“Understand, Mrs. Halsey, that I believe the voice of the Lord has spoken, but it is also my desire.”

“Does the voice of the Lord ever speak but in accordance with your desire?”

The answer burst from him with almost hysterical force, “I would to heaven it did not.”

“But in such cases are not your desires divided against themselves? and the word of the Lord comes perhaps in accordance with one desire and in contradiction of another?”

He sat for some time looking absently upon the floor.

“The things of the Lord,” he said, “are of vast importance, and require time and experience, as well as deep and solemn thought, to find them out.  And if we would bring the world to salvation it requires that our minds should rise to the highest, and also search into and contemplate the lowest abyss”—­he paused for a moment, and then added in sad undertone—­“that is within our own hearts.”

Susannah was silent, wondering what was the true secret of his elusive thought.

He went on with an effort.  “Accepting your own words, Mrs. Halsey, that it is at my desire that they are there instead of being scattered among friendly settlements where they could obtain support, it remains true that they are naked, hungry, and cold.  When I sleep the vision of their sufferings comes before me.”  He went on again with more vehemence.  “It is also by obeying my doctrine that they are cast out of their own lands and from their own hearths.  Whether the Lord hath spoken or no, it is by obeying the doctrines that I have taught that they are in wretchedness.”  He rose, pacing the room, apparently unconscious of what he did.

“I know that this has been weighing upon you, as it has upon my husband.”

He shook his head impatiently, striking his breast suddenly with one hand.  “There is but one heart,” he said, “in which the pains and sorrows of them all are gathered.”

She began to see that he had a plan to unfold.

At length he stopped in his pacing, looking toward her.  “We must go to their relief,” he said.  “We must gather an army and conduct our suffering brethren back to their homes in Zion.”

“By force of arms?” she asked.

“If need be.”

He left time for the significance of these words to be fully comprehended, and then went on speaking as he paced again.  “It may be that we will not need to fight, that if we get ourselves in readiness we shall need but to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord; and in plain language to you, who expect no miracle, Mrs. Halsey, I would be understood to say that if a sufficient number of our strong men, armed for defence, join our brethren in Missouri, the Gentiles will be afraid to attack.”

At last she asked, not without excited tremor in her voice, “Who?  How many?  When?”

These were important questions with regard to the organising of an army, but the prophet had in mind a point that must previously be determined.