Saturday Night Thoughts: A Series of Dissertations on Spiritual, Historical, and Philosophic ThemesWhitney, Orson F. (Orson Ferguson)
Religion
Saturday Night Thoughts: A Series of Dissertations on Spiritual, Historical, and Philosophic Themes
Whitney, Orson F. (Orson Ferguson)
Latter Day Saint churches
"Passed over the river to Montrose, Iowa, in company with General
Adams, Colonel Brewer and others, and witnessed the installation of the
officers of the Rising Sun Lodge, Ancient York Masons, at Montrose, by
General James Adams, Deputy Grand Master of Illinois. While the Deputy
Grand Master was engaged in giving the requisite instructions to the
Master-elect, I had a conversation with a number of brethren in the
shade of the building, on the subject of our persecutions in Missouri
and the constant annoyance which has followed us since we were driven
from that State. I prophesied that the Saints would continue to suffer
much affliction, and would be driven to the Rocky Mountains. Many
would apostatize, others would be put to death by our persecutors or
lose their lives in consequence of exposure or disease, 'and some of
you will live to go and assist in making settlements, build cities,
and see the Saints become a mighty people in the midst of the Rocky
Mountains."' [2]
Anson Call's Narrative.--One of the men who heard that prediction
was Anson Call, afterwards a prominent colonizer in various parts of
the Rocky Mountain region. His account, descriptive of the Montrose
incident, follows:
"A block school-house had been prepared, with shade in front, under
which was a barrel of ice water. Judge Adams was the highest Masonic
authority in the State of Illinois, and had been sent there to organize
this lodge. He, Hyrum Smith, and J. C. Bennett, being high Masons, went
into the house to perform some ceremonies which the others were not
entitled to witness. These, including Joseph Smith, remained under the
bowery. Joseph, as he was tasting the cold water, warned the brethren
not to be too free with it. With the tumbler still in his hand, he
prophesied that the Saints would yet go to the Rocky Mountains; and,
said he, 'this water tastes much like that of the crystal streams that
are running from the snow-capped mountains.' . . . . I had before seen
him in a vision (i.e. while having a vision), and now saw, while he
was talking, his countenance change to white--not the deadly white of
a bloodless face, but a living, brilliant white. He seemed absorbed in
gazing upon something at a great distance, and said: 'I am gazing upon
the valleys of those mountains."' [3]
The Seeric Power.--Joseph Smith, at that time, was standing on the
west bank of the Mississippi River, fifteen hundred miles from the
Rocky Mountains; yet he saw these grand old hills, crowned with
unmelting snows, and seamed with rugged gorges down which the crystal
torrents were flowing as they flow today. He actually beheld, with
spirit vision, these objects--beheld them so vividly, that had he been
permitted to carry out his partly formed purpose of leading his people
to their new home in the wilderness, he would have recognized this
land, and would have been able to say, as Brigham Young said, upon
beholding Salt Lake Valley: "This is the Place." [4]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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