Mrs. Mary Alice C. Lambert
A desire to learn as much as possible about one's ancestors, and then go into the Temple and labor for their salvation, may be really accepted as the normal feeling among faithful, sincere Latter-day Saints. So generally is it understood to be their duty to labor for their dead kindred, that it seems quite the natural thing that they should do so. Their obligation in this respect is comparable to that of providing for dependent members of their households.
One must have a broader feeling of philanthropy or a higher sense of duty, to labor as a general worker or officiator in the Temple for extended periods, without hope of earthly reward. Among the more conspicuous examples of this kind in the Salt Lake Temple is Mrs. Mary Alice C. Lambert, the dean of the women workers, if such a term may be applied to a woman. She was one of those called to so labor when the Salt Lake Temple was completed, and has so served faithfully and gratuitously ever since, being still active and efficient, although in her eighty-sixth year. Hers is as fine an example of a busy, well-spent life, as could readily be found, and a perusal of the following sketch can hardly fail to be faith promoting:
On the 9th day of December, 1828, a young married couple, George and Ann Cannon, then living in the city of Liverpool, England, rejoiced in the birth of their second child—a daughter—whom they named Mary Alice. There was nothing about the child or her brother, George Q., who was two years her senior, or their parents, to distinguish them from the many thousands of other families who lived in that great city. The father was an intelligent and industrious tradesman—an expert carpenter, or joiner—and the mother a thoroughly domestic woman, whose love for her husband and children was only equalled by the strength of her religious fervor. Though England had been the adopted home of this branch of the Cannon family since many years before their marriage, the most of their relatives lived in the Isle of Man, and thither the family went on occasional visits. On one of these visits, at the earnest solicitation of her maternal grandmother, little Mary Alice was left to bear her company, and spent five years of her childhood in the quaint old town of Peel, for this purpose.
In course of time the Cannon family was enlarged by the successive births of other children—Ann, Angus, John, David and Leonora. John, however, died when three and a half years of age. Prosperity had attended the father's labors, the family had a comfortable and happy home, the older children were acquiring an education, and gave promise of being like other children among the better class in England—no worse than the majority, and not much if any better.
When Mary Alice was about 11 years of age, an event occurred that was destined to change the whole current of the family life. If there is any truth in the theory of heredity, it was well for the Cannon family that their ancestors, for generations, had been hardy sea-faring men—some of them captains, conspicuous for their courage and adventurous disposition. It was well that their ancestral home was in the Isle of Man, where the inhabitants, largely fishermen, are inured to hardship and used to battling with the waves and braving the tempest. If any of the traits possessed by their ancestors had been inherited by the present generation, and especially strength of will and endurance, two of the most prominent characteristics of the Manx people—they must certainly be called into action in the strenuous life that lay before the Cannon family, thenceforward.
Some years previously Leonora Cannon, a sister of George Cannon, had migrated to Canada, and there met and married a young Englishman named John Taylor. Parley P. Pratt, as a Latter-day Saint missionary, soon afterwards visited the part of Canada where the Taylors lived, and they were converted and joined their fortunes with the Saints in Ohio. From Nauvoo John Taylor was sent on a mission to Great Britain, and immediately upon landing called upon his wife's brother and family.
A profound impression was made by this visit. The visitor had scarcely left the house, after a brief call, when the mother expressed the firm conviction she felt that he was a servant of God, although he had not then made known the fact that he was a missionary or explained the Gospel. After a very short time spent investigating the Gospel, the parents were baptized. Little Mary Alice, though so young, greatly desired baptism at the same time, but was too timid to ask for it. From the time she listened to the first conversation on the Gospel she had felt greatly exercised in regard to it, and earnestly prayed to the Lord for a testimony as to its truth. As a result, she obtained a strong assurance from the Lord of its truth, that has never since admitted of a doubt.
The parents had been members of the Church four months when, in June 1840, Elder Parley P. Pratt visited them in company with Elder Taylor. They had just finished eating breakfast, with the whole family present, when Elder Pratt, as if moved by a sudden inspiration, said: "Elder Taylor, have you preached the Gospel to these children? Some of them want to be baptized now. Don't you?" he asked looking straight at Mary Alice. "Yes, sir," she promptly replied, her heart so full of gratitude to the Lord for the opportunity she had prayed for of having her desire made known, that she could hardly speak. Further questioning resulted in immediate arrangements being made for the baptism of George Q., Mary Alice and Ann—all the children of the family then old enough for the ordinance.
It didn't take the family long to discover that there was no fellowship or tolerance for them among their relatives, or indeed among their former friends. Though formerly popular, they were now pitied or denounced, if not thoroughly hated. Whether this fact tended to create a desire to migrate to America or not, true it was that they soon obtained the spirit of gathering. The only social enjoyment the family found was in mingling with members of the church, and the desire soon grew strong to go where the majority of the members could be found. The mother especially revolted at the thought of her children growing up in an atmosphere of unbelief, and, although she was in delicate health, and had a premonition that amounted almost if not quite to an absolute fore-knowledge that she would not live to reach America, she insisted upon going, and was impatient to start. The father, too, after having a dream of his wife dying at sea, feared that it might prove true, and would have hesitated about going had the Lord not made known to him, in answer to prayer, that it was his duty to do so.