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baura
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Date: January 26, 2015 05:41PM
Jan 26, 1836 - Joshua Seixas, former Hebrew teacher of Lorenzo Snow, begins instructing Joseph Smith and his colleagues of the "Hebrew School" in the Kirtland Temple, to enable them to translate biblical Hebrew texts. He gives two lectures per day, from 10:00 to 11:00 AM. and from 2:00 to 3:00 PM five days per week. The class has about forty students but more are added as the class continues. By mid-February, Seixas is teaching four separate classes. Joseph Smith says, "His introduction pleased me much. I think he will be a help to the class in learning the Hebrew."
Jan 26, 1839 - Under direction of Assistant Counselor John Smith, a committee organizes the exodus from Missouri to Illinois.
Jan 26, 1841 - In London, England Apostles Heber C. Kimball and Wilford Woodruff witness "the opening of the house of Parliament."
Jan 26, 1844 - At Brigham Young's House in Nauvoo Orson Pratt receives his second anointing.
Jan 26, 1845 - Brigham Young tells High Priests, "There are certain branches of the endowment that must be done in an upper room."
Jan 26, 1846 - Brigham Young introduces an "adoption" ceremony ("the sealing of men to men") in the Nauvoo temple, Rank-and-file Mormons are adopted to apostles as spiritual fathers.
Jan 26, 1860 - Brigham Young's office journal records: " Pres[ident] Young observed to W. C. Staines he had read an article of this weeks 'Valley Tan' Jan. 25, 1860. which branded the whole Mormon Hierarchy as murderers and observed the Pres[ident] I wonder how the brethren submit to be tamely [or namely] insulted by the Editor of the Tan Mr. De Wolf. In course of the day Br[other] W. C. Staines informed us he had seen De Wolf, and told him, he would kick his arse and cow hide him if he ever inserted another article against this people".
Jan 26, 1865 - LDS missionary Francis A. Hammond agrees to pay $14,000 for church's purchase of 6,000-acre Laie Plantation on island of Oahu, Hawaii. This fulfills his written instructions from Brigham Young to obtain lands "suitable for growing cotton, sugar, rice, tobacco." Hammond’s diary notes: "Everybody says I have made a good bargain."
At Brigham Young's office Young and Wilford Woodruff are entertained by "Mr. Martin the great American Wizard. He showed us some specimens of his art in ventriloquism in imitating a rat, a Hen, a pig, & a Baby. All was vary good."
Jan 26, 1874 - Apparently last meeting of Brigham Young's School of Prophets.
Jan 26, 1880 - Wilford Woodruff, after waking in the middle of the night while camping in the mountains near Sunset, Arizona, receives his "Wilderness revelation": "Thus saith the Lord unto my servant Wilford Woodruff. . . . The hour is at the door when my wrath and indignation will be poured out upon the wicked of the nation. . . . . I have decreed plagues to go forth and waste mine enemies, and not many years hence they shall not be left to pollute my heritage." It is a long and vindictive document in which the Lord swears vengeance on the officials of the United States government and on the nation as a whole, mentioning specifically, "the presidents of the United States, the Supreme Court, the Cabinet, the Senate and House of Congress of the United States". It states: "And I say again, woe unto the nation or house or people who seek to hinder my people from obeying the patriarchal law of Abraham, which leadeth to celestial glory, which has been revealed unto my Saints through the mouth of my servant Joseph, for whosoever doeth these things shall be damned saith the Lord of hosts, and shall be broken up and wasted away from under heaven by the judgements which I have sent forth and which shall not return to me void." In spite of this Woodruff, a decade later, issues the "Manifesto" purporting to end the practice of plural marriage.
Jan 26, 1881 - President John Taylor writes in a letter, "If a man enter into the everlasting covenant with one wife, with full purpose of heart to keep the commandments, and through circumstances is deprived of going further, he may be justified"
Jan 26, 1899 - At the weekly meeting of the First Presidency and Apostles "some discussion was indulged in with reference to administering to the sick, suggested by Elder R. Clawson, who spoke of Bro. Patterson. Said that he was traveling around in the stakes of Zion administering to the sick, in some cases meeting with success and in other cases failing."
Jan 26, 1909 - First Presidency letter: "Where elderly people may be found to be more or less lacking in their observance of the Word of Wisdom, and the question of their worthiness to be "commended to the temple comes before your consideration, it is in order for [the bishop] and the Stake Presidency to consider together all such cases, deciding each on its own merits, and showing appropriate leniency to elderly people, as there can be no rigid rule for each and every case."
Jan 26, 1922 - B. H. Roberts is allowed extra time to present "Book of Mormon difficulties" to the assembled First Presidency and Apostles. He had presented his researches to the First Presidency and Apostles two weeks previously but was unsatisfied with the response. This extra session was granted by President Heber J. Grant at Roberts's request. Later Roberts discussed these meetings with a friend: "Bro. Roberts presented the matter, told them frankly that he was stumped and ask for their aide in the explanation. In answer, they merely one by one stood up and bore testimony to the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. George Albert Smith in tears testified that his faith in the Book had not been shaken by the question. Pres. Ivins, the man most likely to be able to answer a question on that subject was unable to produce the solution. No answer was available."
Jan 26, 1942 - First Counselor J. Reuben Clark tells reporter for Look Magazine: "Our divorces are piling up." Church Historian's Office in 1968 compiles divorce statistics since 1910 for temple marriages, "church civil" marriages, and "other civil" marriages. Although temple marriages have lowest divorce rate of the three categories, in 1910 there was one "temple divorce" for every 66 temple marriages performed that year., 1:41 in 1915, 1:34 in 1920, 1:27 in 1925, 1:30 in 1930, 1:23 in 1935, 1:27 in 1939, 1:17 in 1945, 1:31 in 1950, 1:30 in 1955, 1:19 in 1960 and 1965. Last rate for temple divorce is almost ten times higher than Utah's civil divorce rate century earlier.
Jan 26, 1967 - The NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS reviews three books on Mormonism. Reviewer Christopher Lasch writes (under the title "Burned over Utopia"): "It is not as a religious force that Mormonism now makes itself felt. . .[Mormonism] makes itself felt precisely in the degree to which the Mormon influence has ceased to be distinguishable from any other vested interest. . . .The ultimate fate of American minorities is to become tourist attractions . . . but the tourist boom means . . . the same thing . . . whenever the past has been piously 'restored,' roped off, and put on display--not the vitality, but the decadence of a way of life."
Jan 26, 1970 - SPORTS ILLUSTRATED article "Other Side of the Y: Attitude Toward Negroes of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," recounts the gathering wave of protest leveled against a recent statement by the First Presidency that it expected no change in the practice of denying priesthood to blacks. It then quoted several non-Mormon athletes at B.Y.U. who expressed similar dissatisfaction. The author contended that no one would be happier to see the Church change its policy on blacks than BYU's athletic department.