A Death Bed Request

Abraham O. Smoot

In his journal, A. O. Smoot tells of giving a final blessing to a non-member living with the Saints in Winter Quarters. The man was on the verge of death, but had a request before he died. What was that request?

a.      A bowl of porridge, as he did not want to go to the grave hungry

b.      Baptism

c.       That his Will be read

d.      That he have his favorite verse read from the Book of Mormon

Yesterday’s answer:

a.      Both a and b

Doctrine and Covenants, Section 124:128. On 28 March 1835 it is true that the Quorum of the Twelve was designated as being equal in authority to the First Presidency, but in the same revelation it was stated that the other body of the hierarchy, the First Quorum of Seventy, also was equal in authority with the Twelve, and that the combined stake high councils (in 1835, there were only two) were also equal to the Quorum of the Twelve (see Doctrine and Covenants, Section 107:23-26, 36). Although this 1835 revelation ranked the Twelve next to the First Presidency, its functions were still limited as above stated, and its decisions could be negated by the vote of two lesser bodies. Therefore, 1835 is not the period in which the Quorum of the Twelve gained its ascendancy [this would not happen until the summer of 1841].

Journal of Mormon History, D. Michael Quinn, The Evolution of the Presiding Quorums of the LDS Church, Vol.1 1974, note 29.