James Covel and the Cares of the World

James Covel was a Methodist preacher who in 1831 had preached for forty years.  He was preaching in the east when “he attended a conference of Latter-day Saints at Fayette in early January 1831.”  According to the section heading for D&C 39, James “covenanted with the Lord that he would obey any command that the Lord would give to him through Joseph the Prophet.”  Because of this he did indeed receive a revelation which we now have as D&C 39.  But within a day he had rejected it—D&C 40, which was given only a day after D&C 39, explained that “he received the word with gladness, but straightway Satan tempted him; and the fear of persecution and the cares of the world caused him to reject the word” (D&C 40:2).  It appears that at least one of the reasons he rejected it was the invitation to go with the Church to Ohio: “Behold, verily, verily, I say unto thee, thou art not called to go into the eastern countries, but thou art called to go to the Ohio” (D&C 39:14).  His life’s work had been in the east, his family was there, he had built up a name for himself among that people and he was a leader in the reformed Methodist movement.  Now the Lord was asking him to leave it completely behind and move to Ohio.  It appears that the call was simply too much for him; he couldn’t “leave his nets” to follow the command of the Lord (Matt. 4:20). 

               What is amazing to me about this story is that James Covell could change his heart so quickly.  On January 5, 1831 the Lord told him, “Thine heart is now right before me at this time” but on January 6^th He said, “The heart of my servant James Covel was right before me,” showing that it had already changed (D&C 39:8:, 40:1).  That’s not much time for a change of heart to take place, and I think these sections and this story highlight important principles for us to understand.  First, it can be a hard thing to follow through with our commitments to the Lord just.  In our natural man state how easy it can be to fail to live up to our own promises to God.  We can judge James because he went back on his covenant to the Lord, but I know for myself that it is not hard to act in the same way.  How often do we attend Church, feel the Spirit prompt us to do better in this or that area of our lives, we promise ourselves we are going to try really hard that week, and then by the next day we’ve already totally blown it?  As the Savior put it, “The Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matt. 26:41).  A second lesson from this story is that the Lord does not limit our blessings even when He knows what will happen and our future misdeeds.  He judges us and makes promises to us based on where we are at in the moment, and when James covenanted to obey God, the Lord was willing to give him great promises.  Even though the Lord surely knew that James would reject the revelation, it did not stop Him from giving it based on James’ heart at the time.  Perhaps a third message for us from this story is that we must be vigilant to not let the “cares of the world” overtake our commitment to the Lord.  It appears that the problem was not a love of riches and the things of the world so much as his hesitation to leave his positions in the world.  As Jed Woodworth put it, the call to go to Ohio meant that “all the prestige he had accumulated over the course of a lifetime would have to be abandoned.”  He was not ready to make that sacrifice because he cared too much for the world and his current life.  If the Lord asked us to give up our job or move somewhere we didn’t want to go or sacrifice our possessions or renounce titles important to the world, could we do so?  With so many seemingly important things we could spend time worrying about, we have to ask ourselves, what is it that we care about most?  If it’s not the Lord then we may find ourselves some day in the same sad situation as James Covel—full of potential but too concerned about the cares of the world to live up to it.