Essentials in Church History: A History of the Church from the Birth of Joseph Smith to the Present Time (1922), with Introductory Chapters on the Antiquity of the Gospel and the "Falling Away"Smith, Joseph Fielding
History
Essentials in Church History: A History of the Church from the Birth of Joseph Smith to the Present Time (1922), with Introductory Chapters on the Antiquity of the Gospel and the "Falling Away"
Smith, Joseph Fielding
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- History
"During this time Elder Rigdon was taken very sick, from hardship
and exposure, and finally lost his reason; but still he was kept
in a miserable, noisy and cold room, and compelled to sleep on the
floor with a chain and padlock round his ankle, and fastened to
six others. Here he endured the constant noise and confusion of
an unruly guard, the officer of which was Colonel Sterling Price,
since governor of the State.
"These guards were composed generally of the most noisy,
foul-mouthed, vulgar, disgraceful rabble that ever defiled the
earth. . . . Mrs. Robinson, a young and delicate female, with
her infant, came down to see her husband [George W. Robinson],
and to comfort and take care of her father [Sidney Rigdon] in
his sickness. When she first entered the room, amid the clank of
chains and the rattle of weapons, and cast her eyes on her sick and
dejected parent and sorrow-worn husband, she was speechless, and
only gave vent to her feelings in a flood of tears. This faithful
lady, with her little infant, continued by the side of her father
till he recovered from his sickness, and till his fevered and
disordered mind resumed its wonted powers.
"In one of those tedious nights we had lain as if in sleep till
the hour of midnight had passed, and our ears and hearts had been
pained, while we had listened for hours to the obscene jests, the
horrid oaths, the dreadful blasphemies and filthy language of our
guards, Colonel Price at their head, as they recounted to each
other their deeds of rapine, murder, robbery, etc., which they had
committed among the 'Mormons' while at Far West and vicinity. They
even boasted of defiling by force wives, daughters, and virgins,
and of shooting or dashing out the brains of men, women and
children.
"I had listened till I became so disgusted, shocked, horrified,
and so filled with the spirit of indignant justice that I could
scarcely refrain from rising upon my feet and rebuking the guards;
but had said nothing to Joseph, or any one else, although I lay
next to him and knew he was awake. On a sudden he arose to his
feet, and spoke in a voice of thunder, or as the roaring lion,
uttering, as near as I can recollect, the following words:
"SILENCE, _ye fiends of the infernal pit. In the name of Jesus
Christ I rebuke you, and command you to be still. I will not live
another minute and hear such language. Cease such talk, or you or I
die THIS INSTANT!_
Majesty in Chains
"He ceased to speak. He stood erect in terrible majesty. Chained,
and without a weapon; calm, unruffled and dignified as an angel,
he looked upon the quailing guards; whose weapons were lowered
or dropped to the ground, whose knees smote together, and who,
shrinking into a corner, or crouching at his feet, begged his
pardon, and remained quiet till a change of guards.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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