Fragments of Experience: Sixth Book of the Faith-Promoting Series. Designed for the Instruction and Encouragement of Young Latter-day SaintsVarious
Religion
Fragments of Experience: Sixth Book of the Faith-Promoting Series. Designed for the Instruction and Encouragement of Young Latter-day Saints
Various
Latter Day Saints -- History; Young, Lorenzo Dow, 1807-1895
When he took his seat, President Benson requested Brother Joseph F.
Smith to talk, rather intimating that it was desirable to speak on
general principles, and that he need not feel bound to notice all that
Mr. Gibson had said.
It seemed impossible for any man to speak with greater power and
demonstration of the Spirit. He referred the Saints to the labors of
Brother George Q. Cannon, and the first Elders who brought them the
gospel.
He reminded them of facts with which the older Saints were well
acquainted--the great disadvantage the Elders labored under, and the
privations they suffered in first preaching the gospel on the islands.
How they slept in their then miserable huts, and lived as they lived;
how they traveled on foot, in storms, and in bad weather, from village
to village, and from house to house, exposing health and life; how they
went destitute of clothing, and what they had been in the habit of
considering the necessaries of life, to bring them the blessings of the
gospel, without money and without price.
He asked by what right Mr. Gibson called himself the father of the
people, and the Elders who faithfully labored to establish them in the
gospel strangers.
The spirit and power that accompanied Brother Smith's remarks
astonished the Saints and opened their eyes. They began to see how
they had been imposed upon. Every word he spoke found a response in
their hearts, as was plainly manifest by their eager looks and animated
countenances.
There was another meeting in the afternoon, in which Apostles Benson
and Snow addressed the Saints. Their remarks were interpreted by Elder
Joseph F. Smith.
On the 7th, there was a meeting in the forenoon. A Priesthood meeting
was appointed for the evening, and the conference adjourned _sine die_.
The meeting of the Priesthood in the evening was well attended, as it
was understood that Mr. Gibson's course would be investigated. The
complaints that were made by the native Elders, in the communication
that led to our present mission, were read, and Mr. Gibson was called
on to make answer to the charges.
In addition to nearly a repetition of his harangue at the meeting on
the day previous, his reply consisted of a bombastic display of some
letters of appointment, and recommendations from President Young, to
which he attached large seals, bedecked with a variety of colored
ribbons, to give them an air of importance, and official significance,
in the eyes of the unsophisticated natives.
These papers he held up before the people, and, pointing to them said,
with great emphasis, "Here is my authority, which I received direct
from President Brigham Young. I don't hold myself accountable to these
men!" meaning the Apostles and those who came with them.
Had there been no other proof of the wrong course of Mr. Gibson, that
remark was sufficient to satisfy the brethren what their plain duty
was, and they acted promptly in the matter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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