This is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.
Eric Jansson, the leader of the Swedish communal society at Bishop Hill, Illinois, astounded the members who had gathered in the Colony Church to hear him preach at divine services, when he stood up and reported that the Spirit had commanded him to take a new wife.
"Was God no respecter of the dead?" some of those listening thought. Jansson's faithful and devoted wife of seventeen years had died only four days before, during one of the epidemics that had swept the colony. She had been respected and loved by everyone. She was barely in the grave, and now God was ordering the widower to marry again.
Few doubted their leader's ability to listen to God. Even before the group had left Sweden for the New World in 1846, there were those who had elevated his title from bishop to prophet, to apostle, even to the second coming of Christ. Among them was Jansson himself, who bragged about the fact that he never needed notes or preparations for his sermons. "I don't need any written words to base my sermon on," he told a visitor, "the words leap as the Holy Ghost so graciously apportions them."
However, not everyone in the colony was equally strong in the faith. Women tended to have more faith than the men. Indeed, many of the men at Bishop Hill had come to the New World following their wives who had become Jansson's followers. Even the doubters, however, had learned to keep silent. "I speak in every way as the voice of God," Jansson said. "If anyone is obstinate, then he shall be banished."
But now Jansson seemed to have pushed their faith to the limit. Only four days dead. Was it really God ordering this marriage? And who would the new wife be? Jansson could have his choice of almost anyone.
Fortunately, among his most ardent followers, there was a woman who was a quick thinker. Sensing the tension and murmuring, she rose to her feet. "The Spirit just spoke to me, too," she announced. "He has made known to me that I must become Eric Jansson's new wife." Her words confirmed that the Spirit must indeed have spoken to Eric Jansson.
What a noble sacrifice she had made. All doubts vanished—except, perhaps, for one.
Rock Island Lines with Roald Tweet is underwritten by the Scott County Regional Authority, with additional funding from the Illinois Arts Council and Augustana College, Rock Island.
