The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1906-12-27

De INDIANS. Iney surgeu IOr u mo-
ment about the door of the church,
then parted to either side as if in an.
swer, to a signal, and he saw a process
sion of the same PEOPLE coming with
bowed heads, scourging themselves
with short whips and thorned
branches. Ar their head walked a
brown-cowled monk, holding aloft be.
fore him a small cross, attached by a
chain to his waist. AS he led the pro.
cession forward, another crowd, some
of them being other brown-cowled
monks, parted before the church door,
and there, clearly before his wonder.
ing eyes was erected a great cross
upon which he saw the crucifed Sa-
vior.
He saw those in the procession form
about the cross and fling themselves
upon the ground before it, while all
the others round about knelt. He saw
the monk, standing alone, raise the
smaller cross in his hands above them,
as if in blessing. High above it all,
he saw the Crucihed One, the head
lying owe on the shoulder.
He sank back on the sands in an
ecstasy. His Witness had come-not
as he thought it would, in a moment
of spiritual uplift; but when he had
been sunk by his own sin to fearful
depths. Nor had it brought any mes.
sage of glory for himself, Of gifts or
powers. Only the mission of suffering
and service and suffering again at the
end. But it was enough.
How long he lay in the joy Of tbs
realization he eve knew, but sleep
or faintness at last overcame him.
He vas revived by the sharp chill
of night, and sat up to find his mind
clear, alert, and active with new pur.
poses. He had suffered greatly from
thirst, so that when he tried to say a
prayer of thanksgiving he could not
move his swollen tongue. He was
weakened, too, but the freezing cold
Of the desert night aroused all his
latent force. He struggled to his feet,
and laid a course by the light of the
moor back to the spring he had left
in the morning. How he reached the
hills again he never knew, mol how
be made his way over them and back
to the settlement. But there he lay
sick for many days, his mind, when
he felt it at all, tossing idly upon the
great sustaining consciousness of that
vision in the desert.
Tho dow which lo poy+ ,oo,o~houo
clearly, and from which he dated his
new life, was when he was back
in the Meadows. He had ridden there
in the first vagueness and weakness
OF his recovery, without purpose, yet
feeling that he must 60. What he
found there made him believe he had
been led to the spot. Stark against
the glow of the western sky as he
rode up, was a huge cross. He stopped,
staring in wonder, BELIEVING it to be an
other vision; but it stayed before him,
rigid, bare, and uncompromising. He
lift his horse and climbed up to it. At
its base was piled a cairn of stones,
and against this was a slab with an
inscription
Here 100 Men, Women, and Chill.
dren Were Massacred in Cold Blood
Early in September, 1857"
On the cross itself was carved in
deep letters:-
vengeance is mine; l will repay,
saith the Lord"
He fell on his knees at the foot and
prayed, not weeping nor in any fever
Of fear, but as one knowing his sin
and the sin of his Church. The bur-
den Of his prayer was, 20 God, my
own sin cannot be forg1ven-I know
it well-but let me atone for the sins
of this people and let me guide them
Alright. Let me die on this cross a
hundred deaths for each life they put
out, or as many more as shall be need
ed to a v them"
He was strong in his faith again,
conscious that he himself was lost,
but burning to save others, and hope
full, too, for he believed that a miracle
had been v~ouchsafed to him in the
desrt.
Nor would the good padre, at the
head of his procession of penitents in
his little mission out across the desert,
have doubted less that it was a mir
acle than did this unhappy apostle Of
Joseph Smith, had he known the cir
cumstance of it's timeliness; albeit he
had become familiar with such phe-
nomena Of light and air in the desert.
To Be CONTINUED NEXT WEEK.