To the Twelve it was not only a call to the ministry; for some of them it was also a call to martyrdom.
Of the disciples chosen then and of those since selected to keep the quorum complete, not one has escaped the afflictions of time.
With some the pains were too intense to be endured, the burdens too heavy to be borne; and they dropped aside from the on-marching ranks to find, as they hoped, repose and safety amidst the cooling shadows of that world from which they had been chosen to be special witnesses of the Son of God. Such are no longer His Apostles.
But the others, with unshaken resoluteness, have gone forward in fulfillment of their high mission, under the scorching heat of fiery persecution. Joseph is their captain and their fellow soldier in the cause of Christ. With him and after him many of them have, with continuous and unyielding zeal, toiled steadily on until worn out in the performance of the duty assigned them by their Master Jesus; they have passed to the enjoyment of His promised rest. With Him they and the other faithful Apostles will stand triumphant when human time shall be no more, and when the voice of the Eternal shall fill the universe with the thunder of His judgments. They shall not then be only twelve; for they who have been called of God to this holy calling and who endure faithful, though they may lay down their mortality, yet shall they not lose their Apostleship; for it abideth with them in this world and in the worlds to come.
To proclaim the truth in all the earth for a witness, requires not only willingness but also numerical strength. And so the Seventies were called by divine revelation. They are to preach the gospel and to be special witnesses unto the Gentiles, and in all the world; they are to act in the name of the Lord, under the direction of the Twelve, in building up the Church and regulating all the affairs of the same in all nations—first unto the Gentiles and then unto the Jews.
And they form a quorum equal in authority to that of the Twelve * * * Apostles.
On the 28th day of February, 1835, the Church in council assembled began the calling of the quorum of Seventies from the members of Zion's Camp, and this devoted organization of the Seventies speedily engaged in its appointed labors.
Thus was the Prophet blessed with efficient aids selected by the Spirit of God.
One day when Joseph had assembled the Elders in Kirtland, soon after the establishment of the quorums of Twelve and Seventy, he said to them that the test had been made, the purpose of the journey to Missouri was now clear, and God had chosen his Twelve and Seventy from a body of men who had offered their lives, and who had made as great a sacrifice as did Abraham.