Why the "Mormons" Migrated.--Foreseeing that the Nation would turn a deaf ear to his patriotic appeal for a peaceful and just settlement of the slave question, the Prophet began to contemplate the removal of the Church from close proximity to the scenes of strife and carnage that were about to be enacted. It was highly necessary that a people chosen for such a purpose--to prepare the world for the ushering in of the Reign of Righteousness--should remain upon earth to accomplish their mission. In order to so remain, they must be out of the way of the troubles that were imminent, and, so far as possible, keep out of the way until the divine judgments predicted had gone forth and done their work. This was one reason why the Latter-day Saints migrated to the Rocky Mountains. Driven to their Destiny.--Their cruel expulsion from Missouri had indirectly contributed to their safety; for when the war-cloud which had long been gathering finally burst, it poured out much of its fury upon those very lands from which the Saints had been driven. [1] And now, their enforced pilgrimage into the all but untrodden wilderness of the Great West likewise preserved them from many trials that would have fallen to their lot had they tarried within the area seriously affected by the stern events that followed. Fleeing the Wrath to Come.--It was a next-best course that the fugitive people pursued. Originally they were cast for a very different role, but not being ready to enact that role, another part was assigned them, one destined to prepare them for the greater performance that is yet to follow. In order that the community might survive, and accomplish, when the time came, the mighty task of "redeeming Zion," it was imperative that they should "flee the wrath to come." The Exodus Foretold.--The removal of the Saints to the region of the Rocky Mountains, was the theme of a prophecy uttered by Joseph the Seer nearly two years before his death, and nearly four years prior to the beginning of the famous "Mormon Exodus." Nauvoo, Illinois, where he then resided, is on the east bank of the Mississippi River, and on the west bank, just opposite, is the little town of Montrose. From the Prophet's personal history, I now quote an entry of Saturday, August 6th 1842: