A Compendium of the Doctrines of the Gospel

by Unknown

We have no account of any greater vision than this which the brother of Jared had. "And the Lord said unto him, Write these things and seal them up, and I will shew them in mine own due time unto the children of men;" Ether 3. 2-27. Thus we learn from the twenty-seventh verse, that all the great things which pertain to the history of man, from the beginning unto the end of the earth, are yet to be revealed, through the record of the brother of Jared, to all who are prepared to receive them.

Lehi, the head of the first Jewish colony to America, was commanded by the Lord, in a dream, to leave Jerusalem, take his family and go into the wilderness, preparatory to going to a strange land; 1 Nephi 2. 2; verse 4 proves his supreme faith in this dream: "And it came to pass that he departed into the wilderness. And he left his house, and the land of his inheritance, and his gold, and his silver, and his precious things, and took nothing with him, save it were his family, and provisions, and tents, and departed into the wilderness."

This great patriarch, on other occasions, showed his faith in dreams and visions. In these ways the Lord revealed many great things to him and his son Nephi.

The Mosaic dispensation opened by an angel of the Lord appearing unto Moses in a flame of fire "Out of the midst of a bush;" Exo. 3. 2.

The Old Testament gives an account of many visions and dreams, but perhaps the most important of the latter is the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, which was interpreted by the prophet Daniel; Dan. 2. It is now over twenty-four hundred years since the king of Babylon had that dream, and its fulfilment can be traced in the history of the world down through all these centuries.

The last great event, shown in this dream, was, that in the latter times the God of heaven would set up a kingdom which would break down other kingdoms and stand forever. This is the kingdom that it was the mission of Joseph Smith, Jun., to establish, and which the Latter-day Saints are laboring to build up.

Dreams characterized the opening up of the New Testament dispensation. After the birth of our Savior the wise men, who came from the east to see him, were warned to disobey the command of the wicked king Herod, who sought the life of the young child. The reputed father of the child, Joseph, was warned in a dream to take the child and its mother and flee into Egypt for the same reason. When Herod was dead, Joseph was warned in a dream to take the child and its mother and return into the land of Israel.

This great latter-day dispensation was opened up by a vision. When Joseph Smith, Jun., was a lad, in his fifteenth year, he retired to a secret place to ask the Lord to direct him and give him wisdom. When he kneeled down to offer up the desires of his heart to God, he was nearly overcome by the powers of darkness.

He says, in the narrative of his life written by himself, "Just at this moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me. It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me, I saw two personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name, and said (pointing to the other), THIS IS MY BELOVED SON, HEAR HIM." P. of G. P., page 47.

An account of one of the most remarkable visions of this dispensation, is recorded in Doc. & Cov., sec. 76. The narrative commences as follows: "We, Joseph Smith, Jun., 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—even those things which were from the beginning before the world was, which were ordained of the Father, through his Only Begotten Son, who was in the bosom of the Father, even from the beginning, 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;" verses 11-14. In Joseph Smith's first vision, God the Father bore testimony of Jesus Christ his Son. In this last vision, the Son appeared to Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon, and revealed to them many great and glorious truths concerning the resurrection, and the final reward of all men according to their works. The account of the vision will repay much careful study.