D&C 53

Section 53 was given through Joseph Smith to Algernon Sidney Gilbert, who is apparently a really great guy, faithful and interesting. The IM gives the background information as follows: “He was then the senior partner in the successful mercantile firm of Gilbert and Whitney in Kirtland, Ohio. Sometime after he joined the Church, he was ordained an elder and sent to Missouri to buy land and operate a small store. When mob violence broke loose, Sidney Gilbert closed his store upon request and helped appease the mob temporarily. On 23 July 1833 he, with others, offered himself as a ransom for the Saints. He was a devoted and faithful and sacrificed all of his goods during the persecutions in Missouri. He lacked confidence in his ability to preach, however, and, according to some reports, he said he ‘would rather die than go forth to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles.’ Ironically, he later contracted cholera and died. Heber C. Kimball recorded in his journal that ‘the Lord took him at his word.’” I think that this is interesting because I’m pretty certain that he is preaching the gospel right now in the spirit world, so just because he didn’t want to preach in this life to the “gentiles” that doesn’t mean that he’s not doing it now. And I’m pretty confident that the Lord, if it was his will that publically preaching be overcome in this life, the command would have been issued and the way prepared, because really, there are many things in my life that I don’t want to do, and the Lord in his wisdom sees to it that I break through many of those barriers in this life, I don’t think that it really would have been issue. The IM also says, “his feelings of inadequacy in preaching the gospel prevented him from fully responding to the call. There is, however, an account of his successful missionary labors among his friends and family in Huntington, Connecticut.”  The IM continues, “Elder B. H. Roberts wrote of Brother Gilbert, ‘The remarks in the body of the history, and this expression form Elder Kimball’s journal are liable to create a misunderstanding concerning Brother Algernon Sidney Gilbert, than whom the Lord has had few devoted servants in this dispensation.’ Joseph Smith received section 53 in answer to the request of Sidney Gilbert, who desired to know what he was to do in the Church. The revelation came during a time of great excitement. A spiritual conference had ended, and many were assigned to go to Missouri and there receive further instructions from the Lord. In this revelation Algernon Sidney Gilbert was also called to go to Missouri and help with the work there as the bishop’s agent over the storehouse.” DJR also gives an example of Sidney Gilbert’s generosity by quoting Parley P. Pratt as saying, “I next called on Sidney A. Gilbert, a merchant, then sojourning in the village of Liberty- his store in Jackson County having been broken up, and his goods plundered and destroyed by the mob. ‘Well,’ says he, ‘brother Parley, you certainly look too shabby to start a journey; you must have a new suit; I have got some remnants left that will make you a coat.’ Etc. A neighboring tailoress and two or three other sisters happened to be present on a visit, and hearing the conversation, exclaimed, ‘Yes, brother Gilbert, you find the stuff and we’ll make it up for him.’ This arranged, I now lacked only a cloak; this was also furnished by brother Gilbert.”

53:1-7 - The Lord begins here by introducing himself, which DJR reminds us is “a sweet reminder that the Savior is humble and personable, as described by Moroni in Ether 12:39.” The Lord assures Sidney Gilbert that he has “heard your prayers; and you have called upon me that it should be made known unto you, of the Lord your God, concerning your calling and election… Behold, I, the Lord, who was crucified for the sins of the world, give unto you a commandment that you shall forsake the world.” The IM comments, “The phrase ‘forsake the world’ is the commandment given to those who have entered into a covenant relationship with the Lord. They are to forsake the standards and habits of the apostate world. President George Q. Cannon taught: ‘We need to be born again, and have new hearts put in us. There is too much of the old leaven about us. We are not born again as we should be. Do you not believe that we ought to be born again? Do you not believe that we should become new creatures in Christ Jesus, under the influence of the Gospel? All will say, yes, who understand the Gospel. You must be born again. You must have new desires, new hearts, so to speak, in you. But what do we see? We see men following the ways of the world just as much as though they made no pretentions to being Latter-day Saints. Hundreds of people who are called Latter- day Saints you could not distinguish from the world. They have the same desires, the same feelings, the same aspirations, the same passions as the rest of the world. Is this how God wants us to be? No; He wants us to have new hearts, new desires. He wants us to be a changed people when we embrace His Gospel, and to be animated by entirely new motives, and have a faith that will lay hold of the promises of God.’” Sidney Gilbert is commanded to “take upon you mine ordination, even that of an elder, to preach faith and repentance and remission of sins, according to my word, and the reception of the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands.” He is commanded to be an “agent unto this church” and to go with Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon to Missouri. He’s told to receive “the first ordinances” and “the residue shall be made known in a time to come.” I can’t help but think that maybe the Lord is referring to his missionary labors in the spirit world. This is a really short revelation, and Sidney Gilbert was a man who was fraught with feelings of inadequacy, like we all are, but I think that this is an excellent example that the Lord will make us all that we all him to make us. I think that this is an excellent example of a man who wasn’t given super specific instructions, preach, make and keep covenants, and to “forsake the world.” He wasn’t visited by angels, he wasn’t miraculously cured of illness or shortcomings, he’s basically just like the rest of us, given generalized instructions and let to work out his own salvation according to his own agency. He’s an excellent example of a man who was made great by yielding to the will of the Lord and the enticing of the Holy Ghost. He didn’t have a burning bush experience, but he chose to give 100% to what he was commanded, and that is what opened him up to becoming great. That’s the hope for all of us, we don’t have to be prophets, we don’t have to be ministered to by angels, we don’t have to have patriarchal blessings that are 10 pages long. Our lives are what we make of it and the Lord will take us as far into eternity as we will allow him.