



Produced by Villate Brown McKitrick and the Mormon Texts
Project (MormonTextsProject.org).









PRECIOUS MEMORIES


SIXTEENTH BOOK OF THE

FAITH PROMOTING SERIES


DESIGNED FOR THE INSTRUCTION AND

ENCOURAGEMENT OF YOUNG

LATTER-DAY SAINTS


COMPILED AND PUBLISHED BY

GEO. C. LAMBERT

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH

1914



PREFACE

The assurances received of the beneficial effects of the earlier
volumes of the Faith-Promoting Series encourage the hope and belief
that the present volume may be none the less helpful and appreciated.
Narratives of personal experience, especially when they relate to
people familiar to the reader or the community in which he lives
possess a peculiar charm to most people, and especially to the young,
and may convey helpful lessons more effectually than homilies or
treatises, however carefully written, are apt to. The reason therefor
probably is that in the narrative the moral is applied in real
experience whereas in the treatise or homily the moral is expressed in
the abstract only, and doubt may exist in the mind of the reader as to
just how to apply it in real life.

The hope is entertained that not only may the narratives contained
in this volume entertain and at the same time tend to promote faith
in those who read them, but that they may also incite others in the
community whose lives have been fraught with incidents that would
be faith-promoting if published to have the same reduced to writing
and supply us therewith for use in the Faith-Promoting Series, or
else furnish us with the facts and allow us to prepare the same for
publication.

G. C. L.



CONTENTS

SUFFERING AND SERVICE OF THOMAS BRIGGS.

CHAPTER I.

Withered Limb Restored to Use--Sister and Mother Instantly
Healed--Saints Preserved in Cholera Epidemic--Prophetic Advice to
the Briggs Family--Consequences of Failure to Follow it--Voyage
to America--The Mother Healed in Answer to Prayer--Satanic Threat
Fulfilled in Mother's Death--Sickness and Recovery of Thomas--His
Marriage--Premonition of Death--Death of Father.

CHAPTER II.

Thomas' Responsibility--Journey to Wisconsin--Disappointment--A New
Home Sought--Strenuous Life--Knee Injured--Intense Suffering--Given Up
to Die--Stimulating Vision--Birth of a Daughter--Novel Runaway--Remedy
for his Lameness--Sundry Efforts to Earn a Living--Chinch Bugs Threaten
Destruction of Crop--Crop Saved by Inspiration.

CHAPTER III.

Start to Utah--Obstacles in Traveling--Strained From
Over-Lifting--Halted Through Illness--Journey to Utah Abandoned--Go to
Springfield, Illinois--New Occupation--Money Made and Lost--Journey
Resumed--Providentially Helped--Unexpected Meeting of Relatives--Work
at Outfitting Post--Journey Across the Plains--Arrival in Salt Lake
City.

CHAPTER IV.

Locates in Bountiful--Generosity of Neighbors--Recognized Home Shown
Him in Dream--Burned Out--Runs a Saw Mill--Death of Wife--Child
Terribly Scalded, Recovers--Brigham Young's Promise--Marries
Again--Comforting Testimonies.

CHAPTER V.

Unstinted Service--Inspiration--Goes to the Northwestern States
as a Missionary--Health Fails and he Returns--Shocking Death of
Son David--Limb Amputated--Patriarchal Blessing--Incident in Logan
Temple--Trip to England to Obtain Genealogy.

CHAPTER VI.

His Life's Mission Found--Extensive Genealogy Obtained--Blessed in
His Wives and Children--Death of Wife and Others--Third Marriage--Leg
Amputated a Second Time--His Benediction.

GEORGE L. FARRELL'S MISSIONARY EXPERIENCE.

CHAPTER I.

Visits Birmingham Conference--Dying Girl Healed When Administered
to--Prediction That She Should Be Baptised Fulfilled--Goes to Utah,
Gets Married, Has a Child and Dies--Other Conversions in the Challis
Family.

CHAPTER II.

Mr. Clark's Intolerance--Elder Farrell's Influence Over Him--Baptisms
in Stanwick--Clark Family Migrate.

PREPARED FOR THE GOSPEL.

John Anderson's Search for the Truth--Providential Way in Which He Was
First Led to Attend a Meeting of the Saints--Embraced the Gospel--Firm
Adherence Thereto.

A PREDICTION AND ITS FULFILLMENT.

Prediction that an Apparently Barren Woman Would Give Birth to a
Son--Its Literal Fulfillment--That Son's Reverence for the Elder Who
Made the Prediction.

A TONGUE OF UTILITY.

Elder Bastian Inspired to Preach in the Danish Language Before He Had
Learned It.

JUDGMENT UPON AN ANTI-"MORMON."

Thug Hired to Assault a "Mormon" Preacher--His Mission Divined by the
Elder--A Prediction Concerning the Instigator--Its Literal Fulfillment.



Suffering and Service of Thos. Briggs



CHAPTER I.

WITHERED LIMB RESTORED TO USE--SISTER AND MOTHER INSTANTLY
HEALED--SAINTS PRESERVED IN CHOLERA EPIDEMIC--PROPHETIC ADVICE TO
THE BRIGGS FAMILY--CONSEQUENCES OF FAILURE TO FOLLOW IT--VOYAGE
TO AMERICA--THE MOTHER HEALED IN ANSWER TO PRAYER--SATANIC THREAT
FULFILLED IN MOTHER'S DEATH--SICKNESS AND RECOVERY OF THOMAS--HIS
MARRIAGE--PREMONITION OF DEATH--DEATH OF FATHER.

BROTHER THOMAS BRIGGS, of Bountiful, Utah, a man who is noted for his
zeal and integrity, has had a rather eventful life, the principal
incidents of which he has had reduced to a type-written narrative for
the benefit of his posterity. From this compilation and information
otherwise obtained, the following items are culled:

He was born August 20, 1832, at Newark, Notting-hamshire, England. When
six years of age he removed with his parents to Hull, where his father
owned and operated a small vessel that plied about the coast and on the
rivers, where the water was too shallow for large ships to navigate.
His parents were religious people, but dissatisfied with the sects of
the day, and therefore not members of any of them.

In the year 1848, the father heard of the Latter-day Saints, and, on
attending one of their meetings, was immediately attracted by their
doctrines. The mother could not be persuaded to attend a meeting for
a long time because of the unpopularity of the "Mormons," and for the
reason that their place of worship was in a somewhat disreputable part
of the town.

When she did finally hear the "Mormon" Elders, she too, as well as
Thomas, became interested, the latter especially so on hearing a
discourse on "the gifts of the Gospel and the signs that follow the
believer." Thomas at that time was sorely afflicted with what the
doctors called a withered limb. What he heard set him to thinking,
reading the Bible and praying. His parents had spent a large amount of
money on having his left leg, (which had ceased growing, and was very
painful,) treated by various doctors, but all in vain.

In the fall of 1848 the Father embraced the Gospel, and near the same
time he took Thomas to a very noted doctor, in the hope that he would
be able to cure him; but the doctor, after examining the boy, said his
was a very bad case, and told the father confidentially that he could
not live much longer.

On leaving the doctor's office the boy asked his father what the doctor
had said about him, and received the discouraging reply that, in the
doctor's opinion, he could not live to be a man.

Thomas determined to rely no more upon the doctors' treatment, but to
appeal to the Lord, and if he could not be healed in answer to the
prayer of the Elders to be satisfied to die.

The Elders at that time frequently held meetings at the Briggs home,
so the very next time they met there the father informed the President
of the Branch of the boy's wish. He was accordingly anointed with oil,
after which the Elders laid their hands upon his head and prayed for
him. He slept well that night and when he arose the following morning
his lame limb was as sound and well as the other, and of the same
length, although it had previously been fully two inches shorter,
causing him to walk with a decided limp. A pair of shoes had been
ordered for him with a specially thick cork sole upon the left one, to
enable him to walk without limping, but as they had not been finished
before he was administered to, the thick sole feature was the next day
countermanded. The left limb had never been as vigorous as the other
from the time he was three months old, and it was a few weeks after
the incident referred to before it became as fleshy, although it was
equally strong. After that one could not have told from the appearance
of his limbs when nude which had been affected; nor, in fact, that
either ever had been.

Near the same time Thomas' sister Elizabeth had a large and painful
swelling come under her ear, and when the mother was almost worn out
with sitting up and waiting upon her, the Elders also administered to
her. Immediately afterwards she fell asleep, slept soundly all night
and when she awoke the next morning the large swelling, which had been
round and hard like a ball, had disappeared, and the loose skin hung
down in the place of it like a bag upon the shoulder, with no evidence
whatever of any discharge from it. It always remained a mystery where
the discharge had gone to. Within a few days the loose skin dried up
and peeled off, and new skin succeeded, without any sign of a scar.

An account of these two cases of healing was published in the
Millennial Star of April 24, 1850, over the signatures of Henry
Beecroft and James McNaughton, the two Elders who officiated, both
of whom, as Brother Briggs remarks in his narrative, afterwards
apostatized, which serves to illustrate the fact that however much the
power of God may be made manifest through an Elder, he may still be
overcome by the evil one unless he leads a pure life and remains humble.

Brother Briggs also relates an instance of his mother being healed
in answer to prayer soon after the family joined the Church. She
had been so ill for several weeks as to be unable to leave her bed,
when one evening the Elders called and administered to her. She was
healed immediately, arose and prepared supper for her guests, of which
she also ate heartily herself, and then joined in singing hymns and
entertaining until midnight, as if she had never been ailing.

On the 27th of January, 1849, Thomas, who was then in his 18th year,
was baptized, and from that time bore a fervent testimony to the truth
of the Gospel.

During a meeting of the Saints held in Hull soon after Thomas was
baptized, a person spoke in tongues, and when the interpretation was
given (which was by another person, and which was evidently inspired)
it was found that it related wholly to Thomas. It was said that he
would have many trials to pass through in life, and much suffering to
endure, but they should be shown to him beforehand, and if he remained
faithful he would come off victorious, and in the end wear a martyr's
crown.

Thomas was not specially impressed with this incident at the time