The Expedition of Zion's Camp.
The time covered by this volume may properly be called the Kirtland period of the Church History, since that city is the chief center of activity. The four years which comprise the period are marked, on the one hand, by rapid doctrinal development, institutional growth, outward enlargement and internal spiritual progress; and, on the other hand, are marked by internal dissensions, abundant manifestations of human weakness and wickedness, resulting in bitterness and apostasy. The period is one in which the Church is manifestly militant, and not always, from surface appearances, triumphant. Yet removed from that period by well nigh three-quarters of a century, one may see now that it was a glorious period, notwithstanding sombre shadows are now and then cast athwart the pathway of the Church's progress. Who can rightly estimate the value of the experiences of that movement for the redemption of Zion, called Zion's Camp? Nothing so completely reveals the worth or worthlessness of human character as expeditions of this description. Men are thrown into such relations with each other that all that is in them, good or bad, comes to the surface. As opportunities in time of war reveal noble or debased natures, so in expeditions such as Zion's Camp the base or exalted phases of human nature are forced to the surface, and are known and read of men. God, it appears was about to choose His foreign ministry, His Especial Witnesses to the world, the Twelve and the Seventy. After the expedition of Zion's Camp He could choose them from among men who had offered their all in sacrifice—even to life itself—for the work's sake. Are not such manifestly fitter witnesses than those who are untried? Will it be argued that to the All-knowing the untried are as well know as the tried, and that God needed no such demonstration of fidelity as was afforded by the expedition of Zion's Camp in order to guide Him in the choice of His Witnesses to the nations of the earth? If so, my answer would be an acquiescence—God needs no such expedition in order to reveal to Him the worthiness of those who shall be His special Witnesses. But what of the world—what of men? Do not they need some such evidence back of those who shall testify of a new dispensation of the Gospel? Will not men have more regard for the testimony of Witnesses who have offered their all in sacrifice for any given work, than for the testimony of witnesses who have made no such sacrifice? Undoubtedly. Not for God's guidance, then, but for the qualification of the Witnesses in the eyes of men was the expedition of Zion's Camp in part conceived and executed. Also that those men who, under God—the Prophet Joseph Smith and the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon—were to make choice of especial Witnesses might know whom to select because of actually demonstrated fitness and worthiness.
Moreover there were men in that expedition who later will be called upon to conduct larger expeditions much of the same character—an exodus of thousands from Missouri; an exodus of tens of thousands from the confines of the United States, a thousand miles into the wilderness of the Rocky Mountains. May not the Lord have designed in part this expedition of Zion's Camp for their instruction, for their training? The leaders of these later movements are all there—Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, Orson Pratt, Parley P. Pratt, Charles C. Rich, George A. Smith, Wilford Woodruff and many more. It is significant, too, that Brigham Young at least sensed the true importance of the Zion's Camp expedition. That expedition for the redemption of Zion was regarded by many weak-faithed Saints as a sad failure, a humiliation of a presumptuous prophet. One of these attempted to ridicule it in the presence of Brigham Young, as a case of marching men up a hill to march them down again. "Well," said the scoffer, "what did you gain on this useless journey to Missouri with Joseph Smith?" "All we went for," promptly replied Brigham Young. "I would not exchange the experience gained in that expedition for all the wealth of Geauga county." A remark which proves that Brigham Young had a keen insight into the purpose of the Zion's Camp movement.
First Educational Movement of the Church.
The value of the educational movement in the Church by the establishment of a school for the Elders in Kirtland, cannot be fully appreciated even yet. It stands as a direct contradiction to the oft-repeated charges that Mormonism seeks to thrive through the ignorance of its devotees. "Seek ye diligently, and teach one another words of wisdom," was an admonition the Church in the Kirtland period of its history sought earnestly to carry into effect. "Yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom: seek learning even by study, and also by faith." To the sphere of their learning there were no limitations set. "Teach ye diligently," said the Lord, "and my grace shall attend you, that you may be instructed more perfectly in theory, in principle, in doctrine, in the law of the Gospel, in all things that pertain unto the kingdom of God, that are expedient for you to understand; of things both in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth; things which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations, and the judgments which are on the land, and a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms." I know of nothing that lies outside this boundless field of research into which the Elders of the church especially were invited—nay, commanded, to enter. It comprehends the whole possible sphere of human investigation; and furnishes all necessary contradiction to the theory that the Church at any time contemplated an ignorant ministry. By intelligence, not stupidity; by knowledge, not ignorance, has the Church from the very beginning hoped to succeed in her mission.
The Organization of the Foreign Ministry.
It is during the Kirtland period of her history also that the Church raised her eyes and for the first time gazed out upon the world-wide sphere of her future activities. Until now she had confined her missions and labors to the United States and Canada. But lo! a foreign ministry had been organized, a quorum of Twelve Apostles and two quorums of Seventy had been called into existence and ordained. Was that without significance? Undoubtedly there is power in ordinances, in divine appointments: "Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid his hands upon him and the children of Israel hearkened unto him and did as the Lord commanded Moses." While Timothy, the young Christian evangelist, was admonished by Paul to stir up the gift of God which was in him by the putting on of the Apostle's hands. Since, then, there is virtue in ordinations of divine appointing, it is but to be expected that the Church of Christ in this last dispensation would be influenced by the appointment and ordination of her foreign ministry. It was but a proper sequence of the appointment of this ministry that Apostles and their associates should be sent to England. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was never intended to be merely an American sect of religion. It is a new and the last dispensation of the Christian religion—the Dispensation of the Fullness of Times, the dispensation into which will be gathered all former dispensations of the Gospel of Christ; all keys of authority, all powers, all gifts, all graces essential to the welfare and salvation of man—all that is essential to the completion of the mission of the Christian religion. The mission of the Church in such a dispensation is general not local, world-embracing. Had it been less than one of the world's great movements, Mormonism had been inadequate to the world's needs—less than sufficient for a world's redemption. There was marked, therefore, a mighty bound forward in the progress of the work when the foreign ministry of the Church was organized, and a mission appointed to England. The work would have perished had it not taken this step forward. The Church had reached that stage of development when there must be a forward movement. Things do not stand inert in this world. Inertia is death. In progress only is there life. The thing that does not grow dies. The very rocks increase or decay. For the time being the elements on which the Church lived were exhausted in the land where it came forth. The material which had been gathered into it was passing through the crucible. There was need of an enlargement of action, a necessity for new elements being brought into the body religious. That enlargement of action was found in opening the British mission. The new elements essential to the preservation of the work were found in the English people; for among them were given the evidences of the existence of the spiritual light and life which had characterized the work at its coming forth: and as that mission had been