The Place of Safety.

An Inspired Choice.—Who can doubt the wisdom of the choice that made the Rocky Mountains, in lieu of the Pacific Coast, a permanent home for the once homeless Latter-day Saints? Had they gone to California, as Elder Brannan advised, it would have meant, in all probability, their disruption and dispersion as a community, or at all events another painful exodus in quest of peace and freedom. It would have been to invite, from the inhabitants of that region—fast filling up with immigrants from those very States where the persecuted people had experienced their sorest troubles—a repetition of the woes from which they were fleeing. Here in these mountain fastnesses, a thousand miles from the frontiers of civilization, they were safe from mobs and molestation.

Better Than Elsewhere.—Better for them, in every way, that they should bide where Providence placed them. The coast country, with all its attractions—and they are many—has no such rare climate as can be found in this more highly favored region. The land once supposed to be worthless, and to redeem which even in part from its ancient barrenness, has required years on years of toil and privation, turns out to be a veritable treasure-house of natural resources, a self-sustaining empire; and in periods of strife and turmoil, when war rocks the world, it is probably the safest place beneath the sun.

The Great War.—This mention again brings to the fore Joseph Smith's great "Prophecy on War." It has been seen how the Southern States, when they endeavored to withdraw from the Union, "called on Great Britain" for recognition and assistance, thus making good a portion of the Prophet's prediction. But when did Great Britain "call upon other nations," fulfilling in her own case the terms of the "Mormon" leader's fateful forecast? Certainly not during the stormy period of the "sixties," nor for many decades thereafter.

But the time came eventually. After the outbreak of the World War, when the German hosts were overrunning Belgium and Northern France, threatening even England herself, Great Britain did call upon the nations with which she had made treaties, for the help that she so sorely needed. The visit to America, before and after the United States declared war against Germany, of representatives of Great Britain and others of the Allied nations, appealing for military aid, was a potent factor in inducing our Government to send ships and troops across the Atlantic, to help beat back the Teutonic invader.

Only The Beginning.—Very evident is it that the tempest of war foretold by Joseph Smith did not cease with the close of the conflict between the Northern and the Southern States. The storm has continued intermittently to this time. Lulls there have been, but no lasting cessation of the strife. Five years after the collapse of the Southern Confederacy, came the Franco-Prussian War, foreshadowing Germany's mad attempt to conquer the world. The American Civil War, the Franco-Prussian War, and the more recent World War, were all parts of the great "outpouring" predicted on that ominous Christmas day. And the same may be said of other conflicts that have since taken place. Equally true will it be of any future strife that may be necessary to help free the world from oppression and iniquity. Unless the wicked repent, there is more—much more to come.^[1]

But in what way did the revolt of South Carolina, which began the Civil War, prove a "beginning" of wars for "all nations"? This question is intelligently discussed in a pamphlet recently put forth by Elder James H. Anderson, of Salt Lake City. That writer shows that with the outbreak of the Southern-Northern conflict, the whole system of modern warfare underwent a change, and that since then it has experienced a complete revolution, through the invention and use of machine guns, airships, submarines, and other death-dealing instrumentalities, absolutely unknown in previous military history, and marking a distinct beginning, such as the Prophet indicated.^[2]

Dangers Upon the Deep.—One frightful feature of the unparalleled struggle that ended with the signing of the armistice (November 11, 1918), was the havoc wrought by the German U-boats, otherwise known as submarines. There had been, before the coming of the U-boat, dreadful dangers upon the waters, as the fate of the ill-starred "Titanic"—ripped open by an iceberg—testifies. But the submarine, the assassin of the "Lusitania," multiplied those dangers a hundred fold. Did the proud world know that a prophet of God had foreseen these fearful happenings, and had sounded a warning of their approach?

In August, 1831, Joseph Smith, with a party of friends, returning from their first visit to Zion in Jackson County, encamped on the bank of the Missouri River, at a place called Mcllwair's (or Mcllwaine's) Bend. There, one of the party, William W. Phelps, saw in vision the Destroyer riding in awful fury upon the river, and the incident called forth a revelation in which the Lord says:

"Behold, there are many dangers upon the waters, and more especially hereafter;

"For I, the Lord, have decreed in mine anger many destructions upon the waters; yea, and especially upon these waters;

"Nevertheless, all flesh is in mine hand, and he that is faithful among you shall not perish by the waters.

* * * * * *

"Behold, I, the Lord, in the beginning blessed the waters, but in the last days, by the mouth of my servant John, I cursed the waters.

"Wherefore, the days will come that no flesh shall be safe upon the waters,

"And it shall be said in days to come that none is able to go up to the land of Zion upon the waters, but he that is upright in heart. . . . .

"I, the Lord, have decreed, and the destroyer rideth upon the face thereof, and I revoke not the decree."^[3]

No Flesh Safe Upon the Waters.—Was not this condition almost realized during the darkest days of the Great War? Perils undreamed of developed; disasters without precedent, unexampled in history, were of frequent occurrence. Even upon the calm Pacific no ship pursued consecutively the same track twice. Companies operating the great ocean-liners no longer announced the dates of departure from one port or of expected arrival at another. They dared not; the destroyer was abroad, death was in the depths, and the spirit of dread brooded upon the bosom of the waters. And this upon the comparatively peaceful Western Ocean; while upon the Atlantic, in the Mediterranean, and in the North Sea, the terrible submarine told the tale of danger and disaster.

The Food Question.—Another phase of the Titanic struggle was the food question. Joseph Smith had predicted famine;^[4] and the famine came. As early as October, 1876, the Prophet's successor, President Brigham Young, placed upon the members of the Relief Society a special mission—that of gathering and storing grain against a day of scarcity; and from that time the activities of the Society were put forth largely in this direction. Some made light of the labors of these devoted women, declaring that another famine could not be. Too vast an area of the earth's surface was under cultivation, and the means of rapid transit and communication were too plentiful, to permit of such a misfortune. If famine threatened any part of the world, word of it could come in the twinkling of an eye, and millions on millions of tons of food-stuffs, speedily transported to the scene, would stave off the straitness and render the calamity impossible.

The Spectre of Famine..—Alas for those who put their trust in the arm of flesh! In spite of the vast and ever-increasing productivity of the soil; in spite of railroads, steamships, and telegraphs, spreading a network of steel and electricity over the face of the planet, this was, and is still, a famine-threatened world. Europe calls upon America for food; America generously responds; but as fast as she consigns her cargoes of foodstuffs to the needy nations, the merciless and devouring submarine sends them to the bottom of the sea. Such indeed was the situation. The floor of the ocean is strewn with the wrecks of transports whose mission was to carry bread to the starving millions of other lands. And where was the man, uninspired of Heaven, who could have anticipated such a catastrophe?

Our nation became aroused to the necessity existing for the avoidance of Waste and the conservation of food stuffs. All civilized countries awakened to the same urgent call. The "Mormon" grain-storing movement was no longer a joke—a target for ridicule. The gaunt spectre of Famine had shown a glimpse of his face, and the whole world trembled at the prospect. The God of Joseph and of Brigham had vindicated the patient labors of His faithful handsmaids, and fulfilled in part the solemn forebodings of prophecy.

"Mormon" Grain for the Government.—Not the least item of interest connected with this subject, is the fact that the United States Government, through its Food Administrator, in May, 1918, made request upon the authorities of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for the turning in of all the Relief Society wheat then on hand, for use in the war. The request was cheerfully complied with, 225,000 bushels of wheat being promptly furnished by the Church to the Federal Government.

The Drought of 1919.—How easily a famine could come, was shown during the prolonged drought in the summer of 1919, when throughout the Intermountain West and in regions beyond, lands usually productive lay parching for many weeks under the torrid rays of the sun. As a result, millions of acres of growing grain, especially in the dry-farming districts, perished for want of moisture. And yet there are men who deem human powers and earthly resources all-sufficient, and who declare, in the face of prophecy, that famine and war are obsolete and never again can be.

A Scholar's Opinion.—Such a pronouncement, as to war, was made repeatedly, in public, only a short while before the World War broke out. That splendid scholar and publicist, David Starr Jordan, expressed by tongue and pen his positive conviction that another great conflict, in this advanced and cultured age, was humanly impossible—it simply could not come.^[5] But Another had said, two thousand years before: "Such things must come."^[6] And not long after the delivery of Doctor Jordan's optimistic, well-meant prediction, the greatest hell of conflict that this world has ever known burst forth and well-nigh wrapt the globe in a mantle of smoke and flame.

The One Safe Guide.—"Men may come and men may go," but God and Truth "go on forever." Heaven and Earth may pass, but the divine word, by whomsoever spoken, will endure unshaken "amid the wreck of matter and the crash of worlds." The sure word of prophecy, flowing from the fountain of the Spirit, is the one safe guide through the chaos of the present and the mystical mazes of the future.

A Prophet's Voice.—More firmly founded than the scholarly utterance in question, was a prediction made by President Wilford Woodruff, at Brigham City, Utah, in the summer of 1894. In the course of a public address, referring to the near approach of the judgments of the last days, the venerable leader said: "Great changes are at our doors. The next twenty years will see mighty changes among the nations of the earth." And it was just twenty years, or in the summer of 1914, when the terrible strife that has wrought so many mighty changes swept like a whirlwind over the nations.

Other Prophetic Warnings.—One could almost believe that President Woodruff's fellow Apostle, Orson Pratt, was gazing with seeric vision upon the same dreadful picture, when he thundered into the ears of the world this solemn admonition: "A voice is heard unto the ends of the Earth! A sound of terror and dismay! A sound of nations rushing to battle! Fierce and dreadful is the contest! Mighty kingdoms and empires melt away! The destroyer has gone forth; the pestilence that walketh in darkness; the plagues of the last days are at hand; and who shall be able to escape? None but the righteous; none but the upright in heart."^[7]

Eight years later this same Apostle, then at Liverpool, about to embark for America, issued to the inhabitants of Great Britain this "Prophetic Warning":

"If you will not repent and unite yourselves with God's Kingdom, then the days are near at hand when the righteous shall be gathered out of your midst. And woe unto you when that day shall come, for it shall be a day of vengeance upon the British nation! . . . . Your armies shall perish; your maritime forces shall cease; your cities shall be ravaged, burned and made desolate, and your strongholds shall be thrown down; the poor shall rise against the rich, and their storehouses and their fine mansions shall be pillaged, their merchandise and their gold and their silver and their rich treasures shall be plundered. Then shall the lords and nobles and the merchants of the land, and all in high places, be brought down and shall sit in the dust and howl for the miseries that shall be upon them. And they that trade by sea shall lament and mourn; for their traffic shall cease."^[8]

Saviors of the Nation.—To escape the judgments hanging over the wicked, and find a place where they might worship God unmolested, the Latter-day Saints fled to the Rocky Mountains. Here, and here only, during the temporary isolation sought and found by them in the chambers of "the everlasting hills," could they hope to be let alone long enough to become strong enough to accomplish their greater destiny. For there was more in that enforced exodus and the founding of this mountain-girl empire than the surface facts reveal. If tradition can be relied upon, Joseph Smith prophesied that the Elders of Israel would save this Nation in the hour of its extremest peril. At a time when anarchy would threaten the life of the Government, and the Constitution would be hanging as by a thread, the maligned and misunderstood "Mormons"—always patriotic, and necessarily so from the very genius of their religion—would stand firm upon Freedom's rocky ramparts, and as champions of law and order, of liberty and justice, call to their aid in the same grand cause kindred spirits from every part of the nation and from every corner of the world. All this preparatory to a mighty movement that would sweep every form of evil from off the face of the land, and rear the Zion of God upon the spot consecrated for that purpose. This traditional utterance of their martyred Seer is deeply imbedded in the heart and hope of the "Mormon" people.

"Mormonism's" Monument.—The State of Utah with its fringe of offspring settlements, is no adequate monument to Latter-day Israel. Zion is their monument, and it will stand in Jackson County, Missouri. Ephraim is but getting ready for his mighty mission—the Lion crouching before he springs.

Footnotes

1. D. and C. 5:19; 45:31, 68, 69; 63:33; 88:87-91; 97:22, 23; 115:6.2. See "Prophecies of Joseph Smith and their Fulfillment," by Nephi L. Morris, p. 20.3. D. and C. 61:4-6, 14-16, 19. Compare Moses 7:66 and Rev. 16:3, 4.4. D. and C. 87:6.5. "There is no war coming," said Doctor Jordan to the press representatives who flocked to interview him on his return, in 1910, from Europe, where he had been lecturing on "Universal Peace." "The only battle between England and Germany will be on paper." In his book, "War and Waste," published a few years later, he said of the "Great War of Europe which never comes": "The bankers will not find the money for such a fight, the industries of Europe will not maintain it, the statesmen cannot. . . . . There will be no general war until the masters direct the fighters to fight. The masters have much to gain, but vastly more to lose, and their signal will not be given." In August, 1912, the Doctor delivered a spoken address to the same effect in the Salt Lake Tabernacle. This was just two years before the war that "could not come"—came.6. Matt. 24:6.7. "The Kingdom of God," July, 1849.8. "Mill. Star" Oct. 24, 1857. Orson Pratt, then presiding over the European Mission, had been called home, owing to a prospect of serious trouble between Utah and the United States Government. A false report that the "Mormons" were in rebellion against the Federal authority had caused the Government to send an army, under General Albert Sidney Johnston, to put down the alleged insurrection. Brigham Young, Governor of the Territory (now State) of Utah, proclaimed martial law and made preparation to resist the "invaders." A part of the preparation was the withdrawal of all "Mormon" missionaries from the outside world. It remains but to say that "The Utah War" ended by peaceable adjustment and without bloodshed.