Showing results for "The Work of Literature" in Christian Fiction

It is a season of rejuvenation as, after the horrors of the Missouri persecutions, the Saints find refuge across the Mississippi in Illinois, where they found the city of Nauvoo. Their community grows rapidly, miracles occur (including Joseph's raising of many from their sickbeds), the work of the Restoration rolls forward and the Steeds are there for it all. Matthew and Derek accompany members of the Twelve on the Quorum's mission to England, and there they witness a dramatic harvest of souls, including Wilford Woodruff's remarkable success.

Swept up in the great drama as the infant Church expands and spreads westward into Ohio and Missouri, the Steeds become eyewitnesses of miracles as well as of the horrors of mob mayhem. Nathan and Lydia begin their married life, meeting new challenges and facing crises that test both their faith and their love; Mary Ann struggles with her feelings over her husband Benjamin's continued lack of spiritual response to the Restoration message; Jessica Steed, distraught by her apparent inability to have children, watches helpless.

Pillar of Light—the first volume in the series The Work and the Glory—begins the epic story of the Benjamin Steed family. In the 1820s they move from Vermont to Palmyra Township in upstate New York in search of better farmland. There they meet a young man named Joseph Smith and are thrown into the maelstrom of conflict and controversy that swirls around him. Did he really see the Father and the Son in a pillar of light? Has he truly been visited by angelic messengers? What is all this talk about gold plates and new scripture? In short, is he a prophet and seer or a monumental fraud?

Several momentous events take place during this period in Church history: Nauvoo becomes a well-established city; the Relief Society is founded; the endowment is administered for the first time in this dispensation; Joseph Smith becomes a candidate for president of the United States; he delivers his monumental King Follett Discourse. Meanwhile, however, dark forces outside as well as inside the Church are at work to destroy Joseph and the Restoration cause.

Following the death of his once-estranged sister, Elise, Daniel is burdened with guilt and haunted by all that was left unsaid between them. But when he finds himself in possession of Elise’s unfinished manuscripts, he sees an opportunity to “write” his wrongs: he’ll ensure that her dream of publishing her stories is fulfilled. Nellie, a compassionate freelance editor with her own story of overcoming grief, agrees to help Daniel in what he hopes will be a simple plan to bring Elise’s dream to life.