# The Evening and the Morning Star, v1n09, editorial matter attributed to W. W. Phelps (editor)
# Date: February 1833 (Independence, Missouri)
# Source: http://www.centerplace.org/history/ems/v1n09.htm (centerplace.org transcription). Pieces: THE LAST DAYS; THE JEWS:-AGAIN; COMMANDMENTS. Notes: unsigned editorials in Phelps-edited issue (confidence medium; 'To Man' June 1832 signed W. W. PHELPS = high); revelations, scripture extracts, reprints, hymns, and others' letters excluded; quoted matter and detected unmarked scripture paragraphs stripped; transcriber bracket-corrections removed (original spelling retained).

[THE LAST DAYS]

Something singular attaches itself to the phrase, The last days. We can take up the bible, and read what took place in the beginning, without any emotion, and generally without realizing what did happen; but when we read the prophecies touching the last days, the very soul starts to know what shall be.-We can look back to the morning of creation, when God said, Let there be light, and there was light, without ever remembering that his glory covered the heavens and his brightness was before the brightness of the sun; without reflecting that when he made the firmament, and divided the waters under the firmament, from the waters above the firmament, that the great deep, even the upper deep, was, and he laid the beams of his chambers in it; and that the waters beneath were gathered into one place, so that six parts of the earth were dry: yea, we can lightly read these grand scenes of the beginning, without ever thinking that the earth has since been divided, and that the heap of great waters, has been spread over the earth to frustrate some of the wicked designs of ungodly men; but when the last days begin to cast their shadows before, we stop and wonder, with great earnestness, what is about to come to pass. We see nation rising against nation; we hear of the pestilence destroying its thousands in one place, and its tens of thousands in another; the plague consuming all before it, and we witness the terror that reigns in the hearts of the wicked, and we are ready to exclaim, The Lord is certainly about bringing the world to an account of its iniquity. Let us reflect, then, in the last days, that there was to be great tribulation: for the Savior says, nation shall rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places; and the prophets have declared that the valleys should rise; that the mountains should be laid low; that a great earthquake should be, in which the sun should become black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon turn into blood; yea, the Eternal God hath declared that the great deep shall roll back into the north countries and that the land of Zion and the land of Jerusalem shall be joined together, as they were before they were divided in the days of Peleg. No wonder the mind starts at the sound of the last days! Great things will come to pass in them: sickness, sorrow, pain and death, will come upon the wicked; the righteous will be gathered from all nations, as well as Israel, to Zion, and the Jews assemble at Jerusalem, to behold the Lord of glory gather all things in one, that there may be on earth, one fold and one Shepherd.

We live in a great time; one of the most eventful periods that has ever been: it is not only the time when the captivity of Jacob's tents will return, but it is the time when the wicked and their works shall be destroyed; when the earth shall be restored to its former beauty and goodness, and shall yield its increase; when plagues shall be sent to humble the haughty, and bring them, if they will, to a knowledge of God:

Esdras, or Ezra the High Priest, we suppose, seems to have had a great view of the last days, and for all that has ever appeared to the contrary, by the wisdom of man, he spake by the Spirit of God, and says:-

For we that have received the law perish by sin, and our heart also which receiveth it. Notwithstanding, the law perisheth not, but remaineth in his force.-And when I spake these things in my heart, I looked back with mine eyes, and upon the right side I saw a woman, and behold, she mourned and wept with a loud voice and was much grieved in heart, and her clothes were rent, and she had ashes upon her head.

And those thirty years I did nothing else day and night, and every hour, but make my prayer to the Highest.

And I nourished him with great travail. So when he grew up, and came to the time that he should have a wife, I made a feast. And it so came to pass, that when my son was entered into his wedding chamber, he fell down and died. Then we all overthrew the lights, and all my neighbors rose up to comfort me:

And I do now purpose not to return into the city, but here to stay, and neither to eat nor drink, but continually to mourn and to fast until I die.

For thou seest that our sanctuaries are laid waste, our alter broken down, our temple destroyed; our psaltry is laid on the ground, our song is put to silence, our rejoicing is at an end, the light of our candlestick is put out, the ark of our covenant is spoiled, our holy things are defiled, and the name that is called upon us, almost profaned: our children are put to shame, our priests are burnt, our Levites are gone into captivity, our virgins are defiled, and our wives ravished; our righteous men carried away, our little ones destroyed, our young men are brought in bondage, and our strong men are become weak; and, which is the greatest of all, the seal of Zion hath now lost her honor; for she is delivered into the hands of them that hate us.

And behold, suddenly she made a great cry, very fearful: so that the earth shook at the noise of the woman.

Then said I, speak on, my lord, in me; only forsake me not, lest I die frustrate of my hope.

But after thirty years Solomon builded the city, and offered offerings; and then bare the barren a son.

For in the place where the Highest beginneth to shew his city, there can no man's building be able to stand.

So I slept that night and another, like as he commanded me.

And I beheld and lo, that man waxed strong with the thousands of heaven: and when he turned his countenance to look, all the things trembled that were seen under him. And whensoever the voice went out of his mouth, all they burned that heard his voice, like as the earth faileth when it feeleth the fire.

And after this I beheld, and lo, there was gathered together a multitude of men, out of number, from the four winds of the heavens, to subdue the man that came out of the sea.

But I beheld, and lo, he had graven himself a great mountain, and flew up upon it. But I would have seen the region or place whereout the hill was graven, and I could not.

And after this I beheld, and lo, all they which were gathered together to subdue him were sore afraid, and yet durst fight. And lo, as he saw the violence of the multitude that came, he neither lifted up his hand, nor held sword, nor any instrument of war: but only I saw that he sent out of his mouth as it had been a blast of fire, and out of his lips a flaming breath, and out of his tongue he cast out sparks and tempest.

And they were all mixed together; the blast of fire, the flaming breath, and the great tempest; and fell with violence upon the multitude which was prepared to fight, and burned them up every one, so that upon a sudden of an innumerable multitude nothing was to be perceived, but only dust and smell of smoke:

for they that were not left were in heaviness.

Therefore are they come into great perils and many necessities, like as these dreams declare.

Yet is it easier for him that is in danger to come into these things, than to pass away as a cloud out of the world, and not to see the things that happen in the last days.

And whereas thou sawest, that out of his mouth there came as a blast of wind, and fire, and storm: and that he held neither sword, nor any instrument of war, but that the rushing in of him destroyed the whole multitude that came to subdue him; this is the interpretation: Behold, the days come, when the Most High will begin to deliver them that are upon the earth. And he shall come to the astonishment of them that dwell on the earth.

And one shall undertake to fight against another, one city against another, one place against another, one people against another, and one realm against another.

Abraham, Isaac and Jacob knew of a surety what should come to pass in the last days. Jacob gathered his sons around him, when he was about to fall asleep in God, and told them what should befall them in the last days. As there are many references to the last days, we use the terms last days, latter days, latter times, &c., as synonymous.

Balaam, when the Lord put words in his mouth exclaimed who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!

No wonder his heart leaped for joy; he saw the glory of the last days, or, to use his own words, What this people shall do to thy people in the latter days. His prophecy is great. We have it thus in Numbers.-And when Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he went not, as at other times to seek for enchantments, but he set his face toward the wilderness. And Balaam lifted up his eyes, and saw Israel abiding in his tents according to their tribes, and the Spirit of God came upon him.

And Balak's anger was kindled against Balaam, and he smote his hands together:

And when he looked on Amalek, he took up his parable, and said, Amalek was the first of the nations, but his latter end shall be that he perish forever.

Our Savior, who knew all things that should come to pass in the last days, even when he come in his glory to reign on earth with his saints, said before the end should come, there should be great tribulations, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever should be.

Paul, who had the privilege of seeing his Lord and master in the flesh, and who knew a man that was caught up into the third heaven, while on this all-important subject, thus wrote:-This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,

traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

Peter, possessing the keys of the mysteries of the kingdom, wrote to them that have obtained like precious faith with us, through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ, said in his second epistle, Beloved, I now write unto you; in which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance: that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Savior: knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as from the beginning of the creation.

Having such a cloud of witnesses to prove what should come to pass when the earth is ripe, or when the days of vengeance had commenced, we have double confidence to warn the world, of what shall shortly be. In the language of Jude, we can say, Remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.

Jeremiah said O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord: and would to God that the earth would hear, before it is everlastingly too late: That instead of ridiculing the words and works of God, its inhabitants would look for themselves, and behold the great and marvelous events which are happening around them, preparatory to the end.

The bible and common history, are full of the transactions and events which have been; and the hearts of thousands quake with fear for what shall be: now let us reason from the past, for the benefit of the future. Sacred writ, shows that the Lord has always been merciful, and mindful of the children of men, and has given the inhabitants of the earth timely notice, that he was displeased with their ungodly conduct, that they may repent, and be saved, rather than be destroyed by judgments. He gave one hundred and twenty years' notice of the flood; he warned the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, before they were consumed; he did marvelous things in the sight of Pharaoh, before he and his host were swallowed up in the Read Sea, and the Lord has ever warned men before destruction: yea, from Adam, the language of the Lord has been, Repent, repent! And when men repented, the Lord forgave them; and will he be less mindful of the workmanship of his hands now? No; God will hear, if men do pray in faith.

We have an earnest desire that men should escape the calamities, that will soon be poured out upon the earth, to scourge the inhabitants. Those that will not hear, as has been the case in all ages, pass on and are punished. The inhabitants before the flood, rejected the preaching of Noah, and were drowned. The men of Sodom and Gomorrah repented not of their sins, and died in their wickedness.-Pharaoh, after seeing the mighty works of the Lord, died for his folly. But the Lord is merciful, the Lord is just, and, as in ancient days, so now, even in these last days, he warns, that men may repent and live. So much for the world. To the church, a word fitly spoken is like the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the Lord commanded the blessing life forever more. Beloved brethren, you know these are the last days, for the Lord hath said so. You, then, have not to look across the ocean for testimony, for you have it in your hearts.-You have not to send to heaven for proof, for the judgments of God are already sent forth unto victory as evidence that the end is nigh.

You are independent above all the creatures under the celestial kingdom, if you are faithful; even to the obtaining of eternal life. Walk holy before the Lord.-He has sent his everlasting covenant into the world, to be a light to the world and to be a standard for his people, and for the Gentiles to seek to it: and to be a messenger before his face to prepare the way before him. And he will reason with them that come, as with men in days of old, and show unto them his strong reason. Wherefore, while he is revealing unto you the great things that will shortly come to pass, learn wisdom, and rejoice for the day, even the day of righteousness that will soon come; yea, that day that was sought for by all holy men, and they found it not because of wickedness and abominations, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth; but obtained a promise that they should find it, and see it in their flesh, and so will you, if you continue faithful. Are you sensible of the blessings and privileges you enjoy? you can look upon the world and upon them that profess to worship their God, and see the course of evil, and shun it, because the Lord has shown you the right way. You can see some for gold; some for fame; some for blood; some for persecution; some for fun; some for pleasure; some for vanity; some for lying; some for this, and some for that, and you can pray to God to keep you from such follies, and he will do so, if your hearts are pure.

What blessings! you can shun the dreadful distress of nations, if you are humble and honest in all things before the Lord: you can overcome the world and enter into his rest, where trouble will cease. You ought to rejoice, with joy unspeakable; for while the nations are crumbling to pieces, and men are filling up the tombs without repentance, you know your redemption is nigh, and you believe that Israel will soon be gathered home to meet his God, when he comes in his glory.

Men without the Spirit of God to guide them into sacred truth have long labored six times as much for the perishable things of this world, as for the one thing needful: brethren, you have better knowledge, act accordingly, for the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof. Counsel not the Lord but walk by faith, showing good works, that your examples may be worthy of imitation.

The love of money fills the hearts of the wicked; but what profit would it be to you, with all your knowledge, of what must shortly come to pass, if you could gain the whole world for thirty or forty years, and then loose your inheritance, and eternal life? This is a solemn question, and when the faithful enter into the joys of their Lord, they will be more apt to say: Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of men to conceive, what the Lord has prepared for them that love him. The Lord will hear when saints do pray.

Among the great men of the earth, many have declared, with thousands to second them, that every man has his price:-but beloved, the saint has not; he is above bribery, and come life or come death, it is all the same; in the morning of the resurrection, he rises above corruption and lives with God; and his last days will be his best days:

[THE JEWS:-AGAIN]

The great day is hastening on when the whole house of Israel will be gathered home from their long dispersion, to Zion and Jerusalem. The United States is a witness to the gathering at mount Zion, if her population will look at things as they are; and the old world in the east, may soon bear record, also, of the gathering at Jerusalem:

So Judah will be gathered: and when the Lord shows himself to them, with the wounds he received of them, more than eighteen hundred years before, they will know him, and rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. The Spirit of God moves upon the face of the earth, and will continue to do so, till every saint that is left alive, worships God. In the Weekly Courier and New-York Enquirer, is the following

[COMMANDMENTS]

The commandments of the Lord are sacred, and above the inventions of men. Keep them and they lead to eternal life. The first commandment was given to Adam in the garden of Eden, and man became an agent unto himself. Again, it is found in Genesis, that the Lord said:

When the children of Israel murmured, Moses cried unto the Lord; and the Lord shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet:

So the people rested on the seventh day.

Let it not be forgotten, yet, that the children of Israel were so blind to the glory before them: so stiffnecked, rebellious, and more than all, faithless, that the Lord saw fit in his infinite wisdom, to let Moses break the stone-tables containing the everlasting gospel, and in lieu thereof, to give them the law, and commandments, and a lesser priesthood, than that of the order of Melchisedec.

When the Lord shined forth from mount Paran, and came with ten thousands of his saints, from his right hand went a fiery law for them.

The world, as well as the saints, may read, and profit by the ten commandments which Moses wrote upon the second tables:

Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy.

The ten commandments embrace some of the great principles of our Savior's religion, as well as rules for government and social intercourse.

When we remember, that the commandments of God, came by the gift and power of God: or, in other words, holy men spoke moved by the Holy Ghost, we ought to rejoice with great joy:

The Lord is imperative on this subject, and when he says keep my commandments, he means what he says: this may be one reason why we have no account, or record, that the Lord ever acknowledged a church to be his, unless there was a prophet in it. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one church, one gospel, and one way of being baptized for the remission of sins; one promise of receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost: one promise of reward for keeping the commandments, and one surety of eternal life by holding out faithful to the end.

The high estimation of the commandments, may be somewhat seen by reading a few verses in the 119th Psalm:

It does seem strange that the world should be so clouded in darkness, as not to see, that the church of Christ, (for there never was, nor ever will be any other that will be admitted into the celestial kingdom,) could exist without the Comforter, even the Holy Ghost in it, whereby the members might profit by the gifts, and commandments. The two first verses of Acts read thus:-The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen.

In one of the commandments to the church in Zion, is the following beautiful language:

And we might quote columns, showing that the Lord is the same yesterday, today and forever, giving commandments to them that seek the riches of eternity, that man may know his will and be saved with an eternal salvation in his kingdom.

While on the subject of commandments, it may be worth while to say a few words on opinions, as the church has the sure word of prophecy.

Opinions, where we have the word of the Lord, are worth nothing. Since the days of the Savior, they have strangely divided men into almost as many sects, as the number of the name of the beast that John saw. All men have a right to their opinions, but to adopt them for rules of faith and worship, is wrong, and may finally leave the souls of them that receive them for spiritual guides, in the telestial kingdom: For these are they who are of Paul, and of Apollos, and Cephas: they are they who say, there are some of one and some of another; some of Christ; and some of John; and some of Moses; and some of Elias; and some of Esaias; and some of Isaiah; and some of Enoch, but received not the gospel; neither the testimony of Jesus; neither the prophets; neither the everlasting covenant; last of all: these are they who will not be gathered with the saints, to be caught up into the church of the first born, and received into the cloud: these are they who are liars, and sorcerers, and adulterers, and whoremungers , and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie: these are they who suffer the wrath of God on the earth: these are they who suffer the vengeance of eternal fire: these are they who are cast down to hell and suffer the wrath of Almighty God until the fulness of times, when Christ shall have subdued all enemies under his feet, and shall have perfected his work, when he shall deliver up the kingdom and present it unto his Father spotless, saying: I have overcome and trodden the wine-press alone, even the wine-press of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God: then shall he be crowned with the crown of his glory, to sit on the thrown of his power and reign forever and ever.

Now, brethren, let us turn to our day, and rejoice that the Lord has been so merciful as to give commandments unto men, that they might know his will, and know, also, when they have done it.

Do good and the reward shall be given; for it is better to give than to receive. The Lord is good: he gives precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little and there a little, and for the sake of them that may come to a knowledge of their situation, by our good example, let us obey the Lord and keep his commandments.

In a letter from our brethren in the east, is the following concluding paragraph of a late:

