Continuing Revelation 1889 style!

By John Hamer, Canada East Mission Centre Historian

​​A single, loose sheet of paper written in an unknown hand in 1889 illustrates the way members of Community of Christ in Canada understood the principle of “Continuing Revelation” at the end of the 19th Century.  The setting was at a church conference held in Blenheim, Ontario, on June 8-9 in 1889.
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John H. Lake who served in the Council of Twelve Apostles from 1873 to 1902 exercised the spiritual practice of the “gift of tongues.”  This involved uttering words or speech-like sounds that are not a language known to the speaker or listener.  Members at the time believed that these sounds represented an actual language (such as Chaldean or Hebrew) or a mythic language (such as Adamic), and they also believed that the words were a direct revelation spoken by the Holy Spirit.  According to the description here, Apostle Lake sang in tongues.[1]

The second part of the practice involves “interpretation of tongues.”  At the Blenheim Conference this role was performed by 27-year-old R.C. Evans, who at the time was Lake’s promising protégé serving in the priesthood office of Seventy.  Over the course of his career, Evans would serve as an Apostle, a member of the First Presidency, and ultimately as the Bishop of Canada before leaving the church to found his own sect.  A prolific poet, Evans has been called the most gifted orator in the history of the Reorganization.

Evans’ interpretation took the form of a hymn of encouragement to the members assembled in Blenheim, beginning “Ye Saints of God, fresh courage take!” and ending with the promise that they would see “My face and glory soon” on “Zion’s hill.”

The artifact is an interesting insight into the way the spiritual practice of “tongues” and “interpretation of tongues” were once employed in the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  The contents of the hymn as interpreted and composed by Evans also indicate that members at the time believed in a literal apocalypse and anticipated that it may happen in their lifetime.

While the idea of “singing in tongues” is unfamiliar to most members of Community of Christ in Canada today, this is not the only example in our records. In his 1909 autobiography, R.C. Evans gives another example of a hymn inspired by the interpretation of someone singing in tongues. While working on the building committee in London, Ontario, in 1901, he penned a hymn called “A Voice of Warning” which concludes with the lines:

Lift your head and op’n your vision;
See, my coming’s near at hand;
Live in peace with one another,
Soon you’ll dwell in holy land.[2]

Evans recorded another example of singing in tongues at the 1902 General Conference of the Church, held in Lamoni, Iowa.

The document is part of a small, but precious collection recently donated by Community of Christ member Kim Sheppard-Veldhuizen to be preserved in the Doris Hillyard Library at Toronto Centre Place.  If you have documents and photographs from the 19th or early 20th centuries relating to the history of Community of Christ in Canada that you would like to see preserved, please contact John Hamer who serves as the library’s curator.


Full Transcript Follows:
Lines composed by the spirit of God in the gift of tongues and sung through Elder J.H. Lake at Blenheim Conference   June 8th & 9th 1889
Interpreted by Elder R.C. Evans.
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Ye saints of God fresh courage take
I’ll bless you for the truth’s free sake
I’ve called you for to sing my praise
In these great and latter days.
Be firm and fixed in me, your Lord,
I’ll bless you if you keep my word
Your trials shall all dross remove
Temptations shall your true love prove.
Then rise my people, do my will
Soon you, I’ll bring to Zion’s hill
My people there shall gathered be
My face and glory soon they’ll see. --


References
​[1] In his autobiography, R.C. Evans describes Apostle John H. Lake as “that grand old man” and says that “he was blessed with the gift of tongues.”  See R.C. Evans, Autobiography of Bishop R. C. Evans of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Lamoni, Iowa: Herald Publishing House: 1909), 215.

[2] R.C. Evans, Autobiography of Bishop R. C. Evans of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Lamoni, Iowa: Herald Publishing House: 1909), 153.