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Show Page 29 and the charisma of his calling, to the youthful generation of the "Burned-Over District," who had heard the ancient second advent prophecies expounded all their lives. Here was a teacher who could provide every man his personal prophecy of a personal part in the fulfillment of the romantic culmination. Several young men requested the Prophet to "inquire of the Lord in their behalf" that autumn, and they were regaled with warnings of the tribulation to come and calls to the ministry. But the clearest themeof all in the 1830 revelations is the nearness of the kingdom. Orson approached the Prophet on November 4 to request his turn. Revelations had been directed to Parley, the Whitmer brothers, Ziba 5 Peterson, Ezra Thayre, and Northrop Sweet, and now Orson felt the imminence of the answer he had sought so fervently in his night prayers. Accordingly, the Prophet delivered to Orson Pratt the revelation since published as Section 34 of the Doctrine and Covenants: My son Orson, hearken and hear and behold what I, the Lord God, shall say unto you, even Jesus Christ your Redeemer ; The light and the life of the world, a light which shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not; Who so loved the world that he gave his own life, that as many as would believe might become the sons of God. Wherefore you are my son; And blessed are you because you have believed; And more blessed are you because you are called of me to preach my gospel - To lift up your voice as with the sound of a trump, both long and loud, and cry repentance unto a crooked and perverse generation, preparing the way of the Lord for his second coming. For behold, verily, verily, I say unto you, the time is soon at hand that I shall come in a cloud with power and great glory. And it shall be a great day at the time of my coming, for all nations shall tremble. But before that great day shall come, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon be turned into blood; and the stars shall refuse their shining, and some shall fall, and great destructions await the wicked. wherefore, lift up your voice and spare not, for the Lord God hath spoken; therefore prophesy, and it shall be given by the power of the Holy Ghost. |