Joseph Smith, and one who betrayed him

Joseph Smith, and one who betrayed him May 3, 2015

 

W. W. Phelps photo
A photograph of William W. Phelps (1792-1872), taken toward the end of his life.

 

Being here in upstate New York, in the area where the Restoration began, where Joseph Smith commenced his prophetic ministry, and where such very early converts as the journalist and editor W. W. Phelps joined the Restored Church, I found myself thinking earlier today of an exchange between the Prophet and Brother Phelps.

 

Phelps, who would eventually go on to write such memorable Latter-day Saint hymns as “The Spirit of God Like a Fire is Burning,” “Now Let Us Rejoice,” “If You Could Hie to Kolob,” “This Earth Was Once a Garden Place,” and “O God, the Eternal Father,” was bitterly disaffected from Joseph Smith and the Church during a period extending from 1838 into 1840, and his testimony against Joseph before officials of the State of Missouri helped to send the Prophet, along with Hyrum Smith and others, to several months of miserable incarceration and threatened execution in the ironically named Liberty Jail.

 

W. W. Phelps was excommunicated on 17 March 1839.

 

Eventually, though, he repented and sought reinstatement in the Church.  On 29 June 1840, he wrote a letter to Joseph Smith that included these words:

I am as the prodigal son . . .  I have seen the folly of my way, and I tremble at the gulf I have passed . . . I know my situation, you know it, and God knows it, and I want to be saved if my friends will help me . . . I have done wrong and I am sorry. The beam is in my own eye . . . I ask forgiveness . . . I want your fellowship; if you cannot grant that, grant me your peace and friendship, for we are brethren, and our communion used to be sweet. (History of the Church 4:163–64)

On 22 July 1840, the Prophet replied:

It is true, that we have suffered much in consequence of your behavior—the cup of gall, already full enough for mortals to drink, was indeed filled to overflowing when you turned against us. . . .  “Had it been an enemy, we could have borne it.” . . .  However, the cup has been drunk, the will of our Father has been done, and we are yet alive, for which we thank the Lord. . . .  Believing your confession to be real, and your repentance genuine, I shall be happy once again to give you the right hand of fellowship, and rejoice over the returning prodigal. . . .  “Come on dear brother, since the war is past, for friends at first, are friends again at last.” (History of the Church 4:163–64)

 

Small wonder, in this light, that another of Brother Phelps’s famous hymns is devoted to the memory of the by-then martyred Prophet Joseph Smith:  “Praise to the Man Who Communed with Jehovah.”

 

Posted from Victor, New York

 


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