THE OPENING OF A SPIRITUAL DISPENSATION TO AMERICA--WOMAN'S
EXALTATION--THE LIGHT OF THE LATTER DAYS.
Joseph Smith opened to America a great spiritual dispensation. It was
such the Mormon sisterhood received.
A latter-day prophet! A gospel of miracles! Angels visiting the earth
again! Pentecosts in the nineteenth century! This was Mormonism.
These themes were peculiarly fascinating to those earnest apostolic
women whom we shall introduce to the reader.
Ever must such themes be potent with woman. She has a divine mission
always, both to manifest spiritual gifts and to perpetuate spiritual
dispensations.
Woman is child of faith. Indeed she is faith. Man is reason. His mood
is skepticism. Left alone to _his_ apostleship, spiritual missions die,
though revealed by a cohort of archangels. Men are too apt to lock
again the heavens which the angels have opened, and convert priesthood
into priestcraft. It is woman who is the chief architect of a spiritual
church.
Joseph Smith was a prophet and seer because his mother was a prophetess
and seeress. Lucy Smith gave birth to the prophetic genius which has
wrought out its manifestations so marvelously in the age. Brigham
Young, who is a society-builder, also received his rare endowments
from his mother. Though differing from Joseph, Brigham has a potent
inspiration.
Thus we trace the Mormon genius to these mothers. They gave birth to
the great spiritual dispensation which is destined to incarnate a new
and universal Christian church.
Until the faith of Latter-day Saints invoked one, there was no Holy
Ghost in the world such as the saints of former days would have
recognized. Respectable divines, indeed, had long given out that
revelation was done away, because no longer needed. The canon of
scripture was said to be full. The voice of prophesy was no more to be
heard to the end of time.
But the Mormon prophet invoked the Holy Ghost of the ancient Hebrews,
and burst the sealed heavens. The Holy Ghost came, and His apostles
published the news abroad.
The initial text of Mormonism was precisely that which formed the basis
of Peter's colossal sermon on the day of Pentecost:
"And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour
out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall
prophesy, and your young men shall dream dreams;
"And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days
of my spirit; and they shall prophesy."
Here was a magic gospel for the age! And how greatly was woman in its
divine programme!
No sooner was the application made than the prophesy was discovered
to be pregnant with its own fulfillment. The experience of the
former-day saints became the experience of the "latter-day saints." It
was claimed, too, that the supreme fulfillment was reserved for this
crowning dispensation. These were emphatically the "last days." It
was in the "last days" that God would pour out His spirit upon "_all_
flesh." The manifestation of Pentecost was but the foreshadowing of
the power of God, to be universally displayed to his glory, and the
regeneration of the nations in the "dispensation of the fullness of
times."
This gospel of a new dispensation came to America by the administration
of angels. But let it not be thought that Joseph Smith alone saw
angels. Multitudes received angelic administrations in the early days
of the Church; thousands spoke in tongues and prophesied; and visions,
dreams and miracles were daily manifestations among the disciples.
The sisters were quite as familiar with angelic visitors as the
apostles. They were in fact the best "mediums" of this spiritual work.
They were the "cloud of witnesses." Their Pentecosts of spiritual gifts
were of frequent occurrence.
The sisters were also apostolic in a priestly sense. They partook
of the priesthood equally with the men. They too "held the keys of
the administration of angels." Who can doubt it, when faith is the
greatest of all keys to unlock the gates of heaven? But "the Church"
herself acknowledged woman's key. There was no Mormon St. Peter in this
new dispensation to arrogate supremacy over woman, on his solitary
pontifical throne. The "Order of Celestial Marriage," not of celestial
celibacy, was about to be revealed to the Church.
Woman also soon became high priestess and prophetess. She was this
_officially_. The constitution of the Church acknowledged her divine
mission to administer for the regeneration of the race. The genius of a
patriarchal priesthood naturally made her the apostolic help-meet for
man. If you saw her not in the pulpit _teaching_ the congregation, yet
was she to be found in the temple, _administering_ for the living and
the dead! Even in the holy of holies she was met. As a high priestess
she blessed with the laying on of hands! As a prophetess she oracled
in holy places! As an endowment giver she was a Mason, of the Hebraic
order, whose Grand Master is the God of Israel and whose anointer is
the Holy Ghost.
She held the keys of the administration of angels and of the working
of miracles and of the "sealings" pertaining to "the heavens and
the earth." Never before was woman so much as she is in this Mormon
dispensation!
The supreme spiritual character of the "Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints" (its proper name), is well typed in the hymn so
often sung by the saints at their "testimony meetings," and sometimes
in their temples. Here is its theme:
"The spirit of God like a fire is burning,
The latter-day glory begins to come forth,
The visions and blessings of old are returning,
The angels are coming to visit the earth.
_Chorus_--We'll sing and we'll shout with the armies of heaven--
Hosanna, hosanna to God and the Lamb!
Let glory to them in the highest be given,
Henceforth and forever--amen and amen.
The Lord is extending the saints' understanding,
Restoring their judges and all as at first;
The knowledge and power of God are expanding;
The vail o'er the earth is beginning to burst.
_Chorus_--We'll sing and we'll shout with the armies of heaven!" etc.
What a strange theme this, forty-seven years ago, before the age of our
modern spiritual mediums, when the angels visited only the Latter-day
Saints! In that day it would seem the angels only dared to come by
stealth, so unpopular was their coming. But the _way_ was opened for
the angels. What wonder that they have since come in hosts good and
bad, and made their advent popular? Millions testify to their advent
now; and "modern spiritualism," though of "another source," is a proof
of Mormonism more astonishing than prophecy herself.
Yet is all this not more remarkable than the promise which Joseph Smith
made to the world in proclaiming his mission. It was the identical
promise of Christ: "These signs shall follow them that believe!" These
signs meant nothing short of all that extraordinary experience familiar
to the Hebrew people and the early-day saints. We have no record that
ever this sweeping promise was made before by any one but Jesus Christ.
Yet Joseph Smith, filled with a divine assurance, dared to re-affirm it
and apply the promise to all nations wherever the gospel of his mission
should be preached. The most wonderful of tests is this. But the test
was fulfilled. The signs followed all, and everywhere. Even apostates
witness to this much.
There is nothing in modern spiritualism nearly so marvelous as was
Mormonism in its rise and progress in America and Great Britain. It has
indeed made stir enough in the world. But it had to break the way for
coming ages. Revelation was at first a very new and strange theme after
the more than Egyptian darkness in which the Christian nations had been
for fifty generations. It was the light set upon the hill now; but the
darkness comprehended it not. Yet was a spiritual dispensation opened
again to the world. Once more was the lost key found. Mormonism was the
key; and it was Joseph and his God-fearing disciples who unlocked the
heavens. That fact the world will acknowledge in the coming times.