Page:Biography and Family Record of Lorenzo Snow monochrome.djvu/110

 84    BIOGRAPHY AND

Lorenzo a Bachelor.—The Prophet instructs him.—He changes tactics.—Marries.—Wives and Endowments.—In the Temple.—Wrath of our Enemies.—Expulsion of the Saints.—Cross the Mississippi River.—Intensely cold.—Snow storm.—Outfit.—Camp organized.—Moves forward.—Song No. 1.—Song No. 2.

UP to this time my brother lived a bachelor. The great work in which he was engaged as a missionary of the Gospel of salvation to the nations of the earth, had so engrossed his mind and engaged the energies of his soul, that virtually he had ignored the first commandment to "multiply and replenish the earth." To devote his time, his talents, his all to the ministry was his all-absorbing desire; and in consonance with this desire, he had cherished the idea that domestic responsibility would lessen his usefulness; and, until the law of Celestial Marriage was fully explained to him by the Prophet Joseph Smith, in a prolonged interview while the two were seated alone on the bank of the Mississippi river, as before related, he had not conceived the idea that marriage was one of the duties of the great mission of mortal life.

With him, this, as well as every other practical doctrine, was only to be understood to be obeyed. It is one of his peculiarities to do nothing by halves; and when convinced of the duty of marriage, and that it was a privilege accorded him in connection with his ministerial calling, he entered into it on an enlarged scale, by having two wives sealed to him in the holy bonds of matrimony, for time and eternity, at the same time; and not long after, another was added to the number, and then another. Thus, all at once, as it were, from the lone bachelor he was transformed into a husband invested with many domestic responsibilities. Probably a realizing