H. G.'s experience hearing a man pray in secret

“I was once in the Missouri river bottoms, in company with a Colonel, who was a man of the world, and a man of great influence. We were walking near a camp of the Saints, and as we passed through a thicket of timber, we heard a voice. We stopped and listened. It was a man praying in secret. I never listened to such a prayer, so contrite, so earnest and fervent, and so full of inspiration. We had involuntarily taken off our hats as though we were in sacred presence. I never can forget my feelings on that occasion. Neither can I describe them, and yet the Colonel was more deeply affected than I was. As he stood there I could see the tears falling from his face, while his bosom swelled with the fullness of his emotions. We walked on in silence for some distance, and his first words were, “I am satisfied; your people are solemnly and terribly in earnest.””

— H. G., The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star, Vol. 44, No. 15