Signs of the Times

              “ Signs of the Times.” The Evening and the Morning Star ( Independence, Missouri) 1, no. 5
( October 1832): [ 38].
SIGNS OF THE TIMES.
OUR readers will expect from us, some of the signs of the times; and, as watchmen that
would strive to be approved in all things before the Lord, we will try to collect a few of the
many, and lay them before the world. It is a day of strange appearances to them that are without
the true knowledge of God. That the watchful might not be deceived, the Lord while speaking of
wickedness, which is spiritual Babylon, by the mouth of Jeremiah, says, My people, go ye out of
the [ column 2, same pp.] midst of her, and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of
the Lord. And lest your heart faint, and ye fear for the rumor that shall be heard in the land; a
rumor shall both come one year, and after that in another year shall come a rumor, and violence
in the land, ruler against ruler.
To begin: An eastern paper thus speaks of Europe:— Austria has an immense army in the
field. Russia an immense force ready to march upon the Rhine, and a fleet of 42 sail ready for
sea! Belgium and Holland are both armed for battle. England has a large squadron, for practice,
in the north seas. A large number of National Guards has been called out in France, to form a
new army. The Emperor of Russia says Christmas dinners will be eaten by some people with
long faces. A Napoleonite has said there will be another march to Paris. Lord Durham has gone
to Copenhagen to gain the Alliance of the Danes. The Dutch ambassador has very unexpectedly
left England, and Joseph Bonaparte as suddenly departed for that country; the Grey ministry are
evidently out of favor with the court, and the French ministry are about adopting Soult’s project
of moving the French army towards the frontiers.
Such is the prospect of affairs in the East, upon rumor, and our own country is not exactly
in a state of peace; for besides the Indian war, which has been a source of considerable trouble
upon the frontiers of Illinois, there is raging, to an alarming extent, a war of opinion for political
power and party continuance. Our politics are wild. Mark that, our politics are wild! The
extremes to which men resort to obtain office, in any present party, is certainly barren of that
honor and honesty which produced the exalted privilege. It is said to be an enlightened day and
age, but the depravity of the times would argue a state of wickedness similar to that which
brought the flood. The United States boasts of the freest constitution, and the happiest
government, in the world, but if the county prisons and state penitentiaries, may number their
citizens of affliction and crime, especially for the last four or five years, without reference to the
many murderers that have filled a large share of the chapter of atrocities, and the keen revenge
that has been practiced between freemasons and their opponents:— they might as well fall to the
dust, with the other crumbling nations of the earth, and cry, unclean! unclean!
Again: Are they free from censure, that pretend to worship God? Is there not something
strange, or, at least, a falling away from the ancient order of divine things? In the days of Christ
and the apostles, religion was preached and practiced for the sake of eternal life in the world to
come: But now religion is preached and practiced for the sake of this present world and the
things that are in it. Christ said: Follow me, but now the language is: Follow ME! [ man] Christ
asked no aid of the government of the earth to spread the gospel. He rendered to Caesar his own,
and to God his own. Now nearly all denominations are eager to obtain converts for temperance
societies, and bible societies, when a large portion of these proselytes are unbelieving, and
probably die so, with a full knowledge that Christ said, except a man be born again he can not
enter into the kingdom of God. When no such societies existed, we were at war for our liberty
and the blessings that have resulted from it, and it has been told us that our ancesters prayed to
the Lord, for assistance, and he granted it, and we believe it, for it is thus recorded in the Book of
Mormon:
And it came to pass that I beheld many multitudes of the Gentiles, upon the land of
promise; and I beheld the wrath of God, that it was upon the seed of my brethren; and they were
scattered before the Gentiles, and they were smitten. And I beheld the spirit of the Lord, that it
was upon the Gentiles; that they did prosper, and obtain the land of their inheritance; and I
beheld that they were white, and exceeding fair and beautiful, like unto my people before that
they were slain.
And it came to pass that I Nephi, beheld that the Gentiles which had gone forth out of
captivity, did humble themselves before the Lord; and the power of the Lord was with them; and
I beheld that their mother Gentiles was gathered together upon the waters, and upon the land
also, to battle against them; and I beheld that the power of God was with them; and also, that the
wrath of God was upon them that were gathered together against them to battle. And I Nephi,
beheld that the Gentiles which had gone out of captivity, were delivered by the power of God out
of the hands of all other nations.
As to so many appendaged societies to the gospel, we must say, that neither the Savior,
nor his apostles, nor the Scriptures, have taught any thing more necessary, than to repent and
believe on the Lord Jesus, and be baptized fro the remission of sins; to receive the gift of the
Holy Ghost; and continue faithful to the end, to inherit eternal life. Camp- meetings and
protracted meetings, like the wind that blows before a storm, seem to increase, as the judgments
of the Almighty are sent forth to purify the world. Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord,
is a command from the most High, out when we observe, ministers and members, among almost
every sect upon the globe, not only mingling in all the political rancor, and crowding themselves
into the contentions and broils of the day; not only engaged in nearly every speculation that the
love of money urges the avaricious into, but, as often as the world that lays no claim to goodness,
found guilty of every crime that disgraces the human family, they might, with all them that
pestilence is hurrying to their long home, shrink from their greatness, and cry: God be merciful
to us sinners!
Such are the signs of the times, from the king upon the throne to the beggar upon his
knees.— Such is the commotion of the world; her pain has begun, and trouble succeeds trouble,
as wave follows wave upon the ocean. Instead of the good old times, when men would inquire of
the Lord on all great matters, and pray to the Lord when trials come, the faithless days have
arrived when the majority of men seek for Public Opinion, whether it comes from wise men or
fools; from the moral or wicked. All flesh in the world seems to trust in an arm of flesh, even
while the Lord is feeding the inhabitants with judgments. From the east comes a rumor; from the
wes [ sic] comes a rumor; from the north comes a rumor, from the south comes a rumor, while the
Lord is sending forth judgment into victory, among the nations, great are the times with events,
for this generation: And while the solemnities of eternity are thus bursting upon our minds, we
do humbly beseech the disciples, the wicked, yea, all flesh, to watch, for the signs in heaven, and
the signs on earth, like the hand writing upon the wall of Belshazzar, declare that the world has
been weighed in the balance, and is found wanting.
The set time to favor Zion, is come; and when the righteous are gathered, the wicked will
be cut off, for the earth must rest from sin.