If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own, but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hateth you.[A]
[Footnote A: St. John, xv.]
Again he said:
Blessed are ye when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man's sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy; for, behold, your reward is great in heaven; for in like manner did their fathers unto the prophets . . . . . Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you? for so did their fathers to the false prophets.[A]
[Footnote A: St. Luke vi.]
During the lifetime of the prophet Joseph from the first time he called upon the Lord when a mere lad, to the day he fell by the old well-curb at Carthage jail, pierced by the bullets of assassins, the adversary was ever upon the alert for his destruction. The hearts of the wicked were stirred against him, false priests combined both against him and the work which under God, he founded; officers of the law with false charges and unlawful warrants dogged his footsteps, mobs rose in acts of violence against him and his people; he was made acquainted with the tyranny of unjust judges, corrupt courts, and the gloom of the prison cell. He was made to feel that the world did not love him, that he was not of the world, that the Powers of Darkness hated the church of Christ. Since the death of the prophet Joseph, the same Powers which pursued him and the work he established have continued their hostilities against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is the elders of that church, not the elders of the Reorganized church, who have been hunted by mobs, and beaten for no other crime than calling men to repentance. It is the blood of the elders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, not of the "Reorganized church," which today unavenged crimsons the soil of the states of Georgia, Tennessee and Mississippi.
It is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, not the "Reorganized church" which has been constantly assailed, despoiled of its property, its members driven into exile, hundreds thrust into prison, whole communities terrorized—and all this through the administrators of the government acting under a mistaken zeal created by the persistent misrepresentations of sectarian priests and religious bigots—some of our "friends" of high standing in the "Reorganization" joining in the hue and cry against the saints of God and aiding in the work of misrepresentation.
Yet all this has not retarded the work of God. It has gone steadily forward. The injustice that has been done the church is beginning to be recognized. Already the government has restored the personal property it confiscated. And as for the fines, imprisonment, and exile inflicted on so many of the saints during the past ten years, these things have only contributed to spreading abroad knowledge respecting the gospel and its restoration. The Lord has his own way of accomplishing his purposes. To the peasant shepherds on the hills of Judea, he sent the angels of heaven to testify of the birth of the Messiah; and doubtless the testimony of these men was sufficient to found faith in the minds of the people among whom they moved that the great hope of Israel was fulfilled—the Messiah was born. But the king as well as the peasant must have a testimony that the Son of God had come into the world; and hence from the far east wise men skilled in the knowledge of the heavenly bodies and their movements and their signs are brought to the court of proud King Herod, to testify that Messiah, the promised King and Redeemer of Israel is born.
Preaching without purse or scrip by the Twelve Apostles, and other servants of God, might answer all the purposes for spreading abroad a knowledge of the gospel among the common people. The gospel, however, was not designed for the poor and the lowly only; it is meant also for the rich and the proud among men. And when God would have it proclaimed to magistrates, rulers, governors, kings and emperors, he called his servant Paul and led him through such experiences, including mobbings, whippings, exile and imprisonment, as brought him in contact with the great and high ones of the earth. Not only before the judges and governors of Judea and the petty kings who visited them was the gospel preached, but, as there is good reason to believe, it was declared before the purple-robed Emperor of Rome. Through this means the kings of the earth learned the Christian story and the plan of salvation included in it. It was preached not only in the humble homes of the poor, but also in the marble palaces of the Caesars.
So in this dispensation of the fulness of times, the Lord has led his servants and his church through such experiences as will best make known the great work of the last days—the opening of the heavens and the committing of a dispensation of the gospel to the children of men.