Orson Pratt

“ Nothing is plainer in all the sacred Scriptures than the gathering of the people of God. The apostle Paul, in the first chapter of his epistle to the Ephesians, prophecies "that in the dispensation of the fulness of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth." It seems to be a new dispensation, a dispensation that is characterized by the words "fulness of times." When these times shall be fulfilled: when the day shall come for this great preparatory work to take place, the Lord will signify it, by speaking from the heavens ”

“ Read concerning the coming of that angel with the Gospel. Read the declaration that that should be the hour of God's judgment. When the Gospel is preached, it is the last message to the human family, the last warning voice that they will hear before the coming of the Lord. If they receive it, they will flee out from the nations; if they receive it not, then know assuredly that the hour of God's judgment is come, and God himself will judge the people, as written in this 50th Psalm. ”

“ And if there be any strangers present, this afternoon, who desire to know the truth, we would ask them to search the sacred Scriptures, call upon the name of the Most High God, and he will show you whether these Scriptures are true or not; he will reveal to you whether he has sent his angel from heaven or not; he will give you a testimony that is greater than the testimony of men, provided you will go humbly before him, and call upon him, with all your hearts. ”

“ He saw that following that angel there would come great and terrible judgments. He saw that after that angel should come with the Gospel, there would come a voice from heaven, saying, "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities." This voice from heaven, this new revelation, that was promised by the mouth of John the Revelator, and the sound to all is: "Come out from among these nations. Come out from the four quarters of the earth. ”

“ Those that are acquainted with some of our poor men, and when they go and look at one man's family; for this is in the singular number—"he maketh him families like a flock"—when we see one man's family like a flock, we may know the Lord has fulfilled this prophecy in regard to the gathering of the Saints in the latter-days. ”

“ Now, the Latter-day Saints who have been here, since the arrival of the first companies in the year 1847, can realize how much the Lord has multiplied this people. We are as it were overrun with children. If strangers will take the opportunity of going to some of our oldest towns, and through our various settlements, they will find vast numbers of children, perhaps more children in our country than in any other country in the United States of the same population. ”

“ In the 24th chapter of Matthew he speaks of his second coming "in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory," and how the Gospel should be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, before he should come in his glory. In the next chapter, in order that his disciples might fully understand his sayings, he goes on to explain that at that particular period the kingdom of heaven should be likened unto ten virgins;not the former kingdom that was to be built up, when he came on the earth in the flesh ”

“ This stone is represented as a kingdom, and its location is represented as a mountain, showing that there is to be a kingdom of God set up in the last days by the gathering together of his people in an elevated region of country, called a mountain. By and by that stone will roll forth, until the kingdoms of this world are broken in pieces, and as the Prophet Daniel said, the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but shall stand forever ”

“ May he pour out his Spirit upon all the faithful of the Latter-day Saints, and if there are any unfaithful ones, numbered with the people of God, may the Spirit of the Lord strive with you, until you shall repent of your unfaithfulness, and become pure, upright, virtuous, and holy before the Lord, that you may be entitled to his Holy Spirit. ”

“ He told us, by revelation, before our prophet was martyred, that we would have to leave the United States: go beyond the Rocky Mountains, and seek our home in the wilderness, and that we would have a great people gather with us. ”

“ There are many politicians that are trying to foretell the future. They speak of what this government, and that government, and the other government will be, several hundred years hence, or perhaps in ages hence, as though they could see and understand, naturally, the condition of the various governments and kingdoms of the earth, for a long time to come ”

“ But alas! it very soon appeared as if our crops were going to be swallowed up by a vast horde of crickets, that came down from these mountains—crickets very different to what I used to be acquainted with in the State of New York. They were crickets nearly as large as a man's thumb. They came in immense droves, so that men and women with brush could make no head way against them ”

“ Many suppose that he will come and find the Saints scattered all over the world, not gathered into any special country, but it is evident that those who have taken this view of the subject don't understand the Scripture writings. ”