(Continued from last week…)

The Lord, Jesus Christ continued to show Himself to the early Saints of this dispensation, and even God the Father participated, revealing Himself as well.

MARY ELIZABETH ROLLINS
One evening in the early summer of 1831, Mary Elizabeth Rollins, a 12-year-old girl, visited the Prophet’s home in Kirtland with her mother to learn more about the Book of Mormon. Other friends and relatives had also gathered there, and when the Prophet came into the room he suggested they hold a meeting. The 12-year-old girl recalled:

“After prayer and singing, Joseph began talking. He began very solemnly and very earnestly. Suddenly he stopped and seemed, almost transfixed, he was looking ahead and his face outshone the candle which was on a shelf just behind him. I thought I could almost see his cheekbones. He looked as though a searchlight was inside his face and shining through every pore. I could not take my eyes from his face.

“After a short time he looked at us very solemnly, and said, ‘Brothers and Sisters, do you know who has been in your midst this night?’ One of the Smith family said: ‘An angel of the Lord.’

“Joseph did not answer. Martin Harris was sitting at the Prophet’s feet on a box, he slid to his knees, clasped his arms around the Prophet’s knees and said, ‘I know, it was our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.’ Joseph put his hand on Martin’s head and answered, ‘Martin, God revealed that to you. Brothers and sisters, the Savior has been in your midst, I want you to remember it. He cast a veil over your eyes for you could not endure to look upon Him. You must be fed with milk and not meat. I want you to remember this as if it were the last thing that escapes my lips’” (Diary of Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner, unpublished manuscript, pp. 2-4., found in Ensign, August, 1975, p. 18).

JOHN MURDOCK
“During the winter of 1833 we had a number of prayer meetings in the Prophet’s chamber. In one of those meetings the prophet told us, if we could humble ourselves before God, and exercise strong faith, we should see the face of the Lord. And about midday, the visions of my mind were opened, and the eyes of my understanding were enlightened, and I saw the form of a man, most lovely! The visage of his face was sound and fair as the sun. His hair, a bright silver grey, curled in most majestic form, His eyes, a keen penetrating blue, and the skin of his neck a most beautiful white, and He was covered from neck to the feet with a loose garment, pure white, whiter than any garment I have ever before seen. His countenance was most penetrating, and yet most lovely! And while I was endeavoring to comprehend the whole personage, from head to feet, it slipped from me, and the Vision was closed up. But it left on my mind the impression of love, for months, that I never before felt, to that degree” (An abridged Record of the Life of John Murdock, p. 23, Church Archives).

ZEBEDEE COLTRIN
Zebedee reported that in the School of the Prophets, “after fasting and prayer, [the Prophet] Joseph told us that we should see the glory of God, and I saw a personage passing through the room as plainly as I see you now. Joseph asked us if we knew who it was, and answered himself: ‘That is Jesus our elder Brother, the Son of God.’ Again I saw passing through the same room a personage whose glory and brightness was so great that I can liken it to nothing but the burning bush that Moses saw, and its power was so great that had it continued much longer, I believe it would have consumed us” (Remembering Joseph, p. 187)

Elaborating further on his experience of seeing God the Father, Zebedee said: “[He] was surrounded as with a flame of fire, which was so brilliant that I could not discover anything else but His person. I saw His hands, His legs, his feet, his eyes, nose, mouth, head and body in the shape and form of a perfect man….This appearance was so grand and overwhelming that it seemed I should melt down in His presence, and the sensation was so powerful that it thrilled through my whole system and I felt it in the marrow of my bones” (Joseph Smith’s Kirtland, p. 110).

(to be continued…)