[22]. Lossing's History of the United States, p. 559 and note I.
[23]. Cooper's American Politics, Bk. I, p. 197.
[24]. Many believe this part of the prophecy was fulfilled during the war of the Southern Rebellion, when many colored men formerly slaves were enlisted in the Union service. We have already seen that of the 2,653,000 soldiers enlisted in the Union army 186,397 were colored.
[25]. In a second volume in which the Book of Mormon will be the subject—the witness for God—the author will consider many prophecies contained in the Book of Mormon which will not only tend to prove the truth of that book but will also establish the inspiration and divine mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith.
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE CHURCH FOUNDED BY JOSEPH SMITH A MONUMENT TO HIS INSPIRATION.
The church founded by Joseph Smith is of itself a monument to the inspiration of the prophet. It embraces a scheme of ecclesiastical government so comprehensive, so effective in its administration, and at the same time so protects the members of the body religious from priestcraft, by which I mean here the oppression of ecclesiastical rulers, that none who become acquainted with its organization and the spirit of its administration can doubt that a deeper wisdom presided at its creation than that possessed by Joseph Smith uninspired of God. It must be borne in mind that the prophet during the development of the church organization was but a mere youth; unschooled in history, untaught, save by God, in the science of government; and I say that a man who had lived in the midst of such environments as those which surrounded Joseph Smith would be utterly incapable—if you deny to him divine inspiration—of bringing into existence such a system of government as that which obtains in the church he founded.
It will be said by some that he founded this church government on the pattern of that described in the New Testament, and thus attempt to dispose of his achievement. But the outlines of church government that may be traced in the New Testament are so faint that they can scarcely be defined, and have led the most learned of our Christian scholars to diverse conclusions. One sees in the New Testament authority for the Episcopal form of government; and a gradation in the orders of the ministry. Another sees in the New Testament authority for the conclusion that there is a perfect equality in the Christian ministry, no gradation of officers, but a government through synods, assemblies and councils of these officers of equal rank. And still a third finds in the same book authority for the idea that each congregation within itself constitutes an independent Christian church, subordinate to no other organization, self-governing, and only bound to other like societies by sympathy which springs from faith in a common doctrine and common aims. Such is the confusion into which the learned are thrown by considering alone the data that exists in the New Testament for a church government.
Although I have once before briefly sketched the organization of the church from such data as exists in the New Testament, I find it necessary again to go over the ground that we may see how meagre the materials are; and how utterly impossible it would be for Joseph Smith to frame such an organization as he established from such materials.