Show ZION AND HER redemption A 4 lecture delivered by bishop 0 F whitney in the eighteenth ward Cha chapel fiel sunday evening september 1889 and subsequently in other wards of the city and towns of the territory REPORTED BY F BANNERMAN THERE is but one thing that mars tty iny peace this evening and that is to see so many who have done me the honor to come here tonight obliged to stand our hearts are large enough for you all brethren and sisters but the seating capacity of our house is limited I 1 trust however that you will not get tired of the good standing as brother nicholson aptly expresses it in which you find yourselves and that all nay inay be refreshed spiritually and tern tem borally by what the lord hall see fit to bring forth for our interest and edification fi 1 I therefore place myself in n his hands and throw myself upon your faith and prayers and crave your kind attention while I 1 proceed to express some thoughts which I 1 have had heretofore and others with which the lord may inspire me at this time on the subject of zion and her redemption Ped emption we are all familiar with the terms term s zion and redemption many of us have heard them from our childhood lisped at our mothers knee and from the pulpit by the priesthood of god we have been taught to look forward to the day of zions redemption and many of you who have gathered from the nations of the earth have had bad a still more intelligent tell igent idea of the subject for when you heard the gospel in foreign lands preached by the elders of israel among the first things they taught you were that they had come from the land of zion and that you were expected to gather to zion many of you have left native land forsaken father mother wife husband children and friends forsaken all like the apostles in days of old and followed the footsteps of your savior you have done this for the purpose of gathering to zion in order that you might help build up zion for for this was the object of your com ing g here you turned your backs upon pon babylon upon the world with all its interests and allurements allure ments with al all that it could afford with all it could uld give you of pleasure or of tein temporal profit you placed these thee things upon the altar of sacrifice and crine toe to this land to learn more fully of the ways of the lord and to do your ur little your best towards the building up of his zion but how many of those who are here tonight actually comprehend away down in the depths of their souls what is meant by zion and what is meant by the redemption of zion it will be my pleasant task as I 1 am aided by the spirit to throw a few rays of light if I 1 may upon this subject to remind some of you perchance of things which may have become dim in your memories and to instruct others particularly the young concerning a subject which is second to none in the interests the h pes and the anticipations of the people of god in these days let us first ask the question what is meant by zion in the hebrew from which language this holy book the bible was translated zion means a hill one of the hills in the city of jerusalem was named mount zion and it was here after king david had captured the city that he built his royal palace and reigned over the kingdom of israel gloriously the prophet joseph smith has given another definition of the term irwill be found in the body of this book the doctrine and covenants containing the revelations of god through his prophet in these days just as the bible contains the revelations of his will ill and the history of his people in ancient days the prophet joseph smith impressed a great lesson upon the minds of his people when he voiced that terse and simple utterance this is zion the pure in heart now one is a physical or literal definition of the term zion a mountain and the other is a spiritual definition zion the pure in heart yet it is none the less significant for as the mountain towers above the plain as the great peaks of these ranges lift their heads above the valleys where we dwell so must the zion of god the pure in heart be lifted up not in pride and vanity but by their purity and righteousness above the level of the rest of mankind therefore zion in its temporal and in its spiritual significance means something high and lifted up and it is in this sense that the prophets of old used it when speaking of mount zion meaning not only that little hill in the city of jerusalem but in its grander and broader significance the people of god the pure in heart who were to rise above and become superior to the rest of mankind latter day saints it was for this purpose that you gathered to zion young men and young women of this people it was for this purpose that you were born upon this favored land the land upon which god intends to build the city of zion to erect his holy temple upon which the glory of god will rest and reflect from the towers of the city from the spires of the temple from the hearts and minds of the pure the noble and the righteous to give joy to all the world then will be fulfilled the words of the prophet isaiah who concerning zion arise shine for thy light is s come and the glory of the lord is is risen upon thee for behold darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the people but the he t lord shall arise upon thee and his glory shall be seen upon thee and the gentiles shall come to thy light and kings to the brightness of thy rising this is no dream brethren and sisters it is no whim or fancy of men it is an inspired utterance the heaven born thought of a holy man of god who as he was moved upon by the holy ghost and this is is a portion of the destiny of this people to build up such a zion and not only to build a city that I 1 conceive to be a comparatively insignificant portion of the great mission devolving upon us but to prepare a people the pure in heart for the coming of the lord jesus to reign in his glory this is the dispensation of the ful ness of times in this dispensation the almighty intends to fulfil fulfill and complete all works that he has begun in in every other age of the world that were not completed in themselves other dispensations flow into this one as the rivers empty into the ocean all past ages are tribue tributary to this all that the prophets have spoken in former times will have a complete and glorious fulfilment fulfillment in this the dispensation of the euln falness ess of 0 f times the lord has decreed and has already set his hand to gather in one all things in christ both in heaven and on earth now it has been a portion of the lords plan from the beginning to foreshadow the coming of great events from the earliest times the coming coining of the lord jesus christ who was slain as a lamb from the foundation of the world was typified all down the ages by the sacrifice of lambs and of other animals that were slain and offered upon altars for the purpose of keeping alive and perpetuating in the hearts of the children of god this great event towards which his people have ever looked as to the beacon of their salvation the anchor ancho r of their hope even to the time when the son of god the savior would descend from heaven and take upon him flesh and lay down his life that this world might be redeemed and perhaps it will be well here to give the definition of the term redemption so that we can understand better what we are treatie treating 9 oc 0 I 1 have already told you what zion means now what does redemption mean it means to save it means to reclaim it means to regain possession posses sign of something that was lost when the savior descended I 1 from the worlds of glory glo ry and died that all men might live he gave his life as a ransom to regain possession of that which was lost to pay the price of redemption for a 1 world that had been placed in pawn so to speak by the transgression of adam death was the pawnbroker the world was the thing pawned and christ was the price paid for its redemption demp tion if a man gives his word his promise he is bound by it or he is in bondage for that promise until itis it is redeemed if you place a gold watch or any article arti clein in pawn you must pay back the money borrowed upon it before you can regain possession of it even so by paying the byice atit of redemption his own life christ redeemed this world the redemption of zion I 1 believe to be a symbol a type or figure of the redemption of the world the world itself in this sense might be compared to zion zion is the world we may say on a small scale and just as a world is redeemed so a zion is redeemed and as zion is redeemed so our individual souls are ape redeemed if we are in bondage ta bosin sin if we are trammeled by selfishness ness and satan has wound his coils around our souls and by bur bad temper tem persi sour our base appetites p passions assigns we are held down to earth I 1 we must be redeemed from them we must mum pay the die price which will liberate us so go that we may be free and become typical of a redeemed zion just as dionis typical of a redeemed planet a ransomed rans omed world in very early ages ahe lord set a type in the earth of the redempa tron of zion in the last days he foreshadowed foreshadower fore shadowed by an event glorious and nd miraculous in the extreme the great work that he intends to do in this dispensation I 1 will now read from the revelations to the prophet moses concerning this event of which I 1 speak and it came to pass that enoch continued to call upon all the people save grave it were the people of cainan to repent and so great was the faith of enoch that he led the people of god aa their enemies came to battle a against abst them and he the word of the lord and the earth trembled and the mountains fled even accordi ing to his command and the rivers of water were turned out of their course and the I 1 roar of the lions was heard out of the wilderness and all nations feared greatly so powerful was the word of enoch and so great was th the power ower of the language which god had ha given him there also came up a land out of the depths of the sea and so great was the fear of the enemies of the people of god that they fled and stood atar afar off and went upon the land which came up put 9 t of the depths of the sea and the giants gin ts of the land also stood afar off and there went forth a curse upon all the people which fou fought flit against go god d and from that time orth forth there were wars and bloodshed among them but the lord came and dwelt t with his people and they dwelt in righteousness and the fear of the lord was upon all nations so great was the glory of the lord which was upon u n his people and the lord blessed blessed the land and nd they were blessed upton upon the mountains and upon the high places and did flourish this enoch was one of the noble sons cons of god commissioned like the savior of mankind before the world was to descend upon this mortal stage and play the important 1 part assigned to him in the ireat great drama of human existence he was the redeemer of a zion he was a 8 cype type of christ for as by the words ond nd works of enoch zion in that day was redeemed by the power of god so the world itself by the words and works of jesus christ was redeemed by the power of god in the meridian of time and the rest of that work tha glorious and complete redemption of this planet from all sin and evil is yet to be consummated i and the lord called his people zion because they were of one heart and one mind and dwelt in right righteous eotis ness and there was no poor among them and enoch continued his preaching in righteousness unto the people of god and it came to pass in iris his days that he inbuilt a city that was called the city of holiness even zion and it came to pass that enoch talked with the lord and he said unto the lord surely zion shall dwell in safety forever but the lord said unto enoch zion have I 1 blessed but the residue of the people have I 1 cursed and it cameto pass that the lord showed unto enoch all the inhabitants of the earth and he beheld and lo 10 zion in process of f time was taken up into heaven and the lord said unto enoch behold mine abode forever did I 1 exaggerate when I 1 said that this was an event glorious and miraculous in the extreme Is it possible that by the preaching of the word of god by the practice of the principles of the gospel that such events as this thi S can be brought to pass the gentile would say ko ito the man of the world would exclaim Im I 1 ble he would point to this as an I 1 indication of how joseph smith was I 1 deluded by the evil one and as a proof that he was a false prophet why because it is so utterly at variance with things that we now see wi with th the natural eye it is apparently so impossible with the power that man now finds himself possessed of for such events as this occur for the very earth upon which men stand to become so sanctified and pure and a people to become so righteous that they would be separated and detached from the planet to which they belonged and go sailing away through space into the heavens not even the mira miracles cless of science and invention which are daily increasing such as steamships railways the telegraph the telephone the phonograph once thought so impossible but now so familiar and common will convince unbelieving men that god still has power and wonders in store that have not yet been revealed to this wise generation but it is the faith of gods people the faith of the pure in heart who are not deceived by the plausible sophistries sophis tries of the world who do not take into consideration earthly conditions dit ions but rise above all these and view things from that spiritual eminence from which even the impossible begins to look possible where they have the assurance that all things are possible to them that believe it is their faith that the omnipotent ni potent is able to do greater things than history has ever known or that man at present can form any conception of how was this miracle of enochs city accomplished not by an empty and vain profession of righteousness not by men seeking themselves and their own honor and glory not by heaping up gold and silver and precious stones not by making a golden calf and bowing down and worshiping it not by the rich grinding under heel the poor not by the proud despising the humble not by the poor hating and envying the rich I 1 it t was not done by loving the things of this world but it was by the practice of the grand principle of self denial the principle of sacrifice the foundation stone of the great fabric of human salvation the lord called his people zion because they were of one heart and one mind do I 1 need to expatiate to this congregation upon the benefits which flow from unity need I 1 repeat that ancient axiom united we stand divided we fall need I 1 show to you that power dwells in union in coming together just as you latter day saints have come together in this dispensation this dispensation of gathering of unity and consequently of f power no I 1 do not need to argue with you upon this point to prove to you that power invariably dwells in the midst of a people who are lini united ted who are of one heart and mind this was the state ol of the people of enoch and this is one of the reasons why they were worthy of the e name zion because they were of one heart and one mind they all believed alike they were not bot torn asunder by various opinions by conflicting views and notions by divers interpretations of the things of gadbut god but they had ascended in the scale of intelligence of spirituality to that glorious plane where they saw eye to eye each man with his neighbor and all saw god alike so far as they were capable of comprehending him and his purposes and they dwelt in righteousness need I 1 argue to convince you that a righteous people are a powerful people and that it is by the righteousness of his |