Mr. Reid's divine instruction to defend Joseph Smith

In the early days of the Church, when the young Prophet Joseph Smith was arrested and tried for preaching the Book of Mormon, a lawyer named Mr. Reid was asked to defend him. Though initially hesitant and about to refuse the request, Mr. Reid heard a clear, low voice command him, "You must go to deliver the Lord's anointed." Accepting this as a heavenly directive, he participated in the trial, which resulted in the complete vindication of the Prophet.

Fuller account of this event (the complete account as preserved in The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star, Vol. 65, No. 31, 30 July 1903):

Mr. Reid, a lawyer, was asked to defend the Prophet, but he was at first unwilling to do so. He said that while he was thinking about it, he heard a voice, which seemed to be a low, soft voice, say, 'You must go to deliver the Lord's anointed.' He went, and the Prophet was delivered.

In addition to the divine prompt to defend the Prophet, lawyer John Reid later recounted the tense atmosphere following Joseph Smith's acquittal in Broome County, New York, in 1830. Reid noted that despite the court discharging Smith for lack of evidence, the judges 'proceeded to reprimand him severely' to appease the mob. Reid publicly compared this injustice to the trial of the Apostle Paul before Felix, noting that Smith was similarly disparaged despite being found innocent. Reflecting on their successful departure from a hostile crowd of approximately three hundred people, Reid remarked, 'I take no glory to myself; it was the Lord’s work and marvelous in our eyes.'