A Young Folks History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints | Page 3

Lord sent to prepare the land for the
planting, were all those great and good men whom you have read about
in your American history: Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, and many
others. You will remember how these men loved right and liberty, and
how they worked so hard for it; and in reading the history of these men
we can plainly see that the Lord was with them and helped them. These
men built the high wall, which means that they made just laws that
would protect the people and let them worship God in any way they
thought right.
Thus was the way prepared for the gospel to be restored again to the
earth; and the Lord himself came from heaven, also his servants
Moroni, Peter, James, and John to bring the glad tidings to all who live
on the earth.
Then the Lord called some more servants to preach the gospel to the
world and build up his Church. The first and greatest of these servants
is known by the name of Joseph Smith, the Prophet. How the Lord
called him to this great work and delivered to him the gospel will be
told you in the next chapter.
Topics.--1. The Parable. 2. Explanation.
Questions and Review.--1. Name some of Christ's first disciples. 2: Tell

how some of them were killed. 3. How long was the world without the
gospel? 4. Tell how Columbus discovered America. 5. Who were the
Pilgrims? 6. What was the Revolutionary war about? 7. What is the
Constitution of the United States? 8. Find out what it says about
religious liberty. 9. Why is America the "Land of liberty?"
CHAPTER II.
THE FIRST VISION.
At the time when Thomas Jefferson was president of the United States,
there was born among the Green Mountains of Vermont a boy who was
to become the great prophet of the last days. The hills and valleys of
Vermont look beautiful in the summer, but at the time here spoken of
they were no doubt covered with snow, for it was the 23rd of December,
1805, in the town of Sharon, Windsor county, that Joseph Smith first
saw the light of the world.
Joseph was named after his father, whose name was Joseph. His
mother's maiden name was Lucy Mack. Joseph had five brothers and
three sisters whose names were Alvin, Hyrum, (then Joseph), Samuel,
William, Don Carlos, Sophronia, Catherine and Lucy; so you see that
there was a large family for the father and mother to take care of.
Joseph's parents were poor and had to work hard for a living, so when
the boys were old enough they had to help on the farm; this they
willingly, did. For this reason Joseph did not go to school much, but he
learned to read, to write fairly well, and to work some examples in
arithmetic. Though Joseph did not get much of an education at school,
yet he was a great student; and then God became his teacher, so that
before he died, as you will see, he became one of the most learned men
in the world.
When Joseph was ten years old they all moved from Vermont to
Palmyra, in the western part of the state of New York. Four years later
they moved again to the small town of Manchester, in Ontario, now
Wayne County, New York.
While the family was living at Manchester there arose a great religious

excitement all through the country. The different religious sects held
many meetings and tried to get people to join them. Joseph was now in
his fifteenth year and he also became interested, as his parents had
always taught him to believe in God and the Bible. Joseph thought he
would like to join the true church of Christ, but what troubled him was
to know which of all these sects was the true church. He could see that
all of them could not be true, as God surely would not have a great
many churches, one striving against the other; also, no doubt, he had
read in the Bible that there was but "one Lord, one faith, one baptism,"
etc., which the Lord accepted. Joseph went first to one meeting, then to
another. His mother and some of his brothers and sisters had joined the
Presbyterians, but Joseph could not make up his mind what to do.
But there is a way by which anyone may find out which is the true
church and therefore which to join, and every boy and girl that reads
this book should remember it. It is this: Ask God. Joseph did not know
this until one day while reading in his Testament he came to the fifth
verse in the first chapter of James, which reads as follows:
"If any of you