall
culminate in the perfect realization of all the good that has been
decreed for the earth and the inhabitants thereof.
V.
_The Sign of the Modern World's Awakening_.
An interesting feature in the awakening of the world, considered in the
last subdivision of this chapter, is the fact that not only did this
awakening begin about the time the Book of Mormon was published to the
world, but it is one of the prophecies of the book that it should be
so. That is to say, the spiritual and intellectual awakening of the
modern world, and the coming forth of the Book of Mormon were to be
contemporaneous events.
In the course of his ministry among the Nephites, the Messiah directed
especial attention to, and laid great stress upon one of the prophecies
of Isaiah, which follows: