JOSEPH SMITH'S DARING ANSWER TO THE LORD—WOMAN, THROUGH MORMONISM, RESTORED TO HER TRUE POSITION—THE THEMES OF MORMONISM.
What potent faith had come into the world that a people should thus live and die by it?
Show us this new temple of theology in which the sisters had worshipped.
Open the book of themes which constitute the grand system of Mormonism.
—
The disciples of the prophet believed in the Book of Mormon; but nearly all their themes, and that vast system of theology which Joseph conceived, as the crowning religion for a world, were derived from the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament of Christ, and modern revelation.
New revelation is the signature of Mormonism.
The themes begin with Abraham, rather than with Christ; but they go back to Adam, and to the long "eternities" ere this world was.
Before Adam, was Mormonism!
There aregenerations of worlds. The Genesis of the Gods was before the Genesis of Man.
The Genesis of the Gods is the first book of the Mormon iliad.
"Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, 'Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me."'Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare if thou hast understanding."'Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? Or who hath stretched the line upon it?"'Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? Or who laid the corner-stone thereof:"'When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?'"
"Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, 'Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.
"'Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare if thou hast understanding.
"'Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? Or who hath stretched the line upon it?
"'Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? Or who laid the corner-stone thereof:
"'When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?'"
Brother Job, where wast thou? Joseph answered the Lord when the Masonic question of the Gods was put to him:
"Father, I was withthee; one of the 'morning stars' then; one of the archangels of thy presence."
'Twas a divinely bold answer. But Josephwasdivinely daring.
The genius of Mormonism had come down from the empyrean; it hesitated not to assert its origin among the Gods.
This is no fanciful treatment—no mere flight to the realm of ideals. The Mormons have literally answered the Lord, their Father, the question which he put to their brother, Job, and have made that answer a part of their theology.
But where was woman "when the morning stars sang together, and the sons of God shouted for joy?"
Where was Zion? Where the bride? Where was woman?
"Not yet created; taken afterwards from the rib of Adam; of the earth, not of heaven; created for Adam's glory, that he might rule over her."
So said not Joseph.
It was the young East who thus declared. The aged West had kept the book of remembrance.
Joseph was gifted with wonderful memories of the "eternities past." He had not forgotten woman. He knew Eve, and he remembered Zion. He restored woman to her place among the Gods, where her primeval Genesis is written.
Woman was among the morning stars, when they sang together for joy, at the laying of the foundations of the earth.
When the sons of God thrice gave their Masonic shouts of hosanna, the daughters of God lifted up their voices with their brothers; and the hallelujahs to the Lord God Omnipotent, were rendered sweeter and diviner by woman leading the theme.
In the temples, both of the heavens and the earth, woman is found. She is there in her character of Eve, and in her character of Zion. The one is the type of earth, the other the type of heaven; the one the mystical name of the mortal, the other of the celestial, woman.
The Mormon prophet rectified the divine drama. Man is nowhere where woman is not. Mormonism has restored woman to her pinnacle.
Presently woman herself shall sing of her divine origin. A high priestess of the faith shall interpret the themes of herself and of her Father-and-Mother God!
At the very moment when the learned divines of Christendom were glorying that this little earth was the "be-all and the end-all" of creation, the prophet of Mormondom was teaching the sisters in the temple at Kirtland that there has been an eternal chain of creations coming down from the generations of the Gods—worlds and systems and universes. At the time these lights of the Gentiles were pointing to the star-fretted vault of immensity as so many illuminations—lamps hung out by the Creator, six thousand years ago, to light this little earth through her probation—the prophet of Israel was teaching his people that the starry hosts were worlds and suns and universes, some of which had being millions of ages before this earth had physical form.
Moreover, so vast is the divine scheme, and stupendous the works of creations, that the prophet introduced the expressive wordeternities. The eternities are the times of creations.
This earth is but an atom in the immensities of creations. Innumerable worlds have been peopled with "living souls" of the order of mankind; innumerable worlds have passed through their probations; innumerable worlds have been redeemed, resurrected, and celestialized.
Hell-loving apostles of the sects were sending ninety-nine hundredths of this poor, young, forlorn earth to the bottomless pit. The Mormon prophet was finding out grand old universes, in exaltation with scarcely the necessity of losing a soul.
The spirit of Mormonism is universal salvation.
Those who are not saved in one glory, may be saved in another.
There are the "glory of the sun," and the "glory of the moon," and the "glory of the stars."
The children of Israel belong to the glory of the sun. They kept their first estate. They are nobly trying to keep their second estate on probation. Let the devotion, the faith, the divine heroism of the Mormon sisters, witness this.
"Adam is our Father and God. He is the God of the earth."
So says Brigham Young.
Adam is the great archangel of this creation. He is Michael. He is the Ancient of Days. He is the father of our elder brother, Jesus Christ—the father of him who shall also come as Messiah to reign. He is the father of the spirits as well as the tabernacles of the sons and daughters of man. Adam!
Michael is one of the grand mystical names in the works of creations, redemptions, and resurrections. Jehovah is the second and the higher name. Eloheim—signifying the Gods—is the first name of the celestial trinity.
Michael was a celestial, resurrected being, of another world.
"In the beginning" the Gods created the heavens and the earths.
In their councils they said, let us make man in our own image. So, in the likeness of the Fathers, and the Mothers—the Gods—created they man—male and female.
When this earth was prepared for mankind, Michael, as Adam, came down. He brought with him one of his wives, and he called her name Eve.
Adam and Eve are the names of the fathers and mothers of worlds.
Adam was not made out of a lump of clay, as we make a brick, nor was Eve taken as a rib—a bone—from his side. They came by generation. But woman, as the wife or mate of man, was a rib of man. She was taken from his side, in their glorified world, and brought by him to earth to be the mother of a race.
These were father and mother of a world of spirits who had been born to them in heaven. These spirits had been waiting for the grand period of their probation, when they should have bodies or tabernacles, so that they might become, in the resurrection, like Gods.
When this earth had become an abode for mankind, with its Garden of Eden, then it was that the morning stars sang together, and the sons and daughters of God shouted for joy. They were coming down to earth.
The children of the sun, at least, knew what the grand scheme of the everlasting Fathers and the everlasting Mothers meant, and they, both sons and daughters, shouted for joy. The temple of the eternities shook with their hosannas, and trembled with divine emotions.
The father and mother were at length in their Garden of Eden. They came on purpose to fall. They fell "that man might be; and man is, that he might have joy." They ate of the tree of mortal life, partook of the elements of this earth that they might again become mortal for their children's sake. They fell that another world might have a probation, redemption and resurrection.
The grand patriarchal economy, with Adam, as a resurrected being, who brought his wife Eve from another world, has been very finely elaborated, by Brigham, from the patriarchal genesis which Joseph conceived.
Perchance the scientist might hesitate to accept the Mormon ideals of the genesis of mortals and immortals, but Joseph and Brigham have very much improved on the Mosaic genesis of man. It is certainly not scientific to make Adam as a model adobe; the race has come by generation. The genesis of a hundred worlds of his family, since his day, does not suggest brickyards of mortality. The patriarchal economy of Mormonism is at least an improvement, and is decidedly epic in all its constructions and ideals.
A grand patriarchal line, then, down from the "eternities;" generations of worlds and generations of Gods; all one universal family.
The Gods are the fathers and the mothers, and the brothers and the sisters, of the saints.
Divine ambitions here; a daring genius to thus conceive; a lifting up of man and woman to the very plane of the celestials, while yet on earth.
Now for the father and the children of the covenant.
With Abraham begins the covenant of Israel. The Mormons are a Latter-day Israel.
God made a covenant with Abraham, for Abraham was worthy to be the grand patriarch of a world, under Adam. Like Jesus, he had a pre-existence.
He was "in the beginning" with God; an archangel in the Father's presence; one not less noble than his elder brother and captain of salvation; the patriarch, through whose line Messiah was ordained to come into the world.
Abraham was the elect of God before the foundation of this earth. In him and his seed were all the promises—all the covenants—and all the divine empires. In them was the kingdom of Messiah to consummate the object and vast purposes of earth's creation.
He is the father of the faithful and the friend of God. In him and his seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. He shall become the father of many nations. His seed shall be as the sand on the sea-shore.
In Abraham many nations have already been blessed. He and his seed have given Bible and civilization to Christendom. From his loins came Jesus—from him will come Messiah.
Abraham and his seed have done much for the world, but they will do a hundred fold more. Their genius, their prophets, and their covenants, will leaven and circumscribe all civilization.
Jehovah is the God of Israel—the covenant people. There is none like him in all the earth. There are Lords many, and Gods many, but unto Israel there is but one God.
Between Jehovah and Abraham there are the everlasting covenants. The divine epic is between Abraham and his God.
Mormonism is now that divine epic.
This grand patriarch may be sard to be a grand Mormon; or, better told, the Mormons are a very proper Israel, whom the patriarch acknowledges as his children, chosen to fulfill the covenants in connection with the Jews.
Jehovah never made any covenants outside of Israel. The Gentiles are made partakers, by adoption into the Abrahamic family.
All is of election and predestination. There is but very little free-grace; just enough grace to give the Gentiles room to enter into the family of Israel, that the promise may be fulfilled that in Israel all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.
In ancient times Jehovah made his people a nation, that his name might be glorified. He established his throne in David, by an everlasting covenant; but the throne and sceptre were taken from Israel, no more to be, until he comes whose right it is to reign. Messiah is that one. He is coming to restore the kingdom to Israel.
The earth and mankind were created that they might have a probation; and a probation, that a millennial reign of peace and righteousness may consummate the divine plan and purposes.
Righteousness and justice must be established upon the earth in the last days, or nations must perish utterly.
In the last days God shall set up a kingdom upon the earth, which shall never be destroyed. It will break into pieces all other kingdoms and empires, and stand forever. It will be given to the saints of the Most High, and they will possess it. The Mormons are the saints of the Most High.
That kingdom has already been set up, by the administration of angels to Joseph Smith. This is the burden of Mormonism. It was for that the saints were driven from Missouri and Illinois; that for which they made their exodus to the Rocky Mountains; that for which the sisters have borne the cross for half a century.
Now also in the present age is to be fulfilled the vision of Daniel; here it is:
"I beheld till thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of Days (Adam) did sit, whose garments were white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool; his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire."A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him; thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the judgment was set, and the books were opened.* * * * * *"I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him."And there was given him dominion and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations and languages, should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.* * * * * *"But the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever.* * * *"I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them."Until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.* * * * * *"And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him."
"I beheld till thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of Days (Adam) did sit, whose garments were white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool; his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire.
"A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him; thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the judgment was set, and the books were opened.
* * * * * *
"I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him.
"And there was given him dominion and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations and languages, should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.
* * * * * *
"But the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever.
* * * *
"I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them.
"Until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.
* * * * * *
"And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him."
Here is the imperial drama of Mormonism which the saints have applied most literally, and sought to work out in America; or, rather the God of Israel has purposed to fulfill his wondrous scheme, in them, and multiply them until they shall be an empire of God-fearing men and women—ten thousand times ten thousand saints.
No wonder that Missouri drove the saints—no wonder that the sisters, with such views, have risen to such sublime heroism and been inspired with such exalted faith. Scarcely to be wondered at even that they have been strong enough to bear their crosses throughout eventful lives, which have no parallel in history. With a matchless might of spirit, and divine ambitions, inspired by such a theology, literally applied in the action of their lives, they have risen to the superhuman.
Comprehend this Hebraic religion of the sisters, and it can thus be comprehended somewhat how they have borne the cross of polygamy, with more than the courage of martyrs at the stake.
We are coming to polygamy, by-and-by, to let these braver than Spartan women speak for themselves, upon their own special subject; but polygamy was not established until years after the saints were driven from Missouri.
We are but opening these views of Hebraic faith and religion. The themes will return frequently in their proper places. But let the sisters most reveal themselves in their expositions, episodes, and testimonies.
Thus, here, the high priestess of Mormondom, with her beautiful themes of our God-Father and our God-Mother!
ELIZA R. SNOW'S INVOCATION—THE ETERNAL FATHER AND MOTHER—ORIGIN OF THE SUBLIME THOUGHT POPULARLY ATTRIBUTED TO THEODORE PARKER—BASIC IDEA OF THE MORMON THEOLOGY.
Joseph endowed the church with the genesis of a grand theology, and Brigham has reared the colossal fabric of a new civilization; but woman herself must sing of her celestial origin, and her relationship to the majesty of creation.
Inspired by the mystic memories of the past, Eliza R. Snow has made popular in the worship of the saints a knowledge of the grand family, in ourprimeval spirit-home. The following gem, which opens the first volume of her poems, will give at once a rare view of the spiritual type of the high priestess of the Mormon Church, and of the divine drama of Mormonism itself. It is entitled, "Invocation; or, the Eternal Father and Mother
O! my Father, thou that dwellestIn the high and holy place;When shall I regain thy presence,And again behold thy face?In thy glorious habitation,Did my spirit once reside?In my first primeval childhood,Was I nurtured by thy side?For a wise and glorious purpose,Thou hast placed me here on earth;And withheld the recollectionOf my former friends and birth.Yet oft-times a secret something,Whisper'd, "You're a stranger here;"And I felt that I had wanderedFrom a more exalted sphere.I had learned to call thee Father,Through thy spirit from on high;But until the key of knowledgeWas restored, I knew not why.In the heavens are parents single?No; the thought makes reason stare;Truth is reason; truth eternal,Tells me I've a Mother there.When I leave this frail existence—When I lay this mortal by,Father, Mother, may I meet youIn your royal court on high?Then at length, when I've completedAll you sent me forth to do,With your mutual approbation,Let me come and dwell with you.
O! my Father, thou that dwellestIn the high and holy place;When shall I regain thy presence,And again behold thy face?
In thy glorious habitation,Did my spirit once reside?In my first primeval childhood,Was I nurtured by thy side?
For a wise and glorious purpose,Thou hast placed me here on earth;And withheld the recollectionOf my former friends and birth.
Yet oft-times a secret something,Whisper'd, "You're a stranger here;"And I felt that I had wanderedFrom a more exalted sphere.
I had learned to call thee Father,Through thy spirit from on high;But until the key of knowledgeWas restored, I knew not why.
In the heavens are parents single?No; the thought makes reason stare;Truth is reason; truth eternal,Tells me I've a Mother there.
When I leave this frail existence—When I lay this mortal by,Father, Mother, may I meet youIn your royal court on high?
Then at length, when I've completedAll you sent me forth to do,With your mutual approbation,Let me come and dwell with you.
A divine drama set to song. And as it is but a choral dramatization, in the simple hymn form, of the celestial themes revealed through Joseph Smith, it will strikingly illustrate the vast system of Mormon theology, which links the heavens and the earths.
It is well remembered what an ecstacy filled the minds of the transcendental Christians of America, when the voice of Theodore Parker, bursting into the fervor of a new revelation, addressed, in prayer, our Father and Mother in heaven!
An archangel proclamation that!
Henceforth shall the mother half of creation be worshipped with that of the God-Father; and in that worship woman, by the very association of ideas, shall be exalted in the coming civilization.
Wonderful revelation, Brother Theodore; worthy thy glorious intellect! Quite as wonderful that it was not universal long before thy day!
But it will be strange news to many that years before Theodore Parker breathed that theme in public prayer, the Mormon people sang their hymn of invocation to the Father and Mother in heaven, given them by the Hebraic pen of Eliza R. Snow.
And in this connection it will be proper to relate the fact that a Mormon woman once lived as a servant in the house of Theodore Parker. With a disciple's pardonable cunning she was in the habit of leaving Mormon books in the way of her master. It is not unlikely that the great transcendentalist had read the Mormon poetess' hymn to "Our Father-and-Mother God!"
And perhaps it will appear still more strange to the reader, who may have been told that woman in the Mormon scheme ranked low—almost to the barbarian scale—to learn that the revelation of the Father and Mother of creation, given through the Mormon prophet, and set to song by a kindred spirit, is the basic idea of the whole Mormon theology.
The hymn of invocation not only treats our God parents in this grand primeval sense, but the poetess weaves around their parental centre the divine drama of the pre-existence of worlds.
This celestial theme was early revealed to the church by the prophet, and for now nearly forty years the hymn of invocation has been familiar in the meetings of the saints.
A marvel indeed is this, that at the time modern Christians, and even "philosophers," were treating this little earth, with its six thousand years of mortal history, as the sum of the intelligent universe—to which was added this life's sequel, with the gloom of hell prevailing—the Mormon people, in their very household talk, conversed and sang of an endless succession of worlds.
They talked of their own pre-existing lives. They came into the divine action ages ago, played their parts in a primeval state, and played them well. Hence were they the first fruits of the gospel. They scarcely limited their pre-existing lives to a beginning, or compassed their events, recorded in other worlds, in a finite story. Down through the cycles of all eternity they had come, and they were now entabernacled spirits passing through a mortal probation.
It was of such a theme that "Sister Eliza" sang; and with such a theme her hymn of invocation to our Father and Mother in heaven soon made the saints familiar in every land.
Let us somewhat further expound the theme of this hymn, which our poetess could not fully embody in the simple form of verse.
God the Father and God the Mother stand, in the grand pre-existing view, as the origin and centre of the spirits of all the generations of mortals who had been entabernacled on this earth.
First and noblest of this great family was Jesus Christ, who was the elder brother, in spirit, of the whole human race. These constituted a world-family of pre-existing souls.
Brightest among these spirits, and nearest in the circle to our Father and Mother in heaven (the Father being Adam), were Seth, Enoch, Noah and Abraham, Moses, David, and Jesus Christ—indeed that glorious cohort of men and women, whose lives have left immortal records in the world's history. Among these the Mormon faith would rank Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and their compeers.
In that primeval spirit-state, these were also associated with a divine sisterhood. One can easily imagine the inspired authoress of the hymn on pre-existence, to have been a bright angel among this sister throng. Her hymn is as a memory of that primeval life, and her invocation is as the soul's yearning for the Father and Mother in whose courts she was reared, and near whose side her spirit was nurtured.
These are the sons and daughters of Adam—the Ancient of Days—the Father and God of the whole human family. These are the sons and daughters of Michael, who is Adam, the father of the spirits of all our race.
These are the sons and daughters of Eve, the Mother of a world.
What a practical Unitarianism is this! The Christ is not dragged from his heavenly estate, to be mere mortal, but mortals are lifted up to his celestial plane. He is still the God-Man; but he is one among many brethren who are also God-Men.
Moreover, Jesus is one of a grand order of Saviours. Every world has its distinctive Saviour, and every dispensation its Christ.
There is a glorious Masonic scheme among the Gods. The everlasting orders come down to us with their mystic and official names. The heavens and the earths have a grand leveling; not by pulling down celestial spheres, but by the lifting up of mortal spheres.
Perchance the skeptic and the strict scientist who measures by the cold logic of facts, but rises not to the logic of ideas, might not accept this literal pre-existing view, yet it must be confessed that it is a lifting up of the idealities of man's origin. Man is the offspring of the Gods. This is the supreme conception which gives to religion its very soul. Unless man's divinity comes in somewhere, religion is the wretchedest humbug that ever deluded mortals.
Priestcraft, indeed, then, from the beginning to the end—from the Alpha to the Omega of theologic craft, there is nothing divine.
But the sublime and most primitive conception of Mormonism is, that man in his essential being is divine, that he is the offspring of God—that God is indeed his Father.
And woman? for she is the theme now.
Woman is heiress of the Gods. She is joint heir with her elder brother, Jesus the Christ; but she inherits from her God-Father and her God-Mother. Jesus is the "beloved" of that Father and Mother—their well-tried Son, chosen to work out the salvation and exaltation of the whole human family.
And shall it not be said then that the subjectrisesfrom the God-Father to the God-Mother? Surely it is a rising in the sense of the culmination of the divine idea. The God-Father is not robbed of his everlasting glory by this maternal completion of himself. It is an expansion both of deity and humanity.
They twain are one God!
The supreme Unitarian conception is here; the God-Father and the God-Mother! The grand unity of God is in them—in the divine Fatherhood and the divine Motherhood—the very beginning and consummation of creation. Not in the God-Father and the God-Son can the unity of the heavens and the earths be worked out; neither with any logic of facts nor of idealities. In them the Masonic trinities; in the everlasting Fathers and the everlasting Mothers the unities of creations.
Our Mother in heaven is decidedly a new revelation, as beautiful and delicate to the masculine sense of the race as it is just and exalting to the feminine. It is the woman's own revelation. Not even did Jesus proclaim to the world the revelation of our Mother in heaven—co-existent and co-equal with the eternal Father. This was left, among the unrevealed truths, to the present age, when it would seem the woman is destined by Providence to become very much the oracle of a new and peculiar civilization.
The oracle of this last grand truth of woman's divinity and of her eternal Mother as the partner with the Father in the creation of worlds, is none other than the Mormon Church. It was revealed in the glorious theology of Joseph, and established by Brigham in the vast patriarchal system which he has made firm as the foundations of the earth, by proclaiming Adam as our Father and God. The Father is first in name and order, but the Mother is with him—these twain, one from the beginning.
Then came our Hebraic poetess with her hymn of invocation, and woman herself brought the perfected idea of deity into the forms of praise and worship. Is not this exalting woman to her sphere beyond all precedent?
Let it be marked that the Roman Catholic idea of the Mother of God is wonderfully lower than the Mormon idea. The Church of Rome only brings the maternal conception, linked with deity, in Christ, and that too in quite the inferior sense. It is not primitive—it is the exception; it begins and ends with the Virgin Mary. A question indeed whether it elevates womanhood and motherhood. The ordinary idea is rather the more exalted; for that always, in a sense, makes the mother superior to the son. The proverb that great mothers conceive great sons has really more poetry in it than the Roman Catholic doctrine that Mary was the Mother of God.
The Mormon Church is the oracle of the grandest conception of womanhood and motherhood. And from her we have it as a revelation to the world, and not a mere thought of a transcendental preacher—a glorious Theodore Parker flashing a celestial ray upon the best intellects of the age.
Excepting the Lord's prayer, there is not in the English language the peer of this Mormon invocation; and strange to say the invocation is this time given to the Church through woman—the prophetess and high priestess of the faith.
THE TRINITY OF MOTHERHOOD—EVE, SARAH, AND ZION—THE MORMON THEORY CONCERNING OUR FIRST PARENTS.
A trinity of Mothers!
The celestial Masonry of Womanhood!
The other half of the grand patriarchal economy of the heavens and the earths!
The book of patriarchal theology is full of new conceptions. Like the star-bespangled heavens—like the eternities which it mantles—is that wondrous theology!
New to the world, but old as the universe. 'Tis the everlasting book of immortals, unsealed to mortal view, by these Mormon prophets.
A trinity of Mothers—Eve the Mother of a world; Sarah the Mother of the covenant; Zion the Mother of celestial sons and daughters—the Mother of the new creation of Messiah's reign, which shall give to earth the crown of her glory and the cup of joy after all her ages of travail.
Still tracing down the divine themes of Joseph; still faithfully following the methods of that vast patriarchal economy which shall be the base of a new order of society and of the temple of a new civilization.
When Brigham Young proclaimed to the nations that Adam was our Father and God, and Eve, his partner, the Mother of a world—both in a mortal and a celestial sense—he made the most important revelation ever oracled to the race since the days of Adam himself.
This grand patriarchal revelation is the very keystone of the "new creation" of the heavens and the earth. It gives new meaning to the whole system of theology—as much new meaning to the economy of salvation as to the economy of creation. By the understanding of the works of the Father, the works of the Son are illumined.
The revelation was the "Let there be light" again pronounced. "And there was light!"
"And God created man in his own image; in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."And God blessed them; and God said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it."
"And God created man in his own image; in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
"And God blessed them; and God said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it."
Here is the very object of man and woman's creation exposed in the primitive command. The first words of their genesis are, "Be fruitful and multiply."
So far, it is of but trifling momenthowour "first parents" were created; whether like a brick, with the spittle of the Creator and the dust of the earth, or by the more intelligible method of generation. The prime object of man and woman's creation was for thepurposes of creation.
"Be fruitful, and multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it," by countless millions of your offspring.
Thus opened creation, and the womb of everlasting motherhood throbbed with divine ecstacy.
It is the divine command still. All other maybe dark as a fable, of the genesis of the race, but this is not dark. Motherhood to this hour leaps for joy at this word of God, "Be fruitful;" and motherhood is sanctified as by the holiest sacrament of nature.
We shall prefer Brigham's expounding of the dark passages of Genesis.
Our first parents were not made up like mortal bricks. They came to be the Mother and the Father of a new creation of souls.
We say Mother now, first, for we are tracing this everlasting theme of motherhood, in the Mormon economy, without which nothing of the woman part of the divine scheme can be known—next to nothing of patriarchal marriage, to which we are traveling, be expounded.
Eve—immortal Eve—came down to earth to become the Mother of a race.
How become the Mother of a world of mortals except by herself again becoming mortal? How become mortal only by transgressing the laws of immortality? How only by "eating of the forbidden fruit"—by partaking of the elements of a mortal earth, in which the seed of death was everywhere scattered?
All orthodox theologians believe Adam and Eve to have been at first immortal, and all acknowledge the great command, "Be fruitful and multiply."
That they were not about to become the parents of a world of immortals is evident, for they were on a mortal earth. That the earth was mortal all nature here to-day shows. The earth was to be subdued by teeming millions of mankind—the dying earth actually eaten, in a sense, a score of times, by the children of these grand parents.
The fall is simple. Our immortal parents came down to fall; came down to transgress the laws of immortality; came down to give birth to mortal tabernacles for a world of spirits.
The "forbidden tree," says Brigham, contained in its fruit the elements of death, or the elements of mortality. By eating of it, blood was again infused into the tabernacles of beings who had become immortal. The basis of mortal generation is blood. Without blood no mortal can be born. Even could immortals have been conceived on earth, the trees of life had made but the paradise of a few; but a mortal world was the object of creation then.
Eve, then, came down to be the Mother of a world.
Glorious Mother, capable of dying at the very beginning to give life to her offspring, that through mortality the eternal life of the Gods might be given to her sons and daughters.
Motherhood the same from the beginning even to the end! The love of motherhood passing all understanding! Thus read our Mormon sisters the fall of their Mother.
And the serpent tempted the woman with the forbidden fruit.
Did woman hesitate a moment then? Did motherhood refuse the cup for her own sake, or did she, with infinite love, take it and drink for her children's sake? The Mother had plunged down, from the pinnacle of her celestial throne, to earth, to taste of death that her children might have everlasting life.
What! should Eve ask Adam to partake of the elements of death first, in such a sacrament! 'Twould have outraged motherhood!
Eve partook of that supper of the Lord's death first. She ate of that body and drank of that blood.
Be it to Adam's eternalcreditthat he stood by and let our Mother—our ever blessed Mother Eve—partake of the sacrifice before himself. Adam followed the Mother's example, for he was great and grand—a Father worthy indeed of a world. He was wise, too; for theblood of lifeis the stream of mortality.
What a psalm of everlasting praise to woman, that Eve fell first!
A Goddess came down from her mansions of glory to bring the spirits of her children down after her, in their myriads of branches and their hundreds of generations!
She was again a mortal Mother now. The first person in the trinity of Mothers.
The Mormon sisterhood take up their themes of religion with their Mother Eve, and consent with her, at the very threshold of the temple, to bear the cross. Eve is ever with her daughters in the temple of the Lord their God.
The Mormon daughters of Eve have also in this eleventh hour come down to earth, like her, to magnify the divine office of motherhood. She came down from her resurrected, they from their spirit, estate. Here, with her, in the divine providence of maternity, they begin to ascend the ladder to heaven, and to their exaltation in the courts of their Father and Mother God.
Who shall number the blasphemies of the sectarian churches against our first grand parents? Ten thousand priests of the serpent have thundered anathemas upon the head of "accursed Adam." Appalling, oftentimes, their pious rage. And Eve—the holiest, grandest of Mothers—has been made a very by-word to offset the frailties of the most wicked and abandoned.
Very different is Mormon theology! The Mormons exalt the grand parents of our race. Not even is the name of Christ more sacred to them than the names of Adam and Eve. It was to them the poetess and high priestess addressed her hymn of invocation; and Brigham's proclamation that Adam is our Father and God is like a hallelujah chorus to their everlasting names. The very earth shall yet take it up; all the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve shall yet shout it for joy, to the ends of the earth, in every tongue!
Eve stands, then, first—the God-Mother in the maternal trinity of this earth. Soon we shall meet Sarah, the Mother of the covenant, and in her daughters comprehend something of patriarchal marriage—"Mormon polygamy." But leave we awhile these themes of woman, and return to the personal thread of the sisters' lives.
THE HUNTINGTONS—ZINA D. YOUNG, AND PRESCINDIA L. KIMBALL—THEIR TESTIMONY CONCERNING THE KIRTLAND MANIFESTATIONS—UNPUBLISHED LETTER OF JOSEPH SMITH—DEATH OF MOTHER HUNTINGTON.
Who are these thus pursued as by the demons that ever haunt a great destiny?
As observed in the opening chapter, they are the sons and daughters of the Pilgrim sires and mothers who founded this nation; sons and daughters of the patriots who fought the battles of independence and won for these United States a transcendent destiny.
Here meet we two of the grand-nieces of Samuel Huntington, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, Governor of Connecticut, and President of Congress.
Zina Diantha Huntington has long been known and honored as one of the most illustrious women of the Church. She was not only sealed to the prophet Joseph in their sacred covenant of celestial marriage, but after his martyrdom she was sealed to Brigham Young as one of Joseph's wives. For over a quarter of a century she has been known as Zina D. Young—being mother to one of Brigham's daughters. In her mission of usefulness she has stood side by side with Sister Eliza R. Snow, and her life has been that of one of the most noble and saintly of women. Thus is she introduced to mark her honored standing among the sisterhood. Of her ancestral record she says:
"My father's family is directly descended from Simon Huntington, the 'Puritan immigrant' who sailed for America in 1633. He died on the sea, but left three sons and his widow, Margaret. The church records of Roxbury, Mass., contain the earliest record of the Huntington name known in New England, and is in the handwriting of Rev. John Elliot himself, the pastor of that ancient church. This is the record: 'Margaret Huntington, widow, came in 1633. Her husband died by the way, of the small-pox. She brought—children with her.'
"Tradition says that Simon, the Puritan emigrant, sailed for this country to escape the persecutions to which non-conformists were subjected, during the high-handed administrations of Laud and the first Charles. Tradition also declares him to have been beyond doubt an Englishman. The Rev. E. B. Huntington, in his genealogical memoir of the Huntington family in this country, observes: 'The character of his immediate descendants is perhaps in proof of both statements; they, were thoroughly English in their feelings, affinities, and language; and that they were as thoroughly religious, their names and official connection with the early churches in this country abundantly attest.'
"Of one of my great-grandfathers the Huntington family memoir records thus: 'John, born in Norwich, March 15th, 1666, married December 9th, 1686, Abigal, daughter of Samuel Lathrop, who was born in May, 1667. Her father moved to Norwich from New London, to which place he had gone from Scituate, Mass., in 1648. He was the son of the Rev. John Lathrop, who, for nonconformity, being a preacher in the First Congregational Church organized in London, was imprisoned for two years, and who, on being released in 1634, came to this country, and became the first minister of Scituate.'
"The Lathrops, from which my branch of the family was direct, also married with the other branches of the Huntingtons, making us kin of both sides, and my sister, Prescindia Lathrop Huntington, bears the family name of generations.
"My grandfather, Wm. Huntington, was born September 19th, 1757; married, February 13th, 1783, Prescindia Lathrop, and was one of the first settlers in the Black River Valley, in Northern New York. He resided at Watertown. He married for his second wife his first wife's sister, Alvira Lathrop Dresser. He died May 11th, 1842. The following is an obituary notice found in one of the Watertown papers:
"'At his residence, on the 11th inst., Wm. Huntington, in the eighty-fifth year of his age. Mr. Huntington was one of our oldest and most respected inhabitants. He was a native of Tolland, Conn., and for three or four years served in the army of the Revolution. In the year 1784 he emigrated to New Hampshire, where he resided till the year 1804, when he removed to Watertown. He was for many years a member and an officer of the Presbyterian Church.'
"'At his residence, on the 11th inst., Wm. Huntington, in the eighty-fifth year of his age. Mr. Huntington was one of our oldest and most respected inhabitants. He was a native of Tolland, Conn., and for three or four years served in the army of the Revolution. In the year 1784 he emigrated to New Hampshire, where he resided till the year 1804, when he removed to Watertown. He was for many years a member and an officer of the Presbyterian Church.'
"Before his death, however, my grandfather was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He always spoke of Samuel Huntington, the signer of the Declaration of Independence, as his Uncle Samuel."
This genealogical record is given to illustrate the numerous Puritan and Revolutionary relations of the leading families of the Mormon people, and to emphasize the unparalleled outrage of the repeated exile of such descendants—exiles at last from American civilization. How exact has been the resemblance of their history to that of their Pilgrim fathers and mothers!
But the decided connection of the Huntingtons with the Mormon people was in William Huntington, the father of sisters Zina and Prescindia, who for many years was a presiding High Priest of the Church, being a member of the High Council.
This Wm. Huntington was also a patriot, and served in the war with Great Britain, in 1812.
The sisters Zina and Prescindia, with their brothers, were raised fourteen miles east of Sackett's Harbor, where the last battle was fought between the British and Americans, in that war; so that the Revolutionary history of their country formed a peculiarly interesting theme to the "young folks" of the Huntington family. Indeed their brother, Dimock, at the period of the exodus of the Mormons from Nauvoo, had so much of the blood of the patriots in his veins that he at once enlisted in the service of his country in the war with Mexico—being a soldier in the famous Mormon battalion.
Prescindia Lathrop Huntington, the eldest of these two illustrious sisters, was born in Watertown, Jefferson county, N. Y., September 7th, 1810, and was her mother's fourth child; Zina Diantha was born at the same place, January 31st, 1821.
Prescindia is a woman of very strong character; and her life has been marked with great decision and self-reliance, both in thought and purpose. She was also endowed with a large, inspired mind—the gifts of prophesy, speaking in tongues, and the power to heal and comfort the sick, being quite pre-eminent in her apostolic life. In appearance she is the very counterpart of the Eliza Huntington whose likeness is published in the book of the Huntington family. A mother in Israel is Sister Prescindia, and the type of one of the Puritan mothers in the olden time. She was sealed to Joseph Smith, and for many years was one of the wives of the famous Heber C. Kimball.
Mother Huntington was also an exemplary saint. She died a victim of the persecutions, when the saints were driven from Missouri, and deserves to be enshrined as a martyr among her people. Her name was Zina Baker, born May 2d, 1786, in Plainfield, Cheshire county, N. H., and married to Wm. Huntington, December 28, 1806. Her father was one of the first physicians in New Hampshire, and her mother, Diantha Dimock, was descended from the noble family of Dymocks, whose representatives held the hereditary knight-championship of England—instance Sir Edward Dymock, Queen Elizabeth's champion.
Mother Huntington was a woman of great faith. "She believed that God would hear and answer prayer in behalf of the sick. The gift of healing was with her before the gospel was restored in its fullness."
Thus testify her daughters of their mother, whose spirit of faith was also instilled into their own hearts, preparing them to receive the gospel of a great spiritual dispensation, and for that apostolic calling among the sick, to which their useful lives have been greatly devoted.
Father and Mother Huntington had both been strict Presbyterians; but about the time of the organization of the Latter-day Church he withdrew from the congregation, which had become divided over church forms, and commenced an earnest examination of the Scriptures for himself. To his astonishment he discovered that there was no church extant, to his knowledge, according to the ancient pattern, with apostles and prophets, nor any possessing the gifts and powers of the ancient gospel. For the next three years he was as a watcher for the coming of an apostolic mission, when one day Elder Joseph Wakefield brought to his house the Book of Mormon. Soon his family embraced the Latter-day faith, rejoicing in the Lord. Himself and wife, and his son Dimock and his wife, with "Zina D.," then only a maiden, were the first of the family baptized. Zina was baptized by Hyrum Smith, in Watertown, August 1st, 1835.
Prescindia at that time was living with her husband at Loraine, a little village eighteen miles from her native place, when her mother, in the summer of 1835, brought to her the Book of Mormon and her first intelligence of the Mormon prophet. She gathered to Kirtland in May, 1836, and was baptized on the 6th of the following June, and was confirmed by Oliver Cowdry.
"In Kirtland," she says, "we enjoyed many very great blessings, and often saw the power of God manifested. On one occasion I saw angels clothed in white walking upon the temple. It was during one of our monthly fast meetings, when the saints were in the temple worshipping. A little girl came to my door and in wonder called me out, exclaiming, 'The meeting is on the top of the meeting house!' I went to the door, and there I saw on the temple angels clothed in white covering the roof from end to end. They seemed to be walking to and fro; they appeared and disappeared. The third time they appeared and disappeared before I realized that they were not mortal men. Each time in a moment they vanished, and their reappearance was the same. This was in broad daylight, in the afternoon. A number of the children in Kirtland saw the same.
"When the brethren and sisters came home in the evening, they told of the power of God manifested in the temple that day, and of the prophesying and speaking in tongues. It was also said, in the interpretation of tongues, 'That the angels were resting down upon the house.'
"At another fast meeting I was in the temple with my sister Zina. The whole of the congregation were on their knees, praying vocally, for such was the custom at the close of these meetings when Father Smith presided; yet there was no confusion; the voices of the congregation mingled softly together. While the congregation was thus praying, we both heard, from one corner of the room above our heads, a choir of angels singing most beautifully. They were invisible to us, but myriads of angelic voices seemed to be united in singing some song of Zion, and their sweet harmony filled the temple of God.
"We were also in the temple at the pentecost. In the morning Father Smith prayed for a pentecost, in opening the meeting. That day the power of God rested mightily upon the saints. There was poured out upon us abundantly the spirit of revelation, prophesy and tongues. The Holy Ghost filled the house; and along in the afternoon a noise was heard. It was the sound of a mighty rushing wind. But at first the congregation was startled, not knowing what it was. To many it seemed as though the roof was all in flames. Father Smith exclaimed, 'Is the house on fire!'
"'Do you not remember your prayer this morning, Father Smith?' inquired a brother.
"Then the patriarch, clasping his hands, exclaimed, 'The spirit of God, like a mighty rushing wind!'
"At another time a cousin of ours came to visit us at Kirtland. She wanted to go to one of the saints' fast meetings, to hear some one sing or speak in tongues, but she said she expected to have a hearty laugh.
"Accordingly we went with our cousin to the meeting, during which a Brother McCarter rose and sang a song of Zion in tongues; I arose and sang simultaneously with him the same tune and words, beginning and ending each verse in perfect unison, without varying a word. It was just as though we had sung it together a thousand times.
"After we came out of meeting, our cousin observed, 'Instead of laughing, I never felt so solemn in my life.'"
The family of Huntingtons removed with the saints from Kirtland to Far West, and passed through the scenes of the expulsion from Missouri. In this their experience was very similar to the narratives of the other sisters already given; but Sister Prescindia's visit to the prophet, in Liberty jail, must have special notice. She says:
"In the month of February, 1839, my father, with Heber C. Kimball, and Alanson Ripley, came and stayed over night with us, on their way to visit the prophet and brethren in Liberty jail. I was invited to go with them.
"When we arrived at the jail we found a heavy guard outside and inside the door. We were watched very closely, lest we should leave tools to help the prisoners escape.
"I took dinner with the brethren in prison; they were much pleased to see the faces of true friends; but I cannot describe my feelings on seeing that man of God there confined in such a trying time for the saints, when his counsel was so much needed. And we were obliged to leave them in that horrid prison, surrounded by a wicked mob.
"While in prison, the brethren were presented with human flesh to eat. My brother, Wm. Huntington, tasted before the word could be passed from Joseph to him. It was the flesh of a colored man.
"After my second visit to the prison, with Frederick G. Williams, the prophet addressed to me the following letter:
"'LIBERTY JAIL, March 15th, 1839."'DEAR SISTER:"'My heart rejoiced at the friendship you manifested in requesting to have conversation with us; but the jailer is a very jealous man, for fear some one will have tools for us to get out with. He is under the eye of the mob continually, and his life is at stake if he grants us any privilege. He will not let us converse with any one alone."'O what a joy it would be for us to see our friends. It would have gladdened my heart to have had the privilege of conversing with you; but the hand of tyranny is upon us; but thanks be to God, it cannot last always; and he that sitteth in the heavens will laugh at their calamity and mock when their fear cometh."'We feel, dear sister, that our bondage is not of long duration. I trust that I shall have the chance to give such instructions as have been communicated to us, before long; and as you wanted some instruction from us, and also to give us some information, and administer consolation to us, and to find out what is best for you to do, I think that many of the brethren, if they will be pretty still, can stay in this country until the indignation is over and passed. But I think it will be better for Brother Buell to leave and go with the rest of the brethren, if he keeps the faith, and at any rate, for thus speaketh the spirit concerning him. I want him and you to know that I am your true friend."'I was glad to see you. No tongue can tell what inexpressible joy it gives a man to see the face of one who has been a friend, after having been inclosed in the walls of a prison for five months. It seems to me my heart will always be more tender after this than ever it was before."'My heart bleeds continually when I contemplate the distress of the Church. O that I could be with them; I would not shrink at toil and hardship to render them comfort and consolation. I want the blessing once more to lift my voice in the midst of the saints. I would pour out my soul to God for their instruction. It has been the plan of the devil to hamper and distress me from the beginning, to keep me from explaining myself to them, and I never have had opportunity to give them the plan that God has revealed to me. Many have run without being sent, crying, 'Tidings, my Lord,' and have caused injury to the Church, giving the adversary more power over them that walk by sight and not by faith. Our trouble will only give us that knowledge to understand the mind of the ancients. For my part I think I never could have felt as I now do if I had not suffered the wrongs which I have suffered. All things shall work together for good to them that love God."'Beloved sister, we see that perilous times have truly come, and the things which we have so long expected have at last begun to usher in; but when you see the fig tree begin to put forth its leaves, you may know that the summer is nigh at hand. There will be a short work on the earth; it has now commenced. I suppose there will soon be perplexity all over the earth. Do not let our hearts faint when these things come upon us, for they must come or the word cannot be fulfilled. I know that something will soon take place to stir up this generation to see what they have been doing, and that their fathers have inherited lies, and they have been led captive by the devil to no profit. But they know not what they do. Do not have any feeling of enmity towards any son or daughter of Adam. I believe I shall be let out of their hands some way or other, and shall see good days. We cannot do anything, only stand still and see the salvation of God. He must do his own work or it must fall to the ground. We must not take it in our hands to avenge our wrongs. 'Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord; I will repay.' I have no fears; I shall stand unto death, God being my helper."'I wanted to communicate something, and I wrote this. Write to us if you can.&c.,"'J. SMITH, JR.'"
"'LIBERTY JAIL, March 15th, 1839.
"'DEAR SISTER:
"'My heart rejoiced at the friendship you manifested in requesting to have conversation with us; but the jailer is a very jealous man, for fear some one will have tools for us to get out with. He is under the eye of the mob continually, and his life is at stake if he grants us any privilege. He will not let us converse with any one alone.
"'O what a joy it would be for us to see our friends. It would have gladdened my heart to have had the privilege of conversing with you; but the hand of tyranny is upon us; but thanks be to God, it cannot last always; and he that sitteth in the heavens will laugh at their calamity and mock when their fear cometh.
"'We feel, dear sister, that our bondage is not of long duration. I trust that I shall have the chance to give such instructions as have been communicated to us, before long; and as you wanted some instruction from us, and also to give us some information, and administer consolation to us, and to find out what is best for you to do, I think that many of the brethren, if they will be pretty still, can stay in this country until the indignation is over and passed. But I think it will be better for Brother Buell to leave and go with the rest of the brethren, if he keeps the faith, and at any rate, for thus speaketh the spirit concerning him. I want him and you to know that I am your true friend.
"'I was glad to see you. No tongue can tell what inexpressible joy it gives a man to see the face of one who has been a friend, after having been inclosed in the walls of a prison for five months. It seems to me my heart will always be more tender after this than ever it was before.
"'My heart bleeds continually when I contemplate the distress of the Church. O that I could be with them; I would not shrink at toil and hardship to render them comfort and consolation. I want the blessing once more to lift my voice in the midst of the saints. I would pour out my soul to God for their instruction. It has been the plan of the devil to hamper and distress me from the beginning, to keep me from explaining myself to them, and I never have had opportunity to give them the plan that God has revealed to me. Many have run without being sent, crying, 'Tidings, my Lord,' and have caused injury to the Church, giving the adversary more power over them that walk by sight and not by faith. Our trouble will only give us that knowledge to understand the mind of the ancients. For my part I think I never could have felt as I now do if I had not suffered the wrongs which I have suffered. All things shall work together for good to them that love God.
"'Beloved sister, we see that perilous times have truly come, and the things which we have so long expected have at last begun to usher in; but when you see the fig tree begin to put forth its leaves, you may know that the summer is nigh at hand. There will be a short work on the earth; it has now commenced. I suppose there will soon be perplexity all over the earth. Do not let our hearts faint when these things come upon us, for they must come or the word cannot be fulfilled. I know that something will soon take place to stir up this generation to see what they have been doing, and that their fathers have inherited lies, and they have been led captive by the devil to no profit. But they know not what they do. Do not have any feeling of enmity towards any son or daughter of Adam. I believe I shall be let out of their hands some way or other, and shall see good days. We cannot do anything, only stand still and see the salvation of God. He must do his own work or it must fall to the ground. We must not take it in our hands to avenge our wrongs. 'Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord; I will repay.' I have no fears; I shall stand unto death, God being my helper.
"'I wanted to communicate something, and I wrote this. Write to us if you can.
&c.,
"'J. SMITH, JR.'"
This letter to Sister Prescindia, which has never before been published, gives an excellent example of the spirit and style of the prophet. It will be read with interest, even by the anti-Mormon. Himself in prison, and his people even at that moment passing through their expulsion, what passages for admiration are these:
"Do not have any feelings of enmity towards any son or daughter of Adam." "They know not what they do!" "We must not take it in our hands to avenge our wrongs. Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord; I will repay." "I have no fears; I shall stand unto death, God being my helper!"
Like his divine Master this; "Father, forgive them; they know not what they do!" A great heart, indeed, had Joseph, and a spirit exalted with noble aims and purposes.
When Sister Prescindia returned to Far West, her father and mother, with her sister Zina, had started in the exodus of the saints from Missouri to Illinois. She says:
"I never saw my mother again. I felt alone on the earth, with no one to comfort me, excepting my little son, George, for my husband had become a bitter apostate, and I could not speak in favor of the Church in his presence. There was by this time not one true saint in the State of Missouri, to my knowledge."
Sister Zina says: "On the 18th of April, 1839, I left Far West, with my father, mother, and two younger brothers, and arrived at Quincy, Ill., on the 25th of April, and from thence to Commerce, afterwards called Nauvoo, which we reached on the 14th of May.
"Joseph, the prophet, had just escaped from prison in Missouri, and the saints were gathering to Nauvoo. My brother Dimock was also in Illinois, living at Judge Cleveland's.
"On the 24th of June my dear mother was taken sick with a congestive chill. About three hours afterwards she called me to her bedside and said:
"'Zina, my time has come to die. You will live many years; but O, how lonesome father will be. I am not afraid to die. All I dread is the mortal suffering. I shall come forth triumphant when the Saviour comes with the just to meet the saints on the earth.'
"The next morning I was taken sick; and in a few days my father and brother Oliver were also prostrate. My youngest brother, John, twelve years of age, was the only one left that could give us a drink of water; but the prophet sent his adopted daughter to assist us in our affliction, and saw to our being taken care of, as well as circumstances would permit—for there were hundreds, lying in tents and wagons, who needed care as much as we. Once Joseph came himself and made us tea with his own hands, and comforted the sick and dying.
"Early in the morning of the 8th of July, 1839, just before the sun had risen, the spirit of my blessed mother took its flight, without her moving a muscle, or even the quiver of the lip.
"Only two of the family could follow the remains to their resting place. O, who can tell the anguish of the hearts of the survivors, who knew not whose turn it would be to follow next?
"Thus died my martyred mother! The prophet Joseph often said that the saints who died in the persecutions were as much martyrs of the Church as was the apostle David Patten, who was killed in the defence of the saints, or those who were massacred at Haun's Mill. And my beloved mother was one of the many bright martyrs of the Church in those dark and terrible days of persecution."
WOMAN'S WORK IN CANADA AND GREAT BRITAIN—HEBER C. KIMBALL'S PROPHESY—PARLEY P. PRATT'S SUCCESSFUL MISSION TO CANADA—A BLIND WOMAN MIRACULOUSLY HEALED—DISTINGUISHED WOMEN OF THAT PERIOD.
By this time (1840, the period of the founding of Nauvoo), the Church has had a remarkable history in Canada and Great Britain. To these missions we must now go for some of our representative women, and also to extend our view of Mormonism throughout the world.
Brigham Young was the first of the elders who took Mormonism into Canada, soon after his entrance into the Church. There he raised up several branches, and gathered a few families to Kirtland; but it was not until the apostle Parley P. Pratt took his successful and almost romantic mission to Canada, that Mormonism flourished in the British Province, and from there spread over to Great Britain, like an apostolic wave.
Presently we shall see that the romance of Mormonism has centred around the sisters abroad as well as at home. Frequently we shall see them the characters which first come to view; the first prepared for the great spiritual work of the age; the first to receive the elders with their tidings of the advent of a prophet and the administration of angels, after the long night of spiritual darkness, and centuries of angelic silence; and were it possible to trace their every footstep in the wonderful work abroad, we should find that the sisters have been effective missionaries of the Church, and that, in some sections, they have been instrumental in making more disciples than even the elders.
Here is the opening of the story of Parley P. Pratt's mission to Canada, in which a woman immediately comes to the foreground in a famous prophesy:
"It was now April" (1836). "I had retired to rest," says he, "one evening, at an early hour, and was pondering my future course, when there came a knock at the door. I arose and opened it, when Heber C. Kimball and others entered my house, and being filled with the spirit of prophesy, they blessed me and my wife, and prophesied as follows: 'Brother Parley, thy wife shall be healed from this hour, and shall bear a son, and his name shall be Parley; and he shall be a chosen instrument in the hands of the Lord to inherit the priesthood and to walk in the steps of his father. He shall do a great work in the earth in ministering the word and teaching the children of men. Arise, therefore, and go forth in the ministry, nothing doubting. Take no thought for your debts, nor the necessaries of life, for the Lord will supply you with abundant means for all things.
"'Thou shalt go to Upper Canada, even to the city of Toronto, the capital, and there thou shalt find a people prepared for the fullness of the gospel, and they shall receive thee, and thou shalt organize the Church among them, and it shall spread thence into the regions round about, and many shall be brought to the knowledge of the truth, and shall be filled with joy; and 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.'
"This prophesy was the more marvelous, because being married near ten years we had never had any children; and for near six years my wife had been consumptive, and had been considered incurable. However, we called to mind the faith of Abraham of old, and judging Him faithful who had promised, we took courage.
"I now began in earnest to prepare for the mission, and in a few days all was ready. Taking an affectionate leave of my wife, mother and friends, I started for Canada, in company with a Brother Nickerson, who kindly offered to bear expenses."
Away to Canada with Parley. We halt with him in the neighborhood of Hamilton. He is an entire stranger in the British Province, and without money. He knows not what to do. His narrative thus continues:
"The spirit seemed to whisper to me to try the Lord, and see if anything was too hard for him, that I might know and trust him under all circumstances. I retired to a secret place in a forest, and prayed to the Lord for money to enable me to cross the lake. I then entered Hamilton, and commenced to chat with some of the people. I had not tarried many minutes before I was accosted by a stranger, who inquired my name and where I was going. He also asked me if I did not want some money. I said yes. He then gave me ten dollars, and a letter of introduction to John Taylor, of Toronto, where I arrived the same evening.
"Mrs. Taylor received me kindly, and went for her husband, who was busy in his mechanic shop. To them I made known my errand to the city, but received little direct encouragement. I took tea with them, and then sought lodgings at a public house."
Already had he met in Canada a woman destined to bear a representative name in the history of her people, for she is none other than the wife of the afterwards famous apostle John Taylor. She is the first to receive him into her house; and the apostolic story still continues the woman in the foreground:
"In the morning," he says, "I commenced a regular visit to each of the clergy of the place, introducing myself and my errand. I was absolutely refused hospitality, and denied the opportunity of preaching in any of their houses or congregations. Rather an unpromising beginning, thought I, considering the prophesies on my head concerning Toronto. However, nothing daunted, I applied to the sheriff for the use of the court-house, and then to the authorities for a public room in the market-place; but with no better success. What could I do more? I had exhausted my influence and power without effect. I now repaired to a pine grove just out of the town, and, kneeling down, called on the Lord, bearing testimony of my unsuccessful exertions; my inability to open the way; at the same time asking him in the name of Jesus to open an effectual door for his servant to fulfill his mission in that place.
"I then arose and again entered the town, and going to the house of John Taylor, had placed my hand on my baggage to depart from a place where I could do no good, when a few inquiries on the part of Mr. Taylor, inspired by a degree of curiosity or of anxiety, caused a few moments' delay, during which a lady by the name of Walton entered the house, and, being an acquaintance of Mrs. Taylor, was soon engaged in conversation with her in an adjoining room. I overheard the following:
"'Mrs. Walton, I am glad to see you; there is a gentleman here from the United States who says the Lord sent him to this city to preach the gospel. He has applied in vain to the clergy and to the various authorities for opportunity to fulfill, his mission, and is now about to leave the place. He may be a man of God; I am sorry to have him depart.'
"'Indeed!' said the lady; 'well, I now understand the feelings and spirit which brought me to your house at this time. I have been busy over the wash-tub and too weary to take a walk; but I felt impressed to walk out. I then thought I would make a call on my sister, the other side of town; but passing your door, the spirit bade me go in; but I said to myself, I will go in when I return; but the spirit said, go in now. I accordingly came in, and I am thankful that I did so. Tell the stranger he is welcome to my house. I am a widow; but I have a spare room and bed, and food in plenty. He shall have a home at my house, and two large rooms to preach in just when he pleases. Tell him I will send my son John over to pilot him to my house, while I go and gather my relatives and friends to come in this very evening and hear him talk; for I feel by the spirit that he is a man sent by the Lord with a message which will do us good.'
"The evening found me quietly seated at her house," says Parley, "in the midst of a number of listeners, who were seated around a large work table in her parlor, and deeply interested in conversation like the following:
"'Mr. Pratt, we have for some years been anxiously looking for some providential event which would gather the sheep into one fold; build up the true Church as in days of old, and prepare the humble followers of the Lamb, now scattered and divided, to receive their coming Lord when he shall descend to reign on the earth. As soon as Mrs. Taylor spoke of you I felt assured, as by a strange and unaccountable presentiment, that you were a messenger, with important tidings on these subjects; and I was constrained to invite you here; and now we are all here anxiously waiting to hear your words.'
"'Well, Mrs. Walton, I will frankly relate to you and your friends the particulars of my message am the nature of my commission. A young man the State of New York, whose name is Joseph Smith, was visited by an angel of God, and, after several visions and much instruction, was enabled to obtain an ancient record, written by men of old on the American continent, and containing the history, prophesies and gospel in plainness, as revealed to them by Jesus and his messengers. This same Joseph Smith and others, were also commissioned by the angels in these visions, and ordained to the apostleship, with authority to organize a church, to administer the ordinances, and to ordain others, and thus cause the full, plain gospel in its purity, to be preached in all the world.
"'By these apostles thus commissioned, I have been ordained as an apostle, and sent forth by the word of prophesy to minister the baptism of repentance for remission of sins, in the name of Jesus Christ; and to administer the gift of the Holy Ghost, to heal the sick, to comfort the mourner, bind up the broken in heart, and proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.
"'I was also directed to this city by the spirit of the Lord, with a promise that I should find a people here prepared to receive the gospel, and should organize them in the same. But when I came and was rejected by all parties, I was about to leave the city; but the Lord sent you, a widow, to receive me, as I was about to depart; and thus I was provided for like Elijah of old. And now I bless your house, and all your family and kindred, in his name. Your sins shall be forgiven you; you shall understand and obey the gospel, and be filled with the Holy Ghost; for so great faith have I never seen in any of my country.'
"'Well, Mr. Pratt, this is precisely the message we were waiting for; we believe your words and are desirous to be baptized.'
"'It is your duty and privilege,' said I; 'but wait yet a little while till I have an opportunity to teach others, with whom you are religiously connected, and invite them to partake with you of the same blessings.'"
Next comes a great miracle—the opening of the eyes of the blind—which seems to have created quite a sensation in Canada; and still the woman is the subject. The apostle continues:
"After conversing with these interesting persons till a late hour, we retired to rest. Next day Mrs. Walton requested me to call on a friend of hers, who was also a widow in deep affliction, being totally blind with inflammation in the eyes; she had suffered extreme pain for several months, and had also been reduced to want, having four little children to support. She had lost her husband, of cholera, two years before, and had sustained herself and family by teaching school until deprived of sight, since which, she had been dependent on the Methodist society; herself and children being then a public charge. Mrs. Walton sent her little daughter of twelve years old to show me the way. I called on the poor blind widow and helpless orphans, and found them in a dark and gloomy apartment, rendered more so by having every ray of light obscured to prevent its painful effects on her eyes. I related to her the circumstances of my mission, and she believed the same. I laid my hands upon her in the name of Jesus Christ, and said unto her, 'Your eyes shall be well from this very hour.' She threw off her bandages—opened her house to the light—dressed herself, and walking with open eyes, came to the meeting that same evening at Sister Walton's, with eyes as well and as bright as any other persons.
"The Methodist society were now relieved of their burthen in the person of this widow and four orphans. This remarkable miracle was soon noised abroad, and the poor woman's house was thronged from all parts of the city and country with visitors; all curious to witness for themselves, and to inquire of her how her eyes were healed.
"'How did the man heal your eyes?' 'What did he do?—tell us,' were questions so oft repeated that the woman, wearied of replying, came to me for advice to know what she should do. I advised her to tell them that the Lord had healed her, and to give him the glory, and let that suffice. But still they teased her for particulars. 'What did this man do?' 'How were your eyes opened and made well?'