A Martyr for the Cause of God

Shortly after Joseph Smith arrived in Far West in March 1838, he received this revelation for the apostle David W. Patten: “It is wisdom in my servant David W. Patten, that he settle up all his business as soon as he possibly can, and make a disposition of his merchandise, that he may perform a mission unto me next spring, in company with others, even twelve including himself, to testify of my name and bear glad tidings unto all the world” (Doctrine and Covenants 114:1). This is a mission that he did not serve because he was killed in the Battle of Crooked River about six months later as the Missourians sought to drive the saints from the state. But he had served many missions already, including 12 short missions between 1832-1834, I’m confident that his missionary service did not cease when he departed mortality. A little over two years later the Lord said this: “That when he shall finish his work I may receive him unto myself, even as I did my servant David Patten, who is with me at this time…. David Patten I have taken unto myself; behold, his priesthood no man taketh from him” (Doctrine and Covenants 124:19, 130). I have to think that to be with the Lord at that time meant he was being prepared by the Savior to continue preaching the gospel to the spirits in prison just as another revelation describes.

            Apparently Elder Patten told the Prophet Joseph Smith at one point “that he had asked the Lord to let him die the death of a martyr, at which the Prophet, greatly moved, expressed extreme sorrow, ‘for,’ said he to David ‘when a man of your faith asks the Lord for anything, he generally gets it.’” The Prophet said at the day of David’s funeral, “There lies a man that has done just as he said he would—he has ‘laid down his life for his friends.’” According to one source his final words to his wife after he was wounded were this: “Whatever you do else, O do not deny the faith. I feel that I have kept the faith, I have finished my course, henceforth there is laid up for me a crown, which the Lord will give me." Wilford Woodruff gave his eulogy of Patten: “Thus fell the noble David W. Patten as a martyr for the cause of God and he will receive a martyr's crown. He was valiant in the testimony of Jesus Christ while he lived upon the earth. He was a man of great faith and the power of God was with him. He was brave to a fault, even too brave to be preserved.” David spent many years following the counsel the Lord gave him to “testify of my name and bear glad tidings unto all the world.” He didn’t serve that final mission but was surely there in spirit with those apostles who did indeed fulfill that mission to England after his death. His life and sacrifices for the Lord are an example to us today of devotion to the cause of Christ. He was not “afraid to lay down his life for [Christ’s] sake” and stands as a powerful witness of the restoration.