How To Know The Truth Of The Restoration

TO THE HONORABLE MEN OF THE WORLD. By Joseph Smith

TO the honorable searchers for truth, we, in a spirit of candor and meekness, are bound by every tie that makes man the friend of man, by every endowment of heaven, that renders intelligent beings seekers of happiness, to show you the way to salvation. In fact, we are not only bound to do thus for those that seek the riches of eternity, but, to walk in the tracks of our Savior, we must love our enemies; bless them that curse us; do good to them that hate us, and pray for them that dispitefully use us, and persecute us, or you and the world may know, that we are not the children of God. Therefore, to be obedient to the precepts of our divine master, we say unto you, Search the Scriptures—search the revelations which we publish, and ask your heavenly Father, in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, to manifest the truth unto you, and if you do it with an eye single to his glory, nothing doubting, he will answer you by the power of his Holy Spirit: You will then know for yourselves and not for another: You will not then be dependent on man for the knowledge of God; nor will there be any room for speculation. No: for, when men receive their instruction from him that made them, they know how he will save them. Then again we say, Search the Scriptures; search the prophets, and learn what portion of them belongs to you, and the people of the nineteenth century. You, no doubt, will agree with us, and say, that you have no right to claim the promises of the inhabitants before the flood; that you cannot found your hopes of salvation upon the obedience of the children of Israel, when journeying in the wilderness; nor can you expect that the blessings which the apostles pronounced upon the churches of Christ, eighteen hundred years ago, were intended for you: Again, if others' blessings are not your blessings, others' curses are not your curses; you stand then in these last days, as all have stood before you, agents unto yourselves, to be judged according to your works.

(To the Honorable Men of the World., Evening and Morning Star, vol. 1 (June 1832-May 1833), Vol. I. August, 1832. No. 3. 22.)