OBJECTIONS TO THE WITNESS CONSIDERED.
Since, as we have seen, a new dispensation of the gospel in the last
days is to be given to man; and as neither the "Reformers" of the
sixteenth century, nor any person since their day and before Joseph
Smith has even made any pretension that God by a new revelation and the
ministry of angels restored the gospel; and as that is the manner in
which God has promised to restore the gospel, may not Joseph Smith be
the prophet of the New Dispensation, the instrument in the hands of God
to bring to pass his purpose in the great work of the last days? Some
man must be chosen, why not he?
These questions lead me to the consideration of those objections urged
against Joseph Smith as reasons for believing that he was not a prophet
of God. First of all, I shall consider the one made against him on
account of his humble birth and lowly station in life.
It would be well-nigh an endless, as also a useless task to repeat
what has been said of Joseph Smith on this score. Not content with the
facts in the case, malice has employed misrepresentation to degrade his
family in the estimation of the world; and sneer and ridicule have done
what they could to cast discredit upon his pretensions, by pointing to
the rock from whence he was hewn, and the supposed pit from whence he
was digged. His friends and followers are prepared to admit the whole
truth in respect to his humble origin and lowly station in life. The
character of his parents, the circumstances under which he himself was
reared are detailed in chapter X of this book.
It will be remembered that his forefathers were among the earlier
settlers of New England; that his father was a farmer, industrious,
honorable, though in humble circumstance; and under the necessity of
laboring with his hands in wood or field to support his large family.
It has already been said that the youthful Prophet Joseph shared these
labors.
But of what value is the objection of lowly birth and humble station?
Is it to be argued that if the Lord had a communication to make to
mankind, such as Joseph Smith claims to have received, he would have
chosen some of the great ones of the earth, one of high birth, of
vast fortune, of profound learning, of deep knowledge and famous for
eloquence? Such an one man might choose, but how often has God done
otherwise! Let the roll in part be called: Moses and Aaron, the sons
of an Israelitish slave; Joshua, the same; David, a shepherd; the
prophet Amos, a shepherd and dresser of sycamore trees; the apostles
of Jesus Christ, men of the lowliest birth and humblest occupations;
Peter and Andrew his brother, were fishermen; John and James, the sons
of Zebedee, also fishermen; Matthew, a despised tax-collector; Paul, a
tent-maker; and while of the occupations of the rest of the apostles
nothing is known definitely, we have every reason to believe that they
were men of the humblest extraction and meanest occupation.
These are some of those whom God called to do his work. He has not
always confined his choice to men of this class; sometimes he has
chosen men of royal descent and from what are called the higher walks
of life. Because Deity has chosen his servants so frequently from those
of humble extraction and occupation, it is not for me to flout the
rich and learned and great. That were an arrogance as offensive to the
spirit of right reason and to heaven, as that which I condemn in those
who affect to despise the Prophet Joseph because of his humble birth
and circumstances. By citing the fact that God in other ages has chosen
men of lowly birth and mean occupation, I only desire to show that
there is no value in the objection urged against Joseph Smith on the
ground of his humble station in life.
Let Joseph Smith's birth be as humble as it will, it cannot be more
lowly than that of Jesus Christ. The fortunes of the mother of the
prophet were not more fallen than those of Mary, the mother of Jesus.
A log house in Sharon, Vermont, was not a more humble birth-place than
a stable in Bethlehem. The rude cradle of Joseph Smith, made by his
father's hands, though rough hewn, was at least equal to the ruder
manger of the stable at Bethlehem; and the occupation of husband-man,
which the father of Joseph followed, and in which the Prophet in
boyhood assisted him, is not more humble as an occupation than that
of a carpenter which the supposed father of Jesus followed, and in
which Jesus doubtless assisted him, before entering upon his public
ministry. Indeed, I may say that neither Joseph Smith nor any other
prophet has been permitted to start from a more lowly station in life
than the Son of God; for it is fitting that he who is to ascend above
all things--all heights, principalities and powers, should also descend
below all things, that he might in all things touch all points of human
experience so that whatever the experience of man might be, however
lowly his station, however distressing his misfortunes; however poor,
forsaken, desolate; however ridiculed, despised, hated, persecuted;
however tempted--looking down from his exalted throne at the right hand
of God, with his soul swelling with compassion, Jesus might say--"The
Son of Man hath descended below them all." [1]
The objections urged against Joseph Smith on the ground of his lowly
birth and humble occupation are without value. Writing to the saints at
Corinth, the apostle to the Gentiles says: "For ye see your calling,
brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty,
not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of
the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things
of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things
of the world, and things, which are despised, hath God chosen, yea,
and things which are not, to bring to naught the things which are."
[2] The reason God assigns for pursuing such a course in the selection
of his servants is said to be, "That no flesh should glory in his
presence. * * * That according as it is written, he that glorieth, let
him glory in the Lord." [3] If the wisdom of this method of procedure
does not appeal to the intelligence of man, let him accept it as an
evidence that God's ways are not as man's ways, nor his thoughts as
man's thoughts. Of this, too, we may be assured--that as the heavens
are higher than the earth, so are God's ways higher than man's ways;
and his thoughts than man's thoughts. [4] Moreover, as I have remarked
elsewhere, [5] it has become proverbial that all great movements, all
reformations, all revolutions must produce their own leaders; and
this is true of the great work of the last days--the establishment of
the Church of Christ on earth--as it is of any other great movement.
Leaders in established usages and institutions, political, social or
religious, are seldom or never converted to innovations. They usually
consider it to their interest to oppose change, especially those
changes which from their very nature, cast any shadow of doubt upon the
correctness of existing customs or institutions with which they are
connected. Hence it happened that the Jewish Rabbis, the priests, the
scribes, the members of the great Sanhedrim did not accept the doctrine
of Messiah and become the chief apostles, seventies and elders of the
new church. On the contrary, this class were the stubbornest opponents
of the doctrines taught by the Son of God, and his most implacable
enemies. It was the common people who heard him gladly, and from their
number he chose the apostles, who, through the God-given powers of the
priesthood conferred upon them, shook the old systems of morals and
religion from their foundations.
From the very nature of things it must be necessary that men whose
minds are unwarped by prevailing customs and traditions, should be
selected to establish a new order of religion, of government or
society. How could the Jewish priests and rabbis, bound by long custom
to a slavish adherence to the outward forms and ceremonies of the
Mosaic ritual, the spirit of which had long been made of no effect by
the rubbish of false traditions, open their minds to receive the larger
and nobler doctrines of the gospel of Christ unmixed with the pomp and
circumstance which men of that age considered essential to religion?
Can men educated to an attachment for despotic government, and whose
interests are bound up with its maintenance, be expected to look with
favor on democratic principles, or become the champions of a republic?
Finally, were the religious leaders of the early part of the nineteenth
century educated to the idea that revelation had ceased; that the voice
of prophecy was forever silenced; that the ministration of angels was
ended; that the miraculous powers of the Holy Ghost were done away;
that the ancient organization of the church was no longer needed--were
such men, filled with pride which the learning of the world too
often infuses into the hearts of those who possess it--were such men
qualified to stand at the head of, and become leading actors in the
dispensation of the fullness of times? A dispensation opened by a new
revelation, by numerous visitations of angels, and to end eventually in
the full establishment of the Church of Christ, the restoration of the
house of Israel and the complete redemption of the earth and all its
inhabitants?
Such a work was too large, too high and too deep for minds filled with
false sectarian ideas. Hence God chose for his servant to stand at the
head of this great and last dispensation, a man whose mind was unwarped
by false education; but one of large capacity; possessing breadth and
freedom of thought, of sanguine, fearless temperament: a child of
nature, with a conscience unseared by worldly guile and a stranger to
motives other than those dictated by an honest purpose; and withal,
full of implicit confidence in God--a confidence born of a living faith
in the fact of Deity's existence, and a consciousness of the rectitude
of his own intentions and life.
As ill-founded as the objection based upon his humble parentage and
station in life is that objection which arises out of the fact that
he was evil spoken of by the world. Let not the reader here confound
reputation with character. They are quite distinct, I assure you.
The latter is what one is; the former may be a fool's estimate of
one; or, even worse, it may be and often is a thing created by liars
and knaves--formed by misrepresentations and set on its feet by
malice. When favorable it is often obtained without merit, and as
often lost without deserving. But with character it is not so. That
stands independent of the estimate of fools or the misrepresentation
of knaves. It is formed in great part by ourselves; in part by our
surroundings; in part by God. It is what we are irrespective of what
the world may think or say of us.
I have said so much that the reader may be reminded that a man's
character may be good, while his reputation may be villainous; or _vice
versa._ There is nothing, therefore, that is so unsafe a criterion
by which to estimate a man as by what the world says of him--by his
reputation.
Especially is this true of the servants of God. Commissioned as they
usually are to reprove the world of sin and unrighteousness, and to
call mankind to repentance, they have appeared as rude disturbers of
the peace and ease of mankind--iconoclasts bent on breaking the images
on which men set their hearts. The world does not love them, and what
it hates it maligns--and thence, with the world, springs the reputation
of the servants of God. The balances in which they are weighed are
false, hence the announcement of their value from that source is untrue.
Judged by his reputation with the world when he lived among men, the
Lord Jesus himself would be condemned as a blaspheming malefactor; a
violator of ancient customs; a traitor to Caesar's government; one so
base as to be in league with Lucifer by whose power he cast out devils;
by magic healed the sick and blind and halt; who for his many crimes
was crucified between two thieves; and whose body his disciples--being
of like spirit with their master--stole, and then sent out the lying
report that Jesus was risen from the dead. Such was the world's account
of Christ, in his day, and in the days of his apostles--such the
reputation of the Son of God! If judged by it would he not be rejected
as an imposter? How unjust would such a judgment be! To those who
reject Joseph Smith as a servant and witness for God, because he was,
and is evil spoken of by the world, I put this question: "May not the
judgment you pass upon him--which you base upon what the world, and
generally what his enemies, say of him, be equally unjust and untrue?"
"If the world hate you," said Jesus to his apostles, "ye know it hated
me before it hated you. If ye were of the world the world would love
his own: but because ye are not of the world but I have chosen you out
of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I
said unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have
persecuted me they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying
they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you
for my name's sake because they know not him that sent me." [6]
In the light of these sayings of the Lord Jesus, of what value is the
objection urged against Joseph Smith as a Prophet and witness for God
based upon the fact that he was evil spoken of by the world? Why, since
he was a servant of the Most High, sent to reprove the world of its
unrighteousness, may we not reasonably expect that the world would
speak against him? Would there not be something manifestly wrong if it
did not do it? "Blessed are ye," said Jesus, "when men shall hate you,
and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach
you, and cast out your name as evil for the Son of Man's sake. Rejoice
ye in that day, and leap for joy; for behold, your reward is great in
heaven: _for in like manner did their fathers unto the prophets._" [7]
It is nothing strange, then, that the great Prophet of the new
dispensation should be spoken evil against. 'Tis an old tale, this
slandering of God's servants by the world, so old that one wonders that
men have not become so accustomed to it that they can assign to it its
true importance, or rather its want of importance. But it seems to be
the doom of every age in this matter to follow in the footsteps of that
which preceded it--to build the tombs of the prophets and garnish the
sepulchres of the righteous, and say, "If we had been in the days of
our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of
the prophets." [8] And yet with strange inconsistency, these builders
of tombs, these garnishers of sepulchres, while they profess to honor
the prophets of past ages, persecute to the death the prophets of their
own days! Stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, they do
always resist the Holy Ghost: as their fathers did, so do they--which
of the prophets have they not persecuted?
"Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you! _for so did their
fathers of the false prophets_!" [9] Stranger grows the inconsistency
of human conduct. The true rejected; the false enshrined! and so
common has become the practice that one great thinker [10] touching
the theme said: "There is always something great in that man against
whom the world exclaims, at whom every one throws a stone, and on whose
character all attempt to fix a thousand crimes without being able to
prove one."
Here I may pause again to ask: What is the value of the objection made
to Joseph Smith as a Prophet and witness for God, based upon the fact
that he was evil spoken of by the world? That has been the heritage of
the servants of God so long that the memory of man runneth not to the
contrary. Had Joseph Smith failed to have received this treatment at
the hands of the world, he would have failed of one of the marks of
a true Prophet. Had he been received with open arms by the world, he
could with some effect have been denounced as a false prophet; for in
such manner they have been received:--"Woe unto you when all men shall
speak well of you, for so did their fathers of the false prophets!"
The fact here stated by the Son of God is a complete answer to the
objections based on the calumny of the world against the prophets of
God in all subsequent times; and no less an answer to the objections
urged against Joseph Smith than to other prophets.
Footnotes
1. These were the words of the Lord to Joseph Smith when confined a
prisoner for the truth's sake in Liberty Jail, Clay County, State of
Missouri: "If thou art called to pass through tribulation; if thou art
in perils among false brethren; if thou art in perils among robbers;
if thou art in perils by land or by sea; if thou art accused with
all manner of false accusations; if thine enemies fall upon thee * *
* * and if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of
murderers, and the sentence of death be passed upon thee; if thou be
cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if
fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and
all the elements combine to hedge up thy way; and above all, if the
very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou
my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be
for thy good. _The Son of Man hath descended below them all._" (Doc.
and Cov. Sec. cxxii.) So also Paul: "Where in all things it behoved
him (Jesus) to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a
merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make
reconciliation for the sins of the people. For that he himself hath
suffered, being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted."
(Heb. ii: 17, 18.)
2. I Cor. i: 26, 27.
3. I Cor. i: 29, 31.
4. Isaiah lv: 8, 9.
5. Life of John Taylor, chapter 1.
6. St. John xv: 18-21.
7. Luke vi: 22, 23.
8. Matt. xxiii. 29,
9. Luke vi: 26.
10. Zimmerman.