Cowley's Talks on Doctrine

by Matthias F. Cowley

Closely connected with the foregoing prophecies is one found in Isaiah, thirty-fifth chapter, first and tenth verses: "The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." Almost the entire chapter has a bearing upon this subject.

The Lord has so abundantly blessed the labors of His people in that once barren region that truly the desert does rejoice and blossom as the rose. That Salt Lake valley was a most forbidding place cannot be denied. James Bridges, an old trapper who had seen Salt Lake valley before the Pioneers, was so confident of the perpetual sterility of the soil, rendered so by having little or no water, scarcely any rain, and frost nearly every month in the year, that he said to President Brigham Young: "I will give you a thousand dollars for the first ear of corn that can be produced in Salt Lake valley." Our geographies designated that country as the Great American Desert. Daniel Webster, the great statesman and orator, earnestly opposed the annexation of that section of the country to the United States on the ground of its almost utter worthlessness, claiming it would be a financial burden to the government.

Notwithstanding these forbidding aspects, the Prophet Joseph Smith predicted on the 6th of August, 1842, that the Latter-day Saints would become a mighty people in the midst of the Rocky Mountains. This prophecy will be found readily in a work entitled "A New Witness for God," by Elder B. H. Roberts, which work also contains really other predictions of the prophet Joseph Smith, and shows their fulfillment. The following in the prophecy of Isaiah, chapter thirty-five, "For in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert, and the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty lands springs of water," has been fulfilled in the settlement of the Rocky Mountain region by the Latter-day Saints.

As the judgments of God come upon the earth the gathering of Israel will be accelerated, and the words of the prophet Isaiah will be fulfilled wherein he asks the question, "Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?" (Isa. lx:8.) As they come together from their long dispersion, and from the north country, in times of famine, pestilence and bloodshed, the Lord will strengthen them by saying, "Fear not; for I am with thee; I will bring thy seed from the east and gather thee from the west; I will say to the north, give up; and to the south, keep not back; bring my sons from afar, and my daughters from the ends of the earth; even every one that is called by my name." (Isa. xliii:5 6.) How universal will be this gathering from all points of the compass, and which will apply to all who are truly called by the name of the Lord!

This gathering will be attended by greater power than heretofore, and no power will be able to impede the progress of the great work. Hear what Ezekiel says: "And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out. And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face." (Ezekiel xx:34, 35.) The same prophet also predicts the gathering of Israel in unmistakable terms, in chapter xxxvi:24: "For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you into your own land."

The foregoing predictions are chiefly from the Old Testament, but the New Testament also contains many very definite forecasts upon this glorious subject; indeed, in the last days, when the Gospel should be restored to earth by divine revelation, the dispensation thus established was to be designated as a gathering dispensation, as stated by Paul in Ephesians, chapter i:9, 10: "Having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself; that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on the earth; even in Him." This is in perfect accord with the prophecy of Isaiah before quoted, that all who are called by the name of the Lord should be gathered together.

Jesus offered the gathering to the house of Judah in His day, but they rejected it. He said unto them, "O, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate; and verily I say unto you, ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." (Luke xiii:34, 35.) How terribly have these words been fulfilled upon the Jews through their having rejected the Messiah and the principle of gathering which He offered to them.

By reading the book of Zechariah we learn that when the Jews have gathered to their promised land, in the last days, and the armies of the Gentiles surround them, the Messiah will appear unto them on the Mount of Olives. Looking to the fulfillment of the great predictions the feeling now pervades the hearts of the Jews, to a very great extent, to furnish means for the purchase of the land of Palestine, that they may return and rebuild the city of Jerusalem.

When the Twelve Apostles at Jerusalem requested of the Savior to know the signs of His second coming, He gave various evidences, among which was the preaching of the Gospel of the kingdom and consequently its restoration to the earth, and the raising up of prophets to warn the people, without which the comparison of the days of Noah and the days of the second coming of the Messiah would not be complete. To counterfeit the work of God through prophets that should be raised up, false prophets and teachers should also arise; kingdom should arise against kingdom; war, pestilence and bloodshed should desolate the nations of the earth; the gathering of Israel should be going on, as proved by the prophecies heretofore quoted, and when the signs of His appearing should appear in the heavens, "He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." (Matt. xxiv:31; see also Mark xiii:27.)

This is the dispensation of the fullness of times in which all the keys, power and authority enjoyed by all previous dispensations have been restored to the earth, and this includes the keys of the gathering. Under date of April 3d, 1836, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were the recipients of many splendid visions and revelations at Kirtland Ohio, in the Temple of the Lord. They solemnly testify as follows: "After this vision closed, the heavens were again opened unto us, and Moses appeared before us, and committed unto us the keys of the gathering of Israel from the four parts of the earth, and the leading of the ten tribes from the land of the north." (Doctrine and Covenants, Sec. 110:11.)