The Zion of Latter Days.

A Work of Preparation.—The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stands for the gathering of the House of Israel and the building of the modern Zion, New Jerusalem, preparatory to the Millennial reign of righteousness. Israel must be gathered, because it is the God of Israel who is coming to reign, and the descendants of Jacob are the only people who have the right to receive him when he appears. And they must become pure in heart, in order to be worthy of that high privilege.

To His Own—The Christ is coming to "his own," as he came anciently; but it will not be said again that "his own received him not." They are even now preparing to receive him, as fast as circumstances will allow. All of "Mormonism's" varied activities—proselyting, migrational, colonizing, commercial, industrial and educational—have this as their paramount objective. The Latter-day Saints claim lineal descent from the Hebrew patriarchs. They are literally of the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—mostly through Ephraim, the "first-born" in the divine process of gathering Israel and bringing forth Zion.

The Ensign Lifted.—It developed upon Joseph Smith, a lineal descendant of Joseph of old, to begin, upon the Land of Joseph, the gathering of God's people from the nations. The organization of the Church was the setting up of the prophetic "Ensign,"^[1] to assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. Joseph lived only long enough to assemble a portion of the half tribe of Ephraim, to which he belonged; but the work begun by him will go on until all the tribes of Israel are gathered, and the way is fully prepared for the blest reign of the King of Kings.

Place and Plan.—The Church, organized on the sixth of April, 1830, was less than one year old when it removed from its birth-place, Fayette, New York, to Kirtland, Ohio, where its infancy was cradled. There the Prophet announced the place for the New Jerusalem and the plan whereby the Holy City was to be established. Western Missouri was the place.^[2] The plan became known as "The United Order."^[3]

The Pure in Heart.—"This is Zion—the pure in heart."^[4] So said Joseph Smith. For Zion is not only a place; it is also a people and a condition. "Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God."^[5] They are the only ones who will be permitted to see Him. Zion the place is where Zion the people will assemble for that purpose. In a general sense, the whole of America, North and South, is the Land of Zion.^[6] Specially, Zion, "the place for the city," is in Jackson Country, Missouri.^[7]

Consecration.—The Zion of old—Enoch's commonwealth—was sanctified and translated through obedience to the Law of Consecration,^[8] a heaven-revealed principle subsequently practiced by the followers of Christ, both Jews and Nephites.^[9] The modern Zion, "the perfection of beauty," "the joy of the whole earth,"^[10] is to be brought forth upon precisely the same principle—"every man seeking the interest of his neighbor, and doing all things with an eye single to the glory of God."^[11]

Equality and Unity.—As a preliminary to the wonderful achievement in prospect, the Latter-day Saints were required to consecrate all their properties to the Lord. This was done, not to enrich any man nor any set of men, but to establish equality in material possessions, as a prerequisite to the unity and power necessary for the mighty undertaking. Equality—not of intelligence and capacity, of course, but of ownership and of opportunity to advance and achieve—this was the purpose in view. The members of the community were to be equal in earthly things, that they might be "equal in obtaining heavenly things."

A Celestial Law.—It was a law of the Celestial Kingdom—the Zion of Eternity—that the Saints were required to obey, to the end that the Lord's will might be done on earth even as it is done in heaven—that Earth might become a heaven, in fact, and they who made it so be prepared for "a place in the celestial world."^[12]

Stewardships.—It was not proposed to take from the people their possessions, and demand all their time and service, without making ample provision for their support. They were not to be pauperized, but enriched, through obedience to God's law. The properties they consecrated—farms, printing offices, mills, work-shops, money, etc.—were to be returned to them as "stewardships," differing, as talents, aptitudes, and the ability to handle much or little differ, but all to be managed in the interest of the common cause. All earnings were to go into a general fund, from which each steward would derive a maintenance, "every man according to his wants and his needs, inasmuch as his wants are just."^[13]

First Bishops.—The introduction of this system was the occasion for the call of the first Bishops. The men chosen to manage, under the direction of the First Presidency, the temporalities of the United Order, were Edward Partridge and Newel K. Whitney. The former, as Bishop in Zion, received consecrations, Missouri. The latter officiated in a similar capacity at Kirtland, Ohio, the headquarters of a State of Zion.^[14]

Against Lawlessness.—The United Order did not encourage lawlessness. It was the very antithesis of anarchy. It stood for law and government, for wise and good government—the government of God for the benefit of man. Sounding the death-knell of monopoly, fraud, and the misuse of power and privilege, it proposed to do away with class distinctions, founded on pride, vanity and the worship of wealth. It would abolish such conditions—not by violence, but peacefully and by common consent. Doctrine, not dynamite; humility, not self-assertion; love of God and fellow man, not hatred and strife, were to effect the desired emancipation. Under the benign influence of the Holy Spirit—God's gift to all who take upon them his name—envy and greed would give way to brotherly love and mutual helpfulness.

No Drones in the Hive.—While philanthropic in the highest degree, the United Order was no mere alms-giving concern, no eleemosynary institution. Every member of the community was expected to work, to do that for which he or she might best be fitted. There were to be no drones in the hive, no idleness eating the bread of industry. Employment for all, a place for everything and everything in its place—such was the ideal of this social-religious organization. It stood, in short, for justice and fair-dealing, with every man in the secure possession and full enjoyment of his own. Out of the righteous unity resulting from this ideal condition, was to come the power to build up Zion and prepare the way of the Lord.

Why the Ideal Was Not Realized.—The United Order was not permanently established; nor did its original workings long continue. Selfishness within, and persecution without, were the two-fold cause. The Church, driven from place to place, found it impracticable, with an imperfect acceptance by its members of the Law of Consecration, to bring forth Zion at that early day. The great event, however, was only postponed. The realization of the ideal is still in prospect.

The Jackson County Expulsion—An attempt to rear the New Jerusalem was made in the summer of 1831, a colony approximating fifteen hundred men, women and children, settling for that purpose in Jackson County, Missouri,^[15] upon lands purchased from the Federal Government. Ground was consecrated, and a City laid out, including the site for a Temple. But a lack of the perfect unity necessary on the part of those selected for this sacred task, prevented its accomplishment at that time. "There were jarrings and contentions, and envyings and strifes, and lustful and covetous desires among them; therefore, by these things they polluted their inheritances."^[16] Forewarned by the Prophet of what would result if these evils were not corrected, the colonists did not as a whole pay sufficient heed to the admonition, and the Lord permitted their enemies to come upon them and drive them from "the goodly land."

Persecuted and Persecutors.—The Jackson County colonists, whatever their faults, were superior to the people who mobbed them and drove them from their homes, misinterpreting their motives and falsely accusing them of unfriendly acts or intentions toward the earlier settlers. The persecuted were better than the persecutors; but not good enough to completely carry out the high and holy purposes of Deity. It was in the autumn of 1833 that the "Mormon" colony was expelled from Jackson County.^[17]

Zion Not Moved.—Then, and at a later period, when similar and worse mobbings and drivings had taken place, those who committed or countenanced the outrages were wont to say mockingly: "Whenever the Mormons are driven from one Zion, their Prophet gets a revelation appointing Zion somewhere else." How utterly unfounded this assertion, is best told in the language of a revelation given a few weeks after the Jackson County expulsion. Therein the Lord says:

"Zion shall not be moved out of her place, notwithstanding her children are scattered;

"They that remain, and are pure in heart, shall return, and come to their inheritances, they and their children, with songs of everlasting joy, to build up the waste places of Zion. . . . .

"And, behold there is none other place appointed than that which I have appointed; neither shall there be any other place appointed . . . . for the work of the gathering of my saints,

"Until the day cometh when there is found no more room for them; and then I have other places which I will appoint unto them, and they shall be called stakes, for the curtains or the strength of Zion."^[18]

Stakes of Zion.—Hear it, ye Gentiles! Hear it, O House of Israel! Jackson County, Missouri, is the chosen site for the City of Zion. No other place has been or will be appointed for that purpose. All other gathering places for God's people are Stakes of Zion, holding the outside cords and curtains of the spiritual Tabernacle of the Lord.

Zion's first Stake was at Kirtland, Ohio; and other stakes were organized in Missouri, Illinois, and Iowa. All these have been abandoned; but many others, since established, now flourish in the region of the Rocky Mountains. There was no stake organization in Jackson County, though that part is sometimes referred to as "The Center Stake." Zion is there, or will yet be there—the very City of God; but no Stake of Zion.^[19]

In Abeyance.—Zion is greater than any of her Stakes. It will require the Law of Consecration to bring forth Zion; while a lesser law suffices for the creation of stakes, When the building up of Zion was postponed, the Law of Consecration was suspended, and the United Order went into abeyance. Then was introduced the Law of Tithing,^[20] a law adapted to the undeveloped condition of the Church. Since that time the work of founding and maintaining Stakes of Zion, preparatory to the coming forth of Zion proper, has engrossed the attention of the gathered children of Ephraim.

Footnotes

1. Isa. 11:12.2. D. & C. 45:64-71; 57:1-4.3. Ib. 104:48.4. Ib. 97:21.5. Matt. 5:8.6. Hist. Ch. Vol. 6 pp. 318, 319.7. D. & C. 57:2.8. Moses 7:18-21.9. Acts 4:32-35; 4 Nephi 1:2, 3.10. Psalms 50:2, 48:2.11. D. & C. 82:19.12. Ib. 78:5-7.13. D. & C. 82:1714. Ib. 41:9; 72:815. D. & C. 45:64-71.16. Ib. 101 :6.17. Hist. Ch. Vol. 1, pp. 390, 426.18. D. & C. 101:17, 18, 0, 1; 115:6.19. Zion, in sacred writ, is symbolized by a tent or portable tabernacle, such as the Israelites carried with them in the Wilderness. Evidently it was the custom then, as it is now, when setting up a tent, to drive stakes and fasten cords thereto—cords stretched from the tent, to make it firm and secure. Hence the phrase: "Lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy stakes," a metaphor applied to Zion by the Prophet Isaiah. (54:2; 33:20). When a tent is erected, no center stake is driven; it would be in the way—an obstacle to stumble over. Figuratively and in a larger sense, the same would be true of a Center Stake of Zion. There is no need for such a thing, and it would spoil the symbolism of the picture.20. D. & C. 119.