Early Church apostle's 'extraordinary life' recounted
Pres. Faust speaks at Lyman family reunion
Recounting the "extraordinary life of service and accomplishment" of his ancestor Amasa Mason Lyman, President James E. Faust spoke to descendants of this early Church leader during a family reunion in Fillmore, Utah, Aug. 2.
Photo by John Clark
Descendants of early Church leader Amasa Lyman enjoy wagon ride around Territorial Statehouse at statehouse park in Fillmore, Utah, during reunion of some 1,000 Lyman family members.
Photo by John Clark
President James E. Faust, a descendant of Amasa Lyman, waves after speaking at reunion. Elder Lyman was a counselor to the Prophet Joseph Smith.
"To Amasa's large posterity, I think his life of great faithfulness and devotion and accomplishment tells us that we need to hold fast to the iron rod," President Faust, second counselor in the First Presidency, said. "We need to look forward in faith. We need to blaze our own trails. We need to serve as he did without reservation or equivocation. I am proud to be a descendant of Amasa Mason Lyman, and I am looking forward, if I am worthy, to meeting him."
President Faust, who celebrated his 83rd birthday just two days before on July 31, was a guest speaker during the Lyman family's four-day reunion, July 30-Aug. 2, which drew some 1,000 from throughout the country. Nearly all gathered at the Fillmore stake center — not far from the site where Amasa Lyman died in 1877 — to hear remarks by President Faust, who spoke of the life of the early Church apostle and counselor in the First Presidency from 1843 until the death of the Prophet Joseph Smith.
"There were many defining experiences in the life of Amasa. His early life was a challenge for him," President Faust continued. The future apostle's father left home when his son was 2 years old and never returned. Amasa lived with his mother until her second marriage and then for several years with a relative.
"In the spring of 1832 he heard Elders Lyman E. Johnson and Orson Pratt bear their testimonies about the Restoration. He received a testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel when he first heard it and was baptized by Elder Lyman E. Johnson on April 27, 1832, and the next day confirmed by Elder Orson Pratt," President Faust said.
Because his family was against his baptism, Amasa left to go west to join the body of the Church, though impoverished. "There was perhaps no more significant defining experience for him than when he met the Prophet Joseph for the first time," President Faust said, then quoting Elder Lyman's words from Andrew Jenson's LDS Biographical Encyclopedia: " . . . The still small voice of the Spirit whispered its living testimony in the depths of my soul where it has ever remained that he was a man of God."
Amasa Lyman is said to have filled nearly a hundred missions, President Faust said. He also helped settle areas such as Fillmore and San Bernardino, Calif. The new Redlands California Temple, which President Gordon B. Hinckley will dedicate soon, is near or on part of the Rancho San Bernardino which was the tract of land acquired for the settlement. Elder Lyman also settled South Cottonwood in the Salt Lake Valley, where President Faust once served as a stake president.
"Another early defining experience for Amasa was being part of Zion's Camp. From that event in Church history came the first Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, those who were to lead the Church for the next 50 years," President Faust said.
Speaking of the confidence Joseph had in Amasa Lyman, he quoted the Prophet as recorded in History of the Church: "He was one of my fellow prisoners, bound with the same chain, in Richmond Jail Missouri."
Amasa was ordained an apostle in 1842 and later became a counselor to Joseph Smith, President Faust explained. "Another defining moment was in the historic meeting following the martyrdom. There was some division as to who should lead the Church. It is well documented that Joseph gave the keys of succession to the Twelve but since it was without precedent, Oliver Cowdery appeared to claim to lead the Church, and Amasa's name was also mentioned."
Elder Lyman endorsed the remarks of President Young, affirming that the keys of succession rested in the Twelve.
"Amasa continued to do heroic work to build up the kingdom," President Faust said, then related that during a mission to Great Britain, Elder Lyman gave a sermon in Scotland denying the necessity of Christ's atoning sacrifice. He was later called before the First Presidency and apologized in writing and retracted what he said in Scotland. However, he had a relapse and was excommunicated in 1870. He died in Fillmore in 1877.
"I do not understand and am not going to speculate on his reasons for apostasy," President Faust said. "Neither do I render any judgment on him. That has already been worked through by him and the Lord's prophets. His rebaptism took place in 1909 by proxy and all of his priesthood blessings were restored."
One of Elder Lyman's sons, Francis Marion Lyman, and a grandson, Richard R. Lyman, were both later called to the Quorum of the Twelve.
"I pray the descendants of Amasa Mason Lyman will remain faithful," President Faust said. "I further pray that collectively and individually they will labor with an eye single to the glory of God."
The weekend reunion was sponsored by the non-profit Amasa Mason Lyman Educational and Historical Society that has spent years researching the descendants of Elder Lyman.
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