Part 13
We have quoted from the eleventh chapter of Isaiah, in the twelfth verse of which this language is used: "And shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah." It will be noticed that the word outcasts applies to Israel, which means that Israel was _cast out from_ the knowledge of the Gentile nations, while the seed of Judah was _scattered among_ the nations of the earth. The reason distinction is made between Israel and Judah, when Judah was one of the tribes of Israel, is that in the days of David and Solomon the Lord divided the kingdom of Israel, making Judah the distinct nation and the remaining tribes another distinct nation, having two separate kings. The tribes of Israel were led away into the north country, and became lost to the knowledge of the world, while Judah and a portion of Ephraim remained in Palestine, and were scattered among the nations. This is why the prophet applies the word "outcast" to Israel and the word "dispersed" to the tribes of Judah.
Zechariah the prophet says: "Ho, ho, come forth, and flee from the land of the north." (Zech. ii:6.) This return of the tribes of Israel from the land of the north will be attended with much miraculous power. The miracles wrought in the days of Moses will not be the reference made by Israel to show the power of God in their behalf, but this prophecy will be fulfilled: "Therefore, behold the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be said, the Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; But the Lord liveth that brought up the Children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither He had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers." (Jer. xvi:14, 15.)
One very interesting feature associated with the gathering of Israel in the last days is expressed in the sixteenth verse of the same chapter, as follows: "Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks." When men engage in fishing they cast their lines into the water, and know not until drawn to shore whether the fish caught be of one kind or another; but when they go hunting they know exactly the game they shoot at, whether it is a lion or a tiger, a buffalo or a deer. This Scripture is fulfilled in the preaching of the Gospel among the Gentile nations by the elders of Israel; it is not known by them whether the person who embraces the Gospel and gathers to Zion is of the blood of Israel, a Gentile or otherwise, until it is made known by the light of revelation. This, then, is as casting the Gospel net into the sea, which gathers of all kinds, who remain together until the bad are separated from the good and cast back into the sea.
Isaiah says, in chapter xxvii:12, "Ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel." This is corroborated in the third chapter of Jeremiah, fourteenth and fifteen verses, which read: "I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion; and I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding."
How strikingly true it is that in this dispensation only one or two, in many instances, of a numerous family, receive the truth. And frequently but one, or very few, in a whole city. But these, when they receive the Holy Spirit through embracing the Gospel, at the hands of inspired and divinely authorized men, are filled with a desire to gather to Zion, and there are taught by pastors "called of God as was Aaron."
A prophecy very like the foregoing is found in the eighteenth chapter of Revelations, fourth and fifth verses: "And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities." That they are out of Babylon is made clear by the verses preceding the ones quoted. Babylon signifies confusion, and is shown in the preceding chapter of Revelation to apply to "people and multitudes, and nations and tongues." Should there be among the nations of the earth any class of people professing to be the Saints of God, yet who have no desire to gather from Babylon in order to avoid her sins and thus escape her plagues, it would be proof that they had not received, in spirit and truth, the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Another prophecy bearing upon the return of the tribes from the north, as well as those scattered among the nations, is found in Jer. xxxi:8, 9, 10: "Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child, and her that travaileth with child together: A great company shall return thither. They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them; I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble; for I am a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first born. Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd does his flock." In the twelfth verse it says, "Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion." This latter clause in the prophecy shows that the place of their gathering shall be an elevated region of country. In some instances the term Zion is used with reference to a place or land, as shown in the sixty-second chapter of Isaiah, which the reader can refer to at leisure. And in other instances the word applies to a people. Modern revelation through the prophet Joseph Smith says: "This is Zion, the pure in heart." Using the word in this sense, light is thrown upon the foregoing prophecy of Jeremiah by one found in Isaiah xl:9: "O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain." This would not have been verified if the Saints of latter days had remained in a scattered condition among the nations, or even in the lower regions first occupied by them in the United States, for America is the land of Zion. The great events which go to make up the history of the Latter-day Saints furnish indisputable evidence that they were led there by the hand of God, and that, too, in fulfillment of ancient and modern prophecy.
In reference to the saints being led by the rivers of water in a straight way, Isaiah has a similar prophecy, contained in the thirty-second chapter, eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth verses: "And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places; when it shall hail, coming down on the forests; and the city shall be low in a low place. Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet of the ox, and the ass." The prophets foresaw that the gathering place of the saints should be in a section of the country where the rains should not be abundant, and for that reason they would plant beside all waters, that the system of irrigation might be employed to water the crops of the earth, and through this also that grasses and other vegetation might be provided for their domestic animals. It is also an interesting fact that the cities built by the Saints in the valleys, in comparison with the summit of the snow-capped mountains around them, are situated in low places, so that many times when the hail comes down in fury upon the mountain forests above, the city is free from storm.
One feature of the pleasantness which characterizes the Saints of God is their custom, in their mountain homes, of coming together in a social capacity and joining in the dance. In this capacity, as in gatherings of more weighty importance, the old and the young, male and female, mingle together, that parents may rejoice in the innocent recreation of their children and that the children may be under the guiding influence of their parents. Strange as it may seem to the world, even to those professing Christianity and a consequent belief in the Bible, such a condition is in fulfillment of sacred prophecy found in the thirteenth verse of the thirty-first chapter of Jeremiah, which reads as follows: "Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and old together; for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow." This was to be at the time of their getting up into the high mountains, and expressing their praises to the Almighty in the heights of Zion.
Closely connected with the foregoing prophecies is one found in Isaiah, thirty-fifth chapter, first and tenth verses: "The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." Almost the entire chapter has a bearing upon this subject.
The Lord has so abundantly blessed the labors of His people in that once barren region that truly the desert does rejoice and blossom as the rose. That Salt Lake valley was a most forbidding place cannot be denied. James Bridges, an old trapper who had seen Salt Lake valley before the Pioneers, was so confident of the perpetual sterility of the soil, rendered so by having little or no water, scarcely any rain, and frost nearly every month in the year, that he said to President Brigham Young: "I will give you a thousand dollars for the first ear of corn that can be produced in Salt Lake valley." Our geographies designated that country as the Great American Desert. Daniel Webster, the great statesman and orator, earnestly opposed the annexation of that section of the country to the United States on the ground of its almost utter worthlessness, claiming it would be a financial burden to the government.
Notwithstanding these forbidding aspects, the Prophet Joseph Smith predicted on the 6th of August, 1842, that the Latter-day Saints would become a mighty people in the midst of the Rocky Mountains. This prophecy will be found readily in a work entitled "A New Witness for God," by Elder B. H. Roberts, which work also contains really other predictions of the prophet Joseph Smith, and shows their fulfillment. The following in the prophecy of Isaiah, chapter thirty-five, "For in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert, and the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty lands springs of water," has been fulfilled in the settlement of the Rocky Mountain region by the Latter-day Saints.
As the judgments of God come upon the earth the gathering of Israel will be accelerated, and the words of the prophet Isaiah will be fulfilled wherein he asks the question, "Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?" (Isa. lx:8.) As they come together from their long dispersion, and from the north country, in times of famine, pestilence and bloodshed, the Lord will strengthen them by saying, "Fear not; for I am with thee; I will bring thy seed from the east and gather thee from the west; I will say to the north, give up; and to the south, keep not back; bring my sons from afar, and my daughters from the ends of the earth; even every one that is called by my name." (Isa. xliii:5 6.) How universal will be this gathering from all points of the compass, and which will apply to all who are truly called by the name of the Lord!
This gathering will be attended by greater power than heretofore, and no power will be able to impede the progress of the great work. Hear what Ezekiel says: "And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out. And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face." (Ezekiel xx:34, 35.) The same prophet also predicts the gathering of Israel in unmistakable terms, in chapter xxxvi:24: "For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you into your own land."
The foregoing predictions are chiefly from the Old Testament, but the New Testament also contains many very definite forecasts upon this glorious subject; indeed, in the last days, when the Gospel should be restored to earth by divine revelation, the dispensation thus established was to be designated as a gathering dispensation, as stated by Paul in Ephesians, chapter i:9, 10: "Having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself; that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on the earth; even in Him." This is in perfect accord with the prophecy of Isaiah before quoted, that all who are called by the name of the Lord should be gathered together.
Jesus offered the gathering to the house of Judah in His day, but they rejected it. He said unto them, "O, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate; and verily I say unto you, ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." (Luke xiii:34, 35.) How terribly have these words been fulfilled upon the Jews through their having rejected the Messiah and the principle of gathering which He offered to them.
By reading the book of Zechariah we learn that when the Jews have gathered to their promised land, in the last days, and the armies of the Gentiles surround them, the Messiah will appear unto them on the Mount of Olives. Looking to the fulfillment of the great predictions the feeling now pervades the hearts of the Jews, to a very great extent, to furnish means for the purchase of the land of Palestine, that they may return and rebuild the city of Jerusalem.
When the Twelve Apostles at Jerusalem requested of the Savior to know the signs of His second coming, He gave various evidences, among which was the preaching of the Gospel of the kingdom and consequently its restoration to the earth, and the raising up of prophets to warn the people, without which the comparison of the days of Noah and the days of the second coming of the Messiah would not be complete. To counterfeit the work of God through prophets that should be raised up, false prophets and teachers should also arise; kingdom should arise against kingdom; war, pestilence and bloodshed should desolate the nations of the earth; the gathering of Israel should be going on, as proved by the prophecies heretofore quoted, and when the signs of His appearing should appear in the heavens, "He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." (Matt. xxiv:31; see also Mark xiii:27.)
This is the dispensation of the fullness of times in which all the keys, power and authority enjoyed by all previous dispensations have been restored to the earth, and this includes the keys of the gathering. Under date of April 3d, 1836, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were the recipients of many splendid visions and revelations at Kirtland Ohio, in the Temple of the Lord. They solemnly testify as follows: "After this vision closed, the heavens were again opened unto us, and Moses appeared before us, and committed unto us the keys of the gathering of Israel from the four parts of the earth, and the leading of the ten tribes from the land of the north." (Doctrine and Covenants, Sec. 110:11.)
From that time the spirit of gathering has rested richly upon the saints of the Most High, and tens of thousands have gathered from many nations of the earth. The Saints will continue until they are assembled in the places designated for them to occupy. Since the date mentioned, the spirit of the gathering also has been working among the Jews, and when all things are revealed it will undoubtedly be found that the spirit of gathering is working among the ten lost tribes of Israel, looking to the restoration promised to them in the predictions of their fathers. Thus in the purpose of God will be accomplished the gathering together in one, all who will serve Him and keep His commandments, that they may "learn of His ways and walk in His paths," that the earth may be "filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the mighty deep, when no man shall say to his neighbor, 'know ye the Lord,' for all shall know Him, from the least to the greatest."
TITHING.
Unlike other religious sects professing Christianity, the Latter-day Saints do not observe the law of tithing, the ordinances of baptism, confirmation or any other sacred rite merely because the Bible records that such observances were had among the ancient saints, but for the reason that in this age of the world, God has commanded us to receive these laws and ordinances.
The law of tithing was given in the early history of God's dealings with the children of men. Abraham paid tithes to Melchisedek, according to the statement of Paul to the Hebrews. The apostle also refers to the fact that the tribe of Levi had been selected from all the sons of Israel to officiate in that order of the priesthood which has to do with the outward ordinances of tithes and sacrifice, and notwithstanding there was a higher order, of which Melchisedek was the great High Priest, those bearing the higher priesthood were not exempt from the law of tithing. (Heb. vii:4-5.)
Jacob also paid one-tenth to the Lord. (Gen. xxviii:20-22.) During the administration of Moses as the leader and lawgiver under the Almighty to Israel, tithing was enjoined as a universal law to the people of God. "And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord's; it is holy unto the Lord. And concerning the tithe of the herd, or of the flock, even of whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the Lord. He shall not search whether it be good or bad." (Lev. xxvii:30, 32, 33.) This did not require a selection of the very choicest product of the flock, the herd or the soil, neither did it justify a man in offering for his tithes the poorest or least valuable of his income. Of the flocks, each one "that passeth under the rod" was to be tithed. The custom was to pen the flocks in a corral, with a gateway too small for the passage of more than one animal at a time; and as they passed out, a man stood at the gateway with a rod in his hand, and as the tenth one of the flock went out, the man at the gate marked the animal with his rod. Thus every tenth one, whether it was good, poor or medium, was sanctified to the Lord as tithing; any disposition to offer as a tithe an inferior article was disapproved of by the Lord. In matters of sacrifice upon the altar, pointing to the sacrifice of the Great Redeemer who should be offered in the meridian of time to redeem a fallen world, Israel was positively forbidden to offer the blind, the lame or the bruised. "Ye shall offer at your own will a male without blemish, of the beeves, of the sheep, or of the goats. But whatsoever hath a blemish, that shall ye not offer; for it shall not be acceptable for you. * * * Blind, or broken, or maimed, or having a wen, or scurvy, or scabbed, ye shall not offer these unto the Lord, nor make an offering by fire of them upon the altar unto the Lord." (Lev. xxii:19, 22.)
The atonement symbolized by the sacrifices was one (the Lamb of God) free from blemish in every particular--"a pure and perfect being without spot or blemish." Not only was the offering upon the altar a reminder of the atonement as a fact, by the shedding of blood, but the character and quality of the offering must symbolize the perfect purity of the Son of God.
While tithing was not so directly pointing to the atonement, nor was it designed for that purpose, it is yet an offering to the Lord required by Him, to be used for righteous purposes and to prepare the heart of the tithe-payer to give his all to God, to consecrate all in the interest of human redemption. The Lord, in tithing, does not demand the best nor justify His people in offering that of the least value in any substance tithed. How penurious, mean and small-souled on the part of any saint it would be to offer for tithing that of the poorest value to himself, especially in the light of the fact that God is the Giver of all we enjoy, whether of a spiritual or physical nature, and in the face of His great liberality in not demanding a selection of the very best of any product which is tithed. If any man is tempted to pay the poorest calf, the poorest ton of hay, or a scabby sheep to rid himself of it, let him remember the word of the Lord to ancient Israel and the condemnation that followed when they robbed God in tithes and offerings.
These injunctions continued throughout all the history of Israel, from Moses to the Savior. Malachi says "And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil?" (Mal. i:8.) It should be considered evil to offer such for tithing in our day. When Israel turned from their observance of this law, as from all others enjoined by the Almighty, the people were reprimanded severely, and were followed by the withering hand of God's displeasure. "Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse, for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts, and all nations shall call you blessed, for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts." (Mal. iii:8-12.) Thus was the law of tithing given to Israel; thus were they to be blessed in its observance and cursed if they transgressed it. As the law was given anciently for the same purposes as in this dispensation, it would naturally agree in the blessings following its observances and the curses for its disobedience. When the Savior chastised the Pharisees for their hypocrisy, He evidently approved the law of tithing, for He said, "But woe unto you Pharisees! For ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God; these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone." (Luke: xi:42.)