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In our book Mormonism—Shadow or Reality? page 413, we said that “LaMar Petersen has prepared a manuscript entitled Hearts Made Glad. When this manuscript is published it will throw a great deal of light on the Word of Wisdom and Joseph Smith’s attitude towards it.” We are now happy to announce that Mr. Petersen’s book has been printed and is available at Modern Microfilm Company.

The “Word of Wisdom” is a revelation which was given to Joseph Smith on February 27, 1833 (see Doctrine and Covenants, Sec. 89). It forbids the use of hot drinks (tea and coffee), strong drinks and tobacco.

The Word of Wisdom is considered to be one of the most important revelations in the Mormon Church. A Mormon who continues to break the Word of Wisdom is considered to be weak in the faith. Breaking the Word of Wisdom is considered a sin which can bar a person from the Temple. In order to get a Temple Recommend a person is required to answer this question: “4. Do you keep the Word of Wisdom?” (Temple Recommend Book).

Joseph Fielding Smith, tenth President of the Mormon Church, claimed that the habit of drinking tea can “bar” a person from the “celestial Kingdom of God” (Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 2, page 16).

The Mormon writer John J. Stewart claims that the Prophet Joseph Smith “carefully observed the Word of Wisdom, and insisted upon its observance by other men in high Church positions, . . .” (Joseph Smith the Mormon Prophet, page 90).

Although most members of the Church feel that Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon religion, “carefully observed the Word of Wisdom,” research reveals just the opposite. In fact, Joseph Smith, the man who introduced the Temple Ceremony into the Mormon Church, would not be able to go through the Temple if he were living today because of his frequent use of alcoholic beverages.

On page 92 of his book Sounding Brass, Dr. Hugh Nibley asks where the evidence is that Joseph Smith drank. We would answer Dr. Nibley by saying that this evidence is found throughout Joseph Smith’s History of the Church. Under the date of May 2, 1843, the following statement is recorded in his history:

Wednesday, 3.—Called at the office and drank a glass of wine with Sister Jenetta Richards, made by her mother in England, and reviewed a portion of the conference minutes. (History of the Church, vol. 5, page 380)

The title for LaMar Petersen’s new book Hearts Made Glad seems to come from some references recorded in Joseph Smith’s History of the Church for January, 1836:

We then partook of some refreshments, and our hearts were made glad with the fruit of the vine. (History of the Church, vol. 2, page 369)

Elders Orson Hyde, Luke S. Johnson, and Warren Parrish, then presented the Presidency with three servers of glasses filled with wine to bless. And it fell to my lot to attend to this duty, which I cheerfully discharged. It was then passed round in order, then the cake in the same order; and suffice it to say, our hearts were made glad while partaking of the bounty of earth which was presented, until we had taken our fill, . . . (History of the Church, vol. 2, page 378)

Joseph Smith continued to disobey the Word of Wisdom until the day of his death. The History of the Church records that just before his murder in the Carthage jail, Joseph Smith gave the guards money to buy a “bottle of wine.” When the bottle arrived, “Dr. Richards uncorked the bottle, and presented a glass to Joseph, who tasted, as also brother Taylor and the doctor, and the bottle was then given to the guard, who turned to go out” (History of the Church, vol. 6, page 616).

Joseph Smith’s History of the Church certainly provides evidence that he continually broke the Word of Wisdom. Although a number of references concerning Smith’s disregard for the Word of Wisdom have remained uncensored, the Mormon leaders have made three important changes in Joseph Smith’s History of the Church (see Mormonism—Shadow or Reality? pp. 6-8). In one instance, Joseph Smith asked “Brother Markam” to get “a pipe and some tobacco” for the Apostle Willard Richards. These words have been replaced with the word “medicine” in recent editions of the History of the Church. At another time Joseph Smith related that he gave some of the brethren “a couple of dollars, with directions to replenish” their supply of “whisky.” In modern editions of the History of the Church, twenty-three words have been deleted from this reference to cover up the fact Joseph Smith encouraged the “brethren” to disobey the Word of Wisdom. In the third instance, Joseph Smith frankly admitted that he had “drank a glass of beer at Moessers.” These words have been omitted in recent editions of the History.

LaMar Petersen adds some interesting background to the change concerning the “glass of beer at Moessers”:

On another day he [Joseph Smith] recommended that Jacob Zundall and Frederick Moeser, who were known to drink ale, wine, and other spirits, be called on missions to Germany. Brother Moeser was held responsible for the disturbance of a crowd in front of his combination grogshop and grocery. A foreign mission would strengthen his testimony. But before departing he was fined $3 for breach of the temperance ordinance. . . .

With the above facts in mind some may find it puzzling that Joseph was not shy about recording: “At one p.m. I rode out with Dr. Richards and O. P. Rockwell . . . drank a glass of beer at Moeser’s.” This entry of June 1, 1844 was altered by prudent historians when reprinting the history, the phrase “drank a glass of beer at Moeser’s” being deleted. (Hearts Made Glad, page 187)

On page 165-166 of Hearts Made Glad, Mr. Petersen gives this interesting information:

To his varied roles of restorationist, revelator, seer, prophet, translator, elder, high priest, apostle, president, editor, Bible redactor, temple-builder, and the more mundane roles of land-agent, merchant, and banker, Joseph now added innkeeper, lieutenant-general, Mason, judge, mayor, candidate for President of the United States, and husband of more than two score wives. . . . Did such a man have time to drink? The sophisticate might well ask: Under the weight of such unlikely banners how could he desist?

But the larger question persists: Was Joseph’s conduct exemplary? Being so constantly exposed before his people how could he have fooled them? Apostle Amasa Lyman thought perhaps not all were fooled. He told fellow-Apostle Abraham H. Cannon: “Joseph Smith tried the faith of the Saints many times by his peculiarities. At one time, he had preached a powerful sermon on the Word of Wisdom, and immediately there after, he rode through the streets of Nauvoo smoking a cigar. Some of the brethren were tried as was Abraham of old.”

After presenting overwhelming evidence that Joseph Smith drank “strong drinks” in violation of his Word of Wisdom, Mr. Petersen goes on to deal with the question of whether he drank to excess. On pages 205-207 we find the following:

William [Law], Joseph’s counselor in the First Presidency from 1841 to 1844, broke with his leader in opposition to polygamy. . . . Dr. Wyl obtained this succinct statement from Law . . . in 1887: “I only saw him drunk once. I found Joseph and Hyrum at a place where they kept quantities of wine. . . . I remember that Joseph drank heavily, and that I talked to Hyrum, begging him to take his brother away, but that was the only time I saw the prophet drunk.”. . .

Joseph’s associates sometimes spoke of his paleness when “in vision” or when receiving a revelation. A daughter of Adaline Knight Belnap recorded her mother’s impression of the Prophet in an instance of spiritual (spirituous?) passivity. “How well she remembers one day before her father died (Vinson Knight) of a little excitement in school. The children were busy when the school room door was carefully opened and two gentlemen entered, carrying the limp form of Joseph Smith. The children all sprang to their feet, for Brother Joseph lay helpless in their arms, his head resting on his brother’s shoulder, his face pale as death, but his eyes were open, though he seemed not to see things earthly. The teacher quieted them by telling them that Brother Joseph was in a revelation, and they were carrying him to his office above the school room.”. . .

Most critics were less charitable than Adaline and unwilling to attribute paleness to revelation.

Wine and Visions

We feel that one of LaMar Petersen’s most important contributions is his work on the visions in the Kirtland Temple. He presents very strong evidence to show that wine was used to excess in the Kirtland Temple at the very time the Mormons were claiming to receive their important visions:

To to Latter-day Saint the Temple is the place of highest communion with God. The sacred edifice built by the Saints at Kirtland, Ohio between 1833 and 1836 was the first of many Temples . . .

It is ironic that the aura of holiness surrounding the opening of this sacred shrine should be sullied by charges of intemperance against the Elders of Israel during the week of priestly rites following the dedication. . . . Beginning January 28, 1836, as hosannas filled the nearly completed building, pillars of fire were said to rest on the princes of the Church. . . . A mighty angel with flaming sword was seen riding on a horse of fire. Five more fiery horses mounted by sword-wielding angels encircled the house, breaking Satan’s power and protecting the Saints. Some of the baneemy (spiritual name for “mine elders” in Doctrine and Covenants 105:27) had glorious visions, some spoke in tongues, and some prophesied of great things in store for Zion. There were footwashings and anointings and partaking of the bread and wine. . . .

This was but a prelude to the great jubilee and time of rejoicing during the dedication week of March 27 . . . Elder George A. Smith, . . . arose and began to prophesy . . . Suddenly a noise was heard like the sound of a mighty rushing wind filling the Temple. The congregation simultaneously arose as though moved by an invisible power and began to prophesy and speak in tongues. . . . “And I beheld the Temple was filled with angels,” reported the Seer, “which fact I declared to the congregation.”. . .

The fever and excitement mounted as the services moved toward midweek. Joseph had promised the Saints a veritable Pentecost, and by Wednesday, when attendance was restricted to the male membership of the Church, nearly five hundred Melchizedek and Aaronic priests closeted themselves in a session that lasted throughout the night. . . . Joseph recorded that “it was expedient for us to prepare bread and wine sufficient to make our hearts glad, as we should not, probably leave this house until morning; . . . The stewards passed round and took up a liberal contribution, and messengers were despatched for bread and wine.”. . . “The brethren began to prophesy upon each other’s heads,” continued the Prophet, “and cursings upon the enemies of Christ, who inhabited Jackson county, Missouri; . . .”

“The brethren continued exhorting, prophesying, and speaking in tongues until five o’clock in the morning,” the Prophet reported. . . . It was a Pentecost and an endowment indeed, . . . the occurrences of this day shall be handed down upon the pages of sacred history, to all generations; as the day of Pentecost, so shall this day be numbered and celebrated as a year of jubilee, and time of rejoicing to the Saints of the Most High God.” . . .

The cursing of the ungodly at the Kirtland Temple dedication was strong meat for some of the neophyte priests. “The Entablature of Truth” [George A. Smith] had something to say about it nineteen years later in the Tabernacle at Salt Lake: “The Lord did actually reveal one principle to us there, and that one principle was apparently so simple, and so foolish in their eyes, that a great many apostatized over it, because it was so contrary to their notions and views. It was this, after the people had fasted all day, they went out and got wine and bread, and blessed them, and distributed them to the multitude, that is, to the whole assembly of the brethren, and they ate and drank, and prophesied, and bore testimony and continued so to do until some of the High Council of Missouri stepped into the stand, and as righteous Noah did when he awoke from his wine, commenced to curse their enemies. . . . You never felt such a shock go through any house or company in the world as went through that. There was almost a rebellion because men would get up and curse their enemies; although they could remember well that it is written that Noah cursed his own grandson, and that God recognized that curse to such an extent that, at this day, millions of his posterity are consigned to perpetual servitude.”. . .

Professor Turner, . . . wrote in 1842: “In 1836, an endowment meeting, or solemn assembly, was held in the temple, . . . The day was spent in fasting, prayer, and other ceremonial preparation . . . They first broke their fast, by eating a little light bread and drinking freely of pure wine, which they were assured would not hurt them, since it had been consecrated to the Lord. . . . A marvellous spirit of prophecy soon ensued, as might have been expected, which vented itself mainly in blessing their friends and cursing their enemies, in which latter class, the clergy of the day and the Missouri mob received their full share. An eye-witness informed the author that he never imagined that language more awful could be used in the world of despair . . . For several days, and even for weeks, they went from house to house, feasting and prophesying, blessing and cursing, as the occasion might require, until the ‘triumphs of faith’ were fully achieved, . . . others thought it the spirit of delusion, darkness, and error.”. . .

Two former high-raking Churchmen, Benjamin Winchester and the contumacious Apostle, W. E. M’Lellin, offered striking details in their disclousures of the Temple raptures. . . . Winchester visited Utah in 1889 and gave a candid two-column report on early Church history to the Salt Lake Tribune. Regarding the Kirtland affair he was unsparing: “That ceremony ended in a drunken frolic, one of the worst I ever saw. . . . Joseph Smith became beastly intoxicated, and his father and his brother Hyrum begged that the wine should be taken away, so that the carousal might be stopped as soon as possible. I did not know Joseph to be what is termed ‘a common sot,’ but that was not the last time I saw him intoxicated.”. . .

Apostle M’Lellin, . . . had been numbered among the Twelve, . . . His remembrance of the Temple was detailed and unvarnished: “About five hundred ministers entered the great temple about sunrise and remained fasting until next morning sunrise, except a little bread and wine in the evening. The Twelve were required to take large servers and set glasses of wine and lumps of bread and go through the house and serve the brethren. . . . I did my part of the serving. During the night a purse was made up and a wagon sent to Painesville and a barrel of wine procured, . . . All the latter part of the night I took care of Samuel H. Smith, perfectly unable to help himself. . . . And I had others removed from the house because they were unfit to be in decent company.”. . . In a statement published in the True Latter-Day Saints’ Herald, official organ of the Reorganized L.D.S. Church M’Lellin reiterated his protest: “As to the endowment in Kirtland, I state positively, it was no endowment from God. Not only myself was not endowed, but no other man of the five hundred who was present—except it was with wine.”. . .

M’Lellin’s disillusion was paralleled by David Whitmer’s. . . . The longest-lived of the eleven men who testified to the sacred origin of the Book of Mormon, Whitmer remained true to his original testimony even though abandoning the faith. . . . Whitmer . . . made this statement when he was eighty-one: “The great heavenly visitation . . . was a great fizzle. The elders were assembled on the appointed day, which it was promised would be a veritable day of Pentecost, but there was no visitation. No Peter, James and John, no Moses and Elias put in appearance. I was in my seat on that occasion and I know that the story sensationally circulated, and which is now on the record of the Utah Mormons as an actual happening, was nothing but a trumped-up yarn. I saw a great many of these things which I knew were not right, but I clung on in patience, trusting everything eventually would be put right.”

That the appearance of Heavenly beings at the Temple may have been purely subjective is suggested not only in Whitmer’s statement but from others who, though present, did not attain that effulgence of spirit necessary for celestial sight. . . .

Milo Andrus, a faithful Seventy who had been a member of the ill-starred Zion’s Camp, despaired of seeing the celestial visitors until Joseph told him to continue to fast and pray. “When we had fasted for 24 hours,” marvelled Milo, “and partaken of the Lord’s supper, namely a piece of bread as big as your double fist and a half a pint of wine in the temple, I was there and saw the Holy Ghost descend upon the heads of those present like cloven tongues of fire. I said it is enough, Father, and I will bear a faithful testimony of it while I live.”. . . In the one hundred thirty-eight years of Temple activity that followed, the charge of drunkenness was not again hurled. Complete observance of the Word of Wisdom came to be a requirement for the thousands of zealous workers in the seventeen Temples built between 1841 and 1974. Other than some allusions to wine-drinking in the Nauvoo Temple there seems to be no reference to intoxication in the score of exposes of Temple procedure that came from the pens of Saints and Apostates willing to break the vows of secrecy. (Hearts Made Glad, pp. 121-127, 133-141)

The reader will find more on the subject of drinking in the Kirtland Temple in Chapter IV of Hearts Made Glad.

On pages 200-201 of the same book, Mr. Petersen gives this information about the Nauvoo Temple:

Wine and dancing parties were not all confined to the Masonic Hall; at Nauvoo some were held in the nearly completed Temple. A week before the dedication on April 23, 1846 Samuel Richards, another faithful diarist, noted that after the carpenters swept up their shavings “It was voted that Bro. Angel go and inform the Trustees that the hands were ready to drink the Barrell of Wine which had been reserved for them.” The painters continued their work until the evening of April 29, when a group of the workers and their wives met in the attic and “had a feast of cakes, pies, wine &c, where we enjoyed ou[r] selves with prayer, preaching, administering for healing, blessing children, and music and Dancing until near Midnight. The other hands completed the painting in the lower room.”. . .

Not every occasion of indulgence in the Temple had a happy ending. Elder Mosiah Hancock wrote in his journal: “After the death of the Prophet, the mob spent their fury on the Twelve and a few others. The Brethren pushed the work on the Temple; . . . Although I was very young [Mosiah was twelve at the time] I was on guard many a night, and gladly did I hail with many of the Saints, the completion of the Temple. On about January 10, 1846, I was privileged to go in the Temple and receive my Washings and Anointings. I was sealed to a lovely young girl named Mary, who was about my age, but it was with the understanding that we were not to live together as man and wife until we were sixteen years of age. The reason that some were sealed so young was because we knew that we would have to go West and wait many a long time for another Temple. My mother had a little son that we called Levison. There was a man who would get drunk in the Temple; and once when mother was giving endowments to the women, a voice said to her, “Go to your baby.” She went and found that drunkard lying on her child. She grabbed the fellow up and threw him on the floor by main strength, although his weight was about 240 pounds. The baby did not live long. (Hearts Made Glad, pp. 200-201)

In Hearts Made Glad, LaMar Petersen presents a great deal of revealing information concerning Joseph Smith’s “barroom” his sale of “spirituous liquors” and the question of his own excessive use of alcoholic beverages. Mr. Petersen has a very scholarly and honest way of dealing with his materials. We have a great deal of respect for him, and we must admit that his constant help and encouragement have had much to do with the success of Modern Microfilm Co. The research he has done has had a real effect upon our lives and upon our work. Mr. Petersen’s earlier booklet, Problems in Mormon Text, is certainly one of the best works on the subject of Mormonism. In a letter dated February 24, 1958, John Blackmore, who was General Church Historian of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, made this comment: “I thank you for the two books Problems in Mormon Text. I find that the contents of your book and the interpretations of the text, demand a re-evaluation of the incidents of our religious theories and practices.”

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