C. C. A. Christensen, \u201cCarthage Jail\u201d (19th century)
Wikimedia CC; public domain
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Joseph Smith apparently expected to\u00a0die at the hands of his enemies. \u201cHe well knew that he must sacrifice his life for the principles God had revealed through him,\u201d said Lucy Walker Kimball. Yet \u201cDeath had no terrors for him although life was dear. I have often heard him say he expected to seal his testimony with his blood.\u201d[1] \u201cHe was cheerful and comforting,\u201d remembered Edward Stevenson.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nHe said, \u201cI shall not be sacrificed until my time comes; then I shall be offered freely.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nI heard the Prophet state, while preaching on a stand erected on the east side of the Temple, that he now saw the time he had long desired to see. \u201cNow I am a free man<\/em>,\u201d he declared. \u201cThere are men now prepared to carry out the work of the kingdom of God here on earth, and it will roll on forever. Thank God I have lived to see this day.\u201d[2]<\/span><\/p>\nBut he was growing tired. Benjamin F. Johnson remembered a time when, \u201cwith a deep-drawn breath, as a sigh of weariness,\u201d Joseph Smith<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nsank down heavily in his chair, and said, \u201cOh! I am so tired\u2014so tired that I often feel to long for my day of rest. For what has there been in this life but tribulation for me? From a boy I have been persecuted by my enemies, and now even my friends are beginning to join with them, to hate and persecute me! Why should I not wish for my time of rest?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nHis words and tone thrilled and shocked me, and like an arrow pierced my hopes that he would long remain with us. I said, as with a heart full of tears, \u201cOh! Joseph, what could we, as a people, do without you and what would become of the great latter-day work if you should leave us?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nHe was touched by my emotions, and in reply he said, \u201cBenjamin, I would not be far away from you, and if on the other side of the veil I would still be working with you, and with a power greatly increased, to roll on this kingdom.\u201d[3]<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cThe Prophet did not really desire longer to live,\u201d concluded Johnson.[4] Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner recalled the Prophet saying, near the end of his life,<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nI am tired, I have been mobbed, I have suffered so much. . . I have asked the Lord to take me out of this world. I have stood all I can. I have to seal my testimony to this generation with my blood. I have to do it, for this work will never progress until I am gone, for the testimony is of no force until the testator is dead. People little know who I am when they talk about me, and they never will know until they see me weighed in the balance in the kingdom of God. Then they will know who I am, and see me as I am. I dare not tell them, and they do not know me.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cThese words,\u201d she commented, \u201cwere spoken with such power that they penetrated the heart of every soul that believed on him.\u201d[5]<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
[1] Lucy Walker Kimball, in Andrus and Andrus, They Knew the Prophet<\/em>, 157.<\/span><\/p>\n[2] Edward Stevenson, in Andrus and Andrus, They Knew the Prophet<\/em>, 99. $Compare the testimony of Benjamin F. Johnson, as given in Andrus and Andrus, They Knew the Prophet<\/em>, 108.<\/span><\/p>\n[3] Recounted by Benjamin F. Johnson, as given in Andrus and Andrus, They Knew the Prophet<\/em>, 109.*<\/span><\/p>\n[4] Zimmerman, I Knew the Prophets<\/em>, 32.<\/span><\/p>\n[5] See the account of Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner, in Andrus and Andrus, They Knew the Prophet<\/em>, 29 \u2013 30.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Posted from Victor, New York<\/p>\n
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\u00a0 \u00a0 Joseph Smith apparently expected to\u00a0die at the hands of his enemies. \u201cHe well knew that he must sacrifice his life for the principles God had revealed through him,\u201d said Lucy Walker Kimball. Yet \u201cDeath had no terrors for him although life was dear. I have often heard him say he expected to seal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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