Show TABERNACLE SERVICES 1 The services in the Ealt Lake Assembly As-sembly Hall on Sunday afternoon were commenced by the coir singing tbe hymn beginning Glorious things of theo are spoken etc Prayer by Elder H W Naisbit Choir sang the hymn commencing 0 Lord of Hot we now invoke etc ELDER ORSON PRATT addressed the large congregation among which were many of the Boston excursion iste His text was the 16th verse of the 102J Paalrn When the Lard shall build up Zion he shall appear ID his glory He said the world haa been blessed for several generation past with the word of God in the Old and New Tettimentg There was an expectation on the part of believers in the Bible of a great day to come pre dieted of cU called tho second ai vent of the Lord but many thing must bo done before the coming Dcfora the Lord ball mto his appearance ap-pearance in bis glory there will be cenam preparatory events Among these was the building up of Zion spoken of in the text some say Zion has been upon the earth evar since the day of the apostles They eay the Christian church is Zion In one sense he was willing to admit this There must be a true Christian church before the Lord comes but he was net willing to admit that the true Christian church had been upon the earth since Christ There had been many Christian churches but they bad scarcely a feature of true Christianity Chris-tianity in them All peoples who bad been acknowledged by God as his church had communed with the Lord They had prophets and apos ties among them they were inspired in their sayings and writmgaand their writings were toe inspired commands of God So long as there was Christian church upon the earth there were prophet apostle inspired men and signs but when these ceased there Cnristian was tio longer a true church and God ceased to commune directly with men There had beeu many forma of Christian churches on the earth but they were nct the true Christian church The New Testament Testa-ment foretold of tho great apoetacy tbat wouli take place tnstfalsa doctrines doc-trines would spring up and that all nations would be deceived and bo led astray The inspired men of old under un-der taod what would be and if it had not cone as foretold the New Tesla ment would not ba true The ancient prophets saw churches and the greet mother church and they saw that they would have no men to speak b > revelation no inspired oracles FillY years ago the whole Christian world was down on revelation They scouted toe idea that there could be prophet I in our day The speaker solid God would not come upon the earth again if there was no people no church no I faith no Zion to receive him His kingdom must be established and built up before he would come and that was what the ancients had foretold fore-told in the text When Zon shall be built up This prediction indi Gated plainly that the inhabitants 01 the earth would be without a people called Zion whom the Lord would acknowledge ac-knowledge Daniel said this Zion should be called the kingdom of God He saw it in H dream as a stone iu the mountains moun-tains cut out without hands The prophet also forctjld the destinies of all other nations namely that they should become like the chaf oi the threshing floors and the wind carried them away tbat no place was found for them that all king doms should be givpu into tbe hands of Gods people In his interpretation interpreta-tion of the dream of tho King of Babylon Daniel referred to what the King saw as a great image representing repre-senting all the kingdoms of the earth This image should be crashed by tho kingdom from the mouttam spoken of as a stone As there has not been for sixteen or seventeen centuries a kingdom with the guts offices inspired men prophets and apostles the kingdom of Gcd had not been on the earth during that time Gods kingdom was estab ished for a short time with all its gift powers and ordinances but the kingdoms of the earth prevailed against it and swept it away Bat when the kingdom foretold by Daniel hall be established it shall grow and become like a mountain filling the whole earth It God were to jstabhsb such a kingdom how would he begin it He would give to it every principle necessary to its per fect organization He would leave nothing to be guessed at but would make the pattern perfect In all its parts When the time came for establishing es-tablishing his church there were no apostles on the earth hence he had 10 send the old apostles to ordain there to the apostleship and thus restore re-store it to t be earth That was the only way that it could be done None of the Christian churches had authority to do the work of organizing his true church hence tbe Lord had to do it Ibis was the Zion that had been foretold that was to prepare for be coming of tbe Lord David said his prophecy about Zion wa for a future generation A people would oe created that should praise the Lord when they are gathered together to-gether in the mountains Have you board of snob a gathering No but such a time is at hand close at our doors when a great nation shall be gathered s irom out of the world to serve the Lord Isaiah also under stood this great subject as is recorded in the second chapter prophecy And it shall come to nass in the last days that the mountain of the Lorde bouse shall be established in the top of tho mountains and shall be exalted shove the bills and all nations shall flow unto it David and Laiah were both actuated by tho inspired influence of prophecy There was a reat difference between a bouse ouilt by uninspired men and lettered IU gilt on the front The House of he Lord St James Church and eo fortb and a house built by iirection of God who gives its dimen iiuns and ohapo and commands that it be constructed In such a houso icd will be presett filling it with his pirit and presence as be did in the temple of Solomon When the worll shall hear that there is another house of God and apostles and inspired men they will say that is the church for them Away with your idolatry i your hollow form give us a church with prophet and apostles and inspirpd men Tbey will say Let us so up in the moun taina to this Zion There will bo no doubt about this Zion which will be made plain to all When the Lord shall set up his Zion there will be a manifest change People will come not by a few ship load but by nations to serve the Lord they will discover that they must go up to Zion to learn I > f t Gods ways and bo instructed to walk in bis paths Elder Pratt read the first verse 18th chapter Isaiah Woe to the land shadowing with wings which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia and interpreted this as meaning Nortb and So ith America whose geographical position and shape answered the description He alto read from other chapters of Isaiah foretelling ol the lifting of an ensicu on the mountains by the Lord who shall assemble the outcasts of Israel and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of be earth All this he maintained clearly foretold the establishment establish-ment of Zion in these mountains Elder Pratt closed by referring to the future of Zion which according to Isaiah was to swallow up all nations It is true we are a part of a great and strong nation but the cities of the Gentiles Gen-tiles shall be laid low and there would be no one to occupy them when the saints would inherit and make them inhabitable This prophecy would be one of the early judgments to overtake over-take tbe powerful nation on thia continent con-tinent If they repent not the Lord will visit them till their name will be blotted out from the nations and their cities become desolate aud the children chil-dren of Zion will make their cities habitable In these mountains will be a great city called Zion fulfilling I one of the palms of David Beautiful ful for situation the joy of tho whole earth is Mount Zion on the sides of the north that city of the great king Ibis Zion must be built before be-fore God shall come He declare that God had again spoken had unsealed un-sealed his voice called forth apostles and prophets established his kingdom king-dom and lifted up an ensign on the mountain to which the nations must come from the four corners of the earth all of which was written in the Bible The choir sang an anthem and Elder Joseph Johnson pronounced a benediction |