Come, Follow Me—For Home and Church: Doctrine and Covenants 2025

Items of instruction given by Joseph Smith the Prophet, at Ramus, Illinois, April 2, 1843.

Instructions given by Joseph Smith the Prophet, at Nauvoo, Illinois, February 9, 1843, making known three grand keys by which the correct nature of ministering angels and spirits may be distinguished.

Doctrine and Covenants 129–132

Through Joseph Smith, the Lord took some of the mystery out of eternity. The greatness of God, the glory of heaven, and the vastness of eternity can seem almost familiar in the light of the restored gospel, even to finite minds like ours. The revelations in Doctrine and Covenants 129–32 are a good example. What is God like? He “has a body … as tangible as man’s.” What is heaven like? “That same sociality which exists among us here will exist among us there” (Doctrine and Covenants 130:22, 2). In fact, one of the most joyous truths about heaven is that it can include our cherished family relationships, if sealed by the proper authority. Truths like these can make heaven feel less distant—glorious yet reachable.

But then, sometimes God may ask us to do things that seem uncomfortable and unreachable. For many early Saints, plural marriage was one such commandment. It was a severe trial of faith for Joseph Smith, his wife Emma, and almost everyone who received it. To make it through this trial, they needed more than just favorable feelings about the restored gospel; they needed faith in God that went far deeper than that. The commandment no longer stands today, but the faithful example of people who lived it still does. And this example inspires us when we are asked to make our own “sacrifices in obedience” (Doctrine and Covenants 132:50).

An epistle from Joseph Smith the Prophet to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, containing further directions on baptism for the dead, dated at Nauvoo, Illinois, September 6, 1842.

An epistle from Joseph Smith the Prophet to the Latter-day Saints at Nauvoo, Illinois, containing directions on baptism for the dead, dated at Nauvoo, September 1, 1842.

Revelation given through Joseph Smith the Prophet, in the house of Brigham Young, at Nauvoo, Illinois, July 9, 1841. At this time Brigham Young was President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

Revelation given through Joseph Smith the Prophet, at Nauvoo, Illinois, March 1841, concerning the Saints in the territory of Iowa.

Doctrine and Covenants 125–128

In August 1840, a grieving Jane Neyman listened to the Prophet Joseph speak at the funeral of his friend Seymour Brunson. Jane’s own teenage son Cyrus had also recently passed away. Adding to her grief was the fact that Cyrus had never been baptized, and Jane worried what this would mean for his eternal soul. Joseph had wondered the same thing about his beloved brother Alvin, who also died before being baptized. So the Prophet decided to share with everyone at the funeral what the Lord had revealed to him about people who pass away without receiving gospel ordinances—and what we can do to help them.

The doctrine of baptism for the dead thrilled the Saints; their thoughts turned immediately to deceased family members. Now there was hope for them! Joseph shared their joy, and in a letter teaching this doctrine, he used joyful, enthusiastic language to express what the Lord taught him about the salvation of the dead: “Let the mountains shout for joy, and all ye valleys cry aloud; and all ye seas and dry lands tell the wonders of your Eternal King!” (Doctrine and Covenants 128:23).

See Saints, 1:415–27; “Letters on Baptism for the Dead,” in Revelations in Context, 272–76.

In 1842, after the Relief Society was organized in Nauvoo, Illinois, the Prophet Joseph Smith said, “The Church was never perfectly organized until the women were thus organized.” Similarly, a study of the Restoration of the Lord’s Church and His priesthood is not complete until it includes a study of the Relief Society, which itself is “a restoration of an ancient pattern” of female disciples of Jesus Christ.

Eliza R. Snow played an important role in that restoration. She was present when the Relief Society was first organized and, as the society’s secretary, took notes during its meetings. She witnessed firsthand that the Relief Society was organized “after the pattern of the priesthood.” Below are her words, written while she was serving as the second General President of the Relief Society, to help her sisters understand the divine work entrusted to the covenant daughters of God.

To learn more about how the Relief Society was organized, see Daughters in My Kingdom: The History and Work of Relief Society (2017), 1–25; The First Fifty Years of Relief Society (2016), 3–175.