THE LAND WHERE ADAM DWELT--THE SAINTS IMPELLED TOWARD THEIR
DESTINY--PERSECUTION REVIVES--ADAM-ONDI-AHMAN--THE ALTAR OF THE
ANCIENT OF DAYS.
The land where Adam dwelt. The site of the Garden of Eden. The place
where the Ancient of Days shall sit, and the God of heaven shall again
visit His people. As saith the prophet Daniel:
"I beheld till the thrones were cast down and the Ancient of Days
did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head
like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his
wheels as burning fire.
"A fiery stream issued and come forth from before him: thousand
thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand
stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.
* * *
"I saw in the night visions, and behold one like the Son of man
came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days,
and they brought him near before him.
"And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that
all people, nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion
is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his
kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. * * * * * *
"I beheld and the same horn made war with the Saints, and
prevailed against them;
"Until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given to the
Saints of the Most High; and the time came that the Saints
possessed the kingdom."
Here, in this most ancient region, where, parallel with the stream of
Time, the great river of mortal life arose, had pitched their tents
the Saints of latter days.
Here dwelt Adam and Eve in the world's infancy; here they tasted of
the fruit forbidden, and were driven forth from Eden, their fall
predestined that mortal man might be. Here the great sire of mankind
built altars unto God, offering sacrifice unto the Father in
commemoration of the atonement of the Son. Here fell the first martyr;
here righteous Abel's blood was spilt; here burst the awful thunders
of heaven's awakened wrath upon the guilty head of earth's first
murderer. Here Adam, bowed with age, blessed the righteous residue of
his seed, and predicted whatsoever should befall his posterity to the
latest generation.
All this ere the days of Peleg, in whose days "was the earth divided;"
ere Enoch's city rose to heaven, or the ark of Noah floated over a
wave-buried world. Ere Babel's towering folly mocked the skies; ere
wrecked was language on confusion's strand; ere the great river of
humanity, dividing into rills, went forth to water with the streams of
life the soil of every land.
Here, in the times of restitution, when all things in Christ are
gathered in one, Adam, Michael, the great Prince, Ancient of Days, is
to come in power and glory, revisiting the scenes of his earthly
pilgrimage.
America, the old world, not the new! Cradle of man, mother of nations,
grave of empires!
Unto Missouri, land of promise; the ancient, the chosen, the favored
above all other lands, had the Lord's Prophet, Joseph, led His
covenant people.
Spring Hill, Daviess County, Missouri, one of the settlements of the
Saints in this region, had been renamed by revelation,
Adam-ondi-Ahman, because, said the Lord, "it is the place where Adam
shall come to visit his people, or the Ancient of Days shall sit, as
spoken of by Daniel the Prophet."
Verily were the Saints of the Most High being driven toward their
destiny. The "horn" that made war with them and "prevailed against
them," was surely pushing them on to final victory. Was it not
destiny, too, that they should thus retrace the steps of their great
ancestor, who, driven forth from Eden,[A] dwelt in Adam-ondi-Ahman?
[Footnote A: Jackson County, Missouri, from whence the Saints were
driven, is reputed to be the ancient site of the Garden of Eden.]
Heber was now with his people at Far West, in "the land where Adam
dwelt," ready to perform his part of the labor in preparing the
kingdom of the Son of God for the coming of the Ancient of Days.
"Soon after my arrival," says he, "Bishop Partridge gave me a lot and
sufficient lumber to build a house. Charles Hubbard made me a present
of forty acres of land, and another brother gave me a cow. All the
brethren were remarkably kind in contributing to my necessities. About
the last of August, after I had spent much labor, and nearly finished
my house, I was obliged to abandon it to the mob, who again commenced
persecuting the Saints, driving off their cattle and destroying their
property."
The origin of this persecution was much the same as that of the
Jackson County trouble, five years before. The thrift and enterprise
of the Saints, with their growing power and influence, had aroused the
jealous fears of their Gentile neighbors, and what the scheming
villainy of political demagogues left undone, the malice of sectarian
priests accomplished, in kindling the wrath of the ignorant and
fanatical against them.
An election riot in Gallatin, Daviess County, on the 6th of August,
1838, where a combined effort was made to prevent the Mormons from
voting, and several of the brethren were under the necessity of using
force to defend themselves against their bullying assailants, was made
the pretext for further outrages against the community to which they
belonged. The Saints in that locality being helplessly in the
minority, were at the mercy of the mob which now rose against them.
One of the methods employed by the leaders of the lawless banditti to
enlist sympathy for their own cause, and arouse the public mind
against their victims, was to destroy property belonging to
non-Mormons, their own followers in some instances, and then ride
through the country advertising it as the work of Mormons, against
whom any tale, however false or atrocious, was readily believed. Some
of the mob even fired upon a church while its occupants were
worshiping on the Sabbath day, and then spread the alarm that the
Mormons had "riz" and were destroying property, demolishing churches
and interfering with free religious worship.
These atrocious falsehoods, worthy only of fiends incarnate, bore
legitimate fruit in deeds equally devilish and appalling. The people
rose _en masse;_ the Saints were driven from their homes, their houses
plundered and burned, their fields laid waste, and men, women and
children fled for their lives in all directions, pursued by their
merciless oppressors.
What followed, Heber's record thus relates:
"After hearing of the mobbing, burning and robbing in Gallatin,
Daviess Co., and the region round about, the brethren of Caldwell went
directly to Adamondi-Ahman, which is on the west fork of Grand River.
Thomas B. Marsh, David W. Patten, Brigham Young, myself, Parley P.
Pratt and John Taylor amongst the number. When we arrived there we
found the Prophet Joseph, Hyrum Smith and Sidney Rigdon, with hundreds
of others of the Saints preparing to defend themselves from the mob
who were threatening the destruction of our people. Men, women and
children were fleeing to that place for safety from every direction;
their houses and property were burnt and they had to flee half naked,
crying, and frightened nigh unto death, to save their lives.
"While there we laid out a city on a high elevated piece of land, and
set the stakes for the four corners of a temple block, which was
dedicated, Brother Brigham Young being mouth; there were from three to
five hundred men present on the occasion, under arms. This elevated
spot was probably from two hundred and fifty to five hundred feet
above the level of Grand River, so that one could look east, west,
north or south, as far as the eye could reach; it was one of the most
beautiful places I ever beheld.
"The Prophet Joseph called upon Brother Brigham, myself and others,
saying, 'Brethren, come, go along with me, and I will show you
something.' He led us a short distance to a place where were the ruins
of three altars built of stone, one above the other, and one standing
a little back of the other, like unto the pulpits in the Kirtland
Temple, representing the order of three grades of Priesthood; 'There,'
said Joseph, 'is the place where Adam offered up sacrifice after he
was cast out of the garden.' The altar stood at the highest point of
the bluff. I went and examined the place several times while I
remained there."
An episode of peace in time of war. A glimpse of heaven's blue through
a rift in the gathering storm.
A fiery ordeal was before the Saints. The Church, tried with poverty
and tempted by the prospect of wealth, had survived and maintained its
integrity. It had also withstood the world's scorn, the wrath and
ridicule of the ungodly. Nor had fiery trials been wanting, whereby
the faith of some had been proven, the supposed faith of others
weighed in the balance and found wanting. A general test was now to be
applied. The faith and integrity of the whole Church were about to
pass through the fierce flames of affliction; between the upper and
nether millstones of official tyranny and mob violence.