Lessons learned from Martin Harris, Lucy Harris, and the Lost 116 pages

Martin Harris
Painting by Lewis A Ramsey
Source:  Wikimedia Commons

I have heard certain LDS church history stories told so many times that I tend to stop paying attention whenever they come up.  The story of Martin Harris and the lost 116 pages is one of these.   The story begins, and half my brain goes to sleep.  Even just half awake, though, something bugged me about this story:  what was Martin Harris thinking?  I mean, if I were friends with the Prophet, and had a testimony that the man was indeed a prophet of God, and if that friend and prophet told me that something I wanted to do was a bad idea, I’d drop the whole plan.  I could never figure out where Martin Harris was coming from.

The church history section of lds.org has a series of essays called Revelations in Context, one of which is The Contributions of Martin Harris.  This essay contained an account of the lost 116 pages story, so I was quickly scanning the essay with half a brain.  Yes, yes, I ‘ve heard this since Primary  . . . the point will be don’t nag God . . . but God is omniscient so he’s already planned a solution . . . and also God is merciful . . . I know this part of the story . . . And then I came to an abrupt stop because I read:  “Martin and Lucy’s relationship was already strained, and Martin’s support of Joseph Smith caused the rift between them to deepen.”  This was a part of the story I hadn’t heard before.

It turns out that Lucy Harris initially believed that Joseph Smith possessed the Gold Plates and wanted to help finance their translation, but later changed her mind. From The Contributions of Martin Harris:

Though Harris came to believe quite sincerely, his wife had turned hostile. Lucy Harris was concerned, quite understandably, that Martin might take a large financial risk to help publish the book, that her peers would mock her husband’s participation in what they viewed as a fraudulent scheme, and that Martin had simply left her feelings out of his calculations. She was also stung by the way Joseph rebuffed her every attempt to see the plates, and she beleaguered Martin incessantly to see some evidence of Joseph’s ability to translate.
To ease Lucy’s disquiet, Harris asked Joseph to “enquire of the Lord through the Urim and Thummin” if he might “carry the writings home and exibit them” (Joseph Smith, History, circa 1841, fair copy, 14, Joseph Smith Papers) to his wife and others. 

Another picture of Martin Harris, this one from a photograph
Source:  lds.org

That was my missing piece of information, the reason I never quite understood the story.  I couldn’t understand bugging the prophet until God changed His mind, but I can understand conflict in marriage.  I could not identify with Martin Harris before, but I can now.  I don’t see Martin Harris as a fool anymore; I see him as a man torn between his family and his faith.  He had a testimony and he wanted his wife to believe also. 

Now, on to some things I’ve learned from this expanded version of the story.

First, Faith comes when we don’t have all the information but choose to believe anyway.  Neither Lucy nor Martin got to see the gold plates while Joseph Smith translated them.  Eventually, Martin Harris would see the plates, but Martin Harris did not have a testimony because he saw them.  His testimony had been founded long before, when he did not seen but chose to believe.  Something similar happens when I don’t understand something in the gospel, but choose to believe anyway. 

Second, some dating advice for my kids.  I remember YW leaders and seminary teachers giving lots of dating advice.  One piece of advice, often repeated, was “only date members of the Church,” which always worked for about ten minutes, when a student would point out somebody we knew who was married to a nonmember who later converted, or who had married in the temple and later divorced.  The teachers and advisors never knew quite how to respond to this point.  Now I think I have some better advice for my children:  only date people, church members or not, who respect your testimony and honor your choices.  The strain in the Harris’ relationship didn’t come because one was a church member and one wasn’t, or because one had a testimony and one didn’t.  It was because one had a testimony and the other tried to undermine it.

Which brings me to my third point, love thy neighbor, but love thy testimony more.  In other words, as I love and serve others, I should worry more about what the Lord thinks of my choices than what my loved ones think of my choices.  Generally, this isn’t a problem, because keeping the first great commandment involves keeping the second, (See Matt 22:36-39) but sometimes standing up for my beliefs means disagreeing with people I love.  When this happens it’s really tough.  I feel bad for Lucy, worrying about what her friends would think if Martin mortgaged the farm, and I feel bad for Martin, who must have felt caught between love for his wife and love for God. 

Strange that a small piece of information that I didn’t know before changed my entire outlook toward a story I’ve heard for years.  I’m glad I read the essay.  

Joseph Smith, Charles Finney, and the Burned-Over District

“Some time in the second year after our removal to Manchester, there was in the place where we lived an unusual excitement on the subject of religion,” wrote Joseph Smith, Jr., in his History.  “It commenced with the Methodists, but soon became general among all the sects in that region of country.  Indeed, the whole district of country seemed affected by it, and great multitudes united themselves to the different religious parties, which created no small stir and division amongst the people, some crying, “Lo, here!” and others, “Lo, there!”  Some were contending for the Methodist faith, some for the Presbyterian, and some for the Baptist” (Joseph Smith-History1:5).

Joseph Smith, Jr.
Courtesy lds.org

The United States, in 1820, was in the midst of the Second Great Awakening.  Responding to new-found freedom of religion as individual states disestablished state churches, people explored different denominations and chose from among them.  When Joseph Smith referred to an “unusual excitement on the subject of religion,” he wasn’t kidding:  the particular area of New York where the Smith family lived was so overrun with religious meetings that historians have dubbed it the “Burned-over district.” 

From 1825-1828 Presbyterian minister Charles Finney worked in the Burned-over district to bring souls to Christ.  His tool of choice was the revival.  Though controversial in his methods, Finney used the revival with much success, and other preachers approached him for advice.  In 1834 he taught a class of Presbyterian preachers how to conduct revivals; a year later he published these Lectures on Revivals of Religion in book form. 

Charles Grandison Finney
Photograph ca. 1850
Source:  Wikimedia Commons

Finney began his Lectures by explaining what a revival was, and continued by explaining why it was necessary.  A revival injected new spiritual life into the congregation and community.  Without this spiritual renewal, Finney argued, Christians would be distracted from serving God and backslide into sin.  Finney explained:

Men are so spiritually sluggish, there are so many things to lead their minds off from religion, and to oppose the influence of the Gospel, that it is necessary to raise an excitement among them, till the tide rises so high as to sweep away the opposing obstacles. They must be so excited that they will break over these counteracting influences, before they will obey God. . . . Hence it is necessary to awaken men to a sense of guilt and danger, and thus produce an excitement of counter feeling and desire which will break the power of carnal and worldly desire and leave the will free to obey God. (Finney, Lecture 1.)

Further, without the excitement produced by a revival, nonbelievers (Finney called them sinners) would never humble themselves enough to feel the Holy Spirit and be converted through Christ’s grace.  It was the church’s duty to help save nonbelievers and backsliders through holding periodic revivals.  “There is no other way in which a church can be sanctified, grow in grace, and be fitted for heaven” (Finney, Lecture 2, Section II(6)).

Lithograph of revival ca. 1830
Courtesy history.lds.org

“A revival consists of two parts,” wrote Finney (Lecture 3).  First, the preacher encouraged listeners to examine their sins and confess them, in this way breaking down their pride and making them humble.  Finney provided the example:   

 ”If there is a sinner in this house, let me say to him, Abandon all your excuses. You have been told to-night that they are all vain. To-night it will be told in hell, and told in heaven, and echoed from the ends of the universe, what you decide to do. This very hour may seal your eternal destiny. Will you submit to God to-night—NOW?”  

A revival’s second part consisted of prayer, pleading with the Lord to pour out His Spirit among the congregants and grant them forgiveness and conversion.  Again, from Finney:

“Now, my brethren, I have only to ask you, in regard to what I have preached to-night, “Will you do it?”. . . Have you gone over with your sins, and confessed them, and got them all out of the way? Can you pray now? And will you join and offer prevailing prayer, that the Spirit of God may come down here? “(Finney, Lecture 4, Remarks (3)). 

If the minister and the church members had done everything right up to this point, God would indeed pour out his Spirit on the congregation and sinners would be converted.

Revival meetings worked well during the Second Great Awakening because the evangelical tradition of the time taught that individuals needed to have a conversion experience to receive God’s grace, and the excitement produced at a revival brought many people the conversion experience they looked for.  In the Smith family, Lucy Mack Smith, Hyrum, Samuel Harrison, and Sophronia felt satisfied with conversion experiences they had felt while attending Presbyterian revivals (see Joseph Smith-History 1:7).  Joseph Smith, however, never experienced such a life-altering conversion during the revivals that he attended, so he looked for one elsewhere, in a grove of trees near his family’s home.  This time he obtained the experience he sought. 

The Sacred Grove
Courtesy lds.org

The more history I learn, the more convinced I am that God influences the world.  God inspired leaders in state governments to disestablish religion, ensuring that a fourteen-year-old boy would have many different sects to choose from, and feel comfortable with none of them.  God created an atmosphere where people believed in sudden miracle conversions, so that Joseph Smith Jr. would look for one, and not be content until he found it. Finally, when Joseph prayed in the sacred grove, God provided the First Vision. 

2014 Church History Symposium part 1: A Small Leaf in the Forest of God’s Knowledge

Soviet army visor cap
Picture taken by Tom Abbott

I don’t remember much of international relations and politics during the Cold War.  I was too young.  Germans could legally cross the Berlin Wall beginning on my fifteenth birthday, and the USSR collapsed when I was seventeen.  I remember that when the Iron Curtain came down, it happened quickly, stunning the adults I knew.  I remember a teacher in my high school seminary musing that he had thought the Church would never be allowed to enter Eastern Europe while he lived, but now it seemed that it could happen after all.  Looking back, God had been working in Eastern Europe all along, using small means to create a miracle that would confound the wise.

Several of the sessions I attended at the Church History symposium March 6 and 7 addressed this theme, God’s ability to confound the wise people of the world.  President Uchtdorf, in his keynote address March 7, discussed how our wisdom may look like foolishness to God, whose foolishness is wiser than the wisdom of man.  He said God knows what we do not.  God is good and faithful and sometimes performs His work in ways that are incomprehensible to us.  God asks us to have faith.  Those who disregard the powers of Heaven will find themselves on the wrong side of history. 

My Piece of the Berlin Wall
Picture taken by Tom Abbott

As an example, President Uchtdorf retold the story about President Monson promising the Saints of the GDR that if they remained faithful they would enjoy every blessing available to people in in any other country (For this story as told by President Monson, see Thanks be to God, Ensign May 1989).  At the time President Monson gave the promise, President Uchtdorf couldn’t imagine it being fulfilled during President Uchtdorf’s lifetime.  The evidence of the world contradicted the word of an apostle.  Ten years later, when Sister Uchtdorf overheard a rumor that a temple was going to be built in East Germany, both she and President Uchtdorf dismissed it.  A few days afterward, however, the church announced the Freiburg temple. 

The previous day of the symposium, Thursday March 6, I listened to Clint Christensen tell another story about God leading the church and confounding the wise.  His presentation was entitled Ebony Grafted onto the Olive Tree:  The Global Impact of the 1978 Revelation.  During the 1970’s, Brother Christensen said, President Kimball felt it was time to preach the gospel in more countries.  He looked for ways to expand missionary work around the world.  One of the difficulties he encountered concerned how to take the gospel to Africa, the islands of the Caribbean, and Latin America, because so many of the men who live in these parts of the world are of African descent and at this time could not hold the priesthood.  Without local priesthood holders, the Church could not set up wards or stakes, call missionaries or patriarchs, or perform temple ordinances in these areas.  President Kimball prayed for inspiration.  How was he to take the gospel to the world?  The answer eventually came via the 1978 revelation on the priesthood.  Today people of African descent serve as patriarchs, stake presidents, mission presidents, temple presidents, and General Authorities.  During this presentation, I realized that President Kimball had not known how to take the gospel message to Africa, the Caribbean, or Latin America.  But God knew, and opened up a way (To read a version of this story as told by President Hinkley, see Priesthood Restoration, Ensign October 1988).

Accra Ghana temple
Source:  Lds.org

After the 1978 revelation opened doors in Africa, Church membership in Ghana grew rapidly.  This, combined with Cold War anti-American sentiment, led to the 1989 “freeze,” during which time the government of Ghana suspended all activity of the LDS church.  J.B. Haws discussed The Freeze and the Thaw:  Church and State in Ghana in his address which immediately followed Brother Christensen’s.  From his address I learned about yet another time when the wisdom of the world suggested that things were going badly for the Church.  God was working behind the scenes, however, and after eighteen months of the freeze, leaders of other congregations convinced the government of Ghana that Ghana needed freedom of religion.  God even turned the seeming setback into a blessing:  the increased media exposure of the LDS church during the freeze led to a sudden increase in church interest at the beginning of the thaw.

"We have only one leaf from the vast forest of knowledge"
-President Dieter F. Uchtdorf
Picture from Lds.org

President Uchtdorf compared all human knowledge to one leaf in the forest of God’s wisdom.  He counseled:  There are times when things appear to be going badly for the truth of God.  Be patient.  Things will work out.  God will succeed.  The truth will spread throughout the earth.  Stay calm and carry on.  Things which appear impossible now may become commonplace in years to come. 

Or as my husband likes to say, “God is in control of the world.  Satan doesn’t win a round.” 

Note:  President Uchtdorf’s entire keynote address can be viewed on YouTube here.

A tale of two Relief Societies: The Female Relief Society of Nauvoo and the Relief Society of the Tithing Hill Ward

As sisters in Zion, we’ll all work together;

The blessings of God on our labors we’ll seek.

How vast is our purpose, how broad is our mission,

If we but fulfill it in spirit and deed.

Oh, naught but the Spirit’s divinest tuition

Can give us the wisdom to truly succeed.

Hymn no. 309.  Lyrics by Emily H. Woodmansee.

I was released from my calling in Relief Society.  I knew it was coming; I’d been teaching for about 2 ½ years, and so I’d been bracing myself.  Still, when the release came I felt really, really sad:  much sadder than I’d expected.    I love the sisters in my ward.  I love teaching them and learning from them.  I also loved learning through the Holy Ghost as I prepared and taught my lessons.  Teaching in Relief Society has been a tremendous blessing to me and I will miss it.

Organization of the Relief Society
Source:  www.lds.org

Blessing women like me was, of course, the purpose of Relief Society from its founding.  Lucy Mack Smith, in 1842, said the following to the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo:  “We must cherish one another, watch over one another, comfort one another and gain instruction, that we may all sit down in heaven together.”1

A bit of an aside before I continue:    In 1835 a Presbyterian minister from New England named Charles Finney published his Lectures on Revivals of Religion.  Finney’s departure from conventional Calvinism helped make his Lectures controversial, but the biggest criticism about his revivals was the role played by women.  Finney not only allowed women to participate behind the scenes, but women in his congregations could speak and pray in public. ²   In 1842, only a few years later, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints organized the Relief Society, granting women members of the Church an official role.  ³   Relief Society was revolutionary.

Before I was called to be a teacher in the Relief Society, I had spent several years teaching children in the Primary Organization.  I realized quickly that my lessons to adult sisters would be very different than my lessons to the children.  The sisters in my ward were smart.  They knew a lot about the gospel.  They didn’t need someone to teach, so much as lead a discussion.  We all taught each other, no matter who stood at the podium.

The Female Relief Society of Nauvoo was founded here,
in Nauvoo's "red brick store"
Photo by John Hamer
Source:  wikimedia commons

During the first meeting of the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo, (17 March 1842) Joseph Smith read  D&C section 25.  He clarified verse 7:  “And thou shalt be ordained under his hand to expound scriptures, and to exhort the church, according as it shall be given thee by my Spirit,” explaining,”[Emma] was ordain’d at the time, the Revelation was given, to expound the scriptures to all; and to teach the female part of community; and that not she alone, but others, may attain to the same blessings.”

In a later meeting (28 April 1842), President Joseph Smith discussed chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians.  Each sister in Relief Society has different spiritual gifts, he explained, and God needs all the sisters. ⁵   I remember learning the same thing as I taught Relief Society in the Tithing Hill ward.  I am a left-brain thinker.  When I teach, my lessons are very organized and logical.  Sometimes I struggle to connect emotionally with the sisters in the room.  The other sister who taught from the Teachings of the Presidents of the Church manual, however, was really good at this.  Sometimes I would watch Sister Musselman teach, look at the emotional responses of the others in the room, and wonder, wow, how does she do this?    After a few months of watching her I realized that God had called both of us to teach for this very reason:  He had given each of us talents in teaching, and He needed both of us, with our different strengths.  I could talk about what I thought, and she could talk about what she felt, and together we could reach everyone in the room.

God depends on all His daughters to use their different abilities to build the kingdom.  In Nauvoo the sisters donated time, money, and work.  The sisters who cooked gave food.  The sisters who spun gave flax and wool.  The sisters who sewed donated clothing or embroidery.  Some sisters gave soap, or collected donations, or tended the sick.  Though they gave differently, they all gave something.  They gave to the poor and needy and, during the spring of 1843, they also donated to the temple.  Despite their differences, they all wanted to serve God, assist the poor, and receive their temple covenants.  In my ward, also, I found that we Relief Society sisters are alike in the most important ways.  As we discussed motherhood, I learned that every mother, married or single, working at home or in a career, worries about her children.  I learned that every woman in Relief Society loves the Lord, wants to serve Him, and feels inadequate.

I’ve learned a lot from Relief Society over the past 2 ½ years.  Much of what I’ve learned—probably the most important things I learned—did not come from the formal lessons.  I don’t have a new calling yet, but I can still say, joyfully and thankfully, I am a member of Relief Society!

---

<sup>"1. Relief Society Minute Book, Nauvoo, Illinois, Mar. 24, 1842,18-19; also quoted in Daughters in my Kingdom,25" rback 

"2. Howe, Daniel Walker, What hath God wrought: The transformation of America, 1815-1848,(Oxford,2007), 172" back

"3. See daughters in my kingdom p.15." back

"4. Nauvoo Relief Society Minute Book, 8." back

"5. Relief Society Minute Book, Nauvoo, Illinois, Apr. 28, 1842,35" back</sup>

The beginnings of the Personal Progress Program

I walk by faith, a daughter of heav’nly parents.  Divine am I in nature by inheritance.

And someday, when God has proven me, I’ll see him face to face.

But just for here and now I walk by faith.

“I Walk by Faith” by Janice Kapp Perry

Sister Kapp in 1989
Source:  lds.org

My older daughter will enter the Young Women program at the end of the month.  This Wednesday will be her first midweek activity because all the graduating Primary girls have been invited to participate.  Then two weeks later is New Beginnings, and a whole new adventure for my not-so-little-anymore girl.

I remember turning 12.  I sat on the couch in my Beehive leader’s living room; she sat to my right.  She explained Sunday YW meetings and midweek mutual activities.  We talked about the Young Women’s theme.  Then she handed me a slim book that, if I remember rightly, was white and green.  I remember flipping through the book, looking at the pictures, as Sister Georgeson introduced me to My Personal Progress.  Like the Gospel in Action program I had participated in while a Merrie Miss, the My Personal Progress program would help me to develop righteous habits through setting goals.

The program required goal-setting in six areas:

·         Spiritual Awareness

·         Homemaking Arts

·         Service and Compassion

·         Recreation and the World of Nature

·         Cultural Arts and Education

·         Personal and Social Refinement

The LDS Church instituted the Personal Progress program in 1977, making the manual available in January of 1978.  The following summer Ruth H. Funk, then the Young Women General President, wrote that “the theory behind [Personal Progress] is simple and powerful:  we want each girl to know that her personal progress is eternal, that it will never be finished in this life.  We want her to know that she can change and grow at any time in her life.” ¹

Sister Georgeson also told me that this year, 1986, had marked a shift in the Young Women program.  The Church broadcasted a worldwide satellite Young Women fireside the year before, on Sunday, November 10, 1985.  At this fireside, Sister Ardeth Greene Kapp introduced seven Young Women Values.   These values, Sister Kapp explained, were “intended to serve as a guide to all Young Women in living the gospel and serving God” ² In the Feb.  1986 issue of the Ensign, she elaborated: 

“The Young Women Values have been selected to help young women know who they are and what to stand for during a time when peer pressure and acceptance by others exert a major influence in their lives.  Understanding the values expressed in the Young Women program can help parents reinforce these principles as they help their daughters realize a righteous, happy life and strengthen their commitment to the gospel.” ³

 Later during that same fireside, Sister Maurine J. Turley, second counselor in the General Young Women Presidency, introduced a new Young Women theme:  We are daughters of a Heavenly Father who loves us, and we love him.  We will ‘stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places’ as we strive to live the Young Women values.  A choir then sang the new musical composition I Walk by Faith.

Although leaders in ward Young Women organizations were encouraged from the beginning to incorporate the Young Women Values into their Sunday lessons and midweek experiences, they appear to have had some trouble figuring out exactly how to do this.  ⁴   Personally, I don’t remember any emphasis on the Young Women Values during my Beehive years.  The first spring after I became a Mia Maid, though, Young Women leaders got some help:  the Church released revised Personal Progress manuals that replaced the six suggested goal-setting areas with the seven Young Women Values.  From then on, Beehives and Mia Maids would complete 2 value experiences for each value every year, and Laurels would complete 2 value projects each year.  Sister Kapp said, “Personal Progress is an essential element of the Young Women program.  Basing this program on the Young Women theme, values, and motto can help give direction to a young woman’s life and strengthen her testimony of the gospel.” ⁵ At the same time, each value was assigned a color to provide a visual reminder of the values. 

Also in the Feb. 1986 Ensign, Sister Kapp talked about the importance of values and goal-setting to a young woman. 

The Young Women Values—Faith, Divine Nature, Individual Worth, Knowledge, Choice and Accountability, Good Works, and Integrity [and Virtue-Anna]—serve as a guide to every young woman.  These values can help a young woman understand who she really is and give her an identity apart from the world.  The gospel principles expressed in the Values help her to increase her faith in Heavely Father and to realize that the qualities she possesses are part of her divine nature.  These understandings will guide her in setting goals, in evaluating her progress, and in making her life purposeful. ⁶

Yesterday I pulled out my Young Womanhood Recognition medallion and showed it to my daughter.  I explained, briefly, the Personal Progress program, and encouraged her to work to earn her own awards.  She feels a bit intimidated, but I assured her that she can do it.  I told her that the work she puts into her Personal Progress will help her to become the young woman she wants to be.

^{1. Funk, Ruth H. “Why your daughter needs the Young Women Program” Ensign, (August 1978). ↩}

^{2. “Young Women counseled to stand for truth and righteousness” Ensign, (January 1986). ↩}

^{3. Kapp, Ardeth.  “Establishing a righteous identity: A conversation with Ardeth Kapp, Young Women General President” Ensign, (February 1986). ↩}

^{4. Thomas, Janet.  “No ordinary time” New Era, (May 1989). ↩}

^{5. Kapp, Ardeth.  “A conversation about Personal Progress and Young Women” Ensign, (March 1989).↩}

^{6. See footnote 3. ↩}