Biography and Family Record of Lorenzo Snow / One of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

by Eliza R. Snow

The records show that after Brother Snow's return from conference up to the 26th of May, he had baptized eighteen persons.

Before leaving Greet's Green to take charge of the Church in London, Brother Lorenzo held several meetings in Wolverhampton, a flourishing town numbering several thousand inhabitants. There he succeeded in establishing a branch of the Church. A man, by name William Henshaw, was one of the number who embraced the Gospel at that time; a man of ability and force of character, he became very useful as a minister of and advocate for the truth.

Brother Snow ordained William Henshaw to the Priesthood, and sent him on a mission to Wales to introduce and open the Gospel door to that people. He was very successful and greatly blessed in his labors. He had baptized several hundred persons and organized quite a number of branches of the Church in that country previous to the arrival of Captain Dan Jones, who was sent as a missionary from Salt Lake to that people.

It is a matter of deep regret that, after having performed a great and good work—after having been instrumental in bringing into the Church, among the many whom he baptized, several persons who became prominent and influential preachers of the Gospel, that he should make shipwreck of his faith through that destructive demon, intemperance, and by intoxication destroy the powerful faculties with which God had endowed him. He crossed the ocean, and, in St. Louis, died a drunkard. Once beloved and highly respected, he yielded to the weakness of the flesh, and "died as a fool dieth"—an object of regret and pity, a warning to those similarly tempted.

Not long after Brother Snow was appointed to preside over the Church in London, a circumstance occurred which plainly illustrated the interference of evil spirits in human affairs, and most strikingly their use as instruments to oppose the progress of the latter-day work. A band of them undertook to frighten him from his post; but Lorenzo Snow is one whom neither favor, fright nor force can move from the post of duty.

At the time referred to, he occupied a well furnished upper room, and directly after his appointment to the presidency, after retiring to bed at night, he was aroused from sleep by the most discordant noises. It seemed as though every piece of furniture in the room was put in motion, going slash-dash, helter-skelter, back and forth against each other in such terrible fury that sleep and rest were utter impossibilities.

He endured the unceremonious visitation for several nights, each night thinking it was the last, that they would leave as unbidden as they came, until the fact forced itself upon his mind that so long as he would tamely submit to their aggressions, so long they would continue to repeat them. Something must be done. He must claim the right of master over his own premises.

Accordingly, after a day of fasting and before kneeling to pray, as was his custom before retiring for the night, he read aloud a chapter in the Bible, and then, in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, and by the authority of the Holy Priesthood, rebuked those spirits, and commanded them to leave the house—went to bed and had no more disturbance. But those spirits were not discouraged with one defeat. It was not long before several members of the Church became disaffected and came out in open rebellion, insomuch that it was painfully necessary to expel quite a number.

Manchester, April 6, 1841.—The council of the Twelve assembled in Manchester Hall, on the 6th day of April, 1841, for the first time, to transact business as a quorum, in the presence of the Church, in a foreign land, being the first day of the twelfth year of the rise of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Nine of the Quorum were present. At this Conference much was done in appointing and setting apart to offices—ordaining, etc., as well as representing the various branches and conferences. All being accomplished, appropriate instructions were delivered by different members of the High Council relative to the duties of the officers in their respective callings, etc., etc.