The Life of Joseph Smith, the Prophet

by George Q. Cannon

While Joseph was thus administering among the people, in the same month of February, 1831, the Lord commanded him to call the Elders of the Church together from the east and the west, and from the north and south, to receive in solemn assemblage the pouring out of His Spirit upon them. Pursuant to this requirement a General Conference of the Church was appointed to be held in Kirtland on the 6th day of June, 1831.

At no time during the Prophet's career did the care of the poor escape his attention or become a matter of indifference to him. He was a man of large benevolence, and his sympathies were quickly aroused by any tale of sorrow or appeal for relief. In the most busy and trying periods of his life those who went to him for counsel in their troubles, always found him willing to listen, and they were sure to receive encouragement and assistance. To extend comfort to the bruised spirit, and to help the needy and distressed appeared a constant pleasure to him. His hospitality, also, was a marked feature in his character. His house was always open to entertain the stranger. One of the most cherished recollections of many of the old members of the Church is the kindness with which they were treated by "Brother Joseph," and the warm welcome he gave them to his house upon their arrival at Kirtland and other places where he lived.

In the revelation above referred to the Lord said:

Ye must visit the poor and the needy and administer to their relief, that they may be kept until all things may be done according to my law which ye have received.

In other revelations which the Lord gave to Joseph, frequent mention was made of the poor and the provisions which should be made for their sustenance. Before leaving Fayette, New York, the Church was commanded to appoint certain men to look to the poor and the needy and administer to their relief that they should not suffer. Directly after reaching Kirtland, Joseph received a revelation in which the Church was told by the Lord to remember the poor and consecrate properties for their support, that every man who had need might be amply supplied and receive according to his wants. Again, the command was given to "remember in all things the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted, for," the Lord said, "he that doeth not these things the same is not my disciple."

A clear exposition of the duty laid upon every believer in the gospel as revealed in this last dispensation, if he had been blessed with abundance, to share of his wealth with the poor, was given in a subsequent revelation in the following striking language:

Wo unto you rich men, that will not give your substance to the poor, for your riches will canker your souls; and this shall be your lamentation in the day of visitation, and of judgment, and of indignation—the harvest is past, the summer is ended, and my soul is not saved!

In this way the duty of the Saints towards the poor—this practical and essential part of true religion—was deeply impressed upon them and kept constantly before them. In numerous paragraphs of the revelations given to the Church during those early days, were the members taught that the Lord intended His people to be equal in temporal things—that class distinctions should not exist among them because of the riches of some and the poverty of others. The effect of those early revelations and teachings upon this subject has been visible upon the people from the time they were given to the present. There has been a continual yearning for such a higher life—such a blessed and heavenly condition of society—as the practical adaptation and realization of the truths of the revelations will bring about. Amid the dangers with which many of the faithful members have thought the Church has been menaced through the increase of wealth of some of their number, they have always been cheered by the assurance that the day was not far distant when the injunction would be carried out, which the Lord gave in the days of which we write: "Let every man deal honestly, and be alike among this people, and receive alike, that ye may be one, even as I have commanded you."

This has been the ideal condition to which all have lifted their eyes. The effect has been that the wide difference which exists in the world between the rich and the poor—with the one class wealthy beyond all safety and reason, and the other class wretchedly poor even to starvation—has always been felt to be terribly wrong and contrary to the will of God. It was this bond of union and mutual help in a temporal sense, established by the command of Jehovah, and constantly taught by the Prophet Joseph and his co-laborers, which enabled the Saints through all the succeeding persecutions to move and endure as one family, all suffering measurably alike. Since the days of the Savior there has never been until Joseph Smith's time, a system of social life in which honorable poverty received such consideration and such help. Concerning the poor at this early day the Lord said:

They shall see the Kingdom of God coming in power and great glory unto their deliverance; for the fatness of the earth shall be theirs.

For behold, the Lord shall come and his recompense shall be with him, and he shall reward every man, and the poor shall rejoice; and their generations shall inherit the earth from generation to generation forever and ever.