Christopher Columbus: Was His Work Designed by God?

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS: WAS HIS WORK DESIGNED BY GOD?

BY ELDER LEVI EDGAR YOUNG, PRESIDENT OF THE SWISS MISSION.

“And it came to pass that I looked and beheld many waters; and they divided the Gentiles from the seed of my brethren.

And it came to pass that the angel said unto me, Behold the wrath of God is upon the seed of my brethren.

And I looked and beheld a mail among the Gentiles who were separated from the seed of my brethren by many waters; and I beheld the Spirit of God, that it came down and wrought upon the man; and he went forth upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren, who were in the pro­mised land” (I. Nephi xiii:10-12).

At the close of a warm day in the year 1487, a stranger w7ith a little boy stopped at the door of the old convent of Rabido in southern Spain and asked for bread. The man was Italian, and his face was bronzed from the extreme exposure to the sun. He had a look of determination, and his calm, self-possessed expression portrayed a soul. The good friar, Marchena, took him in, and for a few days the wanderers were housed and fed. The stranger was Columbus, and the boy, his son Diego. In the quietness of the cloister, nights were spent in study and prayer. The monks pursued their work just as monks always did. They said mass, and wore pious faces and the world and the people went on in the old-time way, just as they had done for ages. The peasants worked in the fields, where grew the rye and the wheat. Old men and children herded the cattle and goats along the waste places. The good house-wives made cheese and gathered honey, while they sang their simple songs in their own simple way.

In the convent of Rabido, the monks gave ear to Columbus’ plans and theories. The good, religious men could not understand them. But the honest friar was impressed. He assured the navigator of his faith and prayers, and for months afterwards, tenderly watched the little Diego. Columbus had found a friend. His course was being carefully watched by his God.

II.

Christopher Columbus was the product of a peculiar age. The great move­ment known as the revival of learning was spreading through western and southern Europe. There was a rising of a new spirit of liberty and humanity. Men were becoming conscious of their own rights as men. Printing had been invented and the mariner’s compass was directing the seamen on their long journeys to the west and south. Martin Luther was soon to begin his work as an apostle of a new religious thought. Great forces in society were at work—forces that were to lift man to a higher stage of life and work. The old order was changing, giving place to new. Agriculture was the chief pursuit of the people; but it was an agriculture of the crudest kind, for the peasantry lived simply from hand to mouth. War played such an important part in the history of the middle ages, that some have estimated that during that period over two billion lives were lost in the name of religion and liberty. The peasantry were very poor. They did not know how to get the best results from a limited amount of energy. The man of the middle ages was low in his morals and ideals. His little plot of ground was his world, and all he knew was that a seed cast upon the ground to-day brought the harvest on the morrow. Day in day out, he worked just as the European peasant works to-day. His plow was very simple and heavy, and was drawn by a faithful ox. He was coarse in his daily life, his ideals were low and sordid.

One great and powerful church ruled in the spiritual affairs of the people. It ruled all temporally too. This was the Roman Catholic. Its followers say that Jesus Christ was the founder of it, and that each successive pope holds the keys of authority. One thing is sure, this organization has done much good. It has preserved the name of Jesus and therefore has exerted a power­ful influence on civilization. But we are sure of other things as well. It has many rites and customs to this day that are not in accordance with the mind and will of the Lord. The priests of the middle ages did very bad things, but we must remember that it was a dark period of human toil and struggle. It was of this church that Nephi of old spoke when he said: “And it came to pass that I saw among the Gentiles the foundation of a great church.” The prophet continues and says very bad things about this organization, all of which history has proved more or less true.

A guiding force was now to take hold of the thoughts of men. Great characters were to be raised up to become instruments in the hands of a higher power. There was to be a progress’ in the consciousness of freedom. Like the sun, the world-thought was to move from the east to the west.

III.

Up to the last part of the fifteenth century the American continent had remained unknown to Europeans. Who ever dared to think that the setting sun was but rising on a land of peace and beauty? a land where thousands of the tribe of Manasseh roamed over hill and plain in ignorance and woe. What poor monk or what toiling peasant ever dreamed of another hemisphere? Yet the poet Pulci’s prophecy was soon to come true. Long years before had he sung:

His bark the

Daring mariner shall urge far o’er

The western wave a smooth and level plain,

Albeit the earth is fashioned like a wheel.

Man was in ancient days of grosser mould

And Hercules might blush to learn how far

Beyond the limits he had vainly set,

The dullest sea-boat soon shall wing her way.

Men shall descry another hemisphere,

Since to one common center all things tend;

So earth by curious mystery divine,

Well balanced hangs amid the starry spheres.

At our antipodes are cities, states,

And thronged empires ne’er divined of yore.

But see the sun speeds on his western path

To glad the nations with expected light.

“God rules in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform.” The time had come to bring a lost portion of His children to light. But who would ever brave the Atlantic with all its terrors? Who would think of sailing into the unknown? A few had the idea of the sphericity of the earth, among them Columbus. It was not a new idea. As far back as the Greek age of reason, and the time of the philosopher Pythagoras, the conception that the earth is round was taught. The Greeks gave the thought to the Romans, and they in turn gave it over to the people of the middle ages, when re-enforced by Arabic lore, it was a clear and distinct teaching in the days of Columbus.

That Columbus was a great student of nature and a thinker there can be no doubt. From many he had heard of the sphericity of the earth, and he was also greatly influenced by a celebrated Florentine physician by the name of Toscanelli. But when he was first inspired by this idea no one can tell. That it came as a light from the Master there can be no doubt. One thing is true. When once he believed the earth to be round, he was as sure of it as we are to-day. Years of study, thought, faith and prayer had prepared him for the rigid examination that -was to take place before the learned men in the old convent of St. Stephen.

IV.

“Stern as the land before them, and strong as the waters crossed;

Men who have looked on the face of defeat nor counted the battle as lost;

Uncrowned rulers and statesmen, shaping their daily need

To the law of brother with brother, till the world stood by to heed;

The sills of a greater empire they hewed and hammered and turned,

And the torch of a larger freedom from their blazing hilltops burned;

Till the old ideals that led them grew dim as a childhood’s dream,

And caste went down in the balance and manhood stood supreme.

“The wanderers of earth turned to her, outcast of the older lands,

With a promise and hope in their pleading, and she reached them pitying hands;

And she cried to the old world cities that drowse by the eastern main:

‘Send me your weary house-worn broods and I’ll send you men again.’”

During the winter of 1486, Columbus was in Cordova selling maps and charts. Owing to the war in which Spain was involved, the King ordered a convening of the learned men of the University of Salamanca to listen to the navigator’s scheme. Salamanca was the centre of learning and contained the noted astronomers and cosmographers of the day. The meeting was held in the old Dominican convent of St. Stephen, and here Columbus was lodged and treated well during the examination which was held before professors, church dignitaries and friars. In the celebrated art gallery in Dresden is a picture of this scene. The artist was Julius Roting, who died in Germany a few years ago. Columbus is in the midst of a seemingly animated discussion, and yet his expression is one of calm dignity and self-possession. The council was opened with prayer, and the erudite men sat back to listen to the tale of the humble navigator. He knew from the bottom of his heart that he was right, and this coupled with his natural genius must have given him a look of majesty and dignity that awed his examiners. The story did not appeal to all. A few opened their hearts to him. The rest were entrenched behind their pedantic bigotry. But truth was standing before error; the light of heaven before the light of earth. Columbus was denounced as a misanthrope and dreamer. He then applied to England and France, but before anything was done by either one of these nations, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella became convinced of -the worth of the scheme of the Genoese and they pro­mised him the desired help. The western world was now to be made known to man. The descendants of Manasseh were to be brought to the light.

“What if wise men far back as Ptolemy
Judged that the earth like an apple is round;

None of them said, ‘Come along. Follow me.
Sail to the west and the east shall be found.’”

Columbus discovered America in 1492. What an event in the world’s history! Who can ever describe the results therefrom? A new life took hold of mankind, the darkness of the ages was dispelled, and the children of men were to begin a new epoch in their history—an epoch that has never been equalled in splendor and knowledge. A great prophecy of Nephi had been ful­filled. The fulfillment of more of his prophecies was made possible in the future.

We ask here, what were Columbus’ motives? Listen to his own words. “God made me the messenger of the new heaven and the new earth of which He spoke in the Apocalypse of John, after having spoken of it by the mouth of Isaiah, and He showed me the spot where to find it. … In the execu­tion of my western enterprise to India, human reason, mathematics, and charts availed me nothing. The design was accomplished just as the Prophet Isaiah predicted. Before the end of the world all the prophecies must be fulfilled, the Gospel preached all over the earth and the holy city restored to the Church.”

Such was his testimony. He brought about a realization of the dream of the ancients. Was not his work designed by God?