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Never Forsake

Isaiah, according to tradition, was sawn asunder; Paul was beheaded; Jesus was crucified. The faithful have always been persecuted, and even killed, for their faith. So why did the Lord say, “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: …”? (Matthew 5:10) Maybe this story will provide a partial answer.

In 1838, Amanda Smith and her family were camped at Haun’s Mill near Far West, Missouri. They were to be there only a short time as they moved on in search of a new home free from the persecution that had driven them out of Ohio. Suddenly, around 4:00 in the afternoon of October 30th, a mob of some 240 men swept down on the unsuspecting villagers. When the massacre was over, 18 men and boys lay dead, including Amanda’s husband, Warren, and her ten-year-old son, Sardius. Another of her sons, Alma, had been shot at point-blank range, blowing away his hip joint and leaving him horribly wounded. Amid the terrible cries of the grieving, the wounded, and the dying, Amanda endured a long dark night of terror as she ministered to the needs of her wounded son, expecting at any minute for the mob to return and finish their ghastly work of extermination.

The next morning in hurried desperation, the survivors gathered their beloved dead and dropped them into a dry well to keep them from the mutilations of the mob. While most of those left alive fled the state, Amanda couldn’t. Little Alma’s wound made it impossible for her to move him. In the days and weeks that followed, the mobs continued to harass her and the other women left behind, leaving them in a state of constant fear.

“Prayer,” Amanda said, “was our only source of comfort; our Heavenly Father, our only helper. None but He could save and deliver us.” However, even that was to be denied them as the mob came and announced that if they did not stop their praying, every last one of them would be killed. “Our prayers were hushed in terror,” Amanda said. “We dared not let our voices be heard.” But, to Amanda this became unbearable. “This godless silence,” she said, “was more intolerable than had been the night of the massacre.”

Finally, when she could endure it no longer, she stole down to a cornfield, and raised her voice to heaven. We can only imagine the power and heart of that prayer. As she concluded and emerged from the cornfield, a voice as audible and plain as any voice she had ever heard, spoke to her and repeated a seldom sung verse of a familiar hymn. It said, “That soul who on Jesus hath leaned for repose, I cannot, I will not desert to his foes. That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake, I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.”

“From that moment on,” Amanda said, “I had no more fear. I felt that nothing could hurt me.”

Soon after that, the mob returned with an ultimatum that if she were not out of the state by a certain date, she would be killed. On that appointed day, the mob returned and demanded of her to know why she had not left the state. Boldly, Amanda faced them and demanded that they come into her home and see what they had done to her son that prevented her leaving. The mobbers came in, gathered around Alma’s bedside, and witnessed their grizzly handiwork. They left without doing her any harm.

Now later, once Alma was healed and when Amanda wanted to leave the state, she couldn’t. Her horses had been driven off by the mob. Courageously this woman went to the captain of the mob and demanded her horses. “I did not fear the captain,” she said, “for I had the Lord’s promise that nothing should hurt me.”

The captain told her she could have her horses if she’d pay five dollars for their keep. Amanda said she didn’t have any money; she refused to pay. She walked out in the yard and she took her horse anyway. No one stopped her. Similarly she recovered her other horse, and was soon out of the state and again among her own people.

Now, I began this story by asking why the Lord calls the persecuted ‘blessed’ or ‘happy.’ Well, maybe this is why.

Amanda concludes her account with this testimony: “The Lord had kept His word. The soul who on Jesus had leaned for succor had not been forsaken, even in this terrible hour of massacre.”

Now, it has been said that ‘man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.’ (David O. McKay) Jesus will succor us when we are afflicted for His sake.

My friends, don’t run from the crosses that you are called to bear for Him, for as you carry them valiantly, He will run to you and to your aid, and thereby you will come to know Him.

Story adapted from (Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia: A Compilation of Biographical Sketches of Prominent Men and Women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 4 vols. A. Jenson History
Company and Deseret News, 1901-36, p. 792-796.)