Chapter Eight

CHURCH HISTORY IN THE FULNESS OF TIMESLucy Mack Smith (1776–1856)reasons to expect the blessings of God.” 7 Although they suffered fromhunger because some had brought clothing rather than food, they sang andprayed as they journeyed and left a favorable impression on the captain.Lucy took charge of the situation and prevented greater suffering.When they arrived in Buffalo, they met the icebound Colesville Saints.After several anxious days in Buffalo, a number of the children had becomesick, and many of the group were hungry and discouraged. They took deckpassage on a boat, put their things on board, and obtained temporaryshelter for the women and children until early the next morning. When theywere back on board, Lucy persuaded the still murmuring group to ask theLord to break the twenty-foot clogs of ice that jammed the harbor. Sheexplained, “A noise was heard, like bursting thunder. The captain cried,‘Every man to his post.’ The ice parted, leaving barely a passage for theboat, and so narrow that as the boat passed through the buckets of thewaterwheel were torn off with a crash. . . . We had barely passed throughthe avenue when the ice closed together again.” The Colesville groupfollowed a few days later. 8As these New York Saints were arriving in Ohio, a third party of about fiftypeople left Palmyra, New York, under the direction of Martin Harris. Withtheir arrival in Ohio, the first phase of the westward movement of the LatterdaySaints ended. In contrast to many Americans who migrated westward atthe same time seeking free or inexpensive land, adventure, or escape fromcreditors, these humble people moved in response to a commandment ofGod. 9E ARLY C HALLENGES IN O HIO92During the three months Joseph Smith was in Kirtland before the Saintsfrom New York began to arrive, he faced many challenges arising from therapid growth of the Church there. The first problem was the manifestation of“strange notions and false spirits” among the members of the branch. 10Because they lacked the guidance of Church authorities in northern Ohio,some new members entertained “wild enthusiastic notions” about the effectsof the Holy Spirit upon the converted. John Corrill, an early Ohio convert,was disturbed by the bizarre actions of some of the young people whoclaimed they saw visions: “They conducted themselves in a strange manner,sometimes imitating Indians in their maneuvers, sometimes running out intothe fields, getting on stumps of trees and there preaching as thoughsurrounded by a congregation,—all the while so completely absorbed invisions as to be apparently insensible to all that was passing around them.” 11Satan’s inroads in the Church were due to the credulity and gullibility ofthese new Saints who brought some of their previous ways with them andwere without priesthood direction for a few months.Only a few members behaved in this manner, however. “The moresubstantial minded looked upon it with astonishment, and were suspiciousthat it was from an evil source.” 12 Distressed by what he saw, Joseph felt thatthese excesses were “calculated to bring disgrace upon the church of God; to