AN ANGEL FROM THE CLOUD IS HEARD IN KIRTLAND--THE "DAUGHTER OF THE
VOICE."
Now there dwelt in Kirtland in those days disciples who feared the Lord.
And they "spake often one to another; and the Lord hearkened and heard
it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that
feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name."
"We had been praying," says mother Whitney, "to know from the Lord how
we could obtain the gift of the Holy Ghost."
"My husband, Newel K. Whitney, and myself, were Campbellites. We had
been baptized for the remission of our sins, and believed in the laying
on of hands and the gifts of the spirit. But there was no one with
authority to confer the Holy Ghost upon us. We were seeking to know how
to obtain the spirit and the gifts bestowed upon the ancient saints.
"Sister Eliza Snow was also a Campbellite. We were acquainted before
the restoration of the gospel to the earth. She, like myself, was
seeking for the fullness of the gospel. She lived at the time in Mantua.
"One night--it was midnight--as my husband and I, in our house at
Kirtland, were praying to the father to be shown the way, the spirit
rested upon us and a _cloud_ overshadowed the house.
"It was as though we were out of doors. The house passed away from
our vision. We were not conscious of anything but the presence of the
spirit and the cloud that was over us.
"We were wrapped in the cloud. A solemn awe pervaded us. We saw the
cloud and we felt the spirit of the Lord.
"Then we heard a voice out of the cloud saying:
"'Prepare to receive the word of the Lord, for it is coming!'
"At this we marveled greatly; but from that moment we knew that the
word of the Lord was coming to Kirtland."
Now this is an Hebraic sign, well known to Israel after the glory of
Israel had departed. It was called by the sacred people who inherited
the covenant "the daughter of the voice."
Blindness had happened to Israel. The prophets and the seers the Lord
had covered, but the "daughter of the voice" was still left to Israel.
From time to time a few, with the magic blood of the prophets in them,
heard the voice speaking to them out of the cloud.
Down through the ages the "daughter of the voice" followed the children
of Israel in their dispersions. Down through the ages, from time to
time, some of the children of the sacred seed have heard the voice.
This is the tradition of the sons and daughters of Judah.
It was the "daughter of the voice" that Mother Whitney and her husband
heard, at midnight, in Kirtland, speaking to them out of the cloud.
Mother Whitney and her husband were of the seed of Israel (so run their
patriarchal blessings); it was their gift and privilege to hear the
"voice."
_He_ was coming now, whose right it is to reign. The throne of David
was about to be re-set up and given to the lion of the tribe of Judah.
The everlasting King of the new Jerusalem was coming down, with the
tens of thousands of his saints.
The star of Messiah was traveling from the east to the west. The
prophet--the messenger of Messiah's covenant--was about to remove
farther westward, towards the place where his Lord in due time will
commence his reign, which shall extend over all the earth.
This was the meaning of that vision of the "cloud" in Kirtland, at
midnight, overshadowing the house of Newel K. Whitney; this the
significance of the "voice" which spoke out of the cloud, saying:
"Prepare to receive the word of the Lord, for it is coming!"
The Lord of Hosts was about to make up his jewels for the crown of his
appearing; and there were many of those jewels already in the West.