John S. Reed's Supernatural Guidance During Joseph Smith's Second Trial

During the 1830 legal proceedings against Joseph Smith in Broome and Chenango Counties, New York, local farmer and legal representative John S. Reed was exhausted from two days of prior trials and initially hesitant to defend the Prophet. While Joseph Knight pleaded for his assistance, Reed experienced a 'peculiar impression or thought' that he must go and defend Smith because he was the 'Lord’s anointed.' Reed noted that he did not initially understand the full meaning of this prompting, but felt compelled to act. Following a grueling trial in Broome County, where prosecutors aggressively scoured the vicinity for hostile witnesses, the court acquitted Smith. Reed later recounted that he and his party, including Joseph Knight, were assisted by a 'higher power' when safely departing through a crowd of three hundred hostile onlookers. Reed expressed that he could not explain how they succeeded in escaping without injury, concluding that the event was 'the Lord's work' and 'marvelous in our eyes.'

Fuller account of this event (in the witness’s own words):

But I saw the persecution was great against him; and here let me say, Mr. Chairman, singular as it may seem, while Mr. Knight was pleading with me to go, a peculiar impression or thought struck my mind, that I must go and defend him, for he was the Lord's annointed. I did not know what it means, but thought I must go and clear the Lord's annointed. I accordingly went and defended him in the two trials. The prosecution brought forward some twenty or thirty witnesses before dark, and they swore everything they could think of against him. I then told the court that I should not bring any witnesses, for I was satisfied that the witnesses for the prosecution had sworn enough to clear him. The court then discharged him. We got him away that night from the midst of three hundred people without his receiving any injury; but I am well aware that we were assisted by some higher power than man; for to look back on the scene, I cannot tell how we succeeded in getting him away. I take no glory to myself, it was the Lord's work, and marvelous in our eyes.