As the news reached Nauvoo, a thrill of horror and of anguish unutterable ran, as with electricity, through every pulse. The legion sprang to arms, and would have desolated the whole rebel counties, now left unprotected, had not their judgments balanced the burning attribute of justice which swelled their bosoms.
As it was, they smothered their resentment, and prepared for the burial of the illustrious dead. The bodies of the two martyrs were borne to the city; being met by the entire populace, bowed with sorrow, bathed in tears, and their bosoms upheaved with a sense of sorrow and outraged humanity, such as, perhaps, an entire populace at once never felt, since man was doomed to mourn.
The Twelve, who were abroad, soon returned, soothed and comforted the sheep, and exhorted them to union and perseverance. The work on the temple was resumed, and finally completed, at an expense of many hundred thousand dollars. In this holy edifice, after its dedication to the Lord, a portion of the Priesthood received those holy washings, anointings, keys, ordinances, oracles and instructions, which were yet wanting to perfect them in the fulness of the Priesthood.
In the autumn of 1845, the enemy again rallied, and commenced to desolate the borders of the Nauvoo settlements by fire and sword.
Wearied with long continued vexation and persecution, the council of the Apostles now determined to seek peace for the Saints, amid the far-off and almost unexplored deserts and mountains of the interior. In February, 1846, this emigration was commenced, headed by the Apostles and their families.
On the 24th of July, 1847, the first pioneers of this vast emigration, headed by the President of the whole Church, Brigham Young, entered the Valley of Great Salt Lake.
In the meantime, the beautiful Nauvoo, and its surrounding farms and villas fell a prey to the enemy, after a vigorous defence. Its temple, the pride and glory of America, was laid in ashes. Its last remnant plundered, robbed of their all, sick, destitute, wounded, bleeding, dying, at length disappeared beyond the horizon of the illimitable plains of the west, and, for a moment, the curtain of oblivion closed over this strange drama, and the kingdom of God seemed lost to mortal view.
Again it rises, and what do we behold!
The banner of freedom unfurled a thousand miles from the frontiers of the persecuting foe; its waving folds, amid the snow-clad peaks of the Rocky mountains, inviting to liberty and light, the oppressed of every clime; and a free and sovereign State rising, in majesty and smiling splendour, amid the fastnesses of nature's eternal ramparts; while the exhaustless treasures of the golden mountains of California, revealed by the providence-guiding keys of modern Theology, are poured like a flowing stream into the treasury of the Lord, to aid in the gathering and subsistence of the Saints.
Can the student of Theology contemplate all these grand events and their results, all verging to one focus, all combining to prepare the way for the consummation of the entire volume of unfulfilled prophecy, and still be so much at a loss as to query, like one of old, "Art thou he that should come; or, look we for another?" If so, we can only recommend, to one so slow of heart, to search the Scriptures, and all good books extant on the subject. And, while he searches, let him turn from his sins, and live in newness of life, and call upon God, the Father of all, in the name of Messiah, that his understanding may be enlightened, and his stubborn heart subdued, and constrained to yield to the force of Truth.