In the Pearl of Great Price, one of four doctrinal standards with the Latter-day Saints—the other three being the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and the Doctrine and Covenants—we are informed that Adam, after his fall, was divinely commanded to build an altar and offer a lamb thereon, typical of the Lamb of God who was to take away the sin of the world. Already slain theoretically in the heavens, where he had been chosen for his earthly mission, he was yet to be slain literally upon this planet; and Adam was told to look forward to that sacrificial event, and in the light of it to practice the principles of salvation.
"And thus the Gospel began to be preached from the beginning, being declared by holy angels, sent forth from the presence of God, and by his own voice, and by the gift of the Holy Ghost. And thus all things were confirmed unto Adam by a holy ordinance, and the gospel preached, and a decree sent forth that it should be in the world until the end thereof. And thus it was, Amen". (Moses 5:58, 59.)
Joseph Smith "saw Adam in the valley of Adam-ondi-Ahman". (Doc. & Cov. 116.) That is, he beheld him in vision, retrospectively. Bowed with age, the great Patriarch blessed his posterity, foretelling what should befall them to the latest generation. It was the mightiest patriarchal blessing ever given. Joseph affirms that Adam will come again, will come as the Ancient of Days, and call his children together at that very place, Adam-ondi-Ahman, and hold a council to prepare them for the coming of the Lord. Thus is indicated the relationship between the First and the Final Dispensations. Adam presides over all the dispensations (Church History, Vol. 4, pp. 207-209), and all must be bound together in the great day of unity and restoration.
In Enoch's day the Gospel was preached with such power and success, that his City became sanctified and was translated or taken into Heaven: a symbol, a foreshadowing of the greater Zion of the last days, which is to prepare the way for the Lord's glorious advent. As part of the universal restitution, that ancient city will return; Zion from above will meet and blend with Zion from below, and a social order prevail similar to that which characterized Enoch's commonwealth, concerning which it is written: "And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them". (Moses 7:18.) Such a condition must again be realized before the Lord comes. "This is Zion—the pure in heart"; "every man seeking the interest of his neighbor, and doing all things with an eye single to the glory of God". (Doc. & Cov. 97:21; 82:19.)
Next we reckon with the dispensation of Noah. He preached the Gospel for a hundred and twenty years, but saved only eight souls, including his own. All the rest were swept away by the Deluge, their disembodied spirits being shut up in the prison house to await the due time of their deliverance (Moses 8:24). The Savior said regarding that dispensation: "As the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be". (Matt. 24:37-39.) In the days of Noah this planet was baptized with water; in a day to come it will be baptized with cleansing fire. Its elements will melt with fervent heat; it will die and be resurrected, or converted into a celestial sphere, an abode of the righteous forever. Such is the destiny of Mother Earth. "Mormonism" will not have accomplished its mission until it has made of earth a Heaven, and of man a God.
The House of Israel
Abraham held the keys of a dispensation, and Elias delivered those keys to Joseph the Prophet (Doc. & Cov. 110:12.) Abraham is "the father of the faithful." Through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, those great progenitors of the House of Israel, the world had been sprinkled with believing blood, and spirits answering to that blood have been sent through their lineage to minister for the salvation of mankind. This is the reason—the main reason why Israel was dispersed among the nations, and why he still suffers persecution. Through that chosen seed comes salvation, and it comes by no other route. It is the lineage of the one and only Saviour. They who have scattered Israel, and trampled him in the dust, are dependent upon him for their eternal welfare. Christ himself is the model. He died that the human race might live. "Greater love than this hath no man, that he will lay down his life for his friends." More than man is he who lays down his life for his enemies. The Son of God died not only for his friends, but for his foes, that salvation might come to all. In a lesser degree the House of Israel has been martyred for a similar purpose—that the whole world might be blessed.
The Latter-day Saints are numbered among Abraham's descendants. The first to embrace the restored Gospel were called out from the nations because they had his blood in their veins. Joseph Smith lifted the Ensign for the gathering of scattered Israel, but lived only long enough to assemble a portion of the half tribe of Ephraim, to which he belonged. The work that he commenced, however, will go on until all the tribes of Israel are gathered and the way prepared before the coming of the Son of God.
"The Shoulders of the Philistines."
Ephraim, in ancient times, "mixed himself among the people". (Hosea 7:8.) Consequently the Latter-day Saints, who are mostly of Ephraim, also have "Gentile" blood in their veins. "Gentile" is not a term of reproach with us. It springs from "gentilis", meaning "of a nation", and was used anciently to designate those nations that were not of Israel. Japheth, son of Noah, is the sire of the "Gentile" race, while Abraham and his seed are descended from Japheth's brother Shem. We "Mormons" have no quarrel with the "Gentiles". They are virtually our co-laborers in this great work of preparation. We cannot do it alone. It is too vast, too arduous. We need the help of the "Gentiles", their wealth, their power, their wonderful insight into and command over material things, their intelligence and skill in manipulating temporalities. We need their means of rapid transit and communication. We could not gather God's people without the aid of the "Gentiles". "They shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the West." So wrote Isaiah concerning Israel, with prophetic eye upon this very period. "The shoulders of the Philistines" are the ships and railroads of the "Gentiles".
Our friends on the outside—our fellow "Gentiles" shall I call them?—have not always understood us, nor have we always understood them. There has been much bitterness and estrangement between the two classes. I am convinced that if the "Gentiles" knew us better, and we more fully realized our relationship to them, all would feel kinder and more charitable. We would recognize that we are engaged in the same great cause—for so we are, in a general way—and that we have no right to hate each other, no right to work against each other—that is, when in the line of our duty, doing what God has given us to do.
The "Gentiles" have not the fulness of the Gospel, nor the powers of the Priesthood; they are not the oracles of God, nor the ministers of salvation. These are prerogatives of the House of Israel. But the children of Japheth doubtless have their special mission, and it is a part of the divine plan for human progression. This is God's work, and he is doing it in his own way. He has instruments outside as well as inside the Church. Whether men know it or not, they are working out the ends he has in view. He may not always notify them of their appointment to serve him, nor does he ask permission to use them; but he uses them just the same. We are here not only to act, but to be acted upon. The Lord put his spirit upon Columbus and impelled him across the great waters to discover the Land of Zion. He nerved the arm and fired the soul of Washington, when he and his ragged regiments were fighting for freedom, for independence, for the founding of a government—though they knew it not—under which God's work could come forth and not be crushed out by the tyranny of man. The God of Israel was with those "Gentiles", the founders of the American Republic, who were probably of a mixed lineage, having much of the blood of Israel in their veins. And He is with all good and great men whose hearts are set to do right and to uplift humanity. He is with them, whether they recognize it or not. Their strength is a part of his omnipotence.
Moses and the Gathering
Moses, who led Israel out of Egypt, held the keys for the gathering of God's people; and those keys had to be restored, that there might be a greater gathering, of which the Egyptian exodus was typical. Moses, as a ministering angel, delivered to Joseph Smith the keys of the Gathering. (Doc. & Cov. 110:11.) But for this, the children of Ephraim, such as are now Latter-day Saints, would still be in Babylon, many of them in distant lands, from which they have come like sheep at the call of the Shepherd. Moses had a dispensation of the Gospel, and sought to sanctify his people that they might look upon the face of God, as he had done. But they were not prepared for it; and so Moses was taken, with the Melchizedeck Priesthood and the fulness of the Gospel (Doc. & Cov. 84:19-28), and Israel was left for fifteen centuries under the Aaronic Priesthood and the Lesser Law, which Paul likened unto a schoolmaster, to bring them to Christ.
In due time came the Saviour and the Meridian Dispensation. Twelve Apostles were chosen upon the Eastern Hemisphere, and Twelve upon the Western, and sent forth to preach the Gospel as a witness before the end. And the end came—the end decreed at that time-the downfall of the Jewish commonwealth, and later the destruction of the Nephite nation. Those terrible calamities were typical of one more terrible still—the downfall of all wickedness, the approaching End of the World.
And now, after the lapse of nearly two thousand years, the Gospel and the Priesthood have come back again. Once more, the pure word of God is going forth, this time as the immediate forerunner of the decreed Consummation.
"Mormonism" means far more than the restoration of the Gospel at the beginning of the Nineteenth Century. Such a definition, such a presentation of the subject would be manifestly imperfect. Ignorant indeed would be that "Mormon" who confined his thinking to so narrow a field. "Mormonism" is not a mere sect among sects, one more broken off fragment of a degenerate and crumbling Christianity. It is the pure, primitive Christianity restored—the original faith, the root of all religion; and it was not accident, but design, that gave it the strength of its position.
Alma's Aspiration
Let me now quote a passage from the Book of Mormon, the words of the Nephite prophet Alma, who lived about seventy-five years before the birth of the Saviour:
"Oh, that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people;
"Yea, I would declare unto every soul, as with the voice of thunder, repentance, and the plan of redemption, that they should repent and come unto our God, that there might not be more sorrow upon all the face of the earth.
"But behold, I am a man, and do sin in my wish; for I ought to be content with the things which the Lord hath allotted unto me.
"I ought not to harrow up in my desires the firm decree of a just God, for I know that he granteth unto men according to their desire, whether it be unto death or unto life; yea, I know that he allotteth unto men according to their will, whether they be unto salvation or unto destruction.
"Yea, and I know that good and evil have come before all men; he that knoweth not good from evil is blameless; but he that knoweth good and evil, to him it is given according to his desires, whether he desireth good or evil, life or death, joy or remorse of conscience.
"Now, seeing that I know these things, why should I desire more than to perform the work to which I have been called?
"Why should I desire that I was an angel, that I could speak unto all the ends of the earth?
"For behold, the Lord doth grant unto all nations, of their own nation and tongue, to teach his word; yea, in wisdom, all that he seeth fit that they should have; therefore we see that the Lord doth counsel in wisdom, according to that which is just and true.
"I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it; I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God, to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy." (Alma 29:1-9.)
Does that sound as if "Mormonism" took no cognizance of what is going on in the outside world? How can any intelligent reader arise from a study of the "Mormon" religion, honestly convinced that the Latter-day Saints are interested in nothing beyond the bounds of their own system? That one passage from the Book of Mormon suffices to refute the false notion.
"Of Their Own Nation and Tongue."
God's truth has been taught all down the ages by men bearing the Priesthood, the authority to represent Deity. But other men, not bearing that authority, wise and worthy teachers, have been raised up in various nations to give them that measure of truth which they were able to receive. Hence, such men as Confucius, the Chinese sage; Zoroaster, the Persian; and Guatama of the Hindus; men not wielding divine authority, not empowered to present the Gospel, nor to officiate in its ordinances; but nevertheless endowed with wisdom, with profundity of thought and learning, to deliver, each to his own people, that portion of truth which the all-wise Dispenser sees fit that they should have; people who, if given a fulness of the truth, might trample it under foot to their condemnation. Therefore they "die without law" (Doc. & Cov. 76:72); that is, without the higher law, the Gospel, which, however, will reach after them in a future life.