The Ohio and Missouri Period
Chapter 15
Removal of the Church in New York to Ohio
1830–1831
“A Crooked Generation”
In October 1830, Ezra Thayer and Northrop Sweet were called by revelation, as they had sought the will of the Lord, to preach the Gospel unto “a crooked and perverse generation.” “My vineyard,” declared the Lord, “has become corrupt every whit; and there is none which doth good save it be a few; and they err in many instances because of priestcrafts; all having corrupt minds. And verily, verily, I say unto you, that this Church have I established and called forth out of the wilderness: and even so will I gather mine elect from the four quarters of the earth, even as many as will believe in me, and hearken unto my voice.”
Call of Edward Partridge and Orson Pratt
In November Orson Pratt, the younger brother of Parley P. Pratt, who had been baptized by his brother Parley a few weeks earlier in Canaan, Columbia County, N. Y., came to Fayette to learn the will of the Lord concerning himself. In the following December Sidney Rigdon came from Ohio on a similar visit, bringing with him a young man named Edward Partridge, who was not a member of the Church. Edward Partridge, the day after his arrival, satisfied with what he had seen and heard, was baptized by Joseph Smith and later was confirmed by Sidney Rigdon. Both of these young men, Orson Pratt and Edward Partridge, were called to labor in the ministry and received the commendation and blessing of the Lord for their faith and desire to serve him. “And this commandment,” said the Lord, “shall be given unto the elders of my Church, that every man which will embrace it with singleness of heart, may be ordained and sent forth, even as I have spoken.”
Sidney Rigdon to Write
Sidney Rigdon was commanded to be a companion to Joseph Smith and to “forsake him not;” moreover, he was to write for him, “and the scriptures shall be given, even as they are in mine own bosom, to the salvation of mine elect,” was the word of the Lord to him.