Joseph Smith’s First Prayer is a hymn unique to the Christian faith tradition of Latter-day Saints. 

For members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS), springtime has special significance, particularly springtime in Palmyra, New York.  This small town and village twenty miles southeast of Rochester on the Erie Canal had a crucial role in the history of the church. 

Created in 1789, Palmyra played a part in the westward expansion of the United States and was a land of opportunity for the family of Joseph Smith, Sr. when he, his wife, Lucy, and their children arrived there from Vermont about 1815, nearly penniless. 

Anticipation of the 1817 decision by the New York legislature to build the Erie Canal brought added prosperity to the area.  The Smith family gradually improved their circumstances through the efforts of the entire family, and after two years of labor in town purchased 100 acres of unimproved land, mostly timber, two miles south of Palmyra on the Manchester town line.  Here they worked hard to establish a farm.

The Smiths were a devout Christian family and were affected by the religious revivals and fervor of the time.  Experiences with the churches of Palmyra and the area led the third son, Joseph, Jr., to ponder and study the Bible, and then at the age of fourteen, to act on the admonition given by James in the New Testament to ask God for wisdom.

The text of the hymn, Joseph Smith’s First Prayer, is a poetic summation of Joseph’s own account of the events of the spring morning in 1820 when he entered a grove of trees on the family farm to ask God which church was right.

Joseph’s prayer was answered in a most historic and extraordinary way.  The text of the hymn refers to essential truths he learned that day:  God the Father and his son, Jesus Christ, are real, they live and are separate personages with glorified tangible bodies (While appeared two heavenly beings…), they love us and know our names (Joseph, this is my beloved…); the heavens are not closed, prayers are heard and answered (Joseph’s humble prayer was answered…); Satan is real and powerful, though unseen (When the powers of sin assailing…); God the Father, through Jesus Christ, calls the weak and simple to do important work in His service in modern times as well as in ancient times (...And he listened to the Lord.)

Nearly sixty years after this event, a young man, George Manwaring, a member of the church later established by the Lord through Joseph Smith, Jr., was traveling as a music salesman and entered the studio of the artist C. C. A. Christiansen in Ephraim, Utah.  He was shown a newly finished painting of God the Father and the Son, Jesus Christ, appearing to young Joseph.  The visual image made such an impression on the young poet that he was immediately inspired and began work on the text we enjoy today.  George Manwaring’s familiarity with Joseph’s account of his vision is evident.  It is believed that the final version of the text was influenced by the editors of its first publisher.

It is said that George Manwaring collaborated with A.C. Smyth on the music, which began with a familiar tune by Sylvanus Billings Pond, and was supplemented with music by Professor Smyth.  The piece is believed to have been first performed in George Manwaring’s own congregation, the LDS Salt Lake City Fourteenth Ward, and was first published in 1878 in the LDS Sunday School magazine, The Juvenile Instructor.

It appeared in the 1909 edition of Deseret Sunday School Songs and the 1948 (1950) edition of Hymns, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Hymnal) with the title, “O How Lovely Was the Morning.”

In the current 1985 edition of the LDS Hymnal, the title was revised to “Joseph Smith’s First Prayer,” to more clearly indicate the message of the hymn, and the music was changed to a lower key with some slight modifications to the rhythm.

It is interesting to note that the English birthplaces of the hymn’s originators, George Manwaring and A.C. Smyth are within fifty miles of each other, but it was thousands of miles away on another continent that they met and combined their talents in the Lord’s service.

George Manwaring was born to Henry and Sarah Barber Manwaring (or Mainwaring) in March of 1854 at Sandbach, Cheshire County, England.   Cheshire County is located in northwestern England, directly south of Liverpool and Manchester. 

The first missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) arrived in England at Liverpool in July of 1837, and the first baptism took place in the River Ribble, just south of Preston, that year.  Preston is about thirty miles northeast of Liverpool.  By April of 1838 there were over 2000 LDS church members in England. 

The missionary effort continued in the area and the Manwaring family joined the LDS church about 1863 when George was nine years of age.  He was baptized at that time with others of his family.

It is said that as a boy George was employed as an errand boy at a country store and had very little formal education.  He was said to have taken his own education in hand by borrowing good books and showed interest and aptitude in stenography, mathematics and literature.  Many of the towns in the Cheshire area were involved in the textile industry and it is believed that George was also apprenticed for a time to a draper (a dealer in cloth.)

In 1871 the Manwaring family immigrated to the United States.  George was about seventeen years of age when they arrived in Salt Lake City, Utah. 

It is said that George loved to sing and he joined the choir of the church congregation they attended, the LDS Salt Lake Fourteenth Ward, where he met a young lady with common interests, Electa Stevenson, whom he married in 1874.

George found employment with the Zion’s Cooperative Mercantile Institution (ZCMI.) Later, he was employed as a book-keeper at a dry-goods store, and then secured a position with Calder’s Music Company.  This circumstance provided him opportunities to develop his musical talent, and it is said he learned to play the piano and organ well, and would sing and play at home and in public gatherings. 

The work with Calder’s Music Company sent George to the cities around the state as a salesman.   It is said that on his travels he attended church meetings and enjoyed singing and teaching music to the children in Sunday School.  It was on one of these trips that the circumstances leading to the writing of Joseph Smith’s First Prayer occurred, as mentioned above.

After coming to Utah, George began to write and expressed his feelings in poems.  It is said that he loved nature and also had other artistic tendencies.  He studied art for a time with notable LDS artist John Hafen.  Although he was largely self-taught, he was an educated man with high ideals.  It is noted that he was also a deeply religious man and that most of his poems were of a sacred nature.  Many of his poems were published in the newspapers and magazines of the time.  In addition to Joseph Smith’s First Prayer, his work is still enjoyed today: four other hymns in the 1985 LDS hymnal were written by him, including ‘Tis Sweet to Sing the Matchless Love.

Information in this article came from:

Hymns of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, (Deseret Book Company, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1985, #26)

Ivan J. Barrett, Joseph Smith and the Restoration, pp. 39-49, 344-349.  (Brigham Young University Press, Provo, Utah, 1967)

Holy Bible, King James Version, James 1:5, p. 1538. (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1979)

George D. Pyper, Stories of Latter-Day Saint Hymns, Their Authors and Composers, pp. 33-38, (Deseret News Press, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1939)

Karen Lynn Davidson, Our Latter-day Hymns, pp. 54-55, 409, 426, 440. (Deseret Book Company, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1988)

Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, (G & C Merriam Company, Springfield, Massachusetts, 1975)

http://www.palmyrany.com/about/home.htm

http://www.eriecanal.org/

http://www.hymnary.org/hymn/DSSS1909/d159

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~schick/manwaring/george.htm

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/109639/Cheshire

http://www.mapquest.com/

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705389688/ZCMI-facade-back-on-Main-Street.html?pg=all

http://www.springvilleartmuseum.org/collections/browse.html?x=artist&artist_id=2

http://textbookofbacteriology.net/resantimicrobial.html

http://sanpete.com/downloads/saga/Saga_of_the_Sanpitch_2.pdf

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/p/o/pond_sb.htm

http://www.mcgee-flutes.com/Firth&c.htm

http://orgs.usd.edu/nmm/Flutes/FirthHallPond/4560/4560FirthHallPondFlute.html

Adam Craik Smyth was born to John and Mary Ann Bodison Smyth in February of 1840 at Manchester, Lancashire, England.  It is said that he was a graduate of the London Conservatory of Music and also held a diploma awarded by Sir Isaac Pitman, the originator of the 1837 Pitman shorthand system. 

In 1864, at the age of 24, he immigrated to the United States and it is believed that his destination was California.  Upon reaching Utah, his money ran out, and while recovering financially, he became acquainted with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) and its people.  He obtained employment as a school teacher in Mendon, a small town about eighty miles north of Salt Lake City.  While there he joined the LDS church, and this decision changed the course of his life. 

In 1873 he returned to Salt Lake City and worked in music, giving vocal instruction, conducting choirs and is particularly remembered for his organization of a Juvenile Opera Company and the production of operas, including Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Pinafore” in 1879, and “Pirates of Penzance” in 1881.  These productions were not far behind the original productions in London, and were well received.

In 1881 the Smyth family moved ninety miles south to Sanpete County and homesteaded in Fountain Green.  Adam continued to teach school and direct singing groups.  

His musical abilities were well known in the area and it is said that through the efforts of Bishop Reid of Manti, Adam was offered a paid position as recorder in the Manti Temple as an inducement to move to Manti.  This he did and the city enjoyed the benefit of his musicianship and he enjoyed more financial security than he had since leaving England.

He had charge of the music in the Temple and was also director of the Manti Tabernacle Choir.  Most of the music for the choir was written or arranged by A. C. Smyth and hand copied by him or his choir members.  Rehearsals did not have the benefit of air conditioning or electric lights, and winter heat came from a single stove around which the choir members would gather.

The Manti choir under A.C. Smyth’s direction is reported to have sung at the dedication of the Manti Temple, and an account was given of heavenly manifestations during the singing of the choir.  His choir was one of the first in Utah to sing numbers from Handel’s Messiah, and did many fine classical works.  A. C. Smyth was said to be a thorough and accomplished musician, partly vocalist and partly instrumentalist, able to play the organ masterfully, and was clever with the baton, able to convey to the singers exactly what he meant.   He was also described as a very congenial and jolly man and was revered by his choir members. 

It is said that during his lifetime A. C. Smyth composed over one hundred pieces of music, forty-four of which were published, and composed many instrumental arrangements to accompany his choir.  In addition to his work with the music for Joseph Smith’s First Prayer, his music is found in three other hymns in the 1985 LDS Hymnal.

Adam Craik Smyth contributed much to the music of his day, and with the music of his hymns left a lasting gift when he passed away in January of 1909 at Manti, Utah.  His grave lies within view of the Manti Temple.

Sylvanus Billings Pond is said to have been born in April of 1792 in the state of Vermont.  Little is known of his early life.

He is known as a hymnist and for conducting the New York Sacred Music Society and the New York Academy of Sacred Music. 

Pond’s hymn tune DIVINITY is said to have appeared in his hymn collection United States Psalmody, published in New York in 1841.  This tune was used as the basis for Joseph Smith’s First Prayer.  He is also known to have published two other hymn collections, Union Melodies in 1838, and The Book of Praise in 1866.

Sylvanus was succeeded in the business by his son, William, in 1850.  He passed away in March of 1871 at Brooklyn, New York.