From: Francis Harper
wbfrmsup@iowatelecom.net
Francis Harper Message for 7/26/2019
Dear Ones,
The assembling of ourselves together at the annual reunions of the Lord’s people have brought great blessings to all who have attended them. The origin of these annual assemblies of the saints took place in the Kirtland [Ohio] temple. In April of 1883, Charles Derry presented a resolution to the conference proposing that in lieu of the annual fall conference, an annual fall reunion be held. The first was to be convened in Western Iowa during late September of 1883. The saints gathered for the first reunion at Leland’s Grove, midway between Portsmouth and Persia, Iowa. These early reunions were called World Reunions.
The second World Reunion was held at Garner’s Grove, west of Magnolia, Iowa, October 4-12, 1884. Reunion number two is described in Volume 4 of Church History. Joseph Smith III presided with an estimated attendance of near three thousand. Five hundred and fifty seven teams of horses / oxen were counted. Two deaths were also reported, a two year old child and Dorothy Fry. Dorothy was my great, great grandmother.
The family tried to persuade Grandmother Fry not to attend reunion that year due to her ill health. She responded: “I cannot think of a better place to die than with the saints.” She died on the last day of the 1884 reunion; kindly avoiding a disruption of this large assembly of saints. Now, in 2019, one hundred thirty-five years later, reunions are still being held in many places, bringing great blessings to all who gather to these annual love feasts.
I cannot begin to share all the blessings I have received at reunions in this short letter but one experience that lingers in my mind occurred in the summer of 1949. I enrolled at Graceland College in the fall of 1948. I still have a vivid memory of the first few weeks of my college career. I recall being in the library that was housed on the second floor of Briggs Hall in those days. I had gone there to study but was often distracted by students coming and going.
I remember how I was impressed by a young man who was one of Graceland’s most decorated athletes. He came striding into the library dressed in his full regalia, with letter sweater, and a key chain with many medals attached. The girls all seemed to notice him, too. I thought, “I’m going to have a letter sweater and a key chain, with medals attached, just as soon as I can.”
I was too light for football and too short for basketball, but when track season came my dream was fulfilled. I became a letterman. I also won a few medals, mostly second and third place medals, but who can tell from a distance anyway?
As was my custom, the next summer I attended the Saint’s Reunion at the Woodbine City Park. I appeared with letter sweater, key chain, and medals. What a spectacle I must have been! I can still remember walking down the aisle, almost to the front of the tent, giving everyone an opportunity to see me!
I recall thinking of the people gathered there as being hardly fit for my company. They were so common and earthy. I was spiritually sick and lost. When we are filled with pride, we cannot be humble and full of love!
When the saints began to sing, pray, and give their testimonies, something began to happen in me. I became uncomfortable with myself. I looked down at my chain with medals, and they didn’t seem appropriate for me to display anymore. My pride was being stripped from me. I took my decorations off and put them in my pocket. It was getting warm in the tent. I removed my letter sweater, too.
Suddenly, the common people became beautiful to me. They had the beauty of holiness! Now I could love them all. The transforming power of the Holy Ghost was present. My life was changed, and oh, how I needed it! Yet still today, the Holy Ghost has a work to do in me that I might be transfigured into the likeness of the Son of God. Touch me O God, with your holy purifying fire!
My Love to All,
High Priest Francis Harper
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The Assembling of Ourselves Together
“. . . let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good words; Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another; and so much the more, as ye see the day [of His coming] approaching” (Hebrews 10:24-25).
The fourth commandment: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work . . . For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day” (Exodus 20:8-11).
Shortly after Jesus began his ministry, “he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up; and as his custom was he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day . . .” (Luke 4:16). I believe he expects us to labor six days and on the seventh day, assemble ourselves together to worship; to encourage, to love all people and to do good works.
Do you attend church merely out of a sense of duty? Or do you go hungering and thirsting, anticipating the pleasure of being in the presence of the Holy Spirit and the fellowship of the Saints? “In thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore” (Psalm 16:14). I recall an elderly lady saying, “I receive something from every sermon that is preached.” Evidently she expected to be spiritually nourished and was never disappointed.
“The Saints are to observe the first day of the week commonly called the Lord’s Day, as a day of rest: as a day of worship . . . and on this day they should refrain from unnecessary work; nevertheless, nothing should be permitted to go to waste on that day, nor should necessary work be neglected. Be not harsh in judgment but merciful in this, as in all other things. Be not hypocrites nor of those who make a man an offender for a word” (Doctrine and Covenants 119: 7-b-d).
“And there was one day in every week that was set apart that they should gather themselves together to teach the people, and to worship the Lord their God, and also as often as it was in their power, to assemble themselves together. And the priests were not to depend upon the people for their support . . .” (Mosiah 9:58-59).
Evidence the early Christians met for worship on the first day of the week is found in Acts 20:7: “And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them . . .”
After my sophomore year in high school, I got a job and was away from home for the first time. Now I could freely decide how I would spend the Lord’s day. My employers were good Methodists. They had promised to drop me off at the RLDS Church before they went to theirs. They would pick me up after the church service. One Sunday I decided to go horseback riding through an area of timber land on their farm instead of going to church. As I was enjoying my ride through this beautiful area, I began humming a familiar tune. Suddenly the lyrics dawned upon my mind: “Take time to be holy, speak oft with thy Lord; abide in him always and feed on his word; make friends of God’s children, help those who are weak, forgetting in nothing His blessing to seek.” I was touched by the Holy Spirit as I practically fell from my horse. On my knees, I asked the Lord to forgive me and I promised him I would be faithful in attending church every Lord’s day for the rest of my life. I have been richly blessed in keeping this covenant.
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