When Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum started for
Carthage to face what they knew would be an imminent
martyrdom, Hyrum read these words of comfort to the heart
of his brother.
Thou hast been faithful, wherefore thou shalt be made
strong even under the sitting down in the place with which I
have prepared in the mansions of my father.
A few short verses from the 12th chapter of Ether in the
Book of Mormon.
Before closing the book, Hyrum turned down the corner of the
page from which he had read, marking it as part of the
everlasting testimony for which these two brothers were
about to die.
I hold in my hand that book, the very copy from which Hyrum
read, the same corner of the page
turned down still visible.
Later when actually incarcerated in the jail,
Joseph the prophet bore a powerful testimony of the
divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon.
Shortly thereafter, pistol and ball would take the lives of
these two testators.
In this their greatest and last hour of need, I ask you
would these men blaspheme before God by continuing to
fix their lives, their honor, and their own search for each
eternal salvation on a book, and by implication a church
and a ministry they had fictitiously created out of
whole cloth?
Never mind that their wives are about to be widows and
their children fatherless.
Never mind that their little band of followers will yet be
houseless, homeless, and friendless, and that their
children will leave footprints of blood across frozen rivers
and an untamed prairie floor.
Never mind that legions will die and other legions live
declaring in the four quarters of this earth that they know
the Book of Mormon and the Church which
espouses it to be true.
Disregard all of that, and tell me whether in this hour
of death these two men would enter the presence of their
Eternal Judge quoting from and finding solace in a book which
if not the very word of God would brand them as impostors
and charlatans until the end of time.
They would not do that.
They were willing to die rather than deny the divine
origin and the eternal truthfulness one
of the Book of Mormon.
The Book of Mormon is true, and was given to bring
happiness and hope to the faithful in the
travail of the last days.
Brothers and sisters, God always provides safety for the
soul, and with the Book of Mormon he has again done that
in our time.
Remember this declaration by Jesus himself.
Whoso treasureth up my word shall not be deceived, and in
the last days, neither your heart nor your
faith will fail you.
Of this I earnestly testify in the name of
Jesus Christ, amen.