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Show Page 50 CHAPTER III IN THE LAND OF MIDDONI The Twelve Apostles who left Kirtland at two in the morning, May 4, 1835, bound for the Eastern States, would never again show such unanimity of purpose. Nine of them, including Orson Pratt and his brother Parley, would face church discipline at some time in the future. Four of them would eventually leave the Church, never to return. The oldest member of the council, Thomas B. Marsh, presided at the age of thirty-four, and the other councilors were assigned "standing" in the quorum relative to their birthdates. The four youngest apostles were born in the year 1811; at twenty-three, they were all zealous for the cause of Mormonism as they commenced this midnight mission. Before many years, however, three of them - William Smith, John Farnham Boynton, and Lyman Eugene Johnson - 1 would fall away in bitterness. Only Orson Pratt would remain. The Twelve were to experience a period of chastening, along with the whole of the Church of the Latter-day Saints, before the promise of missions to foreign lands would be realized. In the meantime, the mission to the Eastern States took precedence; the purpose was the redemption of Zion. In the summer of 1835, several thousand Latter-day Saints lay dispossessed and penniless in central Missouri, living off the charity of the citizens of Clay County, a charity which was fast wearing down. Joseph Smith envisioned an attempt to colonize as close to Zion as possible, establishing "stakes" or "cornerstones" of Zion in regions of Missouri that no one else wanted. The realization of this spiritual Zion sprawling over the landscape of the West required a great deal of money, and the Twelve were commissioned |
