PROVO, UTAH
Through Joseph Smith's experience in what has been referred to by some of the early brethren as the "prison-temple" of Liberty Jail, valuable lessons can be learned, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve told young adults in a Church Educational System fireside Sunday, Sept. 7.
With his address from the BYU Marriott Center available in many parts of the world by satellite broadcast and on the Internet, Elder Holland told listeners those lessons can help them with their own challenges.
After recounting the historical events leading up to and including the incarceration of the Prophet and several of his brethren in Liberty Jail, Elder Holland said, "So in what sense could Liberty Jail be called a 'temple' — or at least a kind of a temple — in the development of Joseph Smith personally and in his role as a prophet? And what does such a title tell us about God's love and teachings, including where and when that love and those teachings are made manifest?
"As we think on these things does it strike us that spiritual experience, revelatory experience, sacred experience can come to everyone of us in all the many and varied stages and circumstances of our lives if we want it, if we hold on and pray on, if we keep our faith strong through our difficulties?"
His message, he said, was that "you can have sacred, revelatory, profoundly instructive experience with the Lord in the most miserable experiences of your life — in the worst settings, while enduring the most painful injustices, when facing the most insurmountable odds and opposition you have ever faced."
Then he stated, "Everyone of us, in one way or another, great or small, dramatic or incidental, are going to spend a little time in Liberty Jail — spiritually speaking."
For whatever reason and no matter how unfair they are, difficult experiences will be faced, he said, adding that the lessons coming out of the 1838-39 Liberty Jail events "teach us that man's extremity is God's opportunity, and if we will be humble and faithful, if we will be believing and not curse God for our problems, He can turn the unfair and the inhumane and debilitating prisons of our life into temples — or at least into a circumstance that can bring comfort and revelation, divine companionship and peace."
Blessings that came from Liberty Jail include the revelations received by Joseph Smith that are now Doctrine and Covenants 121-123. As their "classroom assignment," Elder Holland challenged the congregation to read those sections. "I will be checking on your homework," he said with a smile.
He then discussed three lessons from Liberty Jail.
• The first, he said, "is that everyone, including (and perhaps especially) the righteous, will be called upon to face trying times."
At those times, he continued, individuals may identify with Joseph Smith who cried out in Liberty Jail: "O God, where art thou?" (Doctrine and Covenants 121:1.)
Elder Holland said, "Whenever these moments of our extremity come, we must not succumb to the fear that God has abandoned us. ... We must continue to believe, continue to have faith, continue to pray and plead with heaven even if we feel for a time our prayers are not heard and that God has somehow gone away. He is there. Our prayers are heard, and when we weep, He and the angels of heaven weep with us. ...
"When suffering, we may in fact be nearer to God than we have ever been in our entire lives. That knowledge can turn every such situation into a would-be temple."
• The second lesson, according to Elder Holland, is that we are not alone in going through trials. The Savior Himself, though perfect, suffered trials that enable Him to deliver others from theirs.
"We need to realize that just because difficult things happen — sometimes unfair and seemingly unjustified things — it does not mean that we are unrighteous or that we are unworthy of blessings or that God is disappointed in us," Elder Holland said. "Of course sinfulness does bring suffering and the only answer to that behavior is repentance. But sometimes suffering comes to the righteous, too."
The Savior, Elder Holland pointed out, acknowledged the trials the Prophet was going through while in Liberty Jail, but He said, "The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?" (Doctrine and Covenants 122:8.)
Elder Holland answered, "No. Joseph was not greater than the Savior and neither are we. And when we promise to follow the Savior, to walk in His footsteps and be His disciples, we are promising to go where that divine path leads us. And the path of salvation has always led one way or another through Gethsemane."
Through the Atonement, the Savior "experienced all of the heartache and sorrow, all of the disappointments and injustices that the entire family of man has experienced from Adam and Eve to the end of the world in order that we would not have to face them so severely or so deeply," Elder Holland said.
• The third lesson of Liberty Jail, he said, is that in times of difficult feelings, "the Lord reminds us from the Liberty Jail prison-temple that 'the rights of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven, and that the powers of heaven cannot be controlled nor handled only (or "except") upon the principles of righteousness."' (Doctrine and Covenants 121:36.)
We learn from the Savior and His prophets, Elder Holland said, "that the real test of our faith and our Christian discipleship is when things are not going smoothly. That is when we get to see what we are made of and how strong our commitment to the gospel really is."
Counseling further, Elder Holland referred to Doctrine and Covenants 123:17, written during cold, lonely hours in jail, and then stated, "Joseph says, let us do all we can do and do it cheerfully. Then we can justifiably turn to the Lord, wait upon His mercy, and see His arm revealed in our behalf. What a magnificent attitude to maintain in good times or bad, in sorrow or joy."
After leaving a blessing on the congregation, Elder Holland concluded saying, "I testify that bad days come to an end, that faith always triumphs and that heavenly promises are always kept."
E-mail to: ghill@desnews.com
