View source for Question: Why did Orson Hyde say: "Do I believe that the United States will be divided? yes, I do; and the prayers of all the Saints throughout the world should be to that effect"?

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==Why did Orson Hyde say: "Do I believe that the United States will be divided? yes, I do; and the prayers of all the Saints throughout the world should be to that effect"?==
===Orson Hyde said this because the United States was sending an army against the Saints, based on false information===

Orson Hyde's words in context read:

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Do I believe that the United States will be divided? Yes, I do; and the prayers of all the Saints throughout the world should be to that effect; for they wage war against the kingdom of God, and have fallen upon that stone with an army; and let them be broken, even according to the words of Jesus.

"'''If the army now invading Utah should be overthrown'''," says an unbeliever, "are you not fearful that a much larger one will be sent to chastise you?" No, sir; I am not. If we honour our God by keeping his law, no army of this world can ever prevail against us; and the greater its numbers, the greater and more complete its overthrow. If the Red Sea be not the trap in which the enemy will be caught, there will be a snow or hailstorm, a whirlwind, an earthquake, fire from above or from beneath, or the sword of the Lord and of Brigham. I only fear that we may not live so that God will hear and answer our prayers. If we get any important petition granted by any legislative body, we must have some influence enlisted in its favour; and if we expect God to grant our petitions, we must so live before him as to have influence with him. To have influence with the king is next to being king ourselves.

'''We do not desire to shed the blood of our enemies'''. We have never desired it. But our prayers should be, that the power and strength arrayed against us may be broken by the providence of God, or by the arm of his power; that they may be smitten with confusion and darkness; that the means they may adopt for their success may be providentially overruled for their overthrow; that they may be wasted away like the early frosts, and be scattered about like chaff before the wind, until, as the martyred Joseph said, just before he was murdered by Governor Ford's mob, there shall not be a potsherd of them left. This prayer should not be confined to our enemies on our immediate borders; for they are only the blind tools of a power that has decreed our overthrow; but should extend, with increased faith and zeal, to that very power that handles these tools.
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On Joseph's prophecy, see [[Joseph_Smith_prophecies/Government_to_be_overthrown_and_wasted|Potsherd prophecy]]
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[[Category:One Nation Under Gods]]