SCRIPTURE READING EXERCISE.

THE ANCIENT AMERICAN SCRIPTURE—THE BOOK OF MORMON. (Continued.)

NOTES.

1. Jaredite Colony: The Book of Mormon contains the history of two distinct races. The first came from the Tower of Babel and was destroyed a little less than six hundred years before Christ. The story of their national life is given very briefly, but sufficient is said to prove that they were one of the mightiest nations of antiquity, and in the days of their righteousness a people highly blessed of the Lord. Their fall and final destruction were the result of their gross wickedness and rejection of God's Prophets. These people were called the Jaredites, their history in the Book of Mormon is contained in "the Book of Ether." Ether was their last Prophet, and wrote his account of his people on twenty-four plates of gold." (The Myth of the Manuscript Found, p. 43.)

2. The Nephite Colony: The next race that inhabited this continent was of Israelitish origin, the descendants of Joseph and Judah. The Nephites, the ruling branch, were principally the descendants of Manasseh (and Ephraim). By divine guidance their first prophet and ruler, Lehi, was brought out of Jerusalem with a small company of his relatives and friends, eleven years before the Babylonian captivity (B. C. 600). They sailed from south-eastern Arabia across the Indian and Pacific oceans, and landed on the American shore not far from where the city of Valparaiso now stands. In the first year of the captivity another small colony was led out from Jerusalem, Mulek, one of the sons of King Zedekiah, being their nominal leader. This party landed in North America some distance north of the Isthmus of Darien, and soon after migrated into the northern portion of the southern continent, where for nearly four centuries they grew in numbers, but not in true civilization. (Myth of the Manuscript Found, p. 44.)

3. Inter-Continental Movements: In the meantime the descendants of the colonists under Lehi had also grown numerous. Early in their history they had separated into two nationalities; the first, called Nephites, observing the laws of Moses, the teachings of the prophets, and developing in the decencies and comforts of civilized life; the others, called Lamanites (after the cruel, rebellious elder brother of Nephi), sank into barbarism and idolatry. These latter gradually crowded the Nephites northward until the latter reached the land occupied by the descendants of Mulek's colony, now called the people of Zarahemla, with whom they coalesced and formed one nation. From their national birth to B. C. 91, the Nephites had been ruled by kings, but at that time the form of government was changed and a republic founded. The nation was then ruled by judges elected by the people (the Nephite Republic). This portion of the history of the Nephites is a very varied one. One-third of their time they were engaged in actual war with the Lamanites, and at other times they were distracted with internal convulsions and rebellions. About A. D.. 30, the republic was overthrown and the people split up into numerous independent tribes. (Myth of the Manuscript Found, p. 44.)

4. Time of the Departure of Jaredite Colony: The colony of Jared, according to the Book of Mormon, departed from the Tower of Babel about the time of the confounding of the people's language; which, if the Hebrew chronology of the Bible be accepted, was an event that took place 2,247 B. C. Through a special favor to the family of Jared and his brother, Moriancumer, the language of these families, and that of a few of their friends was not confounded. Under divine direction they departed from Babel northward into a valley called Nimrod, and thence were led by the Lord across the continent of Asia eastward until they came to the shore of the great sea—Pacific Ocean—which divided the lands. Here they remained four years; and then by divine appointment constructed eight barges in which to cross the mighty ocean to a land of promise, to which God had covenanted to bring them; to a land "which was choice above all other lands, which the Lord God had reserved for a righteous people.." After a severely stormy passage—continuing for 344 days, the colony landed on the western coast of North America, "probably south of the Gulf of California." Soon after their arrival the people of the colony began to spread out upon the face of the land, and multiply, and till the earth; "and they did wax strong in the land." Previous to the demise of Moriancumer and Jared, the people were called together and a kingly government founded, Orihah, the youngest son of Jared being anointed king.

5. Composition and Number of Lehi's Colony: Lehi was one of the many prophets at Jerusalem who predicted the calamities which befell the Jewish nation on the second invasion of Judea by King Nebuchadnezzar, early in the sixth century B. C. Lehi incurred the wrath of that ungodly people and was warned of God in a vision to depart from Jerusalem with his family, and was also promised that inasmuch as he would keep the commandments of God he should be led to a land of promise. From the wilderness where Lehi temporarily dwelt, two expeditions to the fated city were made by his sons: one, to obtain a genealogy of his fathers, and the Jewish scriptures (which resulted also in adding one more to the colony in the person of Zoram, a servant of one Laban, a keeper of the Jewish records); the second, to induce one Ishmael and his family to join Lehi's Colony in their exodus from Jerusalem and journey to the promised land. In both these expeditions they were successful in achieving their object. The colony now consisted of some eighteen adult persons and a number of children.

6. Direction of Travel and Landing Place of Lehi's Colony: From the Book of Mormon and the word of the Lord to the prophet Joseph Smith, it is learned that Lehi's Colony traveled from Jerusalem nearly a southeast direction until they came to the 19th degree north latitude; thence nearly east to the sea of Arabia. Here the colony built a ship in which to cross the great waters, which as yet separated them from the land of promise. They sailed in a southeasterly direction, and landed on the continent of South America in about 30 degrees south latitude.

7. Conditions in Jerusalem at the Departure of Lehi's Colony: The story of Zedekiah's reign in Jerusalem, the conditions that obtained among the people, and the warnings which God sent by many prophets (Lehi among the rest) is thus told in II Chronicles, chapter xxxvi: "Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign; and reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord his God, and humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet, speaking from the mouth of the Lord. And he also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God: but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart from turning unto the Lord God of Israel. Moreover, all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much, after all the abominations of the heathen, and polluted the house of the Lord which he had hallowed in Jerusalem. And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling places: But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy."

8. Mulek's Colony: According to the Bible narrative of King Zedekiah's reign, when Jerusalem fell into the hands of the king of Babylon (588 B. C.), King Zedekiah himself well nigh made his escape. For when the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled by night, by the way of the gate between two walls, which is by the king's garden, the king went the way toward the plain. But his flight being betrayed by an enemy among his own people, the army of the Chaldeans pursued Zedekiah early in the morning and overtook him in the plain near Jericho. The king's army was scattered from him at the time he was captured; for "those friends and captains of Zedekiah who had fled out of the city with him, when they saw their enemies near them, they left him, and dispersed themselves, some one way and some another, and every one resolved to save himself; so the enemy took Zedekiah alive, when he was deserted by all but a few, with his children and his wives." The unfortunate king was taken before the king of Babylon, whose headquarters were then at Riblah, in Syria, where "they gave judgment upon him." The sons of Zedekiah were slain in his presence; after which his eyes were put out; he was bound in fetters and carried to Babylon, where subsequently he died. But among the king's friends who escaped, were a number who carried with them one of Zedekiah's sons, named Mulek; and according to the Book of Mormon, this company "journeyed in the wilderness and were brought by the hand of the Lord across the great waters," into the western hemisphere. It is learned by an incidental remark in the Book of Mormon that the colony of Mulek landed somewhere in the north continent of the western hemisphere; and for that reason the north continent was called Mulek, by the Nephites; and the south continent, Lehi; and this for the reason that the Lord brought the colonies bearing these names to the north and south land respectively.

9. The Government of the Jaredites: Of the nature of Jaredite government little can be learned beyond the fact that after the election of the first king, Orihah, the hereditary principle was recognized; and although there were frequent contestants for the throne, and occasional usurpations of the kingly authority, the legitimate line of hereditary monarchs seems to have been reasonably well maintained. It appears not to have been part of the constitution of the government, however, that the rights of heredity in the royal house should descend to the eldest son. It frequently happened that the son born in the old age of the reigning monarch succeeded to the kingly power, a course which perhaps accounts for the occasional rebellions of their brothers, though the rights of the first born are never urged as the cause of the quarrels.

10. The Nephite Kingdom: What the nature of this kingly government was, what secondary officers existed in it, and what means were employed for the administration of its laws cannot be learned from the Nephite record. For some time the community over which the established government held sway was but a small one, hence the kingly office had no such dignity as attaches to it in more extensive governments; but was most likely akin to the petty kingdoms which existed in Judea at various times and with which Nephi and some few of those who had accompanied him from Jerusalem were acquainted. The Nephites had the scriptures containing the law of Moses, and were taught to some extent in some of the customs of the Jews, but not in all of them. And these customs, and the law of Moses administered with no very great amount of machinery, I apprehend constituted the character of the Nephite government. Under it the Nephites lived for a period of more than four hundred and fifty years.

11. The Nephite Republic: The transition from a kingly form of government to what may be called a democracy was made at the death of Mosiah II; 509 years from the time Lehi left Jerusalem, or 91 years B. C. The Israelitish genius in matters of government inclines them to the acceptance of what men commonly call a theocracy, which is defined as meaning literally "a state governed in the name of God." The election of this form of government by Israelites as most desirable, grows out of the fact of the Mosaic legislation; for Moses received the law by which Israel was governed direct from Jehovah; its regulations were carried out in Jehovah's name by the administration of judges, both during the life time of Israel's great prophet and also after his demise. Living thus under the divine law, administered in the name of Jehovah by judges divinely appointed, was to be governed of God.

12. Civilization and Government Among the Lamanites: The Lamanites in respect of these matters should not be overlooked. It is true that they were idle; that they loved the wilderness and dwelt in tents; that they depended upon the fruits of the chase and such products of the earth as the rich lands they occupied produced without the labor of man, as the principal means of their sustenance; still they came in contact now and then with Nephite civilization, which must have modified somewhat their inclination to utter barbarism. * * * * * That there was some system and regularity in Lamanite government must be apparent from the degree of efficiency to which it must have arisen in order to conduct the protracted wars with the Nephites. The largeness of their armies, the length of the wars, and the extensive scale on which they were projected, would indicate the existence of some strong, central government capable of making its authority respected. That such a government existed among the Lamanites is disclosed through the facts that are brought to light by the mission of the young Nephite princes, the sons of Mosiah II., in the century preceding the birth of Messiah. It appears that at that time what I shall venture to call the Lamanite Empire was divided into a number of petty kingdoms whose kings, as it always the case among semi-civilized peoples, were possessed of great and arbitrary power; but these in turn seem to have been subject to a central ruler whose dominion extended over all, and whose power in his larger sphere was as absolute as that of the petty kings in the smaller states.