Doctrine & Covenants

4, 11-12, 14-16

Missionaries that match the Message!

Doctrine & Covenants 4

Joseph Smith Senior

Ordained a Patriarch in December of 1833.

Baptized on April 6th, 1830.

His father was Asael Smith who had seven visions in 8 years. The last vision he saw was within one month of Joseph Junior’s 1st Vision.

At 24 he married Lucy Mack and settled in Tunbridge, Vermont. They lost all their money selling crystallized ginseng. His partner Stephens actually took the ginseng to China and made a bundle of money. When he returned he told Joseph Sr. that he was not able to sell it. When Joseph Sr. found out that Stephens had deceived him he followed him to Canada to try and get his money back. He never did find him. They had to sell their farm as a result. They then moved to Sharon, Windsor County, Vermont.

Joseph Smith Senior did not lack the humility to follow his Son!

He was on of the eight witnesses of the Book of Mormon!

Joseph Jr. took him by the hand and exclaimed, “Praise to my God! That I lived to see my own father baptized into the true Church of Jesus Christ!

Joseph Sr. declared, “The Lord has often visited me in visions and dreams, and has brought me, with my family, through many afflictions, and I this day thank his holy name.”

At 64 Father Smith served a mission with his brother John back east. He died when he was sixty-nine years old in Nauvoo in 1840.

When Joseph Jr. was taken prisoner in Far West, Joseph Sr. heard him scream and heard five or six gun shots go off. His reply was “Oh my God! My God! They have killed my son! They have murdered him and I must die!”

His agony was so great that he immediately became ill. He never did fully recover.

Before he died in Nauvoo he gave blessings to his family.

To Joseph Jr. he said :”… You shall even live to finish your work.” At this time Joseph cried out, weeping “Oh! My father shall I?” “Yes!”

After giving a blessing to his wife (Mary Duty), he paused and said, “I can see and hear as clearly as I ever could.”

He then said, “I see Alvin… I shall live seven or eight minutes. He died eight minutes later very calmly. So calmly that the family thought he would start breathing again anytime (Nauvoo, 1840).

He was filled with the testimony of the truth, and was always anxious to share it with others. He was almost sixty when he made the tedious journey back to (Stockholm –Potsdam) New York to carry the gospel to his father and mother, his sister and brothers. Soon after his return he was imprisoned for a small debt of fourteen dollars, rather than deny the divinity of the Book of Mormon and be forgiven the debt! He was cast into a cell with a condemned murderer and left four days without food. Later he was transferred to the prison work yard where he preached the gospel and taught two persons the gospel whom he later baptized. He was in prison a full month before his family was able to obtain his release (E. Cecil McGavin, The Family of Joseph Smith, 1963, 68).

Doctrine & Covenants 4

Elder Joseph Fielding Smith pointed out that even though it is only seven verses long, it contains sufficient counsel and instruction for a lifetime of study. No one has yet mastered it (Church History and Modern Revelation 1:35).

Doctrine & Covenants 4:1

The Book “Marvelous Work and a Wonder” has helped convert more people to this Church than any other book save the Book of Mormon.

Marvelous Work and a Wonder = Restoration!

Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his famous Divinity School Address at Harvard – shortly after the Restoration – stated:

“The need was never greater for new revelation than now.” Further, “the church seems to totter to its fall, almost all life extinct.” Continuing,

“I look for the hour when the supreme beauty, which ravished the souls of those eastern men, and chiefly of the Hebrews, and through their lips spoke oracles to all time, shall speak the West also.”

Brigham Young stated:

“My mind was open to conviction, and I knew that the Christian world had not the religion that Jesus and the Apostles taught. I knew that there was not a Bible Christian on the earth within my knowledge.” (Journal of Discourses, 5:75)

Willard Richards became “convinced that the sects were all wrong, and that God had no church on earth, but that he would soon have a church whose creed would be the truth.” (History of the Church, 2:470)

Doctrine & Covenants 4:2

Pres. Bednar’s thoughts on a mighty heart and strong minds!

Doctrine & Covenants 11

“First Seek to Obtain my Word!”

Hyrum came for a visit. Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were forced to keep secret the circumstances of having received the priesthood and on having been baptized (because of persecution).

Doctrine & Covenants 11:7, 9-10 (124:15)

“A tender, sympathetic heart.”

Doctrine & Covenants 11:15

“It is quite a common thing in the world for men to assume authority and act in the name of the Lord when he has not called them” (Joseph Fielding Smith, Church History and Modern Revelation, 1:57.).

Joseph wrote, “I could pray in my heart that all my brethren were like unto my beloved Hyrum, who possesses the mildness of a lamb, and the integrity of a Job, and in short, the meekness and humility of Christ; and I love him with that love that is stronger than death, for I never had occasion to rebuke him, nor he me, which he declared when he left me to day” (History of the Church 2:338).

Hyrum spent a great deal of his time in missionary service and other Church assignments. On one of his missions, he met the Tyler family near Erie Pennsylvania. Daniel Tyler later reminisced:

About December, 1832, Elder Hyrum Smith, brother to the prophet, came to our neighborhood. My father told him that his daughter, who was present, was bent on being baptized into his church, stating at the same time, that the Elder who baptized her would do so at his peril. The Elder quite mildly remarked in substance as follows:

“Mr. Tyler, we shall not baptize your daughter against your wishes. If our doctrine be true, which we testify it is, if you prevent your daughter from embracing it, the sin will be on your head, not on ours or your daughter’s.”

This remark pricked him to the heart. He began to think that possibly the “Mormons” were right and he was wrong. He therefore decided to counsel his daughter in the matter and then permit her to exercise her free agency. He would thus relieve himself of any responsibility.

He then took her on an ox-sled to Lake Erie, a distance of two miles, where, after a hole was cut through three feet of solid ice, she was baptized and confirmed into the Church by Elder Hyrum Smith (Daniel Taylor, “Incidents of Experience,” in Scraps of Biography, 26).

As soon as news of Jerusha’s death reached him, Hyrum returned home. Within weeks he proposed marriage to Mary Fielding, a convert to the Church from Canada who taught school in Kirtland, and they were married on December 24.

Hyrum later remarked, “It was not because I had less love or regard for Jerusha, that I married so soon, but it was for the sake of my children (Corbett, Hyrum Smith, Patriarch, 164).

Doctrine & Covenants 11:21

Even submissive ignorance is not flattering to God. If the desire of Hyrum Smith, one of the best-living men to ever grace the earth, to labor in the kingdom, was refused because he needed first to “study” the word of the Lord. Then how much more need have we to labor and prepare to be worthy companions of the spirit of revelation?

President David O. McKay told the following story in a priesthood missionary committee meeting.

It illustrated why we need to seek to obtain the word before we seek to declare it…

“In 1897 I left for the mission field. On the boat taking the thirty young elders to Liverpool was a Protestant minister, and the elders soon got into a debate with him. It seems that I was the spokesman for a while, and the question came up as to where Jesus was when his body was in the tomb. Now I had learned, as boys and girls learn in Sunday School, priesthood meeting, and Mutual, that Jesus went to preach to the spirits in prison, so I spoke up, using about those words. The minister took a Bible and said, “where do you find that?”

“I didn’t know for the life of me where the scriptural reference was to be found, but I knew that I was right. In our group was a man from Holland who was on his way to fill a mission. He was standing by and whispered to me: “Peter, Peter.” I then took the Bible, and I suppose I turned the wrong way to find the Epistle of Peter. For the life of me, I did not know where to find the text. The minister took the Bible and said: “my eight-year old child knows more about the Bible than you do.” There was so much truth in what he said that I spent the rest of the voyage becoming better acquainted with the scriptures” (Jeffrey J. Marchant, “Words into Power,” New Era, July 1977, 30-31).

Doctrine & Covenants 12

Revelation to Joseph Knight Sr.

Joseph was not a member when this revelation was given.

He knew the Church was true, but wanted to examine the Book of Mormon a little more. Joseph Smith was in dire circumstances during the winter of 1828 and Joseph Knight against the wishes of his family gave Joseph Smith a pair of shoes and three dollars to help him! Joseph Smith bought paper with the money so that he could continue to translate.

Aware of Joseph Knight’s hesitation, Joseph Smith prayed for him and received section 23:6-7.

In Nauvoo, Joseph Smith saw his old friend Joseph Knight hobbling along without a cane. Joseph Smith gave him his cane, saying “you need this cane more than I do.” The prophet told him to keep it as long as he like and pass it along to his descendants with the first name Joseph. The cane is still around today.

On 22 January 1842 the Prophet Joseph wrote a tribute to Joseph Knight:

Joseph Knight…was among the number of the first to administer to my necessities….For fifteen years he has been faithful and true, and even-handed and exemplary, and virtuous and kind, never deviating to the right hand or to the left. Behold he is a righteous man, may God Almighty lengthen out the old man’s days; and may his trembling, tortured, and broken body be renewed,…and it shall be said of him, by the sons of Zion, while there is one of them remaining, that this man was a faithful man in Israel; therefore his name shall never be forgotten (History of the Church 5:124-25).

Father Knight died in Mt. Pisgah, Iowa at the age of 74.

Doctrine & Covenants 12:8

No one can assist in this work unless…

Doctrine & Covenants 14-16

Revelations to the Whitmer’s

Doctrine & Covenants 14:7 Endure to the End!

The ever more rapid passing of time tends to provide a much keener appreciation for those disciples who “endure well” (Doctrine & Covenants 121:8) to the end. However, this sobering challenge is not just for the aging.

To “endure well” to the end is actually enduring well to the very beginning. Meanwhile, this life is the second estate over the prospects of which we once shouted for joy (Job 38:7), even though there may be brief moments when we might wonder what all that shouting was about.

But here we are in the midst of “all these things,” including those things which the tutoring Lord “seeth fit to inflict upon us” (Mosiah 3:19).

Our capacity to love and to endure well are bound together by patience.

Real faith in God includes faith in his timing. God did not, for instance, rush the Restoration, which required, among other things, adequate political and religion freedom. To have rushed would have been to crush human agency or to risk failure because of premature action.

Shakespeare wrote:

For there was never yet a philosopherThat could endure the toothache patiently.

La Rochefoucauld said:

We all have strength enough to endure the misfortunes of others.

William Walsh observed:

I can endure my own despair,But not another’s hope.

Emerson asserted:

Some of your hurts you have cured,

And the sharpest you still have survived,But what torments of grief you enduredFrom evils which never arrived!

Yeats spoke of enduring:

Endure that toil of growing up;The ignominy of boyhood; the distressOf boyhood changing into man;The unfinished man and his pain.

(Familiar Quotations, 14th ed., John Bartlett, comp. [London: Macmillan, 1968], 247, 355, 387, 604, 883).

Our emphasis, therefore, should be on “doing” and “becoming,” not just on surviving; on serving others, not just serving time.

Thus this quality of graceful endurance includes, but is more than, hanging on “for one moment more.” Passing beyond breaking points without breaking takes the form of endurance.

The requirement to endure well is not optional (Doctrine & Covenants 53:7).

The quality being focused on includes intellectual as well as behavioral endurance.

Why is non-endurance a denial of the Lord?

Because giving up is a denial of the immense potential of our spirit birth and of the Lord’s loving capacity to see us through “all these things.”

We should see life, therefore, as being comprised of clusters of soul-searching experiences, even when these are overlain by seeming ordinariness or are plainly wrapped in routine. Thus some who are chronologically very young can be Methuselah’s as to their maturity in spiritual things.

We will never see the spiritual scenery beyond the next ridge unless we press forward on the strait and narrow path.

Enduring also includes the in-between periods of life. Winston Churchill endured a decade (1929-39) of what were called his “wilderness years.” He was outside the circles of power, his talents being largely unused though his accurate warning voice was raised. Many assumed his political career to be over. But his time came in his country’s hour of need, and his enduring had not been in vain.

C.S. Lewis wrote, that the “cross comes before the crown, and tomorrow is a Monday morning” (C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, Grand Rapids: The William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1965, 14).

Similarly, fair weather followership cannot see us through life’s stormy seasons.

Submission, after all, is the ultimate adoration.

David Whitmer was a constant critic of Joseph Smith. When Moroni showed the three witnesses the plates, Moroni turned to David Whitmer and said, “David blessed is he that endureth to the end” (Roberts, Conference Report, Oct. 1926, 126).

For 50 years, David Whitmer maintained strict separation from the Church. He died in Richmond, Missouri in 1888.

During his years in a non-Mormon society David Whitmer tenaciously held to his testimony of the Book of Mormon. He was widely known as “the last surviving witness” and was interviewed far more extensively than the other witnesses. He said that thousands came to inquire, and over fifty of these conversations are reported in reasonable detail in contemporary diaries, letters, and newspapers.

Just before his death David called his family and a few friends to his bedside. Turning to his attending physician, he said, “Dr. Buchanan, I want you to say whether or not I am in my right mind, before I give my dying testimony.” The doctor answered, “Yes, you are in your right mind.” David then bore testimony: “I want to say to all, the Bible and the record of the Nephites (Book of Mormon) is true, so you can say that you have heard me bear my testimony on my death-bed (LDS Biographical Encyclopedia 1:270).

David died on 25 January 1888 in Richmond at the age of eighty-three. The Richmond Democrat eulogized his life: “No man ever lived here, who had among our people, more friends and fewer enemies. Honest, conscientious and upright in all his dealings, just in his estimate of men, and open, manly and frank in his treatment of all, he made lasting friends who loved him to the end (Richmond Democrat, 26 January 1888, as cited in Anderson, 76).

Of Joseph Smith, David Whitmer said:

“He was a religious and straight forward man. He had to be, for he was illiterate and he could do nothing himself. He had to trust in God. He could not translate unless he was humble and possessed the right feelings toward everyone.”

“One morning, something went wrong about the house and he was put out about it. Something that Emma his wife had done. Oliver and I went up stairs and Joseph came up soon after to continue the translation, but he could not do anything. He could not translate a single syllable. He went down the stairs out into the orchard, and made supplication to the Lord; he was gone about an hour – came back to the house, and asked Emma’s forgiveness and then came up the stairs where we were, and then the translation went on all right. He could do nothing save he was humble and faithful.” (A Comprehensive History of the Church, 1:131)

Doctrine & Covenants 15 & 16

John Whitmer:

John lived to be seventy five years old. He died in Far West.

He assisted Joseph as a scribe for the translation of the Book of Mormon before being baptized by Oliver Cowdery.

He also assisted for a short time on the translation of the Bible in 1830.

His 96 written pages of Mormon history are considered by some historians to be the most authoritative history of the Church before 1838.

He was excommunicated in 1838. He remained in Missouri during the atrocities arising from the Extermination Order of 1838, free from persecution because of is disassociation with the Saints.

When the Saints fled from their homes and property in Far West he returned and took advantage of cheap prices for land and succeeded in purchasing much of the abandoned town. He resided in Far West for the remainder of is life.

During the next forty years he wrote final chapters of his history, revealing his bitterness toward Joseph Smith and Mormonism.

His testimony of the Book of Mormon was told again and again with strong emotions. “Old Father John Whitmer told me last winter, with tears in his eyes, that he knew as well as he knew he had an existence that Joseph translated the ancient writing which was upon the plates which he ‘saw and handled (Myron Bond letter, Saints’ Herald, 15 August 1878, 254).

John died on 11 July 1878 in Far West. His estate at death consisted of 625 acres of prime farmland near Far West, livestock, farm machinery, and a two- story home. A eulogy in the Kingston Sentinel praised him. “Mr. Whitmer remained at Far West and has since been a highly respected and law abiding citizen (Kingston (Missouri) Sentinel, as cited in Whitmer, 21).

Peter Whitmer Jr.

Went on the mission to the Lamanites with Parley P. Pratt and Oliver Cowdery and Ziba Peterson.

He became an accomplished tailor. One of his clients was General Alexander Doniphan.

He also made a suit for Lilburn W. Boggs for his inauguration ceremony when he was elected lieutenant governor.

He died in 1835 from consumption and infection. He served on the High Council in 1836.

Membership of World Religions

Confucianism 14%

Taoism 2%

Shintoism 2%

Buddhism 7%

Zoroastrian

Hinduism 18%

Muslim 19%

Protestant 8%

Eastern Orthodox 5%

Roman Catholic 23%

Jewish 1/2 of 1%

LDS