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of polygamy.

      That America should bring forth a peculiar people, like the Mormons, is as natural as that a mother should bear children in the semblance of the father who begat them. Monstrous, indeed, would it be if, as offspring of the patriarchs and mothers of this nation, America brought forth naught but godless politicians.

CHAPTER II.

       Table of Contents

      THE MOTHER OF THE PROPHET—THE GIFTS OF INSPIRATION AND WORKING OF MIRACLES INHERENT IN HER FAMILY—FRAGMENTS OF HER NARRATIVE.

      First among the chosen women of the latter-day dispensation comes the mother of the Prophet, to open this divine drama.

      It is one of our most beautiful and suggestive proverbs that "great men have great mothers." This cannot but be peculiarly true of a great prophet whose soul is conceptive of a new dispensation.

      Prophecy is of the woman. She endows her offspring with that heaven-born gift.

      The father of Joseph was a grand patriarchal type. He was the Abraham of the Church, holding the office of presiding patriarch. To this day he is remembered and spoken of by the early disciples with the profoundest veneration and filial love, and his patriarchal blessings, given to them, are preserved and valued as much as are the patriarchal blessings of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob valued by their own race.

      But it is the mother of the Prophet who properly leads in opening the testament of the women of Mormondom. She was a prophetess and seeress born. The gift of prophecy and the power to work miracles also inhered in the family of Lucy Mack, (her maiden name), and the martial spirit which distinguished her son, making him a prophet-general, was quite characteristic of her race. Of her brother, Major Mack, she says:

      "My brother was in the city of Detroit in 1812, the year in which Hull surrendered the territory to the British crown. My brother, being somewhat celebrated for his prowess, was selected by General Hull to take the command of a company as captain. After a short service in this office he was ordered to surrender. (Hull's surrender to the British). At this his indignation was aroused to the highest pitch. He broke his sword across his knee, and throwing it into the river, exclaimed that he would never submit to such a disgraceful compromise while the blood of an American continued to flow in his veins."

      Lucy Mack's father, Solomon Mack, was a soldier in the American revolution. He entered the army at the age of twenty-one, in the year 1755, and in the glorious struggle of his country for independence he enlisted among the patriots in 1776. With him were his two boys, Jason and Stephen, the latter being the same who afterwards broke his sword and cast it into the river rather than surrender it to the British.

      But that which is most interesting here is the seeric gift coupled with the miracle-working power of "Mother Lucy's" race. Hers was a "visionary" family, in the main, while her elder brother, Jason, was a strange evangelist, who wandered about during his lifetime, by sea and land, preaching the gospel and working miracles. This Jason even attempted to establish a body of Christian communists. Of him she says:

      "Jason, my oldest brother, was a studious and manly boy. Before he had attained his sixteenth year he became what was then called a 'seeker,' and believing that by prayer and faith the gifts of the gospel, which were enjoyed by the ancient disciples of Christ, might be attained, he labored almost incessantly to convert others to the same faith. He was also of the opinion that God would, at some subsequent period, manifest His power, as He had anciently done, in signs and wonders. At the age of twenty he became a preacher of the gospel."

      Then followed a love episode in Jason's life, in which the young man was betrayed by his rival while absent in England on business with his father. The rival gave out that Jason had died in Liverpool, (being post-master, he had also intercepted their correspondence,) so that when the latter returned home he found his betrothed married to his enemy. The story runs:

      "As soon as Jason arrived he repaired immediately to her father's house. When he got there she was gone to her brother's funeral; he went in, and seated himself in the same room where he had once paid his addresses to her. In a short time she came home; when she first saw him she did not know him, but when she got a full view of his countenance she recognized him, and instantly fainted. From this time forward she never recovered her health, but, lingering for two years, died the victim of disappointment.

      "Jason remained in the neighborhood a short time and then went to sea, but he did not follow the sea a great while. He soon left the main, and commenced preaching, which he continued until his death."

      Once or twice during his lifetime Jason visited his family; at last, after a silence of twenty years, his brother Solomon received from him the following very evangelistic epistle:

      "South Branch of Ormucto,

      "Province of New Brunswick,

      "June 30, 1835.

      "MY DEAR BROTHER SOLOMON: You will, no doubt, be surprised to hear that I am still alive, although in an absence of twenty years I have never written to you before. But I trust you will forgive me when I tell you that, for most of the twenty years, I have been so situated that I have had little or no communication with the lines, and have been holding meetings, day and night, from place to place; besides my mind has been so taken up with the deplorable situation of the earth, the darkness in which it lies, that, when my labors did call me near the lines, I did not realize the opportunity which presented itself of letting you know where I was. And, again, I have designed visiting you long since, and annually have promised myself that the succeeding year I would certainly seek out my relatives, and enjoy the privilege of one pleasing interview with them before I passed into the valley and shadow of death. But last, though not least, let me not startle you when I say, that, according to my early adopted principles of the power of faith, the Lord has, in his exceeding kindness, bestowed upon me the gift of healing by the prayer of faith, and the use of such simple means as seem congenial to the human system; but my chief reliance is upon Him who organized us at the first, and can restore at pleasure that which is disorganized.

      "The first of my peculiar success in this way was twelve years since, and from nearly that date I have had little rest. In addition to the incessant calls which I in a short time had, there was the most overwhelming torrent of opposition poured down upon me that I ever witnessed. But it pleased God to take the weak to confound the wisdom of the wise. I have in the last twelve years seen the greatest manifestations of the power of God in healing the sick, that, with all my sanguinity, I ever hoped or imagined. And when the learned infidel has declared with sober face, time and again, that disease had obtained such an ascendency that death could be resisted no longer, that the victim must wither beneath his potent arm, I have seen the almost lifeless clay slowly but surely resuscitated and revived, till the pallid monster fled so far that the patient was left in the full bloom of vigorous health. But it is God that hath done it, and to Him let all the praise be given.

      "I am now compelled to close this epistle, for I must start immediately on a journey of more than one hundred miles, to attend a heavy case of sickness; so God be with you all. Farewell!

      "JASON MACK."

      "Mother Lucy," in the interesting accounts of her own and husband's families, tells some charming stories of visions, dreams, and miracles among them, indicating the advent of the latter-day power; but the remarkable visions and mission of her prophet son claim the ruling place. She says:

      "There was a great revival of religion, which extended to all the denominations of Christians in the surrounding country in which we resided. Many of the world's people, becoming concerned about the salvation of their souls, came forward and presented themselves as seekers after religion. Most of them were desirous of uniting with some church, but were not decided as to the particular faith which they would adopt. When the numerous meetings were about breaking up, and the candidates and the various leading church members began to consult upon the subject of adopting the candidates into some church or churches, as the case might be, a dispute arose, and there was a great contention among them.

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