Mormonism 23 Years Ago.
Twenty-three years to-day, June 27th, 1867, Joseph Smith, the great Mor-mon prophet, and his brother Hiram were murdered in Carthage prison, in Illinois, for their religion! And at the request and for the special edification of such as feel themselves in any wise in-terested, either for or against Mormon-ism, we publish the following Prayer, of-fered up by Alonzo H. LeBaron, in the vicinity of Great Salt Lake, Utah Terri-tory, on the 6th day of April, 1865:
“And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in Heaven about the space of half an hour.
And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all Saints, upon the golden altar which was before the throne.
And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, as-cended up before God out of the angel's hand.
And the angel took the censer, and fill-ed it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.”—Rev. Chap. VIII, 1, 3, 4 and 5th Verses.
O, thou great, most holy, and mighty King of Kings and Lord of Lords; the righteous and eternal Father and God of all living.
In thine infinite goodness, and accord-ing to the multitude of thy tender mer-cies, wilt thou at this time, enable this thy humble servant, as one of thy poor and needy children, to approach thine holy and august presence, in a way and manner that is right and pleasing unto thee.
That he may obtain favor in thy sight, and the humble acknowledgment and sin-cere prayer may be heard and answered, which he desires to offer unto thee at this time, in the name of Jesus of Naze-reth, thine only begotten Son, who as a lamb slain—from before the foundation of the world—was offered upon thine holy altar as an all-sufficient atonement; and who left the mansion of his glory in the his Father's house, and descended to this, a lost and fallen world, and laid down his own precious life upon Mount Calvary, to redeem and save all who would but yield a humble obedience to his just and holy commandments. And wilt thou at this time, be pleased to in-spire this, thy feeble servant, by the quickening and renewing influences of thy holy spirit, that he may worship and adore thee, the only living and true God, in spirit and in truth; and may re-member before thee; with true and heart felt gratitude and thanksgiving, the mul-tiplied blessings and abundant favors which thou hast condescended to bestow upon thy chosen people hitherto. For it certainly is by thee, and thee alone, that we as a people, have been preserved and sustained even now.
And especially in behalf of those who still survive among this thy poor and af-flicted people, do we now desire to make acknowledgments and offer thanksgivings to thy great and holy name, for the man-ner in which thou didst, at the beginning of this great dispensation, bring to light and make manifest unto us the great and glorious principles of life and salvation, that we might take upon us the name of Jesus Christ, thine only begotten Son, and be numbered with thy chosen Israel in these the latter days.
For while the whole world lay enshrouded as it were, almost in midnight darkness: and a great diversity of opinion univer-sally prevailed among professors of God-liness, in relation to the true points of thy doctrine, and much contention and disputation; with the cry of "lo here, and lo there"—thou didst rise up and inspire a mighty prophet; even thy ser-vant Joseph; and through him didst be-gin to bring forth thy work—thy strange work, and perform thine act—thy strange act; in which thou didst cause "the wis-dom of the wise to perish, and the under-standing of the prudent to be hid."
Yea, and thirty-five years ago to-day, a small number was banded together in the bonds of the new and everlasting covenant, in true brotherhood, according to the first principles of the true order of thy most glorious kingdom.
And this little and despised band con-tinued to grow and increase in numbers and in strength and wisdom until many were added thereunto. And many of the gifts of thy gospel were made manifest, and the promises concerning the signs that should follow them that believed, were fulfilled, And many great and marvelous things were revealed unto thy servant, Joseph, and many mighty events were foretold by him, which have since been, and are now being fulfilled. Thro' him didst thou give unto thy people a portion of the great law of thy Celestial kingdom, pertaining to their earthly in-heritances; but in this thing they were slow to hearken unto thy precepts and thy commandments.
And thou didst bear with them and didst admonish them, and forewarn them from time to time, but they would not hearken unto thee. And many of them began to harden their hearts and stiffen their necks exceedingly in rebellion against thee and thy chosen servant, in-asmuch that, even thy wrath began to be kindled against them.
And thou didst chasten them for a lit-tle season, with a sore and grievous chas-tisement; because they did not hearken altogether unto thy precepts and thy commandments which thou didst give unto them.
And after this thou didst again com-fort thy people by the words of thy mouth, and didst then declare unto them that if they would but hearken to ob-serve all the words that thou shouldst speak unto them, they should no more be driven and afflicted by their enemies; but that they should begin immediately to prevail against them; and should never cease to prevail until the kingdoms of of the world were subdued under thy feet, and the earth given unto thy saints to possess it forever and ever. But be-hold they had not, as a people, yet learn-ed to be obedient unto the things which thou didst require at their hands, but were full of all manner of evil, and wo'd not impart of their substance, as becom-eth saints, to the poor and afflicted among them; and were not united ac-cording to the union required by the law of thy celestial kingdom.
Therefore thou didst again chasten them; and didst then again declare unto them thy will, but yet they would not hearken unto thee. And yet again; but still they continued to rebell against thee, inasmuch that the light that was in them, has become darkness; and oh! how great is that darkness.
For thou didst from the beginning, say unto thy people: "If you keep not my commandments the love of the Fath-er shall not continue with you, therefore you shall walk in darkness."
And as a church, thy people were at last rejected by thee, and left to grope their way in darkness, as a blind man gropeth for the wall; for thy servant, the prophet Joseph, was taken from them.
And they, by their own works, brought cursings, wrath, indignation and judg-ment upon their own heads, by their fol-lies and by all their abominations which they practiced before thee.
And their enemies again came upon them, and drove them, as it were, from the face of civilization, and most of them fled into this great wilderness to a place prepared for them, where they have been nourished for a certain length of time, until thy words should be fulfilled. Thus have thy people been driven and scattered from the land of their inherit-ances, in a cloudy and a dark day, in which thou hast kept silence in the heav-ens for about the space of half an hour according to the time where thou dwellest. Yea, for more than twenty years, thou hast not even spoken to this thy poor and af-flicted people.
But now is not the time near at hand, when thou canst, according to thine own words and according to thine own plans and purposes, begin to manifest thyself unto thy poor, afflicted and down-trod-den people, through him whom thou hast appointed and raised up in fulfillment of thy promises, For thou hast said that after their temptation and much tribula-tion, thou wouldst feel after them. And if they hardened not their hearts and stif-fened not their necks against thee, they should be converted, and thou wouldst heal them.
And that thou wouldst raise up unto thy people a man who should lead them out of bondage by power, like as Moses anciently led the children of Israel.
And now,—O Lord God of Israel, wilt thou not let these thy promises be speed-ily fulfilled? that thy Zion may be re-deemed, thine Israel gathered home, and thy kingdom come, and thy will be done on earth even as it is done in heaven: for thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen and amen.
