Saturday Night Thoughts: A Series of Dissertations on Spiritual, Historical, and Philosophic ThemesWhitney, Orson F. (Orson Ferguson)
Religion
Saturday Night Thoughts: A Series of Dissertations on Spiritual, Historical, and Philosophic Themes
Whitney, Orson F. (Orson Ferguson)
Latter Day Saint churches
"Zion is Fled."--"In process of time" consecration brought
sanctification, and eventually translation, to the City of Enoch,
regarding which, after its ascension, went forth the saying: "Zion is
fled." [6]
The Tower of Babel.--The people who built the Tower of Babel are said
to have done so in order that its top might "reach unto heaven." It
was to prevent them from accomplishing this purpose, that the Lord
confounded their language. [7] Tradition credits Joseph Smith with the
statement that the "heaven" they had in view was the translated city.
The Jaredites.--A righteous remnant of the people, namely, the
Jaredites, had been exempted from the general curse of tongue
confusion; [8] and through them the pure Adamic language was preserved
on earth. [9] The Jaredites, divinely led, separated themselves from
the other inhabitants of the land, and migrated to North America. Here
they flourished for many centuries, and then fell, a slaughtered race,
ruined by internal dissension. [10]
Translation and Resurrection.--Translation, says the Prophet Joseph,
does not take men "immediately into the presence of God." For
translated beings there is a terrestrial "place of habitation," where
they are "held in reserve to be ministering angels unto many planets,"
and "have not yet entered into so great a fulness as those who are
resurrected from the dead." Enoch received from God an appointment to
minister to beings of this character. [11]
The Future Unveiled.--Enoch walked with God, and was shown "the world
for the space of many generations." [12] He beheld the Millennial Dawn,
and the darkest hour before the dawn. "He saw great tribulations among
the wicked, and he also saw the sea, that it was troubled." [13] In a
splendid outburst of epic poetry, the inspired oracle tells how Zion
was taken up into heaven; how Satan "veiled the whole face of the earth
with darkness;" how he and his angels rejoiced; how "the God of heaven
looked upon the residue of the people and wept;" and how the heavens
wept also, shedding "their tears as the rain upon the mountains." [14]
Enoch, addressing the compassionate Creator, inquires: "How is it
that thou canst weep, seeing thou art holy, and from all eternity
to all eternity? And were it possible that man could number the
particles of the earth, yea millions of earths like this, it would not
be a beginning to the number of thy creations, and thy curtains are
stretched out still. . . . . And thou hast taken Zion to thine own
bosom from all thy creations, from all eternity to all eternity; and
naught but peace, justice and truth is the habitation of thy throne;
and mercy shall go before thy face and have no end; how is it thou
canst weep?" [15]
The Holy One answers, portraying the impending doom, the destruction
of the wicked by the Flood, and their imprisonment in spirit dungeons
until the coming of the Christ, bringing deliverance to the penitent.
[16]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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