Reading 1 – Elder Heber C. Kimball said, "The
redemption of Zion is more than the purchase or recovery of lands, the building
of cities, or even the founding of nations. It is the conquest of the heart,
the subjugation of the soul, the sanctifying of the flesh, the purifying and
ennobling of the passions. Greater is he who subdues himself, who captures and
maintains the citadel of his own soul, than he who, misnamed conqueror, fills
the world with the roar of drums, the thunder of cannon, the lightning of
swords and bayonets, overturns and sets up kingdoms, lives and reigns a king,
yet wears to the grave the fetters of unbridled lust, and dies the slave of
sin."(Orson F. Whitney, Life of Heber C. Kimball, 2nd edition. 1945, pp.
65, 66)
Hugh Nibley said, "The Latter-day Saints will see Zion
when they stop seeking after Babylon." (Approaching Zion, edited by Don E.
Norton [Salt Lake City and Provo: Deseret Book Co., Foundation for Ancient
Research and Mormon Studies, 1989], Introduction)
Reading 1A – Elder Robert D. Hales said, “This promised Zion
always seems to be a little beyond our reach. We need to understand that as
much virtue can be gained in progressing toward Zion as in dwelling there. It
is a process as well as a destination. We approach or withdraw from Zion
through the manner in which we conduct our daily dealings, how we live within
our families, whether we pay an honest tithe and generous fast offering, how we
seize opportunities to serve and do so diligently. Many are perfected upon the
road to Zion who will never see the city in mortality.” (Elder Robert D. Hales,
General Conference, April 1986)
Reading 2 – Doctrine and Covenants 52:1-6
Reading 3 – Doctrine and Covenants 54:7-8
Reading 4 – Doctrine and Covenants 57:1-3
Reading 5 – Doctrine and Covenants 58:1-6
Reading 6 – Doctrine and Covenants 59:1-4, 21
As a preface to Doctrine and Covenants 63, Joseph wrote: “In
these infant days of the Church, there was a great anxiety to obtain the word
of the Lord upon every subject that in any way concerned our salvation; and as
the land of Zion was now the most important temporal object in view, I inquired
of the Lord for further information upon the gathering of the Saints, and the
purchase of the land, and other matters.”
Doctrine and Covenants 63:1-2,5,13
George A. Smith wrote:
"There were… at that period, professed Latter-day Saints, who did
not see proper to abide by [the] law of consecration; they thought it was their
privilege to look after “number one,” and some of them, believing that Zion was
to become a very great city, and that being the Center Stake of it, they
purchased tracts of land in the vicinity with the intention of keeping them
until Zion became the beauty and joy of the whole earth, when they thought they
could sell their lands and make themselves very rich. It was probably owing to
this, in part, that the Lord suffered the enemies of Zion to rise against
her." (Journal of Discourses, 17:59)
Reading 7 - Joseph wrote a letter reproving the saints in
Missouri: "If Zion will not purify herself, so as to be approved in all
things, in His sight, He will seek another people; for His work will go on
until Israel is gathered. Wo unto them that are at ease in Zion.... Our hearts our greatly grieved at the
spirit...the very spirit which is wasting the strength of Zion like a
pestilence." (HC, 1:316-317)
Reading 8 – Doctrine and Covenants 97:7-8,10-12,18-19,25-26
Speaking of Doctrine and Covenants 97, Parley P. Pratt said,
"This revelation was not complied with by the leaders of the Church in
Missouri, as a whole.... Therefore, the threatened judgment was poured out to
the uttermost, as the history of the five following years will show."
(Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, p77)
“The temple… site had been dedicated more than two years
earlier… Beyond laying out stones and logs to mark the foundation site,
however, the saints in Zion made no effort to build the temple that would have
protected them in times of trial.
Instead, they attempted to establish Zion without building a temple, and
they put their resources into other enterprises instead. This led first to arguing, then to laziness,
and then to breaking the commandments (see [D&C 101:]50). At that point, the Lord allowed the mobs to
descend upon them, first in July and then again in November 1833, and the
Missouri Saints, whose watchmen were seemingly asleep on duty (see [D&C
101:]53), found themselves defenseless and unprepared. (Stephen E. Robinson, H.
Dean Garrett, A Commentary on the Doctrine and Covenants, [Salt Lake City:
Deseret Book Co., 2001] 3:277)
Reading 9 - When the mob attacked the printing office, they
tossed the unbound pages of the Book of Commandments into the street. Seeing
this, two young Latter-day Saints, Mary Elizabeth Rollins and her sister,
Caroline, at the peril of their own lives, sought to rescue what they could.
Mary Elizabeth recalled:
“[The mob] brought out some large sheets of paper, and said,
‘Here are the Mormon Commandments.’ My sister Caroline and myself were in a
corner of a fence watching them; when they spoke of the commandments I was
determined to have some of them. Sister said if I went to get any of them she
would go too, but said ‘they will kill us.’ ” While the mob was busy at one end
of the house, the two girls ran and filled their arms with the precious sheets.
The mob saw them and ordered the girls to stop. Mary Elizabeth reported: “We
ran as fast as we could. Two of them started after us. Seeing a gap in a fence,
we entered into a large cornfield, laid the papers on the ground, and hid them
with our persons. The corn was from five to six feet high, and very thick; they
hunted around considerable, and came very near us but did not find us.”
When the ruffians had gone, the girls made their way to an
old log stable. Here, as reported by Mary Elizabeth, they found that “Sister
Phelps and children were carrying in brush and piling it up at one side of the
barn to lay her beds on. She asked me what I had—I told her. She then took them
from us. … They got them bound in small books and sent me one, which I prized
very highly.”
Reading 10 – Parley P. Pratt wrote about November 7, 1833,
as the Saints who had been forced from their homes stood on the South bank of
the Missouri River, waiting for ferry transportation to cross into Clay County
in search of safety: "The shore
began to be lined on both sides of the ferry with men, women and children;
goods, wagons, boxes, provisions, etc., while the ferry was constantly
employed; and when night again closed upon us the cottonwood bottom had much
the appearance of a camp meeting. Hundreds of people were seen in every
direction, some in tents and some in the open air around their fires, while the
rain descended in torrents. Husbands were inquiring for their wives, wives for
their husbands; parents for children, and children for parents. Some had the
good fortune to escape with their families, household goods, and some
provisions; while others knew not the fate of their friends, and had lost all
their goods. The scene was indescribable, and, I am sure, would have melted the
hearts of any people on the earth, except our blind oppressors, and a blind and
ignorant community." (Autobiography
of Parley P. Pratt, p. 82)
Doctrine and Covenants 101:2,4-8
Reading 11 - Doctrine and Covenants 101:9-19
Doctrine and Covenants 101:35-38
Reading 12 - Orson Pratt said: "The Lord has told us in
this book that he would scourge this people, and would not suffer them to go on
in wickedness as he does the world. He will make a difference in this respect
between those who profess his name and the world.
The world may prosper. They
have not the religion of Heaven among them; they have no revelators and
prophets among them; they have not the baptism of the Holy Ghost, nor the gifts
and blessings of God among them, and consequently though they transgress the revealed
word of God, he suffers them to go on, apparently without checking them, until
they are fully ripened in iniquity, then he sends forth judgment and cuts them
off, instead of chastening them from time to time.
Not so with the Saints. God has decreed, from the early rise
of the Church, that we should be afflicted by our enemies, and by various
afflictions, and he would contend with this people and chasten them from time
to time until Zion should be clean before him. He has done this, and more
especially while we were in the States. We were inexperienced, and did not then
understand the necessity of strictly obeying every word spoken by the mouth of
God, and we had to suffer because of this." (Journal of Discourses,
15:335)
Reading 13 - According to Wilford Woodruff the participants
in Zion's Camp "gained an experience that we never could have gained in
any other way. We had the privilege of beholding the face of the prophet, and
we had the privilege of traveling a thousand miles with him, and seeing the
workings of the Spirit of God with him, and the revelations of Jesus Christ
unto him and the fulfillment of those revelations.... Had I not gone up with
Zion's camp I should not have been [President of the Church] today." (JD,
13:158)
After the Seventy were organized, Joseph Smith told the
elders in Kirtland: "Brethren, some of you are angry with me, because you
did not fight in Missouri; but let me tell you, God did not want you to fight.
He could not organize His kingdom with twelve men to open the Gospel door to
the nations of the earth, and with seventy men under their direction to follow
in their tracks, unless He took them from a body of men who had offered their
lives, and who had made as great a sacrifice as did Abraham. Now the Lord has
got His Twelve and His Seventy." (HC, 2:182)
