rigidly against intruders. Man may lawfully desire this office, but
he has no right to take it of himself, but he must first be called
and appointed to it as Aaron was, by God, through a prophetic voice.
Neither is man required to study, and artificially qualify himself for
receiving it. God takes men as they are, and with the gift of priestly
office He bestows the requisite qualifications. The ordination of
heaven put upon the head of any man, however ignorant, is a voucher for
requisite qualification and blessing. Every man is thereby thoroughly
furnished for the discharge of all the duties of his respective
calling. They are not all apostles, however, neither are all prophets
or pastors. But every one has his calling of God, and in the legitimate
sphere of that calling he acts as God, and in the authority of God.
Some have authority only to baptize unto repentance for remission of
sins, as John the Baptist. Such can confer no more authority than
they possess in themselves. Others have authority to bless, and whom
they bless are blessed in very deed. They have similar authority to
curse, and whom they curse are cursed in very deed. Jacob blessed his
sons, and the heavens sealed and confirmed the same upon their heads.
Paul cursed Elymas, the sorcerer, with blindness, and the same curse
was sealed and confirmed upon him immediately. Elisha cursed Gehazi,
his servant, and leprosy cleaved to him from that time. Elijah shut
up the windows of heaven that it rained not for the space of three
years and six months, by the same delegated power, and again they were
opened at his voice. He was a man of like passions with ourselves. All
men are not ordained to this power, and when they are not, they are
wholly incapable of exercising it. It is office that gives recognition
and legality to a deed of conveyance and ownership. It is divine
appointment and official calling that gives efficacy to the priesthood.
But many generations have contented themselves to preach and support
preachers who have no divine appointment.
The consequence is, that men have been self-appointed to the ministry
and spread dissention and confusion abroad. The knowledge of the true
and living God has gradually receded from the earth, and darkness,
even gross darkness, covered the people. The ordinances that impart
healing virtue and the power and light of truth, have either been
changed or abolished. The apostolic office has been counted as a thing
out of date, and the spiritual gifts as being done away. The religious
world has been too much like King Saul. After he had been forsaken of
God, and the power and Spirit of his anointing given to David, this
unhappy monarch resorted to every miserable device, (even to the aid of
witches), in order to obtain knowledge and influence. But the curse of
disobedience followed him to the day of his death.
The religious sects, in like manner, have resorted to seminaries
and the polish of schools--also to the theological comments of
time-honoured fathers, (who were as ignorant as themselves) ever
learning, yet never coming to the knowledge of truth. Bibles have
been translated again and again; learned volumes have been written
in explanation, and even wars have been instigated by the supposed
defenders of the faith, and the earth crimsoned by human gore. All
these evils and curses have arisen from a spurious priesthood.
In view of these things, is it not time, sir, to let God resume the
reins of government and once more establish a holy priesthood, which
shall be after the calling of Aaron, and after the order and power of
endless life. That this may be the unfeigned choice of all who seek
after God, is the continued prayer of
Your old friend and servant,
ORSON SPENCER.
LETTER X.
ON GATHERING.
_Liverpool, October 13_, 1847.
Reverend and Dear Sir,--You have doubtless been ready to ask, time and
again, why this GATHERING together of such large bodies of Saints? Why
can they not stay in their former residences, like other christians?
And may they not do more good to their fellow-men by scattering about
amongst the people promiscuously? Why, go away off to some distant
part of the earth? is not the Almighty God to be found as much in one
place as another? Furthermore, says one, it is exceedingly dangerous to
community at large to allow any large body of people, of the same faith
and doctrine, to assemble themselves in any one place, their influence
being rendered formidable by reason of concentration and union.
My dear sir, have not cogitations like these passed through your
mind, and been reiterated in your hearing more than once, concerning
Latter-day Saints? Delusion! delusion! is reiterated on many sides.
What can these Latter-day Saints mean--selling out their possessions at
so great a sacrifice, and leaving a comfortable and pleasant home for a
far distant land, even crossing the wide Atlantic! Has there been the
like fanaticism since the time of the crusades? On the land, hundreds
of wagons, yea thousands in all, are seen rolling their whitened canvas
over the wide prairies, accompanied by their flocks and herds; and on
the ocean a multitude of ships are wafting the inhabitants of distant
islands and continents to the same destination!
Now, I propose to meet these inquiries and reflections promptly and
fairly. In the first place, if the church is guided by the spirit of
revelation, God, the author of all true revelation, knows what is good
for his people, and He will not require them to _gather_ without good
and sufficient reasons. For the church that is not guided by the spirit
of sacred inspiration, is guided by mammon or the devil; for every
church will serve God or mammon. Well, says one, I don't believe that
God ever did, or ever will, require people to gather together and leave
their country and kindred. Aye, indeed; but you believe the Bible, I
trust, which informs you not only how God _has_ gathered his people
in different periods of the world, but also, that He will gather them
together in the dispensation of the fulness of times.
Do I need to remind you, sir, that God required Abraham to rise up and
leave his country and kindred, and go in search of a country that he
should afterwards show him. He was obedient, and went from one country
to another, the Lord being his counsellor and guide. The ancient
saints and prophets generally were "strangers" in consequence of being
called to leave their home and country. Their obedience to such a
call, through faith, constituted them heirs of an inheritance. Abraham
became an heir of the country which he was not permitted to possess in
time, but he will hold the same in eternity, with a city built upon it
according to the counsel of God.
In the dispensation given to Moses, he was required to gather the
people out of all the land of Egypt, and take them to the land
of Canaan; and what was very remarkable, he was required to slay
and destroy the inhabitants, in order to make room for the great
_gathering_ of the Hebrews. The children of God and the people of this
world cannot dwell together; they are always contrary one to the other.
What fellowship hath Christ with Belial, or believers with unbelievers?
The Egyptians could have no fellowship with the Hebrews after they
were told that a prophet had sprung up among them. The Hebrews told
a marvellous tale about the Lord appearing to Moses in the "burning
bush." They pretended to have revelation and work miracles as in the
early days of Potipher and Joseph; but this pretension to angels,
prophets, and miracles, speedily sundered all ties of harmony and
fellowship, and it was necessary for the Hebrews to leave the country.
God required it of them, and even ordered them into an unpromising
wilderness, to be subject to hunger, and thirst, and many hardships.
The same spirit of opposition to miracles, prophets, and angels exists
now; and the righteous can no more keep the ordinances and commandments
of God now, without persecution even to death from the world, than the
Hebrews could do it. For the same reason Lot _gathered_ out of Sodom
--even angels could not stop a night in Sodom without being mobbed;
accordingly, the Lord commanded him to gather up so many as would
go with him and flee to the mountain. His reason for the gathering
in this case was, that He could not properly punish the Sodomites,
unless the righteous were gathered out of the city in the first place.
Likewise, when Jerusalem was about to be destroyed, Jesus instructed
his disciples to flee to the mountain.
It was persecution that scattered the primitive Saints abroad in the
days of Jesus. Jesus had taught Paul and Peter, that the Saints could
not be preserved on the earth, and the kingdom built up, without the
Saints were gathered together in one. He told them, absolutely and
unequivocally, that he should gather the disciples in the day of
restitution. Such was their sense of the immediateness of gathering,
and of the second coming of Christ, that they were troubled when the
disciples were _gathered_, lest the day of the Lord was at hand; but
Paul disabused them, and told them that there must be a "falling away"
before the notable day of the Lord should come.
Paul informed his brethren, that in the dispensation of the fulness of
times, God would gather together in one, all things both in heaven and
upon earth and under the earth. John speaks of the same, probably as
the day of the great battle of God Almighty, Jesus signified that He
would gather his people, the elect, even if he had to send his angels
to the four corners of the earth to bring them, after the manner in
which he sent to Sodom to bring Lot out of it to a place of safety. He
declared he would gather the wheat into the garner, and the tares into
bundles to be burned. The prophets, too, long before the meridian of
time, saw with enrapturing vision, the sons coming from afar, and the
daughters from the ends of the earth.
Isaiah says, "the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the
brightness of thy rising. Lift up thine eyes round about, and see,
all they _gather_ themselves together, they come to thee; thy sons
shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side.
Then shalt thou see and flow together, and thine heart shall fear and
be enlarged, because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto
thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee. Who are these
that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows? Surely the
isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy
sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name
of the Lord thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel. And the sons of
strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto
thee, that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles. And he
shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts
of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the corners
of the earth."
The gathering of Saints to one place is necessary in order to preserve
their genealogies, and to secure to them those inheritances, the title
to which must be substantiated by legitimate records, kept in the
archives of the house of God. Whenever God has had a people. He has
been careful to instruct them to keep an accurate record of marriages
and the issues of marriage; from Adam to Noah, and from Noah to
Abraham, and thence to David down to Jesus Christ, the genealogy must
necessarily be preserved. Says David, "God setteth people in families
as a flock." "He arrangeth them in families." But if these families
intermarry with those who do not keep the laws of God, nor conform to
his ordinances, the records of genealogy are soon obliterated from the
knowledge of men, and the proof of a legitimate title to inheritance is
thereby extinct; and unless Saints are gathered out from the midst of
unbelievers, they are more liable to intermarry and become alienated
from the ordinances and covenants of the Lord. If Isaac and Ishmael
have no records of parentage, how can one claim rights of lineage above
another? God will assign rewards to men according to the _records_ of
their deserts, and one great pre-requisite to the final restitution
of all things, is the reviving and establishing of proper records of
genealogy, and covenants, and promises, and patriarchal blessings.
In one instance God had to rescind the marriages of a numerous people,
because such marriages, by their issue, would tend to frustrate the
grace of God to the righteous, and entail blessings upon a strange
people that God designed to curse. The ordinances of the church and
institutions of God's house cannot be carried into execution in a land
belonging to "aliens from the commonwealth of Israel;" because aliens
from God will not have the Lord to rule over them. They consider that
the laws of God set two against three, and three against two, the
father-in-law against the son-in-law, &c.; and so do they have this
effect, and always will have it, until the Saints are separated from
their adversaries. Before there can be anything like a true, godlike,
peaceful millennium, a separation must take place between the righteous
and disobedient; even as a shepherd divideth the sheep from the goats,
even so must God's will be done with friends and foes on earth, like as
in heaven.
Had the Jews received Jesus Christ, He would have set up just such a
kingdom on earth as in heaven, and the honest from all nations would
have been _gathered_ to his standard. But seeing they would pierce the
Shepherd, and scatter the sheep through a long cloudy day, as it had
been prophesied of Him and his followers; He, nevertheless, assured his
disciples that his people should be _gathered_, in the latter days, as
wheat into the garner. John says to the Saints in the last days, that
are scattered among the confused nations of the whole earth:--"_Come
out of her my people, and be not partakers of her sins, that ye receive
not of her plagues_." Here the reason why Saints should come out of
other nations is distinctly avowed--"to escape her plagues." The same
reason that was assigned why Lot should go out of Sodom.
The idea prevalent that God would inflict all his judgments in one
great tremendous DAY, is as absurd as the notion is universal. The
famine and dearth were at the command of Elijah. The earthquake that
swallowed up Dathan and the company of Abiram, was at the command of
Moses. Moses also stretched out his hand as a signal to the accumulated
seas to overwhelm the Egyptians, and they obeyed his mandate. But I
will not multiply proofs. God will pour out his vials of wrath, and
distress the nations till they will learn and practice righteousness;
and his people must flee to their appointed hiding place till the
indignation is overpast, otherwise they have no guaranty for their
safety. The Hebrews were obliged to mark their houses, lest the
destroying angel should slay both them and the Egyptians. The Lord
God has decreed a consumption upon the whole earth, therefore let the
righteous flee to the strongholds of Zion, that are preparing in that
land that was promised to the Patriarch Joseph, while it is an accepted
time, and the evil days come not.
Jesus cautioned Jerusalem saints to beware of imitating the silly and
dilatory part of Lot's wife. The righteous are no more secure from
approaching judgments than the wicked, except they obey the commands
of God. Even a prophet was once slain by a lion, because he dared to
disobey the Lord. No man should neglect any means by which he can be
removed, and help to remove others, from those nations that are as
inevitably doomed to destruction for rebellion, as the Canaanites of
former times.
Sir, we feel the very same extraordinary interest in depositing our
very bones in the land of Zion, that the patriarchs formerly felt when
they commanded that their bones should be removed, to the country and
burying place which God had designated. If there is enthusiasm in this
sentiment, sir, it is the enthusiasm of patriarchs and prophets that
kept the divine mandates, and knew well the order of the resurrection,
and the necessity of having their bones laid on the identical land that
should afterwards be their possession and inheritance for ever and
ever. Did not the Lord apportion off the land of Canaan to the twelve
tribes to be their inheritance for ever? and shall not the one hundred
and forty-four thousand in the latter days be equally tenacious to
possess the very inheritance that was promised them to be a perpetual
possession in time and eternity? There, their bones, like the precious
valley of dry bones, will be the guardian care of angels, and in the
resurrection stand up like a consolidated army, while the disobedient
and ungodly shall be scattered and driven as chaff before the wind.
The aged and infirm among us, fervently desire to carry their bones,
while animated with life, to the land of Zion, as an expression of
their faith in the promise of God, that he will resurrect them and
plant them in that same "heavenly" country which they now seek. What
Canaan was to ancient saints and prophets, the land of Joseph will be
to the saints and prophets of the last days, and more abundantly. If
men have not the spirit of gathering they are blind and cannot see afar
off, and are nigh unto burning. The gathering is one great test of
faith, by which you may know who is on the Lord's side. Kindred spirits
long to congregate together.
The language of Ruth is expressive of the desires of God's people in
all ages. "Thy people is my people, and their God is my God, and where
thou goest I will go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge." Her sister
Orpah could forego the society of saints and the ordinances of God
sooner than part with her native country and kindred. A portion of
Lot's family saw no wisdom in the _gathering_ until it was too late.
Sir, the _gathering_ is the great universal national _preacher_ of the
last days. It speaks in trumpet tones out of every nation where it has
been commenced. As birds retire before a storm, and fowls before the
darkness of night, so the multitudes that go out by sea and land is a
practical warning that cannot be mistaken by those that remain.
The nations wonder at the spectacle of such multitudes going out of
their midst under the warning voice of Jehovah, and are ready to cry
out, who are these that fly as clouds and as doves to their windows?
Who are these Latter-day Saints? What is their doctrine, and whither
are they fleeing? The sound of the gathering goeth into all the earth.
The fear and dread of approaching calamities take possession of the
nations. The righteous are being withdrawn apart, in order that the
Almighty may stretch out his chastening hand, and inflict his sore
judgment upon rebellious nations. There is no room to mistake the faith
and sincerity of those whose gathering together is without a parallel
for magnitude of enterprise. The Israelites performed a journey that
might have been compassed in about forty days, but the Latter-day
gathering brings sons and daughters from the ends of the earth.
The great design of Jesus in bringing the righteous to _unity_ of
faith and the knowledge of God, is wonderfully facilitated by bringing
the righteous together in one place. The ancient Jews were taught of
God to build up Jerusalem as a place of _gathering_; and those whose
circumstances forbid them to locate there, either from political or
agricultural interests, were required to visit Jerusalem at least
three times a year, where they could interchange hospitalities and
friendships, and contract matrimonial alliances, &c. Also, in addition
to these facilities of union, their baptisms were to be performed in
the national font; their marriage rites, and records of genealogy, were
to be performed and deposited in the archives of the great Temple of
the Lord at Jerusalem.
In this great city of gathering, their frequent and splendid national
festivals were to be held from generation to generation. By these
multiplied means, the union of Jews became proverbially strong; and
their attachments to their nation and kindred, and national rights and
usages, became as enduring as their existence. If, perchance, they
should be scattered amongst the remote nations of the earth, still the
recollection of their journeyings to Jerusalem in social groups--their
splendid festivals at the national capitol--their royal affinity with
the great and good of God's people--vibrated through their minds with
resuscitating power. There it was that the Almighty condescended to
reveal his acceptance of their sacrifices, and bless the people from
the greatest to the least, and even speak to the people through their
High Priest at least once a year.
Now, when God shall build up Zion and his Holy House in the tops of
the mountains, and all nations flow into it, will He not appear in his
glory? Such a measure of union, and strength of attachment to the Lord
and his people, the last days will exhibit as was never before realized
on the earth; then will Zion rise and shine, her light being come, and
the glory of God being risen upon her--yea, be an eternal excellency
and the praise and joy of the whole earth!
Who, sir, can contemplate the glory of Zion, when God shall have
gathered his people from the four corners of the earth, and made
of them a great nation, an "innumerable company," and blessed them
with his own laws and ordinances, binding them together in a new and
everlasting covenant, without the most thrilling emotions of love,
gratitude, and joy in believing. Break out, O thou inhabitant of
Zion, and sing for the glory that shall shortly be revealed; when the
kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdom of Christ, and the
stakes thereof shall no more be thrown down for ever!
Now, sir, in conclusion, may I not say, with all deference to the
misguided teachers of modern christianity, that the Lord is performing
a marvellous work and a wonder in the greatest of all gatherings since
the foundation of the world. He is gathering his righteous hosts from
the nations of the earth to one place, and setting his forces in battle
array against the powers of darkness, and against all flesh that exalts
itself against the knowledge of God. And by truth, and by judgments, he
will thoroughly cleanse the earth, and overthrow more wickedness in ten
years to come, than blind, boasting, self-righteous modern christianity
can in ten thousand years.
Please to accept my warmest desires for your present and everlasting
peace and welfare.
Your humble servant,
ORSON SPENCER.
LETTER XI.
THE LATTER-DAY JUDGMENTS.
_Liverpool, October_ 28, 1847.
Reverend and Dear Sir,--THE LATTER-DAY JUDGMENTS, the subject of my
present letter, deserve a careful consideration among the topics
peculiar to Latter-day Saints.
You must be already aware that it is a part of my faith that God
designs to set up his kingdom _on the earth_, in order that the meek
may inherit the _earth_ as their celestial abode; and as He will not
employ His enemies to administer even temporal affairs within the
bounds of His kingdom, His kingdom will consequently be a temporal
one, and wholly and exclusively conducted by His own loyal subjects,
according to His righteous will. He will proceed from conquest to
conquest, until all other kingdoms are overthrown and merged in
one--even His own kingdom.
The means by which he will subdue and overcome the nations of the
earth are two, viz.. TRUTH and JUDGMENT. He explicitly declares,
that He will lay _judgment_ to the line and _righteousness_ to the
plummet. His latter-day proclamation is, "Fear God and give glory to
Him, for the hour of His judgment is come." The salvation that He
offers is temporal, spiritual, and eternal; and the judgments which He
will inflict are also similar. As a supreme lawgiver, He claims the
submission of all the inhabitants of the earth. Nor is it necessary that
His servants should be for ever preaching the gospel on the earth, in
order to effect a universal reconciliation of all men to their God. All
men will not obey the truth, therefore what the truth will not save
through faith, God's judgments will destroy through their unbelief. And
these judgments will be executed speedily, even as in the days of Noah
and Lot. God formerly gave the inhabitants timely warning before the
deluge came, and before the fire descended from heaven.