Let That Man Be Cursed

Description

This story is a warning delivered with care and concern. In 1838, Peregrine Sessions, Joseph Smith Sr. and Don Carlos Smith were making their way out of the state of Missouri following the extermination order of Governor Lilburn Boggs.

Near Palmyra Missouri they stopped at a farmhouse to buy some corn and camp for the night. Sessions records,

Father Smith asked the man if we could camp there and buy some feed. He said, ‘Are you Mormons?’ Father Smith said, ‘Yes’. He said, ‘Damn you, you can’t stay here.’ With many other insulting words. We all turned from him and when we had got into the street Father Smith took off his hat although the snow was falling and with an uplifted hand said, ‘In the name of the Lord whom we serve, let that man be cursed in his basket and in his store and let his name be cut off from under heaven’, and we all said, ‘Amen’.

And they went on their way to the next house where they were received kindly and put up for the night.

Ten years passed and Peregrine Sessions along with William Cutler and William Hathaway set course for northern Missouri. This was that period of time when the Saints were refugees on the banks of the Missouri at Winter Quarters Nebraska. Because of the scarcity of food and supplies in the winter of 46-47, many made journeys into Missouri in hopes of procuring provisions. Sessions wrote the following in his diary,

The roads were very bad and we made slow headway, although we had a good team. Nothing of importance happened to us on the way. Found many of the old mobocrats in Clay and Ray Counties.

Then Peregrine recognized that he was on the same road that he had been ten years before and he remembered the incident just described. He said,

This was brought fresh to my mind for behold there was naught to mark the spot but the ruins of his house burned to ashes. His orchard was broken down, his wife and three children were burned to death in his house and he at the time was in close confinement and insane.

At the next house where Father Smith had left his blessing there was visible evidence of prosperity and peace. Peregrine concludes,

Here I saw the Power of the Holy Priesthood manifest for at the next house we were received kindly Father Smith left his blessing upon the house and family. Here my eyes beheld his words fulfilled to the letter. All this passed and the two men ignorant of the cursing and the blessing placed upon them but we passed on.

It is no light thing to receive a blessing from the Lord’s chosen servants. President Russell M. Nelson recently said,

With the power of the holy apostleship vested in me, I bless you in your quest to overcome this world. I bless you to increase your faith in Jesus Christ and learn better how to draw upon His power. I bless you to be able to discern truth from error. I bless you to care more about the things of God than the things of this world. I bless you to see the needs of those around you and strengthen those you love. Because Jesus Christ overcame this world, you can too. I so testify in the sacred name of Jesus Christ.

I pray that we may so live as to lay claim on this magnificent promise.

Sources: https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/memories/KWN5-P1S

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2022/10/47nelson?lang=eng