Friday, March 27, 2020

Eliza R. Snow's Poem on the Occasion of David Hyrum Smith's Birth


The following is a poem written by Eliza R. Snow on the occasion of the birth of David Hyrum Smith, the last child of Joseph and Emma Smith. It is of importance, theologically, as it explicitly teaches that “little children are whole” (to borrow from Moroni 8:8):

Sinless as celestial spirits
               Lovely as a morning flow'r,
Comes the smiling infant stranger
               In an evil-omen'd hour.
In an hour of lamentation --
               In a time -- a season when
Zion's noblest sons are fallen,
               By the hands of wicked men.
In an hour when peace and safety
               Have the civil banner fled
In a day when legal justice
               Covers its dishonor'd head.
In an age when saints must suffer
               Without mercy or redress;
Comes to meet a generation
               That has made it fatherless.
Not to share a father's fondness
               Not to know its father's worth --
By the arm of persecution
'Tis atroke of thy bereavement,
               Zion's pathway seem'd to cross!
Till in childhood thou had'st known him,
               Had the age, thy father spar'd;
The endearment of remembrance,
               Though thy life time thou had'st shar'd.
Thou may'st draw from love and kindness
               All a mother can bestow;
But alas! on earth, a father
               Thou art destin'd not to know!
Nauvoo, Nov. 24th, 1844. (Eliza R. Snow, "Lines written on the birth of an infant son of Mrs. Emma, widow of the late General Joseph Smith," Times and Seasons 5, vo. 22 [December 1, 1844]:735)

This flies in the face of many false theologies, including Reformed theology and the “T” of TULIP (Total Depravity). For an exegesis of common “proof-texts” for this doctrine as well as the other tenets of such a blasphemous theology, see:


Response to a Recent Attempt to Defend Imputed Righteousness