“Their Prayers Were Also in Behalf of Him That the Lord Should Suffer to Bring These Things Forth”
The ancients prayed for Joseph Smith. They knew of him. They were aware of his noble and vital mission in the earth. They looked to the time of the coming of the “choice seer” of the Lord (2 Nephi 3), the days when this servant of the Lord would be instrumental in bringing forth the great and marvelous work of the last days (3 Nephi 21:8-11 ). “So great was his assigned mission, with reference to the ’restitution of all things’ (Acts 3:21),” Elder Bruce R. McConkie wrote, “that holy prophets spoke of him, by name, thousands of years before his mortal birth. (2 Nephi 3.) And as to the mighty work to be started by him-there are as many prophecies foretelling it as there are about any other single subject, not even excepting the host of prophetic utterances about our Lord and his redemptive sacrifice.” (Mormon Doctrine, p. 396.)
References
