William McLellin's Four Witnesses

As the Lord called missionaries to first go to Missouri, one of the companionships was David Whitmer and Harvey Whitlock. The Lord told them to “take their journey, and preach by the way unto this same land” (Doctrine and Covenants 52:25). They did just that, and the Saints book recounts the story of one of their converts on this journey: “Hundreds of miles southwest of Kirtland, twenty-five-year-old William McLellin visited the graves of his wife, Cinthia Ann, and their baby. William and Cinthia Ann had been married for less than two years when she and the baby died. As a schoolteacher, William had a quick mind and a gift for writing. But he found nothing to comfort him in the lonely hours since he lost his family. One day, after teaching his class, William heard two men preach about the Book of Mormon. One of them, David Whitmer, declared that he had seen an angel who testified that the Book of Mormon was true. The other, Harvey Whitlock, astonished William with the power and clarity of his preaching.” William wrote, “I never heard such preaching in all my life. The glory of God seemed to encircle the man.” He subsequently traveled to Zion where he was baptized by Hyrum Smith. He then returned to Kirtland with Hyrum where he first met Joseph Smith.

After this, in a short period of time, he had four powerful witnesses of the prophetic call of Joseph Smith. Traveling to a conference, he “stepped off a large log and strained [his] ankle very badly.” He asked Joseph to heal him, and Jospeh did. William wrote, “It was healed although It was swelled much and had pained me severely.” That was his first witness. His second came a few days later when he took five questions to the Lord and then asked Joseph for a revelation. Joseph obliged and gave what we now have as Doctrine and Covenants 66. William said that it answered his questions “to his full and entire satisfaction.” His third witness came when he was tasked at the conference to help write a preface to the Book of Commandments. He was a learned man who could write well, and with Oliver Cowdery and Sidney Rigdon he wrote a preface. But it was not well received by other participants, and they requested Joseph to enquire of the Lord about it. That’s when Joseph, through divine revelation, dictated the Lord’s preface, what is now the first section of the Doctrine and Covenants. William remembered that Joseph sat by a window and “would deliver a few sentences and Sydney [Rigdon] would write them down, then read them aloud, and if correct, then Joseph would proceed and deliver more.” Though the learned men could not produce words adequate for a preface, Joseph (the unlearned) did in his role as a prophet and seer. The fourth witness was similar. Despite this powerful display of Joseph’s ability to receive revelation, some still questioned the language he used. The Lord challenged them with these words: “Now, seek ye out of the Book of Commandments, even the least that is among them, and appoint him that is the most wise among you; Or, if there be any among you that shall make one like unto it, then ye are justified in saying that ye do not know that they are true” (Doctrine and Covenants 67:6-7). The Saints book summarized what happened, “Taking up a pen, William tried to write a revelation, confident in his mastery of language. When he finished, though, he and the other men in the room knew what he had written had not come from the Lord. They admitted their error and signed a statement testifying that the revelations had been given to the prophet by the inspiration of God.” He had yet another witness that Joseph really was a prophet of God through whom the Savior was speaking to mankind.

We can each likewise gain a witness of the prophetic calling of Joseph Smith as we prayerfully study the revelations he received in the Doctrine and Covenants. Therein we find the voice of the Savior speaking to us. I especially love the first section as the Lord affirmed that He had called again a prophet in the last days: “Wherefore, I the Lord, knowing the calamity which should come upon the inhabitants of the earth, called upon my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., and spake unto him from heaven, and gave him commandments; And also gave commandments to others, that they should proclaim these things unto the world; and all this that it might be fulfilled, which was written by the prophets” (Doctrine and Covenants 1:17-18). We are so blessed to have these commandments and revelations given to us through the Prophet Joseph Smith, and as that conference declared, they are indeed “worth to the Church the riches of the whole Earth.”