A True Friend

Joseph Smith made this powerful statement about friends: “Friendship is one of the grand fundamental principles of ‘Mormonism’; [it is designed] to revolutionize and civilize the world, and cause wars and contentions to cease and men to become friends and brothers.”  To him friendship was a key part of the gospel and an integral part of his life.  He told the Saints, “I am, as ever, your humble servant and never deviating friend” (D&C 128:25).  Having been often betrayed by those close to him, he treasured true friendship.  When he was in hiding from danger in 1842, he rejoiced at having been visited by his friends and family: “How good and glorious it has seemed unto me, to find pure and holy friends, who are faithful, just, and true, and whose hearts fail not; and whose knees are confirmed and do not falter, while they wait upon the Lord, in administering to my necessities, in the day when the wrath of mine enemies was poured out upon me.”    

                 When he was in Liberty Jail Joseph was comforted by the Lord in these words, “Thy friends do stand by thee, and they shall hail thee again with warm hearts and friendly hands” (D&C 121:9).  Though some friends had indeed been traitors to him, he still had friends who stood by him and would stand by him to the end.  One of those who had been a traitor during the critical time in Missouri was William W. Phelps who bore witness against Joseph and other leaders, helping to get them imprisoned in late 1838.  When Phelps later sought forgiveness and to come back to the company of the Saints, Joseph showed he was indeed devoted to the principle of friendship in his letter back to Phelps:  “We have suffered much in consequence of your behavior—the cup of gall already full enough for mortals to drink, was indeed filled to overflowing when you turned against us…. However the cup has been drunk, the will of our heavenly Father has been done, and we are yet alive for which we thank the Lord….  Believing your confession to be real and your repentance genuine, I shall be happy once again to give you the right hand of fellowship, and rejoice over the returning prodigal….  ‘Come on dear Brother since the war is past, For friends at first are friends again at last.’”  It was this same Phelps who would pen the words to Praise to the Man after his death, and surely he was thinking of this experience when he described Joseph as “faithful and true” in that song.

            As tensions escalated in Nauvoo in 1844, Joseph crossed the Mississippi River and planned to flee, promising the Saints that the mobs were after him and that they would not be harmed in his absence.  When some of the Saints argued that the mobs would still drive the Saints out even if he was gone, Joseph made this famous reply: “If my life is of no value to my friends it is of none to myself.”  He did turn back, turn himself in, and allow himself to be brutally murdered in prison just a few days later.  The Savior had said to his disciples, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends,” and Joseph indeed laid down his life in love for his friends.  Joseph’s life was a powerful example of how to be a "faithful, just, and true" friend, and we should strive to be that same kind of friend today, knowing that friendship is indeed one of the fundamental principles of our religion.