By Joseph Fielding McConkie

The following talk was given by our cousin Joseph Fielding McConkie at the Joseph F. Smith family reunion held November 12, 2007 at the Joseph F. Smith family reunion.

Those of you who are of adult age may be able to identify a particular experience in your growing up years that could be described as a defining moment. The expression is used to describe a particular experience or event that was singularly significant in forming your character or in determining the course you would pursue.

Discouraged and homesick as a missionary serving in the British Isles at a time when few people would even treat civilly a Mormon missionary the young Gordon Hinckley wrote his father suggesting that he was wasting his time and that perhaps he ought to come home.

His father’s response was brief and to the point, “Dear Gordon,” he wrote, “I have your recent letter. I have only one suggestion: forget yourself and go to work.”

In her biography of President Hinckley, Sheri Dew writes as follows:

“Earlier that day he and his companion had studied the promise recorded in the Gospels: ‘For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it’ (Mark 8:35). That scripture, combined with his father’s counsel, seared his soul. With the letter in hand, he went into his upstairs bedroom at 15 Wadham Road and got on his knees. As he poured out his heart to the Lord, he promised that he would try to forget himself and lose himself in the Lord’s service. Many years later he indicated the significance of that series of events: “That July day in 1933 was my day of decision. A new light came into my life and a new joy into my heart. The fog of England seemed to lift, and I saw the sunlight. Everything good that has happened to me since then I can trace back to the decision I made that day in Preston.” (Go Forth With Faith, p. 64.)

For Joseph F. Smith that moment came in the form of a dream which he recorded some few months before his death:

I did have a dream one time. To me it was a literal thing; it was a reality. I was very much oppressed, once, on a mission. I was almost naked and entirely friendless, except the friendship of a poor, benighted, degraded people. I felt as if I was so debased in my condition of poverty, lack of intelligence and knowledge, just a boy, that I hardly dared look a white man in the face.

While in that condition I dreamed that I was on a journey, and I was impressed that I ought to hurry—hurry with all my might, for fear I might be too late. I rushed on my way as fast as I possibly could, and I was only conscious of having just a little bundle, a handkerchief with a small bundle wrapped in it. I did not realize just what it was, when I was hurrying as fast as I could; but finally I came to a wonderful mansion, if it could be called a mansion. It seemed too large, too great to have been made by hand, but I thought I knew that was my destination. As I passed towards it, as fast as I could, I saw a notice, “Bath.” I turned aside quickly and went into the bath and washed myself clean. I opened up this little bundle that I had, and there was a pair of white, clean garments, a thing I had not seen for a long time, because the people I was with did not think very much of making things exceedingly clean. But my garments were clean, and I put them on. Then I rushed to what appeared to be a great opening, or door. I knocked and the door opened, and the man who stood there was the Prophet Joseph Smith. He looked at me a little reprovingly, and the first words he said: “Joseph, you are late.” Yet I took confidence and said: “Yes, but I am clean—I am clean!”

He clasped my hand and drew me in, then closed the great door. I felt his hand just as tangible as I ever felt the hand of man. I knew him, and when I entered I saw my father, and Brigham and Heber, and Willard, and other good men that I had known, standing in a row. I looked as if it were across this valley, and it seemed to be filled with a vast multitude of people, but on the stage were all the people that I had known. My mother was there, and she sat with a child in her lap; and I could name over as many as I remember of their names, who sat there, who seemed to be among the chosen, among the exalted.

The Prophet said to me, “Joseph,” than pointing to my mother, he said: “Bring me that child.”

I went to my mother and picked up the child, and thought it was a fine baby boy. I carried it to the Prophet, and as I handed it to him I purposely thrust my hands up against his breast. I felt the warmth—I was along on a mat, away up in the mountains of Hawaii—no one was with me. But in this vision I pressed my hand up against the Prophet, and I saw a smile cross his countenance. I handed him the child and stepped back. President Young stepped around two steps, my father one step, and they formed a triangle. Then Joseph blessed that baby, and when he finished blessing it they stepped back in line; that is, Brigham and father stepped back in line. Joseph handed me the baby, wanted me to come and take the baby again; and this time I was determined to test whether this was a dream or a reality. I wanted to know what it meant. So I purposely thrust myself up against the Prophet. I felt the warmth of his stomach. He smiled at me, as if he comprehended my purpose. He delivered the child to me and I returned it to my mother, laid it on her lap.

When I awoke that morning I was a man, although only a boy. There was not anything in the world that I feared. I could meet any man or woman or child and look them in the face, feeling in my soul that I was a man every whit. That vision, that manifestation and witness that I enjoyed at that time make me what I am, if I am anything that is good, or clean, or upright before the Lord, if there is anything good in me. That has helped me out in every trial and through every difficulty.

Now, I suppose that is only a dream? To me it is a reality. There never could be anything more real to me. I felt the hand of Joseph Smith. I felt the warmth of his stomach, when I put my hand against him. I saw the smile upon his face. I did my duty as he required me to do it, and when I woke up I felt as if I had been lifted out of a slum, out of a despair, out of the wretched condition that I was in; and naked as I was, or as nearly as I was, I was not afraid of any white man nor of anyone else, and I have not been very much afraid of anybody else since that time. I know that that was a reality, to show me my duty, to teach me something, and to impress upon me something that I cannot forget. I hope it never can be banished from my mind.

I do not think anyone would question that this dream constituted a defining moment for Joseph F. Smith. President Hinckley has spoken of this dream on a number of occasions to emphasize the importance of our being clean. It contains an obvious allusion to the garments of the priesthood and the endowment of power we receive in the House of the Lord. Certainly the blessings of the temple were a source of great strength to the young missionary.

Because the setting tonight is family I will take the liberty to look more closely at the dream than perhaps we otherwise would. Indeed, I will give you, for what it may be worth, my interpretation of it. The baby in the dream represented himself as an infant. The taking of the baby from the arms of his mother, Mary Fielding Smith and giving it to the Prophet, was the Lord’s way of tell the young missionary that he had as a small child been blessed by the Prophet. Further, I will venture that it was in that blessing that the Prophet gave him his name. He had, in very deed felt the warmth of the Prophet’s stomach.

As you know Joseph F. was born at Far West, Missouri, November 13, 1838. He would not have received a name and father’s blessing at that time because his father, Hyrum Smith, was incarcerated in the Liberty Jail with the Prophet. His mother, who took a sever cold at the time of his birth and was very weak for about four months. Thus some twelve weeks passed before they were able to place her with her infant child in the bed of a wagon to make the 40 mile journey to Liberty in the hopes of showing him to his father.

The weather was extremely cold. They arrived in the evening and spent a sleepless night in the Jail. Notwithstanding the great need for those who were imprisoned to be blessed they took the occasion to bless their visitors. At issue would be whether it was the boy’s father or uncle who blessed him. History accords no answer to that question. It is my belief that revelation does. I believe the dream given to Joseph F. Smith was, at least in part, to tell him that he had been blessed by the Prophet and that the Prophet himself gave him his name.

In the dream the Prophet is assisted by Hyrum and Brigham Young. Brigham Young was not numbered among those who were confined in the Liberty Jail but may well have blessed young Joseph when he was set apart as a missionary. His own father would also have had occasion to bless him. What he is being told here, in my judgment, is that he had received blessings at the hands of all three of these men.

Consider that. Would it not give you something of a sense of confidence to know that you had been personally blessed by the Prophet Joseph Smith, his brother Hyrum and President Brigham Young? Would it not increase your confidence to know that each of these men had given you special promises and assurances, and that the Prophet Joseph, at the request of your parents, had given you his name. The dream also dramatizes the singular role that his mother played in blessing his life.

The Name Joseph
Let me tell you a little about the name Joseph and the sense of responsibility that goes with bearing it. I, too, bear the name Joseph Fielding. I received it in a father’s blessing given by my Grandfather Joseph Fielding Smith. He received it in like manner from his father of whom we speak this evening. As to the name Joseph, if I have interpreted the dream correctly, I stand three blessings removed from the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Joseph is a Hebrew name best known to us because we claim our birthright among the tribes of Israel through Joseph the son of Jacob. His mother, Rachel, gave him the name. The scriptural text reads thus: “And she called his name Joseph: and said, The Lord shall add to me another son” (Genesis 30:24).

The meaning of the name, as noted in your current edition of the Bible, relates to two Hebrew roots: yasaph, which means “to add” and asaph, which carries a double meaning “to take away” and “to gather.” (See footnote for Genesis 30:24).

Scholars tell us that the primary meaning of the name is “he who gathers” or “he who gathers for God.” It is a most appropriate name to give the man who would gather the family of Israel together in Egypt that they might be saved from the great famine that covered the earth at that time. (His Name Shall Be Joseph, 157.)

You remember that our ancient father Joseph of Egypt prophesied that the great seer of the latter-days would bear the name Joseph as would his father. (JST Genesis 50:33; 2 Nephi 3:15). Thus the Prophet who was destined to stand at the head of the gathering of Israel, or the restoration of all things; that is “to take away” the long night of apostate darkness was to bear the name that attested to his office and calling.

I also note with interest that Joseph Smith Sr., in giving a patriarchal blessing to his son Hyrum stated, “Behold thou art Hyrum, the Lord hath called thee by that name, and by that name he was blessed thee.”

Hyrum is also a Hebrew name, it means, “my brother is exalted.” The name seems rather well chosen for the man who would be called upon to seal his testimony with his blood at the side of his brother in the Carthage Jail.

I would not suppose that Joseph F. Smith was aware of the etymology of either name. I do know, however, that he regarded the name as a sacred trust.

The nick-name “Joe” offended him, not just in reference to himself but to anyone who bore the name Joseph. “Somehow,” he said, “the name Joseph has fixed in my mind a sense of sacredness, as being the name of the Prophet that would not permit me to abbreviate it even if it were borne by my worst enemy.” (Life of Joseph F. Smith, 435.)

The Name We Bear
It is a great blessing to bear an honored name. With such a blessing comes the obligation to bring honor to the name. So it is that we take upon ourselves the name of Christ with a covenant to live as the name announces we will live.

While I presided over the mission in Scotland one of the prominent ministers in the city of Edinburgh came to my office seeking answers to questions about Mormonism. He said, “I have some tough questions to ask and I cannot get straight answers from your missionaries.”
I promised him straight answers and spent a couple of hours responding to his questions. I then said, “Now it is my turn. I have some tough questions to ask you.” I asked how he justified the Christian Creeds. He buried his head in hands and was silent for a matter of minutes. Then he raised his head and said, “Our creeds are responsible for the dark ages.”

He was a good man, an honest man, who always treated our missionaries with respect. I told him what it meant to have living prophets, and that one of them was my great grandfather from whom I received my name. I told him that my great grandfather had received revelations from the Lord. He said he would like to see them. I responded that I would like to read him one. I then read to him the Vision of Redemption of the Dead from the 138th section of the Doctrine and Covenants. I read it from beginning to end without a word of commentary. It was as if a rushing of mighty wind filled my office. He wept as I read the revelation and I wept with him. When I finished, he said that he could not say that what I had read was not a revelation.

When he left my office that after noon he turned to one of my assistants and said, “Wow, for a little church you sure have a big theology!”
Well we do have a big theology. It reaches from one end of eternity to the other and it includes the preservation of the family unit. The covenant that we read about in the book of Genesis that God made to Abraham and repeated anew with Isaac, and Jacob makes abundantly clear that the greatest gift God can give a man beyond the promise of his own salvation is that of a righteous posterity, one whose love and association he can enjoy though out the endless expanses of eternity.

Salvation Is a Family Affair
The great genius of Joseph Smith is not in the profession that he was restoring the New Testament church but rather that through his instrumentality the promises made to the fathers (that is Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) would find their fulfillment. Chronologically the first revelation in the Doctrine and Covenants is Section 2. This is a brief extract from the things Moroni hold Joseph Smith when he first appeared to him back in 1823.

Moroni took the prophecy given by Malachi about the hearts of the fathers being turned to their children and the hearts of the children being turned to their fathers. He rendered the text thus: “Behold, I will reveal unto you the Priesthood, by the hand of Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” (D&C 2:1.)

He did not say Elijah would restore the priesthood but rather “reveal” the priesthood. That is, the great revelation of the purpose of priesthood comes to us through the sealing power restored by Elijah. The keys he restored constitute the authority by which all gospel ordinances including baptism and eternal marriage become of “efficacy, virtue, or force” in the worlds to come.

Continuing the Malachi prophecy Moroni said, “And he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers. If it were no so, the whole earth would be utterly wasted at his coming” (D&C 2:2-3). The fathers referred to were Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the promises were relative to the eternal nature of their marriages and the continuation of their family unit throughout eternity.

This doctrine assures that there will always be a bond between those who died and go on to the world of the spirits and those of their family that remain in this mortal sphere. Dead does not dissolve that family tie but rather strengthens it. Those of the family that have gone on before us are involved in the great labor of teaching the gospel to our kindred dead who did not have the opportunity to hear it in this life. They also are very much involved in directing the great redemptive work that is done in our temples. To involve ourselves in either of these great redemptive labors is to place ourselves in a position where the hearts of our fathers and mothers can more fully turn to us. As our labors become one and the same with their labors they are privileged to walk at our side.

Consider this revelation given to the Prophet Joseph Smith sometime in the second year after the Church was organized: “Abraham received promises concerning his seed, and of the fruit of his loins—from whose loins ye are, namely, my servant Joseph—which were to continue so long as they were in the world; and as touching Abraham and his seed, out of the world they should continue; both in the world and out of the world should they continue as innumerable as the stars; or, if ye were to count the sand upon the seashore ye could not number them.” (D&C 132:30, italics added.)

Joseph Smith, speaking by the Spirit of revelation paraphrased the promise of Elijah’s return thus: “He shall send Elijah the prophet, and he shall reveal the covenant of the fathers to the children, and the covenant of the children in relation to the fathers.” (HC 5:530.) This expression greatly expands our understanding of what is involved here. Parents can be said to make covenant with their unborn children in the ordinances of eternal marriage but if children are to make covenants with their parents it must be before either they or their parents were born. Joseph Smith saw this relationship in the teachings of the Apostle Paul. The Prophet wrote, “their salvation is necessary and essential to our salvation, as Paul says concerning the fathers—that they without us cannot b e made perfect—neither can we without our dead be made perfect” (D&C 124:15).

President Spencer W. Kimball, referring to the pre-earth life said, “Here you and I made . . . an oath that we would do all things whatsoever the Lord our God shall command us. While we do not remember the details we made these covenants. We committed ourselves to our Heavenly Father that if he would send us to earth and give us bodies and give to us the priceless opportunities that earth life afforded, we would keep our lives clean and would marry in the holy temple and rear a family and teach them righteousness. This was a solemn oath, a solemn promise, an eternal commitment.” (U of U Institute, 10 January 1975.)

Joseph F. Smith and his beloved wives, Julina, Sara, Edna, Alice, and Mary left this life with a two fold promise; they would labor to gather those of our kindred in the world of the spirits to the gospel plan and to their rightful place in the family and that they would continue to labor to bless their posterity in mortality. They have been true to that covenant and promise we must be true to the covenant we made with them.

This can be accomplished only if we have the testimony of Christ and of his Restored gospel that burned in their hearts burning in ours. It can be accomplished only if we are fully active in the Church and to the extent that family responsibilities allow active in family organizations.
It means that our sons, and were appropriate our daughters, will go on missions. It means that we will prepare our children to marry in the house of the Lord and that we will regularly meet each other there. We have no right to do less than that.

Conclusion
I conclude with what was for me a defining moment. As a young man working on a Master’s Degree in Church History I frequently did research in the Church Historians office. Granddaddy Smith’s office adjoined the Historians Office on the third floor of the Church Office Building. You will remember that he served both as the Church Historian and as the President of the Quorum of the Twelve.

This meant that I had frequent occasion to pass by Granddaddy’s office. The door to the outer office where his secretary Ruby Egbert worked was always open. She knew all of Granddaddies children and grandchildren and had been instructed not to let any of them pass without bringing them in to see him.

I have a very distinct recollection of being ushered into Granddaddy office. After a short visit I, out of respect for his time, stood to leave. He got up and came around his desk to walk me to the door. As I stood in the door way he put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me around so that we met eye to eye, then he said, “Now you remember that you have the blood of prophets in your veins.”

A very tender feeling attended the moment. There was no sense or feeling that I was being told that I was better than anyone else; nor was there any question that I was being told that I had a responsibility to my forebears. The feeling was that I had been entrusted with something special and that I was expected to act accordingly.

All here tonight share equally in that charge, “You have the blood of prophets in your veins” those born in the family and those who have joined it by marriage. The authority of the priesthood has pronounced us one. It is as Moses said of the house of Israel anciently, “Would God that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them!” (Numbers 11:29.)
Such is our covenant, may such also be our lot, in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.