Joseph's last charge meeting

[Ben McClintock]

I am trying to find who was in attendence at the last charge meeting where the prophet passed the keys.

Thanks for any help

[dewajack]

These may not give you what you're looking for, but are interesting nonetheless.

http://www2.byui.edu/Presentations/tran ... _banks.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://trumanmadsen.com/audio.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[gruden2.0]

When did this happen? I'm looking through JS's journal and see no reference to such.

[gruden2.0]

These may not give you what you're looking for, but are interesting nonetheless.

http://www2.byui.edu/Presentations/tran ... _banks.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks for posting that. Reading Joseph's Journal, at the time they were attempting to arrest him, Joseph had an insight that if he left then to go west, the way was open and things would be fine. But friends came and told him to go back and submit. Imagine how things would've turned out if Joseph had went west? We'll never know.

[Ben McClintock]

When did this happen? I'm looking through JS's journal and see no reference to such.

Spring 1844

[Ben McClintock]

These may not give you what you're looking for, but are interesting nonetheless.

http://www2.byui.edu/Presentations/tran ... _banks.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks for posting that. Reading Joseph's Journal, at the time they were attempting to arrest him, Joseph had an insight that if he left then to go west, the way was open and things would be fine. But friends came and told him to go back and submit. Imagine how things would've turned out if Joseph had went west? We'll never know.

"Friends" didn't tell him to go back, they (along with Emma) called him a coward. He said if his life meant nothing to his friends, it meant nothing to him.

[gruden2.0]

"Friends" didn't tell him to go back, they (along with Emma) called him a coward. He said if his life meant nothing to his friends, it meant nothing to him.

They did say that, and the article dewajack posted discussed the events around that very well. I spent some time last night thinking more about this, and I have no doubt that a couple weeks earlier Joseph would've viewed the situation the same way and had every intention of standing firm. However, I suspect his first inclinations were subordinated to other factors he was very cognizant of that those around him were not. Primary among them was the fact that the temple needed to be completed in order for the Saints to receive the endowments Joseph wanted to give them (which I believe are more - maybe much more - than we have now). Only Joseph could do that, and the Spirit revealed to him that if he fled west the way was open and it would buy enough time for the temple to be completed.

But Emma and his friends' castigations appealed to his nobility and obliged him to return for arrest. The rest, as they say, is history.

[dewajack]

Brigham Young stated, "I will deviate from my subject a little, and say a few words with regard to br. Joseph that some, perhaps, have not undrestood. If Joseph Smith, jun., the Prophet, had followed the Spirit of revelation in him he never would have gone to Carthage. Do you understand that? A great many do, and some do not….[Joseph] said ‘I can see life and liberty and salvation in that course [fleeing Nauvoo and heading west], but if I return to give myself up, it is death and darkness to the full; I am like a lamb led to the slaughter,’ and never for one moment did he say that he had one particle of light in him after he started back from Montrose to give himself up in Nauvoo. This he did through the persuasion of others. I want you all to understand that.
With regard to myself I cannot say what I will do. I do not know precisely in what manner the Lord will lead me, but were I thrown into the situation Joseph was, I would leave the people and go into the wilderness, and let them do the best they could. Will I run from the sheep? No. Will I forsake the flock? No. But if Joseph had followed the revelations in him he would have ben our earthly shepherd today, and we would have heard his voice and followed the shepherd instead of the shepherd following the sheep. When the shepherd follows the sheep it reverses the natural order, for the sheep are to follow the shepherd" (March 21, 1858)

A couple of weeks ago, I found a quote where Joseph told Stephen Markham that he went "to Carthage contrary to the council of the Spirit and I am now no more than another man."

The parallels between the early saints and the children of Israel are staggering to comprehend.

[gruden2.0]

To add to dewajack's post, here is an excerpt from The Journal of Joseph:

Abraham C. Hodge says that soon after dusk, Joseph called Hyrum, Willard Richards, John Taylor, William W. Phelps, A.C. Hodge, John L. Butler, Alpheus Cutler, William Marks and some others, into his upper room and said, "Brethren, here is a letter from the Governor which I wish to have read." After it was read through Joseph remarked, "There is no mercy - no mercy here." Hyrum said, "No; just as sure as we fall into their hands we are dead men." Joseph replied, "Yes; what shall we do, Brother Hyrum?" He replied, "I don't know." All at once Joseph's countenance brightened up and he said, "The way is open. It is clear to my mind what to do. All they want is Hyrum and myself; then tell everybody to go about their business, and not to collect in groups, but to scatter about. There is no doubt they will come here and search for us. Let them search; they will not harm you in person or property, and not even a hair of your head. We will cross the river tonight, and go away to the West." He made a move to go out of the house to cross the river. When out of doors he told Butler and Hodge to take the Maid of Iowa, (in charge of Repsher) get it to the upper landing, and put his and Hyrum's families and effects upon her; then go down the Mississippi and up the Ohio river to Portsmouth, where they should hear from them. He then took Hodge by the hand and said, "Now, Brother Hodge, let what will come, don't deny the faith, and all will be well."

I told Stephen Markham that if I and Hyrum were ever taken again we should be massacred, or I was not a prophet of God. I want Hyrum to live to avenge my blood, but he is determined not to leave me.

[awake]

"Friends" didn't tell him to go back, they (along with Emma) called him a coward.

I don't believe Emma called Joseph a coward.

I believe the following statement is true, which was recorded from Emma Smith in 1856:

"I then said to her [Emma] “Did Joseph have any knowledge or premonition of his death before it took place?”

She replied, “Yes, he was expecting it for some time before he was murdered. About the time he wrote those letters that are in the Book of Covenants [September 1 and 6, 1842], he was promised [by the Lord] if he would go and hide from the Church until it was cleansed, he should live until he had accomplished his work in the redemption of Zion; and he once left home [in June 1844], intending not to return until the Church was sifted and thoroughly cleansed, but his persecutors were stirring up trouble at the time and his absence provoked some of the brethren to say he had run away, and they called him a coward, and Joseph heard of it and he then returned, and said, ‘I will die before I will be called a coward.’

“He was going to find a place and then send for the family, but when he came back I felt the worst I ever did in my life, and from that time I looked for him to be killed, and had felt so bad about it that when he was murdered I was not taken by surprise, and did not feel so bad as I had for months before.”

While she talked to us, the tears flowed from her large, bright eyes like rain and I could see in every act, affection for Joseph."

Statement by Emma Smith in December 1856 to Elders Edmund C. Briggs and Samuel Gurley of the Reorganized Church, who were guests at the Mansion House where she and her second husband, Major Lewis C. Bidamon, operated a hotel.
Edmund C. Briggs, Early History of the Reorganization, 83; italics added.