The Lions of the Lord | Page 9

a little, and he concluded almost quizzically:
"Was not Satan hurled from high heaven for resisting authority?"
She pouted, caught him by the lapels of his coat and prettily tried to
shake him.
"There--horrid!--you're preaching again. Please remember you're not on
mission now. Indeed, sir, you were called back for being too--too--why,
do you know, even old Elder Munsel, 'Fire-brand Munsel,' they call

him, said you were too fanatical."
His face grew serious.
"I'm glad to be called back to you, at any rate,--and yet, think of all
those poor benighted infidels who believe there are no longer
revelations nor prophecies nor gifts nor healings nor speaking with
tongues,--this miserable generation so blind in these last days when the
time of God's wrath is at hand. Oh, I burn in my heart for them, night
after night, suffering for the tortures that must come upon them--thrice
direful because they have rejected the message of Moroni and trampled
upon the priesthood of high heaven, butchering the Saints of the Most
High, and hunting the prophets of God like Ahab of old."
"Oh, dear, please stop it! You sound like swearing!" Her two hands
were closing her ears in a pretty pretense.
He seemed hardly to hear her, but went on excitedly:
"Yet I have done what man could do. I am never done doing. I would
gladly give my body to be burned a thousand times if it would avail to
save them into the Kingdom. I have preached the word tirelessly--
fanatically, they say--but only as it burned in my bones. I have told
them of visions, dreams, revelations, miracles, and all the mercies of
this last dispensation. And I have prayed and fasted. Just now coming
from winter quarters, when I could not preach, I held twelve fasts and
twelve vigils. You will say it has weakened me, but it has weakened
only the bonds that the flesh puts upon the spirit. Even so, I fell short of
my vision--my tabernacle of flesh must have been too much profaned,
though how I cannot dream--believe me, I have kept myself as high and
clean as I knew. Yet there was promise. For only last night at the river
bank, the spirit came partially upon me. I was taken with a faintness,
and I heard above my head a sound like the rustling of silken robes, and
the spirit of God hovered over me, so that I could feel its radiance. All
in good time, then, it shall dwell within me, so that I may know a way
to save the worthy."
He grasped her wrist and bent eagerly forward, with the same wild look

in his eyes that had before disquieted her.
"Mark what I say now--I shall do great works for this generation; I am
strangely favoured of God; I have felt the spirit quicken wondrously
within me, and I know the Lord works not in vain; what great wonder
of grace I shall do, what miracle of salvation, I know not, but remember,
it shall be transcendent; tell it to no one, but I know in my inner secret
heart it shall be a greater work than man hath yet done."
He stopped and drew himself up, shaking his head, as if to shrug off the
spell of his own feeling.
"Now, now! stop it at once, and come to the house. I've been tending
your father and mother, and I'm going to tend you. What you need
directly is food. Your look may be holy, but I prefer full cheeks. Not
another word until you have eaten every crumb I put before you."
With an air of captor, daintily fierce, she led him toward the house and
up to the door, which she pushed open before him.
"Come softly, your mother may be still asleep--no, your father is
talking--listen!"
A querulous voice, rough with strong feeling, came from the inner
room.
"Here, I tell you, is the prophecy of Joseph to prove it, away back in
1832: 'Verily thus saith the Lord concerning the wars that will shortly
come to pass, beginning at the rebellion of South Carolina, which will
terminate in the death and misery of many souls. The days will come
that war will be poured out upon all nations, beginning at that place; for
behold, the Southern States shall be divided against the Northern States,
and the Southern States will call on other nations, even the nation of
Great Britain, as it is called.' Now will you doubt again, mother? For
persecuting the Saints of the most high God, this republic shall be
dashed to pieces like a potter's vessel. But we shall be safe. The Lord
will gather Israel home to the chambers of the mountains against the
day of wrath that is coming on