How Queen Victoria Received the Book of Mormon

Four years after the first Latter-day Saint missionaries reached England, a Book of Mormon was placed in the hands of one of the greatest and longest-reigning monarch of her time, Queen Victoria.

Known as the “grandmother of Europe” for strategically planning marriages that would shape European history, she acceded the throne in 1837 and oversaw the world’s largest empire.

In 1841, during the visit of then Elder Lorenzo Snow in London, he received an audience with the Queen through the politeness of Sir Henry Wheatly. Elder Snow presented to her Majesty Queen Vicotria and his Royal Prince Albert two richly-bound copies of the Book of Mormon which was donated by President Brigham Young for that purpose.

In commemoration of this magnificent event, a poem was written for Her Majesty the Queen:

Of all the monarchs of the earth
That wear the robes of royalty,
She has inherited by birth
The broadest wreath of majesty.

From her wide territorial wing
The sun does not withdraw its light,
While earth’s diurnal motions bring
To other nations day and night.

All earthly thrones are tottering things,
Where lights and shadows intervene;
And regal honor often brings
The scaffold or the guillotine.

But still her sceptre is approved;
All nations deck the wreath she wears:
Yet, like the youth whom Jesus loved,
One thing is lacking even there.

But lo! a prize possessing more
Of worth than gems with honor rife—
A herald of salvation bore
To her the words of endless life.

That Gift, however fools deride,
Is worthy of her royal care:
She’d better lay her crown aside
Than spurn the light reflected there.

Oh would she now her influence bend—,
The influence of royalty,
Messiah’s kingdom to extend,
And Zion’s “nursing mother” be.

Thus with the glory of her name
Inscribed on Zion’s lofty spire,
She’d win a wreath of endless fame,
To last when other wreaths expire.

Though over millions called to reign—
Herself a powerful nation’s boast,
‘Twould be her everlasting gain
To serve the King, the Lord of Hosts.

For there are crowns and thrones on high,
And kingdoms there to be conferred;
There honors wait that never die;
There fame’s immortal trump is heard.

Truth echoes—’tis Jehovah’s word;
Let kings and queens and princes hear;
In distant isles the sound is heard;
Ye heavens rejoice! O earth, give ear!

The time, the time is now at hand
To give a glorious period birth:
The son of God will take command
And rule the nations of the earth.