ARTICLE EIGHT.
Looking Westward.
Why the "Mormons" Migrated.--Foreseeing that the Nation would turn a
deaf ear to his patriotic appeal for a peaceful and just settlement of
the slave question, the Prophet began to contemplate the removal of the
Church from close proximity to the scenes of strife and carnage that
were about to be enacted. It was highly necessary that a people chosen
for such a purpose--to prepare the world for the ushering in of the
Reign of Righteousness--should remain upon earth to accomplish their
mission. In order to so remain, they must be out of the way of the
troubles that were imminent, and, so far as possible, keep out of the
way until the divine judgments predicted had gone forth and done their
work. This was one reason why the Latter-day Saints migrated to the
Rocky Mountains.
Driven to their Destiny.--Their cruel expulsion from Missouri had
indirectly contributed to their safety; for when the war-cloud which
had long been gathering finally burst, it poured out much of its fury
upon those very lands from which the Saints had been driven. [1] And
now, their enforced pilgrimage into the all but untrodden wilderness of
the Great West likewise preserved them from many trials that would have
fallen to their lot had they tarried within the area seriously affected
by the stern events that followed.
Fleeing the Wrath to Come.--It was a next-best course that the fugitive
people pursued. Originally they were cast for a very different role,
but not being ready to enact that role, another part was assigned them,
one destined to prepare them for the greater performance that is yet to
follow. In order that the community might survive, and accomplish, when
the time came, the mighty task of "redeeming Zion," it was imperative
that they should "flee the wrath to come."
The Exodus Foretold.--The removal of the Saints to the region of the
Rocky Mountains, was the theme of a prophecy uttered by Joseph the
Seer nearly two years before his death, and nearly four years prior to
the beginning of the famous "Mormon Exodus." Nauvoo, Illinois, where
he then resided, is on the east bank of the Mississippi River, and on
the west bank, just opposite, is the little town of Montrose. From the
Prophet's personal history, I now quote an entry of Saturday, August
6th 1842:
"Passed over the river to Montrose, Iowa, in company with General
Adams, Colonel Brewer and others, and witnessed the installation of the
officers of the Rising Sun Lodge, Ancient York Masons, at Montrose, by
General James Adams, Deputy Grand Master of Illinois. While the Deputy
Grand Master was engaged in giving the requisite instructions to the
Master-elect, I had a conversation with a number of brethren in the
shade of the building, on the subject of our persecutions in Missouri
and the constant annoyance which has followed us since we were driven
from that State. I prophesied that the Saints would continue to suffer
much affliction, and would be driven to the Rocky Mountains. Many
would apostatize, others would be put to death by our persecutors or
lose their lives in consequence of exposure or disease, 'and some of
you will live to go and assist in making settlements, build cities,
and see the Saints become a mighty people in the midst of the Rocky
Mountains."' [2]
Anson Call's Narrative.--One of the men who heard that prediction
was Anson Call, afterwards a prominent colonizer in various parts of
the Rocky Mountain region. His account, descriptive of the Montrose
incident, follows:
"A block school-house had been prepared, with shade in front, under
which was a barrel of ice water. Judge Adams was the highest Masonic
authority in the State of Illinois, and had been sent there to organize
this lodge. He, Hyrum Smith, and J. C. Bennett, being high Masons, went
into the house to perform some ceremonies which the others were not
entitled to witness. These, including Joseph Smith, remained under the
bowery. Joseph, as he was tasting the cold water, warned the brethren
not to be too free with it. With the tumbler still in his hand, he
prophesied that the Saints would yet go to the Rocky Mountains; and,
said he, 'this water tastes much like that of the crystal streams that
are running from the snow-capped mountains.' . . . . I had before seen
him in a vision (i.e. while having a vision), and now saw, while he
was talking, his countenance change to white--not the deadly white of
a bloodless face, but a living, brilliant white. He seemed absorbed in
gazing upon something at a great distance, and said: 'I am gazing upon
the valleys of those mountains."' [3]
The Seeric Power.--Joseph Smith, at that time, was standing on the
west bank of the Mississippi River, fifteen hundred miles from the
Rocky Mountains; yet he saw these grand old hills, crowned with
unmelting snows, and seamed with rugged gorges down which the crystal
torrents were flowing as they flow today. He actually beheld, with
spirit vision, these objects--beheld them so vividly, that had he been
permitted to carry out his partly formed purpose of leading his people
to their new home in the wilderness, he would have recognized this
land, and would have been able to say, as Brigham Young said, upon
beholding Salt Lake Valley: "This is the Place." [4]
Another Prophet and Seer.--But Joseph did not live to accompany his
people upon their historic journey. Another mighty leader was raised up
to pilot modern Israel to their promised land. Of Brigham Young it is
related, that while crossing the plains west of the Missouri River, in
the spring and summer of 1847, he had a vision of the region that he
and his fellow pilgrims were about to inhabit. He saw a tent settling
down from heaven over the Valley of the Great Salt Lake, and heard a
voice proclaim: "This is the place where my people Israel shall pitch
their tents." Such is the testimony of Erastus Snow, [5] one of the
principal men who came with President Young to the Rocky Mountains.
Consequently when the great Pioneer said, "This is the place," he was
repeating words that had been spoken to him--repeating them while
viewing with natural eyes a scene that his spirit eyes had already
beheld.
Human Wisdom vs. Divine Guidance.--What availed, after that, the
pessimistic forebodings of the mountaineer, James Bridger, who camped
with the Pioneers just after they passed the Rocky Mountains, and whose
laconic speech, "I would give a thousand dollars if I knew an ear of
corn could ripen in Salt Lake Valley," has been often and variously
quoted? What availed the roseate account given of the California
Coast by the ultra-optimistic Samuel Brannan, who, after sailing
with a "Mormon" colony from New York and landing at the Bay of San
Francisco, crossed the Sierra Nevada, met the Pioneers on Green River,
and endeavored to persuade them that the flowery slopes of the Pacific
were a better place of abode for the exiled people than the parched
alkali wastes of "The Great American Desert?" Brigham Young knew better
than Colonel Bridger or Elder Brannan what was for the best. Looking
past the present into the future, he had for all such warnings and
persuasions, one reply: "_This is the place_."
Prophecy Fulfilled and Vision Verified.--Brigham Young was not the man
to ignore divine guidance. His own vision was before him, beckoning him
on; and Joseph Smith's prediction behind him, urging him forward and
pointing out the way. The Latter-day Saints were to "become a mighty
people"--not in California, not along the Pacific Coast, but "in the
midst of the Rocky Mountains."
Footnotes
1. The history of guerilla warfare and its merciless suppression along
the Missouri-Kansas border, amply bears out this assertion.
2. Hist. Ch. Vol. 5, p. 85.
This prophecy began to be fulfilled early in February, 1846, when the
first companies of the migrating Saints left Nauvoo for the West,
crossing the frozen Mississippi on the ice. About the middle of June
they reached the Missouri River, then the frontier of the Nation, where
their further progress was delayed for a whole season by the enlistment
of the "Mormon" Battalion--five hundred men--who responded to a call
from the Government and volunteered to assist the United States in its
war with Mexico.
3. "This was followed," continues the Call narrative, "by a vivid
description of the scenery of these mountains as I have since become
acquainted with it. . . . . It is impossible to represent in words
this scene which is still vivid in my mind--the grandeur of Joseph's
appearance, his beautiful descriptions of this land, and his wonderful
prophetic utterances as they emanated from the glorious inspirations
that overshadowed him. There was a force and power in his exclamations
of which the following is but a faint echo: 'Oh the beauty of those
snow-capped mountains! The cool refreshing streams that are running
down through those mountain gorges.' Then, gazing in another direction,
as if there was a change of locality: 'Oh the scenes that this people
will pass through! The dead that will lie between here and there.'
Then, turning in another direction, as if the scene had again changed:
'Oh the apostasy that will take place before my brethren reach that
land! But, he continued, 'the priesthood shall prevail over its
enemies, triumph over the devil, and be established upon the earth,
never more to be thrown down."' Hist. Ch. Vol. 5, pp. 85, 86. Note.
4. The journey of the Pioneers began at Winter Quarters (now Florence,
Nebraska) about the middle of April, 1847. It ended on the shores of
the Great Salt Lake, July 24th of the same year. The company, led by
President Brigham Young in person, consisted originally of 143 men,
three women, and two children. The men were well armed and equipped,
and the company traveled mostly in covered wagons, drawn by horses,
mules and oxen. Four large companies of emigrants followed immediately
after the Pioneers, arriving in Salt Lake Valley during the autumn.
5. See Apostle Snow's discourse of July 25, 1880, reproduced in the
"Improvement Era" for June, 1913.
ARTICLE NINE.
The Place of Safety.
An Inspired Choice.--Who can doubt the wisdom of the choice that made
the Rocky Mountains, in lieu of the Pacific Coast, a permanent home
for the once homeless Latter-day Saints? Had they gone to California,
as Elder Brannan advised, it would have meant, in all probability,
their disruption and dispersion as a community, or at all events
another painful exodus in quest of peace and freedom. It would have
been to invite, from the inhabitants of that region--fast filling up
with immigrants from those very States where the persecuted people
had experienced their sorest troubles--a repetition of the woes from
which they were fleeing. Here in these mountain fastnesses, a thousand
miles from the frontiers of civilization, they were safe from mobs and
molestation.
Better Than Elsewhere.--Better for them, in every way, that they
should bide where Providence placed them. The coast country, with
all its attractions--and they are many--has no such rare climate
as can be found in this more highly favored region. The land once
supposed to be worthless, and to redeem which even in part from its
ancient barrenness, has required years on years of toil and privation,
turns out to be a veritable treasure-house of natural resources, a
self-sustaining empire; and in periods of strife and turmoil, when war
rocks the world, it is probably the safest place beneath the sun.
The Great War.--This mention again brings to the fore Joseph Smith's
great "Prophecy on War." It has been seen how the Southern States,
when they endeavored to withdraw from the Union, "called on Great
Britain" for recognition and assistance, thus making good a portion
of the Prophet's prediction. But when did Great Britain "call upon
other nations," fulfilling in her own case the terms of the "Mormon"
leader's fateful forecast? Certainly not during the stormy period of
the "sixties," nor for many decades thereafter.
But the time came eventually. After the outbreak of the World War,
when the German hosts were overrunning Belgium and Northern France,
threatening even England herself, Great Britain did call upon the
nations with which she had made treaties, for the help that she so
sorely needed. The visit to America, before and after the United States
declared war against Germany, of representatives of Great Britain and
others of the Allied nations, appealing for military aid, was a potent
factor in inducing our Government to send ships and troops across the
Atlantic, to help beat back the Teutonic invader.
Only The Beginning.--Very evident is it that the tempest of war
foretold by Joseph Smith did not cease with the close of the conflict
between the Northern and the Southern States. The storm has continued
intermittently to this time. Lulls there have been, but no lasting
cessation of the strife. Five years after the collapse of the Southern
Confederacy, came the Franco-Prussian War, foreshadowing Germany's
mad attempt to conquer the world. The American Civil War, the
Franco-Prussian War, and the more recent World War, were all parts of
the great "outpouring" predicted on that ominous Christmas day. And
the same may be said of other conflicts that have since taken place.
Equally true will it be of any future strife that may be necessary to
help free the world from oppression and iniquity. Unless the wicked
repent, there is more--much more to come. [1]
But in what way did the revolt of South Carolina, which began the Civil
War, prove a "beginning" of wars for "all nations"? This question is
intelligently discussed in a pamphlet recently put forth by Elder
James H. Anderson, of Salt Lake City. That writer shows that with the
outbreak of the Southern-Northern conflict, the whole system of modern
warfare underwent a change, and that since then it has experienced a
complete revolution, through the invention and use of machine guns,
airships, submarines, and other death-dealing instrumentalities,
absolutely unknown in previous military history, and marking a distinct
beginning, such as the Prophet indicated. [2]
Dangers Upon the Deep.--One frightful feature of the unparalleled
struggle that ended with the signing of the armistice (November 11,
1918), was the havoc wrought by the German U-boats, otherwise known
as submarines. There had been, before the coming of the U-boat,
dreadful dangers upon the waters, as the fate of the ill-starred
"Titanic"--ripped open by an iceberg--testifies. But the submarine,
the assassin of the "Lusitania," multiplied those dangers a hundred
fold. Did the proud world know that a prophet of God had foreseen these
fearful happenings, and had sounded a warning of their approach?
In August, 1831, Joseph Smith, with a party of friends, returning from
their first visit to Zion in Jackson County, encamped on the bank of
the Missouri River, at a place called Mcllwair's (or Mcllwaine's) Bend.
There, one of the party, William W. Phelps, saw in vision the Destroyer
riding in awful fury upon the river, and the incident called forth a
revelation in which the Lord says:
"Behold, there are many dangers upon the waters, and more especially
hereafter;
"For I, the Lord, have decreed in mine anger many destructions upon the
waters; yea, and especially upon these waters;
"Nevertheless, all flesh is in mine hand, and he that is faithful among
you shall not perish by the waters.
* * * * * *
"Behold, I, the Lord, in the beginning blessed the waters, but in the
last days, by the mouth of my servant John, I cursed the waters.
"Wherefore, the days will come that no flesh shall be safe upon the
waters,
"And it shall be said in days to come that none is able to go up to the
land of Zion upon the waters, but he that is upright in heart. . . . .
"I, the Lord, have decreed, and the destroyer rideth upon the face
thereof, and I revoke not the decree." [3]
No Flesh Safe Upon the Waters.--Was not this condition almost realized
during the darkest days of the Great War? Perils undreamed of
developed; disasters without precedent, unexampled in history, were
of frequent occurrence. Even upon the calm Pacific no ship pursued
consecutively the same track twice. Companies operating the great
ocean-liners no longer announced the dates of departure from one port
or of expected arrival at another. They dared not; the destroyer was
abroad, death was in the depths, and the spirit of dread brooded upon
the bosom of the waters. And this upon the comparatively peaceful
Western Ocean; while upon the Atlantic, in the Mediterranean, and in
the North Sea, the terrible submarine told the tale of danger and
disaster.
The Food Question.--Another phase of the Titanic struggle was the
food question. Joseph Smith had predicted famine; [4] and the famine
came. As early as October, 1876, the Prophet's successor, President
Brigham Young, placed upon the members of the Relief Society a special
mission--that of gathering and storing grain against a day of scarcity;
and from that time the activities of the Society were put forth largely
in this direction. Some made light of the labors of these devoted
women, declaring that another famine could not be. Too vast an area
of the earth's surface was under cultivation, and the means of rapid
transit and communication were too plentiful, to permit of such a
misfortune. If famine threatened any part of the world, word of it
could come in the twinkling of an eye, and millions on millions of tons
of food-stuffs, speedily transported to the scene, would stave off the
straitness and render the calamity impossible.
The Spectre of Famine..--Alas for those who put their trust in the arm
of flesh! In spite of the vast and ever-increasing productivity of the
soil; in spite of railroads, steamships, and telegraphs, spreading a
network of steel and electricity over the face of the planet, this was,
and is still, a famine-threatened world. Europe calls upon America
for food; America generously responds; but as fast as she consigns
her cargoes of foodstuffs to the needy nations, the merciless and
devouring submarine sends them to the bottom of the sea. Such indeed
was the situation. The floor of the ocean is strewn with the wrecks of
transports whose mission was to carry bread to the starving millions
of other lands. And where was the man, uninspired of Heaven, who could
have anticipated such a catastrophe?
Our nation became aroused to the necessity existing for the avoidance
of Waste and the conservation of food stuffs. All civilized countries
awakened to the same urgent call. The "Mormon" grain-storing movement
was no longer a joke--a target for ridicule. The gaunt spectre of
Famine had shown a glimpse of his face, and the whole world trembled
at the prospect. The God of Joseph and of Brigham had vindicated the
patient labors of His faithful handsmaids, and fulfilled in part the
solemn forebodings of prophecy.
"Mormon" Grain for the Government.--Not the least item of interest
connected with this subject, is the fact that the United States
Government, through its Food Administrator, in May, 1918, made request
upon the authorities of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, for the turning in of all the Relief Society wheat then on
hand, for use in the war. The request was cheerfully complied with,
225,000 bushels of wheat being promptly furnished by the Church to the
Federal Government.
The Drought of 1919.--How easily a famine could come, was shown during
the prolonged drought in the summer of 1919, when throughout the
Intermountain West and in regions beyond, lands usually productive lay
parching for many weeks under the torrid rays of the sun. As a result,
millions of acres of growing grain, especially in the dry-farming
districts, perished for want of moisture. And yet there are men who
deem human powers and earthly resources all-sufficient, and who
declare, in the face of prophecy, that famine and war are obsolete and
never again can be.
A Scholar's Opinion.--Such a pronouncement, as to war, was made
repeatedly, in public, only a short while before the World War broke
out. That splendid scholar and publicist, David Starr Jordan, expressed
by tongue and pen his positive conviction that another great conflict,
in this advanced and cultured age, was humanly impossible--it simply
could not come. [5] But Another had said, two thousand years before:
"Such things must come." [6] And not long after the delivery of Doctor
Jordan's optimistic, well-meant prediction, the greatest hell of
conflict that this world has ever known burst forth and well-nigh wrapt
the globe in a mantle of smoke and flame.
The One Safe Guide.--"Men may come and men may go," but God and Truth
"go on forever." Heaven and Earth may pass, but the divine word, by
whomsoever spoken, will endure unshaken "amid the wreck of matter and
the crash of worlds." The sure word of prophecy, flowing from the
fountain of the Spirit, is the one safe guide through the chaos of the
present and the mystical mazes of the future.
A Prophet's Voice.--More firmly founded than the scholarly utterance
in question, was a prediction made by President Wilford Woodruff, at
Brigham City, Utah, in the summer of 1894. In the course of a public
address, referring to the near approach of the judgments of the last
days, the venerable leader said: "Great changes are at our doors. The
next twenty years will see mighty changes among the nations of the
earth." And it was just twenty years, or in the summer of 1914, when
the terrible strife that has wrought so many mighty changes swept like
a whirlwind over the nations.
Other Prophetic Warnings.--One could almost believe that President
Woodruff's fellow Apostle, Orson Pratt, was gazing with seeric vision
upon the same dreadful picture, when he thundered into the ears of
the world this solemn admonition: "A voice is heard unto the ends of
the Earth! A sound of terror and dismay! A sound of nations rushing
to battle! Fierce and dreadful is the contest! _Mighty kingdoms and
empires melt away!_ The destroyer has gone forth; the pestilence that
walketh in darkness; the plagues of the last days are at hand; and who
shall be able to escape? None but the righteous; none but the upright
in heart." [7]
Eight years later this same Apostle, then at Liverpool, about to embark
for America, issued to the inhabitants of Great Britain this "Prophetic
Warning":
"If you will not repent and unite yourselves with God's Kingdom, then
the days are near at hand when the righteous shall be gathered out of
your midst. And woe unto you when that day shall come, for it shall be
a day of vengeance upon the British nation! . . . . Your armies shall
perish; your maritime forces shall cease; your cities shall be ravaged,
burned and made desolate, and your strongholds shall be thrown down;
the poor shall rise against the rich, and their storehouses and their
fine mansions shall be pillaged, their merchandise and their gold and
their silver and their rich treasures shall be plundered. Then shall
the lords and nobles and the merchants of the land, and all in high
places, be brought down and shall sit in the dust and howl for the
miseries that shall be upon them. And they that trade by sea shall
lament and mourn; for their traffic shall cease." [8]