Evidence Fifty-Seven:
The Most Important Truths of the Universe Entrusted to a Lad–Along With the Charge to Disseminate Them to the World and He Pulled It Off©
Recently I quoted Neal A. Maxwell about a youthful blind spot–an “experience gap.” (See “Living Philosophies” blog “Apostolic Counsel to the Young: Understand the "Experience Gap,” 2 September 2018.) But that is not the whole story, as most youth are almost universally aware. Elsewhere in his writings, Elder Maxwell writes about the other side of the newly minted coin. He observes the “frequency in history with which the young have done so much, so ably, so well, so soon,” and cites Benjamin Disraeli’s generalization that “Almost everything that is great has been done by youth.” Elder Maxwell continues:
While the lack of previous experience handicaps youth, previous experience can also hold hostage those who are older, preventing us from having or appreciating fresh experiences that could help us to restructure more correctly our understanding of the nature of the world and of life.(1)
Elder Maxwell cites the exquisite example of the youthful Joseph Smith. It is not uncommon for Church leaders to speak of young Joseph’s amazing spiritual contributions and ever expanding impact on the religious world. But, the insights which Elder Maxwell draws from Joseph’s earliest spiritual experiences–the First Vision and the recovery of the plates of the Book of Mormon–are at once thought provoking, articulate, and most importantly, they are evidentiary of Joseph's prophetic calling. Elder Maxwell wrote:
God gave to mankind through a young man, Joseph Smith, the ultimate and immense truths of the gospel in this, the last dispensation. This young man who had no social status to protect, no private theology already worked out for God to endorse, and who had loving and listening parents, could report that theophany honestly and cling tenaciously to the truth of that first vision in the midst of great persecution. A sophisticated man who had community status to protect and his own ideas about what kind of religion the world needed–even though a good man–would have been sorely tempted to have traded off truth for the praise of the world. Paul reminded us that "the friendship of the world is enmity with God. . . ." (James 4:4.) Could any but a humble non-linguist have gone to the Hill Cumorah and, under the direction of an angel, be shown ancient records and be told, so boldly, that he, personally, would be the unlettered instrument in translating these for the benefit of all mankind, and still have believed all that–and helped such a marvel come to pass without wanting somehow to possess the plates rather than share their wisdom or to add his own mortal touches and flourishes to the manuscript?
In relation to his calling, Joseph Smith no doubt stood much like Enoch and Moses: overwhelmed that he had been chosen, but, nevertheless, humbly determined to do just what was asked of him. To the humble, the simpleness and the easiness of the way are glad realities; to the crowded, ego-filled minds of proud men, the sudden sunlight from a spiritual sunrise is irritating rather than awesome, and causes them to blink rather than to stare in reverent awe.(2)
The insight that the most important truths in the universe were entrusted to a 14-17-year-old New York farm boy with the responsibility to get them published and disseminated world-wide–along with acquiring the necessary economic resources, creating an organization, and initiating a long-term missionary effort implied by that initial responsibility to pull it off–boggles the thoughtful mind. That he accomplished that and so much, much more in the quarter century to follow, borders on the incredible. I freely admit that I “stare in reverent awe.” Thank you Elder Maxwell!
Let’s think together again, soon.
Notes:
1. Neal A. Maxwell, That My Family Should Partake, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1974, 81-2.
2. Ibid, 82.
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