RLDS Church History Context

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Source: Church History Vol. 1 Chapter 15 Page: 400 (~1834)

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400 and I had neither horse, saddle, bridle, money, nor provisions to take with me; or to leave with my wife, who lay sick and helpless most of the time.

"Under these circumstances I knew not what to do. Nearly all had been robbed and plundered, and all were poor. As we had to start without delay, I almost trembled at the undertaking; it seemed to be all but an impossibility; but 'to him that believeth all things are possible.' I started out of my house to do something towards making preparation; I hardly knew which way to go, but I found myself in the house of Brother John Lowry, and was intending to ask him for money; but as I entered his miserable cottage in the swamp, amid the low, timbered bottoms of the Missouri River, I found him sick in bed with a heavy fever, and two or three others of his family down with the same complaint, on different beds in the same room. He was vomiting severely, and was hardly sensible of my presence. I thought to myself, 'Well, this is a poor place to come for money, and yet I must have it; I know of no one else that has got it; what shall I do?' I sat a little while confounded and amazed. At length another elder happened in.

"We laid hands on them and rebuked the disease; Brother Lowry rose up well; I did my errand, and readily obtained all I asked. This provided in part for my family's sustenance while I should leave them. I went a little further into the woods of the Missouri bottoms, and came to a camp of some brethren, by the name of Higbee, who owned some horses; they saw me coming, and, moved by the Spirit, one of them said to the other, 'There comes Brother Parley; he's in want of a horse for his journey-I must let him have old Dick;' this being the name of the best horse he had. 'Yes,' said I, 'brother, you have guessed right; but what will I do for a saddle?' 'Well,' says the other, 'I believe I'll have to let you have mine.' I blessed them and went on my way rejoicing.

"I next called on Sidney A. Gilbert, a merchant, then sojourning in the village of Liberty-his store in Jackson County having been broken up, and his goods plundered and destroyed by the mob. 'Well,' says he, 'Brother Parley,

(page 400)

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