Is Mother Earth Growing Old?

Is Mother Earth Growing Old? BY ALBERT JONES. [This paper was read before the High Priests of Utah Stake on March 6, 1910, and that body of Priesthood has unanimously asked that it be printed in the Era, to which request we give cheerful consent.— Editors.] The estimated historical age of the planet upon which we reside is not so great, when we quietly make a reckoning of time; and although our minds have been, and are impressed today, that the early periods of this earth's history are so far in the past, being enshrouded in our thoughts with the mysterious charm that distance and age lend to every view of human life, yet the historical ag;e of this, our earth, is not so great but that we can grasp the length of its duration: 4,004 B. C, 1910 A. D., according to the accepted Bible chronology, makes mother earth 5,914 years old at her last birthday. She stands the lapse of time very well, for her age — a little palsied and shaky a while ago near Italy; gave way to tears in the neighborhood of Paris, a short time since — but is yet taking good care of her children. It is only 3,823 years since Abraham defeated Ched-orla-omer, one of the great kings of the East; and, on his victorious return, paid tithes to the king of Salem. The story of this event causes us to stand amazed, as we glance down through the vista of time since that event occurred. Babylon, Assyria, Egypt, the Pyramids, Cleopatra's Needle, the mummified remains of Rameses the first, all hoary with age, crowd upon our mental vision; 5,914 years; now compare these figures as associatad with time, to other enumerations: 5,914 bushels of wheat, 5,914 dollars! the

6 40 IMPRO VEMENT ERA . price of a horse, what a small sum, exhausted in less than a month by a modern spendthrift; 5,914 dollars would not pay the salary of a mayor of some of our cities, nor be sufficient as a retaining fee for certain of our ce]ebrated corporation lawyers; 5,914 years, with this comparison, does not appear such an immense length of time. Only think of it! the united ages of eighty men, of seventy-four years each, would amount to six years beyond the historical age of our dear old Mother Earth. Time is more easily measured than we think: for instance, take two of you high priests of seventy-five years each, and the second might have been present at the capitulation of Quebec, in 1759, when brave Wolf and Montcalm lost their lives. He might have heard General Wolf quietly reciting Gray's Elegy to his officers, as he crossed the St. Lawrence river. Put two more high priests in line, of seventy-five years each, joining hands with the first two, and the end man might have been present at the grand tableaux, when Pocahontas saved the life of Captain John Smith from the vengeance of her dusky relatives. Have two more of the high priests stand up, husky young men of fifty-eight each, and the last one would be shaking hands with the inspired Columbus, congratulating him on his arrival at Cuba, in 1492, as the discoverer of the New World, so little known to him at the time. Join on the line four more of seventy years, you would then have only ten standing. The last one, a bold, blunt man, would be at Runnymede, near Windsor Castle, about 1215 A. D., telling King John of England his mind, in a very haughty manner, in regard, perchance, to the king's attempt to incarcerate his uncle in one of the king's castles, and that he, with the rest of the barons there present, was not going to stand such work any longer, but that a fair trial should be given every man charged with crime, before his imprisonment. Three fifty-year-old men now join the line, and the thirteenth would be keeping close to the heels of the conqueror's horse (William of Normandy), hoping for recognition in the Dooms Day Book for the recording of a good sized land grant, situate and being in the tight little island of Great Britain. Now a larger number rally to the front. Fifteen of you high

IS MOTHER EARTH GROWING OLD? 641 priests, of seventy years each, stand up, take hold of hands, there's only twenty-eight of yoi in line, and the twenty-eighth is at the terrible siege of Jerusalem. Titus is closing in on the temple; it is on fire. He has seen Paul beheaded at Rome, the crucifixion of our Savior, the three Marys' at the Cross, heard how Jesus healed the sick, that he raised the dead, how the angels sang at his birth, "Peace on earth, good will to men;" but it sounds like hollow mockery in his ear now, as he sees the towers of the temple fall, all ablaze with fire. So fierce did the flames rage, that the precious metal of its roof poured in a molten stream down among the nethermost stones of its foundation. The Savior knew full well that "not one stone would be left upon another," in the effort to secure that gold. Now, keep your places in the line, you twenty-eight, please, you are not so very tired in helping in the passage of so short a period as 1910 years. Let us continue — plenty more high priests; move out eight more of them of seventy-five years each — the last one is listening to the tale told outside the palace gate of Nebuchadnezzar, how the Hebrew boy, Daniel, had interpreted the king's dream; not only that, but the wonder of it was that he not only interpreted the dream, but told the dream itself, after the king had forgotten it. All Babylon was amazed, but the captive children of Israel still leave their harps unstrung, they could not sing the songs of Zion, in that strange land, but sat by the waters of Babylon and wept. Stand up, five more young men of forty years each, and the man at the end is at the dedication of Solomon's temple. He hears that grand, impressive prayer, sees the. glory of the Lord upon the temple, the fire come down from heaven and consume the sacrifice. What a feast that must have been, what wealth displayed, and what a mighty offering: 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep were slain! Then Israel was in the proud zenith of her glory. Just one step into line, a man of fifty-seven, in the full vigor of his manhood, and meet David in one of his strongholds of the mountains. He joins him in a raid upon the Philistines, sees the shepherds of Nabal come into camp, and try their skill and strength with David's mighty men. They wrestle, they race,

642 IMPROVEMENT ERA. they shoot their arrows and sling at a mark. David, looking on at their play, speaks admiringly of the shepherd's skill with the sling, saying, "Yes, it was very easy for me to fetch Goliath down, with his great big head for a mark." David, short of supplies, sends to Nabal for food for his men — is refused. He sees David's lion-like nature roused, orders are given, "Gird on your swords and follow," — he's off. But Nabal's wife comes bearing supplies, and her entreaties turn David from his purpose. Our man mingles with David's mighty warriors, and witnesses how David, with his grand and noble manhood, wins the hearts of all that come in contact with him. Truly, he was a man after God's own heart, and we love him yet. Six more men of seventy-three years stand up. The end man is walking dry-shod between the piled up waters of the Red sea which Moses has stricken into obedience with his rod. The waters rise as a wall on either side. Presently he joins in the shouts of the hosts of Israel, and hears the song of Miriam, as their once tyrannical masters are swallowed up in the returning waters. He takes no part in the worship of the golden calf, as like one of Egypt's idols as could be. He sees the face of Moses ablaze with glory, and the Tables of the Law broken to pieces at the display of anger when the man of God sees the sacrilege of the people as they dance around their idol. And now let three eighty-year-old men stand with the rest. The third sees the favored of God, the beloved of his father, he whose branches should run over the wall: the victorious, the wise, the interpreter of Pharaoh's dream, the savior of his father's house, once sold as a bondman, now the honored Israelite, next the throne of Egypt (a brother of his, Disraeli, was next the throne of England a few years back.) This man, the fifty-first in line, sees the lion-like Judah humbly pleading with Joseph; he hears the pathetic tale, "We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a little one; and his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother, and his father loveth him;" still Judah pleads on, "Now, therefore, I pray thee, let thy servant abide instead of the lad, a bondman to my Lord; and let the lad go up with his brethren. For how shall I go up to my father and the lad be not with me,' lest, perad venture, I see the evil that shall come to my father?"

IS MOTHER EARTH GROWING OLD? 643 Joseph cannot restrain himself longer, he falls upon Benjamin's neck and weeps aloud, so that the Egyptians without the hall heard and the fame thereof was told in Pharaoh's house. Two more good men, of eighty-one years each, join the line. They should be good men, for one of them is Abraham's servant, so that on that day, when the patriarch received a visit from the three men, he caught a glimpse of their faces as he delivered the calf he had dressed to his master. He heard Sarah laugh, and then, in her confusion, deny that she had laughed; witnessed the joy at the birth of Isaac, and the sorrow of the patriarch when Hagar went out with the boy Ishmael; accompanied Abraham in a three days' journey with young Isaac; learns how Abraham left him and the other servant in charge of the camp, while Abraham and Isaac went further to worship. How sorrowful and thoughtful Abraham was on this journey. But when he returned to the camp his solemn look had disappeared, quiet joy and serenity of mind marked the face of the patriarch. Six more of .seventy years get into line, quick, you are getting tired. But none so tired in their appearance as the venerable old man, Noah, who now has labored so many years in vain, trying to convert his people from the evil ways in the which they had fallen; commanded to build an ark, he obeys; notwithstanding the jeers and jibes of the wicked and debased men, his neighbors, he builds on; the flood came, and he and his family are the only ones saved. Let us hasten on; there are plenty of you left to extend the chain; twenty-four of you high priests, seventy years old, now come in. The last one, the eighty-third in line, beholds the father of the race, the Ancient of Days, with Eve, our mother, there formed and fashioned in God's own image, approved and blest of Him who made the earth, the heavens, the sea and all that in them is, and gave them dominion in this fair earth, their dwelling place. To the Almighty, who gave our father this, be all praise for ever and ever. Amen. Provo, Utah.

PRSIDENT ANTHON H. LUND, Sustained April 6, and set apart as First Counselor in the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, April 7, 1910.