[4]. Amos 3:7.
[5]. Mal. 4:5, 6.
[6]. Prov. 3:11, 12.
[7]. Matt. 23:29.
[8]. Deut. 18:22.
ARTICLE THREE.
Concerning Names and Vocations.
Is Not This The Farmer's Son?—Some such paraphrase was probably in the mind, possibly upon the lips, of more than one opponent of the religion termed "Mormonism," when its supposed author, Joseph Smith, started out upon his remarkable career. And it was deemed by them, no doubt, a sufficient answer to his extraordinary claims.
True and False Standards.—"A tree is known by its fruit." This proverb, accepted by the wise and just almost as a truism, seems to have no place in the philosophy of some people, especially when a servant of the Lord is the object of their critical contemplation. "What do men say of him?" is frequently the only criterion by which such a character is judged. And is it not manifestly unfair? When a prophet comes from God with a message for mankind, what matters the name given to that message, or to that messenger, by those unfriendly to the cause he represents?
"The Carpenter's Son."—Those who rejected the Man of Nazareth when he proclaimed himself the Son of God, doubtless thought they had disposed of him effectually by referring to him sneeringly as "The carpenter's son;" this slight, with others put upon him by his neighbors, causing Jesus to remark: "A prophet is not without honor save in his own country and in his own house."[[1]]