Thirty-Six (1841)So much for the memorial he wanted for himself. Joseph’s life and work was not about
his own will, however, but the will of “God,” who was effectually—the advanced humans who
were monitoring the inhabitants of the earth. The mortal inhabitants, to whom Joseph’s
memorial was directed, were learning much from the experiment of Mormonism—not to be fully
revealed to them until the end of their mortal probation.
Hyrum had promised Joseph that he would stand by him through all his trials and
tribulations. The advanced human monitors of Joseph’s work reiterated this promise and
bolstered the bond between the brothers when they interceded in the timing of the deaths of
Joseph’s young son, Don Carlos (15 months old),^104 and Hyrum’s beloved son, Hyrum Jr. (age
7)^105 in September of 1841. The brothers embraced as they buried their sons together, portending
their own fragile mortality. Joseph knew his days were numbered; but neither man understood
the proximity of Hyrum’s fatal end to that of Joseph’s and how the unison burial of their
offspring foreshadowed the unison of their own interment. They would be taken together as
eternal brothers and friends in an event that now stood less than three years away.
NOTES
(^1) BOM, Mosiah 11:7; TSP, 20:68, 84; 25:11; 71:34; 73:75; 82:62–77.
(^2) Matthew 4:4; D&C, 98:11.
(^3) D&C, 132:7.
(^4) Compare D&C, 1:17, 23, 29–30, 38.
(^5) BOM, 2 Nephi 25:26
(^6) Compare TSP, pg. 1; 18:27. “And in the part of this record that was unsealed and came unto
you with the record of my father, Mormon [i.e., in the Book of Mormon], I was commanded by the
Lord not to reveal these things unto you in their plainness, but that I should give unto you the
similitude and symbolism of these things.”
(^7) BOM, Alma 12:11.
(^8) As one of many examples, the LDS church has also changed the temple ordinances. “He
[God] set the [temple] ordinances to be the same forever and ever and set Adam to watch over them,
to reveal them from heaven to man, or to send angels to reveal them.” -Joseph Smith, Jr., as quoted in
DHC, 4:208. See also BOM, 3 Nephi 11:40.
(^9) BOM, 3 Nephi 19:8.
(^10) BOM, Moroni 10:4–5.
(^11) Matthew 11:19.
(^12) John C. Bennett, “Inaugural Address. City of Nauvoo, Illinois, Feb. 3rd 1841,” Times and
Seasons 2 (15 Feb. 1841): 317. See also DHC, 4:288–92 and note (*).
(^13) TSP, 19:57–63.
(^14) D&C, 89:2.
(^15) David Stafford reported, “I have been acquainted with the family of Joseph Smith Sen. for
several years, and I know him to be a drunkard and a liar, and to be much in the habit of gambling.”
(Howe, 249.)
Joseph Jr. also drank and smoked on occasion. Several instances of this have been removed
from the “Official” History of the Church (DHC). See Jerald and Sandra Tanner, The Changing World of
Mormonism, 29–33;
On one occasion, Joseph said, “Noah was a righteous man, and yet he drank wine and
became intoxicated; the Lord did not forsake him in consequence thereof, for he retained all the
power of his priesthood, and when he was accused by Canaan, he cursed him by the priesthood
which he held, and the Lord had respect to his word, and the priesthood which he held,