Early Scenes in Church History: Eighth Book of the Faith-Promoting SeriesVarious
Religion
Early Scenes in Church History: Eighth Book of the Faith-Promoting Series
Various
Latter Day Saint churches -- History
upwards of twenty of the Saints were lost or subsequently died of their
wounds. My own preservation I can only attribute to the providence of
the Almighty, for if I had remained a moment on the wharf to see the
boat start, as would have been very natural for a person to do, I would
have been blown into eternity as those were who stood there.
I shall never forget the kindness of the citizens of Lexington in
caring for the living and burying the dead. The Lord certainly inspired
them to do all that sympathy and benevolence could suggest in aid of
the afflicted. The city council set apart a piece of ground in which
to bury the Saints who had died, and William H. Russell, the great
government freighter, and many other prominent citizens did all they
could to comfort and help the afflicted survivors. Besides their
devoted attention, their contributions in aid of the Saints amounted to
thousands of dollars.
The disaster described is really the only accident of any consequence
by water that has befallen a company of Latter-day Saints in emigrating
from the old countries, and there was much reason to believe that
Providence was in their favor to a great extent even in that case, or a
much greater number would certainly have lost their lives.
I remained at Lexington about eight days looking after the interests of
the Saints and purchasing stock, after which I returned to St. Louis,
where I met the company of Saints I was to conduct across the plains.
On reaching Atchison, our starting point for the overland journey, the
company was stricken with the cholera. There were over forty cases, and
of these some fifteen proved fatal. Numbers were healed instantaneously
through the prayer of faith when the Elders laid their hands upon
them, although apparently near death's door; others gave way entirely
to fear, failed to exercise faith and soon died. After we had started
upon our journey and when the last person who had been afflicted had
recovered, I was prostrated with the same dread disease. The train
was stopped and the whole company fasted and prayed for two days for
my recovery, but I continued growing worse until my limbs and the
lower portion of my body were apparently dead, but then the faith of
the Saints and the power of the Almighty prevailed in my behalf and I
recovered. I had, however, lost seventy-five pounds in weight within a
few days.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account