Good Better Best

A Difficult Problem

(From the Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt, page 145)

“Of all the places in which the English Language is spoken, I found the City of New York to be the most difficult to access the minds or attention of the people.  From July to January we preached, advertised, printed, published, testified, visited, talked, prayed and wept in vain.  To all appearances there was not interest or impression on the minds of the people in regard to the fullness of the gospel.

There was one member of the Church of the Saints living there, whose name was Elijah Fordham, and he was an Elder and assisted me.  We had baptized about six members and organized a little branch, who were accustomed to meeting in a small upper room in Goerck Street; sometimes two or three others met with us.  We had hired chapels and advertised, but the people would not hear and the few who came went away without being interested.  So we had been forced to give them up after spending our money and strength in vain.

We had retired to our private room upstairs with the few members we had, to hold a last prayer meeting, as I was about to take leave for New Orleans.  We had prayed all around in turn, when, on a sudden, the room was filled with the Holy Spirit and so was each one present.  We began to speak in tongues and prophesy.  Many marvelous things were manifested which I cannot write; but the principal burden of the prophesying was concerning New York City and our mission there.

The Lord said that He had heard our prayers, beheld our labors, diligence and long suffering towards that city; and that He had seen our tears.  Our prayers were heard and our labors and sacrifices were accepted.  We should tarry in the city and go not thence as yet, for the Lord had many people in that City and He had now come by the power of His Holy Spirit to gather them into His fold.  His angels should go before us and cooperate with us.  His Holy Spirit should give the people visions and dreams concerning us and the work of the Lord and He would make bare his arm to heal the sick and confirm the Word by signs following; and from that very day forward we should have plenty of friends, money to pay our debts with the publishers; means to live and crowds to hear us.

There should be more doors open for preaching than we could fill; crowds, who could not get in, should stand in the streets and about the entrance to try to hear us and we should know that the Almighty could open a door and no man could shut it.

As these things were manifested in power and the demonstration of the Spirit, we could not doubt them.  So we gave up going to New Orleans and concluded to stay; but we were almost ready to say in our hearts, like one of old: ‘If the Lord should make windows in Heaven, could these things be?’

Now there was in this little meeting a man named David Rogers, whose heart was touched.  He, being a chair maker, fitted up a large room and seated it with the chairs of his warehouse and invited us to preach in the same.  This room was crowded.  He then joined with one of our members, who was a joiner and rented a small place and seated it for a regular place of meeting; this was generally crowded.  In the meantime, a Methodist clergyman came to hear me, whose name was Cox.  He invited me to his house to preach, near East River; he and his household were obedient to the faith, with many of the members of his society.  While preaching, a lady solicited me to preach in her house in Willett Street; for, said she, “I had a dream of you and of the new Church the other night.”  Another lady wished me to preach in her house in Grant Street.

In the meantime I was invited by the Free Thinkers to preach, or give a course of lectures, in Tammany Hall.

  In short, it was not three weeks from the delivery of the prophecies in the upper room till we had fifteen preaching places in the city, all of which were filled to overflowing.  We soon commenced baptizing and continued doing so almost daily during the winter and spring.  One lady, who had been four years under the doctor’s care with a crippled leg, arose and walked, with her leg instantly restored whole, even as the other.  Her physician was immediately dismissed and was very angry, because we had spoiled his patronage.  He even threatened to sue us.  Another lady, who had lain in her bed four years with the dumb palsy, arose and walked.  She had not, previous to our laying hands on her, been able to stir a finger, or a toe, on her right side for about four years; so said the family and so she herself testified.

In this case her physician and also some religious ministers, who called to see her, glorified God, acknowledged His hand and exhorted her to persevere in the faith.

A child of Mr. Wandle Mace of Number 13 Bedford Street was healed of brain fever, in the last stage, when the doctors had given him over and the kindred and neighbors had gathered in to see him die.  I laid my hands on him, in the presence of them all and he was healed and in a few hours took nourishment and commenced to play and run about the floor. 

In the same house, in an upper chamber, lay a woman, by the name of Dexter, sick, who had not left her room, nor scarcely her bed, for some six months; she was at the point of death and her babe also, who had take the disease from her.  Her mother, who had the care of her, was present when the child was healed and she ran upstairs and told the woman that there were men below who healed the sick as in days of old, by the laying on of hands in the name of Jesus. 

The woman exclaimed: “Thank God, then I can be healed.”  She sent for us and was from that hour restored to health and the child also.  She walked about two miles to the East River and was baptized and then walked home again, it being a very wet day with snow and rain and the sidewalks about shoe deep in snow and mud.  After these three miracles of healing had been witnessed in that house in Bedford Street, six persons who witnessed them were baptized, namely: Wandle Mace and wife, Theodore Curtis and wife and the sick woman and her mother before named.

During our stay in New York I made frequent visits to the country and to other towns.  Branches of the Church were formed at Sing Sing and in Jersey and also in Brooklyn and various other parts of Long Island.  Some members were also baptized in Holiston, Massachusetts.  (Thus, the work went forward at an alarming rate).