--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Evans, John Henry collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 15 number: 12 published: 1912-10 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'John Henry Evans, "The Open Road. XIII," *Improvement Era* 15, no. 12 (October 1912): 1085–1091.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera15012unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera15012unse start_page: 1085 end_page: 1091 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1912-10) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera15012unse publication_year: 1912 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1912, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # The Open Road. XIII he Open Road BY JOHN HENRY EVANS, OF THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS UNIVERSITY Stage XIII — In Which Brocketts Sees a Light Brocketts did not soon recover from that earthquake at the Bishop's. He had lost his bearings. His mental geography had been upset. It was as if he had revisited, after only a brief absence, familiar scenes to find that convulsions of nature had altered the face of things — made mountains of the valleys, depressed the high places, obliterated the old landmarks, and left nothing which the eye could rest on and say, "This I know." He had gone to the Ward residence with the elastic tread that only a lover can feel, and then only when he is accepted and when he is young. He had thought only of Bessie and the future as he walked. He had pictured her, waiting in the midst of all the well-known objects in the room, every article in which he could place, and always in reference to her. Nothing in that future was separable from her. Forward as far as he could see — and how far can such a one not see? — there was hope and happiness for them together. But he was going away now with very different feelings. All this vision of the future had changed in a moment. The cup had been struck from his hand just as he was lifting it to his parched lips. From his dream of bliss he had been rudely awakened to a disagreeable reality. Plunged in thought, he walked on through the unlighted streets. The way was easy. It would not have gotten much of his attention had it been hard. Most bitter were his feelings against the Bishop. "What business is it of his, anyway?" he wanted to know. "We have a right to one another. Nobody has any call to interfere. It's no one's affair but ours. Her mother didn't object. Why should he?" 1086 IMPROVEMENT ERA Then he thought of what the Bishop had said about Brocketts being a non-member of the Church. "Religion!" he cried contemptuously. "'Pooh! What has religion got to do with it? He don't like me — that's all." And yet, try as he would he could not see any grounds for such a dislike in the Bishop. "He doesn't know anything against me — he can't! What is it, then?" And so he always fell back on the total absence of any reason for the Bishop's "interference." He was up in the air, as the saying goes, without support from anything above, below, or around him, and he did not know how he was to get clown. He slept little that night. But sleeping or waking only one thing was in his thoughts. With the buoyant hopefulness of youth he found himself time and again seeing the obstacle between him and Bessie swept away. He saw himself handed a letter the next morning which proved to be from her father telling him there had been a mistake, and so very real did this thought become, by constant dwelling upon it, that when morning came he was vaguely conscious of listening to hurrying footsteps just outside his door. But there were no hurrying footsteps, there was no letter, and no mistake had occurred. Nothing but the hard fact of the earthquake stared him in the face. The week after that, he called at the book store one evening. He had purposely kept away lest Mr. Dargan might detect his secret, the book-dealer was such a discerning creature and Brocketts so transparent. "I saw you at the Tabernacle Sunday, Brocketts," his friend began. "How did you like the sermon?" The sermon was on marriage, and so he had been delighted with it, he said — which was true. "Orson Pratt is a great preacher, Brocketts, a great preacher," commented Mr. Dargan, "and you won't hear many like him anywhere." Brocketts assured his friend once more that he had been very much pleased with the discourse, but that he was not sure that he understood the "Mormon" view of the subject. Would Mr. Dargan mind if he asked a few questions on it? "Why no, Brocketts, not at all! Glad to answer any question— if I can." T HE OPEN ROAD 1087 And, in truth the book-dealer was more highly pleased than he cared to show. For ever since he had learned from Brocketts himself that the boy was not a member of the Church, he had set his heart on bringing him in. But it was a delicate matter, this broaching of religion to a young person. It could not be forced on one, and Brocketts had never, in Mr. Dargan's presence, even so much as shown an interest in religious things. That is why the subject had not come up in their conversations. But here was Mr. Dargan's opportunity. Brocketts had voluntarily taken up the gauntlet thrown down by the book-man. "Mr. Pratt," ventured the young man, "said something about marriage for eternity. Now, what does that mean?" "You see, Brocketts, we believe in the immortality of the soul, like all good Christians. But we believe in the immortality of the body, too." "Will my body exist in the next world, then?" "That is what Jesus taught, and we follow Him in everything. He rose from the dead. The very body that was laid in the tomb he took up in the resurrection, only of course, in an immortalized form. The same thing is true of every one else." "And this body of mine, will I have it in the next world?" Brocketts did not catch the idea readily— it was so new. "Exactly. The very body you have now, only changed and perfected and quickened, as the Bible says." "I've been taught that we didn't need our bodies after death.' "That is what all the churches teach, except ours. But the Scriptures are dead against them there, Brocketts, dead against them As if God would create a beautiful body like ours merely as a sort of every-day garment, so to speak ! It's all nonsense, and there's not a hint of a justification for it in the good old Book. "Well, it does sound reasonable." "To be sure ' Well, then, as to this matter of marriage— "Yes " said Brocketts, "that's what I want to know about." "Suppose you love some young lady in this life, Brocketts. Brocketts tried to look unconcerned. "Well, do you think such a holy thing as love endures only for a little while?" Brockett thought nl It was impossible that he would not love Bes e forever But he didn't say so. Mr. Dargan answered his own question "No !" he cried with an emphasis that would brook no 1088 IMPROVEMENT ERA contradiction, "no ! All these holy affections of the mind will continue in the next life, only higher and nobler than in this. And so, as I was about to say, if you love a young woman here, and marry her properly, why she will be yours and you will be hers forever. Isn't that a beautiful idea?" Brocketts could easily believe it — it sounded true. "But I said if you were properly married," said Mr. Dargan, sitting up straight on the edge of his chair in his eagerness. "Brocketts, if you and I should form a partnership in the book business for, say ten years, what would happen at the end of that period?" "Why, I suppose the partnership would be dissolved, wouldn't it?" "Exactly! Dissolved — that's the word. Now, in the other churches you're married only till death. These are the words of the ceremony. Now, what happens to a couple married in this way? Answer me that." "They'd be no longer married?" Brocketts suggested interrogatively. "Right again. But when God joins them, it is fqr time and eternity." "'But how is God going to do it?" Brocketts asked. "Through men whom he has called to do it — through His priesthood. Now, I may sell all these books here," Mr. Dargan went on with a flourish of his hand in the direction of the shelves, "for they belong to me. But if I wanted to I could authorize you to sell them, and it would be exactly the same as if I sold them myself. Well, it's about like that in religion. The Lord gives authority to men to do certain things on the earth in his name, and it's just the same as if He did it Himself." "Then why don't the other churches marry that way, too?" inquired Brocketts. "Ay, there's the rub !" as Shakespeare says. "They can't. They haven't the authority to do so." "Why, they preach and baptize, and do other things !" "Very true, but they have no authority to do so." And Mr. Dargan explained in detail how an apostasy from the teachings of Christ had taken place, how the churches had lost the authority of the priesthood, and how this authority together with the gospel T HE OPEN ROAD 1089 Sfs. had been restored to the Prophet Joseph Smith by heavenly beinu "There are only two places on the earth," the book-man went on, "where marriages for eternity can be performed at present— the St. George Temple, not long dedicated, and the Endowment House in the City here, that building just north of the new tabernacle." "I believe all that you've told me, Mr. Dargan, it sounds true," Brocketts declared; "and so when I get married I'll be married in your way." "Ah, but you can't, Brocketts, my boy." "Can't? And why not?" "Because you're not in the Church, Brocketts. You'll have to join the Church first." Brocketts saw light for the first time on the subject. Maybe it was religion, after all, that had come between Bessie and him. He ventured another question — "But suppose the girl I wanted to marry was in your Church — wouldn't they do it, then ?" "Mo ; and what's more the girl's father, Brocketts, if he knew anything of the gospel, would object to your marrying her at all. if you were not in the Church." A larger ray of light entered Brockett's mind. "But suppose I was a perfectly good young man otherwise," Brocketts argued, "industrious, moral, and even religious — wouldn't that make a difference?" "Not a bit, Brocketts !" Mr. Dargan viewed closely the puzzled expression on the boy's face. "That sounds narrow, doesn't it?" the book-dealer added. "But it isn't. Our people believe that the most important thing we can do in this life is to form lasting marriage ties. Now, when a man believes that, he wouldn't wii lingly do anything that would hinder the prospects of his own children in the next life." "Then you don't believe — the 'Mormon' people don't believe, that a 'Mormon' boy should marry a 'Gentile' girl?" "No; and the main reason is what I have just given you. Another reason is that a couple who have different faiths don't usually get along so well. And so, for these two great reasons, our people are against such marriages. Brocketts," Mr. Dargan added after a pause, "you'll be falling in love presently with one 1090 IMPROVEMENT ERA of our 'Mormon' girls, and you ought to join the Church before you do so." This was a clever trap, into which the unwary Brocketts could not help but fall. His face grew suddenly crimson. But he quickly recovered. "Suppose I should do so this week, Mr. Dargan?" Mr. Dargan affected to believe this a purely hypothetical question, which he knew it was not. "Then you'll very likely meet with a sad disappointment, Brocketts — for which I would be very sorry personally." "Well, but suppose a case like that. Suppose I should, as you say, meet with such a disappointment? Would you join the Church just to get a young lady?" "No ! Nor would any honorable man. Nobody but a rank hypocrite would. And I've known some such in my life. Nothing good can come of it — nothing good." "What would you do, then?" Brocketts asked with as much composure as he could gather under the circumstances. Mr. Dargan considered. "Well, I should look into matters a little. If I wanted to marry a girl who had a different religion from mine and her father objected for that reason, why, I would investigate her faith, and if I found that I could conscientiously do so, I would embrace it. Not, mind you, unless I was convinced it was true, especially if they made such claims for it as we 'Mormons' do for ours. For you know, we believe that the Lord has given us a special dispensation of the gospel by revelation to us and not merely to our ancestors, and that this generation can be saved only through the gospel, as thus revealed. Now, I would look into that matter a little, Brocketts — that's what I would do." "And wouldn't people be apt to say you were joining the Church to get the girl?" "Very likely, Brocketts," the book-dealer answered. "But what would that matter?" And then putting his hand affectionately on the young man's shoulder, he said in an earnest tone which implied that he was answering a very personal question, "Brocketts, my boy, we can't afford to govern our conduct in the great things of life by what people think and say of us. Life's too serious a matter to permit us to do that. The only sure guide is T HE OPEN ROAD 1091 our conscience. We must follow that, come what may. In the end the only thing that counts is what we think of ourselves." Notwithstanding this solemn statement of a simple truth there was a merry twinkle in Mr. Dargan's eye as, shortly afterwards, Brocketts took his departure from the store. The bookdealer watched the retreating figure till it went out at the door. "He thinks he's got a secret !" Mr. Dargan said to himself. "Well, he has. I don't know who she is, nor what has happened — exactly. Yes, I do, too. All I don't know is who she is. I've got him started on religion now. For one thing I'm glad it happened, though it goes to my heart to see the lad so miserable. We'll see what we can do to patch up matters. But it's got to be done right, James, my boy — it's got to be done right." And he rose, set things in order about the store, and presently closed the shop for the night, and went home. As for Brocketts, he rested content about that secret. He flattered himself that he had not revealed it. The thing was too sacred to talk about, even to Mr. Dargan. As if we do not say things without uttering them with the tongue ! Poor, blind Brocketts ! He went away in a sober mood. Those last words — indeed the whole conversation, but especially those last words — of the book-dealer's had set him thinking. Even before his conversation with his friend he knew a good deal about the beliefs of the Latter-day Saints. He had associated with none but "Mormon" boys and girls ; he had been both to the Tabernacle and the ward meetings many times ; but he had not given the "Mormon" religion much thought. He was interested in others. Still his having lived almost constantly in a "Mormon" atmosphere had had its effect not the less definite because unconscious. But this talk with Mr. Dargan had given him the Bishop's point of view in the whole matter of his relationship to Bessie. He saw it all now, and he did not entertain hard feelings any more towards Mr. Ward. Marriage was a serious thing after all, viewed in this "Mormon" light. There could be no doubt about that. Nevertheless, the situation, so far as he and Bessie were concerned, was unaltered. Was it unalterable? Time alone could tell. One thing, however, was certain : Bessie was to be won only by honorable means. He would give every spare moment to