early Mormons seemed to have a
pragmatic attitude toward the fulfillment of such prophecy . . . It was an
active, faithful pragmatism that compelled them to look at prophecy concerning
their own future as a personal challenge. They were obligated to work to make
the great things predicted by the prophet actually happen. But if they did not
happen, this was no sign that the prophet was false. It was only a sign either
that the Saints were not faithful and hardworking enough or, if they had done
all they could, that the enemies of the church had prevented them from
fulfilling their obligations. "Verily, verily, I say unto you," the
Lord had told them through Joseph Smith in January 1841, "that when I give
a commandment to any of the sons of men to do a work unto my name, and those
sons of men go with all their might and with all they have to perform that
work, and cease not their diligence, and their enemies come upon them and hinder
them from performing the work, behold, it behooveth me to require that work no
more at the hands of those sons of men, but to accept of their offerings."
(James B. Allen, Trials of Discipleship: The Story of William Clayton, a
Mormon [Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987], 77)
