The City of Enoch

THE CITY OF ENOCH. BY GEORGE W. CROCHERON. President Brigham Young said, in a sermon delivered June 3, 1860, "Enoch was the only man that could build a city to God; and as soon as he had it completed, he and his city, with all its walls, houses, lands, rivers, and everything pertaining to it, were taken away." The scriptures inform us that Enoch walked and talked with God three hundred and sixty-five years. We have no biblical data upon which to form a correct idea of the population inhabiting that truly wonderful city, but the inference would justify the belief that the population must have been of an exceeding great number. Doubtless they were, to a great extent, an agricultural people, embracing the cultivation of cereals, grasses and fruits. The manufacture of various fabrics of clothing and the handiwork created by skilled labor, incidental to various trades, were among the necessities required for the community. That there were poets, philosophers, historians, artists, inventors and men and women possessing genius of various grades, the writer does not doubt. We may believe they were a self-sustaining community, since history, either sacred or profane, does not treat of interchange of their products with other nationalities. Therefore, strictly speaking, a marked exclusiveness was maintained among them. They were bound together in the indissoluble bonds of love and fraternity, in the mo3t exalted sense of those terms. Speculation in values, the desire to hoard up wealth for self-aggrandizement, which fosters the spirit of pride, had no place among them. Their

THE CITY OF ENOCH. 537 lives and environments presented a picture of millennial bliss, and in a certain degree, it may be called the first millennium on earth, because the powers of darkness held no dominion over them, so great was their union. So universal was the spirit of love enjoyed by Enoch's people that it would seem that the animal creation and the birds of the air must have partaken of the divine influence pre. vailing, while marked results were witnessed in the increase of the earth's products of grains and fruits. What was the primal cause which brought about this happy condition of society, socially, religiously and industrially? It was due to the people having consecrated their time, talents, and all their earthly possessions, to one common end— the good of the whole community. The words of the Master will find application here, "Except ye are one, ye are not mine." The people of Enoch were a unit in keeping the law of consecration, hence the blessings which followed. We are told that when conditions become favorable, in a future day, the glorious principle of consecration will again be introduced as a preparatory event preceding the coming Who will abide this great law of exaltation? Those of the Lord. of whose eyes are single to the glory of God and to the upbuilding his great latter-day work, for the glory of Zion, "and the perfecting of the Saints." limited The principle of consecration was alluded to, in a sense, when the Savior said to the rich young man, "Go and sell that thou hast, and give it to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me." We are told that we shall be tried inall things. Some persons have apostatized from others from having gained great the church because of poverty, these two extremes have wrecked the salwealth- so, we see that It is said that the optic nerve is one vation 'of certain individuals. human being. Some persons who posof the most sensitive in the holding on to property, are like the sess a very strong feeling of conversed with, and these will rich young man whom the Savior law of consecration. Hence the doubtless refuse to accept the prosperity floweth unto thee need of these words of admonition: If faith. Should poverty assai1 you like a river, be humble, keep the Let the in its most threatening form, be humble, keep the faith. hold the temporal m abeyance. When spiritual have precedence,