THE REVEREND MR. FIELDING FORBIDS THE ELDERS TO BAPTIZE THEIR
CONVERTS--APOSTLE KIMBALL'S ANSWER: "THEY ARE OF AGE AND CAN ACT FOR
THEMSELVES"--PREMIER GLADSTONE AND SECRETARY EVARTS--FREE AGENCY AND
UNRIGHTEOUS DOMINION--HEBER C. KIMBALL BAPTIZES IN THE RIVER RIBBLE--A
MIRACLE
The Reverend James Fielding, finding, notwithstanding his opposition,
that the Elders prospered in their labors, and were preparing to lead
into the waters of baptism a number of his flock who had applied to
them for that privilege, wrought himself into "a fine frenzy." He had
even been to the Elders' lodgings, and, confronting Apostle Kimball,
forbidden him to baptize them.
"They are of age," answered Heber, "and can act for themselves; I
shall baptize all who come unto me, asking no favors of any man."
"On hearing this," he adds, "Mr. Fielding trembled and shook as though
he had a chill."
"They are of age and can act for themselves." A similar answer to that
given, nearly half a century later, by the greatest of England's
living statesmen, when asked by the representative of "the freest
government on earth," to aid in the suppression of Mormon emigration
from Europe. An answer worthy of "the grand old man," as it was worthy
of the grand Apostle, Heber C. Kimball, and in consonance with the
spirit of liberty, the genius of the Gospel, and that sublime Mormon
doctrine, the free agency of man.
The destruction of human agency is Satan's peculiar mission; a
doctrine of devils from the beginning, it will be so unto the end.
Force can never win in a controversy involving the conscience, or soul
of man. "It may compel the body, but it cannot convince the mind."
Thought is forever unfettered; as free to the Siberian serf, as to
Columbia's proudest son, or the monarch on his throne. Freedom to
believe, man cannot give; the right to act, where action injures no
one, he cannot in justice take away. They who do so follow after
Lucifer, who rebelled against God, and was hurled with his doctrine of
tyranny from heaven's battlements, drawing down to perdition a third
of its spirit hosts, "because of their agency;" the very eternal
principle he had vainly sought to destroy.
The Prophet Joseph, speaking of the power of the Priesthood, the power
which governs and controls all things, says:
"No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the
Priesthood, only by persuasion, by long suffering, by gentleness, and
meekness, and by love unfeigned.
"When we undertake to cover our sins, or to gratify our pride, our
vain ambition, or to exercise control, or dominion, or compulsion,
upon the souls of the children of men, in any degree of
unrighteousness, behold the heavens withdraw themselves; the Spirit of
the Lord is grieved; and when it is withdrawn, Amen to the Priesthood,
or the authority of that man."
A sublime enunciation, worthy the inspired mind of an American
Prophet, cradled in the lap of liberty, and born to bring truth to
light. Thine was a noble thought, Bartholdi, noble though only half
expressed. Not liberty alone, not truth alone, but truth and liberty,
Liberty with Truth, shall yet "enlighten the world."
Referring to the morning of his contest with the demons, Apostle
Kimball says:
"Notwithstanding the weakness of my body from the shock I had
experienced, I had the pleasure, about 9 a.m., of baptizing nine
individuals and hailing them brethren and sisters in the kingdom of
God. These were the first persons baptized into the Church in a
foreign land, and only the eighth day after our arrival in Preston."
"A circumstance took place which I cannot refrain from mentioning, for
it will show the eagerness and anxiety of some in that land to obey
the Gospel. Two of the male candidates, when they had changed their
clothes at a distance of several rods from the place where I was
standing in the water, were so anxious to obey the Gospel that they
ran with all their might to the water, each wishing to be baptized
first. The younger, George D. Watt, being quicker of foot than the
elder, outran him, and came first into the water."
"The circumstance of baptizing in the open air being somewhat novel, a
concourse of between seven and nine thousand persons assembled on the
banks of the river to witness the ceremony. It was the first time
baptism by immersion was administered openly, as the Baptists in that
country generally have a font in their chapels, and perform the
ordinance privately."
"In the afternoon Elder Russell preached in the market place to a
congregation of about five thousand persons, numbers of whom were
pricked to the heart.
"I had visited Thomas Walmesley's house, whose wife was sick of the
consumption and had been for several years; she was reduced to skin
and bones, a mere skeleton; and was given up to die by the doctors. I
preached the Gospel to her, and promised her in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ if she would believe, repent and be baptized, she should
be healed of her sickness. She was carried to the water, and after her
baptism began to amend, and at her confirmation she was blest, and her
disease rebuked, when she immediately recovered, and in less than one
week after she was attending to her household duties."
Sister Walmesley, the subject of this episode, is still living. She
resides in Bear Lake County, Idaho, and though far advanced in years,
at last accounts was hale and hearty.
Thus was a miracle wrought that day, and nine souls initiated into the
kingdom of God; the first fruits of the Gospel in a foreign land. The
names of those baptized were George D. Watt, -- Miller, Thomas
Walmesley, Ann Elizabeth Walmesley, Miles Hodgen, George Wate, Henry
Billsbury, Mary Ann Brown and Ann Dawson.