History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Volume 1Smith, Joseph, Jr.
Religion
History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Volume 1
Smith, Joseph, Jr.
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Smith, Joseph, Jr., 1805-1844
2. Orson Pratt was born September 19, 1811, in Hartford, Washington
county, New York. His ancestors are enumerated in the biographical note
of his brother, Parley P. Pratt, pp. 118, 119. The humble circumstances
of his parents compelled him to seek employment where he could obtain
it in various places, mainly at farming, during which time, however, he
managed to get some schooling, paying especial attention to arithmetic,
and gaining an acquaintance also with bookkeeping, grammar, geography
and surveying. The early lessons of morality and religion taught at his
father's home made deep impressions on his youthful mind, and led him
in the autumn of 1829, particularly to seek the Lord. For this purpose
he retired frequently to the lonely fields or the woods for prayer.
This continued till September, 1830, when his brother Parley P. Pratt,
an Elder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, came into
the neighborhood where he resided, and as related in the text was
converted at the first preaching of his brother Parley P. Pratt.
3. Doctrine and Covenants, section 34.
4. Edward Partridge was born in Pittsfield, Berkshire county,
Massachusetts, on the 27th of August, 1793, of William and Jemima
Partridge. His father's ancestor emigrated from Berwick, Scotland,
during the seventeenth century, and settled at Hadley, Massachusetts,
on Connecticut river. Nothing worthy of note transpired in his youth,
with the exception, that he remembered, (though the precise time he
could not recollect) that the Spirit of the Lord strove with him a
number of times, insomuch that his heart was made tender, and he went
and wept; and sometimes he went silently and poured the effusions of
his soul to God in prayer.
At the age of sixteen he went to learn the hatter's trade, and
continued as an apprentice for about four years. At the age of twenty
he had become disgusted with the religious world. He saw no beauty,
comeliness, or loveliness in the character of God as represented by the
teaching of the various religious sects. He however heard a Universal
Restorationer preach upon the love of God: this sermon gave him exalted
opinions of God, and he concluded that Universal Restoration was
right according to the Bible. He continued in this belief till 1828,
when he and his wife were baptized into the "Campbellite" church by
Sidney Rigdon, in Mentor, though they resided in Painesville, Ohio. He
continued a member of this church, though doubting at times its being
the true one, until Elders Parley P. Pratt, Oliver Cowdery, Peter
Whitmer, Jun., and Ziba Peterson came with the Book of Mormon, when he
began to investigate the subject of religion anew. As stated in the
text he accompanied Sidney Rigdon to Fayette, New York, where, on the
11th of December, he was baptized by the Prophet Joseph Smith in the
Seneca river.
5. Doctrine and Covenants, sec. 35.
6. Doctrine and Covenants, sec. 36.
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