D&C 80: Stephen Burnett and Eden Smith Called to Preach
I was building a bookshelf a few weeks ago. I had the measurements drawn out, the boards cut, the joints marked. Then I ran my hand along one of the pieces and felt a curve in the grain I had not noticed. If I followed my original plan, the cut would fight the wood. If I adjusted, the piece would hold together better and look right doing it.
I set the square down and changed the plan.
Section 80 of the Doctrine and Covenants reminds me of that moment. It is a short revelation, just four verses, given in March 1831. Stephen Burnett and Eden Smith are called to preach the gospel. And the Lord gives them instructions that sound almost too open-ended.
Go ye into the world, and preach the gospel to every creature that cometh under the sound of your voice.
That is the first verse. Preach to whoever is within earshot, not a specific city or a targeted demographic. Whoever is in front of you.
What Does It Mean to Preach to Every Creature Under the Sound of Your Voice
The phrase is physical. It assumes you are standing somewhere, speaking, and people can hear you. In 1831 that meant public squares, crossroads, the front porch of a farmhouse. You went where people were and you opened your mouth.
I think about that when I consider my own sphere. I am not a full-time missionary. But I have neighbors, coworkers, the guy behind me in the fly shop. The people under the sound of my voice are the ones I see regularly. The question is whether I am saying anything worth hearing.
The verse does not overcomplicate it. It just says go and preach. The content is the gospel, the method is your voice, and the audience is whoever is close enough to hear it.
The Companionship and the Quiet Support
Verse 2 is interesting for what it does not say. The Lord tells Burnett that he may take a companion if he desires one. It is phrased as an option, not a command.
And inasmuch as you desire a companion, I will give unto you a servant, even Eden Smith.
I have worked alone in the shop for years, but the best projects I have ever done were the ones where someone else was in the room. Not because they did the work for me. Because the presence of another person changes the quality of the attention you bring. You think out loud, ask for a second look, hand them the clamp and they hand it back when you need it.
Eden Smith was that for Stephen Burnett. A companion who was there to share the load, the same way Alma believed Abinadi and carried the message forward with a witness of his own. The Lord did not force the arrangement. He offered it. That tells me something about how God views companionship in the work. It is not a punishment. It is a gift you are allowed to want.
Why the Lord Told Them It Mattereth Not Where They Preached
This is the heart of the section. Verse 3 says:
And let your preaching be the warning voice, every man to his neighbor, inasmuch as it is in the power of your tongue, whether to the north or to the south, to the east or to the west, it mattereth not, for ye cannot go amiss.
Ye cannot go amiss, and that is a remarkable thing to say to two men who are about to walk out the door with no map. It means the Lord trusted them to move and trusted the Spirit to adjust their course as they went.
I have had this experience in small ways, especially when I am working on something I have not built before. You start a project not knowing exactly how it will turn out. You make the first cut, then the next one, and somewhere in the middle of the work the shape of the finished piece becomes clear. It is something you could not have seen from the beginning because you had to be in the middle of it.
The same is true for Burnett and Smith. The Lord did not give them a route. He gave them a direction and a promise: if you go, you will not be wrong.
Declaring What You Know to Be True
Verse 4 gives the content of their message.
And declare the things which ye have heard, and verily believe, and know to be true.
Three stages: hearing, believing, knowing. The progression of a testimony. And the instruction is to declare from the last stage. Not from what you have heard secondhand or what you think might be true. From what you know.
In the shop, I keep a set of tools that are not the most expensive ones. But they are the ones I trust. I know how they feel in my hand. I know when the chisel is sharp because I have sharpened it a hundred times. That kind of knowing is different from reading about it in a catalog.
The same is true for what I believe. I can repeat what I have been taught. But the things I know are the ones I have tested, the ones that have held up under pressure. Those are the things worth saying out loud, the same way Paul declared the resurrection from what he knew, not what he had heard.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did the Lord tell Stephen Burnett and Eden Smith that it did not matter where they preached?
The Lord trusted them to be guided by the Spirit as they went. The specific location was less important than the act of going. When a person is aligned with God's will, the direction becomes clear through movement, not before it.
What does the phrase "under the sound of your voice" mean today?
It originally meant whoever could physically hear you speaking. In a modern context, it means whoever is within your reach. Your neighbors, your coworkers, the people you see regularly. The principle is the same. Start with the people who are already in front of you.
How does D&C 80 teach the importance of a personal testimony?
Verse 4 tells the missionaries to declare what they know to be true, not just what they have heard. That means the most powerful thing you can share is your own conviction. A simple testimony that you have tested is more effective than a complex argument you have not lived.
What does the companionship in verse 2 teach about working with others?
The Lord offered a companion as an option, not a requirement. That suggests that companionship in the work is a gift meant to support and strengthen, not a burden. Having someone beside you changes how you work and how you carry the weight.
I finished that bookshelf a few days later. The piece with the curved grain became the top shelf. It is not straight, but it is strong. I look at it every time I walk past and I remember that sometimes the best thing you can do is start moving and trust the wood to show you the way.
-- D.