Going to the source
When I was young we used to go to visit my Uncle Howard and
Aunt Evelyn at the ranch that my uncle managed at Eight Mile outside of Soda
Springs. They had a spring on the
property. That is where they got their
culinary water. The spring water was
artesian. That means that it flowed
freely without a pump all year long.
Down the slight hill there was a pipe that carried the flowing water
into what they called a spring box. The
cold water flowed from the pipe into a box where they kept the butter, milk and
other things they wanted to keep cold.
This water was pure. It came
from deep in the earth where melting snow had percolated thru layers of rock
into an aquifer. When we wanted
uncontaminated pure water we would rely on this spring.
The overflow water then flowed into an irrigation ditch that
ran just below and across the road from the spring. There was plenty of water in the ditch. It looked clear just like the spring water. We were cautioned, “Don’t drink out of the
ditch!” At the time we were young and
did not understand the danger of drinking out of the ditch. Now, at a more
mature age with an understanding of the germ theory, I know why the warning;
”Don’t drink out of the ditch!” We needed to go to the source of the pure
water.
Upstream the ditch ran through a farmyard where there were
cows and sheep and other farm animals deposited their bodily waste on the
ground that drained into the irrigation ditch when it rained. Further up the
source of the water that was in the irrigation ditch deer and other animals
came to drink out of the flowing water.
The water flowed through beaver dams where beaver swam and dispensed
bodily fluids into the water. One of
the parasites that the beaver carried was Giardia Lamblia. We used to call the disease of this parasite
in humans “Beaver
Fever”. If you want more information click on the link.
Would you want to drink out of the ditch?
Later our family moved to Lander, Wyoming. The culinary
water in Lander came from the Popo Agie River.
This water was cold and clear and tasted really good to a boy who came
from Denver, Colorado. There was a
chlorinating plant that was installed to help with bacterial
contamination. There was a problem with
the water. We called it spring runoff.
In the spring the snows that accumulated in the mountains surrounding Lander
melted and the river, which was usually clear water, turned muddy and at the
height of the runoff the water in the pipes in the city was more than
turbid. Some people even reported
seeing small minnows coming out of the taps at this time. During Spring runoff
there were people who got sick. They
called it “Landeritis”. It was an intestinal infection. Some even got Giardia and had to be treated.
Moose were often reported wading in the collecting basin where the city water
came from. While we were living there,
the city decided to put in a water treatment facility and filter all the
impurities and upgrade the chlorinating equipment. My friend Wayne Nelson, the pharmacist, said that if they did
that he would lose a lot of business selling Pepto Bismol during the spring
runoff. Eventually Lander had pure water during the spring runoff.
Would you want to drink the Lander water during spring
runoff?
I have one more example from the distant past. In the history of the church there was a
group of saints that went from Kirtland to Missouri called “Zion’s Camp”. During their trek to Missouri members of
this army developed Cholera. Cholera is
caused by a bacterium called Cholera Vibrio.
It was in the water that some of the members drank and then they got ill. The symptoms were rice water diarrhea and a
sudden loss of serum electrolytes and seizures and death. This was caused by contaminated water. The people at that time knew the disease,
but did not know the cause. They did not know it was caused by contaminated
water. Our ancestor Lysander Gee was
driven out of Nauvoo and went to St. Louis, Missouri with his wife Amanda
Melvin Sagers and her son Orlando Lysander.
While living there, prior to traveling to Utah, Amanda died. There was at that time an epidemic of
Cholera among the saints and many died.
Perhaps Amanda died of Cholera too.
There are lessons that we can learn from this.
Always go to the unadulterated source.
When we are looking for information about the church or the
doctrine of Christ we need to go to the source. These sources are not found in Google or on the Internet or in
Wikipedia. Google and the Internet and Wikipedia are not unadulterated sources.
They have many errors and many contaminated articles containing the opinions of
men.
Adulterated sources can infect innocent people by
perpetuating contamination. Just as the beaver may not become ill from Giardia,
the parasite can be transmitted to humans from water contaminated by the
beaver. A human infected with the parasite may not be symptomatic, but can
transmit it to someone else and that person may become ill. This is what is known as a carrier
state. In a similar manner Cholera can
be transmitted in water from a person that is ill or one who is an asymptomatic
carrier.
The classic example that was taught us in medical school was
that of Typhoid Mary.
Mary Mallon
(September 23, 1869 – November 11, 1938), better known as Typhoid
Mary, was the first person in the United States identified as an
asymptomatic carrier of the pathogen
associated with typhoid fever.
She was presumed to have infected 22 people, three of whom died, over the
course of her career as a cook. She was twice forcibly isolated by public
health authorities and died after a total of nearly three decades in isolation.
Just as Mary, those who publish articles on the
Internet may not have their faith challenged, there are those who read their
articles who die spiritually, because they drank from contaminated, adulterated
sources for their information.
Would
you want Mary Mallon to cook for you?
Where can we find the unadulterated source?
The scriptures contain the word of God. We believe that as far as the Bible is
translated correctly we can hear the voice of God and his son Jesus Christ as
if they were speaking directly to us.
The Book of Mormon contains the word of God. The translation was given by the gift and
power of God. We have direct quotations from Christ and from the prophets. For
my experience Clickhere.
Latter-Day scriptures, such as; the Doctrine and Covenants
and the Pearl of Great Price.
Contemporary documents from reliable sources; such as the
History of the Church, The Documentary History of the Church, the Joseph Smith
Papers. The teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith and the reports of General
Conference.
The voice of the Lord through the ministration of the Holy
Ghost; Joseph Smith is not the only person that can hear the voice of the
Lord. He is your father as well as
mine.
Do not expect to receive the word of the Lord with out
sincere effort on your part by going to the unadulterated sources. Do not give
it what my mother used to say “a lick and a promise”. And “Anything worth doing is worth doing well.”
Drink from the pure source.
Love,
Grandpa
