Carry On! Eliza R Snow

Description

Carry On

Eliza waited a long time before she married—not that she didn’t have suitors—she did, but she waited for that man with whom she could share her soul. Finally, in her 30’s she found him and they were married, but only for a short time. The love of her life was tragically killed. Eliza was “prostrated with grief and besought the Lord with all the fervency of her soul to permit her to follow” her husband to the grave immediately, “and not leave her in so dark and wicked a world.

And so set was her mind on the matter that she did not, and could not cease that prayer of her heart.” And then, from beyond the veil, her husband appeared to her and “told her that she must not continue to supplicate the Lord in that way, for her petition was not in accordance with his design concerning her. [He] told her that his work upon earth was completed as far as the mortal tabernacle was concerned, but her work was not. The Lord desired her, and so did her husband, to live many years.” She was admonished to “be of good courage and help to cheer, and lighten the burdens of others. And that she must turn her thoughts away from her own loneliness, and seek to console her people in their bereavement and sorrow.”

To her everlasting credit, she did. She obediently got up off her knees and went to work. When her people crossed the Plains to the Rocky Mountains, she was there, among the first companies. She wrote of fording rivers, surviving raging storms, witnessing buffalo stampedes and walking for endless dusty miles. When her people were sick and struggling, Eliza was there, constantly lifting, encouraging, and blessing her people. Once in these mountains, she traveled far and wide, up and down the territory, carrying their history, teaching, organizing, and strengthening her people. She became one of the most powerful leaders and influential women of 19th century frontier America.

Besides the strength and charisma of her very character, Eliza led her people by her pen. She gained renown as a poetess. Through such poems as “O My Father, she would teach and administer comfort and joy to her people across generations and down to the present day. Who was she—who was the woman some overcome with grief in the summer of 1844 that she wanted only to die? Eliza R. Snow!

In this life, when we think we are done and have no more to give—it is a surety that we are not! Carry on!

Source:

Andrew M. Jenson, Latter-day Saints Biographical Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, p. 695.