sleeps, an only son,
Is still the same; and thousands who have made
A covenant with him by sacrifice,
Are bearing witness to the sacred truth—
Jehovah speaking has reveal'd his will.
The proclamation sounded in my ear—
It reached my heart—I listen'd to the sound—
Counted the cost, and laid my earthly all
Upon the altar, and with purpose fix'd
Unalterably, while the spirit of
Elijah's God within my bosom reigns,
Embrac'd the everlasting covenant,
And am determined now to be a saint,
And number with the tried and faithful ones,
Whose race is measured with their life; whose prize
Is everlasting, and whose happiness
Is God's approval; and to whom 'tis more
Than meat and drink to do his righteous will.
* * * *
Although to be a saint requires
A noble sacrifice—an arduous toil—
A persevering aim; the great reward
Awaiting the grand consummation will
Repay the price, however costly; and
The pathway of the saint the safest path
Will prove; though perilous—for 'tis foretold,
All things that can be shaken, God will shake;
Kingdoms and governments, and institutes,
Both civil and religious, must be tried—
Tried to the core, and sounded to the depth.
Then let me be a saint, and be prepar'd
For the approaching day, which like a snare
Will soon surprise the hypocrite—expose
The rottenness of human schemes—shake off
Oppressive fetters—break the gorgeous reins
Usurpers hold, and lay the pride of man—
The pride of nations, low in dust!
And there was in these gatherings of our latter-day Israel, like as in this poem, a tremendous meaning. It is of the Hebrew significance and genius rather than of the Christian; for Christ is now Messiah, King of Israel, and not the Babe of Bethlehem. Mormondom is no Christian sect, but an Israelitish nationality, and even woman, the natural prophetess of the reign of peace, is prophesying of the shaking of "kingdoms and governments and all human institutions."
The Mormons from the beginning well digested the text to the great Hebrew drama, and none better than the sisters; here it is:
"Now the Lord had said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee;
"And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing;
"And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."
And so, for now nearly fifty years, this Mormon Israel have been getting out of their native countries, and from their kindred, and from their father's house unto the gathering places that their God has shown them.
But they have been driven from those gathering places from time to time; yes, driven farther west. There was the land which God was showing them. At first it was too distant to be seen even by the eye of faith. Too many thousands of miles even for the Spartan heroism of the sisters; too dark a tragedy of expulsions and martyrdoms; and too many years of exoduses and probations. The wrath of the Gentiles drove them where their destiny led them—to the land which God was showing them.
And for the exact reason that the patriarchal Abraham and Sarah were commanded to get out of their country and from their kindred and their father's house, so were the Abrahams and Sarahs of our time commanded by the same God and for the same purpose.
"I will make of thee a great nation." "And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and I will multiply thee exceedingly." "And thou shalt be a father of many nations." "And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee and thy seed after thee."
To fulfill this in the lives of these spiritual sons and daughters of Abraham and Sarah, the gathering dispensation was brought in. These Mormons have gathered from the beginning that they might become the fathers and mothers of a nation, and that through them the promises made to the Abrahamic fathers and mothers might be greatly fulfilled.
This is most literal, and was well understood in the early rise of the church, long before polygamy was known. Yet who cannot now see that in such a patriarchal covenant was the very overture of patriarchal marriage—or polygamy.
So in the early days quite a host of the daughters of New England—earnest and purest of women—many of them unmarried, and most of them in the bloom of womanhood—gathered to the virgin West to become the mothers of a nation, and to build temples to the name of a patriarchal God!
CHAPTER XI.
THE LAND OF TEMPLES—AMERICA THE NEW JERUSALEM—DARING CONCEPTION OF THE MORMON PROPHET—FULFILLMENT OF THE ABRAHAMIC PROGRAMME—WOMAN TO BE AN ORACLE OF JEHOVAH.
Two thousand years had nearly passed since the destruction of the temple of Solomon; three thousand years, nearly, since that temple of the old Jerusalem was built.
Yet here in America in the nineteenth century, among the Gentiles, a modern Israel began to rear temples to the name of the God of Israel! Temples to be reared to his august name in every State on this vast continent! Thus runs the Mormon prophesy.
All America, the New Jerusalem of the last days! All America for the God of Israel! What a conception! Yet these daughters of Zion perfectly understood it nearly fifty years ago.
Joseph was indeed a sublime and daring oracle. Such a conception grasped even before he laid the foundation stone of a Zion—that all America is to be the New Jerusalem of the world and of the future—was worthy to make him the prophet of America.
Zion was not a county in Missouri, a city in Ohio or Illinois; nor is she now a mere embryo State in the Rocky Mountains.
Kirtland was but a "stake of Zion" where the first temple rose. Jackson county is the enchanted spot where the "centre stake" of Zion is to be planted, and the grand temple reared, by-and-by. Nauvoo with its temple was another stake. Utah also is but a stake. Here we have already the temple of St. George, and in Salt Lake City a temple is being built which will be a Masonic unique to this continent.
Perchance it will stand in the coming time scarcely less a monument to the name of its builder—Brigham Young—than the temple of Old Jerusalem has been to the name of Solomon.
But all America is the world's New Jerusalem!
With this cardinal conception crowding the soul of the Mormon prophet, inspired by the very archangels of Israel, what a vast Abrahamic drama opened to the view of the saints in Kirtland when the first temple lifted its sacred tower to the skies!
The archangels of Israel had come down to fulfill on earth the grand Abrahamic programme. The two worlds—the visible and the invisible—were quickly engaging in the divine action, to consummate, in this "dispensation of the fullness of times," the promises made unto the fathers.
And