Prelude to the First Vision

The society and family in which Joseph Smith lived prior to the First Vision provide significant insight into Joseph Smith’s motivation for going into the woods to pray.

The Second Great Awakening

The First Great Awakening “was a religious revival that impacted the English colonies in America during the 1730s and 1740s.”¹ “In many ways, religion was becoming more formal and less personal during this time, which led to lower church attendance. Christians were feeling complacent with their methods of worship, and some were disillusioned with how wealth and rationalism were dominating culture.”² And so, “Christian leaders often traveled from town to town, preaching about the gospel, emphasizing salvation from sins and promoting enthusiasm for Christianity. The result was a renewed dedication toward religion.”³

The Second Great Awakening was a “Protestant religious revival in the United States from about 1795 to 1835. During this revival, meetings were held in small towns and large cities throughout the country, and the unique frontier institution known as the camp meeting began.”⁴ “The Second Great Awakening made soul-winning the primary function of ministry and stimulated several moral and philanthropic reforms.”⁵

Revival Meetings in Palmyra

Historians have combed through historical records and found evidences of a siginicant revival meeting in Palmyra in 1818.⁶ Richard L. Anderson wrote an article discussing the substantial evidence of the 1818 revival meeting and the likely impact of that meeting upon young Joseph:

“Joseph Smith’s basic background of the First Vision is provable, meaning that historical sources beyond Joseph verify the local Methodist activities that Joseph said took place when he was a young seeker. Furthermore, Palmyra recollections and those of Joseph connect him to a known Palmyra Methodist camp meeting that correlates with his own descriptions of beginning to investigate his neighborhood churches.”⁷

The conclusion states, “This article focuses on a Palmyra camp meeting of four days in late June 1818, documented at the time by the journal of Aurora Seager, a Methodist traveling elder who died at the end of the following year. This camp meeting was attended by one of the three American Methodist bishops and about a dozen circuit preachers, resulting in forty conversions, which, in comparison with other contemporary camp meetings in western New York, would come from an estimated crowd of one to two thousand. This gathering precisely fits the local conditions before the First Vision as described by Joseph Smith’s 1838 history and his other accounts. This huge assembly near a village of one thousand would certainly arrest the attention of the young seeker Joseph Smith and morally compel him to attend meetings because of documented personal zeal and additionally because of the family business of selling refreshments at public gatherings.”⁸

Sermons Given in Palmyra

In addition to evidence regarding a camp meeting in Palmyra, historical records also contain sermons by preachers that likely influenced Joseph Smith prior to his First Vision experience. “Jesse Townsend was a traveling minister until 1817, when he became the first official pastor of the Western Presbyterian Church in Palmyra, New York.”⁹ The Presbyterians met in the only permanent meetinghouse in Palmyra, and it was likely this congregation that Joseph’s mother Lucy, and his siblings Hyrum, Samuel Harrison, and Sophronia joined.¹⁰ An existing sermon in Jesse Townsend’s own hand dated October 1819 exhorts his parishioners to ponder and pray:

“Give yourselves much to prayer, for a divine blessing to accompany the word preached. Meditate much and solemnly upon what you hear, and by that try yourselves. Suffer not the cares of the world to choke the word and render it unfruitful. Do nothing to counteract the strivings of the Spirit.”¹¹

Although many of Joseph’s family members joined with the Presbyterians, Joseph “became somewhat partial to the Methodist sect.”¹² Oliver Cowdery wrote about a local Methodist minister’s influence on Joseph Smith: “One Mr. Lane, a presiding Elder of the Methodist church, visited Palmyra, and vicinity. . . . Mr. Lane’s manner of communication was peculiarly calculated to awaken the intellect of the hearer, and arouse the sinner to look about him for safety—much good instruction was always drawn from his discourses on the scriptures, and in common with others, [Joseph’s] mind became awakened.”¹³

“Joseph’s brother William remembered Joseph attending a meeting where George Lane addressed the question ‘What church shall I join?’ Using James 1:5 as a text, Reverend Lane urged his listeners ‘to ask God.'”¹⁴ Perhaps it was attending a meeting such as this that prompted Joseph to read James 1:5, which resulted in his significant experience.

These examples demostrate that other records provide insight into the context leading up to the First Vision. Joseph Smith would have been impacted by these revival meetings and preachers encouraging their listeners to pray and ask God.

The Influence of Joseph’s Family

The question of religion was a significant topic in young Joseph’s family life. In 1802, the Smith family (Joseph Sr. and Lucy) moved from Tunbridge to Randolph, Vermont.¹⁴ Lucy recounts that while in Randolph, she visited a Presbyterian church, but after hearing the sermon, she was “convinced that [the preacher] neither understood nor appreciated the subject upon which he spoke, and I said in my heart that there was not then upon earth the religion which I sought. I therefore determined to examine my Bible and, taking Jesus and His disciples for my guide, to endeavor to obtain from God that which man could neither give nor take away. Notwithstanding this, I would hear all that could be said, as well as read much that was written, on the subject of religion; but the Bible I intended should be my guide to life and salvation. This course I pursued a number of years.”¹⁵

Despite the concern about religious institutions, Lucy determined that she needed to be baptized, and so, “finding a minister who was willing to baptize me and leave me free in regard to joining any religious denomination, I stepped forward and yielded obedience to this ordinance, after which I continued to read the Bible as formerly.”¹⁵

During Lucy’s religious investigation, her husband Joseph Sr. joined her in attending various meetings, but Lucy recounts that he only went to “oblige” her.¹⁶ Due to some pressure from his older brother Jesse, Joseph Sr. eventually stopped attending, believing “it hardly worth our while to attend the meetings any longer as it would prove of but little advantage to us; besides this, it gave our friends such disagreeable feelings.”¹⁶ Lucy was hurt by this, and she “retired to a grove not far distant, where I prayed to the Lord in behalf of my husband—that the true gospel might be presented to him and that his heart might be softened so as to receive it, or, that he might become more religiously inclined.”¹⁶ After returning from her prayer, she fell asleep and had a dream where she saw two trees. A breeze passed by, and one of the trees “bent gracefully before the wind, and waved its beautiful branches in the light air. As the wind increased, this tree assumed the most lively and animated appearance, and seemed to express in its motions the utmost joy and happiness.”¹⁶ However, the other tree “stood erect and fixed as a pillar of marble. No matter how strong the wind blew over it, not a leaf was stirred, not a bough was bent; but obstinately stiff it stood, scorning alike the zephyr’s breath, or the power of the mighty storm.”¹⁶

Lucy said the interpretation given to her was that her husband, Joseph Sr., was the flexible tree, whereas his brother Jesse was unyielding. The breeze that passed by them “was the pure and undefiled gospel of the Son of God, which gospel Jesse would always resist, but which Joseph, when he was more advanced in life, would hear and receive with his whole heart, and rejoice therein.”¹⁶

Joseph Smith’s family was deeply religious. They believed in dreams and visions, but they were not free of religious strife. It sounds like Jesse, Joseph Sr.’s brother, was opposed to all forms of religion, and his influence on his brother (Joseph Sr.) seems to have caused at least a little strife between Joseph Sr. and Lucy. I imagine that Joseph Jr. would have noticed all of this, he likely would have heard of his mother’s dreams, her prayers, and her experiences of going to a grove to pray. He also likely would have heard from his father the reasons why he did not attend any religious meetings. These experiences would likely have had an impact on Joseph and his determination to ask of God.

So What?

What does any of this have to do with the First Vision? As we analyze the various accounts, an understanding of Joseph Smith’s environment, together with the various details from the different accounts, helps us to form a more clear picture of what Joseph was seeking, and why he went into that grove to pray. Knowing there was a large revival meeting in Palmyra in 1818 correlates to the 1832 Account wherein Joseph said he began seeking when he was twelve years old (which would have been 1818). The religious differences among his family members gives additional insight into why he had questions regarding the different denominations. These circumstances can help us reconcile the differences between the various accounts, and give us greater insight into how we can learn from the First Vision in obtaining our own answers.

References

1. History.com, “Great Awakening,” Sep. 20, 2019, https://www.history.com/topics/european-history/great-awakening.
2. History.com, “Great Awakening.”
3. History.com, “Great Awakening.”
4. Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Second Great Awakening.” Encyclopedia Britannica, July 14, 2023. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Second-Great-Awakening.
5. Britannica, “Second Great Awakening.”
6. Richard Lloyd Anderson, “Joseph Smith’s Accuracy on the First Vision Setting: The Pivotal 1818 Palmyra Camp Meeting,” in Exploring the First Vision, ed. Samuel Alonzo Dodge and Steven C. Harper (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, 2012), 91–169, https://rsc.byu.edu/exploring-first-vision/joseph-smiths-accuracy-first-vision-setting-pivotal-1818-palmyra-camp-meeting.
7. Anderson, “Joseph Smith’s Accuracy on the First Vision Setting.”
8. Anderson, “Joseph Smith’s Accuracy on the First Vision Setting.”
9. “Sermons of a Palmyra Preacher,” https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/content/museum/museum-treasures-jesse-townsend-sermons?lang=eng.
10. “Sermons of a Palmyra Preacher.”
11. “Sermons of a Palmyra Preacher.”
12. Joseph Smith-History 1:8.
13. “Sermons of a Palmyra Preacher.”
14. Lucy Mack Smith, “The History of Joseph Smith by His Mother” Zion’s Camp Books, Kindle Edition, chapter 9.
15. Smith, “The History of Joseph Smith by His Mother,” chapter 10.
16. Smith, “The History of Joseph Smith by His Mother,” chapter 12.