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Comprehensive History v4 (B. Roberts)

B. H. Roberts

Copyright 1930 Deseret News Press.

Volume IV has to do with raising an Ensign on the mountains in the fulfillment of such prophecies in Isaiah as-"All ye inhabitants of the world and dwellers on the earth, see ye when he lifteth up an Ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye." Also, "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." And again, Isaiah: "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. * * * O house of Jacob come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord."

The fulfillment of these prophecies was the mission of the nucleus of modern Israel that had come to the mountains to raise a standard and send forth God's message to all Israel in the world, and to all nations of the earth. The matter was a subject of discussion along the route of the march of the Pioneer company. On the 29th of May while yet on the plains of the Platte river, President Young made mention of this as may be learned by consulting Volume III, chapter lxxxii of this History; and Wilford Woodruff in his journal entry of that date drew in the margin of his Journal a crude standard and banner representing the flags of a number of the nations, and in the script of it, furthering President Young's idea, this occurs:

"And on the standard would be a flag of every nation under heaven, so there would be an invitation to all nations to keep the celestial law. And all nations and religions would have to bow the knee to God, and acknowledge that Jesus is the Christ."

This was the significance of the reference to raising "an Ensign" on "Mount Ensign," or "Ensign Peak," overlooking the site of Salt Lake City and valley on the 26th of July, 1847. This the significance of Orson Pratt's noble discourse on the second Sunday after the arrival of the Pioneers in the valley referred to in Volume III. This the significance of converting "Ensign Peak" into a sacred "Mountain-Temple" where the summit of the mount was marked off and used as a temple for giving the sacred endowments to worthy brethren who had not received them at Nauvoo, before sending them to the islands of the Pacific upon their renewed missions to the people of those islands. From these mountain heights also, within three years of the arrival of the Pioneers, apostles were sent forth to the nations of Europe-England, France, Germany, Italy and the Scandinavian nations; to South America and the Pacific Islands; apostles with a new note in their ministry, saying: "See ye when he [God] lifteth up an Ensign on the mountains;" "Come ye, 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." And straightway in response to these new notes in the message of the apostles, the streams of emigrating Israel began flowing from those lands to the heights of the mountains of Ephraim, where God's standard of Zion was figuratively erected; where God's house was building, whence his law was going forth and to which the saints were commanded to gather.