The Place of Safety.
An Inspired Choice.—Who can doubt the wisdom of the choice that made the Rocky Mountains, in lieu of the Pacific Coast, a permanent home for the once homeless Latter-day Saints? Had they gone to California, as Elder Brannan advised, it would have meant, in all probability, their disruption and dispersion as a community, or at all events another painful exodus in quest of peace and freedom. It would have been to invite, from the inhabitants of that region—fast filling up with immigrants from those very States where the persecuted people had experienced their sorest troubles—a repetition of the woes from which they were fleeing. Here in these mountain fastnesses, a thousand miles from the frontiers of civilization, they were safe from mobs and molestation.
Better Than Elsewhere.—Better for them, in every way, that they should bide where Providence placed them. The coast country, with all its attractions—and they are many—has no such rare climate as can be found in this more highly favored region. The land once supposed to be worthless, and to redeem which even in part from its ancient barrenness, has required years on years of toil and privation, turns out to be a veritable treasure-house of natural resources, a self-sustaining empire; and in periods of strife and turmoil, when war rocks the world, it is probably the safest place beneath the sun.
The Great War.—This mention again brings to the fore Joseph Smith's great "Prophecy on War." It has been seen how the Southern States, when they endeavored to withdraw from the Union, "called on Great Britain" for recognition and assistance, thus making good a portion of the Prophet's prediction. But when did Great Britain "call upon other nations," fulfilling in her own case the terms of the "Mormon" leader's fateful forecast? Certainly not during the stormy period of the "sixties," nor for many decades thereafter.
But the time came eventually. After the outbreak of the World War, when the German hosts were overrunning Belgium and Northern France, threatening even England herself, Great Britain did call upon the nations with which she had made treaties, for the help that she so sorely needed. The visit to America, before and after the United States declared war against Germany, of representatives of Great Britain and others of the Allied nations, appealing for military aid, was a potent factor in inducing our Government to send ships and troops across the Atlantic, to help beat back the Teutonic invader.
Only The Beginning.—Very evident is it that the tempest of war foretold by Joseph Smith did not cease with the close of the conflict between the Northern and the Southern States. The storm has continued intermittently to this time. Lulls there have been, but no lasting cessation of the strife. Five years after the collapse of the Southern Confederacy, came the Franco-Prussian War, foreshadowing Germany's mad attempt to conquer the world. The American Civil War, the Franco-Prussian War, and the more recent World War, were all parts of the great "outpouring" predicted on that ominous Christmas day. And the same may be said of other conflicts that have since taken place. Equally true will it be of any future strife that may be necessary to help free the world from oppression and iniquity. Unless the wicked repent, there is more—much more to come.[[1]]
But in what way did the revolt of South Carolina, which began the Civil War, prove a "beginning" of wars for "all nations"? This question is intelligently discussed in a pamphlet recently put forth by Elder James H. Anderson, of Salt Lake City. That writer shows that with the outbreak of the Southern-Northern conflict, the whole system of modern warfare underwent a change, and that since then it has experienced a complete revolution, through the invention and use of machine guns, airships, submarines, and other death-dealing instrumentalities, absolutely unknown in previous military history, and marking a distinct beginning, such as the Prophet indicated.[[2]]
Dangers Upon the Deep.—One frightful feature of the unparalleled struggle that ended with the signing of the armistice (November 11, 1918), was the havoc wrought by the German U-boats, otherwise known as submarines. There had been, before the coming of the U-boat, dreadful dangers upon the waters, as the fate of the ill-starred "Titanic"—ripped open by an iceberg—testifies. But the submarine, the assassin of the "Lusitania," multiplied those dangers a hundred fold. Did the proud world know that a prophet of God had foreseen these fearful happenings, and had sounded a warning of their approach?
In August, 1831, Joseph Smith, with a party of friends, returning from their first visit to Zion in Jackson County, encamped on the bank of the Missouri River, at a place called Mcllwair's (or Mcllwaine's) Bend. There, one of the party, William W. Phelps, saw in vision the Destroyer riding in awful fury upon the river, and the incident called forth a revelation in which the Lord says:
"Behold, there are many dangers upon the waters, and more especially hereafter;