044. Vade Mecum (Go With Me)

Being Thanksgiving today, I am grateful for truth. I am grateful for words of truth that come from the Light of Christ and the Holy Ghost, which can fill the minds and hearts of those who humbly seek the Lord, inspiring them to communicate the words of eternal life to others. Joseph Smith wrote a poetic version of D&C 76 in 1843 entitled The Vision, which was, in part, a response to a poem written by W.W. Phelps entitled Vade Mecum (Latin, Go With Me). Both were published in several church publications, including the Times & Seasons (January 1843) and the Millennial Star (August 1843). The text of Vade Mecum appears below, the words of The Vision will appear in the next post.

Go With Me

Go with me, will you go to the Saints that have died, 

To the next better world, where the righteous reside, 

Where the angels and spirits in harmony be,

In the joys of a vast paradise. Go with me.

Go with me, where the truth and the virtues prevail, 

Where the union is one, and the years never fail: 

Not a heart can conceive—not a natural eye see 

What the Lord had prepared for the just. Go with me.

Go with me, where there is no destruction nor war, 

Neither tyrants nor mobbers, nor nations ajar,—

Where the system is perfect, and happiness free, 

And the life is eternal, with God. Go with me.

Go with me, will you go to the mansions above, 

Where the bliss and the knowledge, the light and the love, 

And the glory of God do eternally be?

Death, the wages of sin, is not there. Go with me.

(History of the Church, 5:253)

WW. Phelps later added the following stanzas:

Come to me; here are Adam and Eve at the head 

Of a multitude quickened and raised from the dead; 

Here's the knowledge that was, or that is, or will be, 

In the gen'ral assembly of worlds. Come to me.

Come to me; here's the mysteries man hath not seen, 

Here's our Father in heaven, and Mother, the Queen; 

Here are worlds that have been, and the worlds yet to be, 

Here's eternity, endless; amen. Come to me.

Come to me, all ye faithful and blest of Nauvoo, 

Come, ye Twelve, and ye High Priests, and Seventies, too, 

Come, ye Elders, and all of the great company, 

When your work you have finished on the earth. Come to me.

Come to me; here's the future, the present and past; 

Here is Alpha, Omega, the first and the last,

Here's the "Fountain," the "River of Life," and the "Tree!" 

Here's your Prophet and Seer, Joseph Smith. Come to me.

(History of the Church, 5:556)