"Monday, 20th, we ordained Levi Chapin a Teacher and Alvin Simons an Elder to watch over the church. I then went to Black Lake, preached and baptized one; then preached at Potsdam and baptized another. Returned to the township of Oswegatchie, called the church together at Ogdensburg, which numbered twenty-eight, and bade them farewell. I left the church rejoicing in the Lord, and many around believing the testimony.
"Thence I pursued my journey to Victor, Ontario County, where I met Vilate, my wife, who was visiting her friends, and I tarried a few days with them. Thence we pursued our journey to Buffalo. Here a magistrate came forward and paid five dollars for our passage to Frankfort, a distance of one hundred and eighty miles. The passengers were chiefly Swiss emigrants. After sitting and hearing them for some time, the Spirit of the Lord came upon me, and I was enabled to preach to them in their own language. They seemed much pleased and treated us kindly. We had a very heavy gale while going up the lake, so that every passenger almost and some of the hands were very sick. Many were frightened, and one woman died, she being very feeble when she came on board. But we reached our destination without accident, and arrived in Kirtland, October 2nd. I was gone nearly five months, visited many of my friends, preached much, and baptized thirty. This was the first mission I took alone. The Lord was with me and blessed me, and confirmed the word with signs following."
CHAPTER XIII.
THE WORSHIP OF MAMMON—THE TEMPORAL ABOVE THE SPIRITUAL—THE KIRTLAND BANK—FINANCIAL DISASTERS—APOSTASY—HEBER SORROWS OVER THE DEGENERACY OF THE TIMES.
"Ill fares the land; to hastening ills a prey,
Where wealth accumulates and men decay."
During the absence of Apostle Kimball in the east, a grievous change had come over the Church in Kirtland. The greed of gain, the spirit of speculation was abroad in the land. Mammon had reared his altars on consecrated ground; the money-changer was within the temple. The love of the things of earth had usurped, in many hearts, the love of the things of heaven, and comparatively few were free from the soul-destroying influence of idolatry. Idolatry? Yes; the bowing down to the modern Baal, the worship of wealth—the god of gold—the lust after the ways and pleasures of the world.
The order of Christ's kingdom is the order of creation: firstly spiritual, secondly temporal. When this order is subverted, "chaos is come again." Sorrow is the inevitable consequence of apostasy from the spiritual to the temporal. "To be carnally-minded is death; but to be spiritually-minded is life and peace." Does not the fall of man illustrate this principle? Can he descend from heaven to earth without causing and enduring pain?
The spiritual must sway the temporal, the earthly be ruled by the heavenly. How else shall it be sanctified? It is the spirit in man that moves the body, not the body the spirit. In the Church, Christ's body, the spiritual must reign supreme. The temporal on the heart's throne is ever the usurper; the spiritual crowned and sceptred, ruler by right divine.
Jacob is spiritual; Japheth is temporal. The mission of Israel and the mission of the Gentiles are as the poles antipodal; God's ways and man's ways, as heaven and earth apart.
"We were very much grieved," says Heber, "on our arrival in Kirtland, to see the spirit of speculation that was prevailing in the Church. Trade and traffic seemed to engross the time and attention of the Saints. When we left Kirtland a city lot was worth about $150; but on our return, to our astonishment, the same lot was said to be worth from $500. to $1000., according to location; and some men, who, when I left, could hardly get food to eat, I found on my return to be men of supposed great wealth; in fact everything in the place seemed to be moving in great prosperity, and all seemed determined to become rich; in my feelings they were artificial or imaginary riches. This appearance of prosperity led many of the Saints to believe that the time had arrived for the Lord to enrich them with the treasures of the earth, and believing so, it stimulated them to great exertions, so much so that two of the Twelve, Lyman E. Johnson and John F. Boynton, went to New York and purchased to the amount of $20,000 worth of goods, and entered into the mercantile business, borrowing considerable money from Polly Voce and other Saints in Boston and the regions round about, and which they have never repaid."