Historical Progress and Records of the Church

I have been requested, under the direction of Apostle Grant, to occupy a speaking position between two presidents of missions and two presidents of stakes. I noticed that particularly in the appointment announced yesterday, and that naturally introduces to my mind the two grand objects that we as Latter-day Saints have in view, or rather, that God had in view in commencing His great work upon the earth in, these last days, viz., to preach the Gospel in all the world, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, to build up stakes of Zion — to build up strong places, where the elect from the four quarters of the earth may gather together to learn more perfectly the ways of the Lord, and walk according to His statutes and commandments. I have discovered by close study of the history of the Church, that whenever conditions at home have been favorable and good, and whenever the sons and daughters of Zion have walked in the paths of righteousness, the spirit of Zion has, naturally been felt for good abroad, among all the nations where missionary fields have been established ; and these fields have always flourished better when conditions have been favorable at home, that is, the missionaries who have gone abroad generally carried with them the spirit that prevailed at home. When the gathering places have been what they should be, and when the people at home have prospered in good works, the missionary fields have generally flourished in proportion. There never was a better time in the missionary field than shortly after the Saints had located in these mountains, when the good reports went forth that Zion at last had found a resting place, and that the persecuted people of God of these the last days had finally been brought to a land where they were sheltered by high mountains, far away from the wicked world. The glorious reports that went forth from these valleys in these early days diffused life among the Saints in all the world ; and, as I say, at no time in the history of the Church have our missionary labors flourished better than they did in the fifties. ¶

This introduces to us the great principle of gathering, the great principle of the Saints of God, flocking together to places which the Lord designates as gathering places for His people, where they may be properly trained and become what the Lord intends they should be. This principle goes back to the beginning of creation. You may never have thought of it in that light, but I have. In the beginning, as Moses tells us, the Lord created this beautiful world in which we live, more beautiful, in the beginning, of its existence than it is now. The Lord could consistently look upon "everything that He had made, and behold it was very good." Nevertheless, he planted a garden "eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed." This garden then was a choice spot upon this earth where everything was good. The garden of Eden was the first home of man, a choice spot, which the world in vain has tried very hard to locate, but which we, as Latter-day Saints, by the revelations of God, have succeeded in locating. This was in the beginning. A little later, as men began to multiply upon the earth, and some of the inhabitants of the same became wicked and others righteous, the Lord raised up a great Patriarch Enoch, who was commanded to build a city, and to that city the righteous gathered, and in that city the inhabitants conformed their lives to the glorious principles of righteousness until the city became holy enough to be taken up to God. We find that in other instances the people of God were warned to flee from wickedness, and from destruction, as at the time of the deluge, when the people had become so wicked that it was necessary for the Lord to call upon those who would obey Him, in order that they might be preserved, to build an ark in which He kept them from destruction, while the wicked perished in the flood. Of a little later period we read about some "cities on the plains" afterwards a part of the kingdom' of Israel, in which, the righteous were commanded to flee from the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, and seek refuge in the mountains, because the Lord had decided to destroy the wicked cities of the plain. ¶

Shortly after the deluge, too, we find that the Lord decided to confound the language of the people, in order that they might be scattered all over the face of the earth In this connection we read in the Book of Mormon about a man called Jared, but more particularly about one whose name is not given in the record, called the Brother of Jared — a man of mighty faith, who prayed to the Lord that the language of himself and his family might not be confused ; and the Lord heard his prayer. And after the Lord granted him this first request, he prayed again that God would lead them to a land where he and his kindred and friends could dwell by themselves ; and the Lord also granted this request, and led them to a land of promise, to a land which was "choice above all the lands of the earth." (Ether 1 : 42.) That was the introduction of the Jaredites to America, and their history tells us that as long as they kept the commandments of God in this land, they were prospered exceedingly. ¶

Perhaps the next instance, in a chronological order, was the calling of Abraham in Ur, in Chaldea, where the people had gone astray and were worshiping strange gods. God called Abraham and commanded him to get out of his country, and from his kindred and from his father's house, unto a land which the Lord would show him. And after he had traveled, in obedience to the comandments of God, and found himself in what is now the land of Palestine, the Lord said : "Unto thy seed will I give this land." (Gen. 12: 7). We have the history of the Israelites before us, and without going into details, I will state that it took some hundreds of years before the descendants of Abraham' were numerous enough to possess the land of promise, and then they spent some time in preparing themselves for taking possession of the land. We all remember that they spend forty years in the wilderness, receiving laws and making preparations to enter the land that the Lord had promised to Abraham — a promise that was afterwards repeated to other Patriarchs, as they came along in their line. History tells us that, later on, the Children of Israel, in that promised land of Canaan, bowed their knees before Baal and other idols, and became very wicked, on account of which they were severely chastized and brought into slavery under heathen nations and eventually dispersed among the nations, to be gathered in the due time of the Lord. Next I will draw your attention to another gathering dispensation, or rather, a gathering out, when a good man — a prophet at Jerusalem — by the name of Lehi, some six hundred years before the birth of our Savior, was commanded of God to leave his native country — leave his own people and take his family and depart into the wilderness. (I Nephi 2:2). - And as he came into the wilderness, in obedience to the commandment of God, the Lord spoke to him as follows : "Inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall prosper, and shall be led to a land of promise, yea even a land which I have prepared for you ; yea a land which is choice above all other lands." (I Nephi 2: 20.) Thus it soon became apparent that Lehi and his family should not lose anything by leaving the land of Jerusalem', for the Lord would lead him to a land more choice than any other land upon the face of the earth ; that land proved to be the same land to which the Jaredites had gone a long time before. Hence the land of America is once more introduced to us as the land of Zion. ¶

We have indeed the whole history of the world before us, in connection with this command of God, to gather out or to gather in, as the case may be. The people of God have again and again been called to gather out or to gather together in certain localities, which the Lord designated unto them. ¶

This Church was only nine months old when the Lord revealed to the Latter-day Saints that this also should be a gathering dispensation, that the time for the gathering of Israel had come, that the dispersed of Judah should be gathered that the lost tribes of Israel should be sought for, and that gathering places should be provided for them. A few years later Moses appeared to the Prophet Joseph Smith in the first temple built in this dispensation, that at Kirtland, Ohio, and committed to the Elders of this Church the keys for the gathering of Israel from' the four quarters of the globe. But even before these keys were given, the gathering commenced to Jackson County, Missouri. I haven't time to go into details, but in 1831, step by step, and all in very quick succession, the Lord made known to His Saints in these last days, that He would give to them, as He had formerly given to the Children of Israel, a land of inheritance in which they should dwell, and in which they should build up cities to His name, and in which they should keep His commandments and laws like their progenitors had done away back in the days of Canaan. Our history leads us through Jackson county, Mo. Some of our history is connected with Kirtland, Ohio, and that, too, of a very interesting character ; then we have our experiences in Clay, Caldwell and Daviess counties, in Missouri. There we have a history of a gathering and a history of a scattering; the history of mobbings and persecutions, partly in consequence of the people of God failing to keep the commandments of the Lord with that fidelity which was required. They were driven from one place to another, but in these various places efforts were made by the Latter-day Saints to build cities, and in two of them, in the state of Missouri, they also commenced to build temples. Next we found ourselves in Nauvoo, Ill., where we succeeded better than we had ever done in any other place we had hitherto occupied in the east, inasmuch as we built up a greater city and a larger temple than we had ever built before in our history. ¶

Then came the great exodus from Nauvoo to these mountains, and it became our privilege to settle in the only land in which the Latter-day Saints have ever been permitted to dwell in peace. I want to tell you right here that during the last few months of my life, I have had the greatest pleasure possible while preparing Church annals, to post myself thoroughly in regard to the events that took place in these mountains in the early days of Utah, or even before this inter-mountain region was known as Utah, when there was no government here except that which was inaugurated by the Latter-day Saints. This country was Mexican territory at that time, it is true; but no Mexican jurisdiction was extended here,, and no Mexican laws carried out, because it was so far from the center of Mexican government, and consequently all the laws that prevailed in these valleys for about three years and a half were such as were enacted by this same people that came from Nauvoo, accused by their enemies, who had driven them out, of all the crimes that were known to the criminal code. But these people came here and worshiped God, and established a community of which we are justly proud today, and in which there existed many excellent conditions. The liberty and justice measured out by the Pioneers of Utah in these early days make you and I and every Latter-day Saint feel thankful. These valleys of the mountains became our gathering place, and in this place we had a chance to show what the real fruits of "Mormonism" were; we laid here a foundation for a commonwealth of which we are justly proud to this day. ¶

Now, my brethren and sisters, I will simply emphasize this fact, that we, as Latter-day Saints, are under obligations similar to those that rested upon the children of Israel in the days of Canaan, in the days of Joshua, in the days of the Judges, in the days of the kings of Judah. The Israelites were under obligations to worst"'" the only true and living God. They were forbidden to fall upon their knees and worship the idols of the nations that surrounded them. And their history tells us that as long as they remembered the God of Israel, and as long as they kept the laws that He had thundered out unto them from Mount Sinai, they prospered in the land, and none had power to overthrow or subdue them. But it was when they did wrong and forsook the commandments of God. that the Philistines, the Middianites and the other surrounding nations came upon them and led them into bondage ; and it was after they had crucified the Son of God, and had slain the prophets that had been sent unto them, that the armies of their enemies came upon them and scattered them' among all the nations of the earth, until they became a hiss and a by-word among all nations. ¶

The Lord has commanded us in these last days to do something similar to what was done by ancient Israel in those days of which I speak. He has given us a land in which we may dwell and keep His laws and commandments, and our history is already sufficiently long to tell us this one grand and true story, that when we have done the will of God ; when we have listened to the counsel of the Almighty, when we have been obedient to those men that the Lord has placed over us, and have listened to the whisperings of the Holy Spirit, we have done well and we have prospered in the land which the Lord our God has given unto us. And it has generally been at times when we have not hearkened so well that trouble has come upon us. ¶

And now, my brethren and sisters, I feel in my heart that the Lord has intrusted us with the possession of the soil of this western land, that these mountain valleys are the valleys of modern Ephraim, that Israel is to gather here, and that the tribe of Ephraim predominates here. We can go through the land of Palestine today and there find the valleys of Ephraim, once blessed, and now cursed; but these valleys of Ephraim in the west are blessed of the Lord. Let us make this a land of Zion indeed; let us keep the laws of God and honor His commandments in this western land. Let us listen to the voice of inspiration, and let us make this a land of temperance, of virtue, and honor; there should be no drunkenness in this land, so far as we as a people are concerned ; there should be no whoredoms in the land, and no adulterer allowed to go unpunished. Let us worship no strange idols ; these may not, as in days of old, be made of wood or stone, but they may consist of foolish fashions, extravagance of dress and kindred evils. Let the people of Zion also keep the Word of Wisdom. I don't know that prohibition on general principles has been preached stronger in any part of the world than the Word of Wisdom has been preached among us at home. We are loathe to think that it is necessary to take upon ourselves any formal pledge, or to join any particular society or organization, for the purpose of keeping sober, or for a man to keep away from' strong drink, or from drinking to excess. It is only necessary for us to exercise strong personal will power in keeping the commandments of God; and we should be the most willing to receive these, and to observe them, and we certainly should welcome temperance among the people of our state, even if enforced by law. ¶

I hope, my brethren and sisters, that we will do what is right, so that this land may continue to be a land of Zion unto us, and that we may continue to be blessed and prospered in these mountain valleys, that the word of God may go forth from here to all the nations of the earth, that righteousness and the spirit of the true Gospel of Jesus Christ may shed its rays of light upon the nations, and that the cause of Zion may be prospered in all lands and in all climes, until the kingdom' of God shall be established and have dominion over the whole earth. God hasten the day, is my prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen. ¶