"On my arrival home I found my family well, and I felt to rejoice in the Lord that He had preserved my life through so many dangers. Concluding that I had finished my mission to which the Lord had called me, after resting a few days, I established my pottery and began business."
Thus ended that remarkable expedition; remarkable for its object, for the issues involved, for its tragic episodes, examples of heroism and miraculous manifestations of divine power. What had it achieved? some may ask. Nay, might not many be tempted to query, Was not the mission of Zion's Camp a failure?
"What have you accomplished?" was the sneering taunt of the apostate and of those weak in faith, met by the remnant of the little band on their return to Kirtland. "Just what we went for;" the meek, though firm reply of such men as Heber C. Kimball and Brigham Young.
And they were right. To them it was no failure. The trial of their faith was complete. Their offering, like Abraham's, had been accepted. They had been weighed in the eternal balance, and were not found wanting.
But what of Zion and her redemption?
Let the word of the Lord, the God of Enoch, the God of Joseph give answer:
"THE REDEMPTION OF ZION MUST NEEDS COME BY POWER."
Power dwells in unity, not in discord; in humility, not pride; in sacrifice, not selfishness; obedience, not rebellion.
Zion's Camp, if it failed at all in fulfilling its mission, failed for precisely similar reasons to those which had caused the expulsion of the Saints from Jackson County; reasons which, in ancient times, kept Israel wandering for forty years in the wilderness, within sight of their coveted Canaan, which they were not permitted in that generation to possess. Like Moses, these modern pilgrims beheld, as from Pisgah's top, their promised land: like Moses, on account of transgression, they were not permitted to "cross over." No doubt there were Calebs and Joshuas in the Camp, who were worthy. But the great event, in the wisdom of the Highest, was not then destined to be.
It was left for a future generation and its Joshua to go up in the might of the Lord and redeem Zion.