Part 12
It has been related of Henry Ward Beecher that he said, if a literal rendering of the Scriptures was to be accepted, then "Mormonism" was correct. In line with his sentiments on this subject, it has been reported that he delivered a lecture in Nashville, Tennessee, his subject being, "What Christianity Has Done to Civilize the World," in which he said: "What has Africa done for the world? She has never produced a sage, a philosopher, a poet nor a prophet, and why not? Because the name of Christ and the influence of Christianity are scarcely known in her dark regions. Millions of her children have lived and passed away without hearing the truth. What will become of them? Will they be forever damned? No, not if my God reigns, for they will hear the gospel in the spirit world." He then proceeded to show by irrefutable evidence that salvation for the dead is a scriptural doctrine.
The writer was not present at the lecture, but another Latter-day Saint elder was present, and, at the conclusion of the lecture, stepped up to the platform and said: "Mr. Beecher, I have been much interested in your lecture and would like to ask you a question. Jesus said to Nicodemus, 'Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.' Now, how is it possible for a man to be baptized in water when his body has already crumbled in the earth?" The great preacher looked at the interrogator for a moment and then said: "Young man, where do you hail from?" "From the West." "From what part of the West?" "From Salt Lake City," answered the Elder. "Oh," said Mr. Beecher, "you may answer your own question. Good evening," and walked away. Mr. Beecher probably had read enough on the subject of baptism for the dead to know that such a doctrine must be coupled with preaching to departed spirits, but he did not wish to be accused of teaching "Mormonism," so he stopped short of that. He said enough, however, to verify the words of Joseph Smith, and also those of the Savior, when He said that if men put new wine into old bottles it would break them to pieces; in other words, new doctrine into old systems.
Other instances might be cited, but this will suffice to illustrate how the influence of the Gospel is working among the children of men.
We now come to one of the most important, interesting and extensive branches of this great subject, namely, that of securing the names, births, marriages and deaths of our ancestors, a class of information essential for record in order to prosecute this great work of salvation for the dead. The genealogical research must be an arduous one and ofttimes attended with great difficulty.
Nathaniel H. Morgan, author of a genealogical history entitled "James Morgan and His Descendants," makes this observation in the introduction of his work: "The task of the genealogist, in groping his way amid the dusty records of the past, is much like that of the African Indians in pursuing an obscure trail through a tangled wilderness. An acute faculty of perception and a keen and practiced eye must note and scrutinize every obscure footprint, every rustled leaf, every bent twig; now, progressing rapidly, under a clear light, and guided by sure tokens; and anon, suddenly arrested by a total absence of all further signs, and forced hopelessly to abandon the trail long and patiently pursued until, perchance, again some new and unexpected waymark greets his eye, inspiring fresh pursuit."
While there have been isolated instances of genealogical works in America since the year 1771, it is a noteworthy fact (and one showing the hand of God plainly manifest in moving upon the Gentiles to do this work) that since the coming of Elijah to the Kirtland Temple, this spirit of writing genealogies has rapidly increased in the United States.
I cannot do better at this juncture than to include as a part of our article a letter written to the writer by Elder Franklin D. Richards on this important subject. Elder Richards, through his researches, has been instrumental in furnishing printed genealogies to many families of Latter-day Saints. He says, under date of Nov. 29th, 1895:
"In answer to your question when the first genealogical history was published, either in this country or in foreign nations, I must say it is impossible for me to answer, as I have not searched the libraries of Europe or of any foreign countries to learn when their first genealogies were published; but, narrowing your question down to this country, I may say that the first that we have any account of was published in 1771, consisting of twenty-four pages and was 'A genealogy of the family of Mr. Samuel Stebbins and Hannah Stebbins, his wife, from the year 1707 to the year 1771, with their names, time of their births, marriages and deaths of those that are deceased,' published at Hartford in 1771. The author, Mr. William H. Whitmore, says: 'This I believe to be the earliest genealogy in a distinct form published in the United States.' It is safe to conclude that an interest in genealogical work did not take very deep root among the people until after the Lord revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith the great work of extending salvation to the dead. This is made evident from the dates noted in the following excerpts taken from works on genealogical lore, published in Boston and Albany. In the introduction of a work entitled 'The American Genealogist,' by William H. Whitmore, and published by Joel Munsell, Albany, 1868, the following very interesting pages occur, in which you will observe the years 1844 (the year of the Prophet's martyrdom) and 1847 are named as the respective dates when the New England Historical Genealogical Society was formed, and the 'Register' was established under its patronage.
"It seems evident that the English element has predominated throughout our country, and the greater portion of English colonists settled in New England. Hence the great activity of genealogists there has had more than a local importance, and will be the means of preserving the records of the greater portion of our nation. There is difficulty in tracing the American pedigree of any family. Mr. Savage's admirable dictionary will furnish the inquirer with the first three generations of the name, and the indices of the register will enable him to examine numerous town and county records. There are very few names which will not be found in one or the other of these easily accessible works. The county registers of wills and deeds are open to every inquirer, free of expense, and it is rarely that any town clerk demands a fee for the inspection of his books. It is safe to say that nowhere else is the genealogist so favored as in New England, and consequently no community exists where so great a proportion of its families have had their records preserved.
"We have been fortunate in our historical records from the first. Bradford and Winthrop have noted down even the minute particulars of the settlement of their respective colonies; Mather and Prince have given us numerous items concerning the lives and pedigrees of the clergy and magistrates. In establishing the registry of deeds, our forefathers not only were in advance of England in political science, but they gave the genealogist a source of information elsewhere wanting.
"Very soon after the Revolutionary war an effort was made to revive the former taste for historical research. The Massachusetts Historical Society was formed, and has continued slowly to acquire wealth and influence, having greatly extended its usefulness within the past ten years. John Farmer, secretary of the New Hampshire Historical Society, early devoted himself to the study of genealogy and biography, and by his genealogical register attracted public attention to the subject. Our list will show that but little progress was made for thirty years from the time he issued his Farmer genealogy, but enough was done to keep the fire alive. In 1844, the Register was established under his patronage; since then the study of history and genealogy has been greatly encouraged, and with good results. When the new society was formed the science of genealogy was little understood. The wealth of our records was hardly imagined, the necessity of severe examination of traditions scarcely thought of, and the simplest and most economical form of arrangement was not yet invented. Soon, however, all these points were examined, old manuscript published, and the State authorities were persuaded to enact laws for the preservation of its documents. Since 1845 numerous local societies have been established or revived; over two hundred distinct works on genealogy have been published up to 1868, and innumerable town histories and historical pamphlets have been issued. In many instances these results have been known to be due to the establishment of the new societies, and it is unquestionable that the spirit it fostered has been the mainspring in all Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island have issued large volumes of their early annals, under the patronage of the respective governments. Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont possess active historical societies. New York has not only published her own records but assisted her neighbors, and established the largest and richest historical society in existence. Similar associations exist in more than half the States in the Union, and a new magazine, the _"American Notes and Queries,"_ established as their organ, has continued to the present time. Circular No. 3 of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, issued June, 1847, signed by the following gentlemen, viz: Charles Ewer, Lemuel Shattuck, Samuel G. Drake, Samuel H. Riddle and W. H. Montague, treats of the great importance which they attach to genealogical and historical work and works; and in this connection I may be permitted to suggest that what appealed so directly to their needs in those early times applies with much greater force to the Saints of the Latter Days, who are clearly and pleasurably made aware of the glorious relationship which exists between parents and children and the vital obligations the living are under to the dead. These intimations, no doubt you will appreciate, and when time and opportunity permit let us hope that you will actively take pleasure in promoting the aims of the Genealogical Society of Utah, which was especially organized to advance temple work, which includes the salvation and redemption of both dead and living. F.D. RICHARDS."
With all these prophecies before us, with the keys of salvation restored to the earth, with the spirit of Elijah moving not only the Saints but men of the world to action, who can fail to see the truth of this doctrine and the power of God made manifest to promote the great work of salvation for the dead?
In conclusion, let us heed the voice of God to the Prophet Joseph, saying, "Therefore renounce war and proclaim peace and seek diligently to turn the hearts of the children to the fathers and the hearts of the fathers to the children;" and the exhortation to us of the prophet who received this commandment, "Brethren, shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage, brethren and on, on to victory! Let your hearts rejoice, and be exceedingly glad. Let the earth break forth into singing. Let the dead speak forth anthems of eternal praise to the King Immanuel, who hath ordained before the world was, that which would enable us to redeem them out of their prison; for the prisoners shall go free."
THE GATHERING OF ISRAEL.
This subject is of great moment. It should interest all people, Jew and Gentile, especially those who profess Judaism and Christianity. It involves several features which affect the claims made by the Latter-day Saints that more revelation has been given and that the gospel has been restored in these, the last days. The solution of this question involves the fulfillment of many prophecies in the Old and New Testaments.
The trend of the teachings of modern Christianity is such as to keep, from the human mind, the idea that the Lord is a practical being and has anything whatever to do with the temporal affairs of the children of men. Yet by a careful reading of the Scriptures it is readily seen that God designated various portions of the earth to be occupied by different bodies of His children. He gave Palestine to the seed of Abraham, and designated where the children of Esau and other races should dwell. This truth is beautifully expressed by the apostle Paul in Acts xvii:26, as follows: "And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation."
To make this subject clear to the reader, we will first show that the seed of Abraham were promised certain countries, that they once occupied those promised lands, and were driven and scattered from them. Hence, in order to receive the fulfillment of the promise regarding their inheritance, they must of necessity be gathered home from their long dispersion.
In Genesis xiii:14, 15, we have the following: "And the Lord said unto Abraham after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward; for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever." This promise was renewed to his son Isaac, as recorded in Genesis xxvi:2, 3: "And the Lord appeared unto him and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of; sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee and unto thy seed I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham, thy father." And again, the promise was made to Jacob, the father of the twelve tribes of Israel. In Gen. xlviii:3, 4, it is said: "And Jacob said unto Joseph, God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz, in the land of Canaan, and blessed me. And said unto me, Behold I will make thee fruitful and multiply thee, and I will make of thee a multitude of people; and will give this land to thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession."
It is not necessary to make special quotations to prove to Bible readers that the tribes of Israel were led into the land of Palestine in the days of the prophet Joshua, and under his administration received their respective inheritances in the promised land.
On reading the forty-ninth chapter of Genesis we find a brief statement of the blessings pronounced by the great patriarch upon his twelve sons. In blessing Joseph it is plainly indicated that his seed was "a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall;" in other words, his posterity should receive a land beyond the limits which bound the country occupied by the other tribes of Israel. This view is corroborated by the thirty-third chapter of Deuteronomy, in the blessing and prophecy of Moses upon the head of the tribe of Joseph.
The descriptions of the land of Joseph, given in these two chapters, together with the other passages of Holy Writ, show that the land of Joseph was no less than the Western Hemisphere, known to us as North and South America. It is well known that the tribes of Israel occupied the promised land from generation to generation, until through apostasy and transgression nearly all the tribes were carried into captivity long before the advent of the Messiah. When He came the land was occupied chiefly by the tribe of Judah, which was subsequently scattered among the various nations of the earth.
The Lord plainly warned the house of Israel that, to enjoy His blessings and to remain unmolested in the land of their fathers, they must keep His commandments. If they did not, this was to follow: "And I will bring the land into desolation; and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it. And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you, and your land shall be desolate and your cities waste." (Lev. xxvi:32, 33.) Very much like this prophecy are the sacred words of the Messiah, spoken 1500 years later: "For there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." (Luke xxi:23, 24.)
It is also stated in Deut. xxviii:63-65: "And ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it. And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone. And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy feet have rest; but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind."
History records beyond the possibility of a doubt how literally and terribly the various clauses in these predictions have been fulfilled. Israel has been scattered, and Judah has been persecuted and oppressed and become a hiss and a byword in the mouths of all the Gentile nations.
With the sacred promises before us, that Israel should receive those countries and the history which proves that they were scattered and are still unreturned to their promised land, we must be convinced, if nothing were said in the Scriptures of the restoration, that Israel must be gathered and re-established in the land of their fathers or the promises of the Almighty would come to naught. We are not left, however, without predictions which specify, in considerable detail, that the chosen people shall be gathered and the circumstances and signs of the times associated with the gathering of Israel in the last days.
Four hundred and forty-six years before Christ, the prophet Nehemiah, bowing down in sorrow because of this scattering and destruction of his people, besought the Lord in humble supplication, thus: "Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandest thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations; but if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there." (Neh. i:8, 9.)
The psalmist David said (Psalms l:5): "Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice." The context of this psalm shows plainly that the fulfillment of the words quoted should take place in the last days, near the time of the coming of the Son of God. Those who should be called saints would be required to sacrifice the associations of their native lands as Abraham was when called upon to turn aside from the false religion of his fathers and go to a land into which the Lord should lead him. The Latter-day Saints have made a covenant with God, and through self-denial are gathering together in fulfillment of the words of David the psalmist.
Another prophecy from the same book is as follows: "O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good; for His mercy endureth forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy; and gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south. They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their souls fainted in them. They cried unto the Lord in their trouble and He delivered them out of their distresses."
The provisions of this prophecy have been and are being verified in the gathering of the Saints to the Rocky Mountains. In Isaiah ii:2, 3, we have the following prediction: "And it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths; for out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." This prediction is too plain to be mistaken when it is fulfilled. This prophecy was not fulfilled at the coming of the Messiah, neither before nor since His time, but it is being fulfilled in the gathering of the Latter-day Saints. They have established the house of the Lord in a mountainous country; many people are gathering to it, their object being to learn the ways of the Lord that they may more perfectly walk in His paths. This prediction should be verified at a time near which people should beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; "neither shall they learn war any more," as shown by the verse following those we have quoted.
Micah, fifty years after this, uttered a similar prophecy, in almost the same language, as will be found in the first and second verses of his fourth chapter.
Another prophecy of Isaiah on this subject will be found in chapter five, twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh verses. It reads as follows: "And He will lift up an ensign to the nations from afar, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth; and behold, they shall come with speed swiftly; none shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed nor the latchet of their shoes be broken." The wording of this, in connection with verses which follow, seems plainly to have its fulfillment in the manner of travel by which the Saints are being and shall be gathered to the place appointed. They come by railroad, "with speed swiftly," which prevents them, in a great measure, from stumbling or becoming weary by the way. Notice that the words of this prediction, that the ensign was to be set up from afar, undoubtedly indicate a far distant land from the place where Isaiah stood when he uttered the prophecy. He stood upon the Eastern Hemisphere; America was far distant, and upon this land the ensign has been lifted up. Is it not an ensign to the nations? The authority of God, the house of the Lord, where the nations of the earth are invited to repent of their sins and freely partake of the blessings to be obtained where the ensign is established, surely are such.
A prediction very similar to the foregoing in its provisions was uttered by the same prophet and is contained in the eleventh chapter of his book, the eleventh and twelfth verses: "And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And He shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth."
These prophecies could not be fulfilled short of bestowing more revelation upon the children of men to show them how, where and when these great events should be accomplished.