Show texts TESTS ten TF N WARD next tuesday evening the gul guk last elder james jarnes ashman will with some Bome forty lorty lire life size portraits of pro characters good andja tl elucidate thel the scie scle science of phrenology ana and physiognomy j attha at the loth mata wata school houte at 7 ol ciocu clock dt discourse kourse y elder 0 PRATT pratz delivered jd ibi the old tabernacle i aak nak ca t ly bunday Sunday dec 27 1868 reported i BY DAVID DAYI D IV EYAN ryans rin in ancient 0 times timea there were gertain pertain gleat great decrees which the lord of all tie tio the tho earth made concerning this continent and the inhabitants that should I 1 from time to the same this continent was first settled after the flood by E a colony from the tower of batel who were a righteous people they were a people with whom the lord con versed and to whom he made himself manifest in a very wonderful and mar bellous manner how many man Y deop people e lived here before the flood is not for me to say as it is as not revealed we may however cb observe serve that so far as new revelation has given us information on t this Is subject this continent 04 0 ours our may be ranked among the first lands occupied by the human family the vie very first man who had dominion on the face of the earth under the dir din direction ec tion tiou of the heavens once dwelt on this continent his name was adam whether his farst first residence was waa 04 on this land whether the ther gardea garden that bilat was wa planted plante for ha his occupation was on this ohis continent or some other la Is tib aib nott 4 revealed i in any written or printed revelation n but he ho certainly did in the aurs course courso e of his lifetime either from thi this being his native land landy or by emigration actually come in possession of this part of the he globe and alarae settlement was form ed and the nigh righteous tedus who lived before the flood hille inherited it and no doubt left their hl blessing essing on the land if it was here cherp adam seth enos ends cainan calnan hala bala leei leel jared barea enoch aleh and noah dwell ayelt it was on this land where noah built bulit his ark which litch sy was blown biown by the winds of heaven away to the east I 1 and landed on ararat it was here where enoch preached and puh pub I 1 I 1 shed glad tidings of gret great joy it was on this land the Ameri amerl american cali call Coli coll continent colstine tine t where he be gathered the people from many manx nations and built up PP a city and called it t zion dign it was here where the people of god flourished before the flood a and ana ul were of one heart and one olie nalo ealo mind having an experience exper lenco lence of some threet t hundred an and years yeam in ord order orden erti efti to bring about a clenti degree 0 b f righteousness asand and faith to be taken ampf away prom from here herp a and nd Aran translated stat slAt ea inta ome some 0 othen thelreg region on it was wag here where enoch was clothed upon with the er to that degree thab that he was en abiba to publish to tite the inhabitants of if the earth things that were before his bis day exen even from before bafo re the foundation of the world and also to prophecy of things that should tran transpire spire spiTe from ins ina day daj down to the end of the world it bashere ia was shere here continued his preaching ing to the inhabitants or of the city of zion until he made i de them p eo 9 acquainted with the law layvon of god and in inspired them aith ith such abbhi hith laili thab that theearta the earth could not them it wm WAS by his bis faith arld nna the ralth faith raith af his popple poppie that tha tithe tha elements armund around elm eim mm eit elt eli the thi power of 94 G god ad and ud when he ipke the word of the lord the fhe earth upon which he stood trembled na and shook b by athe the power of the almighty y and the mountains nned fled I 1 from before his presence and the great givers continent were turned out of their courses and all things seemed to fe feel reel elthe eithe the power of the lord even a dewland pew land garno camo came up out of the great deep and so fearful beret merethe we rethe he ene intes of the tha peoble people of god gody aa anu ana so go g great r lae was the terror lof the lord upon them tha bathey fathey leftA left lils this lcou country airy Atry and went forth upon lupon therace the face odthe waters and occupied the land lana that came cama came up out of the deep these things g s a are re not revealed to us by the bible or by tradition but by the inspiration of the almighty through that great ge at modern prophet t who was raised up to commance commence this marvellous marcellous marv ellous dorkof work of which you and I 1 are now par takers Afew A few hundred years after all ail these things had transpired on this conti donti continent nent and his the only anly survivor of the been wafted wafred away to distant lands and had peopled a portion of asia ABIB the descendants of noah undertook to build a great tower that they might make themselves a geat great name instead of fulfilling th the e purposes of the almighty in Bp reading spreading forth and occupying and subduing the earth the lord was very much displeased with them on that occasion because of the wickedness that existed in their midst which was calculated to be strengthen strengthened through their unity hence he madea made a decree according to the old book bool c the bible that they should not dwell thus together he confounded their language and swore in his wrath that they should be scattered A por of the peo people p ae nom kom that tower came to this continent thele ia is something very remarkable in connection with the colon colonization izat i 0 n of our continent by people from that tower I 1 said they were a righteous people perhaps this may surprise some especially if they have drawn the conclusion that all the tho people who engaged in hi the building of that tower were wicked but there were some soma few families among them who served the lord their god and when they learned the decree of jehovah Jehova bt that their thein language was vas wasta ito be confounded and abd the abb people scattered to the four winds of heaven they had coil con aider abio ablo anxiety on the subject they were anxious that they might be favored of the lord llord and that he would lead them to a ti choice portion of the earth they made madd it a subject of earnest prayer and god heard them and the language of the righteous portion of the people vaa not confounded and god gave them a commandment to go down from the tho tower to a valley that was northward called the valley of nimrod named after a mighty hunter who existed in those days After they had come down into this valley by the command of the lord they collected seeds and grain of every kind hind and animals of almost moat most every description among which no doubt were the elephant and the oure eune lomand and the very huge animal animals that existed in those days and after traveling and crossi crossl ngwe suppose the sea that was east eastok of where the tower of babel stood and traveling through the wilderness many days with their flocks and herds their grain and substance they eventually came to the keat teat pacific ocean on the eastern bor leat erlof of china or somewhere in lif that re gion glon lon ion they were commanded of tha tah E lord to build ves vet vessels sels seis they went to work and con constructed strutted ted eight barges barged they did not understand theart thearl the art of navigation as we do in these days they had xo aio astronomical instruments by which they could ascertain the altitude of df the sun un or the altitude of the thib moon moot ll 11 and st arsby which they could determine their position on the great and amigh 1 h ocean but the same god who had mile led d them from the tower of babel babol and had bad one before them in a bright cloud by lay ay and had havie havle hovered red ned over their theli camp a and nd had directed them in their journey through the wilderness was their navi gator in crossing the ocean they en these eight barges about the eon con I 1 st ruction of which it may be well to t 0 say a few words A great many man y posers op of the book of bf mormon in reading the account at of these vessels have really supposed that there was an insurmountable difficulty connected with the building 01 theses barbea because there happened to b be ea a hole in the top and aud another anether hole constructed in the bottom to enable the beings shut up in them to be watertight water tight these vessels were built not in ln the form forni af pf platea atea saucer ashal as has b been een eon re represented by some anti antl mormons cormons in their discussions cus pus adt the book of mordoh lne ine in ln i forms us that they were peaked at the thet 1 ends and enlarged AS ns they came canie to the twiddle and they wera were fight like adish on the water and were very light liblit like ilke to td the lightness of a fowl they exceedingly strong and the length of arree alree a tree tred this is ls a phrase very similar toone us used ed by isaiah who says the age of 0 his hid people shall be as the age of wa a tree isaiah does not say what kin kine 0 04 o a tree it was simply V a way the an dents had bad of comparing a great man many thi things ings lags now these vessels were so to con when furious blow biow upon the face nace of the great deel dedi deep pi I 1 and add the waves should roll mountains hh high they could without imminent t dan I 1 ger plunge beneath the waves and anabe Be brought t up again tlitha surface brno of br wo during tremendous hurricanes and add storms now to prepare ther thep td against these thes e contingencies and ana that thab they air for the bee fiu niu jid fit of elephants the curel cur eloms dins or mama AW moths and many other animals that perhaps were in them as well as the thy human numan beings they contained the nordi dordi 11 told th them em how bow to construct them lot lut order to rec ree receive diviD air ahat that when the th ey wane ware were wera anthe on the top of the water wh ha 1 r I ever even eveida Bide up their vessels happened to bee uee ve it blathered blatt ered not they were so construe con trifo ted that they could dould ride safely though 1 l bottom upwards and they could open their air ain ables that happened to be uppermost per most now all our ships at t the present day are constructed with holes in na the bottom as well as in the top 1 f I rig fig have crossed the ocean twelve times butt IT K I 1 never saw a ship yet that did not lave kave have a hole in the bottom for the convenience of passengers and itis one of the sim things in the world to have holes hoies in the bottom of a ship if you only have tubes up sufficiently high above the general water mark these e were so constructed that when the waves were not tot bunning too high air could be ad emitted through unstopping stopping un the holes which happened to bo be uppermost but the most wonderful thing con berning the first colonization of this country after the flood was rhevay the way that i they navigated the great pacific ocean only think bof a few moments of the lord our god taking eight barges launched on the eastern coast of china and bring bringing bringen tn thema aage of three hundred M and forty four foun dayland day sand landing them all in the bame game neighborhood and vicinity and at the same time this was a miracle this was not done bythe by the aldor aidor steam or by the navigators art but it wasl wasby by the power of the tho almighty god hk belt bait it was who controlled these vessels he etwas who governed the winds of heaven haayen he it was who brought them of the midst of the deep deell when they were swallowed up and he it was who guided them safely to this thil american bhore shore I 1 they landed to the routh south of this lut iut below the gulf of california Cali Cili fordia on our western coast they inhabited north america and spread forth on this continent ti and in the course of some sixteen hundred years residence here they became a might yand powerful nation although they became a great and mighty people they were oftentimes very much chastened chasteney chast ened because of their sins here let me observe that before they arri vedon this land the lord said to them 1 I design to lead you forth toa to a land that is choice above all other lands landa on a the face of the whole earth and this is my decree concerning the land which you yon are to occupy that whatever nation shall possess the land from this time henceforth and forever shall serve me the only true and living god or they shall be swept off from tile the face thereof when they are fully ripened in their iniquity the Jared ites had this decree before them before they set foot on this continent it was before them during the whole term of their existence here that inasmuch aa as they would serve god they would be prospered and inasmuch as they would not serve him areat great reat judgments were upon them R nence hence ence enee they were afflicted oftentimes because of their wickedness on a certain occasion there was a very few individuals omer and his family and some few of his friends that were righteous enough to be spared out oat of a whole nation the lord warned them by a dream to depart from the land of moran and led them forth in an easterly direction beyond the hill Cur cun cumorah Cumo noreh reh down into the easte caste eastern a countries upon the sea shore by this means a few families were saved while all the balance consisting of millions of people were overthrown because of their wickedness but after they were destroyed the omer ites who dwelt in the new now england states returned again and dwelt in the land of their fathers on the western coast I 1 merely mention these things to show how the lord operated among the first nations of the old inhabitants of this country in order to fulfill fulfil his decrees they could not fall into wickedness and still be suffered to prosper on the face of this land the decree had gone forth it must be fulfilled finally some sixteen or seven seventeen teen centuries after they landed here they became so violently wicked and transgressed the commandments of the lord to that de gree that they were really swept off octto to a man the whole nation perished theis theil their r great greatest estand and last struggles were in the state of new york near where the plates from which the book of mormon was translated were found there they fought day after day there they struggled one party against the other until millions were swept off only one man survived his nation fora fori very short abort space of timer to see the fulfillment fill ment of a prophecy that was uttered by a great and mighty prophet that lived livid I 1 in n those days who stated that he be should be permitted after his nation was destroyed to td behold the colonization of the land by another people thia man whose name was wis king of a certain portion of the jare ditis aften after the destruction of his na tion w wandered i an dered solitary and alone down towards the isthmus of darien darlen and there he became acquainted with a bolm boim ony of people brought from the land of jerusalem called the people of zara hemia herfila he lie dwelt with them forthe for the space e of nine moons and then he hb died after the destruction of the jaredine 9 I 1 li rought brought two other colonies to people this land and one colony landed nort nor hof the isthmus theother landed on the co coast const ast of chili chill upwards of two t thousand ilo lio usand miles south bouth of them the latter were called the Nep Nop hites and Lama it was some four or five centuries ent urles uries after thebe these two colonies came from jerusalem and occupied the country before they |