Jonah to Nineveh, to tell them that within

Jonah to Nineveh, to tell them that within forty days that great city should be destroyed ; but Nineveh repented, and God revoked his decree. The judgment passed over, but it would surely have come if the king and nobles and people had not humbled themselves and done the thing that was required of them. There is always an alternative — ■ no "dead-open-and-shut" . business about God's dealings with men. He gives them a chance. ¶

Joseph Smith and the Civil War

Joseph Smith predicted the war between the Northern and the Southern States — told where it would begin, and named the question over which it would arise. It was on Christmas Day, 1832, that he foretold that great conflict, and twenty-eight years and some months later it began, the first gun being fired on Fort Sumter, April 12, 1861. Seventeen years before the war broke out, the Prophet made an effort to avert the awful calamity that he saw impending over his country. Was it inconsistent of him to do so — to utter a prediction and then work to prevent its fulfilment?. No, — that is not the way to look at it. He was a prophet of God, and he knew that the nation was entitled to an alternative. We hear it said, when a man dies : "It was his time to die." And so it was — it must have been, or he would not have died. But a man's time»can change, according to the course taken by him. If he does what God requires, what he was sent into the world to do, there is no reason why he should not remain to fully accomplish the purpose of his mortal creation. But if he is unwise, and dissipates his strength ; if he does wrong and weakens his powers, then he shortens his life and his time to die comes earlier. ¶

Joseph Smith made an earnest effort to ward off the very calamity that he had predicted. And how did he propose to do this? Early in 1844, a few months before his martyrdom, he became a candidate for President of the United States, and sent forth the Apostles and Elders of the Church to present his "views on Government" to the people of the States of the Union. Incorporated in the platform of political principles upon which he proposed to stand, was a provision for the liberation of the slaves of the South — not by violence, not by confiscation, thus despoiling their owners ; for the slaves were their property, inherited from their fathers and grandfathers : The Prophet recognized this "fact, and he said, let the Nation purchase the slaves and set them free : let the colored man owe his liberty to the Government as a sift; the money for the purchase to be realized from the sale of public lands. Eleven years later, Ralph Waldo Emerson, the great philosopher, made the same identical suggestion, and was praised and commended for his humane and just proposition — though his advice was not taken. How many of those who praised Emerson appreciated Joseph Smith, who had offered the same suggestion eleven years before? It's an awful thing to be a "Mormon!" — in the eyes of the world, at least. We are proud of it. The Prophet's counsel was not acted upon. The hate-blinded politicians of that period thought they saw ''a more excellent way," and the great war came that cost this nation a million lives, a billion of treasure, and planted those terrible heart-burnings that separated the South from the North far more effectually than Mason and Dixon's line ever did or could. ¶

The Jackson County Saints

In the year 1831, the Latter-day Saints, directed and inspired of God, attempted to build Zion in Jackson County, Missouri, and establish a condition of affairs that would be a preparation for the Lord's glorious coming. If they had but followed the counsel of their heaven-inspired leader; if they had put into practice God's law for the building up of Zion, and without which there can be no Zion in the fullest and highest sense, they could have succeeded even at that early day, for the Lord said so in just that many words. But they failed to do as he required, and another set of consequences ensued. They were "not united, according to the union required by the law of the celestial kingdom." They did "not impart of their substance, as becometh Saints, to the poor and afflicted among them." They were not what Enoch's City had been — "Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind and dwelt in righteousness, and there was no poor among them." The Jackson County colonists were the best people that could be had at that time for the purpose, but they were not good enough to carry out God's holy design. "There were jarrings and contentions and envyings and strifes and lustful and covetous desires among them ; wherefore, by these things they polluted their inheritances ;" and the Lord, who had promised that if they would pursue a certain course they should build up Zion, now permitted their enemies to come upon them and drive them from the "goodly land." Banished — exiled for failing to fulfill God's purpose. ¶

Zion Not Moved

Banished, but not forsaken! In a revelation given soon afterwards, the Lord said to his people : "Let your hearts be comforted concerning Zion ; for all flesh is in mine hands : Be still and' know that I am God. Zion shall not be moved out of her place, notwithstanding her children are scattered. They that remain, and are pure in heart, shall return and come to their inheritances, they and their children, with songs of everlasting joy, to build up the waste places of Zion." Until then, he had "other places" he said, for the gathering of his Saints, and they should be called "Stakes of Zion." ¶

The Glorious Future

The Elders were told that they must "wait for a little season for the redemption of Zion." The people were to become mighty, not only in numbers and in material influence, but mighty by the power of God descending upon them as an endowment from on high. When the n ¶

time should be ripe and all things ready, then, said the Lord: "Mine angels shall go before you, and also my presence, and in time ye shall possess the goodly land." Again : "I will fight your battles. Behold, the destroyer I have sent forth to destroy and lay waste mine enemies ; and not many years hence they shall not be left to pollute mine heritage and to blaspheme my name upon the lands which I have consecrated for the gathering together of my saints." ¶

We must live God's laws if we desire to reap his promises. The Latter-day Saints of Jackson County were a far better people than those who mobbed them and drove them from their homes ; but a lack of preparedness hindered them from playing their full part in the great work that God had designed. The mighty event, however, was only postponed. Zion, in due time, will be redeemed; Israel will be gathered; and the preparation made that is necessary to precede the advent of the King of kings. ¶

God's Covenant With Enoch

More than five thousand years ago a prophet of God obtained a promise from him in relation to these things, and I will now read to you a portion of that promise: ¶

"And the Lord said unto Enoch: As I live, even so will I come in the last days, in the days of wickedness and vengeance, to fulfill the oath which I have made unto you concerning the children of Noah; ¶

"And the day shall come that the earth shall rest; but before that day the heavens shall be darkened, and a veil of darkness shall cover the earth; and the heavens shall shake, and also the earth, and great tribulations shall be among the children of men. ¶

"But my people will I preserve. And righteousness will I send down out of heaven, and truth will I send forth out of the earth, to bear testimony of mine Only Begotten, his resurrection from the dead, yea, and also the resurrection of all men; and righteousness and truth will I cause to sweep the earth as with a flood, to gather out mine elect from the four quarters of the earth, unto a place which I shall prepare, an Holy City, that my people may gird up their loins, and be looking forth for the time of my coming; for there shall be my tabernacle, and it shall be called Zion, a New Jerusalem. ¶

"And the' Lord said unto Enoch: Then shalt thou and all thy city meet them there, and we will receive them into our bosom, and they shall see us; and we will fall upon their necks, and they shall fall upon our necks, and we will kiss each other. ¶

"And there shall be mine abode, and it shall be Zion, which shall come forth out of all the creations which I have made; and for the space of a thousand years the earth shall rest." ¶

The Great Peace

There is the great peace promised for this suffering, war-torn planet. Enoch saw the glorious dawn, and likewise "the darkest hour" before the dawn. We are living in the Saturday evening of Time. God gave to this earth seven days, or seven periods' of a thousand years each, in which to accomplish its mortal mission — -six working days and a day of rest, the period of sanctification. Four thousand ¶

years, or four of those great days, had passed before Christ was crucified ; and nearly two thousand years have gone by since. Consequently, we are now at the end of the week, in the Saturday night of human history. Morning will break upon the Millennium, the thousand years of peace, the Sabbath of the world. And any man, nation, or movement that turns its steps in that direction, is walking toward the Light! ¶

This is a wonderful prediction. It began to be fulfilled when the Father and the Son appeared to the boy Joseph, in the spring of 1820. Let it not be forgotten that the first to bear testimony of the Only Begotten of the Father in this dispensation was the Father hirnself, for he said to that boy : "This is my beloved Son, hear him." It was Righteousness looking down from heaven ; and subsequently Truth came out of the earth — the inspired records of the ancient past, containing the fulness of the Everlasting Gospel. Down from Heaven came the powers of the Priesthood, the authority to preach that Gospel to all the world as a witness before the end ; and ever since that day truth and righteousness, or the Gospel preached by the power of God, has been going forth to gather his elect and bring them to their promised land. The gathered Saints are up here in the Rocky Mountains, out of harm's way, comparatively speaking, founding Stakes of Zion, as a preliminary to the establishment of Zion proper ; and we shall remain here until our . preparation is complete. When the right time comes, and all things are ready, the pure in heart, chosen from the midst of this people, will go down in the might of the Lord and redeem Zion. ¶

The Song of the Redeemed

Then shall the New Jerusalem be built, and the way prepared for the return of the City of Enoch and for the glorious coming of the Lord. Then shall be realized the blest condition described in this song of the redeemed: ¶

The Lord hath brought again Zion, ¶

The Lord hath redeemed his people, Israel. ¶

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And Satan is bound, and time is no longer. ¶

The Lord hath gathered all things in one: ¶

The Lord hath brought down Zion from above, ¶

The Lord hath brought up Zion from beneath. ¶

The earth hath travailed and brought forth her strength, ¶

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And the heavens have smiled upon her, And she is clothed with the glory of her God; For he stands in the midst of his people. ¶

Amen. ¶