Page:Biography and Family Record of Lorenzo Snow monochrome.djvu/80

 54    BIOGRAPHY AND  to frighten him from his post; but Lorenzo Snow is one whom neither favor, fright nor force can move from the post of duty.

At the time referred to, he occupied a well furnished upper room, and directly after his appointment to the presidency, after retiring to bed at night, he was aroused from sleep by the most discordant noises. It seemed as though every piece of furniture in the room was put in motion, going slash-dash, helter-skelter, back and forth against each other in such terrible fury that sleep and rest were utter impossibilities.

He endured the unceremonious visitation for several nights, each night thinking it was the last, that they would leave as unbidden as they came, until the fact forced itself upon his mind that so long as he would tamely submit to their aggressions, so long they would continue to repeat them. Something must be done. He must claim the right of master over his own premises.

Accordingly, after a day of fasting and before kneeling to pray, as was his custom before retiring for the night, he read aloud a chapter in the Bible, and then, in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, and by the authority of the Holy Priesthood, rebuked those spirits, and commanded them to leave the house—went to bed and had no more disturbance. But those spirits were not discouraged with one defeat. It was not long before several members of the Church became disaffected and came out in open rebellion, insomuch that it was painfully necessary to expel quite a number.

Manchester, April 6, 1841.—The council of the Twelve assembled in Manchester Hall, on the 6th day of April, 1841, for the first time, to transact business as a quorum, in the presence of the Church, in a foreign land, being the first day of the twelfth year of the rise of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Nine of the Quorum were present. At this Conference much was done in appointing and setting apart to