“And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof.
“* * * Behold I will save my people from the east country, and from the west country;
“And I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.”
Soon after the message of the angel to the young man Joseph, he, in obedience to God’s command, organized the church. In due time there were Twelve Apostles, and he appointed two of those Apostles on a mission to Jerusalem. Upon Mount Olivet, one of the apostles,—Orson Hyde,—offered a dedicatory prayer unto God, the Eternal Father.
In that prayer he supplicated God to remember his promises made to Father Abraham concerning this dry and barren land, and Abraham’s seed which should inhabit this thirsty country, and who had wandered as strangers in a strange land. The land had become barren because of the sins of those who, in their ignorance, crucified God’s Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ. He further pleaded:
“And as Jesus, thy Son, in his sorrowful and trying hours, cried, ‘Lord, forgive them, they know not what they do!’ so do thou, O God, have mercy on them and let the promises of the prophets come up in remembrance before thee. Be pleased, O Father, to send the rains on these parched lands; and may the dews fall upon the hills and valleys, that the land may again teem with plenty, and cities be built up unto the Lord our God.”
This is the substance of the supplication of the Apostle who dedicated the land of Palestine. Since then the way is being prepared with a railroad from the Mediterranean Sea to Jerusalem; and lo! the time has come for God’s mercy, as foretold by Isaiah, 40th chapter:
“Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”
Joel, another of God’s ancient prophets, prophecying of future events, in 2nd chapter, says:
“Fear not, O land; be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. And the floors shall [p.21] be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. * * * And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you, and my people shall never be ashamed.”