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Source: Church History Vol. 3 Chapter 34 Page: 657 (~1872)

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657 of the revealed word, there was a liability to err, to listen to the promptings of self, and mistake them for the voice of the Spirit; to be tried by the temptations of infallibility as the recipients of the favor of God, and repositories of a knowledge of the policy of the Redeemer concerning the world. All these things these men had to encounter, and to come off triumphantly was a triumph indeed.

"Our relations with them are, or should be, as though they all had lived but yesterday, and are now waiting till tomorrow to receive, with us, a crown of rejoicing.

"A more difficult task than that of placing a proper estimate upon the character of the men with whom the work of the last days begun, can scarcely be undertaken. This task we shall essay only in the light of a general consideration of them, and the measures carried out by them, or their attempted realization of them. Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon, and a host of others, have been variously regarded; nor has the elapsing of time yet cooled the ardor and fervor of the friends of the work and these men for the work's sake; nor removed the hatred and rancor of their enemies, enemies of the work for their sake.

"There are many living who knew Joseph and Hyrum Smith, some intimately, some well, and some from only a casual acquaintance. Many have formed opinions concerning them from the representations of others, some friends, some foes of the work; and from their opinions are ready to condemn or to laud. We wish to look at them with as much freedom from bias of judgment as is practicable under the circumstances, and do them justice without compromising our own action in the work. We use the names of Joseph and Hyrum as they were representative men, and perhaps as widely influential for good and evil as any connected with the work.

"The contradictions which their public life gave rise to are all fresh within the memory of man; their virtues being not yet overestimated by a halo of time's mists, nor their vices toned down in the forgetfulness of years,-they stand almost as the living to be judged by their colaborers. It is

(page 657)

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