These are the promises of God to Joseph. But where are the evidences either from the Bible history or from secular history that the descendants of Joseph have ever attained to the fulfillment of these very gracious and very remarkable promises? As a matter of fact are not Joseph's tribes and descendants practically lost in Israel, so far as any knowledge is obtainable from the Bible, or other Hebrew literature, or general history? The tribe of Judah became the dominating power in the history of Israel in Palestine, and is the only tribe in Israel that has retained any distinctive existence in modern times. What, then, have the promises of God to Joseph, uttered by Jacob, in his inspired patriarchal blessings, and solemnly repeated by the great prophet Moses, failed of their fulfillment? If not, where is the evidence of their fulfillment? It is not to be found unless men turn to and receive it from Joseph's record, the Book of Mormon. But the Book of Mormon once accepted--a book that is a history, in the main, of the descendants of Joseph, [7] behold what a fulfilment of the prophetic blessings upon Joseph's seed is there revealed! Here in America Joseph's descendants indeed became a multitude of nations; here, indeed, they possessed a land blessed with the precious things of heaven, for through Nephite prophets was made known the mind and will of God, the coming of Messiah, and the redemption of man that should be wrought out by Him; nay, the Son of God, in person, came in his glorious resurrected state and taught them at first hand and face to face the great things concerning man's salvation; inspired apostles took up the same great theme and for centuries held a great people closely to the path of both truth and righteousness, until the harvest of souls in America exceeded such harvests among any other people whatsoever. In America Joseph's descendants indeed possessed a land noted for the precious fruits brought forth by the sun, and for the chief things of the ancient mountains, and for the precious things of the lasting hills--the gold, the silver, the iron, the coal fields, the oil fields, and all things else of which the mountains and hills of America yield their rich store; a land noted for the precious things of the earth and the fullness thereof--a land embracing all the climates from earth's torrid equatorial regions, thence shading off both toward the north and the south through temperate climates into the frigid zones; a land of wonderous wealth in fertile plains and valleys, and extensive forest tracts; a land that produces all vegetables and fruits and fiberous growths essential to the feeding and clothing of man; a land whose grandeur and very beauty holds the senses entranced with its magnificence; a land sufficient for empires surrounded by fruitful seas; a land consecrated to free institutions and to righteousness--in a word, _the land of Joseph_.