Revelation, 5 January 1831 [D&C 39]

Cometh the Baptism of fire & the Holy ghost

After baptism, new converts were confirmed members of the church “by the laying on of the hands, & the giving of the Holy Ghost.” According to JS’s history, the first confirmations were given at the organization of the church on 6 April 1830. By March 1831...

View Glossary

yea even the comforter which knoweth all things & teacheth the peacibl things of the Kingdom & Now Behold I say unto you my servent James

Ca. 1770–Feb. 1850. Preacher, doctor. Likely born in Massachusetts. From 1791–ca. 1797, served as Methodist itinerant preacher, first in Litchfield, Litchfield Co., Connecticut, circuit; then in Otsego, Otsego Co., New York, circuit; Pittsfield, Berkshire...

View Full Bio

I have looked upon thee & thy works & I know thee & now verily I say unto thee thine heart is right before me at present Behold I have bestowed great blessings upon thy head Nevertheless thou hast seen great Sorrow for thou hast rejected me many times because of pride & be cause of the world but behold the days of thy deliverance is come arise & be baptized

An ordinance in which an individual is immersed in water for the remission of sins. The Book of Mormon explained that those with necessary authority were to baptize individuals who had repented of their sins. Baptized individuals also received the gift of...

View Glossary

& wash away your sins calling on my name & ye shall receive my spirit & a blessing so great as ye have never known5

See Acts 22:16.
Comprehensive Works Cited

Hide Works Cited

The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments Translated Out of the Original Tongues: And with the Former Translations Diligently Compared and Revised, by His Majesty’s Special Command. Authorized King James Version with Explanatory Notes and Cross References to the Standard Works of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1979.

& I have prepared thee for a greater work6

See Revelation, 7 Dec. 1830 [D&C 35:3].

thou shalt Preach the fulness of my Gospel which I have sent forth in these last days. yea even the covenant which I have sent forth to recover my People which are of the house of Israel & it shall come to pass that power shall rest upon thee thou shalt have great faith & I will be with thee & go before thy face yea thou art called to Labour in my Vineyard & to build up my Church

The Book of Mormon related that when Christ set up his church in the Americas, “they which were baptized in the name of Jesus, were called the church of Christ.” The first name used to denote the church JS organized on 6 April 1830 was “the Church of Christ...

View Glossary

& to bring forth Zion

In JS’s earliest revelations “the cause of Zion” was used to broadly describe the work JS was called to do. However, the term Zion was soon used more specifically to describe a community of believers who live in harmony and equality. The Book of Mormon explained...

View Glossary

that it may Rejoice upon the hills & flourish Behold Verily Verily I say unto you thou art not called to go to unto the Eastern countries7

This is likely a reference to the eastern seaboard of the United States, including New York City, where Covel had earlier established a medical practice and was active in the Methodist church. (Longworth, Longworth’s American Almanac, 146–147; Doughty, Life of Samuel Stilwell, 44.)
Comprehensive Works Cited

Hide Works Cited

Longworth, Thomas. Longworth’s American Almanac, New-York Register, and City Directory,for the Forty-Seventh Year of American Independence. Containing a List of Banks,Insurance Companies, Post-Office Establishments, &c. &c. New York: By the author, 1822.

Doughty, Samuel Stilwell. The Life of Samuel Stilwell, with Notices of Some of His Contemporaries. New York: Brown and Wilson, 1877.

but thou art called to go to Ohio

French explored area, 1669. British took possession following French and Indian War, 1763. Ceded to U.S., 1783. First permanent white settlement established, 1788. Partitioned from Northwest Territory and admitted as state, 1803. Bordered by Lake Erie on ...

More Info

& in asmuch as my People shall assemble themselves at the Oohio

More Info

I have kept in store a blessing such as is not known among the children of men & it shall be poured forth upon your their heads & from thence ye shall go forth into all Nations8

See Revelation, 2 Jan. 1831 [D&C 38:32–33].

Behold Verily Verily I say unto you that the people in Ohio

More Info

call upon me in much faith believeing I would stay my hand in Judgement upon the Nations but I cannot deny my word Wherefore lay to with your might & call forth Labourers into my Vinyard that it may be pruned for the last time9

See Revelation, July 1830–A [D&C 24:19].

& inasmuch as they do Repent & receive the fulness of my Gospel & become sanctified & I will stay my hand in Judgement wherefore go forth crying with a loud voice saying the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand crying Hosannah blessed is the name of the most high God go forth [p. 59]

JS dictated this revelation in Fayette

Located in northern part of county between Seneca and Cayuga lakes. Area settled, by 1790. Officially organized as Washington Township, 14 Mar. 1800. Name changed to Fayette, 6 Apr. 1808. Population in 1830 about 3,200. Population in 1840 about 3,700. Significant...

More Info

, New York, for James Covel

View Full Bio

, a Protestant minister, three days after the Church of Christ’s third conference. When John Whitmer

27 Aug. 1802–11 July 1878. Farmer, stock raiser, newspaper editor. Born in Pennsylvania. Son of Peter Whitmer Sr. and Mary Musselman. Member of German Reformed Church, Fayette, Seneca Co., New York. Baptized by Oliver Cowdery, June 1829, most likely in Seneca...

View Full Bio

recorded this text in Revelation Book 1 a few months later, he wrote that Covel “covenanted with the Lord that he would obey any commandment that the Lord would give through his servent Joseph.”

The identity of the revelation’s recipient is not known with certainty. Two individuals living in New York

Located in northeast region of U.S. Area settled by Dutch traders, 1620s; later governed by Britain, 1664–1776. Admitted to U.S. as state, 1788. Population in 1810 about 1,000,000; in 1820 about 1,400,000; in 1830 about 1,900,000; and in 1840 about 2,400,...

More Info

at the time fit the general description, and no source definitively identifies either man as the recipient. The earliest extant manuscript copy of the revelation, featured below, provides only a given name. The first printed version in 1833 expanded “James” to “James (C.,)” with no additional information; in 1835 the name was given as “James Covill

View Full Bio

” in the Doctrine and Covenants.1

Book of Commandments 41; Doctrine and Covenants 59, 1835 ed.
Comprehensive Works Cited

Hide Works Cited

A Book of Commandments, for the Government of the Church of Christ, Organized according to Law, on the 6th of April, 1830. Zion [Independence], MO: W. W. Phelps, 1833.

Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of the Latter Day Saints: Carefully Selected from the Revelations of God. Compiled by Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon, and Frederick G. Williams. Kirtland, OH: F. G. Williams, 1835.

JS’s history also uses this spelling because its editors relied on the 1835 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants for the revelation text. The history adds that Covill “had been a baptist minister for about forty years.”2

JS History, vol. A-1, 91.

James Covill, a Baptist minister from Ellery, New York, who in 1831 was over seventy years old, fits this description, but he lived on the far western edge of the state, more than one hundred fifty miles away.3

Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois, 735; 1830 U.S. Census, Ellery, Chautauque Co., NY, 317; see also 1840 U.S. Census, Ripley, Chautauque Co., NY, 271.
Comprehensive Works Cited

Hide Works Cited

Coburn, A. L. Wing. Encyclopedia of Illinois Including Genealogy, Family Records and Biography of McHenry County Citizen. Vol. 2, McHenry County Citizens. Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois, edited by Newton Bateman and Paul Selby. Chicago: Munsell, 1903.

Census (U.S.) / U.S. Bureau of the Census. Population Schedules. Microfilm. FHL.

JS and Sidney Rigdon

19 Feb. 1793–14 July 1876. Tanner, farmer, minister. Born at St. Clair, Allegheny Co., Pennsylvania. Son of William Rigdon and Nancy Gallaher. Joined United Baptists, ca. 1818. Preached at Warren, Trumbull Co., Ohio, and vicinity, 1819–1821. Married Phebe...

View Full Bio

could have met Covill on their way to Ohio

More Info

at the end of January, but according to this earliest copy of the revelation, it was “given at Fayette

More Info

” on 5 January 1831.4

John Whitmer was likely not present when the revelation was dictated, but he did write the informative heading in this copy of the revelation within months of the event.

Much more likely, James Covel

View Full Bio

, a Methodist elder from Canadice, New York, was the recipient of the revelation. The index to Revelation Book 1 describes the recipient as “a Methodist Priest,” not a Baptist.5

Revelation Book 1, p. [208].

James Covel lived about twenty miles southwest of Canandaigua, New York

Located in central part of county in west-central part of state. Area settled, by 1790. Population in 1830 about 5,200. Joseph Smith Sr. imprisoned for debt for thirty days at county seat of Canandaigua village, Oct.–Nov. 1830. W. W. Phelps and Brigham Young...

More Info

, and had been associated with the Methodist church for nearly forty years.6

1830 U.S. Census, Canadice, Ontario Co., NY, 263; Stevens, Memorials of the Introduction of Methodism into the Eastern States, 119; Doughty, Life of Samuel Stilwell, 44; Seaman, Annals of New York Methodism, 227, 229.
Comprehensive Works Cited

Hide Works Cited

Census (U.S.) / U.S. Bureau of the Census. Population Schedules. Microfilm. FHL.

Stevens, Abel. Memorials of the Introduction of Methodism into the Eastern States: Comprising Biographical Notices of Its Early Preachers, Sketches of Its First Churches, and Reminiscences of Its Early Struggles and Successes. Boston: Charles H. Peirce, 1848.

Doughty, Samuel Stilwell. The Life of Samuel Stilwell, with Notices of Some of His Contemporaries. New York: Brown and Wilson, 1877.

Seaman, Samuel A. Annals of New York Methodism: Being a History of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the City of New York from A.D. 1766 to A.D. 1890. New York: Hunt and Eaton, 1892.

He may have heard JS or Sidney Rigdon

View Full Bio

preaching in the Canandaigua area. After JS and several others preached “with great power” in Ezra Thayer

Ca. 1792–6 Sept. 1862. Farmer, gardener, builder. Born in New York. Married Elizabeth Frank. Lived at Bloomfield, Ontario Co., New York, 1820. Lived at Farmington, Ontario Co., 1830. Baptized into LDS church by Parley P. Pratt and confirmed by JS, fall 1830...

View Full Bio

’s barn near Canandaigua in October 1830, they were invited to preach in Canandaigua. “They had promised that we should meet in the Methodist Meeting house,” Thayer later wrote, “but the Trustees could not agree.”7

“Testimony of Brother E. Thayre,” True Latter Day Saints’ Herald, Oct. 1862, 83. In addition to JS, Hyrum Smith, Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, John Whitmer, Peter Whitmer Jr., Parley P. Pratt, and Ziba Peterson preached at the October meeting in Thayer’s barn.
Comprehensive Works Cited

Hide Works Cited

Saints’ Herald. Independence, MO. 1860–.

As president of the regional Methodist conference, Covel was likely aware of the request.8

On 13 February 1830, Covel was elected president of the Methodist regional conference that included the districts of Rochester, Conhocton, Genesee, and Oneida. (Drinkhouse, History of Methodist Reform, 243–244.)
Comprehensive Works Cited

Hide Works Cited

Drinkhouse, Edward J. History of Methodist Reform Synoptical of General Methodism 1703–1898 with Special and Comprehensive Reference to Its Most Salient Exhibition in the History of the Methodist Protestant Church. Vol. 2. Board of Publication of the Methodist Protestant Church, 1899.

In December a Mormon preacher, probably JS or Rigdon, “delivered a discourse in the Town House [in Canandaigua] to an assembly of two or three hundred people.”9

“Credulity,” Pennsylvania Inquirer and Morning Journal (Philadelphia), 29 Dec. 1830, [2]; see also “Testimony of Brother E. Thayre,” True Latter Day Saints’ Herald, Oct. 1862, 83.
Comprehensive Works Cited

Hide Works Cited

Pennsylvania Inquirer and Morning Journal. Philadelphia. 1830–1834.

Saints’ Herald. Independence, MO. 1860–.

Covel may have attended the December meeting and then traveled to Fayette

More Info

, where the revelation was dictated.

Within a day after JS dictated this revelation, Covel

View Full Bio

departed from Fayette

More Info

without explanation, leaving JS and Rigdon

View Full Bio

to wonder why he did not follow the commandment. A revelation on 6 January explained “why he obeyed not the word.”10

JS History, vol. A-1, 92; Revelation, 6 Jan. 1831 [D&C 40].

Facts

Editorial Title: Revelation, 5 January 1831 [D&C 39]
ID #: 6498