What stood out while reading this today was the use of the Book of Mormon Eucharistic Prayers as opposed to the use of extemporaneous prayers in 1872/73 (see the article under “further reading” for more on this):
Different speakers, all men,
shared the services among them; but I could not see whether President Young
arranged who should speak, or whether one of the bishops, who seemed to invite
each orator to address the meeting, did so of his own accord.
. . .
I wish that I had taken notes of
[Elder William C. Potto’s] sermon. It turned chiefly upon the duties of
children to parents. IT was replete with familiar illustration,--often colloquial,
and never wandering from the precepts he designed to teach,--but belonged to
the class of discourses it is hard to report. He closed by a curious account of
his own spiritual conversion. It began like a Methodist “experience”—became psychological:
afterwards touched on the miraculous. A Mormon is never inconvenienced by his
story turning on a miracle. Other speakers followed more briefly. When one of
them was under full headway, he paused abruptly—as if he had been ordered to do
so—and the read was blessed in the following words, which I found afterwards
were taken from the “Book of Mormon, fourth chapter of Moroni”:
“Of God, the Eternal Father, we ask
Thee, in the name of Thy Son Jesus Christ to bless and sanctify this bread to
the souls of all who may partake of it, that they may eat it in remembrance of
the body of Thy Son and witness unto Thee, Oh God the Eternal Father, that they
are willing to take upon them the name of Thy Son, and always remember Him, and
keep His commandments which He hath given them, that they may always have His
Spirit to be with them. Amen.”
The bread, already in slices, was
then broken and handed to every one, children included. This occupied a long
time, but the speaker resumed his address. Then the water was blessed, thus:
“Oh God, the Eternal Father, we
ask Thee, in the name of Thy Son Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this water
to the souls of all who drink of it, that they may do it in remembrance of the
blood of Thy Son, which was shed for them, that they may witness unto Thee, Oh
God the Eternal Father, that they do always remember Him, that they may have
His Spirit to be with them. Amen!”
While the water was being handed
round, another hymn was sung; one of a set of beautiful fugues of which the
Mormons are particularly fond. Then the services were concluded with a
blessing, and the congregation dispersed, interchanging greetings at the door. (Elizabeth
Wood Kane, Twelve Mormon Homes Visited in Succession on a Journey Through Utah
to Arizona, ed. Everett L. Cooley [Philadelphia: William Wood,
1874], 48, 49-50, comment in square brackets added for clarification)
Further Reading:
Lowell C. “Ben” Bennion and Thomas R. Carter, “Touring
Polygamous Utah with Elizabeth W. Kane, Winter 1872-1873,” BYU Studies 48,
no. 4 (2009): 159-92.
David W. Grua and Jonathan A. Stapley, “The
Letter and the Spirit: The Lord’s Supper and Set Forms in Two Restoration
Churches,” The John Whitmer Historical Association Journal 43, no. 1
(Spring/Summer 2023): 107-36.
