| OCR Text |
Show Appendix 381 had to have his foot bolstered up as high as his seat to keep the swelling from going into the foot. When he heard the Mormons, he found that they had the truth, and he told his Baptist friends that they had better not fight against it, lest they unhappily find themselves fighting against God. He bought a Book of Mormon and took it home with him. He heard Elders Simeon and Jared Carter preach. Elder Carter told him that if he read that Book and believed it, he should see an alteration in his leg. He read the book over and over again and compared it with the Bible. When he had decided that it was the work of the Lord, he set his foot on the floor and ordered his horse and cart, and went to notify the people of a meeting at his house the next day. He was out five hours. Then the Elders came, and when they learned that father had made up his mind that the book was what it was represented to be, Elder Jared Carter asked him if he had seen any change in his leg. Father then remembered that when he decided that it was the work of the Lord, he put his foot down for the first time in months. Elder Carter then asked father if he would be afraid to put his foot down if he (Carter) commanded him in the name of the Lord to rise and walk. Father did not reply, and the Elder said, "In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to arise and walk," at the same time clapping (clasping?) his hand on father's shoulder. At this Said the Elder, "Y ou need not be afraid to put father down your foot. Remember, you do it in the name of the Lord." Father laid aside his crutch and walked back and forth from the front porch arose to his feet. through a long hall and into a long kitchen. All this time he wept and praised God for His mercy in bringing the Gospel and its attending bles sings. The next day my father, mother and myself were baptized. This being the first case of healing that we had even see, it caused a great deal of wonder and surprise, and the news went far and wide. The fore-going circumstances occurred on or about the 10th day of September, 1831, a little more than a year and five months after the organization of the church. [Correct date of the baptism is September 17, 1832] I was then sixteen years of age, and well remember every circum stance. It was a trying time for me. I was soon called to shoulder the responsible office of a Deacon. I had never seen a deacon who was less than sixty years old, and whose hair was not white as snow, and with a face as long as a donkey. My hair was pretty white. I was a white headed boy, but when I came home from the meeting where I was ordained, I tried to be as old as I could, for I felt I was a boy. I drove up to my father's door where a crowd was waiting. Here my horse was taken by the bit, and I was helped out of the carriage. I had to go through a formal "Old Deacon Tanner." It would not do to smile Deacon must be grave, sober, and above anything of that introduction vain; no, a I lived as through it all The Gospel had the the or be shape. same. same effect it did in Jesus' day. It brought not |
