What Joseph Beheld.

Seer and Prophet.—"Seer" and "Prophet" are interchangeable terms, supposed by many to signify one and the same thing. Strictly speaking, however, this is not correct. A seer is greater than a prophet.^[1] One may be a prophet without being a seer; but a seer is essentially a prophet—if by "prophet" is meant not only a spokesman, but likewise a foreteller. Joseph Smith was both prophet and seer.^[2]

Like Unto Moses.—A seer is one who sees. But it is not the ordinary sight that is meant. The seeric gift is a supernatural endowment. Joseph was "like unto Moses;" and Moses, who saw God face to face, explains how he saw him in these words: "Now mine own eyes have beheld God; yet not my natural, but my spiritual eyes; for my natural eyes could not have beheld; for I should have withered and died in his presence; but his glory was upon me; and I beheld his face, for I was transfigured before him." Such is the testimony of the ancient Seer, as brought to light by the Seer of Latter-days.^[3]

Spirit Eyes.—Let it not be supposed, however, that to see spiritually is not to see literally. Vision is not fancy, not imagination. The object is actually beheld, though not with the natural eye. We all have spirit eyes, of which our natural or outward eyes are the counterpart. All man's organs and faculties are firstly spiritual, the body being but the clothing of the spirit. In our first estate, the spirit life, we "walked by sight." Therefore we had eyes. But they were not our natural eyes, for these are not given until the spirit tabernacles in mortality. All men have a spirit sight, but all are not permitted to use it under existing conditions. Even those thus privileged can only use it when quickened by the Spirit of the Lord.^[4] Without that, no man can know the things of God, "because they are spiritually discerned."^[5] Much less can he look upon the Highest unspiritually, with carnal mind or with natural vision. "No man"—no natural man—"hath seen God at any time."^[6] But men at divers times have seen him as Moses saw him—not with the natural but with the spiritual eye, quickened by the power that seeth and knoweth all things.

By the Holy Ghost.—The seeric faculty, possessed in greater degree by some than by others, is the original spirit sight reinforced or moved upon by the power of the Holy Ghost. By this means certain persons, peculiarly gifted and sent into the world for that purpose, are able, even while in the flesh, to see out of obscurity, "out of hidden darkness," and behold the things of God pertaining both to time and to eternity. Joseph Smith possessed this ability—this gift, but it was the Spirit of the Lord that enabled him to use it. By that Spirit he beheld the Father and the Son; and by that Spirit, operating through the same marvelous gift, he translated the cryptic contents of the Book of Mormon.

How the Book of Mormon was Translated.—The reputed method of translation was as follows: The Seer, scanning through the "interpreters" (Urim and Thummim) the golden pages, saw appear, in connection with the strange characters engraved thereon, their equivalent in English words. These he repeated to his scribe—Oliver Cowdery most of the time—and the latter wrote them. It was a peculiarity of the process that, until the writing was correct in every particular, the words last given would not disappear; but on the necessary correction being made, they would immediately pass away and be succeeded by others.^[7]

The Priesthood Restored.—The greater part of the Book of Mormon was translated at Harmony, Pennsylvania, the home of Joseph's father-in-law, Isaac Hale. While the Prophet and his scribe were thus employed (May 15, 1829) John the Baptist, as an angel from heaven, conferred upon them the Aaronic Priesthood.^[8] Soon afterward they were ordained to the higher or Melchizedek Priesthood, by three other heavenly messengers, the Apostles Peter, James and John.^[9] By virtue of this authority, and pursuant to divine direction, the two young men, associated with a few others organized the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Petty Persecution.—During their sojourn in the little Pennsylvania village, Joseph and Oliver suffered considerable annoyance at the hands of mischievous persons who, having no faith in their work and regarding it as a hoax, seemed bent upon rendering their situation as disagreeable as possible. Learning of their unpleasant situation, and desiring to help along the sacred task to which they were devoting themselves, Peter Whitmer, Sr., a farmer living at Fayette, Seneca County, New York, sent his son David with a team and wagon to bring them to the Whitmer home.

David Whitmer's Account.—"When I arrived at Harmony," says David Whitmer, "Joseph and Oliver were coming towards me and met me at some distance from the house. Oliver told me that Joseph had informed him when I started from home, where I had stopped the first night, how I read the sign at the tavern, where I stopped the second night, etc., and that I would be there that day before dinner; and this was why they had come out to meet me. All of which was exactly as Joseph had told Oliver; at which I was greatly astonished."^[10] It was at the Whitmer farmhouse, in Fayette, that the Church was organized, April 6th, 1830.

Newel K. Whitney and the "Stranger."—Another instance of Joseph's use of the seeric gift connects with the occasion of his arrival at Kirtland, Ohio, where the Church, at an early day, established its headquarters. A few months prior to that time, Oliver Cowdery and three other Elders, on their way to preach the Gospel to the Lamanites, or Indians, had tarried for a season at Kirtland, where they converted a number of the white dwellers in that region. Among these were Sidney Rigdon, Newel K. Whitney, and others who became prominent in the "Mormon" community. The Saints in Ohio, learning that the Church would probably move westward, began to pray for the coming of the Prophet.

The prayer was soon answered. About the first of February, 1831, a sleigh, driven into Kirtland from the East, drew up in front of the mercantile store of Gilbert and Whitney. A stalwart young man alighted and walked into the store. Approaching the junior partner and extending his hand cordially, as if to an old and familiar acquaintance, he saluted him thus: "Newel K. Whitney, thou art the man!"

The merchant was astonished. He had never seen this person before. "Stranger," said he, "You have the advantage of me; I could not call you by name as you have me."

"I am Joseph the Prophet," said the stranger, smiling. "You have prayed me here, now what do you want of me?"

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]

The Old-New World.—America, according to Joseph Smith, is the Old World—not the New^[20]. The primeval Garden was in the part now called Jackson County. Our First Parents, after their expulsion from Eden, dwelt in the place where this altar stood. The Lord named it Adam-ondi-Ahman, "because it is the place where Adam shall come to visit his people, or the Ancient of Days shall sit, as spoken of by Daniel the Prophet."^[21]

All this by the power of seership—all this and more; for many other instances might be given. But these will suffice to show the nature of this rare and precious gift, and the manner of its exercise by the mighty Seer and Prophet holding the keys of this Gospel dispensation.

Footnotes

1. Mosiah 8:15.2. Such men as Ralph Waldo Emerson, the American philosopher, and Count Leo Tolstoi, the Russian writer, are sometimes referred to as "seers;" it being thought by those who so designate them, that the power to think profoundly and express wise and intelligent opinions, especially on the future, constitutes seership. It is in this sense that the term "vision" is so much used. But a great thinker is not necessarily a seer; though a seer is apt to be a great thinker. Joseph Smith was both; not so Ralph Waldo Emerson; not so Count Tolstoi. They were great philosophers, but there is nothing in the life-work of either to indicate that he possessed the power of a seer.3. Moses 1:11. Moses further declares that he could look upon Satan "in the natural man," but, says he: "I could not look upon God, except his glory should come upon me and I was strengthened before him."4. D. and C. 67:11.5. 1 Cor. 2:9-14.6. John 1:18.7. David Whitmer's "Address to all True Believers in Christ." p. 12; and Martin Harris' Statement to Edward Stevenson, Millennial Star, Vol. 44, pp. 86, 87.8. D. and C. 13.9. Hist. Ch. Vol. 1 pp. 39-42, Note.10. David Whitmer's Statement to Orson Pratt and Joseph F. Smith, Mill. Star, Vol. 40, p. 772.11. Hist. Ch., Vol 1, pp. 145, 146. Note.12. Sidney Ridgon had never so much as seen the Book of Mormon, until several months after it was published, when a copy of it was handed to him in Northern Ohio, by Parley P. Pratt, one of the Elders of the Lamanite Mission. Parley and Sidney corroborate each other in their separate accounts of this incident. Moreover Sidney's acquaintance with Joseph Smith did not begin until almost a year after the Book of Mormon came forth. Yet he was charged with creating it, with converting a religious history into a secular romance entirely dissimilar in character and style from the Nephite record—a romance written by one Solomon Spaulding. A full account of this discredited theory of the origin of the Book of Mormon may be found in George Reynolds' "Myth of the Manuscript Found," and in "Whitney's History of Utah," Vol. 1, pp. 46-56.13. D. and C. 76:11, 12, 14. See also Article Forty, this Series.14. Hist. Ch. Vol. 1, pp. 271, 272.15. See Article Twenty-four.16. 3 Nephi 2:14-16.17. Hist. Ch. Vol. 2, pp. 79, 80.18. D. and C. 110.19. "Life of Heber C. Kimball," p. 222; Taylor's "Mediation and Atonement," pp. 69, 70; Whitney's "History of Utah"—Biography A. O. Smoot, Vol. 4, p. 99.20. The Prophet's inspired declaration to that effect finds confirmation in the writings of Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Agassiz, and John Fiske.21. D. and C. 116.