Called on mission to England.--Extraordinary communication.--Calls
on families of the Twelve.--In Ohio.--Borrows money.--On board
a sailing vessel.--In Liverpool.--Writes to his aunt.--Why he
is there.--How he came there.--Crossing the ocean.--Terrific
storms.--An ocean storm scene.--The calm.--Gratitude.--Arrives in
Liverpool.--Manchester.--Birmingham.--Lorenzo says:
Early in the spring of 1840, I was appointed to a mission in England,
and I started on or about the twentieth of May. I here record a
circumstance which occurred a short time previous--one which has been
riveted on my memory, never to be erased, so extraordinary was the
manifestation. At the time, I was at the house of Elder H. G. Sherwood;
he was endeavoring to explain the parable of our Savior, when speaking
of the husbandman who hired servants and sent them forth at different
hours of the day to labor in his vineyard.
While attentively listening to his explanation, the Spirit of the Lord
rested mightily upon me--the eyes of my understanding were opened, and
I saw as clear as the sun at noonday, with wonder and astonishment, the
pathway of God and man. I formed the following couplet which expresses
the revelation, as it was shown me, and explains Father Smith's dark
saying to me at a blessing meeting in the Kirtland Temple, prior to
my baptism, as previously mentioned in my first interview with the
Patriarch.
As man now is, God once was:
As God now is, man may be.
I felt this to be a sacred communication, which I related to no one
except my sister Eliza, until I reached England, when in a confidential
private conversation with President Brigham Young, in Manchester, I
related to him this extraordinary manifestation.
Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, Parley P. Pratt, Orson Pratt, and
others of the Quorum of the Twelve, nine in all, were at this time
laboring in England, and before leaving Nauvoo, the home of the Saints,
I visited several of their families. I found Sister Young occupying an
unfinished log hut, with a loose floor, and no chinking between the
logs; consequently the sides and ends of the hut were open, leaving
the inmates exposed to wind and storms. When I called, she had just
returned from a long, fatiguing and fruitless search for her milch
cow, which had strayed the day before, and on which she much depended
for sustenance for her little ones. On my asking her what she wished
me to say to her husband, she replied, "You see my situation, but tell
him not to trouble, or worry in the least about me--I wish him to
remain in his field of labor until honorably released." Her apparent
poverty-stricken, destitute condition deeply stirred my sympathy. I
had but little money--not sufficient to take me one-tenth the distance
to my field of labor, with no prospect for obtaining the balance,
and was then on the eve of starting. I drew from my pocket a portion
of my small pittance, and presented her, but she refused to accept
it; while I strenuously insisted on her taking, and she persisting
to refuse--partly purposely, and partly accidentally, the money was
dropped on the floor, and rattled through the openings between the
loose boards, which settled the dispute, and bidding her good bye, I
left her to pick it up at her leisure. When I called on the wife of
Orson Pratt, she said she wished her husband to return home as soon as
possible--she needed his assistance.
On my way to New York, my point of embarkation, I called on my friends
in Ohio, held a few meetings, borrowed money at a heavy interest, and
proceeded on my way, traveling to New York chiefly on canal boats.
I took steerage passage on board a sailing vessel, having supplied
myself with blanket, buffalo robe, and a supply of provisions. I had
heard tell of deck passage--I had read of deck passage, but when I
experienced deck passage, with its peculiar make-up, on this voyage, I
could truly say, with the Queen of Sheba, "the half had not been told;"
and I felt assured that the other half never could be told. And, after
all, the almost unbearable discomfort I experienced on the voyage was
not attributable particularly to deck passage, but to the unpleasant
peculiarities of the situation. I was surrounded with a huddled crowd
of rough, uncouth people, very filthy in their appearance and habits.
We had a long passage of about six weeks, in which we encountered
storms and tempests, and suffered much for want of fresh water, and
also a sufficient supply of food. For further particulars I transcribe
the following letter written to my aunt in Ohio:
London, England, Feb. 16, 1841.
_My Dear and Highly Respected Aunt_:
With pleasure I improve the present opportunity in fulfilling the
promise made at our last interview. You see by this heading, I am in
the city of London, the great metropolis of the British empire. The
thought that I am between four and five thousand miles from the home
of my childhood and all of my early, fond associations, very naturally
prompts the question, _Why am I here_? To me, a question of no small
magnitude--one, the results of which probably lie far in the future. In
answer to the foregoing I would say, I am here because God has spoken,
and raised up a Prophet, through whom He has restored the fulness
of the everlasting Gospel, with all its gifts, powers, ordinances,
and blessings; with a proclamation to all peoples, "_Repent, for the
kingdom of heaven is at hand_." In the providence of God, I have been
called as an ambassador, to bear this message to the nations of the
earth, which I realize devolves on me a great responsibility which I
cannot discharge without the aid of the Almighty.
And now, another question suggests itself--_How came I here_? In answer
to this, I can truly say, the hand of the Lord has led me, and His
power has protected and preserved me in the midst of those perilous
scenes to which voyagers are often exposed when on the briny deep in
their passage to foreign lands.
I was nearly two weeks on the way from Cleveland, Ohio, to New
York--traveled upwards of three hundred miles on the Erie canal. At
Albany I took steamboat to New York, and the next day, after having
supplied myself with what little necessary articles and comforts I
needed on the voyage, went on board a ship just ready to sail, bidding
good bye to New York, after a brief introduction and hasty glance at
its temptations for sight-seeing; and, for the first time, turned my
face from my native land.
I was forty-two days crossing the ocean, and during this time we
encountered three terrible storms--storms which those accustomed
to the ocean pronounced very dangerous. Unacquainted as I was with
the turbulent waves, I was unable to judge comparatively, but, in a
number of instances, to say the least of it, the scene was fearfully
terrific. I did not feel surprised that men, women and children who had
not learned to trust in God, wrung their hands in an agony of fear,
and wept. My trust was in Him who created the seas and defined their
bounds. I was on His errand--I knew that I was sent on this mission by
the authority He recognizes, and, although the elements raged and the
ship swayed and trembled amid the heaving billows, He was at the helm,
and my life was safe in His keeping.
I think, aunt, that you moved from Massachusetts to Ohio by land,
and that you have had no experience in ocean life; now, to realize
the answer to "How came I here?" Just look at me in your lively
imagination, in one of these terrific storms, seated on a large
hogshead of water--holding on, with both hands, to ropes near by,
in order to retain my position--the ship reeling and dashing from
side to side--now and then a monster wave leaping over the bulwarks,
treating all present with a shower bath--see, sitting near me, a man
weeping bitterly with terror in his countenance--the next moment a
wave shoots over the bulwarks, dashing him from his seat and landing
him precipitately against the bulwark on the opposite side, from which
he arises with a broken arm and dripping wet; while many others are
badly bruised by having been furiously thrown about. So much for the
upper deck. Now take a peep into the deck below, where boxes, chests
and barrels, having broken loose from their storage, are slipping and
tumbling about among the women and children, whose groans and cries
for help are in vain, so long as each man has all he can possibly do
to take care of himself, for none but sailors and those accustomed to
marine life can control their movements in a fierce storm on the mighty
deep. No doubt but an imaginative glance at the one storm will suffice.
Now, after the storm subsided and the bosom of the great deep settled
into calm repose, see the tall masts bow gently before the mildly
moving breeze--the white sails unfurl in placid swells, and again the
ship moves through the parting waves with stately pride, while joy and
gratitude fill every heart.
When we arrived at the Liverpool docks, as the vessel approached within
a few feet of the shore, the hand of an Englishman was reached forth
to assist me. I immediately seized it and landed upon the island of
Great Britain, just three months from the time I left my father's
house in Illinois, to which place my father and family had been driven
by the ruthless hand of mobocracy. The twenty-second of this month
I shall have been four months in England. The pleasure I realized
on the termination of a long and tedious voyage on the ocean cannot
be expressed. Suffice it to say, my heart was full of the highest
gratitude to Him who preserves and sustains those whom He calls and
sends forth as ministers of salvation to the nations of the earth.
In Liverpool, I found a branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, with about one hundred members. I tarried a few days
and spoke in an evening meeting, then took the train to Manchester,
distant thirty miles. On my arrival, I experienced inexpressible joy in
greeting once more my brethren from America. I stopped in Manchester
about ten days, during which I preached a number of times and baptized
several persons. The population of this city consists of over three
hundred thousand inhabitants.
From Manchester I went by coach to Birmingham. There I labored in the
ministry about three months, and never enjoyed myself better, nor
received kinder treatment. This great city contains about two hundred
thousand inhabitants.
On the eleventh of February, in about five hours I proceeded by train
to London, from which I write you. I am here, presiding over the Church
in London; I also have charge of several branches established in the
vicinity. The work of the Lord moves on with rapidity in all parts of
Her Majesty's kingdom--in England, Scotland and Wales.
With kind regards to you, dear aunt, and to each member of your family,
I subscribe myself,
Your affectionate nephew,
L. Snow.