--- title: Times and Seasons description: Issues of 1841 to 1842. authors: - Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints editors: - Ebenezer Robinson - Don Carlos Smith - Smith, Joseph, Jr. - Taylor, John collections: - periodicals tags: - newspaper - times-and-seasons - nauvoo - nineteenth-century periodical: Times and Seasons volume: 3 number: 21 published: 1842-09-01 publisher: E. Robinson and D. C. Smith; later John Taylor publisher_place: Commerce and Nauvoo, Illinois language: en type: article reference: "“Persecution of the Prophets,” *Times and Seasons* 3, no. 21 (September 1, 1842): 902–903." printed_title: PERSECUTION OF THE PROPHETS. source: url: https://archive.org/details/per_utah-and-the-mormons_times-and-seasons_1842-09-01_3_21 transcription: Text from the Centerplace.org transcription (https://www.centerplace.org/history/ts/v3n21.htm), with its page breaks; this Internet Archive scan is the reference copy (its OCR was used only as a witness for OCR repair) identifier: per_utah-and-the-mormons_times-and-seasons_1842-09-01_3_21 start_page: 902 end_page: 903 curator_note: A Mormon newspaper published by the church in Nauvoo; included for historical study. Inclusion does not imply endorsement. rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1842 (Nauvoo, Illinois); published before 1931, so public domain in the United States source: https://archive.org/details/per_utah-and-the-mormons_times-and-seasons_1842-09-01_3_21 publication_year: 1842 --- # Persecution of the Prophets Since an attempt has been made by Missouri to arrest, or rather kidnap Joseph Smith, the prophet, we have heard many curious surmises; and lest some, who ought to know better, should cheat themselves into perdition, we have thought it would be no more than righteous to lay the matter before our readers in its true light. There is a strange notion afloat among the saints and sinners relative to the purity of the prophets. Some suppose, and some believe that the prophets were perfect and holy-and every body knew them to be so, and venerated them as the Lord's anointed: but let us examine the scriptures and learn how the prophets sent at various times by the Lord, were treated by the saints and the wicked world. As to those who professed to have the knowledge of God, and be governed by revelation, we can not give a better sample than one that fell from the mouth of Jesus to the Jews-as follows:-Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers! how can ye escape the damnation of hell? Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes; and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city; that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the Temple and the altar. Abel was slain for his righteousness, and how many more up to the flood is not of much consequence to us now. But if we believe in present revelation, as published in the Times and Seasons last spring, Abraham, the prophet of the Lord, was laid upon the iron bedstead for slaughter; and the book of Jasher, which has not been disproved as a bad author, says he was cast into the fire of the Chaldeas. Moses, the man of God, who killed an Egyptian persecutor of the children of Israel, was driven from his country and kindred. Elijah had to flee his country, for they sought his life,-and he was fed by ravens. Daniel was cast into a den of lions: Micah was fed on the bread of affliction; and Jeremiah was cast into the filthy hole under the Temple; and did these afflictions come upon these prophets of the Lord of account of transgression? No! It was the iron hand of persecution-like the chains of Missouri! And mark-when these old prophets suffered, the vengeance of God, in due time, followed and left the wicked opposers of the Lord's anointed like Sodom and Gomorrah; like the Egyptians; like Jezebel, who was eaten by dogs; and like all Israel, which were led away captive, till the Lord had spent his fury upon them-even to this day. Let us come into new Testament times-so many are ever praising the Lord and his apostles. We will commence with John the Baptist. When Herod's edict went forth to destroy the young children, John was about six months older than Jesus, and came under this hellish edict, and Zachariah caused his mother to take him into the mountains, where he was raised on locusts and wild honey. When his father refused to discover his hiding place, and being the officiating high priest at the Temple that year, was slain by Herod's order, between the porch and the altar, as Jesus said. John's head was taken to Herod, the son of this infant murderer, in a charger-notwithstanding there was never a greater prophet born of a woman than him! Jesus, the son of God was crucified with his hands and feet nailed to the wood! Stephen was stoned to death. Mark, one of the twelve, was dragged to death in the streets of Alexandria, in Egypt. Luke, also one of the twelve, was hanged upon an olive tree in Greece. Peter, who held the keys of the kingdom, was crucified with his head downwards, at Rome. James the greater was beheaded at Jerusalem: James the less, was thrown from a pinnacle of the temple, and beat to death with a fuller's club. Philip, one of the twelve, was hanged against a pillar in Phrygia. Bartholomew, one of the twelve, was skinned alive.-Andrew, one of the twelve, was bound to the cross, and preached until he died. Thomas, one of the twelve, was run through with a lance, on the coast of Coromandel, in the East Indies. Jude, one of the twelve, was shot to death with arrows. Simeon was crucified in Persia. Matthias was stoned and beheaded.-Barnabas was stoned by the Jews. Paul was beheaded by Nero at Rome. John the beloved disciple, was thrown into the cauldron of boiling oil, but escaped to fulfil [fulfill] the Savior's prediction. Of the whole twelve, John, and perhaps Matthew, escaped without being murdered, for a tostimoney [testimony], &c. And now, let us appeal to the sober sense of the Latter Day Saints, and enquire [inquire] what right they have to expect from this generation any better treatment, and veneration for the religion of Jesus Christ, than our brethren of old? Read what the apostle John says in his revelations on the Isle of Patmos:-And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held; and they cried with a loud voice, saying, how long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled. It is a shme [shame] to the saints to talk of chastisements, and transgressions, when all the Saints before them, prophets and apostles, have had to come up through great tribulation; whether a Herod, a Nero, or a Boggs, causes the affliction, or the blood to be shed, is all the same,-these murderers will have their reward! and the saints theirs. How many have had to wander in sheep skins and goat skins, and live in caves and dens of the mountains, because the world was unworthy of their society! And was transgression, or chastisement connected with ther [their] seclusion from the enjoyment of society? No! But remember, brethren, he that offends one of the least of the saints, would be better off with a mill stone tied to his neck and he and the stone plunged into the depth of the sea! Remember that he that gives a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, to one of the saints in prison, or secluded from friends by reason of vexatious law suits, intended for persecution, shall in no wise lose his reward. Never, while the spirit of liberty, or the virtue of a saint, hold communion in the flesh, let us hear of those who profess to be governed by the law of God, and make their garmonts [garments] clean [clean] in the blood of the Lamb, shrinking from the assistance of those who bear the are of the Lord-in the hour of danger! While Boggs and his crew hold this mobocratic doctrine in defiance of law; "believing as we do, that the arm of the law does not afford us a guarantee,-(we) deem it expedient and of the highest importance to form ourselves into a company &c. to rid our society, peaceable if we can and forcibly if we must," of the Mormons,-and to this end have severally pledged to each other THEIR LIVES, BODILY POWERS, FORTUNES AND "SACRED HONORS!"-let no saint suppose that righteousness will reign, or peace be on earth, and good will to men, and glory to God in the highest, to make the wilderness blossom as the rose, till the wicked cease to hear rule, and till they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.