Gospel Themes

Overruling Providence.—Under Jesus Christ, the Savior, the great house of which he is the spiritual head also has a mission of salvation. And, strangely enough, the children of Israel have accomplished that mission, not only when obedient to God, but while disobedient and suffering the consequent calamities that came upon them. A notable instance of the power of overruling Providence, bringing order out of chaos, light out of darkness, success and victory from seeming failure and defeat.

Calamity and Compensation.—The compensations of calamity—a theme treated philosophically by Ralph Waldo Emerson, in one of his noblest essays—are apparent in some of the mightiest events of human history. For instance, to Adam it was said: "The day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." He ate, and death came into the world; a terrible calamity, but not without its compensation; for the fall of man proved to be the means of peopling the earth, according to a divine plan, ordained before the creation of the world. Christ's martyrdom, the preordained means of man's salvation, was an overwhelming calamity to his terror-stricken disciples, who were disconsolate until they looked upon it in its true light, acknowledging God's hand in the awful tragedy. Even so, Israel's dispersion, that dire calamity under which the chosen people have suffered for ages, and from which they are just beginning to emerge, has been overruled for good, and made the means of fulfiling the Lord's purpose and promise in the blessing of all nations.

Moses Predicts the Dispersion.—Prophecies of this calamity were made as early as the time of Moses, fifteen hundred years before the coming of the Savior. The twelve tribes, the most notable of whom were Judah and Joseph—the latter represented in Ephraim and Manasseh—had been in Egypt for several centuries when Moses led them out of bondage and brought them to the borders of Canaan, the land which the Lord had given to their forefathers when he promised to make of them "a great nation." The leader of Israel told his people, who were about to possess themselves of the land of Canaan, that so long as they served Jehovah and kept his commandments, they should be prospered and remain an independent nation; but if they forsook Jehovah and served other gods, He would scatter them among all people, from one end of the earth even unto the other.—(Deut. 28:64.)

A Martyred Nation.—They were commanded, as Adam and Eve had been, not to do a certain thing, and a punishment was to come upon them if they disobeyed; and yet it must have been foreseen, as in the case of our first parents, that they would disobey, and the transgression was overruled for good. The dispersion of Israel, like the fall of Adam, like the crucifixion of Christ, seems to have been part of a mighty plan for the progress and salvation of the human race. Adam fell that man might be; Christ died to burst the bands of death; and Israel was scattered among all nations, that the gospel of the Redeemer, which was to follow, might make its way more readily among those nations. As in the fall, as in the crucifixion, and in every instance where some great service has been rendered to humanity, there was sacrifice, suffering, martyrdom, in order that blessings might come. The history of the house of Israel is the history of a martyred nation, suffering for the good of other nations—whatever may be said of transgressions that justified God in bringing upon his chosen people the calamities that were doubtless among the "offenses" that "must needs come."

"'Tis sorrow builds the shining ladder up,Whose golden rounds are our calamities."

CHAPTER III

To the Ends of the Earth

A Decadent Empire.—Joshua, succeeding Moses as the leader of Israel, conquered the land of Canaan and divided it among the twelve tribes. Then followed the reigns of the Judges, during which period Israel began to depart from God, and to invite, by rebellious conduct, the national calamity that had been predicted. The glories of the monarchy founded by Saul, David and Solomon being past, the curse, long suspended, fell, and the Israelitish empire hastened to its decay.

Ahijah's Prophecy.—In the reign of Rehoboam, the successor to Solomon, ten of the twelve tribes revolted, and choosing Jeroboam to be their ruler, set up the kingdom of Israel (in the north), distinct from the kingdom of Judah (in the south), over which Rehoboam continued to reign. During the days of Jeroboam, who had made idolatry the state religion of the northern kingdom, the dispersion of Israel was again predicted; the prophet Ahijah then voicing the word of the Lord to his disobedient people:

"The Lord shall smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water, and he shall root up Israel out of this good land, which he gave to their fathers, and shall scatter them beyond the river."—(I Kgs. 14:15.)

Amos and Hosea.—Another prophet who foretold the dispersion was Amos, who said that Israel should "surely go into captivity," and be "sifted among all nations" (7:11, 17; 9:9). Still another was Hosea, who, substituting rhetorically the past for the future, said: "Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people" (7:8).

Beginning of the Scattering.—In the year 721 B. C., soon after the time of Hosea's prophecy, and while a monarch of the same name was reigning over the kingdom of Israel, the Assyrians, under Shalmaneser, came against that kingdom and began to destroy it. In a series of deportations they carried away the ten tribes (Ephraim and all) into captivity.

The Lost Tribes.—These are the famous "lost tribes," concerning whom very little is known. Josephus, the Jewish historian, who wrote during the first century after Christ, says that the ten tribes were then beyond the Euphrates, the "river" referred to by Ahijah in his prophecy. Esdras, in the Apocrypha, declares that those tribes went a journey of a year and a half into the north country.

The Cairns of Scandinavia.—Missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, returning from Scandinavia, have told of rude monuments—cairns or piles of stones—in that northern region, concerning which tradition says that they were erected many centuries ago by a migrating people. Whether or not these were the tribes of the Assyrian captivity, it is interesting to reflect that it was an Israelitish custom to raise such monuments in commemorating events, especially the migratory movements of the nation.

Other Ancient Monuments.—If it be objected that monuments erected by the Ten Tribes, 721 B. C., could not have lasted down to this day, how will the objector account for the perfectly preserved monuments of Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, and other ancient empires, whose remains have been uncovered by modern archaeology? Such a theory will not stagger the faith of the Latter-day Saints, when they recollect that the ruins of Adam's altar are still to be seen in the State of Missouri, where they were identified by the Prophet Joseph Smith, A. D. 1838.

To Return from the North.—At all events, it is from "the north country" that the ten tribes are to return, according to ancient and modern prophecy; and it is also a fact that from Scandinavia and the nations of Northern Europe has come much of the blood of Israel—the blood of Ephraim now within the pale of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Are the Ten Tribes Intact?—A much mooted question among our people, particularly since the discovery of the North Pole, where theorists have insisted upon locating the ten tribes, is whether or not those tribes have lost their identity. The fact that no such people were found at the pole by Peary and other explorers, shatters the exact location theory; but does it dispose of the main issue—the supposed existence of the ten tribes as a distinct people, somewhere "in the land of the north?" Such a supposition might be well founded, and yet much of the blood of Ephraim be among certain northern nations. Some of the pilgrims might easily have "mixed" with peoples encountered on the way, while journeying to their ultimate destination. Beyond this suggestion, I have no theory to advance. A tradition of the Church has assigned to John the Revelator the mission of leading the ten tribes from the land of the north.—(D. and C. 77:14.)

The Babylonian Captivity.—After the predictions of Amos, Hosea, and others, in relation to the kingdom of Israel, came the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah, foretelling the fate of the kingdom of Judah. This kingdom, about 585 B. C., was destroyed by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar, and the Jews were carried into captivity.

Lehi and His Colony.—Just before that disaster, Lehi and his colony left Jerusalem, and crossed over to this land—America—which, by them and by Mulek's colony that came later, was peopled with the descendants of Joseph and of Judah, both of whom are represented, in a degenerate state, by the American Indians.

Israelitish Characteristics.—Look at the features of the Indian. Are they not Jewish? Quite as strikingly so as that many of his customs and traditions are Israelitish. Who, than the savage Lamanite, better understands the Mosaic law of retaliation—"an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth"? Nor does he care whose eye or whose tooth it is, whether that of the person who injured him, or one of the latter's tribe or nation. He is too much of an Israelite to object to proxies and substitutes.

Jerusalem Rebuilt.—The Babylonian captivity lasted seventy years. Some of the Jews, under the permissive edict of Cyrus, then returned and rebuilt their city and temple. Only a remnant came back, however, a colony of fifty thousand, led by Zerubbabel and Joshua. The rest remained in their scattered condition. The Jews who rebuilt Jerusalem were those to whose descendants Christ came, and predicted, after their rejection of him, that their "house" should be "left unto them desolate" (Matt. 23:37, 38).

Twelve Tribes Scattered.—Before the Savior's time, however, the prophets Ezekiel and Zachariah,—the former in exile among the Babylonians, the latter at Jerusalem after the restoration by Cyrus,—had added their predictions to those already uttered relating to the dispersion of Israel. That the fated nation was pretty well dispersed in the days of the apostles, is evident from the Epistle of James, who addresses himself "to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad."

Dispersion by Titus.—But there were to be other acts of dispersion. One of the most notable occurred in the year 70 A. D., when Titus the Roman came against Jerusalem, besieged and captured it, and sold the inhabitants, such as had survived the horrors of the siege, into slavery, or scattered them through different parts of the empire. To follow the fortunes of this branch of the house of Israel, in all their subsequent wanderings and scatterings, would fill volumes.

The Blood that Believes.—Next, let us consider the question: In what way did these calamities upon Israel prove a blessing to the human race? How, by the dispersion of the children of Abraham, was the promise to the patriarch fulfiled, that in him and in his seed should all the nations of the earth be blessed? I answer, that by this dispersion the blood of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—the blood of faith, the blood that believes—with choice spirits, answering to that blood, and selected for that purpose, were sent into those nations where the Gospel was afterwards preached; spirits capable of recognizing the truth, and brave enough to embrace it regardless of consequences; thus setting an example to others and influencing them in the same direction. Manifestly this was of far more importance than the carrying by the captive Israelites of their laws and traditions into those nations; though this would also help to prepare the way for greater blessings to follow.

Spread of Christianity.—And such things told in after years. One of the marvels of history is the rapid spread of Christianity in the days of the apostles, who, unlettered as most of them were, and in the midst of the fiercest persecution, planted the gospel standard in all the principal cities of the Roman Empire, spreading the tidings of Christ crucified, from India on the East to Britain on the West, and from Scythia on the North to Ethiopia on the South; all within the short space of fifty years.

"Mormonism's" Growth.—A similar marvel is the spread of "Mormonism"—ancient Christianity restored—through the Gentile nations of modern times, a work yet in its infancy. Villages and congregations converted at a sweep, as in Lancashire and Herefordshire, England; in America the gospel preached to white men and red, and the Church established in the tops of the Rocky Mountains, with nearly half a million souls for a nucleus, and others continually coming from the various nations of the earth. And then—the extraordinary attention attracted by the Latter-day Saints—altogether out of proportion to their numbers; for after all, they are only a handful, compared with the hundreds of millions of earth's inhabitants. What more strikingly fulfils the prophetic picture drawn by the Savior: "Ye are as a city set upon a hill, which can not be hid."

How could such things be, had not Divine Wisdom prepared the way by sending the blood of Israel, with spirits answering to that blood, among all nations, prior to pouring out upon them the spirit of the gospel and of the gathering?

Many Nations Sprinkled.—Others before Abraham had shown their faith by their works; but this does not invalidate his claim to the title, "Father of the Faithful." Neither does it prove that the believing blood, even in the veins of the Gentiles, is not Abraham's blood, with which God has "sprinkled many nations." The Latter-day Saints themselves are of a mixed lineage—Gentile and Israelitish; most of them having descended from Ephraim, who "mixed himself among the people."

The Centurion's Faith.—Was not the blood of Abraham in the veins of the Roman centurion, whose faith caused even the Savior to marvel? The centurion's daughter was sick nigh unto death, and her father said to Jesus: "Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter beneath my roof, but speak the word and my daughter shall live." "Be it according to thy faith," was the reply, and straightway she was healed. This incident caused the Son of God to say: "Such faith I have not found in Israel." Moreover, it formed the basis of a prediction, that many should come from the East and from the West, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God, while the children of the kingdom, such as were degenerate,—salt that had lost its savor,—would be cast into outer darkness.

Other Gentile Believers.—Other cases in point are those of Cornelius and the woman of Samaria—Gentiles, in whose veins was the blood that believes, "the salt of the earth," sprinkled over the world for its preservation. The Moabite maiden, Ruth, who was numbered among the ancestors of Jesus Christ, is another example of the same kind. They are of Abraham who do the works of Abraham.

According to Their Faith.—God works among men according to their faith. Jehovah, as Jesus, came unto his own, and his own received him not. He could not do many mighty works among the Jews, "because of their unbelief," at which he marveled, as much, no doubt, as he marveled over the faith of some of the Gentiles. And so, leaving the latter to be converted by the Holy Ghost, he who had been sent to the lost sheep of Israel, turned from Judah unto Joseph, from the Jews unto the Nephites, whose faith was greater, and among whom, in consequence, more if not mightier miracles were performed.

The "Other Sheep."—From the Nephites, the Savior went to "other sheep," not of the Nephite fold, nor of the Jewish fold, but still of the house of Israel, and therefore entitled to his personal ministry. These may have been "the lost tribes," or they may have been other scattered sheep, unknown to man, but known unto God, "keeping watch above his own," in the mystical and remote regions whither his judgments had driven them.

CHAPTER IV

The Call of the Shepherd"Come out of her, my people."—(Rev. 18:4.)

All in Christ.—The Savior's personal visits to the various branches of the house of Israel were preliminary to a general gathering of the sheep into one fold, with himself as the Shepherd over all. The prophets who predicted the dispersion, likewise foretold the return of God's people to their own lands, after "the times of the Gentiles" should be fulfiled. It was to be in the latter days, when God has purposed to "gather together in one all things in Christ." The most notable prophecies pertaining to the gathering of Israel are here presented:

Moses.—"The Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee."—(Deut. 30:3.)

David.—"Gather my Saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice."—(Psalms 50:5.)

Isaiah.—"And it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.

"And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths; for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem."—(Isaiah 2:2, 3.)

"And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.

"And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

"The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim.

"But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines to ward the west."—(Ibid, 11:11-14.)

"And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt."—(Ibid, 11:16.)

"Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west;

"I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back; bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth."—(Ibid, 43:5, 6.)

"And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.

"Lift up thine eyes round about, and see: all they gather themselves together, they come to thee: thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side."—(Ibid, 60:3, 4.)

The Ensign.—According to the faith of the Latter-day Saints, the "ensign" referred to by Isaiah was set up, when the Church of Christ was organized on the sixth of April, 1830. Thus far, however, only a portion of the half tribe of Ephraim has been gathered out from the nations.

Shoulders of the Philistines.—"The shoulders of the Philistines" are understood to be the steamships, railroads, and other facilities of the Gentiles, whereby the gathering Saints have been and are being carried westward to American shores and into the tops of the Rocky Mountains.

The Highway.—"And there shall be a highway," etc. This part of Isaiah's prophecy seems to have reference to the tribes that were carried into captivity by the Assyrians, and in connection with whose return a miracle is promised similar to the dividing of the waters of the Red Sea, in the days of Moses, that Israel might go over dry shod.

Jeremiah.—"Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you; and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion;

"And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding."—(Jeremiah 3:14, 15.)

"Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be said, The Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;

"But, The Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them; and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers.

"Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.

"For mine eyes are upon all their ways; they are not hid from my face.

"The Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit."—(Ibid, 16:14-17, 19.)

"Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together; a great company shall return thither.

"They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble; for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.

"Here the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock."—(Ibid, 31:8-10.)

One of a City.—Jeremiah's prediction concerning "one of a city and two of a family" has been literally fulfiled in the experience of many Latter-day Saints, turned out of doors by their own parents or guardians, despised and persecuted by former friends and associates, because they dared to be "one of a city," or "two of a family," in espousing so unpopular a cause.

A Stanza on Freedom.—A few lines from an American poet—James Russell Lowell—seem appropriate here. The poem from which they are taken is entitled "Stanzas on Freedom:"

"They are slaves who fear to speakFor the fallen and the weak;They are slaves who will not chooseHatred, scoffing, and abuse,Rather than in silence shrinkFrom the truth they needs must think;They are slaves who dare not beIn the right, with two or three."

A Marvel and a Wonder.—Wonderful as has been the work of the gathering, thus far, judging from the words of Jeremiah, it is destined to be more marvelous still.

Ezekiel.—"As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.

"And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country.

"I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be."—(Ezekiel 34:12-14.)

The Christ.—"And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come."—(Matthew 24:14.)

"And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."—(Ibid, 24:31.)

John the Revelator.—"And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people."—(Rev. 14:6.)

"* * * And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues."—(Ibid, 18:4.)