Friday, March 15, 2019

Brigham’s Watch


http://prankwatches.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/2015-luxury-watches-pricelis.jpg

What was unique about the watch Brigham Young bought in England prior to coming home from the 2nd England mission in 1839?
a.                  Solar power
b.                  Battery power
c.                   Powered by shaking his wrist
d.                  Used the letters in his name instead of numbers for the hours
Yesterday’s answer:
B   The people were too wicked
From the 1837 mission to England:   Few experiences, however, surpassed those of Elder Kimball in March in the villages of Downham and Chatburn, some sixteen miles upriver from Preston. When earlier he had expressed his desire to visit them, some of the brethren from nearby branches tried to dissuade him. For thirty years, he was told, various ministers had attempted without success to establish churches in those towns, but they were wicked places and the people were hardened against the gospel. Nevertheless, Kimball said, he wanted to go, for “it was my business, ‘to call not the righteous, but sinners to repentance.’”
Accompanied by Joseph Fielding, Heber went first to Downham where, in a scene just the opposite of what he had been led to expect, he preached in a large barn and then baptized several people. As he prepared to leave Downham for an evening appointment in Clitheroe, a very pressing invitation reached him from Chatburn. So urgent was the pleas that he finally sent Fielding to Clitheroe alone and walked to Chatburn. Someone had already obtained a large barn for him to preach in and there surrounded by villagers, he proceeded to speak about the condition of the world, the blessings of embracing the truth, and the resurrection. “My remarks were accompanied by the spirit of the Lord and were received with joy,” he noted. The so-called “obdurate” were “melted down into tenderness and love, and such a feeling was produced as I never saw before.” As he concluded he felt someone pulling at his coat and as he turned he heard Mrs. Elizabeth Partington earnestly asking, “‘Please, sir, will you baptize me,’ ‘And me,’ ‘And me,’ exclaimed more than a dozen voices.” It took him until after midnight to baptize and confirm some twenty-five new converts.
“These towns seemed to be affected from one end to the other,” Kimball later recalled. “Parents called their children together, spoke to them of the subjects which I had preached, and warned them against swearing and all other evil practices. . . . Such a scene I presume was never witnessed in this place before—the hearts of the people appeared to be broken.” As Kimball and Fielding began to leave the two towns, doors were crossed and villagers lined the streets, weeping as they said their farewells. The whole experience was an overwhelming spiritual highlight for the apostles from America, and it moved him to tears. His feelings can best be described in his own words:
“While contemplating the scene we were induced to take off our hats, for we felt as if the place was holy ground—the Spirit of the Lord rested down upon us, and I was constrained to bless that whole region of country, we were followed by a great number, a considerable distance from the villages who could hardly separate themselves from us. My heart was like unto theirs, and I thought my head was a fountain of tears, for I wept for several miles after I bid them adieu.”
Fielding, too, was moved. “There is a wonderful Work in Downham and Chatburn,” he wrote. “It appears as though the whole of the Inhabitants were turning to the Lord from 10 to 90 years old. . . . They are full of Love.”
Men With a Mission 1837-1841, James B. Allen et. al, (Deseret Book, Salt Lake City, Utah: 1992), 49-51.  

No comments:

Post a Comment