On the 17th of December, 1860, nearly 28 years after the above revelation on war was given, its fulfilment commenced, for on that day a convention assembled in Charleston, S. C., which, after three days' deliberation, passed a resolution to the effect that the union hitherto existing between South Carolina and the other States, under the name of the United States of America, was dissolved. This was the beginning of the rebellion. By the 1st of February, 1861, six other States had followed the example of South Carolina and withdrawn from the Union, and a new government was formed under the name of The Confederate States of America. Not only was South Carolina the first State to commence the rebellion, but here also, as if to cause a double fulfilment of Joseph's prophecy, on April 12, 1861, the first gun was fired from a Confederate battery against Fort Sumter standing at the entrance to Charleston harbor.
The ruinous war that followed is a matter of history. The Union losses alone, according to the report of the Provost-General, amounted to 280,397 men, who were either killed outright in battle, or who died subsequently of wounds or diseases, not counting the thousands who were crippled and maimed for life. The loss on the side of the Confederates was about the same. Truly, as Joseph predicted, the United States never witnessed such a scene of bloodshed before. The losses in the revolutionary war, in the war of 1812, and in the war with Mexico in 1846 were only small affairs compared with this last and terrible war of the rebellion, so accurately predicted by the Prophet Joseph Smith. This prediction alone and its literal fulfilment should be sufficient to convince every reasonable man and woman who will take pains to investigate the subject thoroughly, that Joseph, indeed, was a prophet of the Living God.
CHOLERA PREDICTED.
In 1834 Joseph Smith marched from Ohio to Missouri, a distance of about one thousand miles, as the leader of the illustrious body of men known in Church history as Zion's Camp. On this long and wearisome journey, some of the brethren indulged in a spirit of rebellion and fault-finding, which was rebuked by the Prophet, first in a mild manner and finally very strongly, as he told the brethren that the Lord had revealed to him that a scourge would come upon the camp, in consequence of the fractious and unruly spirit that had appeared among them. Still, if they would repent and humble themselves before the Lord, the scourge might, in a great measure, be turned away, "but, as the Lord lives," he said, "the camp will have to suffer for giving way to unruly tempers." (Historical Record, page 582.) This prediction was fulfilled a few weeks later when the brethren had arrived in Clay County, Mo. On the 21st of June, 1834, the cholera broke out in the camp and raged fearfully for several days. Altogether sixty-eight of the Saints were attacked with the dreadful disease and thirteen died. Finally Joseph called some of the surviving brethren together and told them that if they would humble themselves before the Lord and covenant to keep His commandments, and obey his (Joseph's) counsel, the plague should be stayed from that hour and there should not be another case of cholera among them. The brethren covenanted to that effect and the plague was stayed.
ASTRONOMY OF ABRAHAM.
July 3, 1835, a man by the name of Michael H. Chandler came to Kirtland, Ohio, to exhibit four Egyptian mummies, together with some two or more rolls of papyrus, covered with hieroglyphic figures and devices. They had been obtained from one of the catacombs of Egypt, (near a place where once stood the renowned city of Thebes) by the celebrated Antonio Sebolo, in the year 1831. Joseph Smith, upon examining the rolls of papyrus, discovered that one of them contained the writings of Abraham and another the writings of Joseph who was sold into Egypt. The whole collection was bought by the Saints, and Joseph subsequently translated the writings of Abraham which, together with a number of illustration, were published in the Times and Seasons, at Nauvoo, Ill., in 1843, and which we now have in the little excellent work called the Pearl of Great Price, under the caption of the Book of Abraham. This book, besides giving a history of the creation of the earth and man, also introduces a new doctrine in regard to astronomy. It tells of a planet called Kolob, near which is the throne of God, and around which everything in the great universe revolves in regular order. At that time the generally accepted theory among astronomers was that, with the exception of the few planets (among which is our own earth) which sweep regularly around the sun, all the heavenly bodies called stars, were fixed or stationary, and that the sun, furnishing light and warmth for our earth, besides being the centre of gravitation for our solar system, was the nearest fixed or stationary star. Hence, when Joseph Smith, in the astronomy of Abraham, introduced the doctrine that there was a grand centre set far beyond the limits of our own solar system, he was derided by not a few, who ascribed the idea to his ignorance, in not having even a superficial knowledge of the principles of astronomy. But the theories of men change as the Lord gives them more light and intelligence, and today the doctrine advanced in the Book of Abraham is a generally accepted one among astronomers. In proof of this I will introduce the following extract of a letter from Lieutenant M. F. Maury, of the United States Navy, a man acknowledged on all sides as one of the most eminent scientific men living, dated, Washington, D.C., Jan. 22, 1855.
"It is a curious fact that the revelations of science have led astronomers of our day to the discovery that the sun is not the dead center of motion around which comets sweep and planets whirl; but that it, with its splendid retinue of worlds and satellites, is revolving through the realms of space, at the rate of millions of miles in a year, and in obedience to some influence situated precisely in the direction of the star Alcyon, one of the Pleiades. We do not know how far off in the immensities of space that center of revolving cycles and epicycles may be; nor have our oldest observers or nicest instruments been able to tell us how far off in the skies that beautiful cluster of stars is hung, whose influences man can never bind. In this question alone, and the answer to it are involved both the recognition and exposition of the whole theory of gravitation." (Family Bible, published by Henry S. Goodspeed & Co., New York, page 18.)
Here is another proof that Joseph was a prophet and an inspired man, and that the Book of Abraham is true.
LOCATION OF ANCIENT EDEN.
In 1832 Joseph Smith made the startling declaration that the Garden of Eden had its existence on the American continent—even in Jackson County, Mo. People as a rule ridiculed the idea and thought Joseph very ignorant indeed in not knowing that which every school boy at that time was supposed to know, that Asia was the cradle of mankind. And when he further declared that the Grand River Valley in Daviess County, Mo., was the valley in which Adam our father had lived and that he (Joseph) on an adjoining hill had discovered the remnants of an altar upon which the great Patriarch had offered sacrifice, the world thought that Joseph Smith was either a religious crank, a blasphemer or a fool. I will introduce an item of history in order to make this more plain. It was in the summer of 1838 when the Saints were flocking into Missouri from different parts of the country that it became evident that there would not be room for all to settle in the immediate vicinity of Far West, or in Caldwell County. The Prophet, therefore, together with others, started out to select other gathering places. Arriving at a hill where there was a fine spring of water, at a point where Grand River suddenly changes its course from a southerly to an easterly direction, he was struck with the natural beauty of the country and also with what he thought would be a fine townsite on the slope of the hill. Accordingly, the accompanying surveyors began their work of running lines for streets and lots, and it was decided to name the place Spring Hill; but they had not proceeded far when the Lord, on May 19, 1838, gave a revelation through the Prophet Joseph, naming the place Adam-ondi-Ahman, "because," said the Lord, "it is the place where Adam shall come to visit his people, or the Ancient of Days shall sit, as spoken of by Daniel the Prophet." (Doc. and Cov., sec. 116.) Joseph was also told that it was the place where Adam, as mentioned in a previous revelation, three years before his death, blessed his posterity, when they rose up and called him Michael the Prince, the Archangel; and he, being full of the Holy Ghost, predicted what should befall his posterity to the latest generations. (Doc. and Cov., 107: 53-56.)