“They Have Hitherto… Brought Forth… Good Fruit”
See verses 17-18. Israel has been a leavening influence to the world in all ages. In speaking of the chosen seed, Erastus Snow said: “Their blood has permeated European society, and it coursed in the veins of the early colonists of America.” This is the blood that has been foremost among those spirits who have come forth to accept the gospel, those who did not “wait for the Elders to hunt them from the hills and corners of the earth, but they were hunting for the Elders, impelled by a spirit which then they could not understand; and for this reason were they among the first Elders of the Church; they and the fathers having been watched over from the days that God promised those blessings upon Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and Ephraim. And these are they that will be found in the front ranks of all that is noble and good in their day and time, and who will be found among those whose efforts are directed in establishing upon the earth those heaven-born principles which tend directly to blessing and salvation, to ameliorating the condition of their fellow-men, and elevating them in the scale of their being; and among those also who receive the fullness of the Everlasting Gospel, and the keys of Priesthood in the last days, through whom God determined to gather up again unto himself a peculiar people, a holy nation, a pure seed that shall stand upon Mount Zion as saviors, not only to the house of Israel but also to the house of Esau.” (JD 23:186.)
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