Читать книгу The Women of Mormondom - Edward W. Tullidge - Страница 7

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BIRTH OF THE CHURCH—KIRTLAND AS THE BRIDE, IN THE CHAMBERS OF THE WILDERNESS—THE EARLY GATHERING—"MOTHER WHITNEY," AND ELIZA R. SNOW.

The birth-place of Mormonism was in the State of New York. There the angels first administered to the youthful prophet; there in the "Hill Cumorah," near the village of Palmyra, the plates of the book of Mormon were revealed by Moroni; there, at Manchester, on the 6th of April, 1830, the "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" was organized, with six members.

But the divine romance of the sisterhood best opens at Kirtland. It is the place where this Israelitish drama of our times commenced its first distinguishing scenes—the place where the first Mormon temple was built.

Ohio was the "Great West." Kirtland, the city of the saints, with its temple, dedicated to the God of Israel, rose in Ohio.

Not, however, as the New Jerusalem of America, was Kirtland founded; but pioneer families, from New England, had settled in Ohio, who early received the gospel of the Latter-day Church.

Thus Kirtland became an adopted Zion, selected by revelation as a gathering place for the saints; and a little village grew into a city, with a temple.

Among these pioneers were the families of "Mother Whitney," and Eliza R. Snow, and the families of "Father Morley," and Edward Partridge, who became the "first Bishop" of Zion.

Besides these, there were a host of men and women soon numbered among the founders of Mormondom, who were also pioneers in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois.

There is no feature of the Mormons more interesting than their distinguishing mark as pioneers. In this both their Church and family history have a national significance.

Trace their family migrations from old England to New England in the seventeenth century; from Europe to America in the nineteenth; then follow them as a people in their empire-track from the State of New York, where their Church was born, to Utah and California! It will thus be remarkably illustrated that they and their parents have been pioneering not only America but the world itself to the "Great West" for the last two hundred and fifty years!

As a community the Mormons have been emphatically the Church of pioneers. The sisters have been this equally with the brethren. Their very religion is endowed with the genius of migrating peoples.

So in 1830–31, almost as soon as the Church was organized, the prophet and the priesthood followed the disciples to the West, where the star of Messiah was rising.

As though the bride had been preparing for the coming! As though, womanlike, intuitively, she had gone into the wilderness—the chambers of a new civilization—to await the bridegroom.

For the time being Kirtland became the Zion of the West; for the time being Kirtland among cities was the bride.

But the illustration is also personal. Woman herself had gone to the West where the star of Messiah was looming. Daughters of the New Jerusalem were already in the chamber awaiting the bridegroom.

Early in the century, two had pioneered into the State of Ohio, who have since been, for a good lifetime, high priestesses of the Mormon temples. And the voice of prophesy has declared that these have the sacred blood of Israel in their veins. In the divine mysticism of their order they are at once of a kingly and priestly line.

There is a rare consistency in the mysticism of the Mormon Church. The daughters of the temple are so by right of blood and inheritance. They are discovered by gift of revelation in Him who is the voice of the Church; but they inherit from the fathers and mothers of the temple of the Old Jerusalem.

And so these two of the principal heroines of Mormondom—"Mother Whitney" and "Sister Eliza R. Snow"—introduced first as the two earliest of the Church who pioneered to the "Great West," before the advent of their prophet, as well as introduced for the divine part which they have played in the marvelous history of their people.

These are high priestesses! These are two rare prophetesses! These have the gifts of revelation and "tongues!" These administer in "holy places" for the living and the dead.

It was about the year of our Lord 1806 that Oliver Snow, a native of Massachusetts, and his wife, R. L. Pettibone Snow, of Connecticut, moved with their children to that section of the State of Ohio bordering on Lake Erie on the north and the State of Pennsylvania on the east, known then as the "Connecticut Western Reserve." They purchased land and settled in Mantua, Portage county.

Eliza R. Snow, who was the second of seven children, four daughters and three sons, one of whom is the accomplished apostle Lorenzo Snow, was born in Becket, Berkshire county, Mass., January 21st, 1804. Her parents were of English descent; their ancestors were among the earliest settlers of New England.

Although a farmer by occupation, Oliver Snow performed much public business, officiating in several responsible positions. His daughter Eliza, being ten years the senior of her eldest brother, so soon as she was competent, was employed as secretary in her father's office.

She was skilled in various kinds of needlework and home manufactures. Two years in succession she drew the prize awarded by the committee on manufactures, at the county fair, for the best manufactured leghorn.

When quite young she commenced writing for publication in various journals, which she continued to do for several years, over assumed signatures—wishing to be useful as a writer, and yet unknown except by intimate friends.

"During the contest between Greece and Turkey," she says, "I watched with deep interest the events of the war, and after the terrible destruction of Missolonghi, by the Turks, I wrote an article entitled 'The Fall of Missolonghi.' Soon after its publication, the deaths of Adams and Jefferson occurred on the same memorable fourth of July, and I was requested through the press, to write their requiem, to which I responded, and found myself ushered into conspicuity. Subsequently I was awarded eight volumes of 'Godey's Lady's Book,' for a first prize poem published in one of the journals."

The classical reader will remember how the struggle between Greece and Turkey stirred the soul of Byron. That immortal poet was not a saint but he was a great patriot and fled to the help of Greece.

Precisely the same chord that was struck in the chivalrous mind of Lord Byron was struck in the Hebraic soul of Eliza R. Snow. It was the chord of the heroic and the antique.

Our Hebraic heroine is even more sensitive to the heroic and patriotic than to the poetic—at least she has most self-gratification in lofty and patriotic themes.

"That men are born poets," she continues, "is a common adage. I was born a patriot,—at least a warm feeling of patriotism inspired my childish heart, and mingled in my earliest thoughts, as evinced in many of the earliest productions of my pen. I can even now recollect how, with beating pulse and strong emotion I listened, when but a small child, to the tales of the revolution.

"My grandfather on my mother's side, when fighting for the freedom of our country, was taken prisoner by British troops, and confined in a dreary cell, and so scantily fed that when his fellow-prisoner by his side died from exhaustion, he reported him to the jailor as sick in bed, in order to obtain the amount of food for both—keeping him covered in their blankets as long as he dared to remain with a decaying body.

"This, with many similar narratives of revolutionary sufferings recounted by my grand-parents, so deeply impressed my mind, that as I grew up to womanhood I fondly cherished a pride for the flag which so proudly waved over the graves of my brave and valiant ancestors."

It was the poet's soul of this illustrious Mormon woman that first enchanted the Church with inspired song, and her Hebraic faith and life have given something of their peculiar tone to the entire Mormon people, and especially the sisterhood; just as Joseph Smith and Brigham Young gave the types and institutions to our modern Israel.

Sister Eliza R. Snow was born with more than the poet's soul. She was a prophetess in her very nature—endowed thus by her Creator, before her birth. Her gifts are of race quality rather than of mere religious training or growth. They have come down to her from the ages. From her personal race indications, as well as from the whole tenor and mission of her life, she would readily be pronounced to be of Hebrew origin. One might very well fancy her to be a descendant of David himself; indeed the Prophet Joseph, in blessing her, pronounced her to be a daughter of Judah's royal house. She understands, nearly to perfection, all of the inner views of the system and faith which she represents. And the celestial relations and action of the great Mormon drama, in other worlds, and in the "eternities past and to come," have constituted her most familiar studies and been in the rehearsals of her daily ministry.

Mother Whitney says:

"I was born the day after Christmas in the first year of the present century, in the quiet, old-fashioned country town of Derby, New Haven County, Conn. My parents' names were Gibson and Polly Smith. The Smiths were among the earliest settlers there, and were widely known. I was the oldest child, and grew up in an atmosphere of love and tenderness. My parents were not professors of religion, and according to puritanical ideas were grossly in fault to have me taught dancing; but my father had his own peculiar notions upon the subject, and wished me to possess and enjoy, in connection with a sound education and strict morals, such accomplishments as would fit me to fill, with credit to myself and my training, an honorable position in society. He had no sympathy whatever with any of the priests of that day, and was utterly at variance with their teachings and ministry, notwithstanding he was strenuous on all points of honor, honesty morality and uprightness.

"There is nothing in my early life I remember with more intense satisfaction than the agreeable companionship of my father. My mother's health was delicate, and with her household affairs, and two younger children, she gave herself up to domestic life, allowing it to absorb her entire interest, and consequently I was more particularly under my father's jurisdiction and influence; our tastes were most congenial, and this geniality and happiness surrounded me with its beneficial influence until I reached my nineteenth year. Nothing in particular occurred to mar the smoothness of my life's current and prosperity, and love beamed upon our home.

"About this time a new epoch in my life created a turning point which unconsciously to us, who were the actors in the drama, caused all my future to be entirely separate and distinct from those with whom I had been reared and nurtured. My father's sister, a spinster, who had money at her own disposal, and who was one of those strong-minded women of whom so much is said in this our day, concluded to emigrate to the great West—at that time Ohio seemed a fabulous distance from civilization and enlightenment, and going to Ohio then was as great an undertaking as going to China or Japan is at the present day. She entreated my parents to allow me to accompany her, and promised to be as faithful and devoted to me as possible, until they should join us, and that they expected very shortly to do; their confidence in aunt Sarah's ability and self-reliance was unbounded, and so, after much persuasion, they consented to part with me for a short interval of time; but circumstances, over which we mortals have no control, were so overruled that I never saw my beloved mother again. Our journey was a pleasant one; the beautiful scenery through which our route lay had charms indescribable for me, who had never been farther from home than New Haven, in which city I had passed a part of my time, and to me it was nearer a paradise than any other place on earth. The magnificent lakes, rivers, mountains, and romantic forests were all delineations of nature which delighted my imagination.

"We settled a few miles inland from the picturesque Lake Erie, and here in after years, were the saints of God gathered and the everlasting gospel proclaimed. My beloved aunt Sarah was a true friend and instructor to me, and had much influence in maturing my womanly character and developing my home education. She hated the priests of the day, and believed them all deceivers and hypocrites; her religion consisted in visiting the widow and the fatherless and keeping herself 'unspotted from the world.'

"Shortly after entering my twenty-first year I became acquainted with a young man from Vermont, Newel K. Whitney, who, like myself, had left home and relatives and was determined to carve out a fortune for himself. He had been engaged in trading with the settlers and Indians at Green Bay, Mich., buying furs extensively for the eastern markets. In his travels to and from New York he passed along the charming Lake Erie, and from some unknown influence he concluded to settle and make a permanent home for himself in this region of country; and then subsequently we met and became acquainted; and being thoroughly convinced that we were suited to each other, we were married by the Presbyterian minister of that place, the Rev. J. Badger. We prospered in all our efforts to accumulate wealth, so much so, that among our friends it came to be remarked that nothing of Whitney's ever got lost on the lake, and no product of his exportation was ever low in the market; always ready sales and fair prices. We had neither of us ever made any profession of religion, but contrary to my early education I was naturally religious, and I expressed to my husband a wish that we should unite ourselves to one of the churches, after examining into their principles and deciding for ourselves. Accordingly we united ourselves with the Campbellites, who were then making many converts, and whose principles seemed most in accordance with the scriptures. We continued in this church, which to us was the nearest pattern to our Saviour's teachings, until Parley P. Pratt and another elder preached the everlasting gospel in Kirtland."