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- Herausgeber: Booksell-Verlag
- Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
- Sprache: Englisch
In "The Life of John Taylor," B. H. Roberts delves into the life and legacy of one of the pivotal figures of early Mormonism. Through a meticulous examination of Taylor's experiences, beliefs, and leadership during a tumultuous period of American religious history, Roberts effectively combines biographical narrative with theological reflection. The book employs a straightforward yet engaging literary style, favoring clarity and directness, which reflects the didactic aims of Roberts as he seeks to present Taylor not merely as a historical figure but as a prophet of the Latter-day Saint movement, making it a crucial text in understanding the context of Mormonism in the 19th century. B. H. Roberts, a prominent historian and theologian within the Latter-day Saint community, served in various church leadership roles, which deeply informed his scholarship and perspective. His firsthand understanding of the complexities and challenges faced by early Saints shaped his portrayal of Taylor's contributions to the faith. Additionally, Roberts's desire to document and preserve LDS history highlights his commitment to establishing a rich and nuanced narrative that supports the church's mission and identity. Readers interested in religious history, particularly the development of Mormonism, will find "The Life of John Taylor" both informative and inspiring. Roberts's commitment to portraying Taylor's life with integrity facilitates a deeper appreciation of the enduring complexities of faith, leadership, and legacy, making this book a valuable addition to any library of religious scholarship. In this enriched edition, we have carefully created added value for your reading experience: - A succinct Introduction situates the work's timeless appeal and themes. - The Synopsis outlines the central plot, highlighting key developments without spoiling critical twists. - A detailed Historical Context immerses you in the era's events and influences that shaped the writing. - A thorough Analysis dissects symbols, motifs, and character arcs to unearth underlying meanings. - Reflection questions prompt you to engage personally with the work's messages, connecting them to modern life. - Hand‐picked Memorable Quotes shine a spotlight on moments of literary brilliance. - Interactive footnotes clarify unusual references, historical allusions, and archaic phrases for an effortless, more informed read.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019
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The Life of John Taylor
Table of Contents
Introduction
This is a study of conviction tested by history and a leader shaped at the crossroads of faith and nation. The Life of John Taylor by B. H. Roberts presents a sustained biographical portrait of the third president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, composed within the currents of late nineteenth-century Latter-day Saint historiography. Set against the expanding American West and the movement’s transatlantic beginnings, the book traces Taylor’s public and spiritual formation. Published in the late nineteenth century by a leading Latter-day Saint historian and writer, it participates in efforts to memorialize formative leaders and to shape institutional memory.
At its core, the book follows Taylor from early discipleship to ecclesiastical leadership, attending to episodes that illuminate character, ministry, and responsibility within a rapidly evolving church. Roberts writes in an accessible yet formal narrative voice, interweaving story with documentary materials to frame decisions, debates, and turning points. The mood is earnest and reflective, with moments of rhetorical vigor characteristic of religious biography of the era, offering readers an experience that is narrative, meditative, and historically grounded. Without resorting to melodrama, the account invites attention to duty, conscience, and community.
Among its central themes are leadership under pressure, the ethics of loyalty, the burdens of authority, the costs of testimony, and the forging of institutions amid conflict and migration. Roberts emphasizes perseverance, order, and the refining possibilities of trial, while mapping relationships between leaders and laity and between movement and nation. The portrait seeks to be exemplary as well as documentary, presenting Taylor as participant in and interpreter of a larger sacred history. Rather than chase sensation, the narrative attends to the architecture of conviction, work, and governance that sustained a faith in transition.
The historical canvas ranges across nineteenth-century North America and the British Isles, reflecting the international origins and frontier destinations of the Latter-day Saint movement. Public life, press culture, civic engagement, and legal contestation form a recurring backdrop, while patterns of migration and settlement shape the social world the biography evokes. By keeping Taylor’s ministry at the center, Roberts situates individual experience within broader transformations in religion, politics, and communication. Readers glimpse the tempo and texture of the age without losing sight of the human stakes of belief, belonging, and leadership.
Roberts’s method blends narrative synthesis with sources then available to him, including sermons, letters, and periodicals, in an effort to preserve both sequence and significance. His proximity to the events and figures he describes imparts immediacy, even as it frames the perspective and aims of the work. The result is a biography that reads as both testimony and history, careful to anchor claims in documents while reflecting convictions native to its tradition. The tone is respectful and purposeful, prioritizing character, public service, and spiritual vocation over spectacle.
For contemporary readers, the book raises timely questions about religious freedom, institutional continuity, and the moral language of leadership in seasons of strain. It offers a window into how communities remember and instruct through life writing, and how biography can function as a civic and devotional resource. Students of American religion, leadership, and the dynamics of minority faiths will find material for inquiry, comparison, and reflection. Engaged as both artifact and argument, the work encourages consideration of the interplay between personal conscience and collective destiny.
Approached on its own terms, The Life of John Taylor offers a measured, immersive reading experience that values clarity, documentation, and moral focus. Roberts invites attention to what it means to lead, to endure, and to build under pressure, and to how ordinary and extraordinary duties intersect in service. The biography’s energies are cumulative rather than sensational, rewarding patient attention to pattern, principle, and the formative power of narrative. It stands as a significant contribution to Latter-day Saint leadership literature and an accessible entry point for understanding the faith’s nineteenth-century journey through one of its principal figures.
Synopsis
B. H. Roberts's The Life of John Taylor presents a documentary biography of the third president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, built from journals, correspondence, sermons, and public records. The opening chapters sketch Taylor's ancestry and childhood in Westmorland, England, emphasizing his disciplined upbringing, artisanal training, and early religious interest. Roberts situates these experiences within the broader ferment of early nineteenth-century Protestantism, establishing the context for Taylor's developing convictions. He introduces the biography's purpose: to record Taylor's character and leadership through primary evidence while tracing the sequence of events that shaped him from English youth to American religious leader.
In Roberts's account, Taylor emigrates to Upper Canada as a young adult, marries Leonora Cannon, and becomes a respected lay minister among Methodists. The narrative highlights his search for divine authority and scriptural consistency, which brings him into contact with Latter-day Saint missionaries, especially Parley P. Pratt. After careful investigation, Taylor accepts baptism in 1836 and quickly assumes local leadership responsibilities. Roberts follows his early preaching, organization of branches, and correspondence with church headquarters. The chapter sequence underscores Taylor's resolve to gather with fellow believers and his willingness to submit personal plans to religious duty, setting a pattern repeated throughout his later assignments.
Following conversion, Roberts traces Taylor's movement to the main body of the Saints and his participation in the volatile Missouri period. The biography recounts community building, rising hostility, and the forced expulsion under state sanction. Amid this upheaval, Taylor is called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 1838, marking his elevation to global church leadership. Roberts uses contemporaneous letters and testimonies to depict Taylor's ministry to scattered members and his early apostolic labors. The narrative then turns to the Twelve's mission to Great Britain, where Taylor preaches, organizes branches, and helps consolidate the rapidly expanding transatlantic membership before returning to Nauvoo.
The Nauvoo chapters present Taylor as a civic and ecclesiastical officer. Roberts details his service on the city council and educational boards, and especially his editorial stewardship of the Times and Seasons and the Nauvoo Neighbor. Through these presses, Taylor publishes doctrinal expositions, news, and defenses against critics. The account culminates in the 1844 crisis: the arrest of Joseph and Hyrum Smith and the events at Carthage. Roberts narrates Taylor's presence in the jail, his severe wounds during the attack, and his survival, citing eyewitness recollections and subsequent medical reports. This episode becomes a defining pivot, shaping Taylor's responsibilities after the martyrdom.
Roberts next treats the leadership transition and the community's final months in Illinois. He documents the Twelve's assumption of governance, Taylor's role in maintaining order, and the effort to complete temple ordinances before departure. The biography outlines negotiations with opponents, the organization of defensive measures, and the planning for a large-scale exodus. Taylor assists in managing property, publishing, and migration logistics, then supports the movement across Iowa to temporary settlements along the Missouri River. Throughout, Roberts emphasizes the administrative continuity achieved by the apostles and Taylor's steady attention to pastoral care through letters, meetings, and councils during a period of uncertainty.
The narrative then follows Taylor's extensive missions abroad and in the eastern United States. Roberts describes his leadership in Great Britain and on the European continent, including the opening of the French Mission, the launch of church periodicals, and supervision of translation work. He notes Taylor's theological and political writings, including The Government of God (1852), and his later editorship of the New York newspaper the Mormon, used to defend the church and coordinate emigration. These chapters show Taylor's skills as an organizer and polemicist, his cultivation of international networks, and his return to the Rocky Mountain gathering with broadened administrative experience.
Back in the Intermountain West, Roberts portrays Taylor's apostolic oversight of settlements, participation in the territorial legislature, and promotion of cooperative economic and educational initiatives. The biography surveys his tours among communities, disciplinary councils, and instruction to priesthood quorums. It recounts periods of tension with federal authorities, including the Utah War, and Taylor's unwavering support of institutional cohesion under Brigham Young. Roberts highlights his continued use of the press, public addresses, and councils to articulate policy. As seniority increased, Taylor assumed greater responsibility within the Twelve, refining administrative practices and mentoring leaders who would direct expanding congregations across the American West.
After Brigham Young's death, Roberts follows Taylor's service as president of the Twelve and his sustaining as president of the church in 1880. The biography summarizes major initiatives of his administration: organization of stakes, standardization of procedures, heightened emphasis on temple ordinances, dedication of the Logan Temple, and continued missionary expansion into new regions, including Mexico and Canada. Roberts describes Taylor's doctrinal synthesis in Mediation and Atonement (1882) and the mounting legal campaign against plural marriage. The narrative concludes with Taylor's decision to go into seclusion to continue directing affairs, his correspondence from the underground, and his death in 1887 while still in hiding.
In closing assessments, Roberts presents Taylor as a resilient editor, preacher, administrator, and defender of his faith, allowing documents and eyewitness testimony to carry the portrait. The book's overarching message, conveyed through chronological narrative, is the continuity of leadership and purpose amid recurring dislocation and opposition. By tracing Taylor's life from English artisan to international missionary, wounded survivor, colonizer, and president, Roberts underscores institutional consolidation, doctrinal exposition, and persistent community building. The Life of John Taylor thus serves both as a historical record and as an account of the processes by which a nineteenth-century religious movement secured stability and extended its reach.
Historical Context
Set across the Atlantic world between 1808 and 1887, The Life of John Taylor situates its subject amid the upheavals of the nineteenth century. Born at Milnthorpe, Westmorland, England, Taylor came of age during Britain’s industrial acceleration and Protestant ferment. The narrative then shifts to Upper Canada (Toronto) and to the American interior—Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois—where the early Latter-day Saint movement intersected with Jacksonian democracy, frontier settlement, and contentious local sovereignty. After 1847 the stage becomes the Great Basin, organized as Utah Territory under U.S. federal oversight. B. H. Roberts frames Taylor’s life within these places as they struggled over religious pluralism, militia power, municipal autonomy, and the reach of federal law during westward expansion.
One major backdrop is the transatlantic Second Great Awakening (c. 1790s–1840s), whose revivals reshaped Anglo-American Protestantism. In Toronto in 1836, Methodist lay preacher John Taylor encountered missionary Parley P. Pratt and joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, soon gathering with the Saints at Kirtland, Ohio. In 1838 he was called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, entering the leadership of a rapidly migrating community. Roberts reads Taylor’s conversion and early itinerancy against this evangelical milieu, emphasizing names, dates, and locales to show how revival networks, print culture, and lay preaching created the channels through which Mormonism spread to Canada and the northern United States.
The 1838 Missouri crisis—often termed the Mormon War—forms a second crucial context. After earlier expulsions from Jackson County (1833), tensions escalated in Caldwell and Daviess counties in 1838, producing armed clashes at Crooked River (October 25) and the Haun’s Mill massacre (October 30). Governor Lilburn W. Boggs’s Extermination Order (October 27, 1838) authorized the state militia to expel Latter-day Saints from Missouri. Far West was besieged in late October–early November. Amid these events, Taylor was called and, in December 1838 at Far West, ordained an apostle. Roberts connects Taylor’s ministry to the forced exodus into Illinois in early 1839, highlighting the legal failures and refugee relief organized at Quincy and along the Mississippi.
The Nauvoo experiment in Illinois (1839–1846) anchors Roberts’s treatment of religion and municipal power. The Illinois legislature granted a sweeping city charter in December 1840, creating the Nauvoo Legion and municipal courts. Taylor emerged as a public voice, serving on the city council and editing the Times and Seasons and Nauvoo Neighbor (1842–1844). The city’s rapid growth on the Mississippi, its militia structure, and its judicial prerogatives generated regional suspicion. Roberts details Taylor’s editorial defenses of civic autonomy and minority rights as the community navigated immigration, militia musters, habeas corpus petitions, and electoral alliances—conditions that set the stage for the explosive press controversy of June 1844 and subsequent state intervention.
The Nauvoo Expositor affair precipitated the constitutional crisis of 1844. On June 7, 1844, dissidents published the Expositor’s first issue alleging abuses and plural marriage. On June 10 the Nauvoo city council, with Taylor among its members, declared the press a public nuisance under the charter and ordered the marshal to remove it. Indictments for riot followed; Governor Thomas Ford demanded state jurisdiction, and Joseph Smith surrendered at Carthage on June 24. Roberts presents statutory citations, council minutes, and regional press responses to situate Taylor’s role as editor and councilman. The book treats the episode as a collision between local police powers and state sovereignty, a collision that directly led to the imprisonment in Carthage Jail.
The attack at Carthage Jail on June 27, 1844, is narrated with granular detail. A mob, many with blackened faces, stormed the jail in the late afternoon; Hyrum Smith was shot first, and Joseph Smith was killed while attempting to defend the room and then fell from a second-story window. John Taylor, present with Willard Richards, was struck by multiple balls—his thigh and hip were shattered—and, according to contemporary accounts, a pocket watch in his vest deflected one shot. Roberts relies on Taylor’s firsthand recollection and official inquests to reconstruct the timing, the number of assailants, and Governor Ford’s movements that day. The chapter links Taylor’s survival to the ensuing succession crisis and to the Twelve Apostles’ assumption of church leadership.
After the Illinois expulsion (1846), the migration through Winter Quarters to the Salt Lake Valley (first pioneer company arriving July 24, 1847) frames the movement’s nation-building project. Taylor’s later assignments illustrate its international and political dimensions: he presided over the French Mission (1849–1852), supervising publications such as L’Étoile du Déséret and promoting translations; he edited The Mormon in New York City (1855–1857), defending the church amid nativist hostility. The Utah War (1857–1858) brought federal troops under Albert Sidney Johnston and a negotiated settlement at Camp Floyd, emblematic of recurring center–periphery tensions. As church president (sustained October 1880), Taylor guided canonization of the Pearl of Great Price (October 1880) and temple building (Logan Temple dedicated 1884). Federal anti-polygamy measures—Morrill (1862), Poland (1874), Reynolds (1879), Edmunds (1882), Edmunds-Tucker (1887)—drove Taylor underground in 1885; he died in hiding at Kaysville, Utah Territory, on July 25, 1887.
Roberts’s biography operates as a pointed social and political critique of nineteenth‑century America. By documenting expulsions, the 1838 Extermination Order, the Expositor suppression, Carthage’s failure of custody, and the anti-polygamy prosecutions, the book exposes how majoritarian fear and partisan calculation overran due process, municipal home rule, and free exercise. It criticizes the fusion of mobs with militia, the vulnerability of unpopular minorities before state courts, and the late‑century use of federal power—including disfranchisement and corporate dissolution—to coerce conformity. At the same time, it praises institution building—presses, migration logistics, and cooperative economies—as counterpublic strategies. Through Taylor’s life, Roberts contends that religious liberty, local autonomy, and lawful procedure were repeatedly subordinated to sectional politics and cultural prejudice.
The Life of John Taylor
Preface.
If the preface to a book be looked upon as the author's excuse for writing it, then this book should have no preface, for the author has no excuse to make. Justice to the character and labors of John Taylor demanded that his life be written. The annals of the Church could not be recorded without devoting large space to the part he took in her affairs; but no notice of his life and labors, however extended in a general history, could do justice to his great career: for of course there is much in that career peculiar to himself, and of a character, too, to make it worthy of a separate volume.
The author is of the opinion that John Taylor would have had a remarkable history even if Mormonism had not found him; for he possessed those qualities of mind which would have made him a leader and a reformer among men. It is quite probable, too, that in the event of Mormonism not finding him, he would have won more of the honors and applause of men; for while his connection with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints threw him into prominence, the disrepute in which that Church is held brought reproach and odium upon him from the world. Had the courage and unselfish devotion which he brought to the support of Mormonism been given to some reform movement less odious in the estimation of mankind, his conduct would have called forth the highest encomiums from all men; but as those virtues were displayed for the interest and advancement of Mormonism, the world either refused to recognize them at all, or accounted them fanaticism merely, for which no praise was due.
The praise of the world, however, is a small matter.[1q] It often praises those least worthy; it neglects or abuses those who are its chief benefactors. Our generation like many that have preceded it, garnishes the sepulchres of the ancient prophets, saying, "Had we lived in their day, we would not have persecuted and killed them." And yet with strange inconsistency they hunt to the death the living prophets whose memory future generations will honor. But the praise or censure of the world had little influence over the mind of John Taylor where truth was concerned. The more men despised it the more intense seemed his devotion.
In that most beautiful of all his poems entitled "An Irishman's Address to his Mistress"—the poem is an allegory, the mistress is the Irish Catholic Church—Thomas Moore represents the Irishman as saying that through grief and through danger the smile of his mistress had cheered his way, till hope seemed to spring from thorns that round him lay; the darker their fortunes, the brighter their pure love burned, until shame into glory and fear into zeal was turned. The mistress had a rival. That rival was honored, while the mistress was wronged and scorned; her crown was of briars, while gold the rival's brows adorned. The rival wooed him to temples, while the mistress lay hid in caves; the former's friends were all masters, while the latter's, alas! were all slaves. "Yet," said the faithful devotee, "cold in the earth at thy feet I would rather be, than wed what I love not, or turn one thought from thee!" Such was the love of John Taylor for the Church of Christ to which he devoted his life.
The author has but one reason to give for undertaking the pleasing task of writing this book—he loved the subject. To him John Taylor was the embodiment of those qualities of mind and heart which most become a man. He therefore applied to the family of the late President John Taylor—they being the parties most interested in such an undertaking—for the privilege of writing his history. They gave a ready assent, and the work was begun. Of the difficulties attending the production of this history I need not speak. They are such as attend all similar undertakings. The journals of President Taylor were very incomplete, covering only fragments of his life at best; but the chief events of his life were so closely interwoven with the history of the Church that his movements and labors could be followed in the Church publications; so that I feel reasonably certain that no important fact is omitted.
To George J. Taylor—the eldest son of President Taylor—I am indebted for many valuable items of information; and he has taken an abiding interest in the work from its commencement.
At my request the first Presidency of the Church appointed a committee to read the manuscript and pass upon it critically in respect to its doctrinal and historical correctness. That committee was Elders John Jaques and L. John Nuttall, the former assistant Church historian, the latter for a number of years secretary to President Taylor. The position these brethren occupied made them intimately acquainted with the subject, and they were enabled to render me valuable assistance in my work, for which I am deeply grateful to them.
The work is now presented to the public in the hope that it will meet with approval, and preserve to the present and future generations a true history of John Taylor, the third President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
THE AUTHOR.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY—BIRTH AND ANCESTRY.
The leading spirits whom the Prophet Joseph Smith[1] gathered about him in his brief but glorious career, were remarkable men. Not remarkable for illustrious birth, for they were of humble origin; not for scholarly attainments, for such were the conditions of their early life that scholastic education of a very high order was out of the question: but they were remarkable for character—that mysterious something which exists independent of birth, education or fortune.
It has become proverbial that all great movements, all reformations, all revolutions must produce their own leaders; and this is as true of the great work of the last days, the establishment of the Church of Christ on the earth, as it is of any other great movement. Leaders in established usages and institutions, political, social or religious, are very seldom converted to innovations. They usually consider it to their interest to oppose changes, especially those changes which from their very nature cast any shadow of doubt upon the correctness of existing customs or institutions with which they are connected. Hence it happened that the Jewish rabbis, the priests, the scribes, the members of the great Sanhedrin—leaders in their nation—did not accept the doctrines of Messiah and become the chief apostles, seventies and elders of the new church. On the contrary, this class were the stubbornest opponents to the doctrines taught by the Son of God, and His most implacable enemies. It was the common people who heard Him gladly: and from their number He chose the apostles, who, through the God-given powers of the priesthood conferred upon them, shook the old systems of morals and religion from their foundations.
Nor can it be doubted that the hand of the Lord is in this matter of choosing men to be His messengers, His prophets and His rulers. Many of them are chosen before they are born in the flesh. The messenger that was to prepare the way for the coming of the Son of God, John the Baptist, was so chosen. Jeremiah was ordained a prophet to the nations before he was born. Cyrus the Great, the war prince of Persia, was selected to be the deliverer of Israel from Babylonian bondage more than a century before his birth. Indeed, we are given to understand from the revelations of God, that from among the nobler class of spirits that dwell in His presence, the Father hath chosen those who are to be His rulers.
From the very nature of things it must be necessary that men whose minds are unwarped by prevailing customs and traditions, should be selected to establish a new order of religion, of government or of society. How could the Jewish priests and rabbis, bound by long custom to a slavish adherence to the outward forms and ceremonies of the Mosaic ritual, the spirit and purpose of which had long been made of no effect by the rubbish of false traditions, open their minds to receive the larger and nobler doctrines of the gospel of Christ, unmixed with the pomp and circumstance which they of that age and nation considered essential to religion?
Can men educated to an attachment for despotic government, and whose interests are bound up with its maintenance, be expected to look with favor on democratic principles, or become the champions of a republic?
Finally, to wander no further from the subject in hand, were the religious leaders of the early part of the nineteenth century, educated to the idea that revelation had ceased; that the voice of prophecy was forever silenced; that the ministration of angels was ended; that the miraculous powers of the Holy Ghost were done away; that the ancient organization of the church was no longer needed; and further, believing that God was a substance merely, without form, without a body, or parts, or passions—were such men, filled with pride which the learning of this world too often infuses into the hearts of those who possess it—were such men qualified to stand at the head of, and become the leading actors in, the Dispensation of the Fullness of Times? A dispensation which was to be opened by the personal visitation of the Father and the Son, followed by numerous visitations of angels, the re-establishment of the church of Christ, with all its doctrines, ordinances, priesthoods, powers, promises and blessings; and ending, eventually, with the full restoration of the house of Israel and the complete redemption of the earth and all its righteous inhabitants?
Such a work was too large, too high and too deep for minds filled with false, sectarian ideas. Hence God chose His servants in these last days from men whose minds were unwarped by false education, but men of large capacity; possessing breadth and freedom of thought, of sanguine, fearless temperament: children of nature were they, with consciences unseared by worldly guile, and strangers to motives other than those dictated by an honest purpose; and, withal, full of implicit confidence in God—a confidence born of a living faith in the fact of Deity's existence, and a consciousness of the rectitude of their own intentions and lives.
It was these qualities which made the men whom the Prophet Joseph Smith gathered about him, and who were his trusted counselors, remarkable; and of that coterie of men there was not one who more completely united in his own character all those qualities which made the group remarkable than John Taylor. Nor was there one more devoted in his friendship for the prophet, or more zealous in his efforts to spread abroad the glad tidings that the gospel of the Son of God in its fullness was restored to the earth to bless mankind. Neither was there one whose experience was more varied, or whose life was more crowded with thrilling events, or whose position in the Church was more exalted than his. He proclaimed the gospel in many lands; and as the champion of truth, stood ready to meet all who assailed it; and whether he met his opponents in the forum, before a multitude steeped full of prejudice against him, or in the columns of the public press, he was equally successful in vanquishing them by his powerful statement of the truth, backed by a peculiar ability to expose the weakness of his opponent's position.
So prominent was the career of John Taylor in the Church, as a trusted friend of the Prophet Joseph Smith, with whom he may be said to have shared martyrdom; as a founder and editor of Church periodicals; as a preacher of the gospel; as an apostle; as a pioneer of Utah; as a legislator; and, finally, as President of the Church during one of the most trying periods through which she has passed in her eventful career, that the literature of the Church would be incomplete without his history. And if the lives of her leading men be the history of the Church, as some aver, then that history would be extremely imperfect if the life of her third President in this dispensation were not written.
JOHN TAYLOR was born November 1st, 1808, in Milnthorpe, a small town near the head of Morecombe Bay, and not far from Windemere, the "Queen of English Lakes," in the county of Westmoreland, England. His father's name was James Taylor, whose forefathers for many generations had lived on an estate known as Craig Gate, in Ackenthwaite. James Taylor's mother was the second wife of his father, Edward Taylor. By his first wife Edward Taylor had two sons and three daughters; by his second wife, whose name was Elizabeth, he had one son, James, and three daughters, named Mary, Jane and Agnes. Edward Taylor, the grandfather of the subject of this writing, died before his son James was born; and owing to the English law of primogeniture[2], the eldest son took the estate and left the younger branches of the family to provide for themselves as best they could.
Though James Taylor was deprived of any share of his father's estate, he acquired a good English education, some proficiency in the Latin and Greek languages, and the higher branches of mathematics. What he had lost by an unjust law, in the sudden demise of his father, was made up to him by the munificence of an uncle (on his mother's side), William T. Moon, who bequeathed to him a small estate in Hale, Westmoreland.
John Taylor's mother's name was Agnes; her maiden name was also Taylor. Her grandfather, Christopher Taylor, lived to be ninety-seven years of age. His son John, father of Agnes, held an office in the excise under government, from his first setting out in life to the age of about sixty. He was between seventy and eighty when he died. The maiden name of Agnes Taylor's mother was Whittington, a descendant of the family made famous by Richard Whittington, the younger son of Sir William Whittington. (Sir William died intestate shortly after his son Richard was born; and this circumstance, under the English law of primogeniture, left him without a fortune. Nothing discouraged by this event, Richard went to London to engage in trade. He apprenticed himself to a mercer and appears to have risen rapidly in the world. He was made an alderman in the city of London, then high sheriff; thrice was he chosen lord mayor of London, and afterwards was elected member of parliament for the city. He stood in high favor with the king, who conferred on him the honor of knighthood. He was diligent and exceedingly prosperous in business, upright and liberal in character, "a virtuous and godly man, full of good works, and those famous," says an old chronicler. In many respects he was considerably in advance of his times and conferred a lustre on his family's name which will live forever in English story. This illustrious man was born, as nearly as may be ascertained, about 1360.)
To James and Agnes Taylor were born ten children—eight sons and two daughters. Three of the sons died while young. John Taylor was the second son, but as his eldest brother, Edward, died at the age of twenty-two, John stood next to his father, the head of the family.
John Taylor's father had received an appointment under government in the excise, and the nature of his office was such that he had to move from place to place. In 1819, however, he left government employ and removed from Liverpool, where he had lived five years, and settled on his estate in Hale.
CHAPTER II.
BOYHOOD—EARLY SURROUNDINGS—TRADE—SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS—A STORM AT SEA.
John Taylor was eleven years old when his father settled on his estate in Hale. He attended school at Beetham, about a mile from Hale, and only a few miles south of his birth place. It was in these boyhood days at home that he got "mixed up," as he puts it, "with ploughing, sowing, reaping, hay-making and other farm work; and I have indelibly impressed on my mind," he continues, "some of my first mishaps in horsemanship in the way of sundry curious evolutions between the horses' backs and terra firma."
At the age of fourteen he was bound an apprentice to a cooper, in Liverpool. In about twelve months his employer failed and young Taylor returned home. He afterwards went to learn the business of turner in Penrith, Cumberland. Penrith is situated near the middle of a beautiful, fertile valley sloping northwesterly to the Solway firth, and drained by the Eden river; the valley because of its rare scenery, is called the Vale of Eden. It is one of the most romantic districts in all England. On the east is the Pennine range of mountains, which in this locality attain their greatest altitude. On the west is the Cumbrian group, where the highest summits in England are found. The highest mountain is Scawfell, the loftiest of whose four peaks is 3,229 feet above the sea. A little to the east of this, and hence nearer Penrith, is Mount Helvellyn 3,118 feet; and to the north Skiddaw 3,058 feet.
Nestling at the feet, or in basins between these mountain peaks, are the most famous lakes in England, fifteen in number, varying in size from one mile to ten in length, and from one-third to one mile in width. Ulleswater is the lake nearest to Penrith, and while it has little of the soft beauty that has made Lake Windemere famous, its rugged surroundings and especially Mount Helvellyn at its south west extremity, give to it a grandeur that verges on sublimity.
The climate of this lake region is very damp, and on the higher mountain peaks snow lies for six and in some seasons even eight months in the year. The excessive rain-fall, however, gives great freshness and luxuriance to vegetation.
Besides the beauty and grandeur of the surrounding country, Penrith and vicinity are rich in historical associations and monuments of a past civilization. Lying near the Scotch border it was frequently invaded by that hardy race during their unhappy conflicts with England; the town was well nigh destroyed by them in the time of Edward III.; and was again sacked in the time of Richard III.
In the immediate vicinity are a number of Druidical remains[4], among which is the great Druidic monument Long Meg, a monolith eighteen feet high and fifteen feet in circumference; while about her, in a circle one hundred and fifty yards in diameter, are sixty-six other monuments, inferior to her in size, called her daughters. Near by is Lowther Castle with its beautiful park; Eden Hall, the seat of the ancient family of Musgrave; Arthur's Round Table, and Shap Abbey, are also within a radius of five or six miles.
It was in the midst of this splendid scenery, made doubly enchanting by historic associations and the monuments of those weird people, the Druids, that John Taylor spent the days of his youth, from his fifteenth to his twentieth year; and no doubt these surroundings had a powerful effect on his then forming character, and did much to develop the poetical impulses of his mind, for the power of poetry was not among the least of his natural gifts. Thence, too, comes the splendid imagery so frequently dashed into his sermons and writings. It was there he saw the "water nymphs playing with the clouds on mountain tops, frolicking with the snow and rain in rugged gorges, coquetting with the sun and dancing to the sheen of the moon;"[1] there, too, he saw the drifting clouds wrapping mountain peaks in solemn gloom, while the flower-flecked vale below was flooded with warm sunlight. These scenes and the impressions they formed he treasured up, and afterwards made them clothe in splendid drapery an eloquence which held thousands enchanted by the magic of its spell.
The religious nature of John Taylor began early to develope. His parents were members, nominally, of the Church of England, and he was told that that Church was the true one, and that the "Roman Catholics were a dreadful set of fellows." Indeed, it may be said that part of the Church of England's creed in those days, though unwritten, was "down with the Pope." He learned the catechism and the prayers of the church. In a fine vein of satire he says: "I repeated week after week—'We have erred and strayed from Thy ways like lost sheep. * * * We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; and we have done those things which we ought not to have done, and there is no health in us; * * * have mercy upon us, miserable sinners.'"
He was baptized into the church when an infant; a god-father and god-mother promised and vowed for him that he would renounce the devil and all his works—the pomp and vanity of this wicked world, and all the deceitful lusts of the flesh; that he should believe all the articles of the Christian faith, and keep God's holy laws and commandments, and walk in the same all the days of his life. "How far I have filled their pledges," he says, "I must leave others to judge."
In childhood and youth he was naturally vivacious, and seems to have had but little regard for the stiff formula of church creed, and was without any definite idea of correct religious views; still he had a deep reverence for God; with him it was an intuition, and he dreaded nothing so much as offending Him.
When about sixteen he heard the Methodist[3] doctrines taught, and as he perceived more spiritual light and force in their teachings than in the cold, set services of the Church of England, he became a Methodist. He was strictly sincere in his religious faith, and very zealous to learn what he then considered to be the truth. Believing that "every good and perfect gift proceedeth from the Lord," he prayed frequently in private. Most of his leisure hours were spent in reading the Bible, works on theology and in prayer. For the latter purpose he usually resorted to secluded places in the woods and fields. The missionary spirit about this time began to develop in him. He induced a number of boys about his own age to join with him in secret prayer, but they generally soon forsook him. He relates a circumstance that must have occurred about this time, that still further gives evidence of the missionary spirit working within him. Living in the same neighborhood was an old gentleman whom he greatly respected; he was a good man, a praying man, but he had a wife who did not want to pray, and also interfered with his devotions. She was restless and turbulent, a kind of thorn in his flesh. Under these circumstances he did not get along very well, but it used to drive him to the Lord. After a while she died, and he married again; this time to a very amiable lady. His wife was so pleasant and agreeable, that the change in his circumstances was very great. Being thus comfortably situated he became remiss in his religious duties; and among other things gave way to the temptations of liquor. Observing the course he was taking, young Taylor took up a labor with him. He felt a little abashed on account of his youth, but because of long friendship, and out of respect for the old gentleman's many good qualities, he felt it his duty to call his attention to his neglect of Christian precepts. He told him how he had seen him drunk a few days previously, and how it had hurt his feelings, as his course hitherto had been exemplary. The old gentleman appreciated the good feelings, the respect and courage of his young friend, deplored his weakness and promised amendment.
Young Taylor possessed a portion of the spirit of God and was very happy. Manifestations of its presence were frequent, not only in the expansion of his mind to understand doctrines and principles, but also in dreams and visions. "Often when alone," he writes, "and sometimes in company, I heard sweet, soft, melodious music, as if performed by angelic or supernatural beings." When but a small boy he saw, in vision, an angel in the heavens, holding a trumpet to his mouth, sounding a message to the nations. The import of this vision he did not understand until later in life.
At the age of seventeen he was made a Methodist exhorter, or local preacher. His first appointment was at a small country town some seven miles from Penrith. A brother in the same church accompanied him; and when the two had walked about a mile from Penrith, young Taylor suddenly stopped, overpowered by a peculiar influence, and as he stood there in the road, he remarked to his companion, "I have a strong impression on my mind, that I have to go to America to preach the gospel!" At the time he knew nothing of America but what he had learned in his geography at school; and emigration to that country had not been thought of then by his family. So strong was the voice of the spirit to him on that occasion that it continued to impress him as long as he remained in that land; and even after he arrived in Canada, a presentiment that he could not shake off, clung to him that he had some work to do which he did not then understand.
At the age of twenty, having mastered the business of turner, young Taylor left Penrith, and in the town of Hale started business for himself, under the auspices of his father. Shortly after this, in 1830, his father and family emigrated to Upper Canada, leaving him to dispose of some unsold property and settle the affairs of the estate.
In about two years he completed the business entrusted to him and followed them. While crossing the British channel the ship he sailed in encountered severe storms, which lasted a number of days. He saw several ships wrecked in that storm, and the captain and officers of his own ship expected hourly that she would go down. But not so with our young emigrant. The voice of the Spirit was still saying within him, "You must yet go to America and preach the gospel." "So confident was I of my destiny," he remarks, "that I went on deck at midnight, and amidst the raging elements felt as calm as though I was sitting in a parlor at home. I believed I should reach America and perform my work."
Footnotes
1. From Taylor's Reply to Colfax.
CHAPTER III.
ARRIVAL IN CANADA—MARRIAGE—LEONORA—A MESSAGE FROM GOD—INVESTIGATION—EMBRACES THE GOSPEL.
Landing in New York, he remained there and in Brooklyn and Albany a few months before going on to Toronto, Upper Canada, where he was to rejoin his parents.
After his arrival in Toronto he connected himself with the Methodists in that city, and began preaching under the auspices of their church organization. It was while he was engaged in this work that he met Leonora Cannon, to whom he was married on the 28th of January, 1833.
Leonora Cannon was a daughter of Captain George Cannon (grandfather of President George Q. Cannon) of Peel, Isle of Man. Captain Cannon died while Leonora was yet in her girlhood; the old homestead in Peel was rented to strangers, and she went to reside in England with a lady named Vail. Later she became an inmate of Governor Smelt's family, residing in Castle Rushen, Castletown, Isle of Man. Here she frequently met with many distinguished people from England. Finally in the capacity of companion to the wife of Mr. Mason, the private secretary of Lord Aylmer, Governor General of Canada, she went to Toronto, and being a devout Methodist, associated with that church and there met Mr. Taylor, who became her class leader.
His first proposal of marriage was rejected; but afterwards, through a dream in which she saw herself associated with him, she was convinced that he would be her husband. Therefore, when he renewed his proposal, he was accepted.
Refined both by nature and education, gentle and lady-like in manner, witty, intelligent, gifted with rare conversational powers, possessed of a deep religious sentiment, and, withal, remarkable for the beauty of her person, she was a fitting companion to John Taylor.
Mrs. Taylor frequently accompanied her husband in filling his appointments to preach on the Sabbath, and he often alluded to the singular revelation he had received in his youth, about his having to preach the gospel in America.
"Are you not now preaching the gospel in America?" Leonora would ask.
"This is not the work; it is something of more importance," he would answer.
As a preacher in the Methodist church, both in England and Canada, he was very successful, and made many converts. "My object," he remarks, "was to teach them what I then considered the leading doctrines of the Christian religion, rather than the peculiar dogmas of Methodism." His theological investigations had made him very much dissatisfied with existing creeds and churches, because of the wide difference between modern and primitive Christianity, in doctrine, in ordinances, in organization and above all, in spirit and power.
He was not the only one on whom the Spirit was operating in this manner. There were several others, chiefly men belonging to the same Church, in or near Toronto, and engaged in the same calling. They were gentlemen of refinement and education, and generally talented.
It was their custom to meet several times a week to search the scriptures, and investigate the doctrines of the Christian religion as contained in the Bible. They were all familiar with the various systems of theology as accepted by the Christian sects of the day, and as they had more or less distrust regarding each of them they agreed, in their investigation, to reject every man's opinion and work, and to search the scriptures alone, praying for the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
On these lines they investigated the claims of each sect of religion, as to its being the Church of Christ. The result of that investigation was that they were driven irresistibly to the conclusion that all sects were in error, and without authority to preach the gospel or administer its ordinances. "If modern Christianity is true," said they, "then the Bible is false," and vice versa. Fortunately they clung to a firm belief in the Bible; and further believed in a restoration of pure principles and a true church. They believed that men should be called of God as in former days, and ordained by proper authority; and that in the Church there should be apostles and prophets, evangelists and pastors, teachers and deacons; in short, that the primitive organization of the Church of Christ should be perpetuated.
They believed that men who accepted the gospel should have bestowed upon them the Holy Ghost; that it should lead them into all truth, and show them things to come. They believed also in the gift of tongues, the gift of healing, miracles, prophecy, faith, discerning of spirits and all the powers, graces and blessings as experienced in the Christian Church of former days. They believed that Israel would be gathered, the ten tribes restored; that judgments would overtake the wicked, and Christ return to the earth and reign with the righteous; they believed in the first and second resurrection, and in the final glory and triumph of the righteous. But while they believed all these things, they recognized the fact that they had no authority to act in the premises and organize a church, incorporating these views in its doctrines and organization. True, they might organize a church with apostles and prophets, and all other officers, and teach the letter of their principles; but whence should they look for the Spirit to give it life, and make their dream of a restored, perfect Christian church a reality? It was evident to them they could not perform this work unless called of God to do it, and they were painfully conscious of the fact that not one among them was so called. They could only wait, and pray that God would send to them a messenger if He had a Church on the earth.
So wide and thorough an investigation of religion, by such a body of men, could not fail to attract some attention, especially from the church with which the most of them were nominally connected. The leading men in the Methodist church called a special conference to consider the principles of these heterodox brethren. The meeting was called and presided over by some of the most prominent leaders in the Methodist persuasion in Canada, among whom were the Rev. Mr. Ryarson and Rev. Mr. Lord, of the British conference. The hearing was not a trial pro forma, but rather a friendly discussion of those principles held by the brethren in question.
The hearing continued through several days; and in the debates the "heterodox" held their own against the learning and talent of the church leaders; and at the conclusion of the investigation expressed themselves as being more fully confirmed in their doctrines since their learned opponents had been unable to refute them by the word of God. The conclusion reached by the conference was thus stated by the president:
"Brethren, we esteem you as brethren and gentlemen; we believe you are sincere, but cannot fellowship your doctrine. Wishing, however, to concede all we can, we would say: You may believe your doctrines if you will not teach them; and we will still retain you in fellowship as members, leaders and preachers."
These conditions the "heterodox" could not conscientiously comply with, so they were deprived of their offices but retained as members. Since they considered the Methodist Church without authority, taking from them their offices was not regarded by them as a hardship.
Meantime, their fastings and prayers, their longing for the Kingdom of God, came up in remembrance before the Lord, and He sent a messenger to them. Parley P. Pratt, an Apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ, called upon Mr. Taylor, with a letter of introduction from a merchant acquaintance of his, Mr. Moses Nickerson. As soon as he learned that Mr. Pratt was a "Mormon," he thought his acquaintance had imposed upon him a little by sending him such a character; for then, as now, and as in the days of the ancient apostles, the Saints were everywhere spoken against, and Mr. Taylor had heard the evil rumors circulated about them; and because of these rumors, he had been led to regard "Mormonism" as anything but a religious system. He treated Apostle Pratt courteously, as he considered himself bound to do, because of his letter of introduction; but the reception he gave him could not be called cordial.
It was a strange message the Apostle had to deliver—this story of the revelation of the gospel: how God had passed by the great, and learned, and eloquent theologians of the day, and had revealed Himself to an unlearned youth, reared in the backwoods of New York; how, subsequently, He sent to him an angel, who made known to him the existence of the hidden record of the ancient inhabitants of America—the Book of Mormon; how that angel met him annually in the month of September for four successive years, and taught him the gospel and many things concerning the work of the Lord in these last days; and then delivered into his keeping those records, which he translated into the English language by the gift and power of God; how this same young man, during the progress of the work of translation, was visited by John the Baptist, who conferred upon him and Oliver Cowdery the Aaronic Priesthood, which gave them the authority to preach repentance and baptize for remission of sins; how, subsequently, the ancient apostles, Peter, James and John came and conferred upon the young Prophet the apostleship, which gave him the right and power to ordain other men to be Apostles, Seventies, High Priests and Elders; to lay on hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost—in short, which gave him the right to preach the gospel in all the world, and establish the Church of Christ on the earth.
But if this story was strange, the circumstance which led to the Apostle coming among them, though of less importance than the main message he had to deliver, was stranger still. He told them how Heber C. Kimball, and others, came to his house one night, in Kirtland, after he and Mrs. Pratt had retired. Heber C. Kimball requested him to get up as he had a prophecy to deliver concerning him. Apostle Pratt arose and his visitor thus addressed him:
"Brother Parley, thy wife shall be healed from this hour, and shall bear a son, and his name shall be Parley; and he shall be a chosen instrument in the hands of the Lord to inherit the priesthood, and to walk in the footsteps of his father. He shall do a great work on the earth in ministering the word and teaching the children of men. Arise, therefore, and go forth in the ministry, nothing doubting. Take no thought for your debts, nor the necessaries of life, for the Lord will supply you with abundant means for all things. Thou shalt go to Upper Canada, even to the city of Toronto, the capital, and there thou shalt find a people prepared for the gospel, and they shall receive thee, and thou shalt organize the Church among them, and it shall spread thence into the regions round about, and many shall be brought to a knowledge of the truth, and shall be filled with joy; and from the things growing out of this mission, shall the fullness of the gospel spread into England, and cause a great work to be done in that land."
To understand the boldness of this prediction the reader ought to be informed that Apostle Pratt had been married to his wife ten years, but they had never been blessed with offspring; and for six years his wife had been considered an incurable consumptive.
As before stated Mr. Taylor did not receive Apostle Pratt very cordially. While seeking for the truth he did not propose being led away by every wind of doctrine, nor by the cunning craftiness of men who lie in wait to deceive. He was very cautious, remembering that an ancient apostle had said:
"If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, [the gospel] receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed; for he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds."[1]
He therefore rendered Elder Pratt no assistance, until he began to discover that there were good grounds for believing he was a messenger sent of God.
Elder Pratt applied to all the ministers of Toronto, and the city officials having charge of public buildings, for a place in which to deliver his message, without avail. Disheartened at his unpropitious reception, he was about to leave a city where he could see no prospect of making an opening. In this spirit he called on Mr. Taylor to say farewell.
Mr. Taylor's turning shop adjoined his house, and it was here that Elder Pratt found him. While talking to him, valise in hand ready to depart, a Mrs. Walton called on Mrs. Taylor in the adjoining room. The latter told Mrs. Walton about Elder Pratt and his strange mission, and how, failing to get an opportunity to preach, he was on the eve of departing. "He may be a man of God," said Leonora, "I am sorry to have him depart."
At this Mrs. Walton expressed her willingness to open her house for Elder Pratt to preach in, and proposed to lodge and feed him. Here at last was an opening. He began holding meetings at Mrs. Walton's, and was soon afterwards introduced to the investigation meetings held by Mr. Taylor and his religious friends.
They were delighted with his preaching. He taught them faith in God, and in Jesus Christ; called upon them to repent of their sins, and to be baptized in the likeness of Christ's burial, for the remission of them, and promised them the Holy Ghost through the laying on of hands, together with a full enjoyment of all its gifts and blessings. All this, and much more that he taught, was in strict harmony with what they themselves believed; but what he had to say about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon perplexed a great many, and some of their members even refused to investigate the Book of Mormon, or examine the claims of Apostle Pratt to having divine authority to preach the gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof.
It was at this juncture that the noble independence and boldness of spirit, so conspicuous in John Taylor throughout his life, asserted itself. He addressed the assembly to the following effect:
"We are here, ostensibly in search of truth. Hitherto we have fully investigated other creeds and doctrines and proven them false. Why should we fear to investigate Mormonism? This gentleman, Mr. Pratt, has brought to us many doctrines that correspond with our own views. We have endured a great deal and made many sacrifices for our religious convictions. We have prayed to God to send us a messenger, if He has a true Church on earth. Mr. Pratt has come to us under circumstances that are peculiar; and there is one thing that commends him to our consideration; he has come amongst us without purse or scrip, as the ancient apostles traveled; and none of us are able to refute his doctrine by scripture or logic. I desire to investigate his doctrines and claims to authority, and shall be very glad if some of my friends will unite with me in this investigation. But if no one will unite with me, be assured I shall make the investigation alone. If I find his religion true, I shall accept it, no matter what the consequences may be; and if false, then I shall expose it."
After this, John Taylor began the investigation of Mormonism in earnest. He wrote down eight sermons which Apostle Pratt preached, and compared them with the scripture. He also investigated the evidences of the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants. "I made a regular business of it for three weeks," he says, "and followed Brother Parley from place to place." The result of his thorough investigation was conviction; and on the 9th of May, 1836, himself and wife were baptized. "I have never doubted any principle of Mormonism since," was the comment he made in relating, when well advanced in life, how he came to accept the gospel.
Footnotes
1. II. John, 10, 11.
CHAPTER IV.
ORDINATION—APPOINTED TO PRESIDE—VISIT TO KIRTLAND[5]—MEETS THE PROPHET—DEFENDS HIM—ARRIVAL OF AN IMPOSTER—EXPOSED BY THE PROPHET—SPREAD OF THE WORK—A PROPHECY AND ITS FULFILLMENT—THE WORK SPREADS INTO ENGLAND.
