The question as to what sin was committed by the Prophet
during the time between his first and second visions was asked of Allen J. S[t]out
who had been one of the Prophet's body guards in Nauvoo. Brother Stout answered
that he did not know. When asked to tell what he believed it to be, he said,
"To tell you what I believe would not get you anywhere on the road to
facts. But if I were to guess I would say, it may have been fighting.
Then Brother Stout related that he once went to the
Prophet with a confession of a weakness of his own that he feared might unfit
him for the position he held. It was that of fiery temper and quick to the
fight. He said he had that very day threshed a man. In his talk that followed
brother Stout's confession, the Prophet told him, that in his own youth he had
to learn to fight much against his own will, for his parents had taught their
children that quarreling and fighting are sins that are beastly, and whenever
had laid his hand in anger on a fellow creature it gave him sorrow and a
feeling of shame. Bro. Stout said he remarked further, that at the time they
were speaking he knew that he could fight to the death in the cause of Truth and
Righteousness or in defense of the innocent, or the weak and helpless.
Bro. Stout had heard a story told of a big burly fellow
accosting the boy prophet with the accusation that he lied about the vision he
claimed to have had, and told him that if he had seen any unnatural being that
day in the woods it was the devil. Quick as the lightening the boy struck the
man a blow between the eyes that leveled him to the ground. The man did not
retaliate when he had gathered himself, and did not trouble the boy again.
Brother Stout could not vouch for the truth of this story. He never heard any
of the Smith family refer to the incident. (Stories
from notebook of Martha Cox, grandmother of Fern Cox Anderson, p. 5, MS
658, Church History Library)
This is important also as
this series of reminiscences contains the recollections of one "Mrs.
Palmer" which makes reference to Joseph's "first" and
"second visions" also, and it is clear that in the Stout account,
quoted above, the "first" and "second" visions referred to
are clearly the 1820 First Vision and the 1823 visitation of the angel Moroni.
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