A LEGACY OF SACRIFICE

 

I stand in awe of the early priesthood leaders who strengthened the Church through their missionary labours by leaving their families to further the cause of Zion and to gather Israel. Some sacrifices they made are unfathomable for us in this day and age.

Besides Joseph, my favourite person in all of Church history is the Apostle Orson Hyde. I will attempt here to summarise one particular mission of his that embodies such emotion of feeling that my efforts could not do his achievements justice.

“Sometime in 1832, the Prophet Joseph Smith laid his hands upon the head of a new convert by the name of Orson Hyde and told him, “In due time thou shalt go to Jerusalem, the land of thy fathers, and be a watchman unto the house of Israel; and by thy hands shall the Most High do a great work, which shall prepare the way and greatly facilitate the gathering together of that people.” (Daniel C. Peterson, “Abraham Divided”, Prologue/xv)

Until 1840, Elder Hyde spent most of his missionary labours among the Gentiles but in March of that year, a vision opened to him showing him in succession the cities of London, Amsterdam, Constantinople and Jerusalem. A voice said to him: “Here are many of the children of Abraham whom I will gather to the land that I gave to their fathers; and here also is the field of your labours…..” (Prologue/xvi)

In the April conference of that year, the vote for Elder Hyde’s mission to the Jewish people was approved by a unanimous vote. Elder Hyde and Elder John E. Page departed for Jerusalem on 15^th April 1840.

I can’t explain to you what Elder Hyde went through to reach Jerusalem. This was the age before automobiles, steamships and aircraft. The journey entailed different forms of transport. Elder Page lost interest in Pennsylvania and Elder Hyde had to proceed on his own. In Pennsylvania a total stranger approached him with a purse of gold to finance his passage across the Atlantic to Europe where he became the first Church missionary to travel across the continent of Europe and Asia Minor to proclaim the gospel.

From there he travelled by sea and was reduced to eating snails gathered from the coastal rocks due to shortage of food on the vessel. Once arriving in Jaffa, he had to pass through a lawless area where people were often killed or robbed by marauding Bedouins.

It took more than a year and a half in total to reach Jerusalem.

Before dawn on the morning of Sunday, 24 October 1841, Elder Hyde arose from sleep and “went out of the city as soon as the gates were opened, crossed the brook Kedron, and went upon the Mount of Olives, and there in solemn silence, with pen, ink, and paper, just as he saw in the vision, offered up a prayer to HIM WHO LIVES FOREVER AND EVER”. (Prologue/xxi)

The dedicatory prayer of the land of Jerusalem for the gathering of the Jews that Elder Hyde offered is three full pages long in small print in the History of the Church by Joseph Smith. Today, a garden of five and a quarter acres commemorates Orson Hyde’s visit to the Near East in late 1841. The garden houses a large brass plaque with passages from Elder Hyde’s dedicatory prayer in both English and Hebrew. The garden was dedicated by the Prophet Spencer W. Kimball on 24 October, 1979.

Jerusalem housed 20,000 inhabitants when Orson Hyde arrived. Now it has a population of 7.7 million Jewish residents.

It took Elder Hyde three years in total to accomplish his mission to carry Jehovah’s message to His people Israel which He gave him himself: “Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished – that her iniquity is pardoned, for she hath received of the Lord’s hand doubly for all her sins.”  (Prologue/xvii)

Glory be to the Holy One who pardons and forgives and gathers His people Israel……

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Orson Hyde Dedicates the Holy Land by Clark Kelley Price)