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Speaker: Glenn Rawson
Hi, this is Glenn Rawson. One of the most powerful ways to share history and heritage is by the telling of stories. We began sharing inspiring stories nearly 30 years ago. Each of those stories is true and was intended to inspire and strengthen faith. Over the years, those stories have reached millions around the world. This podcast is for you to listen, learn and enjoy.
First Story: Crowding The Bull 00:34
This first story is the result of hard lessons, learned the hard way by someone with a hard head, me! And the story is along the same lines as the Lord’s parable of the important widow. Remember that’s the one with the unjust judge where the Lord tells the story of the unjust judge and likens the unjust judge to God himself but by contrast not by comparison. Well, this story is a little bit like that and you’ll see why.
Many years ago, when I was just out of high school I signed on with an outfit (there in Idaho) to cowboy. One day we were moving a small herd of bulls when one of the bulls broke away and took off. I went after him on horseback and brought him back but for some reason he took off again.
There was somewhere he was determined to go and it wasn’t where I wanted and that was a problem. I remember that he took off running directly away from the herd as fast as he could go down the fence line. I went after him, growing more frustrated by the moment as I chased him.
I drew alongside on my horse. We were both, the bull and the horse, going hard and my intent was to persuade him by any means necessary to get back with the herd, go the other way. I was crowding him real hard, just starting to get ahead of him, when he gave that massive, muscular head a throw to the right and hit my horse right in the side.
The force of the blow almost knocked my horse off his feet. The problem was even more compounded since my foot and leg were between the bull’s head and the horse’s ribs. Well, that hurt—a lot I knew he didn’t break anything but it sure hurt for a few days! And for the moment all fight was gone out of me.
A day or two ago, that experience came back to my mind, not sure why. I wouldn’t exactly compare the Lord to a charging bull, but the Lord does have a plan and a purpose to everything He does and when He does it. He sees and acts always for the best of all mankind and for our best good. He does what’s best in the best time.
I have found myself at times very frustrated and even angry with the Almighty that He won’t answer my prayers the way I want or when I want—no matter how much I fast and pray, it doesn’t happen. It is no more wise to crowd the Lord for such matters than to push an angry bull. Either way you may get hurt. I know that may sound harsh but that is a lesson and wisdom I’ve learned. Don’t push it!
President Nelson said recently, “The mountains in our lives do not always move how or when we would like. But our faith will always propel us forward. Faith always increases our access to godly power.”
The Gospel of Jesus Christ [as you know] is seldom a therapy of quick fixes. Our mountains of misery [as President Nelson calls them] sometimes take time to move—but they will move.
And in case you are curious about the bull… He won for the moment but when I stopped fighting him and calmed the situation down and tried a different approach, I got what I wanted in the end. I have learned, dear friends, not to fight bulls on the prod or my wise, kind Heavenly Father. A lesson learned the hard way.
Second Story: James Godson Bleak 05:17
As I’ve said, Thank you, all those of you who have shared your family history. The first part of this story I had known for a long time. But it wasn’t until this week and the rest of this history being sent to me by Sandy White, a dear friend, that I learned the rest of the story. And as so often, the rest of the story makes the whole history so much richer and powerful. Here’s the first part of the story.
London, England, 1851, Joseph Lewis Thompson, who I believe is one of my wife’s ancestors. He brought a young friend to a meeting. The man preaching at that meeting was a Latter-Day Saint named Henry Savage. It was a powerful talk. And at the end, Savage invited anyone who wished to come forward and take some tracks.
Young James Godson Bleak went forward and picked up some of the tracks. Brother Savage noticed that the young man [Bleak] had difficulty reading them because of his eyes. Whereupon, he said to James, 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, James said, I will administer to you for the benefit of your eyesight.
James expressed that he had no faith in such an ordinance, but Brother Savage insisted. So James sat down, and the blessing proceeded, and he was healed. He would later write that so remarkably, as he healed at that moment, that even into his 80s he never had trouble with his eyes again.
Well, as you can imagine, James Godson Bleak was baptized. Within a few years, he was called as the Branch President of the White Chapel branch in London. James in his family, like so many others, was filled with the spirit of gathering and desired to emigrate, desire to come here. They have the means to make the journey comfortably.
But then word came that immigration for the next season [1856] was to proceed by handcart. Well, with a wife of tender constitution and four (4) children under the age of 11, James concluded that he could not make a track of 1300 miles with only a cart. So 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 – wagon. Mindful of his example, James realized this would not do, so at once he wrote to the Mission President, ordered a handcart for the journey, and donated the rest of the money for the benefit of the immigrating poor.
Evidently, not long after that, in a branch testimony meeting, one of the sisters was filled with the Spirit of the Lord, and the gift of tongues, and stood and spoke in tongues.
Another sister stood and interpreted the former, as follows, “I, the Lord, am well pleased with the offering, made by my servant, Elder Bleak. And notwithstanding he shall see the Angel of Death, laying waste on his right hand, and on his left, on his front and in his rear word, yet he and his family shall gather to Zion and 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. James Godson Bleak and his family crossed the plains as part of the Martin Handcart Company of 1856.
Was James’ faith tested on that journey all? Yes!
At one point in the terrible cold and suffering of Wyoming, his young son, Thomas, froze to death while under the care of some sisters. While the company gave the lad up for dead, James refused, drawing on the promise given in that interpretation, 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 Bleak lived to become the father of nine children. It was, “that father’s conviction, [meaning brother Bleak], 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.”
Well, those of you from Southern Utah and around know the rest of the story. 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.
Now, of course, there’s more to that story. Mariah, I think that’s how I say it, Sandy, based on what you told me, Mariah Jackson Normington was that sister, who stood in the White Chapel branch that significant day in 1855, and gave that powerful promise by interpretation of tongues. It was she who gave voice to the Lord’s promise to the Bleak family, that not one of them would fall by the way. And while that promise was fulfilled to the letter for the Bleak family, that promise was not given to Mariah’s family.
Prior to Thomas and Mariah Normington leaving London for America, they buried three children. After arriving in America, their little son, Daniel, died August 12, 1856, as the family was about halfway between Iowa City and Florence, Nebraska.
Shortly after that, Mariah gave birth to a child that they named Thomas. He died shortly after.
Winter snows caught up to the Martin Company at the last crossing of the Platte, October 19, 1856 near present day Casper, Wyoming. It was after crossing those icy and treacherous waters that Thomas, [Maria’s husband] and her son Ephraim, succumbed to the cold and also passed away. Mariah had now buried six children and her husband, yet she went on. It is written of her that Mariah had a jolly and cheerful disposition.
As the sufferings and privation of the handcart company increased, it is recorded in the family accounts that Mariah’s great faith and determination, finally, caused her “to give her meager rations to her three little girls and eat dirt”.
In an attempt to satisfy her own hunger, pains, she walked until her feet were so frozen and sore that she crawled along on her hands and knees. When her hands were so frozen, she could no longer use them. She went on her knees and elbows, overcome with hardship, starvation and grief, Mariah slipped into unconsciousness and remembered nothing of the last part of her journey in the rescue wagon sent by John Parker.
John’s son, William was the driver of that wagon and took Mariah and her daughters to the valley and later to his father’s home, where they continued to be nursed back to help.
Mariah suffered measurably on the journey to Zion. Yet there is no record of her murmuring or comparing her journey to the Bleak family. In fact, there was one point on the journey to Zion, across the planes that James Godson Bleak became so weakened, so ill that he couldn’t hold the handcart and he was left at the side of the trail.
That night in camp, “When Mariah inquired as to the well being of brother Bleak and learned that he’d been left back on the trail, she and her brothers took a handcart back on the trail to bring him into camp, where she assisted in nursing him back to help. She stated that leaving him should not have been permitted, because he had been promised in England by the gift of tongues, that he should reach Zion in peace and safety. Not only was Mariah the voice of that promise, but she was in part the means of fulfilling it, notwithstanding her own trials.
Mariah was “cheerful and faithful” ,all her days. She died in Virgin City, Utah, March 19, 1881. She was 61 years old.
Source material: Jolene Allphin, Tell My Story Too
Thank you Sandy for putting me in, sharing that history with me.
My dear friends, one of the things that comes out of that story that I didn’t mention in the story is that notwithstanding, our difficulties, our personal trials, I hope we may be similarly engaged in bringing to pass the Lord’s promises in everyone else’s life. The Lord has promised that the children of Israel would be gathered, that the gospel would be shared, that temples would be built, and that everyone would have the chance to hear the gospel.
Notwithstanding your sufferings, your difficulties, your trials. Thank you for fulfilling the Lord’s promises for others.
Third Story: William Wilberforce 17:07
The cause of human freedom and I speak carefully. The cause of human freedom, liberty, rights and agency is the cause of Christ. The Savior came to free all prisoners for all time, in time and eternity. All slaves would be set free, all addicts would be delivered. Those souls who have taken it up to righteously work for the freedom and liberty and rights of all men surely stand in the Almighty’s favor.
Now, in the spirit of President Dallin H. Oaks, his talk in general conference about the Constitution and freedom of all men and nations, I share the following story. And only those of you who have come with me to England have heard me tell this.
As a young man, William was born in 1725, to a life of privilege in Yorkshire, England. He was the son of a wealthy merchant father. At the age of nine, William was sent to live with an aunt and uncle, who were part of the evangelical movement in the Church of England.
The spirit of their nonconformist teachings and influence affected young William and he too, became at the age of nine deeply religious. Well, this alarmed William’s mother and grandparents and that William adored his aunt and uncle, he was removed and returned to Yorkshire.
When in time, the convictions of his youth waned. I guess you could say that William just sort of gave it up. Then, October 1776, William enrolled at Cambridge, where he pursued his social life first, and his studies second. Drinking gambling, partying with friends, made him extremely popular.
Among his fast friends was William Pitt, the man who would go on to become Prime Minister of England. With Pitt, William nurtured an interest in politics. Together they sought election to the House of Commons. Both were elected to the House of Commons at the age of 21. Both [still students] William became a member of parliament representing Kingston Upon Hull.
William rose in parliament, in prominence determined early on to stand independent of the party and vote his conscience. But at the same time, endearing himself to the people, he was described as the “wittiest man in England”. As a speaker, he was powerful. He had a presence. One writer in Parliament witnessed him speaking and wrote, “I saw what seemed like a mere shrimp mount upon the table. But as I listened, he grew and grew until the shrimp became a whale.”
Then it happened. It was 1785 and William was touring the continent with friends. And while there, he began a serious study of religion with a friend. He started getting up early every morning to pray and read the scriptures. William became converted so much so that he actually considered resigning his seat in Parliament, and becoming a minister of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He sought counsel from his friend William Pitt, and another friend, John Newton, an influential minister from his youth, both advised William to stay in politics. Surely, they told him, “The principles as well as the practice of Christianity are simple and lead not to meditation only, but to action.”
You see what they’re saying. In a measure, don’t give yourself to meditation and prayer only – do something.
William remained in the House of Commons, the cause of his Christianity became his cause. Over his career, William would be a part of more than 60 different philanthropic societies. William was generous with his time and money, believing that those with wealth had a duty to give a significant portion of their income to the needy.
Yearly, William gave away thousands of pounds, much of it to clergymen to distribute in their parishes. He paid off the debts of those who couldn’t support it, education and missions, and then a year of food shortages gave to charity, more than his own yearly income.
He was exceptionally hospitable, and could not bear to sack any of his servants – that means to fire or dismiss. As a result, William’s home was full of old and incompetent servants kept on in charity.
From 1785 until his resignation from Parliament, William pressed for legislation to improve the moral, physical and emotional well being of his countrymen. It was not always popular at times, it seems. He was slandered and vilified by everyone. He was actually attacked and beaten on the streets by a man opposed to his politics. Nevertheless, William pushed on year after year, seeking reform.
Then, on the night of February 23, 1807, the speeches of the House of Commons turned from the legislation on the table, to the man who had written it. They spoke in high tones of praise and honor of William’s life and of his service.
It was said that night that he would go down in history as the man who preserved life for millions. And suddenly, the House rose to its feet and burst forth in tears, while William William Wilberforce bowed his head and wept, and then by a vote of 283 to 16 voted in favor of that piece of legislation that had been William’s life work.
The abolishment of slavery in the British Empire With him did not stop there. For the next 26 years, William Wilberforce lobbied nations at home and across the world to outlaw slavery.
On July 26, 1833, William was informed that the last obstacles had been overcome. Slavery was no more in England or throughout the empire.
Three days later, July 29, 1833, William Wilberforce passed away. So grateful were his countrymen that Wilberforce, the commoner, was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Who can measure how much good one good man or woman determined can do?
Thank you for listening. Many of the stories you heard today have been published and are archived at glennrawsonstories.com. If you would like more information you can communicate with us there. We will be back again with another podcast next week.
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