Part 17 (1/2)
There was no need in the district of Manchester for Finney to explain what hypocrite he meant. In his own country Smith was commonly held to be the arch-hypocrite.
”The devil has surely espoused that cause in earnest, for the number of deluded souls in that part of Ohio and in southern Missouri, and scattered as missionaries up and down the country, is, I hear, between three and four thousand.”
”And always among those who wors.h.i.+p the letter of the Scripture,”
remarked Ephraim, ”for their missionaries give chapter and verse for all they teach.”
”I was told that their customs were peculiarly evil. Even among themselves they lie and steal and are violent and licentious; and they teach openly that it is a merit to steal from the Gentiles, as they call those not of themselves; and, furthermore, they aim at nothing less than setting up a government of their own in the west.”
”Who told you all this?”
”I am sorry to say that I had it on good authority. Some of the western brethren had it from a poor fellow who had been deluded into entering the Mormon community, and had barely escaped with his life when he desired to withdraw.”
”Would you consider a pervert from your own sect the best witness of its tenets? But you say that you saw my cousin?”
Finney told what had led him to the village of Hiram, and said, ”When I spoke of the sins of the Mormons, a young woman seated near the front of the congregation rose up. It was your cousin. I saw at once by the pallor of her face that the Lord was having direct dealing with her soul. The 'power' was indeed very great; a strong man fell as dead near her, who before the night was over gave testimony of sound conversion.
After he and your cousin had been led out, many others in different parts of the building cried to G.o.d for mercy. When the sermon was over I sought for your cousin, but when I told who she was, the people of the place said that no doubt Mormon messengers had come while she was waiting, and forced her to depart. That night there was a disturbance in the place; some of the more hot-headed men had the leaders out, and tarred and feathered them--a dastardly deed! I have been threatened myself with being rid on a rail and tarred when the devil stirred up the people against my preaching, but the Lord mercifully preserved me. 'Tis a shameful practice, but I hear it was done to these men to intimidate them from the more violent crimes which they had conspired to commit. In the morning I was forced to go, as I was advertised to preach at many stations farther on, or I would have denounced the violence from the pulpit. I could not find out anything more concerning your cousin, but the Lord has never allowed me to doubt that the many prayers which we have offered on her behalf were answered that night, for I could see by the expression of her face that she, like those upon the day of Pentecost, was cut to the heart.”
At the garden gate, under the boughs of the quince-tree, which had increased its branches since the day in which Susannah had last pa.s.sed under them, Ephraim now stood in the moonlight, barring the entrance. At length with a sigh he said, ”Alas! Finney, I believe that there are few souls under heaven more true and more worthy than your own; but as for the power of G.o.d, 'His way is in the sea and his path in the great waters, but his footsteps are not known.'”
Out of his breast Ephraim took a thin leather book, and from out of the book gave Finney a letter much worn with reading.
Finney took the letter reverently, and read it by the light of his bedroom candle. In those days letters were more formally written; this one from Susannah to Ephraim began with wishes concerning her aunt and uncle and the prosperity of the household. The fine flowing writing filled the large sheet.
”I write to you, my dear cousin, rather than to my aunt, to whom I fear my letter would not be acceptable, for although I can say that I regret my wilfulness and the manner of my disobedience, still I can never regret that, having been forced to choose, I threw in my lot with those who can suffer wrong rather than with those who have it in their hearts to inflict wrong, for if there be a G.o.d--ah, Ephraim, this is another reason why I address you, for I am in sore doubt concerning the knowledge of G.o.d, as to whether any knowledge is possible. My husband, who denies me nothing, has allowed me to send for some of your books whose names I remembered. I thought at first to write to you about them, but I distrust now my own understanding too much to venture. I would like you to know that they have helped me somewhat, for I do not now say to myself in hard, tearless fas.h.i.+on that I know there is no G.o.d, to which thought I was driven by the reflection that most of those who seek him most diligently sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.
”But the more immediate occasion of this letter is to tell you that a month since Mr. Finney held a meeting not far from us. I went, thinking to gain some help from him, and to hear news of you, but I was greatly disappointed, and made very angry. He preached as my husband and many of our elders preach, and there were among the crowd the same signs of excitement and peculiar manifestations that we have constantly among us.
But toward the end of his sermon Mr. Finney spoke of my husband's Church, and he lent the weight of his influence to very evil slanders that are constantly repeated about us by those who have not sought to know the truth. He did us great injury by stirring up the roughest of the people to violence. Mr. Finney will, I suppose, visit you and repeat those lies, which no doubt he believes, but is most culpable in believing, because he has not investigated the scandal against us as he would have investigated scandal against any who are orthodox. I write now to tell you that that which he says is not true. For although there are a few criminals amongst us, as in every community, evil is not taught or condoned.”
As Finney read this letter by his lonely candle he was so far stirred by what he deemed the merely human side of the incident as to say to himself, ”Poor Ephraim! She has never even known that he loved her.” But next day, in speaking to Ephraim, he pointed out that in the worst communities there were always pure-minded women who knew little or nothing of the evil around them, and said he believed that his message would still be the means of bringing home the truth to Susannah's heart.
CHAPTER VI.
In the meantime an interval of comparative peace had come to Kirtland.
The Gentiles, because they discovered that the town was a good market for the produce of more fields than the Saints could till, allowed their religious zeal to slumber.
A female relative of Halsey, having lost her friends by death, came from the east to Kirtland upon his invitation.
Susannah went down the hill one summer day to meet the travelling company of new converts which brought Elvira Halsey. That young lady had seen about twenty-five years of life's vicissitudes, and had sharpened her wits thereon. Slight, pretty, and dressed with an effort at fas.h.i.+on that was quite astonis.h.i.+ng in the Kirtland settlement, Elvira sprang from the waggon.
”I've come to be a Mormon. How do you begin?” With these words she presented to Susannah a new type of character, fresh, and in some ways delightful.
There was quite a crowd at the stopping place of the waggons. Halsey, with other elders and Smith, came to welcome the newcomer. Elvira stood on tip-toe, peeping about, pressing Susannah's arm with whispers.
”Which is Joe Smith, do tell me? Do you go down on your knees to him, and does he pat your head?”
Guided by keen instinct, Elvira did not make remarks in Halsey's hearing which would have shocked him, but perhaps by the same instinct she at once claimed Susannah as a confidante in spite of some feeble remonstrance.