With an entrancing mildness of look and sweetness of voice, Joseph replied:
Never mind, my brethren, if they drive us to hell, we'll turn the devil out and make a heaven of it.
This sentiment is at once a sermon upon unity and an epitome of the history of the Latter-day Saints. By their union and system of mutual help they have again and again redeemed wildernesses; every time demonstrating that the Prophet's view of the power of human harmony was correct—for where the love of truth and the concord of the Saints exist there is no room for Satan, and hell itself must be transformed into a region of bliss.
Joseph was putting these principles into practice at Nauvoo, and a beautiful city was growing out of a marsh; and institutions for human liberty and human advancement were growing out of the most adverse conditions.
Near the opening of 1842 the Prophet, with President Brigham Young and Bishop Newel K. Whitney, began to devise a plan, by which a cheap and expeditious conveyance of the Saints from the old world to Nauvoo might be secured through a united effort; and the mercantile interests of the people might be made to serve the general welfare and protect and help the poor. The Prophet himself did not hesitate to engage in mercantile and industrial pursuits; the gospel which he preached was one of temporal salvation as well as spiritual exaltation; and he was willing to perform his share of the practical labor. This he did with no thought of personal gain, for in opening the store at Nauvoo he said:
I rejoice that we have been enabled to do as well as we have, for the hearts of many of the poor brethren and sisters will be made glad with these comforts which are now within their reach.
In a letter to Brother Edward Hunter, under date of January 5th, 1842, the Prophet shows his humility and the love of his heart in these words:
The store has been filled to overflowing and I have stood behind the counter all day, distributing goods as steadily as any clerk you ever saw, to oblige those who were compelled to go without their Christmas and New Year's dinners for the want of a little sugar, molasses, raisins, etc.; and to please myself also, for I love to wait upon the Saints and to be a servant to all, hoping that I may be exalted in the due time of the Lord.
What a picture is here presented! A man chosen by the Lord to lay the foundation of His Church and to be its Prophet and President, takes joy and pride in waiting upon his brethren and sisters like a servant. The self-elected ministers of Christ in the world are forever jealous of their dignity and fearful of showing disrespect to their cloth; but Joseph never saw the day when he did not feel that he was serving God and obtaining favor in the sight of Jesus Christ by showing kindness and attention "even unto the least of these."
One Tom Sharp, editor of the Warsaw Signal, was devoting the greater part of his time and the greater part of his paper's space to slanders and misrepresentations of the Saints. The Prophet's comment upon this man, who afterward became a prominent factor in the persecutions against the people, was: "Let Sharp publish what he pleases: the faster he prints his lies the sooner he will get through."