An Interesting Lecture: Delivered by Apostle Moses Thatcher in Ogden, Utah

AN INTERESTING LECTURE.

DELIVERED BY APOSTLE MOSES THATCHER IN OGDEN, UTAH.

The following is a report of a lecture delivered at a Y.M.M.I.A meet­ing in Ogden, on Sunday evening, Nov. 11th, and published in the Ogden Standard:

Apostle Moses Thatcher, the speaker of the evening, addressed the large congregation. He said: Many things have been said of those who have lived before upon this continent. I wish to add something concerning that which was spoken of this morn­ing on the life of Nephi; not so much of his life and character, as that of the people whom he led, their ruins, their buildings and temples as found in Central America and Mexico. There must have dwelt on this continent vast numbers of people, not barbari­ans, but intelligent and civilized and learned in all the arts and many of the sciences, as known at the present day. In the Valley of Mexico are located the extensive ruins of an an­cient city known to scientific writers and explorers as the City of the Gods. Its circumference, as recently traced is shown to have been 27 miles. In the midst of where this ancient city once stood is found what is known as the pyramid of the moon. The larger pyramid covers an area equal to twelve acres, and, when perfect, was 280 feet high. The lesser covers an area of about eight acres, and is some sixty-five or eighty feet less in height. These vast structures were constructed by human hands, and the massive stones are as true and as perfectly laid to the line as any building we have any knowledge of. These large pyramids are surrounded by myriads of other smaller structures, which, doubtless, have reference to the starry firmament. This people undoubt­edly had a very extensive knowledge of astronomy. They originally built with earth, and bound the walls to­gether with solid layers of cement from eight to twelve inches in thick­ness. The walls are evenly sloped down on the four sides, and in their original, complete form are covered with porphyretic rock over which a heavy coat of cement is plastered, so that the noonday sun, as on the pyra­mids of Egypt, strikes on the four sides of the building.

These buildings have not been ex­tensively explored throughout the in­terior, but sufficiently so to discover interior rooms, beautifully painted, decorated and frescoed, the work re­maining as perfect and preserved as if but modern works of art.

When the Aztecs came from the north, they found this city and these pyramids in ruins. They found also certain traditions of an extinct people, which caused them to make a record that the people who built these mag­nificent edifices were a white race, and not of a dark skin as were the Aztecs. Excavations demonstrated this record to be true, for in opening the graves of this enlightened people the discovery was made that they were a light-haired race. Extending from the pyramid of the sun to the pyramid of the moon, is still to be seen a gigantic causeway of cement. It remains in such a perfect condition that it can easily be traced without making any other excavations than those already made by the winds and the storms. The smaller pyramid is encircled by rows of seats on two sides facing this causeway where, doubt­less, on occasions of great import and weight to the nation, sat thousands of people.

There is a book preserved of the writings of this people, describing a band that came from across the sea at the confounding of the languages at the Tower of Babel. It speaks of a people that traveled through the wil­derness for years. They gathered with them a great many seeds as well as the honey-bee. The leader of this little band of twenty-two individuals found favor in the sight of God. When the languages were confounded, he prayed to God that he might re­tain the language of his fathers. His pleadings were heard and granted, and encouraged by this recognition of the Lord, he asked that he might pre­serve the language of his brother, as well as those who accompanied him. This prayer was also granted. These writings also give further details of their travels; how, when they reached the mighty waters, they constructed eight barges or boats and crossed the sea; how they increased in wealth and population after they had landed on this continent; how, as time passed on, strife began, wickedness increased, righteousness ceased, battles were fought, and they became an extinct people. The same writings also refer to the repeopling of this continent, and give a very similar account of it to that given by the young brother this morning.

When but a youth of fifteen years, I was met by the proposition that the Book of Mormon was not true, as that book spoke of animals which were not found on this continent when Columbus discovered America; ani­mals which were such a strange sight to the natives that on the advent of Cortez and his army of five hundred men, carrying with them a number of horses, the Aztecs imagined the men and horses to be one being when mounted, and that on this account many battles were won. To this pro­position I could then only answer, “I believe the Book of Mormon to be true,” but I could not tell why. But when a great French explorer, while exhuming at a city sixty miles from Mexico, discovered a large number of animal bones, which were submitted to the great scientific school at Mex­ico, the learned savants pronounced them to be the bones of cattle and horses. Then this explorer exclaimed, “If the learned men of Washington, and the wise savants of France shall agree with the savants of Mexico, I shall have opened up a branch of natural history and science that will be a wonder to the world.” And it proved to be true. The learned men agreed upon the decision of the Mex­ican savants. Thus we have scienti­fic researches, and one by one they bear testimony, without a knowledge of the contents of the Book of Mor­mon by the discoverers, of the divinity of this ancient history. We have a knowledge through Joseph Smith’s translation of the Book of Mormon of the wars which devastated the coun­try; of the retreat of the Nephites in a northerly direction, step by step. Recent scientific researches demon­strate this line of retreat to have been truly described. The signal stations of this retreating people can be traced through Central America, the heart of Mexico, crossing the Mississippi River, thence on across the Red River and up through Ohio, until the peo­ple made their weary march to the hill Cumorah, in the State of New York, where 230,000 brave souls drew their last breath of life in one day.

Many of the fortifications on this line of retreat are still preserved, and show by their choice of location as well as manner of construction, that the people who built them were in dire distress. We may read in these signs that are left us, how this un­daunted people erected fortifications for the protection of their families as they retreated, contending every inch of ground, until the last battlefield was reached.

There are not many evidences left in the Territory of Utah of this high, ancient civilization, but that the Az­tecs, who were a dark race, came from the North and passed through Utah and Arizona, there is no doubt. Throughout the latter Territory there are ruins of vast cities and extensive canals stretching out for miles and miles. At Mesa, there it at present a large ancient canal, constructed hun­dreds of years ago, a great portion of which is even now used by our peo­ple in the irrigation of their lands. There is no doubt that the whole Salt River country at one time con­tained a large and wealthy popula­tion.

In Rio Casa Grande, in Chihuahua, more extended traces of a most sorely distressed people are visible. On every high point, where the sun’s rays could shed their warmth, and where a single yard of land, protected from the Pacific showers, could be used for cultivation, human hands constructed stone walls to hold in position enough soil from which to raise a little food for a scanty subsistence. In the gorges below, villages, hamlets and tents were found, on the peaks above, the signal stations, or the grave of the poor sentinel who died at his post. In the valleys were the larger towns, but wherever a human foot could find a resting-place the ground has been utilized.

On either side of the Rio Verde can be found numerous caves con­taining many rooms of ancient con­struction. They also are built as true to the line and plumb, and as well, yes, better plastered than our houses, for they are plastered with cement. I counted seventeen rooms in one of these caves. On the walls are writings in ancient characters, inscriptions that would tell a wonderful story of a dis­tressed, suffering, retreating people. Some day a prophet and a revelator may arise among the Latter-day Saints who in the Lord’s own time may read them and make them known to us.

These caves as a rule terminate at the end of a small valley, while on either side rise perpendicular walls of stone hundreds of feet in height. Think of the distress of that people! Their caves were solidly walled up in front with but a small opening, just large enough for the passage of a human being, and these apertures were used for portholes through which they shot their arrows and other mis­siles. The opening of these caves commanded a full view of the valley on either side, and had flanked forti­fications, where the men fought on the outside, while their wives and children received protection from within. When forced to retreat, the small opening was walled up, while they lived on the provisions they had stored up. They had large tanks in these caves, those which were elevated probably being used for the provis­ions, while those in the bottom of the cave were used for water. One of these large tanks still remains. Here you can find the bins which held their corn; the broken mills on which their corn was ground. By excavating a few feet, removing the debris which has accumulated during centuries, you may pull out strings of ocean beads which crumble in your hands and vanish, leaving you but the string. How many years have passed since these threads were spun and these beads strung is not for me to say. But this much is certain, those who built, and toiled, and labored in those days were a white race. When we em­ployed a surveyor to lay out a canal near the spot where a number of our people had taken refuge, he tried for several days without success, and finally located it in the channel of an old canal. Surrounding this spot there was not a single foot of land but what had been cultivated centu­ries before.

I have touched briefly on these matters to show how God can build up a great nation to-day and tear it down to-morrow. The Book of Mor­mon plainly declares that no kingly government shall prosper upon this land. This is the land of Joseph; this is the fruitful bough; this is the land seen in vision, and described as a land flowing with milk and honey. God intended this people to be a free people, to be intelligent, to exercise their own agency, and to delight in righteousness. It is a pleasure to read of the blessings declared by God on all the people inhabiting North and South America. But it is with deep sorrow that I see this great na­tion, of which Columbus was a fore­runner, and to which the Lamanites gave way as the dew before the morn­ing sun, is becoming corrupt. It is with great misgivings that I see the nation dwindling from the glorious principles of the law of God, whereas, if the people, would live righteously, it would become and remain the most powerful nation on earth. Yet, if they will not heed God’s commands, but practice all manner of wickedness and corruption, the nation will not stand. Look at Rome! How she ground the nations—how she ruled them at her beck and call! Yet she fell a prey at the feet of barbarians in a few years. This was because she lost her integrity, her union, and her strength through her corruption, and still this nation was the most power­ful on earth when her sons were pure and devoted to their country.

(To be continued.)