Gospel Tidings for the Southland

GOSPEL TIDINGS FOR THE SOUTHLAND[*]

Elder Rev L. Pratt

OF THE FIRST COUNCIL OF SEVENTY

I am very happy, my brethren and sisters, to have the oppor­tunity this afternoon of standing before yon and bearing my testimony concerning the divinity of the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour, which has been restored in this day and age in which we live. I am indeed happy to have been deemed worthy to be the least of the three chosen to go into the land of South America for the purpose of establishing a mission there, and opening np in that land the work of the Lord for the preaching of the Gospel to our Father’s children who reside there. Particularly am I happy, my brethren and sisters, in the thought that the Gospel is to be carried to more of our Father’s children in the house of Israel, verily the Lamanite people, who reside upon this land of America; and my heart has been thrilled, my brethren and sisters, with the sure and faithful teachings of this conference.

I realise that I am going into a southland, that I shall pass over the tropics, that I shall go through the lands where monkeys dwell, and I rejoice in the testimony that has been given unto me that I do not have to consider them the cousins that I am going to preach the Gospel to. I am of the house of Israel through Ephraim, according to the patriarchal blessing that I have re­ceived in which I believe implicitly. The people that we go to preach to are of the house of Israel, of Joseph, through Manasseh principally, also with a. sprinkling of the blood of Ephraim among them. They are our brethren and sisters, they are our blood relatives, they have an inheritance upon this land, they are heirs to the Gospel. The Lord foretold in words of plainness this day that has now dawned upon us, and for which I do most truly thank Him.

If I may impose upon your time just a moment or two I should like to read from the Book of Mormon a number of predictions that to me seem to be fulfilled now. Of course, the work is all before us, and I do not undertake this work with my brethren in the thought that we are going down there to have particularly a good time, in the sense in which many deem it a good time, but I realise fully the responsibility of our call and the enormous amount of work that it will take to bring about the prophecies of the Lord that I should like to refer to here this afternoon. If you will turn to the first chapter of the 2nd Book of Nephi, you will find recorded the following:

And now it came to pass that after I, Nephi, had made an end of teaching my brethren, our father, Lehi, also spake many things unto them—how great things the Lord had done for them in bringing them out of the land of Jerusalem.

And he spake unto them concerning their rebellions upon the waters, and the mercies of God in sparing their lives, that they were not swallowed up in the sea.

And he also spake unto them concerning the land of promise, which they had obtained—how merciful the Lord had been in warning us that we should flee out of the land of Jerusalem.

For, behold, said he, I have seen a vision, in which I know that Jerusa­lem is destroyed; and had we remained in Jerusalem we should also have perished.

But, said he, notwithstanding our afflictions, we have obtained a land of promise, a land which is choice above all other lands; a land which the Lord God hath covenanted with me should be a land for the inherit­ance of my seed. Yea, the Lord hath covenanted this land unto me, and to my children forever, and also all those who should be led out of other countries by the hand of the Lord.

Wherefore, I, Lehi, prophesy according to the workings of the Spirit which is in me, that there shall none come into this land save they shall be brought by the hand of the Lord.

Wherefore, this land is consecrated unto him whom he shall bring. And if it so be that they shall serve him according to the command­ments which he hath given, it shall be a land of liberty unto them; wherefore, they shall never be brought down into captivity; if so, it shall be because of iniquity; for if iniquity shall abound cursed shall be the land for their sakes, but unto the righteous it shall be blessed for­ever.

And behold, it is wisdom that this land should be kept as yet from the knowledge of other nations; for behold, many nations would overrun the land, that there would be no place for an inheritance.

Wherefore, I, Lehi, have obtained a promise, that inasmuch as those whom the Lord God shall bring out of the land of Jerusalem shall keep his commandments, they shall prosper upon the face of this land; and they shall be kept from all other nations, that they may possess this land unto themselves. And if it so be that they shall keep his com­mandments they shall be blessed upon the face of this land, and there shall be none to molest them, nor to take away the land of their in­heritance; and they shall dwell safely forever.

But behold, when the time cometh that they shall dwindle in unbelief, after they have received so great blessings from the hand of the Lord— having a knowledge of the creation of the earth, and all men, knowing the great and marvelous works of the Lord from the creation of the world; having power given them to do all things by faith; having all the commandments from the beginning, and having been brought by his infinite goodness into this precious land of promise—behold, I say, if the day shall come that they will reject the Holy One of Israel, the true Messiah, their Redeemer and their God, behold, the judgments of him that is just shall rest upon them.

Yea, he will bring other nations unto them, and he will give unto them power and he will take away from them the lands of their possessions, and he will cause them to be scattered and smitten.

My brethren and sisters, Lehi foresaw what would be the condition among his children it they would live in harmony with the commandments of the Lord that he had received for his children upon this laud—that it should always be for them a land of security, the land of their inheritance, and they should possess it unmolested by other people. But when they should turn away the reverse would be the case. History tells us that they turned away from the God of the laud. They rejected Jesus Christ after His kingdom had been set up here, and behold, the curse of the Lord has rested upon the land. I was in company with Elder Richard R. Lyman and Dr. George W. Middleton, only recently, traversing the parts of Mexico where many important ruined cities lie, and it is marvelous to note the wonderful civilisation that has once lived there; and it is marvelous to note how com­pletely even the memory of them has been wiped out, and they are nowhere to be found. Were it not for the sacred volume of history from which I have read there would be no answer to the great riddle of those wonderful cities that were budded with such wonderful architecture in that land. Huge stones that we measured and calculated would weigh more than twenty tons, fitted closely together, having been brought a distance of three miles, and the joints fitted without mortar. So close are they fitted that the pen knife that we carried with us could not be inserted between the joints. This bespeaks a people who were mighty. It bespeaks also the fulfilment of the word of the Lord in regard to the destruction of this people. Prophets of that time, particularly Nephi the son of Lehi, foresaw all these things as a consequence of neglect among the people. What greater fulfillment of the word of the Lord could we desire?

These prophets stated that they should be scattered and smitten by other people. Other prophecies in the book state that it should be the Gentile nations that should come in among them, that they should reduce this people to a remnant. The descendants of the builders of those mighty cities, my brethren and sisters, have verily been reduced to a remnant. Statistics given out by Jauregne, a statistician and historian of Guate­mala, are to the effect that of all the native tribes south of the Rio Grande, since the coming of the Spaniards, they have been reduced nine-tenths. They have become a hiss and a by-word, they have become the hewers of wood and drawers of water for the Gentile oppressors who have come in amongst them.

But I rejoice, my brethren and sisters, in the prophecy that I shall not take time to read, but merely to refer to, the word of the Lord that came to Nephi; you will find it recorded in 1 Nephi 13, wherein he saw all these terrible things that should befall his people; but he said that he saw that in the providences of the Lord He would not permit the Gentile nations to utterly over­come and wipe out the remnant of his seed, which should be among his brethren the Lamanites. Neither would He permit them to utterly overcome the seed of his brethren and wipe them out from the face of the land. If you will turn then to 2 Nephi 30, yon will find wherein the Lord said that there should be a church established among the Gentile people, and a book should come forth. Many among the Gentiles should believe the words of the book that was to be written, and they should carry it back to the descendants of those who wrote it, for their re­demption, for it should contain the fulness of the everlasting Gospel; and it should be preached among the descendants of those who wrote the book, and not many generations should pass away save they should become a white and a delightsome people again.

Then if you will turn to 3 Nephi 21, you will find recorded there the time when we might look for the beginning of this wonderful work of restoration and redemption among that people who have been cursed of the Lord, and who have suffered so much and so long. Only those who have become intimately associated with them, my brethren and sisters, and have been touched by the ages of sorrow’ that they have w allowed through, know how they have suffered. And the Lord said that when these things should begin to come forth unto the seed of Lehi from the Gentiles to whom these things should be committed, and the seed of Lehi should begin to believe, then the Church, then the world, then all men might know that the Lord had set His hand to establish His work among that people, and to bring to pass His promises, and the great redemption that He had prepared for that people.

I bear you my witness, my brethren and sisters, this afternoon in all solemnity, that I know this is the work of the Lord, and for nineteen years have I laboured in the land of Mexico; and we have hundreds and thousands of valiant, true, faith fid Latter- day Saints who believe the message of the Gospel as it has been restored. They have not only begun to receive it, but they are now receiving it in considerable numbers. I wish to call your attention to the fact that so far this year in the Mexican Mission many pure-blooded Lamanites have been baptised. Yes, even more than were baptised during the ministration of Moses Thatcher, as President of the Mexican Mission, with those who succeeded him, namely: August Wilson, Anthony W. Ivins, Heleman Pratt, Horace II. Cummings anti Henry Eyring. More have been baptised this year than were baptised during the ministry of all those men.

So have faith, my brethren and sisters, that the time has come, and I feel that our leader, under the inspiration of the Lord, has made no mistake in opening up the work in that land. I hope to play my part well. I have no desire other than to serve God by serving His children who need my services in that laud or in any other land. I have dedicated my life to this work, I have given all upon the altar, and I have had to make sacrifices. As President Ivins said last night, we labour and we do sacrifice, and I have had it brought home to me that the Lord sometimes takes us at our word when we say we a re willing to make sacri­fices. I have cast my lot in that foreign land to sacrifice for this work, and I wish to continue faithful, my brethren and sisters; I wish to go with the faith and the prayers and the good will of my brethren. I know, as I stated in the beginning, that I only go as a helper. I am contented, I am proud, lam willing to go as an assistant in this great work of the Lord in that land. Oh, how my heart rejoices to think, as I picture now those great buildings that we visited the other day, that those who built them might now be smiling, they might now be rejoicing in the fact that God has moved upon His servants to call some others of His servants to go and bring the truth to their descendants, to call them out of their lethargy, out of their superstitions, out of the traditions through which they have wallowed all these generations; that there might come to them that faith, the greatest thing in all the world, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, upon which this work is budded, that it may be kindled in their hearts and burst into a flame, that they may become workers of righteousness.

I rejoice in this great work. I pray for the blessings of the Lord to be upon the Saints at home and to be upon us who shall go so far away. I have brethren come to me and congratulate me upon my call, which I accept gladly, and they have said: “I wish that I could go. I wish I were numbered among those who are going to that land.' Let me give you just one little hint. If you really and truly mean it, prepare yourselves for the work, for I think I can see, as this work begins to open up, the necessity for the calling, not of one thousand men, but of ten times one thousand men, to reach all of our Father’s children who yet need the blessings of the Gospel. Prepare yourselves by study. Pre­pare yourselves by getting out of debt. Prepare yourselves by shaping your financial affairs so that when the time comes yon can answer, “Aye, Lord, I am ready, take me, and do with me as thou wilt, in the consummation of thy great work among thy children here upon the earth.”

May the Lord bless you, my brethren and sisters, and bless us all in His service. My testimony to you is that God lives, that I know he lives, and that Jesus Christ is His Soil, and that I, even I, in company with all of yon, am made in His image and in His likeness. Oh, how I rejoice to know these things; oh, how I desire to keep alive in myself the faith that I have in Him, and how I anguish and how I grieve when I think of the possibility of that faith being destroyed in my children whom I am obliged to leave to the mercies of the schools of the age, the Church schools and otherwise; and know that there are conditions and that there are men who, if it were possible, are anxious to destroy that faith in my children. I love them as I love my life, but more than anything else, I desire that they shall keep alive the faith that is the foundation of eternal life, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I bear yon this testimony and invoke the blessings of the Lord upon us all, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.