Safety in Prayer

SAFETY IN PRAYER. BY DR. GEORGE II. BRIMHALL I hope my Father in .heaven may bless me with the spirit of testimony. I sometimes think there is a tendency among our people to hesitate against giving experiences, lest their words should be misconstrued into a spirit of self-heroizing. In my nineteenth year, I left my home in Spanish Fork to find work in Tintic. During- the time I was there, T was given employment by a man who was a long-time friend of my father. They had worked together at Nauvoo and in the early times of the Church in these vallevs. This man had fallen away from the faith, but not from his friendship to my father. He gave me employment on a prospect, and I worked, taking mv turn in the shaft and at the windlass. Tie would come down and talk to me, and complimented me on the number of buckets I sent up during the shift, and finally we talked on religion. He was very catechetical, at first, finding out on what ground T stood. I had little more than the teaching of my father and my mother, and what I had read from the Book of Mormon. He gradually felt his way into my confidence, and began an argument to destroy my faith. He had practiced law. The second day, I found questions coming up in my mind. On the third day — and, by the way, T rested while he talked, — he invited me to ask questions — on the third day T found my intellect leaning his way. believing in him. He told me that my father and mother were honest; that what they had taught me was true, from their point of view, but that he had passed through it ail. and he had found that he was mistaken, and that good, honest people were mistaken, too. And he led me up by his arguments to look from the pinnacle of his, which I afterwards found to be sophistry. At that time T said to myself: "Is it possible that my father and my mother have been deceived?" I was believing the man. He had leaned me over towards him, and was just ready to put around me the arm of a condor and carry me away. My mother and my father, too, had taupht me, "If you will be true and attend to your prayers, the Lord will come to you. if you ever get in a tight place :" and just at this iuncture something said to my spirit, "If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God." I said no more at that time : but that night, after the lg camp work was completed. I got up from my conch and went :he grove of cedars. T thought. T must pray aloud tonight, and T minim into the asked the Lord for just what I wanted to know

916 IMPROVEMENT ERA. The next morning, I went to my work, and my employer came down into the shaft, just after dinner, and began his argument with a smile, expecting a victory ; but instead of my leaning towards him, 1 was braced, and we had a battle royal. He said, "Who has been stuffing you ?" I turned and bore my testimony to that man, and told him what I knew, and he trembled in my presence. That was not the boy, G. H. Brimhall, alone ; it was the boy plus the Spirit of the Lord. That testimony was given to me on conditions. I hope to keep the conditions. It has never left me. That man came to my father's home, years afterwards, broken physically, a mental imbecile, and financially penniless, and when I looked upon him I could but say, "How art the mighty fallen !" It was a revelation to me as to what that passage of scripture means, and what befalls those who are led away by the craftiness of men. So, I would have been led away by the craftiness of men, had I not known that there was a God, and that he could protect me, and that it was within my power to reach him. I have had an experience this morning on the ground. A man came up to me, as I was talking with a lady. Said he, "When you have time, I should like to speak to you." I turned and gave him my attention in a moment or two, and he paid me a dividend on an investment that I had made so long ago that I had forgotten it. It made me happy, like good dividends always do. He said, "I must tell you of a kindness you did for me, years ago, when I was a boy, a youngster, reckless, careless, and came to school, and you 'lined me up' on the cigarette habit. You handled me that day ; you argued with me, and you won out : I quit. I have been called to preside over a stake of Zion." • I felt then like sending a message to all my sympathizers, those who love me, "What hath God wrought !" This is my dividend ! one of the most glorious experiences of my life ! May the Lord bless you, my brethren and sisters. Be not afraid to stand up and bear your testimony to the world. You cannot heroize yourself, if you give the Lord the credit: my testimony, in the name of Jesus. Amen. This closed the preliminary program, and the remainder of the time Sunday morning- was occupied by song's and by Elder Thomas Hull and Sister Sarah Ed'dington of the General Boards.