NOVEMBER 24-30: He “Has Sealed His Mission and His Works with His Own Blood”

Come Follow Me Doctrine and Covenants 135-136

This week’s study is sobering as we remember the martyrdom of Joseph Smith Jr. In giving tribute to him, I pray peace for all who have been slain holding true to the name of God.

As A Lamb to the Slaughter – Nashville Tribute Band

Erroneously charged with treason, Joseph and Hyrum gave themselves willingly to protect their city of Nauvoo from both government and mob attack. Held in Carthage, Illinois, there were four in the room that day, with John Taylor and Willard Richards voluntarily joining them. The jailer had allowed them to spend the day in his own second floor bedroom, just outside the jail cell. John Taylor was a gifted tenor, and was asked to sing “A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief.” When finished, he was asked to sing it again, the hymn conveying their gloomy feelings.

Yet the hymn also carries a cry with it, to act toward others as Christ would. In considering these thoughts as some of the prophet’s last before his death brings me to think on what this prophet, what Christ, would ask of me.

A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief – Marilee Kay Music

His brother Hyrum was the first to die that day. Willard Richards wounded superficially. John Taylor would take time to heal from severe wounds, to one day carry the mantel of prophet.

It would be only a matter of months until the rest of the Latter-day Saints would be expelled from their home of Nauvoo, Illinois. Most had already felt the sting of losing a home or leaving a homeland for their religion, yet they would not forsake it. They went forward and westward, seeking a place of refuge. They offered refuge to each other, founded yet another new home and strengthened their church on the backs of their suffering.

While this is a story that has happened over the centuries, it is not an old story. It is still happening throughout the world today. And today we still are called to offer refuge. How is it that so many still find refuge in or from the West?

Refugee – David Brymer

The ways we can help are as varied as we are, as quiet as our prayers, as grand as we are able to pull together our resources or affect governments. It is a lot of little people doing a lot of little things.

Broken – Nadia Khristean ft. Shaun Barrowes + BYU Womens Chorus

We are not alone in our efforts. We carry with us the promise in D&C 136:21-22 “I am the Lord your God, even the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob. I am he who led the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; and my arm is stretched out in the last days, to save my people Israel.” (By the way – that includes you.)

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