The Prophet, Joseph Smith, had been dead nearly forty years when this renewed testimony was published by David Whitmer. It would be the grossest kind of folly to assume that after more than forty years of independent life and thinking--apart from the Church founded by the Prophet, with the Prophet himself removed--David Whitmer was still under "hypnotic," or other, influence of the Prophet. With his testimony so firm and unshaken, after so many years, it would be the height of folly to assume that David Whitmer was under any psychic subjection to the Prophet even at the time of the angelic ministration. And other false reason for subscribing to such a testimony there could be none. David Whitmer was not related to Joseph Smith. He was not interested with him in any business venture. He received no worldly benefits from his association with the new Church. In short, there was no reason under heaven why he should have abetted fraudulent purposes of Joseph Smith, had he been an impostor. David Whitmer's testimony, then, like Oliver Cowdery's, must remain forever unimpeached, the stronger for the reason that it remained as firm, as steadfast, after David Whitmer left the Church, as it ever was before. Whitmer died at Richmond, Mo., January twenty-fifth, 1888. On his deathbed he bore a last, irrefragable testimony to the divine authenticity of the "Book of Mormon," and the truth and integrity of the Testimony of the Three Witnesses. Martin Harris was one of Joseph Smith's earliest and closest friends. Yet, his relations to the Prophet, like those of Oliver and David, became strained before the martyrdom of the Prophet. Martin Harris was born at Easttown, New York, May eighteenth, 1783. He met the young Prophet for the first time in 1827, soon after the Prophet had received from the angel the plates of the "Book of Mormon." He was baptized soon after the organization of the Church, in 1830. Martin Harris, too, was honored in the new Church. He held several positions of distinction, and as long as the Saints lived in Kirtland, he was active in the performance of his duties. When, however, the Saints moved to Missouri, Harris remained in Ohio. Rumors spread that he had apostatized. Martin Harris never wavered, however, in his testimony to the "Book of Mormon." After the martyrdom of the Prophet, Martin Harris came under the influence of the apostate leader, James J. Strang. While under that influence, he went to England, in 1846, ostensibly to oppose the Mormon elders laboring there, and to misrepresent the Church. It seems, however, that he did no harm to anyone. In 1870, Harris came to Utah, and located in Smithfield. Five years later, in 1875, he died at Clarkston, nearly ninety-three years of age.