Chapter XXVIII. America the Alpha and Omega of Civilization

Joseph of the East and Joseph of the West. The Everlasting Hills. Birthplace of Man. Joseph's Scientific Consistency. The American Bible. Glimpses of Primeval History.

By Joseph's finding, the ever westward-sweeping wave of civilization arose not in the East, but in the West. The Occident, not the Orient, was the cradle of man. All of which gives force and meaning to the seemingly giant stride of American development in this " Nineteenth Century." The wave of pioneer civilization has swept round the globe and entered upon a cycle of consummations at the place of its beginning. Joseph revealed this

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28 LIFE OF JOSEPH THE PROPHET.

truth; Mormonism affirms it; science demonstrates it.

Thus is America to-day the Alpha and Omega of civilization, and thus has been inaugurated the day of consummation and of the restitution of all things.

And in this fact also appears the logical consistency of Joseph's startling affirmations, that in America was the " fall " of Adam accomplished, and the Messianic epic inaugurated. Here first descended the "new Jerusalem" of God; here first established Enoch the " Zion " of the "Lord our Righteousness."

And the tremendous antiquity of primeval American history gives ample excuse for the rapid and ambiguous treatment of the first dispensations of man, by the Asiatic or Hebrew Bible ; and the fact that the chronology of that Bible becomes accurate and trustworthy only at about the advent of Abraham, is in exact keeping with the fundamental fact that Abraham was a pioneer of civilization in the localities of which the Hebrew Bible treats.

In Abraham's day civilization had reached the Orient. There was its front and focus then, and hence was it that the covenant of Messiah was made with Abraham. And in the Orient, — the antipodes of America, — began the prophecy and antetyping of the consummations that were to come, as the mighty wave swept homeward to the place of its beginning and to the inauguration of an exalted repetition and restitution of all things.

Witness the significance of this, as antetyped in the prophecy so dramatically incarnated in Joseph, the son of Jacob :

" Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colors.

" And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.

" And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren : and they hated him yet the more.

" And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed :

"For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright ; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf.

" And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words.

" And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me."

Of this antetype in Joseph of the East, how exact the posttype in Joseph of the West ! He is also a dreamer of prophetic dreams. Substantially he sees this very vision, and tells it. And his brethren in the testimony of Jesus hate him for it, for to him their garnerings must pay deference and tribute. And when the sun, and moon, and stars of heaven do obeisance, by yielding to his seeric eye the mighty secrets of the universe, they hate him yet the more.

" And Joseph went after his brethren. * * * And when they saw him afar off, even before he

came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him."

But, although the details are significant, let us hasten to the denoument. Jacob is dying!

" And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days."

Then his blessings upon the heads of his sons, and Joseph in his turn :

"Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well ; whose branches run over the wall :

" The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him :

" But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob ; (from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:)

" Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breast, and of the womb:

" The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills : they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren."

And it was this destiny, nascent in the blessing of Jacob, that predetermined the course of Joseph's

latter-day Israel to the Rocky Mountains, — the " Everlasting Hills " of the land of promise.

And see how admirably Moses, in closing his mortal ministry, keeps up the subject and broadens the view of Joseph's blessing:

"And of Joseph he said, Blessed of the Lord be his land, for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that coucheth beneath,

" And for the precious fruits brought forth by the sun, and for the precious things of the lasting hills,

" And for the precious things of the earth and the fullness thereof, and for the good will of him that dwelt in the bush: (! !) let the blessing come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the top of the head of him that was separated from his brethren."

It was this very blessing with which the Latter-day Israel came face to face, after their exodus, that made them at times almost fear that the " ancient hills," which surrounded them like the everlasting chain of promise, might give up their "precious things " before they were strong enough to withstand the rush of the Gentile that was sure to follow.

But pass we now to the American Continent in the ancient times.

In a previous chapter upon the historical subject of the Book of Mormon, we have seen how Lehi and his sons were brought to America. Joseph's branches had indeed " run over the wall," — from Palestine the lesser to America the greater " land of promise." Lehi, having called together his sons to bless them before his death, thus addressed his

[Footnote: youngest son :]

"And now I speak unto you, Joseph, my last born. Thou wast born in the wilderness of mine afflictions; yea, in the days of my greatest sorrow, did thy mother bear thee. And may the Lord consecrate also unto thee this land, which is a most precious land, for thine inheritance and the inheritance of thy seed with thy brethren, for thy security for ever, if it so be that ye shall keep the commandments of the Holy One of Israel. * * * For behold, thou art the fruit of my loins; and I am a descendant of Joseph, who was carried captive into Egypt. And great were the covenants of the Lord, which he made unto Joseph ; wherefore, Joseph truly saw our day. And he obtained a promise of the Lord, that out of the fruit of his loins, the Lord God would raise up a righteous branch unto the house of Israel ; not the Messiah, but a branch which was to be broken off; nevertheless, to be remembered in the covenants of the Lord, that the Messiah should be made manifest unto them in the latter days, in the spirit of power, unto the bringing of them out of darkness unto light; yea, out of hidden darkness and out of captivity unto freedom. For Joseph truly testified, saying, A seer shall the Lord my God raise up, who shall be a choice seer unto the fruit of my loins. * * * And he shall be great like unto Moses, whom I have said I would raise up unto you, to deliver my people, O house of Israel. * * * Behold I am sure of the fulfilling of this promise. And his name shall be called after me: and it shall be after the name of his father. Yea, thus prophesied Joseph."

The two promised lands are now linked in the seed of Abraham. Joseph, the " choice seer" of the West, is raised up out of the loins of Joseph of the East, to unlock the crowning civilization of the world!

It was one of the startling affirmations of Joseph that the birthplace of man was in America; that the dawn of civilization opened in the Western Hemisphere ; and that from this primeval continent mankind, in course of time, spread over the whole earth.

But the unprejudiced investigator will discover a rare consistency in this, when he stops to duly consider the recent discovery of geology — that the Adirondack region of America was the first dry land that arose from the primeval waters of our globe. The rational conclusion necessarily is, that where land first appeared there also appeared primeval man. The very extreme of science, as represented by the evolutionists, would accept this fact at once, and certainly theology has no just ground for disagreement with science in this finding, though an impassable gulf remain between them as to the method.

And furthermore, a retrospective view of those mighty civilizations that culminated in Egypt, leads the mind straight eastward, from Egypt to Persia, from Persia to India, from India to Thibet, from Thibet to China, from China to Japan ; and where next but unto America, the cradle of man !

The entire Adamic period, according to Joseph, was on the American Continent. Here was Eden ; here occurred the flood. But with Noah began the migrations of the race and consequent peopling of other lands.

All this in the very face of the judgment and traditions of ages, half a century ago, ere science or research had even hinted its possible confirmation.

And the ordinance of baptism as exemplified in

Adam, whereby he was brought up out of the water and quickened with the Holy Ghost as a living fire, is doubly significant and doubly beautiful, when we recollect that it occurred on the spot where mother earth first arose from the waters to be quickened and blessed by the glorious sun.

And, according to Joseph, America had a Bible long before Moses wrote his Book of Genesis, long before the Hindoo Vedas, long before the Persian Zend Avesta.

It was the Book of Enoch. And from it, in connection with the Book of Abraham, Joseph doubtless imbibed his peculiar views of primitive man. As seen from quotations already made, the Book of Enoch embodied not only the Adamic history, but the Adamic theology.

And the scientific mind of our day will make no issue with the Book of Enoch in its narration of events concerning the earth's physical progress. For instance :

"There also came up a land out of the depth of the sea, and so great was the fear of the enemies of the people of God, that they fled and stood afar off, and went upon the land which came up out of the depths of the sea. And the giants of the land also stood afar off; and there went forth a curse upon all the people which fought against God :

" And from that time forth there were wars and bloodsheds among them ; but the Lord came and dwelt with his people, and they dwelt in righteousness. The fear of the Lord was upon all nations, so great was the glory of the Lord which was upon his people. And the Lord blessed the land, and

they were blessed upon the high places, and did nourish."

In plain modern language, the primitive peoples, including the giants which rugged nature in the primeval times produced, were awed by the power and wonders of the civilization which was developed in Enoch and his people, coupled with the rapid physical changes that the earth was undergoing.

The crowning event of Enoch's history was his building of Zion, and the translation of himself and his people.

In Noah's day came the flood. Then moved the remnant of the race over the mighty waters, swept, as it would seem, by nature herself, into a course accordant with her own course of physical evolution.

Then followed a period when the race seemed to be supremely migratory. Witness a fragment from the Book of Abraham, concerning the founding of Egypt :

" The land of Egypt was first discovered by a woman, who was the daughter of Ham, and the daughter of Egyptus, which in the Chaldee signifies Egypt, which signifies, That which is forbidden. When this woman discovered the land it was under water, who afterwards settled her sons in it ; and thus, from Ham, sprang that race which preserved the curse in the land. Now the first government of Egypt was established by Pharaoh, the eldest son of Egyptus, the daughter of Ham, and it was after the manner of the government of Ham, which was Patriarchal. Pharaoh being a righteous man, established his kingdom and judged his people wisely and justly all his days, seeking earnestly to imitate that order established by the fathers in the first

generations, in the days of the first Patriarchal reign, even in the reign of Adam, and also of Noah, his father, who blessed him with the blessings of the earth, and with the blessings of wisdom, but cursed him as pertaining to the priesthood."

According- to the same book, the descendants of Shem and Japhet migrated elsewhere under similar circumstances ; in process of time evolving nationalities and founding empires.

Thus for nearly two thousand years, to the days of David, including the early part of the Mosaic dispensation ; and a colony of Shemites, under Jared and his brother, immediately after the " confusion of tongues," were led back by the Lord to the primitive home in America.

And herein appears a decided consistency in the preservation of something like a common system of ancient religion among the various races. Indeed, what more consistent than that wherever these divine teachers and their descendants migrated they preserved the knowledge of, and taught among themselves, the divine mysteries. And thus though Abraham became the direct line chosen by Jehovah, with his covenant in them, the Providence of the world raised up great and good men outside of Abraham's line, to be the lawgivers of the various civilizations. But all these civilizations are sweeping down towards the crowning civilization of the Messiah, who shall come to reign in the fullness of time. This is indeed the true signification of the universal dispensation opened by Joseph in the present age.

But for completeness of historical detail, as laid bare by Joseph, let us return to Jared and his brother, who, as we have seen, were led to Americr. The Book of Ether is the Bible of the Jaredites. The angel Moroni, who has incorporated a fragment of it in his Book of Mormon, thus announces it :

" An abridgement taken from the Book of Ether also ; which is a record of the people of Jared ; who were scattered at the time the Lord confounded the language of the people, when they were building a tower to get to heaven ; which is to shew unto the remnant of the House of Israel what great things the Lord hath done for their fathers ; and that they may know the covenants of the Lord, that they are not cast off for ever; and also to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations. And now if there are faults, they are the mistakes of men ; wherefore condemn not the things of God, that ye may be found spotless at the judgment seat of Christ."

Of this early return of a colony of the race to the primitive home, under Jared and his brother, Ether says :

" And it came to pass that the brother of Jared did cry unto the Lord, and the Lord had compassion upon their friends, and their families also, that they were not confounded. And it came to pass that Jared spake again unto his brother, saying, go and inquire of the Lord whether he will drive us out of the land, and if he will drive us out of the land, cry unto him whither we shall go. And who

knoweth but the Lord will carry us forth into a land which is choice above all the earth. And if it so be, let us be faithful unto the Lord, that we may receive it for our inheritance. * * * * And it came to pass that the Lord did hear the brother of Jared, and had compassion upon him, and said unto him, go to and gather together thy flocks, both male and female, of every kind ; and also of the seed of the earth of every kind, and thyfamilies ; and also Jared thy brother and his family; and also thy friends and their families, and the friends of Jared and their families. And when thou hast done this, thou shalt go at the head of them down into the valley, which is northward. And there will I meet thee, and I will go before thee into a land which is choice above all the land of the earth. And there will I bless thee and thy seed, and raise up unto me of thy seed, and of the seed of thy brother, and they who shall go with thee, a great nation."

And thus was this ancient colony led' to America, the home of their forefathers.

This "brother of Jared," whose name for some reason is not given, was the first grand prophet of his nation ; and there is told of him the following beautiful story of the Lord showing himself personally to him just before they embarked in their eight vessels for the " Land of Promise." He had gone up into a mount which they called Mount Shelem, to ask the Lord to endow a number of prepared stones with miraculous power of light, and he thus prayed :

" And I know, O Lord, that thou hast all power, and can do whatsoever thou wilt for the benefit of man ; therefore touch these stones, O Lord, with

thy finger, and prepare them that they may shine forth in darkness ; and they shall shine forth unto us in the vessels which we have prepared, that we may have light while we shall cross the sea. Behold, O Lord, thou canst do this. We know that thou art able to shew forth great power, which looks small unto the understanding of men. And it came to pass that when the brother of Jared had said these words, behold, the Lord stretched forth his hand and touched the stones, one by one with his finger ; and the vail was taken off the eyes of the brother of Jared, and he saw the finger of the Lord; and it was as the finger of a man, like unto flesh and blood ; and the brother of Jared fell down before the Lord, for he was struck with fear. And the Lord saw that the brother of Jared had fallen to the earth ; and the Lord said unto him, arise, why hast thou fallen ? And he said unto the Lord, I saw the finger of the Lord, and I feared lest he should smite me ; for I knew not that the Lord had flesh and blood. And the Lord said unto him, because of thy faith thou hast seen that I shall take upon me flesh and blood ; and never has man come before me with such exceeding faith as thou hast ; for were it not so, ye could not have seen my finger. Sawest thou more than this ? And he answered, Nay, Lord, shew thyself unto me. And the Lord said unto him, believest thou the words which I shall speak ? And he answered, yea, Lord, I know that thou speakest the truth, for thou art a God of truth, and canst not lie. And when he had said these words, behold, the Lord shewed himself unto him, and said, because thou knowest these things, ye are redeemed from the fall ; therefore ye are brought back into my presence; therefore I shew myself unto you. Behold, I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people. Behold I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father

and the Son. In me shall all mankind have light, and that eternally, even they who shall believe on my name ; and they shall become my sons and my daughters. And never have I shewed myself unto man whom I have created, for never has man believed in me as thou hast. Seest thou that ye are created after mine own image ? Yea, even all men were created in the beginning, after mine own image. Behold, this body, which ye now behold, is the body of my spirit ; and man have I created after the body of my spirit ; and even as I appear unto thee to be in the spirit, will I appear unto my people in the flesh."

Then came a long period of the Jaredite civilization in Ancient America, reaching down until several hundred years after the arrival of Lehi. This ancient civilization declined, and the Jaredites were extinguished by generations of civil war, much as in the case of the Nephites, whose history has been already sketched.