Who Is This Man? (And Why Is His Picture In The C. E. S. Manual?)

[coolrok7]

It just might end up like the Worldwide Church of God did (even with just a spoon)?

Edited March 8, 2015 by coolrok7

[Uncle Dale]

It just might end up like the Worldwide Church of God did (even with just a spoon)?

 

 

Mormonism will survive -- its roots go deep and they spread wide.

 

 

But it will have to evolve in order to survive in the years to come.

 

I once heard somebody say that they didn't believe in holy evolution --

and by that, they meant theological evolution. They did not believe

that a "true church" can evolve and remain "true."

 

And when I'd only seen two decades on this planet, I might have said

the same. But, now approaching four times that span, I've seen a

little evolution -- and, looking backwards, through historical investigation,

I've come to understand that there has been great evolution in both

the content and practice of Latter Day Saintism.

 

Even before they changed the name, and became more Protestant-like,

the Reorganized LDS had softened their old insistence upon a literal, 

fundamentalist acceptance of Joseph Smith and his personal testimony.

Sooner or later the Mormons will do the same. They have the mass and

momentum to survive such change. The Reorganized LDS perhaps did

not have sufficient membership and resources to avoid going down the

same road as did Herbert W., Garner Ted, and the British Israelites.

 

One of the problems Mormons face, is that the multi-volume set often

called "Comprehensive History of the Church," has errors woven into its

fabric. In some ways it is less authentic than was the earlier documentary

history that its compiler (Elder Roberts) was attempting to supplement.

Roberts' work is better referenced, and includes greater detail, in many

instances -- but it is that greater detail itself that's become problematic.

 

Roberts was one of the Saints responsible for the wrong ideas about Lane.

 

Consider this thoughtful commentary, from LDS scholarly research done

back in the era of the "New Mormon History" --

 

 

 

Are we Mormons willing to admit that some of our writers have made mistakes in trying to reconcile

conflicting accounts of Joseph Smith's early experience? A case in point is B. H. Roberts' description

of the setting for Joseph Smith's First Vision. Roberts based his conclusion upon an attempted correlation

of the accounts of Joseph Smith, William Smith, and Oliver Cowdery. He said that it was in 1820 that a

certain Reverend Lane so affected Joseph Smith by his preaching that he was induced to utter the

prayer which resulted in that First Vision...

 

It is probable that Roberts came to his conclusion because the [1824] revival described by Cowdery

seemed similar to the 1820 religious excitement later described by Joseph Smith. Clearing up the

confusion of dates does not seem as important here as a frank recognition that there is such confusion.

The inconsistencies in early sources do not affect the credibility of Joseph Smith, but our failure to

discuss them perpetuates the myth that Mormon writers are not willing "to face the facts."

 

1a. Some "religious excitement," here and there, not far from Palmyra = 1820

 

1. b. A Great Revival that began among the Methodists and spread outward

from the Palmyra area, resulting in hundreds of new Christian converts = 1824

 

2a. Rev. Lane may have passed through the Palmyra area = 1820

 

2b. Rev. Lane was the First Elder of the Methodists in and around Palmyra = 1824

 

.

UD

Edited March 8, 2015 by Uncle Dale

[coolrok7]

That of course is its major problem, "errors woven into its fabric", beginning with Joseph Smith (and those who wanted to get back to first century Christianity). The Christianity of the first century was meant to bring the truth of God to all those who would believe, period (both Jews and Gentiles).

[telnetd]

Indeed -- I suppose nobody disputes the fact that Lane was the primary

Methodist official in the Palmyra area at the time.

 

Hopefully the Baptists won't publish an article in their magazine indicating that

they were probably persecuted by this same man too.

 

"Smith family tradition linked Lane with the Palmyra revival".

 

Hopefully the LDS Church has more factual evidence than this.

 

Gail

Edited March 8, 2015 by telnetd

[Uncle Dale]

That of course is its major problem, "errors woven into its fabric", beginning with Joseph Smith (and those who wanted to get back to first century Christianity). The Christianity of the first century was meant to bring the truth of God to all those who would believe, period (both Jews and Gentiles).

 

I myself remain very interested in the roots of Apostolic Christianity.

I'd like to know more about the very first Jesus adherents and how

they lived their lives.

 

When my ancestors were converted into the (then) "Church of Christ"

they must have thought that they were joining the restoration of that

earliest Apostolic Christianity. No doubt that was an honest incentive.

 

But by 1832, 1833 and thereafter, it became clear to them, and to

thousands of other converts, that they were actually joining what

purported to be the church of Adam, succeeded by six additional

dispensations -- the last of which promised to "restore all things"

pertaining to the primordial Plan of Salvation - the Antiquity of the 

Everlasting Gospel."

 

No doubt some folks are mightily intrigued with that notion and find

great comfort in its pretensions. As for myself, I'd rather understand

what the religious professions of Mother Mary, John the Baptizer,

James the Just, etc. were -- ere the label "Christian" was first applied.

 

UD

[Uncle Dale]

Hopefully the Baptists won't publish an article in their magazine indicating that

they were probably persecuted by this same man too.

 

"Smith family tradition linked Lane with the Palmyra revival".

 

Hopefully the LDS Church has more factual evidence than this.

 

Gail

 

 

The time has come to retire Rev. Lane's portrait from the LDS

Student Manual -- and to relegate his name to a footnote, citing

Larry Porter's good work.

 

But the urge to point a saintly finger at some nebulous wicked

Gentile "persecutor" has always been a strong one among the

Mormons. And if that evil "persecutor" can be illustrated wearing

a clerical white collar, then so much the better.

 

Brother William Smith no doubt did recall hearing about Rev. Lane

in and around Palmyra in 1824. He was the "top dog" for the

Methodist Episcopal Church there, during the revival William tried

to describe.

 

But there were other kinds of Methodists as well. Some of the members

of the Young family (including Brigham) joined those "other" Methodists.

 

 

Wouldn't it be a "kick in the head," if that "more factual evidence"

turned out to be a "family tradition" regarding the Reformed Methodist

preacher who baptized Brigham Young at about that time (and not so

far away) -- and not a Methodist Episcopal circuit rider, after all!

[coolrok7]

I can certainly understand the desire to live like the first century Christians did but we're where we are in the sense of history. Jesus to Thomas who believed after Thomas saw the post risen Christ, "Blessed are they who have not seen and yet have believed".

 

Joseph wasn't satisfied with what Jesus had to say as recorded in Scripture. He had to make up his own and twist what was there.

Edited March 8, 2015 by coolrok7

[Uncle Dale]

....

 

Joseph wasn't satisfied with what Jesus had to say as recorded in Scripture. He had to make up his own and twist what was there.

 

According to Joseph, those very Scriptures themselves

were unreliable and the words in them greatly corrupted

by the Great and Abominable Church.

 

A view not terribly unlike what I was taught in Protestant

Seminary. The Jesus Seminar's The Five Gospels had

not yet been published back then, but its precursor

research and reporting was already beginning to see

print in the scholarly theological and scriptural journals.

 

The difference was, that my profs in those study classes

did not attempt to insert new Jesus-speak into the ancient

texts. The most they would do was to now and then suggest

a better word for translation from the koine -- or provide

evidence for which words really should be printed with colored

ink in the "Red Letter Bibles."

 

Then again, those teachers seemed amenable to obeying 

higher authority and not interested in establishing church armies

or building sealed temples.

 

So far as I know, none of them had themselves secretly crowned

King of Israel by a company of fifty like-minded religionists.

 

I sometimes wonder whether Joseph Smith, Jr. acknowledged

any person to stand in rightful authority over him. Isaac Hale?

Judge Neely? Governor Ford? General Winfield Scott? Grand

Master Abraham Jonas? or even William Henry Harrison and

Martin Van Buren?

 

But, as he said -- Eloheim was his right hand man...

 

UD

(which would have placed Bro. Joseph in the positus sinister

and Jehovah in the positus dexter, in the celestial coat of arms)

Edited March 8, 2015 by Uncle Dale

[coolrok7]

A "14 year old "boy prophet"? Not much different from all the others, "called of God" as it is claimed by many others, each having the same disagreement with biblical doctrines of historic Christianity.

 

Did you say before that you were agnostic? Don't remember.

[Uncle Dale]

A "14 year old "boy prophet"? Not much different from all the others, "called of God" as it is claimed by many others, each having the same disagreement with biblical doctrines of historic Christianity.

 

Did you say before that you were agnostic? Don't remember.

 

Me?

 

Non-Christian theist (if there is such a category in the dictionaries).

 

When I was assigned to an American Baptist Convention congregation

in Columbus, Ohio, to undergo my pastoral internship, the pastor

informed folks that I was "a Mormon -- and not a Christian." However,

since a Jewish mother occasionally showed up there, to accompany

her converted daughter, they already had a "not one of us" category

in which to place esteemed (but not fully accepted) long term visitors.

 

The "he's a Mormon -- and not a Christian" label got carried back to

the seminary, where everybody had a good laugh, and I accepted

the designation with as much good nature as I could summon up.

 

It seems to have stuck.

 

UD

[Gervin]

I myself remain very interested in the roots of Apostolic Christianity.

I'd like to know more about the very first Jesus adherents and how

they lived their lives.

Internet readin' - http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/

 

Book readin; - 

http://www.amazon.com/First-Urban-Christians-Social-Apostle/dp/0300098618/ref=sr_1_1/190-5361976-1464330?ie=UTF8&qid=1425856173&sr=8-1&keywords=meeks+first+urban+christians

[Uncle Dale]

...

 

Book readin...

 

 

.

Yeah, "earliest preserved documents" and all of that.

Such stuff would be a secondary (or tertiary) interest.

 

They say that in a couple of the Pauline epistles there

are preserved fragments of a pre-epistle liturgy. That 

would be interesting -- to mentally re-create the

circumstances in which the original Ave Maria sharing

occurred (and how much it may have resembled an

even earlier serific announcement to Elizabeth).

 

But recovering the oral tradition communicated before

the passion narrative was ever written down, is a task

beyond the abilities of most of us -- and not the sort of

thing we can formulate into a creed and chant every

Sunday (or Saturday) morning.

 

A time-machine might be a better vehicle (following

a quick course in Aramaic vernacular and koine idioms).

 

UD

Edited March 8, 2015 by Uncle Dale

[Uncle Dale]

 

...George Lane wasn't around until 1824 to give that advice, and William Smith may have telescoped different events when describing it ...

 

Perhaps so. But, if William did some "telescoping," then that

explanation opens up the possibility that his sister Katherine

did the same, and his mother, and his famous brother.

 

Telescoping is a rather indefinite term -- and I'm more inclined to

follow Dale Morgan's conclusions -- which put a sharper point

on these episodes in pre-Mormon history.

 

 

 

I'm reluctant to offer long quotations here, and I generally avoid 

doing that. But, in this particular case, Dale Morgan's conclusions

so closely match my own, that I'm going to make an exception to

that mental guideline, and reproduce a lengthy statement from

Morgan (slightly edited after his death).

 

Remember, however, that Morgan was writing before the 1967-69

Dialogue and BYUS articles were published, and did not have all

of the 1820s western New York religious conversions tabulations

in front of him when he wrote what was intended to be part of the

opening chapters of a Mormon history book that he never finished:

 

 

 

Dale Morgan on the Mormons:

Collected Works, Part 2, 1949–1970

Dale Morgan (Richard L. Saunders ed.)

2014

[92]

Not to belabor our metaphor, Joseph told two distinctly different stories

to account for his having become a prophet of God. The First Vision is the

last of these, entirely unknown to his followers before 1838, when he began

to write a formal autobiography; the story was not published in any form

until late in 1840, and not by Joseph himself until the spring of 1842. Prior

to that time, as early as 1834-35, Joseph had published in the church periodical

a history of his life having an astonishingly different import, [2] and that

history is the defiant underpaint of our metaphor.

According to that earlier version of his history, Joseph's interest in religion

was first awakened during the visit to Palmyra of a Methodist minister, the

Reverend Mr. George Lane. This event was said to have taken place, not in

1820, as his autobiography declares, but three years later, in Joseph's seventeenth

year. [3] Elder Lane being "a talented man possessing a good share of

literary endowments, and apparent humility," there was a great awakening

in Palmyra, with large additions made to the Methodist, Presbyterian, and

Baptist churches. "Mr. Lane's manner of communication," it was explained,

was peculiarly calculated to awaken the intellect of the hearer, and arouse

the sinner to look about him for safety -- much good instruction was always

drawn from his discourses on the scriptures, and in common with others,

{Joseph's} mind became awakened." [4]

For a time the reformation seemed to move on harmoniously, but after

"those who had expressed anxieties, had professed a belief in the pardoning

influence and condescension of the Savior," the various denominations

began a general struggle for proselytes, and the cry, "I am right -- you are

-------------------------

2 This history appeared in the form of a series of eight letters published in the _Latter Day Saints'

Messenger and Advocate,_ October 1834 to October 1835, written by Oliver Cowdery, but published

under Joseph Smith's eye and, as Cowdery advised the Saints, at the time, prepared with his actual assistance:

"Indeed. there are many items connected with * * * this subject that render his labor indispensable,"

Brigham H. Roberts, speaking for the Saints in his _Comprehensive History of the Church,_ 1:78n, declared

that, so far as the facts themselves are concerned, this is "practically the personal narrative of Joseph Smith."

The various branches of the church Joseph Smith founded have agreed with Roberts, and the letters

have often been reprinted.

3 In his third letter, which first touched upon the revival that awakened Joseph, Oliver Cowdery placed

this event in "the fifteenth year of his life." His fourth letter apologized for this error; this religious

excitement began not in the fifteenth but the seventeenth year of Joseph's age: "You will please remember

this correction, as it will be necessary for the full understanding of what will follow. * * * This would

bring the date down to the year 1823."

4 William Smith fully corroborates the Cowdery account in what it says of the decisive role that the

Reverend Lane played in the revivals which aroused Joseph Smith on the subject of religion. See the

several statements by him reprinted in Appendix B.

[93]

wrong," was heard. In this strife for followers, Joseph's mother, one sister,

and two brothers were persuaded to unite with the Presbyterians, which gave

Joseph cause for still more serious reflection. Strongly solicited to unite with

several of the denominations, but seeing the apparent proselyting disposition

manifested with equal warmth by all, the future prophet hesitated. "To

profess godliness without its benign influence upon the heart, was a thing

so foreign from his feelings, that his spirit was not at rest day nor night.

To unite with a society professing to be built upon the only sure foundation,

and that profession be a vain one, was calculated, in its very nature,

the more it was contemplated, the more to arouse the mind to the serious

consequences of moving hastily in a course fraught with eternal realities.

To say he was right, and still be wrong, could not profit; and amid so many,

some {churches} must be built upon the sand."

What was he to do? If he went to one church he was told they were right

and all others wrong. If to another, the same was heard, all professing to be

the true church, but none having satisfactory evidence to support its claims.

A proof from some source was wanting, and that source could only be the

Lord, who long ago had said that to him who knocks, to him it shall be

opened, and that whosoever will, may come and partake of the waters of

life freely. Therefore, while this excitement continued, Joseph called upon

the Lord in secret "for a full manifestation of divine approbation, and for,

{what was} to him, the all important information, if a Supreme being did

exist, to have an assurance that he was accepted of {God}." On the evening

of September 21, 1823, Joseph's mind being "unusually wrought up on the

subject which had so long agitated his mind -- his heart was drawn out in

fervent prayer, and his whole soul was so lost to everything of a temporal

nature, that earth, to him, had lost its [charms] and all he desired was to

be prepared in heart to commune with some kind messenger who could

communicate to him the desired in formation of his acceptance with God."

For hours he prayed, and finally all the wishes of his heart were granted.

As though the house were filled with consuming and unquenchable fire, a

radiant messenger appeared to him, come from the presence of God to tell

him that his sins were forgiven, his prayers heard. * * *

But all at once, and disconcertingly, this picture blurs and its lineaments

are strangely altered. The scene has ceased to be God the Father appearing

in glory to Joseph in the woods but has become the Angel Moroni appearing

[94]

to him in his bedchamber. The time is not the spring of 1820 but the early

autumn of 1823. In fact, this is not Joseph 's First Vision at all, but his Vision

of the Angel Moroni, with Joseph not merely oblivious of the fact that he

had once been visited of the Father and the Son, but, worse yet, concerned

to know whether a supreme being even existed.

The facts are the same in the two accounts, right down to their discordant

result: A revival had occurred in the neighborhood of Palmyra which had

begun among the Methodists and spread to the other denominations; the

Smith family in general and Joseph in particular had been aroused; Joseph's

mother and sister had joined the Presbyterian church; and he himself, too

much troubled by doubts about all of the denominations to join with any,

had been led to seek in prayer the assurance and firm guidance that God

alone could give. The discordance between the two accounts is not a mere

matter of dates; it results from an enlargement of the original conception.

The considerations which led Joseph to enlarge his story in this fashion will

be weighed later in this chapter, but it is clear that no man in his church, not

even Joseph himself, suspected in 1835 that he had been visited in his youth by

the Father and the Son. No one dreamed that his history included an event

of such overwhelming import until, Joseph having wrought further upon the

divinity of his calling, Orson Pratt carried the story to the world late in 1840. [5]

-----------------

5 not copied

 

.....

 

......

[105]

the summer of 1817 religious disquiet could give place to expansive talk about

the Erie Canal, long dreamed of but now actually to become a reality. The

atmosphere of soaring optimism was never conducive to the anxiety of soul

which found its characteristic catharsis in the revivals, and it is in no way

surprising that the Palmyra newspaper, which from 1817 faithfully chronicled

isolated revivals in Massachusetts, Vermont, and New York, had no news

of religious moment from any nearby locality until word came to hand in

January 1822 of "a most extraordinary change within two or three weeks

past" at Lyons, twenty miles to the north." In Palmyra itself the editor had

to be content with lesser things, "a happy change" lately observed among the

townsfolk, with young gentlemen actually to be met with in the sanctuary

on Sundays, and young ladies seen to grace the church with their presence. [24]

Though the moral tone of the community continued to improve under the

influence of a debating society established for young people, and a society

rigidly bent upon the suppression of vice and immorality, [25] through all these

years no precious drops from the Throne of Grace fell in Palmyra. The village

delayed until 1824 to begin a third memorable seeking after the Word.

In short, during all these years when by the necessities of the Mormon

legend Palmyra should have been in continual spiritual torment, its religious

life all of a color to grace under the last of the revivalists, the townsfolk

were going about their daily labors untroubled by the awful probability that

they were children of wrath and in danger of hell. Not in 1820 as the First

Vision would have it, not in 1823 as the Vision of the Angel Moroni would

have it, but in 1824 began the revival which has left its indelible impress

upon Mormon history.

Decisive in fixing the accounts by Joseph Smith and his family within the

framework of contemporary event is the memory that has come down to us

of the Reverend George Lane, chief architect of the revival. Lane, prior to

the fall of 1824 had never ridden the circuits of the Ontario District, and

he was never to ride them again. During the five years previous to this time

he had been stationed in the Susquehanna District, 150 miles to the south,

Jonathan Huestis and Abner Chase meanwhile looking after the spiritual

----------

23 _Western Farmer_ (Palmyra, N.Y), 30 January 1822, quoting the Lyons _Republican_ of 7 December 1821.

24 _Western Farmer_ (Palmyra, N.Y), 17 October 1821. Hotchkin, _Purchase and Settlement of Western New York,_

378, is specific in remarking on the revivals at Palmyra, dating them for 1817 and 1824, with nothing of moment in between.

25 _Western Farmer_ (Palmyra, N.Y), 2, January, 1822; 13, 20 March 1822.

[106]

welfare of the Ontario District, and after this great year of revival, Lane left

the itinerancy to become a local preacher at Wilkes-Barre, [26] From Lane's

career only, and without reference to the abundant supporting evidence, it

can be established that the revival which awakened Joseph to the importance

of religion took place from four to five years after the Father and the Son

appeared to him, and from a year to a year and a half after the Angel Moroni

came to his bedside to reveal his momentous calling.

George Lane's impassioned preaching, Oliver Cowdery has noted, was

"peculiarly calculated to awaken the intellect of the hearer, and arouse the

sinner to look around him for safety." [27] This was a view fully shared by Lane's

associates in the ministry, who have said that his prayers were characterized

by deep agony of soul and firm confidence in God, his sermons by a thorough

acquaintance with the scriptures and with the human heart, so that "sometimes

under his powerful appeals vast congregations were moved like trees of the

forest before a mighty wind. Many a stout-hearted sinner was broken down,

and cried aloud for mercy under his all bur irresistible appeal." [28]

This work at Palmyra to which he set his hand had already been underway

for some months, having commenced in the spring of 1824. [29] How ripe the

field was for the harvest is revealed by a communication in the _Wayne Sentinel,_

published ten days before Lane rode into town: "The love of God has been

shed abroad in the hearts of many, and the outpouring of the Spirit seems

to have taken a strong hold. About twenty-five have recently obtained a hope

-------------

26 George Peck, _Early Methodism Within the Bounds of the Old Genesee Conference from 1788_

(New York: Carlton & Porter, 1860). 167, 234-238, 313, 447-449, 492-495, provides full details of Lane's  

life on the ministry. Born in New York state in 1784. Lane was reared in the southern part of the state -- in fact,

in Windsor Township, scene of some of Joseph Smith's treasure-hunting exploits of 1825-26. He prepared

himself for school teaching, but was converted to religion and received into the Methodist Episcopal

church in northern Pennsylvania in 1803, Admitted to trial in the Philadelphia conference in 1805, he

became one of the pioneer circuit riders of the Holland Purchase, in 1808 presiding over the first camp-meeting

ever held [east?] of the Genesee River. In 1810 he left the itinerancy, becoming a local preacher at

Wilkes-Barre, but was re-admitted in 1819, being appointed to the Susquehanna District of the Genesee

Conference. Thar year, as it happened, was also the year the Ontario District was created. After laboring

five years in the Susquehanna District, Lane was transferred to the Ontario District at the fifteenth

meeting of the Genesee Conference in July 1824. After his single year on that District, he again located at

Wilkes-Barre. He returned to the itinerancy in 1834, and two years later was named assistant book agent.

In that capacity and as principal book agent he served until he retired, broken in health, in 1852. He died

in 1859. In addition to the account by Peck, see F. W. Conable, _History of the Genesee Annual Conference of the

Methodist Episcopal Church, from * * * 1810 to the year 1872_ (New York: Nelson & Phillips, 1876), 159-232, _passim._

27 See Cowdery's full description of Lane and the impression he made upon Joseph at this time .

28 Peck, _Early Methodism,_ 492-495.

29 See Lane's letter. dated Wilkes-Barre, 25 January 1825, _Methodist Magazine_ 8 (April 1825): 158-161, which

is his own account of this historic revival.

[107]

in the Lord, and joined the Methodist church, and many more are desirous

of becoming members. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear; God invites

all to come -- to repent and be saved. Sinners, recollect that you are, as it

were, suspended by the brittle thread of life, over the rolling billows of that

lake of fire and brimstone where flames are never quenched. The son of man

cometh when no one knoweth it, and those who continue in their wicked

career, will sooner or later be precipitated into Hell!" [30]

To such a labor Lane gladly addressed himself. "There was a great awakening,"

Oliver Cowdery tells us, "and much enquiry for the word of life."

William Smith, who alone among the elder Smith children preserved some

detachment about the excitement, and offered himself as a convert to no

church, adds that great numbers were converted as the excitement extended

from the Methodists to the Baptists, and from them to the Presbyterians. [31]

Joseph's own autobiography declares that "great multitudes united themselves

to the different religious parties," and Lane himself has said that the work

broke out from the village like a mighty flame and spread in every direction.

By December, when he left Palmyra finally, he could count in the village

and its vicinity upwards of 150 who had joined his society, besides a number

who joined other churches, and many who had not yet joined any church. [32]

The fires burned at white heat throughout the winter. In January 1825,

the Rochester _Religious Advocate_ counted more than 200 hopeful subjects of

divine grace in Palmyra, Macedon, Manchester, Phelps, Lyons, and Ontario.

"This is a powerful work," the Advocate rejoiced; " it is among old and young,

but mostly among young people. Many are ready to exclaim, 'what hath

God wrought!'' By the first week in March the _Wayne Sentinel,_ could print

the extraordinary intelligence that "in Palmyra and Macedon, including

Methodist, Presbyterian and Baptist churches, more than 400 have already

testified that the Lord is good. The work is still progressing. In the neighboring

towns, the number is great and fast increasing. Glory be to God on

high; and on earth, peace and good will to all men." It was April before

"this very powerful revival in Palmyra" showed signs of subsiding."

------------------

30_Wayne Sentinel,_15 September 1824._

31 See Appendix B. [Morgan neglects to regard the qualifications of his source. While William Smith may

be the only eye witness whose account Morgan trusts, he can hardly be accepted as qualified -- William

was eleven years old at this point. Morgan accepts him as proof rather than merely evidence. -- Ed.]

32 _Methodist Magazine_ 8 (April 1825): 160.

33 Quoted in _Zion's Herald,_ 9 February 1825, and in the _Wayne Sentinel,_ 2 March ,825_

34 _Wayne Sentinel,_ 2 March 1825.

35 __Zion's Herald,_ 11 May 1825, quoting the _Western Recorder._

[108]

Lucy Smith had always been attracted by formal religion, and more,

perhaps, than anyone in her family, she was stirred by the awakening. Being,

as her son William says, "a very pious woman and much interested in the

welfare of her children, both here and hereafter, [she] made use of every

means which her parental love could suggest, to get us engaged in seeking

for our souls' salvation. * * * She prevailed on us to attend the meetings, and

almost the whole family became interested in the matter." [36] It was to the

Presbyterian church, the oldest and the most numerous in Palmyra, that

Lucy and the elder children were drawn. Unfortunately, it was the minister

of this denomination, the Reverend Benjamin B. Stockton, who had preached

Alvin's funeral sermon a year or so before and been so intemperate in his

language as to intimate strongly that Alvin, not being a church member,

had gone to hell. [37] This had enraged the elder Joseph, and though Lucy says

that to gratify her he attended two or three meetings, he then "peremptorily

refused going any more, either for my gratification, or any other person's." [38]

Whether because he shared his father's feeling or because he had been deeply

impressed by the Methodist circuit rider, Joseph also resisted the general

movement of his family into the Presbyterian fold. There is no doubt that

he had been aroused under Lane's preaching to "look about him for safety";

it is to Lane that Oliver Cowdery, speaking for Joseph, accorded the credit

for the providence that his mind " became awakened." Joseph himself says

that he "became somewhat partial to the Methodist sect," and "Felt some

desire to be united with them."

In this general chorus of agreement the non-Mormon sources join, Orsamus

Turner remarks that Joseph caught "a spark of Methodism in the camp

meeting, away down in the woods, on the Vienna road," to the point of

becoming a passable exhorter in the evening meetings, while Pomeroy Tucker

----------

36 See Appendix B.

37 See the account elicited from William Smith in 1893, reprinted in Appendix B. The mention of

Stockton in this connection is entirely plausible, since Lucy herself makes it clear that the revival took

place "after the death of Alvin," and her anxieties over her dead son may have troubled her deeply. The

reference to Stockton is another among the innumerable evidences that it is the revival of 1824-1825

that figures in Mormon history. The Reverend Stockton was installed as pastor of the Presbyterian

church in Palmyra on 18 February 1824 ["Alvin died preceding Nov," Morgan reminded himself in the

margin.  - Ed.]. succeeding Reverend Daniel C. Hopkins, who had been the "stated supply" during the

two years previous (W. H. Mclntosh, _History of Wayne County, New York_ {Philadelphia: Evens, Ensign &

Evens, 1877}, 147). Hotchkin, 378, in his account of the revivals at Palmyra, says that a "copious shower of

grace passed over this region in 1824, under the labors of Mr. Stockton, and large numbers were gathered

into the church." Stockton continued as pastor at Palmyra until October 1827.

38 Smith, _Biographical Sketches,_ 90.

[109]

says that Joseph went so far as to join the probationary class of the Methodist

church and make some active demonstrations of engagedness, though his

convictions were "insufficiently grounded or abiding to carry him along to

the saving point of conversion," and he soon withdrew. [39]

Tucker's further remark, that the fin al conclusion announced by Joseph was

that "all sectarianism was fallacious, all the churches on a false foundation,

and the Bible a fable," may be received as gratuitous, but there is nothing

inherently improbable in it. Within a few years Joseph was apologizing for his

"former uncircumspect walk, and unchaste conversation," [40] and his skeptical

cast of mind is evidenced as well by the fact that he was finally converted to

no church as by a conversation his mother's memory preserved. When she

persisted with him on the subject of religion, he said to her, "Mother, I do

not wish to prevent your going to meeting, or any of the rest of the family's;

or your joining any church you please; but, do not ask me to join them. I can

take my Bible, and go into the woods, and learn more in two hours, than you

can learn at meeting in two years, if you should go all the time." [41]

The exact date Joseph turned his back on the high promise the revivals had

held out to him can only be guessed, but most probably by the early summer

of 1825 he had withdrawn altogether from the embrace of the Methodist

church. When he went off to the Susquehanna country that fall, he could

take up his glass-looking again with an untroubled heart. [42]

Joseph had not easily been persuaded to yield up the details by which the

integrity of his account of himself may be appraised. To importunate followers

in 1831 he said shortly that "it was not intended to tell the world all

the particulars of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon; * * * it was not

expedient" for him to relate these things. [43] Joseph would best have held to

that ground. The progressive enlargement of his story, climaxed finally in the

breathtaking vision of the Father and the Son, involved him in difficulties that

ended by setting reality at complete defiance. He committed himself very early

---------

39 Orsamus Turner, _History of the Pioneer Settlement of Phelps and Gorham's Purchase,_ (Rochester: Published

by 'William Alling, 1851), 214; Tucker, _Origin, Rise, and Progress,_ 18.

40 _Messenger and Advocate_ I, no. 3 (December, 1834): 40.

41 Smith, _Biographical Sketches,_ 90. The conversation Lucy remembers may have taken place in the spring

of 1825, the basis in fact for Joseph's placement of his First Vision in the springtime.

42 Note the interesting correspondence in dates between Joseph's employment of his seerstone and

his passing interest in religion. Willard Chase says (see p. [blank]) that Joseph had the stone in his possession

two years -- that is, from 1822 to 1824 -- before returning it, and that Hyrum came to reborrow

the stone "sometime in 1825," after which Chase never saw it again.

43 _History of the Church,_ 1:220, quoting the manuscript "Far West Record," 13, [cf. _The Far West Record,_ ed.

Don Q. Cannon (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1983). 23.  -- Ed.]

 

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UD

Edited March 11, 2015 by Uncle Dale