EPISTLE OF ELDER WILFORD WOODRUFF, ONE OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES.
To the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and to all the world, greeting:—
I feel desirous once more, while in the flesh, by the word of God and testimony of Jesus Christ, to bear my testimony unto you as the Church and Kingdom of God, established on the earth by the God of heaven in this last dispensation and fulness of times; I also wish to bear my testimony to all nations under heaven, to emperors, kings, presidents, statesmen, governors, judges, Jew, and Gentile, and to all rulers, and the ruled who dwell upon the face of the whole earth. My testimony is this unto all men and nations, that you live in the day and hour of the judgments of God Almighty. You live in the day and generation when the God of Israel has set His hand to perform His work, His strange work in the latter-days. You live in the age in which God will bring to pass the fulfilment of that flood of prophecy and revelation which has been spoken by all the prophets since the world began, which stands recorded in the sacred books of divine truth; and the fulfilment of these revelations will involve the destiny of the whole world, Jew and Gentile, rich and poor, high and low, saint and sinner, Babylon and Zion. Therefore, prepare yourselves, O! ye inhabitants of the earth, for the hour of God's judgment is at the door. As it was in the days of Noah and of Lot, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man.
I address myself first to the Saints of God, who have entered into covenant with the Lord and have been ordained unto the holy priesthood. If you are living your religion, and enjoy the spirit of inspiration, which is your duty and privilege, you know as God lives that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God; that he received the administration of angels; that he brought forth the Book of Mormon, and translated it by the power of God. You know he received the fulness of the Everlasting Gospel, and the holy priesthood and apostleship and the keys thereof; and that he organized the Church of Christ, the only true and living Church upon the face of the whole earth, with its gifts and graces, with which the Lord is "well pleased." You do know Joseph Smith, the Prophet, left his testimony upon the earth and sealed that testimony with his blood, and that testament is in force upon the world, and that testament is filled with the revelations of God, that stand upon its pages like flames of living fire, ready to be fulfilled upon all the inhabitants of the earth. In this testament the Lord has commanded His servants to go to all the world and preach this gospel of the kingdom to every creature, as far as doors are open. He also commanded His servants to visit New York, Albany, Boston, and all the notable cities and villages of the world, reproving them for their ungodly deeds, and warning them of the desolation and utter destruction which awaits them, if they reject the testimony of the servants of God. "With you, saith the Lord Almighty, I will rend their kingdoms, for I will shake not only the earth, but the starry heavens shall tremble; you cannot see it now, but soon you will see it and know that I am God." You Latter-day Saints, do you not know these things are true? You do, and so do I, for the spirit of God bears record, and the record is truth, and truth abideth forever. Under the circumstances, what manner of men and women ought we to be? Are we prepared as a people for the great events which await us; which await both Zion and Babylon? Judge ye! What is our duty as Saints of the living God? It is our duty to humble ourselves before the Lord and call upon His name, until we are filled with the Holy Ghost and the spirit of inspiration, which is the light of Christ. Pay our tithes and offerings, keep the commandments of God and have faith in His word, remember and honor the ordinances we have observed, and the covenants and obligations we have entered into in the holy places and temples of our God. We should unite ourselves together in a temporal as well as in a spiritual point of view, as directed by the wise men of Israel. We should seek to build up the Kingdom and Zion of our God, and not ourselves alone. When we do these things we are prepared as a people to let our prayers ascend into the ears of the Lord of Sabbaoth, and they will be heard and answered upon our heads. Again, this testament which Joseph Smith left, contains a revelation and commandment from God, out of heaven, concerning the patriarchal order of marriage. The Lord has commanded us to have our wives and children sealed to us, for time and eternity, that we may have them with us in our family organizations in the resurrection to dwell with us forever in the eternal worlds, that we may have an increase of posterity forever in connection with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the ancient patriarchs. I would say to all Israel, treat your wives and children kindly, and keep the commandments of God and trust in Him, and He will fight your battles. And I will say, in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, that "Mormonism" will live and prosper, Zion will flourish, and the Kingdom of God will stand in power and glory and dominion as Daniel saw it, when this nation is broken to pieces as a potter's vessel and laid in the dust, and brought to judgment, or God never spoke by my mouth. Therefore I say to all the Saints throughout the world, be faithful and true to your God and to your religion, to your families and to yourselves. Jesus of Nazareth has suffered death on the cross for the redemption of the world, and his apostles followed his example for the word of the Lord and testimony of Jesus Christ, and Joseph Smith proved to God, angels, and men that he would and did abide in his covenants unto death, and none of us shall be called to do anything more. We certainly, any of us, would be ashamed to deny the faith, to accommodate our enemies, then meet the prophets and apostles in the spirit world. May God forbid that this should be the case with any of the blood of Ephraim. I wish in this testimony to say that the time is not far distant when the rich men among the Jews will be called upon to use their abundant wealth to gather the dispersed of Judah, and purchase the ancient dwelling places of their fathers in and about Jerusalem, and rebuild the holy city and temple.
For the fulness of the Gentiles has come in, and the Lord has decreed that the Jews should be gathered from all the Gentile nations where they have been driven, into their own land, in fulfillment of the words of Moses their law-giver. And this is the will of your great Eloheim, O house of Judah, and whenever you shall be called upon to perform this work, the God of Israel will help you. You have a great future and destiny before you and you cannot avoid fulfilling it; you are the royal chosen seed, and the God of your father's house has kept you distinct as a nation for eighteen hundred years, under all the oppression of the whole Gentile world. You may not wait until you believe on Jesus of Nazareth, but when you meet with Shiloh your king, you will know him; your destiny is marked out, you cannot avoid it. It is true that after you return and gather your nation home, and rebuild your City and Temple, that the Gentiles may gather together their armies to go against you to battle, to take you a prey and to take you as a spoil, which they will do, for the words of your prophets must be fulfilled; but when this affliction comes, the living God, that led Moses through the wilderness, will deliver you, and your Shiloh will come and stand in your midst and will fight your battles; and you will know him, and the afflictions of the Jews will be at an end, while the destruction of the Gentiles will be so great that it will take the whole house of Israel who are gathered about Jerusalem, seven months to bury the dead of their enemies, and the weapons of war will last them seven years for fuel, so that they need not go to any forest for wood. These are tremendous sayings—who can bear them? Nevertheless they are true, and will be fulfilled, according to the sayings of Ezekiel, Zechariah, and other prophets. Though the heavens and the earth pass away, not one jot or tittle will fall unfulfilled.
I would say to the Lamanites, if I could speak to them understandingly, that you are also a branch of the house of Israel, and chiefly of the house of Joseph, and your forefathers have fallen through the same examples of unbelief and sins, as have the Jews, and you, as their posterity, have wandered in sin and darkness for many generations; and you, like the Jews, have been driven and trampled under the foot of the Gentiles, and put to death through your wars with each other, and with the white man, until you are almost destroyed. But there is still a redemption and salvation for a remnant of you in the latter days. It is time for you to cease shedding each other's blood or making war upon your fellow-man. Cease to destroy one another, learn to cultivate the earth, and raise your food therefrom; call upon the Great Spirit to protect you and deliver you from bondage and darkness, and the Great Spirit will hear you and deliver you, and a remnant of you will again become a delightsome people as your forefathers were when they kept the commandments of God.
Could I speak to the Ten Tribes of Israel, in the north country, I would say, call upon the God of your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that your prophets may come in remembrance before God, that they may hear His voice and no longer stay themselves, but smite the rocks, that the mountains of ice may flow down at their presence. "A highway shall be cast up in the midst of the great deep;" their enemies shall become a prey unto them. Bring forth your records and rich treasures unto the children of Ephraim, the servants of the Lord in the land of Zion, and the boundaries of the everlasting hills shall tremble at your presence, and you shall fall down and be crowned with glory, even in Zion, by the hands of the servants of God, even the children of Ephraim, and you shall be filled with songs of everlasting joy; behold this is the "blessing of the everlasting God upon the tribes of Israel, and the richer blessing upon the head of Ephraim and his fellows."
These events referred to are but a very limited portion of the revelations of God which are about to be fulfilled upon the heads of this generation. I wish to warn all nations of the judgments of God which are at their doors. Thrones will be cast down, nations will be overturned, anarchy will reign, all legal barriers will be broken down, and the laws will be trampled in the dust. You are about to be visited with war, the sword, famine, pestilence, plague, earthquakes, whirlwinds, tempests, and with the flame of devouring fire; by fire and with the sword will God plead with all flesh, and the slain of the Lord will be many. The anger of the Lord is kindled and His sword is bathed in heaven, and is about to fall upon Idumea, or the world. And who is able to abide these things? And who will stand when He appeareth? The fig trees are leaving, and the signs of all heaven and earth indicate the coming of the Son of Man. The seals are about to be opened, the plagues to be poured forth. Your rivers and seas will be turned to blood and to gall. And the inhabitants of the earth will die of plagues. And the unbelief of great Babylon, with the whole Christian world, will not make the truths of God without effect. Let the world look, for example, at the ancient cities of the nations. Where are Thebes, Tyre, Sidon, Nineveh, and Babylon the Great, which were built to defy all time, and all power but God Himself? They were laid in the dust and their inhabitants destroyed, when they were ripened in iniquity, and this too, in fulfilment of the word of God unto them through the voices of righteous men, who spake as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost. In like manner was Jerusalem destroyed and the Jews scattered among the Gentiles in fulfilment of the words of Moses and Jesus Christ. Will the Lord any more spare the cities of the Gentiles and Great Babylon than he spared the ancient cities of the Jews? No, verily no. The question may be asked, why these judgments are coming upon the world in the last days? I answer, because of the wickedness of the inhabitants thereof. The very proclamation of the angel of God when he delivered the fulness of the Gospel as revealed in the Revelations of St. John was, "crying with a loud voice, fear God and give glory to Him for the hour of His judgment is come." And when that proclamation was made to Joseph Smith the Prophet, it was half a century ago, "light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil." The Lord has raised up prophets and apostles who have cried aloud to this generation with the proclamation of the Gospel for half a century, and warned them of the judgments which were to come, and the inhabitants of the earth have rejected this testimony, and shed the blood of the Lord's anointed and persecuted the Saints of God, and the consequence is this: "Darkness covers the earth, and gross darkness the people," and the Lord is withholding His spirit from the inhabitants of the earth, and the devil is ruling over his own kingdom and wickedness and abominations of every kind have increased a hundred fold within the last few years, until the whole earth is filled with murders, whoredoms, blasphemies, and every crime in the black catalogue that was manifest in the antediluvian world and in Sodom and Gomorrah, until the whole earth groans under its abominations, and the heavens weep, and all eternity is pained, and the angels are waiting the great command to go forth and reap down the earth. This testimony I bear to all nations under heaven, and I know it is true by the inspiration of Almighty God, and the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States bears me out in the opinion that the constitution gives me the privilege of enjoying my belief, and faith and opinion in religion. Therefore the execution of all these tremendous events I leave for the God of heaven, which He most assuredly will bring about. What I have spoken I have spoken, and I excuse not myself, and "though the heavens and the earth pass away, my words will not pass away, but will all be fulfilled," saith the Lord of Hosts.
I subscribe myself an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, and member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
WILFORD WOODRUFF.