Jay A. Parry - Best-Loved Stories, Volumes 1-3

Best-Loved Stories of the LDS People: Vol. 1

Best-Loved Stories of the LDS People: Vol. 1

Preface

The history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints isfilled with storiesaccounts of faith, conversion, protection,revelation, and healing. Some of these stories are told over and over again, inbooks, articles, talks, and lessons, because they make a point, touch theheart, or in some way define what it means to be a Latter-day Saint.

The purpose of this volume is to bring together in one placethe stories that have been perennial favorites among members of the Church. Ifyou have a favorite story from Church history, chances are youll find it inthis collection. Still, we have undoubtedly missed some stories. Although wehave tried to be thorough, there are so many wonderful stories that it would bealmost impossible to include them all.

We acknowledge our debt to other compilers and editors,including Hyrum G. and Helen Mae Andrus, Alma P. and Clea M. Burton, George Q.Cannon, Kate B. Carter, Leon R. Hartshorn, Bryant S. Hinckley, Andrew Jenson,N. B. Lundwall, Truman G. Madsen, Preston Nibley, B. H. Roberts, Eliza R. Snow,Edward Tullidge, and Orson F. Whitney.

We also express our appreciation to the officers andpublishing staff of Deseret Book Company, and particularly to Ronald A.Millett, Sheri Dew, Jennifer Pritchett, Patricia J. Parkinson, and Ronald O.Stucki.

The Restoration

The First Vision

Joseph Smith

I wasborn in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and five, on thetwenty-third day of December, in the town of Sharon, Windsor county, State ofVermont... My father, Joseph Smith, Sen., left the State of Vermont, andmoved to Palmyra, Ontario (now Wayne) county, in the State of New York, when Iwas in my tenth year, or thereabouts. In about four years after my fathersarrival in Palmyra, he moved with his family into Manchester in the same countyof Ontario

His family consisting of eleven souls, namely,my father, Joseph Smith; my mother, Lucy Smith (whose name, previous to hermarriage, was Mack, daughter of Solomon Mack); my brothers, Alvin (who diedNovember 19th, 1823, in the 26th year of his age), Hyrum, myself, SamuelHarrison, William, Don Carlos; and my sisters, Sophronia, Catherine, and Lucy.

Sometime in the second year after our removal to Manchester, there was in the placewhere we lived an unusual excitement on the subject of religion. It commencedwith the Methodists, but soon became general among all the sects in that regionof country. Indeed, the whole district of country seemed affected by it, andgreat multitudes united themselves to the different religious parties, whichcreated no small stir and division amongst the people, some crying, Lo, here!and others, Lo, there! Some were contending for the Methodist faith, some forthe Presbyterian, and some for the Baptist.

For,notwithstanding the great love which the converts to the different faithsexpressed at the time of their conversion, and the great zeal manifested by therespective clergy, who were active in getting up and promoting thisextraordinary scene of religious feeling, in order to have everybody converted,as they were pleased to call it, let them join what sect they pleased; yet whenthe converts began to file off, some to one party and some to another, it wasseen that the seemingly good feelings of both the priests and the converts weremore pretended than real; for a scene of great confusion and bad feelingensuedpriest contending against priest, and convert against convert; sothat all their good feelings one for another, if they ever had any, were entirelylost in a strife of words and a contest about opinions.

Iwas at this time in my fifteenth year. My fathers family was proselyted to thePresbyterian faith, and four of them joined that church, namely, my mother,Lucy; my brothers Hyrum and Samuel Harrison; and my sister Sophronia.

Duringthis time of great excitement my mind was called up to serious reflection andgreat uneasiness; but though my feelings were deep and often poignant, still Ikept myself aloof from all these parties, though I attended their severalmeetings as often as occasion would permit. In process of time my mind becamesomewhat partial to the Methodist sect, and I felt some desire to be unitedwith them; but so great were the confusion and strife among the differentdenominations, that it was impossible for a person young as I was, and sounacquainted with men and things, to come to any certain conclusion who wasright and who was wrong.

Mymind at times was greatly excited, the cry and tumult were so great andincessant. The Presbyterians were most decided against the Baptists andMethodists, and used all the powers of both reason and sophistry to prove theirerrors, or, at least, to make the people think they were in error. On the otherhand, the Baptists and Methodists in their turn were equally zealous in endeavoringto establish their own tenets and disprove all others.

Inthe midst of this war of words and tumult of opinions, I often said to myself:What is to be done? Who of all these parties are right; or, are they all wrongtogether? If any one of them be right, which is it, and how shall I know it?

WhileI was laboring under the extreme difficulties caused by the contests of theseparties of religionists, I was one day reading the Epistle of James, firstchapter and fifth verse, which reads: If any of you lack wisdom, let him askof God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall begiven him.

Neverdid any passage of scripture come with more power to the heart of man than thisdid at this time to mine. It seemed to enter with great force into everyfeeling of my heart. I reflected on it again and again, knowing that if anyperson needed wisdom from God, I did; for how to act I did not know, and unlessI could get more wisdom than I then had, I would never know; for the teachersof religion of the different sects understood the same passages of scripture sodifferently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appealto the Bible.

Atlength I came to the conclusion that I must either remain in darkness andconfusion, or else I must do as James directs, that is, ask of God. I at lengthcame to the determination to ask of God, concluding that if he gave wisdom tothem that lacked wisdom, and would give liberally, and not upbraid, I mightventure.

So,in accordance with this, my determination to ask of God, I retired to the woodsto make the attempt. It was on the morning of a beautiful, clear day, early inthe spring of eighteen hundred and twenty. It was the first time in my lifethat I had made such an attempt, for amidst all my anxieties I had never as yetmade the attempt to pray vocally.