Cowley's Talks on DoctrineCowley, Matthias F. (Matthias Foss)
Religion
Cowley's Talks on Doctrine
Cowley, Matthias F. (Matthias Foss)
Latter Day Saint churches -- Doctrines
As an incident pointing the way to and expressing the true spirit
of the Millennium, when Zion's Camp, a body of more than 200 men,
journeyed through the wilderness of Indiana, Illinois and Missouri
from Kirtland to Western Missouri, the Camp at night would be visited
by serpents, which the brethren were inclined to destroy. The Prophet
Joseph told them not to kill the snakes, but to carry them peaceably
from their tents with sticks. Joseph promised them that if they kept
this counsel none should be bitten, adding that it was man's duty to
set the example of peace and lead the way back to the perfect harmony
existing in Eden before the fall. The Camp observed his advice and
realized his promise.
The time spoken of by Isaiah, as already referred to here, was also
predicted by Joel when he said: "And ye shall know that I am in the
midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God and none else: And my
people shall never be ashamed. And it shall come to pass afterward,
that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and
your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your
young men shall see visions; and also upon the servants and upon the
handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit." (Joel ii: 27-29.)
The apostle Peter, upon the day of Pentecost, gave the multitude to
understand that the Spirit which gave utterance to the apostles on that
occasion was the same Spirit concerning which Joel the prophet said in
the last days should be poured out, not upon the few only, but upon all
flesh. The Spirit of God alone can bring perfect unity, destroy enmity,
and fill the earth with the knowledge and glory of God.
Of this glorious epoch the prophet Jeremiah says: "And they shall teach
no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know
the Lord; for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the
greatest of them, saith the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity,
and I will remember their sin no more." (Jer. xxxi:34.) Such a
condition would be in harmony with the promise of the Savior that there
should be "one fold and one shepherd." The Spirit of Truth is the guide
into all truth, rather than to man-made theories taught by men devoid
of the authority and inspiration of Almighty God.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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