Joseph Smith, while in the State of New York, had seen Newel K. Whitney, in the State of Ohio, praying for his coming to Kirtland; and therefore knew him when they met.[[11]] The purpose of this vision, in all probability, was to pave the way for a meeting between the Prophet and the man who was to have the honor of entertaining him during the first weeks after his arrival in Ohio.
Vision of the Three Glories.—One of the most glorious manifestations ever vouchsafed to mortals, came to Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon, in the month of February, 1832. They were at Hiram, Portage County, Ohio, where the Prophet, assisted by Elder Rigdon, who had been a Campbellite preacher, was occupied with revising the English translation of the Hebrew Bible—a circumstance that may have given rise to the oft-refuted story of Rigdon's authorship of the Book of Mormon.[[12]] The manifestation referred to was a vision of human destiny, including the three general conditions of glorified man—celestial, terrestrial, and telestial. Concerning this marvelous vision, Joseph and Sidney thus testify:
"We, Joseph Smith, Jr., and Sidney Rigdon, being in the Spirit on the sixteenth of February, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two, by the power of the Spirit our eyes were opened and our understandings were enlightened, so as to see and understand the things of God . . . .
"Of whom we bear record, and the record which we bear is the fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who is the Son, whom we saw and with whom we conversed in the heavenly vision."[[13]]
Thus is furnished an additional proof that it is by the power of God, and not of man, that mortals behold the visions of eternity.
The Greenville Incident.—In May of the same year, Joseph Smith, President of the Church, and Newel K. Whitney, Bishop of Kirtland, were returning from a visit to Jackson County, Missouri, where, since the summer of 1831, a "Mormon" colony had been laying the foundations of the City of Zion, upon grounds consecrated by the Prophet for that purpose. The returning visitors were detained several weeks at Greenville, Indiana; the Bishop having a broken leg, caused by leaping from a runaway stage coach. Surrounded by unfriendly people, some of whom he suspected of an attempt to poison him, the Prophet proposed that they forthwith leave that dangerous neighborhood. His record goes on to say:
"Brother Whitney had not had his foot moved from the bed for nearly four weeks, when I went into his room, after a walk in the grove, and told him if he would agree to start for home in the morning, we would take a wagon to the river about four miles, and there would be a ferry-boat in waiting, which would take us quickly across, where we would find a hack which would take us directly to the landing, where we should find a boat in waiting, and we would be going up the river before ten o'clock, and have a prosperous journey home. He took courage and told me he would go; we started the next morning and found everything as I had told him."[[14]]
A White Lamanite.—Still another instance. In 1834, while the "Zion's Camp" expedition[[15]] was on its way to Missouri, some of the party exhumed from an ancient mound the skeleton of a man having a stone-pointed arrow between two of his ribs. The Prophet, in a vision of the past, discovered the identity of this skeleton, and informed his brethren that the man's name was Zelph, that he was "a white Lamanite,"[[16]] and had been killed in battle by the arrow found between his ribs.[[17]]
Kirtland Temple Visions.—By this same power Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, in the Temple at Kirtland, Ohio (April 3rd, 1836), beheld Jehovah, the God of Israel; also Moses, Elias and Elijah, who committed to them spiritual keys necessary for carrying on various phases of the Lord's work.[[18]]
Adam's Altar.—In 1838, after the main body of the Church had moved to Missouri, the Saints built several towns and projected others in Caldwell and other counties of that State. One of those towns was at Spring Hill, Davis County, where the men who made the survey for a new settlement came upon the ruins of an ancient altar, situated on a wooded hill overlooking the surrounding country. Straightway they reported to the Prophet their interesting find. He, upon beholding it, said to those who were with him: "There is the place where Adam offered up sacrifice after he was cast out of the Garden."[[19]]