Doctrine and Covenants 79

Doctrine and Covenants 79

Historical Context

Jared Carter was a convert to the Church from Chenango, New York. He received the gospel and was baptized by Hyrum Smith on February 20, 1831. When the call came to gather to Ohio, Jared traveled along with members of the Colesville Branch, giving up his life and home in New York.1 He spent much of the later part of 1831 and early 1832 preaching the gospel in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Vermont. A few weeks after he arrived home from his mission, he traveled to Hiram, Ohio, to meet with Joseph Smith, who was staying at the home of John and Elsa Johnson.

Jared wrote in his journal about the experience of being present when this revelation was given: “I at length went to Hiram to the Seer to inquire the will of the Lord concerning my ministry,” he recorded. “The ensuing season and the word of the Lord came forth that showed that it was his will that I should go forth to the Eastern countries in the power of the ordinance wherewith I had been ordained which was to the high privilege of administering in the name of Jesus Christ even to seal on earth and to build up the Church of Christ and to work miracles in the name of Christ.” He added, “Now I have received a revelation of the will of the Lord to me by the mouth of Joseph the Seer, that I should not only preach the gospel from place to place, but from city to city.”2

See “Historical Introduction,” Revelation, 12 March 1832 [D&C 79]

Verse-by-Verse Commentary

D&C 79:1–4

1 Verily I say unto you, that it is my will that my servant Jared Carter should go again into the eastern countries, from place to place, and from city to city, in the power of the ordination wherewith he has been ordained, proclaiming glad tidings of great joy, even the everlasting gospel.

2 And I will send upon him the Comforter, which shall teach him the truth and the way whither he shall go;

3 And inasmuch as he is faithful, I will crown him again with sheaves.

4 Wherefore, let your heart be glad, my servant Jared Carter, and fear not, saith your Lord, even Jesus Christ. Amen.

Jared Carter had already made considerable sacrifices by serving a mission, but he was called once again to return to the mission field with the promise that the Lord “will crown him again with sheaves” (D&C 79:3). After this mission was ended, he wrote in his journal,

Now while I make this record, I remember the goodness of the Lord to me in the mission that I have lately been to in the East. I have enjoyed health continually and the Lord, not withstanding the great opposition to the glorious work, has blessed me . . . in this mission which I have been gone six months and two days. The Lord has permitted me to administer the gospel to 79 souls and many others by my instrumentality have been convinced of this most glorious work, where I have been in this mission. All that have been baptized while I have been in the regions where I have been in this mission is 98, and many others have been convinced of the work that sooner or later I think will obey the work.3

Footnotes

• 1. “Jared Carter,” Biography, JSP.
• 2. Quoted in Lyndon W. Cook, The Revelations of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 1985, p. 169.
• 3. Journal of Jared Carter, spelling standardized, quoted in Cook, The Revelations of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 571.