Samuel H. Smith's Secret Prayer in the Woods — The Lord Reveals the Truth to Him (1829)
Published October 4, 2026 at 4:28 AM
Contributed by
Times and Seasons Research
After hearing about the work of the Restoration from his brother Joseph, Samuel H. Smith retired to the woods to pray for personal guidance and received a revelation confirming the truth of the gospel, leading to his baptism.
Fuller account of this event (in the witness’s own words):
He was not however very easily persuaded of these things, but after much enquiry & explanaion, he retired to the woods, in order that by secret and fervent prayer he might obtain of a merciful God, wisdom to enable him to judge for himself. The result was that he obtained revelations for himself sufficient to convince him of the truth of our assertions to him, and on the fifteenth day of that same month in which we had been baptized and ordained, Oliver Cowdery baptized him; and he returned to his father’s house greatly glorifying and praising God, being filled with the Holy Spirit.
In Their Own Words
“He was not however very easily persuaded of these things, but after much enquiry & explanaion, he retired to the woods, in order that by secret and fervent prayer he might obtain of a merciful God, wisdom to enable him to judge for himself. The result was that he obtained revelations for himself sufficient to convince him of the truth of our assertions to him, and on the fifteenth day of that same month in which we had been baptized and ordained, Oliver Cowdery baptized him; and he returned to his father’s house greatly glorifying and praising God, being filled with the Holy Spirit. — Times and Seasons 3:19”
Sources & References
Times and Seasons (Commerce, later Nauvoo, Illinois, November 1839–February 1846), 1 August 1842 (Vol. 3, No. 19). https://archive.org/details/per_utah-and-the-mormons_times-and-seasons_1842-08-01_3_19 (account extracted verbatim from the issue's Internet Archive OCR text; research confidence: high) Fuller account: Times and Seasons, Vol. 3, No. 19 (1 August 1842) https://archive.org/details/per_utah-and-the-mormons_times-and-seasons_1842-08-01_3_19
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