Joseph Prophesies Safety of Visiting Brethren During Liberty Jail Mob Crisis

Alexander McRae, a fellow prisoner with Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail, recorded the following:

"The scene that followed defies description. I should judge from the number that all the town and many from the country gathered around the jail, and every mode of torture and death that their imagination could fancy was proposed for us.

During this time, some of our brethren spoke of our being in great danger; and I confess I felt that we were. But Brother Joseph told them not to fear, that not a hair of their heads should be hurt, and that they would not lose any of their things, even to a bridle, saddle, or blanket; that everything should be restored to them; they had offered their lives for us and the gospel; that it was necessary the Church should offer a sacrifice, and the Lord accepted the offering.

The brethren who had come to visit the prisoners had to undergo a trial... Brother Erastus Snow asked Brother Joseph whether he had better employ a lawyer or not. Brother Joseph told him to plead his own case.

'But,' said Brother Snow, 'I do not understand law.'

Brother Joseph asked him if he did not understand justice.

He said he thought he did.

'Well,' said Brother Joseph, 'go and plead for justice as hard as you can, and quote Blackstone and other authors now and then, and they will take it all for law.'

He did as he was told, and the result was as Joseph had said it would be. When he got through his plea, the lawyers flocked around him and asked him where he had studied law, and said they had never heard a better plea. When the trial was over, Brother Snow was discharged, and all the rest were held to bail... They got everything that was taken from them. Nothing was lost, although no two articles were in one place."