had been praying," says mother Whitney, "to know from the Lord how we could obtain the gift of the Holy Ghost."
"My husband, Newel K. Whitney, and myself, were Campbellites. We had been baptized for the remission of our sins, and believed in the laying on of hands and the gifts of the spirit. But there was no one with authority to confer the Holy Ghost upon us. We were seeking to know how to obtain the spirit and the gifts bestowed upon the ancient saints.
"Sister Eliza Snow was also a Campbellite. We were acquainted before the restoration of the gospel to the earth. She, like myself, was seeking for the fullness of the gospel. She lived at the time in Mantua.
"One night—it was midnight—as my husband and I, in our house at Kirtland, were praying to the father to be shown the way, the spirit rested upon us and a cloud overshadowed the house.
"It was as though we were out of doors. The house passed away from our vision. We were not conscious of anything but the presence of the spirit and the cloud that was over us.
"We were wrapped in the cloud. A solemn awe pervaded us. We saw the cloud and we felt the spirit of the Lord.
"Then we heard a voice out of the cloud saying:
"'Prepare to receive the word of the Lord, for it is coming!'
"At this we marveled greatly; but from that moment we knew that the word of the Lord was coming to Kirtland."
Now this is an Hebraic sign, well known to Israel after the glory of Israel had departed. It was called by the sacred people who inherited the covenant "the daughter of the voice."
Blindness had happened to Israel. The prophets and the seers the Lord had covered, but the "daughter of the voice" was still left to Israel. From time to time a few, with the magic blood of the prophets in them, heard the voice speaking to them out of the cloud.
Down through the ages the "daughter of the voice" followed the children of Israel in their dispersions. Down through the ages, from time to time, some of the children of the sacred seed have heard the voice. This is the tradition of the sons and daughters of Judah.
It was the "daughter of the voice" that Mother Whitney and her husband heard, at midnight, in Kirtland, speaking to them out of the cloud. Mother Whitney and her husband were of the seed of Israel (so run their patriarchal blessings); it was their gift and privilege to hear the "voice."
He was coming now, whose right it is to reign. The throne of David was about to be re-set up and given to the lion of the tribe of Judah. The everlasting King of the new Jerusalem was coming down, with the tens of thousands of his saints.
The star of Messiah was traveling from the east to the west. The prophet—the messenger of Messiah's covenant—was about to remove farther westward, towards the place where his Lord in due time will commence his reign, which shall extend over all the earth.
This was the meaning of that vision of the "cloud" in Kirtland, at midnight, overshadowing the house of Newel K. Whitney; this the significance of the "voice" which spoke out of the cloud, saying: "Prepare to receive the word of the Lord, for it is coming!"
The Lord of Hosts was about to make up his jewels for the crown of his appearing; and there were many of those jewels already in the West.
CHAPTER VII.
AN ISRAEL PREPARED BY VISIONS, DREAMS AND ANGELS—INTERESTING AND MIRACULOUS STORY OF PARLEY P. PRATT—A MYSTIC SIGN OF MESSIAH IN THE HEAVENS—THE ANGEL'S WORDS FULFILLED.
The divine narrative leads directly into the personal story of Parley P. Pratt. He it was who first brought the Mormon mission west. He it was who presented the Book of Mormon to Sidney Rigdon, and converted him to the new covenant which Jehovah was making with a latter-day Israel.
Parley P. Pratt was one of the earliest of the new apostles. By nature he was both poet and prophet. The soul of prophesy was born in him. In his lifetime he was the Mormon Isaiah. All his writings were Hebraic. He may have been of Jewish blood. He certainly possessed the Jewish genius, of the prophet order.
It would seem that the spirit of this great latter-day work could not throw its divine charms around the youthful prophet, who had been raised up to open a crowning spiritual dispensation, without peculiarly affecting the spiritual minded everywhere—both men and women.
It is one of the remarkable facts connected with the rise of Mormonism in the age that, at about the time Joseph Smith was receiving the administration of angels, thousands both in America and Great Britain were favored with corresponding visions and intuitions. Hence, indeed, its success, which was quite as astonishing as the spiritual work of the early Christians.
One of the first manifestations was that of earnest gospel-seekers having visions of the elders before they came, and recognizing them when they did come bearing the tidings. Many of the sisters, as well as the brethren, can bear witness of this.
This very peculiar experience gave special significance to one of the earliest hymns, sung by the saints, of the angel who "came down from the mansions of glory" with "the fullness of Jesus's gospel," and also the "covenant to gather his people," the refrain of which was,
"O! Israel! O! Israel! in all your abidings,
Prepare for your Lord, when you hear these glad tidings."
An Israel had been prepared in all their "abidings," by visions and signs, like sister Whitney, who heard the voice of the angel, from the cloud, bidding her prepare for the coming word of the Lord. Parley P. Pratt was the elder who fulfilled her vision, and brought the word of the Lord direct from Joseph to Kirtland.
And Parley himself was one of an Israel who had been thus mysteriously prepared for the great latter-day mission, of which he became so marked an apostle.
Before he reached the age of manhood, Parley had in his native State (N.Y.) met with reverses in fortune so serious as to change the purposes of his life.
"I resolved," he says, "to bid farewell to the civilized world, where I had met with little else but disappointment, sorrow and unrewarded toil; and where sectarian divisions disgusted, and ignorance perplexed me—and to spend the remainder of my days in the solitudes of the great West, among the natives of the forest."
In October, 1826, he took leave of his friends and started westward, coming at length to a small settlement about thirty miles west of Cleveland, in the State of Ohio. The country was covered with a dense forest, with only here and there a small opening made by the settlers, and the surface of the earth was one vast scene of mud and mire.
Alone, in a land of strangers, without home or money, and not yet twenty years of age, he became somewhat discouraged, but concluded to stop for the winter.
In the spring he resolved to return to his native State, for there was one at home whom his heart had long loved and from whom he would not have been separated, except by misfortune.
But with her, as his wife, he returned to Ohio, the following year, and made a home on the lands which he cleared with his own hands.[1]
Eighteen months thereafter Sidney Rigdon came into the neighborhood, as a preacher. With this reformer Parley associated himself in the ministry, and organized a society of disciples.
But Parley was not satisfied with even the ancient gospel form without the power.
At the commencement of 1830, the very time the Mormon Church was organized, he felt drawn out in an extraordinary manner to search the prophets, and to pray for an understanding of the same. His prayers were soon answered, even beyond his expectations. The prophesies were opened to his view. He began to understand the things which were about to transpire. The restoration of Israel, the coming of Messiah, and the glory that should follow.
Being now "moved upon by the Holy Ghost" to travel about