None of you would write to a General Authority today with a list of questions that had arisen in your study – you expect that any such letter would be referred back to your stake president who would no doubt impress upon you the burden on the time of the apostles that such letters would require, if they were given personal attention. Things were a little different a hundred years ago – you probably would get an answer, but it still might be accompanied by a statement like the one that closed the response presented here.

In 1920, Stephen Glenn Covey (father of 7 Habits guru Stephen R. Covey) of Salt Lake City was a young missionary reaching the end of his three-year mission in the Eastern States. Writing from West Virginia, he asked Elder Talmage – the man who had set him apart as a missionary – ten questions, which Elder Talmage answered about three weeks later (he excused the delay with a comment about illness).

What interests me is not the content of the answers, necessarily, but the seeming randomness of the questions. The question about Church involvement in industry might be in response to steady criticism of the Church in newspapers, or from investigator/critic questions about that involvement, and any of the doctrinal questions might have come from Elder Covey’s own study. But the questions range over such a wide terrain that it is difficult for me to imagine them arising from any coherent plan of study. Most of these questions have never occurred to me, and have not come up in Church classes or blogging – it just seems to reveal a very different sensibility from today. What do you think?

Question 1: The number of missionaries in the field today?

Answer: Our missionaries in the field today approximately 1600.

Question 2: To what extent is the Church interested in a financial way in the Sugar Companies,
Railroad companies or other large industries?

Answer: The Church is not a stockholder in any railway company. It does hold stock in some of the sugar companies, viz., the Utah-Idaho, and as you know the Church was the prime promoter of the sugar industry in our State. It has some stock in other institutions such as the Z.C.M.I., mostly as a result of early donations and investments; but so far as I know it does not hold the controlling interest in any of these great mercantile or industrial companies.

Question 3: Were the Angels, that ministered to Adam, of this sphere? Were there not angels that appeared to men previous to the Resurrection of Christ who had bodies of flesh and bone? Therefore of some other sphere? I have in mind Doc. and Cov. 130:5.

Answer: If the Scripture you quote, Doctrine & Covenants 130:5 applies to angels who have ministered on this sphere both before and since the resurrection of Christ, then plainly the angel that ministered to Adam could not have been a resurrected being; but then, for that matter, Jesus Christ Himself both appeared in Person and spoke to the brother of Jared while in the unembodied state.

Question 4: We are told that the Lord ate and drank in Gen. 17 and 18th chap. Could a spiritual body do this – partake of earthly things?

Answer: I do not understand from Genesis 18, which chapter you quote, that the Lord, either Elohim or Jehovah, was one of the three men who visited Abraham in the plains of Mamre; and indeed a careful reading of the chapter indicates to me otherwise. I find there are no records that one of the godhead ate and drank with Abraham.

Question 5: Will the third person of the godhead always remain as the Holy Ghost? Being out of the realms of the Father and Son, would the Holy Ghost have children – speaking of the personage? Of course, I realize, Bro. Talmage, that all is not given now and I can be in faith believing and personal curiosity should not take precedence if such be the case.

Answer: The third personage of the Godhead is the Holy Ghost. As to what the Holy Ghost shall be or do in future I know no more than yourself.

Question 6: How does Christ’s redemption save all men for their personal sins? Was His atonement infinite in such a way that all the sins that men could commit would not exceed its limits? In other words elastic, which could be infinite. This is based of course upon men’s willingness to receive a forgiveness upon baptism.

Answer: The Atonement wrought by Jesus Christ is infinite to redeem men from the effects of their personal sins through obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel. The Atonement provides the means of salvation only. As to whether men shall accept the conditions or not must depend upon them individually.

Question 7: “As it was in the days of Noe so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.” God strived with men 120 years in the days of Noah Gen. 6:3. Could we not then consider that God’s mercy may endure that long in this last great dispensation or from the restoring of the gospel?

Answer: The inference based on your citation of Genesis 6:3 that “God’s mercy” shall endure and inferentially be confined to 120 years in this the last dispensation, is in my judgment a matter of speculation on which I have no opinion to express.

Question 8: Will people of terrestrial glory and other glories be resurrected before they have entered the Kingdom through Baptism? The labor of Baptism for the Dead will not have all been completed by the Millennium and yet the terrestrial shall come forth. Shall all Baptisms for the Dead be concluded by the end of the Millennium” “No temple therein” Rev. 21:22.

Answer: Scriptures, both ancient and latter-day plainly declare that long after the resurrection of the just there shall come a resurrection of the unjust. To me it is difficult to class those who have through faith and repentance been admitted to baptism for the remission of their sins as among the unjust. Doctrine & Covenants, Section 76, contains all that I know as relating to your query.

Question 9: The “Times of the Gentiles” is something that I should be thankful for an explanation of. Has this not been fulfilled with the removing of the Gentile domination over Palestine?

Answer: From Doctrine & Covenants 45:9 and 28, it appears to me that “the times of the Gentiles” can rationally be considered as having been inaugurated with the restoration of the Gospel and the bringing forth of the Book of Mormon through Joseph Smith the Prophet. it was then and by such means that the “light” broke forth among them, which light is the fulness of the Gospel. I regard the inference, that the fulfilment of the times of the Gentiles has already been accomplished through “the removing of the Gentile domination over Palestine,” as rather speculative than otherwise.

Question 10: Does not Doc. and Cov. 35:4, 5 infer that probably Sidney Rigdon received power to baptize before joining the Church and “knew it not”? This would be plain, were this “knew it not” in it, since the revelation was given in Dec 1830 a year and [a] half after John the Baptist came. Was he called or ordained in his childhood? Or does it merely mean that probably Sidney Rigdon never happened to think that he was a forerunner after he had received the Priesthood in 1829 or 1830 till his attention was called to it by the revelation.

Answer: I regard your second inference as to Sidney Rigdon’s incomplete understanding of the extent of his ministry as the more reasonable.

As you can see, Elder Talmage responded briefly but sincerely to each question, even the ones that leave me asking “Why does that concern you?” But he kindly let the elder know that, even in 1920, there were established procedures for asking questions:

“Now, my dear Brother, permit me to suggest that you submit questions upon which you desire information to the President of the Mission. If he is unable to give you the information desired, he will refer your letters to the First Presidency. Please do not take this suggestion as in any way indicating that I am unwilling to assist you in your study and ministry, but it is a rule of the Church that missionaries shall submit their questions to the President of their respective mission. In accordance with usual practise, I shall send your letter, together with a copy of this my answer, to president George W. McCune, who is in charge of the Eastern States Mission.”

The purpose of informing the mission president was not, as some might suppose at first, to tattle on the missionary’s breaking of a rule, or for any other negative purpose. It is clear from other correspondence I have read that everyone – General Authority and mission president – believed the mission president needed to know what questions his elders had, both for training purposes and to gauge the depth and direction of their study.

Nevertheless, despite what must have been a crowded calendar following recovery from an illness, and despite the irregularity of the elder’s writing directly to him, Elder Talmage did make the effort to send a personal reply. I like that. “With best wishes for your continued enjoyment of the spirit of the Gospel and of your Priesthood and for your success in ministering therein, I am, very truly your brother,” he concluded.