Get to Know Joseph Part 2: Questions about God
The life of a farmer is a difficult one. Life is dependent upon a good harvest and for Joseph Sr. the harvest didn’t always come. After three consecutive years of disappointing crop failure while the family lived in Norwich, Vermont, Joseph Sr. decided it was time to pick up his own struggling roots and move his family. The place Joseph Sr. chose was Palmyra, New York a distance of 250-300 miles. To add to the challenge they were traveling in the winter.
Joseph Sr. travelled ahead while Lucy came later bringing the kids. Lucy enlisted a teamster by the name of Caleb Howard. Mr. Howard was “an unprincipled and unfeeling wretch” and proved to be yet another trial. Howard would force youth Joseph to travel at times on foot in spite of his lameness from the leg surgery. Lucy’s family endured Mr. Howard’s abuse of their goods, money, and family until one morning when they were preparing to continue their journey, Alvin reported to his mother that “Mr. Howard has thrown the goods out of the wagon, and is about starting off with the team.” Lucy met Caleb Howard in a bar-room demanding the reasons for his actions. Caleb told Lucy that the money he had been paid was all gone and that he would be no longer taking them.
Lucy records “I then turned to those present and said, ‘Gentlemen and ladies, please give your attention for a moment. Now, as sure as there is a God in heaven, that team, as well as the goods, belong to my husband, and this man intends to take them from me, or at least the team, leaving me with eight children, without the means of proceeding on my journey.’ Then turning to Mr. Howard, I said, ‘Sir, I now forbid you touching the team, or driving it one step further. you can go about your own business; I have nor use for you. I shall take charge of the team myself, and hereafter attend to my own affairs’ I accordingly did so, and proceeding on our journey, we in a short time arrived in Palmyra, with a small portion of our affects, and barely two cents in cash” (History of Joseph Smith by His Mother).
Palmyra, New York and Religious Excitement
Palmyra was still a challenge. The Family united together to earn a living. Lucy used her talent in painting and set up a business painting oil-cloth coverings for tables, stands, and such. Joseph Sr. and the two eldest sons, Alvin and Hyrum, went to work building a log home and clearing land for a crop. Alvin also went home to home asking for work to help pay for the farm.
During this time there was a surge of religious revivals. This led to unification of the different bodies when one would lead to the conversion of someone who previously had not professed Christianity, but more often was a point of contention, rivalry, and jealousy between the different sects. Fierce debates were the norm.
The Smith family was caught up in the religious fervor. Joseph’s mother along with his brothers Hyrum and Samuel, and sister Sophronia became members of the Presbyterian church. Joseph Sr. remained unmoved. While Joseph Jr. was looking towards the Methodists.
Time to Make a Choice About Which Religion to Join
But which to join? Joseph reasoned that if God had a church, he would not have it split into different sects all teaching different doctrine.
I think Joseph’s own words are important to read at this point. Joseph writes, “In the midst of this war of words and tumult of opinions, I often said to myself, what is to be done? Who of all these parties are right; or, are they all wrong together? If any one of them be right, which is it, and how shall I know it? While I was laboring under the extreme difficulties caused by the contests of these parties of religionists, I was one day reading the Epistle of James, first chapter and fifth verse, which reads:
‘If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him.’
“Never did any passage of Scripture come with more power to the heart of man than this did at this time to mine. It seemed to enter with great forcer into every feeling of my heart. I reflected on it again and again, know that if any person needed wisdom from God, I did; for how to act I did not know and unless I could get more wisdom than I then had, I would never know; for the teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same passage of Scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible. At length I came to the conclusion that I must remain in darkness and confusion, or else I must do as James directs, that is, ask of God. I at length came to the determination to ‘ask of God’ concluding that if he gave wisdom to them that lacked wisdom, and would give liberally, and not upbraid, I might venture (History of the Church, 1:3-4).
Joseph determined to ask God… We’ll continue the story in the next installment of Get to Know Joseph Part 3: Joseph Asks and God Answers
Image Credit: Smith family cabin -Dallas Golden, Joseph Smith reading – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
