Parley Parker Pratt
My third great-grandfather
I am so honored to be a lineal descendant of Parley P. Pratt, early Apostle and martyr for the cause of Christ. Each ancestor in the descendancy chart below is followed by the year of their birth.
Parley Parker Pratt (1807), married to Ann Agatha Walker (1829)
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Agatha Pratt (1848), married to Joseph Harris Ridges (1827)
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Florence Ridges (1866), married to Joseph Henry Dean (1855)
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Florence Stella Dean (1896), married to Leo Sanford Taylor (1892)
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Wayne Dean Taylor (1915), married to Fawn Jones (1917)
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Michael Dean Taylor (1952), married to Susan Rudd (1954)
A Discourse by Parley P. Pratt; Salt Lake Bowery, October 7, 1855, reported by George D. Watt
Do ye believe this, ye young people, ye boys and girls, do ye believe this? All the prophetic sayings contained in this chapter have been fulfilled down to this day. Do you believe that portion of it which is yet in the future? — ye people of New York, of San Francisco, of China, of London, of France? Do the gentile nations believe this? You see the Jew among you, and the gentile bearing rule; do you believe that this is a true prophecy? You ought to believe it, for it is right before your eyes in its fulfillment, and if you do, do you expect to see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory? That is a sight some of you will see; you have only to live until the time comes, and you will see it.
Whether there has been signs in the sun, moon, and stars, and upon the earth distress of nations and perplexity, men’s hearts failing them for fear, in the last few years, I will leave each one to draw his own conclusion. If this has not already been sufficiently fulfilled, one thing is certain, it is being fulfilled, and when it is sufficiently completed the Son of Man will be seen in heaven with power and great glory as sure as you ever saw a Jew (that is, it is a fact). “And when these things begin to come to pass,” (for that is an important point) “then look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh.” Does it not appear a little strange that Peter, and James, and John, and the Jewish nation have to wait until then for their redemption, and the dead and the living, as well as the Latter Day Saints, they have to wait until then whether in this world or in the other, for the redemption of their bodies, unless they died before Christ, and rose from the dead when he did, and the Jews must wait until then for the redemption of their nation and national polity, and for their triumph over their enemies, and for the putting down of all other power, and for the establishment of the reign of righteousness on the earth, the redemption of their friends, and vengeance on all those who have shed the innocent blood whether of Latter Day Saints or Former Day Saints. This is the day of their redemption, be in what world they may, they are preparing for it. “Lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh.” When? Not when Jerusalem is compassed with armies, not when they (the Jews) are destroyed by the edge of the sword, not while wandering among the nations of the earth from age to age, not while the gentile powers bear rule, but when the sun, moon, and stars shall put forth their signs, the heavens shake, and men’s hearts failing them for fear, looking for the things that are coming upon the earth, — then is the time to begin and look up, to lift up your heads and rejoice, ye spirits that are waiting for redemption, whether ye are I this work or in the other, straighten your backs in your hard toil and look up for your redemption draweth nigh.
“And he spake to them a parable: Behold the fig trees and all the trees.” We have not any fig trees here, but they had there. “And all the trees,” embraces trees we have here. “When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of yourselves that summer is nigh at hand.” You do not need a prophet to come along and prophecy that summer is nigh at hand for even the children may know it. “So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.”
O ye Millerites, ye made a great mistake; you thought the first thing was the coming of the Lord in power and great glory; you were going to have him come immediately without any kingdom to come to, without a forerunner in the shape of a prophet, but just by men guessing and predicting, and remarking and commenting on the prophecies, but so far as the coming of the Lord being the first thing you know, you will “begin to see these things come to pass, and then know that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand,” and we have to be born again or we cannot see it.
People hear of Joe Smith, as he is called, of the Book of Mormon, of angels coming from heaven again; of the inspiration of the Holy Spirit; of modern prophets and apostles, and martyrs, and they think, ‘what under heaven does all this mean, we have no reason to look for any thing of the sort, but we expect the Lord here every minute.’ They have no idea of a modern prophet; of angels visiting the earth in the latter times; of modern inspiration; of a modern church that will hearken to the voice of a prophet in all things that he shall say unto them, it is all new to them, they are astonished, and say, what does it mean, I wonder what is this Mormonism coming to?
The Lord will never come until he has organized his kingdom on the earth, and prepared his people by sending a messenger to prepare the way before him; that messenger has come, and the man that delivered it has been slain, namely, Joseph Smith, and by the instrumentality of that messenger here sit apostles and prophets, ordained to hold the keys of the kingdom of heaven.
If the people had read the scriptures they would have been looking for all this, if they had not listened to a set of blind guides, who have hired out for money to tell them the scriptures mean something else.
When you see these things come to pass know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand. — Says one ‘for my part I believe the kingdom of God was set up 1800 years ago, and is not going to be set up again; he is not going to have it set up twice, or I do not know what you are going to do with the scriptures, you had better burn them up as a thing of no account, because John the Baptist, Jesus Christ, the Twelve Apostles and the Seventies all agreed in their former testimonies that the kingdom of God was then nigh at hand, it must therefore have been immediately set up, or they were all false witnesses; and if it was immediately set up, as an event following their predictions, namely, on the day of Pentecost when the power of God was shed forth, and the apostles that held the keys of it organized it upon the earth; if that event did really follow what John the Baptist, Jesus, and his Apostles had predicted, then of course it was set up in those days.’
We say there will be another time when it will be at hand; how do we prove it. By the words of Jesus himself in our test, for he did not only state that the kingdom was then at hand when he first began to preach, but he also said it would be at hand when we should see these modern signs here referred to . What did he say should come? False Christs, and the apostles were to be betrayed, and hated of all nations, and some would be put to death; He told them they should be brought before kings and rulers; that the Roman army should compass Jerusalem, and there should not be left one stone upon another of their temple, and the Jews should go captive among all nations; that they should remain there for a certain time during which the Gentile power should rule; that after all this there should be signs in the sun, moon, and stars, and upon the earth distress of nations and perplexity, men’s hearts failing them for fear; when these things come to pass, then know that the kingdom of God is at hand.
What does this make out? That there were two distinct times, or ages, varying in circumstances in which the kingdom of God would be introduced to the inhabitants of the earth; the one should immediately follow John the Baptist and Jesus, and Peter who held the keys of it, and the other should be looked for and ushered in in connection with these modern signs; in short, Jesus and Peter held the keys of the one, and his brother Joseph Smith, and his apostles hold the keys of the other.
Now I think you can understand both predictions; one by John the Baptist, and all the holy prophets, and by Jesus and his apostles, and the other was predicted by Jesus Christ and all the Holy Prophets since the world began, and both of them fulfilled right here before your eyes this day. The one in the events recorded in the New Testament, the other in the history of Joseph Smith, and what follows.
I have already been lengthy; having got at the main review, I will close by reviewing one more sentence, ‘Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.’
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