Mormon Publications: 19th Century - Collection of sacred hymns for the Church, 1835

Smith, Emma. A collection of sacred hymns, for the Church of the Latter Day Saints. Selected by Emma Smith. Kirtland, Ohio, Printed by F.G. Williams & Co., 1835.

iv, [5]–121, v p. 12 cm.

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In response to a revelation to Joseph Smith in July 1830 (D&C 25), Emma Smith, Joseph’s wife, was directed to collect hymns to be used in the worship services of the new church. Ten months after this revelation, W. W. Phelps was subsequently directed to revise and print the hymns that Emma Smith had selected. The printing of the Book of Commandments, the destruction of the Independence, Missouri press, and the printing of the Doctrine and Covenants delayed the publication of the hymns for more than four years. Finally, in September 1835, Phelps turned his attention to the hymnal, and by February 1836, the printing was completed.

The text of ninety hymns, without musical notations, are contained in this first Mormon hymnal. Most were borrowed from the Baptists or the Campbellites. The predominance of Baptist hymns among those borrowed, suggests the hymnal was probably based on a Baptist book, possibly one in use by the Campbellites. The hymnal contains at least 33 hymns of Mormon authorship, twenty-six by Phelps himself, three by Parley P. Pratt, one by Thomas B. Marsh and Parley Pratt, and one each by Eliza R. Snow, Edward Partridge, and Philo Dibble. However, a third of the borrowed texts were partially rewritten to reflect the doctrines of the Restoration

Excerpted and edited from Peter Crawley and Chad J. Flake, A Mormon Fifty: an exhibition in the Harold B. Lee Library in conjunction with the annual conference of the Mormon History Association. (Provo, Utah, Friends of the Brigham Young University Library, 1984). Item 6, p. [9–10].

Used by permission of the authors.