D&C 92: Why the Order Hears It Before Frederick Does

Doctrine and Covenants 92 is two verses long and reads like a memo, and I think it deserves more attention than its length usually gets. I skipped it for most of my adult life. It came up in the rotation, I read it in under a minute, felt nothing in particular and moved on to 93, where things happen.

This morning I read it at the counter a few hours before the Pioneer Day parade, and what stopped me was a plain fact about who is being spoken to. The revelation is about Frederick G. Williams, but he doesn't get addressed until the second verse. The first verse goes to everybody else.

Who is D&C 92 talking to?

The chapter opens like this.

Verily, thus saith the Lord, I give unto the united order, organized agreeable to the commandment previously given, a revelation and commandment concerning my servant Frederick G. Williams, that ye shall receive him into the order. What I say unto one I say unto all.

Doctrine and Covenants 92:1

The "ye" there is the order, and that took me an embarrassingly long time to see. A group of men who already had a standing arrangement with the Lord is being told what to do about one man, and the verb is receive. I read that as leaving them no vote on whether, only on how well.

The commandment "previously given" is D&C 78, from March 1, 1832, and this revelation came a little over a year after it, on March 15, 1833, in Kirtland. The earlier one told a group of men to "prepare and organize yourselves by a bond or everlasting covenant that cannot be broken" (D&C 78:11). So by the time Frederick shows up, the covenant is already there and already binding on the people in it. 92 doesn't rewrite any of that. It says there's one more chair at the table.

Church history books call this group the United Firm and the Doctrine and Covenants says united order, so I'll use both. The reason for it is back in D&C 78:3, which speaks of "an organization of my people, in regulating and establishing the affairs of the storehouse for the poor of my people." The group also ran printing and a store or two for the Church in those years, which is a good deal more ordinary than the phrase united order makes it sound. Somebody had to keep the books and somebody had to decide who got a seat when the work outgrew the people doing it, and apparently the Lord weighed in on that too.

What does it look like to receive somebody?

My brother Jonathan coaches wrestling at the high school in Layton where he teaches history. A couple of winters ago he called me from the car on the way home from practice, and the story came out in the order it had stuck with him. A sophomore named Tavita had transferred in the second week of January, mid-season, and he wrestled 145.

Jonathan told the team a new kid was coming before the kid was anywhere near the building. Whoever got Tavita as a drill partner was going to go the full round with him and not coast because he was new. Tavita would be wrestling 145 at Thursday's dual. When Tavita did walk in, Jonathan said maybe two sentences to him, mostly about when practice started. I asked him why he bothered with the room first and he said the new kid already knew he was the new kid.

What stuck with me was a senior who'd been on the team since freshman year and had lost his spot at 145 to Tavita, a quiet kid. Two weeks later he was the one drilling with him every day. Jonathan hadn't asked him for anything special. He'd said the thing about the full round to everybody, and the senior had apparently heard it as meant for him.

I don't know that D&C 92 was shaped like that on purpose and I wouldn't claim it. But verse 1 is the long speech to the people already inside while verse 2 is short, and I thought of the gray practice shirt Tavita got off the same stack as everyone else.

A lively member

Verse 2 turns to Frederick directly.

And again, I say unto you my servant Frederick G. Williams, you shall be a lively member in this order; and inasmuch as you are faithful in keeping all former commandments you shall be blessed forever. Amen.

Doctrine and Covenants 92:2

"Lively" is an old enough word that I wouldn't swear to every shade of it. I read it as active, a man who shows up and does the work and doesn't just sit on the roster, and the reference material I looked at reads it the same way. It's also close to how the same word works when you say it about a dog or a fire. Something is going on in there.

I tried it on a few sentences. A lively member of the ward choir is the one who's early and knows where the extra folders are, and a lively member of a firm that ran a store and a print shop would be the one who's there when the shipment comes in.

It holds up fine like that.

What strikes me more is the condition. "Inasmuch as you are faithful in keeping all former commandments." Frederick isn't handed a new list in verse 2. The promise attaches to the commandments he's already under, and the blessing, which is a large one, rests on a fairly small ask: keep what you were already given.

We know a few things about the man. He was a scribe to Joseph Smith, a counselor in the First Presidency and a physician to the Saints, and by most accounts one of the people Joseph trusted most. So he wasn't a stranger being vetted. The chapter doesn't say why a man in that position needed a revelation to be received into this particular order, and anything I offered you would be a guess. Some readers have guessed that he must have hesitated. Nothing in the two verses says so, and I'd leave that one alone.

The section right before this one, which I wrote about in D&C 91 and Dona Nair's Bible With the Extra Books, is also short and also easy to hurry past.

What I say unto one I say unto all

It's the shortest sentence in the chapter and I can't tell you with confidence how far it reaches. It comes at the end of a verse addressed to the order, so it reaches the order. Whether it reaches the rest of us, the way a lot of readers take it, is a reading and I don't have anything in the text to settle it.

D&C 82 is also addressed to the Firm and states a principle for it: "Every man seeking the interest of his neighbor, and doing all things with an eye single to the glory of God" (D&C 82:19). Read next to that, the receiving in 92 doesn't look much like a personnel decision. Frederick gets a seat and a set of obligations, and the men already seated get one of their own.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the united order in D&C 92 the same as the law of consecration?

No, though they're related and people mix them up all the time. The law of consecration was for members generally, who deeded property to the bishop and received a stewardship back. The united order of D&C 92 is the leadership group, which ran the storehouse and the printing and store business. And neither one is the same thing as the United Orders Brigham Young organized later, which came out of a different time and place.

Who was Frederick G. Williams?

A physician and a close associate of Joseph Smith. He served as scribe, as a counselor in the First Presidency and as a physician to the Saints in Ohio, Missouri and Illinois. He died in October 1842 in Quincy, Illinois.

What does "lively member" mean here?

I take it to mean an active member, someone doing the work and not holding a seat. That's my reading and the sources I checked agree with it, but verse 2 doesn't define the word and I wouldn't build much on it.

Why is D&C 92 so short?

I can't tell you. It gives one instruction to a group and one to a man, and then it stops. The revelations around it are longer because they cover more, and this one covers one thing.

Stop hurrying past the short chapters. Before you read the second verse of a two-verse section, work out who the first verse is talking to, and then see whether you were reading it as that person.

— D.