Description
Joined in the Shout
April 3, 1836, Kirtland, Ohio, about 8:00 AM. The dedicatory services for the Kirtland House of the Lord are about to begin. People are lined up aplenty wanting to get in. Among the crowd is one woman, not named, carrying a two-month old baby. The rules are strict for entrance into the House of the Lord—small children are not allowed—and in a day when there are no microphones to overpower a crying child—it is understandable why this would be. She leaves and tries to find someone to watch her babe, but when she cannot, she returns to the doorkeeper.
Like so many others, she really wants to be present. But, again, she is turned away.
But this time it happens that the aged patriarch, Joseph Smith Sr. is standing nearby and he intervenes. “Brethren,” he says, “we do not exercise faith. My faith is that this child will not cry a word in the House today.” And the woman is allowed to enter with her little one, along with over 900 others eager to attend.
The meeting lasted nearly 8 hours. No one got up, no one left their precious seat for fear they would lose it. All stayed and all listened. Near the end of the day, the Prophet Joseph offered the dedicatory prayer as dictated by revelation. Sylvia Cutler Webb was there that day and described Joseph’s prayer of dedication:
“I clearly remember the occasion, I can look back through the lapse of years and see as I saw then, Joseph, the Prophet, standing with his hands raised towards the heaven. His face is ashy pale, the tears running down his cheeks as he spoke on that memorable day.”
Then, to seal the events of the day, the Prophet Joseph taught the Saints, and then led them in the Hosanna shout. Benjamin Brown was in attendance that day and had observed the woman with the baby throughout the day. He said:
“The woman and child entered and the child did not cry a word from 8:00 to 4:00 in the afternoon. But when the Saints all shouted ‘Hosanna’ the child was nursing and let go and shouted also. When the Saints paused, it paused. When they shouted, it shouted for three times. When they shouted ‘amen’ it shouted also for three times. Then it resumed its nursing without any alarm.”
Eliza R. Snow witnessed the same and spoke of it.
From the beginning of the restoration. The Lord has commanded that meetings are to be conducted under the influence of the Holy Ghost and oh, how sweet it is when those meetings are conducted such. And again, why would we not want to preserve as our own a place where such miracles, one of many, actually did occur: The Kirtland Temple.
Sources:
Benjamin Brown to Sarah Mumford Brown, [ca. Apr. 1836], Benjamin Brown Family Collection, CHL; Tullidge, Women of Mormondom, 94–95.
Doctrine and Covenants 20:45
