Stand By My Servant Joseph

Elder Oaks shared a story in general conference some time ago about two young boys who were faithful to the Prophet Joseph Smith near the time of his death.  He recounted how they had been participants in meetings in which some on Nauvoo denounced Joseph as a prophet and planned to overthrow him.  The boys told Joseph what was happening and he told them before the final meeting of this group “that the conspirators might kill them when they refused the required oath to participate in the murderous scheme.  He said he did not think the conspirators would shed their blood because they were so young, but he called upon their loyalty and courage in these words: ‘Don’t flinch. If you have to die, die like men, you will be martyrs to the cause, and your crowns can be no greater.’  He renewed his original caution that they should not make any promises or enter into any covenants with the conspirators.” The boys went to that final meeting, refused to take an oath to destroy Joseph, and they narrowly escaped being killed when the conspirators decided to let them go because of their age.  Joseph was waiting for them when they left that meeting and “thanked and praised them, and then, for their safety, counseled them not to speak of this to anyone for 20 years or more.”  What a story this is, and it makes me think of the Lord’s counsel to Oliver Cowdery: “Therefore be diligent; stand by my servant Joseph, faithfully, in whatsoever difficult circumstances he may be for the word’s sake” (D&C 6:18).  That’s exactly what these boys did—their loyalty to Joseph was unwavering. 

                We live in a day when the Church and its leaders are attacked on just about every issue.  Members must each individually determine if they will indeed stand by Joseph and his successors or if their loyalty will fade.  As many loudly walk away from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints over this or that issue, Christ’s question echoes down through history to us louder than ever: “Will ye also go away?” (John 6:67).  Will our faithfulness be “stronger than the cords of death” as the Prophet Joseph wrote that it should be when he was in jail because so many had forsaken their covenants? (D&C 121:44).  Perhaps there is no better example in the Book of Mormon of loyalty and faithfulness than that of Captain Moroni who rallied the people to fight around his banner: “In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children.”  We read that in his day that “those who did belong to the church were faithful; yea, all those who were true believers in Christ took upon them, gladly, the name of Christ” (Alma 46:12, 15).  Are we faithful and a true believer, willing to follow the counsel of the Lord even when it runs contrary to the ever-changing “wisdom” of the world?  President Benson said that “every [person] eventually is backed up to the wall of faith, and there … must make his stand” (see here).  Each member of the Church must eventually answer whether he or she will stand with Joseph and those two boys so long ago in Nauvoo.  In a powerful talk on loyalty President Hinckley summarized the choice we face this way: “Each of us has to face the matter—either the Church is true, or it is a fraud. There is no middle ground. It is the Church and kingdom of God, or it is nothing.”  May we ever strive to merit the gratitude he expressed for the faithful: “Thank you, my dear brethren, you men of great strength and great fidelity and great faith and great loyalty.”