SUFFERING OF THE RIGHTEOUS

 

In July of 1831 the Prophet Joseph received a revelation designating Missouri as the place “consecrated for the gathering of the saints” and the building up of “the city of Zion” (D&C 57:1,2)” (Jeffrey R. Holland, “Lessons From Liberty Jail”, 7 Sept 2008, Brigham Young University Speeches, speeches.byu.edu)

Imagine the most intense persecution the early saints had experienced in the very state they were told to gather. By 1838 they were being driven out of Missouri and the Prophet and 6 others were incarcerated in Liberty Jail during the coldest winter on record for that state. These wrongfully imprisoned men slept on bare stones of the prison floor covered by bits of dirty straw without inadequate blankets to keep them warm and eating contaminated food they were driven to eat from hunger which drove them to be violently ill.  The Prophet described the jail in his letters to be ‘a hell, surrounded by demons’ and that no “pen, or tongue, or angels” could adequately describe “the malice of hell” that he suffered there. (ibid)

We could very well ask why the Lord would instruct the saints to go to Missouri to meet such extreme suffering? The pioneers of this Church are an indisputable proof that God allows the righteous to suffer, and for a reason.

Reason number 1 is this: “My people must be tried in all things, that they may be prepared to receive the glory that I have for them, even the glory of Zion; and he that will not bear chastisement is not worthy of my kingdom” (D&C 136:31). The chastisement had to come in the form of persecution because of their failure to adhere to the celestial laws of Zion. In other words, to value something, you must feel that you have earned it.

Reason number 2 is this: “….man’s extremity is God’s opportunity, and if we will be humble and faithful, if we will be believing and not curse God for our problems, He can turn the unfair and inhumane and debilitating prisons of our lives…..into a circumstance that can bring comfort and revelation, divine companionship and peace.” (Jeffrey R.Holland, “Lessons From Liberty Jail” BYU Speeches 2008)

I would add one more thing. The debilitating prisons of our lives compel us to take up our cross and follow Him who carried His. Be assured that each cross was carefully weighed to match each individual’s capacity to carry. That cross you are carrying is moulding you into the bearer of the heaviest cross in human history.

I carry my cross every day to the foot of Calvary

Where You carried yours to the top

I wait for You there to lift me 

where I cannot go alone,

To meet you at the foot of Your gilded throne.

-CATHRYNE ALLEN 

Art by Liz Lemon Swindle