Letters Exhibiting the Most Prominent Doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day SaintsSpencer, Orson
Religion
Letters Exhibiting the Most Prominent Doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
Spencer, Orson
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- Doctrines; Latter Day Saint churches -- Doctrines
Twenty-seventh of June, 1844. Eventful period in the calendar of the
19th century! That awful night!! I remember it well--I shall never
forget it! Thousands and tens of thousands will never forget it! A
solemn thrill--a melancholy awe comes o'er my spirit! The memorable
scene is fresh before me! It requires no art of the pencil, no
retrospection of history to portray it. The impression of the Almighty
Spirit on that occasion will run parallel with eternity! The scene
was not portrayed by earthquake, or thunderings and lightnings, and
tempest; but the majesty and sovereignty of Jehovah was felt far
more impressively in the still small voice of that significant hour,
than the roaring of many waters, or the artillery of many thunders,
when the spirit of Joseph was driven back to the bosom of God, by an
ungrateful and blood-guilty world. There was an unspeakable something,
a portentous significancy in the firmament and among the inhabitants
of the earth. Multitudes felt the whisperings of wo and grief, and the
forebodings of tribulation and sorrow that they will never forget,
though the tongue of man can never utter it. The Saints of God, whether
near the scene of blood, or even a thousand miles distant, felt at
the very moment the prophet lay in royal gore, that an awful deed was
perpetrated. O, the repulsive chill! the melancholy vibrations of the
very air, as the prince of darkness receded in hopeful triumph from
the scene of slaughter! That night could not the Saints sleep, though
uninformed by man of what had passed with the Seer and Patriarch,
and far, far remote from the scene; yet to them sleep refused a
visitation--the eyelids refused to close--the hearts of many sighed
deeply in secret, and enquired why am I thus.
One of the Twelve Apostles, while travelling a hundred miles from the
scene of assassination, and totally ignorant of what was done, was so
unaccountably sad, and filled with such unspeakable anguish of heart,
without knowing the cause, that he was constrained to turn aside from
the road and give utterance to his feelings in tears and supplications
to God. Another Apostle, twelve hundred miles distant, while standing
in Fanuel Hall, Boston, Massachusetts, with many others, was similarly
affected, and obliged to turn aside to hide the big tears that gushed
thick and long from his eyes. Another, president of the high priests,
while in the distant state of Kentucky, in the solitude of midnight,
being marvellously disquieted, God condescended to show him, in a
vision, the mangled bodies of the two murdered worthies, all dripping
in purple gore, who said to him, we are murdered by a faithless state
and cruel mob.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account