Jedediah M. Grant

“ ELDER SIDNEY RIGDON IN OHIO. ”Imagination is a mental power of extensive influence. if it be allowed to wander at discretion, through scenes of imagined wealth, ambition, frivolity or pleasure, it tends to withdraw the mind from the important pursuits of life, to weaken the habit of attention, and to impair the judgment. ”

“ As one part has been fulfilled we may reasonably infer that the other will also be fulfilled.
Elder Smith, having learned from the Lord the destiny of Elder Rigdon, watched over him as a mother watches over the steps of her inexperienced offspring. In the mean time a dark cloud arose from the west, threatening destruction to the whole Church. The Saints in Jackson county, Mo., were bleeding at every pore, their houses were burned, their goods confiscated, and they compelled to leave the county amidst showers of rain and snow, in the cold month of November, 1833. ”

“ The Holy Spirit descended in power as in bye-gone days, when it rested on the disciples at Jerusalem, some spoke with tongues and others prophesied—the visions of Heaven were also opened to some, intelligence burst upon their understanding, enabling them to comprehend things past, present and future. ”

“ There is no man that has left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake and the Gospels, but he shall receive a hundred fold, now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecution, and in the world to come eternal life. ”

“ Blessed are his generations nevertheless, one shall hunt after them as a man hunteth after an ass that hath strayed in the wilderness, and straightway findeth him and bringeth him unto the fold, thus shall the Lord watch over his generation that they may be saved ”

“ The above characteristic, combined with great ambition, and over anxiety to be leader, has had a tendency to lead Elder Rigdon into many serious difficulties, causing himself, as well as others, much trouble. One of the first dilemmas into which he plunged himself, and others, (for or a time,) was caused by a peculiar revelation, which he professed to have received from the Lord, not many months after he united with the saints, in Kirtland, Ohio. ”