Doctrine and Covenants 125-128

<p>Obviously, family values mirror our personal priorities. Given the gravity of current conditions, would parents be willing to give up just one outside thing, giving that time and talent instead to the family? Parents and grandparents, please scrutinize your schedules and priorities in order to ensure that life&rsquo;s prime relationships get more prime time! Even consecrated and devoted Brigham Young was once told by the Lord, &ldquo;Take especial care of your family&rdquo; (D&amp;C 126:3). Sometimes, it is the most conscientious who need this message the most!</p>

<p>From the confines of a jail cell in Liberty, Missouri, Joseph wrote to Bishop Partridge in Illinois that the Saints could buy land in Iowa Territory for $2 per acre over twenty years with no money down, and the Saints made a deal for the land.</p> <p>Joseph escaped from Missouri and joined the Saints in Illinois a few weeks later. He purchased land on a peninsula pushing into the Mississippi River across from the Saints’ Iowa land and named it Nauvoo. The Illinois land was comparatively expensive. Joseph hoped that the Church could buy it with consecrated funds and offer lots to the poor at prices they could afford, but the offerings were insufficient. It became clear that the Church would have to sell lots in order to pay its mortgage. So Joseph urged Saints in outlying areas to gather to Nauvoo and help pay for the land. Saints across the river wondered if that applied to them. Joseph sought and received section 125 to answer their question. </p> <p>The Lord’s will, declared in section 125, is for the Saints to build a city in Iowa across from Nauvoo and to call it Zarahemla. The Saints were to gather from everywhere else and settle there, in nearby Nashville, Iowa Territory, or across the river in Nauvoo. As usual, there is an explicit rationale in this revelation. The Lord gives a reason why the Saints should do His will: “That they may be prepared for that which is in store for a time to come” (D&C 135:2). </p> <p>Saints moved as a result of section 125. It was read to the Saints at General Conference on April 6, 1841. “Many of the brethren immediately made preparations for moving,” and came as soon as their planting was done.<a href="#_ftn1" id="_ftnref1" title="" class="see-footnote">[1]</a> Alanson Ripley reported that “Joseph said it was the will of the Lord the brethren in general … should move in and about the city Zerehemla with all convenient speed which the saints are willing to do because it is the will of the Lord.”<a href="#_ftn2" id="_ftnref2" title="" class="see-footnote">[2]</a></p> <div class="footnotes"> <p class="footnote"><a href="#_ftnref1" id="_ftn1" title="" class="footnote-label">[1]</a> George D. Smith, ed., <em>An Intimate Chronicle: The Journals of William Clayton</em> (Salt Lake City: Signature, 1995), 86. </p> <p class="footnote"><a href="#_ftnref2" id="_ftn2" title="" class="footnote-label">[2]</a> Alanson Ripley, in John Smith, Journal, March 6, 1841, Church History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.</p> </div>

<p>Section 126 put Brigham Young in position to lead when Joseph’s mission was finished. Brigham answered the Lord’s call to serve in England (see section 118). Both he and his family were sick and homeless when Brigham left Nauvoo in the fall of 1839. While Brigham was in England, section 124 formalized his call as president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (D&C 124:127). Then, having converted hundreds, he returned to Nauvoo in July 1841 and found his family living in a small, unfinished cabin. A week later the Lord gave section 126 to Joseph.<a href="#_ftn1" id="_ftnref1" title="" class="see-footnote">[1]</a> </p> <p>Joseph communicated the revelation to Brigham with his own affectionate introduction to his “Dear and well-beloved brother.” The Lord, having accepted Brigham’s offering in laborious missions away from home, no longer requires him to leave his family. Instead, the Lord commands Brigham to send the Lord’s word abroad and look to the care of his family “henceforth and forever” (D&C 126:3).</p> <p>Brigham set to work to care for his family. He chinked the cracks in the cabin, planted an orchard, built a cellar, and got up a garden to meet their needs. Joseph gave Brigham a few weeks and then assigned him to lead the apostles in taking care “of the business of the church in Nauvoo,” including overseeing missionary work (in obedience to section 126’s command to “send my word abroad”), the gathering of converts, and consecration.<a href="#_ftn2" id="_ftnref2" title="" class="see-footnote">[2]</a> This represented a shift in the apostles’ responsibility. Joseph had often kept them at arm’s length since their calling in 1835, testing them with tough assignments. Some of Brigham’s fellow apostles apostatized under that pressure. Brigham did everything the Lord asked of him. He had marched into hostile Missouri to obey a revelation. Then, sick and impoverished, he forsook everything else dear to preach the gospel in England. </p> <p>As a result of section 126, Brigham remained near Joseph for the Prophet’s few remaining years, learning and receiving the temple ordinances and ultimately also the keys angels had conferred on Joseph. </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-9july-1841-dc-126/1" target="_blank">Revelation, 9 July 1841 [D&C 126]</a>,” 26, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed December 5, 2020; Leonard J. Arrington, <em>Brigham Young: American Moses</em> (New York: Knopf, 1985), 98. </p> <p class="footnote"><a href="#_ftnref2" id="_ftn2" title="" class="footnote-label">[2]</a> Arrington, <em>Brigham Young,</em> 99–100. </p> </div>

<p>Doctrine and Covenants 125 is a brief but powerful reminder that after the persecutions in Kirtland and Missouri, the doctrine of gathering was changed in nature but not ended. In the aftermath of the expulsion from Missouri and the apostasy in Kirtland, some Saints may have had fears about gathering together again in large numbers. Concentrations of Church members could at times lead to hostility, fear, and antagonism rising from the Saints’ neighbors. However, the Saints needed to gather to create communities and to build temples; thus, gathering was still an essential part of the work of the Lord in this early phase of the Restoration. In section 125, the Lord reminded the Saints in Iowa that their labors entailed not just providing for themselves and their families but also “build[ing] up cities unto my name that they may be prepared for that which is in store for a time to come” (D&C 125:2). </p> <p>Today Church members are not asked to create physical townships, but the idea of community remains at the heart of the gospel. Even though there are enough Church members to fill many megachurches over and over, the size of wards and branches in the Church are kept relatively small. While it is valuable for the entire Church to gather together from time to time, most of the work of the Church is best carried out in small groups of Saints who know each other personally. The law of consecration and other principles of the gospel require the Saints to gather together to bless and minister to each other. </p>

<p>On July 1, 1841, Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and John Taylor arrived in Nauvoo after completing a two-year mission to the British Isles. Called to serve in Europe by a revelation given in 1838 (D&C 118), the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles converted thousands during their service. This mission also served to unite the Twelve into an effective priesthood body. During their time in England, the Apostles also formally sustained Brigham Young as the President of the Quorum of the Twelve.<a href="#_ftn1" id="_ftnref1" title="" class="see-footnote">[1]</a> Summarizing the missionary labors of the Twelve, Brigham later recorded, “Through the mercy of God we have gained many friends, established churches in almost every noted town and city in the Kingdom of Great Britain, baptized between seven and eight thousand souls, printed 5000 Books of Mormon, 3000 Hymn Books, 2500 volumes of the <em>Millennial Star, </em>and 50,000 tracts.”<a href="#_ftn2" id="_ftnref2" title="" class="see-footnote">[2]</a></p> <p>In an 1854 discourse, Brigham later recalled his dire financial situation when he returned from his mission: “I returned again in two years, and found that I had spent hundreds of dollars, which I had accumulated on my mission, to help the brethren to emigrate to Nauvoo, and had but one sovereign left.” He remembered, “I said I would buy a barrel of flour with that, and sit down and eat it with my wife and children, and I determined I would not ask anybody for work, until I had eaten it all up. Brother Joseph asked me how I intended to live. I said, ‘I will go to work and get a living.’”<a href="#_ftn3" id="_ftnref3" title="" class="see-footnote">[3]</a> On July 9, 1841, just a few days after Brigham returned from his mission, Joseph received section 126 in Brigham’s home in Nauvoo.<a href="#_ftn4" id="_ftnref4" title="" class="see-footnote">[4]</a> </p> <p>Willard Richards copied this revelation into the “Book of the Law of the Lord” on December 17, 1841. It was first placed into the 1876 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants by Orson Pratt under the direction of President Brigham Young.<a href="#_ftn5" id="_ftnref5" title="" class="see-footnote">[5]</a> </p> <p>See “Historical Introduction,” Revelation, 9 July 1841 [D&C 126].</p> <div class="footnotes"> <p class="footnote"><a href="#_ftnref1" id="_ftn1" title="" class="footnote-label">[1]</a> James B. Allen, Ronald K. Esplin, David J. Whittaker, <em>Men with a Mission, 1837–1841: The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in the British Isles, </em>1992,134. </p> <p class="footnote"><a href="#_ftnref2" id="_ftn2" title="" class="footnote-label">[2]</a> Quoted in Joseph Fielding McConkie and Craig J. Ostler, <em>Revelations of the Restoration, </em>1999, 990. </p> <p class="footnote"><a href="#_ftnref3" id="_ftn3" title="" class="footnote-label">[3]</a> Brigham Young, in <em>Journal of Discourses, </em>2:19. </p> <p class="footnote"><a href="#_ftnref4" id="_ftn4" title="" class="footnote-label">[4]</a> JSP, <em>Documents, Volume 8, </em>187.</p> <p class="footnote"><a href="#_ftnref5" id="_ftn5" title="" class="footnote-label">[5]</a> Robert J. Woodford, <em>Historical Development of the Doctrine and Covenants,</em> 3:1664. </p> </div>

<p>Doctrine and Covenants 126 is a brief revelation that highlights the labors and sacrifice of Brigham Young. Brigham had been continually involved in missionary service from the time that he joined the Church in 1832. At the time this revelation was given, he had just returned from his lengthiest period of missionary service yet, spending nearly two years in the British Isles away from his family. </p> <p>When Brigham left on his mission to England, his family was facing exceptionally difficult circumstances. In an 1854 discourse he described the immense trial of faith he struggled with when he left his family to travel across the Atlantic: </p> <blockquote> <p>When I left my family to start for England, I was not able to walk one mile, I was not able to lift a small trunk, which I took with me, into the wagon. I left my wife and my six children without a second suit to their backs, for we had left all our property in possession of the mob. Every one of my family were <em>[sic]</em> sick . . . Joseph said, “If you will go, I promise you, that your family shall live, and you shall live, and you shall know that the hand of God is in the calling for you to go and preach the Gospel of life and salvation to a perishing world.” . . . My family lived . . . As for being cast down, or at all discouraged, or even such thoughts entering in my heart as, “I will provide for my family, and let the world perish,” these feelings and thoughts never once occurred to me . . . When I was ready to start, I went and left my family in the hands of the Lord, and with the brethren.<a href="#_ftn1" id="_ftnref1" title="" class="see-footnote">[1]</a></p> </blockquote> <p>The Lord’s comforting words to Brigham that “it is no more required at your hand to leave your family as in times past, for your offering is acceptable to me” (D&C 126:1) shows the increasing importance of the steady leadership of Brigham and the other Apostles in Nauvoo. In the next few years Brigham and most of the Twelve were among the first to receive the ordinances of the temple and became close confidants of Joseph Smith. At a conference held a few months after section 126 was received on behalf of Brigham, Joseph Smith declared “that the time had come when the Twelve should be called upon to stand in their place next to the First Presidency, and attend to the settling of emigrants and the business of the church at the stakes, and assist to bear off the kingdom victorious to the nations; and as they had been faithful and had borne the burden in the heat of the day that it was right that they should have an opportunity of providing something for themselves and families.”<a href="#_ftn2" id="_ftnref2" title="" class="see-footnote">[2]</a></p> <div class="footnotes"> <p class="footnote"><a href="#_ftnref1" id="_ftn1" title="" class="footnote-label">[1]</a> Brigham Young, in <em>Journal of Discourses, </em>2:19. </p> <p class="footnote"><a href="#_ftnref2" id="_ftn2" title="" class="footnote-label">[2]</a> Discourse, 16 August 1841, as Reported by <em>Times and Seasons, </em>p. 522, JSP. </p> </div>