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Tässä s. 53-55 siteeraataan m.m. Orsamus Turneria, History of Phelp's and Gorham's Purchase, p. 214, joka kertoo että Smith oli epävirallinen saarnaaja metodistien leirikokouksissa ennen v. 1822; samoin siteerataan Pomeroy Tuckeria, The Origin, Rise and Progress of Mormonism (NY 1867), p 18: Smith liittyi metodistikirkon "kokelasluokkaan"; Palmyrassa ei ollut metodistikirkkoa ennen heinäkuuta 1821 (alaviite 44). Marquardt & Walters, Inventing Mormonism, Ch.3, p.53 - 57 |
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[...] The seventh and last vision of Joseph Smith, Sr., occurred, according to his wife, in 1819 or 1820 while he was living in Palmyra.39 It was about this time that young Joseph would say that he experienced his first vision. The earliest account of that vision survives from 1832 in Joseph Jr.'s own hand. He begins his narration by pointing out that his parents "spared
no pains to instructing me in At about the age of twelve years my mind become seriously imprest with regard to the all importent concerns for the wellfare of my immortal Soul, which led me to searching the scriptures, believeing as I was taught, that they contained the word of God. Thus applying myself to them and my intimate acquaintance with those of differant denominations led me to marvel exce[e]dingly, for I discovered that p.53 - p.54 However, he continued, "I learned in the scriptures that God was
the same yesterday, to day and forever." By observing the wonders
of nature, Joseph confirmed for himself "well hath the wise man
said p.54 I cried unto the Lord for mercy for there was none else to whom I could go and obtain mercy and the Lord heard my cry in the wilderness and while in Several observations can be drawn from this earliest written narration of Smith's teenage religious experience. First, like his mother, he finds the Bible his only reliable guide and his interpretation of it the only correct one. Second, like his parents, he realizes that no church any longer has the truth; everyone else has apostatized. Third, unlike others, much of his conviction is of the sins of other professing Christians. Finally, like his parents and many others, he feels conviction of his sins and finds forgiveness through a direct vision of the Savior granting him pardon. p.54 - p.55 Orsamus Turner, the young apprentice working at the Palmyra Register newspaper office, noted young Joseph's presence at a Methodist camp meeting and found him "a very passable exhorter."41 In the Methodist style of worship, a sermon was preached in which points were drawn from a given text or passage from the Bible. After the message, an exhortation was usually given by another speaker who would reemphasize the points made in the preacher's exposition and plead with the people to take seriously the message they had just heard. The Methodist structure provided for the licensing of official exhorters by the District Conference.42 However, in more informal situations, such as camp meetings and evening services (where the liturgical format used at the morning worship was dispensed with), even those as young as twelve or thirteen could rise and give exhortations.43 Since Turner completed his apprenticeship and left Palmyra in the summer of 1822, his words provide a valuable insight into Joseph's religious activities before his seventeenth birthday. p.55 Joseph did not become a licensed exhorter because such persons had to be members in full standing with the denomination. However, Pomeroy Tucker, another early resident of Palmyra, remarked concerning Joseph, "at one time he joined the probationary class of the Methodist church in Palmyra, and made some active demonstrations of engagedness, . . . [but] he soon withdrew from the class."44 Formal church membership would have required Joseph's meeting with the class leader "at least six months on trial."45 Joseph attended a debating club in Palmyra Village, and Turner recalled the following: Joseph had a little ambition; and some very laudable aspirations; the mother's intellect occasionally shone out in him feebly, especially when he used to help us solve some portentous questions of moral or political ethics, in our juvenile debating club, which we moved down to the old red school house on Durfee street, to get rid of the annoyance of critics that used to drop in upon us in the village . . . 46 Joseph wrote about his "intimate acquaintance with those of differant denominations" during his youth and his partiality toward the Methodists. But by the time he was approaching nineteen, during the 1824-25 revival meetings, he felt little need for organized religion. He later wrote in his 1838-39 account: "During this time of great excitement my mind was called up to serious reflection and great uneasiness; but though my feelings were deep and often poignant, still I kept myself aloof from all these parties, though I attended their several meetings as occasion would permit."47 His mother recalled, "Joseph never said many words upon any subject but always seemed to reflect more deeply than common persons of his age upon everything of a religious nature."48 p.55 - p.56 According to his later colleague Oliver Cowdery, Joseph was impressed by the revival preaching of Reverend George Lane. As mentioned in the previous chapter, Lane was the Methodist presiding elder of the Ontario District from July 1824 until January 1825. Cowdery wrote, "much good instruction was always drawn from his [Lane's] discourses on the scriptures, and in common with others, our brother's [Joseph Smith's] mind became awakened."49 Joseph would have been eighteen years old when he heard Lane preaching. p.56 After the family discussed "the subject of the diversity of churches,"
Lucy Smith recalled, Joseph saw an angel who revealed the gold plates:
"After we ceased conversation, he went to bed Lucy later remembered "listening in breathless anxiety to the Joseph Smith's childhood vision, as his 1832 narrative describes, of Christ's appearing and granting him forgiveness for his sins was similar to those of other young people of his day. The later 1838-39 version of his first vision introduces a revival before his vision and creates a chronologically implausible picture. From what we can learn about the religious background of the Smith family, Joseph Jr.'s parents taught religious values to their children. Though his father did not attend church, he did sing and pray with his family. Joseph Jr.'s religious instruction included hearing ministers's sermons, revival homilies, private family worship, and personal Bible study. Joseph was not uninformed, ignorant, or illiterate. p.56 - p.57 While the Smith family held Christian beliefs, they also believed in treasures supernaturally buried in the earth which could be obtained only through magical rituals. [...] Notes:
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