Eliza R. Snow: The Night of Her Baptism She Saw a Vision of a Lamp of Intelligence Lighted Over Her Path

Eliza Roxey Snow (January 21, 1804 – December 5, 1887) was born in Becket, Massachusetts, the daughter of Baptist parents and a descendant of Puritan New Englanders. She became one of the most celebrated poets of her era — her autograph album held the signatures of Queen Victoria, Charles Dickens, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Abraham Lincoln, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Victor Hugo, Susan B. Anthony, and others — before she ever joined the Church.

Eliza had yearned all her life for the spiritual gifts described in the Bible — tongues, prophecy, healing, revelation. When Joseph Smith visited her family's Ohio home in the winter of 1830–31, she investigated carefully and was baptized on April 5, 1835.

That night, she recorded what happened:

'I realized the baptism of the Spirit as sensibly as I did that of the water in the stream. I had retired to bed, and as I was reflecting on the wonderful events transpiring around me, I felt an indescribable, tangible sensation, if I may so call it, commencing at my head and enveloping my person and passing off at my feet, producing inexpressible happiness.'

Then she saw a vision:

'Immediately following, I saw a beautiful candle with an unusual long, bright blaze directly over my feet. I sought to know the interpretation, and received the following: The lamp of intelligence shall be lighted over your path.'

She wrote: 'I was satisfied.'

The vision proved prophetic. Eliza R. Snow went on to become the foremost literary voice of the Restoration — writing hundreds of hymns and poems that shaped LDS theology and worship, including 'O My Father' (1843), which introduced the doctrine of a Heavenly Mother into LDS consciousness and remains in the hymnbook to this day. She served as the second Relief Society General President from 1866 to 1887, reorganizing the sisterhood across the entire Church. She was also the older sister of Lorenzo Snow, the fifth President of the Church.