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Show Page 82 the Mormon beginnings; here, there is neither allegorizing nor ex- 12 temporizing, but only the "fact" of revelation. The publication of Remarkable Visions came hard upon Orson's twenty-ninth birthday, which he spent preaching hard in a rented Edinburgh meeting hall. This city he loved, the "romantic and sublime spectacle" it presented deeply affected him, and he spent many hours in the high crags surrounding the town praying for its inhabitants. By spring of 1841 he had built a branch larger than any other in Britain. An extraordinarily single-minded missionary, Orson was described at this time as "poor and shabby" by a ten-year-old girl, Marian Ross. Marian worked as a serving-girl in a large house which Orson visited the day after she had prophetically dreamed his coming - Marian Ross was to join the 13 Mormon Church in 1847 and become Orson's plural wife. The apostles felt that one year in Britain was sufficient for their foreign mission, and they voted in an April conference to return to the United States. Orson wrote of the several thousands who had been baptized and of "the many faithful servants...who no doubt will thrust in their sickle and reap with great success." The Twelve had accomplished much in Britain: they had organized the first European mission, printed some 60,000 tracts and other books, begun publication of a periodical which would continue in publication for 130 years to come, and had supervised the conversion of between seven and eight thousand new members. This initiative would ultimately produce nearly 90,000 European pioneer Mormons, most of whom would emigrate by means of a permanent shipping agency established 14 in Liverpool to assist them. The Twelve shipped for New York April 20, 1841. After a large tea-party, attended by several hundred Liverpool Saints, they were towed into the Mersey on board the ship "Rochester" for the return journey - facing |
