I have been requested by brother Kimball to speak a few words upon the subject of the Ancient Prophecies. I will commence without any preliminaries, for we have not time in one short discourse to take up the prophecies systematically, and trace them down in their fulfilment to the present period; neither have we time to refer to one hundredth part of the prophecies relating to the present period, or those that relate to the future; but we have time to say a few words and glean up some few ideas that have a bearing upon the present generation: and I shall endeavor to make my remarks as plain and as simple as possible.
The Latter-day Saints that are now sitting before me, and those who inhabit this Territory, are here in fulfilment of prophecy. We inhabit these mountains because the ancient Prophets have predicted that such an event should take place, and we are fulfilling their predictions in this respect.
We believe in that sacred record called the Book of Mormon. Why? Because the ancient Prophets have predicted that such a book should be revealed in the latter times; and it has come, accompanied with sufficient evidence to produce conviction in our minds; but if any person could persuade us that the Book of Mormon is not the book predicted by the ancient Prophets, we have sufficient light and information in the prophecies to convince us that such a book must come, and we should with one accord look for a book of a similar description.
This latter-day work that we have received, is considered a very strange work, in the estimation of the world; but in the estimation of the Saints it does not appear strange, why? Because it is the very thing that the Lord, by the mouth of His Prophets thousands of years ago, predicted should take place: and we are the very people that are enjoying the fulfilment of those predictions. We will, therefore, in the first place, bring up some prophetical evidences which prove the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon; not but that we have other proofs, that are clear and lucid, and demonstrative in their nature, to establish its divine authenticity.
In regard to the prophetic evidences of the Old Testament in relation to this book, we will first turn to the 29th chapter of Isaiah, and see what he has said upon this subject. In the first verse the Prophet addresses himself to the City of Jerusalem, called Ariel—"Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! add ye year to year; let them kill sacrifices. Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow." We will observe, in relation to this prophecy, that the Jews of the city where David dwelt, were distressed; and notwithstanding they prolonged their sacrifices after they ought to have been done away, they were distressed, and brought down, and afflicted with heaviness and sorrow.
After having foretold the distress of the inhabitants of that city, the Prophet commences concerning another people, and says, "And IT shall be unto me as Ariel." Now here is something to be distressed, to be brought down in heaviness and sorrow, and afflicted similar to the city of Ariel—it is some nation the Prophet speaks of that were to meet with similar affliction to that which should come upon the people of Jerusalem, the city where David dwelt. "And I will camp against thee round about, and will lay siege against thee with a mount, and I will raise forts against thee." Against whom? Against that people who should be afflicted similarly to what the inhabitants of Jerusalem were to be afflicted. "And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be, as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust."
This people, then, that the Prophet here alludes to, were to meet with a similar destruction and affliction to that which should come upon Ariel, and they were to have forts raised against them, and fortifications. Now is not every year bringing to light ancient forts and fortifications upon this continent? It is well known that, within a very few years past, large and extensive volumes have been published describing the forts, fortifications, and ancient ruins that have been found in the midst of the United States. In the large volumes published by the "Smithsonian Institution" in Washington, one of the most learned institutions of our country, are found descriptions of a great number of those ancient ruins; they are situated in the States of New York and Ohio. These discoveries have been published within a few years past.