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Come to Zion

Richard Smyth wrote the stirring hymn "Israel, Israel, God Is Calling," which became a rallying call to thousands who decided to flee from "lands of woe."

Israel, Israel, God is calling,
Calling thee from lands of woe.
Babylon the great is falling;
God shall all her towers o'erthrow.
Come to Zion, Come to Zion
Ere his floods of anger flow.
Come to Zion, Come to Zion
Ere his floods of anger flow.

Long before Richard Smyth put the call into such challenging words, thoughtful men were thinking similar thoughts. As the third decade of the nineteenth century began, many Americans pondered the reasons for the creation of their country that was beckoning people to come from all the world. Was this something more than just a noble political experiment? Did God actually have in mind that in the freedom of this new land, his true gospel would flourish best? Was this the "dispensation of the fulness of times" as proclaimed in the scriptures?

Among the Saints streaming into Winter Quarters in late 1846, there were many who had searched the scriptures and heard the strange whisperings. Some had pondered Joel 2:28, 30:1 "Your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth."

In upstate New York in the year 1827, there were many who searched the heavens. The northern lights had been especially visible in the northern latitude that year, and many watched them and pondered. In the little town of Mendon, New York, a young man named Heber C. Kimball witnessed a heavenly display that defied all description. He carried to his neighbor Brigham Young the news of the strange phenomenon. A few years later, Brigham shared with him a book that had been left in the neighborhood by a traveling missionary. It was called the Book of Mormon.

Before they had ever met the Prophet, who could tell them of the book's divine origin, they knew that the everlasting gospel had been restored. Together, in December 1832, with Brigham's wife, brother, and sister-in-law, they drove a sleigh over snow-capped roads to Columbia, Pennsylvania, to find the nearest branch of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and to request baptism.

To some, the call to Zion came, not in dramatic heavenly manifestations, but in quiet whisperings of the Spirit. What was the powerful whispering that caused Parley Parker Pratt, one day in 1830, to suddenly leave the canal boat in which he and his wife were traveling back to their home in eastern New York, assure her he would complete the journey later on, and then embark on a quest for truth that led him to the Prophet Joseph Smith? He found the truth and became one of the most ardent missionaries the Church has ever known.

In 1836, a knock came upon the door of Parley P. Pratt's house after he had retired for the night. The caller was Heber C. Kimball, a fellow member of the Quorum of the Twelve. Heber had come to call Parley to one of the most fruitful missions of his life. He was directed to go to the city of Toronto, Canada, and organize a branch of the Church there. He was promised that "from the things growing out of this mission shall the fullness of the gospel spread into England, and cause a great work to be done in that land."