Early Church -- 1830

By Jake from Utah, United States - Peter Whitmer Log Home

For this week's spiritual thoughts, I thought I'd relate some Church history -- primarily targeting those not of my church, but as usual, the thoughts are for everyone.

As we read through the Doctrine & Covenants this year, we're currently in the period where Joseph Smith had just officially organized the Church on April 6, 1830, and is now beginning the ministry -- reaching out to find more members.

On that day, Joseph met with at least five others who had been baptized, and a whole bunch of friends and family. They met in a small log cabin -- the home of Peter Whitmer. At this meeting, they signed all the official paperwork. They administered the first "Sacrament" (called Eucharist or Communion in other churches), in other words -- the bread and wine. They set apart Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery as the first elders. Many people were then baptized. Over the next weeks, the church would be organized and church meetings held and so on.

As my thoughts reflect on this time in Church history, I'm especially sensitive this time to the "starting-up" aspect. I'm currently trying to grow my own business in music publishing. In its very beginnings, it started off very slow -- the very first sales went to friends and family. But then perfect strangers started buying my products. I've even been able to attract some relatively big-name Latter-day Saint composers to sell their music as well. I'm still nowhere near breaking even -- so I remain in the "getting the word out" stage of the business. I haven't quite figured that part out, but I'm working on it.

At this stage of Church history, it's exactly where Joseph Smith is. In April 1830, the Church membership consisted of friends and family. In a very short time, the first missionaries will be sent out. I can fully understand what Joseph Smith was going through: "How do I let people know about this great thing I found?"

Also, keep in mind that all these people were poor. Joseph Smith belonged to a family of farmers who barely made enough to survive. After Joseph finished translating the Book of Mormon in 1829, it existed as just a manuscript -- hundreds of pages full of handwriting. But in order for it to do any good, it had to be published so people could have their own copies. Joseph had no way of coming up with that kind of money. Neither did his friend, Oliver Cowdery, a schoolteacher.

Enter Martin Harris -- someone who became Joseph's friend very early on -- who helped translate the Book of Mormon in the very early stages, but then lost over 100 pages of the first manuscript. He became distraught and distanced himself for over a year. But he had money.

In late 1829, he agreed to mortgage most of his farm to finance the publication of the Book of Mormon, hoping to be paid back from the sales profits. D&C 19 promises Martin blessings if he did what he did.

Unfortunately -- over the next few years, the Book of Mormon would sell miserably -- either because people didn't want it, or because members of the Church were handing them out for free. I'm not sure why, but I hear that Martin Harris eventually loses the farm -- and his wife. He would also leave the Church and later come back. This article gives some high-level details of Martin Harris's contribution.

It's just interesting to me to realize that without Martin Harris, there would be no Book of Mormon, and possibly no church. Perhaps Joseph would have found someone else, but at the time there was no one else.

It's also interesting that Martin would agree to do it. He was already having trouble with his wife, and the wealth he had accumulated was substantial for the times. It would be a true sacrifice to help make the Church possible. He believed in what he was doing, and he agreed to do it.

I often wonder if I'll ever have to do a similar kind of sacrifice. Being part of any religion seems to require sacrifice on a smaller scale -- giving up sins, paying offerings, imparting of your time to help others, and so on. And sometimes just being a good human being requires similar sacrifices. Is it worth it? In my case, I seem to come out better. 

As someone said today in our Sunday lesson: Is life easy? No. But am I going to avoid life? No. Is marriage and having a family (which requires sacrifices) easy? No. But am I sad that I have a family? No.

In giving up sins, I can enjoy more freedoms and enjoy life. In paying offerings, I'm helping others to have a better life. When I'm helping others, it helps me to feel good. And so on. Sacrifices aren't always easy, but they can definitely have an impact, and you can influence others for good.

Coming back to the Church history to wrap things up. Our reading is at a point where it's going to start growing like crazy, and they're going to build a strong community and long-lasting traditions -- a church, which almost 200 years later has millions of members across the entire globe. Every big thing starts somewhere, and this specific church started with a meeting in a small log cabin.