Thy Gold to Refine: 4 (Work and the Glory)

The story of the fictional Steed family enters one of the stormiest and yet most inspiring periods in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Picking up where volume 3 left off in the summer of 1838, this installment finds the Steeds (all but their daughter Melissa and her family) happily reunited in Far West, Missouri, only to be thrown into a maelstrom of intense and tragic events: the election-day battle at Gallatin; the siege of DeWitt; the Battle of Crooked River; the issuing of Governor Bogg's extermination order; the Haun's Mill massacre; the fall of Far West, the incarceration of the Prophet Joseph Smith; and the expulsion from Missouri. Beloved characters from previous volums return here, including Joshua Steet, who, although reconciled to his family now, finds that his commission in the Missouri state militia forces him to be aligned with those opposing the Mormons.

Gerald Lund received his B.A. and M.S. degrees in sociology from Brigham Young University, and has done post-graduate work in the New Testament and Hebrew at Pepperdine University and the University of Judaism in Los Angeles, California. Employed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints' Church Educational System (CES) for many years, he has been a seminary teacher, an institute teacher and director, a curriculum writer, a director of college curriculum, and a zone administrator. Elder Lund is a member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy and is currently serving in the Area Presidency of the Europe West Area. Gerald Lund is among the most-read authors in Church literature. His publications have sold nearly 3,000,000 copies. Titles written by Gerald include The Work and The Glory series, The Coming of the Lord, This Is Your World, One in Thine Hand, The Alliance, Leverage Point, The Freedom Factor, and Jesus Christ, Key to the Plan of Salvation. The Kingdom and the Crown: Fishers of Men, released in 2000, is his 25th novel. Gerald and his wife, Lynn, have seven children and reside in Alpine, Utah.