Martin Harris and Humility

After the affair of the lost 116 pages in 1828, Martin Harris came again to visit Joseph in Harmony seeking a "greater witness" of the truthfulness of the work. This seems rather presumptuous given how he had broken his covenant and caused the loss of the manuscript. Clearly if that is what he was demanding from Joseph he had not fully repented or humbled himself as he ought to before the Lord. Joseph did receive a revelation for him, now Doctrine and Covenants 5, and the Lord called Martin both to repentance and to humility. He described Martin in these words: "Behold, I say unto him, he exalts himself and does not humble himself sufficiently before me" (v24). But even with all his past mistakes, the Lord showed He was willing to bless Martin with a greater witness if he would fully repent and humble himself before the Lord. He said, "If he will bow down before me, and humble himself in mighty prayer and faith, in the sincerity of his heart, then will I grant unto him a view of the things which he desires to see." He further described the conditions of His offer to Martin in these words, "And now, except he humble himself and acknowledge unto me the things that he has done which are wrong, and covenant with me that he will keep my commandments, and exercise faith in me, behold, I say unto him, he shall have no such views, for I will grant unto him no views of the things of which I have spoken" (v28). And then as a final warning the Lord said, "I foresee that if my servant Martin Harris humbleth not himself and receive a witness from my hand, that he will fall into transgression" (32). That makes four times in this single revelation that the Lord said that Martin needed to humble himself before God in order to have the things he desired.

It is interesting that the next revelation that the Lord gave to Martin Harris, now found in Doctrine and Covenants 19, similarly focused on the need for him to have humility and repent. He said, "Wherefore, I command you again to repent, lest I humble you with my almighty power; and that you confess your sins, lest you suffer these punishments of which I have spoken, of which in the smallest, yea, even in the least degree you have tasted at the time I withdrew my Spirit" (v20). He commanded Martin to "declare glad tidings" but to "do it with all humility" and trust in the Lord (v29-30). The final verse of the revelation leaves Martin and all of us this question: "Or canst thou be humble and meek, and conduct thyself wisely before me? Yea, come unto me thy Savior" (v41). Clearly one of Martin's weaknesses was that he struggled to be humble, and these revelations to him are a reminder to all of us that if we want a witness from God we must learn to be humble and meek before the Lord. Martin of course would struggle with this on multiple occasions, and ultimately his pride led him away from the church for many years. But, to his credit, he did ultimately humble himself and came back to join the Saints. At the age of 87 he came out to Utah and remained there with the Saints. He said near the end of his life, “I tell you of these things that you may tell others that what I have said is true, and I dare not deny it; I heard the voice of God commanding me to testify to the same.” I believe he did indeed in the end learn humility before the Lord, and his story should remind us of the paramount importance of humility in receiving revelation and in the work of the Lord.