Audible Divine Communication

Richard Smith's revelation to visit and baptize a man in Cronkamona

Published October 23, 2026 at 9:11 AM

Contributed by

Millennial Star Research

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While serving as a missionary on the Isle of Man, Richard Smith heard a voice in the night instructing him to go to a place called Cronkamona to find a specific man whose previous religious actions were not accepted by the Lord. Smith followed the promptings, found the man, and confirmed through the Spirit that he was the person he was sent to find. The man revealed that he had been seeking baptism by immersion for the remission of sins but could not find a minister who agreed with him, so he had attempted to baptize himself in the sea. Smith subsequently baptized him properly.

In Their Own Words

“That night, as the missionary lay upon his bed, he heard a voice saying to him: 'Arise and go to Cronkamona, to a man there, and tell him that that which he has done the Lord has not received, but that you have authority to baptize him for the remission of his sins.'... As he did so, the Spirit of the Lord said to the missionary : 'That is the man to whom you have been sent.'... The young man was dumbfounded. He gazed at the missionary in utter astonishment. Then he said : 'I know that you are a true servant of God, for no one knows what I have done save the Lord and myself. I took issue with you to-day on water baptism in order to draw out all the information you had on the subject. My belief concerning baptism is just the same as yours: I believe the ordinance should be performed by immersion, and that it was instituted for the remission of sins, but being unable to find a minister on the island who believes in baptism as I do, last evening I went down to the sea and baptized myself.' — Millennial Star 83:28”

Sources & References

The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star (Manchester, later Liverpool, England, May 1840–1970), Vol. 83, No. 28 (1921). https://archive.org/details/millennialstar8328eng (account extracted verbatim from the issue's Internet Archive OCR text; research confidence: high)

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