The first article under this title was written for the "Contributor," Vol. X, No. 7, May, 1899: The second is a discourse delivered in the Salt Lake tabernacle, Sunday afternoon, March 24, 1907. Reported by F. W. Otterstrom.
I.
A Prophetic Incident.
In the April number of the Century, 1899, is a well-written and profusely illustrated article on the Inauguration of Washington, by Clarence Winthrop Bowen. Among the illustrations is a facsimile of the page of the Bible on which Washington laid his hand while taking the oath of office, and it is to this that I wish specially to call attention.
It was Chancellor Robert R. Livingston, one of the committee of five appointed to draft the Declaration of Independence, who administered the oath of office to Washington. "Just before the oath was to be administered," says Mr. Bowen, "it was discovered that no Bible was in Federal Hall. Luckily Livingston, a Grand Master of Free Masons, knew that there was one at St. John's Lodge in the City Assembly Room near by—St. John's Lodge was the third oldest lodge in the United States, by the way—and a messenger was dispatched to borrow the Bible.
In further describing the solemn ceremonies of that occasion the Century article says:
"Secretary Otis of the Senate held before him (Washington) a red velvet cushion, upon which rested the open Bible of St. John's Lodge. 'You do solemnly swear,' said Livingston, 'that you will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States and will, to the best of your ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.' 'I do solemnly swear,' said Washington, 'that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.' He then bowed his head and kissed the sacred book, and with the deepest feeling uttered the words, 'So help me God!"
The page of the Bible which Washington kissed, and on which his hand rested while taking the oath, is indicated in the Bible of St. John's Lodge by the leaf being turned down. A copper plate engraving is on the opposite page, illustrating the blessings of Zebulun and Issachar, as pronounced upon them by the Patriarch Jacob in Genesis xlix, thirteenth and fourteenth verses respectively. The page on which Washington's hand rested contains part of chapter forty-nine of Genesis, beginning with the thirteenth verse; and also part of the fiftieth chapter down to verse eight, inclusive. The particular thing which struck me as being a remarkable circumstance is that the page indicated contains the blessing of Jacob upon the head of his favorite son, Joseph, which reads as follows:
"22. Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall.
"23. The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him.
"24. But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong, by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence is the shepherd the stone of Israel).
"25. Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee, and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts and of the womb.
"26. The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors, unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills; they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separated from his brethren."
To the Latter-day Saints the blessing of Joseph has a particular significance, for the reason that they, more than any other people, are familiar with his descendants, and the blessing promised them in which also they hope to participate. The Book of Mormon is a history, chiefly, of the descendants of Joseph; and in the mighty nations which have peopled the American continent, the Latter-day Saints see, in part, the fulfillment of the great blessings pronounced upon his head.