Mr. Durant of Salt Lake City, "That Mormon"Rich, Ben. E. (Benjamin Erastus)
Religion
Mr. Durant of Salt Lake City, "That Mormon"
Rich, Ben. E. (Benjamin Erastus)
Latter Day Saints -- Fiction; Salt Lake City (Utah) -- Fiction
"I lay musing on the singularity of the scene, and marveling
greatly at what had been told me by this extraordinary messenger,
when, in the midst of my meditation, I suddenly discovered that
my room was again beginning to get lighted, and in an instant, as
it were, the same heavenly messenger was again by my bedside. He
commenced, and again related the very same things which he had
done at his first visit, without the least variation, which having
done, he informed me of great judgments which were coming upon the
earth, with great desolations by famine, sword, and pestilence,
and that these grievous judgments would come on the earth in this
generation. Having related these things, he again ascended as he
had done before.
"By this time, so deep were the impressions made on my mind, that
sleep had fled from my eyes, and I lay overwhelmed in astonishment
at what I had both seen and heard; but what was my surprise when
again I beheld the same messenger at my bedside, and heard him
rehearse or repeat over again to me the same things as before, and
added a caution to me, telling me that Satan would try to tempt
me (in consequence of the indigent circumstances of my father's
family) to get the plates for the purpose of getting rich. This
he forbade me, saying that I must have no other object in view in
getting the plates but to glorify God, and must not be influenced
by any other motive but that of building his kingdom, otherwise
I could not get them. After this third visit, he again ascended
up into heaven as before, and I was again left to ponder on the
strangeness of what I had just experienced, when almost immediately
after the heavenly messenger had ascended from me the third time,
the cock crew, and I found that day was approaching, so that our
interviews must have occupied the whole of that night, I shortly
after arose from my bed, and, as usual, went to the necessary
labors of the day, but, in attempting to labor as at other times, I
found my strength so exhausted as rendered me entirely unable. My
father, who was laboring along with me, discovered something to be
wrong with me, and told me to go home. I started with the intention
of going to the house, but, in attempting to cross the fence out
of the field where we were, my strength entirely failed me, and I
fell helpless on the ground, and for a time was quite unconscious
of anything. The first thing that I can recollect, was a voice
speaking unto me, calling me by name; I looked up and beheld the
same messenger standing over my head, surrounded by light, as
before. He then again related unto me all that he had related to me
the previous night, and commanded me to go to my father, and tell
him of the vision and commandment which I had received.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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