�鶹��ý

January 5, 1833

Painting of Frederick G. Williams, oil on canvas, unknown artist, circa 1836. Joseph Smith Papers Project, © by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.josephsmithpapers.org.

On March 8, 1832, Joseph Smith called and ordained Sidney Rigdon and Jesse Gause as counselors in the “presidency of the high priesthood,” the precursor to what would become the First Presidency of the Church.[1] A few days later, the Prophet dictated a revelation to Gause about his calling to the presidency (Doctrine and Covenants 81). He was counseled to be faithful in his calling, pray always, and preach the gospel, and was promised that if he remained faithful, he would receive a “crown of immortality and eternal life.” Unfortunately, only nine months after his ordination, Gause was excommunicated from the Church, leaving a vacancy in the presidency.[2]

At the time of Gause’s excommunication, Frederick G. Williams had been serving as a scribe for Joseph Smith. Williams’s faithfulness to the Church was demonstrated almost immediately after his conversion in late 1830 by serving a mission to the Lamanites and eventually consecrating 144 acres of his land to the Church in Kirtland.[3] The present revelation calls Williams to be a counselor and a scribe for Joseph and for him to consecrate his farm for the purpose of “bringing forth” the Prophet’s revelations.

In the current edition of the Doctrine and Covenants, it appears that Williams’s call to serve in the presidency of the high priesthood occurred in March 1832 (Doctrine and Covenants 81). However, that revelation was originally directed to Gause but was later adopted for Williams. An early manuscript copy of that revelation has Gause’s name crossed off and Williams’s name inserted in his own handwriting.[4] Subsequent versions of the Doctrine and Covenants continue to place Williams’s name in place of Gause, demonstrating that the revelation was meant for the counselor in the presidency of the high priesthood, not necessarily Gause alone. With this background, it would make sense that Williams would seek revelation for himself specifically in this regard. The present revelation can be seen as a confirmation to Williams that he was indeed called to serve as a counselor to the Prophet.

❋ ❋ ❋

Behold, I say unto you my servant Frederick G. Williams—listen to the word of Jesus Christ, your Lord and your Redeemer. Thou hast desired of me to know which would be the most worth unto you. Behold, blessed art thou for this thing. Now I say unto you—my servant Joseph Smith Jr. is called to do a great work and hath need that he may do the work of translation for the salvation of souls. Verily, verily, I say unto you, thou art called to be a counselor and scribe unto my servant Joseph. Let thy farm be consecrated for bringing forth of the revelations, and thou shalt be blessed and lifted up at the last day. Even so. Amen.

Notes

[1] JSP, D2:204.

[2] JSP, J1:10; see also Robin Scott Jensen, “Jesse Gause: Counselor to the Prophet,” in Revelations in Context: The Stories Behind the Sections in the Doctrine and Covenants, ed. Matthew McBride and James Goldberg (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2016), 155–56. For a more detailed account of the life of Jesse Gause, see Erin B. Jennings, “The Consequential Counselor: Restoring the Root[s] of Jesse Gause,” Journal of Mormon History 34, no. 2 (Spring 2008): 182–227.

[3] Lyndon W. Cook, The Revelations of the Prophet Joseph Smith: A Historical and Biographical Commentary of the Doctrine and Covenants (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1985), 104.

[4] JSP, D2:207–8; compare Steven C. Harper, Making Sense of the Doctrine and Covenants: A Guided Tour Through Modern Revelations (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2008), 287.