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Show THROUGH GREAT TRIBULATION. 363 with the " secret ritual," examined separately every week ? Could he trust his dearest friend? Was there any one or any thing in this land of intrigue and priestly supervision, who would be true? How often did he gaze upon the snowy summits of the Wasatch, and curse the hour when he made himself a virtual prisoner in these valleys ! It was easy to say that the laws of the country protected him in going where he pleased. But there was another law here more pow-erful than any written law. His property was " consecrated" by deeds which he once thought a mere form, but now knew to be valid. The church owned it all, if the trustee- in- trust but chose to exercise his power. In his days of fanaticism he had bound himself by the " Perfect Oneness in Christ," and now all he had was security for all the other members of his " quorum." Though he had paid his own passage and that of Marian from Liverpool to Salt Lake, yet he had, as requested by the bishop in charge, indorsed the notes for passage money of a dozen of his poorer brethren ; and he knew too well that all these notes were ready to be presented at a mo-ment's notice. And the good bishops and apostles who constitute the Utah Legislature had taken excellent care on this point. For a resident there was no end of exemptions ; it was scarcely possible to collect a debt by law. But for " one intending to leave the Terri-tory" it was expressly enacted that there was no exemption. And if one should try to leave before every debt was paid, there was the law against " absconding debtors" they could be imprisoned " at the discretion of the court." And such a court! The probate judge of each county was the presiding bishop thereof the sworn servant of Brigham Young. Verily, the " cut- throat laws of Utah " were made by men who have had experience in ecclesi-astical tyranny. For three years Elder Briarly had lived a stupendous lie. Know-ing himself to be an apostate, suspecting himself to be the object of suspicion, he thought, as thousands have thought, to make his posi-tion more secure by a show of zeal. And then his wives what was he to do with them? He was but a man, and in his secret soul he confessed that he loved the one, was indiiferent to the second, and " positively detested the third. What if the detested one should pen-etrate his designs ? He groaned in spirit at the thought. There was nothing for him but determined reticence ; and so his home life was a continuing lie a lie so complex, so gigantic, that it corrupted every element of his nature, and changed him from a man and a Briton to a self- despised thing. And so it must be with . every |
