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)

A Search for Truth- Story of Wilford Woodruff

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2010-07-02-a-search-for-truth?lang=eng

Heber J. Grant's Testimony of the Word of Wisdom

Heber J. Grant stated:

"I leave my testimony with you that I believe as firmly as I believe anything in this world that I would not be standing here today talking to you if I had not obeyed the Word of Wisdom.

"When my appendix was removed, it had broken and blood poisoning, so they said, in the third and last stage, had set in. There were nine doctors present and eight said I had to die. The chief surgeon in the Catholic hospital turned to President Joseph F. Smith, and said: "Mr. Smith, you need not think of such a possibility or probability as that this man shall live. Why, if he should live it would be a miracle, and this is not the day of miracles. He can't live because no man ever lived who was in the condition he is in following an operation for appendicitis."

"That was the message delivered to me by Joseph F. Smith himself during his last sickness, and he said: "Our doctor friend who said it would be a miracle has passed away. I never saw you looking healthier in my life than you do today, Heber."

"I said to the nurse who told me regarding these nine doctors that I did not want to meet any of them, except the one who said and believed that I would pull through. She said: "He is the house doctor. I will call him in."

"I asked him why he disagreed with the others, and he smiled. (He was a southerner.) He said:
"Mistah Grant, ah just took a chance, suh. Ah have felt the pulse, suh, of thousands of patients, having been a house doctor in many hospitals. But ah never felt a pulse just like yours, suh. Why do you know, suh, in all of the tests that I made during an hour and three quarters that you were under the knife your heart never missed one single, solitary beat, and ah made up my mind that that heart would pull through."

"What kind of heart did I have? I had a heart that had pure blood in it, that was not contaminated by tea, coffee, or liquor. That is why the poison in my system was overcome. The doctor who operated upon me had made an agreement with me that he was to tell me if I had to die -- and he did -- so that I could write a couple of letters. But I did not write them because in the kind providences of the Lord it had been revealed in a manifestation that I did not have to die.

"Men say we cannot receive communications from the other world, but my wife whose body lies in the grave, visited my wife who is alive and told her that my mission was not yet ended. And I had received before that a blessing by the gift of tongues from that identical wife whose body was in the grave. And what was in that blessing? That I should live to lift up my voice in many lands and in many climes proclaiming the restoration to the earth of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ."

(_Gospel Standards_, pp. 326-7; _CR_, April, 1933:10-11)


Compiled and written by David Kenison

Wilford Woodruff and His Encounter With the Prince of Darkness

In 1840, Wilford Woodruff was serving a mission in England. He had tremendous success at the well-known Benbow Farm early in the year, but in the fall, he was in London and was feeling quite a different spirit. Along with fellow apostles Heber C. Kimball and George A. Smith, he encountered great opposition in the city; finding sincere people willing to listen to the preaching of the brethren was almost impossible.


After having labored for about three months in the city with only very limited success, Elder Woodruff recorded the following in his journal on October 18, 1840:

"The prospect in London at that time was the darkest it had ever been in since entering the vineyard; but the Lord was with us, and we were not discouraged. On Sunday we met with the Saints three times at Brother Corner's, read the Book of Mormon, gave instruction, and broke bread unto them. We had a good time, though there were only about half a dozen present. I felt the spirit bear testimony that there would be a work done in London.

"Having retired to rest in good season, I fell asleep and slept until midnight, when I awoke and meditated upon the things of God until 3 o'clock in the morning; and, while forming a determination to warn the people in London and by the assistance and inspiration of God to overcome the power of darkness, a person appeared to me, whom I consider was the prince of darkness. He made war upon me, and attempted to take my life. As he was about to overcome me I prayed to the Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, for help. I then had power over him and he left me, though I was much wounded. Afterwards, three persons dressed in white came to me and prayed with me, and I was healed immediately of all my wounds, and delivered of all my troubles."

This was apparently Elder Woodruff's first personal encounter with the power of evil in such a dramatic way; it must have been very comforting to know that the powers of the Lord were greater than those that opposed him.


(See Matthias F. Cowley, _Wilford Woodruff, His Life and Labors_, p. 130)


Compiled and written by David Kenison

Heber C. Kimball's Conversion and History

Heber C. Kimball was born in 1801, baptized in 1832, and ordained an apostle in 1835. He was a simple and unassuming man, but had a great gift - Brigham Young said once, "I am not a visionary man, neither am I given much to prophesying. When I want any of that done I call on brother Heber -- he is my Prophet, he loves to prophesy, and I love to hear him." (JD 1:132-3). This address by Elder Kimball was given on April 12, 1868, just a few months before his death, at a conference in Bountiful:


"I will now refer you to a little of my history. I was born in Vermont, and brought up very poor, and when nine years old I laid in my bed and in a vision saw those things that I have since passed through. Soon after I was baptized, brother Orson Pratt came to my house. I was standing in the door yard when he came in, and at the time I felt much of the holy Spirit upon me. I was then a potter at my wheel. While brother Pratt was talking with me a voice spake to him and said "Orson, my son, that man will one day become one of my apostles." I did not know this till afterwards. A voice also spoke to me and told me my lineage, and I told my wife Vilate that she was of the same lineage, and she believed it. I told her also that we would never be separated.

"I could tell you a thousand things that happened in that early day. I have been, as I have already told you, to where Adam offered sacrifices and blessed his sons, and I felt as though there were hundreds of angels there, and there were angels there like unto the three Nephites. I have also been over the hill Cumorah, and I understand all about it.

"I remember the time when I was baptized into the church, and how after I was baptized, Alpheus Gifford said he felt impressed to ordain me an elder. I was on my knees and jumped up and told him to hold on that I was not a learned man, and I thought that my ordination would injure the work. But presently the Holy Ghost came upon me till I thought that I should be burnt up. I could speak in tongues and prophecy, and I understood the scriptures.

"And now let me tell you that I was never made to die, that is spiritually; but that I am an inhabitant of this earth and will never destroy my right to it. It is my Father's and I know it, and His angels administer to men. This you can read in the Book of Mormon.

"Cleave now to the truth, and remember that a limb separated from a tree is not much, and so we are not much when separated from the truth. Therefore honor God and honor those you know; for if you do not honor those you know you will not honor God. If my children will not subject themselves to me they will not subject themselves to God; and so with our wives, they cannot honor God unless they honor us."


(_Journal of Discourses_, 12:191)
Compiled and written by David Kenison

Wilford Woodruff: The Fly Fisherman

Wilford Woodruff was born on March 1, 1807. One hobby he enjoyed throughout his life was fishing, and often found relaxation with a pole and line.
As a young missionary in England in 1845, he went fishing with a 70-year old man named "Father Richard Smithies." Wilford watched him fish with an artificial fly, and called it "the greatest art in fishing ever introduced." He recorded enthusiastically in his journal on May 8:
"Father Smithies caught 7 trout and two cheven in this way while we were with him. It was the first time I had seen the fly used in my life in the way of fishing. I was delighted with it; the rod and line was so light and flung with such skill and dexterity that the trout are beguiled and wherever they are, are generally taken. The fisherman has flies different for almost every month, calculated to imitate the flies that float upon the water at the time they fish. These flies are made of the feathers of birds, some of various colors. The trout will often take them before the natural fly. I was much gratified with this day's fishing."

Later, as the vanguard pioneer company made their way to Salt Lake, Wilford had a chance to try the art on his own. They were in the area of Fort Bridger on July 8, 1847. Wilford recorded:
"As soon as I got my breakfast I rigged up my trout rod that I had brought with me from Liverpool, fixed my reel, line, and artificial fly, and went to one of the brooks close by camp to try my luck catching trout. The man at the fort said there were but very few trout in the streams, and a good many of the brethren were already at the creeks with their rods and lines trying their skill, baiting with fresh meat and grasshoppers; but no one seemed to catch any.
"I went and flung my fly onto the [water]; and it being the first time that I ever tried the artificial fly in America, or ever saw it tried, I watched it as it floated upon the water with as much intense interest as Franklin did his kite when he tried to draw lightning from the skies. And as Franklin received great joy when he saw electricity or lightning descend on his kite string, in like manner was I highly gratified when I saw the nimble trout dart [at] my fly, hook himself, and run away with the line. But I soon worried him out and drew him to shore; and I fished two or three hours including morning and evening, and I caught twelve in all. And about one half of them would weigh about 3/4 of a pound each, while all the rest of the camp did not catch during the day 3 pounds of trout in all, which was proof positive to me that the artificial fly is [by] far the best thing now known to fish trout with."
We hope Pres. Woodruff is celebrating his birthday today casting some flies into that great trout stream in the sky...

(Journal excerpts from Susan Staker, _Waiting for the World's End_, spelling and punctuation corrected.)

Compiled and written by David Kenison