The Lions of the Lord: A Tale of the Old WestWilson, Harry Leon
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The Lions of the Lord: A Tale of the Old West
Wilson, Harry Leon
Historical fiction; Latter Day Saint pioneers -- Fiction; Western stories
Another whose soul was irrevocably lost was Frederick Loba, who had
refused to take more than one wife in spite of the most explicit advice
from his superiors that he could attain to but little glory either in
this world or that to come with less than three. He crowned his offense
by speaking disrespectfully of Brigham Young. Orders were issued to
save his soul; but before his tabernacle could be seized by those who
would have saved him, the wretched man had taken his one wife and fled
to the mountains. There they wandered many days in the most inclement
weather, lost, famished, and several times but narrowly escaping the
little band that had been sent in pursuit of them; whose members would,
had they been permitted, not only have terminated their bodily
suffering, but saved their souls to a worthy place in the life to come.
As it was, they wandered a distance of three hundred miles, and three
days after their last food was eaten, the man carrying the woman in his
arms the last six miles, they reached a camp of the Snake Indians.
These, not sharing with their Utah brethren the prejudice against
apostates, gave them a friendly welcome, and guided them to Fort
Laramie, thereby destroying for the unhappy man and his wife their last
chance of coming forth in the final resurrection. But few at this time
were so unlucky as this pair; for judgment had begun at the house of
the Lord, and Israel was attentively at work.
It was now that Joel Rae became conscious that he was facing directly
away from the glory he had so long sought and suffered for. Though as
yet no blood for Israel had been shed in his actual presence, he had
attended the meetings of the Sons of Dan, and was kept aware of their
operations. It seemed to him in after years that his faculties had at
this time been in trance.
He was seized at length with an impulse to be away from it all. As the
days went by with their tragedies, he became half wild with
restlessness and a strange fear of himself. In spite of his lifelong
training, he knew there was wrong in the air. He could not question the
decrees of the priesthood, but this much became clear to him,—that only
one thing could carry with it more possibilities of evil than this
course of the Church toward dissenters—and that was to doubt that
Brigham Young’s voice was as the voice of God. Not yet could he bring
himself to this. But the unreasoning desire to be away became so strong
that he knew he must yield to it.
Turning this in his mind one day he met a brother Elder, a man full of
zeal who had lately returned from a mission abroad. There had been, he
said, a great outpouring of the spirit in Wales.
“And what a glorious day has dawned here,” he continued. “Thank God,
there is a way to save the souls of the blind! That reminds me—have you
heard of the saving work Brother Pixley was obliged to do?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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