The Interesting History of the Church

My brethren and sisters : The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a very interesting history, and what we have listened to from the lips of President Nephi Pratt is but a small chapter of that history. We have existed, as a Church for seventy-seven and a half years ; during which time a great deal has been done, and a great deal has been written, concerning the Saints of these the last days; but we are in the same position that the Nephites were many years ago, when the Savior appeared unto them in the Land of Bountiful. In order to illustrate what I mean, I will read to you a few verses from the Book of Mormon. It is recorded here, in III Nephi, twenty-third chapter and seventh to the thirteenth verses : ¶

"And it came to pass that he [that is, the Savior] said unto Nephi, bring forth the record which ye have kept. And when Nephi had brought forth the records, and laid them before him, he cast his eyes upon them and said, Verily I say unto you, I commanded my servant Samuel, the Lamanite, that he should testify unto this people, that at the day that the Father should glorify His name in me, that there were many Saints who should arise from the dead, and should appear unto many, and should minister unto them. And he said unto them, Were it not so? And His disciples answered Him and said, Yea, Lord, Samuel did prophesy according to thy words, and they were all fulfilled. And Jesus said unto them, how be it that ye have not written this thing, that many Saints did arise and appear unto many, and did minister unto them? And it came to pass that Nephi remembered that this thing had not been written. And it came to pass that Jesus commanded that it should be written; therefore it was written according as he commanded." ¶

I have no intention to make any remarks in regard to the resurrection of the dead among the Nephites, but I desire to make this quotation illustrate the situation we are in as a people at the present time. Only a small portion of our most interesting history has been written, and only a small portion will ever be written, because so many of our Elders who have been abroad preaching the Gospel, and who could easily have written books similar to the autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, for instance, have written scarcely anything at all. Elder Pratt's book is interesting, indeed; but, while he wrote a book that is still being read by thousands, others might have written in like manner, embodying their testimonies and experiences. This work, however,has not been attended to. Many who should have done such writing neglected it, and their testimony is, consequently, not now before the people. Your historians, however, are doing something now that will astonish you at some future day; and I now address this congregation as if I were addressing the whole Church. Should Christ appear and speak to us, as He anciently did to the Nephites, He could refer to many important events, pertaining to His latter day cause on earth,, about which no record has been made. Perhaps He might say, "Did not my servant Joseph Smith, or my servants Brigham Young, Orson Pratt, Heber C. Kimball and others prophesy so and so, while they were on the earth?" "Yes, indeed they did," would perhaps be the response by some of our veterans. "We remember quite well that those things were predicted." "Why, then, were they not written ?" might be the next question. ¶

There has been a great deal of neglect, in this Church, in regard to the writing of history and personal experience. The Church was small in the beginning, and Joseph, the Prophet, perhaps did not have any adequate idea of the future magnitude of the Church which he founded, as a humble instrument in the hands of God, or that it should grow to its present dimensions in a few years ; hence he, apparently, did not keep a complete or unbroken journal. He wrote considerably at times, but at other periods of his eventful life wrote only a very little. Consequently his history, as it has come down to us, is somewhat incomplete; and he did not, apparently, attach as much importance to some of his movements, or official acts, as some of us are disposed to do today. We can speak in the same strain about the life of the Savior. What the evangelists of old have written about Jesus Christ simply whets our appetite for more. Every student of the New Testament soon finds himself possessed of an earnest desire to know much more concerning Jesus than that which has been written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. And so also when we read about the Prophet Joseph Smith, the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, and subsequent events. But we are trying to do the best we can at the present time to make up for the past. The publication of the history of Joseph Smith of late, with a great many foot notes, has been read, undoubtedly, by many of you with great interest. These foot notes that have become so necessary, on almost every page of the books, can but suggest that there must be a vast amount of material which has not yet been properly compiled into history. And that is true. We have, at the Historian's office, tons of valuable writings, — very valuable books, documents, letters, reports, statistics, etc., some of which belong to the earlier days of the Church and some to a later period. Our collection is the result of many years of patient labor, and an ordinary mortal could easily think, in looking at the immense pile, that it would be impossible to go through it all. The mountain, using a figure, looks so high that he would not dare to approach it, much less attempt to climb it. The genuine historian, however, knows that he must trace everything to its source ; he must surmount all obstacles ; he must tackle the entire pile ; he must reach the pinnacle at all hazards and endeavor to look down the other side, or he cannot expect to be classed as a thorough historian. Our documents at the Historian's office have gradually increased year by year, in proportion to the growth of the Church; but, aside from the natural accumulation, we have gathered from many different lands and climes a great number of books, thousands of them. We have been doing this labor of gathering documents more especially during the past fifteen years, until we now, as I said, have an immense collection of these books and documents, which have been arranged in years, months and days, commencing with the 6th day of April, 1830, and coming down to the present time, or at least to the close of the nineteenth century. ¶

It is very interesting to note the growth of the Church, commencing with its incipiency at New York, with six members, and then looking at it today, with its 55 stakes of Zion and 21 missionary fields. But, notwithstanding the historical material we have at our command at the present time, we find there are many links lacking to make a complete chain. Much valuable history has been lost. I think, perhaps, I was the means of saving from destruction about one-tenth of the records in Europe, but in America I have not been nearly so successful. During the exodus from Nauvoo, when the Saints were driven from their homes, circumstances compelled them to leave much of their property behind, many heavy things that they could not take along, and among these many books and records. There were records of great value, from the missions in the Eastern and Southern States, that never crossed the Missouri river, much less reached the valley. Consequently, we find that with all the material we have on hand, we are lacking a great deal to fill up the gaps. ¶

In writing a detailed history of the Church, as we are now endeavoring to do, we desire information about every settlement, every stake, and every ward, and also something about every quorum of the Priesthood, and auxiliary organization. We find it a very difficult task to obtain some information that we desire. But after we have obtained all we can from public records, and after we have put to the best possible use all fragments of records from the different stakes of Zion, particularly the older stakes, and gathered together all the books that we can from the different missionary fields, there is at least one more class of indispensable records required, and it is concerning this class that I appeal to you today ; we wish you to help us to procure it. Listen ! Many of you are sons or grandsons, daughters, or granddaughters of members who figured prominently in the early days of this Church. Brother Pratt, who has just spoken to us, is a son of one of the most illustrious men that figured in our early history, and there are in this congregation today, not to speak about the whole Church, a great many descendants from just such noble parentage. Many of you are, undoubtedly, without your knowing it, in possession of historical knowledge, in the shape of old papers and documents that you may think are not worth anything at all, but which would, in the hands of the historian, fit in beautifully in some of these gaps that -I have been referring to. We have evolved a somewhat original system, a natural system, so perfect, so complete, and yet so simple in its scope and arrangement, that there is scarcely a document that you can produce, or a book or record of any kind which may be procured, that will not fill up a gap in some conference, branch, ward, stake, or quorum or organization of the Church. Hence, we appeal to you, my brethren and sisters throughout the whole Church, that you will gather together such remnants — old letters and documents — from the days of your grandfathers and grandmothers, and that you will lend them to us at the Historian's Office, that we may read them and cull from them such information as we need. Of course, we do not know what use we can put them to until we see them, but, much that some of you may deem worthless may by us be found very useful indeed, as it may fit in nicely somewhere and help in making a complete history of our people. And not only that, but, by co-operating with us, you may be the means of placing your fathers and mothers, and your grandfathers and grandmothers, on record. Furthermore, the private documents may enable us to bring forth, as it were, from oblivion many choice testimonies, similar to those related by Brother Pratt today. My brethren and sisters, will you comply with our request? Will you carry this message home with you? Will you go to your different settlements and spread this call among your neighbors, and search here and there for the material that we desire so much ? ¶

The Book of Mormon, to which I have referred, is a very precious document, precious even from a historical standpoint. I admit that I may, perhaps, look upon that book a little differently to some of you. Some of you may love and admire, to a very great extent, the doctrines contained therein, and so do I ; but, when I was a little boy and read the Book of Mormon the first time, I skipped over a great many doctrinal parts, and long sermons, that are contained in it, such as King Benjamin's discourse, the instructions that Alma gave to his sons and many similar things, because they were not so interesting to me as some other parts were; but, being, perhaps, a natural historian from my early youth, I read and re-read the historical parts of the book with particular interest, and I came to the conclusion that the Book of Mormon was the most interesting book I was ever permitted to peruse when I was a boy. I have not changed my ideas very much since. Do you realize what that book is to you and yours, as Latter-day Saints, and what it would be to the whole world, if they would accept it? Do you know that, if it was not for the Book of Mormon, this western half of the world, in which we live, would have no written history for about 4,000 years ? It is no secret among the Latter-day Saints that the Garden of Eden was located on this land. Hence, we can claim as a part of our history the first chapters in Genesis. But, when Noah built his ark, and that floated during the deluge nearly half way around the world, and landed somewhere on the mountains of Ararat, in Asia, the history of the world, as given us by the Jewish historians, was transferred to the eastern hemisphere. From that time to the days of Christopher Columbus, when he sighted San Salvador, off the coast of North America, the western world is almost entirely lost to history, so far as eastern writers are concerned. They tell us next to nothing about America. But, in the Book of Mormon we have a history extending from the days of the tower of Babel to the time that the family of Lehi left Jerusalem, 600 years before the birth of our Savior. Thus a period of about 2,500 years is covered by the history of the Jaredites. ¶

Then, taking up the history from the time Lehi left Jerusalem to the destruction of the Nephites, we have the accounts of another thousand years, which brings us down to the year 420 after the birth of Christ, and the historical narrative in the Book of Mormon leaves the Lamanites in very much the same condition that Christopher Columbus found them in, over a thousand years later. Thus you will understand, my brethren and sisters, that the Book of Mormon is about the only historical document we have at the present time of this great western world. The eastern world has the Bible; it also has Josephus ; it had Greek and Roman historians, and writers of other nationalities who left on record many precious books, telling us all about the eastern world. But the western world is minus such histories, and must acknowledge a great lack of historical documents. This is, perhaps, in a great measure due to the fact that the Spaniards, in the sixteenth century, tried their best to destroy all records and documents, and all information that the Aztecs and other Indian nations possessed in relation to their ancestors and their ancient history. But, thank God for the Book of Mormon, it revives the whole matter. It tells, briefly, it is true, a story that at once could be accepted by scientists, philologists and all other men who would investigate it. Every year brings to our knowledge something that corroborates that book as a true historical document ; we learn more and more about the cliff dwellers, the mound builders, the tribes of Central or South America and Mexico ; and everything thus produced goes to prove that just such a people as the Nephites at one time lived in this land. ¶

Two weeks ago today, we could have celebrated the eightieth anniversary of the delivery to the Prophet Joseph Smith of the plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated ; I wonder how many of you remembered the day. We have scarcely commenced yet to celebrate anniversaries of important events in the history of the Church, but perhaps we will do so more frequently in the future, when the Church has grown a little older. ¶

Now, my brethren and sisters, will you kindly remember what I have said in regard to our modern history. I have alluded to the Book of Mormon in order to show how valuable that book is to us as a historical document, not to speak of the glorious doctrines and prophecies which it contains. But our own history is necessarily more interesting and valuable to us than the history of any other people ; not only interesting but necessary, from the fact that out of the Church of Christ, to which we belong today, shall, in due course of time, grow the kingdom of God. When the time comes that Christ shall reign upon the earth, as King of kings and Lord of lords, it will, most assuredly, give the citizens of that kingdom a great deal of satisfaction to look back upon the history of that persecuted people who struggled so hard, as we have done, to establish the Church of Christ on the earth. They will read, with deep interest, the history of the Latter-day Saints in Missouri, in Ohio, in Illinois, and of the early days in these valleys. The little handful of Latter-day Saints who labored and traveled, in the midst of all the opposition and persecution that bitter foes could invent, to establish this Church, will be great heroes to them. Let us also remember that many of us who now live, even if we did not take an active part in the very beginning, nevertheless are numbered among the founders or early workers in this great Church, and this great kingdom that shall finally usher in the glorious millennium. ¶

Let us do what we can to honor our fathers and mothers and ourselves; let us place them and ourselves on record ; let us make those who brought us into the world speak, even if they are dead, by bringing their books and records forth that they may be transcribed. With modern facilities for writing and copying, we can now write a hundred words much easier than we could ten words a few years ago. Thus we can afford to make copies of your old records ; and if you will only produce them, and let us have the use of them a short time, we will show you something as the result of our labors that will cause your hearts to leap with joy. God bless you, I ask it in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶