Key to the Science of Theology

by Parley P. Pratt

Physically speaking, there seems to need but the consummation of two great enterprises more, in order to complete the preparations necessary for the fulfilment of Isaiah and other Prophets, in regard to the restoration of Israel to Palestine, from the four quarters of the earth, and the annual re-union of all nations to the new standards, holy shrines and temples of Zion and Jerusalem, under the auspices of that great, universal and permanent theocracy which is to succeed the long reign of mystery.

One of these is the Great Eastern Railway from Europe to India and China, with its branches, and accompanying telegraphic wires, centering at Jerusalem.

The other is the Great Western Railway, with its branches and accompanying telegraphic lines, from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Politically speaking, some barriers yet remain to be removed, and some conquests to be achieved, such as the subjugation of Japan, and the triumph of constitutional liberty among certain nations where mind, and thought, and religion are still prescribed by law.

These things achieved, even the most incredulous in regard to the truth of Scripture Prophecy will be constrained to acknowledge, that, physically and politically speaking, there is nothing impossible, or even improbable, in the belief, that the twelve tribes of Israel will be concentrated from all nations in their own land, that Jerusalem will become the capitol of political government, the seat of knowledge, and the shrine of worship, for the yearly resort of all the nations and countries included in the world known to the Prophets of old; while the Western Hemisphere, separated as it is, by two great oceans, from the Old World, will naturally form its own central capitol, its Zion, or New Jerusalem, to which all its tribes and nations may perform their annual visits for instruction, devotion, and mutual interchange of thought, of fellowship and affection.

Can the student of prophecy contemplate all these preparations, clearly predicted thousands of years ago, and now bursting upon the world with seemingly preconcerted connexion and exactness, revolutionizing all things in a single age, and not be struck with the reflection, that the hand of God must be in all this, and that moral energy and spiritual light must be forthcoming from the heavens commensurate with the physical and political preparations for a new Era?

The same Prophets who have contemplated and described the development of national freedom, universal intercourse, mutual peace, knowledge, union of worship, reunion of the tribes of Israel; that have described highways, trains of cars flying as it were with a cloud, ocean steamers, ships, litters and swift beasts, as the instruments of restoration, have also predicted that, in connexion with all these preparations, a new dispensation should be manifested, a new covenant established, "A Standard" for the nation, "An Ensign" for the people. In short, "Swift Messengers," "Teachers," Prophets would be commissioned, revelations be manifested, and a new organization be developed, fitted to the times, and with principles and laws adapted to the reorganization, order, and government of a renovated world.

Where and when should we look for the "grain of mustard seed," the germ, the nucleus of such organization? Of course in a land of free institutions, where such organization could be legally developed, and claim constitutional protection, until sufficiently matured to defend itself against the convulsions, the death struggles, the agonizing throes, which precede the dissolution of the long reign of mystic tyranny; and at a time when modern freedom had been consolidated, nationalized, and its standard recognized among the nations.

Such an organization should also be looked for, in its first development, as cotemporary with the first dawn or development of the physical and political means provided for the same result.

The beginning of the present century gave birth to those chosen instruments who were destined to hold the keys of restoration for the renovation of the world.