A String of Pearls

Accordingly I took David Moore, of Ogden, and B. F. Cummings, Sen., with me, and we anointed the child and laid our hands upon her. When we took our hands off her head, her face was literally covered with large drops of sweat; the fever was gone, and the child got well immediately.

On the Sunday following, I baptized fifty-six, her father being the first in the water.

Lest I should weary your patience, I will relate but one more instance. On August 11, 1875, the soldiers had, through the instigation of the people of Corinne, come up to Corinne, to drive the Indians from the farm where they made their first start, in the spring of that year, to cultivate the earth and settle themselves.

When the officers and I had got through with our talk, and were getting ready to return, an Indian by the name of Tattoosh, came for me to go and administer to his child, telling me to hurry or it would be dead.

I took some Indians with me and went. When I got to his place, I found the child's mother sitting out in the sun, trying to warm it in that way. The child seemed to be dying; its flesh was cold and clammy, and a death sweat was upon it.

We anointed it, and while administering to it I seemed to see the child at different stages until it was grown. I blessed it, accordingly, to live, and told its mother it would get well.

The child seemed to remain in the same condition until the next day about three o'clock.

The major had come up and changed the orders of the previous evening, which were for me to tell the Indians to go on with their harvesting, as he would not disturb them. Now the orders were if the Indians had not broken camp by 12 o'clock the next day, and started for some reservation, he should use force and drive them to one.

As I was going to the camp to get the Indians to leave, I met Tat-toosh, who told me that the child was dead. I said, "No, I cannot believe it!" He repeated that it was, and that its mother and friends were crying about it.

I had no time to go and see it, as I had to hurry to the camp. They had no opportunity to bury the child there, consequently, they wrapped it up in its blankets, and packed it upon a horse, intending to carry it until they could find time to bury it.

It took some three hours to get the camp on the move, and after carrying the child in that way some ten miles, they discovered that it was alive. This was on Thursday, and on the Sunday following I saw its father in Cache Valley. He said he never saw a child get well so fast in his life; and it is now quite fat and hearty.

ANSWER TO PRAYER

EARLY EXPERIENCE IN CALLING UPON THE LORD – PRAYERS ANSWERED – FAITH DEVELOPED – A POCKET-BOOK LOST – FOUND IN ANSWER TO PRAYER.

In proof of the fact that the Lord hears and answers "the prayer of faith," the writer has had abundant evidence.

Not only has he known the sick to be healed in almost numberless instances, when anointed and prayed for by the Elders of the Church, but he has had his own prayers answered in regard to other things very many times.

These answers have sometimes come, too, in such a signal manner as to leave no room for supposing that they were the result of chance.

From childhood he was taught by his parents to have faith in the Lord, and to appeal to him for help when in trouble. In doing so he ever experienced such relief and comfort, that it seemed the most natural thing for him to do when in need of help.

When a small boy, as was the case with most other boys who grew up in these valleys years ago, he was occasionally required to herd cows. Sometimes his cows would wander off and get lost, and he would be filled with dread at thoughts of going home without them. At such times, if he could get off alone, where no other person could see him, he always liked to kneel in humble prayer and ask the Lord to prompt him to go in the right direction to find the missing animals.

In looking back now at those early experiences, he cannot recall to mind a single instance in which he failed to have his prayers answered.

Thus in his early years an acquaintance with the Lord was cultivated, and he grew to regard Him as his best friend – a friend whom he could appeal to, without anyone else knowing it, with perfect confidence of having his requests granted. This was a great comfort to him, for he was a very bashful boy, and could not have asked favors of others with so much freedom as he did of the Lord. Indeed, he never dared, when a boy, to let anyone know how he prayed to the Lord when beset by trouble, and how his prayers were answered. He would even shrink from saying anything about it now, were it not that he hopes an account of his experience may tend to inspire some others with faith in the Lord.

On one occasion when riding on the range on the west side of the Jordan river he lost a pocket book, containing a considerable amount of money and valuable papers, from his pocket.

When he discovered his loss he had traveled perhaps about twenty miles, and had no idea where he had lost it. Much of the distance he had traversed was over the rough prairie where there were no roads and where sage and rabbit brush grew in abundance.

Any person acquainted with the condition of that region of country when in its wild state, can understand how fruitless a search for so small an article as a pocket book would be likely to prove on the Jordan range. One might almost as well hunt for a needle in a haystack.

However, with many anxious forebodings, caused principally by the fact that much that the pocket book contained was not his own, and that he could not replace it, if lost, he mounted a fresh horse and started upon his search.

He made his way as nearly as he could judge, without any track to guide him, over the same route he had first traveled till he got some distance out on the range. There, when far out of sight of human eyes, he knelt and called upon the Lord in earnest prayer. He asked with all the faith that he could command, that he might be led to the place where the lost treasure had fallen.

Mounting his horse again, with a hopeful feeling, he allowed the animal to choose his own course, when, imagine his joy, after going a short distance, to see the pocket book lying directly in front of his horse. With a light heart and full of gratitude to the Almighty, he returned home, feeling that a more direct answer to his prayer could scarcely have been given him.

JOSEPH SMITH'S FIRST PRAYER

BY G. M

Humbly kneeling, sweet appealing —
'Twas the boy's first uttered prayer —
When the power of sin, assailing,
Filled his soul with deep despair;
But, undaunted still, he trusted
In his Heavenly Father's care.

Suddenly a light descended,
Brighter far than noonday sun,
And a shining glorious pillar
O'er him fell, around him shone;
While appeared two heavenly beings,
God the Father and the Son.

"Joseph, this is my beloved!
Hear Him!" Oh! how sweet the word!
Joseph's humble prayer was answered,
And he listened to the Lord.
Oh! what rapture filled his bosom,
For he saw the living God.

notes

1

Morie-tongar, is the name they give to all Americans. Morie is knife, and Tongar is large knife. The first Americans they ever saw all had swords, which they called large knives; hence their name.