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Show Page 252 of Twelve at the orders of Joseph Smith - and now, Apostle Lyman, it was found, had never been fully converted to Mormon teachings at all. When Orson had first encountered him, Lyman was a practicing Universalist - convinced himself, and openly preaching, that salvation was an inevitable gift to every man, Lyman had apparently reverted to his old faith. To Brigham Young and the Twelve, "Universalism" meant only one thing: a denial of the efficacy of Christ's atonement. Given the evidence, Orson had no choice but to sign and reflect on his own brush with excommunication. Anxious to return to Utah after such a long absence, he was forced to remain in New York a few weeks. Indian depredations on the Plains and the still unfinished overland railroad made it imprudent to cross to Utah without adequate protection. He threw in his lot with the same group of Salt Lake merchants who had helped him so generously upon his departure; once again William Godbe and one of the Walker brothers, along with his old friend, George D. Watt, took him in and promised him a place in their "merchandise train." The news of Lyman's excommunication deeply troubled them, for the merchants considered Lyman, along with Orson Pratt, the most intellectual and progressive of the Mormon hierarchy, which they felt was growing more and more oppressive. All was not well in Zion, they murmured to Orson for Brigham's careful control of spiritual matters was no less tight over Utah's economy; the official policy discouraged importing anything from outside that the Saints "could do without," and, in the view of these men of commerce, business in Utah could never expand without trade. With these troubling complaints in his ear, Orson wended westward in Godbe's train, an offender himself - for he was packing some dry goods of his own, purchased on credit from Godbe, which he thought "ought to be 33 worth at the retail prices in Utah, about one thousand dollars." |
