We sang the song, prepared for this celebration, Zion-land, and I entered heartily, sincerely, into the spirit of the song:
God bless our Zion-land,
Firm may she ever stand,
Through storm and night;
When the wild tempests rave,
Ruler of wind and wave,
Do Thou Thy Zion save
By thy great might!
For her our prayers shall rise
To God above the skies,
With Him we stand:
Thou who art ever nigh,
Guarding with watchful eye,
To Thee aloud we cry,
God save Thy land.
(President Joseph Fielding Smith was attending the first general conference of the Eastern States Mission, convened at the Joseph Smith Farm near Palmyra, New York, on Sept. 21 to 23, 1923—the one hundredth anniversary of the appearance of Moroni to Joseph Smith.)
Here it was that Moroni, commanded by the Lord, hid up the sacred records of his people. Here it was, 1,400 years later, that he, then a resurrected being, came to Joseph Smith and committed these same records to the young man’s care.
At the time of the Prophet’s first visit to the hill, it was covered with trees; today (1923) it is stripped and bare, save for the grass which grows abundantly. This former scene of strife and bloodshed, where two nations perished, later the sacred repository of ancient records, today is the abode of peaceful cattle, reclining and chewing the cud. The many millions of inhabitants of the land, who, because they love darkness rather than light, will not believe, and although an angel has declared it unto them, they appear to have no more thought concerning the wonderful events that have taken place near and on the Hill Cumorah, than have these cattle. (Rel. Soc. Mag., vol. 10, pp. 586–587)