Page:A thousand years hence. Being personal experiences (IA thousandyearshen00gree).djvu/262

 vincing incidents as even infants of six or seven years—twice blessed little saints—longing and praying to be quit of this vile earth, that they might ascend at once to Mormon paradise, at whose bright shining gates those most holy and fragrant saints of the Church, Joseph and Brigham, were ever waiting to receive and welcome them,—when all this, and much more to the like decisive effect, was duly set forth, what was the answer of the opposing son of Belial? He merely said, in reply, that there were still available certain old institutions, at Hanwell and Bedlam, where such ecstatic states were carried to still higher perfection, and for which, therefore, all such true Mormons should go on to qualify.

Miraculous intervention, on their special behalf, was the great aim and ambition of these various and interwarring sects. Each body claimed, of course, countless invisible miracles in its own behalf; and each knew that while its own miracles were true, those of most of the others were but the devices of the devil. But what was specially longed for by each body—and, oh, how longed for!—was but one unmistakable miracle that might, perforce, be seen and acknowledged by all other and opposing bodies. Many attempts were made by one and another, and with no small adroitness, to force Heaven, as it were, to show its hand in their special case. "Answers to prayer" had been in chief favour as a leverage of this kind, and most sects had more or less of a triumphant record in this way. There had been quite a mania in that particular direction about this time; and this trap system, as it was called, had resulted in various triumphs to many various sects. Let us turn for illustration to the case