The Life of Joseph Smith, the Prophet

by George Q. Cannon

Emma, the wife of the Prophet, had remained in Pennsylvania. After the manuscript translation had been placed in the printer's hands, Joseph found time to visit his wife. As fast as the truth was made known to him through revelation, he communicated it unto her; he desired that she might partake with him of the gifts which Heaven was bestowing. He paid two or three visits to Harmony during the autumn of 1829, and the succeeding winter; while Oliver, under Joseph's direction, gave close attention to the printing and publishing of the Book of Mormon. Early in the spring of 1830, the work was completed and the first edition of the book was given to the world.

And at this time the hour was come for the establishment, after the order revealed by God, of the Church of Christ once more upon the earth.

CHAPTER XII.

ORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH AT FAYETTE—REVIEW OF THE PROPHET'S LABORS— HIS UNPRETENTIOUS CHARACTER—THE COURAGE WHICH ANIMATED HIM WAS SHARED BY HIS ASSOCIATES—THE WITNESSES AND EARLY MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized on the 6th day of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty, in Fayette, Seneca County, in the state of New York. Six persons were the original members: Joseph Smith the Prophet, Oliver Cowdery, Hyrum Smith, Peter Whitmer, Jun., Samuel H. Smith, and David Whitmer. Each of the men had already been baptized by direct authority from Heaven. The organization was made on the day and after the pattern dictated by God in a revelation given to Joseph Smith. The Church was called after the name of Jesus Christ; because He so ordered. Jesus accepted the Church, declared it to be His own, and empowered it to minister on earth in His name.

The sacrament, under inspiration from Jesus Christ, was administered to all who had thus taken upon them His name.

This was a day of great joy to Joseph—a joy which was shared by those who became thus united with him in a holy work. It is also a day now reverenced by hundreds of thousands of the human family; a day to be held in sacred veneration throughout all the time to elapse until the Messiah Himself shall come in glory to accept the Kingdom from the hands of His authorized servants, and to give reward for all the woes and the persecutions which men have heaped upon His chosen ones.

Joseph was at this time twenty-four years of age. A period of ten years had passed since the hour in which the Father and Son had first appeared in answer to his prayer. During the most of this time he had been in close communication with the Heavens, and the organization of the Church was but the accomplishment of a definite purpose of the Almighty. Joseph had been led along, himself not knowing in complete fullness to what great result his life and labors were tending. He had only known to do the will of Heaven as expressed to him, and to patiently await the future. Doubtless at this hour of the organization he looked back with thanks and marvel at all which God had given for the benefit of His children. From out of the false religions of the earth the Lord had lifted this His servant, and had trained him from boyhood in the way most pleasing to Him.

In the very manner of the restoration of the gospel, Joseph learned that God requires even His elect to defer to the order and authority instituted by Christ. The power by which Joseph Smith was baptized was the same power by which every man must be baptized who has a membership in the Church of Christ. That power had been taken from the earth, leaving the human family without the authority to administer the ordinances of the gospel during many centuries. No earthly being could restore it, and none could use it until John the Baptist conferred it in its fullness upon Joseph and also upon his fellow servant, Oliver. There is something significant in the fact that the authority to baptize was bestowed upon Joseph and Oliver by the same personage who had stood in the waters of the Jordan about 1800 years before, to immerse in that stream the earthly tabernacle of God's Only Begotten. As Joseph had not been permitted to officiate in baptism, or to confer the Aaronic Priesthood, until John had visited him and transmitted that authority from Heaven, so after even this blessing had become his own, he was unable to seal the gift of the Holy Ghost, or to ordain an Elder, until after Peter, James and John had endowed him with the Priesthood after the holy order of Melchisedek. And even after both these holy orders of Priesthood were given to him, and he had ordained Oliver unto them; even after he had beheld in vision the establishment of the work of righteousness, he knew not how nor when the organization of the Church should be accomplished. It was necessary that God should define the mode and the principle of organization and should direct each step to be taken in this establishment of His kingdom; and it was not until He did this that Joseph knew in what manner to obtain the restoration of the power which belongs to the body of the Saints in Christ.

Joseph proceeded carefully, and exactly according to the instruction of the Almighty, and he laid the foundation of a work which will endure as long as earth shall last.