Labors in the Vineyard: Twelfth Book of the Faith-Promoting Series. Designed for the Instruction and Encouragement of Young Latter-Day Saints.Various
Religion
Labors in the Vineyard: Twelfth Book of the Faith-Promoting Series. Designed for the Instruction and Encouragement of Young Latter-Day Saints.
Various
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- Missions
This is a true statement of the manner in which the power of God was
made manifest among the Zunis, and also the judgments of God which
followed some of those who opposed it. It seemed that I was, by the
providence of God, cast among them; and I felt that I was one of the
weakest of my brethren, and to ask the Lord to strengthen me if it
was His will to make His power manifest through me. If the Lord had
not strengthened me I could not have borne up under what I passed
through at Zuni. (Brother Ammon M. Tenney, who questioned the Indians
themselves in regard to this miraculous event, says they testify as a
body to the truthfulness of the narrative.--_Ed._ )
SKETCH OF A WELL-SPENT LIFE.
BY HARRISON BURGESS.
CHAPTER I.
MY BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD--EMBRACE THE GOSPEL--A VISION--GATHER
WITH THE SAINTS AT KIRTLAND--ZION'S CAMP--MANIFESTATIONS
IN THE TEMPLE--THE SAINTS DRIVEN
FROM MISSOURI--THE PROPHET AND PATRIARCH MARTYRED--OUR
JOURNEY WESTWARD--SENT ON A MISSION.
I was born September 3, 1814, in the town of Putnam, Washington Co.,
State of New York. I lived with my parents until upwards of fourteen
years of age, and, being the eldest of my father's family, I was kept
constantly at work and had but little opportunity of acquiring an
education. My father made no profession of religion, but led a moral
and virtuous life. My childhood was not marked with any crime, although
I paid but little or no attention to religion until the seventeenth
year of my age. In July, 1832, when I first heard the fullness of
the gospel proclaimed by Elder Simeon Carter, I was convinced that
the scriptures were true and that the Book of Mormon was a divine
revelation from heaven. I was baptized and spent the following Winter
in going to school, working for my board and in meeting with the
Saints. In the Spring of 1833, I started in company with Brother John
S. Carter to the State of Vermont, where we labored about two months
and then returned to New York State.
On the third Sabbath in May while speaking to a congregation I declared
that I knew that the Book of Mormon and the work of God were true. The
next day while laboring in the field something seemed to whisper to
me, "Do you know the Book of Mormon is true?" My mind became perplexed
and darkened, and I was so tormented in spirit that I left my work
and retired into the woods. The misery and distress that I there
experienced cannot be described. The tempter all the while seemed to
say, "Do you know the Book of Mormon is true?" I remained in this
situation about two hours. Finally I resolved to know, by exercising
faith similar to that which the brother of Jared possessed, whether I
had proclaimed the truth or not, and commenced praying to the God of
heaven for a testimony of these things. Suddenly a glorious personage
clothed in white stood before me and exhibited to my view the plates
from which the Book of Mormon was taken.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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