(Part seven of a
series compiled by Dennis B. Horne)
The April 1920
General Conference became a 100-year anniversary commemoration of the
Prophet Joseph Smith’s First Vision. Most of the conference speakers referenced
it one way or another. President Heber J. Grant, only a year into his
administration, began by sharing his own feelings, and other speakers followed
his example. These remarks were given in a day when most spoke extemporaneously
for various lengths of time. Not all comments were equally insightful, but I
have tried to select some of the more interesting excerpts—and some are
powerful witnesses indeed (see for example, Elder Melvin J. Ballard’s remarks).
Apostolic and prophetic commentary of spiritual things can enlarge
understanding and perspective:
The
Latter-day Saints were driven from city to city, county to county, state to
state, and finally beyond the confines of the United States to the Rocky Mountains,
then Mexican territory. They could have had immunity, they could have dwelt in
peace, had they renounced their faith; but our fathers and our mothers had
received the witness of the Holy Spirit and they knew that Jesus was the
Savior, they knew that Joseph Smith was in very deed a prophet of God. The Lord
Almighty had implanted in their hearts a knowledge that God did, one hundred
years ago this spring, appear to a boy; that he did speak to that boy; and that
when the boy asked of our Father in Heaven, "Which of all the religious
denominations in the world is the true Church of Christ?" in answer to
that question our God and our Father pointed to the Savior of the world and
said: "This is my beloved Son, hear Him." The Savior of the world
told that boy to join none of the sects, that they had all gone astray, that
they were teaching for doctrine the ideas and the commandments of men, and that
they did not have the true Church of Christ. When that boy returned from that
wonderful and marvelous vision, the greatest event in all the history of the
world, excepting only the birth and death of the Savior, his mother saw that
there was something strange about his appearance and asked him some questions;
and he simply answered, m substance, and said to his mother (who was a
Presbyterian): "Mother, there is one thing I know now, and that is that
the Presbyterian church is not the Church of Christ."
Three years
later an angel of God appeared and told him there was buried in the hill
Cumorah some golden plates containing a record, a sacred record of the
forefathers of the American Indian, and that he should be the instrument in the
hands of God of translating those plates. The angel gave him many wonderful
instructions and quoted much Scripture to him; then disappeared. He returned
and repeated his instructions and disappeared. He returned again and repeated
those instructions, the three visitations occupying the entire night. The next
day when that boy went to his work in the field with his father, having had no
rest during the night, his father saw that he was not feeling well and told him
to go home; and as he was climbing a fence he fainted, but he was aroused from
his faint by the voice of the messenger who for the fourth time repeated all
that he had said during the previous night, and told him to go back to his
father and tell his father all that he had heard and seen. This he did, and the
boy's father answered: "This is of God. Listen to the teachings of the
angel." The boy visited the hill Cumorah; he saw the plates and was
instructed by the messenger to come there once a year for four years, to be
instructed by that angel of God, regarding the great and marvelous work that
was to come forth in the last days. At the end of four years the plated
containing the record were delivered to him by the angel Moroni. He translated
those plates, and the translation is the Book of Mormon.
O but, says
one, I don't believe a word of it. There are thousands, there are tens of
thousands of men and women, from the midnight sun country in Scandinavia to
South Africa, all over Europe, from Canada to South America, in every state of
the Union of the United States, upon the islands of the Pacific, who stand up
and in all humility bear witness before high heaven that God has given to them
a knowledge that Joseph Smith did see him, that Joseph Smith did see the Savior
of the world, that Joseph Smith was visited by angels of God, that he was
ordained to the apostleship, that he did in very deed commune with the Savior
of the world, that he was a prophet of the living God. All the non-belief, all
the lack of faith of all the people in all the world cannot change that fact,
if it be a fact, and God has given many of us a knowledge, an absolute
knowledge that it is a fact, that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that this
Gospel, called by the world "Mormonism," is in very deed the Gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I want to
read one of the latest testimonies regarding the divinity of this gospel, given
from this stand by our late beloved Prophet, Joseph F. Smith, as to where
divine authority exists today:
The Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is no partisan church. It is not a sect.
It is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is the only one today
existing in the world that can and does legitimately bear the name of Jesus
Christ and his divine authority. I make this declaration in all simplicity and
honesty before you and before all the world, bitter as the truth may seem to
those who are opposed and who have no reason for that opposition. It is
nevertheless true and will remain true until he who has a right to rule among
the nations of the earth and among the individual children of God throughout
the world shall come and take the reins of government and receive the bride
that shall be prepared for the coming of the Bridegroom.
Many of our
great writers have recently been querying and wondering where the divine
authority exists today to command in the name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Ghost, so that it will be in effect and acceptable at the throne of
the Eternal Father. I will announce here and now, presumptuous as it may seem
to be to those who know not the truth, that the divine authority of Almighty
God, to speak in the name of the Father and of the Son, is here in the midst of
these everlasting hills, in the midst of this intermountain region, and it will
abide and will continue, for God is its source, and God is the power by which
it has been maintained against all opposition in the world up to the present,
and by which it will continue to progress and grow and increase on the earth
until it shall cover the earth from sea to sea. This is my testimony to you, my
brethren and sisters, and I have a fulness of joy and of satisfaction in being
able to declare this without regard to, or fear of, all the adversaries of the
truth. . . .
And I bear
witness to you, here today that we have the truth, that God has spoken again,
that every gift, every grace, every power, and every endowment that came
through the Holy Priesthood of the living God in the days of the Savior, are
enjoyed today. God lives, Jesus is the Christ, Joseph Smith was a prophet of
the true and the living God. "Mormonism," so called, is in very deed
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. God has given me a witness of these
things. I know them and I bear that witness to you, in all humility, and I do
it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
See also President Heber J. Grant’s article in the April
1920 Improvement Era, “A
Marvelous Work and a Wonder” (page 472) on the First Vision.
We have
reminders, frequently now, of the fact that about a century has elapsed since
the time when the Prophet Joseph, as a boy, went into a grove near his father's
residence —where many of us have been, and have rejoiced in the spirit we found
there—and there for the first time in vocal prayer—I presume he had prayed
before, in a fashion—but in vocal prayer, from the heart, with faith, he called
upon the Lord that he might learn which was the true religion. As we have heard
today, and have heard many times before, the Father and the Son appeared to
him. He saw them; they were there before him. We may not perhaps exactly
explain how and by what means Joseph saw the Father and the Son. He called it a
vision. That is right, it was a vision. But what is a vision of that kind? A
vision like that which Moses had when he saw the Lord face to face. He saw the
Father and spoke to him, and the Lord spoke to him. Moses declared that he saw
him, not with his natural eyes, but with his spiritual vision: and that there
is such a thing I presume many of us who are here are fully assured. We know it
in our own experience, but not perhaps to the same degree as Joseph or Moses
had it, when they conversed with the Lord. But that there is a spiritual sight
or vision we realize, and we can draw very near to our Father and our God in
the name of Jesus Christ, and see when others are in the dark, and comprehend
when others are blinded in regard to the heavenly truths which come to people
from him for their salvation.
See also President Charles W. Penrose’s article in the
April 1920 Improvement Era, “The Edict
of a Century” (page 484) on the First Vision.
Elder Melvin
J. Ballard (grandfather of Elder M. Russell Ballard):
It
undoubtedly seems a very positive position for us to take, to be able to speak
with such certainty concerning the work the Lord is doing in the world, in our
day; to speak with such certainty concerning the visitation the prophet Joseph
Smith received a hundred years ago, wherein the Father and the Son actually
appeared to him. We may impress our friends, by reason of our positive position
with arrogance, but that is not the thought that is in our hearts. We know what
we know, and we testify to it in earnestness and in humility. I remember a
gentleman, a minister, said on one occasion, in a private discussion which I had
with him, that he thought we were too positive about the things of religion. He
thought we had not considered the question of God enough to be able to speak
with such certainty. He informed me that he belonged to a church that was
several hundred years older than the one to which I belonged, and he said that
his church had been considering these questions for a long time and had altered
their view and their opinion about a good many theological questions. I granted
that that was true; and he ventured the assertion that after we had been
discussing these theological questions as long as they had, perhaps we would
change our opinion also. And in order to establish his point he used this
illustration:
"If
you had a problem to give for solution and you selected ten boys to solve the
problem, and you gave one of them ten days in which to study it, and then
another boy nine days and still another boy eight, and so forth, until you had
one boy studying on the problem but one day and one studying ten days; now which
boy, at the conclusion of the ten days, would know most about the problem, the
one who had been studying but one day or the one who had studied ten
days?"
Well, you
would have to concede, as I did, that if all things were equal, of course, the
boy that had been studying ten days ought to know most about the problem.
"Well,
there you are," he said; "we have been studying it longer than you
have, and you are one of the youngest churches, and so you are likely to change
your mind when you study it a little longer."
"But,"
I said, "suppose the boy who has had the problem but one day receives the
visit of a professor who knows all about the problem and who illustrates it so
that now it is perfectly clear to the mind of the boy, who knows most about it,
the boy who has thus been aided, only having had the chance to study it one
day, or the boy who has been dreaming about it for ten days?"
"Why,"
he said, "of course, the boy who was thus aided and assisted knew most
about the problem."
Then I
said: "That is exactly where we stand." Joseph Smith did not know,
because of earthly wisdom and his reading of the scriptures, more about our
Father in heaven and his Son Jesus Christ, than the learned ministers of the
world. Not by that means did he obtain his knowledge, but in the few moments
that he knelt in the sacred grove in the presence of the Father and the Son he
knew more about God the eternal Father and his Son Jesus Christ than all the
ministers of all the world ever have known, or ever will know, except they
shall be, in like manner, informed and instructed. So that the wisdom he had
came to him from the source to which men must go if they shall know our Father
in heaven. . . .
Therefore,
we rejoice in the witness we have that Jesus told the truth, that the testimony
of his disciples concerning his resurrection is the truth, and we also know
that the testimony of Joseph Smith and his brethren, who looked upon the face
of the Redeemer, is true. I bear witness that I know what they have said is the
truth. I know, as well as I know that I live and look into your faces, that
Jesus Christ lives, and he is the Redeemer of the world, that he arose from the
dead with a tangible body, and still has that real body which Thomas touched
when he thrust his hands into his side and felt the wound of the spear, and
also the prints of the nails in his hands. I know by the witness and the
revelations of God to me that Thomas told the truth. I know that Joseph Smith
told the truth, for mine eyes have seen. For in the visions of the Lord to my
soul, I have seen Christ's face, I have heard his voice. I know that he lives,
that he is the Redeemer of the world, and that as he arose from the dead, a
tangible and real individual. . . .
The
importance of the Great Vision referred to, justifies, I think, directing my
remarks particularly thereto, notwithstanding nearly all of the speakers in the
conference have spoken upon that subject. I would call attention by reading
again a verse from the sayings of Joseph himself, telling his own story, so
that we may be refreshed in our minds. In regard to what the Son told Joseph,
he says: "I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all
wrong; and the personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an
abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; 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.'"
I know not,
my brethren and sisters, how offensive this statement is to the sectarian
world, but we accept it as the words of God and not of men, and we think that they
are defensible. For instance, the saying that Joseph was to join with none of
them, for they were all wrong, that means to us that there had been a departure
from the truth, and from the Church that was instituted in the days of the
Savior. Now then, let us reason upon this for a moment. I might call your
attention, in connection with this matter, to a saying of the Lord through his
servant Isaiah, in regard to his knowledge of things which are to be, recorded
in the 46th chapter of Isaiah: "I am God, and there is none like me,
declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times all things that
are not yet done." The Prophet Amos says: "Surely the Lord God doeth
nothing but he revealeth his secrets to his servants, the prophets."
Whether or not we might call the apostasy a secret, it certainly was known to
the Lord in advance and we might reason thus: If there was to be a universal
apostasy from the Church, then the Lord would reveal that important fact to his
servants, the prophets.
Joseph Smith,
a boy fourteen years of age, however, had not studied this proposition out in
this way, to reach the deductions that we have reached, but by a study of the
scriptures, we do find that the Lord, through his prophets, did predict the
apostate conditions which were to be. And reasoning a little further we
conclude that if there had been a universal apostasy such a thing would be of
record. So we consult the histories by men who have written upon ecclesiastical
subjects, and we find the apostasy given in minute detail, step by step, until
it had become universal. "The earth had become defiled under the
inhabitants thereof," for they had transgressed the laws, changed the
ordinances, and broken the everlasting covenant. Men would wander from sea to
sea, and from the north even unto the south, seeking the words of the Lord and
could not find them. So far, therefore, as this declaration is concerned, there
is sufficient evidence before us to prove that the statement is true that they
were all wrong.
Now in regard
to that other statement: All their creeds were an abomination in his sight;
that seems a serious arraignment of churches, and their creeds. Let us consider
that a moment. What constitutes or may constitute an abomination in the sight
of God? It does seem to me that the belief in and advocacy of that which is not
true and the making of it a part of religious creeds must be abominable in the
sight of him who is the God of truth. If the Savior had not told Joseph this
great fact, the evidence of it was before him, and he would no doubt have
discovered it in later years as his judgment developed, for he knew that in the
creeds everywhere it was taught that God is a personage having no body, no
parts, nor passions. Joseph now saw before him the Father, not such as was
represented by the creeds, but an immortal, glorified being, and with him his
Son. Of this there could be no mistake, for the one, introducing the other to
Joseph, said: "This is my beloved Son, hear him." There Joseph saw
the Father and the Son, the Son indeed in the very likeness and image of his
father.
An
examination of the creeds will reveal other principles there set forth which
are man-made and are in conflict with the truth of heaven as it has been
revealed and is recorded in the scriptures of the Holy Bible, as well as in the
other standard works of this Church. It was a necessary thing that Joseph, whom
the Lord had raised up to be his mouthpiece for the ushering in of this great
gospel dispensation, preparing the way for the great and glorious coming of our
Lord, should have a perfect knowledge of the Father and of the Son, that he
might be able to stand and to be secure in his position and to accomplish his
work which the Lord had for him to do, and a wonderful work it has been. . . .
In view of
the importance of this, the dispensation of the fulness of times, it is only
reasonable to believe that our Father would reserve one of the greatest of
those noble spirits who were faithful in their previous state of existence, to
come forth and lead the people of this dispensation as his mouthpiece and
prophet. This we believe was done, and that Joseph Smith was one of the
greatest prophets that ever lived, and that his life's work was one of the
greatest that ever a prophet accomplished.
There is
another evidence which is more convincing to me, even than all these, and that
is the witness of the Spirit of God that comes through the Holy Ghost, bearing
testimony to my soul. I am convinced in every fiber of my being that Joseph
Smith was indeed a divinely inspired prophet of God, and that his story of the
vision is true, and I bear this testimony to you today in the name of Jesus
Christ.
Practically
a full century ago, in the year of which this is the glorious centennial, there
occurred an epoch-making event in the history of the world. Reference was made
to this yesterday. I venture to call your attention to the actual record. You
know the story, I know; but it is well sometimes that we be reminded of what we
know. You know the testimony of the young man Joseph Smith, to the effect that
he was greatly wrought up in his mind as to which among the many Contending
seas of the day was in reality the Church of Christ, for he had common sense
enough to know that they could not all be right, for they were opposed to one
another. There was not only opposition but hatred among them, and one sect
sometimes directed the batteries of its assault toward another particular sect,
and in the year 1820 there was much confusion and much dissension. The young
man afterward wrote:
"During
this time of great excitement, my mind was called up to serious reflection and
great uneasiness; but though my feelings were deep and often poignant, still I
kept myself aloof from all these parties, though I attended their several
meetings as often as occasion would permit." In his study and thought he
turned to the Scriptures and was particularly impressed by this wonderful precept
and the marvelous promise associated therewith: "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." (James 1:5.) Joseph felt that he lacked
wisdom. He was in search of it, and he asked of God. He went into the woods in
the early spring of 1820 to pray; he knelt down and poured out the desires of
his heart to God.
"I had
scarcely done so," he afterward wrote, "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 to me for a time as if I were doomed
to sudden destruction." But though the powers of evil were thus trying to
stop his utterance and to crush his effort, he called all the more fervently
upon his God, and he avowed that there appeared a pillar of light, as he says,
"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!"
The
Celestial Personage thus indicated answered the question the youthful seer had
specified in his prayer, namely, which of the sects or denominations of the day
he should join, and, as he averred, "I was answered that I must join none
of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that
all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were
all corrupt; 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.'"
We have
been severely criticized because of the declaration that the sects and denominations
of that day were wrong. Remember, please, the declaration was not of Joseph. He
had not before known that to be the case. Those words were the words of One
greater than he, greater than you, greater than all of us here assembled, the
words of the Son of God. Wherein were those churches wrong? Had they not much
within them that was good? I venture to affirm that they had. I doubt not that
there were amongst them men of God, who were trying to live according to the
best light they had received; but as churches they were wrong because they were
making false pretentions. They claimed to possess the power of the holy
Priesthood, and they essayed to administer the ordinances thereof, all in
compliance with what they understood to be the rule of the form of godliness.
We can create many a variation of the form of godliness. We can make it
intricate and enticing; but no men or body of men can gather together or work
independently and originate the holy Priesthood upon the earth. To do so would
be a greater miracle than for one to originate life in dead matter. There is a
chasm between inanimate and organic matter, between the living and the dead,
and man cannot bridge it. He may take living things, plants and animals, and
rear and nurture and tend them, and by selective breeding he may produce new
varieties, but the man never lived who, with all his science, and all his
facilities of laboratory and other research, brought into existence one
microscopical living cell, except, indirectly, through the operation of the
laws of life, which are not of man.
This
Church, therefore, from its beginning, has been unique, for the organization of
the Church was forecasted in this declaration that at the time of Joseph
Smith's first vision there was no Church of Jesus Christ upon the earth; and I
do not see why people should take issue with us for making that statement. A
man of one political party professes to believe that the other political party
is wrong; and he has a right to believe it, and if he can demonstrate that fact
to his own satisfaction he has the right to promulgate his belief; but he
should do it with regard to the rights of the other party and the members
thereof. We are not assailing churches; we are not attacking sects; we have no
war with any of the numerous denominations on the face of the earth. We are
sending out our missionaries, we are using the columns of the press, not to
attack Catholicism or Protestantism, or any form of religion, but to preach in
a positive and constructive way the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ as
that gospel has been restored to the earth in this dispensation, in strict
accordance with the predictions of ancient prophets.
See also
the April
1920 Improvement Era for a special 100-year commemorative issue
on the First Vision. It contains articles related to the First Vision written
by Heber J. Grant, Anthon H. Lund, Charles W. Penrose, Janne M. Sjodahl,
Charles H. Hart, Joseph Fielding Smith, David O. McKay, James E. Talmage,
Osborne J. P. Widstoe, B. H. Roberts, Susa Young Gates (talking about women and
the First Vision), John A. Widstoe, Andrew Jenson, and others.
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