MORMONISM AND THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND—PRESENTATION OF THE BOOK OF MORMON TO THE QUEEN AND PRINCE ALBERT—ELIZA R. SNOW'S POEM ON THAT EVENT—"ZION'S NURSING MOTHER"—HEBER C. KIMBALL BLESSES VICTORIA.

Here an interesting story is to be told of Mormonism and the Queen of England.

It will be remembered that Victoria ascended the throne of Great Britain just three days before Heber C. Kimball, Orson Hyde and Willard Richards arrived in her realm to preach the gospel of Messiah's coming.

There was something poetic in this. Victoria became connected in some way with the new dispensation. She alone of all the monarchs of the earth was prophetically cast in its dramatis personae. Poetry and prophesy both were pregnant with much of subject and promise that concerned Victoria of England. She may not be aware of it, but there is quite a romance of the British Queen in Mormon history, to which the presentation of the Book of Mormon to herself and the late Prince consort gives pictorial display.

Before leaving England, President Brigham Young, who had succeeded in raising means to publish the Book of Mormon, gave directions for copies to be specially prepared and richly bound for presentation to her Majesty and the Prince consort. The honor of this devolved on Lorenzo Snow, who was at that period President of the London Conference. The presentation was made in 1842, through the politeness of Sir Henry Wheatley; and it is said her Majesty condescended to be pleased, with the gift. Whether she ever read the Book of Mormon is not known, although, if the presentation has not altogether faded from her memory, Mormonism has been since that date sensational enough to provoke even a monarch to read the book, if for nothing better than curiosity; so, not unlikely Queen Victoria has read some portions at least of the Book of Mormon. The unique circumstance called forth from the pen of Eliza R. Snow the following poem, entitled "Queen Victoria:"

"Of all the monarchs of the earth
That wear the robes of royalty,
She has inherited by birth
The broadest wreath of majesty.

From her wide territorial wing
The sun does not withdraw its light,
While earth's diurnal motions bring
To other nations day and night.

All earthly thrones are tott'ring things,
Where lights and shadows intervene;
And regal honor often brings
The scaffold or the guillotine.

But still her sceptre is approved—
All nations deck the wreath she wears;
Yet, like the youth whom Jesus loved,
One thing is lacking even there.

But lo! a prize possessing more
Of worth than gems with honor rife—
A herald of salvation bore
To her the words of endless life.

That gift, however fools deride,
Is worthy of her royal care;
She'd better lay her crown aside
Than spurn the light reflected there,

O would she now her influence lend—
The influence of royalty,
Messiah's kingdom to extend,
And Zion's 'nursing Mother' be;

She, with the glory of her name
Inscribed on Zion's lofty spire,
Would win a wreath of endless fame,
To last when other wreaths expire.

Though over millions called to reign—
Herself a powerful nation's boast,
'Twould be her everlasting gain
To serve the King, the Lord of Hosts.

For there are crowns and thrones on high,
And kingdoms there to be conferred;
There honors wait that never die,
There fame's immortal trump is heard.

Truth speaks—it is Jehovah's word;
Let kings and queens and princes hear:
In distant isles the sound is heard—
Ye heavens, rejoice; O earth, give ear.

The time, the time is now at hand
To give a glorious period birth—
The Son of God will take command,
And rule the nations of the earth."

It will be seen that our Hebraic poetess has suggested for Victoria of England the title of "Zion's Nursing Mother." The reference is to Isaiah's glorious song of Zion. He, according to the universally accepted interpretation, foresaw the rise of Messiah's kingdom on the earth in the last days.

"And they shall call thee the City of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.

"And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.

"And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers.

"Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.

"Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with him and his work before him."

This is the subject of which the gorgeous Isaiah sang; and the prophesy of Joseph and the poetry of Eliza have applied it principally to America as Zion, and conditionally, to Queen Victoria as her "Nursing Mother."

Many earthly thrones were about to totter. Soon France—from the days of Charlemagne styled "The Eldest Daughter of the Church"—saw her crown trampled in the very gutter, by the rabble of Paris, and a few years later the scepter of Rome was wrested from the hands of the "successor of St Peter" by Victor Emanuel; yet of Victoria of England, Zion's poetess sings:

"But still her sceptre is approved."

Mark the poetic and prophetic significance between America as Zion, and Great Britain, represented in Victoria. A new age is born. Victoria is its imperial star; while from America—the land that owns no earthly sovereign—come these apostles to her realm just three days after the sceptre is placed in her hands. The prophet of America sends them to proclaim to Great Britain the rising of a star superior to her own. It is the star of Messiah's kingdom. She is called to her mission as its Nursing Mother.

Seeing that Joseph was the prophet of America, and that the British mission has given to the Mormon Zion over a hundred thousand of her children already gathered to build up her cities and rear her temples, it is not strange that the burden of this prophesy should have been claimed and shared between the two great English speaking nations.

But there is a personal romance as well, which centres in Victoria. At the time Sister Eliza wrote the poem to her name, Victoria of England was quite a theme in the Mormon Church. Not only in her own realm, among her own subjects, but in Zion also she was preached about, prophesied about, dreamed about, and seen in visions. Brigham, as we have seen, caused special copies of the Book of Mormon to be prepared for her and Prince Albert; Lorenzo Snow presented them through the courtesy of a state personage, and his sister immortalized the circumstance in verse. The story is told, also, that Heber C. Kimball, while in London, blessed Victoria, as she passed, by the power and authority of his apostleship; and what Heber did was done with the spirit and with the understanding also. Queen Victoria has been remarkably successful, and unrivalled in the glory of her reign.