Elder Orson F. Whitney.

Past, present and future--The Missouri troubles and events that followed transmission--Prophecies concerning Zion and her stakes--Joseph Smith and the exodus--Anson Call's Statement--What Brigham Young beheld--"Mormonism's" monument.

"Look not mournfully into the past; wisely improve the present, and go forth to meet the future with a manly heart." So says the poet Longfellow.

I am convinced of the uselessness of dreaming too much upon the past, or of speculating too much about the future. I regard the duty of the present hour as paramount. The present is the outcome of the past; and it is the great hook upon which the future hangs. Its importance is not to be undervalued. Nevertheless, I believe it is sometimes a good thing to reflect upon the past, which is as a guide book to the present and future; to read the history of God's people, to ponder upon the predictions of His servants and their recorded hopes and expectations concerning things to come. And in this spirit I wish to draw the minds of the congregation toward a revelation given through Joseph the Seer in the month of December, 1833, just after the expulsion of our people from Jackson County, Missouri. Therein the Lord says:

"Verily. I say unto you concerning your brethren who have been afflicted and persecuted and cast out from the land of their inheritance,

"I, the Lord, have suffered the affliction to come upon them wherewith they have been afflicted, in consequence of their transgressions;

"Yet I will own them and they shall he mine in that day when I shall come to make up my jewels.

"Behold, I say unto you, there were jarrings and contentions and envyings and strifes and lustful and coveteous desires among them; therefore by these things they polluted their inheritances.

"They were slow to hearken unto the voice of the Lord their God, therefore the Lord their God is slow to hearken unto their prayers, to answer them in the day of their trouble. * * *

"Verily I say unto you, notwithstanding their sins, my bowels are filled with compassion towards them: I will not utterly cast them off; and in the day of wrath I will remember mercy.

"I have sworn, and the decree hath gone forth by a former commandment which I have given unto you, that I would let fall the sword of mine indignation in behalf of my people; and even as I have said, it shall come to pass.

"Mine indignation is soon to be poured out without measure upon all nations, and this will I do when the cup of their iniquity is full.

"And in that day all who are found upon the watch tower, or in other words, all mine Israel shall be saved.

"Therefore, let your hearts be comforted concerning Zion; for all flesh is in mine hands: be still and know that I am God.

"Zion shall not he moved out of her place, notwithstanding her children are scattered; "They that remain, and are pure in heart, shall return, and come to their inheritances, they and their children, with songs of everlasting joy, to build up the waste places of Zion."

"I have other places which I will appoint unto them, and they shall be called Stakes, for the curtains or the strength of Zion."

Several very important facts are here presented for the consideration of God's people. In the first place, they are reminded of the great object: for which this Latter-day work was instituted, namely, the building up of Zion, preparatory to the glorious coming of the Lord. Prior to that expulsion, the place for the city, New Jerusalem, unto which a people will gather, to make the preparation that is absolutely essential before the Lord will come--the very place for the city had been designated, and from this revelation we learn why those who had been sent to Jackson County to build up Zion were not permitted to accomplish the work at that time. Inferentially--nay, directly, we are told what kind of a people will be permitted to do that work, namely, "the pure in heart," for that is the meaning of Zion, according to the word of the Lord. A prophecy is contained in this revelation: The colony driven from that land in 1833, or their descendants, joined with Zion's other children, or a people gathered out from among them, a pure-hearted people, are eventually to return and build up the waste places of Zion. In the meantime Other places, called Stakes of Zion, likewise appointed of God, are to be inhabited by the Latter-day Saints.

How wonderfully the history of our people has fulfilled, thus far, that great prediction. How can we doubt that the God of Israel, who has made good His word in so many respects, will keep His promise as to the greater fulfillment? There is no room for doubt in my heart, nor in yours, as I believe, brethren and sisters, concerning these things.

A few years after this revelation was given, the Church of Christ, the Latter-day Saints, were once more on the move. They emigrated from Northern Ohio, where they then had their headquarters, to Western Missouri--not to Jackson County, from which part a portion of the community had been driven, but to Caldwell, Davis, and other counties, where Stakes of Zion were organized or projected. There the Saints gathered to the number of about fifteen thousand. But a repetition of the troubles that had driven the colony from Jackson County, caused the cruel expulsion of the entire body from the State of Missouri, in 1838-1839.

Four years later, or thereabout, the Prophet Joseph Smith voiced a great prediction which you and I are now helping to fulfill; a prediction fulfilled in part by our parents and grandparents who came to the Rocky Mountains to build up these Stakes of Zion. I will read to you just what the Prophet said on that occasion. At Nauvoo, Illinois, under date of the 6th of August, 1842, he made this entry in his journal:

"Passed over the river to Montrose, Iowa, in company with General Adams, Colonel Brewer and others, and witnessed the installation of the officers of the Rising Sun Lodge, Ancient York Masons, at Montrose, by General James Adams, Deputy Grand Master of Illinois. While the Deputy Grand Master was engaged in giving the requisite instructions to the Master-elect, I had a conversation with a number of brethren in the shade of the building on the subject of our persecutions in Missouri and the constant annoyance which has followed us since we were driven from that State. I prophesied that the Saints would continue to suffer much affliction, and would be driven to the Rocky Mountains, many would apostatize, others would be put to death by our persecutors or lose their lives in consequence of exposure or disease, and some of you will live to go and assist in making settlements and build cities and see the Saints become a mighty people in the midst of the Rocky Mountains."

One of the men who was present on that occasion and heard this prophecy, has left a statement concerning it which I will also read. That man was Anson Call. He lived to come to the Rocky Mountains and assist in fulfilling the Prophet's prediction. He was the pioneer of Millard County; he with others founded Fillmore, the original capital of the Territory of Utah. Afterwards he established Call's Landing on the Colorado River, there being a project at that time to bring immigrants and freight up the river to a certain point, and thence convey them northward into Utah--a project that would have succeeded but for the construction of the transcontinental railroad. Anson Call was subsequently a prominent figure in Davis County, where many of his descendants still dwell. He was a man of sterling worth, truthful, and reliable, and here is the statement that he authorized concerning Joseph Smith's prediction:

"A block schoolhouse had been prepared with shade in front, under which was a barrel of ice water. Judge Adams, the highest Masonic authority in the State of Illinois, had been sent there to organize this lodge. He, Hyrum Smith and J. C. Bennett, being high Masons, went into the house to perform some ceremonies which the others were not entitled to witness. These, including Joseph Smith, remained under the bowery. Joseph as he was tasting the cold water, warned the brethren not to be too free with it. With the tumbler still in his hand, he prophesied that the Saints would yet go to the Rocky Mountains, and said he, 'This water tastes much like that of the crystal streams that are running from the snow-capped mountains. I had before seen him in a vision, and now saw, while he was talking, his countenance change to white, not the deadly white of a bloodless face, but a living, brilliant white. He seemed absorbed in gazing upon something at a great distance and said, "I am gazing upon the valleys of those mountains.'

"It is impossible," continues Anson Call, "to represent in words this scene which is still vivid in my mind, the grandeur of Joseph's appearance, his beautiful descriptions of this land, and his wonderful prophetic utterances as they emanated from the glorious inspirations that overshadowed him. There was a force and power in his exclamations, of which the following is but a faint echo: "Oh, the beauty of those snow-capped mountains! The cool, refreshing streams that are running down through those mountain gorges!' Then, gazing in another direction, as if there was a change of locality, 'Oh, the scenes that this people will pass through, the dead that will lie between here and there!' Then, turning in another direction, as if the scene had again changed, 'Oh, the apostasy that will take place before my brethren reach that land! But,' he continued, 'the priesthood shall prevail over its enemies, triumph over the devil, and be established upon the earth, never more to be thrown down!'"

Joseph Smith, when he uttered this prophecy, when he beheld this vision, was standing upon the banks of the Mississippi River, fifteen hundred miles from where we now are. Yet he saw the Rocky Mountains, and the crystal streams flowing from yonder canyons, and I doubt not that if he had led his people to this land, as he once purposed doing, he would have recognized it as a familiar scene, having beheld it in vision, by the seeric gift, before he saw it with the natural eye. But the Prophet was not destined to fulfill his own prediction; his martyrdom prevented; and the Lord raised up another mighty man to carry out the project, to become the founder of Utah, and the redeemer of the Great American Desert.

Erastus Snow, one of the Utah pioneers, declared from this stand, in July, 1880, that Brigham Young beheld Salt Lake Valley while crossing the plains in the spring or early summer of 1847--beheld it in vision, and so vividly that when his eye, his natural eye, rested upon it, he could say with assurance: "This is the place." General Grant's famous phrase, "Let us have peace," is scarcely more noted now than Brigham Young's historic utterance, "This is the place." I notice that the "Gentiles" are beginning to use it to advertise this beautiful valley, which the great Pioneer saw peopled and inhabited while it was yet a barren waste--saw it filled with towns and villages--yes, saw it as one great city; great city; and his prophetic vision concerning if has been ratified by the practical judgment of one of the biggest railroad men that this country has produced--the lamented E. H. Harriman, who expressed the conviction that Salt Lake City was destined to be one of the four greatest American cities. The point I wish to press home is this, that Brigham Young beheld it in vision, by the gift of seership, just as Joseph Smith had beheld it previously. According to Erastus Snow, President Young saw a tent settling down from heaven over this very spot, and heard a voice from above proclaiming: "This is the place where my people Israel shall pitch their tents."

What availed it, after that, for men to come from the Coast, as did Samuel Brannan and others, and try to persuade President Young to pass by this then forbidding spot, and establish his colony on the fertile slopes of the Pacific? Brigham Young knew what was best for God's people. He had the word of the Prophet, that the Latter-day Saints would become mighty, not in California, not in Mexico, not in Canada, nor in the islands of the sea (though there might be stakes of Zion there), but "in the midst of the Rocky Mountains." That was Joseph Smith's prediction. Brigham Young would not go past that prophecy, and to confirm his judgment and his reverence for the word of God, he had a vision showing him that this was indeed the place that the Lord had selected for His people. Colonel Bridger could not dissuade him from settling here; Samuel Brannan could not; and after the Pioneers had entered the Valley, and while they were organizing parties to explore the surrounding country, their leader said to them: "Brethren, you can go north, south, east and west, and you will find many eligible sites for settlements, but you will come back and say with me that this is the place for our chief city." Driving his cane into the soil upon the very spot where now stands the Salt Lake Temple, he exclaimed: "Here we will build the city and temple of our God."

Brigham Young was Joseph Smith's executor. The Prophet had beheld these scenes and foretold these happenings. God had spoken to him concerning them. And we of today are participating in the fulfillment of his wonderful prophecy. We are building upon the foundation that he laid. President Young built upon it, the Latter-day Saints have built upon it, and are still fulfilling his inspired words concerning this western land.

But will our mission end here? Is the State of Utah the proper monument of the "Mormon" people? No. Utah, symbolized by her State Capitol, the noble structure crowning yonder hill, is the monument of the composite people of this commonwealth. The State of Utah is not big enough to be the monument of the "Mormon" people. It represents only a part of their work, and a preliminary part at that, The monument to "Mormonism" will stand in Jackson County, Missouri. There the great City will be built: there Zion will arise and shine, "the joy of the whole earth," and there the Lord will come to His Temple in His own time, when His people shall have made the required preparation.

Meanwhile, what are we doing? We are establishing Stakes of Zion, and getting ready to build the Zion of the future. We are here only long enough to become strong enough to fulfill our greater destiny. The same Prophet who foretold the mightiness of the Saints in the midst of these mountains, declared that the much maligned, misunderstood Mormon" people would yet be the saviors of their country, would stand with their feet firm upon the rocky ramparts of liberty, holding aloft the Flag and the Constitution at a time when traitors and anarchists would fain trample them in the mire. They would call to their aid lovers of law and order from every part of the Nation and from every corner of the world, and would stand for freedom and equal rights, for justice and mercy and peace, when all the world around them would be at war, one nation with another, and every man against his neighbor. They would protect and maintain the sacred, God-inspired principles upon which the American Government is founded, and in due time would go down in the might of the God of Israel and sweep the land free from anarchy and evil in all its forms.

Zion, the great monument yet to be reared, will stand in the proper place, upon the goodly land pointed out by the finger of God and consecrated for that purpose. No other place has been appointed for the New Jerusalem. The "Gentiles" used to say in derision that whenever the "Mormons" were driven from one Zion they had a revelation that Zion was to be somewhere else. This was intended to be funny, I suppose, though the theme is somewhat tragic. The "joke" would have more point if there was a grain of truth in it. It is sheer fiction. I have already refuted it by reading the word of the Lord: "Zion shall not be moved out of her place, notwithstanding her children are scattered." Teach these things to your sons and daughters. Tell them why their ancestors came to this land. It was for something more than to redeem a desert, and found a State. They came here to prepare themselves for a far greater work, and the lion is only crouching before he springs. God bless you. Amen.

Sister Romania Hyde rendered a violin solo, with organ accompaniment by Prof. John J. McClellan.