The Last Time That I Had an Experience of This Kind

The last time that I had an experience of this kind was in the Southern States. It was in a place where many had not seen a negro. That may be a surprise to some of you people. A committee of citizens had invited a noted negro preacher to come out into the mountains of North Carolina and preach; and they had engaged the Methodist church. But when we went to the church to hear this great negro preacher, he did not come. Then the committee came to the Eiders and said, "You will have to take his place." We said to them, "We are in a Methodist church, and the Methodist minister is here. Go to him and have him preach." They went to him, and he said, "No, sir, I will not preach after you have asked the Mormon Elders. I will not do it ;" and he took his hat and went home. Then they came to us ; and we said that inasmuch as this was his church, we had rather go out under the trees and preach. So they invited the congregation out under the trees, and we delivered our talk. I think the Lord sometimes opens the way for the Elders that they do not always have to hunt up congregations. ¶

Another time, when I was down in Tennessee, we had been through the country and made appointments for meetings. A man by the name of Turner had given us the privilege of preaching in the church at Bethel, at 11 a. m. The night before we had stayed a mile or two from the meeting house, and desired to get to the church at 9 o'clock for Sunday School, but when we started out, and were going through the woods in the morning, it seemed to me as if I heard a voice saying, "Don't go to that Sunday School," and I stopped. My partner had stopped and said to me, "Brother Taylor, the strongest impression that has ever come over me in my life has come to me that we must not go to that Sunday School." So we agreed that we would stay there. We stayed in the woods, and about the time for meeting, went down to the meeting house, and found all the shutters closed: There wasn't any Sunday School. There had been none held, and we wondered what was the matter, but when we went to go, a man rushed up and said, "Do you know, when Squire Turner was entering the meeting house this morning, Squire Hawkins struck him in the face and knocked him to the ground because he had allowed you the use of the church, and Squire Turner and his friends, about thirty in number, and Hawkins and his friends about thirty in number, all had a free fight. Now," he said, "You men had better get right out of here just as quick as you can, because Squire Hawkins' men are gathered at his house, and Squire Turner's men are gathered at his house, and if they come here you will be killed." I thought, "Well, it will be a mighty good thing to get out.-" My companion, who was a little bit of a man, rose up in his dignity, and he said, "No siree, we are out here to preach the gospel, and we are going to preach it to you folks right here under the trees, and if you will stay here, we will talk to you. I thought, "Well now, we are in for it," but I got up along side of him just as bravely as I knew how. We got our hymn books and opened them up, and were just going to sing ¶

when a young lady came rushing through the trees and said, "Gentlemen, I am a daughter of Squire Turner. He is the man that gave you the privilege of the church, and he is your friend. Now, he is so enraged and so insulted with the fact that he has been struck, that he is gathering his friends, and just the minute you start to sing and commence meeting, they will start out and hunt up the other crowd and some will be killed." My companion said, "We are not here to get our friends into trouble, and we will go away." We started to walk down the road; and the same man came up and said, "Don't go that way, that is where Squire Hawkins lives. Go out this way." But my companion said, "We know somebody down here, where we can get a dinner, so that is where we are going," and we walked on. We came to a large mansion, and on the lawn there were about forty men. Instead of going on the other side of the street, we kept on that side, and, wanting to be polite, I walked up to the fence and said, "Good morning gentlemen ; this is a beautiful day." Not one spoke back to me, but looked around on the lawn like they were hunting for four leaf clovers, and I said to my companion, "If they won't speak to us, we have done our part," and we walked along. The next day we were passing by a hedge nearly as high as this wall, [Temple block,] and we heard two men talking. One of them was saying to the other, "Have you read the paper this morning? Well, there is a Mormon giant come into our community, and his name is Taylor. He challenged forty men to fight him yesterday, and they were all afraid of him." Now, I believe, you know, that the Lord sometimes "magnifies us in the eyes of the people." ¶

We had appointed a meeting for the next day, Friday, and the minister of that place decided that he would hold meetings all day, (our meeting hour was four o'clock). He commenced at 10 o'clock with a prayer meeting, and went right on through the day. We went to hear his services, and a multitude of people gathered. About 3 :30 I remembered that I had left my Bible home, at, the place we stayed the night before. I got up and went out of the meeting. Outside of the meeting house there was a pole fence, and some large trees on the other side of it. Under these trees was a crowd of men, and among them was the man that I had stayed with, so I climbed over the fence and went over toward him, and all the men separated. I went down between two lines of men, and said to him, "Eph, I forgot my Bible, and left it at your house ; give me the key, because our meeting is going to start." He never said a word, but started off and climbed the fence, and I went after him. When he got into the lane and was going home, I said, "Eph, you haven't answered me yet, you have closed up like a clam." "Well," he says, "I was so mad I couldn't speak. Just before you came out of that meeting house those men had got a bucket of tar and a pillow full of feathers, and had said they were going to tar and feather you and your companion, and I had just said to them, 'the whole crowd of you darsn't lay your hands on that man Taylor, and if any one of you lay your hands on that man Church, I will grind you to powder." ¶

Now, the next day, we went to the place where the minister had ¶

deserted the meeting house, left the people without a preacher and they called upon us to talk to the people. I have the Yankee habit of whittling and, after the close of the meeting, I was over by the stove with a stick whittling. When nearly all the people had gone out, a big fellow about six feet tall and weighing about two hundred and fifty pounds, said, "We want a sign : we want a sign : and then just as soon as you give us a sign, there are forty of us want to join your church." He addressed himself to me. I was whittling away, and said to him, "All right. How would you like to be struck dead?" ' He said, "Not that, not that, not that/' and backed out of the house as fast as he could, and all his crowd with him. As we were going to dinner that clay, he followed us up, and came shivering and shaking, and said, "Mr. Taylor, I do not want you to think I am your enemy. I want you to think I am your friend." ¶

While Brother Shepherd was speaking to us just now, there was a story came to my mind. The circumstance happened in the stake which Brother Shepherd comes from, and made a great impression upon my mind. President Budge, who used to be the president of that stake, told me the story. There is a man up there named Wright. He was in one of the wards, and took it upon himself, one day when the bishop wanted to present something for the benefit of the people, to oppose that move. It didn't suit Brother Wright, and so he got up in the meeting and opposed it with all his heart. He got so anxious about it, and got himself so worked up and so mad, that he marched out of the meeting house ; but, as he was going out, just as he opened the door, he saw a man standing there, who had been peeking, looking in through the crack. This man shut the door and said, "You've done just the right thing, you've done just the right thing." Brother Wright looked at him, and said, "Did you say I did the right thing? Then I must be wrong, because you have never been right — you have been wrong in everything that has happened in this community since I have been here, and because you say I am right I know I am wrong." So Brother Wright turned round and went back and said, "Bishop, I know I am wrong. Brother so-andso met me outside the door and said I was" right, and I want to apologize because now I know I am wrong." ¶

I presume you have all been reading the inscriptions on the monuments. My father was with the Prophet and Hyrum Smith in Carthage Jail, and he was wounded in several places, and stood upon exactly the same spot as the Prophet stood when he was killed. When he was lying down and the doctor came in with a pocket knife, and was cutting the bullets out of him, he wanted to know where the Higbees and the apostates were who had brought about the martyrdom. He wanted to swear out warrants against them. The impression has always come to me that there is no man or set of men since the days of the. Prophet Joseph Smith, that have raised their hands against the Prophet of the living God and have prospered in the land — not one, and their names will go down to oblivion, while those who stand up for and sustain the prophet of the living God will live forever, and their names will be perpetuated here on earth. ¶

Now, once in a while I hear someone say about the Prophet Joseph F. Smith, that they do not agree with him, and at the same time extol the prophets who have passed away. I want to testify to you today that one living prophet is worth more than a grave-yard full of dead ones. I testify to you that I want to sustain the living prophet, whoever he is. Of course, in sustaining him, you sustain the others, but you cannot sustain the dead prophets and not sustain the living. That is absolutely impossible. I do not want to see the Latter-day Saints get led away by every fad and fancy. I say to you that the men of this nation, a good many of them, are striving right now to knock the cornerstone from under this government. They are following a whole lot of fads and fancies, and if the Latter-day Saints live like they should be living, and sustain the Constitution of the United States, they may soon be called upon to govern ; but if they follow every fad and fancy, and do not keep on solid ground, they will never be able to rule. Good men and good women cannot help but be rulers in the land in this world, and in the world to come. But, when you follow the vices in the world down you go. ¶

I had an experience in Nevada recently. I was at a great big ranch, and on that ranch the foreman was a big man. I happened to be there negotiating for the purchase of it, and of course was a kind of an honored guest, and sat up near the head of the table. We had a man there that pretended to be an apostate, and rather boasted about it ; and one morning he commenced to talk about what foolery it was for us to drink water. When the Chinaman waiter came and said, "A little more wattee?" This man said, "Why don't you drink coffee and tea? I do not object to you not drinking liquor or smoking tobacco, but it is nonsense not to drink coffee and tea." There happened to be a young man there, a grandson of Erastus Snow, a great big healthy fellow weighing over two hundred pounds. He was out there surveying for the Ranch Company ; and so I said to him, "Now, Mr. Snow and I are the only ones here drinking water, there are thirty or forty men around this table, all the rest of you drinking coffee and tea. We are willing to stand up and take an examination, physical, intellectual, or any other way against the whole crowd." The foreman of the ranch said to them, "He has got the dead cinch on you." When Brother Snow and I were alone I told him how I appreciated his conduct, for he was adopting the virtues of the men among whom he labored, but none of their vices. ¶

The next day the apostate took another tack. He said, "It's all nonsense for your elders to go into the world to preach the gospel, and eat the food of the poor people." So I said to him, "Now, you have become a comparatively wealthy man, but you would have been living in Denmark and working for thirty cents a day if it hadn't been for the gospel. When the elders came to your father and mother they said this, 'We have a certificate from the prophet of the living God that says that every man, woman, or child that provides for the comfort of these Elders, shall be blessed of the Lord.' Now, I want to testify to you today, and I want you to agree with it, that the Latter-day Saints have been blessed of the Lord, and the people out in the world who have entertained them, have been blessed of the Lord." And he said, "Well, I guess that's true." ¶

Now, I say to the Latter-day Saints, you need have no fear to send your boys on a mission, and you need not be anxious to send them fifty dollars or seventy-five dollars a month either. I heartily agree with President Smith on that question. I have traveled without purse or script and got just as good treatment without it as I could possibly get with it. It may be necessary to send some money, but do not send too much. I had the opportunity of presiding for a short time over a mission, and I tell you that those who live nearest the gospel in that respect are the best Elders, and those most likely to make a failure are the boys that get too much money. ¶

Now, may the peace and blessing of heaven be with us, I ask in the name of Jesus. Amen. ¶