Voice of the Lord Heard by Solomon Chamberlain in the California Mountains

Around 1850, Solomon Chamberlain traveled to California during the Gold Rush, hoping to improve the financial circumstances of his struggling family. He settled near Sacramento on Weber Creek and began panning for gold, but the wages barely covered his board costs — he was earning a dollar a day while each meal cost a dollar.

After weeks of hardship, isolated in the wilderness with only a mule, insufficient provisions, and the realization that continuing would require selling his mule to survive, Chamberlain turned to prayer. He knelt alone in the woods and asked the Lord what he should do.

He wrote in his autobiography: 'The voice of the Lord came unto me as plain as though a man spake and said, "If you will go home to your family you shall go in peace, and nothing shall harm you."'

Taking the Lord at His word, Chamberlain immediately rose, left all his belongings — a chest of clothes and his rifle — in a store without telling anyone his plans, and set off across the California mountains with nothing but a pocket knife. He traveled safely home without harm, fulfilling the promise he had received. He described this as one of the clearest divine communications of his life.