The Work and the Glory (2 page)
Book Nine: The Work and the Glory - All Is Well
The Work and the Glory - All Is Well
Characters of Note in This Book
Key to Abbreviations Used in Chapter Notes
Book One: The Work and the Glory - Pillar of Light
The Work and the Glory - Pillar of Light
© 1990 Gerald N. Lund and Kenneth Ingalls Moe
Text illustrations by Robert T. Barrett
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher, Deseret Book Company, P. O. Box 30178, Salt Lake City, Utah 84130. This work is not an official publication of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The views expressed herein are the responsibility of the author and do not necessarily represent the position of the Church or of Deseret Book Company.
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First printing in hardbound 1990
First printing in trade paperbound 2000
First printing in paperbound 2004
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Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 90-83215
ISBN 0-88494-777-X (hardbound)
ISBN 1-57345-870-8 (trade paperbound)
ISBN 1-59038-363-X (paperbound)
Printed in the United States of America
Bang Printing, Brainerd, MN
10 9 8 7 6 5 4
Main Street, Palmyra Village
Preface
While Caesar Augustus strutted briefly across the stage of history, thinking that it was somehow he who ruled the world, a humble carpenter named Joseph from Nazareth and a virgin named Mary made their way to a quiet village nestled in the limestone hills of Judea. No royal trumpeters heralded the event which followed. There were no purple robes or crown jewels, no messengers sent racing through the night to announce the coming of the King of kings. Shepherds were told of the Lord’s advent, as were the Magi from the East, but for the most part the world slumbered on, oblivious to the fact that on this night the whole of all eternity was being changed.
In similar fashion, eighteen centuries later, events that would leave the world forever altered began to quietly unfold, unnoticed by the millions across the world who toiled on or slept. After all, what was there to note? A young boy, living in an obscure township in upstate New York, simply walked into a grove of trees. But in that grove, soon to be called sacred, God the Father appeared with his Beloved Son.
Latter-day Saints believe this event constituted the opening of the times which would prepare the world for the return of the Savior. It began in the spring of 1820. Soon would follow a succession of heavenly messengers and revelations. But for all its significance, this new age was not launched with pomp and governmental splendor. It began simply, with a young boy, not yet fifteen years of age, who walked across the fields next to his house hoping to find out which of all the churches was right.
Pillar of Light
(volume 1 of
The Work and the Glory)
tells the story of the Restoration; but it does more than that. Hundreds of carefully researched and well-written books tell the history of the Church.
Pillar of Light
sets about to tell another story.
In Judea, shepherds were the first to know of the birth of the Savior—not the rich, not the famous, not the great to whom the world paid homage, just simple shepherds. In America, the Restoration followed a similar pattern. The story was first told in one-room cabins and along country roads, not in presidential palaces or the halls of Congress. It was farmers and their frontier wives who first heard of Joseph’s vision and picked up the challenge to accept it and carry its message forth to the world.
How did these simple, honest people react? What did they think? How did they feel? The answers to these questions are not easy. Joseph Smith was like a great stone in a river, splitting the waters that come against it. Some who came in contact with him burned with testimony, others burned with fury. Some were so moved that they forsook all—families, farms, and, in some cases, their lives. Others were so moved to scorn and hatred that in some instances they resorted to murder. It is this story—the story of individuals and families pushed up against a man and his claims to heavenly revelation—that this novel tells.
Many modern Latter-day Saints are second- and third- and, in some cases, sixth- and seventh-generation Mormons. Belief in the Restoration is as natural to them as speaking their native language. But many have quietly wondered, “If I had been living back then, how would I have reacted? What would I have done? Would I have believed?”
Pillar of Light
is an attempt to help them explore those questions in their hearts.
And there are many non-Mormons who wonder at us. They know little more than that Mormons once practiced plural marriage and that we engender considerable animosity from some of the mainstream Christian churches of the day. What is it that Latter-day Saints believe? Why do they hold Joseph Smith in such high esteem? Are they Christian or not? Why do they speak of prophets and Apostles and continuing revelation?
Pillar of Light
is an attempt to answer those questions without seeking to proselyte or defend. It simply tells the story from the point of view of one who believes Joseph Smith was all that he claimed to be.
Pillar of Light
is a fictional work. The medium of fiction was chosen so that the personal dimension—the individual impact of the Restoration on people—could be explored. But in another sense, it is
not
fictional. It tells, as accurately as possible, the story of Joseph Smith and the rise of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
This dual nature of the work has presented some interesting challenges in the writing process. The Steed family is completely fictional, though they are patterned after real people of those times. In the novel they intermingle and interact with real people and are placed in real events, and the reader may thus wonder from time to time, How much is historical and how much is fictional? Without burdening the book down with innumerable footnotes, that is not an easy question to answer. But perhaps the following explanation will be helpful.
As far as the people in the novel are concerned, the character description sheet (pages xiii-xiv) indicates which are fictional characters and which are not. When it comes to the events, every effort has been made to portray the historical setting and circumstances as accurately as possible. Sometimes fictional license had to be used, not to change events, but to have the fictional family participate in those events. Furthermore, sometimes there is simply not enough detail given in the historical sources to sustain the story line of a novel. Here some embellishment was required, but again, maintaining harmony with the historical records has been a compelling concern.
An example may help to illustrate how these problems were dealt with: In his description of the events surrounding the organization of the Church on 6 April 1830, Joseph Smith gave considerable detail about what took place in the Peter Whitmer cabin. We know he and Oliver presided and that Joseph conducted. The sacrament was passed, and there was a baptismal service afterwards at which Joseph’s parents, Martin Harris, and others were baptized. As much as possible, the novel follows those events exactly as Joseph described them. Obviously, having the Steeds present to participate in those events is an example of literary license. Also, when it came to actually describing who offered the sacramental prayers, Joseph gave no information. To skip that detail in the novel would have broken the flow of the narration. Since Joseph and Oliver were presiding at the meeting, it seemed the best guess that they offered the prayers.
No list of sources used in writing the novel is provided herein. For those who wish to read more on the history of the Church, I recommend
Church History in the
Fulness
of Times,
prepared by the Church Educational System of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and available at LDS distribution centers or LDS bookstores. It is a highly readable and well-researched one-volume history of the Church, and has more than adequate bibliographic references for those who wish a more in-depth study.
Pillar of Light
is the first volume in a series titled
The Work and the
Glory. In future volumes readers will follow the Steed family as the Church moves to Ohio and Missouri, as they are driven to Illinois and eventually to the Rocky Mountains. Zion’s Camp, the Kirtland apostasy, the horrors of the Missouri persecutions, and the move to Nauvoo will all have a continuing impact on the family. New generations of Steeds will face the exodus across the plains to the Great Basin, the colonization period, and the plural marriage years. Benjamin and Mary Ann’s grandchildren and great-grandchildren will continue right up to the last decade of the twentieth century, entering a new era for the Church and facing new challenges as Latter-day Saints.
Today over seven million Latter-day Saints are found throughout the world. Each has to decide for himself how he will respond to the legacy of Joseph Smith that is part of Church membership. Each year an army of some forty thousand missionaries in nearly a hundred countries tells and retells the story of Joseph Smith to hundreds of thousands of nonmembers.
Pillar of Light
begins the story of the Steed family, who—through a chance decision to move to Palmyra, New York, in the fall of 1826—encounter Joseph Smith and the events of the Restoration. While the Steeds are fictional, the choices they faced, the emotions and conflicts generated by that encounter with Joseph are not fictional—not for them, and not for their children and their children’s children.
In the spring of 1820, Joseph Smith went into a grove of trees and emerged bearing witness that he had seen, in a pillar of light, the Father and the Son. To everyone who hears that story, whether at mother’s knee or sitting across the table from two young men with short haircuts and missionary name tags, the question is essentially the same as that faced by the Steeds in 1827:
What will be my response to Joseph Smith and his story of a pillar of light?