RESULT OF NOT OBEYING THE VOICE OF THE SPIRIT--LOST IN A
SNOWSTORM--SAVED IN ANSWER TO PRAYER--REVELATION TO MISSIONARIES
NECESSARY--REVELATIONS IN THE ST. GEORGE TEMPLE.
I will now give an example from my own experience of the result of not
obeying the voice of the Spirit.
Some years since I had part of my family living in Randolph, Rich
County. I was there on a visit, with my team in the month of December.
One Monday morning my monitor, the Spirit watching over me, said: "Take
your team and go home to Salt Lake City."
When I named it to my family who were at Randolph they urged me
strongly to stop longer.
Through their persuasion I stayed until Saturday morning, with the
Spirit continually prompting me to go home. I then began to feel
ashamed to think that I had not obeyed the whisperings of the Spirit to
me before.
I took my team and started early on Saturday morning. When I arrived at
Woodruff, the Bishop urged me to stop until Monday and he would go with
me.
I told him, "No, I had tarried too long already."
I drove on sprightly, and when within fifteen miles of Wasatch, a
furious snow storm overtook me, the wind blowing heavily in my face.
In fifteen minutes I could not see any road whatever, and knew not how
or where to guide my horses.
I left my lines loosely on my animals, went inside my wagon, tied down
the cover, and committed my life and guidance into the hands of the
Lord, trusting to my horses to find the way, as they had twice before
passed over that road.
I prayed to the Lord to forgive my sin in not obeying the voice of the
Spirit to me, and implored Him to preserve my life.
My horses brought me into the Wasatch station at 9 o'clock in the
evening, with the hubs of my wagon dragging in the snow.
I got my horses under cover and had to remain there until next Monday
night, with the snow six feet deep on the level, and still snowing.
It was with great difficulty at last that I saved the lives of my
horses by getting them into a box car and taking them to Ogden; while,
if I had obeyed the revelation of the Spirit of God to me, I should
have traveled to Salt Lake City over a good road without any storm.
As I have received the good and the evil, the fruits of obedience and
disobedience, I think I am justified in exhorting all my young friends
to always obey the whisperings of the Spirit of God, and they will
always be safe.
The Spirit of God will rule over and guide all men who will permit it
and seek for it, and this is especially necessary for young Elders who
are laboring in the vineyard of the Lord. For the Lord knows where the
righteous, honest and meek of the earth are, and will lead the Elders
to them.
I have already related a remarkable instance of this in my own
experience, when the voice of the Lord came to me in the town of
Hanley, England, in 1840.
In that case it dictated me quite contrary to my expectations, for I
had appointments out for a week ahead. But I obeyed the voice of the
Spirit, went south as I was directed to, and my readers know the result.
I will refer to one more instance in my experience upon the subject of
revelation:
All the Latter-day Saints understand that we build temples for the
purpose of administering ordinances for the dead as well as for the
living.
The Lord has opened the way in a remarkable manner for many of the
members of the Church to obtain records of the names of their dead for
several generations.
I had also obtained a record of somewhat over three thousand of my
father and mother's families.
After the dedication of the temple at St. George, President Young
appointed me to preside over it. When we commenced work in the temple
I began to reflect: "How can I redeem my dead? I have some three
thousand names of the dead who have been baptized for, and how can I
get endowments for them?"
I had none of my family there, and if any had been there they would not
have been able to get endowments for so many.
While praying to the Lord to show me how to redeem my dead, the Spirit
of God rested upon me, and the voice of the Spirit said to me, "Go and
call upon the sons and daughters of Zion in St. George, to come into
the temple of the Lord and get endowments for your dead; and it shall
be acceptable unto me, saith the Lord."
This filled my soul with joy, and I saw that it opened a field as wide
as eternity for the salvation of our dead and the redemption of man,
that we might magnify our calling as saviors upon Mount Zion.
On my birthday, March 1, 1877, the day that I was seventy years old,
one hundred and fifty-four sisters at St. George went into the temple
to get endowments for the same number of the female portion of my dead.
This principle was received by President Young and adopted from that
hour, and through the kindness of friends I have had nearly two
thousand of my friends receive endowments in the temple of the Lord;
and thousands of others have received the same blessings in the same
way.
President Young received revelations in the temple, and there are
yet many revelations to be received in the last days, concerning the
redemption of the dead and many other subjects, but they will all be
manifest in due time through the proper authority unto the Church and
Kingdom of God.
There are many other manifestations of the power of God and the
revelations of Jesus Christ to us in our lives. We have been called
by revelation to give endowments for many persons now dead, who, when
living, were honorable men of the earth, and some who were prominent in
our nation, but who were not members of our family.
But I have said sufficient upon this branch of the subject.