Saturday, July 15, 2023

Joseph F. Smith: Many Revelations Have not been Inscripturated

  

Mr. TAYLER. The revelation which Wilford Woodruff received, in consequence of which the command to take plural wives was suspended, did not, as you understand it, change the divine view of plural marriages, did it?

 

Mr. SMITH. It did not change our belief at all.

 

Mr. TAYLER. It did not change your belief at all?

 

Mr. SMITH. Not at all, sir.

 

Mr. TAYLER. You continued to believe that plural marriages were right?

 

Mr. SMITH. We do. I do, at least. I do not answer for anybody else. I continue to believe as I did before.

 

Mr. TAYLER. You stated what were the standard inspired works of the church, and we find in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants the revelation made to Joseph Smith in 1843 respecting plural marriages. Where do we find the revelation suspending the operation of that command?

 

Mr. SMITH. Printed in our public works.

 

Mr. TAYLER. Printed in your public works?

 

Mr. SMITH. Printed in pamphlet form. You have a pamphlet of it right there.

 

Mr. TAYLER. IT is not printed in your work of Doctrine and Covenants?

 

Mr. SMITH. No, sir; not a great many other revelations either.

 

My TAYLER. Not a great many other revelations?

 

Mr. SMITH. Yes, sir.

 

Mr. TAYLER. How many revelations do you suppose—

 

Mr. SMITH. I could not tell you how many.

 

Mr. TAYLER. But a great many?

 

Mr. SMITH. A great many.

 

Mr. TAYLER. Why have they not been printed in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants?

 

Mr. SMITH. Because it has not been deemed necessary to publish or printed them. (Proceedings Before the Committee on Privileges and Elections of the United States Senate in the Matter of the Protests Against the Right of Hon. Reed Smoot, a Senator from the State of Utah, to Hold His Seat, 4 vols. [Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1906), 1:107)