What's happening
This is a short revelation to the Apostle David W. Patten, directing him to settle up all his business and prepare for a mission the next spring — words that take on a deep poignancy because Patten would be dead, killed in the Battle of Crooked River, before that spring ever came.
It was given at Far West on April 17, 1838. The Lord tells Patten to settle up all his business as soon as he possibly can, and make a disposition of his merchandise, that he may perform a mission unto me next spring, in company with others, even twelve including himself, to testify of my name and bear glad tidings unto all the world (v. 1). Then comes the sober note that gives the section its weight: for there are those who have fallen from their high estate, and others who have been called to fill their places (v. 2) — vacancies in the Twelve being filled. Patten himself would never go on that mission; he fell at Crooked River that October, the first apostolic martyr of this dispensation.
Settle up thy business (verses 1–2)
Verily thus saith the Lord: It is wisdom in my servant David W. Patten, that he settle up all his business as soon as he possibly can... that he may perform a mission unto me next spring, in company with others, even twelve including himself, to testify of my name and bear glad tidings unto all the world. — D&C 114:1
The counsel is practical and prophetic at once. Settle up all his business... make a disposition of his merchandise — put your affairs in order — that he may perform a mission. Read at the time, it was a directive to prepare for missionary service abroad. Read in hindsight, it reads almost like the counsel a man receives near the end of his life: set your house in order. Patten obeyed, settled his affairs — and within months gave his life. Whether by life or by death, he was ready. The mission he prepared for, he fulfilled in a way no one expected: he bore glad tidings and testified of [the Lord's] name with his blood.
For there are those who have fallen from their high estate, and others who have been called to fill their places... — D&C 114:2
This sober line names the turbulence in the Twelve in 1838 — apostasies that left vacancies, and others called to fill their places. The Lord adds a warning that no office is secure by tenure alone: their bishopric or apostleship is taken from them if they fall. The calling is held by faithfulness, not by appointment. Patten's faithfulness unto death stands in deliberate contrast to those who fell from their high estate.
How the section is built
Two verses, a charge and a warning. The charge (v. 1): settle your business, dispose of your merchandise, prepare to go with the Twelve to testify of Christ to all the world. The warning (v. 2): some have fallen from their high estate and others called to fill their places — the calling kept by faithfulness, not tenure. The architecture is brief and weighty: a practical directive to a man whose obedience would, within months, cost him his life, set against the backdrop of others who let their callings slip. Patten is the man who settled his business and was found ready.
How this sits in the documentary record
Where this lands
Section 114 is two verses long, but it carries the freight of a whole life laid down. It is wisdom in my servant David W. Patten, that he settle up all his business as soon as he possibly can... that he may perform a mission. On its face it is a missionary directive. In hindsight it is something more — the counsel given to a man who had only months to live, to put his affairs in order. He did. And when the moment came at Crooked River, David Patten was ready to give everything. The mission he prepared for was not the one he expected; he testified of the Lord's name not in the mission field abroad but with his own blood, the first Apostle of the Restoration to die a martyr.
There is a quiet lesson in that for everyone. We are all told, in one way or another, to settle up our business — to put our affairs and our souls in order — as soon as we possibly can, because we do not know which spring we will see. Patten's obedience was not wasted; it simply bore fruit in a way he could not have foreseen. And the warning in the second verse frames it: some fell from their high estate, and the calling passed to others; Patten kept his, unto death. The man who settles his business and stays faithful is found ready, whatever comes. That readiness — not the length of the life — is what the Lord asks. Patten had it.