In Defense of Joseph Smith

Joseph Smith, the first prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is known throughout the world. He is a beloved prophet, martyred for the cause of truth, and slandered by the world. The same arguments of weather Joseph was a skilled manipulator, or a prophet tutored by God are rampent today, over a hundred years after his death. In the book "Witness to The Martyrdom, John Taylors Personal Account of the last days of the prophet Joseph Smith" John Taylor records his, first hand, witness of Joseph Smith. The whole look is one worth reading.

At the end of the book an account is recorded of John Taylor serving as a missionary in France in 1855. This statement was made during three nights of public debate with three ministers of other churches. The three had made slanderous comments about the Prophet, whereupon Elder Taylor said the following in his defence:

"I testify that I was acquainted with Joseph Smith for years. I have traveled with him; I have been with him in private and in public; I have associated with him in councils of all kinds; I have listened hundreds of times to his public teachings, and his advice to his friends and associates of a more private nature. I have been at his house and seen his deportment in his family. I have seen him arraigned before the tribunals of his country and have seen him honorably acquitted, and delivered from the pernicious breath of slander, and the machinations and falsehoods of wicked and corrupt men. I was with him living, and with him when he died, when he was murdered in Carthage jail by a ruthless mob. . . with their faces painted. I was there and was myself wounded; I at that time received four balls in my body. I have seen him, then, under these various circumstances, and I testify before God, angels and men, that he was a good, honorable, virtuous man- that his doctrines were good, scriptural, and wholesome-that his precepts were such as became a man of God-that his private and public character was unimpeachable- and that he lived and died as a man of God and a gentleman. This is my testimony."