SCRIPTURE READING EXERCISE.

THE ANCIENT AMERICAN SCRIPTURE—THE BOOK OF MORMON.

SPECIAL TEXT: "Fools mock, but they shall mourn; and my grace is sufficient for the meek. * * * * And if men will come unto me I will show unto them their weaknesses. I give unto men weaknesses that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me."—THE LORD TO MORONI.

NOTES.

1. Religion of the Jaredites: "Relative to the religion that obtained among the Jaredites, we are left in well nigh as much ignorance as we are concerning the nature of the subordinate features of their government. The two brothers, Moriancumr and Jared, seem to have been among the righteous people of Babel; so much so in fact that Moriancumr was a very great prophet of God, and had direct access to the source of revelation; * * * * He so far prevailed with God through faith that he beheld him face to face, and talked with him as a man speaks with his friend. That is, he saw and talked with the pre-existent spirit of the Lord Jesus. * * * * * Moriancumr was commanded, however, not to suffer the things he had seen and heard to go into the world until the Lord Jesus should have lived in the flesh. He was commanded to write what he had both seen and heard, and seal it up that it might be preserved to come forth in due time to the children of men. While Moriancumr was prohibited from making known to his people the great things thus revealed to him, his knowledge of the things of God must have given him wonderful power and influence in teaching his people the righteous truths which are fundamental and universal. * * * * The fifth monarch, Emer, possessed such faith that he, like Moriancumr, had the blessed privilege of seeing "the Son of Righteousness, and did rejoice and glory in his day." And of the whole people it is said, "never could [there] be a people more blessed than were they, and more prospered by the hand of the Lord." All of which is good evidence that the Jaredites at this time (in the reign of Lib, the sixteenth monarch) were a righteous people; and this righteousness was doubtless brought about by the preaching of faith in God and his laws as only Moriancumr and other prophets whom God raised up to the Jaredite nation could preach it.

2. The Religion of the Nephites: Religion among the Nephites consisted in the worship of the true and living God, the Jehovah of the Jews, whose revelations to the children of Israel through Moses and all the prophets to Jeremiah were brought with them into the new world. They therefore accepted into their faith all the Bible truths, and in its historical parts they had before them the valuable lessons which Bible history teaches. They looked forward also to the coming of Messiah, through Prophecy; and when he finally came and taught the gospel in its fulness they accepted it and thus became Christians.

3. Religion of the Lamanites: The religion of Lamanites is more difficult to determine than their government. It is chiefly the absence of religion and of its influence that must be spoken of. Taught to believe that the traditions of their fathers respecting God, the promised Messiah, and the belief in a future life were untrue; persuaded to believe that their fathers had been induced to leave fatherland, and their rich possessions therein because of the dreams of the visionary Lehi; firm in their conviction that the elder sons of Lehi had been defrauded of their right to govern the colony by the younger son, Nephi, and that through the force of the religious influence he learned to wield by following the spiritual example (to them, perhaps, the trickery) of his father—it was in the spirit of hatred of religion that the Lamanites waged wars upon the Nephites, to subvert religion and free men from its influence. But the Lamanites were true to human instincts. They freed themselves, as they supposed, from one superstition, only to plunge into others that were really contemptible—the superstition of idolatry; for they were an idolatrous people. This remark, however, must be understood in a general sense, and as applying to the Lamanites proper previous to the coming of Messiah—of the followers, and the descendants of the followers, of the elder brothers of the first Nephi, Laman and Lemuel. After the coming of Messiah, when in the third century, A. D., the old distinctions of Nephite and Lamanite were revived, after the long period of peace and righteousness following the advent of Christ, they had no reference to race or family distinctions, as they had when first employed; but were strictly party distinctions; used, when adopted again in the period named, to indicate the Church or religious party, and the anti-religious party, respectively.

4. The Priesthood of the Nephites: In order to offer sacrifices and administer in the other ordinances of the law of Moses (which the Nephites were commanded to observe), it was necessary, of course, that they have a priesthood, and this they had; but not the priesthood after the order of Aaron; for that was a priesthood that could only properly be held by Aaron's family and the tribe of Levi; while Lehi was of the tribe of Manasseh. Lehi held the priesthood, however, the higher priesthood, which was after the order of Melchisedek, and was a prophet and minister of righteousness. This he conferred upon his son Nephi, and Nephi shortly after his separation from his elder brothers on the land of promise, consecrated his two younger brothers, Jacob and Joseph, to be priests and teachers unto his people. Jacob, when explaining his calling to his brethren, states that he had been called of God, "and ordained after the manner of his holy order." What the significance of the phrase "his holy order" means, is learned very distinctly from other parts of the Book of Mormon. Alma, for instance, before giving up the chief judgeship of the land, is represented as confining himself "wholly to the holy priesthood of the holy order of God, to the testimony of the word, according to the spirit of revelation and prophecy." Again Alma explains, "I am called * * * * according to the holy order of God, which is in Christ Jesus, yea, I am commanded to stand and testify unto this people." All of which is made still clearer by what Alma says later. Having given an explanation of the plan of redemption which was laid for man's salvation, and which he represents as having been understood from earliest times, he adds: "I would that ye should remember that the Lord God ordained priests after his holy order, which was after the order of his Son (meaning Jesus Christ), to teach these things unto the people. * * * * This holy priesthood being after the order of his Son, which order was from the foundation of the world, or in other words, being without beginning of days or end of years, being prepared from eternity to all eternity. * * * * Thus they become the high priests forever after the order of the Son, the only begotten of the Father, who is full of grace, equity and truth." Alma then admonishes his people to be humble "even as the people in the days of Melchisedek, who was also a high priest after the same order (of which he had spoken). * * * * And he was the same Melchisedek to whom Abraham paid tithes." The Nephite priesthood, then, was not a priesthood after Aaron's order, but of a higher order, even the priesthood after the order of the Son of God; the same kind of priesthood held by Melchisedek, by Moses, by Lehi, and many other prophets in Israel. That this higher priesthood was competent to act in administering the ordinances under what is known as the law of Moses is evident from the fact that it so administered before the Aaronic or Levitical priesthood proper was given; and the fact that there was given the household of Aaron and the tribe of Levi a special priesthood, by no means detracts from the right and power of the higher or Melchisedek priesthood to officiate in the ordinances of the law of Moses; for certainly the higher order of priesthood may officiate in the functions of the lower, when necessity requires it. All the sacrifices and ordinances under the law of Moses, administered by the Nephite priesthood, I say again, were observed with due appreciation of the fact that they were of virtue only as they shadowed forth the things to be done by Messiah when he should come to earth, in the flesh, on his great mission of atonement." (Y. M. M. I. A. Manuals, 1903-5, pp. 137-8.)