Gems of Reminiscence: Seventeenth Book of the Faith Promoting Series, Designed for the Instruction and Encouragement of Young Latter-day Saints
Religion
Gems of Reminiscence: Seventeenth Book of the Faith Promoting Series, Designed for the Instruction and Encouragement of Young Latter-day Saints
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- Missions
"In 1848, after my return to Winter Quarters from our pioneer journey,
I was appointed by the Presidency of the Church to take my family and
go to Boston, to gather up the remnant of the Saints and lead them to
the valleys of the mountains.
"While on my way east I put my carriage into the yard of one of the
brethren in Indiana, and Brother Orson Hyde set his wagon by the side
of mine, and not more than two feet from it.
"Dominicus Carter, of Provo, and my wife and four children were with
me. My wife, one child and I went to bed in the carriage, the rest
sleeping in the house.
"I had been in bed but a short time, when a voice said to me, 'Get up,
and move your carriage.'
"It was not thunder, lightning nor an earth-quake, but the still, small
voice of the Spirit of God--the Holy Ghost.
"I told my wife I must get up and move my carriage. She asked, 'What
for?'
"I told her I did not know, only the Spirit told me to do it.
"I got up and moved my carriage several rods, and set it by the side of
the house.
"As I was returning to bed, the same Spirit said to me, 'Go and move
your mules from that oak tree,' which was about one hundred yards north
of our carriage.
"I moved them to a young hickory grove and tied them up. I then went to
bed.
"In thirty minutes a whirlwind caught the tree to which my mules had
been fastened, broke it off near the ground and carried it one hundred
yards, sweeping away two fences in its course, and laid it prostrate
through that yard where my carriage stood, and the top limbs hit my
carriage as it was.
"In the morning I measured the trunk of the tree which fell where my
carriage had stood, and I found it to be five feet in circumference. It
came within a foot of Brother Hyde's wagon, but did not touch it.
"Thus by obeying the revelation of the Spirit of God to me I saved my
life, the lives of my wife and child, as well as my animals.
"In the morning I went on my way rejoicing.
"While returning to Utah in 1850, with a large company of Saints from
Boston and the east, on my arrival at Pittsburg, I engaged a passage
for myself and company on a steamer to St. Louis. But no sooner had I
engaged the passage than the Spirit said to me, 'Go not on board of
that steamer; neither you nor your company.'
"I obeyed the revelation to me, and I did not go on board, but took
another steamer.
"The first steamer started at dark, with two hundred passengers on
board. When five miles down the Ohio river it took fire and burned the
tiller ropes, so that the vessel could not reach the shore, and the
lives of nearly all on board were lost either by fire or water. We
arrived in safety at our destination, by obeying the revelation of the
Spirit of God to us.
"In another instance, after attending a large annual conference in Salt
Lake City, and, having a good deal of business to attend to, I was
somewhat weary, and at the close of the conference I thought L would
repair to my home and have a rest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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