THE MISSIONARY'S RETURN.

Elder Charles Durant returned to Westminster just ten days after the time of his meeting with Mr. Marshall, at the station. He was heartily welcomed by the family, and being comfortably seated at the dinner table, the conversation naturally drifted to a detailed account of his experience since his first visit. His labors had been divided somewhat in two or three different states. He had met with many kinds of people, and with a variety of treatments, since leaving the home of the Marshalls; he made many friends as well as a few enemies, but had endeavored to perform his work in a way to meet the approbation of that Being who had commissioned him to spread His word among the children of men. Having performed his work to the satisfaction of those under whom he labored, he was, as previously stated, released therefrom, for a time at least, and had commenced his journey towards the land of his birth, where dwelt his loved ones, when the telegram reached him from the president of the Mission to the effect that several Elders had been mobbed in a neighboring county, and asking that he visit his brethren on his way home, as stated before.

After the meal, the family adjourned to the sitting room when the missionary was requested to give an account of the mobbing of the Elders whom he had just visited.

He said that they had been laboring for several months holding meetings wherever they could get an opportunity, and had succeeded in obtaining the permission of the trustees to hold their meetings in a schoolhouse they being solicited to hold religious services by the people, and explain the gospel to them.

A family named Brooks expressed a desire to be baptized, and the Elders had consented to perform the ordinance on a fixed day, according to their custom, and in conformity with the plan of salvation as pointed out by Christ, the early Apostles, and by John the Baptist who baptized openly in the river Jordan, and near "Aenon near to Salim because there was much water there."

At the appointed time the ordinance was performed, a number of persons being present who came for the purpose of sneering at the rite, and making sport of its sacredness, which they did, but which the Elders paid only little attention to, being accustomed to the jeers of the wicked. On the same evening there was a pleasant association at the residence of the newly-baptized family, the time being spent in singing sacred songs, and in conversation. Retiring at 9 o'clock, leaving their bedroom door open owing to the heat, they were at 11 o'clock rudely awakened, ordered to get up, to accompany a mob of about fifteen men to the woods.

"You are a pretty-looking lot of fellows," said one of the Elders as he counted them, and glanced at their masked faces.

"What do you consider the Savior would think of your mission, if He were here? Why do you disturb the slumbers of the peaceful citizens at night, thus hideously masked? If we have transgressed any law, we are amenable; take us before your magistrates, and we will answer to any charge you may prefer."

"We don't want you to preach any more in this locality," said one of the masked men.

"Then the best way to stop us is to induce the people to cease attending our meetings."

At this juncture the inmates of the house were alarmed, and Mr. B. came in, taking a glance at each of the disturbers.

A voice on the outside was heard to cry: "Captain! captain! enough said, enough said."

The mob then withdrew, and the Elders retired again, still leaving the door unlocked. They remained there the following day, but subsequently spent some time visiting friends in other districts. In the course of two weeks they returned to the same place. On their way thither, there were a few who hurled insults at them, but to this they paid no attention. They arrived at Mr. Brooks' house at 5 o'clock in the evening where they met companions, and where the time was spent in speaking of the gospel, singing hymns, and in conversing upon a variety of subjects concerning Utah and her people. No signs of disturbance appeared, save an occasional ominous bark of the house dog.

The Elders retired with sweet recollections of home, to be roughly awakened at 2 o'clock at night, by the harsh cry of "Surrender." They were surrounded by a horde of ruffians, armed with guns, pistols and clubs; and in the most blasphemous language, were ordered to get up, the mobbers in the meantime brandishing their weapons in the faces of the Elders. Not obeying orders as rapidly as the mob wished them to, they were each (there being four of them), seized by two of the cowards, one on either side, dragged from their beds in an inhuman manner, and marched along the road, an eighth of a mile, dressed only in their thin summer night-clothing. Resistance was impossible, and the attempt of the proprietor of the house to assist them was met with curses, a blow across the forehead, with the exclamation: "If you show your head out of this house before 6 o'clock tomorrow morning, we will kill you."

The train marched on, the vilest curses and the blackest oaths being uttered against them that mortals can express. There was no charge preferred against them, and they said: "If we have broken any law, take us before the courts," but the only reply was:

"We are law enough for you."

What was to be their fate, they knew not, until the mob began cutting and trimming limbs of trees from four to six feet long, having ugly knots. Soon the Elders were ordered to bend over a fallen log about two feet through, when their doom was made plain to them. They were terribly whipped, receiving lash after lash upon their backs without a question being asked, or an opportunity being afforded to appeal from this inhuman treatment. Occasionally they raise to say a word, but are immediately thrust down again by some of the mob using pistols or clubs. In this way three received severe scalp wounds. The woods resound with the lashes and the groans of the tortured; thirty-five stripes have been laid upon them, when they are requested to leave the country. Too faint to comply, their hesitancy is construed as a refusal, and they are once more belabored with redoubled fury, causing them to cringe beneath the cruel beech-limbs wielded by a sturdy fiend weighing over two-hundred pounds. Fifty stripes each, they received, and yet they had injured no man! How terrible! but it was all for the sake of the gospel. Finally after such torture, they were released, upon promising to leave the country the next day.

They returned to their friend and brother! but in what a lacerated condition. They found him sitting in the door bleeding from his wounds. They dressed each other's wounds as best they could, then lay down in troubled rest till morning, when they departed to the place where Elder Durant met them, perhaps never to return.

While rehearsing not only his own experience but that of his wounded brothers, no one listened with more marked attention than Claire's husband. From the moment he was introduced to Durant, at the depot, they became very much attached to each other, and, as expressed by Mr. Sutherland, it seemed as if they had always been acquainted.

Later, while these two were conversing upon the veranda, Mr. Sutherland interrupted the Elder by asking: "How do you account for the peculiar feelings attending the formation of new friendship, Mr. Durant? Have you not noticed that upon many occasions when introduced to a person, you feel as well acquainted as if you had known him for years?"

"Yes," replied Elder Durant, "I have noticed it often, and have frequently wondered if occasions where such feelings are manifested were really the beginning of acquaintance."

"I have certainly been very much impressed with this sensation at times when I have been absolutely certain of its being the first meeting," replied Sutherland; "for instance, to be frank, it is the case with you. I am certain beyond question that you and I have never met previous to this day, and yet I followed you while giving the account of your labors and the troubles of your brethren, with as much interest as if you were my own brother; and I have felt all day long that we have always been acquainted."

"Mr. Sutherland," said the Elder, "who knows but before now we have been better acquainted than you are with any gentleman in your village, and that we have merely forgotten our former associations together?"

"I do not understand your meaning," said Sutherland, "I am certain we have never seen each other before, and consequently I cannot comprehend your idea when you intimate that perhaps we have been well acquainted. You came from the West, while I have always lived here, where you have never dwelt except during your former visit to Mr. Marshall's home, and how, therefore, can it be possible for us ever to have met before?

"I do not claim for an instant that such is the case, Mr. Sutherland, but the idea afforded me such a splendid chance to open a conversation upon a principle believed in by my people, that I could not resist the opportunity of saying what I did, and, as you say you are desirous of learning all you can about our views upon religious principles, you, yourself, gave me a thought, serving as a text, for dwelling upon one of the most important of these."

"If that is the case, I am very glad. What is the principle?"

"You know that all Christians believe that after death there is life?"

"Of course, or why should they take the pains to prepare for death? But what has that to do with having met you before?"

"Neither that nor what I am going to say has anything whatever to do with it, but, Mr. Sutherland, if it is reasonable for you and me to believe we shall live after death, why should it be unreasonable for us also to believe that our spirits existed before the birth of our earthly tabernacles? There is certainly something connected with the intelligence of man that should appeal to us as if to say that the spirit is older than the body, and emanated from a more exalted place than this earth of ours."

"Why, Mr. Durant," exclaimed Sutherland in astonishment, "I never heard such a doctrine as that."

"Let me ask, have you ever read the Bible to any great extent?"

"Yes, I have always been a lover of the Divine Record, and have spent many hours in its perusal."

"I am glad to hear this, and I think, as we proceed, you may change your mind regarding never having heard such a doctrine as pre-existence. You will perhaps admit that while reading, you failed to understand fully what you read. As an introduction to this grand and glorious principle, let me read a beautiful poem I have here from the pen of one of the gifted women of Utah; she is dead now, and the intelligent spirit, sent from God to dwell in her earthly tabernacle, has been recalled by the Being who sent it, or, as the Bible declares, 'has returned to God who gave it.' Her name was Eliza B. Snow Smith, and that name, as well as this poem, will live while time endures:"

"O my Father, thou that dwellest
In the high and glorious place!
When shall I regain thy presence,
And again behold thy face?
In thy holy habitation,
Did my spirit once reside?
In my first, primeval childhood,
Was I nurtured near thy side?

"For a wise and glorious purpose
Thou hast placed me here on earth,
And withheld the recollection
Of my former friends and birth;
Yet oft-times a secret something
Whispered, You're a stranger here;
And I felt that I had wandered
From a more exalted sphere.

"I had learned to call thee Father,
Through thy Spirit from on high;
But, until the Key of Knowledge
Was restored, I knew not why.
In the heavens are parents single?
No; the thought makes reason stare!
Truth is reason; truth eternal
Tells me, I've a mother there.

"When I leave this frail existence,
When I lay this mortal by,
Father, mother, may I meet you
In your royal court on high?
Then, at length, when I've completed
All you sent me forth to do,
With your mutual approbation
Let me come and dwell with you."

"That is one of the most beautiful compositions I have ever listened to, Mr. Durant. The words appear to carry a strange conviction with them. Can it be true? and if so, are we here as school children, sent by exalted parents, to become acquainted with sorrow in order to understand happiness?"

"Either this is the case, or else our faith in a hereafter is a myth. You prove to me that our birth is the commencement of the intelligence of man, and you also convince me that death is its end. But we have enough given in the scriptures to convince us that birth is not the beginning, and likewise that death is not the end. Christ said He came forth from the Father (John xvi: 28), and it was His prayer that the glory which He had before coming would be His when He returned. (John xvii: 5.) In His teachings to His Apostles He must have familiarized them with this exalted principle of pre-existence, for upon one occasion they came to Him with a question, concerning a blind man: 'Who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?' (John ix: 2.) Surely had this been a foolish question, Christ would have corrected them, but He answered them in a manner leading us to understand that it was a principle firmly believed in by them all; and comprehending this, as certainly they did, they, more than our generation, could intelligently lisp the prayer taught them by the Master: 'Our Father who art in heaven.' Our Divine Record says that God is the Father of the spirits of all flesh (Num. xvi: 22), in whose hand is the soul of every living thing (Job xii: 10); and we find in it that when death comes, the spirit of man will return to God who gave it. (Eccl. xii: 7.) Job was asked by the Lord where he was when the foundation of the earth was laid (Job. xxxviii: 3-7), and the Almighty declared He not only knew but ordained Jeremiah to be a prophet before his earthly birth. (Jer. i: 5.) From these passages, and many others that might be cited, it should be very easy for Christians to understand that there is a natural and a spiritual body." (I. Cor. xv: 44.)

"Mr. Durant," said Sutherland, "whether this principle is true or otherwise, it cannot be gainsaid that you have scripture to support it."

"Why should we not have, Mr. Sutherland? It is truth, and it is only natural that the truth should appear reasonable. As quoted, God asks Job: 'Who laid the corner stones of this earth, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?' (Job xxxviii: 7.) Now I sincerely believe that we were there, that we helped to compose that large congregation of sons of God, and that we did shout for joy at beholding the time approaching when we also would have the privilege of visiting an earth where our Father would give us an opportunity to become possessed of bodies which should eventually be eternal abiding places for our spirits; that when we came to this school we should have our judgments taken away, or, in other words, that all recollection of our former existence should be withdrawn, in order that we might be able to use the greatest gift of all, which is 'free agency,' to do good or evil and become to a certain extent Gods in embryo, and then when we returned home from this school our Father could reward us, his children, according to our works."

"Your explanation carries with it conviction. I have been very much interested and desire to talk further with you on this subject, but fear I am doing you an injustice by requiring you to speak so much. I must not forget that the neighbors are coming in tonight, and I should therefore not weary you."

"You need not fear, I assure you: I have been talking now upon these principles for two years; it is my mission, and I am well pleased to find people who are willing to hear."

"I am very anxious to listen, I can assure you," replied Mr. Sutherland. "Let us walk through the village, you can view our improvements, and perhaps shake hands with many whom you met when here before; we might then return in time for supper, and rest awhile before our evening chat."

This proposition was agreed to, and taking their hats, the two men went out. The first person met on the ramble was our medical friend, who, learning of Mr. Durant's intended return, was hastening to the Marshall residence to welcome him. The greeting which the young missionary received from his true and lasting friend was unaffected and sincere, meaning more than language can express. Questions and answers regarding the missionary's trip, and matters, which to the general reader would amount to mere commonplace, were exchanged by the conversation, and must have been interesting to them, for it was continued during the whole of what proved a very long walk.

"I begin to feel quite like a resident here," said the Elder, "though, perhaps, I ought to say that my acquaintance is not the only cause for that feeling, for I try to be at ease wherever I go."

"And succeed I should say. If your experience elsewhere has been anything like that at Westminster."

"Yes, indeed, and in so doing I find no little comfort in the words of an eminent man who is classed as a 'pagan,' an agnostic, and so on, but who, I verily believe, was as much a Christian at heart as most of us certainly much more so than many who engage in the promulgation of Christianity as a profession: 'The world is my home, and humanity my kindred.'"

By this time they had reached the home of Mr. Marshall, and after supper, preparations were made for the evening gathering.