Gems for the Young Folks: Fourth Book of the Faith-Promoting Series. Designed for the Instruction and Encouragement of Young Latter-Day Saints.Various
Religion
Gems for the Young Folks: Fourth Book of the Faith-Promoting Series. Designed for the Instruction and Encouragement of Young Latter-Day Saints.
Various
Latter Day Saints
As soon as I began to attend, I felt the Spirit of the Lord operating
upon me, so that I seemed filled to overflowing with its teachings.
A continual stream of glorious truths passed through my mind, my
happiness was great, and my mind was so absorbed in spiritual things,
that all the time the meetings lasted, which was about fifteen days, I
scarcely ate or drank anything. At other times, that which I subsisted
on during these fifteen days, could scarcely have sustained life, but
the Spirit of the Lord so operated on my system, that I felt full all
the time, and had no desire to eat or partake of anything.
The subject of "Freemasonry" was just then agitating the public mind,
so that many of the churches were divided about it, more especially the
one to which most of the members attending this meeting belonged, being
divided into "Masons" and "Anti-Masons." This meeting was called the
"Masonic party."
The other minister of the same church held Anti-Masonic principles,
and refused to meet with the Masonic party, and kept most of his party
away. This caused a great deal of quarrelling and contention, and much
anger and bad feeling, of which I knew but little until afterwards.
I had heard of the two parties, but had not interested myself in the
matter, and consequently did not care much about it.
While sitting in the meeting, listening to the preaching, being much
interested in what was being said, the Spirit of the Lord came upon
me, and revealed that I was to visit the minister of the Anti-Masonic
party, Judge Cushing, and tell him of his foolishness and wickedness in
increasing the spirit of division between those who ought to be united
as brethren in one common interest.
It rained hard at the time, and feeling rather taken up with the
preaching, I thought I would delay until the close of the meeting.
This mission to me was a very hard task. How was I, a man from the
thrashing-floor, to reprove a minister, and, moreover, a judge? But a
few minutes had scarcely elapsed, before the word of the Lord came to
me again, with greater power than before, that I was to go _at once!_ I
had covenanted with the Lord, and I felt determined to fulfill, if it
killed me; so I sprang to my feet, took my hat, and departed from the
meeting.
I found the judge at a public inn, engaged in making some purchase.
I requested to speak with him for a few minutes in private. He said
he would attend to me presently. I sat down, but I had hardly done so
before the Spirit of the Lord was again upon me, like fire in my bones,
commanding me to deliver my message directly.
I again requested to speak with the Judge, stating that my business
was urgent. He complied this time, and retired with me outside the
house. The Spirit of the Lord gave me utterance, and filled my mouth
with words, and I laid before him, in language which was given me, the
impropriety of his conduct.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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