[234] Chapter 14 Ordination   “As we read the Bible we note that Moses prayed, ‘O Lord, why didst thou cumber me with this people?’” - Honor or Responsibility.   So it cam about that my husband had not entirely finished the last phase of his preparation before he was called enter fully into the work toward which he had looked for many years.   His choice as his father’s successor had been indicated by Joseph Smith many years before, and the idea that Frederick was to become president at his father’s death was well understood and unquestionably accepted throughout the church. Officially however, it was necessary that the sanction of the General Conference be given to his selection, and in the interim the two remaining members of the presidency were sustained by the leading council of the church [235] in a meeting shortly after the former leader’s death and before my husband returned to Worcester.   When the conference convened in April, however, Mr. Smith was not entirely recovered from a case of pneumonia which had followed a sever cold. I always attributed his illness to the fact that I had not been with him the Sunday night before when he spoke at the church in Philadelphia to make him put on his heavy coat when he went out into the night air after his exertions. A few days before we were to have left for Independence, I remember we stopped at the station in Worcester to greet a delegation of our church people from Boston who were already on their way to the conventions. As the special car passed through I recall the picture of Frederick leaning a little wearily against a pillar on the platform telling one or another of his friends that he would be along in a few days.   The next day I happened to be talking with the physician who had attended Lois in a slight illness. He said: “How is your husband getting along?”   I answered: “Not well. He seems very weak and listless and I suspect he has some fever though he will not let me take his {236] temperature. I worry about him, Doctor Rockwell. He is unlike himself.”   “You go right home and take that man’s temperature, and telephone to me immediately,” he boomed out in his big commanding voice. “I am not around looking for cases, but I rather think I have one.” Naturally I was frightened, and when I told him Mr. Smith’s temperature and he exclaimed gruffly, “I’ll be right out,” I became even more anxious.   His gruffness had entirely disappeared, however, when he got to the house half an hour later. He and Mr. Smith had a good visit, and the doctor casually examined him and persuaded him to go to bed.   “All right,” said Frederick, “but you’ll have to get me up by Saturday for I have reservations to go West.”   “Mrs. Smith,” said the doctor when we left him, “your husband will not go West Saturday; neither can I tell you whether he will be dead or alive at the end of twelve days. But if anyone can save him it is you.”   I gasped: “I am no nurse.”   “We have been talking lately,” he went on, “and we have commented on the fact that ninety-seven per cent of the pneumonia cases in Worcester this winter have be fatal. If he knows he is in for another case [237] of pneumonia, the psychological effect will be serious. If I get a nurse with a white uniform he will collapse. I have seen these cases before. You will have to take care of him yourself.”   I am no nurse, but I watched by him during those restless nights, and when he slept I walked the floor with clenched fists, saying to myself: “My mother has stood it> Other women have given up their husbands. I too must be ready!”   I remember how I had to divide his splendid two-hundred and forty pound body into sections for the alcohol rubs, not being strong enough to complete it all at once, and the endless yards of cheese cloth which had to be cut for soft cloths. But we got on some way, and I sang, told him an occasional joke and read David Harum and Conan Doyle stories, my husband’s favorites in the realm of fiction, until I was too hoarse almost to speak.   The war in Europe was in its first year, and as I read the daily paper to my husband I carefully avoided the news of the conflict in which as a student of international law and diplomatic relations besides his general interest in affairs he had become deeply interested. I skipped that, and confined myself to lighter matters. Then he would [238] laugh at me for reading him suffrage news and fashion hints, but it is only because I never could abide the sports and comic he always turns to first when the paper is handed to him.   By this time the conference in Lamoni was is session, and after consulting my husband during some of his quieter moments, I sent a telegram to Fred’s cousin, Elbert A. Smith, the second counselor, explaining his absence and extending to his people a suitable greeting.   Elbert, who has been my husband’s closest associate since his ordination as counselor to the president of the church and for some years before, is an able writer of prose and poetry and a brilliant pulpit orator, with such an abundance of genuine mother-wit that he has become on of the best known and most loved of the general church officers.   This last named quality is so outstanding that among his most intimate associates it is quite the custom to begin a conversation with, “Have you heard Elbert’s latest?”   Nor story I think has ever been told of him that is more characteristic than his account of how the little branch in Colorado Springs once elected him deacon. The lowest order of priesthood in the financial arm of the [239] church is held by the deacon of the branch who in addition to being a secondary financial agent has charge of the church property, and in many of the smaller branches attends to the task of keeping the building and grounds in order. Elbert and his family were in the Spring one winter, when some member of the branch suggested that Brother Elbert be made the deacon. The branch approved and Elbert, who was then already a member of the Lamoni Stake High Council, faithfully swept out and heated the little building and ushered and preached on Sundays during his stay. “It is good to act as a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord.” He says, to which explanation he usually adds the whimsically true statement that “a deacon in Colorado Springs is higher up than a member of the presidency in the Missouri Valley.”   It was a great trial to Mr. Smith not to have been present at that conference, for at the first session his people unanimously accepted him as their president, and it would have been the most logical time for him to have begun his long contemplated plans into operation.   I remember when I told him of his unanimous acceptance he smiled wanly, and said, “That is the first time I ever remember of [240] getting a unanimous vote, and I presume it will be the last time until they vote me out.”   He laughed, I remember, but his eyes were wistful. He has never complained of the lack of understanding or appreciation which is the part of any leader such as he. He plods on as impervious to undeserved blame as to flattery, and yet I cannot but know how deeply he has felt at times the lack of gratitude and sympathy which seems to be one of the adjuncts of great responsibility.   I sent daily bulletins of his condition to the assembled conference, and in return we were assured that his people were thinking of him and praying for his recovery. I doubt if they have very realized how largely the knowledge of their prayers for him in his extremity helped to sustain him in his hours of suffering and depression. He has always held the more spiritual of his emotional experiences too sacred to share except with the one who he loved and trusted most. And I do not believe that without this assurance of their dependence on him and their willingness to support him, I should have taken on myself the responsibility of bringing to him the messages of other import which came to him during this conference, for though every effort was made to postpone business of the greatest importance [241] until a later session when the new president should be there to direct, certain issues were introduced which demanded his decision.   Sometimes I resented these urgent calls for help directed to one so little able to give of his failing strength. I told Alice once that if I were to have wired them of his death I suppose those business messages would have come right along.   But for the sake of the church he would have me jeopardize even his life itself - of such stuff are prophets made. I watched his temperature hourly, and when I found it at the lowest point, gave him the messages which came from headquarters and helped him to frame the replies, which coming from his sick room as they did, were unhesitating in their constructive conservatism, urging the necessary measures and averting impeding difficulties.   As he recovered slowly from his illness we were at last able to send word that he would soon be home, and the date for the ordination which had been provided for by the conference was set. The physician, however, insisted that Mr. Smith should not go back into the rainy spring weather of the Middle West unless I went with him.   “If your husband doesn’t take the proper care of himself (and he doesn’t seem to know [242] how to unless you are along) he might not get any farther then Chicago. He must not have a relapse. So you see how important it is that you go with him to see that he wears his rubbers.”   I was frightened of course and arranged quickly for the long, hard trip. We stopped a sort time with my family in Lamoni and to rest from traveling, and then went on to Independence for the ordination ceremony and a visit to my own home since we were to return to Worcester. Nor did I neglect the duty for which I had come. No sooner would one of the Missouri downpours start than I would call the office and threaten Newton with his life if he didn’t keep Frederick in until after the storm had cleared even if he had to lock him in, and as for rubbers, I doubt if the dear man stirred out of the house once without my running after him with the essential galoshes.   The ordination of Frederick Madison Smith to the position of president and prophet of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was a ceremony of peculiar and touching beauty to me As I sat in the crowded auditorium and looked about me I saw there the men who had been associated with the work from earlier days, They had seen “Brother Joseph” live and [243] work and die a public servant, a beloved leader. Tears masked their eyes as they saw his son, so like him, about to receive the ordination which was to make him the successor. There were younger men, alert and eager, who had recently accepted important positions or were in preparation for them, who awaited with loyalty and confidence the coming of the new leader. There were the people, too, old friends who had loved us, and others whom we did not know; not the people alone, but with their children, whom they had brought to see one of the significant events in the history of the church. This wish of the people to be about him at his assumption of such solemn responsibility was a little trying to my husband. He would have preferred, he said, that the ceremony should have been both simple and quiet. But he felt that perhaps he owed it to them.   In the ordination prayer, portions of which follow, Apostle Gomer T. Griffiths, president of the Quorum of Twelve, was spokesman, assisted by Apostle Peter Anderson, Joseph A. Tanner, president of the Quorum of High Priests and Bishop E. L. Kelley, President of the Aaronic Priesthood.   “Almighty God, who dwells in the heavens above, we thy servants entreat thee in the name of thine only begotten Son to breathe upon us [244] the spirit of our office and calling as we officiate in this holy ordinance, that we may give utterance to those things that will please thee, O God.   “Brother Frederick Madison Smith, the Lord our God, has designated through the late prophet, thy father, that when he should be overtaken by the hand of death, thou shouldst succeed him in the presidency of the holy priesthood and the Church of God here on earth. The late General Conference has approved and indorsed the selection that has been made by our heavenly Father and directed this ordination. Therefore, we thy fellow-servants and authorized minister of Jesus Christ, impose our hand upon thy head and through this holy ordinance of laying on of hands we separate thee and ordain thee president of the high priesthood which is after the order of Melchisdec, and we ordain thee president of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We ask God, our eternal Father, to confer upon thee through this sacred ordinance, the special gifts that he bestows upon the one who is president of this Melchisedec Priesthood, even that of a translator, revelator, seer, and prophet, and all the gifts, blessings, and powers that God bestows upon the head of the church; because that through this ordination you are now called to be the presiding elder over all the Church of God on earth.   “And we ask God, the eternal Father, that inasmuch as this responsibility is great that is now placed upon thee, that thou mayest have power given unto thee to perform the functions and the duties thereof with an eye single to the [245] glory of the great God, in the interests of the great church over which thou are called to preside.   “And I say unto thee in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that the God of thy fathers will be with thee, and he will enlighten they mind, and he will quicken thine understanding and increase and develop thine intellectual powers and forces; and he will give unto thee special gifts, even that of eloquence, and thou shalt be a leader in Israel; for thou shalt have power in the church with thy brethren. But remember, brother, thou shalt have trial; thy heart will be made sad and sorrowful because of false brethren; thou wilt have enemies within and foes without, but the God that has watched over those who have occupied in this holy office in ages past, will be with thee. And brother, be humble in thy heart; be meek and lowly, and put thy trust in God who has called thee to this holy position, because he has watched over thee since thou was born into this world, and he has raised thee up for a wise purpose, and he well be with thee, and thou shalt feel his power resting upon thee, and he will comfort thy heart in the hour of trouble and the time of distress.   “Thy mind will often be perplexed. Many things will arise in days to come that will try sorely, but our Father in heaven will be with thee and he will strengthen thee in the inner man. And we ask God, the eternal Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, to make thee well, every whit from the crown of thy head to the sole of thy feet, that thou mayest be made strong and qualified and fitted in very respect for [246] these duties and the great obligations that are now placed upon thee.   “And I feel to say unto thee, dear brother, that thy companion shall be a comfort to thee, and in the hour of distress and sorrow, she, by the power of God operating upon her mind, will speak words of comfort to thy heart and cheer to thy drooping spirits; and therefore, thou shalt give heed to her when she shall come to thee under the power and influence of the Holy Spirit.   “’Mine angels will be round about thee and they will protect thee, and the hand that is raised against thee shall not prosper.’   “Thou shalt stand as a mighty man in the world, and even those outside of the church will look upon thee as a great man in the world; if thou are humble God will operate upon thy mind and heart, and thou shalt speak as one honored of God. And as the Lord said unto Joshua who succeeded Moses as a leader over Israel, so I say unto thee; Be strong and of good courage; keep thy hand in the hand of God and he will lead thee safely on.   “And may the love of God abound in thy heart, and that peace of God that no man can give be with thee, that at last it may be said unto thee, ‘Come unto me and I will give thee that reward that I give to those who have been faithful to their trust.’ And thou shalt stand with those who have been faithful to their trust.’ And thou shalt stand with those who have been faithful to their trust.’ And thou shalt stand with those who have gone before - the patriarchs, apostles, and prophets who have been faithful in their trust. Thou shalt stand with them in the world to come. Amen.”   Though his preparation had been a long [247] one, and for many years the responsibility of his father’s office had been his to a great extent, he told me that with his father’s death he seemed to feel the weight of this responsibility more, to feel that he no longer had one who could say the final word or give the sound advice which ripe experience as a leader enables on to give. Now much rested with him alone. He has always appreciated the advice and counsel of the men who worked with him, for it has been his custom besides the official collaborations to ask the opinions not only of those immediately surrounding him but of those whose judgment he values throughout the entire church, and he has always believed in what he calls pervasive revelation; the possibility of the inspiration and direction of a group as well as an individual.   He has given instances of when his councils were in the greatest disagreement, how by putting themselves into the spirit of humility and willingness to cooperate, their action took on suddenly a peculiar unanimity, each member being willing to compromise and the judgment of the whole arrived at in this way en masse. But with his father’s death he felt besides the natural grief of a man who loses a good father and friend, the [248] sense of the greatness of responsibility that was his.   In a statement which Mr. Smith made for the press at the time of his father’s death, he himself expressed his attitude toward his future position in these words:   “My vision of the work of the church grows brighter, broader; and even before the passing of our late venerable President, I felt my period of preparation was drawing to a close. Reluctantly, I assumed the responsibility of a counselor, and it is with trembling that I see the near advent of the time when the church may expect me to take upon my shoulders already heavily loaded a greater weight of responsibility. Duty has been a relentless taskmaster - May God help me!” Even as Moses, he felt the burden greater than the honor.   But with this added responsibility those who have watched his development most closely have realized that there has come to him an added power also, a force of initiative, a power of persuasion, an ability to urge. It is as if they have come increasingly to feel, as I felt in his illness when the word had first come to him that the General Conference had accepted him as its President, that “the mantle of his Father has fallen upon him.” Previous Chapter (13) Next Chapter (15) Frederick Madison Smith page Who was Who