President Joseph F. Smith's Witness of Death

In his recent conference talk, right after the death of his own wife, President Ballard discussed the life of his great-grandfather Joseph F. Smith.  He highlighted how understanding how often President Smith was confronted with death, both of loved ones and others, helps put the revelation he received on the redemption of the dead in context.  Joseph F. Smith came into the world and left it at two times when death was all around him.  He was born in November 1838 in Far West, at the time that the Saints were being killed and driven from the state under Governor Boggs’ extermination order issued about two weeks before his birth.  President Smith died in November 1918, shortly after he received the revelation, a time when the Saints and the world “grieved over the death toll in the Great World War that continued to climb to over 20 million people killed.  Additionally, a flu pandemic was spreading around the world, taking the lives of as many as 100 million people.”  In between he also witnessed premature deaths on the Mormon trail from Nauvoo to Salt Lake; lived to witness from afar the bloodiest war in United States history (the Civil War); and saw the deaths of Brigham Young, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, and Lorenzo Snow, all of whom he was a counselor to in the First Presidency. 

               He likewise witnessed death in his own family again and again.  At the young age of five he was there in Nauvoo when his father Hyrum was killed.  His mother then died when he was only 13 in the Salt Lake Valley, leaving him an orphan.  During his lifetime he also lost “one brother, two sisters, two wives, and thirteen children.”  President Smith wrote of his feelings at the loss of his first child Mercy Josephine at the age of two: “It is one month yesterday since my … darling Josephine died. O! that I could have saved her to grow up to womanhood. I miss her every day and I am lonely. … God forgive my weakness if it is wrong to love my little ones as I love them.”  The year of his death, prior to the revelation, he lost his son Elder Hyrum Smith, his son-in-law Alonzo Kesler, and his daughter-in-law Ida Smith.  He wrote that year of the loss of his son waying, “I am speechless—[numb] with grief! … My heart is broken; and flutters for life! … O! I loved him! … I will love him forever more. And so it is and ever will be with all my sons and daughters….  O! what can I do! … O! God help me!”  Again and again he was confronted with death and mourned the loss of loved ones and those all around the world who prematurely were taken from this world.

               It was in that context that he received the glorious revelation that provides hope for those who died without the gospel as well as a sense of purpose for those in the gospel who have left the world prematurely.  He saw this as part of the vision: “Thus was the gospel preached to those who had died in their sins, without a knowledge of the truth, or in transgression, having rejected the prophets. These were taught faith in God, repentance from sin, vicarious baptism for the remission of sins, the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands” (Doctrine and Covenants 138:32-33).  This surely provided him great solace to know of the mercy of the Lord and that salvation was still provided for these millions who were dying all around the world.  He also recorded, “I beheld that the faithful elders of this dispensation, when they depart from mortal life, continue their labors in the preaching of the gospel of repentance and redemption, through the sacrifice of the Only Begotten Son of God, among those who are in darkness and under the bondage of sin in the great world of the spirits of the dead” (Doctrine and Covenants 138:57).  This knowledge in particular surely helped him to understand why someone like his father or his son could be taken in the prime of their lives when they were serving the Lord so well, for he saw that they would continue that great work in the spirit world.  While the revelation may not diminish the immediate grief that we feel at the loss of loved ones, it provides us a sense of hope and purpose for those who have preceded us and helps us to see the great mercy of God’s plan for all of His children.