Footnotes
John Whitmer arrived in Kirtland sometime before 13 January, when he was listed among those Mormons warned out of town by the overseers of the poor in Kirtland Township. (Kirtland, OH, Trustees, Minutes, 1817–1846, p. 76, microfilm 877,763, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.)
U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.
Whitmer described the specific behavior of some church members, noting that the devil “took a notion to blind the minds of some of the weaker ones, and made them think that an angel of God appeard to them, and showed them writings on the outside cover of the Bible, and on parchment, which flew through the air, and on the back of their hands, and many such foolish and vain things, others . . . slid on the floor, and such like maneuvers, which proved greatly to th[e] injury of the cause.” Levi Hancock specifically mentioned Heman Bassett in his account of events in Kirtland in January 1831, explaining that Bassett claimed he “had a revelation that he had received in Kirtland from the hand of an Angel he would read it [and] show the Picture of a crown the Angel declared to be gods then would bare testimony of the truth of the work and I beleived it all like a fool.” (Whitmer, History, 10; Hancock, Autobiography, 79.)
Hancock, Levi. Autobiography, ca. 1854. Photocopy. CHL. MS 8174.
Pratt, Autobiography, 65.
Pratt, Parley P. The Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt, One of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Embracing His Life, Ministry and Travels, with Extracts, in Prose and Verse, from His Miscellaneous Writings. Edited by Parley P. Pratt Jr. New York: Russell Brothers, 1874.
The article continues, “At other times they exhibited all the apish actions imaginable, making grimaces both horid and ridiculous, creeping upon their hands and feet, &c. Sometimes, in these exercises the young men would rise and play before the people, going through all the Indian manoeuvres of knocking down, scalping, ripping open, and taking out the bowels. At other times, they would start and run several furlongs, then get upon stumps and preach to imagined congregations, baptize ghosts, &c. At other times they are taken with a fit of jabbering that which they neither understand themselves nor any body else, and this they call speaking foreign languages by divine inspiration. Again the young men are seen running over the hills in pursuit, they say, of balls of fire which they see flying through the air.” ([Matthew S. Clapp], “Mormonism,” Painesville (OH) Telegraph, 15 Feb. 1831, [1] –[2], italics in original.)
Painesville Telegraph. Painesville, OH. 1822–1986.
Revelation, ca. 8 Mar. 1831–A [D&C 46:7–8].
Whitmer, History, 26–27. Josiah Jones, a onetime parishioner of Sidney Rigdon who did not convert to Mormonism, wrote a letter in 1831 (published ten years later) that added similar examples. Noting that “those that have these visions are mostly young men and girls from twelve to twenty years old,” he described their efforts “to act, they say, as the Indians did where they were carried by the spirit. . . . But of late their prophesying seems to have ceased, and they have taken to running; the young men after falling down and recovering will start and run half a mile, and then get upon a stump and begin to preach and pray as loud as they can bawl. They have been seen to run to the river or brook and make as though they were baptizing some person.” (Walter Scott, “Mormon Bible.—No. V,” Evangelist, 1 June 1841, 135.)
Evangelist. Carthage, OH. 1832–1844.
According to Levi Hancock, during a conference held in early June 1831, “Joseph put his hands upon Harvey Whitlock and ordained him to the high Priesthood he [Whitlock] turned as black as Lymon [Lyman Wight] was white his fingers was set like Claws he went round the Room and showed his hands and tryed to speak his eyes was in the shape of Ovil Oes [oval o’s] Hyram smith said Joseph that is not God Joseph said do not speak against this[.] I will not beleive said Hyrum unless you inquire of God and owns it Joseph bowed his head a short time and got up and commanded satan to leave Harvey laying his hands upon his head at the same time.” (Hancock, Autobiography, 90.)
Hancock, Levi. Autobiography, ca. 1854. Photocopy. CHL. MS 8174.
Carter wrote of an experience in Amherst, Ohio: “At length I proved by a revelation that had ben given to the Elders concerning spiriths that these spirits visionary exercises as they were called were not of the Lord . . . as we was about to atend to the administration of the communion there was a young woman taken with an exercise that brought her on to the floor & be cause I doubted of such maner of influences in a public congragation, I reqested Brother Silvester [Sylvester Smith] that we should try that spirit acording to the revelation that god had given he immediately complied with my request we then neeled down and asked our heavenly father in the name of Christ that if that spirit that that sister possesed was of him that he would give it to us & we prayed in faith but we did not receive that Spirit we then arose & I sat apon my Seat Silent for some minutes but Brother Sylvester arose and laid hands apon the Sister but this was not as the commandment directs.” Carter viewed the revelation featured here as a formula for casting out evil spirits, and his journal continues: “The command reads thus [‘]wherefore it shal come to pass that if you behold a spirit manifest that ye cannot understand & ye receive not that Spirit ye Shall ask the Father in the name of Jesus & if he give you not that Spirit then ye may know that it is not of god & it Shall be given un to you power over that Spirit & ye shall proclaim against that Spirit with aloud voice that it is not of god not with railing accusation that ye be not overcome neither with bosting nor rejoising lest you be Seized there with[’] now after Silvester had made some communication which was not propclameing against the Spirit as I believeed it had ought to have been that is against the spirit that we had prayed concerning I then arose & proclaimed against that spirit with a loud voice . . . and from that time forward that spirit never came in to the meeting when I was preasant in this display of the power of God I had one of the most infalable proofs of the divine origen of the above mentioned revalation.” (Carter, Journal, 24–26, 29.)
Carter, Jared. Journal, 1831–1833. CHL. MS 1441.
TEXT: Possibly “&”. Copy of revelation in Gilbert, Notebook, [29], has “and”.
Gilbert, Algernon Sidney. Notebook of Revelations, 1831–ca. 1833. Revelations Collection, 1831–ca. 1844, 1847, 1861, ca. 1876. CHL. MS 4583, box 1, fd. 2.
A revelation only two days earlier commanded Pratt to preach to the Shaker community near Kirtland, but that mission was short lived. The day after that revelation was dictated, Pratt and his companions held a meeting with the Shakers and then returned to Kirtland after concluding that the community would not accept their message. (See Historical Introduction to Revelation, 7 May 1831 [D&C 49].)
Pratt later explained, “In obedience to the foregoing, Joseph Wakefield and myself visited the several branches of the Church, rebukeing the wrong spirits which had crept in among them, setting in order things that were wanting; ordaining Elders and other officers; baptizing such as believed and repented of their sins; administering the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, in the name of Jesus Christ; laying hands on little children and blessing them; praying for the sick, and comforting the afflicted, etc.” (Pratt, Autobiography, 70.)
Pratt, Parley P. The Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt, One of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Embracing His Life, Ministry and Travels, with Extracts, in Prose and Verse, from His Miscellaneous Writings. Edited by Parley P. Pratt Jr. New York: Russell Brothers, 1874.
See John 17:9–12, 20–21.