will bring you to Zion." . . . .
"Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no
more be said, The Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel
out of the land of Egypt;
"But, the Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel from the
land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them;
and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their
fathers.
"Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall
fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt
them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of
the rocks." . . . .
"Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from
the coasts of the earth. . . . .
"For I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first born.
"Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles
afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep
him, as a shepherd doth his flock." [3]
Jesus Christ.--"And again this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached
in all the world, for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the
end come, or the destruction of the wicked." [4]
"And He shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they
shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of
heaven to the other." [5]
The Savior also predicted to the Nephites the gathering of the House of
Israel; [6] and John the Revelator foresaw the same event in his great
vision on Patmos. [7]
The Realization.--How marvelously and how rapidly these predictions are
being fulfilled, the history of the past hundred years plainly tells.
The Angel with the Everlasting Gospel has flown from heaven to earth,
and the message borne by him is being preached "again" in all the
world, as a final witness to the nations.
Isaiah's reference to the setting up of an Ensign for Israel's
gathering finds its fulfilment in the restoration of the Gospel and
the Priesthood, and in the organization of the Church of Christ in
this dispensation. [8] Then and there was raised a rallying standard
for the sons and daughters of Ephraim, the first scions of Jacob's
household to be "born again," to embrace the ancient faith in modern
times--the first of the broken off branches of Israel's "olive tree" to
be "grafted in again" and bear good fruit. [9]
Keys of the Gathering Restored.--Before there could be a complete
gathering of the chosen people, the Keys of the Gathering had to be
restored. Accordingly, when the time was ripe, they were conferred upon
the founder of the Latter-day Church. Moses, who held those keys at the
time of the Exodus from Egypt, was the messenger who now restored them.
The place of restoration was the Kirtland Temple; the time, April,
1836. Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery testify that "the veil" was taken
from their minds, and they "saw the Lord," even Jehovah, who proclaimed
to them his identity with the Savior of Mankind. The record then
continues: "After this vision closed, the heavens were again opened
unto us, and Moses appeared before us, and committed unto us the keys
of the gathering of Israel from the four parts of the earth, and the
leading of the ten tribes from the land of the north." [10]
First Latter-day Saints.--Then began the great work for which these
keys had been restored. All preceding it was but preparatory.
"Mormonism's" first converts had been made in the region where the
Church arose--the farming districts of Western New York and Northern
Pennsylvania. But Kirtland, Ohio, was the cradle of the Kingdom. There
a Temple was built, and the Priesthood more perfectly organized,
preliminary to the sending of the Gospel to foreign nations, and the
gathering of scattered Israel to the Land of Zion. Up to the summer
of 1837 the "fishers of men" were busy only in the United States and
in Canada. Now they crossed over the British Isles, and later to the
continent of Europe. Instant and marvelous was their success. In parts
of England--notably Lancashire and Herefordshire--whole villages and
congregations were swept into the Church by the unlettered yet divinely
empowered Apostles of the new dispensation. [11]
Earliest Immigrants.--A small company of Latter-day Saints, numbering
but forty-one--the first to "gather" from abroad--sailed on the ship
"Britannia" from Liverpool for New York, in June, 1840. They were bound
for Nauvoo, Illinois. Each succeeding year added its quota to the fast
growing nucleus of the Savior's kingdom. Thus was set in motion the
mighty tide of immigration which, swelling the numbers of the Saints in
the Mississippi Valley, eventually peopled with the skilled mechanics
and hardy yeomanry of Great Britain, Scandinavia and other European
countries, the mountains and valleys of the Great West.
The Impelling Motive.--How different the motives impelling these
people, from the motives generally imputed to them! It was not for
gold and silver, flocks and herds, nor any of "the good things of this
world," that they forsook home and country and "gathered" to the Land
of Zion. It was not to better their temporal condition, that they
abandoned comfort and in some cases affluence, crossed the stormy
ocean, dragged rickety hand-carts over parching plains and snow-capt
mountains, to settle in a barren wilderness and endure hardships and
privations innumerable, while redeeming the waste and dotting it with
cities, farms and vineyards. It was for God and his Kingdom--nothing
less; and it was the love of Truth that inspired and impelled them. [12]
Character of the Saints.--Utah's early settlers were stigmatized as
ignorant and malicious. It was ignorance or malice that so stigmatized
them. "Scum of the earth," "offscourings of civilization," were some
of the pet names bestowed upon them by their enemies. How utterly
unjust these epithets, how grotesquely misapplied, everyone must know
who has any knowledge of the facts. In reality, they were among the
best men and women of their time. Many of them were descended from the
Pilgrims and the Patriots who founded this nation, and in their veins,
as Children of the Covenant, flowed the blood of priests and kings,
illustrious through a thousand generations. [13]
These modern Zion-builders were not among those who wait for a cause
to become popular before embracing it. Lowell little realized how
admirably he was painting their portrait when he penned these lines:
Then to side with Truth is noble,
When we share her wretched crust,
Ere her cause bring fame and profit,
And 'tis prosperous to be just.
Then it is the brave man chooses,
While the coward stands aside,
Doubting in his abject spirit
Till his Lord is crucified,
And the multitude make virtue
Of the faith they had denied.
* * *
They are slaves who fear to speak
For the fallen and the weak;
They are slaves who will not choose
Hatred, scoffing and abuse,
Rather than in silence shrink
From the truth they needs must think;
They are slaves who dare not be
In the right with two or three.
Not slaves, but free men and free women, founded the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints. They were of the sheep that knew the
Shepherd's voice, and when put to the test, they showed "the mettle of
their pasture."
"One of a City and Two of a Family."--Jeremiah's prediction was uttered
at a time when families (tribes) were much larger than they now
are--large enough for one tribe to fill several cities. [14] Otherwise,
the prophet might have changed his wording to read: "One of a family
and two of a city." Phrased either way, the forecast has been literally
fulfilled in the painful and pathetic experiences of many Latter-day
Saints, including women and children, turned out-of-door by parents or
guardians, for daring to be "one of a city" or "two of a family," in
identifying themselves with a people everywhere "spoken against." [15]
"The Shoulders of the Philistines."--This phrase translates itself into
the facilities for far and rapid transportation owned and operated by
the Gentiles, but utilized by the God of Jacob in bringing his people
from foreign shores, and up into the tops of "the high mountains of
Israel." [16] "They shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines
toward the West." When Isaiah wrote those words, he was gazing with
prophetic eye upon this very period. He beheld the ships and railroads
of the Gentiles, likewise the Land of Zion, now occupied by the
Gentiles, but formerly peopled by the Nephites (Joseph and Judah)
and included in the lands that God gave to their forefathers. [17]
Israel needs the help of the Gentiles--their wealth, their power,
their wonderful insight into and command over material things, their
intelligence and skill in manipulating temporalities. How, without the
children of Japheth, could the children of Jacob be gathered out from
the nations? [18]
The Lost Tribes.--It is maintained by some that the lost tribes of
Israel--those carried into captivity about 725 B. C.--are not longer a
distinct people; that they exist only in a scattered condition, mixed
with the nations among which they were taken by their captors, the
conquering Assyrians. If this be true, and those tribes were not intact
at the time Joseph and Oliver received the keys of the gathering,
why did they make so pointed a reference to "the leading of the ten
tribes from the land of the north?" This, too, after a general allusion
to "the gathering of Israel from the four parts of the earth." What
need to particularize as to the Ten Tribes, if they were no longer a
distinct people? And why do our Articles of Faith give those tribes a
special mention? [19]
The "Highway."--Isaiah's reference to the "Highway" points directly to
the lost tribes, respecting whose return from "The North Country," his
fellow prophet, Jeremiah, promises an event that shall so far eclipse
in scope and grandeur Israel's exodus from Egypt, that the latter will
no more be mentioned.
Joseph the Seer must have had the same thing in mind when he wrote:
"And they who are in the north countries shall come in remembrance
before the Lord, and their prophets shall hear his voice, and shall
no longer stay themselves, and they shall smite the rocks and the ice
shall flow down at their presence, and an highway shall be cast up in
the midst of the great deep." [20]
Already he had foretold the removal of the Latter-day Saints to the
Rocky Mountains--then a desolate, uninhabited region--and was evidently
pondering that thought when he further declared: "And in the barren
deserts there shall come forth pools of living water; and the parched
ground shall no longer be a thirsty land." [21]
Ephraim and the Returning Tribes.--It was Ephraim who lifted the Ensign
for the Gathering. It is to Ephraim that the returning tribes will
"bring forth their rich treasures," receiving from him their spiritual
blessings. "And the boundaries of the everlasting hills shall tremble
at their presence." [22]
Judah and Jerusalem.--The same prophecy mentions the tribe of Judah,
whose gathering place, however, is not the Land of Zion, not the New
Jerusalem, but Jerusalem of old, yet to be rebuilt upon a scale of
magnificence paralleled only by the splendor of her sister city and twin
capital of Christ's Kingdom. [23]
Even as the Waters.--Hear, O Israel! Children of Jacob! The night of
dispersion is past. The day of gathering has dawned. The tempests that
broke above the heads of your ancestors have spent their fury, and the
clouds have parted and are rolling away. The barren ground, refreshed
by the fearful visitation, has brought forth abundantly, and a ripened
harvest awaits the reaper's cycle. The revivifying rains, having
fulfilled their mission, must now return to the ocean whence they
were taken. Such is the meaning, the symbolism, of the scattering and
gathering of Israel.
Footnotes
1. John 10:16; 3 Nephi 15:21; 16:1-3; 21.
2. Isa. 11:12, 14, 16. See also 5:26; 35:10; 43:5, 6. The same Prophet
declares:
"And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the
Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains and shall
be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.
"And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the
mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will
teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion
shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." (Isa.
2:2, 3.)
This prophecy, however; seems to refer, not so much to a gathering of
Israel, as to an Israel already gathered, unto whom the nations will
come to learn the ways of the Lord.
3. Jer. 3:14; 16:14-16; 31:8-10.
4. Matt. 24:31, as rendered by Joseph the Seer, Pearl of Great Price,
p.78.
5. Ib. Bible, King James' version.
6. 3 Nephi 21.
7. Rev. 14:16; 18:4. See also Deut. 33:17; Psalms 50:5; Ezek. 34:12-14.
8. D. & C. 115:4, 5; 45:9; 64:42.
9. Jacob 5 and 6.
10. D. & C. 110:1-4, 11.
11. Heber C. Kimball, one of the Twelve, was placed at the head of
the first foreign mission. He was accompanied by Orson Hyde, Willard
Richards, and other Elders. Subsequently another apostolic mission,
headed by Brigham Young and including a majority of the Twelve, carried
the Gospel to all parts of the British Isles.
12. I was once asked by a gentleman, friendly to the Latter-day Saints,
why they did not co-operate with the millionaire philanthropists who
have endeavored in recent years to place upon arid lands poor Jews
taken out of large cities; but whose efforts, owing to inexperience in
such enterprises, have been more or less futile. My questioner thought
a copartnership between such capitalists and such colonists--one to
furnish the money, the other the knowledge and skill necessary for the
undertaking--might work a splendid result. He added with unction: "You
could stipulate, you know, that every Jew thus colonized should become
a Mormon--and just think how that would build up your Church!"
The intent was serious, but the effect was to amuse. It suggested the
Shakespearean court scene, where the Venetian Duke decides that the Jew
Shylock, as part of his punishment for seeking the life of Antonio,
shall "presently become a Christian." ("Merchant of Venice," Act 4.
Scene 1). As if Christians could be made by judicial decisions or
"Mormons" by contracts for colonization.
13. Talent and genius, brain and brawn, from every part of the world
came in the early immigrations to Salt Lake Valley--farmers, laborers,
tradesmen, mechanics, merchants, manufacturers and business men,
with a liberal sprinkling of artists, musicians, writers and other
professional people. "In their degree the pick and flower of England,"
was the comment passed upon a ship's company of "Mormon" emigrants,
by Charles Dickens, the great English author, in his sketch "The
Uncommercial Traveler," published in 1863.
14. Joshua 21:41
15. Acts 28:22
16. Ezek. 34:14
17. Jer. 16:15; Deut. 33:13-16; Gen. 49:22-26.
18. The work is too vast, too arduous, for any one people to
accomplish, particularly a people who are a mere handful among earth's
teeming millions. God, not man, is doing this work, and He is not
limited in his choice of instruments to his own covenant people. All
men, all nations, knowingly or unknowingly, are playing into his hands.
19. The fact that Arctic explorers have found no such people at the
North Pole--where some theorists have persisted in placing them--does
not prove that the "Ten Tribes" have lost their identity. It was
tradition, not revelation, that located them at the North Pole. "The
north country," "The land of the north," these are the scriptural
designations of their unknown abode. All the rest is inference. Those
tribes could still be intact, and yet much of their blood be found
among the northern nations. Some of the pilgrims might easily have
mixed with the people encountered by them while journeying toward their
ultimate destination; and that Ephraim did so mix, Hosea the Prophet
(7:8) declares.
20. D. & C. 133:26, 27.
21. Ib. 133:29.
22. Ib. vv. 30,32.
23. Isa. 2:3.
In April 1840, Orson Hyde and John E. Page, both Apostles, were sent
from Illinois on a mission to Palestine, to bless the soil, that its
barrenness might depart and the way be opened for the restoration
of the Jews to their ancient homeland. John E. Page faltered and
fell by the way, but Orson Hyde accomplished his mission. On the
24th of October, 1841, from the summit of the Mount of Olives,
overlooking Jerusalem, he offered to the God of Israel, a fervent
and eloquent prayer in behalf of his down-trodden people. He blessed
the sterile land that in might once more become fruitful, and that
Judah might repossess his heritage. Elder Hyde afterwards predicted
that the British nation would take an active part in the redemption
of Palestine; a prophecy fulfilled during the World War. In 1872,
President George A. Smith went with a party from Salt Lake City, and
again dedicated the Holy Land for the return of the Jews and the
rebuilding of Jerusalem.
ARTICLE TWENTY-THREE.
The Zion of Latter Days.
A Work of Preparation.--The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
stands for the gathering of the House of Israel and the building of
the modern Zion, New Jerusalem, preparatory to the Millennial reign of
righteousness. Israel must be gathered, because it is the God of Israel
who is coming to reign, and the descendants of Jacob are the only
people who have the right to receive him when he appears. And they must
become pure in heart, in order to be worthy of that high privilege.
To His Own--The Christ is coming to "his own," as he came anciently;
but it will not be said again that "his own received him not." They are
even now preparing to receive him, as fast as circumstances will allow.
All of "Mormonism's" varied activities--proselyting, migrational,
colonizing, commercial, industrial and educational--have this as their
paramount objective. The Latter-day Saints claim lineal descent from
the Hebrew patriarchs. They are literally of the seed of Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob--mostly through Ephraim, the "first-born" in the divine
process of gathering Israel and bringing forth Zion.
The Ensign Lifted.--It developed upon Joseph Smith, a lineal descendant
of Joseph of old, to begin, upon the Land of Joseph, the gathering of
God's people from the nations. The organization of the Church was the
setting up of the prophetic "Ensign," [1] to assemble the outcasts
of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four
corners of the earth. Joseph lived only long enough to assemble
a portion of the half tribe of Ephraim, to which he belonged; but
the work begun by him will go on until all the tribes of Israel are
gathered, and the way is fully prepared for the blest reign of the King
of Kings.
Place and Plan.--The Church, organized on the sixth of April, 1830, was
less than one year old when it removed from its birth-place, Fayette,
New York, to Kirtland, Ohio, where its infancy was cradled. There the
Prophet announced the place for the New Jerusalem and the plan whereby
the Holy City was to be established. Western Missouri was the place.
[2] The plan became known as "The United Order." [3]
The Pure in Heart.--"This is Zion--the pure in heart." [4] So said
Joseph Smith. For Zion is not only a place; it is also a people and a
condition. "Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God." [5]
They are the only ones who will be permitted to see Him. Zion the place
is where Zion the people will assemble for that purpose. In a general
sense, the whole of America, North and South, is the Land of Zion.
[6] Specially, Zion, "the place for the city," is in Jackson Country,
Missouri. [7]
Consecration.--The Zion of old--Enoch's commonwealth--was sanctified
and translated through obedience to the Law of Consecration, [8] a
heaven-revealed principle subsequently practiced by the followers of
Christ, both Jews and Nephites. [9] The modern Zion, "the perfection of
beauty," "the joy of the whole earth," [10] is to be brought forth upon
precisely the same principle--"every man seeking the interest of his
neighbor, and doing all things with an eye single to the glory of God."
[11]
Equality and Unity.--As a preliminary to the wonderful achievement
in prospect, the Latter-day Saints were required to consecrate all
their properties to the Lord. This was done, not to enrich any man nor
any set of men, but to establish equality in material possessions,
as a prerequisite to the unity and power necessary for the mighty
undertaking. Equality--not of intelligence and capacity, of course,
but of ownership and of opportunity to advance and achieve--this was
the purpose in view. The members of the community were to be equal in
earthly things, that they might be "equal in obtaining heavenly things."
A Celestial Law.--It was a law of the Celestial Kingdom--the Zion of
Eternity--that the Saints were required to obey, to the end that the
Lord's will might be done on earth even as it is done in heaven--that
Earth might become a heaven, in fact, and they who made it so be
prepared for "a place in the celestial world." [12]
Stewardships.--It was not proposed to take from the people their
possessions, and demand all their time and service, without making
ample provision for their support. They were not to be pauperized,
but enriched, through obedience to God's law. The properties they
consecrated--farms, printing offices, mills, work-shops, money,
etc.--were to be returned to them as "stewardships," differing, as
talents, aptitudes, and the ability to handle much or little differ,
but all to be managed in the interest of the common cause. All earnings
were to go into a general fund, from which each steward would derive a
maintenance, "every man according to his wants and his needs, inasmuch
as his wants are just." [13]
First Bishops.--The introduction of this system was the occasion for
the call of the first Bishops. The men chosen to manage, under the
direction of the First Presidency, the temporalities of the United
Order, were Edward Partridge and Newel K. Whitney. The former, as
Bishop in Zion, received consecrations, Missouri. The latter officiated
in a similar capacity at Kirtland, Ohio, the headquarters of a State of
Zion. [14]
Against Lawlessness.--The United Order did not encourage lawlessness.
It was the very antithesis of anarchy. It stood for law and government,
for wise and good government--the government of God for the benefit of
man. Sounding the death-knell of monopoly, fraud, and the misuse of
power and privilege, it proposed to do away with class distinctions,
founded on pride, vanity and the worship of wealth. It would abolish
such conditions--not by violence, but peacefully and by common consent.
Doctrine, not dynamite; humility, not self-assertion; love of God
and fellow man, not hatred and strife, were to effect the desired
emancipation. Under the benign influence of the Holy Spirit--God's gift
to all who take upon them his name--envy and greed would give way to
brotherly love and mutual helpfulness.
No Drones in the Hive.--While philanthropic in the highest degree,
the United Order was no mere alms-giving concern, no eleemosynary
institution. Every member of the community was expected to work, to
do that for which he or she might best be fitted. There were to be
no drones in the hive, no idleness eating the bread of industry.
Employment for all, a place for everything and everything in its
place--such was the ideal of this social-religious organization. It
stood, in short, for justice and fair-dealing, with every man in the
secure possession and full enjoyment of his own. Out of the righteous
unity resulting from this ideal condition, was to come the power to
build up Zion and prepare the way of the Lord.