Prophecy Fulfilled

PROPHECY FULFILLED, BY JAMES H. MARTINEAU, UTAH PIONEER, AND RESIDENT OF COLONIA JUAREZ, MEXICO.

It has often occurred to the writer that many of the younger

members of the Church, not having given much attention to the subject, do not understand and appreciate as fully as they ought the powers and authority of the holy priesthood conferred by our Father upon his children. Almost without exception the saints can truthfully testify that through faith and power of the priest- hood the sick are healed, also the deaf, the dumb, the blind and the lame. Thousands of living witnesses can testify that this is true. But there are many, who, while they know this, do not seem to realize that the same power which can heal the sick and afflicted can also bless our domestic animals when needful, and control and bless the elements for the good of the saints and pros- perity of the work of the Lord; that by power and authority of the holy priesthood men holding it may, today as in ages past, cause the rains of heaven to descend or be witheld; streams of water to increase their volume, and living springs break forth in places where water never yet had run; that untimely frosts may be stayed, and that a barren soil may be filled with life and fertility. Yet all this is possible and true: all this has been accomplished, as the writer can testify from actual, personal observation and experi- ence during a period of over fifty years in these western lands. And while these marvelous changes have occurred, it has not been through chance, but because of blessings that have been pro- nounced upon the lands, waters and climate, by elders holding proper authority, and in fulfillment of prophecy uttered 'by them; to a few of which instances attention will now be called.

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When Utah was first settled by the pioneers it was a desert so dry and parched, so barren and drear, it seemed impossible to create in it a home for the weary pilgrims who first beheld its sage brush valleys and stupendous peaks; but the servant of God said prophetically, "Here will we build the temple of our God." This declaration carried with it the necessary conclusion that here the Church would build up a new commonwealth of farms, villages and and fields, flocks and herds. To this end, he who cities, of gardens

held authority to do so blessed the land that it should be fertile; the waters, that they should increase; the climate, that the rains of heaven should descend and that crops might mature. A moun- taineer, many years a resident, well acquainted with the climate and with the soil, declared that no crops could be grown —he would give a thousand dollars for the first bushel of corn grown. To all human appearance, he was right, not having the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to enlighten him; but time proved he was wrong. The prophecy has been fulfilled, —the blessings sealed upon the land by authority of the holy priesthood were sealed and honored also in the heavens, and the result is marvelous to behold. The young and middle aged cannot today realize what Utah was fifty years ago. Instead of the luxuriant fields of today, one might travel day after day and see scarcely any grass, —nothing but sage brush, greasewood and sunflowers. Valleys like Cache and Bear Lake, which for years could produce nothing but pasturage and hay, because of cold and frost, are now, and for years past, fruit- ful gardens. When Cache valley was first settled, there was frost every month of the year, and so in Bear Lake. But the blessing of the Lord prevailed; the frosts abated, the climate changed, and the rains began to come in the dry season so that today thousands of acres produce excellent crops of grain without artificial irriga- tion. The writer remembers well when certain lands about Bounti- ful were not thought worth taking as a gift, because of lack of water for irrigation, without which nothing could be grown. That locality today declares the blessings and prophecies of the servants of God fulfilled. And so has it been in other places. In March, 1851, the writer went to the present location of Payson to make a home.

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PROPHECY FULFILLED. 117

Not a house was then built by any of the five families who had recently settled there. The writer was told he could have plenty of land — but no water. They said there was not enough for the five families then on the ground, and that the entire stream could run in a single plow furrow. Today all that locality is a garden, sustaining thousands of souls. Denied a place at Payson, the writer went on to Iron county, settling at Louisa, as Parowan was first named by Apostle George A. Smith in honor of Louisa Beeman. During the first season there was an almost total loss of field crops because of water famine; the soilbeneath the surface was dry and porous, and the water turned upon it could scarcely be made to spread over the ground, but went right down into the earth. In May, 1851, President Young with a large company visited Parowan, and at a public meeting held there on the 11th of that month, the scarcity of water was referred to, and the Prophet Heber C. Kimball made the following prophecy: "As the needs of the people for water increase in these valleys of the mountains, so shall the waters increase. Write it down, for it is true." The writer heard the prophecy and blessing, and made record thereof in the stake record and in his own. Now, thousands of acres there produce bountiful harvest each year. The waters have increased as was foretold. And the climate there has changed also. During all the nine years the writer lived in Parowan, his apple trees —a hardy fruit

were killed right down to the ground every winter by the extreme cold and frost; now more tender trees and fruits flourish there. And such has been the case in many places in which the saints have settled, and it has been because the lands and all pertaining thereto have been dedicated and blessed by authority of the holy priesthood. Upon occasion of a visit made in the early 50's to the new settlement named Washington, in southern Utah, by Apostles George A. Smith and Amasa Lyman with others, the writer accompanying them, the party stopped one day for noontide lunch at a small spring which ran but a few yards and then sank away in the sand. In order to get a drink, and unable to dip up any water with a cup because of shallowness, the writer was obliged to dip it a spoonful

118 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

at a time, until a cup could be filled. About twenty years after- wards in passing again over the same route, a wonderful transfor- mation was presented where had been a spring too small to dip a :

cup for water, now was a small hamlet of several families, with shade and fruit trees, gardens, flowers and fields sufficient to sus- tain them. Thus was the prophecy fulfilled in this place. When the Mexican colonies were planted, their lands were blessed and dedicated, and the same results have followed to some extent, for the early settlers of Colonia Juarez testify that since that colony was planted, the waters of Rio Piedras Verdes, which run through it, have increased full one-third or more in volume.

For over fifty years, it has been the lot of the writer as U. S. Deputy Surveyor of public lands and mines, as engineer and ex- plorer, and for twenty-five years in Iron and Cache counties one of the regularly organized minute-me^, whose duty it was to be ready at any hour of the day or night to go on Indian military service, — to travel many thousand miles through lands at the time almost always uninhabited save by Indians. In traversing the same regions afterwards, the writer has found in very many places that new springs had broken forth where water had never before run, sometimes in most unlikely places; and sometimes large tracts, pre- viously dry and desolate, had become covered with waving grass, And so to the natural eye of often thick and tall enough for hay. man has it become apparent that the blessings of the priesthood upon the land have been thus far fulfilled to the very letter, also the words of prophecy uttered by the servants of the Lord. If any still doUbt, let them read here words spoken by the

Prophet Joseph, March 27, 1836, in the temple in Kirtland: he told the congregation "not to fear to prophesy good concerning the saints, for if you prophesy the falling of these hills and the rising of the valleys, the downfall of the enemies of Zion, and the rising of the kingdom of God, it shall come to pass."