Calling of a King
God is the only just and upright King over all; whosoever
is not chosen of him, is a usurper, and unholy.
1. THE Lord your God hath made the earth and established it, and unto him the dominion thereof belongeth. He created man, and gave him dominion over it.1 The nations are the workmanship of his hands; and he hath the right to rule.2
42 words,
179 letters.
2. He appointed Kings, and Rulers, and Judges; but man rebelled against them. He made laws, but man broke them, and trampled on them, and forgot them.
26 words,
114 letters.
3. Unto Noah gave he dominion over the earth: and to Shem after him; but the people rebelled against him, and established their own ways; and those that oppressed them were their Kings, and ruled over them in unrighteousness.
38 words,
179 letters.
4. Moses was King in Israel;3 but the people kept not the Law of God; and, rebelling, set up a false god, and worshipped it. When God would make them Kings to rule the
[1 Gen. i, 28. [2 Ex. xix, 5. Deut. x, 14. Ps. xxiv, 1. 1st Cor. x, 26, 28. [3 Deut. xxxiii, 5.
[Page 169]
earth, they despised his majesty, and went after other gods.
43 words,
173 letters.
5. Men have everywhere rebelled against God: nevertheless, the earth is his, and the fulness thereof. The dominion of it belongeth to him, and he conferreth it upon whomsoever he will.
30 words,
146 letters.
6. He hath chosen his servant James to be King: he hath made him his Apostle to all nations: he hath established him a Prophet, above the Kings of the earth; and appointed him King in Zion: by his own voice did he call him, and he sent his Angels unto him to ordain him.
54 words,
207 letters.
7. And the Angel of the Lord stretched forth his hand unto him, and touched his head, and put oil upon him, and said, Grace is poured upon thy lips, and God blesseth thee with the greatness of the everlasting Priesthood. He putteth might, and glory, and majesty upon thee; and in meekness, and truth, and righteousness, will he prosper thee.
60 words,
266 letters.
8. Thou shalt save his people from their enemies, when there is no arm to deliver; and shalt bring salvation, when destruction walketh in the house of thy God. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity: therefore
[Page 170]
thy God hath anointed thee with oil, and set thee above all thy fellows.
50 words,
233 letters.
9. Thy words shall be like sharp arrows in the heart of the wicked. Thou shalt rebuke those who pervert the word of thy God. Thou shalt preach righteousness and the sublime mysteries in the ears of many people; and shall bring the gospel to many who have not known it, and to the nations afar off.
56 words,
234 letters.
10. Thou shalt drive backward and put to shame those that do evil; and the workers of iniquity shall fall. They shall be cast down, and shall not be able to rise. With purity will the Lord thy God arm thee, and purity and truth shalt thou teach.
47 words,
189 letters.
11. Keep the Law of the Lord thy God in thy heart; and none of thy steps shall slide. With thee is the fountain of truth. In thy light shall the people of thy God see; for thou shalt speak his words unto them, and from thy lips shall they receive it.
51 words,
190 letters.
12. The blessing of their God shalt thou put upon them, and his curse upon evil doers, if, after being oft rebuked, they repent not: and before my people shalt thou go, to lead them into my ways; for unto thee has the Lord thy God given salvation.
47 words,
189 letters.
[Page 171]
13. In righteousness shalt thou rule: thou shalt redeem the poor and the needy from suffering and violence; and to thee God giveth judgment for them. Thou shalt deliver the prey from the spoiler; for God, thy God, hath put them in thy hand.
43 words,
187 letters.
14. And in weakness will he make thee strong. Thou shalt rule among his people. Thou shalt break in pieces the rod of the oppressor, and the yoke of the unjust ruler. They shall flee away, but the way of peace shall they not find.
44 words,
177 letters.
15. While the day of the wicked abideth, shalt thou prepare a refuge for the oppressed, and for the poor and needy. Unto thee shall they come, and their brethren who are scattered shall come with them; and the destruction of the ungodly shall quickly follow; for it already worketh. Go thy way, and be strong.
55 words,
242 letters.
Total—15 sec., 686 words, 2,905 letters.
NOTE I.—KINGDOM OF GOD.
1. As clearly as the Scriptures show that God established the Kingdom of Israel, so clearly do they show that he will establish a universal Kingdom in the last days; for Daniel, after prophetically tracing the great national events down to the division of the Roman Empire into the modern European
[Page 172]
nations, says, “In the days of these Kings shall the God of heaven set up a Kingdom, which shall never be destroyed; but it shall break in pieces all these Kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.” (Dan. ii, 44.) “And the Kingdom, and dominion, and the greatness of the Kingdom, under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the Saints of the Most High, whose Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.” (id. vii, 27.)
2. Speaking of the King who shall rule in this Kingdom, David says, “They shall fear thee as long as sun and moon endure, throughout all generations.” “He shall have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth.” (Ps. lxxii, 5, 8.)
3. To this many Prophets have borne witness; that, in the latter days, God would gather Israel again upon their own land, and establish them as an undivided Kingdom, and sanctify them unto himself, and be their God forever. (Ezek. xxxiv, 22-24. xxxvii, 21, 27. Jer. xxx, 9. xxiii, 5, 6. xxxiii, 15-26. Hos. iii, 5. Isa. lv, 3-5. Amos ix, 11. Zech. xii, 8.)
NOTE II.—A PROPHET OF THE SEED OF JOSEPH.
1. The prophecies which went before of old demonstrate that, in the latter times, a Prophet, a Chief Shepherd of the flock of God should arise, of the seed of Joseph. Jacob called his sons together to bless them, and to tell them what should befall them in the last days; (Gen. xlix, 1;) and told them, from Joseph “is the Shepard, the Stone of Israel.” (id. 24.) And Moses, in blessing the tribes of Israel, blessed Joseph with the “good will of him that dwelt in the bush;” (Deut. xxxiii, 16;) which we know, by the call of Moses, was the calling to be the Chief Shepherd of the flock of God. (Ex. iii, 10.)
[Page 173]
2. The Stick, or Book of Joseph, which Ezekiel saw, was in the hands of Ephraim, (one of the tribes of the loins of Joseph,) when God required that it be placed with the Stick, or Book of Judah, that the Book might be one in the hand of the Prophet, to the end that Israel be no more divided. As this Stick, or Book, stands for the word of God, it evidently is in the hands of a Prophet of that tribe, at the time alluded to. (Ezek. xxxvii, 16, 20.)
3. Most clearly was this fact stated to Joseph of old, when God said to him, “A Seer will I raise up, out of the fruit of thy loins; and unto him will I give power to bring forth my word unto the seed of thy loins.” (B. of M. 2d Nephi ii, 2.)
4. These prophecies were fulfilled in the Prophet Joseph, whom God called by his own voice to the Apostolick and Prophetick office, in 1829, and ordained to that calling by the hands of Peter, James, and John, who held that Priesthood in their times of life, and were sent expressly to confer it on him. (D. & C. 1, 3.)
5. He organized the Church of God in 1830, and worked a faithful ministry of fifteen years, as a Prophet of the Most High God; translating the Book of Mormon, sending the gospel to every nation and people where the English language is spoken, bringing two hundred thousand souls into the faith, and gathering together in his city seventeen thousand people, besides as many more in the surrounding country.
6. In the course of his life he was prosecuted, in the Courts of his enemies, on more than forty criminal charges, always prejudged and foredoomed; yet so inoffensive was his life, that on every one, except the charge of unlawful banking, he was acquitted.
7. He was persecuted by the people of Ohio; his property confiscated, his disciples robbed and banished, himself impris-
[Page 174]
oned, and his life sought by the State of Missouri; and died a martyr, at the hands of the people of Illinois, in the jail at Carthage, (where he was unlawfully thrust,) the 27th day of June, 1844.
8. On the publick pledge of the faith of the State of Illinois, made by Governour Thomas Ford in person, and by a vote of the militia and militia officers, that he should have legal protection and a legal trial, he surrendered himself into the hands of his accusers, and was murdered in the presence of the officers having him in custody, crying, “0 Lord, my God—,” and no one lifted a hand in his defence.
9. Two or three hundred persons were engaged in this deed of blood, and many thousand in abetting it. The perpetrators were well known. (Ford’s History of Illinois, pp. 353, 354.) But no effort was ever made to bring them to punishment. On the contrary, to secure the guilty from being brought to punishment in some more healthy state of the publick conscience, they were indicted, arraigned, and acquitted, by a jury, and thus a legal bar interposed to any future prosecution for the same offence. (Ford’s History of Illinois, p. 368.)
10. Thus was this Prophet murdered, (in defiance of law, to be sure,) by the highest authority in the State; and by every guaranty which the law can give, were his murderers perpetually secured against punishment. The State of Illinois can give no additional sanction to the deed. She could not, by any other form of action, have made herself more guilty of his martyrdom. His blood is on the State.
11. With him in persecution and in death, as well as in his ministry, was his brother Hyrum. The malignity of their foes did not cease with their deaths. Though most respectable historians have borne ample testimony to their many vir-
[Page 175]
tues, and those who were guilty of their death did not pretend to any legal justification, Christians everywhere, with here and there a solitary exception, are continually pouring out a deluge of falsehood on them, as though they had been overtaken in felony, and slain in vindication of law.
NOTE III.—ANOTHER PROPHET OF THE HOUSE OF DAVID.
1. Many prophecies in the Scriptures speak of a Prophet to arise in the last days, of the lineage of David, which, by Christians, are understood as of Christ; though they can by no possibility be applied to him.
2. The Prophet Isaiah predicts the coming forth of a rod out of the stem of Jesse and a branch from his roots; that is, an heir of the covered or lost stock of the house of David, having the spirit of the Lord, and the spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, and the fear of the Lord; who shall judge the poor with righteousness, and reprove with equity for the meek; who shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips slay the wicked. (Isa. xi, 1, 2, 4.)
3. In this reestablishment of the house of David, the enmity of the wild and tame beasts is to come to an end; the knowledge of the Lord is to fill the earth; the tongue of the Egyptian Sea is to be destroyed; Israel are to pass over the seven mouths of the Nile dry shod, and to possess their own land, and be united as one nation forever. (Isa. xi, 6-15.) Not one of these things have been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The conquest of Moab and Ammon, the construction of a highway, the governing of foreign nations, the setting up an ensign to the nations, and the gathering in of the Gentiles,
[Page 176]
(id. 10,) mark this as a ministry on earth, like that which Moses entered upon.
4. The Angel which appeared to Joseph, and revealed to him the Book of Mormon, told him this was about to be fulfilled; (Times and Seasons, April 15, 1842, p. 753;) but it could not be fulfilled in the person of Joseph, because he was not of the house of David, but of the tribe of Ephraim.
5. The covenant of God with David establishes in his house the royal authority forever. (Ps. lxxxix, 29, 36. 2d Sam. vii, 13.) Though it contemplates the casting down of that authority, in consequence of the departure of his posterity from righteousness, yet David is assured that God will keep his mercy for his house forever, and will not reject his house as he did that of Saul; (2d Sam. vii, 15, 16. Ps. lxxxix, 33, 34;) and, consequently, that at the end of all these chastisements the house of David will be restored. Accordingly the various prophecies of the restoration of Israel, promise also the reestablishment of the house of David in the royal authority.
6. But more especially the Book of Mormon shows that such a Prophet, of the tribe of Judah, must immediately succeed Joseph in the Prophetick office; for by that it appears that God said to Joseph, while in Egypt “The fruit of thy loins shall write, and the fruit of the loins of Judah shall write; and that which shall be written by the fruit of thy loins, and also that which shall be written by the fruit of the loins of Judah, shall grow together, unto the confounding of false doctrines, and laying down of contentions, and establishing peace among the fruit of thy loins, and bringing them to the knowledge of their fathers in the latter days.” (B. of M. 2d Nephi, ii, 3.) To accomplish this, Joseph’s successor was necessarily the heir of David. No other could succeed him.
is not chosen of him, is a usurper, and unholy.
1. THE Lord your God hath made the earth and established it, and unto him the dominion thereof belongeth. He created man, and gave him dominion over it.1 The nations are the workmanship of his hands; and he hath the right to rule.2
42 words,
179 letters.
2. He appointed Kings, and Rulers, and Judges; but man rebelled against them. He made laws, but man broke them, and trampled on them, and forgot them.
26 words,
114 letters.
3. Unto Noah gave he dominion over the earth: and to Shem after him; but the people rebelled against him, and established their own ways; and those that oppressed them were their Kings, and ruled over them in unrighteousness.
38 words,
179 letters.
4. Moses was King in Israel;3 but the people kept not the Law of God; and, rebelling, set up a false god, and worshipped it. When God would make them Kings to rule the
[1 Gen. i, 28. [2 Ex. xix, 5. Deut. x, 14. Ps. xxiv, 1. 1st Cor. x, 26, 28. [3 Deut. xxxiii, 5.
[Page 169]
earth, they despised his majesty, and went after other gods.
43 words,
173 letters.
5. Men have everywhere rebelled against God: nevertheless, the earth is his, and the fulness thereof. The dominion of it belongeth to him, and he conferreth it upon whomsoever he will.
30 words,
146 letters.
6. He hath chosen his servant James to be King: he hath made him his Apostle to all nations: he hath established him a Prophet, above the Kings of the earth; and appointed him King in Zion: by his own voice did he call him, and he sent his Angels unto him to ordain him.
54 words,
207 letters.
7. And the Angel of the Lord stretched forth his hand unto him, and touched his head, and put oil upon him, and said, Grace is poured upon thy lips, and God blesseth thee with the greatness of the everlasting Priesthood. He putteth might, and glory, and majesty upon thee; and in meekness, and truth, and righteousness, will he prosper thee.
60 words,
266 letters.
8. Thou shalt save his people from their enemies, when there is no arm to deliver; and shalt bring salvation, when destruction walketh in the house of thy God. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity: therefore
[Page 170]
thy God hath anointed thee with oil, and set thee above all thy fellows.
50 words,
233 letters.
9. Thy words shall be like sharp arrows in the heart of the wicked. Thou shalt rebuke those who pervert the word of thy God. Thou shalt preach righteousness and the sublime mysteries in the ears of many people; and shall bring the gospel to many who have not known it, and to the nations afar off.
56 words,
234 letters.
10. Thou shalt drive backward and put to shame those that do evil; and the workers of iniquity shall fall. They shall be cast down, and shall not be able to rise. With purity will the Lord thy God arm thee, and purity and truth shalt thou teach.
47 words,
189 letters.
11. Keep the Law of the Lord thy God in thy heart; and none of thy steps shall slide. With thee is the fountain of truth. In thy light shall the people of thy God see; for thou shalt speak his words unto them, and from thy lips shall they receive it.
51 words,
190 letters.
12. The blessing of their God shalt thou put upon them, and his curse upon evil doers, if, after being oft rebuked, they repent not: and before my people shalt thou go, to lead them into my ways; for unto thee has the Lord thy God given salvation.
47 words,
189 letters.
[Page 171]
13. In righteousness shalt thou rule: thou shalt redeem the poor and the needy from suffering and violence; and to thee God giveth judgment for them. Thou shalt deliver the prey from the spoiler; for God, thy God, hath put them in thy hand.
43 words,
187 letters.
14. And in weakness will he make thee strong. Thou shalt rule among his people. Thou shalt break in pieces the rod of the oppressor, and the yoke of the unjust ruler. They shall flee away, but the way of peace shall they not find.
44 words,
177 letters.
15. While the day of the wicked abideth, shalt thou prepare a refuge for the oppressed, and for the poor and needy. Unto thee shall they come, and their brethren who are scattered shall come with them; and the destruction of the ungodly shall quickly follow; for it already worketh. Go thy way, and be strong.
55 words,
242 letters.
Total—15 sec., 686 words, 2,905 letters.
NOTE I.—KINGDOM OF GOD.
1. As clearly as the Scriptures show that God established the Kingdom of Israel, so clearly do they show that he will establish a universal Kingdom in the last days; for Daniel, after prophetically tracing the great national events down to the division of the Roman Empire into the modern European
[Page 172]
nations, says, “In the days of these Kings shall the God of heaven set up a Kingdom, which shall never be destroyed; but it shall break in pieces all these Kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.” (Dan. ii, 44.) “And the Kingdom, and dominion, and the greatness of the Kingdom, under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the Saints of the Most High, whose Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.” (id. vii, 27.)
2. Speaking of the King who shall rule in this Kingdom, David says, “They shall fear thee as long as sun and moon endure, throughout all generations.” “He shall have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth.” (Ps. lxxii, 5, 8.)
3. To this many Prophets have borne witness; that, in the latter days, God would gather Israel again upon their own land, and establish them as an undivided Kingdom, and sanctify them unto himself, and be their God forever. (Ezek. xxxiv, 22-24. xxxvii, 21, 27. Jer. xxx, 9. xxiii, 5, 6. xxxiii, 15-26. Hos. iii, 5. Isa. lv, 3-5. Amos ix, 11. Zech. xii, 8.)
NOTE II.—A PROPHET OF THE SEED OF JOSEPH.
1. The prophecies which went before of old demonstrate that, in the latter times, a Prophet, a Chief Shepherd of the flock of God should arise, of the seed of Joseph. Jacob called his sons together to bless them, and to tell them what should befall them in the last days; (Gen. xlix, 1;) and told them, from Joseph “is the Shepard, the Stone of Israel.” (id. 24.) And Moses, in blessing the tribes of Israel, blessed Joseph with the “good will of him that dwelt in the bush;” (Deut. xxxiii, 16;) which we know, by the call of Moses, was the calling to be the Chief Shepherd of the flock of God. (Ex. iii, 10.)
[Page 173]
2. The Stick, or Book of Joseph, which Ezekiel saw, was in the hands of Ephraim, (one of the tribes of the loins of Joseph,) when God required that it be placed with the Stick, or Book of Judah, that the Book might be one in the hand of the Prophet, to the end that Israel be no more divided. As this Stick, or Book, stands for the word of God, it evidently is in the hands of a Prophet of that tribe, at the time alluded to. (Ezek. xxxvii, 16, 20.)
3. Most clearly was this fact stated to Joseph of old, when God said to him, “A Seer will I raise up, out of the fruit of thy loins; and unto him will I give power to bring forth my word unto the seed of thy loins.” (B. of M. 2d Nephi ii, 2.)
4. These prophecies were fulfilled in the Prophet Joseph, whom God called by his own voice to the Apostolick and Prophetick office, in 1829, and ordained to that calling by the hands of Peter, James, and John, who held that Priesthood in their times of life, and were sent expressly to confer it on him. (D. & C. 1, 3.)
5. He organized the Church of God in 1830, and worked a faithful ministry of fifteen years, as a Prophet of the Most High God; translating the Book of Mormon, sending the gospel to every nation and people where the English language is spoken, bringing two hundred thousand souls into the faith, and gathering together in his city seventeen thousand people, besides as many more in the surrounding country.
6. In the course of his life he was prosecuted, in the Courts of his enemies, on more than forty criminal charges, always prejudged and foredoomed; yet so inoffensive was his life, that on every one, except the charge of unlawful banking, he was acquitted.
7. He was persecuted by the people of Ohio; his property confiscated, his disciples robbed and banished, himself impris-
[Page 174]
oned, and his life sought by the State of Missouri; and died a martyr, at the hands of the people of Illinois, in the jail at Carthage, (where he was unlawfully thrust,) the 27th day of June, 1844.
8. On the publick pledge of the faith of the State of Illinois, made by Governour Thomas Ford in person, and by a vote of the militia and militia officers, that he should have legal protection and a legal trial, he surrendered himself into the hands of his accusers, and was murdered in the presence of the officers having him in custody, crying, “0 Lord, my God—,” and no one lifted a hand in his defence.
9. Two or three hundred persons were engaged in this deed of blood, and many thousand in abetting it. The perpetrators were well known. (Ford’s History of Illinois, pp. 353, 354.) But no effort was ever made to bring them to punishment. On the contrary, to secure the guilty from being brought to punishment in some more healthy state of the publick conscience, they were indicted, arraigned, and acquitted, by a jury, and thus a legal bar interposed to any future prosecution for the same offence. (Ford’s History of Illinois, p. 368.)
10. Thus was this Prophet murdered, (in defiance of law, to be sure,) by the highest authority in the State; and by every guaranty which the law can give, were his murderers perpetually secured against punishment. The State of Illinois can give no additional sanction to the deed. She could not, by any other form of action, have made herself more guilty of his martyrdom. His blood is on the State.
11. With him in persecution and in death, as well as in his ministry, was his brother Hyrum. The malignity of their foes did not cease with their deaths. Though most respectable historians have borne ample testimony to their many vir-
[Page 175]
tues, and those who were guilty of their death did not pretend to any legal justification, Christians everywhere, with here and there a solitary exception, are continually pouring out a deluge of falsehood on them, as though they had been overtaken in felony, and slain in vindication of law.
NOTE III.—ANOTHER PROPHET OF THE HOUSE OF DAVID.
1. Many prophecies in the Scriptures speak of a Prophet to arise in the last days, of the lineage of David, which, by Christians, are understood as of Christ; though they can by no possibility be applied to him.
2. The Prophet Isaiah predicts the coming forth of a rod out of the stem of Jesse and a branch from his roots; that is, an heir of the covered or lost stock of the house of David, having the spirit of the Lord, and the spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, and the fear of the Lord; who shall judge the poor with righteousness, and reprove with equity for the meek; who shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips slay the wicked. (Isa. xi, 1, 2, 4.)
3. In this reestablishment of the house of David, the enmity of the wild and tame beasts is to come to an end; the knowledge of the Lord is to fill the earth; the tongue of the Egyptian Sea is to be destroyed; Israel are to pass over the seven mouths of the Nile dry shod, and to possess their own land, and be united as one nation forever. (Isa. xi, 6-15.) Not one of these things have been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The conquest of Moab and Ammon, the construction of a highway, the governing of foreign nations, the setting up an ensign to the nations, and the gathering in of the Gentiles,
[Page 176]
(id. 10,) mark this as a ministry on earth, like that which Moses entered upon.
4. The Angel which appeared to Joseph, and revealed to him the Book of Mormon, told him this was about to be fulfilled; (Times and Seasons, April 15, 1842, p. 753;) but it could not be fulfilled in the person of Joseph, because he was not of the house of David, but of the tribe of Ephraim.
5. The covenant of God with David establishes in his house the royal authority forever. (Ps. lxxxix, 29, 36. 2d Sam. vii, 13.) Though it contemplates the casting down of that authority, in consequence of the departure of his posterity from righteousness, yet David is assured that God will keep his mercy for his house forever, and will not reject his house as he did that of Saul; (2d Sam. vii, 15, 16. Ps. lxxxix, 33, 34;) and, consequently, that at the end of all these chastisements the house of David will be restored. Accordingly the various prophecies of the restoration of Israel, promise also the reestablishment of the house of David in the royal authority.
6. But more especially the Book of Mormon shows that such a Prophet, of the tribe of Judah, must immediately succeed Joseph in the Prophetick office; for by that it appears that God said to Joseph, while in Egypt “The fruit of thy loins shall write, and the fruit of the loins of Judah shall write; and that which shall be written by the fruit of thy loins, and also that which shall be written by the fruit of the loins of Judah, shall grow together, unto the confounding of false doctrines, and laying down of contentions, and establishing peace among the fruit of thy loins, and bringing them to the knowledge of their fathers in the latter days.” (B. of M. 2d Nephi, ii, 3.) To accomplish this, Joseph’s successor was necessarily the heir of David. No other could succeed him.