The concept of gathering maybe one of the most-changed concepts in LDS belief. In D&C 29 the call to be “gathered in unto one place upon the face of this land” clearly refers to a physical gathering, where members of the church lived near each other. Later the number of places of gathering increased, and each place was called a ‘Stake.’ More recently, esp. beginning in the 20th Century, the concept of gathering became a spiritual idea—a gathering of people who have the same connection to God. Under this new definition each member ‘gathers’ by being baptized and making commitments, instead of physically moving from where the member was located to the gathering place. Of course, the door has not been completely shut on a physical gathering, at least not in our mythology, since many members still believe that we may soon be called to gather physically to Independence, Missouri.

Fortunately, enough of even our earliest poetry emphasizes the spiritual connections between members and God (as well as the Church), that its easy to find the gathering and its related concepts in poetry. And, for that matter, the idea of a physical gathering is one of the most frequent topics of early LDS poetry.

[Please note that I’ve changed slightly how I present these poems, putting a portion of the poem in bold that might be easily used in the Come Follow Me lesson, since reading the entire poem is usually not an option in most Sunday School classes.]

 

Heavenly Father has a plan for the salvation of His children

In a sense, the concept of gathering spiritually is a key part of the plan of salvation, since the end goal of the plan is to gather our Heavenly Father’s children to him again after learning from an Earthly experience. What is often missing in our concept of this spiritual gathering as part of the plan of salvation is the idea that we need to gather into groups that help and support their members to obtain salvation, as the following poem mentions. Like the concept of gathering, the pre-existence is a frequent topic in LDS poetry.

The following poem is by Edward H. Anderson (1858-1928), who was part of the corpus of journalists who ran local Utah periodicals and those owned by the Church around the turn of the 20th century. Born in Sweden, Anderson came to Utah as a child, becoming the editor of the Contributor (the semi-independent periodical for Young Men) in the 1880s and later editor of the Improvement Era (predecessor to The Ensign). He was also an author, producing an early biography of Brigham Young and later “A Brief History of the Church.” His poetry appeared frequently in LDS periodicals.

 

Pre-Existence

by Edward H. Anderson

“And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” – John xvii, 5.

Could I behold the life I left,

Once gaze on scenes I saw on high;

Or grasp the meaning of my life,

And analyze mortality;

See through the darkness of the past,

Behold the secrets of my birth;

And know again why God desired

My presence on this darkened earth;

Could I but feel the zeal of old,

When He revealed Salvation’s Plan

That caused hosannas from my lips

And raised to Gods the spirit man;

Or know how eagerly I prayed

That God would grant me leave to go

To gain a body and to learn

The secrets of his power to know;

And then behold in coming Time,

Or, rather, when Time is no more,

How I, if faithful, should obtain

Such gems and crowns as Father wore:

A God, enjoying all that is;

With power to make, with power to save,

Triumphant o’er intelligence

Victorious o’er the gaping grave;

If this I knew, how could I spend

My time in vice, in wicked ways?

Profane the Lord who granted this;

Thus lose the prize, and end my days?

How could I sin, how seek for joy

Among the things that fade and die?

And how devote my days to gain

The riches that take wings and fly?

Who knows but those who love on earth

Once loved in Heav’n, and promised there:

Together fell that they might rise,

“Each other’s pains and triumphs share?

Give answer thou, my soul, and say:

I left the world of Heav’nly bliss,

The friends I loved to call my own,

To suffer all the ills of this,

Because I saw the joys I had

Compared not with what was to gain.

Because I hoped for greater things,

I fell to rise, I’ll die to reign.

Let others seek for freedom here

Clasp close the pleasures of this earth,

I look for freedom, only when

I go to Him who gave me birth.

Help me, O Lord, on Thee rely,

On Thee depend for Comfort’s voice,

Faithful endure, pain, sorrow, death,

And then at length with Thee rejoice.

1883

 

Jesus Christ invites me to help gather His people before His Second Coming.

As expected, this topic in the lesson suggests a future gathering, while the D&C section is calling on the members of that time to gather physically right away. By 1868 the gathering place was in Utah, and “the power of steam” had made the move much easier than it had been and would soon do the same for travel throughout the state. Regardless, the call to gather converts to Utah continued through most of the rest of the century.

What’s particularly notable in the way this section is worded is the idea that each of us has a role to play in “gathering them out” from the world. The following poem by Emily Hill Woodmansee is addressed not just to missionaries, but also to the Church membership, and points out that gathering is not just a logistical effort, bringing individuals from one place to another, but also an economic effort, helping them out of poverty and to self-sufficiency. Woodmansee wants us to see (unlike the ideology so popular today) that those who are being gathered are NOT those who have means and who can make an immediate contribution, but the poor, needy and oppressed.

Woodmansee (1836-1906) was an English convert who immigrated and joined the Willie Handcart Company. After surviving that harrowing journey, she married fellow LDS English poet William G. Mills, who in a few years returned from a mission and left her and the Church. She then married Joseph Woodmanssee. All along this time she wrote and published poetry that appeared in LDS periodicals like the Millennial Star, the Deseret News and the Woman’s Exponent. Several of her poems have appeared in LDS hymnals, including the now well-known “As Sisters in Zion.”

 

Gather Them Out

by Emily H. Woodmansee

Gather them out, from the ends of the earth;

Gather them out, God’s chosen few;

Though they claim but little of wealth or worth,

Gather them out, the pure, the true.

 

Gather them out from oppression’s power,

From want and poverty’s grinding hand;

Gather them out, ’tis freedom’s hour!

Gather them out, ’tis God’s command!

 

Gather them out, the suffering poor,

Whom the love of the gospel maketh wise;

Who give of their humble scanty fare,

With willing hearts, for the truth they prize;

Whose lives, a burthen of ceaseless care,

To God is a dally sacrifice.

 

You, who are dwelling on freedom’s soil,

You, who are here, with comforts blest;

Give of the fruits of your honest toil,

And the promise of God by your bounty test;

 

Give of your means with a hearty will,

Little or much, it will help the right,

And prove if the Lord indeed will fill,

Your barns with blessings, your souls with light.

 

Give! and the needy shall shout for joy!

“The lame shall leap and the dumb shall sing”

As they come from the lands and the isles afar,

To “the sought out city” of Zion’s King.

 

To the land of Zion, the poor shall haste,

With ease and freedom unknown before;

For the dreary distance of desert wastes—

The power of steam shall have triumphed o’er.

 

And thus shall the meek, and the poor oppressed—

Rejoicing come on the King’s Highway!

And science, shall thus be made to bless—

And speed the work of the Latter Day.

1868

 

“All things unto me are spiritual.”

As we think of the gathering as something spiritual, we might gain understanding when we come across the statement later in verse 34 of section 29 that all things are spiritual. If that is true, then how do we parse the gathering into something physical or something spiritual? If there isn’t really any difference between the two, then has this concept actually changed?

Maybe the idea of physically gathering is actually about spiritually gathering after all. Given the communication issues of the 1830s and 1840s, and the relatively small size of church membership, physical gathering seems necessary while it seems much less so today. On the other hand, the human need for physical in person connections (made plain recently during the pandemic) argues that there may still be a place for physical gathering.

And then we could put these concepts in an eternal perspective, and find that our thinking about the concept of gathering might be still more different than we thought. In the following poem (a slightly different version of which is our well-known hymn), William W. Phelps suggests that in the eternal world there isn’t any end—to anything. What does it mean when there is no end to space? Does that mean gathering is even more important? Is there an end to gathering?

 

Hymn

By William W. Phelps

If you could hie to Kolob

In the twinkling of an eye-

And then continue onward

With that same speed to fly :

 

D’ye think that you could even

Through all eternity,

Find out the generation

Where Gods began to be?

 

Or see the grand beginning

Where space did not extend?

Or view the last creation

Where God and matter end?

 

Methinks the Spirit whispers-

No man has found pure space,

Nor seen the outside curtains

Where nothing has a place.

 

The works of God continue,

And worlds and lives abound;

Improvement and Progression

Have one eternal round.

 

There is no end to matter,

There is no end to space,

There is no end to spirit,

There is no end to race.

 

There is no end to virtue,

There is no end to might,

There is no end to wisdom,

There is no end to light.

 

There is no end to union,

There is no end to youth,

There is no end to Priesthood,

There is no end to truth.

 

There is no end to glory,

There is no end to love,

There is no end to being,

Grim death sleeps not above.

1857

 

Jesus Christ redeems us from the Fall.

Given all the questions about the role of the gathering, physical or spiritual, does it actually matter for our personal efforts to become more like our Heavenly Father? If we gather, what relationship does doing so have with Christ’s atonement and our salvation?

Near the end of section 29 lies a discussion of the atonement, put in the context of the Garden of Eden and the Plan of Salvation. This discussion focuses on Adam and Eve being cast out of the Garden, becoming in the process “spiritually dead.” It is to rescue them from this ‘spiritual death’, to gather them again to Him that the atonement is needed. You might say then that the atonement itself is an act of gathering.

Charles W. Stayner (1840-1899) tells the story of the atonement in the following poem, which he called “A Christmas Poem.” An English convert who immigrated to Utah as a child, Stayner was active in the intellectual life of the state. He served an LDS mission to England, where he was an editor of the Millennial Star. He trained Orson F. Whitney as his successor as editor, and after his return from England was suggested to Pres. Lorenzo Snow as a potential Apostle, except for some unorthodox beliefs he held about reincarnation and other subjects. This poem appeared in The Contributor.

 

A Christmas Poem

by Charles W. Stayner

Down from the realms of Glorious Light,

Fulfilling God’s decree,-

For ’twas decree in council giv’n,

That one should leave His throne in Heav’n

To die for all,-

He came-Creator, Savior, Lord,-

According to the sacred word

Revealed at time of Adam’s fall,

In mortal state midst worldly night,

To shine by deeds with splendor bright.

The earth forewarned by prophet’s voice,

Prepares her mission to fulfil;

Her wise men coming from the east

Refuse to do fierce Herod’s will,

But save the Son of God’s own choice

Who blessing brings.

For Moses-like this Prophet lay

In danger from desire to slay

In breasts of kings,

Whose jealous wrath ne’er yet forgave

Prophetic rival born to save.

O, happy highborn, Heavenly plan,

That gave this priceless gift to man!

That sent Jehovah from above,

Where filled with love,

The seraphs and angelic hosts

All homage pay,

To God whose Glory fadeth not away;

That thus the law of consecration shown,

He might by sacrifice redeem His own!

He whom ’twere Heaven to obey,

Whose mighty call from chaos brought the earth,

Who shone in sun, and made the moon and stars,

And sent creation forth;

Who spake in Eden with command,

Revealing pow’r of God’s right hand,-

The Father’s Representative.

‘Tis He who now in manger lain,

Deprived of judgment, destined to be slain,

Fulfils the Father’s heavenly decree,

And makes the world His great salvation see.

Thus did the Gods who in the heavens dwell,

Promote salvation where weak mortals fell,

And glory gain.

Descending low from His exalted state,

Christ drew manking so near to Heaven’s gate,

That, filled with holy thought man may aspire

To change from flesh, to a “consuming fire.”

And like the Lord great righteousness portray,

By walking in “the strait and narrow way;”

And through eternal deeds of Godly worth

Send sweet salvation forth to men on earth.

What love like His can mortal man ere find?

To sacrifice His life for Adam’s kind

Were but a part of what to Christ was dross,

Compared with soul-salvation through the cross.

Emblem indeed, thou art, accursed tree,

Of what a Savior’s work must surely be!

For all the glory which to Him pertained

In yon bright world where Jesus lived and reigned,

Was willing laid upon the altar of His love,

That man might rise to share the thrones above.

And all He asked in recompense for this,

Was simple restoration to the world of bliss.

He prayed-“O Father, glorify thou me

With the glory which I had with Thee

Before the world was.”

To stand again as second in command,-

The Word, the Mediator at God’s right hand,-

This was to Him who triumphed o’er the grave,

Sufficient glory. His SALVATION WAS TO SAVE.

1887