Part 3 (2/2)

No sooner was Heber ready to start Zionward, than he was again beset by petty persecutions. This time they were not only malicious, but of an out and out dishonest character. Notwithstanding he had settled all his accounts, and paid every penny that he owed--”unless it was two cents to one man, in a case where change could not be procured”--and left debts owing to him, uncollected, to the amount of ”some hundred dollars,” attachments were issued at the instance of some of his neighbors, and his goods seized by officers of the law.

Rather than be delayed by a law-suit, in which, owing to religious prejudice, he had little hope of receiving fair treatment, he settled the unjust claims and departed.

His family at this time consisted of himself and wife, and their two children, William Henry and Helen Mar. Judith Marvin, an elder daughter, and Roswell Heber, a younger son--the first and latest born of the household--had died. Brigham Young and his two little daughters went in the same wagon with the Kimball family to Kirtland. They reached their destination about the last of October, or early in November. They first occupied a house belonging to Elijah Smith, uncle to the wife of Bishop N. K. Whitney; but Heber soon had a home of his own, which he continued to share with his friend and brother Brigham, until the latter procured a separate domicile.

It is an interesting fact that Brigham was the builder of Heber's house in Kirtland, he being a carpenter and joiner, as well as a painter and glazier.

”When I got to Kirtland,” says Elder Kimball, ”the brethren were engaged in building the House of the Lord. The commandment to build the House and also the pattern of it, were given in a revelation to Joseph Smith, jun., Sidney Rigdon, and Frederick G. Williams, and it was to be erected by a stated time. The Church was in a state of poverty and distress, in consequence of which it appeared almost impossible that the commandment could be fulfilled. Soon after our arrival, there was a contribution called for to finish the school-house and printing office; I contributed the gla.s.s for the house, and I gave Brother Hyrum Smith two hundred dollars for the building of the temple.”

The newly arrived pilgrims had fallen on perilous times. Mobocracy was rife and rampant; persecution was raging against the Church, both in Ohio and in Missouri. The infernal regions seemed stirred to their depths at the prospect of a temple, whose walls, now climbing heavenward, gave promise of salvation and deliverance for the living and the dead; the unlocking of prison doors, the bursting of spirit dungeons, the smiting off of fetters from the limbs of the slave of sin, and the ushering forth of the penitent captive into the life and light of gospel liberty. Keys were about to be restored whereby the heavens would be brought nearer to the earth, the prophets of the past would minister in holy places to the prophets of the present, and the cause of human redemption receive such an impetus as would shake the throne of Satan to its foundations. No wonder the dominions of Sheol were agitated.

”Our enemies,” says Heber, ”were raging and threatening destruction upon us. We had to guard night after night, and for weeks were not permitted to take off our clothes, and were obliged to lie with our fire-locks in our arms, to preserve Brother Joseph's life and our own.

Joseph was sued before a magistrate's court in Painesville, on a vexatious suit. I carried him from Kirtland to Painesville, with four or five others, in my wagon, every morning for five days, and brought them back in the evening. We were often waylaid, but managed to elude our enemies by rapid driving and taking different roads. Esquire Bissell defended the Prophet and he came off victorious.

”At this time our brethren in Jackson County, Missouri, were also suffering great persecution; about twelve hundred were driven, plundered and robbed, their houses burned, and some of the brethren were killed.

”Mobs were organized around Kirtland, who were enraged against us, ready to destroy us.”

Such was the state of affairs with the Church of the living G.o.d, at the close of the year 1833. Such was the nature of the action upon which the hero of this history had entered. But he was of the gold, not the dross of the earth, and pa.s.sed through the fire, purified, yet not consumed.

CHAPTER VI.

THE GATHERING OF THE t.i.tANS--HEBER'S TESTIMONY OF JOSEPH AND THE TWELVE--THEIR MIGHTY MISSION--THE TEST OF FAITH--ZION'S CAMP.

Joseph, Brigham and Heber together in Kirtland! By what strange fatality were these mighty lives thus interwoven? We have seen how Brigham and Heber came together, and how, from thenceforth, the currents of their lives and fortunes ran parallel. Now they were joined with Joseph, their prophet chief, like streams that swell a river.

Interesting is it also, if only as a coincidence, that so many of the leading spirits of the latter-day work should have been natives of Vermont--a diadem for thee, proud State, and one which thou wilt prize in coming time!--from whence scattered, ere acquaintance with the Gospel or with each other began, to meet as co-laborers in the same great cause, among the hills and dales of Northern Ohio. As though the heavens had decreed their lives should thus commingle.

And the heavens had so decreed. It was not chance, it was destiny ”shaping their ends,” and fulfilling her mission in their behalf. And though from the ends of the earth--what matter names or nativity?--it had been the same. ”He that scattered Israel will gather him.” From all nations that fated blood, when goes Jehovah's fiat forth, like the rain-drops sprinkled upon the hills, must trickle back to the Ocean whence it came.

It was a coalescing of divine affinities, the relinking of a spirit chain, which, though it often part, is never broken, and though seemingly divided, forever inseparable.

”Are you ever going to be prepared to see G.o.d, Jesus Christ, His angels, or comprehend His servants, unless you take a faithful and prayerful course?”

”Did you actually know Joseph Smith?”

The questions are Heber C. Kimball's, addressed in later years to a congregation of the Saints.

”No,” he answers for them, and continues:

”Do you know Brother Brigham? No.”

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