Doctrine and Covenants 111-114
“I Will Order All Things for Your Good”
October 6 - October 12
scripture
commentaries
Commentary on D&C 114:1–2
<p>Doctrine and Covenants 114, though brief, plays the important role of commemorating the valiant labors of David W. Patten. Elder David Patten was baptized into the Church by his brother, John, on June 17, 1832.<a id="_ftnref1" class="see-footnote" title="" href="#_ftn1">[1]</a> David soon proved himself to be a gifted missionary, noted for his faith in several remarkable healings. According to Abraham O. Smoot and Wilford Woodruff, contemporary missionaries with David, “neither knew an instance in which David’s petition for the sick was not answered.”<sup>9</sup> One of David’s earliest converts, Lorenzo Snow, wrote, “What impressed me most was his absolute sincerity, his earnestness and his spiritual power.”<a id="_ftnref2" class="see-footnote" title="" href="#_ftn2">[2]</a></p> <p>In 1835, Patten was selected to serve as one of the original Apostles of this dispensation. Since all of the Apostles received their call around the same time, seniority in the quorum was determined by age. Thomas B. Marsh misremembered his own date of birth (something not uncommon at the time) and was chosen to serve as President of the Quorum of the Twelve. Research carried out by scholars in the twentieth century revealed that Patten was born on November 17, 1799, while Marsh was born on November 1, 1800. Marsh mistakenly believed his birthday was in 1799. The mistake was never discovered in Patten’s lifetime, but if Church leaders had been in possession of all the facts at the time the Quorum of the Twelve was called, David W. Patten would have been ordained as the first President of the Quorum of the Twelve in this dispensation.<a id="_ftnref3" class="see-footnote" title="" href="#_ftn3">[3]</a></p> <p>Elder Patten apparently suffered one serious break with Joseph Smith during the financial crisis in Kirtland in 1837. Patten arrived in Kirtland when the crisis was at its height. The Apostles initially met with Brigham Young, who intended to explain the problem while absolving Joseph Smith of any guilt. However, Patten went on to meet with Warren Parrish, his brother-in-law and one of the primary leaders of the insurgency against Joseph Smith’s leadership. After listening to Parrish and others, David confronted the Prophet. Years later, Wilford Woodruff related the incident as he had heard it from Brigham Young: “He [Brigham Young] said that David Patten & T. B. Marsh came to Kirtland in the fall of 1837. He said as soon as [possible] I got Marsh to go to Joseph, but Patten would go to W. Parrish. He got his mind prejudiced & when he went to see Joseph[,] David in[sult?]ed Joseph & Joseph slapped him in the face & kicked him out of the yard. This done [<em>sic</em>] David good.”<sup>14</sup> Apparently, David and Joseph reconciled after this incident. There are no further mentions of Patten’s apostasy from the time.<a id="_ftnref4" class="see-footnote" title="" href="#_ftn4">[4]</a></p> <p>Following the collapse of the Church in Kirtland, Patten relocated to Missouri, where Doctrine and Covenants 114 was received on his behalf. One of Patten’s biographers connected this revelation (D&C 114) to a conversation reported by Wilford Woodruff: “David made known to the Prophet that he has asked the Lord to let him die the death of a martyr, at which the Prophet, greatly moved, expressed extreme sorrow, ‘for,’ he said to David, ‘when a man of your faith asks the Lord for anything, he generally gets it.’”<a id="_ftnref5" class="see-footnote" title="" href="#_ftn5">[5]</a></p> <p>Several months later Elder Patten led a contingent of the Far West militia to rescue three hostages held by the Missouri militia. Elder Patten’s company discovered the encampment of the hostile militia but came under fire from fortified positions. We do not know who fired first, but it quickly became clear that the Missourians held a strategic advantage in their positions of cover. Realizing his men were completely exposed to enemy fire, Patten ordered a charge directly into the enemy positions. His militia rescued the hostages and routed the Missourians. When the smoke cleared, one Missourian was dead, but the Saints fared worse—a non–Latter-day Saint guide and two members of the militia were fatally wounded, including Elder Patten.<a id="_ftnref6" class="see-footnote" title="" href="#_ftn6">[6]</a></p> <p>On his deathbed, perhaps thinking of the recent apostasy of several Apostles, Patten reaffirmed his testimony of the gospel and his faith in eternal life. Speaking to his childless wife, Phoebe Ann, he said, “Whatever you do else, O, do not deny the faith!” A few minutes before his death, he prayed, “Father I ask thee, in the name of Jesus Christ, that thou wouldst release my spirit and receive it unto thyself.” He then turned to the men surrounding his bed and said, “Brethren, you have held me by your faith, but do give me up and let me go I beseech you.” Patten died a few moments later. At Patten’s funeral held the following day, Joseph Smith remarked, “There lies a man that has done just as he said he would—he has laid down his life for his friends.”<a id="_ftnref7" class="see-footnote" title="" href="#_ftn7">[7]</a></p> <div class="footnotes"> <p class="footnote"><a id="_ftn1" class="footnote-label" title="" href="#_ftnref1">[1]</a> David Lyman Patten, biography, JSP.</p> <p class="footnote"><a id="_ftn2" class="footnote-label" title="" href="#_ftnref2">[2]</a> Lorenzo Snow, preface to <em>The Life of David W. Patten: The First Apostolic Martyr</em>, by Lycurgus A. Wilson, 1900.</p> <p class="footnote"><a id="_ftn3" class="footnote-label" title="" href="#_ftnref3">[3]</a> Minutes and Discourse, 2 May 1835, as Reported by William E. McLellin–A, p. 187, fn. 3, JSP.</p> <p class="footnote"><a id="_ftn4" class="footnote-label" title="" href="#_ftnref4">[4]</a> L. Todd Dudley, “All but Two: The Disaffection of Ten of the Original Twelve Modern Apostles,” honor’s thesis, Brigham Young University, 1994, 28–31.</p> <p class="footnote"><a id="_ftn5" class="footnote-label" title="" href="#_ftnref5">[5]</a> Lycurgus A. Wilson, <em>The Life of David W. Patten</em>, 53.</p> <p class="footnote"><a id="_ftn6" class="footnote-label" title="" href="#_ftnref6">[6]</a> Alexander L. Baugh, “War of Extermination,” in <em>The Mormon Wars</em>,2014, 59–60.</p> <p class="footnote"><a id="_ftn7" class="footnote-label" title="" href="#_ftnref7">[7]</a> Wilson, <em>The Life of David W. Patten</em>, 70–71. Material from this note was previously published in Casey Paul Griffiths and Mary Jane Woodger, <em>50 Relics of the Restoration</em>,2021.</p> </div>
Doctrine and Covenants Minute by Casey Paul Griffiths
Section 114 Context
<p>What would happen if one-third of the apostles apostatized or were killed? Section 114 is an answer. Elder David W. Patten was second in seniority in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles when he and his wife, Ann, moved from Kirtland, Ohio, to Far West, Missouri, in late 1836 or early 1837. With his quorum president, Thomas Marsh, David led the Saints in Missouri as several Church leaders apostatized in the early months of 1838. After Joseph arrived in Missouri that spring, David asked Joseph to seek a revelation for him. Section 114 was recorded in Joseph’s Scriptory Book, his journal for 1838.<a href="#_ftn1" id="_ftnref1" title="" class="see-footnote">[1]</a> That book is full of records of councils in which several of the apostles, as well as Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer, were disciplined or excommunicated from the Church. </p> <p>The brief revelation instructed David and other apostles to prepare for a mission the following spring (1839). Although the revelation does not mention where the apostles would serve, apostles Heber Kimball, Orson Hyde, and their companions had sent reports of their success in Great Britain. Section 114 implies a call to the entire quorum to serve a follow-up mission to the British Isles the next year. David Patten did not live to serve that mission. He was killed on October 25, 1838, after being wounded in a conflict between Saints and Missouri militiamen. The apostles did go to Britain, however. On July 8, just over two months following the receipt of this revelation, Joseph received another with more details of their call (see section 118).</p> <p>The vacancies left by David Patten’s death and the apostasy of Oliver Cowdery, the entire presidency of the Church in Missouri, and a third of the apostles, did not remain. Rather nonchalantly, the revelation says their “bishopric,” or office, can be filled by others; the Lord seems unconcerned. Section 114 shows how the Lord grants individual agency, including the potential for apostasy, without compromising the Kingdom. Sad as the casualties are, the work rolls forward when someone opts out. Replacements are ready. In this case, men named John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff, among others, were called and filled in nicely (see section 118). </p> <div class="footnotes"> <p class="footnote"><a href="#_ftnref1" id="_ftn1" title="" class="footnote-label">[1]</a> “<a href="https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/revelation-11-april-1838-dc-114/1" target="_blank">Revelation, 11 April 1838 [D&C 114]</a>,” 32, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed November 25, 2020.</p> </div>
D&C Contexts by Steven C. Harper
“Planted in Their Stead”
<p>On April 17, 1838, the Prophet Joseph Smith received a revelation admonishing Elder David W. Patten, an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, to “settle up all his business as soon as he possibly can, and make a disposition of his merchandise, that he may perform a mission unto me next spring, in company with others, even twelve including himself” (D&C 114:1). On that mission, Elder Patten was “to testify of my name and bear glad tidings unto all the world” (v. 1). The mission referred to was England, and the “twelve, including himself” was a reference to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.</p> <p>In this same revelation, the Lord told the Prophet Joseph, “Inasmuch as there are those among you who deny my name, others shall be planted in their stead” (D&C 114:2). Before the spring mission of 1839, some of the members of the Twelve lost their faith in the Restoration—Thomas B. Marsh, Lyman Johnson, Luke Johnson, John F. Boynton, and William McLellin. As for David W. Patten, he had begun to make the necessary preparations for the mission to England. But in October 1838, threats against Latter-day Saints in Missouri turned his attention from preparation to defending “not only the property of the Saints but also their lives.” Elder Patten led “seventy-five volunteers against the mob of thirty or forty, hoping to rout them without bloodshed.” During the ensuing fray at Crooked River, Elder Patten was shot. He died the next day. Joseph Smith said of him, “[David W. Patten] died as he had lived, a man of God, and strong in the faith of a glorious resurrection, in a world where mobs will have no power or place.”<a id="_ftnref1" class="see-footnote" title="" href="#_ftn1">[1]</a></p> <p>As promised in this revelation “others shall be planted in their stead.” Among those planted in the stead of the Twelve were John Taylor, George A. Smith, Wilford Woodruff, and Willard Richards. These men were ordained to the apostleship and served the mission to England.</p> <p>Elder M. Russell Ballard was called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on October 6, 1985, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Elder Bruce R. McConkie. Elder Ballard said on that occasion,</p> <blockquote> <p>My brothers and sisters, I am deeply humbled at the confidence of the Lord and my Brethren and pledge to you that I will do the very best I know how. The past nine and a half years, as I have been sent on errands for the Lord throughout the earth, have caused me to know that this Church is filled with righteous, good, dedicated men. Each of us obediently learns that we will come forth as we are called, to try to do the very best we can in our callings, whether it be home teacher, whether it be stake president, or whether it be General Authority.</p> <p>I understand the source of the call. I have learned during the past nine and a half years that this is our Heavenly Father’s church. The errands that I have been sent on to act in the name of the Lord enable me to witness to you today that I know, as I know that I stand before you, that Jesus is the Christ, that He lives. He is very close to this work and very close to all of us who are asked to perform the work throughout the earth in His name.</p> <p>I would like also to bear witness that in my particular case the veil between here and the hereafter is rather thin. I acknowledge that it has been a great blessing in my life to be born of goodly parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents who have given everything they have been asked to give to the building of the kingdom of God upon the earth.</p> <p>Now, my brothers and sisters, I would ask for an interest in your faith and prayers. I express my affection to my wife and my children, who sustain me in whatever the Lord might ask me to do. I am grateful for this abundant blessing and pray humbly that I might serve you, the membership of this Church, in a way that would be pleasing and acceptable unto our Heavenly Father, and ask this prayer humbly, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.<a id="_ftnref2" class="see-footnote" title="" href="#_ftn2">[2]</a></p> </blockquote> <div class="footnotes"> <p class="footnote"><a id="_ftn1" class="footnote-label" title="" href="#_ftnref1">[1]</a> Smith, <em>History of the Church</em>, 3:171.</p> <p class="footnote"><a id="_ftn2" class="footnote-label" title="" href="#_ftnref2">[2]</a> M. Russell Ballard, “In Response to the Call,” <em>Ensign</em>, November 1985.</p> </div>
Insights and Stories of the Doctrine and Covenants by Susan Easton Black
