THUG HIRED TO ASSAULT "MORMON" PREACHER—HIS MISSION DIVINED BY THE ELDER—A PREDICTION CONCERNING THE INSTIGATOR—ITS LITERAL FULFILLMENT.

BREACHWOOD GREEN, Hertfordshire, England, was the scene of an episode connected with the early preaching of the Gospel in Europe that is worthy of record. About sixty-four years have passed since it occurred but it is still remembered and frequently talked of by the present inhabitants of the place, strangers as well as Saints.

The "Red Lion," one of the principal public houses of the village, which stands facing Oxford Road, was, at the time of which I write, kept by one Samuel Peters, a man of influence and property, who combined the business of baker and provision dealer with that of publican. His family consisted of a wife and six children.

Beneath the wide-spreading branches of a great ash tree which grows opposite the "Red Lion," stood a humble Elder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, declaring the principles of life and salvation, revealed anew in this dispensation. He was a stranger in the place, and had chosen this spot on the public highway in which to hold forth, as he could not obtain the use of a more comfortable or appropriate place. A goodly number of people had gathered about him, and were listening attentively to what he said.

Annoyed at the attention and respect paid by the assembly to a religion and a sect which he so heartily despised, the publican offered a man named Henry Thrussell, a low, drunken character, who was hanging about the tap-room, a quart of beer if he would go out and strike that "Mormon" preacher in the face. The lout, who was half drunk already, willingly accepted the offer and made his way across the street, being watched from the door by his patron and a few loungers about the tavern, who were eager to see the fun.

As Thrussell began elbowing his way through the crowd who had gathered about the speaker, some little resistance was offered to the intrusion, but by his bullying manner be soon forced an entrance. The speaker paused in his remarks on seeing him approach in such an aggressive style, and reaching out his hand to him, he said, "Well, my good man, what do you want?" Disarmed by the friendly greeting, the bully hesitated about replying, when the Elder continued: "Did some one send you here to disturb this meeting?" "Yes, sir!" the follow answered, still hesitating about executing his errand. "Was it the publican yonder?" asked the Elder, as he noticed the men at the tavern door watching the proceedings. Receiving an affirmative reply, he then continued: "I am sorry, very sorry, for his sake! You go and tell that man that judgment will soon overtake him. Though he is now prosperous, he shall soon come to want. Though his family is now healthy, sickness and death will soon come among them, and he will die in poverty, forsaken by his friends!"

The intended assailant turned upon his heel without accomplishing what he was sent for, and retraced his steps to the tavern, where the publican, who had heard the prediction of the servant of God, berated him for his cowardice.

Time passed on. That Elder no longer came to Breachwood Green to preach, for he had journeyed to the land of Zion, in search of a new home and probably thought little of the prediction uttered under the inspiration of the Spirit, and perhaps never knew whether it was fulfilled or not. But if he forgot it, the people who heard it upon that occasion did not. Although many of them, perhaps, did not believe that it would ever come to pass, they have had time since to test by the rule laid down in Deuteronomy xviii, 22, whether the Elder spoke presumptuously or by authority from the Lord. The Lord told Moses, "When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken."

Soon after the prediction was uttered sickness came into the Peters family, and the wife and four of the children died. The husband became dissipated and neglected his business and squandered his property. Financial ruin soon followed and his friends deserted him. After dragging out a miserable existence for a few years, he finally died, forsaken and alone, in a little out-house.

The man Thrussell was still living when the writer visited that locality some years since, and was pointed out to him on the street. He occasionally, in his sober moments, referred to that event, and to the feeling he experienced when facing the Elder, and declared that for the life of him he could not lift his hand to strike the Elder. He also tells of the interest with which he watched for the fulfillment of the prediction, and testified that it was fulfilled.

That Elder's name was John P. Hayes, the same, who lived for many years at Pleasant Grove, Utah, but who is now dead. He is survived by a numerous progeny, who may be interested in learning that the memory of his words still lives in his former field of labor. A few of those who listened to his testimony have since embraced the Gospel, but the most of them are as prone to follow after fables as they ever were; and they still languidly hold to their hollow creeds, which differ as widely from the true Gospel as the light shed by a farthing "dip" does from the glorious effulgence of the noonday sun.