A VISION
Seen by Elder H. N. Snively
(This account was written in response to a suggestion by C. I. Carpenter.)

As you requested me to write you a few lines relative to the vision or dream I had of the personality of God, I will endeavor to do so, but I will state some of the reasons why I think this was shown me.. This of which I am writing occurred several years ago. I had been reading the Bible, John 14:7-9: "if ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also; and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father , and it sufficeth us . . . . He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how saith thou then, Show us the Father?" Also in the Book of Mormon, page 50 , small edition, where it gives an account of the brother of Jared cutting out sixteen small stones from the rock and carrying them to the top of the mountain, that the Lord might touch them with his finger, that they might give light in their vessels. After pleading with the Lord for this purpose, the Lord stretched forth his hand and touched the stones with his finger, and as the veil had been taken from the eyes of the brother of Jared, he was permitted to see the finger and hand of God. When he did this he fell to the earth before the Lord, overcome with fear. After an account of the exceeding faith of the brother of Jared, the record tells us that the Lord showed himself to him. Because of this and because he had received such a knowledge of the Lord he was told that he was redeemed from the fall and was brought back into his presence; then the Lord said: "Behold, I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people. Behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son."

The last two declarations made to the brother of Jared, together with that made by Christ to Philip, as recorded by John, seemed to exercise my mind very much, so on retiring to bed one night I had the following dream or vision:

I saw a personage whom I was made to understand was God, the eternal Father. This personage had the most perfect body in form I had ever seen—no human body is so nearly perfect in form as this one appeared to me. He didn't seem to have a body of flesh, as we apply the word to our flesh, but a body of power and glory. I was permitted to look within the veil and behold him. His body was transparent, so I could see it quite distinctly; there was a veil or something which was removed from his body or my eyes so that I was enabled to see and understand that it was the personage of God; with this the vision closed.—Saints' Herald, November 6, 1912.