"My friends, I am on the ocean, So sweetly do I sail; Jesus is my
portion, He's given me a pleasant gale.

"The bruises sore, In harbor soon I'll be, And see my redeemer
there That died for you and me."

Mrs. Smith's family seem to have had a natural tendency to belief
in revelations. Her eldest brother, Jason, became a "Seeker"; the
"Seekers" of that day believed that the devout of their times
could, through prayer and faith, secure the "gifts" of the Gospel
which were granted to the ancient apostles.* He was one of the
early believers in faith-cure, and was, we are told, himself
cured by that means in 1835. One of Lucy's sisters had a
miraculous recovery from illness. After being an invalid for two
years she was "borne away to the world of spirits, "where she saw
the Saviour and received a message from Him for her earthly
friends.

* A sect called "Seekers," who arose in 1645, taught, like the
Mormons, that the Scriptures are defective, the true church lost,
and miracles necessary to faith.


Lucy herself came very exactly under the description given by
Ruth McEnery Stuart of one of her negro characters: "Duke's
mother was of the slighter intelligences, and hence much given to
convictions. Knowing few things, she 'believed in' a great many."
Lucy Smith had neither education nor natural intelligence that
would interfere with such "beliefs" as came to her from family
tradition, from her own literal interpretations of the Bible, or