The Choice of 1849

I watched a documentary yesterday about the impact of the gold rush on the Saints in Utah.  The Saints endured a terrible winter in 1848-49 at the same time that news was breaking that there was gold in California.  Many of the Saints ultimately gave up in 1849, left the Salt Lake Valley, and headed for California.    The narrator summarized the choice that they faced as choosing between Brigham Young’s way and Samuel Brannan’s way.  When Brigham was told that there was gold in California and was encouraged to move the Saints there, he said, “God has appointed this place for the gathering of His Saints, and you will do better right here than you will by going to the gold mines.…  We have been kicked out of the frying-pan into the fire, out of the fire into the middle of the floor, and here we are and here we will stay” (see here).  Samuel Brannan, on the other hand, urged the Saints to go to California to get rich.  As the Savior taught, “Ye cannot serve God and mammon,” and those who left the Church for gold left their God also (Luke 16:13). 

                We see this same kind of decision that others faced in the scriptures.  Ananias and Sapphira attempted to hold back their possessions from the Lord, and when they lied to Peter about it, they both died (see Acts 5:1-11).  Surely that is a symbol for the spiritual death that comes upon us when we place riches above our faithfulness to the Lord.  The Lord asked the young rich man to “sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me” (Matt. 19:21).  He had to decide between wealth and discipleship.  After Elisha’s instructions allowed Naaman to be healed of his leprosy, Naaman wanted to give Elisha a reward, but the prophet responded, “As the Lord liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none.”  But Elisha’s servant Gehazi went after Naaman and took “two talents of silver” from the Syrian (2 Kings 5:16,23).  His greed was stronger than his devotion to the Lord, and because of it he was plagued with the leprosy of Naaman.  Lehi was one, on the other hand, who showed that he was willing to sacrifice everything for God.  He was clearly very wealthy in Jerusalem, but he left at the Lord’s command to go into the wilderness to suffer for many years as they traveled to the promised land.  The short verse from Nephi telling us, “My father dwelt in a tent” is a sermon all alone, teaching us that Lehi was willing to give up even his home and live in a tent in the wilderness in order to keep the commandments of God (1 Nephi 2:15).    

                Brigham Young also said this about the Saints and the temptations of wealth: “The worst fear that I have about this people is that they will get rich in this country, forget God and his people, wax fat, and kick themselves out of the Church and go to hell. This people will stand mobbing, robbing, poverty, and all manner of persecution, and be true. But my greater fear for them is that they cannot stand wealth; and yet they have to be tried with riches” (Nibley, Brigham Young, p. 128; see here).  That last sentence is a warning to us all, and if Brigham was talking about any period in history surely it was ours.  We must all face the trial that comes upon us from riches—whether or not we think ourselves “rich” in the way the world uses the term—and decide if we will stay true to our God above the possession of the world.