--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Halls, William collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 13 number: 12 published: 1910-10 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: "Halls, William, “Why the Saints Are in the Mountains,” *Improvement Era* 13, no. 12 (October 1910): 1070–1078." source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera13012unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera13012unse start_page: 1070 end_page: 1078 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1910-10) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera13012unse publication_year: 1910 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1910, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Why the Saints Are in the Mountains THE PIG AND THE MAN. 1069 working face, she saw the evidence of a broken heart and a con- trite spirit stamped thereon. For a moment she hesitated. He kneeled beside her and reverently took her by the hand, while tears of repentance were rolling down his cheeks. "My darling, forgive me, please!" he murmured brokenly. All the love that had been pent up in her sore heart for many months shone in her face and hallowed it, as she placed her arms around the repentant sinner's neck and whispered, "Oh, my love, my husband!" Leaning her head upon his shoulder she wept for joy. Her prayers had been answered. Their tears mingled, as they sobbed together over their new-found happiness and resurrected love. * * * Around the farm now all is orderly. The harness is always in its place, and the buggy is always in the shed. There is no longer a contrast between the domains controlled by the husband and those over which the wife presides, and sweet, pure love reigns supreme in the home. The pig has been cast out— the drunkard and the tobacco fiend have gone with him— the gentleman has taken his place. Now, when Sandy goes to town, he is always in a hurry to return home. He has no more time to waste carousing with his friends, and no money to spend upon filthy tobacco, for he knows that out in his own dear home a loved one is anxiously watching the road for the first sigms of his approach. With the money he used to waste in buying tobacco and beer, he buys some little dainty that his wife can enjoy with him. As he drives into the yard and sees her waiting for him, his heart swells with pride, for the lines have fled from her face and sunshine has taken their place. As he takes her in his arms and kisses her, and hears her soft voice whisper, "It's so sweet to kiss you now, dear," he thinks of the time when his kisses were offensive to her, and sobs and sorrow met him, instead of all this love and sunshine. Tears of joy and thanksgiving dim his eyes, as he goes off to unhitch the team. "Thank God I'm a man once more, and a gentleman!" he fervently whispers. "And thank God I had that dream!" Belfast, Ireland. Why the Saints are in the Mountains. BY WILLIAM HALLS. As the Lord works on natural principles, through human agencies, to accomplish his purposes in the earth, when he has a particular work for individuals to do, he prepares them for that work. The history of men who have been prominent in the world's affairs proves this. A very striking example of this is shown in the life of Moses. Had he been raised among his brethren in captivity, he would have been unprepared for his mission ; but being for years in the court of Pharoah, he was learned in the language, laws, customs and government of the Egyptians. Forced to flee to Midian, he received the priesthood under the hands of Jethro, and during his forty years' residence there he was, no doubt, taught the knowl- edge of the true God, and also the right powers and duties of the priesthood. By these experiences he was prepared not only to stand -before the imperious Pharaoh, and demand the release of his brethren, and lead them out of bondage as a temporal deliverer, but also to be their spiritual guide, their civil and ecclesiastical lawgiver. The Lord promised them not only freedom from bondage, but to give them a choice inheritance described as a "land of milk and honey." Having crossed the Red sea, being free from restraint, why did not Moses lead them at once to the promised land? Hav- ing just been emancipated from slavery, they were unprepared to assume the responsibility of self-government, and apply to their lives the principles of civil and religious liberty. They needed experience and instruction in the knowledge of the true God; for, WHY THE S A INST ARE IN THE MOUNTAINS. 1071 as soon as Moses left them for a few days, they began the worship of a golden calf, in imitation of the Egyptians, who worshiped the sacred bull. Instead of reaching their destination in a few weeks, they wandered in the wilderness forty years, and only two, who were twenty years old and upward when they came from Egypt, lived to cross the Jordan into the promised land. If it required former-day Israel forty years to be prepared to live the law of carnal commandments, and prepare for the first coming of Christ, how much longer will.it require latter-day Israel to prepare to live the law of the celestial kingdom, and build up Zion for the second coming of Christ? After Joseph Smith received his first vision, he was instructed several years by the angel Moroni, before he was permitted to receive the plates and commence to translate the Book of Morm6n. The Saints who settled in Kirtland, Ohio, had a very faint con- ception of the magnitude of the work that lay before them and their children and children's children before the coming of the Lord. Had they foreseen that the homes they were making would have been abandoned, and the temple they were building would so soon be in the hands of their enemies and be defiled, they would have labored with reluctance. As it was, with this knowledge with- held, they were slothful, for after they were commanded to build a house wherein the elders might be "endowed with power from on high'' and be instructed to enable them to go and preach the gos- pel and minister in the callings of the priesthood more intelligently, the Lord reproved them, saying, "For ye have sinned against me a very grievous sin, in that ye have not considered the great commandment in all things I have given unto you concerning the building of mine house." Those who settled in Jackson county, Missouri, in 1831, were, of course, all new converts without experience; and, as ancient Israel in the wilderness were impregnated with Egyptian idolatry, so were these infected with the leaven of the gentiles. They were unprepared to build up Zion, and the Missourians were unpre- pared to allow them. Their safety was in being united and keep- ing all the commandments of God, and when, by disunion and dis- obedience they forfeited their claims on the Lord for protection, 1072 IMPROVEMENT ERA. he used their enemies as a scourge to drive them from their homes. In 1834, the Lord called some of the brethren from Ohio and other parts in the East to form a company called "Zion's Camp," to go to Missouri to assist those who had been driven from Jack- son county, and use their influence, if possible, to reinstate them in their homes, but they were not in a condition to receive the blessing the Lord would have given them. The Lord said, speak- ing of those who had been driven, "I, the Lord, have suffered the affliction to come upon them in consequence of their trans- gressions." "Behold, I say unto you, there were jarrings and contentions, and annoyings and strifes and lustful and covetous desires among them, therefore by these things they polluted their inheritances. But, behold, they have not learned to be obedient to the things which I required at their hands, but are full of all manner of evil, therefore, in consequence of the transgression of my people, it is expedient in me that mine elders should wait for a little season for the redemption of Zion. And let those command- ments which I have given concerning Zion and her laws be executed and fulfiled after her redemption." In regard to the members of Zion's Camp, those who had been faithful and not murmured, the Lord said, "l have heard their prayers and will accept their offering; and it is expedient in me that they should be brought thus far for a trial of their faith." The travels of Zion's Camp not only served to prove their endurance, faith and patience, but also to prepare them for their work in the future. The Lord, knowing that many of them would cross the plains with companies of emigrants, and especially to pre- pare them for that labor, the Lord told them in a former com- mandment to " journey by land, and they shall do like unto the children of Israel, pitching their tents by the way. And behold this commandment you shall give unto all your brethren." It was not only necessary that the elders be prepared to lead the Saints, but that the whole Church be proved and tried and prepared to act unitedly. It was necessary that the Saints should move from place to place, and as they would not move with their own accord, the Lord allowel thair enemies to nmve WHY THE SAINTS ARE IN THE MOUNTAINS. 1073 them. Every time they moved, they left behind them some of the discontented and those weak in the faith ; and every new settle- ment they made they were more united, a little wiser and a little better. And when they were expelled from Missouri, and left many more of the disaffected and commenced to build up Nauvoo, in Illinois, they did much better than ever before. Still, they were not yet in a condition to build up Zion. In order to do that, the Lord said, they must be "united according to the union required by the law of the celestial kingdom." "And Zion cannot be built up unless it is by the principles of the law of the celestial king- dom, otherwise I cannot receive her unto myself." From the various missions, new converts were coming into Nauvoo, who were untried and inexperienced; there were foes without and traitors within. It soon became necessary that another move be made, not only to escape from persecution, but for the good of the Church. Another severe trial was necessary to shake off and leave behind the unworthy, that the more faithful might go and make another start. That the faithful Saints had learned wisdom by what they had suffered, is proved by contrasting the conduct of Zion's Camp, in 1834, with that of the pioneers of 1847. Some of the mem- bers of Zion's Camp murmured and were rebellious to such a degree that the Lord afflicted them with cholera, and fourteen died, while the pioneers performed their journey across the plains, encountering still more hardships, without dissension. It was not designed that the Saints who were gathered out froii' among the gentiles should alone build up the center stake of Zion, the "New Jerusalem." According to the word of the Lord, in the Book of Mormon, the Lamanites are to take an important part in that work. Soon after the Church was organ- ized, a mission was opened among them, but up to the time the Saints left Nauvoo very little had been done among them. Accord- ing to natural principles, the way the Lord always works, it would require a long time to civilize, educate and Christianize them to prepare them to intelligently fill their misson. We see even now, with all that the Saints have done for them, that they are yet unprepared. The Latter-day Saints and the Lamanites are not the only 1074 IMPROVEMENT ERA. people to be considered in this work. This nation has a great and mighty mission, as a forerunner, to prepare the way for the preaching of the gospel, and the establishing of the Church of Christ upon the earth. The Lord raised up wise men and inspired them to found this government, they formulated the Declaration of Independence, framed the Constitution, setting forth the fundamental principles on which the nation should be built. The battle was fought and independence gained; but inde- pendence is one thing, freedom is another. The Declaration of Independence by no means made the people free. "The fathers had eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth were set on edge." The abstract principles of freedom, existing in theory on paper, had to be worked out by a long course of training and experience, before they could apply them practically in their lives. The tree of liberty, either of civil or religious liberty, is of very slow growth. For sixty years after the making of the Constitution, we see the people assembled to celebrate their freedom; see them listen in reverence to the reading of the Declaration of Independ- ence; see them held spell-bound while the orator of the day eulo- gizes the principles of liberty and holds up the nation as "the land of the free and the home of the brave." Yet the rebounding echo of the thunderous applause that emphasizes his theme has scarcely died away, before the same man is leading a howling mob to tar and feather the unfortunate citizens whose religious belief differs from his. When the Saints sent a petition to the president, praying for redress of their wrongs, President Van Buren answered, "Your cause is just, but I can do nothing for you." . The federal government could protect one of its citizens in far-away China, spend millions of dollars and sacrifice thousands of lives, if need be to defend him, and call to account the nation which would allow his rights to be infringed, but could not protect its citizens on its own soil. With such crude conceptions of the - rights and duties of the general government in the mind of the chief magistrate, what might be expected of those who, if pos- sible, were more ignorant and less informed? What hope could the Saints have for protection under such conditions? But there are other reasons than those mentioned why the Saints should go to the mountains. WHY THE SAINTS ARE IN THE MOUNTAINS. 1075 For years, the menace of slavery had been rising in the south, as a disturbing element. Being incompatible with freedom, it could not live and flourish under the same flag. It was contrary to the genius of the constitution and the declaration of the fath- ers that all men are "free and equal," and entitled to "life lib- erty and the pursuit of happiness." This was tearing the nation asunder. The moral sense of the South sustained it as a legiti- mate institution; the moral sense of the North condemned it as a "relic of barbarism." Many in the South were ready to lay down their lives in its defense, while more in the North were willing to lay down their lives to abolish it. Imagine the inconsistency of the picture of the Goddess of Liberty, holding out the banner of freedom inviting the world, while under the very shadow of its protecting folds stands the pale tyrant holding in thrall the dusky slave, whose despairing cry, as the cruel lash lascerates his quiv- ering flesh, mingles its discordant note with the freeman's exult- ant shout of liberty. This question had to be settled. The crisis came, which "terminated in the death and misery of many souls," as Joseph Smith prophesied it would, thirty years before. During that con- flict, Missouri suffered more than any other state, especially in the vicinity of Jackson county, from whence the Saints were driven thirty years before. What would have been their fate had they been there at that time? Peace restored, the permanency of the Union assured, the Nation was ready to enter upon an era, not only of "reconstruction," but of constructive development. Meantime, the Saints were in the mountains in peace, build- ing homes, raising and educating large families, opening missions among the Indians, preaching the gospel abroad, and gathering Israel. But they were laboring under great disadvantages by a lack of adequate transportation; when the elders went on missions, it took several weeks of laborious travel to reach either the Atlantic or the Pacific coast, and then a tedious ocean voyage to reach their destination. Hundreds of men and teams were sent every year to the Missouri river, a thousand miles, to bring emigrants who were fulfiling the words of Isaiah, "and many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountains of the Lord, to 1076 IMPROVEMENT ERA. the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths." This mode of travel involved much waste of energy, time and means. It was necessary that several railroads be built across the continent, from sea to sea, with numerous local lines to intersect them; that steam vessels be built to facilitate ocean travel ; and telegraph lines and postal routes established. The Saints had neither numbers, time nor means to do this work; this was not their calling. This work was for others, aided by them, so the Lord raised up wise men and inspired them to form companies, organize capital, and do this work, and they are doing it with commendable zeal. Now, when elders go on mis- sions, they reach their fields of labor in a few days, and emigrants from far-off Scandinavia or New Zealand can reach Salt Lake val- ley in a few days with ease, instead of six months' hard travel. And representatives from all the stakes of Zion, and the home mis- sions, can attend the general conferences in Salt Lake City, report their labors, and receive instructions and counsels. The general authorities of the Church and members of the general boards of the auxiliary associations can visit the stakes, give necessary counsel, return in a few days and report conditions. The presi- dent of the Church, from his office in Salt Lake City, may com- municate with the headquarters of the stakes and missions, receive information and give counsel as occasion requires. No people in the nation have been benefited more by these developments than the Saints have, from the fact that no people needed them as much. And no people appreciate these conveniences more than they, and none are more solicitious for the well-being and perpetuity of the nation. The Lord did not raise up wise men to form this government to have it overthrown; it has a mission, not only to establish peace on this continent, but to exert a world-wide influence in the inter- est of peace and freedom among all nations. The fundamental principles enunciated by the fathers will prevail. The Lord will not suffer wicked men and traitors to destroy the government If many turn away from virtue and honesty, become very wicked, and by secret combinations threaten its destruction, the Lord will cause the wicked to destroy the wicked, and by various calamities WHY THE SAINTS ARE IN THE MOUNTAINS. 1077 cut off the most bitter branches. He will raise up wise men who will uphold the constitution, and the elders of the Church will stand as a unit in its defense. Though it may take the nation a long time to reach, in full, its ideals, prejudice and intolerance are gradually giving way; freedom is slowly but surely growing. In Nauvoo, from whence the Saints were expelled over sixty years ago, the people now open their doors and welcome the elders to their homes; the same is true of Jackson county, Missouri. The way is being prepared for the redemption of Zion. In reviewing the history of events since the opening of this dispensation, we see clearly the hand of Providence over his Saints and over this nation; all the opposition, persecutions and drivings endured from their enemies, have tended to expedite the work and push the Saiitson to their destiny. The Lord has made no mistakes; if mistakes have been made, they are the mistakes of men, which in no way can hinder the ultimate design of God. It was necessary that the Saints come to the mountains to save them from destruction by their enemies; that they might escape the terrible scourge incident to the civil war; and that they might grow and spread out, so that the "border of Zion might be enlarged and her stakes strengthened." Thus, instead of being confined to the narrow limits of Nauvoo and vicinity, Hancock county, Illinois, we see them on the very backbone of the American continent, from Canada north to Mexico south, and spreading east and west,— filling the mountains and valleys with a healthy, prosperous, free and contented people; building temples, tabernacles, churches, schools, colleges and universities, for the spiritual and intellectual development of a God-fearing, pure and virtuous community. They are becoming "a powerful people in the midst of the Rocky mountains," fulfiling the prediction of Joseph Smith, delivered in 1842. In regard to the spiritual condition of the Church compared with the conditions in Nauvoo, we now see the first presidency* the twelve apostles, with all the general authorities, united. They are all tried and true men ; the same is true of the presidents of stakes, high councilors, bishops and counselors, almost without exception. And there is growing up in our midst a class of young men