Thirty-Four (1839)and these bodies which are now moldering in corruption must soon become
incorruptible bodies; and then ye must stand before the judgment-seat of
Christ, to be judged according to your works; and if it so be that ye are
righteous, then are ye blessed with your fathers who have gone before you. O
that ye had repented before this great destruction had come upon you. But
behold, ye are gone, and the Father, yea, the Eternal Father of heaven, knoweth
your state; and he doeth with you according to his justice and mercy.^41He sobbed for a long time that evening, but no one heard his sobs. The Brothers were
all gone. Joseph knew, as well, that with the Three Nephites and John the Beloved gone,
there would be no more intervention forthcoming from advanced human beings to help and
comfort him. He knew what he had to do. He knew the commands he had been given.
Because of their blindness, which blindness came by looking beyond the
mark, they must needs fall; for God hath taken away his plainness from
them, and delivered unto them many things which they cannot understand,
because they desired it. And because they desired it God hath done it that
they may stumble.^42The great city of commerce, Nauvoo, Illinois, would be the Saints’ greatest stumbling
block yet. Joseph wiped his eyes, turned towards home, and said out loud:
“Then by God’s will, the people shall have their city and their prophet.”NOTES
(^1) DHC, 3:188–9.
(^2) DHC, 3:190.
(^3) Compare DHC, 3:206–7. “General Clark had spent his time since our arrival at Richmond in
searching the laws to find authority for trying us by court martial. Had he not been a lawyer of
eminence, I should have supposed it no very difficult task to decide that quiet, peaceful unoffending,
and private citizens too, except as ministers of the Gospel, were not amenable to a military tribunal, in
a country governed by civil laws.” And in his report to Governor Boggs, Clark said, “I would have
taken this course with Smith at any rate; but it being doubtful whether a court martial has jurisdiction
or not in the present case—that is, whether these people are to be treated as in time of war, and the
mutineers as having mutinied in time of war—and I would here ask you to forward to me the
attorney general’s opinion on this point.”
(^4) DHC, 3:200.
(^5) There were 56 prisoners in all. See DHC, 3:202, individually named at pg. 209.
(^6) A “Letter from Judge King” was published in the Nov. 8, 1838 Missouri Argus. See also
“Austin A. King, “Letter from Judge King,” Journal of History, ed. Heman C. Smith, 9.1 (Lamoni:
Board of Publication of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 1916) 74–5.
(^7) DHC, 3:309.