CHAPTER III.
AN AMUSING EPISODE—OBTAIN THE KEYS OF A CHURCH—NOTIFY THE PEOPLE THAT A MEETING WILL BE HELD IN IT—A GOOD TURN-OUT—MY COMPANION PREACHES WHILE I, DISGUISED AS A POLICE, GUARD THE DOOR—EXCITEMENT AROUSED—CONTROVERSY WITH A MINISTER—AN ANTI-"MORMON" MEETING HELD—I ATTEND—REPLY TO THE MINISTERS' ATTEMPTS TO EXPOSE "MORMONISM"—MY ESCAPE FROM THE BUILDING—SAVED BY AN INFIDEL—PROSPERITY OF THE WORK—REMARKABLE HEALINGS—A PREDICTION UTTERED AND FULFILLED—MY RETURN HOME—CONTRAST BETWEEN THE CONDITION OF THE SAINTS NOW AND THAT OF THIRTY YEARS AGO.
I will mention an amusing episode, that occurred during a visit that Brother Wallace made the conference. It started in fun but resulted in great good: I took him to a country branch where the work was pretty dead and we stopped with a man who had a standing in the Church, but as a reward for his little faith had been made trustee of one of the prominent sectarian churches and held the keys of their place of worship.
We rather crowded ourselves on to him. It was a damp, cold day, and the man of the house was very stingy with his coal. We finally found his coal-house and helped ourselves to fuel. It was amusing to see the old gentleman come in and out and eye our bountiful fire, and we thought the more coal we burned the more anxious the old man would be to get us out of the house. So the next time he came into the room he found us with a fire that entirely filled the fire place. I took no notice of his sour looks and gravely told him that Brother Wallace was a builder by trade and took great pleasure in visiting the churches and public buildings, and asked him if he would allow us the keys of his church, that we might examine the architectural designs. He gave us the keys and we told him we would not return that afternoon until late.
This town was divided into what was called Upper and Lower Shipdom, and was separated by quite a little distance. The church was in Upper Shipdom. One of us went to the lower town and notified the people quietly that an American gentleman would lecture in the Upper Church that evening, while the other examined the church, arranged the seats and lights. At the hour appointed the church was pretty well filled. We did not light up until all was ready for commencing.
Brother Wallace took the stand, and preached a very good sermon, while I took my stand against the inside of the door dressed as a policeman and with a club in my hand. By occasionally tapping a few on the shoulder I succeeded in keeping pretty good order until "amen" was said, when Brother Wallace made his exit through the back and I through the front door. By some means the door got locked after we had passed out, and the mob, which had by this time collected, imagining we had locked ourselves in, made pretty violent demonstrations at the front of the building trying to get at us while we were laughingly wending our way to some other section.
For the next two weeks the papers of the neighborhood teemed with accounts of "Mormon impudence," etc., and in a little time we could not call a meeting anywhere in the conference, but what it would be crowded. Curiosity was above par.
In another part of the district, at a noted watering place, I secured a town hall. As soon as meeting was opened, I was interrupted by an orthodox minister. He gave me credit for my sincerity but regretted that I had not turned my attention to the heathen, instead of coming there where he had preached so many years. He appealed to the congregation to testify that they all knew he was acquainted with every word in the Bible. I could see that trouble was imminent and my hypocritical opponent knew it, but was desirous of bringing it along in as respectable a manner as possible. I conversed with him for some time on Bible doctrine, and when we had finished the whole congregation had turned away from him and were listening to me with rapt attention. I here learned what simple things and persons the Lord could use to remove grave obstacles.
On two different occasions, when I was in imminent peril, my wife, who was dead, and her father, who died in 1846, appeared to me together and talked to me, and were as natural to me as in life.
The priests were for some time banded together in a secret organization. The first knowledge of which came to me at the place where I was knocked down, as already mentioned. They soon became, however, more bold, and during a visiting tour among the branches of my district I was warned while walking in the road, that something was wrong in Norwich. I went immediately to that place, and before I reached my rooms I was met by two brethren, who said, "There's a big anti-'Mormon' meeting at St. Andrew's hall."
I replied, "Very well, I will brush up and go to it." They and others whom I met plead with me not to go.
When I entered the hall I found it too densely packed for me to get a seat in the body of the house. On looking to the stand I counted seventeen of the prominent ministers of Norfolk and Suffolk comfortably seated. I said to myself, "I also am a minister and that is my place." I walked up and took a seat. There were two thousand people present at that meeting. At that time St. Andrew's hall ranked as the third finest hall in England.
The meeting commenced about half-past two, p.m., and it was about five o'clock when I entered. At half-past eight the chairman announced that if any member of the unfortunate "Mormon" Church was present, who had the hardihood and moral courage to attempt a defense after such an overwhelming exposure of their system as had been made that day to the citizens of Norwich, he would be allowed to speak. Of course all eyes had been on me and the invitation was a trap on the part of the ministers. They offered me no way of getting to the pulpit as I was behind five rows of seats each of which was packed with my opponents and not one offered to allow me to pass. I prayed, put my hands on the sides of the heads of the two ministers in front of me, made an opening and stepped over into their seat; this I did with the others until I reached the pulpit.
A great part of what I said I did not know at the time, nor have I known since, but near the close of my remarks I found myself with my back to the congregation and my face to the preachers. My last words to the latter were, "You are infidels, and it is you who make infidels, and by your precepts smother the hope of any realization of the gifts and blessings promised by Christ and His Apostles. I prophesy, moreover, to you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that your labors of this day and night, shall be the cause of hundreds embracing the gospel I preach."
After I ceased to speak the chairman undertook to read from the Book of Mormon, but he shook so that it was impossible for him to read. Another man tried to speak, but he was affected in the same way and had to desist.
There was a stairway leading from where I stood down to the vestibule, and I hoped to reach it soon enough after the dismissal to make my escape; but when I got there it was full of human beings, who were, however, more like devils than men. They shouted, "Where is he? Tear him limb from limb; throw him over into the river," etc.
A tall man wearing a cloak could see me while the rest seemed blinded. He came up, covered me entirely with his cloak, slipped his arms under mine, drew me up to his bosom and whispered, "Be still and I will save you." He carried me out of the vestibule, the court yard, and nearly a block up the street, the mob crowding up against and around us the whole distance. My deliverer worked his way to the side of the street until he got to his own home when he struck the spring of a door in a stone wall, it flew open, he cast me in like a log of wood, and passed on with the crowd. In about three-quarters of an hour he came back with some of our people and I was liberated and guarded home. This man was what is generally called an infidel. The next day I presented him with the best bound set of our publications I could procure. I asked him why he saved my life, to which he replied that it was only because of a love of justice.
From the time of this occurrence the work prospered as it had never done before. Our chapel was literally packed, and some citizens even took out every window on one side, brought their own trussel and planks and built a platform the entire length of the building. On one occasion we went out after the evening meeting and baptized seventeen persons, and the conversions during the whole time were quite numerous.
One evening some rowdies came intending to mob us. I sat on the stand carefully watching every movement of the assembly. Finally I leaned over and whispered to Brother William Foster (who now sings in the Tabernacle choir) to sing us something. He started the hymn "Praise to the man." The Holy Spirit rested upon the choir and the peace of God was upon the congregation, and the quietness of the meeting was recalled to my memory by a brother on the side-walk a few days since.
During the time the cholera raged in England, in 1852, I never entered a house where it was, or administered to a person who had it but what it instantly left. One rainy night I was called to go and visit a lady who had been taken with this terrible disease. It was mid-night when I reached the house and was met at the door with the statement that two doctors had just left who said that the afflicted one must die. I entered the room, walked to the bedside and commanded the person in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by virtue of the Priesthood to rise up sound and whole. In fifteen minutes she was eating supper and she sang several songs before I left.
I wish here to bear testimony of the kindness, obedience and love of the Saints at the Norwich conference. They were like my children and I was their father. In their poverty they gave to me liberally, and what I received I spent freely in helping the poor and the sick, and for the work of God. Up to the time they presented me with means to return home I had not saved five shillings. After my return home, the first two hundred and seventy-five dollars I obtained I took to President Young with the request that he send it to the poorest of the poor of Norwich conference. He remarked as he took it, "Brother Spencer, you are the first returned missionary that ever did the like."
Brother Neslen, who is now usually called "Father Neslen," was president of the Lowestoft branch during my presidency of the Norwich conference. He was in good circumstances and had a nice house, but during my first visits to the branch he never invited me to his house, and after late meetings used to take me away quite a distance to sleep. On one of my visits, as we were walking on the "Esplanade," I turned to him and said, "Brother Neslen, you may think it rather strange manners, but I feel impressed to ask you the reason why you never invite me to your house?" He replied that none of his family belonged to the Church and he was afraid if he did my feelings would be hurt. (His family consisted of a wife and nine children.)
I turned to him and said, "Brother Neslen, you are president of this branch, and as foreign as it may be to Gentile manners I must do my duty. I want you to invite me to your house; if you do so I promise you in the name of the Lord that every one of your family shall embrace the gospel, and everyone shall live to go to Zion; if you do not, and have not faith to stand up in your place as the head of your own family you are not fit to stand as president of the branch; and more than that, you will apostatize and none of you be saved in the kingdom of God."
The next time I visited Lowestoft he took me to his home: his wife was kind as a mother in her treatment and in a few months the ten souls where baptized and all lived to reach Zion in safety.
I left the Norwich conference in the beginning of 1853. It then numbered one thousand and fifty-nine people—one hundred and fifty having been baptized during the last six months. I brought home with me to Zion ninety-five souls, thus fulfilling the words of my blessing that I should return to Zion bringing many sheaves with me. The great majority that came have abode in the faith and they have increased and multiplied in Israel, until they now number more than those who were left back in the conference.
In writing this short sketch I have omitted to praise individuals whose works in those days will make me love them while life lasts. But I wish here to gratefully acknowledge the kindness of Elder George B. Wallace.
My health in that land was very poor. I suffered from a grievous and dispiriting affliction all the time I was in England. After I had been there some months I met Bro. Orson Pratt; his first exclamation was, "What is the matter with you?" He told me I could go home. I said I had no money, to which he replied, "I have, and you can go comfortably."
I told him I had not accomplished what I was promised. "But," said he, "if you die here you will not accomplish it; and had you not better go than be buried in this land?"
I answered, "I was commanded to come here and perform a certain work by the highest authority in Zion. I will not go home unless you command me."
He saw my faith, blessed and comforted me and I went back to my labors.
When a boy I received, at the Nauvoo Temple, my endowments and the birthright, with promises, under the hands of my father, which I relied upon.
I returned to Salt Lake City September 19th 1853, making three years and five months, to a day, that I was absent.
In going through Salt Lake City I find prominent merchants who were poor lads in my field of labor. I find an owner of real estate on Main Street who used all the means his entire family could gather together to bring himself out here, so that he could raise means to emigrate them afterwards. I pass by costly shops of merchandise and find the owners are people who, in our Norwich Conference, were very poor. I see a cottage and beautiful grounds, and find them owned by one with whom I shared, in that land, the portion given to me by the poor.
I go through the country and find scarcely a family of those who emigrated in 1853 but what is surrounded by all the necessaries and many of the comforts of life. I now realize that whether my first mission, in its ending, was much or little, its results no man can tell.
I am satisfied and paid for the very little and feeble labors that I performed. I returned bright and zealous in the love of the truth. God has never yet forsaken me by His Spirit, and I do not believe that any man will ever be trusted to walk in the footsteps of his Elder Brother, Jesus, as a Savior of a world, or ever be seated with honor on the right hand of His Father, until he has learned to wade through deep and troubled waters, up stream and against the current without earthly props or stays.
I am closing this history near my sixtieth birthday, and have been moved to write it, that my gratitude and acknowledgement of the honor done me by the Lord, that His testimonies given to one of His servants in the latter-day work, might be preserved and live on the earth. I gratefully dedicate it to President Franklin D. Richards, with the hope and prayer that he will use it, at the time and under the circumstances which his wisdom shall dictate, for the strengthening of the faith of the young, and the comforting of the hearts of some old veterans whose touching experiences have, perhaps, never been known away from their own firesides.