The honest and courageous man John Reid, who successfully defended the Prophet before the courts, himself had testified to the remarkable manner in which he was engaged in the case. A messenger came to his house and requested him to appear before the magistrate on behalf of Joseph Smith. Mr. Reid was busy at the time; he had never seen the young man Joseph Smith; and he determined not to enter the case. But before he could decline aloud, a low, strange voice uttered these words: "YOU MUST GO TO DELIVER THE LORD'S ANOINTED!" He was thrilled with awe at the mysterious sound. He knew that the messenger had not spoken; and upon inquiry Mr. Reid learned that the voice had been to himself alone. The impression caused by this experience was such that Mr. Reid hastened to the place of trial. While he was engaged in the case his mysterious emotion increased; and when he arose to defend the Prophet in argument, he was inspired to an eloquence beyond himself, and which was irresistible.[[1]]
When Joseph was freed from custody after the second trial, the constable extended his aid; and thus the Prophet was enabled to escape while his enemies were organizing unlawfully to get him into their clutches. Joseph had been two days without food; and when released, his friends told him that he must flee at once, for the mob had organized and was determined. Night had already come; and he traveled until daylight the next morning, when he reached a place of safety at the house of an acquaintance many miles distant from Colesville. Here he found Emma, and they journeyed to Harmony without further molestation. But a few days later, when he returned to Colesville to confirm the persons who had been baptized, the mob assailed him with greater violence than ever before; and it was with difficulty that his friends aided him to preserve his life from the attacks of the sectarian priests through their bigoted followers.
Upon returning once more to Harmony after this last visit to Colesville, the Prophet engaged in the labor of making a record in proper order of the revelations which had come to him from the Lord. In this work he was aided for a time by Oliver Cowdery; but later Oliver went to Fayette, and Emma, under commandment of the Lord, once more served her husband as a scribe.
While Joseph was thus laboring in Pennsylvania, Parley P. Pratt visited Fayette to learn something of the young Prophet. Not finding Joseph, the seeker after truth made his investigations alone. He became convinced that he had found the gospel; and he asked and received baptism at the hands of Oliver Cowdery in Seneca Lake.
This was a momentous event.
Footnotes
[1]. It is worthy of notice here that Hon. Amos Reid, who, in early days, was secretary and, part of the time, acting Governor of Utah Territory, was the son of this honest man, John Reid, and always referred with pleasure and pride to the part his father took in behalf of the Prophet on these occasions.
CHAPTER XIV.
DISSENSIONS WITHIN THE FOLD—OLIVER COWDERY AND HIRAM PAGE LEAD THE WHITMERS ASTRAY—MOBS AT COLESVILLE AND PERSECUTION AT HARMONY—ISAAC HALE AND HIS FAMILY OPPOSE JOSEPH—THE PROPHET REMOVES TO FAYETTE— PROPHETIC OUTLINE OF THE GATHERING.
The peaceful and blessed hours which the Prophet had hoped to enjoy in the performance of his holy work at his home in Harmony, were quickly intruded upon. Satan had been able already to excite Joseph's enemies to a frenzy, and to make the conversion of even honest inquirers difficult, and in many cases impossible. Not satisfied with this, the evil one stirred up the hearts of some of Joseph's friends and associates to feelings of jealous vanity and fear.