RLDS Church History Search

Chapter Context

RLDS History Context Results

Source: Church History Vol. 3 Chapter 40 Page: 781 (~1873)

Read Previous Page / Next Page

781 so that when I was asked what I would do, I forgot the little speech I had prepared in my mind and all I could say was: 'The Lord's will be done.' I afterwards asked Bro. Briggs why he had mentioned my name in prayer in connection with the Bishop's office (for he had prayed in the spirit of prophecy). He replied: 'Because I saw your name right before me in letters of gold.'

"Soon after my ordination a sister approached me and, handing me ten dollars, said: 'I want to give this money to the Lord.' This was the first money I received. I have been greatly blessed in my office and calling. I could relate a number of instances where special need for money was manifest and immediately the supply was equal to the demand. As to why I resigned, I have this to say: A short time before I sent in my resignation, I received a letter from President Smith, stating that the Bishop's office should be located at headquarters, and urged me to move to Lamoni. . . . I, therefore, decided to give the church an opportunity of appointing another in my stead by tendering my resignation. If the church accepted it, all right, otherwise I would move my family to Lamoni if in doing this it shall be found that I did wrong, I am sorry, for I did it for the benefit of the church. But if I have done right I am thankful, for I am relieved of a heavy burden. I have always felt, as I now feel, anxious to do all in my power to advance this glorious work, and I only regret my inability to do more than I have done. I have the fullest confidence in the ultimate triumph of the latter-day work."

Elder H. A. Stebbins, of Lamoni, Iowa, for many years an intimate acquaintance, and for a time Bishop Rogers' counselor in the Bishopric, wrote of him as follows:-

"Looking back over the life-history of Bro. Israel L Rogers, the first Presiding Bishop in the Reorganized Church, it seems a certainty that he was one of the men who was raised up, in the providence of God, to assist in its establishment and its progress. From the time of his acceptance of the gospel in 1840 his course seems to have been directed. Certainly he was prospered and blessed

(page 781)

Read Previous Page / Next Page