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Show Page 25 provided a tangible realization of this union; at first acquaintance with the message, he felt the tinge of inspiration and excitement with which he would, to a greater extent than anyone else, probe and publish its implications. Here, at long last, was a check against the historical-theological intricacies which had entangled every verse of the Bible in denominational dispute.The immediate appeal of the Book of Mormon to both Parley and Orson lay in its"fulhess" - finding here an authoritative response to the dogmatic conflicts of the day, the brothers were able to dismiss to their satisfaction the deficiences of the straining vehicle of Protestant doctrine. As Orson Pratt wrote twenty years later: "...uncertainty and ambiguity have been the principal cause of all the divisions of modern Christendom. The only way to remedy this great evil, is to obtain another revelation of the gospel...Such a revelation is the Book of Mormon; the most infallible certainty characterizes every ordinance and every doctrinal point revealed in that book. In it there is no ambiguity - no room for controversy...." ^ Such resonant completeness could not fail to appeal to Orson's symmetry of spirit. As he listened to his brother preach, he also became convinced of the "divine authenticity" of Mormon doctrine. He had faithfully wrestled with prayer for a year, and these transcendent teachings dawned on his mind with the authority of a divine revelation. This response of the quiet, solitary seeker matched that of many other converts to the new church and helped establish from the first its relatively earnest character in a sea of frenzied revivalism. Like the others, he broke a long lineal tradition of restlessness when he accepted baptism at the hands of his brother Parley on his nineteenth birthday, September 19, 1830. The talismanic significance of this did not escape him - he ever afterward spoke of his "rebirth day" with quiet pride. And so Orson Pratt at nineteen embarked on a lifelong pilgrimage very much in the tradition of his family, a tradition of spiritual exile, "the |
