CHAPTER XLVIII.
JOSEPH SMITH AT NAUVOO—HIS PHYSICAL AND MENTAL PERSONALITY—VIEWS OF HIS OPPONENT COMMENTATORS—TESTIMONY OF THE SPIRIT TO HIS INSPIRATION.
When the Prophet first went to Commerce he was thirty-three years old; and he was martyred in his thirty-ninth year. Despite the outrages perpetrated upon him and the privations which he had endured, he was during this period still a man of great physical beauty and stateliness. He was just six feet in height, standing in his stockings, and was grandly proportioned. In his mature years he weighed about two hundred pounds. His eyes were blue and tender; his hair was brown, plentiful and wavy; he wore no beard, and his complexion was one of transparency so rare as to be remarkable; the exquisite clearness of his skin was never clouded, his face being naturally almost without hair. His carriage was erect and graceful; he moved always with an air of dignity and power which strangers often called kingly. He was full of physical energy and daring. Without any appearance of effort he could perform astonishing feats of strength and agility, and without any apparent thought of fear he met and smiled upon every physical danger. From his boyhood up he was fond of athletics, and in his mature years and at the very zenith of his fame he loved to unbend and wrestle or jump with a friend. The men who could contest with him were very few. When his situation would permit he was as happy as a school boy to join in manly sports.
He showed a sense of gentle humor in his games. On one occasion two sectarian ministers had addressed themselves to him with the boasted purpose of conquering him in argument. His theological strength dumbfounded them; he drove them from one position to another until they were glad to cry for quarter. Then, as they were about to depart with a crestfallen air, he said to them in a tone of kindness:
Come, gentlemen, since you withdraw from the contest of logic, let us jump at a mark. I think I can beat you at this.
The preachers hastened away, filled with indignation, and spread all manner of ridiculous reports concerning Joseph Smith because he could condescend at times to run, or jump or wrestle like a boy. Probably their defeat in argument had more than the professed shock to their religious sensitiveness to do with their indignation. He was always gentle and good-natured in his sports. Several men are yet living who jumped or tried a fall with the Prophet. They say Joseph did not lose dignity in these sports. His rare physical beauty and grace and his athletic excellence set him far above his fellows and made his condescension seem kingly.
Nearly every one of his commentators, whether friend or foe, speaks of him as a handsome man, of distinguished appearance and possessing a marvelous power of fascination. By his opponents, the inspiration which was over him and upon him—enveloping and permeating him and radiating from his whole being—was attributed to magnetism.
In every association with his fellow-beings he was considerate and just. He was always willing to carry his part of the burden and to share in any suffering or deprivation inflicted upon his friends. He was gentle to children and universally won their love. Elder Lyman O. Littlefield, now of Logan, Utah, was a boy thirteen years old with the camp of Zion which went up into Missouri. He narrates an incident of that journey which is characteristic of the Prophet's entire life, for his deeds and words of thoughtfulness were a constantly flowing stream. As we recollect Elder Littlefield's statement, it was this:
The journey was extremely toilsome for all, and the physical suffering, coupled with the knowledge of the persecutions endured by our brethren whom we were traveling to succor, caused me to lapse one day into a state of melancholy. As the camp was making ready to depart I sat tired and brooding by the roadside. The Prophet was the busiest man of the camp; and yet when he saw me, he turned from the great press of other duties to say a word of comfort to a child. Placing his hand upon my head, he said, "Is there no place for you, my boy? If not, we must make one." This circumstance made an impression upon my mind which long lapse of time and cares of riper years have not effaced.
Joseph always sought to help the distressed. A cry of sorrow quickly touched his ear, and its appeal invariably aroused him to helpful action.