Truth Restored

 

Chapter 1: Genesis

by Gordon B. Hinckley

WESTERN New York in the early nineteenth century was essentially frontier territory, a place of opportunity to those for whom the tremendous task of clearing and breaking the virgin land held no fears. Among these was the family of Joseph and Lucy Mack Smith and their eight children, who in 1816 came to the vicinity of Palmyra, not far from Rochester.

They were a typical New England family of English and Scottish extraction who prized the independence their fathers on both lines had fought for in the American Revolution of 1776. And they were religious folk who read the Bible and had family prayer, although like many of their kind they belonged to no church.

This condition among the people of the frontier areas of America became a matter of serious concern to religious leaders. A crusade was begun to "convert the unconverted." It was carried over a vast area from the New England states to Kentucky. In 1820 it reached western New York. The ministers of the various denominations united in their efforts, and many conversions were made among the scattered settlers. One week a Rochester paper noted: "More than two hundred souls have become hopeful subjects of divine grace in Palmyra, Macedon, Manchester, Lyons, and Ontario since the late revival commenced." The week following it was able to report "that in Palmyra and Macedon . . . more than four hundred souls have already confessed that the Lord is good."

Joseph's Story

Under the impetus of this revival four of the Smith family—the mother and three children—joined the Presbyterian Church. Joseph Jr., then fourteen years of age, also felt a strong desire to affiliate himself. But he wanted to be right in so important a step, and he became deeply distressed over the fact that although the various ministers had been united in their efforts when the revival commenced, they disagreed sharply among themselves when the converts began to file off to the various congregations. The more he listened to the conflicting arguments, the more confused he became. He reasoned that all of them could not be right, and the question as to which was recognized by God as His church greatly troubled him. In a simple, straightforward account, which has here been slightly abridged, he tells of the course he took and of the remarkable events which followed:

While I was laboring under the extreme difficulties caused by the contests of these parties of religionists, I was one day reading the Epistle of James, first chapter and fifth verse: "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him."

Never did any passage of scripture come with more power to the heart of man than this did at this time to mine. I reflected on it again and again, knowing that if any person needed wisdom from God, I did. For how to act I did not know, and unless I could get more wisdom than I then had, I would never know; for the teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible.

At length I came to the conclusion that I must either remain in confusion, or else do as James directs, that is, ask of God. I at length came to the determination to ask God, concluding that if he gave wisdom to them that lacked wisdom, and would give liberally and not upbraid, I might venture.

So, in accordance with this my determination, I retired to the woods to make an attempt. It was on the morning of a beautiful, clear day, early in the spring of 1820. It was the first time in my life that I had made such an attempt, for amidst all my anxieties I had never as yet made the attempt to pray vocally.

Having looked around and finding myself alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely done so when immediately I was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick darkness gathered around me, and it seemed for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction.

But exerting all my power to call upon God, and at the very moment when I was ready to sink into despair and abandon myself to destruction — not to an imaginary ruin, but to the power of some actual being from the unseen world, who had such marvelous power as I had never before felt in any being—just at this moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me.

It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name, and said, pointing to the other, "This is my Beloved Son, hear Him!"

My object in going to inquire of the Lord was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join. Therefore, no sooner did I get possession of myself than I asked the Personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right—and which I should join.

I was answered that I must join none of them, that "they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof."

Reactions

As might be expected, so unusual a story caused considerable excitement. In good faith he spoke of it to one of the preachers who had been engaged in the revival. The boy was taken aback when the man treated the story with contempt, telling him that such things were of the devil, that all visions and revelations had ceased with the apostles, "and that there would never be any more of them." Nor was this the end of the matter for him. He soon found himself singled out for ridicule, and men, who ordinarily would have paid little attention to such a lad, took pains to revile him. It was a source of great sorrow to him. He continues:

It was, nevertheless, a fact that I had beheld a vision. I have thought since that I felt much like Paul, when he made his defense before King Agrippa, and related the account of the vision he had when he saw a light and heard a voice; still there were but few who believed him; some said he was dishonest, others said he was mad, and he was ridiculed and reviled. But all this did not destroy the reality of his vision. He had seen a vision, he knew he had, and all the persecution under heaven could not make it otherwise; and though they should persecute him unto death, yet he knew, and would know to his latest breath, that he had both seen a light and heard a voice speaking unto him, and all the world could not make him think or believe otherwise.

So it was with me. I had actually seen a light, and in the midst of that light I saw two Personages, and they did in reality speak to me. And though I was hated and persecuted for saying that I had seen a vision, yet it was true, and while they were persecuting me, reviling me, and speaking all manner of evil against me falsely for so saying, I was led to say in my heart: Why persecute me for telling the truth? I have actually seen a vision, and who am I that I can withstand God or why does the world think to make me deny what I have actually seen? For I had seen a vision. I knew it, and I knew that God knew it. I could not deny it, neither dared I do it. At least I knew that by so doing I would offend God and come under condemnation.

On the great problem that had perplexed him, Joseph Smith's mind was now settled. He joined none of the churches that had sought his interest. And more important, he had learned that the promise of James was true: One who lacked wisdom might ask of God, and obtain, and not be upbraided.

 

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