D&C 3 - The Loss of the 116 Pages

D&C 3:9

Because of transgression, if thou art not aware thou wilt fall. When Martin informed Joseph that he had lost the manuscript, Lucy Mack Smith said that Joseph clinched his hands together and exclaimed:

“‘All is lost, is lost! What shall I do? I have sinned. It is I who tempted the wrath of God by asking him for that which I had no right to ask, as I was differently instructed by the angel.’ And he wept and groaned, walking the floor continually.

“At last he told Martin to go back to his house and search again. ‘No,’ said Mr. Harris, ‘it is all in vain, for I have looked in every place in the house. I have even ripped open beds and pillows, and I know it is not there.’

“‘Then must I,’ said Joseph, ‘return to my wife with such a tale as this? I dare not do it lest I should kill her at once.’

[Keep in mind that during this 2 week time period Joseph and Emma had had their first child, a son named after Alvin, die. Only those who have lost a child can know how he felt.]

“‘And how shall I appear before the Lord? Of what rebuke am I not worthy from the angel of the Most High?’

“I besought him not to mourn so, for it might be that the Lord would forgive him, after a short season of humiliation and repentance on his part. But what could I say to comfort him, when he saw all the family in the same situation of mind that he was? Our sobs and groans, and the most bitter lamentations filled the house. Joseph, in particular, was more distressed than the rest, for he knew definitely and by sorrowful experience the consequence of what would seem to others to be a very trifling neglect of duty. He continued walking backwards and forwards, weeping and grieving like a tender infant until about sunset, when we persuaded him to take a little nourishment.” (History of Joseph Smith by His Mother, 1996, 165-66.)

D&C 3:12-14

“After I arrived here, I commenced humbling myself in mighty prayer before the Lord, and as I poured out my soul in supplication to him, that if possible I might obtain mercy at his hands and be forgiven of all that I had done which was contrary to his will, an angel stood before me, and answered me, saying, that I had sinned in delivering the manuscript into the hands of a wicked man, and as I had ventured to become responsible for this man’s faithfulness, I would of necessity suffer the consequences of his indiscretion, and I must now give back the Urim and Thummim into his (the angel’s) hands.

“This I did as I was directed, and as I handed them to him he remarked, ‘If you are very humble and penitent, it may be you will receive them again; if so, it will be on the twenty-second of next September.’” (History of Joseph Smith by His Mother, 1996, 173-74.)