Joseph Smith, a Prophet of God: II

Joseph Smith, a Prophet of God. BY ELDER GEORGE W. CROCKWELL. II. To Brigham Young has been given the honor — and that right- fully—of leading the Latter-day Saints to the Rocky mountains and locating them in the valley of the Great Salt Lake. I would not detract one iota from the honor of that great leader of Latter- day Israel, nor will it belittle him in the least to show that he was an instrument in the hands of God, and used by him, to fulfil a prophecy made years before by Joseph Smith. In the month of December, 1830, in a revelation given to Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon, Doctrine and Covenants 35: 24, is the following commandment of the Lord: Keep all the commandments and covenants by which ye are bound; and I will cause the heavens to shake for your good, and Satan shall tremble and Zion shall rejoice upon the hills and flourish. Again, in a revelation given at Kirtland, Ohio, in 1831, Doc- trine and Covenants 49: 25: Zion shall flourish upon the hills and rejoice upon the mountains, and shall be assembled together unto the place which I have appointed. In the History of Joseph Smith, is this prophecy, made August 6, 1842: I prophesied that the Saints should continue to suffer much affliction, and would be driven to the Rocky mountains; many would apostatize, others would be put to death by our persecutors, or lose their lives in consequence of exposure and disease, and some of you will go and assist in making; settlements and building cities, and see the Saints become a mighty people in the midst of the Rocky mountains. Also this from his history: February 20, 1844, at a meeting of the twelve apostles, I instructed them to send out a delegation and investigate the locations of California and Oregon, to hunt out a good location where we might remove after the temple is completed.

168 IMPROVEMENT ERA. The temple mentioned was the temple at Nauvoo. By refer- ring to his history we find these words: On February 25, 1844, I prophesied that within five years we should be out of the power of our enemies, and told the brethren to record it; and when it came to pass, they need not say they had forgotten the saying. This, you will understand, was written three years before the exodus from Nauvoo to the Rocky mountains. The prophet, in the meantime, had suffered martyrdom, but his death did not prevent the fulfilment of the prophecy. One of his last acts, as recorded in his history, was as follows: On March 26, 1844, Joseph Smith addressed a memorial to Con- gress, asking for authority to raise a company of one hundred thousand to proceed to the west and open up the vast regions to settlement. At this time, all that portion of the United States west of the Mississippi was a barren waste, and uninhabited, untrodden by the foot of man, save by a few hardy adventurers, trappers and roving bands of American Indians. It was called the Great American Desert, and deemed of no value and unfit for habitation. With these facts and prophecies before us, who will dare to say that Joseph Smith, with prophetic eye, did not look forward to the removal of the Saints to the west? His every act shows that this subject of removing to the Rocky mountains, as the future refuge of his people, was indelibly stamped on his mind. For proof of this prophecy, made August 6, 1842, of which I requote this portion, "Some of you will go and assist in making settlements and building cities, and see the Saints become a mighty people in the midst of the Rocky mountains," one has only to go to Utah, Arizona or Idaho, to see the splendid chain of settle- ments, cities and towns that have been built by the Latter-day Saints, and one can see that this has been literally fulfiled. They have become a mighty people in the midst of the Rocky mountains. In fact, a man may truthfully claim that the chain extends from Old Mexico, on the south, to Canada, on the north. Time will not permit me to go further into detail of these prophecies, but I believe a sufficient amount of proof has been pre- sented to convince even the most skeptical of their literal fulfil- ment. (to be continued.)