MORMONISM AND THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND--PRESENTATION OF THE BOOK OF
MORMON TO THE QUEEN AND PRINCE ALBERT--ELIZA R. SNOW'S POEM ON THAT
EVENT--"ZION'S NURSING MOTHER"--HEBER C. KIMBALL BLESSES VICTORIA.
Here an interesting story is to be told of Mormonism and the Queen of
England.
It will be remembered that Victoria ascended the throne of Great
Britain just three days before Heber C. Kimball, Orson Hyde and Willard
Richards arrived in her realm to preach the gospel of Messiah's coming.
There was something poetic in this. Victoria became connected in some
way with the new dispensation. She alone of all the monarchs of the
earth was prophetically cast in its _dramatis personae_. Poetry and
prophesy both were pregnant with much of subject and promise that
concerned Victoria of England. She may not be aware of it, but there
is quite a romance of the British Queen in Mormon history, to which
the presentation of the Book of Mormon to herself and the late Prince
consort gives pictorial display.
Before leaving England, President Brigham Young, who had succeeded in
raising means to publish the Book of Mormon, gave directions for copies
to be specially prepared and richly bound for presentation to her
Majesty and the Prince consort. The honor of this devolved on Lorenzo
Snow, who was at that period President of the London Conference. The
presentation was made in 1842, through the politeness of Sir Henry
Wheatley; and it is said her Majesty condescended to be pleased, with
the gift. Whether she ever read the Book of Mormon is not known,
although, if the presentation has not altogether faded from her memory,
Mormonism has been since that date sensational enough to provoke even a
monarch to read the book, if for nothing better than curiosity; so, not
unlikely Queen Victoria has read some portions at least of the Book of
Mormon. The unique circumstance called forth from the pen of Eliza R.
Snow the following poem, entitled "Queen Victoria:"
"Of all the monarchs of the earth
That wear the robes of royalty,
She has inherited by birth
The broadest wreath of majesty.
From her wide territorial wing
The sun does not withdraw its light,
While earth's diurnal motions bring
To other nations day and night.
All earthly thrones are tott'ring things,
Where lights and shadows intervene;
And regal honor often brings
The scaffold or the guillotine.
But still her sceptre is approved--
All nations deck the wreath she wears;
Yet, like the youth whom Jesus loved,
One thing is lacking even there.
But lo! a prize possessing more
Of worth than gems with honor rife--
A herald of salvation bore
To her the words of endless life.
That gift, however fools deride,
Is worthy of her royal care;
She'd better lay her crown aside
Than spurn the light reflected there,
O would she now her influence lend--
The influence of royalty,
Messiah's kingdom to extend,
And Zion's 'nursing Mother' be;
She, with the glory of her name
Inscribed on Zion's lofty spire,
Would win a wreath of endless fame,
To last when other wreaths expire.
Though over millions called to reign--
Herself a powerful nation's boast,
'Twould be her everlasting gain
To serve the King, the Lord of Hosts.
For there are crowns and thrones on high,
And kingdoms there to be conferred;
There honors wait that never die,
There fame's immortal trump is heard.
Truth speaks--it is Jehovah's word;
Let kings and queens and princes hear:
In distant isles the sound is heard--
Ye heavens, rejoice; O earth, give ear.
The time, the time is now at hand
To give a glorious period birth--
The Son of God will take command,
And rule the nations of the earth."
It will be seen that our Hebraic poetess has suggested for Victoria
of England the title of "Zion's Nursing Mother." The reference is
to Isaiah's glorious song of Zion. He, according to the universally
accepted interpretation, foresaw the rise of Messiah's kingdom on the
earth in the last days.
"And they shall call thee the City of the Lord, the Zion of the
Holy One of Israel.
"And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the
brightness of thy rising.
"And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy
nursing mothers.
"Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a
royal diadem in the hand of thy God.
"Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with him and
his work before him."
This is the subject of which the gorgeous Isaiah sang; and the prophesy
of Joseph and the poetry of Eliza have applied it principally to
America as Zion, and conditionally, to Queen Victoria as her "Nursing
Mother."
Many earthly thrones were about to totter. Soon France--from the days
of Charlemagne styled "The Eldest Daughter of the Church"--saw her
crown trampled in the very gutter, by the rabble of Paris, and a few
years later the scepter of Rome was wrested from the hands of the
"successor of St Peter" by Victor Emanuel; yet of Victoria of England,
Zion's poetess sings:
"But still _her_ sceptre is approved."
Mark the poetic and prophetic significance between America as Zion, and
Great Britain, represented in Victoria. A new age is born. Victoria is
its imperial star; while from America--the land that owns no earthly
sovereign--come these apostles to her realm just three days after the
sceptre is placed in her hands. The prophet of America sends them to
proclaim to Great Britain the rising of a star superior to her own. It
is the star of Messiah's kingdom. She is called to her mission as its
Nursing Mother.
Seeing that Joseph was the prophet of America, and that the British
mission has given to the Mormon Zion over a hundred thousand of her
children already gathered to build up her cities and rear her temples,
it is not strange that the burden of this prophesy should have been
claimed and shared between the two great English speaking nations.
But there is a personal romance as well, which centres in Victoria.
At the time Sister Eliza wrote the poem to her name, Victoria of
England was quite a theme in the Mormon Church. Not only in her own
realm, among her own subjects, but in Zion also she was preached
about, prophesied about, dreamed about, and seen in visions. Brigham,
as we have seen, caused special copies of the Book of Mormon to be
prepared for her and Prince Albert; Lorenzo Snow presented them through
the courtesy of a state personage, and his sister immortalized the
circumstance in verse. The story is told, also, that Heber C. Kimball,
while in London, blessed Victoria, as she passed, by the power and
authority of his apostleship; and what Heber did was done with the
spirit and with the understanding also. Queen Victoria has been
remarkably successful, and unrivalled in the glory of her reign.