The howlings of murderous mobs, infuriated by infernal legions, the lying slanders of a vile hireling priesthood, and the base treachery of loathsome traitors, proved utterly powerless to cause him to swerve a single hair's breadth from the cause of God and the interests of the downtrodden and oppressed. To the transgressor and hypocrite he was a fierce lion in the way, to injured innocence he was a tower of strength, and to the poor and helpless he was ever a brother and a friend. He lived a hero of heroes, and a Prophet of Prophets, and to save his brethren from harm and bloodshed, he dauntlessly went to his death, and died a Martyr of Martyrs. The world, in its wickedness and crime, may treat his memory with derision and scorn; but when his defamers are forgotten, the great and mighty Prophet of God who, under the name of Joseph Smith, laid down his life for truth and his brethren, shall be fondly enshrined in the heart of the universe and his life and actions approved and applauded by the loving lips of eternity. It has been truly said that "God moves in a mysterious way" in order to perform His wonders, and the Scriptures lead us to believe that He often leads us by a "way that we know not of." Seldom, or never, were these expressions more fully verified than in the removal of the future Prophet's father from Vermont and his settling in Palmyra in New York state. Little did the good man dream of the fact, as he wended his way from his former home, that he was being led by the Lord to the very place where his son's great work was to be accomplished. Yet such was certainly the fact. Every step of his journey was guided by the controlling power and wisdom of God, and, although he knew it not, he settled just where God wanted him and where He wanted his son, who was to be like Joseph of old, the saviour of his father's house. When between the ages of fourteen and fifteen, after earnestly calling upon God, Joseph had his first vision, as set forth in another chapter. When he was between seventeen and eighteen years old, he had his second vision, which is likewise elsewhere described. And when he was between twenty-one and twenty-two, after having been instructed by a heavenly messenger for four years, in the year 1827 the golden records were entrusted to the custody of the youthful Prophet. He had been married just eight months and four days at this time. In the year 1827, by the aid of the Urim and Thummim, or interpreters, the history of two lost nations was translated, the one being the nation of the Jaredites and the other that of the Nephites. The remnants of the latter of these nations of the Nephites were the wild Indians of America, who were first discovered by Columbus in the year 1492.