Читать книгу History of Joseph Smith, the Prophet and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - Joseph F. Smith - Страница 29

1. Doctrine and Covenants, section 27.

2. Mr. Hale, the Prophet's father-in-law, retained the bitterness then engendered in his mind; and some years later—namely, in 1834—made an affidavit concerning the character of Joseph the Prophet, which has been very generally quoted in anti-"Mormon" works.

3. In the manuscript of the Prophet Joseph's History this conference is said to have been appointed for the "first day of September;" but in the Far West Record, a manuscript record kept by the clerks of the High Council in Missouri—and to which reference has before been made—are the minutes of the 9th of June conference (1830), which state that that conference adjourned to meet again on the 26th of September. The record also contains the minutes of the above conference bearing the date of September 26th. In addition to these reasons for changing the date in the text is the fact that immediately, or at least very soon after the close of the conference, a revelation was sought and obtained concerning the mission to the Lamanites, to which, even previous to the conference, Oliver Cowdery had been appointed (Doctrine and Covenants, 28:8-10). The said revelation bears the date of "October, 1830." (Doctrine and Covenants, sec. 32), which would scarcely be the case if the conference had been held on the first, rather than near the close of September, as there is every reason to believe from the record that this revelation was received immediately after the conference closed. Moreover, the 26th of September, 1830, came on Sunday; whereas the first of September came on Wednesday, and as the conference lasted but three days, the brethren would scarcely arrange such a gathering without appointing it for such days as would include a Sunday.

4. Doctrine and Covenants, sec. 28.

5. Doctrine and Covenants, sec. 29.

6. Doctrine and Covenants, sec. 30.

7. Doctrine and Covenants, sec. 31.

8. Thomas Baldwin Marsh, to whom the foregoing revelation was given through the Prophet Joseph, was born in Massachusetts, November 1, 1799, and after his marriage to Elizabeth Godkin in 1820, he went into the grocery business in New York, afterwards engaging in a type foundry in Boston. Here he joined the Methodist church, but on comparing its principles with the Scripture, and failing to make them correspond, he withdrew from all sects, but expected and indeed predicted the rise of a new church which should have the truth in its purity. He was moved by the Spirit to make a journey west, during which he heard of the Book of Mormon. He met Martin Harris at the office where it was being printed, and secured proof sheets of the first sixteen pages. He later met Oliver Cowdery, and remained with him two days, receiving from him full information as to the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. Returning to his home near Boston, he kept up a correspondence with the Prophet and Oliver for about a year; and upon learning of the organization of the Church, he moved to Palmyra in September, 1830, and was baptized by David Whitmer, and a few days later was ordained an Elder by Oliver Cowdery.

9. Of course this knowledge arose from what the brethren had learned from the Book of Mormon of the promises of God to the Lamanites.

10. The consideration of the "propriety" of sending Elders among the Lamanites here referred to was doubtless restricted to the propriety of increasing the number of Elders to go among them; for before the conference convened the propriety of sending EIders to the Lamanites had been settled by the word of the Lord. In a revelation receive before the conference of September 26th, Oliver Cowdery was appointed to go on a mission to the Lamanites, though instructed not to leave Fayette until after the conference. (See p. 111; also Doctrine and Covenants, sec. 28:8-10.) And before the conference adjourned another revelation was received in which Peter Whitmer, Jun., was appointed to accompany Oliver Cowdery on his mission. (See p. 116; and Doctrine and Covenants, sec. 30:5-6.) Hence these inquiries after the conference concerning the "propriety" of sending Elders among the Lamanites, I repeat, must have had reference merely to the propriety of increasing the number that should go. It will be observed also that the revelation which follows in the text merely appoints Parley P. Pratt and Ziba Peterson to accompany Elders Cowdery and Whitmer.

11. Doctrine and Covenants, sec. 32.

12. Parley Parker Pratt was born on the 12th day of April, 1807, in Burlington, Otsego county, state of New York. He was the third son of Jared and Charity Pratt. Jared was the son of Obediah and Jemima Pratt; Obediah was the son of Christopher and Sarah Pratt; Christopher was the son of William and Hannah Pratt; William was the son of Joseph Pratt, Joseph was the son of Lieutenant William and Elizabeth Pratt, who were found among the first settlers of Hartford, Connecticut, in the year 1639.

This William Pratt was a member of the legislature for some twenty-five or thirty sessions; and the general court gave him one hundred acres of land in Saybrook, Connecticut, for services performed as lieutenant in the Pequot war; he was one of the judges of the first court in New London county. Parley P. Pratt is a lineal descendant, of the seventh generation, from that distinguished pilgrim and humble pioneer to the new world. Parley P. Pratt was reared to hard work on a farm and though his opportunities for acquiring an education were extremely limited, he was brought up in the strictest school of morals. Even in early youth he gave evidence of a profoundly religious nature, and while yet in his teens became identified with the Baptist church. In 1826 he left New York state and settled some thirty miles west of the town of Cleveland, in the state of Ohio, and laid the foundation of a wilderness home. The next year, 1827, he returned to Canaan, Columbia county, New York,—the county where much of his boyhood was spent, the home, too, of his parents—and there married Thankful Halsey, on the 9th of September, 1827. The same month the newly married couple returned to the wilderness home west of Cleveland. About eighteen months later Sidney Rigdon, who was connected with Alexander Campbell, Walter Scott and others in that aggressive reform movement among the Christian sects, which resulted in the founding of the sect of the "Disciples" or "Campbellites," came into Mr. Pratt's neighborhood preaching the doctrines of faith, repentance and baptism. As his doctrine more nearly conformed to the scriptures than any other Mr. Pratt had heard, he accepted Sydney Rigdon's teachings, joined the "Disciples," and became a minister in that church. He determined to take up the ministry as his life's labor, sold his possessions and started first of all to call upon his relatives in New York. En route, however, he was moved upon by the spirit to stop off at Newark, in New York, while his wife continued her journey to her father's home. At Newark, Mr. Pratt first heard of and saw the Book of Mormon, and, without delay, hastened to Palmyra to investigate the story of its coming forth. At the home of the Smiths, near Manchester, he met with Hyrum, brother of the Prophet, and from him learned the particulars of the work. In company with Hyrum Smith he went to Fayette, where he met with Oliver Cowdery; and about the first of September he was baptized by him in Seneca Lake, and straightway was ordained an Elder of the Church. After these events he continued his journey to the home of his kindred in Columbia county, New York, where he baptized his brother Orson, then a youth of nineteen years. He returned to Fayette in time to attend the conference, where he met the Prophet Joseph, and received the appointment to the Lamanite mission as related in the text.

13. After traveling for some days the Lamanite mission called at some Indian encampments near the city of Buffalo, where they spent part of a day instructing them in the knowledge of their forefathers. These Indians were of the Cattaraugus tribe, and kindly received the brethren, who left with certain of their number who could read English, two copies of the Book of Mormon. And then continued their journey westward. (Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, pp. 49, 61.)

14. Sidney Rigdon was born in Saint Clair township, Allegheny county, state of Pennsylvania, on the 19th of February, A. D. 1793, and was the youngest son of William and Nancy Rigdon, William Rigdon, his father, a native of Hartford county, state of Maryland, was born A. D. 1743, and died May 26th, A. D. 1810. William Rigdon was the son of Thomas Baker and Ann Lucy Rigdon. Thomas Baker Rigdon was a native of the state of Maryland, and was the son of Thomas Baker Rigdon, who came from Great Britain. Ann Lucy Rigdon, grandmother of Sidney Rigdon, was a native of Ireland, and emigrated to the city of Boston, Massachusetts and was there married to Thomas Baker Rigdon. Nancy Rigdon's mother was a native of Freehold, Monmouth county, New Jersey; she was born March 16th, 1759, and died October 3rd, 1839, and was the eldest daughter of Byrant Gallaher, who was a native of Ireland. Elizabeth Gallaher, mother to the aforesaid Nancy Rigdon, was the second wife of the said Byrant Gallaher, and her maiden name was Reed. She was a native of Monmouth county, New Jersey. Her parents were natives of Scotland. The early days of Sidney Rigdon's life were uneventful. His youth and the early years of his manhood were spent at his father's farm in St. Clair township, Allegheny county, Pennsylvania. When Sidney was seventeen years old his father died, but he continued on the same farm with his mother until he was twenty-six. In his twenty-fifth year he joined the "Regular Baptist" society or church. The pastor in charge was the Rev. David Phillips, a clergyman from Wales. In March, 1819, Mr. Rigdon left the farm and made his home with the Rev. Andrew Clark, of Pittsburgh, also a Baptist minister. While residing with Mr. Clark he took out a license and began from that time his career as a minister. In May, 1819, he removed from Pennsylvania to Trumbull county, Ohio. In July of the same year he made his home with Adamson Bentley, a minister of the same faith. While residing at Bentley's he met Phebe Brook, to whom he was married on the 12th day of June, 1820. She was a native of the state of New Jersey, Bridgetown, Cumberland county, but had previously removed to Trumbull county, Ohio. Sidney Rigdon continued to preach throughout Trumbull county until November, 1821. Passing through Pittsburgh about that time, for the purpose of visiting his relatives at the old homestead in St. Clair township, Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, he was invited to preach to the Baptist society of Pittsburg, which he did the following and several succeeding Sundays. As the congregation had no regular pastor they invited him to take charge and become their regular minister; a "call" which he accepted and removed from Warren in Trumbull county, Ohio, to Pittsburg in February, 1822. Meantime misgivings arose in his mind with reference to some of the doctrines of the church with which he was connected, especially with reference to the fate of unbaptized infants. Finally, after serving his congregation about two years and six months, he gave up his charge in August, 1824, and retired from the ministry. After taking this step he joined his wife's brother, Richard Brook, in the tanning business. Together they started a small tannery in which Mr. Rigdon worked as a journeyman for some two years. Meantime he had formed the acquaintance of Mr. Alexander Campbell, generally regarded as the founder of the sect of the "Disciples," or "Campbellites," and Mr. Walter Scott, a Scotchman by birth, but at this time a resident of Pittsburg and a dissenter from a Scandinavian church with which he had formerly been associated. These three gentlemen often met and discussed the subject of religion, the necessity for a universal reformation among the churches, the abandonment of their creeds, etc. The consultations they held led ultimately to the establishment of the church or sect of the "Disciples." Mr. Rigdon left Pittsburg in 1826, and went to Bainbridge, Geaugo county, Ohio, where the people urged him to speak to them. He did so, following in his teachings that line of doctrine which in his consultation with Messrs. Campbell and Scott they had considered were essential to Christian spiritual life, viz., faith in God, repentance of sins, baptism by immersion in water for the remission of sins, and holiness of life—a godly walk and conversation. Mr. Rigdon continued to labor in Bainbridge for about one year, when the people of Mentor, in the same county, but some thirty miles distant from Bainbridge, invited him to reside among them and preach. This he consented to do, and notwithstanding he at first met with some opposition, he prevailed against it and extended his labors into surrounding townships and counties until he had in a number of places a large following. Such were his circumstances and such his labor when the message of "Mormonism" found him—when Parley P. Pratt presented him with the Book of Mormon and its attendant message.

15. The circumstance of Oliver Cowdery, Parley P. Pratt and their associates presenting Sidney Rigdon with the Book of Mormon is thus related in the Life of Sidney Rigdon, by his son, John W. Rigdon (Ms. p. 18): "In the fall of 1830, Parley P. Pratt, Ziba Peterson, Oliver Cowdery, and Peter Whitmer called at the home of Sidney Rigdon, in the town of Mentor, Ohio, and Parley P. Pratt presented to him a bound volume of the Book of Mormon in the presence of his wife and his oldest child, Athalia Rigdon, now Athalia Robinson, who was then a girl ten years old, and now (1900) living in the town of Friendship, Allegheny county, state of New York; and who remembers the transaction as well as any incident of her life. Parley P. Pratt, at the time he handed the book to Sidney Rigdon, said it was a revelation from God."

Again referring to this circumstance near the close of the sketch of his father's life, John W. Rigdon relates how, in the fall of 1863, he visited the territory of Utah, where he spent the winter among the "Mormon" people. He was not favorably impressed with their religious life, and came to the conclusion that the Book of Mormon itself was a fraud. He determined in his own heart that if ever he returned home and found his father, Sidney Rigdon, alive, he would try and find out what he knew of the origin of the Book of Mormon. "Although," he adds, "he had never told but one story about it, and that was that Parley P. Pratt and Oliver Cowdery presented him with a bound volume of that book in the year 1830, while he (Sidney Rigdon) was preaching Campbellism at Mentor, Ohio." What John W. Rigdon claims to have seen in Utah, however, together with the fact that Sidney Rigdon had been charged with writing the Book of Mormon, made him suspicious; "and," he remarks, "I concluded I would make an investigation for my own satisfaction and find out if I could if he had all these years been deceiving his family and the world, by telling that which was not true, and I was in earnest about it. If Sidney Rigdon, my father, had thrown his life away by telling a falsehood and bringing sorrow and disgrace upon his family, I wanted to know it and was determined to find out the facts, no matter what the consequences might be. I reached home in the fall of 1865, found my father in good health and [he] was very much pleased to see me. As he had not heard anything from me for some time, he was afraid that I had been killed by the Indians. Shortly after I had arrived home, I went to my father's room; he was there and alone, now was the time for me to commence my inquiries in regard to the origin of the Book of Mormon, and as to the truth of the 'Mormon' religion. I told him what I had seen at Salt Lake City, and I said to him that what I had seen at Salt Lake had not impressed me very favorably toward the 'Mormon' Church, and as to the origin of the Book of Mormon I had some doubts. You have been charged with writing that book and giving it to Joseph Smith to introduce to the world. You have always told me one story; that you never saw the book until it was presented to you by Parley P. Pratt and Oliver Cowdery; and all you ever knew of the origin of that book was what they told you and what Joseph Smith and the witnesses who claimed to have seen the plates had told you. Is this true? If so all right; if it is not, you owe it to me and your family to tell it. You are an old man and you will soon pass away, and I wish to know if Joseph Smith, in your intimacy with him for fourteen years, has not said something to you that led you to believe he obtained that book in some other way than what he had told you. Give me all you know about it, that I may know the truth. My father, after I had finished saying what I have repeated above, looked at me a moment, raised his hand above his head and slowly said with tears glistening in his eyes: 'My son, I can swear before high heaven that what I have told you about the origin of that book is true. Your mother and sister, Mrs. Athalia Robinson, were present when that book was handed to me in Mentor, Ohio, and all I ever knew about the origin of that book was what Parley P. Pratt, Oliver Cowdery, Joseph Smith and the witnesses who claimed they saw the plates have told me, and in all my intimacy with Joseph Smith he never told me but the one story, and that was that he found it engraved upon gold plates in a hill near Palmyra, New York, and that an angel had appeared to him and directed him where to find it; and I have never, to you or to anyone else, told but the one story, and that I now repeat to you.' I believed him, and now believe he told me the truth. He also said to me after that that Mormonism was true; that Joseph Smith was a Prophet, and this world would find it out some day. After my father's death, my mother, who survived him several years, was in the enjoyment of good health up to the time of her last sickness, she being eighty-six years old. A short time before her death I had a conversation with her about the origin of the Book of Mormon, and wanted to know what she remembered about its being presented to my father. She said to me in that conversation that what my father had told me about the book being presented to him was true, for she was present at the time and knew that was the first time he ever saw it, and that the stories told about my father writing the Book of Mormon were not true. This she said to me in her old age and when the shadows of the grave were gathering around her and I believe her." (Life of Sidney Rigdon, by his son John W. Rigdon, Ms, pp. 188-195)

Our author also mentions in his sketch of his father's life, an affidavit given to him by his sister, Athalia Robinson, to the same effect as the statement of Sidney Rigdon and his wife, relative to the coming of Pratt and Cowdery to their home in Mentor, and presenting to her father a bound copy of the Book of Mormon. Athalia was ten years old at the time, and distinctly remembered throughout her life the circumstance. (Ibid, Ms. pp. 195-6).

16. Frederick Granger Williams was born in Suffield, Hartford county, Connecticut, October 28th, 1787. He was therefore a man of forty-three years of age when the Gospel was brought to him at Kirtland by Oliver Cowdery and associates. He was a man of considerable influence in the community where he resided. He owned a farm near Kirtland, but at the time the Gospel found him he was practicing medicine, and was widely known as Dr. Williams. He abandoned the practice of his profession, however, for the work of the ministry, and accompanied the Lamanite mission to Missouri.