Joseph Smith

“ The Prophet was only a man; but he was a good man, an inspired man, a better man than he could have been without the inspiration of his master, Christ. In all his actions he was fearless as an angel of light. Not in all that has ever been written or said of him by friend or foe is there one word to impugn the magnificent physical bravery and moral courage of Joseph Smith. ”

“ The truth that I have received teaches me that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, teaches me to accept without recourse, other than the full and free acceptance of that truth, that God Almighty, the Father of Jesus Christ, the Father of our spirits, the maker of heaven and earth, condescended to come down to this our mother earth, in person, in company with his beloved Son, and show themselves to Joseph Smith. ”

“ The spirit of speculation and desire for wealth, during the brief spell of peace and harmony, had beclouded the minds of many, and their souls were filled with deadly hatred against their former brethren. Joseph Smith was called a fallen prophet by those whom he had cherished and loved, and whose love for him had been pronounced. Some, in their bitterness and darkness of mind, sought his life. Those who sought his welfare and spoke in his defense, were ridiculed and treated with great contempt. ”

“ Is it possible that that illiterate young man, Joseph Smith, should be the first, after the lapse of so many ages, to break the spell of darkness, and pierce the clouds of error, and let in the sunshine of eternal truth upon the whole world? Is it possible that he whom we have been accustomed to regard as the blackest impostor—about whose moral character there hang so many shades of suspicion? ”

“ Joseph Smith was not killed because he was deserving of it, nor because he was a wicked man; but because he was a virtuous man. I know that to be so, as well as I know that the sun now shines. Every man and woman who does the will of the Father, and will keep the commandments of Jesus Christ, may also know, as well as myself—it is their privilege. ”

“ Joseph Smith, the Prophet of the last days, had a happy faculty of reducing the things of heaven to the capacity of persons of common understanding, often in a single sentence throwing a flood of light into the gloom of ages. He had power to draw the spirits of the people who listened to him to his standard, where they communed with heavenly objects and heavenly principles, connecting the heavenly and the earthly together—in one blending flood of heavenly intelligence. ”

“ We are accused by the Reorganites, however, of departing from the doctrines of the Prophet Joseph Smith in that we believe in a plurality of Gods. That we believe in a plurality of Gods is true, and if they do not—and they confess almost unanimously that they do not—then they are not following the teachings and revelations of Joseph Smith. If the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost are separate and distinct personages, then they are three Gods, then they are plural, this fact Joseph Smith taught to the world. ”

“ Had Joseph Smith been an impostor and of the world, the world would not have hated him, but would have loved its own. Had Joseph Smith made political capital of his religion and calling, and raised up a political party, he doubtless would have become celebrated and renowned in the world as a great man and as a great leader. ”

“ Fourth.—Joseph Smith not only professes, through the medium of angels, to have received a dispensation of the gospel, and the power and authority of the apostleship, but he also professes to have received, through revelation and commandment from God, a dispensation for the gathering of the Saints from all nations. Now the doctrine of the gathering of the Saints in the last days must either be false or true; if false, then J. Smith must be an impostor. ”

“ We have no examples on the records of history, of a doctrine perfect in every respect, being taught by any person or persons, unless they were inspired with divine authority. If Joseph Smith taught a doctrine in any respect false, he should be rejected as an impostor, though he should, like the magicians of Egypt, turn rivers of water into blood, or create frogs in abundance, or even raise the dead like the witch of Endor. ”

“ Joseph Smith was one of the few. In speaking of his opponents we refer not to the sectarian bigots or to the mobocrats and apostates; but we refer to men of standing and reputation, who were not so foolish as to speak falsely in describing his attributes. We refer to men who recognized in Joseph Smith a social factor and in his work a social movement, even while they denied his inspiration and its divinity.
A writer for the New York Herald had visited the Prophet, and in 1842 that paper said:
Joseph Smith is undoubtedly one of the greatest characters of the age. ”

“ TESTIMONY OF PRESIDENT YOUNG.
At a meeting held at Nauvoo, August 7, 1844, he said:
"How often has Joseph said to the Twelve, 'I have laid the foundation and you must build thereon, for upon your shoulders the kingdom rests. * * * * I tell you in the name of the Lord, that no man can put another between the Twelve and the Prophet Joseph Smith. Why? Because Joseph was their file leader, and he has committed into their hands the keys of the kingdom in this last dispensation for all the world; don't put a thread between the Priesthood of God."— (History of the Church for August 7, 1844) . ”

“ What have they done for the world, with all their boasted intelligence, influence, wealth, and the popular voice of the world in their favor! Joseph Smith had none of their advantages, if these are advantages. And yet, no man in the nineteenth century, except Joseph Smith, has discovered to the world a ray of light upon the keys and power of the holy priesthood, or the ordinances of the gospel, either for the living or the dead. ”

“ If Joseph Smith continued to abide in Christ, which all must admit that he did, in that case the gift conferred was to continue with him; not only in the present world, the life of the flesh, but the keys were to remain with him in the world to come. But that no harm could come to the Church, and the elders be put in possession of a key to the situation in case Joseph Smith should be taken, they were told that there was no one other than he appointed until he was taken, and that when this should occur the oracles should be given to the Church. ”

“ Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet, is a singular character; he lives at the "Nauvoo Mansion House," which is, I understand, intended to become a home for the stranger and traveler; and I think, from my own personal observation, that it will be deserving of the name. The Prophet is a kind, cheerful, sociable companion. I believe that he has the good-will of the community at large, and that he is ever ready to stand by and defend them in any extremity; and as I saw the Prophet and his brother Hyrum conversing together one day, I thought I beheld two of the greatest men of the nineteenth century. ”

“ In this record, Joseph Smith was to be called “a seer, a translator, a prophet, an apostle of Jesus Christ, and elder of the Church through the will of God the Father, and the grace of your Lord Jesus Christ.” The Church was also commanded to give heed unto all his words and commandments, “as he receiveth them, as if from mine own mouth, in all patience and faith,” said the Lord. By doing this “the gates of hell” should not prevail against them, for the Lord would dispel the powers of darkness. ”

“ If he were an impostor, deliberately and coolly inventing, and pertinaciously propagating a falsehood, there is this much to be said, that never was an impostor more cruelly punished than he was, from the first moment of his appearance as a prophet to the last. Joseph Smith, in consequence of his pretensions to be a seer and prophet of God, lived a life of continual misery and persecution. ”

“ As I have said, if those sons are not faithful the realization of the promise will pass them by until some of the seed of Joseph Smith will stand up to receive the blessing. Furthermore, this promise was not made solely to Joseph Smith. Oliver Cowdery received the same blessing; but he left the Church and went into forbidden paths, and the promised blessing was taken from him and given to another. So it will be with the sons of Joseph the Prophet; if they repent not they shall not receive the blessing. The Lord has declared:
"Who am I, saith the Lord, that have promised and have not fulfilled? ”

“ I went to my Father in heaven and asked him with regard to the truth of the doctrines taught by Joseph Smith, and I know they will save all that will hearken to them, and that those who do not will miss salvation in the celestial kingdom of God; and though Joseph Smith should steal horses every day, or gamble every night, or deny his Saviour from the crowing of the cock in the morning until sunset in the evening, I know that the doctrine he preaches is the power of God to my salvation, if I live it. ”

“ The Prophet Joseph Smith's name has been known for good and evil among all the inhabitants of the earth, being regarded by some as a man divinely inspired, a prophet of the living God, his words treasured up as the words of a prophet should be; and by others, he is looked upon as an impostor, an ignoramus, a man in fact too bad to live. ”

“ It is a great deal more likely that He would select such a one as Joseph Smith, who was free from tradition, and on whose mind He could make an impression as easily as He could with a pen on a piece of white paper—an honest, sincere soul, seeking the way of eternal life. ”

“ Hence I repeat that Joseph Smith was great; but great as he was, rising up and towering far above him is the work that he accomplished through divine guidance; that work is infinitely greater than the prophet—greater than all the prophets connected with it. Its consistency, its permanency, its power, its institutions, contradict the hallucination theory advanced to account for its origin. ”

“ It was on the 19th day of June, 1831, that Joseph Smith departed from Kirtland, Ohio, to go up into Missouri, the place promised as an inheritance for the Saints and at which the New Jerusalem should sometime be established. The Prophet was accompanied by Sidney Rigdon, Martin Harris, Edward Partridge, W. W. Phelps, Joseph Coe and A. S. Gilbert and wife. As rapidly as possible they journeyed by wagon and stage and occasionally by canal boat to Cincinnati, Ohio. ”

“ Joseph Smith was called to do this work; and he did it. He has been an instrument in the hands of God by giving each of us the power to obtain knowledge for ourselves through the mercy and love of God, and to become teachers of it to the world; teachers not only to our children, but to nations that are in darkness and know not the truth. And it is a living, daily religion, an hourly religion. It requires us to do right today, this hour, this week, this month and this year ”

“ Councilor Samuel H. Smith said, that President Joseph Smith was {275} in the line of his duty when he reproved Brother Aldridge for his evil; and, consequently, Brother Green must have been wrong in opposing him, and saying he [Joseph] acted like a scoundrel, and that the devil was in him.
Councilor Levi Jackman said that Brother Green could not be justified in opposing the servant of the Lord, while in the actual discharge of his duty, and that it was evident that Satan hath sought to make divisions in the Church, and had taken advantage of the occasion of presenting the book, to do this. ”

“ All who confess that Joseph Smith is sent of God in the latter days, to lay the foundation of his everlasting kingdom no more to be thrown down, and will continue to keep his commandments, are born of God. All those who believe in their hearts and confess with their mouths that Joseph Smith is a true Prophet, at the same time trying with their might to live the holy principles Joseph the Prophet has revealed, are in possession of the Holy Spirit of God and are entitled to a fullness. ”

“ So that first, Joseph Smith having received this knowledge that God lived, and others through the medium that God ordained were accorded the same privilege. Thus there was opened up a communication with the heavens; not only with Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, and those immediately associated with them, but with those also who received the Gospel; and as the Scriptures say, "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe in his name; which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." ”

“ Having recently had occasion to visit the city of Nauvoo I cannot permit the opportunity to pass without expressing the agreeable disappointment that awaited me there. I had supposed, from what I had previously heard, that I should witness an impoverished, ignorant and bigoted population, completely priest-ridden and tyrannized over by Joseph Smith, the great Prophet of these people.
On the contrary, to my surprise, I saw a people apparently happy, prosperous and intelligent. Every man appeared to be employed in some business or occupation. ”

“ The preachers hastened away, filled with indignation, and spread all manner of ridiculous reports concerning Joseph Smith because he could condescend at times to run, or jump or wrestle like a boy. Probably their defeat in argument had more than the professed shock to their religious sensitiveness to do with their indignation. He was always gentle and good-natured in his sports. Several men are yet living who jumped or tried a fall with the Prophet. They say Joseph did not lose dignity in these sports. ”