THE VOICE, AND THE MESSENGER OF THE COVENANT.
And there came one as a "voice crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the
way of the Lord!"
Thus ever!
A coming to Israel with "a new and everlasting covenant;" this was the
theme of the ancient prophets, now unfolded.
There was the voice crying in the wilderness of Ohio, just before the
advent of the latter-day prophet.
The voice was Sidney Rigdon. He was to Joseph Smith as a John the
Baptist.
The forerunner made straight the way in the wilderness of the virgin
West. He raised up a church of disciples in and around Kirtland. He led
those who afterwards became latter-day saints to faith in the promises,
and baptized them in water for the remission of sins. But he had not
power to baptize them with the Holy Ghost and with fire from heaven.
Yet he taught the literal fulfillment of the prophesies concerning the
last days, and heralded the advent of the "one greater than I."
"The same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost."
That is ever the "one greater than I," be his name whatever it may.
Joseph Smith baptized with the Holy Ghost. But Sidney knew not that he
was heralding Joseph.
And the prophet himself was but as the voice crying in the wilderness
of the great dark world: "Prepare ye the way for the second advent of
earth's Lord." His mission was also to "make straight in the desert a
highway" for the God of Israel; for Israel was going up,--following the
angel of the covenant, to the chambers of the mountains.
He came with a great lamp and a great light in those days, dazzling to
the eyes of the generation that "crucified" him in its blindness.
Joseph was the sign of Messiah's coming. He unlocked the sealed heavens
by faith and "election." He came in "the spirit and power of Elijah."
The mantle of Elijah was upon him.
Be it always understood that the coming of Joseph Smith "to restore the
covenant to Israel" signifies the near advent of Messiah to reign as
King of Israel. Joseph was the Elijah of the last days.
These are the first principles of Mormonism. And to witness of their
truth this testament of the sisters is given, with the signs and
wonders proceeding from the mission of Him who unlocked the heavens and
preached the gospel of new revelations to the world, whose light of
revelation had gone out.
But first came the famous Alexander Campbell and his compeer, Sidney
Rigdon, to the West with the "lamp." Seekers after truth, whose hearts
had, been strangely moved by some potent spirit, whose influence they
felt pervading but understood not, saw the lamp and admired.
Mr. Campbell, of Virginia, was a reformed Baptist. He with Sidney
Rigdon, a Mr. Walter Scott, and some other gifted men, had dissented
from the regular Baptists, from whom they differed much in doctrine.
They preached baptism for the remission of sins, promised the gift of
the Holy Ghost, and believed in the literal fulfillment of prophesy.
They also had some of the apostolic forms of organization in their
church.
In Ohio they raised up branches. In Kirtland and the regions round,
they made many disciples, who bore the style of "disciples," though
the popular sect-name was "Campbellites." Among them were Eliza R.
Snow, Elizabeth Ann Whitney, and many more, who afterwards embraced the
"fullness of the everlasting gospel" as restored by the angels to the
Mormon prophet.
But these evangels of a John the Baptist mission brought not to the
West the light of new revelation in their lamp.
These had not yet even heard of the opening of a new dispensation of
revelations. As they came by the way they had seen no angels with new
commissions for the Messiah age. No Moses nor Elijah had been with them
on a mount of transfiguration. Nor had they entered into the chamber
with the angel of the covenant, bringing a renewal of the covenant to
Israel. This was in the mission of the "one greater" than they who came
after.
They brought the lamp without the light--nothing more. Better _the
light_ without the evangelical lamp--better a conscientious intellect
than the forms of sectarian godliness without the power.
Without the power to unlock the heavens, and the Elijah faith to call
the angels down, there could be no new dispensation--no millennial
civilization for the world, to crown the civilization of the ages.
Light came to Sidney Rigdon from the Mormon Elijah, and he comprehended
the light; but Alexander Campbell rejected the prophet when his message
came; he would have none of his angels. He had been preaching the
literal fulfillment of prophesy, but when the covenant was revealed he
was not ready. The lamp, not the light, was his admiration. Himself
was the lamp; _Joseph had the light from the spirit world_, and the
darkness comprehended it not.
Alexander Campbell was a learned and an able man--the very _form of
wisdom_, but without the spirit.
Joseph Smith was an unlettered youth. He came not in the polished
_form_ of wisdom--either divine or human--but in the demonstration of
the Holy Ghost, and with signs following the believer.
Mr. Campbell would receive no new revelation from such an one--no
everlasting covenant from the new Jerusalem which was waiting to come
down, to establish on earth a great spiritual empire, that the King
might appear to Zion in his glory, with all his angels and the ancients
of days.
The tattered and blood-stained commissions of old Rome were sufficient
for the polished divine,--Rome which had made all nations drunk with
her spiritual fornications,--Rome which put to death the Son of God
when his Israel in blindness rejected him.
Between Rome and Jerusalem there was now the great controversy of the
God of Israel. Not the old Jerusalem which had traveled from the east
to the west, led by the angel of the covenant, up out of the land of
Egypt! The new Jerusalem to the earth then, as she is to-day! Ever will
she be the new Jerusalem--ever will "old things" be passing away when
"the Lord cometh!"
And the angel of the west appeared by night to the youth, as he watched
in the chamber of his father's house, in a little village in the State
of New York. On that charmed night when the invisibles hovered about
the earth the angel that stood before him read to the messenger of
Messiah the mystic text of his mission:
"_Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before
me; and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even
the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in; behold he shall
come, saith the Lord of Hosts._"