VISION OF THE LAST DAYS--BAPTISM OF THE AUTHOR AND FOUR OTHERS--HIS
WIFE'S DREAM AND BAPTISM--HE IS ORDAINED AN ELDER--VISITS KIRTLAND--ON
HIS RETURN, IS ATTACKED BY FEVER--IS MIRACULOUSLY HEALED--RE-VISITS
KIRTLAND--BEGINS TO PREACH--MIRACULOUS HEALING OF A CANCER--ACCIDENT
AND MIRACULOUS HEALING OF JESSE W. CROSBY--POISON MIRACULOUSLY
NULLIFIED----CASTING OUT OF EVIL SPIRITS.
I was not baptized directly, as I hoped to have the pleasure of seeing
my wife comply with the same ordinance, when we could enter the Church
together. In the meantime I prosecuted my inquiries.
Shortly after inquiring of the Lord concerning the truth of the
judgments preached by the Latter-day Saints as being at hand, and
impending over this generation, I was shown, in answer, by a vision,
the various scenes described in the revelations of the ancient prophets.
The inhabitants of the earth appeared before me in their various
occupations--plowing, sowing, fishing, and engaged in mechanical
business. I saw them, under the infliction of the plagues, etc., lift
their eyes towards heaven, curse God, and die. I also saw many other
things as predicted by ancient prophets.
Thus do I _know_ the truth of the Bible as well as of the Book of
Mormon, and I am witness for both!
A whole year and a half I deferred my baptism, still waiting for my
wife, who, although at first favorable to "Mormonism," had become a
determined enemy to the Church.
When I went to hear the "Mormons" preach at Westfield, a village where
the Twelve Apostles were holding their first conference, curiosity had
drawn great numbers to hear them, so that they had crowded meetings all
the time. The second day of this conference, I, with four others, was
baptized by Elder McLellin, and confirmed the same night.
While undressing on the banks of the creek, preparing for the
ordinance, Satan made a last effort to prevent my entering the Church.
A man, walking along by the water's side, came up to me and said, "I
wish to speak to you for a few minutes before you go into the water."
Thinking, of course, that he was a friend, or a member of the Church,
who intended to give me some instruction as to my behavior in the
water, I followed him, and, having got me to retire some rods off, he
said, "Have you heard what has come out?" "No," I replied, "what about?"
"Why," he continued, "concerning the 'Mormons.' It has been discovered
that it is all an imposture, a regular hoax to deceive the people. The
affair has just come to light. If you wait only a little, you'll hear
all about it."
At first this completely stunned me, for I was listening very
attentively, considering him one of the Church, and for a moment I
began to question, but quickly recollecting the manifestations I had
received, I told him he was a child of the devil, and I pushed past him
to the water, and was baptized at once. This was on the 15th of May,
1835.
My wife, who had managed to be present when I was going to the water,
and even threatened that she would not live with me, was, for a long
while after, (perhaps a year and a half,) bitterly opposed to the work,
but I knew from the Lord that she would come into the Church, and I
told her so. As the way she was at last brought in was very curious, I
will mention it.
She dreamed one night that a large company of visitors had come to her
house, for whom she had to prepare supper. On going into her buttery
to procure the necessary food to cook, she could only find a small
potato, about the size of a robin's egg, lying on a wooden trencher.
However, with this small stock she commenced, and by some wonderful
means converted this little affair into a splendid preparation of pies,
puddings, etc.
When they were ready she stood still, wondering how it had all been
done, for, as may be supposed, it puzzled her sorely to conceive how,
from a small potato, and that on a wooden trencher, she had produced
such an elegant entertainment.
Just at this moment while she was thus marveling, I was awakened from
my sleep, with a command sounding in my ears that I was to say to my
wife, "Don't you remember hearing that you should not despise the day
of _small things?_" I was to speak at once, without waiting. So I awoke
her, and without any preface did as I was bid.
The wonderful concurrence of these words with her dream, and the
self-evident interpretation of it, referring as it did to her past
conduct (for one of the principal reasons of the opposition she felt to
my joining the Church was, that she considered it disgraced her to have
her husband belong to a Church that was so poor, and everywhere spoken
against), so impressed itself upon her mind, with other confirmations,
that she was baptized, and has remained firm to the Church ever since.
When I had been in the Church about three months, I was ordained an
Elder, under the hands of Jared Carter. The next day I, with my wife,
went up to Kirtland, to visit the Saints living there.
After a very happy time, during which the book of Doctrine and
Covenants was first presented to the Church, we started for home.
While on the lakes, I was attacked by one of the lake fevers prevalent
there, and became very ill indeed. I was, however, taken home and put
to bed.
The same day two Elders of the Church called in to see me, and finding
I was in such a condition, they laid their hands upon me. While their
hands were yet upon my head, I felt the disease remove from my body,
commencing at the pit of my stomach, moving gradually upwards towards
the hands of the Elders, and I was made perfectly whole.
The same day I was out at work milking my cows, and went around to
invite my neighbors to hear the preaching in the evening. This was the
first case of healing I had ever witnessed.
The succeeding winter I again went up to Kirtland, to attend the
dedication of the temple, and to meet with the solemn assembly that
was there convened. There the Spirit of the Lord, as on the day of
Pentecost, was profusely poured out. Hundreds of Elders spoke in
tongues, but, many of them being young in the Church, and never having
witnessed the manifestation of this gift before, some felt a little
alarmed.
This caused the Prophet Joseph Smith to pray to the Lord to withhold
the Spirit. Joseph then instructed them on the nature of the gift of
tongues, and the operation of the Spirit generally.
We had a most glorious and never-to-be-forgotten time. Angels were seen
by numbers present, and the first endowments were received.
It was during this assembly that the Saints' favorite hymn was given,
by inspiration, commencing:
"The Spirit of God, like a fire, is burning!
The latter-day glory begins to come forth;
The visions and blessings of old are returning,
The angels are coming to visit the earth."
The beauty and applicability of this hymn will be seen by the Saints,
on reading the third and fourth verses, when it is recollected that
this was a solemn assembly, and that the ordinance of washing of feet,
etc., was just then being attended to.
It was also at this time that Elijah the Prophet appeared, and
conferred upon Joseph the keys of turning the hearts of the fathers
to the children, previous to the re-institution of the ordinance of
baptism for the dead.
By this time most of the members of the Pomphret Branch, into
which I had been baptized, were gathered up to Kirtland, the first
gathering-place of the Saints; and I was left without any one to
counsel or direct me as to the way in which I should devote my labors
in spreading the principles of truth, when one day the Word of the
Lord, by the power of the Spirit, came unto me, saying, "I have
fourteen sheep in Portland: go and gather them; then go south, where I
have twenty-two more, and gather them also."
I then began to preach for the first time, and for that purpose
procured the school-room in Portland, and, through my friends,
circulated a notice that I was going to preach. This gathered a small
congregation of some thirty or forty people.
At the time appointed I stood up to address them. As soon as I arose
on my feet and looked on the congregation, the dream which I had had
five years before, but which I had entirely forgotten, flashed across
my recollection. There was the identical room I had seen, with the
very people and children, just in those positions in the place that I
had described them to my wife years before, when I informed her that I
dreamed I was called to preach the Gospel! This was summer time.
I continued preaching at Portland until the winter came on, when,
having baptized a few out of the place, they met at my house at
Pomphret on Sundays, and on the week days I extended my labors in the
south.
As I was told, I found just fourteen in Portland willing to obey
the gospel, and by no exertion of mine could I get any more! I also
obtained, in the south, the twenty-two previously spoken of, but it was
a year and a half before I completed the number.
Not long after receiving the office of Elder, I was called to lay
hands on a sister named Crowell, in Chautauqua County, New York, who
was afflicted with a cancer. Her life was despaired of by herself and
her neighbors, when she sent to me, telling me to come that night if I
wished to see her alive! Not being able to go then, I prayed the Lord
to give her a good night's rest. I visited her in the morning, and
found that she had had a better night's rest than usual. I found her
head, where the cancer had broken out, a dreadful sight, full of cancer
worms, which were eating into the skull, three pieces of which had come
out.
I anointed her head with oil, and prayed the Lord on her behalf, and,
being obliged, left immediately to attend to my hay.
The next time I saw her was the following Sunday, when I met her at
the meeting. She pulled off her cap, and showed me her head. It was
entirely healed, and the flesh was as sound as ever.
She said that within half an hour after my administering to her, she
felt all the pain, which had previously been intense, and, to use her
expression, "like a thousand gimlets boring into her brain," leave her
entirely, and the wound healed up rapidly.
The Saints that I gathered at Portland, and that met at my house,
were richly blessed with the various gifts of the Spirit--tongues,
interpretations, prophecy, etc. I will relate an instance or two.
One Sunday morning, while opening the meeting with prayer, the gift
of tongues came upon me, but thinking of Paul's words, that it is
sometimes wisdom not to speak in tongues unless one is present who
can interpret, and forgetting that a sister possessing the gift of
interpretation was present, I quenched the Spirit, and it left me.
Immediately after, another brother spoke in tongues, the interpretation
of which was, that "the Lord knew we were anxious to learn of the
affairs of our brethren in Missouri, and that if we would humble
ourselves before Him, and ask, He would reveal unto us the desires of
our hearts."
Missouri was some thousand miles from Portland. We accordingly bowed
again in supplication before the Lord, and, after rising from our knees
and re-seating ourselves, the same brother broke out singing in tongues
in a low, mournful strain.
But judge our feelings when the interpretation was given, and was
found to be some thirteen or fourteen verses of poetry, descriptive of
affairs in Missouri, and the murder of our brethren there, telling us
that just at that time--
"Our brethren lay bleeding on the ground,
With their wives and children weeping around."
We had so often proved the truth of similar communications, that we
felt as assured of the truth of this shocking news as though our eyes
actually beheld the horrid sight. Our hearts were filled with sorrow.
In a fortnight afterwards we received a letter from John P. Greene,
a faithful Elder of the Church in Missouri, who was, at the time he
managed to write, secreted in the woods. The letter detailed and
confirmed all the events previously revealed in tongues, proving that
on the very day we had been informed of the transactions occurring a
thousand miles off, the bleeding corpses of our brethren lay stretched
on the ground after the slaughter. It was either at or about this time,
that the massacre at Haun's Mill took place.
When Elders Orson Hyde and Heber C. Kimball visited England on the
first mission to that country, and while we were yet ignorant of their
success, it was revealed in tongues at this same branch, that just
at the time we had the gift, those Elders were standing with a large
multitude around some waters, attending to the ordinance of baptism.
Information afterwards received from England confirmed this statement
in all its parts.
Such things as these, oft repeated, confirmed our faith, and, I ask,
is it wonderful, possessing such evidences that the Lord was with the
Church, as those mentioned in the previous narrations, that neither
reproach, drivings, burnings, robbings, nor even murderings, should
be able to quench our love for the truth which had gained us such
blessings?
There was not a branch in the whole of the Church that did not possess
abundance of such testimonies. Here, in these and the following
statements, is the testimony of one individual only. But could I crowd
into this little work _all_ that I have witnessed of the kind, and then
add to it the collected testimonies of the thousands in America alone,
leaving out Europe altogether, it would present a flood of testimony of
a mightier and more conclusive kind than has been given to authenticate
any truth ever submitted to the world.
One of the fourteen persons converted at Portland was a young man
named Jesse W. Crosby, and, as it may prove interesting to many of
the Saints, I will relate something that particularly affected him,
occurring in his history.
He had been engaged with his brother and brother-in-law, in felling
trees in a wood. The trees grew very close together, and one which they
cut down had, in falling, struck another, and broken off one of its
limbs, which hung suspended by the other branches.
It is a very common thing in forest country, to see dry, detached limbs
hanging in this way for months, and sometimes years, without falling.
This one was about ten or eleven feet long, and as thick as a man's
thigh, and very high up the tree.
Not apprehending danger, Jesse was working without his hat, just under
this branch. Suddenly, a movement, caused by the wind, shook the tree,
and the loose branch fell from a hight of at least sixty feet, striking
him on the crown of his head, crushing him to the earth. The violence
of the blow broke in a portion of his skull, forming a hollow about as
large as the palm of a man's hand. His neck and shoulders were also
much injured. Altogether, a more deplorable object I never saw in my
life.
He was carried home by his friends, most of whom were members of the
Church, and his father, who was not a member, procured a doctor, who
pronounced Jesse's case desperate, unless, on removing the broken part
of the skull, it should be found that the skin of the brain was still
entire, when, by using a silver plate over the exposed portion, a
chance might still exist of his life.
The doctor proceeded to cut Jesse's head for that purpose, but was
stopped by his mother, who strongly objected to this experiment, and
sent for me to administer to him.
I was then eight miles off, and at the time of my arrival he had not
spoken, nor scarcely indicated any signs of life. Going into the room
where he lay, I found it filled with the neighbors, who were mostly
enemies of the Church. Sneers and jeers of "Here comes the Mormon,
we'll soon see whether he can heal now," saluted my ears on all sides.
From a sign which I had received while on my way, I knew Jesse would
recover, and being reminded, on account of the reason given in the
previous remarks, that such people should not be privileged to behold
a manifestation of the power of God, I, like Peter of old, cleared the
house of all but Jesse's relatives, and administered to him in the name
of the Lord. Jesse then recovered sufficiently to speak, after which he
fell into a peaceful sleep, and, before morning, was altogether better.
In less than four days from the time of receiving this terrible
accident, from which there seemed no human probability that he could
recover, or, if he did, only to survive the loss of reason, he was
again at work in the woods hauling timber, the wound being entirely
healed up.
Since then, he, as an Elder of this Church, has been on missions to
various parts of the world, including England, and has also fulfilled
a mission to Nova Scotia. The above case of healing occurred in the
winter.
Another very remarkable case of prophecy and healing came under my
observation the following spring. A revelation was given by the Spirit,
in tongues, to the effect that one of our number would be poisoned by
the enemies of the Church, and be brought nigh unto death, but that if
she was faithful and sent for the Elders of the Church, she should be
restored.
This warning was repeated twice at intervals of about a month. On the
last occasion, in addition, it was stated that the person giving the
interpretation would be the sufferer. This terrible idea so affected
her that she was completely overcome.
After recovering she proceeded home, and the weather being warm she
drank of some sweetened water, which she had prepared in the morning
for use, and had left in an exposed situation. When she had drank a
second time she felt her mouth burn. She immediately declared she was
poisoned, and commenced reaching violently until she became blind.
Her husband, after procuring a person to stay with her, went for one of
the Elders, but as he had to go some six miles before he returned with
myself, she was to all appearance dead, and had not been perceived to
breathe for an hour.
Upon arriving at the house, I asked the Lord to cause her to breathe if
she was to recover. Upon looking at her closely I perceived that she
gave two distinct gasps, such as are usually given when the breath is
leaving the body. Had I not seen this, I should have concluded that she
was dead, for the women who were watching with her said, directly we
entered, that she was dead, and had been so for an hour.
I then administered to her in the name of Jesus, and prayed the Lord
to preserve her life till my son-in-law returned with some oil he had
gone to procure. As soon as I had done this she was able to speak
sufficiently, in a whisper, to ask for some water, but, so great was
her weakness, that she fell on her face when raised to receive the
water.
The oil arriving, we administered some to her internally, in the name
of the Lord, when she arose without any assistance, saying, "I am
healed! I am well! but I am blind!" I then anointed her eyes, telling
her that she should see the light of day. Her sight immediately
returned, and the next day, she, with her husband, was on her way to
Illinois.
The cause of her going there so suddenly was that it had been given in
tongues, directly after her recovery, that unless her husband departed
at once from that place, both of them would be poisoned. With what had
just occurred before their eyes, they needed no second warning this
time. This was the same woman that was healed of the cancer.
The signs spoken of include the casting out of devils. This recalls to
my remembrance something of the kind which occurred at the Pomphret
branch, previous to which I had had but very little experience as to
what may be termed the physical power of the devil.
I was then far from the body of the Church, consequently, what I
learned, I had to find out by experience, having no one to tell me.
The case was that of a sister who was possessed, and whom I, with two
other Elders, was called upon to visit. Directly we entered her room,
she called out, "Take your shoes from off your feet; this is holy
ground, the Prophet Elijah is here."
I saw the spirit by which she was influenced, so I walked up to her and
said, "I am a servant of the Lord, I obey no command of the devil."
She became uproarious directly, for all who had gone in previously had
complied with her directions. As soon as we attempted to rebuke the
evil spirit in the name of the Lord, she arose up from the bed on her
feet, without apparently bending a joint in her body, as stiff as a rod
of iron.
From this we saw the power with which we had to contend; and, failing
at first to eject the spirit, we bowed ourselves in prayer before the
Lord, and asked him to assist us.
The evil spirit then came out full of fury, and, as he passed by one
of the brethren, seized him by both arms and gripped them violently.
Passing towards me, something, which by the feel appeared like a man's
hand, grasped me by both sides of the face, and attempted to pull me
sideways to the ground, but the hold appearing to slip, I recovered my
balance immediately.
My face was sore for some days after this. The other brother that was
seized was lame for a week afterwards.
As soon as this was done, the sister partly recovered, so much so that
she obeyed everything I chose to tell her to do, whereas, before, she
was perfectly ungovernable.
Still she seemed to be surrounded by some evil influence. This puzzled
us, for we knew the spirit was cast out, but we learned the cause
afterwards. Just then it was revealed to us that if we went to sleep
the devil would enter one of the brethren.
My nephew, Melvin Brown, neglected the warning, and composed himself to
sleep in an arm chair, while we were still watching with the sister.
Directly he did so the devil entered into him, and he became black in
the face, and nearly suffocated.
He awoke immediately, and motioned for us to lay hands on him, for he
could not speak. We did so, and the evil spirit then left him, and he
recovered at once.
About a week afterwards the same spirit re-entered the sister, and this
time fully confessed his character. In answer to our enquiries, he said
his name was "Legion." This explained how it was that the woman, after
we had cast out an evil spirit, was under an evil influence, for there
must have been many spirits.
He also reviled our priesthood, but he had to submit to it at last,
saying to us, "O! you have the priesthood have you? Well, then, cast
me out, command me to come out," trying to shake our faith, and thus
incapacitate us to rebuke him successfully.
Failing in this, he tried another method by entering me. I felt seized
by a strange influence, and to every question put to the woman I knew
the answer she was going to give, for I was possessed by a similar
spirit. This broke the chain of our union and strength, consequently I
requested the Elders to rebuke the evil spirit from me, after which, at
our united rebuke, he left the woman.
Previous to this the sister had been a very faithful Saint, and she
ever afterwards was, but she had given the devil ground by encouraging
a spirit contrary to the order of the Church, taking upon herself
to rebuke the Elders, and he claimed his right by virtue of her
transgression.
No doubt one object of the Lord in permitting him to exercise his
physical power was to give me experience of such facts, without which
I never could have known; but I, like many others who may read this
record, might have argued my ignorance of such things as a proof that
they did not exist, except in imagination.