Yet not alone upon Zion's Camp must rest the responsibility of their failure to redeem Zion. It bears with at least equal weight upon those whom they came to succor.
What said the Lord concerning them?
"Behold, they have not learned to be obedient, * * * but are full of all manner of evil, and do not impart of their substance, as becometh Saints, to the poor and afflicted among them."
Is not the episode of the fowl, related by Heber, a tell-tale straw before the wind in this connection? Can a people honey-combed with selfishness build up Zion?
"And are not united according to the union required by the law of
the celestial kingdom;"—
Again that injunction of unity, the secret of Zion's redemption.
"Except ye are one ye are not mine."
"And Zion cannot be built up unless it is by the principles of the law of the celestial kingdom, otherwise I cannot receive her unto myself."
Wonderful revealing, this. What is it but to say that the United Order, the Order of Enoch, the Order of Zion, is the order of the celestial worlds, where the Gods, a divine brotherhood, have "all things common?"
"Therefore it is expedient in me that mine elders should wait for a little season, for the redemption of Zion."
Is it marvelous that this should be; that a work of such magnitude should require preparation; that Zion, city of holiness, should be built up only by the pure in heart? Ah, reader, the redemption of Zion is more than the purchase or recovery of lands, the building of cities, or even the founding of nations. It is the conquest of the heart, the subjugation of the soul, the sanctifying of the flesh, the purifying and ennobling of the passions. Greater is he who subdues himself, who captures and maintains the citadel of his own soul, than he who, misnamed conqueror, fills the world with the roar of drums, the thunder of cannon, the lightning of swords and bayonets, overturns and sets up kingdoms, lives and reigns a king, yet wears to the grave the fetters of unbridled lust, and dies the slave of sin.