Description

James Godson Bleak

London England, 1851. Joseph Lewis Thompson brought a young friend to meeting. The preacher was Henry Savage. It was a powerful talk and at the end Savage invited any who wished to come forward and take some tracts. Young James went forward and picked up some tracts. Brother Savage noticed that the young man had difficulty reading them because of his eyes. Whereupon he said, “We have an ordinance in the Church as in ancient times of anointing the sick and afflicted with oil, and praying over them, and that if I desire it, ‘I will administer to you for the benefit of your eyesight.’” James expressed that he had no faith in the ordinance, but Brother Savage insisted. James sat down and the blessing proceeded. He was healed. He would later write that so remarkably was he healed that even into his 80’s he never had trouble with his eyes again. James was baptized. Within a few years he was called as the Branch President of the White Chapel Branch in London.

James and his family were filled with the spirit of the gathering and desired to emigrate to Zion. They had the means to make the journey comfortably, but then came word that the emigration for the next season was to proceed by handcart. With a wife of tender constitution and four children under the age of 11, James determined that they could not make a trek of 1300 miles with only a handcart. He contracted for an ox team and a wagon. The members of his branch declared that they too would emigrate with him in the same company and by the same means. Mindful of his example, James realized this would not do, so he wrote at once to the mission president, ordered a handcart for the journey, and donated the rest of the money for the benefit of the  migrating poor. Then one day in a branch testimony meeting a sister was filled with the spirit and gift of tongues and stood and spoke. Another sister interpreted as follows: “I, the Lord, am well pleased with the offering made by my servant Elder James G. Bleak; and notwithstanding he shall see the angel of death laying waste on his right hand and on his left, on his front and on his rearward, yet he and his family shall gather to Zion in safety, and not one of them shall fall by the way.”

“Angel of death laying waste on his right hand and on his left…” Those are ominous words—and James would live to see them vividly fulfilled. For you see James was James Godson Bleak and he crossed the plains as a part of the Martin Handcart Company of 1856. Was his faith tested on that journey? Oh yes! At one point in the terrible cold and suffering of Wyoming his young son Thomas froze to death. While the company gave the lad up for dead, James refused. Drawing on the promise given, he anointed the boy, blessed and prayed for him, persisting in faith and ministering until there was a flutter at the throat, the eyes opened, and life was restored. Thomas lived to become the father of nine children.

It was that “father’s conviction that, if that promise had not been made, the boy would have been given up as dead and would have been laid with [so many others] of that company who were
buried by the wayside in that trying journey.” Carried by his faith, James Godson Bleak lived to be a pioneer in Dixie, a bishop, a patriarch, and the first recorder of the St. George Temple.

Source:

Jolene Allphin, Tell My Story Too p. 274-277

https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/memories/L616-1X5