Fourth, in 1859, when revolving the question in his mind: "where and with whom shall my life-labor lie," he received a manifestation—how he does not say—to the following effect:
The Saints reorganizing at Zarahemla and other places, is the only organized portion of the Church accepted by me. I have given them my spirit, and will continue to do so while they remain humble and faithful.[A]
[Footnote A: Aut. of Mr. Smith, Life of Joseph, Josephite edition, p. 772.]
These are all the "revelations" spoken of by Mr. Smith in his autobiography, or quoted by his supporters, hence these must be the "revelations" to himself by which he was called to be President of the church! Just where the "call" can be found in them is the thing which the writer of these pages cannot see: and he challenges anybody else to point it out.
It should be observed here, perhaps, that "revelations" to a man personally, that he is called to be President of the church, even when clear and definite, do not constitute him the President. Something else is necessary. As observed elsewhere, not only must a man be called of God, but he must be accepted by the church—"chosen by the body, appointed and ordained to that office, and upheld by the confidence, faith, and prayer of the church."[A] Besides having no definite call by "revelation," even to himself (judging by the visions and manifestations related by Mr. Smith) to preside over the church, Mr. Smith has never complied with the conditions of the law of the church stated above. That is, he has never been "chosen by the body . . . . upheld by the confidence, faith and prayers of the church"—unless, indeed, the few people, scarce a corporal's guard, who gathered at the Josephite conference at Amboy, in 1860, constituted out of all the tens of thousands of saints in this country at the time, the church! What of the scores of thousands of saints in Utah at that time who never so much as received notice of or an invitation to be present at that "general conference of the church" at Amboy? Surely Messrs. Gurley and Newkirk were somewhat at fault in neglecting to notify the majority of the saints to attend that conference at which the only true President of the church was to be chosen! To call that gathering at Amboy the general conference of the church, is as ridiculous as absurdity can make it. It is on a par, however, with the "revelations" to Mr. Smith, calling him to be President of the church—the one is a fitting concomitant of the other.
[Footnote A: Doc. and Cov., Sec. cvii, 22.]
Of course Josephites see the absurdity of this gathering at Amboy being called a general conference of the church, and try to escape it by explaining that all the rest of the saints were in transgression, and could not call a conference—those represented at the Amboy conference were the only saints;[A] that is, the only saints who were "faithfully honoring and obeying the law of the Lord, and the order of his church"[B]—so easy is it to say:
[Footnote A: The Successor, p. 9.]
[Footnote B: The Saints' Herald, Vol. XXXIX, p. 375.]
Orthodoxy, my lord, is my doxy; and heterodoxy is some other
man's doxy![A]