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Show THE INHERITANCE OF JOSEPH. The western hemisphere, comprising North and South American, is pointed to in the Scriptures as being a choice land, even above any other land upon the globe. When father Jacob called around him his twelve sons, just prior to departing this life, and pronounced upon them a patriarchal blessing, he not only predicted what should befall them in the future ages of time, but having a knowledge of the land which God had promised to himself and his posterity for an everlasting inheritance, he made special reference to the children of Joseph in the following language, Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall." Gen. xlix 22. As much as to say, "Your posterity shall be so numerous, that they shall not be confined to the boundaries of Palestine, but shall extend into another land beyond the limits of the posterity of your brethren." Moses, the great prophet of ancient Israel, in speaking of the land of Joseph says: "And of Joseph be said, Blessed of the Lord be his land, for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that croucheth beneath, and for the precious things of the earth and fulness thereof, and for the good will of him that dwelt in the bush." Deut. xxxiii, 13-16. There is probably no country upon the earth, where "the precious things of the earth" are so abundant. Fruit, vegetables and grain, and almost unlimited deposits of mineral wealth, possibly unsurpassed by any country in the world, exist in America. The express language, that the land of Joseph should be noted for the blessings, and "for the deep that coucheth beneath," shows that the Prophet must have had reference to the Western Hemisphere, for when he made the declaration he stood upon the Eastern Continent near the land of Palestine, and a line directed through the earth, passing the "mighty deep" (the ocean) would strike the continent of America. Passing from these predictions contained in the Bible, to the prophecies found in the Book of Mormon, we learn more of the purpose of the Almighty relative to this chosen land. 2d Nephi I.-6,7,-"Wherefor, I, Lehi, prophesy according to the workings of the Spirit which is in me, that there shall none come into this land save they shall be brought by the hand of the Lord. Wherefore this land is consecrated unto him whom he shall bring. And if it so be that they shall serve Him according to the commandments which He hath given, It shall be a land of liberty unto them, therefore, they shall never be brought down into captivity, if so, it shall be because of iniquity; for if iniquity shall abound, cursed shall be the land for their sakes, but unto the righteous it shall be blessed forever." Without quoting the prophecies of Mormon and ?? upon the same subject we introduce the words of the prophet Ether. "And he had sworn in His wrath unto the brother of Jared, that whose should possess this land of promise, from that time henceforth and forever, should serve Him, the true and only God, or they should be swept off when the fulness of His wrath should come upon them. Behold, this is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it, shall be free from bondage and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ, who hath been manifested by the things which we have written."-Ether II, chap., 8, 12. The foregoing plain predictions uttered by the prophet of two distinct nations, portrayed the future and destiny of those nations as plainly as though the account had been written after the events had transpired. "What is prophecy but history reverted?" The people of Jared and his brother who came from the Tower of Babel at the confusion of tongues became a mighty nation. Springing from a small colony of a few souls, they grew in numbers, knowledge, wisdom, power and wealth, and continued onward in the scale of progression, until they became lifted up in the pride of their hearts, and departed from the revelations of God, committing crimes and abominations, until by war and bloodshed and other calamities they became extinct. The secret of their great success was they served the "True and Living God." The cause of their ruin was they departed from the ways of the Lord, and served the powers of darkness. The history of the Nephites, who came from Jerusalem 600 years before the birth of the Savior, is similar. Like the Jaredites, they were led by the hand of the Lord. They listened to a prophet's voice, and they possessed the Spirit of truth to lead and guide them into all truth. As long as they pursued the course directed through the inspired prophet of the Lord, they were blessed in every way even as their predecessors in this country had been. That they attained to a high degree of perfection in the arts of civilization is not only shown from the accounts by their writers given in the Book of Mormon, but is well attested by the character of the ruins of magnificent temples, cities and roadways, discovered by Catherwood, Stevens and other antiquarians of modern times. But their progress, agreeable to the principles of Eternal Truth, and the prophecies above quoted, continued only so long as they continued in serving God and keeping His commandments. Then they began to decline with rapid strides. They were involved in bloody wars, and the calamities attendant thereupon, until the white portion of them became extinct or mingled themselves with the posterity of those who had been cursed with a dark skin, because of their iniquity. And now we can behold what remains of the aborigines of this land-the American Indians-or more properly, the Lamanites, living monuments, as a witness to the truth of the word of the Lord concerning this land and its people. An account of the last struggle and complete overthrow of the Jaredites is given in the 16th chapter of Ether, and that of the Nephites in the 6th chapter of Mormon, in the new edition of the Book of Mormon. The next colony after the destruction of the Nephites, of which we have an account came from the Eastern Hemisphere to people this land under the leadership of Christopher Columbus, who landed in America in 1492. This colony also was led hither by the hand of the Lord, and we are informed in the Book of Mormon that the Spirit of the Lord should rest upon this man and upon those who should follow him, actuating them to emigrate to the promised land. In course of time, when the mother country sought to oppress the American colonists, and bring them into bondage, we find that the fathers of our country actuated by the pure Spirit of freedom, stepped forth and declared themselves a free people. Notwithstanding they were numerically weak, compared with the nation that opposed them, and labored under the many difficulties incident to the settlement of a new country they were successful, by the Lord's help, in securing their freedom. This could not be otherwise under the circumstances for the Almighty had decreed as already quoted, that the nation which occupied this land should be a free people, free from bondage, free from captivity, "and from all other nations under heaven," as long as they did right and served the Lord according to the light which they possessed. In harmony with the Declaration of Independence, and the securing of liberty to the American colonists, our noble sires, imploring the inspiration of the Supreme ruler of the universe and receiving an answer to their petitions, framed the Constitution of the United States, as an instrument to guide the nation in making and executing the laws of the land. In this glorious Constitution of our country, religious liberty, "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," are guaranteed to all its citizens. This instrument of American freedom has been declared by European statesmen to be the grandest palladium of human rights to be found in any nation upon the earth, and to its standard the poor and oppressed of nearly every other nation under heaven have flocked to find air asylum of peace which was promised to them by the people of this land who had been successful in establishing a free Government. This nation has probably grown in power and influence faster than any human Government upon the earth ever did. This has been achieved by virtue of conformity to principles of right which tend to to the welfare of the the human family. This onward march of progression continued as among the former nations of this land until many of the law makers and many of the administrators of the nation became corrupted with selfish motives and lost that humble desire to benefit and bless their fellow citizens which actuated the noble Washington and other honoured fathers of our country. It is the duty of the government to protect her citizens in the enjoyment of all the rights guaranteed to them by the Constitution, and also to redress the wrongs imposed upon her citizens by either foreign or domestic foes. Applying these duties of the nation to the history of the Latter-day Saints and we find that in either case the constitution of our country has been terribly violated, and the sacred honor of the nation fearfully outraged. In the States of Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois, the Saints were mobbed driven from then homes robbed of their property which they had purchased from the Government, and numbers of them shot down by mobocrats in cold blood, while others were whipped and beaten in a cruel manner. The officers of the land were not ignorant of the perpetration of these outrages, but well informed regarding them, from the Judges in the districts where these wrongs were committed even to the President of the United States. But these officers refused to discharge their duties and some some of them took an active part in the commission of these crimes. These wrongs are still unatoned for. At the present period of the nation's history the Congress of the United States has again violated the constitution of our country by passing an unjust, unconstitutional, bill known as the Edmunds law, designed to deprive the people of Utah of their religious and political rights. In learning from the history of the past what has been the end of those nations who have previously occupied this land, and violated the laws of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," we have had shown unto us what is the destiny of our own once glorious nation. The decrees of the Almighty cannot be laid aside, and nothing but a speedy repentance on the part of the nation will avert their downfall, and though we sorrow to see it thus we cannot, if we would, changed the effects which certain causes will most assuredly produce. It is to be hoped that the honest in heart, of which class we trust there are many in our nation, as well as in other countries, will take timely warning and avoid the calamities that are sure in befall the wicked. With this understanding of the final result of affairs with which we have to do, we can well afford to pursue the even tenor of our way, keep the commandments of God, honor the constitution of our county, and labor for the salvation of the human family. M. F. Cowley, Salt Lake City. Sept. 6th, 1882. |