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Source:Book of Mormon as Stick of Ephraim:Orson Pratt statement
Orson Pratt (1850): "the Lord took one of his sons, whose name was Mulek, with a company of those who would hearken unto His words, and brought them over the ocean, and planted them in America"
Orson Pratt, Divine Authenticity of the Book of Mormon, no. 6 (Liverpool, England: 15 October 1850): 91–92.
29.—Ephraim, the Lord's first-born, shall be like a mighty man, and his heart shall rejoice as through new wine; for he shall crown the tribes of Israel with glory, and his birthright shall never be wrested from his hand; his dwellings shall be in the fat valleys, and his seed shall cover the hills; he shall put forth his branches in all directions, and many shall repose in the shade thereof; with him is the key of hidden mysteries—the mysteries of ancient times; he shall unlock the sacred archives of heaven, and the skies shall pour down righteousness, like rain; the bowels of the earth shall open, and shall disclose the wonders of ages unknown. By him Zion shall be built, and her dwellings shall be encircled with glory; her light shall be as the sun, and her beauty as the morning; her tabernacles shall be as the dwelling places of the Most High, and in her palaces kings shall arise and worship; her children with one heart shall look upward, while the Zion that is above shall look downward; then the heavens and the earth shall meet, and all the creations shall shake with gladness; then the union of all dispensations will be completed, and the royal families of heaven and earth will be one from henceforth, even for evermore. This is the blessing of the children of Zion, and the glory of Ephraim the Lord's servants. The children of Manasseh shall assist Ephraim, and in all his glory they shall be glorified.
30.—The records of Manasseh in the hands of Ephraim shall gather out the Lord's elect from the four winds, from one end of the earth to the other The Book of Mormon is the record of Manasseh; it is now in the hands of Ephraim, who have been for many generations, as the Prophet Hosea said, "mixed among the people." By them will the Lord "push the people together to the ends of the earth," even by the children of Ephraim, who is the Lord's first-born in this great latter-day work The American Indians are partly of the children of Manasseh; though many of them are of Ephraim, through the two sons of Ishmael, who came out of Jerusalem six hundred years before Christ, and some of Judah, through the loins of David and the kings that reigned over Jerusalem. When Zedekiah, king of Judah, was carried away captive into Babylon, the Lord took one of his sons, whose name was Mulek, with a company of those who would hearken unto His words, and brought them over the ocean, and planted them in America. This was done in fulfillment of the 22nd and 23rd verses of the seventeenth chapter of Ezekiel, which read thus: "Thus saith the Lord God, I will also take of the highest branch of the high cedar, and will set it: I will cross off from the top of his young twigs a tender one, and will plant it upon an high mountain and eminent; in the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it; and it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit and, be a goodly cedar; and under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing; in the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell." By reading this chapter, it will be seen that the Jews were the "high cedar," that Zedekiah the king was the "highest branch," that the "tender one" cropped off from the top of his young twigs, was one of his sons, whom the Lord brought out and planted him and his company upon the choice land of America, which He had given unto a remnant of the tribe of Joseph for an inheritance, in fulfillment of the blessing of Jacob and Moses upon the head of that tribe.
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