A String of Pearls

A lady, whose husband and herself had treated the Elders with kindness, was taken quite sick, and the affliction soon proved to be very serious indeed. Three physicians were called to attend her, which they did for several weeks, with little or no prospect of her recovery. Finally they gave her up.

The Elders having returned to that neighborhood from a tour in another County, this lady sent for them to come to administer to her the ordinance of the gospel for the healing of the sick. She had heard them allude to such an ordinance in their preaching, and found that what they taught agreed with the pattern given in the New Testament. They laid their hands upon her, at her earnest request, and after repeating the ordinance several times, with prayer and supplication, she arose from her bed of sickness to which she had been confined for ten months. She requested baptism, and soon after rode a horse to a stream of water, and was baptized and confirmed by the servants of God. Numbers of astonished witnesses were present and she was looked upon as a living miracle. She and her husband, with others, soon afterwards gathered with the Saints in Southern Colorado.

Another instance of healing was in the case of a little girl who had been seized with fits, in which her limbs were drawn up and caused to quiver, and her eyes turned back as if she were dying. The Elders, being present, administered to her, and, through the ordinance of the gospel and the prayer of faith, she was healed by the power of God.

Scores of similar manifestations occur in the travels of the Elders abroad in answer to the humble prayer of faith. Such instances, and the remarkable way in which God preserves and provides for His messengers who are sent to proclaim the everlasting gospel to the nations, confirm the faith and increase evidence to the testimony of the Elders of Israel, and when studied with honest and prayerful hearts by the youth of Zion, tend to promote faith in their minds and prepare them to assist in building up the kingdom of God upon the earth.

Many who are now young and inexperienced will probably soon be called to bear the gospel message to the nations, and they should prepare themselves for the noble work.

"YOU SHALL NOT BE CONFOUNDED."

BY BEFF

SENT OUT TO PREACH WHEN A BOY – FIRST EXPERIENCE IN PREACHING – QUESTIONED BY AN INFIDEL – ANSWER GIVEN BY THE LORD.

One of the most astonishing attestations of the promise which the Lord makes to His servants, that they "shall not be confounded," that I have ever heard, was related to me by an experienced missionary, in whom I place great confidence, and for whose character I have great respect.

The incident and attendant circumstances, as nearly as I can recollect, were as follows, and I am sure I give the same in a manner substantially as related to me:

Brother A – first heard the gospel when a youth, in his native country – England. He was soon convinced of its truth, was baptized at the age of eighteen, and immediately after his baptism was ordained an Elder, and sent forth to preach the gospel. He was an unlettered, unsophisticated, bashful youth, one of the last, it would have been thought, to be selected to preach the gospel.

He started forth and arrived at a strange village, where, at a late hour, and after some interesting adventures, he was taken in by a kind-hearted man and his wife, who made him very comfortable.

On the next day he conversed with them upon the gospel.

They thought it remarkable to see such a boy as he was, out as a missionary of a new religion, became interested, and asked him to hold a meeting in their house.

He had never preached in public, but he said he would do the best he could. The appointment was spread, and the house was full at the appointed hour. The young Elder astonished himself at the ease with which he preached a long discourse on the first principles of the gospel.

Among those who had come to meeting was a hardened infidel, who was a very cunning reasoner, and who had made it a practice for many years to argue against the divinity of the scriptures. Nothing pleased him more than to draw some minister into a debate, and then to present some of his "unanswerable" arguments against the Bible. He had vanquished every minister in the village, and every itinerant preacher who had held meetings there for years, whom he could succeed in drawing into a debate.

When the young missionary had ceased preaching, some of the audience commenced to ask him questions. Presently the infidel, evidently thinking to easily vanquish so weak an adversary, commenced with his usual routine of questions, and at length asked:

"So you believe the flood actually drowned all the animals in the world except those in the ark?"

"Yes, sir," answered the Elder.

"We know that, not very long after the flood, many kinds of animals were found in various parts of the world at a great distance from where the ark landed, and even upon islands of the sea, far from the mainland, and under such circumstances as would render the theory of transportation by human means an absurdity. Now, how did those animals come to exist in the different and distant islands and continents?"

This question was the infidel's "trump card." At the right juncture in his debates he always asked it, and had never yet met with a minister, or any other Bible believer, who could satisfactorily answer it.

The young missionary felt his utter inability to answer this question. In trying to frame a reply, he sat gazing abstractedly at the ceiling of the room. The audience who remained knew that this was the great argument of the infidel, and did not, for a moment, suppose that the boyish preacher could meet it.

Suddenly there appeared before the young missionary's eyes, as if it were suspended in the air, a scroll. On the scroll appeared, in brilliant golden letters, these words: "In the days of Peleg the earth was divided." (Gen. x., 25). Instantly an explanation of the infidel's problem burst upon his mind.

He calmly and deliberately proceeded to explain that, prior to the days of Peleg, this whole earth was one vast continent, inhabited in its various portions, with different kinds of animals; that in the days of Peleg this vast continent was broken up into smaller divisions of land, islands, etc., and that, in this manner, the animals upon its surface accompanied the land in its divisions.

The infidel was confounded, the multitude astonished, and the young, illiterate missionary triumphant. Several remembered the passage of scripture, and none could gainsay the missionary's explanation. The latter, however, had no knowledge of any such a passage in the Bible, as he had read but very little of it, and, had the answer not come to him by revelation, he would have been confounded.

The scroll was so plainly visible to him that it seemed as though others could see it, but they did not.

AN EFFECTIVE PLEA

ARRESTED ON A NOVEL CHARGE – ELDER PARRISH'S DEFENSE – ELDER PATTEN'S INDIGNATION – CONSTERNATION PRODUCED BY HIS SPEECH.

In the early history of the Church, Apostle David W. Patten and Elder Warren Parrish were traveling, in the State of Tennessee, preaching the gospel and organizing branches of the Church.

In one locality, where considerable interest had been manifested and the usual opposition met with, the latter culminated in the arrest of the two missionaries upon the charge of being prophets, which was preferred by some of the people, when they were actually carried before a committing magistrate to be tried on the accusation.

The court was called, a jury summoned, and a great crowd of people gathered to see the result of so remarkable a trial.

Elder Parrish was somewhat of a lawyer, in addition to being a good public speaker, and begged the privilege of pleading his own case and that of his fellow-prisoner, which the court readily granted, and, after some preliminary work, the trial opened.

Witnesses were examined as to the teaching of the two Elders, much contradictory evidence was given in and a great amount of wrangling indulged in by the prosecuting attorney in trying to make a case against the prisoners.

After the prosecution had made up its case and the attorney had concluded his speech, Brother Parrish replied in quite a lengthy sermon on the first principle of the gospel, and then taking up the legal bearings of the case, he claimed immunity from prosecution on the ground of constitutional right to free speech.

During his speech it was quite evident that he had changed the popular feeling very much, and that many of the audience were in sympathy with the Elders.

Apostle Patten seems not to have relished the entire proceedings, doubtless looking upon it as equal to or worse than a farce, and considering that it was a disgrace to the courts of a free country.

As the defense closed and rested the case, he arose to his feet, and with a look of indignation on his face, turned full upon judge and jury; he raised aloft an immense walking stick, and in a voice of almost superhuman force, he exclaimed:

"If the Lord Almighty will turn this stick into a sword, I will cut heads off faster than He ever rained quails on Israel in times of old."

The judge dodged from his chair, the jury tumbled off the jury bench, the nearest bystanders sought safety by increasing the distance between themselves and the indignant Elder, and general consternation prevailed in the midst of the panicstricken crowd.

Turning to Elder Parrish, Brother Patten said, "Follow me," and both of the Elders walked out of the court room, mounted their horses and quietly rode away, not a word being said or a hand raised to stop their progress.

A LIFE SKETCH, CONTAINING A FEW MORAL LESSONS

By W. B

LACK OF EDUCATION – EARLY MARRIAGE – RESISTING TEMPTATION – GRAIN INCREASED BY THE POWER OF GOD – ANSWER TO PRAYER – LARGE FAMILY, RESULT OF EARLY MARRIAGE.

Thinking some incidents from my experience might be of interest to the young Latter-day Saints, I submit them for their perusal.

I was born in the year 1835, was reared in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and shared in its persecutions. At the age of thirteen, in 1848, I drove a team from Winter Quarters to Salt Lake Valley without any accident worth mentioning. The team consisted of five cows and one ox, making three yoke of cattle.

After we arrived and got fairly settled, my parents died, and left me without an education, as was the case with many more young folks who were driven with the Saints, and on this account deprived of schooling.

In this condition, I concluded to make a home for myself.

Before I was seventeen, it being the counsel to marry young, I went to President Young, as I was well acquainted with him, and told him what I thought of doing.

He advised me to get married.

I took his counsel, got married and lived with my wife's folks for a short time, as they requested.