JOSEPH SMITH'S WORKS.

EVIDENCE OF HIS INSPIRATION.

SCRIPTURAL TESTS.

The Bible tells how true and false prophets may be known:

"The prophet which prophesieth of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known, that the Lord hath truly sent him." (Jeremiah 28: 9).

"When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shall not be afraid of him." (Deuteronomy 18: 22).

If a man prophesies and his prophecy is fulfilled, he is to be regarded as a true prophet. If he prophesies and his predictions are not fulfilled, he should be counted as a false prophet. Let us apply this scriptural test to the words of Joseph Smith.

PREDICTION OF THE ANGEL.

The prophecy which he records as having been made by the first angel who visited him: that his name should be had "for good and evil among all nations, kindreds and tongues; or that it should be both good and evil spoken of among all people," is a proof of inspiration. That prediction has been fulfilled. Among all people who have heard his teachings there have been some who have accepted them and have spoken good about his name, while those who have rejected his message have invariably spoken evil of him. Not being satisfied to leave him alone, they have maliciously defamed his character and denounced him.

NONE CAN STOP GOD's WORK.

In a revelation given to the Prophet at an early day, the Lord said,

"And the voice of warning shall be unto all people, by the mouths of my disciples, whom I have chosen in these last days. AND THEY SHALL GO FORTH AND NONE SHALL STAY THEM, for I the Lord have commanded them."

At a later date the Prophet wrote these words:

"No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing. Persecution may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly and independently till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every nation and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done."

In nearly every country to which they have gone, vigorous efforts have been made from time to time to stop the Latter-day Saints from preaching the Gospel, but true to the Lord's promises these attempts to hinder His work have failed in every instance, and His work still goes on.

"A MARVELOUS WORK."

In the very first revelations given by the Lord through Joseph Smith, even before the Church was organized, it was declared that "a marvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men." There are hundreds of thousands of people who have associated themselves with that work who can testify that it is most marvelous in its character. Aside from these people there are many of the most intelligent men of the century who have declared in their public utterances and have placed themselves on record by their writings that there is something very wonderful about the work established through Joseph Smith.

TESTIMONY OF DISINTERESTED MEN.

Mr. Josiah Quincy, an eminent American scholar, in his interesting work entitled "Figures of the Past," gives his estimation of the great prophet in these words:

"It is by no means improbable that some future text-book, for the use of generations yet unborn, will contain a question something like this: What historical American of the nineteenth century has exerted the most powerful influence upon the destinies of his countrymen? And it is by no means impossible that the answer to that interrogatory may be thus written: JOSEPH SMITH, THE MORMON PROPHET. And the reply, absurd as it doubtless seems to most men now living, may be an obvious commonplace to their descendants. History deals in surprises and paradoxes quite as startling as this. The man who established a religion in this age of free debate, who was and is to-day accepted by hundreds of thousands as a direct emissary from the Most High—such a rare human being is not to be disposed of by pelting his memory with unsavory epithets. . . The most vital questions Americans are asking each other to-day have to do with this man and what he has left us. . . . Burning questions they are, which must give a prominent place in the history of the country to that sturdy self-asserter whom I visited at Nauvoo. Joseph Smith, claiming to be an inspired teacher, faced adversity such as few men have been called to meet, enjoyed a brief season of prosperity such as few men have ever attained, and finally, forty-three days after I saw him, went cheerfully to a martyr's death."

Hon. John A. Cockerill, a United States Senator, in an article published in the Cosmopolitan, a New York magazine, says, in reference to Utah, and its people, and their leader Brigham Young:

"Thus, within the short space of half a century, a great State has sprung up in the land, as it were, before our eyes. Its fame, with that of its founder, has become world-wide. . . It is seldom given to the founder of a state that the body which he has organized shall grow to such marvelous completeness and maturity within fifty years."

PROPHECY ABOUT WAR.

The following revelation was given to Joseph Smith on the 25th of December, 1832:

"'Verily, thus saith the Lord, concerning the wars that will shortly come to pass, beginning at the rebellion of South Carolina, which will eventually terminate in the death and misery of many souls.

"The days will come that war will be poured out upon all nations, beginning at that place;

"For behold, the Southern States shall be divided against the Northern States, and the Southern States will call on other nations, even the nation of Great Britain, as it is called, and they shall also call upon other nations, in order to defend themselves against other nations; and thus war shall be poured out upon all nations."

FULFILLED TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS AFTERWARDS.

The great civil war between the southern and northern States of America was a literal fulfillment of the prophetic utterance, so far as it referred to the first conflict. That war began with the bombardment of Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, on the 12th day of April, 1861, over twenty-eight years after the prediction was made, and it terminated in the "death and misery of many souls," for the loss of life it caused is estimated at fully 1,000,000 men. History shows that the Southern States did call upon Great Britain and other nations for assistance, as predicted by the Prophet.

PREDICTED MEN'S LIVES WOULD BE SPARED.

In November, 1838, Joseph Smith and several of his brethren were tried by a court-martial of their enemies, and were condemned to be shot in the presence of their families and friends. To all human appearances there was no hope for them to be spared alive. They were prisoners in the hands of an infuriated mob; their death sentence had been passed, the hour of execution set, and preparations for carrying out the sentence were being made. With this terrible fate impending the Prophet told his fellow-prisoners to be of good cheer, as the Lord had made it known to him that not one of them should die. The mob disagreed among themselves as to how the execution should be proceeded with, and the falsely condemned men, after a lengthy imprisonment, regained their liberty. Thus were the Prophet's words verified.

THE SAINTS' EXODUS FORETOLD.

On August 6, 1842, when the Latter-day Saints were situated in Illinois, their great leader wrote in reference to a previous utterance of his:

"I prophesied that the Saints would continue to suffer much affliction and would be driven to the Rocky Mountains, many would apostatize, others would be put to death by our persecutors, or lose their lives in consequence of exposure or disease, and some of you will live to go and assist in making settlements and build cities and see the Saints become a mighty people in the midst of the Rocky Mountains."

Every statement in the foregoing prediction was subsequently fulfilled. Mobs continued to afflict the Saints until they were forced to abandon their homes. Many apostatized, and others were put to death by their persecutors, or lost their lives in consequence of exposure. The Prophet himself, with his brother Hyrum, was martyred less than two years after the prophecy was uttered; and his own martyrdom was a fulfillment of a prophecy he made. When, to save a massacre of the Saints he delivered himself up to the pretended requirements of the law, being promised protection by the governor of the State, he said:

"I am going like a lamb to the slaughter; but I am calm as a summer's morning; I have a conscience void of offense towards God, and towards all men. I shall die innocent and it shall yet be said of me—he was murdered in cold blood."

This prediction concerning his own death is all the more remarkable from the fact that he had been arrested upon false charges many times before this. But, being entirely innocent, it was impossible to convict him of any crime. The premonition he had when he surrendered to the demands of the Governor of Illinois, when he said "I am going like a lamb to the slaughter," was the unerring inspiration of God, which had ever been his guide through life.

The country the Prophet referred to as the "Rocky Mountains" was but little known at the time he spoke of it; and the Indian traders, and "trappers" who were familiar with the country said nothing could be raised there, and it was totally unfit for the establishment of a community of people. Five years after the prophecy was made many of the Saints were settled in the Rocky Mountains, and they and their descendants are becoming a "mighty people" in the midst thereof.

GATHERING PREDICTED.

On the 11th of September, 1831, the Lord said through Joseph Smith,

"For behold, I say unto you that Zion shall flourish, and the glory of the Lord shall be upon her, and she shall be an ensign unto the people, AND THERE SHALL COME UNTO HER OUT OF EVERY NATION UNDER HEAVEN."

In 1831, when the above words were uttered, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was composed of people who were converted in the neighborhood where the Prophet and other leading men operated—only a small portion of the United States. Since then the work has spread throughout the world, and there are now gathered with the Saints people from nearly every nation under heaven.

JOSEPH SMITH AS AN EXPOUNDER OF SCRIPTURE.

The manner in which he expounded the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, and in which he harmonized passages that were apparently contradictory, and made every Bible doctrine so plain to the understanding, is strong proof that he was inspired of Heaven. No theologian of recent times has been able to do this as has been done by Joseph Smith, although many learned men have made the attempt.

CHURCH ORGANIZATION.

The wonderful church organization which was effected through him is in itself an evidence of his divine inspiration.

If a builder should succeed in erecting one of the most magnificent structures the world has ever seen, without any previous training and without any plans to guide him, he would be looked upon as the most remarkable genius that ever was known. The church organization instituted by Joseph Smith is like a complete structure, perfect in every detail, and yet built up piece by piece without any preconceived plan being drawn up or experiment being made, so far as the Prophet was concerned. The only idea he had of the grand system he was putting in order was revealed to him at various times as occasion required. But when the whole order of church government was revealed it was discovered to be perfect, and though the Church has now existed for sixty-eight years there has never arisen any occasion for changing the order laid down in the beginning. Its workings have been harmonious in every detail; and should the Church increase in numbers indefinitely there would be no occasion for making any change in the system revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith.

ALL HIS WORKS PROCLAIM HIM A PROPHET.

A thorough acquaintance with the works of Joseph Smith must convince the student of them that he was truly a Prophet of God. If it be denied that he was such, how shall the superior wisdom that prompted his words and actions be accounted for? His ideas of theology, of philosophy, of statesmanship, and even astronomy and other branches of learning, were far in advance of what was known to the world in his day; and since then many of his doctrines have been accepted by the learned, and advocated as new discoveries. The most reasonable way of accounting for the wonderful works of Joseph Smith is to acknowledge that he was a Prophet of God, sent as a divine messenger to open up the dispensation of the fullness of times, and to prepare for the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, whose glorious reign is near at hand.