Without Disclosing My True Identity
up in this same pride. We return railing for railing instead of receiving railing
and persecution and affliction with humility and penitent hearts before God.
We cannot depend on the constitution to save us. This Church will be ruined
as a people and the constitution will not save us. We are not different from
them. Our people seek for power, and authority, and the riches and vain
things of the world.^69Somehow, after passing through the filters that existed in the Saints’ minds, this
particular sermon was never understood. Martha Knowlton got it all wrong. She, like others,
had ears that heard, but did not understand a word Joseph said. Immediately after this
particular sermon, the Saints cheered their prophet. He had just pointed out the
condemnation that they were under and they cheered him for it. Joseph cried again that night.
The Birth of Don Carlos and the Death of Joseph Sr.
In 1840, Don Carlos, Joseph’s last son while he was alive, was born.^70 And in a
contrarious event, his beloved father, Joseph Sr., died.^71 Joseph was not easily comforted
after his father’s death. But, in knowing that his father no longer had to bear the burden of
the role his son was playing in mortality, Joseph did find comfort. As Emma always did,
although their time together became more and more limited, Joseph’s “one and only true
friend upon earth,”^72 provided him with the support and comfort he lost when the Brothers
left him to his inevitable death at the hand of his friends-turned-enemies.
Nauvoo continued to grow and prosper. The people were getting everything their
hearts desired. But nothing they desired would ever come out of the mouth of the one sitting
upon a white horse who would eventually come to the earth and destroy the nations,
including the United States of America—ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!
NOTES
(^1) “Thomas Reynolds (March 12, 1796 – February 9, 1844) was the seventh governor of
Missouri from 1840 to 1844. He belonged to the Democratic Party. ...In 1840 he was elected
Governor of Missouri, a post which he held until his death on February 9, 1844, an apparent
suicide. ...[His death note] read: “I have labored and discharged my duties faithfully to the
public, but this has not protected me from the slanders and abuse which has rendered my life a
burden to me...I pray to God to forgive them and teach them more charity.” (“Thomas Reynolds
[Governor],” Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 9 Jul. 2011, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 9 Jul. 2011
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Reynolds_%28Governor%29.)
(^2) DHC, 3:403, 421; 4:198–9; 5:464.
(^3) DHC, 4:114–18.
(^4) D&C, 121:39; DHC, 3:289. Also see Appendix 1, infra.
(^5) D&C, 121:37.
(^6) TSP, 13:25.
(^7) D&C, 134:2, 4–5; DHC, 2:247–51.