The Work and the Glory (222 page)

“I wish you could have been with us when we first came to Missouri in ’31, Ben. It was glorious. I’ll never forget how excited we were when the Lord revealed that the center place of Zion was to be right there in Jackson County.”

Yes, and within two years every last Latter-day Saint there was driven out of Zion at the point of a gun
. But Benjamin didn’t say that out loud. Joseph had enough troubles without having to explain everything to Benjamin Steed.

“And do you remember what he said at that time, Brother Ben?”

Benjamin knew the revelations that had been given during that time, but he wasn’t sure what Joseph had reference to, so he shook his head. Joseph’s eyes half closed as he began to quote, “ ‘You cannot see with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory which shall follow, after much tribulation.’ ” His voice became very soft. “ ‘For after much tribulation cometh the blessings.’ ”

Benjamin felt a little thrill shoot through him as he often did when Joseph quoted the words of the Lord. Perhaps it was because Joseph had been the one to receive them, but he could quote them in a way that no other man could.

Joseph’s eyes opened, and he turned to look squarely at Benjamin. “And we surely have seen the tribulation, haven’t we?”

“Yes,” Benjamin said. And now he couldn’t resist adding, “And it isn’t over yet.”

“No, it isn’t. So why? Why
are
these things happening to us? What is this design of God that we can’t see with our natural eyes?”

Benjamin was almost too startled to realize that Joseph was asking him questions. He had read that passage many times—it was now in the Doctrine and Covenants—but he had missed the impact of that one word.
Design. And not just design. Divine design!
It had not occurred to him before to think of it in that manner.

But Joseph hadn’t expected him to answer. He was musing now. “I have pondered this question too, Benjamin. Very often. Oh, there is no question but what we have not been fully faithful as a people, but we surely have tried to keep the Lord’s commandments more than the men who are troubling us. So why isn’t the Lord punishing them?”

“That’s exactly it. It seems so unfair.”

“Well, I don’t want to dwell on this point—I want to get to the harder question—but I’d just like to remind you of something the Lord said on another occasion. ‘For unto whom much is given . . .’?” He let his voice rise, making the statement into a question.

“ ‘Much is expected,’ ” Benjamin finished it for him.

“Ah, no, Ben. I hear the Saints quoting it that way, but that is not what it says. It says, ‘For unto whom much is given
much is required;
and he who sins against the greater light receives the greater condemnation.’ ” He took a quick breath. “That is a very different matter indeed.”

“So because we’re Saints, we—”

“Not just Saints, Ben. We are the Lord’s covenant people. The Missourians are not. We have made solemn covenants that we will live his law and serve him. And he has given us so much in return. The gift of the Holy Ghost. New scripture. The priesthood.” His voice had risen with excitement; now it dropped to almost a whisper. “He has a right to require more of us.” There was a long pause. “And he does.”

Benjamin finally nodded. “All right, I can see that, but—”

Joseph raised one hand quickly, grinning now. “Let me get to your first question. How exactly did you say it again?”

“Why is all of this happening to us? Do you have an answer?”

The grin broadened, and there was a bit of a teasing look in Joseph’s eye now. “I don’t, but I think the Lord does.”

Benjamin smiled back at him. “I’d accept the Lord’s answer on this.”

Joseph slowly sobered. “Well, for the past few nights I have been reading and rereading the revelations given during that time when we lost Jackson County. We seem to be in a similar situation again now, so I wanted to see if God had said anything that might give us some answers.”

“And did he?”

“You judge for yourself, Ben. I can’t quote it exactly from memory, but here is what the Lord said in ’33, at the very time our people were starting into all the troubles with the Missourians. He said, ‘Let your hearts take comfort, for all things work together for the good of them that walk uprightly, and to the sanctification of the church.’ ”

He stopped, letting Benjamin digest that for a moment. “Think about that, Ben.
All things,
it says, work for our good if we live right. Could he possibly mean persecution and hardship? Does ‘all things’ include the burning of homes and the driving of our women and children out in the midst of winter?”

“Do you think it does?”

“I think when the Lord says ‘all things,’ he means all things. And he also said that those things work for the sanctification of the Church.” There was a soft sigh. “Think the Church could use some sanctification, Ben?”

There was only one answer to that, and Benjamin gave it with a sober nod.

Joseph smiled sadly. “And then the Lord said, and I think this is the key: ‘I will raise up to myself a pure people, who will serve me in righteousness.’ ”

He brushed his hands back and forth together, as if dusting them off. “That’s not easy doctrine, is it, Ben?”

“No.” Benjamin thought of what Jessica had been through in Jackson County. “Not easy at all.”

“Let me ask you something, Ben.”

“All right.”

“Tell me, where is Thomas B. Marsh right now?”

Benjamin’s head came around and his eyebrows lifted sharply. But Joseph went on swiftly. “Where are the members of the Twelve who betrayed us in Kirtland? And where are Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer and Martin Harris? Where have they all gone, Ben?”

“They left us because they weren’t strong enough,” Benjamin said slowly.

Joseph leaned forward, peering into Benjamin’s face. “Strong enough for what, Ben? Strong enough for what?”

And now Benjamin Steed understood. “Strong enough to remain faithful when they lost all their money in the Kirtland Safety Society. Strong enough to ignore the ridicule and rejection and mockery of others.”

Joseph was nodding with each answer. “We’ve lost quite a few. We lost some on Zion’s Camp. We lost others when the Panic of ’37 wiped us out financially. We lost some when the Prophet told them to do things they didn’t agree with.” A great sadness pulled at his mouth. “We lost one who thought it more important to please his wife than to accept the counsel of the First Presidency.”

Ben felt a sudden surge of excitement. “And the Brigham Youngs and the John Taylors—they were strong enough, weren’t they?”

“Yes. And the Fieldings and the Pratts and the Cahoons and the Woodruffs and the Kimballs.” He paused for just a moment. “And the Steeds—Nathan, Mary Ann, Lydia, Jessica.”

He reached out and gripped Benjamin’s arm for a moment, and there was a sudden huskiness to his voice. “And I think I can still remember a man named Benjamin Steed who was beaten nearly to death one night because he wouldn’t turn his back on Brother Joseph.”

Benjamin straightened now, feeling like a new man. “If only easy things happened to us, Oliver and David and Thomas—they might still be with us, right?”

“Yes. That’s part of the answer, Benjamin.”

Benjamin’s mind was alive with the implications of what Joseph was teaching him. And he wanted more. “What else?” he asked.

“The Lord said he would raise up a pure people. For what, Benjamin? Why does the Lord need a pure people?”

Benjamin stared into Joseph’s steady gaze for several seconds; then understanding came with absolute clarity. “Because there is yet work to be done,” he said in awe.

Joseph laughed softly. “That is exactly what I concluded last night. There is still much to be done. We have to establish the kingdom of God on the earth so that the kingdom of heaven may come. That takes men and women who have iron faith and steel in their commitment to the Lord.” He put both hands on Benjamin’s shoulders. “And if the Lord has to take us through the fires to find enough metal to do the job, then I say, let the fires begin. I, for one, am ready.”

Chapter Notes

The infamous “extermination order” issued by Governor Lilburn W. Boggs on the twenty-seventh of October, 1838, is not given here in its entirety, but what is given is quoted from a published source (see
Persecutions
, 228–29; see also
HC
3:175). The letter of Sashiel Woods and Joseph Dickson is also authentic (see
Persecutions,
225; see also
HC
3: 168–69).

Jacob Haun’s refusal to bring his settlement into Far West in spite of Joseph’s specific request to do so is reported by Philo Dibble (see “Philo Dibble’s Narrative,” in
Early Scenes in Church History
[Salt Lake City: Juvenile Instructor Office, 1882], p. 90; see also
CHFT
, p. 201).

  The scriptures cited by Joseph in his conversation with Benjamin are now D&C 58:3-4; 82:3; 100:15-16.

Chapter 16

   Benjamin called a family council as soon as he returned home. They asked a neighbor girl to take the children. The young ones of the city were frightened enough without making them sit through a council of war.

And so the five of them sat around the table—he and Mary Ann and Matthew and Nathan and Lydia. It was a somber group as Benjamin reported on his and Joseph’s conversation with the mulish Jacob Haun. He blew out his breath in disgust. “I’m not sure that stubborn old fool will even tell his people that Joseph is asking them to come in.”

“How can he simply ignore the Prophet?” Lydia burst out.

“Some people trust in their own wisdom more than they trust the counsel of the Prophet,” Benjamin answered sadly.

Nathan stirred. “Then we have no choice. We have to go for Jessica and John ourselves.”

The two women looked quickly at each other. Lydia’s face was drawn. Mary Ann looked haggard. Their men had returned safely from Crooked River, but it could so easily have turned out otherwise. Just ask the families who would be having funerals tomorrow. And the Steed women knew full well it could just as easily be them weeping tonight and preparing bodies for burial. Mary Ann finally spoke for the both of them. “Is it safe? To be riding across the countryside right now?”

“Of course it’s not safe,” Lydia cried. “It’s not safe for any Mormon anywhere in Missouri.”

Nathan was sitting beside her at the table. He reached out and laid his hand over hers. “That’s right,” he said quietly, “including Jessica and her family. There are four children there too, remember.”

Lydia looked away. “I know,” she whispered. “And I know we have to try to bring them in. I’m just so frightened.”

Mary Ann was staring at her hands, which were folded in her lap. Finally she looked up, her eyes catching her husband. “I want us to get Rebecca and Derek too,” she said. “And Peter.”

Benjamin’s eyebrows rose. “But they’re already in Di-Ahman. Joseph said to get everyone in to Far West or Di-Ahman.”

“I know, but I want them here with us. I want to know they’re safe. I want us to be together in whatever’s coming.”

Benjamin’s head was nodding in assent even before she was finished. “Yes, you’re right, Mother. Rebecca and Derek too.”

“I’ll go to Di-Ahman,” Matthew said. He looked quickly at his mother, whose head had come up sharply. “We’ve still got the courier stations set up. It will be safer going north.”

Mary Ann started to shake her head, then bit her lip and looked down again. “All right.” It was barely audible.

“He proved himself well at Crooked River, Mama,” Nathan said. “Matthew can do it.”

“Can’t you find some brethren to go with you?” Lydia burst out. “It is suicide to travel alone.”

Benjamin sighed deeply, a sound of great pain and weariness. “Every man is looking to the care of his own family right now. I would go, but I’ve got to help get the city ready.” He paused, waiting for a comment, but Lydia too knew the inevitable when she saw it.

“We don’t have much choice,” Benjamin continued. “So Nathan will go to Haun’s Mill. Matthew will go to Di-Ahman.” He looked at his sons. “I want you ready to ride at dawn. Brother Kimball said Matthew can borrow his horse again. Matthew, you can’t make it that far and back in one day, so you stay overnight with Derek. Nathan, Haun’s Mill is only twelve miles. I want you there and back by dark tomorrow. I don’t care if Jessica and John have to leave everything behind. Just get them back here.”

As Nathan and Matthew nodded, Mary Ann started to rise, resigned now to what had to happen. “Lydia and I will get some food ready.”

But Benjamin held up his hand. “I would like to say something more.”

As his wife sank back down again, Benjamin stood up. He reached down and touched the Doctrine and Covenants that lay on the table. A scrap of leather marked a spot near the end of it. “Joseph gave me a scripture tonight. I was asking him why all this is happening to us. He thought this was the Lord’s answer.”

He took his eyeglasses from his pocket and put them on, then opened the book to the place where it was marked. “ ‘Let your hearts be comforted, for all things shall work together for good to them that walk uprightly, and to the sanctification of the church; for I will raise up unto myself a pure people, that will serve me in righteousness.’”

He stopped and looked up. “That’s where Joseph stopped. He taught me a great lesson, but I’ll speak more of that later. Listen to what follows here, though. ‘And all that call on the name of the Lord and keep his commandments, shall be saved; even so. Amen.’”

He closed the book and set it down again, then looked at the four of them. “I know that when the Lord says we will be saved, he may not mean saving us from sorrow and heartache here. Look at David Patten, for example. A more godly man never walked the earth, and now he’s dead.” He shook his head, still remembering watching David Patten die. “But the Lord says if we call upon his name and keep his commandments, we can expect him to hear us. Now, I know we Steeds aren’t perfect, not by a long shot, but we’ve tried to be faithful. We’ve truly tried to keep his commandments.”