The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1881-03-13
BY G. c. RUTHRAUFF.

without prophets is unknown; I'll
individual who will not shuddC
when he sees the moon over his lie.
shoulder is yet to be found. Geore
Smith tells us that the Chaldea
tablets reveal many prophecies an
Isuperstitions among that ancier
people, History and the times al
| full of prophecies. The exodus int
| Egypt was fOretold to Abraham
| four hundred years before
occurred. The rebuilding of Jeruss
lem by Cyrus was predicted t
Jonah forty years before it tool
place. The coming of Christ wa
tie fulhllment of a prophecy
Christ Himself predicted the DIES
truction of Jerusalem seventy-fou
years previous, and he said ther,
would be signs upon the sun, moon
and stars, and, upon the earth distress
among the nations, and that battles
would be pictured in the sky. Thu
false prophet Jesus, son of Ananus
was foretOld, and for seven year,
history tells us. he cried, "Woe woe
to Jerusalemp without loss Of
speech; and when Jerusalem was
arout to be destroyed he cried, "Wot
to the city, woe to the temple, woe
TO myself" and was struck by {
missile and killed. The strongest
proof of Christ being the Messiah
was that ''the perfect coincidence OF
events with prophecy" was evidence
of the fulfillmentof prophecy.
That prophecies of a very Won
derful character have been made
and fulfilled in modern times it will
not be difficult to prove. a number
of authorities l have consulted
contain prophecies that have been
fulfilled since their publication,
nearly thirty years ago.
The power of foretelling events is
mysterious one land yet considered
in the abstract, as a mental process,
it is no more wonderful than
memory. If a being without
memory should hear a person
describe accurately events that he
had seen twenty years ago, the
faculty would seem to him as
wonderful as that of fOretelIing
what was to happen twenty years
hence. Accustomed as we are to
the operations of memory, the
process no longer seems wonderful.
1t is also easier to conceive of a
person being able to describe by
clairvoyant power, events now
transpiring, although perhaps at a
remote distance, than to predict
events in the future when
the current of history is so fire.
quently changed by accidents that
may spring up in the most uneX-
pected manner. We can imagine
spontaneous lucidity by fixed con-
centration of thought, but that there
should also exist the ability to reach
forward into the future and fore
tell coming events having no re-
latiOn to present existence seems
too remarkable for belief.
And yet, when we read the lives
of the greatest characters in history,
we find scarcely a great mind free
from belief in prophecy. Alexander,
Caesar, the Scipios, Cato, Brutus,
Homer, Hannibal, Demosthenes,
Plato and Augustus, in ancient his
tory, and a long list of illustrious
names in modern history, will attest
their belief in prophecy. Spiritual
protrusion was believed in by Col
umbus, Luther, Calvin, Swedenborg,
Milton, Bacon, Byron, Shelley and
others. Many of the great minds
who had this belief were men of
large faculties, Of the highest wisdom
and coolest judgment, and repre-
scented epochs and ideas.
Columbus was a firm believer in
prophecy, and applied scriptural in
depreciation to himself. He wrote
seventy pages on the subject in one
of his books. From Roselly de Lor-
CUES biography of Columbus, re-
Gently compiled from the Seville
manuscripts, and not yet, 1 believe,
translated into English, l quote an
incident narrated by Columbus him
self. 1t was on the occasion of his
second voyage, and after weary
hours spent on the lookout for land
he had thrown himself prone upon
the deck in utter despair. "Then it
was" says Columbus, Il heard a
familiar voice speaking to me in
compassionate tones: oh, fool and
unbeliever, who will not serve thy
God; He who hath done more for
thee than for Moses and David
ever since thou vast born he hath
had thee in charge; as soon as he
saw thou hadst reached the age of
thy destiny He filled the world
with thy fame; the Indies hath He
given thee for thine own: He hath
given thee the keys of the ocean,
bound as with strong chains before
Stand up as man and acknowledge
thy error. Thou callest for an I'M
certain success, yet God hath never
been false to his promise. Surely
he will recompense thee for the
fatigue and perils thou hast under
gone. Fear not, do not complain
for all these tribulations shall be
written in MARBLE AT hearing thi:
overcome 1 could only weep for my
errors"
Napoleon was one of the mos
superstitious of men. He predicted
dreadful wars, and that Europe mus
eventually become Cossack orrepub
lican. In 1876 General Rapp, return
ing from the siege of Dantzic, found
the Emperor in a deep reverie
Napoleon pointed to the sky, anC
said, Look up there" to which
Rapp made no reply. do you no
see it?" he continued, 1T is my sta
| that is before you. 1t urges me for
Iward, and is an unfailing omen 0
success. 1 see it at every great Oc
icurrence." Several great battle
were predicted by Napoleon, and tn
failure of his star to appear befor
| the battle of Waterloo east owe
him the deepest gloom.
| Savonarola, in 14S4. predicted tina
BreScia in certain year would b
bathed in blood. This was fulfille'
| by the French under the Duke d
4 Nemours, in the very year prophe
| sled. nt fs ef -
Joan of Arc. when a girl twely
years of age, was the subject of frt
lauent hallucinations. A voice toll
her that, clothed as man, she woul
rescue the kingdom of Charles.
In the Rhine country III German
1.-THE belief in prophecy is widespread
land it is thought that certain event
have been influenced to fulfillmen
by the popular belief. The grea
battle of the Birch Tree, near Wer
lin Westphalia, which took place
lisa, was predicted by several seer
lin 1901, 10y a monk of Werl. and /
1912, by Capuchin monk of Dusse