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THE TRIBE OF JOSEPH.
HAVING given a sketch of the history of the ten tribes, in our last, the next subject which presents itself, is the tribe of Joseph. The Lord was with Joseph in his youth and not only his dreams, one of which says, that the sun and moon, and the eleven stars made obeisance to him, but much of his life was a type of future events in relation to his seed. His being sold unto the Egyptians, was a wise plan of the Lord to show his power to Israel, and to convince the world, that he is merciful to such as keep his commandments, and seek the path of endless virtue; yea, all the workmanship of his hands. The history of Joseph, in full, cannot at present be given; but in part, it will occupy a great place in the hearts of such as seek diligently the kingdom of God and the welfare of scattered Israel. It is so well known that Joseph was the beloved of his father, that we can quote the words of the good old man pronounced upon him, as what should befal [befall] him, or come to pass among his seed, in the last days, without the fear of contradiction, and with a great deal of pleasure, as well as satisfaction, knowing that the very days have arrived for the fulfilment [fulfillment] of that prophecy: Joseph is a fruitful bough, 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, & 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.
This is one of the greatest prophecies in the bible, and contains more of the economy of the Lord than will be seen till the Redeemer comes to dwell on the earth. What an admirable expression is that; the branches run over the wall; as plain as to have said, some of his seed shall cross the ocean. But the most profound is, From thence is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel. It could not mean the birth of the Savior, for Paul says it is evident our Lord sprang from the tribe of Judah: But when Paul said to the Romans, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and turn away ungodliness from Jacob, he must have meant the Deliverer, which is to come and gather his sheep into his fold, and becomes the good Shepherd: and according to the blessings of Moses, Joseph is the firstling of his bullock. Let us read it: 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 put forth by the moon, and for the chief things of the ancient mountains, and for the precious things of the lasting hills, and for the precious things of the earth and fulness [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. His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people together from the ends of the earth: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh.
The beauty, the wisdom, and the extent of this blessing upon the seed of Joseph, have never yet been found out by the world, nor fully understood by all the saints.-In the first place, Moses says, Blessed of the Lord be his land, &c. And why?-Because it is the land on which the saints of the living God shall gather in the last days, to receive the Savior at his second coming. It is blessed of the Lord, too, for the precious things of heaven: the fulness [fullness] of the gospel in the Book of Mormon: for instance, I am a descendant of Joseph, which was carried captive into Egypt.-And great was 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, which shall be a choice seer unto the fruit of my loins. Yea, Joseph truly said, thus saith the Lord unto me: A choice seer will I raise up out of the fruit of thy loins; and he shall be esteemed highly among the fruit of thy loins.-And unto him will I give commandment, that he shall do a work for the fruit of thy loins, his brethren, which shall be of great worth unto them, even to the bringing of them to the knowledge of the covenants which I have made with thy fathers. And I will give him a commandment, that he shall do none other work, save the work which I shall command him. And I will make him great in mine eyes: for he shall do my work. 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. And Moses will I raise up, to deliver thy people out of the land of Egypt. But 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; and not to the bringing forth my word only, saith the Lord, but to the convincing them of my word, which shall have already gone forth among them. Wherefore, the fruit of my 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; and also to the knowledge of my covenants, saith the Lord. And out of weakness he shall be made strong, in that day when my work shall commence among all my people, unto the restoring thee, O house of Israel, saith the Lord. And thus prophesied Joseph, saying:-Behold, that seer will the Lord bless; and they that seek to destroy him, shall be confounded: for this promise, of which I have obtained of the Lord, of the fruit of thy loins, shall be fulfilled. 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. And he shall be like unto me; for the thing which the Lord shall bring forth by his hand, by the power of the Lord shall bring my people unto salvation; yea, thus prophesied Joseph. I am sure of this thing, even as I am sure of the promise of Moses; for the Lord hath said unto me, I will preserve thy seed forever. And the Lord hath said, I will raise up a Moses; and I will give power unto him in a rod; and I will give judgment unto him in writing. Yet I will not loose his tongue, that he shall speak much: for I will not make him mighty in speaking. But I will write unto him my law, by the finger of mine own hand; and I will make a spokesman for him. And the Lord said unto me also, I will raise up unto the fruit of thy loins; and I will make for him a spokesman. And I, behold, I will give unto him, that he shall write the writing of the fruit of thy loins, unto the fruit of thy loins; and the spokesman of thy loins shall declare it. And the words which he shall write, shall be the words which is expedient in my wisdom, should go forth unto the fruit of thy loins. And it shall be as if the fruit of thy loins had cried unto them from the dust: for I know their faith. And they shall cry from the dust; yea, even repentance unto their brethren, even that after many generations have gone by them.-And it shall come to pass that their cry shall go, even according to the simpleness of their words. Because of their faith, their words shall proceed forth out of my mouth unto their brethren, which are the fruit of thy loins; and the weakness of their words will I make strong in their faith, unto the remembering of my covenant which I made unto thy fathers.
Thus spake Lehi to his son Joseph, and who is there that can not rejoice when he reads such a glorious and sacred promise? When we look abroad in the earth and view the extent of the Lord's dominions in this world; when we reflect upon the space of time that the Lord has allowed the sons of men to set these dominations in order, by giving them the privilege of the gospel; and when we consider how much the Lord has promised to such as build up his kingdom on the earth, we are astonished! When Jacob, or as he was named, Israel, blessed the children of Joseph, he crossed his hands and put Ephraim the youngest first, saying his seed shall become a multitude of nations; and Lehi says, repeating the words of Joseph of Egypt, the fruit of my loins shall write; and the fruit of the loins of Judah shall write, &c. and the writings shall grow together. Let us now compare these great sayings with the prophecy of Ezekiel: Moreover thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions: And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thy hand. And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, Wilt thou not shew [show] us what thou meanest by these? Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in my hand. And the sticks whereon thou writest shall be one in thy hand before their eyes. And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land: And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all: Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwelling places, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God. And David my servant shall be King over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgment's, and observe my statutes, and do them. And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt, and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children forever: and my servant David shall be their prince forever. Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for ever more. My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.
So, then, it appears, that Ephraim, besides becoming a multitude of nations, writes and keeps one of the sticks or books of the Lord. The stick of Judah, the bible, is about as much acknowledged and received as the Savior was, when he came to fulfil [fulfill] the words of the prophets, to be offered a sacrifice for sin. But there
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is another light, which presents itself to us, which ought not to be omitted. Say, our Savior came through the tribe of Judah, and the Jews kept the record or the bible, as it is called, for the scepter was not to depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and then, that the Redeemer, shall come the second time, to the tribe of Joseph; and they have also written and kept a record, called the book of Mormon, for, from thence is the Shepherd the Stone of Israel: who can mistake what Ezekiel meant by the Two Sticks? They are the Lord's reading sticks [or records] for the benefit of Israel. The circumstance of Jacob's serving seven years for Rachel, and his great disappointment when finding himself wedded to Leah, may with propriety be connected with the history of Joseph, as one of the great similes of the Lord to show great things to some, according to their faith, and nothing to others agreeable to the blindness of their minds. Passing, however, this with many other circumstances, which are connected with the well-being and final glory of Joseph, but, which can be sought out and read by the humble searcher for truth, with pleasure, in the bible and book of Mormon, we proceed to quote the word of the Lord, in relation to saving of the House of Joseph: for Joseph may now be considered as bearing the ensign of the Lord to the nations. As the Lord hath written unto Ephraim the great things of his law, and they are counted as a strange thing: so also, is the Lord preparing to show unto him the glory of the last days; for his horns are the horns of Unicorns, with them he shall push the people together from the ends of the earth. Now what a sublime figure this is! The sons of Joseph among the nations, to come forth as the servants of the Lord, in the last days and push the people to Zion; for at the same time, saith the Lord, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people. Thus saith the Lord, The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest. The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee. Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O Virgin of Israel; thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry. Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria: the planters shall plant, and shall eat them as common things. For there shall be a day, that the watchmen upon the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto the Lord our God.-For thus said the Lord; Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: publish ye, praise ye, and say, O Lord, save thy people, the remnant of Israel. Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together: a great company shall return thither. They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them; I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a strait way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first born. Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock. For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he. Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all. Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men aud [and] old together: for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow. And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the Lord. Thus said the Lord; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not. Thus saith the Lord; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own border. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke:-turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the Lord my God. Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote on my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth. Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him saith the Lord.
Now mark, Ephraim is the first born; the Lord's dear son, and a pleasant child, and the Lord will have compassion upon him, notwithstanding it is said by the prophet Hosea, that they, (the seed of Ephraim) shall be wanderers among the nations; notwithstanding Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone; notwithstanding Ephraim hath mixed himself among the people; notwithstanding Ephraim is a cake not turned; notwithstanding Ephraim is like a silly dove without a heart, and notwithstanding Ephraim is a heifer taught, and loves to tread out the grain, Ephraim shall ride, for the Lord hath spoken it. Half the tribe of Manasseh, being absent near the lost tribes in the region of Arsareth, we shall not pretend to say as much in relatiou [relation] to Manasseh as Ephraim.
But to make all things plain let us remember, what the Lord has said in relation to Joseph as a house, or particular portion of Israel; that he would save it. The words of Zechariah are in point: I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them again and place them: for I have mercy upon them; and they shall be as though I had not cast them off: for I am the Lord their God, and will hear them. And they of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man and their heart shall rejoice as through wine; yea their children shall see it, and be glad; their heart shall rejoice in the Lord. I will hiss for them, and gather them; for I have redeemed them; and they shall increase as they have increased. And I will sow them among the peoples and they shall remember me in far countries; and they shall live with their children, and turn again. I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt, and gather, them out of Assyria; and I will bring them into the land of Gilgad and Lebanon; and place shall not be found for them. And he shall pass through the sea with affliction, and shall smite the waves in the sea, and all the deeps of the river shall dry up: and the pride of Assyria shall be brought down, and the sceptre [scepter] of Egypt shall depart away. And I will strengthen them in the Lord; and they shall walk up and down in his name, saith the Lord.
How plain the Lord has told the world, that he would do great things for the house of Joseph, and well might the Psalmist exclaim: Give ear, O shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth. Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up thy strength, and come and save us. Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved. O Lord God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people? Thou feedest them with the bread of tears; and givest them tears to drink in great measure. Thou makest us a strife unto our neighbors: and our enemies laugh among themselves. Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved. Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt, thou hast cast out the heathen and planted it. Thou preparedst room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land. The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars. She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto the river. Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her? The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it. Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts: look down from heaven, and behold and visit this vine: And the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that thou madest strong for thyself. It is burnt with fire, it is cut down, they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance. Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself. So will not we go back from thee: quicken us, and we will call upon thy name. Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.
Here let us pause. The Lord is great and his words fail not. The shepherd of Israel, which comes leading Joseph like a flock, stir up thy strength before Ephraim, and Benjamin, and Manasseh. Ah what precious words! Judah is to be gathered at old Jerusalem; the lost tribes, with the half tribe of Manasseh, will be restored by Elijah, which leaves Ephraim, the remaining half tribe of Manasseh, and Benjamin to be stirred up by the good shepherd. What a consolation! No wonder Ephraim was likened unto a green fir tree, for says the Lord: From me is thy fruit found. When the Savior was on the Earth, he spake this parable: There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man. And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; yet, because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge his own elect which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.
Now, beloved reader, when the Son of man comes shall he find faith on the earth? He will find some with Ephraim, if Hosea's words are true, that-From me is thy fruit found. Again, taking this parable for a sample, will he come to those that pray in fine houses and fast by states and nations, as it were, giving bountifully of their wealth, to Bible societies, and temperance societies, while the poor, are forgotten by them, or will he come to them that humble themselves and cry mightily, Not our will but thine, O God be done?
Joseph was a type of coming events unto his seed; Ephraim was to become a great many nations, and all these things were to be fulfilled in the last days.-The land of Joseph was to be blessed above all others, and Joseph was to be honored by his parents and brethren, according to his dream of the singing hosts of heaven. Joseph was sold into Egypt to save his father's household from famine as a type of what should be afterwards. It is thus said in the Book of Mormon, by Moroni the chief captain of the Nephites, who lived about seventy years before the birth of the Savior: Behold, we are a remnant of the seed of Jacob; yea, we are a remnant of the seed of Joseph, whose coat was rent by his brethren, into many pieces; yea, and now behold, let us remember to keep the commandments of God, or our garments shall be rent by our brethren, and we be cast into prison, or be sold, or be slain; yea, let us preserve our liberty, as a remnant of Joseph; yea, let us remember the words of Jacob, before his death; for behold, he saw that a part of the remnant of the coat of Joseph was preserved, and had not decayed.-And he saith, Even as this remnant of garment of my sons hath been preserved, so shall a remnant of the seed of my son be preserved by the hand of God, and be taken unto himself, while the remainder of the seed of Joseph shall perish, even as the remnant of his garment: And again: Moroni the son of Mormon, who sealed and hid up this record, says in the book of Ether: Behold, Ether saw the days of Christ, and he spake concerning a New Jerusalem upon this land; and he
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spake also concerning the house of Israel, and the Jerusalem from whence Lehi should come; after it should be destroyed, it should be built up again a holy city unto the Lord; wherefore it could not be a New Jerusalem, for it had been in a time of old, but it should be built up again, and become a holy city of the Lord; and it should be built up unto the house of Israel; and that a New Jerusalem should be built up upon this land, unto the remnant of the seed of Joseph, for the which things there has been a type: for as Joseph brought his father down into the land of Egypt, even so he died there; wherefore the Lord brought a remnant of the seed of Joseph out of the land of Jerusalem, that he might be merciful unto the seed of Joseph, that they should perish not, even as he was merciful unto the father of Joseph, that he should perish not; wherefore the remnant of the house of Joseph shall be built upon this land; and it shall be a land of their inheritance; and they shall build up a holy city unto the Lord, like unto the Jerusalem of old; and they shall no more be confounded, until the end come, when the earth shall pass away.
Now as Joseph caused all the Egyptians to leave the room when he made himself known to his brethren: So the branch of his seed, which was lead to this continent by the hand of the Lord, to prepare the land of their inheritance, and the other branches which are wandering among the nations, may be brought from the east, and gathered from the west, ready to meet the Redeemer when he brings again Zion.
In the view of this coming scene is a joy, which can not be known by them that are without the hope of a glorious resurrection. Before Joseph went into Egypt the great day of a thousand years' holiness on earth, was better known among some men than now. What started a party of high-mined [minded?] men to build a Tower to go to heaven? The world had just been immersed with water: Zion had previously been taken to paradise, and for fear that it might again be destroyed, as they had again begun to trust in themselves, this evil generation, sat out to force themselves into heaven, without coming in as the Lord had appointed. Now, it is well known that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were so much in favor with the Lord, that he talked with them and gave them commandments, and they were filled with the Holy Ghost, and knew many things in relation to the last days, which they taught, to their posterity.
Although Joseph, or Ephraim, may be mixed among the nations, so that feet have scarce trod where he hath not been, & good and evil have not come to the lot of any on earth, more than him, still as the blessing to him was the greatest, and as he was lord over all Egypt, so shall he become a multitude of nations, reaching from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth, among the rest of the saints. For it shall come to pass, that many nations shall come, and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. But they shall sit every man under his vine and fig-tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it. For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever. In that day, saith the Lord, will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that was driven out, and her that I have afflicted; And I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation: and the Lord shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever. And thou, O tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem. Now why dost thou cry out aloud? is there no king in thee? is thy counsellor [counselor] perished? for pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail. Be in pain, and labor to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail; for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field, and thou shalt go even to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered; there the Lord shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies. Now also many nations are gathered against thee, that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion. But they know not the thoughts of the Lord, neither understand they his counsel: for he shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor. Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for I will make thy horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass: and thou shalt beat in pieces many people: and I will consecrate their gain unto the Lord, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth.
To close: what can be said more than the Lord hath said? Judah would not receive the Savior at his first coming, and he was crucified. He then manifested himself to the other tribes and remnants. The word was, whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. The Jews fall upon that stone and were broken: and, O ye inhabitants of the earth, beware! for if that stone falls upon you, it will grind you to powder. Remember that Joseph's glory, is the firstling of his bullock, & also, that with his horns, he is to push the people together from the ends of the earth.
God made the world in six days, and rested on the seventh, and blessed and sanctified it: and thus will he do with creation, for the creation of the spiritual world was in the likeness of the temporal; the temporal a preparation for man to enter into the Sacred Rest: The Lord has now begun to feed the flock of his heritage with the rod, [or word of truth] as in days of old, and according to the days of his coming out of the land of Egypt, will he show marvelous things. The oceans have to roll back into one place; the valleys have to be exalted; the mountains have to flow down at his presence, the sun has to be darkened, and the moon turned into blood, and stars have to fall, then behold, he will come to reign on the earth with power and great glory, and all the holy angels with him; yea, with the church of the first born, even Zion which was received up to the bosom of the Father, in the days of Enoch, before the flood; that the righteous that died in the hope of a glorious resurrection, may arise and meet the Lord in the air, and live again, in the flesh, on the earth.
COMPARISON BETWEEN HEATHENISM AND CHRISTIANITY.
Concluded.
"HE that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" Grace, so clearly revealed in our Scriptures, that the most accurate reasoning, heresy the most extravagant, and infidelity the most obstinate, cannot enervate his declarations. For, the death of Christ may be considered in different views: it is a sufficient confirmation of his doctrine; it is a perfect pattern of patience, it is the most magnanimous degree of extraordinary excellencies, that can be imagined: but the gospel very seldom presents it to us in any of these views, it leaves them to our own perception; but when it speaks of his death, it usually speaks of it as an expiatory sacrifice.-Need we repeat here a number of former texts, and express decisions on this matter? Thanks be to God, we are preaching to a christian auditory, who make the death of the Redeemer the foundation of faith! The gospel, then, assureth the penitent sinner of pardon. Zeno, Epicurus, Pythagoras, Socrates, Porch, Academy, Lycaeum, what have ye to offer to your disciples equal to this promise of the gospel?
IV. But that, which principally [principally] displays the prerogatives of the Christian above those of the philosopher, is an all-sufficient provision against the fear of death. A comparison between a dying Pagan and a dying Christian will show this I consider a Pagan, in his dying-bed, speaking to himself what follows. On which side soever I consider my state, I perceive nothing but trouble and despair. If I observe the fore-runners of death, I see awful symptoms, violent sickness, and intolerable pain, which surround my sick-bed, and are the first scenes of the bloody tragedy.-As to the world, my dearest objects disappear; my closest connexions [connections] are dissolving; my most specious titles are effacing; my noblest privileges are vanishing away; a dismal curtain falls between my eyes and all the decorations of the universe.-In regard to my body, it is a mass without motion; and life: my tongue is about to be condemned to eternal silence; my eyes to perpetual darkness; all the organs of my body to entire dissolution; and the miserable remains of my carcass to lodge in the grave, and to become food for the worms. If I consider my soul, I scarcely know whether it be immortal; and could I demonstrate its natural immortality, I should not be able to say, whether my Creator would display his attributes in preserving, or in destroying it; whether my wishes for immortality be the dictates of nature, or the language of sin. If I consider my past life, I have a witness within me, attesting that my practice hath been less than my knowledge, how small soever the latter hath been; and that the abundant depravity of my heart hath thickened the darkness of my mind. If I consider futurity, I think I discover through many thick clouds a future state; my reason suggests, that the Author of nature hath not given me a soul so sublime in thought, and so expansive in desire, merely to move in this little orb for a moment: but this is nothing but conjecture; and, if there be another economy after this, should I be less miserable than I am here?-One moment I hope for annihilation, the next I shudder with fear of being annihilated: my thoughts and desires are at war with each other, they rise, they resist, they destroy one another. Such is the dying Heathen. If a few examples of those, who have died otherwise, be adduced, they ought not to be urged in evidence against what we have advanced; for they are rare, and very probably deceptive, their outward tranquillity being only a concealment of trouble within. Trouble is the greater for confinement within, and for an effected appearance without. As we ought not to believe, that philosophy hath rendered men insensible of pain, because some philosophers have maintained that pain is no evil, and have seemed to triumph over it: so neither ought we to believe, that it hath disarmed death in regard to the disciples of natural religions, because some have affirmed, that death is not an object of fear. After all, if some Pagans enjoyed a real tranquillity at death, it was a groundless tranquillity, to which reason contributed nothing at all.
O! how different do Christians die! How doth revealed religion triumph over the religion of nature in this respect! May each of our hearers be a new evidence of this article! The whole that troubles an expiring Heathen, revives a Christian in his dying bed.
Thus speaks the dying Christian. When I consider the awful symptoms of death, and the violent agonies of dissolving nature, they appear to me as medical preparations, sharp, but salutary; they are necessary to detach me from life, and to separate the remains of inward depravity from me. Beside, I shall not be abandoned to my own frailty; but my patience and constancy will be proportional to my sufferings, and that powerful arm, which hath supported me through life, will uphold me under the pressure of death. If I consider my sins, many as they are, I am invulnerable; for I go to a tribunal of mercy, where God is reconciled, and justice is satisfied. If I consider my body, I perceive, I am putting off a mean and corruptible habit, and putting on robes of glory. Fall, fall, ye imperfect senses, ye frail organs, fall, house of clay, into your original dust; ye will be "sown in corruption, but raised in incorruption; sown in dishonor, but raised in glory; sown in weakness, but raised in power." If I consider my soul, it is passing, I see, from slavery
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to freedom. I shall carry with me that which thinks and reflects. I shall carry with me the delicacy of taste, the harmony of sounds, the beauty of colors, the fragrance of odoriferous smells. I shall surmount heaven and earth, nature and all terrestrial things, and my ideas of all their beauties will multiply and expand. If I consider the future economy, to which I go, I have, I own, very inadequate notions of it: but my incapacity is the ground of my expectation. Could I perfectly comprehend it, it would argue its resemblance to some of the present objects of my senses, or its minute proportion to the present operations of my mind. If worldly dignities and grandeurs, if accumulated treasures, if the enjoyments of the most refined voluptuousness, were to represent to me celestial felicity, I should suppose, that, partaking of their nature, they partook of their vanity. But, if nothing here can represent the future state, it is because that state surpasseth every other. My ardor is increased by imperfect knowledge of it. My knowledge, and virtue I know will be perfected; I know I shall comprehend truth, and obey order; I know I shall be free from all evils, and in possession of all good; I shall be present with God, I know, and with all the happy spirits, who surround his throne; and this perfect state, I am sure, will continue for ever and ever.
Such are the all-sufficient supports which revealed religion affords against the fear of death. Such are the meditations of a dying Christian; not of one, whose whole Christianity consists of dry speculations, which have no influence over his practice; but of one, who applies his knowledge to relive the real wants of his life.
Christianity, then, we have seen, is superior to natural religion, in these four respects. To these we will add a few more reflections in farther evidence of the superiority of revealed religion to the religion of nature.
1. The ideas of the ancient philosophers concerning natural religion were not collected into a body of doctrine. One philosopher had one idea, another studious man had another idea; ideas of truth and virtue, therefore, lay dispersed. Who doth not see the pre-eminence of revelation, on this article? No human capacity either hath been, or would ever have been equal to the noble conception of a perfect body of truth. There is no genius so narrow, as not to be capable of proposing some clear truth, some excellent maxim: but to lay down principles, and to perceive at once a chain of consequences, these are the efforts of great geniuses; this capability is philosophical perfection. If this axiom be incontestable, what a fountain of wisdom does the system of Christianity argue! It represents us, in one lovely body, of perfect symmetry, all the ideas that we have enumerated. One idea supposeth another idea; and the whole is united in a manner so compact, that it is impossible to alter one article without defacing the beauty of all.
2. Pagan philosophers never had a system of natural religion comparable with that of modern philosophers, although the latter glory in their contempt of revelation. Modern philosophers have derived the clearest and best parts of their systems from the very revelation which they effect to despise. We grant, the doctrines of the perfections of God, of providence, and of a future state, are perfectly comfortable to the light of reason. A man, who should pursue rational tracks of knowledge to his utmost power, would discover, we own, all these doctrines; but it is one thing to grant, that these doctrines are conformable to reason; and it is another to affirm, that reason actually discovered them. It is one thing to allow, that a man, who should pursue rational tracks of knowledge to his utmost power, would discover all these doctrines: and it is another to pretend, that any man hath pursued these tracks to the utmost, and hath actually discovered them. It was the gospel that taught mankind the use of their reason. It was the gospel, that assisted men to form a body of natural religion. Modern philosophers avail themselves of these aids; they form a body of natural religion by the light of the gospel, and then they attribute to their own penetration what they derive from foreign aid.
3. What was most rational in the natural religion of the pagan philosophers was mixed with fancies and dreams. There was not a single philosopher, who did not adopt some absurdity, and communicate it to his disciples. One taught, that every being was animated with a particular soul, and on this absurd hypothesis he pretended to account for all the phenomena of nature. Another took every star for a God, and thought the soul a vapour [vapor], that passed from one body to another, expiating in the body of a beast the sins that were committed in that of man. One attributed the creation of the world to a blind chance, and the government of all events in it to an inviolable fate. Another affirmed the eternity of the world, and said, there was no period in eternity in which heaven and earth, nature and elements, were not visible. One said, every thing is uncertain; we are not sure of our own existence; the distinction between just and unjust, virtue and vice, is fanciful, and hath no real foundation in the nature of things. Another made matter equal to God; and maintained, that it concurred with the Supreme Being in the formation of the universe. One took the world for a prodigious body, of which he thought God was the soul. Another affirmed the materiality of the soul, and attributed to matter the faculties of thinking and reasoning. Some denied the immortality of the soul, and the intervention of providence; and pretend, that an infinite number of particles of matter, invisible, and indestructible, revolve in the universe; that from their fortuitous concourse arose the present world; that in all this there was no design; that the feet were not formed for walking, the eyes for seeing, nor the hands for handling. The gospel is light without darkness. It hath nothing mean; nothing false; nothing that doth not bear the characters of that wisdom, from which it proceeds.
4. What was pure in the natural religion of the Heathens was not known; nor could be known to any but philosophers. The common people were incapable of that penetration and labor, which the investigating of truth, and the distinguishing of it from that falsehood, in which passion and prejudice have enveloped it, required. A mediocrity of genius, I allow, is sufficient for the purpose of inferring a part of those consequences from the works of nature, of which we form the body of natural religion; but none but geniuses of the first order are capable of kenning those distant consequences, which are enfolded in darkness. The bulk of mankind wanted a short way proportional to every mind. They wanted an authority, the infallibility of which all mankind might easily see. They wanted a revelation founded on evidence plain and obvious to all the world. Philosophers could not show the world such a short way: but revelation hath showed it. No philosopher could assume the authority, necessary to establish such a way; it became God alone to dictate in such a manner, and in revelation he hath done it.-[Saurin.]
AUTUMN.
AUTUMN comes. The spring with her flowers; the summer with her heat and thunder, is past; and autumn-sear, fruitful autumn, appears at last.-Well so it is-and so it has been-and so it will be, while the seasons come and go over our earth. Autumn is pleasant; autumn is sweet. True, in it there is a shade-a more sober aspect thrown around us. But it is as the soft twilight of eye, closing over the theatre [theater] of mirth, of bustle and confusion. Like the youth, who has been, by the flight of time, brought to the sedateness of manhood-so is autumn. Along the horizon, the dark hills stretch away, bearing the heavy forest; the vales are no more an ocean of living green, but they are wide and naked; the hand of the reaper has been there, and nought but the short, yellow stubble, and the fresh, tender growth which followed the swing of the scythe, lays before the eye. Plenty-the harvest of the year-the toil of the busbandman [husband man], is here. Bending to the earth and loaded to profusion, stands a group of yonder trees, whose fruit one by one, as the breeze stirs through its branches, strikes the earth, ripened and delicious, by the sun and rains of the by-gone summer. The song of the bird wakes not the echoes of autumn-but in its stead the crickets, beneath the soft, bland beams of a meridian moon, join in one solemn song, which throws over the listener, a shroud of thought, pointing backward to the things which have been; which now are past, and which shall be no more. Autumn-autumn; there is a thousand recollections connected with the season. I love the social few, who have with me passed over the flowers of spring; who have laughed away the sultry hours of summer beneath the projecting arms of the oak, or took the cool draught at the bursting spring-I say, I love to meet them again, when the heat of summer is tempered away, and autumn reigns over the wide earth. I love to repeat the sweet communion which we have had together. I love to catch the tear which glistens in their eyes, as they bend along the world below, and catch the expression, which doubly saith, "All things must fade." It seems to me that feeling grows stronger at this season. It seems as if we, to, with the departing year, were hastening to a close, and that now, even now, we were treading the threshold of eternity. And again, the rich banquet which is spread over the earth, inspire us with a noble gratitude to its Giver and Benefactor. We see pictured out in "bold relief," the certainty of a Supreme Being, and cannot refrain from adoring him for his goodness.
-> REMARKS.-The above essay on autumn, is extracted from one of the literary papers of the day, and it is not unworthy of a place with us. Autumn is a season for reflection. It seems indicative of the end or close of something. The glory of the earth passes. The birds that filled the woods with their melody, have flown away with the falling leaves, and the beautiful bloom of summer, is fading into a holy gloom, that carries on its very brow, the everlasting promise of God:-While the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease. But there is another idea attaches itself to autumn, of more consequence, than all the rest; it is this; it is the season to gather and secure the fruits of summer before winter: An emblem that the fruit of man must be gathered and secured before the great day: For when John the Revelator, looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. Yes, beloved reader, and behold the time draws nigh, when not only the autumn of the year, but the autumn of our lives, and of the world, shall come, and there shall be time no longer.
WE accidentally came across the following sketch:-"NEW ZEALANDERS.-The natives are cast in beauty's perfect mould: the children are so fine and powerfully made, that each might serve for a model of the statue of the Infant Hercules; nothing can excel the graceful and athletic forms of the men, or the rounded limbs of their young women. These possess eyes beautiful and eloquent, and a profusion of long, silky, curling hair; while the intellects of both sexes seems of a superior order. All appear eager for improvement, full of energy, and indefatigably industrious:" And it really affords consolation to think that such a people exists upon the Islands of the sea, for the Lord will not forget them. The Isles are to wait for his law, and the gospel of the kingdom, is to be preached to every nation on the globe so that some may be gathered out of every kindred, tongue and people, and be brought to Zion.
LETTERS.
Letters have been received, at the office of the Evening and Morning Star since our last, from Eden, (Maine,) and answered; from Prattsburgh, (N. Y.) from Mount Eden, (Ky.) and answered; from Spafford, (N. Y.) and answered; 2 from Kirtland Mills, (O.) answered; and from New-York City.
Unpaid letters remaining in the Post office: Calais, (Me.) Hickory Swale, (N. Y.) Wooster, (O.) Chillicothe, (O.) Elyria (O.) Martin, (N. J.) Winchester, (Con.)
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THE EVENING AND THE MORNING STAR.
SACRED POETRY.
EVERY thing that comes from the Lord, is sublime; this sublimity clothing the prophecies, and giving the Psalms a glory and sweetness, touching the saint's heart with thoughts that whisper like the still small voice to Elijah, and delighting the souls with words that moisten, as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for ever more; yea, this sublimity, which may be called the beauty of holiness, common writers have never touched: no; never; for that flight of mind which caused the Psalmist to exclaim: Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it. Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? if I assend [ascend] up into heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darknes [darkness] hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day, the darkness and the light are both alike to thee? For thou hast possessed my reins, thou hast covered me in my mother's womb; I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well: Yes, that peace of mind; that love of divine things; that confidence in the Lord; that saith in the world to come; that dependence upon Jesus Christ; and that joy of heart that gladdens the soul, and happifies the body in every place, and under all the trials and troubles of this present life, can not be found in common books: comfort and satisfaction, like light and truth, come from God. One reason, perhaps, that the sacred poets came nearer the standard of truth, or, in fact, came up to it, with less fancy, and more beauty, than common poets, is because the Hebrew, in which they wrote, was nearer the pure language, with which Adam gave names, than any other since used by man. Another reason, and one, too, that never fails, is that those holy men wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. One of the greatest specimen of Prophetic poetry, is found in the song of Moses. Nothing but the Spirit of the living God could have directed such sublime ideas: the first line is not spoken to earth, or heaven, alone, but is addressed to the heavens; and who can read it without being almost led within the veil; let us read: Give ear O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil [distill] as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb , and as the showers upon the grass: because I will publish the name of the Lord: ascribe ye greatness unto our God. He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he. They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children: they are a perverse and crooked generation. Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? is not he thy father that hath bought thee? hath he not made thee, and established thee? Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew [show] thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee. When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. For the Lord's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. As an eagle stireth [stirreth] up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings; so the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him. He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock; butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with waxed fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of grape. But Jershurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation. They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger. They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not. Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee. And when the Lord saw it, he abhorred them, because of the provoking of his sons, and of his daughters. And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith. They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mind arrows upon them.-They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust. The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs. I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make them the remembrance of them to cease from among men; were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely, and lest they should say, our hand is high, and the Lord hath not done all this. For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them. Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the Lord had shut them up? For their Rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges: for their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah [Gomorra]: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter: their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps. Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures? To me belongeth vengeance, and recompense; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste. For the Lord shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants; when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up, or left. And he shall say, where are there gods, there rock in whom they trusted, which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink-offerings? let them rise up and help you, and be your protection. See now that I, even I am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand. For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever. If I whet my glittering sword, and my hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me. I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh; and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy. Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people:-for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land, and to his people.
What a prophecy is contained in the last verse! He will be merciful unto his land, and to his people: so he will; and we can exclaim: O that the Lord were come to Zion, that his saints might see eye to eye, and might speak a pure language! But the time is short, for Zephaniah says, the determination of the Lord is, to gather the nations, that he way [may] assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them his indignation, even all his fierce anger; for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of his jealousy. For then will he turn unto the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one consent. From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia his suppliants, even the daughter of his dispersed, shall bring his offering. In that day shalt thou not be ashamed for all thy doings, wherein thou hast transgressed against him; for then he will take away out of the midst of thee them that rejoice in thy pride, and thou shalt no more be haughty because of his holy mountain. He will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord. The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth: for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid. Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord hath taken away thy judgments, he hath cast out thine enemy: the King of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee: thou shalt not see evil any more. In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not: and to Zion, Let not thy hands be slack. The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty, he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing. He will gather them that are sorrowful for the solemn assembly, who are of thee, to whom the reproach of it was a burden. Behold, at that time he will undo all that afflict thee: and he will save her that halteth, and gather her that was driven out; and he will get them praise and fame in every land where they have been put to shame. At that time will he bring you again, even in the time that he gathers you: for he will make you a name and a praise among all people of the earth, when he turns back your captivity before your eyes, saith the Lord.
THE following sketch of a NIGHT SCENE IN THE DESERT, is extracted from Fuller's Tour in the Turkish Empire, and is really a beautiful description. It would be somewhat gratifying to the eastern citizens of our country, if some experienced one of the Santa Fee Traders, would give a prospect of their Caravan. To see twenty or thirty wagons drawn by six or eight mules each two or three 4 pounders well mounted, with 80, or 100 men, part mounted riflemen, passing across a naked prairie, with little or no timber for nearly 900 miles, and making a virtue of necessity, by living on Buffalo meat, fortifying themselves with their wagons every night, against the attacks of the Indians, would almost equal a figure, to that of the company of Ishmaelites that carried Joseph into Egypt. But to the subject:
A CARAVAN presents in the evening a very active and cheerful scene. The camels, which had been turned out to graze as soon as they had halted and been unloaded, now return in separate groups, each of which, following the bell of its leader, proceeds directly to the spot where its master's tents are pitched. When arrived there the docile animals lie down of their own accord in a row, and their heads are attached by halters to a rope, which is fastened to a range of stakes about four feet high, extending along the front of the camp. They are then fed with large balls composed of barley-meal and lentils, mixed up with water, which they swallow whole, and are left to ruminate till morning. As soon as the night closes in, fires begin to blaze in every direction.-They are made with dry thorns and stunted shrubs, collected round the camp, and their flames throw a bright light on the different groups of travellers [travelers] who are seen squatted on the ground in front of their tents, or beside their piles of merchandize [merchandise], some occupied with their pipes and coffee, and others enjoying their frugal evening's meal. In an oriental company, of whatever class it is composed, the harsh sounds of vulgar merriment are never to be heard; a low hum of conversation spreads through the camp, and as the evening advances, this gradually sinks into a silence, disturbed only by the occasional lowing of the camels. All those persons who have once tried it, and who understand the eastern languages, speak of a caravan as a very agreeable mode of travelling [traveling]. The wild and solitary scenery through which it generally passes, the order and tranquillity with which it is conducted, the facility of conveying baggage, and the feeling of security which prevails, amply compensate for the slowness of its movements; and among hundreds of persons collected from the most distant parts of the Turkish empire and the neighboring states, many of whom have spent their lives in travelling [traveling], there is to be found a never-failing variety of associates and of anecdotes.
THE GATHERING.
THERE is a great anxiety manifested to learn how the church of Christ prospers, since it commenced settling in the western part of the state of Missouri. To satisfy this inquiry, and more especially to publish the truth upon this great subject, that none may be deceived by flying reports, we shall endeavor to give all the information in our possession. Since the gathering commenced, which is a little over a year, the number of the disciples which have come from the east, and which have been baptized in this region, is 465
Children and those not members, about 345
Total 810.
This little flock, which is now enjoying the glorious privileges and blessings of the everlasting gospel, preparatory to the second coming of the Savior, have, as it were, almost simultaneously
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come together from New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Tennessee and Missouri, to worship God and keep his commandments, on the land of their inheritance.-So far, the disciples have been highly favored; coming, as most of them have, from different climates, and changing, as is necessarily the case, their modes of living, undergoing the troubles and hardships of a long and tedious journey, and planting themselves down without the conveniences and even necessaries, which most of them have been used to, it is certainly a matter of great joy, if not a miracle, that they are generally so healthy, so industrious, so thriving, and more than all, so contented to love the Lord and their neighbors as themselves. Reports, to be sure, have been circulated, that so many were moving in, that a famine must succeed, and some starve to death; perhaps a few believed so, but in the joyful language of the Psalmist we can exclaim: We have been young, and now are old; yet have we not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. The great consolation is, the promises of the Lord never fail; nor is his store-house ever empty. Virtue, honesty, diligence, industry, economy, and patience, added to that pure religion, and undefiled before God and the Father: To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world, bring about the purposes of God, in their eternal salvation, and blesses the contrite soul with a sweet consolation and a prospect before it, that the world, with all its alluring, but vanishing appearances, can neither give nor take. We admit that the flowing together of so many saints has the appearance of a meeting of strangers; but as they already begin to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord, the world may witness that it is the preparation of Israel to meet his God. As the prophet said, Zion is a wilderness, but with faithful hearts raised to God, the wilderness will soon blossom as the rose, and, as the prospect brightens, we look forward with joy to the day when Zion shall arise and put on her beautiful garments and become the joy of the world.
Amid all things, for it is appointed for all once to die, twelve persons have died since the emigration commenced to this land: that is, nine here, and three upon the way. There have been solemnized six marriages.
Our news from abroad is cheering. The harvest is truly abundant, but the laborers are few.-New churches have been built up in Missouri; in Illinois; at Fulton, near Cincinnati, Ohio; at Guyandotte, Virginia; in Spafford, Onondaga Co. at Tompkins, Delaware Co. and at Essex Co. N. York; at Benson, North Troy, and Charleston, Vermont; at Bath, New Hampshire; in N. Rowley and Boston, Massachusetts, and how many in other places we can not say: while we look at the distress of nations, and hear how the judgments of God sweep off the inhabitants of the earth, we must exclaim, The Lord is making a short work. It was but two years last April, since the church of Christ was organized, by special revelation; now branches are rising up in almost every state in the Union, which, willing to overcome the world for the sake of Christ, the Redeemer, will come to Zion, and assist in enlarging her borders; and stretching forth the curtains of her habitations: No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue which shall rise against thee in judgment, thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.
To continue: It gives us pleasure, knowing that these are the last days, and making it our duty, as faithful servants of the Lord, in the hope that the example will cause the elders generally, to go and do likewise, to lay before the disciples, all the news that will benefit Zion, or cheer the inquiring soul abroad: For this purpose we give the following extract of a letter, from one of the elders of this church, to a brother of this place,-Dated Benson, (Vt.) September 20, 1832.
BROTHER SIDNEY:-Through the mercy of God, I have the pleasing moments of time to redeem that promise I made you while in Buffalo, N. Y. I can assure you that the Lord has been merciful and kind towards me ever since I left you; he has protected me on the right hand and on the left; his blessings have been given me, health I have enjoyed all the day, and my sleep has been sweet to me all the night, and my food has been nourishment unto me: and his blessed Spirit has been my joy and comforter, director, instructor, teacher and guide, and it has not suffered me to be confounded by the high-minded pharisee or priest; but truth has cut its way and pierced the hearts of many; and the Lord has blessed me with many sheaves; even sons and daughters for Zion.
I took passage in the boat you saw me on board of, and went to Palmyra; from thence to Benson, where I found a company of dear brethren and sisters very much persecuted; but they are firm in the faith of the everlasting gospel; the number was about thirty, but is now about forty. When I arrived I found them in meeting; I spoke the word of the Lord unto them and it was an affecting scene to them and me. I visited my old neighbors, many of whom I found very unbelieving. I went to visit my wife's brother David, I heard that himself and family were opposed to the work of the Lord; but I went in faith, and when I came there I found two young women on a visit; they were about to go away, but David's wife went out with them and said they had better stay, for she had heard that the Mormons could cast out devils, and that brother Sim. was a Mormon, and she thought she had a devil in her and they had better stay and see him cast out. Brother David soon came in and I began to converse with them, and the devils were cast out, for the word cut them to the heart, and it fastened like a nail in a sure place; and they wept like little children, and their minds were opened to receive the truth, and wept like little children, and their minds were opened to receive the truth, and their hearts ready to embrace it; and in a few days the Lord blessed me with the opportunity of leading them into the waters of baptism, and the Lord blessed them with the Comforter; and they are firm and unshaken in the faith. The Lord has prepared brother David to do much good if faithful; he has been ordained an elder under my hands; he is meek, humble, bold, firm and persevering.
We met in conference the tenth of August: There were fourteen elders and several priests and teachers present. Great union dwelt among us; two were ordained to the priesthood: two others were ordained, one an elder, and the other a priest. Brethren, O. Pratt and L. Johnson, were there; they have planted three or four churches since last February, and have baptized in all about seventy.-Brother Collins and others from Essex county N. Y., (where there are about forty disciples,) were also present. Brother Jared has labored there also, and has been a partner in baptizing about seventy souls since April. I have baptized forty two since the first of July. I have been laboring west of the Lakes in Bolton, and br. Jared has been with me a part of the time, and we expect to continue together for a while. Some powerful manifestations of healing have been wrought through our ministry; but the people are generally very unbelieving in this region of country, and ready to rail at us and to persecute us; and the hirelings make their bitter cries, for fear they will loose their wages, and are rallying their forces to bind their flocks or bundles of tares to be burned, or ready for the destroying angel.
O that the Lord would save his people from Babylon! O Lord, speed on the gathering of thy people that Babylon may linger! O Lord, who hath believed our report since thou hast sent us to Babylon to make known thy coming? O Lord, rend the heavens and come down, and let the mountains flow down at thy presence, that thy sons and daughters may see thy glory and speak of thy mysteries? And make known thy power to thine enemies!
Surely the earth is ripe in iniquity, and it does seem to me that the priests are the most corrupt of all the branches, for they are binding thousands with their strong cords; but the Judge of all the earth will do right. And I rejoice much, that the time will soon come, and that the day is near at hand when the earth will rest, and when it will be cleansed from its wicked polluters. I still feel resolved to continue my labor in the vineyard of the Lord, and pray without ceasing unto him, that his kingdom may roll forth, and that he will bring out sons and daughters for Zion, O that God would arm me for the battle and prepare me for the war;-
"For I will fight until I conquer, though I die."-
Then arm me with thy strength, O God, that I may count my victories over when the war is ended, and thou takest me to thyself and crownest me thy son in thy kingdom. When I look forth upon the broad field and see the thick veil that satan has spread over all nations, I am ready to cry out in the language of Jesus, that it will be as it was in the days of Noah. And when I look round and see how few the faithful laborers are, and that the destroying angel has already begun to reap down the tares that they cumber not the vineyard, I cry unto the Lord of the harvest to send more laborers into the field. And that he will not keep any idle servants at home, (the same I fear is the case,) let me exhort such to look a little forward of them , to the day when the good master of the vineyard shall call unto him his servants, and say, Bring forward your sheaves: and each at his bidding presents himself and his sheaves at his right hand. And what if you instead of sheaves, should present your dear wife and little children, and one of your fellow servants should claim them to be the fruit of his labors; and you should look down into the pit and see your sheaves in the gulf of black despair; would the Lord say, well done thou good and faithful servant, thou hast gathered me many sheaves; therefore thou shalt be crowned over a great dominion in the kingdom of my Father, and your dear companion who has suffered tribulation and privation, shall be crowned with you, and shall partake with me and her husband my faithful servant in all the fruit of my vineyard? O then brethren, be gathering sheaves, for the time of harvest is short and the laborers are very few. Go out and labor with me, for the harvest will soon be over; then we will return, laden with sheaves, to sit down in the kingdom of Jesus with wives and children to rest forevermore.
Be faithful brethren and sisters, keep your hearts pure before the Lord, press on, run in the strait way that leads to life; for the just shall live by faith. And remember Simeon in all your petitions before the Lord. Remember God's promise to Abraham as possessor of heaven and earth: and you are his children if you are of his faith; and the day is not far distant when Abraham is to receive the end of his faith; and bless the Lord, so will all his children. And I thank the Lord that I have found some of his children in this country, and I hope to find some more of them the Lord being willing. Give my love to my dear wife and my dear children, and to all that love the Lord.
SIMEON CARTER.
CHOLERA.
WE make an extract of a letter from a mercantile house in St. Louis, to Br. A. S. Gilbert Dated October 26, 1832.
"We have the painful duty to perform of communicating the melancholy death of your brother William L. who died in this place on Wednesday night, the 24th inst. of the Cholera, after a few hours illness. Every thing was done that medical skill could devise to save him, but the attack was so severe, that all remedies failed.
The cholera has raged here for the last few days, with unprecedented violence, but we think it is abating."
TO THE SAINTS.
THE Lord has said, Blessed are they who have come up to this land with an eye single to my glory, according to my commandments. Brethren, have you all done so? Have you fulfilled the commandment, which saith: Behold I the Lord have appointed a way for the journeying of my saints, and behold this is the way: That after they leave the canal, they shall journey by land, inasmuch as they are commanded to journey and go up unto the land of Zion; and they shall do like unto the children of Israel, pitching their tents by the way? Have you all fulfilled the law of the church, which saith: Behold thou shalt consecrate all thy properties, that which thou hast, unto me, with a covenant and deed that cannot be broken; and they shall be laid before the bishop of my church? And also the commandment which saith: It is wisdom in me, that my servant Martin should be an example unto the church, in laying his money before the bishop of the church; and also, this is a law unto every man that cometh unto this land to receive an inheritance? and he shall do with his moneys according as the law directs. Brethren, have you all kept the commandments thus far? If you have the Lord will keep you from danger. Let each look to these great queries, and ask himself the question, HAVE I?
(page 46)
Revelations.
REVELATION, GIVEN MAY, 1831.
HEARKEN unto my word, my servant Sidney, and Parley, and Lemon [Leman], for behold, verily I say unto you, that I give unto you a commandment, that you shall go and preach my gospel, which ye have received, even as ye have received it, unto the Shakers. Behold I say unto you, that they desire to know the truth in part, but not all, for they are not right before me, and must needs repent: wherefore I send you, my servants Sidney and Parley, to preach the gospel unto them; and my servant Lemon [Leman] shall be ordained unto this work, that he may reason with them, not according to that which he has received of them, but according to that which shall be taught him by you, my servants, and by so doing I will bless him, otherwise he shall not prosper: Thus saith the Lord, for I am God and have sent mine only begotten Son into the world, for the redemption of the world, and have decreed, that he that receiveth him shall be saved, and he that receiveth him not, shall be damned: and they have done unto the son of Man even as they listed; and he has taken his power on the right hand of his glory, and now reigneth in the heavens, and will reign till he descends on the earth to put all enemies under his feet: which time is nigh at hand: I the Lord God have spoken it; but the hour and the day no man knoweth, neither the angels in heaven, nor shall they know until he come: wherefore I will that all men shall repent, for all are under sin, except them which I have reserved unto myself, holy men that ye know not of: wherefore I say unto you, that I have sent unto you mine everlasting covenant, even that which was from the beginning, and that which I have promised I have so fulfilled, and the nations of the earth shall bow to it; and, if not of themselves, they shall come down, for that which is now exalted of itself, shall be laid low of power: wherefore I give unto you a commandment, that ye go among this people and say unto them, like unto mine apostle of old, whose name was Peter: Believe on the name of the Lord Jesus, who was on the earth and is to come, the beginning and the end; repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, according to the holy commandment, for the remission of sins; and whoso doeth this shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, by the laying on of the hands of the elders of this church.
And again: I say unto you, that whoso forbideth to marry is not ordained of God, for marriage is ordained of God unto man: wherefore it is lawful that he should have one wife, and they twain shall be one flesh, and all this that the earth might answer the end of its creation; and that it might be filled with the measure of man, according to his creation before the world was made. And whoso forbiddeth to abstain from meats, that man should not eat, is not ordained of God; for behold the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the air, and that which cometh of the earth, is ordained for the use of man, for food, and for raiment, and that he might have in abundance, but it is not given that one man should possess that which is above another: wherefore the world lieth in sin; and wo be unto man that sheddeth blood, or that wasteth flesh and hath no need. And again: verily I say unto you that the son of Man cometh not in the form of a woman, neither of a man travelling [traveling] on the earth: wherefore be not deceived but continue in steadfastness, looking forth for the heavens to be shaken; and the earth to tremble, and to reel to and fro as a drunken man; and for the valleys to be exalted; and for the mountains to be made low; and for the rough places to become smooth; and all this when the angel shall sound his trumpet, but before the great day of the Lord shall come, Jacob shall flourish in the wilderness; and the Lamanites shall blossom as the rose; Zion shall flourish upon the hills, and rejoice upon the mountains, and shall be assembled together unto the place which I have appointed. Behold I say unto you, Go forth as I have commanded you; repent of all your sins; ask and ye shall receive; knock and it shall be opened unto you: Behold I will go before you, and be your rereward [rearward]; and I will be in your midst, and you shall not be confounded: Behold I am Jesus Christ, and I come quickly; even so: Amen.
HE THAT WILL NOT WORK, IS NOT A DISCIPLE OF THE LORD.
PURPOSING to do the will of God in all things, every disciple must do with his might, whatsoever his hand finds to do, knowing that the idler is to be had in remembrance before the Lord. There is no respect of persons; every one ought to do his best to be approved in the sight of God. The old command is: Six days shalt thou labor and doo [do] all thy work, and no one will pretend that this commandment has been revoked or made void; on the contrary, Paul, at least 1500 years after this commandment came from the Lord, says, in his second epistle to the Thessalonian church, Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us. For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you; neither did we eat any man's bread for nought; but wrought with labor night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you: Not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us. For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busy bodies. Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread.
It is no more than reasonable or right, to say, that he that will not work, should not eat, for as saith Alma, Thus says the Lord: ye shall not esteem one flesh above another, or one man shall not think himself above another. All men are after the sample of their father Adam. He was put into the garden to dress it; or, in other words, man was made to be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it. All men, then, to live according to the will of the Lord, must labor.-And what can be more just? for there is no specimen of idleness in the creation, or works of the Lord. When the morning dawns, the invisible hand that drew the curtains of night around us for sleep and repose, opens the windows of day for the labor and refreshment of them that live upon the earth: And who can view the busy multitudes of created beings, and things, from the mite to the mammoth; from the spring to the ocean; from the mole-hill to the mountain; from the garden to the globe, and from man to his Maker, and not exclaim like Lehi of old; Great and marvelous are thy works, O Lord God Almighty! Thy throne is high in the heavens, and thy power, and goodness, and mercy, is over all the inhabitants of the earth.
Who can fail to see industry in the fly that furbishes her wings in the window? or among the cattle grazing upon a thousand hills? or with the bees culling the flowers of the land-scape for their sweets? or in the river running with all its glassy majesty? or in the green growing race of earth, from the grass to the trees, each with every blade, and every limb pointing to heaven? yes, who can look upon so much industry, and suppose that man was made to live without labor? Not the disciple of Jesus Christ.
Since the heaven was stretched out as a curtain between this world and the world beyond, neither the sun, nor the moon, nor the planets, nor the stars, have ceased for a moment, (except when Joshua commanded otherwise,) from performing their daily labors, and why does man, while he lives, shrink from what the Lord meant he should do? why not fill the measure of his days in helping himself and assisting others, that, when he appears before the bar of God, to give an account of his stewardship, he may hear the pleasing acceptance of his Lord and Master:-Well done, good and faithful servant, you have been faithful over a few things, now be lord over many.
THE BOOK OF JOB.
MEN of moral characters, as well as the disciples of Jesus Christ, generally venerate sacred or sublime writings. Faultless rules, pure principles, and the truth, coming from man, or through the Spirit of the living God, have ever found friends, and while virtue has a mansion in the heart of man, we fear no change. Dr. Blair, who lived up to such good opinions of good things, when reviewing the bible, thus speaks of the book of Job: It is known to be extremely ancient; generally reputed the most ancient of all poetical books; the author uncertain.-It is remarkable, that this book has no connexion [connection] with the affairs or manners of the Jews, or Hebrews. The scene is laid in the land of Uz, or Idumaea, which is a part of Arabia; and the imagery employed is generally of a different kind, from what I before showed to be peculiar to the Hebrew poets. We meet with no allusion to the sacred history, to the religious rites of the Jews, to Lebanon or to Carmel, or any of the peculiarities of the climate of Judaea. We find few comparisons founded on rivers or torrents; these were not familiar objects in Arabia. But the longest comparison that occurs in the book, is to an object frequent and well known in that region, a brook that fails in the season of heat, and disappoints the expectation of the traveller [traveler].
The poetry, however, of the book of Job, is not only equal to that of any other of the sacred writings, but is superior to them all, except those of Isaiah alone. As Isaiah is the most sublime, David the most pleasing and tender, so Job is the most descriptive, of all the inspired poets. A peculiar glow of fancy, and strength of description, characterize the author. No writer whatever abounds so much in metaphors. He may be said, not to describe, but to render visible, whatever he treats of. A variety of instances might be given. Let us remark only those strong and lively colours [colors], with which, in the following passages, taken from the 18th and 20th chapters of his book, he paints the condition of the wicked; observe how rapidly his figures rise before us; and what a deep impression, at the same time, they leave on the imagination. "Knowest thou not this of old, since man was placed upon the earth, that the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment? Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach the clouds, yet he shall perish forever. He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found; yea, he shall be chased away, as a vision of the night. The eye also which saw him, shall see him no more; they which have seen him, shall say, where is he? He shall suck the poison of asps, the viper's tongue shall slay him.-In the fullness of his sufficiency, he shall be in straits; every hand shall come upon him. He shall flee from the iron weapon, and the bow of steel shall strike him through. All darkness shall be hid in his secret places. A fire not blown shall consume him. The heaven shall reveal his iniquity, and the earth shall rise up against him. The increase of his house shall depart. His goods shall flow away in the day of wrath. The light of the wicked shall be put out; the light shall be dark in his tabernacle. The steps of his strength shall be straitened, and his own counsel shall cast him down. For he is cast into a net, by his own feet. He walketh upon a snare. Terrors shall make him afraid on every side; and the robber shall prevail against him. Brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation. His remembrance shall perish from the earth, and he shall have no name in the street. He shall be driven from light into darkness. They that come after him shall be astonished at his day. He shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty."
Again: Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were printed in a book! That they were graven with an iron pen, and lead in the rock forever!-For I know my Redeemer liveth, and he will stand at the latter day upon the earth.
(page 47)
Worldly Matters.
INDIAN CORN.
SINGULAR FACT.
IN the course of some experiments made by the editor of the American Farmer, for the purpose of improving Indian corn last year, he impregnated the pistils (silk) of the large white Tuscarora with the pollen from the tassels of the golden Sioux. The result was a perfect hybrid between the two. The grain being of a pure brimstone color, of the size and form of the Tuskarora, and like that with eight rows on the cob. It was a most beautiful variety of corn; partaking of all the good qualities of both, without the disadvantage of the large cob and small grain of the golden Sioux. We planted this corn last spring; the stalks were very dwarfish, resembling those of the Sioux, and the corn very early fit for use. It is now ripe, however, and on examining it a day or two since we find that the two original colors have separated, and instead of the brimstone color, we have on every ear grains of the bright yellow Sioux, and the pure white Tuskarora; but the quality of the corn is evidently superior to either of the original parents, although the colors have resumed their original tints. This is, to us, a singular circumstance, and one which we are unable to account for. The only thing analogous to it we have read of, is the proposition advanced by an able writer some time since in the columns of the Farmer, that the offspring of cross breeds of animals, would instead of partaking of the mixt [mixed] character of their immediate parents, assume that of one or the other of their original progenitors. How far this proposition may hold good with animals we do not know, but it certainly appears to be the case in the vegetable world, at least so far as the fact above stated warrants the formation of an opinion.
There is a good deal of difficulty in reconciling the above fact with the law of nature, which requires two parents for the production of every organized being, animal or vegetable. If the two kinds of corn which were combined in the hybrid have become again distinct varieties, they are each of them the produce of but one parent -the Tuskarora is the produce of a female parent exclusively, and the Sioux that of a male parent; for it must be recollected there was no male Tuskarora nor female Sioux present, either during the origin of the hybrid, last year or the subsequent culture and separation of varieties this year. Yet we know, that if we deprive the corn of either the male or female flowers, (tassel or silk,) there will be no corn formed on the cob. How then are we to account for the present fact of the separation of the two varieties? It was this difficulty that made us doubt the correctness of the proposition relative to cross breeds of animals above referred to, and although we have the fact before us in the case of the corn, we are still compelled to doubt its general application. We do not think that each variety has resumed all its original characters; one of them we know it has not-the size of the Sioux grain is larger than the original, and there are but eight rows on the cob; in these respects retaining the hybrid character derived from the Tuskarora; but then the original color and flintiness of the grain is resumed; the Tuskarora has resumed its original character entirely, with the exception of the soft flowery quality of the grain, the flintiness of the hybrid derived from the Sioux parent is retained. As the Tuskarora was the female parent of the hybrid, the number of rows and the size of the grain would of course be like those of that variety, and hence the presence of those characters in the present separated varieties. We should be glad to receive an explanation of this circumstance from some of our practiced naturalists.
PEARL FISHERIES.-The Pearl Fisheries of Ceylon are among the most noted. The most skilful [skillful] divers come from Collesh on the coast of Malabar, and some of these are alleged to have occasionally remained underwater for the lapse of seven minutes. According to the testimony of Mr. Le Beck, this fete was also performed by a Gaffre boy at Carrical. The following is the usual mode of diving for pearls:
By means of two cords, a diving stone and a net are connected with the boat. The diver putting the toes of his right foot on the car rope of the diving stone and those of his left on the net, seizes the two cords with one hand, and shutting his nostrils with the other, plunges into the water. On gaining the bottom he hangs the net around his neck and throws into it as many pearl shells as he can collect while he is able to remain beneath the surface, which is generally about two minutes. He then resumes his former posture, and making a signal by pulling the cords, he is instantly hauled up into the boat. On emerging from the sea he discharges a quantity of water from his mouth and nose. There are generally ten divers to each boat, and while five respiring, the other five descend with the same stones. Each brings up about 100 oysters in his net at a time, and if not interrupted by any accident will make 50 trips in the course of a forenoon.-The most frequent and fatal of the catastrophes to which they are subject, arises from the sharks, which by biting the diver in two, prevent his reascending to the surface.-[History of British Italy.]
FROM CANTON.-We are indebted to the politeness of Mr. James F. Thorndike for the Chinese Courier of April 14th. Mr. T. came passenger in the ship Hamilton. The Courier states that the insurrection against the reigning Emperor was assuming a very serious aspect.-[Boston Paper.]
It is said that great difficulties are experienced in getting the imperial troops to face the enemy, and that better provisions, and even the forbidden opium were given to the forces, to induce them to perform their duty. Several large bodies of his Majesty's troops have been sent to the scene of action, where they were in several affairs worsted by the rebels, and in one instance, it is said that of 3000 men but seven escaped to tell the story of their defeat. There are many tales in circulation relative to these mountaineers and their success, which are evidently exaggerated. Two large towns, several villages and military posts have fallen into their hands.
The rebels have communication with the mountaineers in their neighborhood, and the hill-people of Kwag-se; and the Chinese say that very judicious measures have been adopted by the rebels for carrying on the campaign, they being well furnished with provisions and war-like stores. Many of the officers commanding the forces sent against them have been taken and destroyed, and after a serious defeat, in which his troops were entierly [entirely] routed, the Foo yuen of Hou-Kwag was made prisoner.
The temper of the Chinese people, generally, in regard to the present imperial government, if far from loyal, and there is little question that should the new self-nominated Emperor of China carry his success much farther, thousands who want but favorable opportunity to proceed to open rebellion, will join his standard.
The amount of property brought from Santa Fee, this year, is, about $190,000; consisting of coin, gold and silver bullion, peltry and mules.
Supposing the earth to contain 800,000,000 of inhabitants, the cholera has already swept off more than a 16th of them.
COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES.-We have received a copy of the detailed report of the Secretary of the Treasury, of the Commerce and Navigation of the United States, for the year ending on the 30th Sept. 1831. The following is a statement of the value of the Imports and Exports of that year into the several States and Territories.
IMPORTS. EXPORTS.
Maine 941,417 Maine 805,573
New Hampshire 146,295 New Hampshire 111,222
Vermont 166,20 Vermont 925,127
Massachusetts 14,269,056 Massachusetts 7,733,763
Rhode Island 562,161 Rhode Island 367,465
Connecticut 405,066 Connecticut 482,883
New York 57,077,417 New York 25,535,144
New Jersey --- New Jersey 11,430
Pennsylvania 12,124,083 Pennsylvania 5,513,713
Delaware 21,656 Delaware 54,514
Maryland 4,826,577 Maryland 4,308,647
Dist. of Columbia 193,555 Dist. of Columbia 1,220,975
Virginia 488,522 Virginia 4,150,475
North Carolina 196,356 North Carolina 341,140
South Carolina 1,238,164 South Carolina 6,575,201
Georgia 399,940 Georgia 3,859,813
Alabama 224,431 Alabama 2,4-2,894
Mississippi --- Mississippi ---
Louisiana 9,766,693 Louisiana 16,76-,989
Ohio 61 Ohio 14,728
Florida 115,710 Florida 30,495
Michigan 27,299 Michigan 12,392
Total $193,191,124 Total $81,310,583
SELECTED HYMN.
The younger son.
BEHOLD the son that went away, He ran, and fell upon his neck,
And wasted his estate! Embrac'd and kiss'd his son;
He feign would beg among the swine, The son exclaim'd, I've sin'd, I've sin'd,
To taste the husks they eat. And how can we be one?
I die with hunger here, he cries, But O the joy that Israel has!
I starve in foreign lands; The father gives command:
While father's house hath bread enough, Dress him in garments white and clean,
And many hired hands. With rings adorn his hand.
I'll go, and to my father say, A day of feasting let there be;
For follies I have done, Let mirth and joy abound;
O father, father, I have sin'd, My son was dead and lives again,
And hardly am thy son! Was lost and now is found.
He said, and hasten'd on his way, It is meet that we be merry now;
To seek his father's love; Let endless peace abound;
The father saw his Israel come, For Israel died, and lives again,
And all his bowels move. Was lost and now is found.
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(page 48)
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