Saturday, June 8, 2019

Joseph Smith. . . the Criminal?


Image result for springfield illinois courtroom Joseph Smith trial
https://www.lds.org/bc/content/ldsorg/church/news/09/06/580-Joseph-smith-statue.jpg

Approximately how many cases where Joseph Smith was brought to trial criminal cases?
a.                  5
b.                  15
c.                   30
d.                  50
Yesterday’s answer:
A   Dreams
From the life of Mary Jane Cutcliffe Spencer Auer:   Mary Jane Cutcliffe was born in Bristol, Somersetshire, England, on July 5, 1835. Her parents were George Cutcliffe and Elizabeth Hill Jones Cutcliffe. She was the eighth child born to them, but the first of their children to survive past the age of one.
Mary Jane’s family were members of the Church of England, and she was christened in their parish. Her father later had different views and joined the Baptist Church. He realized, when she was very young, that Mary Jane was religiously inclined. When she was about the age of five, Mary Jane had a dream where she saw “an angel with a little book.” She had this dream on three successive nights and told her parents about it each morning. Her father was quite concerned and mentioned to his wife, that their daughter must be very special. He was also concerned that she was so good that she might die young like their previous seven children had done.
Mary Jane continued to have dreams about events that would happen in their lives. When she was almost 14 years of age, she had a dream in which she saw a man who was teaching about a new religion. An angel pointed to him and said that he was someone who had a “true and everlasting gospel.” Mary Jane told her parents about the dream and gave them a detailed description of the man.
A few months after this dream, Mary Jane saw a man on a street announcing that there was going to be a religious meeting that evening. She immediately recognized him as the man in her dream. But when she told her parents about him, her mother made fun of her and told her he was probably an old tea man. She teased and said that if she was not careful, she would be carried away by this man. Mary Jane went to the meeting anyway and believed what the missionary, George Halliday, taught. She was soon baptized.
George Cutcliffe, Mary Jane’s father, had been sick for about four years and could not walk without crutches. She had a dream that if her father would believe and be baptized, he would get well. There was much prejudice against Mormons, and Mary Jane’s parents and other relatives did not want to have anything to do with this church. In fact, some of her relatives were quite wealthy and tried to get her to leave the church by offering to set her up in business since she had become an expert in dressmaking and in making hats. She continued to refuse their help.
As her father’s illness got worse, he began investigating the LDS Church and soon asked to be baptized. He was carried into the waters and was baptized by Edward Hanham in May of 1849. He walked out of the water on his own and never needed crutches again. Sometime after this, her mother and the rest of the family joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
International Society Daughters of Utah Pioneers, Museum Memories, (Salt Lake City, Utah: Talon Printing, 2011), 3: 442-444.

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