PROPHECY ON WAR.
I prophesy in the name of the Lord God, that the commencement of the difficulties which will cause much bloodshed previous to the coming of the Son of Man will be in South Carolina. It may probably arise through the slave question. This a voice declared to me while I was praying very earnestly on the subject, December 25th, 1832.
These remarks were made in April, 1843, at a place called Raymus, near Nauvoo; and the incidental reference to what a voice had declared to him respecting the war to begin in South Carolina, is doubtless an allusion to the more formal prophecy on that great subject, and which I consider of so much importance that while it does not strictly belong to the period under consideration, I give it in extenso, as connected with the lesser prophecy quoted above.
PROPHECY ON THE WARS OF THE LAST DAYS.
Verily, thus saith the Lord, concerning the wars that will shortly come to pass, beginning at the rebellion of South Carolina, which will eventually terminate in the death and misery of many souls.
The days will come that war will be poured out upon all nations, beginning at that place;
For behold, the Southern States shall be divided against the Northern States, and the Southern States will call on other nations, even the nation of Great Britain, as it is called, and they shall also call upon other nations, in order to defend themselves against other nations; and thus war shall be poured out upon all nations.
And it shall come to pass, after many days, slaves shall rise up against their masters, who shall be marshalled and disciplined for war:
And it shall come to pass also, that the remnants who are left of the land will marshal themselves, and shall become exceeding angry, and shall vex the Gentiles with a sore vexation;
And thus with the sword, and by bloodshed, the inhabitants of the earth shall mourn; and with famine, and plague, and earthquakes, and the thunder of heaven, and the fierce and vivid lightning also, shall the inhabitants of the earth be made to feel the wrath, and indignation and chastening hand of an Almighty God, until the consumption decreed, hath made a full end of all nations;
That the cry of the saints, and of the blood of the saints, shall cease to come up into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, from the earth, to be avenged of their enemies.
Wherefore, stand ye in holy places, and be not moved, until the day of the Lord come; for behold it cometh quickly, saith the Lord Amen.
I do not hesitate to refer to this prophecy as one of the boldest, most forceful and remarkable ever uttered by a prophet of God in either ancient or modern times; and its exact and minute fulfillment to be read in the history of the United States and other countries is as astonishing as the prediction is bold.[[1]] This prophecy was given in December, 1832; and the Elders in those days, at least a number of them, carried manuscript copies of it with them on their missionary journeys, and frequently read it to their congregations in various parts of the United States. In Volume XIII of the Millennial Star, published in 1851, pages 216, 217, is an advertisement of a new publication to be called the Pearl of Great Price. In the announced contents is named this revelation of December, 1832, on war, with the statement that it had "never before appeared in print." Subsequently, but in the same year, 1851, the Pearl of Great Price with this prophecy in it, word for word as it is here quoted, was published by Franklin D. Richards, in Liverpool, England. There are copies of the first edition still extant.