Daughter of Zion

“ And then, beyond that, the deliverance produces in Zion, the mother city and her daughter villages, a triumph of rapture and gladness. 'Let mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad because of Thy judgments.' Yes, even though an hundred and four score and five thousand dead men lay there, they were to be glad. Solemn and awful as is the baring of His righteous sword, it is an occasion for praise. It is right to be glad when men and systems that hinder and fight against God are swept away as with the besom of destruction. ”

“ The days are now come when the father shall deliver up the son to death, and the son the father; when the brother shall be divided against the sister, and the sister against the mother. But the days of Zion’s peace shall also come, when all the princes of the earth shall bow down before her, and call her the fairest among women. ”

“ I see what all the prophets and patriarchs before me have seen—that the Lord Almighty will build up his Zion upon the earth in great power and glory in the latter days. Yes, "But Zion said, the Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? ”

“ Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.” [3] From whom did he flee? Surely from the dragon, that the spiritual Zion might bear a masculine people, who should come back from the passions and weakness of women to the unity of the Lord, and grow strong in manly virtue. ”

“ We wish to see Zion built up—the earth beautified and prepared for the coming of the Son of Man. We are looking forth to the day when Zion will spring into existence and stand forth like a bride prepared to meet her husband, with all the beauty and glory that belong to the kingdom of God on the earth. ”

“ Zion will be redeemed, and she will arise and shine and put on her beautiful garments; she will break from off her neck her yoke, and she will be clothed with the glory of our God. Zion has been sold for naught; she will be redeemed without money; she will arise in her beauty and glory, as the Prophets of God have seen her; she will extend her borders and strengthen her stakes, and the God of heaven will comfort her, inasmuch as we will unite together to carry out his purposes. ”

“ He will come as a shepherd, he will stir up his strength and show forth his power and the remnant of Joseph will be lead by their shepherd, long before the Jews are redeemed. "Arise and shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee."
What condition do you suppose the wicked will be in in those days, even all the inhabitants of the earth except Zion? "For behold darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the people; but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee." What a difference between Zion and the rest of mankind! ”

“ The world look upon the Latter-day Saints as the most corrupt of all people on the face of the earth. But according to the words of the Prophet, the people who dwell in the mountains where the standard is to be raised, are to be a holy people. "Behold, thy Redeemer cometh, behold, the Lord shall come." This has been the proclamation of the people of Zion, ever since we commenced, about forty years ago, to declare that God was about to come in his glory, power and majesty, in the greatness of his strength, with all his holy angels with him, in the clouds of heaven, to reign upon the earth. ”

“ But thanks be to our Father that the cause of truth and righteousness cannot suffer at the hands of the wicked, but Zion will rise and shine, and her greatness and glory will be seen, and in her strength, power, and might she will tread down every opposing foe. ”

“ Off to the south was the desert. There he could be alone; there face God and his own conscience and have his inmost soul declare the truth about himself. In his sadness he would have liked to lead the people with him, lead them away from some evil, some falsity that had crept in about them; he knew not what it was nor how it had come, but Zion had been defiled. Something was gone from the Church, something from Brigham, something from himself,—something, it almost seemed, even from the God of Israel. ”

“ I know I love Him and I am trying to obey Him, but I believe if there is one place on the earth He loves next to the gates of Zion, it is a happy home, and that He smiles upon us in all our innocent efforts to make it so. ”

“ I want my brethren and sisters to do right—to live by faith, that they may be strong and powerful, and have mighty faith in the Son of God, and power over our enemies, and strength to overcome them; and we shall, ere long, become strong and terrible in the sight of our enemies, when the children of Zion shall return to the land that the Lord has designed for the building up of a temple in the last days. ”

“ May I not again ask, how is Zion to become the joy and the praise of the whole earth, so that kings shall come to the brightness of her rising? Surely, it will be by her becoming more wise, more learned, more refined, and more noble, than the cities of the world, so that she becomes the admiration of the great ones of the earth. ”

“ They read in the Bible, in the Book of Mormon, and Book of Doctrine and Covenants, about Zion, and what it is to be; but brother Park and others could not realize, before they came here, that they were the ones to help to build up Zion. They gather here with the spirit of Zion resting upon them, and expecting to find Zion in its glory, whereas their own doctrine should teach them that they are coming here to make Zion.
We can make Zion, or we can make Babylon, just as we please. We can make just what we please of this place. The people can make Zion: they can make a heaven within themselves. ”

“ Through the gates above Zion the hosts pass by, ascending and descending by the silvering portals. Upon that beautiful road he has built through the sky. All the earth is full of his glory as the wind, his power is nigh. His saints walk in his strength. There is no death, there is none of his hosts that ever die. ”

“ God has said that Zion shall be as a city set upon a hill, whose light can not be hid. We are called to be the children of Zion. The Lord has declared that Zion consists of the pure in heart. He has said, further, that the nations of the earth have corrupted their way before him, and, referring to Babylon, his command to his Saints is—"Come out of her, O my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, that ye receive not of her plagues." ”

“ Behold I lay in Zion a stumbling-stone and rock of offence; and whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed.—Romans, ix. 33.
Glorious things of thee are spoken,
Zion, city of our God!
He, whose word cannot be broken,
Formed thee for His own abode.
On the rock of ages founded,
What can shake Thy sure repose?
With salvation’s walls surrounded,
Thou may’st smile at all Thy foes.
Saviour, if of Zion’s city
I through grace a member am,
Let the world deride or pity,
I will glory in the name.
Fading is the worldling’s pleasure,
All his boasted pomp and show ”

“ We have the best of feelings, and feelings of the greatest anxiety for the welfare of Zion; we feel more like weeping over Zion than rejoicing over her, for we know that the judgments of God hang over her, and will fall upon her except she repent, and purify herself before the Lord, and put away from her every foul spirit. ”

“ Surely Zion is the city of our God, and surely Zion cannot fall, neither be moved out of her place, for God is there, and the hand of the Lord is there;
20 And he hath sworn by the power of his might to be her salvation and her high tower.
21 Therefore, verily, thus saith the Lord, let Zion rejoice, for this is Zion—the pure in heart; therefore, let Zion rejoice, while all the wicked shall mourn. ”

“ And the enemies of Zion who want to penetrate our sacred and holy places, and who say in their hearts, Let her temples be defiled; let adventurers, profligates and libertines mingle in their family circles, and break them asunder, and defile the daughters of Zion and break up the holy institution of sacred and holy matrimony, by which they are bound together in the new and everlasting covenant for time and eternity ”

“ In childhood I learned the words of the prophet: 'Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet; therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will discover their secret parts. ”

“ Out of Zion is the perfection of His beauty. God, even our God, shall come openly, and shall not keep silence. Fire shall burn before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him. He shall call to the heavens above, and to the earth, that He may judge His people. Assemble to Him His saints; those that have made a covenant with Him by sacrifices. And the heavens shall declare His righteousness, for God is judge. Hear, O My people, and I will speak to thee; O Israel, and I will testify to thee, I am God, even thy God. I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices ”

“ In their family prayers they have heard their fathers pray to the Most High to remember Zion and to redeem Zion, and to restore his people to the lands of their inheritances, and perhaps some of them have reflected upon the subject. ”

“ The songs of Zion ascended from the camps of Israel and peace brooded over the people. Barefooted, and in many instances hungry, they travelled on with their faces westward, their faith failing not; for, as I have said, the angels of God were round about them and His spirit was upon them; and at no period of their history was the power of God more exhibited than during that trying time when God led His servant to this then wild and forbidding region.
Since we have been here, He has blessed us as a people. ”

“ Here we perceive what the Lord intends to do both for Zion and for the wicked. Zion shall spread herself if she will only keep the commandments of God, and she will become great, glorious and terrible ”

“ He never can forget Zion. A woman may forget her nursing child—and that is a very difficult thing to do—but our God will never forget Zion, never forget the promises made to His people. He looks down from His holy habitation, and sees the humble efforts of His people. He sees their devotion to His cause. He sees their willingness to lay down their lives for the truth. Our God is not ignorant of this. His eye is upon this people, and His blessing will be with us. There is no power that can prevent the outpouring of His Spirit upon us ”

“ When we conclude to make a Zion we will make it, and this work commences in the heart of each person. When the father of a family wishes to make a Zion in his own house, he must take the lead in this good work, which it is impossible for him to do unless he himself possesses the Spirit of Zion. ”

“ Glorious things are spoken of Zion, the city of our God. She is yet to triumph, and become the joy and glory of the whole earth. Blessed be God that we live in these latter times—the latter times of the reign of darkness and imposture. ”

“ And the day will come when it will be said of our children, as the old Prophets have prophesied, that such and such a one was born in Zion. It will be considered a great blessing and one of the greatest honors that could have been inherited by our children to have been born in Zion among the people of God. These people are not liars, whoremongers, adulterers or thieves, as represented by our defamers, but they have learned the principles of virtue and holiness, and such things as are calculated to exalt and ennoble individuals, families and nations ”

“ Now, I the Lord, am not well pleased with the inhabitants of Zion, for there are idlers among them; and their children are also growing up in wickedness; they also seek not earnestly the riches of eternity, but their eyes are full of greediness. ”

“ The swift, short clauses, the triple invocation in the former verse, the triple promise in the latter, the heaped together synonyms, all help the impression. The very words seem to dance with joy. But more remarkable than this is the parallelism between the two verses. Zion is called to rejoice in God because God rejoices in her. She is to shout for joy and sing because God's joy too has a voice, and breaks out into singing. For every throb of joy in man's heart, there is a wave of gladness in God's. ”

“ If the elders of Israel had the vision of their minds opened to see Zion in her beauty and glory, they would have no time to sin or do evil; but they would rise up in the strength of the Lord God of Israel and accomplish all that he requires at their hands. Zion is yet in her weakness? but the little one shall become thousands, and the small one a great nation. We talk of the future and of the promises of God to us. They are worthy to be talked of, worthy to be lived for, and to rejoice over, because they are true. ”

“ In this way Zion can be made to blossom as a rose, and the beauty of Zion will begin to shine forth like the morning, and if the brethren have not learned by experience that this is the course to pursue, by that time they will learn it. ”

“ Besides all this, who can avoid exclaiming with grief, "How is Zion, the faithful city, become an harlot!" Nay, does not the Lord himself say to some who now walk in the spirit of Jeremiah, "Hast thou seen what the virgin of Israel hath done unto me?" "I betrothed her unto me in faith and purity, in righteousness and in judgment, and in loving-kindness and in mercies," even as I promised her by Hosea, the prophet. But she has loved strangers; and even while I her husband lived, she has made herself an adulteress, and has not feared to become the wife of another husband. ”