In ancient times there were certain great decrees which the Lord of
all the earth made concerning this Continent and the inhabitants that
should, from time to time, possess the same. This Continent was first
settled, after the Flood, by a colony from the Tower of Babel, who
were a righteous people. They were a people with whom God conversed,
and to whom He made Himself manifest in a very wonderful and
marvelous manner. How many people lived here before the Flood is not
for me to say, as it is not revealed. We may, however, observe, that
so far as new revelation has given us information on this subject,
this Continent of ours may be ranked among the first lands occupied by
the human family. The very first man who had dominion on the face of
the earth, under the direction of the Heavens, once dwelt on this
Continent. His name was Adam. Whether his first residence was on this
land, whether the garden that was planted for his occupation was on
this Continent, or some other, is not revealed in any written or
printed revelation. But he certainly did, in the course of his
lifetime, either from this being his native land, or by emigration,
actually come in possession of this part of the globe; and a large
settlement was formed, and the righteous who lived before the flood
inherited it, and no doubt, left their blessing on the land. It was
here where Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch,
Methuselah and Noah dwelt. It was on this land where Noah built his
ark, which was blown by the winds of Heaven away to the east, and
landed on Ararat. It was here where Enoch preached and published glad
tidings of great joy; it was on this land—the American Continent—where
he gathered the people from many nations, and built up a city and
called it Zion. It was here where the people of God flourished before
the flood, and were of one heart and one mind, having an experience of
some three hundred and sixty-five years in order to bring
about a sufficient degree of righteousness and faith to be taken away
from here and translated to some other region. It was here where Enoch
was clothed upon with the power of God to that degree that he was
enabled to publish to the inhabitants of the earth things that were
before his day, even from before the foundation of the world, and also
to prophesy of things that should transpire from his day down to the
end of the world. It was here that he continued his preaching to the
inhabitants of the city of Zion until he made them so acquainted with
the law of God, and inspired them with such faith that the earth could
not contain them. It was by his faith and the faith of his people that
the very elements around him felt the power of God; and when he spake
the word of the Lord the earth upon which he stood trembled and shook
by the power of the Almighty, and the mountains fled from before his
presence, and the great rivers of this Continent were turned out of
their courses, and all things seemed to feel the power of the Lord.
Even a new land came up out of the great deep, and so fearful were the
enemies of the people of God, and so great was the terror of the Lord
upon them, that they left this country and went forth upon the face of
the waters and occupied the land that came up out of the deep. These
things are not revealed to us by the Bible, or by tradition, but by
the inspiration of the Almighty through that great modern prophet who
was raised up to commence this marvelous work of which you and I are
now partakers.
A few hundred years after all these things had transpired on this
Continent, and Noah and his family, the only survivors of the Flood,
had been wafted away to distant lands, and had peopled a portion of
Asia, the descendants of Noah undertook to build a great tower that
they might make themselves a great name, instead of fulfilling the
purposes of the Almighty, in spreading forth, and occupying and
subduing the earth. The Lord was very much displeased with them on
that occasion, because of the wickedness that existed in their midst,
which was calculated to be strengthened through their unity. Hence He
made a decree, according to the old Book—the Bible, that they should
not dwell thus, together. He confounded their language, and swore in
His wrath that they should be scattered. A portion of the people from
that tower came to this Continent.
There is something very remarkable in connection with the colonization
of our Continent by people from that tower. I said they were a
righteous people. Perhaps this may surprise some, especially if they
have drawn the conclusion that all the people who engaged in building
of that tower were wicked. But there were some few families among
them who served the Lord their God, and when they learned the decree
of Jehovah, that their language was to be confounded, and the people
scattered to the four winds of heaven, they had considerable anxiety
on the subject. They were anxious that they might be favored of the
Lord and that He would lead them to a choice portion of the earth.
They made it a subject of earnest prayer, and God heard them, and the
language of the righteous portion of the people was not confounded.
And God gave them a commandment to go down from the tower to a valley
that was northward, called the valley of Nimrod, named after a mighty
hunter who existed in those days. After they had come down into this
valley by the command of the Lord they collected seeds and
grain of every kind, and animals of almost every description, among
which, no doubt, were the elephant and the curelom and the cumom, very
huge animals that existed in those days, and after traveling and
crossing, we suppose, the sea that was east of where the Tower of
Babel stood, and traveling through the wilderness many days, with
their flocks and herds, their grain and substance, they eventually
came to the great Pacific ocean, on the eastern borders of China or
somewhere in that region. They were commanded of the Lord to build
vessels. They went to work and constructed eight barges. They did not
understand the art of Navigation as we do in these days. They had no
astronomical instruments by which they could ascertain the altitude of
the sun, or the altitude of the moon and stars, by which they could
determine their position on the great and mighty ocean. But the same
God who had led them from the Tower of Babel and had gone before them
in a bright cloud by day, and had hovered over their camp and had
directed them in their journey through the wilderness, was their
navigator in crossing the ocean. They entered these eight barges,
about the construction of which it may be well to say a few words. A
great many opposers of the Book of Mormon, in reading the account of
these vessels, have really supposed that there was an insurmountable
difficulty connected with the building of these barges because there
happened to be a hole in the top, and another hole constructed in the
bottom to enable the beings shut up in them to be watertight. These
vessels were built, not in the form of a tea saucer as has been
represented by some "anti-Mormons" in their discussions; but the Book
of Mormon informs us that they were peaked at the ends, and enlarged
as they came to the middle, and they were tight like a dish on the
water, and were very light, like to the lightness of a fowl. They were
exceedingly strong, and the length of a tree. This is a phrase very
similar to one used by Isaiah who says, "the age of His people shall
be as the age of a tree." Isaiah does not say what kind of a tree. It
was simply a way the ancients had of comparing a great many things.
Now these vessels were so constructed that when furious winds should
blow upon the face of the great deep, and the waves should roll
mountains high they could without imminent danger plunge beneath the
waves, and be brought up again to the surface of the water during
tremendous hurricanes and storms. Now to prepare them against these
contingencies, and that they might have fresh air for the benefit of
the elephants, cureloms or mammoths and many other animals, that
perhaps were in them, as well as the human beings they contained, the
Lord told them how to construct them in order to receive air, that
when they were on the top of the water, whichever side up their
vessels happened to be, it mattered not; they were so constructed that
they could ride safely, though bottom upwards and they could open
their air holes that happened to be uppermost. Now all our ships at
the present day are constructed with holes in the bottom as well as in
the top. I have crossed the ocean twelve times, but I never saw a ship
yet that did not have a hole in the bottom for the convenience of
passengers, and it is one of the simplest things in the world to have
holes in the bottom of a ship if you only have tubes running up
sufficiently high above the general water mark. These were so
constructed that when the waves were not running too high, air could
be admitted through unstopping the holes which happened to be
uppermost.
But the most wonderful thing concerning the first colonization of this
country after the flood was the way that they navigated the great
Pacific ocean. Only think for a few moments of the Lord our God taking
eight barges, launched on the eastern coast of China, and bringing
them a voyage of three hundred and forty-four days and landing them
all in the same neighborhood and vicinity and at the same time. This
was a miracle. This was not done by the aid of steam, or by the
navigator's art, but it was by the power of the Almighty God. He it
was who controlled these vessels; He it was who governed the winds of
heaven; He it was who brought them up out of the midst of the deep,
when they were swallowed up, and He it was who guided them safely to
this American shore.
They landed to the south of this, just below the Gulf of California,
on our western coast. They inhabited North America, and spread forth
on this Continent, and in the course of some sixteen hundred years'
residence here, they became a mighty and powerful nation. Although
they became a great and mighty people, they were oftentimes very much
chastened because of their sins. Here let me observe that before they
arrived on this land the Lord said to them, "I design to lead you
forth to a land that is choice above all other lands on the face of
the whole earth; and this is my decree concerning the land which you
are to occupy, that whatever nation shall possess the land from this
time henceforth and forever shall serve me, the only true and living
God, or they shall be swept off from the face thereof when they are
fully ripened in their iniquity." The Jaredites had this decree before
them, before they set foot on this Continent. It was before them
during the whole term of their existence here, that inasmuch as they
would serve God they would be prospered, and inasmuch as they would
not serve Him great judgments were upon them. Hence they were
afflicted oftentimes because of their wickedness. On a certain
occasion there were a very few individuals, Omer and his family and
some few of his friends, that were righteous enough to be spared out
of a whole nation. The Lord warned them by a dream to depart from the
land of Moran, and led them forth in an easterly direction beyond the
hill Cumorah, down into the eastern countries upon the seashore. By
this means a few families were saved, while all the balance,
consisting of millions of people, were overthrown because of their
wickedness. But after they were destroyed the Omerites, who dwelt in
the New England States, returned again and dwelt in the land of their
fathers on the western coast.
I merely mention these things to show how the Lord operated among the
first nations of the old inhabitants of this country, in order to
fulfill His decrees. They could not fall into wickedness, and still be
suffered to prosper on the face of this land. The decree had gone
forth, it must be fulfilled. Finally, some sixteen or seventeen
centuries after they landed here, they became so violently wicked, and
transgressed the commandments of the Lord to that degree that they
were really swept off to a man. The whole nation perished. Their
greatest and last struggles were in the State of New York, near where
the plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated were found. There they fought day after day; there they struggled, one
party against the other until millions were swept off. Only one man
survived his nation for a very short space of time to see the
fulfillment of a prophecy that was uttered by a great and mighty
prophet that lived in those days, who stated that he should be
permitted, after his nation was destroyed, to behold the colonization
of the land by another people. This man, whose name was Coriantumr,
King of a certain portion of the Jaredites, after the destruction of
his nation, wandered, solitary and alone, down towards the Isthmus of
Darien, and there he became acquainted with a colony of people brought
from the land of Jerusalem, called the people of Zarahemla. He dwelt
with them for the space of nine moons, and then he died.
After the destruction of the Jaredites, the Lord brought two other
colonies to people this land. One colony landed a few hundred miles
north of the Isthmus on the western coast; the other landed on the
coast of Chile, upwards of two thousand miles south of them. The
latter were called the Nephites and Lamanites. It was some four or
five centuries after these two colonies came from Jerusalem and
occupied the country before they amalgamated. A little over one
century before Christ the Nephites united with the Zarahemlaites in
the northern portions of South America, and were called Nephites and
became a powerful nation. The country was called the land Bountiful,
and included within the land of Zarahemla. But to go back to their
early history. Shortly after the Nephite colony was brought by the
power of God, and landed on the western coast of South America, in the
country we call Chile, there was a great division among them. The
righteous were threatened by the wicked who sought to destroy them.
The Lord warned Nephi, their leader, to flee from among the Lamanites,
to depart for the safety of himself and his family and those that
believed in the revelations of God. Nephi and the righteous separated
themselves from the Lamanites and traveled about eighteen hundred
miles north until they came to the head waters of what we term the
Amazon River. There Nephi located his little colony in the country
supposed to be Ecuador, a very high region, many large and elevated
mountains being in that region.
Here the Nephites flourished for some length of time. The Lamanites
followed them up and they had many wars and contentions, and finally
the Lamanites succeeded in taking away their settlements, and the
Nephites fled again some twenty days' journey to the northward and
united themselves with the people of Zarahemla.
I mention these things in order to impress one particular item upon
the minds of the Latter-day Saints concerning the inheritance or
possession of this land. The Lord not only made decrees in the early
ages with the first colonists that came here, but He renewed these
decrees every time He brought a colony here, that the people should
serve Him, or they should be cut off from His presence, and you will
find that God, in every instance, has remembered these decrees. And
there is one thing remarkable in relation to the history of these
nations, and that is the rapidity with which they departed from the
faith and righteousness and the love of the true God. Sometimes they
would, after some great judgment, or scourge had fallen upon them,
causing the death of many of them, repent and become a righteous peo ple; and God would bless them again, and they would begin
to rise up and prosper in the land. But perhaps in the course of three
or four years a people that were almost wholly righteous would turn
from their righteousness to folly, sin and wickedness, and bring down
another heavy judgment on their heads. And thus generation after
generation passed away among the former inhabitants of this land, and
they had their ups and downs. Every time the majority of the people
transgressed, a tremendous judgment would come upon them; and every
time they repented before the Lord with all their hearts, He would
turn away His wrath and begin to prosper them.
Now, these same decrees, which God made in relation to the former
nations that inhabited this country, extend to us. "Whatever nation,"
the Lord said, "shall possess this land, from this time henceforth and
forever, shall serve the only true and living God, or they shall be
swept off when the fullness of His wrath shall come upon them." Since
this ancient decree there are many nations who have come here. And
lastly Europeans have come from what is termed the old world across
the Atlantic. And lately the Chinese are beginning to come across the
Pacific, and this continent is becoming extensively peopled. Many
millions are already upon it. They have constructed many great and
populous cities and have become very powerful on the face of the land;
but they are nothing compared with the numerous hosts of the Jaredites
that once spread over all the face of North America. But yet they are
numerous, and are considered one of the most powerful nations on the
face of the whole earth; and their resources are very great, and the
prosperity which attended our fore fathers in establishing settlements
on the face of this land, in establishing a free government, with
freedom of the press and religious worship, was very great.
They imagine to themselves that this prosperity is to continue
forever, that there is to be no end to their greatness. Now I can tell
them, as I have told them ever since I was a boy, their greatness will
not protect them; their present prosperity will not protect them.
There is only one thing that will protect the nations that inhabit
North and South America, and that is to turn to the Lord their God
with all their hearts, minds and strength, and serve Him with full
purpose of heart, and cease from all their wickedness. That will
protect them. If they will do this they will spread forth and become
ten times stronger and more powerful than they have ever been, and the
Lord their God will bless them more abundantly than hitherto. But on
the other hand if they will not do these things the decree that was
made in ancient times is just as certain to be fulfilled as the sun
shines in yonder heavens.
We have seen, in a very small degree, the chastisement of the Almighty
upon the present powerful nation of which we form a part. Great has
been their chastisement in some respects; but in other respects they
hardly seem to feel it. But still look at the desolation that certain
portions of our fair country have had to endure by the depredations of
hostile armies one against another. Tens of thousands rolling in the
dust in their blood; whole towns and cities laid waste, and the
country for hundreds and hundreds of miles, as it were, in perfect
desolation. Railroads that cost millions torn up, cars and merchandise
destroyed, and the whole country involved in a debt that perhaps will require a lapse of many years before much more than the
interest on it is paid, and for which severe taxation must be imposed
on all the inhabitants of the land. And, when we include both the
North and the South, perhaps two or three millions of lives have been
lost; if not altogether lost by the weapons of war in battle, they
have perished in consequence of the difficulties and afflictions that
generally attend armies.
This great war is only a small degree of chastisement, just the
beginning; nothing compared to that which God has spoken concerning
this nation, if they will not repent. For the Lord has said in this
book, (the Book of Mormon) which has been published for thirty eight
years, that if they will not repent He will throw down all their
strongholds and cut off the cities of the land, and will execute
vengeance and fury on the nation, even as upon the heathen, such as
they have not heard. That He will send a desolating scourge on the
land; that He will leave their cities desolate, without inhabitants.
For instance the great, powerful and populous city of New York, that
may be considered one of the greatest cities of the world, will in a
few years become a mass of ruins. The people will wonder while gazing
on the ruins that cost hundreds of millions to build, what has become
of its inhabitants. Their houses will be there, but they will be left
desolate. So saith the Lord God. That will be only a sample of
numerous other towns and cities on the face of this continent.
Now I am aware that it is almost impossible for even some of the
Latter-day Saints to get that confidence and that strong faith in the
events which God intends to accomp lish on this land in the future to
believe in such a thing, to say nothing about outsiders, that do not
believe a word of it. Outsiders do not believe it any more than they
believed me when I was a boy and took that revelation which was given
in 1832, and carried it forth among many towns and cities and told
them there was to be a great and terrible war between the North and
the South, and read to them the revelation. Did they believe it? Would
they consider that there was any truth in it? Not in the least, "that
is a Mormon humbug" they would say. "What! This great and powerful
nation of ours to be divided one part against the other and many
hundreds of thousands of souls to be destroyed by civil wars!" Not a
word of it would they believe. They do not believe what is still in
the future. But there are some in this congregation who will live, to
behold the fulfillment of these other things, and will visit the ruins
of mighty towns and cities scattered over the face of this land
destitute and desolate of inhabitants. If inquiry shall then be made,
why such great destruction? The answer will be, wickedness has
destroyed them. Wickedness and corruption have brought about the
fulfillment of the ancient decrees of Heaven concerning this land.
Wickedness and corruption have brought desolation into their towns and
cities. The time will come when there will be no safety in carrying on
the peaceable pursuits of farming or agriculture. But these will be
neglected, and the people will think themselves well off if they can
flee from city to city, from town to town and escape with their lives.
Thus will the Lord visit the people, if they will not repent. Thus
will He pour out His wrath and indignation upon them and make manifest to the people that that which he has spoken must be
fulfilled.
But what shall become of this people? Shall we be swept off in the
general ruin? Shall desolation come upon us? Shall we feel the
chastening hand of the Almighty like those who will not repent? That
will depend altogether upon our conduct. We have it within our power;
God has granted it to us, to save ourselves from the desolation and
calamities that will come upon the nation. How? By doing that which is
right; by living honest before God and all men; by seeking after that
righteousness that comes through the Gospel of the Son of God; by
following after the law of Heaven; by doing unto others as we would
have others do unto us; by putting away all the evils and abominations
that are practiced by the wicked. If we do this prosperity will be
upon the inhabitants of Utah; prosperity will be upon the towns and
cities erected by this people, the hand of the Lord will be over us to
sustain us, and we will spread forth. He will multiply us in the land;
He will make us a great people, and strengthen our borders, and send
forth the missionaries of this people to the four quarters of the
earth to publish peace and glad tidings of great joy, and proclaim
that there is still a place left in the heart of the American
continent where there are peace and safety and refuge from the storms,
desolations and tribulations coming upon the wicked. But on the other
hand, Latter-day Saints, how great are the responsibilities resting
upon us and upon our rising generations. If we will not keep the
commandments of God, and if our rising generations will not give heed
to the law of God and to the great light which has shone from Heaven
in these latter days, but turn their hearts from the Lord their God
and from the counsels of His priesthood, then we shall be visited like
the wicked, then we shall have the hand of the Lord upon us in
judgment; then that saying that the Lord has delivered in the Book of
Doctrines and Covenants will be fulfilled upon us, "that I will visit
Zion, if she does not do right, with sore afflictions, with
pestilence, with sword, with famine and with the flame of devouring
fire."
New here we have the choice. It is within our reach; we can put forth
our hand after prosperity, peace and the extension of our borders, and
have all these things multiplied upon us, and the power of God within
us; His arm to encircle round about to protect us from every harm and
evil. And on the other hand we can reach forth the hand and partake of
wickedness and bring desolation and destruction upon our borders.
Which shall we do? We are agents; we are left to our own choice. God
has said that He would plead with His people. I expect that He will.
"I will plead," saith the Lord, "with the strong ones of Zion until
she overcomes and is clean before me." There is some consolation in
reading this declaration of the Lord. Though we have to receive great
chastisement, though He has to plead with us by judgment,
tribulation, famine, by the sword and by the vengeance of devouring
fire, yet after all, when He has afflicted this people sufficiently,
there will be some few that will be spared and will become clean
before the Lord.
It is quite a consolation to read that the armies of Israel will
eventually become sanctified, and as clear as the sun, as fair as the
moon, and that their banners will become terrible to the nations of
the wicked. Yet we may have to pass through, by our own
wickedness, many calamities that may overtake us. I hope not; but I do
not know. I may say that my hopes are strengthened in regard to this
matter, for what do I behold here in this Territory? I behold a people
that have been willing to sacrifice all that they have for the sake of
the Gospel; that have been willing to forsake their native kingdoms
and countries and to journey by sea and by land to come here to serve
God. I see a people, the majority of whom are willing to give heed to
the counsels of the servants of God that are in their midst. Hence I
look for peace and prosperity, hence I look for the arm of the Lord to
be extended in behalf of this people so long as there is a majority of
them who desire to do right, so long as there is a majority who feel
to unite their hearts to carry out the great principles of eternal
truth and righteousness that have been revealed. So long will the
Heavens be propitious, and we shall find favor in the sight of the
Most High. But remember the inhabitants who once dwelt on the land;
remember their afflictions and their calamities; remember that
judgments were poured out upon them because they would not be
obedient. Let them be an everlasting lesson to us who live in these
latter times. Let us serve God and we shall be blest, we shall prosper
if we keep His commandments. Amen.