Willard Richards Pocket Companion[1]

Parables

Behold a sower went forth to Sow &c Our Savior is the Sower; the people are the world; the harvest is the end of the world; the reapers are the angels [2]

The end of the world is not come, consequently the Harvest. The harvest cannot come without Angels; [3] The Son of Man is to send forth his Angels. The Son of man Said that the Saints shall judge the world & Angels. [4]—God has revealed himself. when they come up before God they will be asked did this Angel perform this or that. that he was sent to do. if not they will be judged—The world judg—

Some fell among thorns &c—

God sows—The enemy comes & sows parties divisions, heresies; Shall we kill them? [5] No, not till harvest—The end of the world. The Son of God will do as he ever has done from the beginning. Send forth his Angels. If the reapers do not come, the wheat cannot be Saved. Nothing but Kingdom being restored, can save the world. Like unto a treasure hid in a field. This figure is a representation of the [kingdom] in the last days. [6] Michael= =Adam. Noah. I am Gabriel—Well says I. Who are you? I am Peter, the angel flying through the midst of heaven Moroni delivered the Book of Mormon. [7] The pearl of great price is the inheritance prepared for the Saints. [8] Sell all you have got, purchase &c. What is the end of the world? the destruction of the wicked. [9] The Angels have begun to be revealed. They shall bind up the testimony Like unto a merchant man buying goodly Pearls A net that gathers of every kind. The wheat gathers in of every kind Those who hold Keys were more concerned about their children than themselves. It happens to be our Lot to live in a day when this takes place.

—Before 8 August 1839 (2)

Notes

[1] The following report in Willard Richards's Pocket Companion was undoubtedly recorded by John Taylor. It is here published for the first time.

[2] Matthew 13:3, 24-30, 36-43; D&C 86. See also Teachings, pp. 97-8, 100-1.

[3] The Second Coming must come in a period of modern revelation when angels appear again. Matthew 13:39-42, and Teachings, pp. 101-2.

[4] Matthew 19:27-30; Luke 22:24-30; 1 Corinthians 6:1-3.

[5] This is, of course, a paraphrase of the question the angels asked of the Savior (Matthew 13:28-30).

[6] Matthew 13:44. See Teachings, p. 101.

[7] Revelation 14:6-7 apparently refers to several angels conferring their keys and knowledge of the gospel to Joseph Smith.

[8] Matthew 13:45-46; D&C 88:107.

[9] Joseph Smith first distinguished between the words world and earth (a distinction not made in the King James Version of the Bible) in 1832 when he translated Matthew 24 (see JS-M 1:4, 55; see also the 5 January 1841 discourse: "The world and earth are not synonymous terms. The world is the human family." By this reasoning the "end of the world" would mean "the end of the wicked part of the human family.").