Instantly Healed

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While serving a mission to the Sandwich from 1887-1889, Elder Albert Wesley Davis observed an immediate healing after what happened?

a.                  Another Elder’s child drank poison

b.                  The mission president drank poison

c.                   The Hawaiian Queen drank poison

d.                  The Prophet of the Church drank poison

Yesterday’s answer:

B   Parley P. Pratt replacing Samuel Brannan as the editor of The Prophet

While acting as editor in chief [of New York City’s LDS newspaper, The Prophet], Brannan [Samuel] also presided over the LDS branch in New York City, as authorized by William Smith. Without authorization, Brannan interviewed local Church leaders in the state of New York and visited LDS branches in Boston, Lowell, Petersboro, Salem, and New Bedford, Massachusetts. During his visits to these LDS branches and others, Brannan touted himself as the presiding authority in the eastern states and referred to his visits as “missions.” Because Brannan was often away from the Spruce Street office on mission affairs, he asked subscribers for their prayers in his behalf. After months of fulfilling unauthorized administrative duties in LDS branches throughout the eastern states, Brannan learned that “charges have been preferred against me [in Nauvoo], and the testimony has been deemed sufficient by the Presidency of the church, for my excommunication.” Over the signatures of Brigham Young and Willard Richards, Brannon was “disfellowshipped and cut off” for conduct that was a disgrace “in the eyes of justice and virtue.” The charges against Brannan went beyond overreaching his stewardship. As Young and Richards saw the situation, Brannan, “under the sacred garb of religion, [had] been practising the most disgraceful and diabolical conduct.”

A clue to Brannan’s misconduct is contained in a July 18, 1844, Orson Hyde letter: “Strange doctrines have been taught and practiced in Boston and elsewhere by men claiming higher authority than the Twelve.” One such “strange doctrine” was spiritual wifery.” Parley P. Pratt denounced this doctrine “as foreign from the real principles of the church as the devil is from God, or as sectarianism is from Christianity. . . . It is but another name for whoredom, wicked and unlawful connection, and every kind of confusion, corruption, and abomination.” Reacting to the charge of “conduct that was a disgrace,” Brannan printed in the The Prophet, “The blow is truly a severe one, but I feel to bear it patiently, and even more if it is required. If I have deviated from the path of rectitude—violated the commandments of God, or been the means of bringing a reproach upon his cause, I look upon myself as being bound to make restitution for the same.” He confessed, “It has ever been during my ministry in the church, my desire to do the will of my God, and heavenly Father. . . . On to-morrow I shall start for Nauvoo, there to meet my accusers face to face, and abide the decision of the council of God.” The confession of Brannan was more of an expression than a fact, for he tarried in the East.

Meanwhile, on November 30, 1844, Parley P. Pratt was “appointed by the spirt of the living God through his brethren of the quorum of the Twelve to take charge and presidency of all the churches in the eastern cities.” In a letter addressed to Latter-day Saints residing in the East, Brigham Young announced Pratt’s appointment to preside over “Matters in temporal and spiritual things to take charge of the printing and emigrating business in the city of New York, to advise, to counsel and direct the labours of all the officers of the church, and in fine to set all things in proper order in the eastern countries pertaining to the church.”

Although subscribers anticipated The Prophet would be “more interesting, being fed occasionally with valuable productions” from the pen of Parley P. Pratt, not all were willing to accept his appointment as editor in chief or the sanctions pronounced against Brannan. When a protest was held in Newark, New Jersey, Pratt declared the protest as “uncalled for, and entirely out of order.” To appease protestors, however, Pratt met with Brannan to discuss his presumption of administrative duties and the issue of misconduct. After their meeting, Pratt informed Church leaders in Nauvoo that Brannan has “aimed to do right of late, and had manifested a humble and willing obedience to my advice and council. . . . He is about to repair to the west, on this and other business, and we feel confident that full satisfaction will be given, and confidence will be restored, in which case we hope he will speedily return to this place and assist us in the office [of The Prophet].

The Prophet, The Latter-day Saint Experience in the East, 1844-1845, Susan Easton Black (BYU Studies, Vol. 53, Number 2, 2014), 146-148.