Harold B. Lee: Follow Living Prophets

HAROLD B. LEE: FOLLOW LIVING PROPHETS

It is very interesting to see the reaction of people. Soon after President David O. McKay announced to the Church that members of the First Council of the Seventy were being ordained high priests in order to extend their usefulness and to give them authority to act when no other General Authority could be present, a seventy I met in Phoenix, Arizona, was very much disturbed.

He said to me, "Didn't the Prophet Joseph Smith say that this was contrary to the order of heaven to name high priests as presidents of the First Council of the Seventy?"

And I said, "Well, I have understood that he did, but have you ever thought that what was contrary to the order of heaven in 1840 might not be contrary to the order of heaven in 1960?"

He had not thought of that. He again was following a dead prophet, and he was forgetting that there is a living prophet today. Hence the importance of our stressing that word living.

Years ago as a young missionary I visited Nauvoo and Carthage with my mission president, and we were holding a missionary meeting in the jail room where Joseph and Hyrum had met their deaths. The mission president related the historical events that led up to the martyrdom and then he closed with this very significant statement: "When the Prophet Joseph Smith was martyred, there were many saints who died spiritually with Joseph." So it was when Brigham Young died: so it was when John Taylor died. Do revelations given to President John Taylor, for example, have any more authority than something that comes from our president and prophet today? Some Church members died spiritually with Wilford Woodruff, with Lorenzo Snow, with Joseph F. Smith, with Heber J. Grant, with George Albert Smith. We have some today willing to believe someone who is dead and gone and to accept his words as having more authority than the words of a living authority today.


(Harold B. Lee, _Stand Ye In Holy Places_, pp. 152-3)

Eliza R. Snow's Faith and Courage During the Missouri Expulsion

ELIZA R. SNOW'S FAITH AND COURAGE DURING THE MISSOURI EXPULSION

The "Extermination Order" was issued by Governor Lilburn W. Boggs of Missouri on October 27, 1838.

The clemency of our law-abiding, citizen-expelling Governor allowed us ten days to leave our county, and, till the expiration of that term, a posse of militia was to guard us against mobs; but it would be very difficult to tell which was better, the militia or the mob -- nothing was too mean for the militia to perform -- no property was safe within the reach of those men.

One morning, while we were hard at work, preparing for our exit, the former occupant of our house entered, and in an impudent and arrogant manner inquired how soon we should be out of it. My American blood warmed to the temperature of an insulted, free-born citizen, as I looked at him and thought, poor man, you little think with whom you have to deal -- God lives! He certainly overruled in that instance, for those wicked men never got possession of that property, although my father sacrificed it to American mobocracy.

In assisting widows and others who required help, my father's time was so occupied that we did not start until the morning of the 10th, the last day of the allotted grace. The weather was very cold and the ground covered with snow. After assisting in the arrangements for the journey, and shivering with cold, in order to warm my aching feet, I walked until the teams overtook me.

In the meantime, I met one of the so-called militia, who accosted me with,"Well, I think this will cure you of your faith!"

Looking him steadily in the eye, I replied, "No, sir; it will take more than  this to cure me of my faith."

His countenance suddenly fell, and he responded, "I must confess, you are a better soldier than I am."

I passed on, thinking that, unless he was above the average of his fellows in that section, I was not highly complimented by his confession. It is true our hardships and privations were sufficient to have disheartened any but the Saints of the living God -- those who were prompted by higher than earthly motives, and trusting in the arm of Jehovah.

(Tullidge, _The Women of Mormondom_, pp. 143-145)

Joseph Smith's Faith in Prayer: Told by John Lyman Smith

Some of those who knew Joseph Smith shared wonderful insights into his character:

Elder John Lyman Smith, brother to the late President George A. Smith, who now resides at St. George, Washington County, Utah, was born November 17th, 1828, at Potsdam, St. Lawrence County, New York. He was baptized at Kirtland, Geauga County, Ohio, when eight years of age. At this place he first met the Prophet Joseph Smith. The following incidents he relates of the Prophet, with whom he lived for several months when a boy:

In my early years I used to often eat at the table with Joseph the Prophet. At one time he was called to dinner. I being at play in the room with his son Joseph, he called us to him, and we stood one each side of him. After he had looked over the table he said, "Lord, we thank Thee for this Johnny cake, and ask Thee to send us something better. Amen." The corn bread was cut and I received a piece from his hand.

Before the bread was all eaten, a man came to the door and asked if the Prophet Joseph was at home. Joseph replied he was, whereupon the visitor said, "I have brought you some flour and a ham."

Joseph arose and took the gift, and blessed the man in the name of the Lord. Turning to his wife, Emma, he said, "I knew the Lord would answer my prayer."

From this time to his death I always revered and honored him, and when but a boy of ten or twelve years have in Nauvoo often said to him I was ready to die for him.

Flour Miraculously Provided

Many of the pioneer settlers had experiences that convinced them that the Lord was not only aware of their trials, but was blessing and sustaining them. The Davis Family is a good example. Stanley Davis lost his wife during the 1852 crossing of the plains; she was buried near the Platte River, leaving the father with three daughters and a son. They made their new home in Salt Lake City.


The next year, the family's store of flour had almost become exhausted with little prospect of new supplies. One day, as the family ate a simple meal of boiled vegetables, a knock came on the door. It was a woman they did not know, a convert recently arrived from England. She tearfully explained that her son was dying of dysentery and begged them to give her a quart of flour. She had been told that a mixture of flour, water, and red pepper would help bring a cure, and was willing to give them her last dollar to pay for the flour.

Stanley Davis said to one of his daughters, "Emily, go upstairs and fill this cup with flour for the sister." Little Emily's face fell as she replied, "But Father, you said that we could have lumpy-dick from the flour that is left and the sack is almost empty now." (Lumpy-dick was a kind of pudding made by adding white flour to boiling water until it reached the consistency of mush, then adding milk and sugar.) The father promised, "You'll get your lumpy-dick. Didn't Brother Brigham Young himself say that if we would share with the in-coming Saints, our flour sacks would never be empty?" So the woman was sent on her way with not just flour, but also a large pan of vegetables from the family garden.

A few days later, Stanley Davis returned home from working in the fields, and told little Emily to go up and get some flour to make lumpy-dick for supper. She left, but soon came running back down the stairs crying, "Father, I'm afraid to go near the sack. There's a wolf or something hiding in it. It stands up now and when I filled that quart cup it was laying in wrinkles on the floor."

The family went upstairs to find that the sack was now full of fine, white flour, the source of which they never knew. They bore witness to the realization of "Brother Brigham's promise."

(See _Our Pioneer Heritage_, Vol. 7, p.563-4)

Compiled and written by David Kenison

Faith of a Soldier

This account was related by Don B. Colton, who served as the president of the Uintah Stake in Utah before representing the state as a congressman in the 1920's (when this account was written). He later served as a mission president in the Eastern States:

"There came into my office a few weeks ago in the city of Washington, a middle-aged man whom I could tell at a glance was more than ordinarily well educated and cultured. Introducing himself, he asked me if he could talk to me a little while and I told him he could. Said he: "I was educated for the ministry. I graduated from a college of theology and was ordained, and for ten years I was pastor of a church. Then the war broke out. I went as a chaplain with the regiment from my city to a foreign land. One night, as there was a good deal of sickness in that camp, I was out among the boys, giving them what comfort I could. My attention was called to a tent where an unusually sick boy was lying. Said the doctor to me: 'Go in there; you had better prepare that young man for the worst.'
"And I went in and said to the young man: 'Buddy, you are very sick?'

"'Yes,' said the boy with conviction, 'I am sick, but I am going to get well.'

"Something in his tone struck me with peculiar force. I went up and took him by the hand and said, 'Buddy, I am glad to hear you say that.'

"'Well,' said he, 'I say it and I know it is true.'

"I left that tent," said the major, "and went to others, but I could not get the words of the boy out of my mind; and before I could go to sleep, I went back again, and opening softly the tent door, I said to him: 'Buddy, are you asleep?'

"And he said, 'No, major, come in.'

"I went in and I said: 'Who are you? Where did you get that assurance with which you told me a short time ago that you were going to get well?'

"Then, he replied: 'You probably would not believe me, but I am from Utah and I am a Latter-day Saint and I have obeyed the revelation of God given to man upon which the blessing of health is predicated; and I had a promise given to me by those who had a right to give it that I would return to my home; and the other night, when stricken with my illness, there came to me a witness that I knew that I was going to get well. And so, with that conviction I am facing this ordeal.'

"Do you mean it?" said his chaplain. "Do you mean that you know whereof you speak?"

And the boy, with earnestness, replied: "Yes, I do."

Said this man to me, in relating this, "I left his tent; I wanted more knowledge concerning that faith. I asked the boy for books. He game me them -- the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and others. I read them. All my religious life I have been seeking for a vitalizing force such as I felt that night in that tent in the camp in a foreign land. And when I returned to my home I sought out your elders. I have listened to them: I have read more of your books; I cannot stay away from it. I want more of that spirit; I want to feel what I felt and what I know that boy felt that night in France."
He came to our meeting the next day. I haven't time to relate all the conversation. I received a letter from him the other day, in which he said: "I must join you people; I must come out where you are. My soul cannot find rest elsewhere. I know you have the gift of the Holy Ghost for which I have been seeking."


(Don B. Colton, _Liahona_, 22:77; see also Nibley, _Faith Promoting Stories_, pp. 60-62)

Compiled and written by David Kenison

"Don't Flinch. Die Like Men."

Do you have the faith and continuing commitment to demonstrate the principles of the gospel in your own lives, consistently? You have served well, but do you, like the pioneers, have the courage and the consistency to be true to the faith and to endure to the end?

Here I recall a pioneer example of faith, commitment, and courage by some young men just about the age of our missionaries. A few months before the Prophet Joseph Smith was murdered at Carthage, some of his enemies plotted to kill him. As part of their plan, they sought to enlist others in their conspiracy. Among those they invited to a meeting in Nauvoo were two young men still in their teens, Robert Scott and Dennison L. Harris. Dennison’s father, Emer, was the older brother of Martin Harris, one of the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon. Being loyal to the Prophet, these young men immediately reported the invitation to Dennison’s father, who advised the Prophet Joseph and sought his advice. Joseph asked Emer Harris to request that the young men attend the meeting, pay strict attention to what was said, make no commitments, and report the entire matter to the Prophet.

As events proceeded, there were three meetings. They began by denouncing Joseph as a fallen prophet, proceeded to considering how Joseph could be overthrown, and concluded with specific planning to kill him. All of this the two young men reported to the Prophet Joseph after each meeting.

Before the third meeting, the Prophet foresaw what would happen and told the young men this would be the last meeting. He warned them that the conspirators might kill them when they refused the required oath to participate in the murderous scheme. He said he did not think the conspirators would shed their blood because they were so young, but he called upon their loyalty and courage in these words: “Don’t flinch. If you have to die, die like men, you will be martyrs to the cause, and your crowns can be no greater.”  He renewed his original caution that they should not make any promises or enter into any covenants with the conspirators. Then he blessed them and expressed his love for their willingness to risk their lives.

As Joseph had foreseen, the third and final meeting required all present to unite in a solemn oath to destroy Joseph Smith. When the two boys refused, explaining that Joseph had never harmed them and they were unwilling to participate in his destruction, the leaders declared that since the boys knew the group’s plans, they must agree to join them or they must die on the spot.  Knives were drawn.

Some protested killing the boys, especially since their parents knew of their presence, so their failure to return would cast suspicion on some of the conspirators. By the barest margin, the most cautious course was chosen, and those who opposed killing prevailed. The boys were threatened with certain death if they ever revealed what had transpired in the meetings or who had participated, and they were then allowed to leave unharmed.

As the boys passed beyond the view of the guards, they were met by the Prophet, who was anxiously watching and praying for their safe return. They reported everything to him. He thanked and praised them, and then, for their safety, counseled them not to speak of this to anyone for 20 years or more.

Dallin H. Oaks, “Following the Pioneers,” Ensign, Nov. 1997