Advisory Board Alan L. Wilkins, chair James P. Bell Donna Lee Bowen Douglas M. Chabries Doris R. Dant R. Kelly Haws Editor in Chief John W. Welch Involving Readers in the Latter-day Saint Church History Board Richard Bennett, chair Academic Experience 19th-century history Brian Q. Cannon 20th-century history Kathryn Daynes 19th-century history Gerrit J. Dirkmaat Joseph Smith, 19th-century Mormonism Steven C. Harper documents Frederick G. Williams cultural history Liberal Arts and Sciences Board Barry R. Bickmore, co-chair geochemistry Eric Eliason, co-chair English, folklore David C. Dollahite faith and family life Susan Howe English, poetry, drama Neal Kramer early British literature, Mormon studies Steven C. Walker Christian literature Reviews Board Eric Eliason, co-chair English, folklore John M. Murphy, co-chair Mormon and Western Trevor Alvord new media Herman du Toit art, museums Angela Hallstrom literature Greg Hansen music Emily Jensen new media Megan Sanborn Jones theater and media arts Gerrit van Dyk Church history Specialists Casualene Meyer poetry editor Thomas R. Wells photography editor STUDIES QUARTERLY BYU Vol. 53 • No. 2 • 2014 ARTICLES 4 From the Editor 7 The Perils of Grace Robert L. Millet 21 Spirit Babies and Divine Embodiment: PBEs, First Vision Accounts, Bible Scholarship, and the Experience-Centered Approach to Mormon Folklore Eric A. Eliason 29 Laying Up Treasure: Mormons in the Marketplace Douglas D. Anderson 57 A Study in Seven: Hebrew Numerology in the Book of Mormon Corbin Volluz 140 The Prophet: The Latter-day Saint Experience in the East, 1844–1845 Susan Easton Black DOCUMENTS 94 A Mormon and a Buddhist Debate Plural Marriage: The Letters of Elder Alma O. Taylor and the Reverend Nishijima Kakuryo, 1901 Reid L. Neilson 121 Sidney Rigdon’s Plea to the Saints: Transcription of Thomas Bullock’s Shorthand Notes from the August 8, 1844, Morning Meeting Transcribed and Introduced by LaJean Purcell Carruth and Robin Scott Jensen ESSAYS 85 Mossy Pools, Unkempt Paths, and Living Memory Patrick Moran 89 Be It unto Me Rebecca Clarke POETRY 20 Foundry Jared Pearce 84 Horizon Darlene Young REVIEW ESSAY 161 Jean Valjean, the Prodigal Son: Review Essay on Regional Productions of Les Misérables Bradley Moss and Shawnda Moss REVIEWS 168 Exploring Mormon Thought: Of God and Gods by Blake T. Ostler Reviewed by James Morse McLachlan 173 Armenian Apocrypha Relating to Abraham by Michael E. Stone Reviewed by E. Douglas Clark 180 Latter Leaves in the Life of Lorenzo Snow by Dennis B. Horne, with material prepared in 1890 by Orson F. Whitney Reviewed by William G. Hartley 184 Navajo Tradition, Mormon Life: The Autobiography and Teachings of Jim Dandy by Robert S. McPherson, Jim Dandy, and Sarah E. Burak Reviewed by Jessie L. Embry 187 Ephraim’s Rescue, written and directed by T. C. Christensen Reviewed by John Hilton III NOTICES 190 Izapa Sacred Space: Sculpture Calendar Codes Exploring the First Vision Villages on Wheels Scripture Bibliography From the Editor his year BYU Studies celebrates its fifty-fifth year of publication. As TI look back at the table of contents of the first issue, published in 1959, I am struck that the same multidisciplinary variety still flourishes today in BYU Studies as it did then. Articles, essays, and book reviews in that issue covered topics of contemporary interest that are still of interest today. In that inaugural issue, subjects included an LDS philosophical engagement with existentialism, a Mormon embrace of the human val- ues found in modern art, an economic historical analysis of the Word of Wisdom, and a literary reading of Hawthorne’s wrestle with the com- plexities of human interactions and of moral transgressions. Found in that first volume were department chairs as well as rising young assis- tant professors whose names were larger-than-life presences in LDS academic circles and on the BYU campus when I arrived as a freshman in the fall of 1964. They included such notables as Truman Madsen, Conan Matthews, Marden Clark, Leonard Arrington, and Kent Fielding. In marking any anniversary, it is good to glance back into the past, in order to regroup and reestablish our bearings. In this present issue, as Patrick Moran’s personal essay sensitively states, memory “is the very glue that keeps me bound to what I have been, what I am, and what I will become.” Fifteen years ago, on the fortieth anniversary of BYU Studies, I reflected on the precepts that have come to epitomize the academic code of profes- sional conduct found today in our Author Guidelines.1 Its six main ideals still today are: 4 BYU Studies Quarterly 53, no. 2 (214) From the Editor V 5 1. Unity: The goal of unity with God and our fellow beings must be continually cultivated and nourished. The goal of unity does not imply that all scholarly methods or personal views must be the same, but “if ye are not one ye are not mine” (D&C 38:27). 2. Harmony: BYU Studies Quarterly seeks to harmonize and transcend, in a spiritual, intellectual, and practical unity, elements of this mortal existence that appear to most people to be incompatible contradictions. 3. Honesty: Accuracy and reliability are of the essence in scholarship. 4. Thoroughness: It is expedient to understand “all things that per- tain unto the kingdom of God,” at home and abroad, in heaven and in earth, “things which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to pass” (D&C 88:78–79). 5. Humility: No person says or understands everything perfectly, and a variety of opinions on a shared scale of progression are expected. Scholarship is not an end in itself. Research cannot create faith; it can only set the stage for greater light and knowledge. 6. Charity: In order for communication to occur, there must be char- ity, for no statement exists (including this one) that cannot be miscon- strued. If fellowship and goodwill do not exist, especially in an academic setting, we will not communicate with one another. If you as a reader resonate positively to these professional values, BYU Studies hopes to always be your trusted friend. Recently, Steve Piersanti, a highly positioned West Coast book publisher, dropped me a note to say, “The guidelines for authors from BYU Studies are wonderful and amazing. I’ve never seen anything like them before.” As I have looked over the page proofs for this issue one last time, I have seen these values pervading the pages of this journal. I feel a sense of unity in the various faithful voices of men and women who cherish relationships and communion with the household of faith. I find cohesion as these authors harmonize dichotomies and conun- drums, as they evenhandedly conjoin evangelical grace and Latter-day Saint works (Robert Millet), wisely blend the world of business and the values of the gospel of Jesus Christ (Douglas Anderson), and take seri- ously both folklore and inspiration (Eric Eliason). I am amazed at the painstaking efforts that have been taken to ensure the greatest possible accuracy in our transcriptions of early Church discourses (LaJean Carruth) and Church newspapers from the 1840s (Susan Easton Black). Expansive interests draw together Mormons and Buddhists (Reid Neilson), bring together the factoids of numerology with the sacred 6 v BYU Studies Quarterly messages of scripture (Corbin Volluz), and draw to attention a dozen early Armenian reflections on the life of Abraham (Douglas Clark). Thoroughness is exemplified by the scripture database noticed here, which pinpoints hundreds of thousands of scripture references found in over seven thousand books and speeches and articles. Humility is found not only in recognitions by these authors of their own inadequacies and vast amounts of work yet to be accomplished, but also in submitting to personal disappointments and still being able to say, “Be it unto me, according to thy word,” as in the award-winning personal essay by Rebecca Clarke. And charity can be found rolling alongside the “villages on wheels” whose stories have been rescued from obscurity by the late Stan Kim- ball’s astonishing collection of thousands of firsthand records never before compiled, telling details of suffering, love, humor, tragedy and joy on the trails of the Saints gathering to Zion, the quintessential Mor- mon experience. Moving forward in this fifty-five-year tradition of distinctive schol- arly LDS publishing, all of us at BYU Studies are very happy to bring you this latest issue. We hope it enriches the goodness of your life. John W. Welch 1. The points listed here are extracted from John W. Welch, “Moving On,” BYU Studies 38, no. 1 (1999): 226–28, and are found at the BYU Studies web- site as Author Guidelines: https://byustudies.byu.edu/NewsAndEvents/Author Submissions.aspx. ^ The Perils of Grace Robert L. Millet here is no question but that the Latter-day Saints have been hesitant, Teven slow, to reflect upon and teach what the Book of Mormon and latter-day revelation have to say about the grace of God. This is under- standable when we remind ourselves that the early Saints viewed the restored gospel and Church as major correctives to a Christian world that had gone off course. Speaking of Protestantism as a branch broken off from Catholicism, Joseph Smith stated, only eleven days before his death, “Here is a princ[iple] of logic—that men have no more sense [than to adopt]—I will illustrate [it by] an old apple tree—here jumps off a branch & says I am the true tree. & you are corrupt—if the whole tree is corrupt how can any true thing come out of it?”1 More especially, since Mormonism arose in a largely Protestant America, it ought not surprise us that there was an especially strong emphasis by the Saints on the need to perform the works of righteousness in order to qualify for salvation.