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)

Joseph Smith, a Doctor, and a Broken Carriage

When playing in the yard of the old white mansion, in Nauvoo, with Joseph and Frederick, two of his sons, a gentleman drove to the gate and asked if the Prophet Joseph Smith was at home; when he (the Prophet) sprang up from the grass plat, and, shaking the dust from his clothing, replied that he was.

The gentleman then drove his one horse up to a tie post and left the lines lying loose, and got out and came into the house. When about half way to the house Joseph said, "Mr., I think you would do well to tie your horse; he might get a scare and run away and break your carriage."

The gentleman replied, "I have driven that horse for some years and never tie him. I am a doctor and cannot afford to tie up at every place I call."

Joseph repeated, "You had better tie, all the same. Your horse might get a scare and run away."

The doctor replied, "No fear."

Joseph seemed quite uneasy, and got up several times from his chair on the porch or stoop to look at the horse. Suddenly the horse started up the street and struck a wheel against a post and scattered the pieces for a block or more. The doctor sprang to his feet, and looking after the horse, cried out to Joseph, "I'll be damned if you ain't a Prophet!"


(John Smith in "Recollections of the Prophet Joseph Smith," Juvenile Instructor 27 (1892), pp. 172-3)

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

Israel Barlow: The Holy Ghost Kept Him Safe

Israel Barlow was born in 1806 in Massachusetts. He was baptized in 1832, and was part of Zion's Camp. He was ordained a seventy in 1835 by Sidney Rigdon, and was later listed as being the president of the 6th Quorum of Seventies. He is also noted as the first Church member to consider settling the Saints in Nauvoo, when he chanced upon the land in 1838 as he was fleeing Missouri from the extermination order of Governor Boggs.

Israel also became a trusted bodyguard of the Prophet Joseph Smith. His grandson described an event that took place shortly before the martyrdom, when persecution of the Saints around Nauvoo was severe. On one occasion, Joseph requested Israel to go on horseback and deliver a message to a brother who lived in one of the more hostile areas, and to observe conditions during his journey.
The Prophet gave very specific instructions to Brother Barlow: which day to leave, what time, what route to follow, etc. He was further told to accept the hospitality when he arrived at the destination, but not to spend the night in spite of their urgings - to leave in the evening, and then to "listen to the direction of the Spirit." Otherwise, his life would be in jeopardy.

Brother Barlow arrived safely and delivered the message. His grandson recorded what transpired as he started on his return:

"He left promptly at sundown and rode along the country road until it became dark. Just before he came to the river bridge, a voice said to grandfather, "Ride faster." He sped up his horse and the voice repeated again, with more emphasis, "Ride faster." Again he increased the speed of the animal when the voice said to him: "Ride for your life." He then sped for all the animal's strength. As the horse's feet clattered across the bridge he could hear the mob, which had gathered in the brush to intercept him, cursing at the top of their voices.

"He had crossed the bridge but a short distance when the voice said to him: "Turn to the right," and he turned his horse off the road into the brush toward the river. There he stood in silence as the mob, who had mounted their horses, came racing over the bridge at break-neck speed, and down the road they went, supposedly after him. After they had gone by he wound his way from the river's edge to the bed of the stream, and on through the willows. In the darkness he made his way along the river in the opposite direction from which the mob had expected him to go. Finally when he thought it was safe, several miles away, he emerged from the river and made his way over the country back into Nauvoo, just as the day was breaking.

Returning to Nauvoo, Israel found Joseph Smith pacing the street in front of his home. He started to share his adventure with the Prophet, but Joseph stopped him and said he already knew everything that had transpired:
The Prophet told him that he had been up all night, waiting for his return, and stated "I saw it all, you have no need to tell me." Thereupon the Prophet laid his hand upon grandfather's shoulder and gave him a blessing and said: "Thee and thine shall never want."

(See _Our Pioneer Heritage_, 19:324; _Faith Like the Ancients_ 1:196-7)   

Compiled and written by David Kenison

Joseph Inspires a Wrestler

While on this journey and resting in a little grove of timber where the ground was well sodded, one of the lawyers for Reynolds and Wilson [the men who had originally "arrested" Joseph] began to boast of his prowess as a wrestler. He offered to wager any sum that he could throw any man in the state of Illinois at side-hold. Stephen Markham, a side-hold wrestler, told the lawyer that he would not contest for money but would try a bout for fun. They grappled, and the man threw Markham, when a great shout arose from Joseph's enemies, and they began to taunt the Prophet and his friends.

Joseph turned to Brother Philemon C. Merrill, a young man from Nauvoo, subsequently adjutant in the Mormon Battalion, and later a resident of St. David, Arizona, and said: "Get up and throw that man."

Merrill was about to say that side-hold was not his game; but before he could speak the Prophet commanded him in such a way that his tongue was silenced. He arose to his feet filled with the strength of a Samson.

Merrill lifted his arms and said to the lawyer: "Take your choice of sides."
The man took the left side with his right arm under; when the company all declared that this was not fair, as he had a double advantage. Merrill felt such confidence in the word of the Prophet that it made no difference to him how much advantage his opponent took, and he allowed the hold. As they grappled Joseph said: "Philemon, when I count three, throw him!"
On the instant after the word dropped from Joseph's lips, Merrill, with the strength of a giant, threw the lawyer over his left shoulder, and he fell striking his head upon the earth.
Awe fell upon the opponents of the Prophet when they saw this, and there were no more challenges to wrestle during the journey.


(George Q. Cannon, _Life of Joseph Smith the Prophet_, pp. 450-51)