To Seal the Testimony

I had the opportunity to take a virtual tour of the Carthage Jail last night presented by sister missionaries at the site. I was grateful for the chance to reflect again on the final moments in the life of the Prophet and Patriarch in June of 1844. There are many causes that contributed to their martyrdom that fateful day, from the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor to the animosity of Thomas Sharp to the controversial practice of plural marriage that Joseph revealed. But as Sister Susan Easton Black emphasized in a Church History class I took many years ago, factors like these were not the real reason. John Taylor was very clear as to why they died: “To seal the testimony of this book and the Book of Mormon, we announce the martyrdom of Joseph Smith the Prophet, and Hyrum Smith the Patriarch.” They died to seal their witness of sacred scripture, both the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants. They gave their lives to bear witness that God has again spoken in our dispensation and revealed His word. President Taylor further testified, “The reader in every nation will be reminded that the Book of Mormon, and this book of Doctrine and Covenants of the church, cost the best blood of the nineteenth century to bring them forth for the salvation of a ruined world.” They gave up their lives willing to stand as a testimony that the scriptures Joseph Smith brought forth are indeed the word of God. Joseph “sealed his mission and his works with his own blood; and so has his brother Hyrum” (Doctrine and Covenants 135:1, 3, 6). 

                In President Taylor’s announcement of the martyrdom he included a detail about how Hyrum turned to the Book of Mormon for comfort as he left for Carthage. He recorded, “The same morning, after Hyrum had made ready to go—shall it be said to the slaughter? yes, for so it was—he read the following paragraph, near the close of the twelfth chapter of Ether, in the Book of Mormon, and turned down the leaf upon it: And it came to pass that I prayed unto the Lord that he would give unto the Gentiles grace, that they might have charity. And it came to pass that the Lord said unto me: If they have not charity it mattereth not unto thee, thou hast been faithful; wherefore thy garments shall be made clean. And because thou hast seen thy weakness, thou shalt be made strong, even unto the sitting down in the place which I have prepared in the mansions of my Father. And now I … bid farewell unto the Gentiles; yea, and also unto my brethren whom I love, until we shall meet before the judgment-seat of Christ, where all men shall know that my garments are not spotted with your blood.” The great work performed by the Prophet Joseph Smith began when the angel Moroni gave him the plates to translate, and so it is fitting to me that in these final days they would turn to the words of Moroni for comfort. Like Moroni, they had lived in a time of great wickedness and yet had remained faithful and surely the Lord was telling them as well, “Thou hast been faithful.” They gave their lives witnessing that Moroni, and all the Book of Mormon prophets, were real. President Taylor summarized, “The testators are now dead, and their testament is in force.” The Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ, and Joseph Smith and Hyrum gave their lives too as a testament to the veracity of this book and, by implication, the divinity of the Savior who brought it forth. The price they paid should be a reminder to us of the immeasurable worth of the scriptures that were brought to us through the hand of Joseph Smith and should inspire us to treasure them more deeply so we can indeed be ready to “meet [them] before the judgment-seat of Christ” (Doctrine and Covenants 135:4-5).