The Story of the Mormons, from the Date of Their Origin to the Year 1901Linn, William Alexander
History
The Story of the Mormons, from the Date of Their Origin to the Year 1901
Linn, William Alexander
Latter Day Saints -- History; Utah -- History
Harris followed Smith to Ohio and then to Missouri, but was ever a
trouble to him, although Smith always found his money useful. In 1831,
in Missouri, it required a "revelation" (Sec. 58) to spur him to "lay
his monies before the Bishop." As his money grew scarcer, he received
less and less recognition from the Mormon leaders, and was finally
expelled from the church. Smith thus referred to him in the Elders'
Journal, July, 1837, one of his publications in Ohio: "There are negroes
who wear white skins as well as black ones, granny Parish, and others
who acted as lackeys, such as Martin Harris."
Harris did not appear on the scene during the stay of the Mormons in
Illinois, having joined the Shakers and lived with them a year or two.
When Strang claimed the leadership of the church after Smith's death,
Harris gave him his support, and was sent by him with others to England
in 1846 to do missionary work. His arrival there was made the occasion
of an attack on him by the Millennial Star, which, among other things,
said:--
"We do not feel to warn the Saints against him, for his own unbridled
tongue will soon show out specimens of folly enough to give any person
a true index to the character of the man; but if the Saints wish to know
what the Lord hath said of him, they may turn to the 178th page of the
Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and the person there called a WICKED MAN
is no other than Martin Harris, and he owned to it then, but probably
might not now. It is not the first time the Lord chose a wicked man as
a witness. Also on page 193, read the whole revelation given to him, and
ask yourselves if the Lord ever talked in that way to a good man. Every
one can see that he must have been a wicked man."*
*Vol. VIII, p. 123.
Harris visited Palmyra in 1858. He then said that his property was all
gone, that he had declined a restoration to the Mormon church, but
that he continued to believe in Mormonism. He thought better of his
declination, however, and sought a reunion with the church in Utah
in 1870. His backslidings had carried him so far that the church
authorities told him it would be necessary for him to be rebaptized.
This he consented to with some reluctance, after, as he said, "he had
seen his father seeking his aid. He saw his father at the foot of a
ladder, striving to get up to him, and he went down to him, taking him
by the hand, and helped him up."* He settled in Cache County, Utah,
where he died on July 10, 1875, in his ninety-third year. "He bore his
testimony to the truth and divinity of the Book of Mormon a short time
before he departed," wrote his son to an inquirer, "and the last words
he uttered, when he could not speak the sentence, were 'Book,' 'Book,'
'Book.'"
* For an account of Harris's Utah experience, see Millennial
Star, Vol. XLVIII, pp.357-389.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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