Crandall Printing Museum

Last week I got to go to the Crandall Printing Museum here in Provo. The Museum is run by a handful of old, retired printers, who learned their trade as boys early in this century. They have developed this museum to give modern web-surfers a feel for the heritage of the technology we now enjoy.
They had a working replica of a Gutenberg press that was pretty cool. They had a set of type that was an identical replica of Gutenberg’s type. They had set the press with the first two pages of the Latin bible, exactly as Gutenberg had it. The hand type caster was particularly cool to me. It was a small device that Gutenberg used to mass produce type. I have always known basically what a printing press was and how it worked, but I never thought about the fact that you would need so many of each letter. In order to set each page, a printer would need dozens of each letter and symbol. And at that time, there was no foundry that could cast the type. The hand type caster allowed them to make their own type, the first ever set of which was in Latin.
Another thing that amazed me was how long it must have taken to set the type. All we ever hear about the printing press is how fast and efficient it was, and how it opened the flood-gate of information to Europe. Well, it must have been a very arduous job bending over the type case in a dim printer’s shop looking for p’s and q’s. Of course all of the type had to be set upside down and backward so that it would print properly. I used to think that the type setters must just be good at reading the imprints on the type upside down, and had got used to how to position them. Fortunately for them, they were a lot more resourceful than that. They had all the type sorted into cases. One box for every letter. The capital letters were held in the upper case and the small letters were in a lower case. The case was labeled so that all a type setter had to do was reach into the ‘p’ cubby and grab a letter. The type were cleverly cast with a notch on one side, so that the type setter simply had to line up the notches, and voila, the type was set upside down and backwards.
Also in the print museum they had a replica of one of the presses that Benjamin Franklin had (the one on which he printed Poor Richard’s almanac). Franklin was surely a brilliant man. He was knowledgeable in every field known to man at the time. And he was proactive in spreading his knowledge and ideas to others. They also had a replica of the press that was used to print the first edition of the Book of Mormon. The circumstances that surround that printing were truly miraculous. The Erie canal had been finished just in time to bring this state-of-the-art ‘acorn’ press to the small town of Palmyra New York. Joseph smith asked EB Grandin to print 5,000 copies, large book printings at the time were usually around 500. The whole project (type setting, printing, and binding) completed in seven months. (See this article for more information) They printed one booklet of the first 16 pages of the original setting of the Book of Mormon. I recommend the museum to everyone.

A Woman of God

As God continued to reveal principles to Joseph Smith, about how the church should be established, One revelation is particularly meaningful to me. Section 25 is a revelation directed to Emma Smith, Joseph’s wife. God revealed this revelation through the prophet in July of 1830.
Emma Smith must have had a singular perspective of the restoration of the gospel. She likely knew the prophet’s personality better than anyone on earth. They lived together; they worked together; they had children together. She knew his virtues and his faults. In some ways it would be hardest for her to accept that this man whom she knew so intimately was a prophet of the Lord.
At the same time, it must have been difficult for her to be so near, but not involved with all of the spiritual experiences that Joseph had. She never saw the gold plates. She wasn’t their when Jesus Christ came to Joseph and other apostles in the Kirtland Temple. In this revelation the Lord outlines her callings and responsibilities, and promises her blessings.
The first calling mentioned specifically is that she is to comfort her husband, Joseph, in the spirit of meekness. Now, from a 21st century perspective, this assignment might seem sexist: The woman is merely auxiliary to the man. That is not what God is saying. First, not everyone can be the prophet. We all have different assignments none of which is more honorable or valuable than another. (Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians 12.) And who better to have the assignment to comfort the prophet in his afflictions than the woman who loves him so affectionately?
Second, “the spirit of meekness” is not a consignment to weak submission. Remember it was Christ, the King of kings who said “I am meek and lowly in heart. “(Matt 11:29) It was He, the Creator of the universe who comforted his friends in their afflictions (See John 11). It is also important to recognize that Joseph is commanded in verse 9 to support Emma in the church.
The assignments that the Lord gives to Emma in this revelation grand and noble. She is promised that she will receive an inheritance. Women at this time couldn’t own property, let alone inherit it. (Remember Jesus’ promise that the meek will inherit the earth.) She is named an elect lady called by God. God calls her to work as a scribe during the translation of the Book of Mormon. He tells her that she will be ordained to expound the scriptures and to exhort the church as she is guided by the Holy Ghost. This is an especially empowering assignment as many Christian churches in that day didn’t even allow women to speak in church meetings, let alone reveal divine instruction.
Emma is commanded, or rather blessed, that her “time shall be given to writing, and to learning much.” I plan to marry a woman that has this same gift from God. She is commanded to “Lay aside the things of this world, and seek for the things of a better.” Through the coming years of persecution for the church, she does in fact lose almost every worldly possession. She is assigned to compile hymn book for the church. I still sing hymns that Emma collected in obedience to this divine injunction. Finally God commands her: “Let thy soul delight in thy husband and the glory which shall come upon him.” Conditional on this assignment is the final promised blessing – the greatest of all the gifts of God .
“Keep my commandments continually, and a crown of righteousness thou shalt receive.“ She will rule and reign with God forever.

Articles and Covenants

Section 20 of the Doctrine and Covenants is very important in the development of the church. Up until this point, the revelations received by Joseph Smith discuss the marvelous work and wonder- the translation of the Book of Mormon. Sections 19 and 20 reveal other doctrines that are important to the gospel and the growing church. In Section 19, Jesus recounts his suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane and asks us to use that sacrifice by having faith, repenting, being baptized and following the guidance of the Holy Ghost. In Section 20, the Lord recalls the brief history of the restored church, and explains the basic principles of operation in the church. In the latter part of the section, He outlines the duties of various offices of the church, and how certain priesthood ordinances should be performed. How should a person be baptized? How does a priest properly administer the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper? These are questions that religionists had wrestled with for years. But now that there was a prophet of God on the earth, the Lord could reveal his divine direction. Section 20 is the earliest version of the handbook of instructions for the church. Before any revelations were published, elders who were serving as missionaries would take hand-written copies of Section 20 with them on their missions. They needed these directions as they taught the gospel and established the church in other cities, states, and countries.