A Celestial Law.—It was a law of the Celestial Kingdom—the Zion of Eternity—that the Saints were required to obey, to the end that the Lord's will might be done on earth even as it is done in heaven—that Earth might become a heaven, in fact, and they who made it so be prepared for "a place in the celestial world."[[12]]
Stewardships.—It was not proposed to take from the people their possessions, and demand all their time and service, without making ample provision for their support. They were not to be pauperized, but enriched, through obedience to God's law. The properties they consecrated—farms, printing offices, mills, work-shops, money, etc.—were to be returned to them as "stewardships," differing, as talents, aptitudes, and the ability to handle much or little differ, but all to be managed in the interest of the common cause. All earnings were to go into a general fund, from which each steward would derive a maintenance, "every man according to his wants and his needs, inasmuch as his wants are just."[[13]]
First Bishops.—The introduction of this system was the occasion for the call of the first Bishops. The men chosen to manage, under the direction of the First Presidency, the temporalities of the United Order, were Edward Partridge and Newel K. Whitney. The former, as Bishop in Zion, received consecrations, Missouri. The latter officiated in a similar capacity at Kirtland, Ohio, the headquarters of a State of Zion.[[14]]
Against Lawlessness.—The United Order did not encourage lawlessness. It was the very antithesis of anarchy. It stood for law and government, for wise and good government—the government of God for the benefit of man. Sounding the death-knell of monopoly, fraud, and the misuse of power and privilege, it proposed to do away with class distinctions, founded on pride, vanity and the worship of wealth. It would abolish such conditions—not by violence, but peacefully and by common consent. Doctrine, not dynamite; humility, not self-assertion; love of God and fellow man, not hatred and strife, were to effect the desired emancipation. Under the benign influence of the Holy Spirit—God's gift to all who take upon them his name—envy and greed would give way to brotherly love and mutual helpfulness.
No Drones in the Hive.—While philanthropic in the highest degree, the United Order was no mere alms-giving concern, no eleemosynary institution. Every member of the community was expected to work, to do that for which he or she might best be fitted. There were to be no drones in the hive, no idleness eating the bread of industry. Employment for all, a place for everything and everything in its place—such was the ideal of this social-religious organization. It stood, in short, for justice and fair-dealing, with every man in the secure possession and full enjoyment of his own. Out of the righteous unity resulting from this ideal condition, was to come the power to build up Zion and prepare the way of the Lord.
Why the Ideal Was Not Realized.—The United Order was not permanently established; nor did its original workings long continue. Selfishness within, and persecution without, were the two-fold cause. The Church, driven from place to place, found it impracticable, with an imperfect acceptance by its members of the Law of Consecration, to bring forth Zion at that early day. The great event, however, was only postponed. The realization of the ideal is still in prospect.
The Jackson County Expulsion—An attempt to rear the New Jerusalem was made in the summer of 1831, a colony approximating fifteen hundred men, women and children, settling for that purpose in Jackson County, Missouri,[[15]] upon lands purchased from the Federal Government. Ground was consecrated, and a City laid out, including the site for a Temple. But a lack of the perfect unity necessary on the part of those selected for this sacred task, prevented its accomplishment at that time. "There were jarrings and contentions, and envyings and strifes, and lustful and covetous desires among them; therefore, by these things they polluted their inheritances."[[16]] Forewarned by the Prophet of what would result if these evils were not corrected, the colonists did not as a whole pay sufficient heed to the admonition, and the Lord permitted their enemies to come upon them and drive them from "the goodly land."
Persecuted and Persecutors.—The Jackson County colonists, whatever their faults, were superior to the people who mobbed them and drove them from their homes, misinterpreting their motives and falsely accusing them of unfriendly acts or intentions toward the earlier settlers. The persecuted were better than the persecutors; but not good enough to completely carry out the high and holy purposes of Deity. It was in the autumn of 1833 that the "Mormon" colony was expelled from Jackson County.[[17]]
Zion Not Moved.—Then, and at a later period, when similar and worse mobbings and drivings had taken place, those who committed or countenanced the outrages were wont to say mockingly: "Whenever the Mormons are driven from one Zion, their Prophet gets a revelation appointing Zion somewhere else." How utterly unfounded this assertion, is best told in the language of a revelation given a few weeks after the Jackson County expulsion. Therein the Lord says:
"Zion shall not be moved out of her place, notwithstanding her children are scattered;