Gifts of the Gospel

GIFTS OF THE GOSPEL. BY JOHN H. DAVIS. "Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy."—/ Cor. 14: 1. From my youth up I have desired that the Lord would bless me with the gift of the spirit of prophecy. We should cultivate the gifts of the gospel as they are given to us, and we should acknowledge the hand of the Lord in such at all times and under all conditions in life. If I am permitted I shall be pleased to record here one of my own experiences in relation to this grand gift. In the year 1869 (spring time), in company with my father and brother, while on our way from Willard, Box Elder County, to Malad, Idaho, to look up a place of settlement where we could obtain a farm, we were camping over night on that plat of prairie just north of Hampton Bridge. During those days no one would ever think of taking up such country for cultivation, as it was in a most dried and hardened condition, yet, during early spring, more or less grass would grow, and during such growth the country round about appeared most beautiful. In the early morning, while my brother, Thomas A. Davis (now of Oneida County, Idaho), was preparing our breakfast, in company with my father I went in search of the cattle. Soon we found them, and as we were in no hurry to return to camp for a few minutes, we remained standing together on a little raise of ground; and while thus enjoying the lovely cool breeze that came down from Cache Valley through Bear River Canyon—while thus viewing the surrounding country—all at once to

me there came a change over the scene. I saw that vast country all dotted with hamlets. Farms were squared off, as if by surveyed lines. I saw it all in an instant, and I knew what it meant. I turned to my father and said: "I am going to prophesy, and I want you to be a witness to what I now tell you. This vast region of country will yet be taken up by our people; homes will be made, here and there, all over this land, and you will live to see that day. It will come to pass just as I tell you, for I have seen it." "Well, this is a remarkable prophecy," said my father, "and we will remember it." I was then in my fifteenth year, and, to the natural man, at that early day, in such a dry country, such a statement appeared very much out of place. My father passed away last April, in his 93rd year. My prediction has come to pass, wonderful as it was. My father lived to see it fulfilled to the very letter.* Lindsey, Jefferson County, Pa. September 9, 1898.

• Note:—Anyone acquainted with the scene of this prophecy—the Bear River Flats—and who can call to mind how desolate it was even a very few years ago, and will compare it then with what it is today—an extensive plain, dotted with growing villages, connected together by extensive wheat farms and meadows of alfalfa—will be able to recognize how remarkable this prophecy of a lad fifteen years of age was away back in 1869, when nothing could have been more unlikely than the fulfillment of such a prediction. — Editors,