| 295 keep his commandments, and that the promises are unto the faithful, and the reward unto those that endure unto the end.
"And in the name of the Lord of hosts, I call upon all the inhabitants of the earth to repent, believe, and be baptized, for the time cometh when the judgments of God are to be poured out upon all nations, and the besom of God's wrath shall smoke through the land; when men shall know that there is a God in Israel, and he is mighty to punish or to save; that the prayers of those under the altar have been heard, and a swift retribution is to come, when the despoiler will be despoiled; when those who denied justice shall be judged, and the measure meted unto others shall be meted unto them; when the prisoner shall go free, the oppressed be redeemed, and all Israel shall cry, 'Glory to God in the highest be given, for he that is long-suffering and slow to anger, has arisen, and shall bring again Zion.' Amen and amen.
JOSEPH SMITH
"President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
"NAUVOO, Ill., JULY 19, 1861."
-True Latter Day Saints' Herald, vol. 2, pp. 121--124.
Those who have watched anxiously the progress of the work can but admit that the young prophet had grasped the situation. More than thirty-five years of severe test against an opposition bold and unscrupulous has but demonstrated the wisdom of his position regarding both doctrine and practice. Of those who heard that rallying cry, sounding in no uncertain tones out of the chaos of confusion into which latter-day Israel had plunged, some recognized in it an element of danger to their own ambitions and institutions, and set about at once to impede its progress, by slandering its adherents and hurling at them the unsavory epithet of "apostate." Others treated it with indifference and scorn, impressed with the conviction that "Mormonism" was a demonstrated failure; others, honest and humble but who had been deceived often, received it with hesitancy and suspicion, and hence were not hearty in its support. And, as might have been expected, this movement gathered an element of malcontents, whose normal condition was that of
(page 295) |
