From the 64th section of the
Doctrine and Covenants these prophetic words are recorded as they were given by
the Prophet Joseph Smith in the year 1831: “For behold, I shall say unto you
that Zion shall flourish and the glory of the Lord shall be upon her, and she
shall be an ensign to the people, and there shall come unto her out of every
nation under heaven, and the day shall come when the nations of earth shall
tremble because of her and shall fear because of her terrible ones. The Lord
hath spoken it.”
About the time of this prophetic
utterance the very few Saints moved from New York, where they first embraced
the gospel, to Missouri and Ohio, where they established themselves in a
commonwealth of thrift and industry.
Their faith in the Gospel of
Jesus Christ as it was primitively with its apostles, prophets, seventies,
elders, teachers and deacons, with its living blessing of the spirit of God,
the gifts of healing, tongues, interpretation, revelation and prophecy, and all
of the fundamental principles of the plan of salvation, faith, repentance,
baptism for the remission of sins and the laying on of hands for the gift of
the Holy Ghost, together with the indispensable principles of divine authority;
their faith in all these ancient and eternal truths made them unpopular, and in
the eyes of “Christians” they were counted the most heretical and blasphemous
mortals that ever claimed a place in the human family.
As they grew in numbers by the
zealousness of their representatives, who eagerly proclaimed the restoration of
the gospel, their enemies became more bitter and bold in their opposition.
Ministers of the prevalent
Christian churches were vigorous and mean in their actions against the humble
Elders who traveled Paul and Peter like, two by two, without purse or scrip.
All kinds of libelous fabrications were set on foot against the Saints, which
tended to make the feeling of hatred so strong against them that many of them
were tarred and feathered, whipped, imprisoned, and made the subjects of
everything in the category of indignities.
The civil officials refused to
hear the cries for mercy and protection which constantly came from the lips of
the suffering Saints, lest they be called sympathizers with the unpopular and
lose their positions.
In 1834 the intense sentiment
against the Saints culminated in their expulsion from Jackson county.
Mobs of men numbering hundreds,
among whom masqueraded the local clergy, rushed down upon the people, driving
them from their homes, burning their property, and injuring their bodies.
Lieut. Gov. L. W. Boggs said to
some of the Saints at the outset of these outrages, “you know what our Jackson
county boys can do and you had better leave the county.”
These savage attacks continued,
and by advice of a certain judge, the Saints attempted to defend themselves,
which only made matters worse. Enraged by this action, the mob leader, Col.
Pitcher, turned his whole mass of savages upon the settlements of the
defenseless Saints. “Out upon the bleak prairies, along the Missouri’s banks,
chilled by November’s winds and drenched by pouring rains, hungry and
shelterless, weeping and heart-broken, wandered the exiles. Families scattered
and divided, husbands seeking wives, wives their husbands, parents searching
for their children, not knowing if they were yet alive.”
Thus were about 15,000 souls
driven from their homes and possessions in Jackson county. Three hundred houses
were burned and ten settlements left in ruins.
The Pilgrims took refuge in the
counties of Caldwell, Clay, Carroll and Daviess, where they settled again and
in 1838 numbered about 12,000 souls.
At that time they were again
molested by murderous mobs. They attempted to defend themselves and their
action was interpreted by the aforesaid L. W. Boggs, who was then Governor, as
treason, in consequence of which he ordered the state militia into service to
quell the disturbances. The Saints appealed to him for mercy, but were answered
by an edict of extermination, which was promptly executed by the mob and the
state militia. During this savage onslaught numbers of the Saints were murdered
in cold blood.
The exiles fled to Illinois and
swelled the already growing city of Nauvoo in enormous numbers. Here they lived
in peace and prosperity for 9 years, when again they were infested by their
enemies, many of whom followed them from Missouri to their last retreat. So
intensely overbearing and cruel became their oppressors that a committee was
appointed to wait on President Van Buren for redress, but their reception was
cold and their grievances answered by, “your cause is just, but I can do
nothing for you.”
This encouraged the barbarous
demons who lost no time in satisfying their blood-thirsty appetite. Their aim
for years had been to kill the Prophet Joseph, whom they had dragged into court
not less than thirty-nine times on trumped up charges for which he was as many
times honorably acquitted.
But at last they succeeded with
the threat, “if the law can’t reach him powder and ball shall.” They set to
work, and on June 27, 1844, their threat materialized. The Prophet’s brother,
Hyrum, also fell with him, a martyr to the cause of truth.
After this dastardly crime, for
which all implicated were either acquitted or left unmolested, the fiends
incarnate renewed their attacks on the Saints, burning and plundering their
property on the outskirts of the city. Once more the oppressed sought redress
from their Governor—Ford by name—but he gave them in return the same
sympathetic expressions as President Van Buren: “Your cause is just, but I can
do nothing for you.”
The people at Nauvoo now numbered
upwards of 20,000 souls, comfortably situated and provided for. They minded
their own business and lived exemplary lives, both as American citizens and as
Saints of God.
To these people God was a living
reality, whose arm was not shortened that He could not save nor His ear heavy
that He could not hear. They enjoyed the gifts of the spirit of God, they knew
the gospel in its primitive beauty and simplicity was true and that God had
again restored it to man, and for this they were forced to succor the lance of
savagery from the hands of boasted Christians and professed Americans, who
patriotically unfurled the flag of freedom and liberty in one hand and wantonly
tied the chains of oppression and barbarism around the necks of their neighbors
with the other. Oh, such heinous mockery! What a blasphemous insult to American
principle and what a sacrilegious indignity upon the pure humane gospel of
Jesus Christ!
So strong and cruel became the
public sentiment against the Saints of Nauvoo that in the month of February,
1846 they were, under the penalty of massacre and pillage, forced to leave
their possessions and flee into the wilderness beyond the Mississippi for
safety.
Pressed at the point of the
bayonet, they fled from their hard-earned and comfortable homes just in time to
see them consumed by the flames. Chilled by Siberian blasts and pursued by
Christian mobs they fled into the desert to die from the hands of the native
savage, to succumb to the calls of starvation or to survive both by the
almighty power of their God above.
The Saints were now banished from
civilization and without any means of support, save that which was voluntarily
provided, and truly it seemed that their doom was sealed.
It seemed that to make sure of
their annihilation, President John Tyler sent a United States officer after the
fleeing exiles with a demand for 500 men to assist in the Mexican war, which
had recently been declared.
This was adding insult to injury.
The Saints had been scornfully
refused protection by the government which now demanded their assistance for
defense, and this too, just at a time when their helpless and starving wives
and children needed no father’s care and protection. That notwithstanding this
they obeyed the call, relying upon God for justice and for mercy in their
behalf. Here is a picture to behold. Imagine these shelterless and starving
pilgrims, dragged from the comforts of home, scourged with adversity, robbed of
their possessions; many of their number martyred (among them their leader and
prophet), without food and without means and dumped into the frozen lap of the
wilderness; ignored by their government and ostracized by the Christians (and
all because of their religion). Imagine this multitude of weeping and
heart-broken wives and children, scores of whom were sick from exposure or
wounded by their enemies; fathers whose pitious faces revealed their burdens of
grief, which lay heavily within their noble breasts. What a spectacle of
suffering humanity, surrounded on one side by a dreary waste, which promised
starvation, and on the other by a Christian mob who thirsted for their life’s
blood.
Picture yourself, oh reader,
among these forlorn and oppressed children of God. Listen to those piteous
sobs, behold those tear-stained cheeks, look into those eyes that have known no
rest, no sleep, since their loved ones fell the victims of barbarism and
savagery—and that, too, at the hands of professed American Christians.
Cast your eyes upon those manly
forms who were now kissing their loved ones a fond farewell before departing
for war. Does not this picture touch the sympathetic cords in your heart? Does
not the courage and loyalty stamped upon the brows of those noble men win your
admiration and cause you to exclaim with me: “Oh, liberty and love, freedom and
charity, thy precious names dwell not in the heart of modern Christianity?”
Under such threatening
circumstances as these the prosperity of Zion was indeed promising. What a
glorious facsimile in Zion for the nations of the earth. How the powers of the
world must tremble because of her, and what an exemplar to the nations. Ah, indel!
Did I insinuate? Pardon, I did these noble pilgrims wrong. Never in the history
of humanity have the manly traits of courage, of patience, of love, of charity
and loyalty, and above all the God-given characteristic of true and sincere
devotion to Deity, been exhibited in such admiration as they were in the lives
of these rejected and oppressed Latter Day Saints, unless it was when the
saints of old for the same religion, sweated beneath the same yoke of tyranny
and cruelty, which was thrust upon them by similar inhuman savages, who
masquerade beneath the cloak of religion.
From the above discussion it is
clear that Zion was upon the very brink of destruction, which made the
fulfillment of the prophet’s prediction a question.
Let us see the condition of Zion
today and her relation to the world.
In seventy years the numbers of
Zion’s people have swelled from six to approximately 850,000, among part of
whom in 1887 there were representatives from twenty-four different nations and
these, too, in the valleys of the Rockies.
Magnificent and productive farms
with their luxurious fruits and abundant grains now carpet the valleys of the
great western plateaus. Beautiful dwellings, spacious and comfortable school
houses, churches and factories dot the desert, forming towns and cities, whose
prosperity, thrift, industry and progression all unite in one common bond.
Ninety-nine per cent. of the Saints own their own homes. Only 8 per cent. of
them over 10 years of age, as compared with 18 per cent. in the United States,
are unable to read or write. Up until 1870 not a brothel nor a saloon was known
among them and then it was introduced by their Christian neighbors of the east.
In 1881 there were sixty-six saloons in Salt Lake City, sixty of which were run
by non-Mormons. There were fifteen billiard and seventeen bowling rooms, all
kept by non-Mormons; there were six brothels with thirty-five women, all run by
non-Mormons, and not a Mormon woman among them. All of these statistics
together with the courage and perseverance of the Saints exhibited by them in
subduing the desert, and moreover, their stability and gallantry in the defense
of their country, (in the Philippi engagements hundreds of Mormon boys who
frankly and bravely fought in the front ranks of battle and meritoriously won
the admiration of the whole nation), all this evidence declares that Zion is prospering
and that she is an ensign to the world.
The miraculous and sacrificing
lives of her 1,800 Elders, who journey forth, without price, teaching the pure
and simple truths of our Master for the uplifting of humanity, are worthy of
emulation.
And whether it be openly admitted
or not by the Christian world, it is nevertheless a fact that Mormonism,
so-called, has found its way more or less into nearly every Christian
denomination on earth.
The Elders of today do not meet
so many who hold to that boundless and merciless hell, where sinners guilty of
all degrees of crime, from the slightest offense to that of the deepest dye,
are consigned alike to an ever-burning and never-ending punishment; neither do
they meet so many who denounce modern revelation and the extraordinary gifts of
the Spirit and many other principles of the original Gospel of Jesus, showing
that the Christian world is, in part at least, patterning after Zion in
believing these divine truths.
As to the part of the prediction
quoted concerning the trembling of the nations, I would say it has not yet had
a complete verification; hence I shall not endeavor to establish its
fulfillment, but shall merely make reference to some facts in history and daily
occurrence, which will at least be indicative of its literal fulfillment.
In some of the eastern countries
the local officials have prohibited the Elders from preaching and also from
distributing their literature. This also is true in not a few cities in the
United States.
The actions of this government
and many of its high officials toward the Saints present a strong testimony of
the promised literal fulfillment of the Prophets’ prediction. Let us see.
During all of the severe persecutions of the Saints in Missouri, Ohio and
Illinois, the government was made to believe that the Mormon people were
anarchists and consequently dangerous to the government, for the which they
received no protection.
In 1857 an official army was sent
to destroy them in their newly made homes in the mountains because the
government feared the commonwealth of the Saints. In 1852 their church property
was confiscated by the government.
Time and time again Utah applied
for admission into the Union, but was refused not because she was feeble in the
necessary requirements for statehood, for these her qualifications were far
superior to many of her sisters who were admitted, but she was refused simply
because she was “Mormon,” and this meant danger to the government in the eyes
of the people and their representatives. What motive other than that of fear
could have inspired such unjust actions as these in the heart of the
government?
And this is not all. What is it
that inspires the present crusade against the Saints? You answer, their
polygamous connection. Emasculate? And if this be true, pray tell why all of
the petitions to congress against him and all of the anti-Roberts congressional
speeches contained as much, yea more, strong opposition against the “Mormon”
Church than against Utah’s congressman? What would there be in Manning’s
blackballing the whole Catholic institution because she believed one of its
members to be in disagreement to English principles? Absolutely none! Then what
need has there been for said crusade against the whole “Mormon” people simply
because one of its member found disfavour in the eyes of the government?
Absolutely none! The fact of the matter is simply this: the growth and
prosperity of Zion is as repugnant to the bureaucratic and inattentive
legislators, whose blind, bigoted and unsympathetic to the ring of Americanism
than to the whisperings of American and Christian principle; and whose degree
of religion varies with the size of their salaries. These are they who arouse
the nation against us and incite the masses to cry out in holy horror against
the Saints; and it is through the instrumentality of those professors (not
pastors) of divinity that such un-American and un-Christian resolutions are
introduced into the halls of Liberty and Justice as were recommended in the
governor’s message to the Mississippi legislature recently, and as are now
being agitated by the law-makers of South Carolina, the purposes of which are
to withdraw all protection from “Mormons” and leave them at the mercy of
infuriated and beastly mobs, whose dastardly and cowardly deeds are born in a
“Christian” heart and made inalienable by corrupt American dignitaries. There
are they who inspire fear in the heart of the government and cruelties against
the Saints; these are they who inspire hatred against the Mormon missionaries
which not infrequently exhibits itself in halls of pious zeal where fathered
lewd injuries upon the Elders and who in times past have stained the pure
tresses of Liberty with the innocent blood of Saints.
Church than against Utah’s
congressman? What would there be in Manning’s blackballing the whole Catholic
institution because she believed one of its members to be in disagreement to
English principles? Absolutely none! Then what need has there been for such a
crusade against the whole “Mormon” people simply because one of its member
found disfavour in the eyes of the government? Absolutely none! The fact of the
matter is simply this: the growth and prosperity of Zion is as repugnant to the
bureaucratic and inattentive legislators, whose blind, bigoted and
unsympathetic leaders are six times more susceptible to the ring of Americanism
than to the whisperings of American and Christian principle; and whose degree
of religion varies with the size of their salaries. These are they who arouse
the nation against us and incite the masses to cry out in holy horror against
the Saints; and it is through the instrumentality of those professors (not
pastors) of divinity that such un-American and un-Christian resolutions are
introduced into the halls of Liberty and Justice as were recommended in the
governor’s message to the Mississippi legislature recently, and as are now
being agitated by the law-makers of South Carolina, the purposes of which are
to withdraw all protection from “Mormons” and leave them at the mercy of
infuriated and beastly mobs, whose dastardly and cowardly deeds are born in a
“Christian” heart and made inalienable by corrupt American dignitaries. There
are they who inspire fear in the heart of the government and cruelties against
the Saints; these are they who inspire hatred against the Mormon missionaries
which not infrequently exhibits itself in halls of pious zeal where fathered
lewd injuries upon the Elders and who in times past have stained the pure
tresses of Liberty with the innocent blood of Saints.
After reading the above one
cannot help seeing how remarkably the prediction of the Prophet Joseph Smith
has been fulfilled. (Jeremiah Stokes, Jr., “Prophecy Fulfilled,” Latter Day
Saints Southern Star 2, no. 18 [March 31, 1900], 142-43)
Further Reading:
Resources
on Joseph Smith's Prophecies
