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Sidney Rigdon then dedicated the land. The next day eight of the brethren went to the temple lot, and Joseph dedicated that sacred spot. Shortly after, Joseph with some of the other brethren went to Kirtland. The Saints were now instructed to buy land in the region around that they might possess it for an inheritance. At that time Missouri was not thickly settled.
It hasn't been established just how Rivers got the Leech & Rigdon, and never will be; the only people who knew were Rivers and Dunmore, and both are in the proverbial class of non-talebearers. I assume that Dunmore gave it to Rivers as a sort of down payment on Rivers's silence, and to get rid of it.
Lambdin had intrusted the precious manuscript to his bosom friend, Sidney Rigdon, that he might embellish and alter it, as he might think expedient. The publisher now dead, Rigdon allowed this chef-d'oeuvre to remain in his desk, till, reflecting upon his precarious means, and upon his chances of obtaining a future livelihood, a sudden idea struck him.
Joseph the Prophet had bestowed that right upon him by ordination, but he was too young at that time to fill the office and discharge its solemn duties. Someone must fill the place until he had grown to more mature age. Sidney Rigdon set up his claim, he being the second counselor to the Prophet. Rigdon had a few backers.
I went over and looked at it, and he told me he'd found it hanging back of the counter at a barbecue-stand, where the road from Rosemont joins Route 22. There had been some other pistols with it, and I went to see them later, but they were all trash. The Leech & Rigdon had been the only decent thing there, and Fleming had talked it out of this fellow for ten dollars.
Rigdon told the Saints that day that if they did not come up as true Saints and consecrate their property to the Lord, by laying it down at the feet of the apostles, they would in a short time be compelled to consecrate and yield it up to the Gentiles; that if the Saints would be united as one man, in this consecration of their entire wealth to the God of Heaven, by giving it up to the control of the Apostolic Priesthood, then there would be no further danger to the Saints; they would no more be driven from their homes on account of their faith and holy works, for the Lord had revealed to Joseph Smith that He would then fight the battles of His children, and save them from all their enemies; that the Mormon people would never be accepted as the children of God unless they were united as one man, in temporal as well as spiritual affairs, for Jesus had said unless ye are one, ye are not Mine; that oneness must exist to make the Saints the accepted children of God; that if the Saints would yield obedience to the commands of the Lord all would be well, for the Lord had confirmed these promises by a Revelation which He had given to Joseph Smith, in which it was said: "I, the Lord, will fight the battles of my people, and if your enemies shall come up against you, spare them, and if they shall come up against you again, then shall ye spare them also; oven unto the third time shall ye spare them; but if they come up against you the fourth time, I, the Lord, will deliver them into your hands, to do with them as seemeth good unto you; but if you then spare them it shall be accounted unto you for righteousness."
The Twelve sustained. 3. Action of Sidney Rigdon. 4. Mobbings. 5. The removal. Questions and Review. 1. Where were Joseph and Hyrum buried? 2. What were the feelings of the Saints? 3. Why were the Saints troubled about a leader? 4. Where were most of the Twelve at the time of the martyrdom? 5. When the First Presidency is taken away, what is the next presiding authority in the Church? 6.
A great intimacy took place betwixt them, and they paid each other alternate visits Joe coming to Pittsburg and Rigdon going to the Susquehanna, for pleasure excursions, at a friend's. It was also during the same year that the Smith family assumed a new character. In the month of June, Joseph Smith, senior, went to a wealthy, but credulous farmer, and related the following story:
Rigdon then refused to recognize Young's authority, and for this contumacy he was excommunicated and delivered to the Devil "to be buffeted in the flesh for a thousand years." Returning to Pittsburg, Rigdon led a life of utter obscurity, and finally died in Friendship, Allegany county, New York, July 14, 1876. Cowdery, Whitner and Harris either deserted or were cut off.
Just then catching Rigdon off his guard, as quick as a flash he knocked the sword from Rigdon's hand, then caught him by the shoulder, and said: "Now, old man, you must go out, or I will throw you down." Rigdon was as large a man as the Prophet, but not so tall.
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