Moses and Aaron.
Joseph in Egypt.—In the whole range of Bible literature, if we except what is told of the Redeemer and Savior, there is nothing more beautiful than the story of Joseph in Egypt. Joseph the dreamer, sold into slavery, exalted to a throne, and becoming, by God's design, a savior to his father's house. Who cannot see in this a prophetic likeness of the universal redemption wrought out by Him who descended below all, that He might rise above all, and deliver the souls of men from spiritual famine and starvation?
The Exodus.—Another foretokening of the same sublime event was Israel's exodus from Egypt, after centuries of oppression. Egypt, with its dusky population, devoid of priesthood and of gospel light, symbolized the sable bondage of sin and death. Moses, leader of the Exodus, and reputedly "the meekest of men,"[1]was a type of the Great Deliverer, "like unto Moses," who led an enslaved universe out from the Egypt of Darkness into the Promised Land of Freedom and Light.
The Passover.—In commemoration of the Egyptian exodus, the Feast of the Passover was instituted, an observance designed to perpetuate, in the minds of the children of Israel, their liberation from slavery, and at the same time prepare them to comprehend in due time, the mightier Redemption thus foreshadowed.
The Passover was kept as follows: Obedient to God's command through Moses, each Israelitish household, on the eve of the departure out of Egypt, took a lamb, spotless and "without blemish," and slew it, sprinking its blood upon the posts and lintels of their doors. It was promised that the Angel of Death, sent to afflict the cruel nation for its mistreatment of the Lord's people, should, while slaying the first-born of every Egyptian family, pass over every Hebrew dwelling upon which the symbolic blood was found sprinkled in accordance with the divine command. Not a bone of the lamb was to be broken, nor a fragment of it left to decay; for it symbolized the Lamb of God, the Holy One, whose body was not to see corruption.[2]Neither was any bone of Him to be broken.
In the Paschal Feast the body of the lamb was spitted (transfixt) upon two pieces of wood placed cross-wise, indicating prophetically the manner of the Savior's death. The flesh was then roasted and partaken of with bitter herbs and unleavened bread—flour and water hastily mixed; the herbs typifying the bitterness of the bondage that was about to end, also the bitterness of death; and the hastily prepared meal the hurry of departure.[3]To further emphasize the idea of haste, the members of each Hebrew household, while partaking of the feast, were to be clad as if for a journey. This solemn ceremonial was observed in Israel until the coming of Christ, who fulfilled in his own person and experience the poetic-prophetic symbolism.
The Ten Commandments.—
Sacred Patterns.—The children of Israel, after their miraculous passage of the Red Sea, encamped at the foot of Mount Sinai. There God gave to Moses the tables of stone containing the Ten Commandments, also the pattern of the Ark or Sanctuary, the symbol of the covenant that Jehovah had made with his people. He likewise gave the pattern of the Tabernacle or holy tent where the Ark was to be deposited, where the priest would offer sacrifices and make atonement for the sins of the nation, and where the Lord would communicate by angels or by Urim and Thummim with the men chosen to represent Him in that sacred capacity.
The Priesthood Organized.—Moses was of the Tribe of Levi, and son-in-law to Jethro the Midianite. The Midianites were descended from Midian, the fourth son of Abraham by his wife Keturah.[4]It was from Jethro that Moses received the Melchizedek Priesthood.[5]Thus qualified, the Israelite leader organized, by divine direction, the Lesser Priesthood, with his brother Aaron at its head.[6]Aaron's sons, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazer and Ithamar, were associated with him in the priest's office.[7]
Idolatry and Expiation.—Just prior to their setting apart as priests, and while Moses, with faithful Joshua, was up in the Mount, receiving the Law and the Testimony, Israel lapsed temporarily into idolatry. In the golden calf, which they persuaded Aaron to make for them, they worshiped the Egyptian god Apis, or, as Dr. Geikie suggests, the ox-headed god of the Asiatics. This sin demanded and received prompt punishment. By command of Moses, the tribe of Levi—every man of which responded to his loyal appeal, "Who's on the Lord's side?"—slew with the sword three thousand males among the idolaters. The stern expiation complete, the work of organization proceeded.
The Levites—As an act coordinate with the destruction of Egypt's first-born, the Lord had chosen the first-born males of all the families of Israel, and had set them apart for a special purpose. He now took the tribe of Levi, instead, and made of them the sacerdotal class of the nation; a reward, no doubt, for the zeal they had displayed in wiping out the stain of idolatry from Israel. The laws of Moses were then promulged and codified, and the sublime system of heaven-revealed religion was set in motion.
A Nation on the March.—All being ready for the great march Zionward, the Camp of Israel struck its tents, and, guided by the Cloud and Pillar of Fire, moved majestically through the Sinaitic desert toward the Wilderness of Paran. The descendants of Jacob numbered at that time nearly three million souls, including an army of half a million. They were divided into four camps of three tribes each, exclusive of the Levites; Joseph being twice numbered in Ephraim and Manasseh, thus making up for the absence of the sacred class from the tribal count.
Foremost rose aloft the lion standard of Judah, the future kingly power, out of which was to come the Savior-King of Israel. Then followed the tribes and armies of Issachar and Zebulon, and after them the sons of Gershon and Merari (first and third sons of Levi), bearing the components of the Tabernacle, which it was their duty to set up and take down, as the Camp rested or resumed its journey. The standard of Reuben was next advanced, and immediately in his rear marched Simeon and Gad. The Ark then appeared, borne in the very center of the moving host on the shoulders of the sons of Kohath. Ephraim and Manasseh followed; then Benjamin; the tribes of Dan, Ashur and Naphtali bringing up the rear.
The Camp at Rest.—When the Cloud rested, indicating their stopping place, the tents were set surrounding the Tabernacle of the Congregation; the Levites encompassing it immediately about, to prevent the unsanctified from approaching too near, and purposely or inadvertently defiling it—an offense punishable by death. When the Ark set forward, Moses exclaimed: "Rise up, O Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered!" When it rested, he said: "Return, O Lord, unto the many thousands of Israel!"
A Period of Preparation.—The Chosen People no doubt cherished the hope of an early conquest of Canaan, the land which God had given to their forefathers; a land inhabited at the time of the Exodus by various tribes alien to Jehovah and unfriendly to Israel. It was a case of hope deferred. Had the Lord's people been ready, the carrying out of the program of conquest and occupation would not have been delayed. But they were not ready, and the event was therefore postponed. There had to be a season of waiting, a period of preparation. Forty years were to elapse before that migrant host, disciplined by inspired leaders under strict and wholesome laws, would be in a state of preparedness to thrust in the sickle and reap the glorious harvest springing from the divine promises of the past.
The Greater Priesthood Taken.—So long as Moses lived, both the Melchizedek and the Aaronic priesthoods were present and operative in Israel. But with the passing of the great leader, went likewise the authority of the higher priesthood, without which "the power of godliness is not manifest to men in the flesh." Nay, without it "no man can see the face of God, even the Father, and live."[8]Moses had taught this to his people, seeking diligently to sanctify them that they might behold God face to face. "But they hardened their hearts, and could not endure His presence. Therefore He took Moses out of their midst, and the Holy Priesthood also."[9]
John the Baptist.—The Lesser Priesthood, with the law of carnal commandments, continued "with the house of Aaron among the children of Israel" until John the Baptist, in the Meridian of Time, came to "make straight the way of the Lord."[10]This same John the Baptist, as an angel of God, came also in the Fulness of Times, restoring the Aaronic Priesthood, as a forerunner to the Priesthood of Melchizedek, that there might be a preparation for the second appearing of the Savior.[11]
An Acceptable Offering.—Moses represents the Melchizedek Priesthood; Aaron the Aaronic; and "whose is faithful unto the obtaining of these two priesthoods . . . . and the magnifying of their calling, are sanctified by the Spirit unto the renewing of their bodies. They become the sons of Moses and of Aaron, and the seed of Abraham, and the church and kingdom and the elect of God."[12]Moses and Aaron were sons of Levi, and their sons are to offer "an acceptable offering and sacrifice in the House of the Lord," which shall be built "upon the consecrated spot" "in this generation." Such is the divine promise.
1. Numbers 12:3.
2. Psalms 16:10.
3. The observance thus described suggests Latter-day conditions, when, like the plagues sent upon Egypt, terrible judgments are to be poured out upon the wicked, so suddenly and so overwhelmingly that even "the righteous will scarcely escape," and when the Lord, in order to save some, will "cut short his work in righteousness."
4. Gen. 25:1, 2; 1 Chr. 1:32 1 Chr. 1:32.
5. D. and C. 84:6.
6. Ex. 28:1-3.
7. Aaron, Nadab and Abihu were probably Elders acting as Priests. Such an inference is warranted by the fact that they, with Moses and seventy of the Elders of Israel, "saw the God of Israel" (Ex. 24:9, 10); which they could not have done with safety had they held only the Aaronic Priesthood (D. and C. 84:22).
8. D. and C. 84:19-22.
9. Ib., vv. 23-25.
10. Ib. 84:26-28.
11. Ib. 13.
12. Ib. 84:31-34.
To the Ends of the Earth.
Calamity's Compensations.—The compensations of calamity are apparent in some of the mightiest events that history chronicles. The Fall of Man, though it brought death into the world, proved the means of peopling a planet in accordance with the Creator's design. The Crucifixion of Christ, an overwhelming calamity to His terror-stricken disciples, who were disconsolate until they looked upon the tragedy in its true light, made effectual the predestined plan for man's salvation. The Dispersion of Israel, that heavy stroke and burden of affliction under which God's people have groaned for ages, has been overruled to subserve the divine purpose, fulfilling in part the ancient promise to the Hebrew Patriarchs, that in their seed should all the nations of the earth be blessed.
A Martyred Nation.—The history of the house of Israel is the history of a martyred nation, suffering for the welfare of other nations—whatever may be said of the immediate cause of their woes, the transgressions that justified the Shepherd in bringing upon his sheep troubles that were doubtless among the "offenses" that "must needs come." Adam fell that man might be; Christ died to burst the bands of death; and the chosen people were scattered over the world, in order that Gospel truth, following the red track of their martyrdom, might make its way more readily among the peoples with whom they were mingled.
Moses Predicts the Dispersion.—Prophecies of Israel's dispersion were made as early as the time of Moses, fifteen hundred years before the advent of the Savior. When the Twelve Tribes were about to possess themselves of the Promised Land, their great leader, who was soon to depart, told them that so long as they served Jehovah and honored his statutes, they should be prospered and remain an independent nation. But if they forsook Jehovah and served other gods, He would scatter them among all people, from one end of the earth even unto the other.[1]
A House Divided.—Joshua, succeeding Moses, conquered the land of Canaan and apportioned it among the Tribes of Israel. A season of prosperity and power was followed by decadence and ruin. As early as the days of the Judges the people began to depart from God and to invite by rebellious conduct the national calamity that had been predicted. The glory of the reigns of David and Solomon being past, the curse, long suspended, fell, and the Israelitish Empire hastened to decay. The tribes in the northern part of the land revolted and set up the Kingdom of Israel, distinct from the Kingdom of Judah, over which Solomon's son Rehoboam continued to reign. The tribe of Benjamin and the half tribe of Manasseh adhered to Judah.
Ahijah, Amos and Hosea.—Jeroboam, King of Israel, made idolatry the state religion. During his reign the dispersion was again predicted, Ahijah the prophet thus voicing the word of the Lord to his disobedient people: "The Lord shall smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water, and he shall root up Israel out of this good land, which he gave to their fathers, and shall scatter them beyond the river."[2]Another prophet who foretold the same disaster was Hosea;[3]still another, Amos, who declared that Israel should "surely go into captivity" and be "sifted among all nations."[4]Hosea's prophecy substitutes past for future, thus: "Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people," referring to the event in prospect as if it had already taken place. Possibly a prophetic vision—then past—had apprised this seer of what was coming, or it may have been only a figure of rhetoric, common even at the present day.
"The Wolf on the Fold."—About the year 725 B. C. these prophecies began to have their fulfillment. The Assyrians came against the Kingdom of Israel and commenced the work of its destruction. In a series of deportations they carried away the Ten Tribes—nine and a half, to be exact—and, as customary with conquerors in those days, supplied their places with colonists from other parts.
The Lost Tribes.—Concerning the deported—the famous "Lost Tribes"—very little is now known. Josephus, the Jewish historian, who wrote during the first century after Christ, states that they were then beyond the Euphrates; and Esdras, in the Apocrypha, declares that they went a journey of a year and a half into "the north country."
Scandinavian Cairns.—Missionaries returning from Scandinavia tell of rude monuments—cairns of piles of stones—yet to be seen in that northern region, and concerning which tradition asserts that they were erected many centuries ago by a migrating people. Whether or not these were the tribes of the Assyrian captivity, it is interesting to reflect that the rearing of such monuments, in commemoration of notable events, was an Israelitish custom, particularly as to the migratory movements of the nation. The miraculous passage of the Jordan by Joshua and the host led by him into the land of Canaan, was thus commemorated.[5]
Other Ancient Remains.—If it be objected that monuments built seven centuries before Christ's birth could not have lasted down to this day, it will be in order for the objector to explain the existence of the perfectly preserved monuments of Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, and other ancient empires, whose remains have been uncovered by modern archaeological enterprise. Such a theory need not stagger the faith of a Latter-day Saint, when he recalls that the ruins of Adam's altar are still to be seen in that part of the Old-New World now known as the State of Missouri, where they were identified by Joseph the Seer in 1838.
From the North Country.—At all events, it is from "the north country" that the lost tribes are to return, according to ancient and modern prophecy.[6]It is also a fact that from Scandinavia and other nations of Northern Europe, has come much of the blood of Ephraim, now to be found within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Isaiah and Jeremiah—The Babylonian Captivity—Returning to the Kingdom of Israel. The prophecies concerning it were supplemented by other predictions foretelling the fate of the Kingdom of Judah. Those great prophets, Isaiah and Jeremiah, figured during this period, and both portrayed in fervid eloquence, unparalleled for pathos and sublimity, the impending doom of the Jewish nation. Their government was destroyed, and they were carried into captivity by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar, B. C. 588.
Lehi and His Colony.—Just prior to that catastrophe, and while the Prophet Jeremiah was delivering his fateful message to king, princes, priests and people, Lehi and his companions, ancestors of the Nephites and Lamanites,[7]warned of God, left Jerusalem and crossed over to this land—America—which, by them and by Mulek's company that came later, was thus peopled with descendants of Joseph and of Judah, both represented, though in a degenerate state, by the savage red men whom Columbus, in A. D. 1492, discovered and named Indians.[8]
Jerusalem Rebuilt—Ezekiel and Zechariah.—The Babylonian captivity lasted for seventy years. At the expiration of that period, some of the Jews, under the permissive edict of Cyrus the Great, who had conquered Babylon, returned and rebuilt their City and Temple. These, however, were only a remnant, numbering fifty thousand, led by Zerubbabel and Joshua. The bulk of the nation remained in a scattered condition. The Jews who rebuilt Jerusalem were those to whose descendants the Christ came, and predicted, after their rejection of him, that their "House" should be "left unto them desolate."[9]Meanwhile Ezekiel and Zechariah—the former in exile among the Babylonians, the latter at Jerusalem after the restoration—had added their predictions to those already uttered relating to Israel's dispersion.
The Roman Conquest.—Centuries later, in Apostolic times, went forth the Epistle of James, with its greeting: "To the Twelve Tribes which are scattered abroad." But the dispersion, even then, was not complete. There were yet to be other painful experiences of the same kind. One of the most notable occurred in A. D. 70, when Titus the Roman came against Jerusalem, captured the city, and sold the inhabitants—such as had survived the horrors of the siege—into slavery, or scattered them through different parts of the Empire. To follow the fortunes of this branch of the fated nation in all its subsequent migrations and wanderings, would fill volumes.
What of the Benefits?—Let us now consider the question: In what way did these calamities upon Israel prove a blessing to the human race? How, by the scattering of the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, was God's promise to those patriarchs in any degree fulfilled, that in their seed should all the nations of the earth be blessed? Already I have answered these questions in part, and will now answer them more fully.
The Blood That Believes.—Through these acts of deportation, enforced exile, and voluntary wandering, the blood of Israel, the blood that believes, with choice spirits answering to that blood, and no doubt selected for the purpose, were sent into those nations where the Gospel has since been preached—spirits capable of recognizing and appreciating the Truth, and brave enough to embrace it, regardless of consequences; thus setting an example of heroism, of obedience to the dictates of conscience, that would naturally appeal to the noble and upright surrounding them, and influence them in the same direction. Manifestly, that was of far greater consequence than the carrying by the captive Israelites of their laws, traditions and customs into those nations; though this also would help to prepare the way for the wonderful developments that were to follow.
Rapid Spread of Christianity.—And such things told in after years. One of the marvels of history is the rapid spread of Christianity in the days of the Apostles, who, unlettered as most of them were, and in the midst of the fiercest persecution, planted the Gospel standard in all the principal cities of the Roman Empire. From Jerusalem, the tidings of "Christ and him crucified" radiated to Britain on the west, to India on the east, to Scythia on the north, and to Ethiopia on the south—all within the short space of fifty years.[10]
Many Nations Sprinkled.—How could such things be, if Divine Providence had not prepared the way by sending the blood and genius of Israel into all nations, prior to pouring out upon those nations the Spirit of the Gospel and the Gathering? Others before Abraham had shown their faith by their works; but this does not disprove his claim to the title—"Father of the Faithful." Nor does it prove that the blood of faith, wherever found, is not his blood. The Moabite maiden Ruth, ancestor of Jesus of Nazareth; the Roman centurion, whose faith caused even the Savior to marvel; Cornelius and the Woman of Canaan—these were not of Israel, by recognized earthly descent; yet their spirits were well worthy of such a lineage, and in their veins was the believing blood with which God has "sprinkled many nations."
1. Deut. 28:64.
2. I Kings 14:15.
3. Hos. 7:8.
4. Amos 7:11; 9:9.
5. Joshua 4:1-9.
6. Jer. 31:8; D. and C. 110:11; 133:26.
7. See Article Five.
8. Mark the features of the American Indian. Are they not Jewish? Quite as strikingly so, as that many of his traditions and customs are Israelitish. Who than the savage Lamanite, better understands the Mosaic law of retaliation—"an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth?" Nor cares he to whom the eye or the tooth belongs, whether to the person who injured him, or to one of the latter's tribe or nation. He is too much of an Israelite to object to proxies and substitutes.
9. Matt. 23:37, 38.
10. Dean Farrar, in his "Life and Work of St. Paul," contributes this luminous passage as explanatory of the rapid spread of Christianity:
"(I) The immense field covered by the conquests of Alexander gave to the civilized world a unity of language, without which it would have been, humanly speaking, impossible for the earliest preachers to have made known the good tidings in every land which they traversed. (II) The rise of the Roman Empire created a political unity which reflected in every direction the doctrines of the new faith. (III) The dispersion of the Jews prepared vast multitudes of Greeks and Romans for the unity of a pure morality and a monotheistic faith. The Gospel emanated from the capital of Judea; it was preached in the tongue of Athens; it was diffused through the empire of Rome; the feet of its earliest missionaries traversed the solid structure of undeviating roads by which the Roman legionaries—'those massive hammers of the whole earth'—had made straight in the desert a highway for our God. Semite and Aryan had been unconscious instruments in the hands of God for the spread of a religion which, in its first beginnings, both alike detested and despised."
A similar marvel is the spread of the restored Gospel through the Gentile nations of modern times, a work yet in its infancy. The proselyting success of the Latter-day Saints on both hemispheres, their great pilgrimage from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains, the redemption of a wilderness, the founding of a State, and the extraordinary attention attracted by the "Mormon" people—altogether out of proportion to their numbers—these combined facts constitute a striking fulfillment of the prophetic picture drawn by the Savior: "Ye are as a city set upon a hill which cannot be hid."
IN TIME'S MERIDIAN
The Lamb of God.
A stranger Star, that came from far,To filing its silver rayWhere, cradled in a lowly cave,A lowlier infant lay;And led by soft sidereal light,The Orient sages bringRare gifts of gold and frankincense,To greet the homeless King.* * *He wandered through the faithfulness world,A Prince in shepherd guise;He called his scattered flock, but fewThe Voice did recognize;For minds unborne by hollow pride,Or dimmed by sordid lust,Ne'er look for kings in beggar's garb,For diamonds in the dust.* * *Transfixt he hung—O crime of crimes!—The God whom worlds adore."Father forgive them!" Drained the dregs;Immanuel—no more.No more where thunders shook the earth,Where lightnings, 'thwart the gloom,Saw that unconquered Spirit spurnThe shackles of the tomb.Far-flaming falchion, sword of light,Swift-flashing from its sheath,It cleft the realms of darkness andDissolved the bands of death.Hell's dungeons burst! Wide open swungThe everlasting bars,Whereby the ransomed soul shall winThose heights beyond the stars![1]
A stranger Star, that came from far,To filing its silver rayWhere, cradled in a lowly cave,A lowlier infant lay;And led by soft sidereal light,The Orient sages bringRare gifts of gold and frankincense,To greet the homeless King.
* * *
He wandered through the faithfulness world,A Prince in shepherd guise;He called his scattered flock, but fewThe Voice did recognize;For minds unborne by hollow pride,Or dimmed by sordid lust,Ne'er look for kings in beggar's garb,For diamonds in the dust.
* * *
Transfixt he hung—O crime of crimes!—The God whom worlds adore."Father forgive them!" Drained the dregs;Immanuel—no more.No more where thunders shook the earth,Where lightnings, 'thwart the gloom,Saw that unconquered Spirit spurnThe shackles of the tomb.Far-flaming falchion, sword of light,Swift-flashing from its sheath,It cleft the realms of darkness andDissolved the bands of death.Hell's dungeons burst! Wide open swungThe everlasting bars,Whereby the ransomed soul shall winThose heights beyond the stars![1]
The Crucified and Crowned.—An attempt to tell, even in brief, the sublime story of the Christ, would be foreign to my present purpose, Even if space permitted, what pen could do justice to the theme? Suffice it that the Christ came, in the Meridian of Time, as ancient seers and prophets had foretold. Surrendering himself to to death, that there might be no more death, He arose from the grave and ascended on High, glorified with that glory which the Eternal Son had with the Eternal Father before this world was formed.
The Passover Realized.—In the Savior's crucifixion, the prophetic symbolism of the Passover had a most remarkable realization. In nothing was this more strikingly manifest than in certain incidents immediately following the Death on Calvary. The commandment instituting the Paschal Feast required that no bone of the lamb should be broken, and no fragment of it be left to decay, representing as it did the body of the Holy One, which was not "to see corruption."[2]Mark now the exact fulfillment: The Savior had been crucified between two thieves, and at sundown on the day of crucifixion the Jewish Sabbath began. In order that the day might not be "desecrated," the Rabbis prevailed upon the Roman governor to have the three bodies taken down from the crosses and buried.[3]When the soldiers went to remove the bodies, finding the two thieves still alive, they put an end to them by breaking their legs; but Jesus was spared this further indignity, he being "dead already."[4]Pierced with five wounds, yet not a bone of him broken, the Lamb of God, answering in every particular to the likeness of the paschal lamb, was laid in the rocky tomb, whence He came forth on the third day, his perfectly preserved tabernacle glorified in immortality.
The Lord's Supper.—The night before the Crucifixion, Jesus, having partaken of the Passover with his disciples, instituted in its stead the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, commanding them to observe it thenceforth.[5]The Supper, like the Feast, pointed to the Atonement; but in the Passover the pointing was forward to an even that had not yet occurred, while in the Supper, for the reverse reason, the indication is backward. It is said that the paschal lamb was offered in the Temple at Jerusalem about the same hour that Christ died; the substance and the shadow thus corresponding. Thereafter the Passover was obsolete, having fulfilled its purpose, and as the type no longer typified, it should have been discontinued. The Jews, however, perpetuated the old-time observance, not recognizing in Jesus their Messiah.
"It is Finished."—The Savior's dying words, as reported by the Beloved Disciple,[6]have been the subject of much controversy. "It is finished." What did those words signify? The notion has been entertained that Christ's crucifixion completed his work, so far as personal ministrations went, and that after the opening of the so-called Christian Dispensation, there was no further need of communication between God and man. "O most lame and impotent conclusion!" Whatever construction be placed upon that final utterance of our Lord's, it is perfectly clear, from what followed, that it never was intended to convey such a meaning.
Birth and Death Incidental.—The Death on Calvary was no more the ending, than the Birth at Bethlehem was the beginning, of that Divine Career. Both were mere incidents. The Savior's work is universal, extending from Eternity into Time, and back again into Eternity. All the Gospel dispensations, from Adam down to Joseph Smith, are parts of the all-embracing mission of Jesus Christ. Not until "the beginning of the seventh thousand years," the Morning of the Resurrection, "will the Lord God sanctify the earth and complete the salvation of man."[7]Moreover, sanctification will be succeeded by glorification, still another phase of the work of Him who bringeth to pass "the immortality and eternal life of man."
The Sacrifice Complete.—What, then, was "finished" by the Death on the Cross? Simply the pain and sorrow that the Son of God had willed to undergo, that He might ransom a lost creation, and make it possible for redeemed man, by faith and good works, to lay hold upon eternal life. The Savior's self-imposed humiliation, his voluntary sacrifice, his mysterious all-comprehensive suffering, the piled up agony of the human race, endured by him vicariously, to the end that his atonement might be infinite, reaching to every son and daughter of Adam[8]—this was finished, this was at an end; not the work of God, nor the continuous revelation of his word and will to man.
In the Spirit.—While the Savior's body was lying in the tomb, his spirit entered Paradise, and there preached to the spirits of the departed, opening, or causing to be opened, the dungeons of the damned. Returning, He took up his glorified body, and appeared in it to his astonished, half-doubting disciples.
On Both Hemispheres.—Christ died for all; but all are not entitled to his personal ministrations. The sheep, however, have the right to see their Shepherd and to hear his voice. Accordingly, after he had confirmed the faith of his Jewish disciples, had chosen twelve apostles, and sent them forth to preach the Gospel in the power and demonstration of the Holy Spirit, he visited the Nephites, in America, for a similar purpose. They, in common with all Israel, had been warned by prophets to prepare for his coming; and the righteous were ready to receive him. Already they had the Gospel and the Priesthood, and now the Savior organized his Church among them. This done, He visited other broken-off branches of the "tame olive tree,"[9]their whereabouts as unknown to Lehi's descendants in the Land Bountiful, as was the existence of the Nephites to the inhabitants of Judea.
The "Other Sheep."—Jesus had said to his Jewish followers: "Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice."[10]They inferred that He meant the Gentiles; but such was not his meaning. His direct, special errand was to "the lost sheep of the house of Israel."[11]The Gentiles were to be converted through the preaching of Jewish-Christian evangels.[12]
The "other sheep" were the Nephites, to whom the Savior explained his half-veiled utterance;[13]also declaring that He had still "other sheep," not of the Nephite fold nor of the Jewish fold, and that they likewise should see him and hear his voice.[14]Undoubtedly this allusion was to the "Lost Tribes;" but not to them alone. It included other Hebrew remnants, unknown to man, but known to Jehovah, "keeping watch above his own" in the mystical and remote regions whither his judgments had driven them.
In Remembrance of Him.—Both in Judea and in the Land Bountiful, the Savior instituted, among those who had received the Gospel, the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, that memorial of his sacrifice, once prospective, now retrospective; once a prophecy, now a fulfillment. But its institution among the Nephites, unlike its introduction among the Jews, was after his resurrection. Concerning the earlier incident, the New Testament says:
"As they were eating, Jesus took bread and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.
"And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it:
"For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins."[15]
"The Real Presence."—After the living oracles had departed, and only the dead letter of the Scriptures remained, uninspired "private interpretation"[16]conceived the notion that Jesus, when he said, "This is my body" and "my blood," meant the words to be taken literally. From that erroneous inference sprang the doctrine of transubstantiation, with its twin heresy, consubstantiation; the former a Roman Catholic tenet, the latter an unorthodox Protestant tenet relating to the Eucharist. So insistent was the Catholic Church upon this point, that men and women were condemned and punished as heretics, for denying "the real presence," the actual flesh and blood of Christ, in the elements of the Lord's Supper.[17]
Figurative, not Literal.—The language of Jesus, when he instituted the Lord's Supper at Jerusalem, was undoubtedly figurative. When He said, of the bread and wine, "This is my body" and "my blood," his body was intact, his spirit in his body, and his blood yet unsplit. He was there in person, whole, complete. This being the case, how could he have meant to identify the bread and wine with the constituents of his mortal tabernacle? "These are the emblems of my body and blood"—that was his meaning. He made this clear to the Nephites, in saying: "This shall ye do in remembrance of my body." Remembrance presupposes absence. Because he would be absent in body thereafter, they were to do this "in remembrance of" his body. What need to remember him, if he were present in person? As well require faith from one having a perfect knowledge.[18]
Use of Wine Forbidden.—The Latter-day Saints have been criticized for using water in the Sacrament; the Savior having sanctioned the use of wine both among the Jews and the Nephites. The explanation for the change is simple. The Church of Christ is not dependent upon books, nor upon tradition. It has an inspired Priesthood, led by immediate, continuous and direct revelation. The Lord has commanded his people in these days not to use wine in the Sacrament under existing conditions. This is the word they are under obligation to obey—not the word given to other peoples in former dispensations.[19]
Christ to Come Again.—Neither the Savior's resurrection, nor his ascension into Heaven[20]signalized the end of his personal ministry, the cessation of his labors in behalf of mankind. After his resurrection, He "went in body to minister to translated and resurrected bodies;"[21]and with these He will return when Enoch's City descends and all is ready for his glorious advent.
1. "Elias," Canto 3, Part 2.
2. Psalms 16:10.
3. The hypocrites! They could commit murder, could cause the death of the innocent, and feel no compunction: but they were horrified at the thought of a technical Sabbath-day desecration. Could there be a more glaring instance of "straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel"?
4. John 19:33.
5. Matt. 26:17-20; Mark 14:12-25; Luke 22:7-20.
6. John 19:30.
7. D. & C. 77:12.
8. Ib. 19:16-19.
Such was the mission of him concerning whom Nephi of old prophesied: "And he cometh into the world that he may save all men if they will hearken unto his voice; for behold, he suffereth the pains of all men, yea, the pains of every living creature, both men, women, and children, who belong to the family of Adam. And he suffereth this that the resurrection might pass upon all men, that all might stand before him at the great and judgment day." (2 Nephi 9:21, 22.)
9. Jacob 5:3.
10. John 10:16.
11. Matt. 15:24.
12. Nevertheless, it was all the work of the Lord; for those evangels were his servants, his messengers, clothed with his authority and acting in his name and stead. The subordinate is swallowed up in the principal. It is the general of an army who wins victory or suffers defeat, though millions of soldiers may have been fighting under his direction. The Roman myrmidons who nailed Jesus to the cross were not so much to blame for the cruel deed, as were Pilate, the Procurator, who permitted, nay, ordered it to be done, and the Jewish Rabbis who instigated the "judicial murder" of the sinless Son of God.
13. 3 Nephi 15:21-24.
14. Ib. 16:1-3.
15. Matt. 26:26-28. Compare 3 Nephi 18:1-7.
16. 2 Peter 1:20.
17. A fact sufficient, of itself, to show that the Church was in an apostate condition.
18. Too much reliance upon either the literal or the figurative in language, is apt to be misleading. An attendant in an art gallery or other public place where statues or paintings are on exhibit, might point out one and say to the visitor: "That is Caesar" or "That is Washington;" but the one addressed would not be likely to infer that Caesar or Washington was there in actual flesh and blood, or that the attendant meant to be so understood. Nor would the visitor need to be told that the statue or the painting represented the original. Such an explanation would be superfluous. The form of the Savior's instruction on the Sacrament—assuming that the correct translation has come down to us—may be accounted for in like manner. He knew that his disciples would understand him—and they did. They were not dependent upon the letter alone; the interpreting Spirit was with them to give it life.
19. D. & C. 27:2-5.
20. Acts 1:10, 11.
21. "Mediation and Atonement," p. 76.
The Special Witnesses.
The Men Who Knew.—The Twelve Apostles were the special witnesses of Jesus Christ. As such they had toknow, not merely believe that he had risen from the dead. And they did know, for they had seen him, and heard him, and had even been permitted to touch him, that they might be convinced beyond all question that he was indeed what he proclaimed himself—the Author of the Resurrection, the Giver of eternal life. It was their right to receive this rare evidence, owing to the unique character of their mission. But the world was required to believe what the Apostles testified concerning Him. If men desired salvation, which could come only through the Savior, they must receive in faith the message He had sent his servants to deliver.
The Case of Thomas.—One of the Twelve was absent when his brethren received their first visitation from the risen Redeemer; and when they said, "We have seen the Lord," he answered: "Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe." Subsequently the Savior appeared to this Apostle (Thomas) saying: "Behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side; and be not faithless, but believing." "My Lord and my God!" exclaimed the doubter—and was convinced.[1]
Complete Qualification.—Thomas has been censured for demanding to see and to feel before he would believe. How much blame attaches to him for doubting, I will not presume to say. But this much seems clear: He had the same right as the rest of the Twelve to a personal appearing of the Lord—the right to come in contact with Him of whose resurrection he was required to testify. The others had seen and heard—perhaps had even felt, for Jesus offered them that privilege.[2]Why should not Thomas share in the experience? What else could completely qualify him as a special witness?
A Peculiar Position.—Sign-seeking is an abomination, indicating an adulterous disposition.[3]It is blessed to believe without seeing,[4]since through the exercise of faith comes spiritual development; while knowledge, by swallowing up faith, prevents its exercise, thus hindering that development. "Knowledge is power;" and all things are to be known in due season. But premature knowledge—knowing at the wrong time—is fatal both to progress and to happiness. The case of the Apostles was exceptional. They stood in a peculiar position. It was better for them to know—nay, absolutely essential, in order to give the requisite force and power to their tremendous testimony.
The Commission of the Twelve.—"Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.
"He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not, shall be damned.
"And these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover."[5]"Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost;
"Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen."[6]
The Promised Signs.—Thus we see that certain miraculous "signs" were promised to "them that believe." But these signs were intended to comfort the Saints, not to encourage the sign-seeker; and they were to "follow," not precede, belief. It is not the sign, but the seeking, that the Lord deprecates, the motive being evil.[7]
Apostolic Activities.—Obedient to the divine mandate, the Apostles at Jerusalem, having been "endued with power from on high"[8]went forth with their fellows, preaching. "Christ and him crucified," calling upon men to believe, to repent, and have their sins remitted by baptism, that they might receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Great power accompanied their ministrations. Within the next half century the glad tidings borne by them had spread over the whole Roman Empire and into barbarian realms beyond.
Equality and Unity.—The Apostles must have known of Enoch's wonderful work. Jude refers to Enoch's prophecy of the Lord's coming "with ten thousand of his saints."[9]Possibly the Twelve had access to the Book of Enoch,[10]one of the lost books of Scripture. At all events, they sought to introduce, among the earliest proselytes to the Christian faith, a similar order to that established in Enoch's day. Concerning the later attempt to "bring forth Zion." it is written:
"And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul; neither said any of them that aught of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common. . . . .
"Neither was there any among them that lacked; for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them and brought the prices of the things that were sold,
"And laid them down at the apostles' feet; and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need."[11]
How long this condition lasted with the Jewish Saints, we are not told. Among their contemporaries, the Nephite followers of Christ, the splendid results flowing from the practice of the Law of Consecration are thus portrayed:
"The people were all converted unto the Lord, upon all the face of the land, both Nephites and Lamanites, and there were no contentions and disputations among them, and every man did deal justly, one with another;
"And they had all things common among them, therefore they were not rich and poor, bond and free, but they were all made free, and partakers of the heavenly gift."[12]
The Apostles Taken.—One by one the Apostles were taken. James was slain with the sword at Jerusalem. Peter, if the tradition be trustworthy, was crucified at Rome, where Paul likewise suffered martyrdom, by decapitation. All were put to death, save one, concerning whom Peter had inquired of the Lord: "What shall this man do?" And the Lord had said: "If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?" "Then went this saying abroad among the brethren; that that disciple should not die."[13]
John Tarries.—Modern revelation confirms the ancient tradition that John the Beloved did not taste of death, but obtained from the Lord a promise that he should remain in the flesh, fortified against disease and dissolution, and do a wondrous work. He was to "prophesy before nations, kindred, tongues and peoples, and continue on earth until the Lord came in his glory."[14]It is traditional that an attempt was made upon John's life by throwing him into a cauldron of boiling oil; but he escaped miraculously.
A Falling-Away Foreseen.—In the ninety-sixth year of the Christian era this Apostle was on the Isle of Patmos, in the Aegean Sea. Patmos served the Romans very much as Siberia has since served the Russians. To that desolate place the Empire banished its criminals, compelling them to work in the mines. John was an exile for Truth's sake. But the Lord had not forgotten his servant, though men had rejected him and cast him out. The Heavens were opened to him, and he was shown things that would come to pass thereafter, also events that were even then taking place. He beheld the sad spectacle of a paganized Christendom, the "falling away" that St. Paul had predicted.[15]
Restoration and Judgment.—But John also looked forward to a time when the pure Christian faith would be restored; when an Angel would "fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth;"[16]when Israel would be called out from the nations;[17]when the hour of God's judgment would come, and the dead, small and great, would stand before the Great White Throne, to give answer for the deeds done in the body.[18]
Among the Nephites.—The experience of the Church of Christ on the Western continents was in many respects a duplicate of its experience in Oriental lands. Here as well as there, special witnesses were chosen,[19]and to three of the Nephite Twelve, Christ gave the same promise that he had given to the Apostle John—a promise that they should remain in the body, not subject to death, and bring souls to Him.[20]
A Foretaste of the Millennium.—The Nephite Church had a marvelous career—even more marvelous than had the Jewish Church. "The people were all converted unto the Lord," and for two full centuries[21]a social condition similar to that which had characterized Enoch's ancient commonwealth, was the favored lot of this flourishing branch of the House of Israel. It was a foretaste of the Millennium, a foreshadowing of the great Day of Peace.
Japheth Smites Jacob.—Then came pride, the besetting sin of the Nephite nation, with class divisions, envyings, covetousness, strife, and—for the civilized portion of the once delightsome people—extermination. Darkened in body and in mind, the degenerate Lamanites were left to meet the on-rolling tide of over-seas immigration, and be over whelmed thereby; "a remnant of Jacob," to be smitten and driven by the children of Japheth, "until the times of the Gentiles were fulfilled."[22]
1. John 20:24-28.
2. Luke 24:39.
3. Matt. 16:4.
4. John 20:29.
5. Mark 16:15-18.
6. Matt. 28:19, 20.
7. Says the Prophet Joseph"When I was preaching in Philadelphia, a Quaker called out for a sign. I told him to be still. After the sermon he again asked for a sign. I told the congregation that the man was an adulterer; . . . . that the Lord had said to me in a revelation that any man who wanted a sign was an adulterous person. 'It is true,' cried one, 'for I caught him in the very act,' which the man afterwards confessed when he was baptized." (Hist. Ch. Vol. 5 p. 268). More than one "Mormon" missionary, pestered by sign-seekers, has applied the test furnished by the Prophet, with invariable and complete success.
8. Luke 24:49; Acts 2:1-4.
9. Jude 14.
10. D. & C. 107:57
11. Acts 4:32, 34, 35.
12. 4 Nephi 1:2, 3.
13. John 21:20-23.
14. D. & C. 7.
15. Thess. 2:3; 1 Tim. 4:1; 2 Tim. 3:1-5; Rev. Chaps. 17, 18.
16. Rev. 14:6.
17. Ib. 18:4.
18. Ib. 20:11, 12.
19. 3 Nephi 19:4.
20. Ib.28:4-23.
21. 4 Ib. 1:22.
22. Though tramped upon for many generations, the Lamanites are not a dying race, as is generally supposed. According to Doctor Lawrence W. White, of the United States Indian Bureau, the Indian population in 1870, when the first reliable census was made by the bureau, was placed at 313,712. It is now 333,702, a number not exceeded, thinks that expert, by the total of aborigines in America at the time of its discovery by Columbus.—See editorial article, "Indians Reviving," Salt Lake Tribune, February 13, 1920.