1837-38.
JOSEPH VISITS CANADA--CARRIES SIDNEY THROUGH SWAMPS TO ESCAPE MOB--MEN
FALL FROM HIGH PLACES--PROPHET ESCAPES TO MISSOURI--DAVID WHITMER AND
OLIVER COWDERY CUT OFF THE CHURCH.
While these important things were going on in England, Joseph, with
Sidney Rigdon and Thomas B. Marsh, left Kirtland for a visit to the
Saints in Canada. When they reached Painesville, a few miles distant,
their enemies held them all day by bringing lawsuits against Joseph on
trumped-up charges. The sheriff said to Anson Call, who was present,
"We don't want your Prophet to leave Kirtland, and he shan't leave;"
but Brother Call went on Joseph's bond for seventeen hundred dollars,
and he was able to go the next day. Part of the journey was made by
steamer on Lake Erie and the brethren slept on deck with valises and
boots for pillows, but they had health and clear consciences and slept
in peace.
They spent a happy month traveling among the Canadian branches of the
Church and associating with John Taylor and the other Saints. On their
way back, in the latter part of August, Joseph and Sidney came by wagon
from Buffalo to Painesville. While eating supper at the house of Mr.
Bissell, who had been Joseph's lawyer, they discovered that a mob had
gathered, and soon learned that the object was their murder. Their host
was a true friend, however, and slipped them away by a back path. As
soon as the mob found they were gone, bonfires were lit and sentinels
placed along the Mentor road. But Joseph and Sidney took to the swamps
and the bonfires only helped them find their way.
Sidney, being sick, was soon worn out, so Joseph lifted him on his back
and waded for hours through mud and water carrying him. What a body and
soul that Prophet had! He would not desert a friend, though he risked
his life to save him, and with strength like Samson's he carried him
mile after mile through darkness and swamps. They reached Kirtland in
safety late at night, and the next day being Sunday, Joseph preached a
powerful sermon to the Saints.
It was a very sad home-coming for the Prophet. The spirit of apostasy
was very strong, and some of the leading men were found in sin. On the
3rd of September fellowship was withdrawn from three of the Apostles,
Lyman and Luke Johnson and John F. Boynton, and Frederick G. Williams
was not sustained as counselor to Joseph. At the same conference Oliver
Cowdery, Hyrum Smith, John and Joseph Smith, Sen., were made assistant
counselors to the Prophet. A week later the three Apostles confessed
and were received back, but their repentance was very shallow as it
later proved.
Joseph spent most of October on a journey to Missouri. Sidney was with
him and their special mission, besides visiting the Saints, was to pick
out places for the eastern brethren to settle upon with their families
and make homes. The time had about come when Kirtland should be left
and the Saints be gathered in one place. A conference was held on the
7th of November, soon after they came to Far West, and the Missouri
Saints rejected Frederick G. Williams, and Hyrum Smith was made second
counselor to Joseph.
The Prophet reached Kirtland in December and the condition there was
terrible. Warren Parrish, John F. Boynton, Luke Johnson, Joseph Coe
and others had laid a plot to destroy the Church. These men who had
received the most glorious visions of heaven now denied the faith and
said Joseph was a false and fallen Prophet. Such men as Brigham Young
were true to him and declared that they knew through the inspiration
of the Holy Ghost that Joseph was a Prophet of God. This brought
persecution upon them, and Brigham was compelled to flee for his life,
soon after Joseph came.
Late on the night of the 12th of January, 1838, Joseph and Sidney
saddled their horses and rode away from Kirtland. All through that
winter night they rode and did not stop until sixty miles lay between
them and their enemies. The life of a Prophet is not the easiest in
the world, is it? They waited there for their families and again began
their flight. For two hundred miles human bloodhounds from Kirtland
tracked them, but the Lord blinded their eyes and the Prophet and his
party went on unharmed. He reached Far West two months later. Some of
the brethren had gone one hundred and twenty miles to meet him and
bring him in comfort to Zion.
In the west as well as in the east, leading men of the Church had
sinned and fallen. Soon after Joseph's coming Oliver Cowdery, David
Whitmer, Lyman Johnson and William E. McLellin were cut off the Church.
These, with Luke Johnson and John F. Boynton, made two of the three
witnesses and four of the Twelve Apostles that had proved unfaithful.
Some time later, on the 8th of July of this year, John Taylor, John E.
Page, Wilford Woodruff and Willard Richards were called by revelation
to be Apostles in the places of the fallen ones.
During the spring and summer the Prophet was busy forming stakes
and providing for the Saints that were coming from Kirtland where
confusion and violence reigned even in the Temple. On the sixth of
July five hundred and fifteen of the faithful set out for Missouri
under the leadership of the Seventy quorums. The third number of the
_Elders' Journal_ was published by Joseph at Far West in July. This
was a paper that had been begun when the _Messenger and Advocate_ was
stopped. During this same month the great law of tithing was given to
the Saints. It is recorded in the one hundred and nineteenth section
of the Doctrine and Covenants, and being very short, all of you should
read it. This law was given because the Saints would not obey the law
of consecration, which was a higher law. The Lord still requires us to
obey the law of tithing, but after a time if we are worthy we may be
called to consecrate all we have to Him and hold our possessions as
stewardships.