While these important things were going on in England, Joseph, with Sidney Rigdon and Thomas B. Marsh, left Kirtland for a visit to the Saints in Canada. When they reached Painesville, a few miles distant, their enemies held them all day by bringing lawsuits against Joseph on trumped-up charges. The sheriff said to Anson Call, who was present, "We don't want your Prophet to leave Kirtland, and he shan't leave;" but Brother Call went on Joseph's bond for seventeen hundred dollars, and he was able to go the next day. Part of the journey was made by steamer on Lake Erie and the brethren slept on deck with valises and boots for pillows, but they had health and clear consciences and slept in peace.
They spent a happy month traveling among the Canadian branches of the Church and associating with John Taylor and the other Saints. On their way back, in the latter part of August, Joseph and Sidney came by wagon from Buffalo to Painesville. While eating supper at the house of Mr. Bissell, who had been Joseph's lawyer, they discovered that a mob had gathered, and soon learned that the object was their murder. Their host was a true friend, however, and slipped them away by a back path. As soon as the mob found they were gone, bonfires were lit and sentinels placed along the Mentor road. But Joseph and Sidney took to the swamps and the bonfires only helped them find their way.
Sidney, being sick, was soon worn out, so Joseph lifted him on his back and waded for hours through mud and water carrying him. What a body and soul that Prophet had! He would not desert a friend, though he risked his life to save him, and with strength like Samson's he carried him mile after mile through darkness and swamps. They reached Kirtland in safety late at night, and the next day being Sunday, Joseph preached a powerful sermon to the Saints.
It was a very sad home-coming for the Prophet. The spirit of apostasy was very strong, and some of the leading men were found in sin. On the 3rd of September fellowship was withdrawn from three of the Apostles, Lyman and Luke Johnson and John F. Boynton, and Frederick G. Williams was not sustained as counselor to Joseph. At the same conference Oliver Cowdery, Hyrum Smith, John and Joseph Smith, Sen., were made assistant counselors to the Prophet. A week later the three Apostles confessed and were received back, but their repentance was very shallow as it later proved.
Joseph spent most of October on a journey to Missouri. Sidney was with him and their special mission, besides visiting the Saints, was to pick out places for the eastern brethren to settle upon with their families and make homes. The time had about come when Kirtland should be left and the Saints be gathered in one place. A conference was held on the 7th of November, soon after they came to Far West, and the Missouri Saints rejected Frederick G. Williams, and Hyrum Smith was made second counselor to Joseph.
The Prophet reached Kirtland in December and the condition there was terrible. Warren Parrish, John F. Boynton, Luke Johnson, Joseph Coe and others had laid a plot to destroy the Church. These men who had received the most glorious visions of heaven now denied the faith and said Joseph was a false and fallen Prophet. Such men as Brigham Young were true to him and declared that they knew through the inspiration of the Holy Ghost that Joseph was a Prophet of God. This brought persecution upon them, and Brigham was compelled to flee for his life, soon after Joseph came.
Late on the night of the 12th of January, 1838, Joseph and Sidney saddled their horses and rode away from Kirtland. All through that winter night they rode and did not stop until sixty miles lay between them and their enemies. The life of a Prophet is not the easiest in the world, is it? They waited there for their families and again began their flight. For two hundred miles human bloodhounds from Kirtland tracked them, but the Lord blinded their eyes and the Prophet and his party went on unharmed. He reached Far West two months later. Some of the brethren had gone one hundred and twenty miles to meet him and bring him in comfort to Zion.
In the west as well as in the east, leading men of the Church had sinned and fallen. Soon after Joseph's coming Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, Lyman Johnson and William E. McLellin were cut off the Church. These, with Luke Johnson and John F. Boynton, made two of the three witnesses and four of the Twelve Apostles that had proved unfaithful. Some time later, on the 8th of July of this year, John Taylor, John E. Page, Wilford Woodruff and Willard Richards were called by revelation to be Apostles in the places of the fallen ones.
During the spring and summer the Prophet was busy forming stakes and providing for the Saints that were coming from Kirtland where confusion and violence reigned even in the Temple. On the sixth of July five hundred and fifteen of the faithful set out for Missouri under the leadership of the Seventy quorums. The third number of the Elders' Journal was published by Joseph at Far West in July. This was a paper that had been begun when the Messenger and Advocate was stopped. During this same month the great law of tithing was given to the Saints. It is recorded in the one hundred and nineteenth section of the Doctrine and Covenants, and being very short, all of you should read it. This law was given because the Saints would not obey the law of consecration, which was a higher law. The Lord still requires us to obey the law of tithing, but after a time if we are worthy we may be called to consecrate all we have to Him and hold our possessions as stewardships.