The Lions of the Lord: A Tale of the Old West

by Harry Leon Wilson

  CHAPTER VII.

  _Some Inner Mysteries Are Expounded_

  The hosts of Israel had been forced to tarry for the winter on the banksof the Missouri. A few were on the east side at Council Bluffs on theland of the Pottawattamie Indians. Across the river on the land of theOmahas the greater part of the force had settled at what was known asWinter Quarters. Here in huts of logs, turf, and other primitivematerials, their town had been laid out with streets and byways, a largecouncil-house, a mill, a stockade, and blockhouses. The Indians hadreceived them with great friendliness, feeling with them a common causeof grievance, since the heavy hand of the Gentile had pushed them alsoto this bleak frontier.

  To this settlement early in November came the last train from Nauvoo,its members wearied and wasted by the long march, but staunch in theirfaith and with hope undimmed. It was told in after years how there hadleaped from the van of this train a very earnest young man, who had atonce sought an audience with Brigham Young and certain other members ofthe Twelve who had chanced to be present at the train's arrival; andhow, being closeted with these, he had eagerly inquired if it might notbe the will of the Lord that they should go no farther into thewilderness, but stand their ground and give battle to the Gentilesforthwith. He made the proposal as one who had a flawless faith that theGod of Battles would be with them, and he appeared to believe thatsomething might be done that very day to force the matter to an issue.When he had made his proposal, he waited in a modest attitude to heartheir views of it. To his chagrin, all but two of those who had listenedlaughed. One of these two, Bishop Snow,--a man of holy aspect whom theChurch Poet had felicitously entitled the Entablature of Truth,--hadlooked at him searchingly, then put his hand upon his own head andshaken it hopelessly to the others.

  The other who had not laughed was Brigham himself. For to this great manhad been given the gift to look upon men and to know in one slow sweepof his wonderful eyes all their strength and all their weakness. He hadlistened with close attention to the remarkable plan suggested by thisfiery young zealot, and he studied him now with a gaze that was kind. Anoticeable result of this attitude of Brigham's was that those who hadlaughed became more or less awkwardly silent, while the Entablature ofTruth, in the midst of his pantomime, froze into amazement.

  "We'd better consider that a little," said Brigham, finally. "You cantalk it over with me tonight. But first you go get your stuff unloadedand get kind of settled. There's a cabin just beyond my two up thestreet here that you can move into." He put his large hand kindly on theother's shoulder. "Now run and get fixed and come to my house for supperalong about dark."

  Somewhat cooled by the laughter of the others, but flattered by thisconsideration from the Prophet, the young man had gone thoughtfully outto his wagons and driven on to the cabin indicated.

  "I _did_ think he was plumb crazy," said Bishop Snow, doubtfully, as ifthe reasons for changing his mind were even yet less than compelling.

  "He _ain't_ crazy," said Brigham. "All that's the matter with him, he'sgot more faith than the whole pack of us put together. You just rememberhe ain't like us. We was all converted after we got our second teeth,while he's had it from the cradle up. He's the first one we've caughtyoung. He's what the priesthood can turn out when they get a full swingwith the rising generation. We got to remember that. We old birds had tolearn to crow in middle life. These young ones will crow stronger;they'll out-crow us. But all the better for that. They'll be mightybrash at first, but all they need is to be held in a little, and thenthey'll be a power in the Kingdom."

  "Well, of course you're right, Brother Brigham, but that boy certainlyneeds a check-rein and a curb-bit right now," said Snow.

  "He'll have his needings," answered Brigham, shortly, and the informalcouncil dispersed.

  Brigham talked to him late that night, advancing many cogent reasons whyit should be unwise to make war at once upon the nation of Gentiles tothe east. Of these reasons the one that had greatest weight with hislistener was the assurance that such a course would not at present bepleasing in the sight of God. To others, touching upon the matter ofsuperior forces they might have to contend with, he was loftilyinattentive.

  Having made this much clear, Brigham went on in his fatherly way toimpress him anew with the sinfulness of all temporal governments outsidethe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Again he learned fromthe lips of authority that any people presuming to govern themselves bylaws of their own making and officers of their own appointing, are inwicked rebellion against the Kingdom of God; that for seventeen hundredyears the nations of the Western Hemisphere have been destitute of thisKingdom and destitute of all legal government; and that the Lord was nowabout to rend all earthly governments, to cast down thrones, overthrownations, and make a way for the establishment of the everlastingKingdom, to which all others would have to yield, or be prostrated nevermore to rise. Thus was the rebuff of the afternoon gracefully atonedfor.

  From matters of civil government the talk ranged to affairs domestic.

  "Tell me," said the young man, "the truth of this new order of celestialmarriage." And Brigham had become animated at once.

  "Yes," he said, "when the family organisation was revealed from Heaven,and Joseph began on the right and the left to add to his family, oh,dear, what a quaking there was in Israel! But there it was, plainenough. When you have received your endowments, keys, blessings, all thetokens, signs, and every preparatory ordinance that can be given to aman for his entrance through the celestial gate, then you can see it."

  He gazed a moment into the fire of hickory logs before which they sat,and then went on, more confidentially:

  "Now you take that promise to Abraham--'Lift up your eyes and behold thestars. So shall thy seed be as numberless as the stars. Go to theseashore and look at the sand, and behold the smallness of the particlesthereof'--I am giving you the gist of the Lord's words, youunderstand--'and then realise that your seed shall be as numberless asthose sands.' Now think for a minute how many particles there are, sayin a cubit foot of sand--about one thousand million particles. Think ofthat! In eight thousand years, if the inhabitants of earth increased onetrillion a century, three cubic yards of sand would still contain moreparticles than there would be people on the whole globe. Yet there yougot the promise of the Lord in black and white. Now how was Abraham tomanage to get a foundation laid for this mighty kingdom? Was he to getit all through one wife? Don't you see how ridiculous that is? Sarah sawit, and Sarah knew that unless seed was raised to Abraham he would comeshort of his glory. So what did Sarah do? She gave Abraham a certainwoman whose name was Hagar, and by her a seed was to be raised up untohim. And was that all? No. We read of his wife Keturah, and also of aplurality of wives which he had in the sight and favour of God, and fromwhom he raised up many sons. There, then, was a foundation laid for thefulfilment of that grand promise concerning his seed."

  He peered again into the fire, and added, by way of clenching hisargument: "I guess it would have been rather slow-going, if the Lord hadconfined Abraham to one wife, like some of these narrow, contractednations of modern Christianity. You see, they don't know that a man'sposterity in this world is to constitute his glory and kingdom anddominion in the world to come, and they don't know, either, that thereare thousands of choice spirits in the spirit world waiting totabernacle in the flesh. Of course, there are lots of these things thatyou ain't ready to hear yet, but now you know that polygamy is necessaryfor our exaltation to the fulness of the Lord's glory in the eternalworld, and after you study it you'll like the doctrine. I do; I canswallow it without greasing _my_ mouth!"

  He prayed that night to be made "holy as Thy servant Brigham is holy;to hear Thy voice as he hears it; to be made as wise as he, as true ashe, even as another Lion of the Lord, so that I may be a rod and staffand comforter to these buffeted children of Thine."

  His prayer also touched on one of the matters of their talk. "But, OLord, teach me to be content without thrones and dominion in Thy Kingdomif to gai
n these I must have many wives. Teach me to abase myself, to bea servant, a lowly sweeper in the temple of the Most High, for I wouldrather be lowly with her I love than exalted to any place whatsoeverwith many. Keep in my sinful heart the face of her who has left me todwell among the Gentiles, whose hair is melted gold, whose eyes areazure deep as the sky, and whose arms once opened warm for me. Guard herespecially, O Lord, while she must company with Gentiles, for she is notwonted to their wiles; and in Thine own good time bring her headunharmed to its home on Thy servant's breast."

  He fasted often, that winter, waiting and watching for his greatWitness--something that should testify to his mortal eyes the directfavour of Heaven. He fasted and kept vigils and studied the mysteries;for now he was among the favoured to whom light had been given inabundance--men at whose feet he was eager to sit. He learned of baptismfor the dead; of the Godship of Adam, and his plurality of wives; of thelaws of adoption and the process by which the Saints were to people,and be Gods to, earths yet formless.

  There was much work out of doors to be done, and of this he performedhis share, working side by side with the tireless Brigham. But therewere late afternoons and long evenings in which he sat with the Prophetto his great advantage. For, strangely enough, the two men, so unlike,were drawn closely together--Brigham Young, the broad-headed,square-chinned buttress of physical vitality, the full-blooded,clarion-voiced Lion of the Lord, self-contained, watchful, radiating thepower that men feel and obey without knowing why, and Joel Rae, of thelong, narrow, delicately featured face, sensitive, nervous, glowing witha spiritual zeal, the Lute of the Holy Ghost, whose veins ran fireinstead of blood. One born to command, to domineer; the other tobelieve, to worship, and to obey. For the younger man it was a winter oflimitless aspiration and chastening discipline. In spite of the greatsorrows that weighed upon him, the sudden sweeping away of those he hadheld most dear and the blasting of his love hopes, he remembered itthrough all the eventful years that followed as a time of strangehappiness. Memories of it came gratefully to him even on the awful daywhen at last his Witness came; when, as he lay fainting in the desert,driven thence by his sin, the heavens unfolded and a vision wasvouchsafed him;--when the foundations of his world were shattered, thetables of the law destroyed, and but one little feather saved to hisfamished soul from the wings of the dove of truth. After all theseyears, the memory of this winter was a spot of joy that never failed toglow when he recalled it.

  At night he went to his bunk in the little straw-roofed hut and fellasleep to the howling of the wolves, his mind cradled in the thought ofhis mission. He had a part in the great work of bringing into harmonythe labours of the prophets and apostles of all ages. In due time, bythe especial favour of Heaven, he would be wrapped in a sea of vision,shown an eternity of knowledge, and be intrusted with singular powers.And he was content to wait out the days in which he must school,chasten, and prove himself.

  "You have built me up," he confided to Brigham, one day. "I feel torejoice in my strength." And Brigham was highly pleased.

  "That's good, Brother Joel. The host of Israel will soon be on the move,and I shouldn't wonder if the Lord had a great work for you. I can seeplaces where you'll be just the tool he needs. I mistrust we sha'n'thave everything peaceful even now. The priest in the pulpit is thorningthe politician against us, gouging him from underneath--he'd never daredo it openly, for our Elders could crimson his face with shame--and theminions of the mob may be after us again. If they do, I can see whereyou will be a tower of strength in your own way."

  "It's all of my life, Brother Brigham."

  "I believe it. I guess the time has come to make you an Elder."

  And so on a late winter afternoon in the quiet of the Council-House,Joel Rae was ordained an Elder after the order of Melchisedek; withpower to preach and administer in all the ordinances of the Church, tolay on hands, to confirm all baptised persons, to anoint the afflictedwith oil, and to seal upon them the blessings of health.

  In his hard, narrow bed that night, where the cold came through theunchinked logs and the wind brought him the wailing of the wolves, heprayed that he might not be too much elated by this extraordinarydistinction.