Doctrine and Covenants 23-26

Doctrine and Covenants 25 is the personal revelation given to Emma Smith, the wife of the prophet, but verse 16 of it states that this revelation is for everyone.  Three topics from this revelation have been chosen for this lesson.

MARRIAGE

"And the office of thy calling shall be for a comfort unto my servant, Joseph Smith, Jr., thy husband, in his afflictions, with consoling words, in the spirit of meekness" (D&C 25:5).

Joseph wrote in his journal, regarding a time in 1842 when he was in hiding and Emma had come to visit him, "With what unspeakable delight, and what transports of joy swelled my bosom, when I took by the hand, on that night, my beloved Emma--she that was my wife, even the wife of my youth, and the choice of my heart...Oh what a co-mingling of thought filled my mind for the moment, again she is here, even in the seventh trouble, undaunted, firm, and unwavering--unchangeable, affectionate Emma!" (History of the Church 5:107).

And Joseph kept this counsel as well, and was a comfort to his wife.  In her portrait she is wearing the string of gold beads that were a gift from Joseph.  After his death, she carried a lock of his hair in a locket she wore the rest of her life.  She lived to the age of 74 and exited this life with her arm extended, calling out, "Joseph!  Yes, yes, I'm coming"  (Susan Easton Black, Who's Who in the Doctrine and Covenants, 275).

HUMILITY

"Continue in the spirit of meekness, and beware of pride.  Let thy soul delight in thy husband, and the glory which shall come upon him" (D&C 25:14).

Emma was 5 foot 9 inches, with dark hair and brown eyes.  She is always described as having been very beautiful (Black, 273).  She had a quick wit, as well.  She could manage a canoe (!) and was a skilled horseback rider.  She sang in her church choir as a girl.  She was exceptionally bright and studied for one year at a girls' school (Arnold K. Garr, et. al., Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint History, p. 1111).  Emma was outstandingly beautiful, she was refined, she was educated, and she came from a comfortable home.

Joseph was 6 feet tall, weighed 180 lbs, and is always described as having a commanding presence about him, and being well-built and muscular, but seldom or never is he described as having been exceptionally handsome.  His family's financial status was generally along the poverty level.  His education was extremely limited.  Peter Burnett, who was an attorney for Joseph Smith, described him as follows:

His appearance was not prepossessing and his conversational powers were but ordinary.  You could tell at a glance that his education was very limited.  He was an awkward but vehement speaker.  In conversation, he was slow and used too many words to express his ideas and would not generally go directly to a point" (Peter H. Burnett, Recollections and Opinions of an Old Pioneer, p. 66-67, quoted in Latter-day History, p. 220).

Mr. Burnett wrote that despite all these drawbacks, "he was much more than an ordinary man," and described the power of his personality, his ideas, his kindness and his influence, but it is possible to see from his words that Emma might well have considered herself Joseph's superior.  Many other of the educated early saints did.  Some begged to see the plates as proof of Joseph's word, but although Emma had them right in her house, right under her bed, right in her wagon, right on her kitchen table, she said, "I never felt at liberty to look at them" (Black, 273).  How many of us could have the controversial golden plates sitting right in front of us with nothing but a cloth covering them, and not sneak a peak?  Emma could be trusted.

My brother, Gary J Wyatt, gave a talk in his ward in Kansas several years ago on pride.  He prepared an excellent little quiz to check on our personal state of pride:

1. How easily are you offended?  Taking offense easily...is a sign of a soul centered on self.
2. Do you have a difficult time forgiving others?  Expecting forgiveness from God and others while we offer none is the sign of a person who puts himself above others.
3. Can you freely admit mistakes and confess sins?
4. How threatened are you by the accomplishments and good fortune of others?  The converse is also telling:  Do you get a feeling of satisfaction and relief when someone else stumbles or has trouble and difficulties?
5. How important is it to you that you get credit for the good that you do?  Everything we do should be with "an eye single to the glory of God."  There is no limit to what we can accomplish if we are not worried about getting credit for it.
6. Do you enjoy reveling in self-pity?  Self-pity is simply another manifestation of the self-centeredness that defines the prideful self.  It puts one's needs above those of others.
7. Do you enjoy gossip?  No behavior could more fully reflect a soul in pride's grip than the one who revels in gossip.
8. Do you turn everything, from the simplest conversation, to more substantial and elaborate interactions with others, into a competition with winners and losers?  You know what I mean: one-upping, wanting to talk more than listen, etc.

"To paraphrase C.S. Lewis: The person who is looking down on others is one who cannot look up to God.  Our goal should be cooperation, not competition."

JOY

"Wherefore, lift up thy heart and rejoice..." (D&C 25:13).

We don't have much control over what happens to us, so how can we be expected to be joyful?  Yet rejoicing is a commandment.  By this we can know that it is a choice over which we have control, and that is exciting news!

"Wherefore, be of good cheer and do not fear," the Lord said to the suffering early saints, "for I the Lord am with you."

While Joseph was imprisoned in the Liberty Jail, Emma had to flee with her children and the other saints 200 miles to Illinois, much of that on foot.  The whole way, she carried his manuscripts, including the translation of the Bible, tied under her skirts to keep them safe.  She later wrote to Joseph, "No one but God knows the reflections of my mind and the feelings of my heart when I left our house and home, and almost all of everything that we possessed excepting our little children, and took my journey out of the State of Missouri, leaving you shut up in that lonesome prison" (Black, 275).

Of her eleven children, nine of whom she bore and two which she adopted, only five grew to adulthood.  She lost six children in infancy and childhood!  In addition to caring for the five living children, she continually cared for many ill.  She was homeless much of her early married life and had to rely upon the hospitality of others.  When she did get her own home, she returned that hospitality to many homeless Saints.  In fact, in Nauvoo, many sick Saints set up tents as a hospital ward in her front yard, with her as the nurse.

When Christ hung on the cross, he asked his disciple John to care for his mother after his death.  Joseph didn't have the opportunity to arrange for the care of his widowed mother before he died, but he didn't need to; Emma naturally took care of that.  She also cared for many of her relatives, and many of her second husband's relatives, including his mistress and illegitimate 4-year-old son when they became known and were destitute! (She cared for the boy until her death 11 years later.) Now that is a charitable woman!  (Tad Walsh, "Was Emma Smith an Elect Lady?" Deseret News, Nov. 7, 2008).

Emma saw trials of homelessness, multiple moves, mob action resulting in the death of one of her babies, the deaths of other children, the trials of polygamy, the murder of her beloved husband, poverty, criticism, exile, loss of almost all her earthly possessions, single parenthood (including giving birth after the death of her husband), a second marriage to a nonbeliever, infidelity on the part of her second husband, humiliation, mental illness in her family (the youngest child, David), abandonment after she and the church leadership had a falling out and she remained in Illinois with her mother-in-law, and extreme caregiver responsibilities (including hand-feeding Lucy Mack Smith for the last year of her life).

Yet, her mother-in-law wrote of her, "Although her strength was exhausted, still her spirits were the same, which, in fact, was always the case with her, even under the most trying circumstances.  I have never seen a woman in my life, who would endure every species of fatigue and hardship, from month to month, and from year to year, with that unflinching courage, zeal, and patience, which she has ever done" (Lucy Mack Smith, History of the Prophet Joseph Smith by His Mother, 190-91).

I am quite certain that Emma Smith was not happy and perky all the time (in fact, her granddaughter commented that she always retained a sadness in her smile), but if the Lord could advise Emma Smith to be of good cheer, He also expects us to be of good cheer in our trials which are almost undoubtedly less than hers.

Elder Marvin J. Ashton said, "If we can recall the Lord's promise, 'for I the Lord am with you'...we will find the strength to be of good cheer instead of becoming resentful, critical, or defeated"  (Marvin J. Ashton, "Be of Good Cheer," April 1986 General Conference).

The great Latter-day Saint parent educator, Glenn Latham, whose lectures we attended and whose books we read many times as my husband and I raised our children, wrote, "The father of a wayward son once told me, 'A parent can be no happier than his most unhappy child.'  After fifteen years of working with Mormon families in crisis, I have concluded that parental guilt, shame, and suffering for the 'sins' of their children have become modern Mormon icons...

"The admonition to 'be of good cheer' is particularly applicable to Mormon parents today who are fearing and distressed by the 'storms' that sweep over their families and threaten the very survival of their children.  'Being of good cheer' is certainly a better, more positive and constructive response than is unwarranted shame, unearned guilt, and useless suffering" (Glenn I. Latham, "Guilt, Shame and Suffering: Modern Mormon Icons," 1987).

 “We should honor the Savior's declaration to "be of good cheer." (Matthew 14:27) Indeed, it seems to me we may be more guilty of breaking that commandment than almost any other!”  (Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, Created for Greater Things).

We don't have to be of good cheer all the time, after all, having love for others means empathy, which means suffering--even God weeps. (See Moses 7:28-40.) This is, in fact, one of the greatest revelations of the Restoration of the True Church: that the God of Nature suffers, both on the cross and when his children are hurt. He is not without empathy for us, as is the Protestant God "without body, parts, or passions." But we can be of good cheer even in troubling times and in troubling circumstances, because we know who wins: Christ has overcome the world! (John 16:33). If we cannot then be generally cheerful, hopeful, optimistic, happy, we must build up our faith and work to reach the measure of our creation, which is to have joy (2 Nephi 2:25). It's no easy task, and it's not accomplished overnight. Some people (myself included) may need professional help to overcome clinical depression or anxiety. But it is a commandment worth striving to follow, and along the way, we will see bits and pieces of joy. 

Joy is a journey as well as a destination. It is found in the state of oneness with God. (See 3 Nephi 28:10.) We achieve that state here and there throughout life as we do God's work, as we serve his children, as we are filled with the Holy Ghost, as we listen to His voice, as we seek His will, as we feel His powerful love for us, and for others through us. If you think back on the moments of greatest joy in your life, you will see this is the simple truth. 

AND ABOUT THE HYMNS...

"And it shall be given thee, also, to make a selection of sacred hymns, as it shall be given thee, which is pleasing unto me, to be had in my church. For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart; yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads" (D&C 25:11-12).

Emma did more than simply assemble hymns. She put together and published a lovely pocket-sized hymnbook. 

A Collection of Sacred Hymns for the Church of the Latter Day Saints replica 

sitting atop today's church hymnal

The hymns in this first volume did not contain titles or music, only words and meter. 

The person conducting the music in the meeting would choose, for example, Hymn #1, and then also choose a well-known tune with the correct meter (or number of pitches in the melody for the syllables in the verse). In this hymn, the meter is noted as "L.M.," or Long Meter, in which each line of the poem contains 8 syllables. A tune familiar to the saints and suitable to Long Meter would then be chosen and the congregation would sing the tune from memory with the words on the page. It may be a different tune each week. The tune to which we sing this hymn today, Bramwell, was written in 1937, so the saints would have never sung it the way we know it. (See Hymns of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 401.) On p. 408 of our present hymnbook, you can see a listing of the songs written in Long Meter (8888) to which you could sing "Know This That Every Soul is Free." It's kind of a fun experiment, to sing as the early Saints did.

The story of Emma's life is depicted beautifully in the docudrama, "Emma Smith: My Story," by Candlelight Media Group, available on YouTube. I highly recommend watching it as part of your at-home gospel and Church history study. It's a perfect Sunday afternoon activity and will increase your love for and understanding of this great lady.

(See also Gracia Jones, "My Great-Great-Grandmother, Emma Hale Smith," Ensign, August 1992)

 

Note: For any of you who may be trying to learn to play the hymns on a keyboard or piano, please feel free to use my "Guide to Learning Hymns Made Easy" or my "Graded List of LDS Hymns for Piano Students." 

  

Update on Joseph's and Emma's Posterity

I ordered the new DVD mentioned in my Lesson 40 post, and it came within days. It is a half-hour documentary, not really dramatized but with a few clips from the Emma movie. Most of it is Joseph's and Emma's descendants who are members of the Church speaking, as well as other historians, giving the history of the family briefly, and then the history of the gathering they have been doing.

As of the production time of the DVD, which was very recent, there were 129 descendants of Joseph and Emma who have joined the Church, but each time they gather, they find the number has increased. There are only about 1,000 living descendants altogether, so over one-tenth have been gathered back to the Church in these fourth and fifth generations, the generations in which it was prophecied by Elder George A. Smith that their children would return!

A few people claiming, through their family's oral history, to be descendants of Joseph Smith through plural wives have gone through DNA testing, and all have been proved not to be descended from Joseph Smith, so all of the known descendants of Joseph are Emma's children. (See http://en.fairmormon.org/Joseph_Smith/Polygamy/Children_of_polygamous_marriages for explicit test results. The results are also noted in the DVD.)

"I believe that Joseph and Emma are deeply involved from beyond the veil in all the things that are unfolding in our lives today." --Gracia Jones, Great-Great Granddaughter

(Source: "Children of Joseph: The Unknown Story" DVD)

Doctrine and Covenants Lesson #40 Finding Joy in Temple and Family History Work

EMMA SMITH'S EXAMPLE

Joseph Smith taught that "Seeking after our dead is the most important responsibility we have to perform in this life...if we neglect it, it is at the peril of our own salvation." When Joseph Smith introduced the concept of performing ordinances for the dead, one of the first women into the water was his wife, Emma. She was baptized for her father, her mother, her uncle, her sister, and her aunts, all of whom had rejected the gospel in this life. (Later, the baptisms for the men were redone by men, as that necessity had not been understood at first.)

Emma was the first woman in this dispensation to receive her temple endowment and sealing. She was also the first female ordinance worker. Throughout the year of 1843 and into the early part of 1844, she administered temple ordinances to many women, in her home and in the red brick store before the Nauvoo Temple was completed.

Emma Smith with son David,

born after Joseph was killed

from Joseph Smith Papers

ROOTS AND BRANCHES

To live, a plant must have roots and branches. A tree with branches but no roots is just a temporary decoration, and a tree with roots but no branches is a stump. The punishment to the wicked is that they will have neither; they will be as a log, disconnected from ancestry and progeny. They will be without family. "For behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch"(3 Nephi 25:1). Those who have the spirit of Elijah will live because they will be bound to their ancestors and to their descendants. Family history and temple work goes both directions. This is why without the sealing power the earth would be smitten with a curse (See 3 Nephi 25:6).

While Joseph Smith was alive, he and Emma taught their children the gospel. When Joseph left his family for the last time, he asked, "Emma, can you raise my sons to walk in their father's footsteps?" She cried, "Oh, Joseph! You're coming back!" He asked the same question again and she gave the same response. He asked the third time, and she began to cry. At the time of Joseph's martyrdom Julia was 13, Joseph was 11, Frederick, 8 and Alexander, 6. David would be born that fall.

After that fateful spring, most of the Smith women were widows, including three Smith brothers' wives who were widowed in connection with the martyrdom (Samuel's wife Levire, Hyrum's wife Mary Fielding, and Emma). More than two dozen Smith children were fatherless. All of them faced great hardship. It was at this point that these women made tough decisions that affected their families for generations.

At Joseph's death, Emma understandably entered into a state of depression. She had been a social, outgoing and hospitable woman, but now she withdrew from friends who desired to help her. She remained charitable, continually taking needy children into her home, and constantly serving her mother-in-law, but she kept her feelings to herself and chose to stay in Nauvoo with her mother-in-law, when the Church migrated west.

We could never place ourselves in Emma's shoes to understand or judge why, but she did not raise her children in the faith of their father as he had begged her to do. She did not teach her children anything about the gospel, and all she told the younger ones about their father was that he was a good man. Don Carlos's wife remarried and her new husband moved her away and made her promise that she would never mention that she was a member of the Church, or a sister-in-law to Joseph Smith. This was to ensure her freedom from the persecution of the past. Emma seems to have taken the same approach.

Lucy Mack Smith also stayed behind. She had three older daughters at home, and she continued to teach them the gospel, at great effort, but with no Church unit or Priesthood leadership in Nauvoo, it only lasted for one generation.

For four generations, none of Emma's and Joseph's descendants belonged to the Church, and the majority of them did not even know much about it. The Smith family tree had no permanent branches.

Meanwhile, Mary Fielding Smith took her children on to Salt Lake City amid great hardship, and lived only four years after arriving there. Prophets and apostles descended from her line, including President Joseph F. Smith, President Joseph Fielding Smith, Elder Melvin J. Ballard, and Elder M. Russell Ballard.

THE PROMISE TO EMMA

A few weeks before Emma died, however, she had a dream, which she related to her nurse. In the dream, Joseph took her to a beautiful mansion and showed her through many apartments. In one of the rooms she saw a baby in a cradle and recognized it as her baby, Don Carlos, who had died at age 14 months. She had previously said that he had been the hardest baby for her to lose because she had had him the longest and had more time to grow to love him. With great joy she rushed to him and snatched him up and held him tight, and asked where her other children were. Joseph replied, "Be patient, Emma, and you shall have all your children." Then Jesus Christ appeared standing beside Joseph. It seemed the heavens were smiling upon Emma for all she had endured. And yet her actions after Joseph's death had a consequence. She would have to wait for someone else to teach her children and grandchildren the gospel before they could be hers again. It would take over 100 years.

GRACIA JONES

On the 17th of March, 1956 a bud broke out on the stump of the Joseph Smith, Jr. family tree when Gracia Jones, Emma's great-great-granddaughter joined the Church. She was a teenager, and a Mormon family for whom she babysat introduced her to the gospel after she recognized the picture on their wall as her ancestor, Joseph Smith. She knew nothing of the Church. As the missionaries handed her the Book of Mormon, before she even opened the book, she was filled with a burning, and she heard the words, "It's true, it's really true."

With the zeal of a new convert, Gracia caught the Spirit of Elijah. She innocently did her four generations of genealogy and submitted the chart to Church headquarters, linking herself to Joseph and Emma. When that chart arrived in Salt Lake City, the Brethren were shocked. They sent a representative to Gracia's home in Montana. Then they encouraged her to seek out the rest of her family and bring the gospel to them, which she has taken on as a life-long mission. She has worked on both roots and branches of this family tree, doing temple work, locating relatives, traveling the world to meet them, taking them to the Legacy movie, putting their names on her huge family chart.

MIKE KENNEDY

Seventeen years later, Michael A. Kennedy, another descendant of Joseph's and Emma's, joined the Church. As a teenager, he was asked to do a school report on an ancestor. He asked his father for information. His dad brought out a box of family photos and records to the coffee table and said that some of their ancestors were famous for starting the Mormon Church. Mike decided that would make a great report, and started spreading out the materials. Just then--just then!--the doorbell rang. It was the Mormon missionaries. They were invited in. The missionaries glanced at the coffee table and were understandably surprised to see a picture of Lucy Smith. “I told them I was writing a report on my ancestry and had decided to pick a topic on some guy who started the Mormon Church,” Mike said. “They went ballistic. I think they tried to give us all six discussions in the next ten minutes.”

It took a few years, but Mike finally joined the Church as a young adult in 1973, attended BYU, married in the Provo Temple, and joined the work of gathering the family. He was the first direct descendant to become a priesthood holder. He is currently chairman of the board and president of the family historical society, which produced the wonderful feature film, "Emma Smith: My Story." (Gracia Jones is also a board member and chief historian.) The society has also produced a DVD, "Children of Joseph: The Unknown Story," about the family after Joseph's death. Their website is http://www.josephsmithjr.org/.

Emma Smith's sacrifice for the restored gospel of Jesus Christ was immeasurable, and despite the choices and circumstances that left her posterity adrift from it, the promise of her deathbed dream is being realized. After four generations, the Smith family tree once again has branches. Emma's children are coming home.

(Sources: Ehat & Cook, The Words of Joseph Smith, p. 106-107; Stanley B. Kimball, On the Potter's Wheel: The Diaries of Heber C. Kimball, p. 56; Hyrum L. Andrus, They Knew the Prophet, p. 147; Gracia Jones, Emma & Joseph: Their Divine Mission, p. 292; Gracia Jones, "My Great-Great Grandmother, Emma Hale Smith," Ensign, Aug. 1992, p. 30; Gracia Jones, "Choices and Consequences: Traditions of the Mothers--Lucy Mack Smith and Emma Hale Smith," BYU Campus Education Week lecture, August 23, 2001.)

To read Gracia Jones' conversion story, see My Great-Grandmother, Emma Hale Smith in the August 1992 Ensign.

To read Michael Kennedy's conversion story, go to http://newsnet.byu.edu/story.cfm/54186
and http://www.mormontimes.com/people_news/newsmakers/?id=2590

To read Michael Kennedy's testimony, go to
http://josephsmith.net/josephsmith/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=0ec3cddbda088110VgnVCM100000176f620aRCRD&locale=0

For a fun article about the first huge family reunion of Joseph and Emma's descendants, follow this link.