You will observe that the primary consideration in the reverend gentleman's discourse is, Does III Nephi add anything to the picture of Christ? Is our Christian knowledge increased by it? It is that question that I propose to consider.
To begin with, I answer the question in the affirmative, and most emphatically say, Yes, III Nephi does add something to the pictures of Christ, and does add something to our testimony of Christian knowledge. I marvel that the gentleman should have propounded such a question in the face of the facts which stand out so prominently in III Nephi. I should have thought that one great truth, that is announced in III Nephi, would have arrested his attention, namely, the one truth that Jesus appeared in this western world and so ministered to a people that two great continents, to be filled subsequently with nations of people, might come to a knowledge of Jesus Christ and of the gospel of salvation which he taught,—I should have thought that one fact would have been a complete answer to the gentleman's inquiry. The fact that the justice and mercy of God in our conception are broadened by this great truth adds considerable to our Christian treasury of knowledge. For instead of God's mercy and the labors of his Son being confined to the eastern hemisphere, we learn from this Fifth Gospel that God sent his Son on a special mission to those inhabiting this western world, and that he presented to them the same great truths upon which his gospel is based that he had presented to those of the eastern world; and that, moreover, while here he gave the Nephites the information that his labors in Judea and among them were not all the labors he was required to perform in the interest of humanity and their salvation, but that he must make his way to the lost tribes of Israel and declare himself and his message also to them. Thus the horizon of Christ's mission and labor is enlarged beyond anything that can be learned from the four gospels, and the knowledge can only be found in the Fifth Gospel—the third book of Nephi.
That, however, is too general a view of the subject to be content with. I propose getting into closer quarters with this matter, and enquiring into it in some detail. First let me call your attention to the conditions existing at the opening of this Fifth Gospel. It opens with the ninety-first year of the reign of the Judges—a time which corresponds to our year one of the Christian era. At that time the Nephites everywhere were more or less expectant of the birth of the Son of God, for the Lord had not left himself without witnesses among the ancient inhabitants of this great land, but as in Judea, he raised up prophets who foretold the coming of Messiah and the conditions that would attend upon his birth into the world. Some five years before the opening of this period we are to consider, a Lamanite prophet appeared among the Nephites and prophesied in a marvelous manner concerning events nearing the doors of the people, declaring that within five years from the time he spoke there should be given a sign unto the people of this western world that Messiah had been born. That sign should be the continuance of the light of day through two days and a night; that though the sun should sink as usual beyond the western horizon the light of day should still continue through all the time of night; the sun should rise again on the morrow according to his order, and they should know that there had been this strange phenomenon of continuous light, notwithstanding the absence of the sun; and a new star should appear also.
Does that add anything to the picture in the career of Messiah? Is it nothing that the inhabitants of the western world should see in the heavens a most beautiful sign that Jesus had been born, and by that sign, in the fulfillment of the prediction that had been made by the prophets, they should receive from God a testimony that his Son had come into the world to bring to pass the redemption of the race? I think it adds a beautiful picture in the life of Jesus Christ, and one on which the four gospels are silent.
This same prophet predicted also the signs that should attend upon Messiah's death; for through prophesy the Nephites had been made acquainted with the fact that though Jesus was the Son of God, yet must he die and be buried in order that he might by that act meet the just claims of inexorable law under which mankind were banished from the presence of God and made subject to death. This Lamanite prophet, Samuel, declared that during the time that the Son of God should be immolated upon the cross this western hemisphere should be mightily shaken by the throes of physical nature; that great valleys should undergo upheaval and be thrown into mountains; that many high places and mountains should be shaken down; that many parts of the land should sink and the sea cover them; that-some cities would thus be destroyed; in other cases great mountains of earth should cover wicked cities from the sight of God; and thus should there be upheaval, cataclysm, earthquakes and tempests, fierce and vivid lightnings, and all the elements should give witness that the Son of God was undergoing the pains of death. Moreover, that this period of cataclysms and changes in the earth should be followed by three days of intense and complete darkness, until men should be unable to see, being deprived of the light of the sun so precious to man and so necessary to life.
Both these events—the signs of Messiah's birth and the signs of his death—were given as foretold.
I pause again to ask this reverend gentleman if the signs of Messiah's death on this continent do not add something to the picture of Christ's life.
In passing, let me call your attention to this fact also: I think I see something very beautiful and appropriate in these marvelous signs. I think it is fitting that he who is described in the four gospels as well as in the fifth as the "Light and Life of the world," should have his entrance into earth life proclaimed by a night in which there should be no darkness, and that a new star for a season should appear in the heavens, to be a witness to the people that "the life and light" which was to bring life and light to mankind had indeed come into the world. And equally appropriate is it that when he who is described as the Life and Light of the world is laid low in death, the world should have the testimony of light eclipsed. I see a beautiful appropriateness in these signs, and in them I see added pictures in the life and career of the Lord Jesus Christ.
One other thing—which, however, I can only throw in sight—is this: The traditions held by the native American races prove the fact that something like this described in the Book of Mormon-these cataclysms and the darkness which followed—was vividly remembered by the ancients and is apparent in the traditions of the native Americans. For example, Mr. Bancroft, the great compiler of native traditions and myths, after speaking concerning native traditions about the flood, creation, the building of the Tower of Babel, the confusion of tongues and the dispersion of mankind, and of a certain revision that took place in the native calendar, says:
"One hundred and sixteen years after this regulation or invention of the Toltec calendar, the sun and moon were eclipsed, the earth shook, and the rocks were rent asunder, and many other things and signs happened. This was in the year Ce Calli, which, the chronology being reduced to our system, proves to be the same date that Christ our Lord suffered"—33 A. D.