When he first visited
Joseph Smith, the angel Moroni told him that his "name should
be had for good and evil among all nations." Years later the Lord encouraged
Joseph: "Be patient in afflictions, for thou shalt have
many; but endure them, for, lo, I am with thee, even unto
the end of thy days."
Few have confronted more
antagonism and trials than did Joseph Smith. He was besieged
with dozens of unjustified lawsuits and was often in
jeopardy of his life. He was poisoned, beaten, tarred,
unjustly imprisoned, and once sentenced to die by firing
squad. He and Emma seldom had a home of their own, and six
of their children died in infancy. Financial difficulties
continually plagued the family.
"As for the perils which
I am called to pass through," Joseph reflected, "they seem
but a small thing to me, as the envy and wrath of man have
been my common lot all the days of my life. It all has
become a second nature to me; and I feel, like Paul, to
glory in tribulation; for to this day has the God of my
fathers delivered me out of them all."
Moroni
The last Nephite prophet in the Book of Mormon (circa A.D. 421). In 1823 Moroni was sent as a resurrected being to reveal the Book of Mormon to Joseph Smith and finally delivered the plates to him in 1827 (The Guide to the Scriptures, "Moroni, Son of Mormon," 167–68).
