Читать книгу The Women of Mormondom - Edward W. Tullidge - Страница 10

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AN ISRAEL PREPARED BY VISIONS, DREAMS AND ANGELS—INTERESTING AND MIRACULOUS STORY OF PARLEY P. PRATT—A MYSTIC SIGN OF MESSIAH IN THE HEAVENS—THE ANGEL'S WORDS FULFILLED.

The divine narrative leads directly into the personal story of Parley P. Pratt. He it was who first brought the Mormon mission west. He it was who presented the Book of Mormon to Sidney Rigdon, and converted him to the new covenant which Jehovah was making with a latter-day Israel.

Parley P. Pratt was one of the earliest of the new apostles. By nature he was both poet and prophet. The soul of prophesy was born in him. In his lifetime he was the Mormon Isaiah. All his writings were Hebraic. He may have been of Jewish blood. He certainly possessed the Jewish genius, of the prophet order.

It would seem that the spirit of this great latter-day work could not throw its divine charms around the youthful prophet, who had been raised up to open a crowning spiritual dispensation, without peculiarly affecting the spiritual minded everywhere—both men and women.

It is one of the remarkable facts connected with the rise of Mormonism in the age that, at about the time Joseph Smith was receiving the administration of angels, thousands both in America and Great Britain were favored with corresponding visions and intuitions. Hence, indeed, its success, which was quite as astonishing as the spiritual work of the early Christians.

One of the first manifestations was that of earnest gospel-seekers having visions of the elders before they came, and recognizing them when they did come bearing the tidings. Many of the sisters, as well as the brethren, can bear witness of this.

This very peculiar experience gave special significance to one of the earliest hymns, sung by the saints, of the angel who "came down from the mansions of glory" with "the fullness of Jesus's gospel," and also the "covenant to gather his people," the refrain of which was,

"O! Israel! O! Israel! in all your abidings,

Prepare for your Lord, when you hear these glad tidings."

An Israel had been prepared in all their "abidings," by visions and signs, like sister Whitney, who heard the voice of the angel, from the cloud, bidding her prepare for the coming word of the Lord. Parley P. Pratt was the elder who fulfilled her vision, and brought the word of the Lord direct from Joseph to Kirtland.

And Parley himself was one of an Israel who had been thus mysteriously prepared for the great latter-day mission, of which he became so marked an apostle.

Before he reached the age of manhood, Parley had in his native State (N.Y.) met with reverses in fortune so serious as to change the purposes of his life.

"I resolved," he says, "to bid farewell to the civilized world, where I had met with little else but disappointment, sorrow and unrewarded toil; and where sectarian divisions disgusted, and ignorance perplexed me—and to spend the remainder of my days in the solitudes of the great West, among the natives of the forest."

In October, 1826, he took leave of his friends and started westward, coming at length to a small settlement about thirty miles west of Cleveland, in the State of Ohio. The country was covered with a dense forest, with only here and there a small opening made by the settlers, and the surface of the earth was one vast scene of mud and mire.

Alone, in a land of strangers, without home or money, and not yet twenty years of age, he became somewhat discouraged, but concluded to stop for the winter.

In the spring he resolved to return to his native State, for there was one at home whom his heart had long loved and from whom he would not have been separated, except by misfortune.

But with her, as his wife, he returned to Ohio, the following year, and made a home on the lands which he cleared with his own hands.^[1]

Eighteen months thereafter Sidney Rigdon came into the neighborhood, as a preacher. With this reformer Parley associated himself in the ministry, and organized a society of disciples.

But Parley was not satisfied with even the ancient gospel form without the power.

At the commencement of 1830, the very time the Mormon Church was organized, he felt drawn out in an extraordinary manner to search the prophets, and to pray for an understanding of the same. His prayers were soon answered, even beyond his expectations. The prophesies were opened to his view. He began to understand the things which were about to transpire. The restoration of Israel, the coming of Messiah, and the glory that should follow.

Being now "moved upon by the Holy Ghost" to travel about preaching the gospel "without purse or scrip," in August, 1830, he closed his worldly business and bid adieu to his wilderness home, which he never saw afterwards.

"Arriving at Rochester," he says, "I informed my wife that, notwithstanding our passage being paid through the whole distance, yet I must leave the boat and her to pursue her passage to her friends, while I would stop awhile in this region. Why, I did not know; but so it was plainly manifest by the spirit to me.

"I said to her, we part for a season; go and visit our friends in our native place; I will come soon, but how soon I know not; for I have a work to do in this region of country, and what it is, or how long it will take to perform it, I know not; but I will come when it is performed.

"My wife would have objected to this, but she had seen the hand of God so plainly manifest in his dealings with me many times, that she dared not oppose the things manifested to me by his spirit. She, therefore, consented; and I accompanied her as far as Newark, a small town upwards of one hundred miles from Buffalo, and then took leave of her, and of the boat.

"It was early in the morning, just at the dawn of day; I walked ten miles into the country, and stopped to breakfast with a Mr. Wells. I proposed to preach in the evening. Mr. Wells readily accompanied me through the neighborhood to visit the people, and circulate the appointment.

"We visited an old Baptist deacon, by the name of Hamlin. After hearing of our appointment for the evening, he began to tell of a book, a strange book, a very strange book, in his possession, which had been just published. This book, he said, purported to have been originally written on plates, either of gold or brass, by a branch of the tribes of Israel; and to have been discovered and translated by a young man near Palmyra, in the State of New York, by the aid of visions, or the ministry of angels.

"I inquired of him how or where the book was to be obtained. He promised me the perusal of it, at his house the next day, if I would call. I felt a strange interest in the book.

"Next morning I called at his house, where for the first time my eyes beheld the Book of Mormon—that book of books—that record which reveals the antiquities of the 'new world' back to the remotest ages, and which unfolds the destiny of its people and the world, for all time to come."

As he read, the spirit of the Lord was upon him, and he knew and comprehended that the book was true; whereupon he resolved to visit the young man who was the instrument in bringing forth this "marvelous work."

Accordingly he visited the village of Palmyra, and inquired for the residence of Mr. Joseph Smith, which he found some two or three miles from the village. As he approached the house, at the close of the day, he overtook a man driving some cows, and inquired of him for "Mr. Joseph Smith, the translator of the Book of Mormon." This man was none other than Hyrum, Joseph's brother, who informed him that Joseph then resided in Pennsylvania, some one hundred miles distant. That night Parley was entertained by Hyrum, who explained to him much of the great Israelitish mission just opening to the world.

In the morning he was compelled to take leave of Hyrum, the brother, who at parting presented him with a copy of the Book of Mormon. He had not then completed its perusal, and so after traveling on a few miles he stopped to rest and again commenced to read the book. To his great joy he found that Jesus Christ, in his glorified resurrected body, had appeared to the "remnant of Joseph" on the continent of America, soon after his resurrection and ascension into heaven; and that he also administered, in person, to the ten lost tribes; and that through his personal ministry in these countries his gospel was revealed and written in countries and among nations entirely unknown to the Jewish apostles.

Having rested awhile and perused the sacred book by the roadside, he again walked on.

After fulfilling his appointments, he resolved to preach no more until he had duly received a "commission from on high." So he returned to Hyrum, who journeyed with him some twenty-five miles to the residence of Mr. Whitmer, in Seneca County, who was one of the "witnesses" of the Book of Mormon, and in whose chamber much of the book was translated.

He found the little branch of the church in that place "full of joy, faith, humility and charity."

They rested that night, and on the next day (the 1st of September, 1830), Parley was baptized by Oliver Cowdery, who, with the prophet Joseph, had been ordained "under the hands" of the angel John the Baptist to this ministry—the same John who baptized Jesus Christ in the River Jordan.

A meeting of these primitive saints was held the same evening, when Parley was confirmed with the gift of the Holy Ghost, and ordained an elder of the church.

Feeling now that he had the true authority to preach, he commenced his new ministry under the authority and power which the angels had conferred. "The Holy Ghost," he says, "came upon me mightily. I spoke the word of God with power, reasoning out of the scriptures and the Book of Mormon. The people were convinced, overwhelmed with tears, and came forward expressing their faith, and were baptized."

The mysterious object for which he took leave of his wife was realized, and so he pursued his journey to the land of his fathers, and of his boyhood.

He now commenced his labors in good earnest, daily addressing crowded audiences; and soon he baptized his brother Orson, a youth of nineteen, but to-day a venerable apostle—the Paul of Mormondom.

It was during his labors in these parts, in the Autumn of 1830, that he saw a very singular and extraordinary sign in the heavens.

He had been on a visit to the people called Shakers, at New Lebanon, and was returning on foot, on a beautiful evening of September. The sky was without a cloud; the stars shone out beautifully, and all nature seemed reposing in quiet, as he pursued his solitary way, wrapt in deep meditations on the predictions of the holy prophets; the signs of the times; the approaching advent of the Messiah to reign on the earth, and the important revelations of the Book of Mormon, when his attention was aroused by a sudden appearance of a brilliant light which shone around him "above the brightness of the sun." He cast his eyes upwards to inquire from whence the light came, when he perceived a long chain of light extending in the heavens, very bright and of a deep fiery red. It at first stood stationary in a horizontal position; at length bending in the centre, the two ends approached each other with a rapid movement so as to form an exact square. In this position it again remained stationary for some time, perhaps a minute, and then again the ends approached each other with the same rapidity, and again ceased to move, remaining stationary, for perhaps a minute, in the form of a compass. It then commenced a third movement in the same manner, and closed like the closing of a compass, the whole forming a straight line like a chain doubled. It again remained stationary a minute, and then faded away.

"I fell upon my knees in the street," he says, "and thanked the Lord for so marvelous a sign of the coming of the Son of Man. Some persons may smile at this, and say that all these exact movements were by chance; but for my part I could as soon believe that the alphabet would be formed by chance and be placed so as to spell my name, as to believe that these signs (known only to the wise) could be formed and shown forth by chance."

Parley now made his second visit to the prophet, who had returned from Pennsylvania to his father's residence in Manchester, near Palmyra, and here had the pleasure of seeing him for the first time.

It was now October, 1830. A revelation had been given through the mouth of the prophet in which elders Oliver Cowdery, Peter Whitmer, Tiber Peterson and Parley P. Pratt were appointed to go into the wilderness through the Western States, and to the Indian Territory.

These elders journeyed until they came to the spiritual pastorate of Sydney Rigdon, in Ohio. He received the elders cordially, and Parley presented his former friend and instructor with the Book of Mormon, and related to him the history of the same.

"The news of our coming," says Parley, "was soon noised abroad, and the news of the discovery of the Book of Mormon and the marvelous events connected with it. The interest and excitement now became general in Kirtland, and in all the region round about. The people thronged us night and day, insomuch that we had no time for rest or retirement. Meetings were convened in different neighborhoods, and multitudes came together soliciting our attendance; while thousands flocked about us daily, some to be taught, some for curiosity, some to obey the gospel, and some to dispute or resist it.

"In two or three weeks from our arrival in the neighborhood with the news, we had baptized one hundred and twenty-seven souls; and this number soon increased to one thousand. The disciples were filled with joy and gladness; while rage and lying was abundantly manifested by gainsayers. Faith was strong, joy was great, and persecution heavy.

"We proceeded to ordain Sidney Rigdon, Isaac Morley, John Murdock, Lyman Wight, Edward Partridge, and many others to the ministry; and leaving them to take care of the churches, and to minister the gospel, we took leave of the saints, and continued our journey."

Thus was fulfilled the vision of "Mother Whitney." Kirtland had heard the "word of the Lord." The angel that spoke from the cloud, at midnight, in Kirtland, was endowed with the gift of prophesy. The "daughter of the voice" which followed Israel down through the ages was potent still—was still an oracle to the children of the covenant.