The Cradle of Faith

The Cradle of Faith By Nephi Jensen

Faneuil Hall, in Boston, has aptly been called the "Cradle of Liberty." It is equally fitting to call the Sacred Grove in Palmyra, the cradle of faith. Here faith was re-born. Here came to life again the divine flame-breath that carries human hopes, cries, and aspirations to the ears of God. Here the true meaning of prayer was re-discovered. From this holy place went up to the invisible God the first real faith cry, since the paganism of the middle ages drove truth from the altar and living belief from the human heart. Here the truth about the God of heaven and his redeeming Son was again made known. Here a boy with the soul of a prophet and the eyes of a seer, saw the Maker of All and heard the voice that had stilled the storm and stayed the wave. The story of the faith that here "touched the hem of God's garment," is the most thrilling in modern annals. It has made dim eyes bright with heaven's light. It has turned drooping doubt into heartening hope. It is the beacon that lights the way across the dark chasm which ages of dense ignorance and stupid superstition have placed between God and man. The ceaseless outringing of the mighty faith-fact, of the prophet who here so sublimely prayed a hundred years ago, will yet reverberate through all lands and all climes and call a doubting race back to God. Let us who have inherited the faith which here conquered the powers of darkness, and called the Majesty of heaven to the earth, take renewed inspiration from this sacred place, and go out in the world, and kindle in human hearts everywhere the holy flame which sprang anew from this sacred altar; that the mighty name of Joseph Smith shall yet be heard above the din of clashing creeds, and awaken a doubting world from its spir- itual slumber and dense ignorance to the knowledge of the true and living God. Toronto, Canada.