Part 3 (1/2)
The branch in Mendon began to nourish, and the gifts of the spirit were poured out upon its members. This branch is reputed to have been the second in the Church to receive the gift of tongues; one of the branches in Pennsylvania being the first in which that gift was manifested.
Such a pentecostal renewal could scarcely take place without a corresponding movement of opposition on the part of the powers of darkness. The inevitable was at hand. Satan commenced to rage, and the Saints were annoyed and persecuted. Heber's former friends turned against him. His creditors combined to push him to the wall. During one week five or six executions were taken out against him. His brother Solomon was the only one outside the Church, willing to lend him a helping hand in his financial troubles, resulting from the inimical actions of his neighbors and old-time a.s.sociates. His brother Charles, who had formerly befriended him, was dead. But the Lord opened his way, much to the chagrin of his persecutors, and he obtained money to meet his liabilities, so that none of his property was sold at auction.
In September following the organization of the branch in Mendon, Brigham Young's wife, Miriam, died. She had been feeble for months, but in her expiring moments, filled with a supernatural vitality, she clapped her hands and praised G.o.d, calling upon all around to join her in so doing. She continued in this happy state until she breathed her last, moving her lips in prayer when her voice could no longer be heard. Heber remarks that the death-bed scene of this zealous and devoted Saint was to him another testimony of the truth and power of the everlasting gospel. Vilate Kimball took charge of Miriam's two little daughters, and, thenceforth, until after they removed from Mendon, the families of Brigham and Heber were as one.
In the meantime, the latter had been ordained an Elder, under the hands of Joseph Young, and labored with him and Brigham in the ministry. They visited Genesee, Avon and Lyonstown, baptizing many and building up branches of the Church. The following incident, related by Heber, shows how powerfully the Holy Ghost wrought through him in his ministrations:
”Brother Ezra Landon preached in Avon and Genesee, baptized eighteen or twenty, and being afraid to confirm them and promise the Holy Ghost, he requested me to confirm them, which I did according to the best of my knowledge, p.r.o.nouncing but a few words on the head of each one, and invariably saying, 'receive ye the Holy Ghost in the name of Jesus Christ.' Immediately the Holy Ghost fell upon them, and several commenced speaking in tongues before they arose from their knees, and we had a joyful time. Some ten or twelve spoke in tongues, neither of whom had ever heard any person speak in tongues before, they being the first baptized in that place.”
The region in which he was laboring is thus interestingly described:
”From the time Father Bosley located near Avon, he found and plowed up axes and irons, and had sufficient to make his mill irons, and had always abundance of iron on hand without purchasing.
”In the towns of Bloomfield, Victor, Manchester, and in the regions round about, there were hills upon the tops of which were entrenchments and fortifications, and in them were human bones, axes, tomahawks, points of arrows, beads and pipes, which were frequently found; and it was a common occurrence in the country to plow up axes, which I have done many times myself.
”I have visited the fortifications on the tops of those hills frequently, and the one near Bloomfield I have crossed hundreds of times, which is on the bluff of Honeyoye River, at the outlet of Honeyoye Lake.
”In that region there are many small deep lakes, and in some of them the bottom has never been found. Fish abound in them.
”The hill c.u.morah is a high hill for that country, and had the appearance of a fortification or entrenchment around it. In the State of New York, probably there are hundreds of these fortifications which are now visible, and I have seen them in many other parts of the United States.”
Readers of the Book of Mormon will remember that in this very region, according to that sacred record, the final battles were fought between the Nephites and Lamanites. At the hill c.u.morah, the Nephites made their last stand prior to their utter extermination, A. D., 385.
Thus was Heber preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles, above the graves of the ancients of Israel, whose records with the fullness of that Gospel, and the relics of their prowess and civilization, were now ”whispering from the dust.”
But another scene was about to s.h.i.+ft in his life's drama. He had planned to visit Kirtland, the bosom of the Church, and home of Joseph the Prophet.
CHAPTER V.
THE LAND OF s.h.i.+NEHAH--ARRIVAL OF HEBER AND BRIGHAM IN KIRTLAND--THEIR FIRST MEETING WITH THE PROPHET--THE KIMb.a.l.l.s AND YOUNGS REMOVE TO OHIO--VEXATIOUS SUITS AND MOB VIOLENCE--FALLEN ON PERILOUS TIMES.
Kirtland, at the time arrived at in our narrative, was the head-quarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The home of the Prophet of G.o.d and many of the leading Elders of Israel, it was also the spot designated by revelation where the first temple was to be built in this dispensation.
The Church, organized at Fayette, Seneca County, New York, on the 6th of April, 1830, had entered on the third year of its existence, and the Saints throughout the eastern parts had been commanded to gather westward. Kirtland and its vicinity, or ”the land of s.h.i.+nehah,” as it is named in revelation, had been settled as a stake of Zion since early in 1831, and from there, in the summer of the same year, had gone forth a colony of Saints to purchase and occupy ”the land of Zion,” in the western confines of Missouri. That region was then the nation's frontier, bordering on a wilderness inhabited by wild beasts and savages, and but spa.r.s.ely peopled itself by whites scarcely less ignorant and cruel.
The Gospel, preached by the first missionaries sent westward from New York, in October, 1830, had taken a firm hold among the honest-in-heart of Northern Ohio. Among those who had embraced the new faith--new, indeed, and wonderful to that generation--were Sidney Rigdon, Edward Partridge and Newel K. Whitney. The Pratts, the Whitmers, and other noted families were already numbered among the followers of the ”Mormon” Prophet, and it was Parley P. Pratt, Oliver Cowdery and other Elders who had first brought the Gospel to Kirtland.
The new branch throve so rapidly as to soon eclipse in importance all others; an event no doubt divinely ordered, as the Saints at large, in December, 1830, were commanded to ”a.s.semble together at the Ohio.”
Late in October, or early in November, 1832, Heber C. Kimball, in company with Brigham and Joseph Young, arrived in Kirtland. They had traveled by team a distance of three hundred miles. Their first meeting with the Prophet, whom they had come so far to see, was on the 8th day of November. Joseph was felling trees in the forest when the party approached. It is related that, on seeing Brigham, he said: ”There is a man who will yet preside over this Church.”
As to Heber, the heart of Joseph was at once knit with his, in friends.h.i.+p like unto that of David and Jonathan; and this feeling of brotherly love, like a golden chain, uniting these two n.o.ble souls, was destined to endure unbroken through time and eternity.
Says Heber: ”We saw brother Joseph Smith and had a glorious time; during which Brother Brigham spoke in tongues before Joseph, this being the first time he had heard anyone speak in tongues. He rose up and testified that the gift was from G.o.d, and then the gift fell upon him and he spoke in tongues himself. He afterwards declared it was the pure, or Adamic language that he spoke. Soon after this the gift of tongues commenced in the Church at Kirtland generally. We had a precious season and returned with a blessing in our souls.”
In the fall of 1833, Elder Kimball disposed of his possessions in Mendon, and settled his affairs preparatory to gathering to the bosom of the Church. He had borne faithful testimony to the inhabitants of the place which had been his home for so many years, but, with few exceptions, they had turned a deaf ear to his warning words. Heber was the only one of his father's household to embrace the Gospel. His brother Solomon, though friendly, and at one time, like Agrippa, ”almost persuaded,” did not come within the fold.