Chapter I. The Family, and Early Days of the Prophet

Religious Revival in the region of Palmyra. Joseph, in doubt, enquires of the Lord. The answer. " This is my Beloved Son." He tells his vision, and is persecuted for having heard the word of the Lord.

" I was born," says the Prophet Joseph, "in the year of our Lord 1805, on the 23d of December, in the town of Sharon, Windsor Co., Vt.

" My father, Joseph Smith, Sen., left the State of Vermont and moved to Palmyra, Ontario Co. (now Wayne Co.), N. Y., when I was in my tenth year. About four years afterward he moved, with his family, into Manchester, in the same county.

"Some time in the second year after our removal to Manchester, there was in that place an unusual excitement on the subject of religion. It commenced with the Methodists, but soon became general among all the sects- in that region of country; indeed, the whole district seemed affected by it, and great numbers united themselves to the different religious parties, which created no small stir and division among the people; some crying 'Lo, here!' and some ' Lo, there ! ' * * * A scene of bad feeling ensued ; priest against priest ; convert against

convert ; so that all of the good feeling entertained, one for another, was entirely lost in a strife of words and a contest of opinions.

"I was at this time in my fifteenth year. My father's family was proselyted to the Presbyterian faith, four members of it joining that church ; namely, my mother, my brothers Hyrum and Samuel H., and my sister Sophroina.

"During this time of great excitement my mind was called up to serious reflection and great uneasiness ; but although my feelings were deep, and often pungent, still I kept myself aloof from all those parties, though I attended their several meetings as often as occasion would permit. But in time my mind became somewhat partial to the Methodist sect, and I felt some desire to unite with them ; but so great was the confusion and strife among the different denominations that it was impossible for a person, young as I was, and so unacquainted with men and things, to come to any certain conclusion in the matter. * * * *

" While I was laboring under the extreme difficulties caused by the contests of these parties of religionists, I was one day reading the Epistle of James, first chapter and fifth verse, which reads, ' If an)- of you lack wisdom let him ask of God, that giveth unto all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him.' Never did any passage of Scripture come with more power to the heart of man than did this to mine. It seemed to enter with great force into every feeling of my heart. * * * I at length came to the determination to 'ask of God,' concluding that if he gave to them who lacked wisdom, and

•would not upbraid, I might venture. Accordingly I retired to the woods to make the attempt.

" It was on the morning of a beautiful clear day, early in the Spring of 1820. It was the first time in my life that I had made such an attempt, for amidst all my anxieties I had never as yet made the attempt to pray vocally.

" After I had retired into the place where I had previously designed to go, having looked around me and finding myself alone, I knelt down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was seized by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick darkness gathered around me, and it seemed for a time as if I was doomed to sudden destruction. But exerting all my powers to call upon God to deliver me out of the power of this enemy which had seized me ; and at the very moment when I was ready to sink into despair and abandon myself to destruction — not to an imaginary ruin, but to the power of some actual being from the unseen world — just at this moment of great alarm I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which gradually descended 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 to me, calling me by name, and said, pointing to the other, ' This is my beloved son ; hear him ! '

" My object in going to enquire of the Lord was to know which of all these sects was right, that I might know which to join. No sooner, therefore, did I get possession of myself, so as to be able to speak, than I asked the personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right — for at that time it had never entered into my heart that all were wrong — and which I should join. I was answered that I should join none of them, for they were all wrong ; and the personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight ; that those professors were all corrupt, ' They draw near me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; they teach for doctrine the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.' He again forbade me to join any of them. * * * When I came to myself again, I found myself lying on my back, looking up into heaven.

" Some few days after I had this vision, I happened to be in company with one of the Methodist preachers who was very active in the beforementioned religious excitement, and conversing with him upon the subject of religion, I took occasion to give him an account of the vision which I had had. I was greatly surprised at his behavior; he treated my communication not only lightly, but with great contempt, saying it was all of the devil ; that there were no such things as visions or revelations in these days ; that all such things had ceased with the Apostles, and that there never would be any more of them. I soon found, however, that my telling the story had excited a great deal of prejudice

against me among professors of religion, and was the cause of great persecution, which continued to increase ; and though I was an obscure boy, only between fourteen and fifteen years of age, and my circumstances in life such as to make a boy of no consequence in the world, yet men of high standing would take notice sufficient to excite the public mind against me and create a hot persecution ; and this was common among all the sects — all united to persecute me."

What that Methodist preacher then said to Joseph, churches still say: "It is all of the devil." " There are no visions or revelations in these days ; all such things ceased with the Apostles ; there never will be any more of such." And this in the very face of revelation sweeping over the bosom of the age like a mighty ocean ! Notwithstanding that since 1820, perhaps twenty-five million souls, outside of churches, and the majority of them from the intellectual classes, have accepted a dispensation of revelation in some form, churches stand do-day where they stood then. All Christendom, still remaining without a present revelation of Jesus, yet this Jesus the supreme revelator of his Father's kingdom!