The Gospel to the Lamanites: XIII, The Gospel Restored Through Joseph Smith

The Gospel to the Lamanites I'N KEY L. PRATT, PRESIDENT OF THE MEXICAN MISSION Kill — The Gospel Restored Through Joseph Smith, the Prophet Nephi, when he uttered the foregoing words, was talking to his brethren and explaining unto them a vision that their father Lehi had received, concerning the future of his posterity. Again, in II Nephi 30, we find Nephi prophesying in regard to the restoration of his people : "And now, I would prophesy somewhat more concerning the Jews and the Gentiles. For after the book of which I have spoken shall come forth, and be written unto the Gentiles, and sealed up again unto the Lord, there shall be many which shall believe the words which are written; and they shall carry them forth unto the remnant of our seed. "And then shall the remnant of our seed know concerning us, how that we came out from Jerusalem, and that they are descendants of the Jews. "And the gospel of Jesus Christ shall be declared among them; wherefore, they shall be restored unto the knowledge of their fathers, and also to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, which was had among their fathers. "And then shall they rejoice, for they shall know that it is a blessing unto them from the hand of God; and their scales of darkness shall begin to fall from their eyes; and many generations shall not pass away among them, save they shall be a white and delightsome people." Nephi also saw that the Lord would not permit the Gentiles to forever remain in that same state of spiritual darkness that they were in when they came unto this land, because of the plain and precious parts of the gospel that had been held back from them by the great and abominable church, whose foundation was the devil ; but that after the Gentiles had stumbled exceedingly because of the precious things that were held back by that church, the Lord would be merciful unto them, even to the restoring among them, by his power, much of his gospel that should be plain and precious. lie saw how the Lord would manifest himself unto his seed, and that the}- should write many of the things that he should minister unto them, which tilings should be true and plain and pre-

THE GOSPEL TO THE LAMANITES 797 cious, and that through the power of the Lamb these things should come forth m the own due time of the Lord unto the Gentiles • and among them shall be written my gospel, my rock and mv salvation, saith the Lamb." We see very plainly from the foregoing quotations that the Lord has never intended that all of his covenant people that dwell upon this continent should perish at the hands of the Gentiles who should come among them to scatter and smite them. And we also see very plainly that the scattering and smiting of the remnant of the seed of Lehi, was not the only mission that the Gentiles had in coming to the land, but that they were to receive the fulness of the true gospel of Jesus Christ, and that one of their grand missions was to carry that grand and glorious gospel to the remnant of the seed of Lehi and Nephi who dwell upon this land and who are a covenant people of the Lord's. The glorious restoration of the gospel through the prophet Joseph Smith, in the year 1830, fulfils in every detail the prophecies uttered in regard to the restoration of the gospel to the Gintiles. The gospel in all its fulness and purity, with all the powers and gifts, and blessings that have ever pertained to it in any age of the world, has again been restored to man through the instrumentality of that youthful, though mighty, prophet. And the book spoken of, that should be written by the descendants of Nephi, and that should contain the fulness of the everlasting gospel of the Lamb, has been restored unto this prophet, by a mighty prophet from the race that wrote it, even the Prophet Moroni, the last one to write in it, and who sealed it up and hid it away until the time of the Lord should come that it should come forth as a new witness for God in the world, containing his gospel, his rock, and his salvation ; bringing again and delivering to the world those precious things once possessed by it, but held back by the great and abominable church, the whore of the whole earth, under whose curse the world has been weighed down and held back for centuries ; a divinely-inspired history of peoples, long since dead and forgotten, of whom no other history exists ; peoples whose civilization and culture, evidenced by the majestic ruins of their mighty cities left standing till this dav, were as great as those of ancient Egypt, and very little short, if at all, of our boasted civilization and culture of today : a key to the mystery of the origin of the American Indian, a question that has baffled the learning and science of our day : a book that contains within its sacred covers, hope, and great promises of restoration to that same Indian race, low as thev have been brought by their Gentile oppressors. Thanks be to God for its restoration and for its translation by the boy prophet, through the divine inspiration of the Holy Ghost. It is now accessible to the whole world, and is read and treasured by hundreds of thousands. The gospel in all its purity has been

798 IMPROVEMENT ERA preached for the past eighty-two years among many of the Gentile nations of the world, and the Church has grown from its small beginning of six members, in the year 1830, till it numbers today near half a million souls, and at the present time thousands are joining yearly in the foreign missions maintained among the nations of the Gentiles. XIV — Time of Redemption of the Lamanites But from the foregoing it will be seen that the Lord has promised to do a work of restoration among his covenant people who are of the house of Israel, and that he will not leave them forever in their state of oppression and in their scattered condition, but that he will restore to them the truth and restore them to the land of their inheritance. And he has made it very plain through his prophets that the gospel, and their restoration through it, is to come unto them from the Gentiles, who would accept his gospel as restored among them in the latter days. The Lord has not left us in the dark as to when this work of restoration was to begin among the house of Israel, and, as this article is dealing more particularly with that branch of the covenant people of the Lord's that dwells upon this continent, I wish to quote a few passages, contained in the Book of Mormon, that will give us to know when the Lord intended that his people should begin to be redeemed from their fallen condition. The words of Christ, himself, spoken to the Nephites at the time when he appeared and established his Church among them, as recorded in III Nephi 21, are as follows: "And, verily, I say unto you, I give unto you a sign, that ye may know the time when these things shall be brought to take place, that I shall gather in from their long dispersion, my people, O house of Israel, and shall establish again among them my Zion. "And benold, this is the thing which I will give unto you for a sign, for verily I say unto you, that when these things which I declare unto you, and which I shall declare unto you hereafter of myself, and by the power of the Holy Ghost, which shall be given unto you of the Father, shall be made known unto the Gentiles, that they may know concerning this people who are a remnant of the house of Jacob, and concerning this my people who shall be scattered by them. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, when these things shall be made known unto them of the Father, and shall come forth of the Father, from them unto you; "For it is wisdom in the Father that they should be established in this land, and be set up as a free people by the power of the Father, that these things might come forth from them unto a remnant of your seed, that the covenant of the Father may be fulfilled which he hath covenanted with his people, O house of Israel;

THE GOSPEL TO THE LAMANITES 799 "Therefore, when these works, and the works which shall be wrought among you hereafter, shall come forth from the Gentiles, unto your seed, which shall dwindle in unbelief because of iniquity; "For thus it behooveth the Father that it should come forth from the Gentiles, that he may show forth his power unto the Gentiles, for this cause, that the Gentiles, if they will not harden their hearts, that they may repent and come unto me, and be baptized in my name, and know of the true points of my doctrine, that they may be numbered among my people, O house of Israel; "And when these things shall come to pass, that thy seed shall begin to know these things, it shall be a sign unto them, that they may know that the work of the Father hath already commenced unto the fulfilling of the covenant which he hath made unto the people who are of the house of Israel. "And when that day shall come, it shall come to pass that kings shall shut their mouths; for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider. "For in that day, for my sake shall the Father work a work, which shall be a great and marvelous work among them;" * * * "And then shall the work of the Father commence at that day, even when this gospel shall be preached among the remnant of this people. Verily I say unto you, at that day shall the work of the Father commence among all the dispersed of my people; yea, even the tribes which have been lost, which the Father hath led away out of Jerusalem. "Yea, the work shall commence among all the dispersed of my people, with the Father, to prepare the way whereby they may come unto me, that they may call on the Father in my name; "Yea, and then shall the work commence, with the Father, among all nations, in preparing the way whereby his people may be gathered home to the land of their inheritance. "And they shall go out from all nations; and they shall not go out in haste, nor go by flight, for I will go before them, saith the Father, and I will be their rearward." Again, in III Nephi 16, Christ speaks to the Nephites thus : "But wo, saith the Father, unto the unbelieving of the Gentiles, for notwithtsanding they have come forth upon the face of this land, and have scattered my people, who are of the house of Israel; and my people who are of the house of Israel, have been cast out from among ' them, and have been trodden under foot by them; "And because of the mercies of the Father unto the Gentiles, and also the judgments of the Father upon my people, who are of the house of Israel, verily, verily, I say unto you, that after all this, and I have caused my people who are of the house of Israel, to be smitten, and to be afflicted, and to be slain, and to be cast out from among

800 IMPROVEMENT ERA them, and to become hated by them, and to become a hiss and a byword among them. "And thus commandeth the Father that I should say unto you at that day when the Gentiles shall sin against my gospel, and shall be lifted up in the pride of their hearts above all nations, and above all the people of the whole earth, and shall be filled with all manner of lyings, and of deceits, and of mischiefs, and all manner of hypocrisy, and murders, and priestcrafts, and whoredoms, and of secret abominations; and if they shall do all these things, and shall reject the fulness of my gospel, behold, saith the Father, I will bring the fulness of my gospel from among them; "And I will remember my covenant which I have made unto my people, O house of Israel, and I will bring my gospel unto them; "And I will show thee, O house of Israel, that the Gentiles shall not have power over you, but I will remember my covenant unto you, O house of Israel, and ye shall come unto the knowledge of the fulness of my gospel." A careful comparison of the foregoing scripture with the prophecies that have been fulfiled in our day, and the conditions that surround us, will show us that all of the conditions that the Lord said should come to pass before the house of Israel was to begin to be redeemed have come to pass. The Gentiles have been brought to this land of America by the power of the Lord, and they have been set up a free and powerful people, yea, even more powerful than any people upon the face of the whole earth. They have smitten the Lamanites, trodden them down, and destroyed them, until the Lamanites now only number one-tenth of what they did at the coming of the Gentiles. The gospel, in all its purity, and with all its gifts and powers and blessings and privileges, has been restored unto them, and the Book of Mormon, with its history of a branch of the house of Israel, and containing the fulness of the everlasting gospel, has been restored and translated by the power of the Lord among them, and hundreds of thousands of people now profess a belief in the book and in the principles of the gospel as restored. XV— The Work Barely Begun As early as September, 1830, the same year in which the Church was organized, a revelation was given to Oliver Cowdery, through the Prophet Joseph Smith, commanding that the gospel be carried to the Lamanites and that the Church among them be established. Three others of the first elders of the Church were also called by revelation to assist him in this great work ; they were Parley P. Pratt, Peter Whitmer, Jr., and Ziba Peterson ; and, in

THE GOSPEL TO THE LAMANITES 801 fulfilment of the call, the gospel was carried to the Indian tribes then living west of the Missouri river, and from that day to the present the gospel has been taught and maintained among some of the branches of that people (the Indians or Lamanites). Thousands of them now rejoice in the knowledge of the true gospel, and in the knowledge that they are of the house of Israel, so it would seem that the sign that was to mark the time when the Father was to begin his work among his people for their redemption has been fulfilled. It was the Savior who spoke of the matter thus : "And when these things shall come to pass, that thy seed [the seed of the Nephites and the Lamanites, to whom he was speaking] shall begin to know these things [of what lineage they are and the fulness of the true gospel] it shall be a sign unto them, that they may know that the work of the Father hath already commenced unto the fulfiling of the covenant which he hath made unto the people who are of the house of Israel." But truly the work of the Father, unto the fulfiling of the covenant which he has made unto his people, has only commenced, for there are yet millions of the descendants of the seed of Nephi and Laman living in this blessed land of America ( including North and South America) that do not know that the true gospel is in existence ; that have never heard of an apostasy or a restoration ; that have never heard an elder preach the truth, and have never had in their hands a book or a tract that taught it, as restored to earth from heaven in our day. ["Upon whom rests the responsibility of carrying the gospel to the Lamanites?" will be considered in the next chapter.] Nevada. Sagebrush wastes and mountains grand. Lakes of hard or shifting sand, Dreariness on every hand, — That was old Nevada. Industry now claims a share. Plenty gives, and lightens care, — Desert is not everywhere, Even in Nevada. Hills that yield the precious gain, Mellow fields of waving grain, Pastures green where wastes have lain, — In the new Nevada. J. H. Anderson.