Elder Rey L. Pratt.

(Late President of Mexican Mission.)

In speaking of the signs that should precede the second coming of our Lord, He said, "And this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world as a witness unto every nation, and then shall the end come."

My labors, for the past ten years, have been as a missionary in carrying the Gospel of the Kingdom to the Mexican nation; and I feel that in this unhappy hour for Mexico I would not be true to the trust that is imposed upon me if I did not tell you some of the things concerning that people that make them what they are. I wish to associate the unhappy conditions that exist in Mexico with the promises of the Lord made to that people when Father Lehi and his little colony left Jerusalem. The Lord made very plain the history of the Mexican people before Lehi ever set foot on this great continent of ours. Lehi said the following, and it is recorded in the first chapter of the Second Book of Nephi:

"Wherefore, I, Lehi, have obtained a promise, that inasmuch as those whom the Lord God shall bring out of the land of Jerusalem shall keep His commandments, they shall prosper upon the face of this land; and they shall be kept from all other nations, that they may possess this land unto themselves. And if it so he that they shall keep His commandments, they shall be blessed upon the face of this land, and there shall be none to molest them, nor to take away the land of their inheritance; and they shall dwell safely for ever.

'But, behold, when the time cometh that they shall dwindle in unbelief, after they have received so great blessings from the hand of the Lord; having a knowledge of the creation of the earth, and all men, knowing the great and marvelous works of the Lord from the creation of the world: having power given them to do all things by faith; having all the commandments from the beginning, and having been brought by His infinite goodness into this precious land of promise; behold, I say, if the day shall come that they will reject the Holy One of Israel, the true Messiah, their Redeemer and their God, behold the judgments of Him that is just shall rest upon them;

"Yea, He will bring other nations unto them, and He will give unto them power, and He will take away from them the lands of their possessions; and He will cause them to be scattered and smitten."

Now, my brethren and sisters, as students of the Book of Mormon and history of that people who are descendants of Lehi, we know that they have not kept sacred the covenants that men make when they enter into covenant with God in the Gospel of His Son Jesus Christ, and we know that no sooner did that colony set foot on this land than there was a factional division, and they became two great peoples, the Nephites and the Lamanites, and that, at times, the Nephite faction was obedient to the commandments of the Lord and the Gospel as given to them, and, at rare intervals, so were the Lamanites. But there came a time when all apostatized, and when all came under the condemnation herein spoken of, and the Lord caused the Nephite faction to be utterly destroyed at the hands of their brethren, the Lamanites, and the Lamanites went forth upon the face of the land in scattered bands, warring among themselves, as they had overcome their hereditary enemy, the Nephites, and having in their blood the spirit of war and strife they satisfied it by fighting one with another.

But the time came when the promises of the Lord were fulfilled in behalf of this people. In the year 1519, a little band of Span-lards, only a few, about 600, under the leadership of Hernan Cortez, set foot upon the shores of Mexico, and that man and his followers over-came a nation of 30,000,000 of people. It is a pitiful history to read, how they were "scattered and smitten," and how every inch of the land of their inheritance, that they had received of the Lord, was taken away from them. Now, brethren and sisters, we have in this the basic cause of all the strife that has existed in the land of Mexico for 400 years in that that stricken people have bowed their heads under the tyrannical rule of the Spanish people who came in among them. From a nation of 30,000,000, they have been reduced until today they are scarce 15,000,000. And the best statistics given out on the matter. state that of the 15,000,000 of inhabitants in the land of Mexico, only 2,000,000 are property holders. The others have nothing but their poverty and degradation, and we have in that the cause for the present strife.

Now, I wish to associate the strife in Mexico also with the promises of the Lord, for if we do not have the promises of the Lord to comfort us in these things, I fear, brothers and sisters, that my faith would not be sufficiently strong to enable me to go forth and continue to preach the Gospel unto that people, as I love to do and always shall, as long as the servant of the Lord asks me to continue my labors in their behalf.

It seems that if their decrease should continue very long, as it has been going on, they would be utterly wiped off the continent: and the history of the Mexican people is only a counterpart of the history of the Indian races that inhabit North and South America, for they have indeed been reduced to a remnant, they have become scattered and smitten: and I defy anybody to point to me a tribe of the aborigines of this country that owns legitimately any of their own country in their tribal condition as they owned it primitively. It has been absolutely taken away from them by the nations that the Lord permitted to come in, and that in fulfillment of His words to them should they disobey the Gospel of His Son that should be given them. But thanks to the Lord, we know that they are His covenant people. We know that in their veins, flows the blood of Israel, and God has made promise not only of their bringing down, but of their coming up; and in that, we get faith and inspiration to go on and preach to them the Gospel, for their redemption; for the Lord said this to Nephi, when He had shown him the same things that He had shown to his father, Lehi:

Now, brethren and sisters, in this we see that the Lord has not destined that this people should be utterly destroyed from off the face of the land. And I wish to call the youth of Israel to prepare themselves for the mighty work that lies before us, for the Lord said, "This Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached as a witness unto all nations, and unto every people before the end shall come," and we have lying before us, the millions of Mexico who know nothing of the Gospel, we have the millions of Central America, and the millions of South America. They are absolutely ignorant of the great plan of salvation that has been restored for the redemption of all people in the age in which we live.

"And now, I would prophesy somewhat more concerning the Jews and the Gentiles. For after the book of which I have spoken shall come forth, and be written unto the Gentiles, and sealed up again unto the Lord, there shall be many which shall believe the words which are written; and they shall carry them forth unto the remnant of our seed.

"And then shall the remnant of our seed know concerning us, how that we came out from Jerusalem, and that they are descendants of the Jews.

"And the Gospel of Jesus Christ shall be declared among them; wherefore, they shall be restored unto the knowledge of their fathers, and also to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, which was had among their fathers.

"And then shall they rejoice; for they shall know that it is a blessing unto them from the hand of God: and their scales of darkness shall begin to fall from their eyes; and many generations shall not pass away among them, save they shall be a white and delightsome people."

Brethren and sisters, do we, as a people, believe in the words of the book that has been written? I testify unto you that the Book of Mormon came forth in the world by the power and inspiration of God Almighty, and we have it as a new witness for Him in the world; and in that book we find the testimony that we among the gentiles who should receive that book and believe in the words of it, should carry it back again to the remnant of those people--and they are the Mexicans, the Central Americans, the South Americans, and the Indian remnants, that cover our own dear land here. God is no respecter of persons, but of whatever nation, he that will serve Him and work righteousness is accepted of Him. What we want is to teach the Gospel in simplicity unto that people, as unto every other people, that they may find in the Gospel, in very deed, the power of God, that will lift them out of their degraded condition, that it may be unto them the power of God unto their salvation.

We are opening up work among the Mexican people in the United States, and it may be a revelation to some of you to know that down in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, California, and Texas, there are hundreds of thousands of people of Mexican blood, that are citizens of the United States, and they are only waiting for someone to open the doors of the Gospel to them. And the crying need today is for elders who are willing to sacrifice their own desires, and to humble themselves before the Lord and carry in humility the word of the Lord back to that people.

I am thankful for the integrity of our missionary boys that go out, but I am sorry that there is a feeling among some few, when they enter the field, of disappointment, and they feel that there is nothing coming back to them, and they ask the question, "What good will this all be to me?" Brethren and sisters, that is a false conception of the spirit of missionary work: the spirit of our missionary work should be, What good can I be to my fellowmen, what good can I be to God's children, and to sacrifice our own desires, our own ambitions and wishes to the betterment of those who sit in darkness.

May the Lord help us to perform well our missions in the world, and extend the light of the Gospel unto all men, for God Himself is no respecter of persons, and we should not be. I maintain that this Gospel of ours is destined sometime to wipe out racial feelings and to bring to us a universal brotherhood of man.

God bless us to appreciate our blessings, I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.