Orson Pratt

“ When it is redeemed it will be a glorious mansion, it will be a glorious world, it will be worth living on; and it will be sanctified, and the knowledge of God will cover the earth as the waters cover the deep. ”

“ Hence, says the Apostle Paul, the man is not without the woman in the Lord, neither the woman without the man. People may think they can get a fulness of celestial glory, without having a wife. They may think so, but they will be mistaken. The Lord our God ordained that the male and female should be united for eternity. A marriage covenant for time alone, is not the order of heaven. God designed that man and woman, being immortal beings, should be each others companion, husband and wife, while eternal ages shall roll around, and to enjoy all that is intended for them in the eternal worlds. ”

“ You have had a portion of a whole generation. Your times are not quite yet fulfilled, and hence you have had the privilege to consider it from your childhood up to middle age, and some of you from middle age to old age, to see whether you will receive the latter-day message which God has sent or not. How, the consequences will be, if you receive it, you will save yourselves by fleeing out from the midst of this nation. ”

“ But not so with these great judges that come forth out of the tomb, raised to immortality, clothed with light as with a garment, purified and made white before God. Their minds are full of intelligence, and it beams forth from their countenances, and they know how to judge by the Spirit that is upon them, and their decisions will be in righteousness. ”

“ I mean that being that feels, that reflects, that thinks, the being that is godlike in its nature, inasmuch as it keeps the commandments of God. That is the being that lived, before these mortal tabernacles were framed. ”

“ The earth will have to pass away the same as our bodies do, and the dust thereof be mingled in a chaotic form. But that same being who organized the earth will again speak, and eternity will again hear his voice, and the materials of our earth will come together again, and when it unites them in one, and forms them into a world, it will be a glorious world, a habitation for immortal beings ”

“ We have a vast amount of information which the Lord has revealed from on high in different periods of the world's history, as well as in our own day; information that is of the greatest importance to the human family; information that has relation to our eternal happiness and welfare in the world to come, if we can but obtain enough of the spirit of truth to impart that information to our minds. ”

“ This will be a glorious period. It will be a time when all will know who the true God is, and who is commissioned to speak in his name, and to declare his truths among the people—if we do not find it out before. ”

“ The Lord has a controversy among all the nations of the Gentiles. He has sent to them a warning. He has sent his servants to prophesy to them. He has sent them to preach and bear record of the truth. He has sent them to call upon the nations to repent, both high and low, rich and poor, religionist and non-religionist, priest and people, for all of them to repent and receive the Gospel in its fullness, and not only to do this, but to gather out from these nations. Will they hear? They will not. We know they will not; but this does not justify us in being slack in delivering our message. ”

“ Not only this but many other cities will be burned; for when contending armies are wrought up with terrible anger, without the Spirit of God upon them, when they have not that spirit of humanity that now characterizes many of the wars amongst the nations, when they are left to themselves, there will be no quarter given, no prisoners taken, but a war of destruction, of desolation, of the burning of the cities and villages, until the land is laid desolate. ”

“ They will spread forth and multiply as the stars in yonder heavens or as the sand on the sea shore, that cannot be numbered by mortal man. These offsprings will be spirits, not bodies with flesh and bones, till they have proved themselves as we have done, when they shall be sent upon a new earth, and receive tabernacles the same as we have done, and if they are willing to keep the laws of God, as the Saints keep the laws of God, they will also be redeemed, and there will be a mansion prepared for them, namely, the world that is erected for their habitation. ”

“ All will not have the same power. All will not have the same rule. The Twelve shall have twelve thrones—one throne each, to judge the twelve tribes of Israel. The tribes will need judging, during the whole thousand years they live on the earth; they will need judges in their midst, to make manifest unto them that which is important for men, and women, and children, to know. ”

“ We were not left to ourselves, to conjecture, or merely to base our opinion, in regard to what the various duties of the officers of the Church are, but the Lord did distinctly point out the duty of an apostle, telling us that that was one of the officers of the Church, that it is his duty to receive revelation—to receive communications from the heavens, as the apostles did in ancient times, and to administer in all of the ordinances of the doctrine of Jesus Christ, and to regulate the Church and watch over the same, and to administer in all spiritual things. ”

“ We have told them for the last forty-nine years that the Lord God had commenced a work to prepare the way before the face of his coming, to prepare a people to endure his presence, to gather his people from the four quarters of the earth into one, in order that they might be prepared against the day when the veil of eternity shall be rent, and the voice of the Lord shall be heard unto the ends of the earth. ”

“ These revelations and prophecies have been published by hundreds of thousands and circulated in your midst here in Great Britain. The people are not altogether ignorant about, these matters; they have been forewarned. But what about the American nation. That war that destroyed the lives of some fifteen or sixteen hundred thousand people was nothing, compared to that which will eventually devastate that country. The time is not very far distant in the future, when the Lord God will lay his hand heavily upon that nation. ”

“ You might have searched all the various Christian churches, built up among all the nations, and you could not have found among any of them, what is termed, the "lesser priesthood," after the order of Aaron, and yet we are told, in the Jewish record, (the Bible,) that the priesthood of Aaron is an "everlasting priesthood," that it was intended to be continued while the sun and the moon should endure —that is, when men were acknowledged sufficiently worthy, to have that priesthood on the earth. It has never died out. It has been in the heavens all the time. ”

“ All beings will have knowledge. All people will have understanding. They will comprehend the things of God, and perform them. The Lord will make this earth one of the most glorious habitations, inasmuch as the people will prepare themselves for it, one of the most glorious habitations that can be given to men. It will be peopled by immortal beings throughout eternity. ”

“ Those who are accounted worthy to inherit this earth, when it shall be made heavenly, celestial beings will people the earth with their own offspring, their own sons and their own daughters; and these sons and these daughters which will be born to these immortal beings, will be the same as you and I were before we took these mortal tabernacles. ”

“ Marriages that are ordained of God are eternal. What he has joined together never can be plucked asunder, if the two persons shall remain faithful to their covenants, and faithful to the Lord their God. Hence eternal marriage was ordained by him for the purpose of multiplying intelligent beings after we leave this world. No marriage in the next world. This is the world for all ordinances as well as the ordinance of marriage. If you want to be baptized, do it here. No such thing as being baptized for yourselves in that world. ”

“ A portion of the heathen nations will be redeemed. Why? They will see the power and glory of God that will be manifested among the tribes of Israel, who will be gathered out from their midst and return to their own land. They will see the glory of God manifested as in ancient times and they will say, "surely Jaggernaut is no longer my God." "Surely I will not worship crocodiles, nor serpents; neither will I worship the sun, or the moon, for there is a God manifested among that people, Israel, who is worthy of the natures and attributes of a God. ”

“ You will save yourselves and your children temporally speaking as well as spiritually. On the other hand, if you do not receive it, the Lord, who is long suffering, will, after he has borne with the people all the day long, withdraw his servants from your midst. When that day shall come there shall be wars, not such wars as have come in centuries and years that are past and gone, but a desolating war. When I say desolating, I mean that it will lay these European nations in waste. Cities will be left vacated, without inhabitants. The people will be destroyed by the sword of their own hands. ”

“ He will purify these vile bodies of ours and fashion them after his own body, cleansed from sin and prepared to dwell in his presence, having immortal bodies of flesh and bones as our Savior has; and if there is no end to the increase of our Savior's kingdom, there will be no end to the increase of the kingdom of his younger brethren. Here then, we see the propriety of what I, a little while ago, stated, that this earth will become a habitation of immortal beings and there shall be no more death nor sorrow, for the former things have passed away and all things have become new. ”

“ Death takes no authority of a divine nature, from any human being, when it is once conferred upon him, if he is faithful until death; consequently there were persons in the heavens who held that priesthood, but no one upon the earth, no one that ever pretended to have it, among the Christian denominations. ”

“ When the great deep will have a highway cast up through the midst of it and Israel will pass through it dryshod. When I mention about the Lord making bare his arm in the eyes of all the nations, I have reference to that tremendous power, that is specified by the Ancient prophets, which will be made manifest before all people, all governments, nations and countries upon the face of the whole earth. Israel will return with power. ”

“ These marriages that are celebrated by the gentile nations are well enough in their places. They do very well for those who have no knowledge of the truth. They do well enough for those who have no knowledge of the Gospel. They are human marriages, or, in other words, marriages performed by human authority, marriages that are necessary in human governments, or governments established according to human laws, but all such marriages, and institutions, and ordinances will crumble away, with human governments, and after the resurrection they have no force. ”

“ And these will be the men that will be with Jesus when he descends upon the Mount of Olives, after the graves of the just have been opened. In the resurrection, they will come forth immortal, eternal, clothed upon with the fulness of that glory that pertains to the celestial kingdom. They will also reign as kings and priests here on the earth. To some of the raised Saints there will be given ten cities to rule over. To others there will be given five cities to rule over, according to their works here in this life. ”

“ About 600 years before Christ, that great nation were entirely swept off by the judgments of Almighty God, and their bones were left bleaching upon the plains and mountains of that land—left unburied by the numerous armies that went forth slaying and being slain, and another colony was brought from Jerusalem in their stead, being a remnant of the tribe of Joseph. ”

“ It will be a war of neighborhood against neighborhood, city against city, town against town, county against county, state against state, and they will go forth destroying and being destroyed and manufacturing will, in a great measure, cease, for a time, among the American nation. ”

“ We, Latter-day Saints, are living in a peculiar age of the world; we are called by the Almighty, by new revelation. We have not taken this name upon ourselves, it is a name the Lord gave by direct revelation through the prophet and seer, Joseph Smith. The Lord spoke to him, as he always did to those who were sent forth to build up his Church On the earth; hence, this Church has not been built upon the opinions of men, neither upon the learning of men, neither upon the doctrines and covenants of men ”

“ It was all the human family, who were once in the celestial kingdom from whence our spirits came, when they took possession of these mortal tabernacles. As Jesus came down from the Father, being the eldest of the family, and took upon him a mortal tabernacle, even so have his brethren and sisters come from the same region of glory, and have taken upon them mortal tabernacles to follow in his footsteps, if they will. ”

“ It will be those who repent of their sins; it will be those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and are willing to obey his commandments, willing to hearken to his voice, willing to be baptized for the remission of their sins, willing to be born of the spirit, or receive the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, willing to walk uprightly and honestly with all men, and justly one with another. ”

“ However much learning and information may be in the possession of a speaker it does not matter, God is able, by his Spirit, to make use of the most unlearned, if they will but seek unto him, and have faith in him, that he can speak through them to the edification of the people who hear. ”