Thomas B. Marsh's Prophetic Anticipation of the Church and Return to the Faith

Thomas B. Marsh, while living in New York and having withdrawn from religious sects, was led by the spirit of prophecy to anticipate the rise of a new church containing the truth in its purity. He traveled westward, met Martin Harris in Palmyra, and received pages of the Book of Mormon, which he and his wife believed to be the work of God. Later, after becoming disaffected, losing his family, and suffering paralysis, he was prompted to return to the Church in fulfillment of a prophecy by Joseph Smith.

Following his disaffection in 1838, Marsh spent nearly two decades away from the Church, during which he lost his wife and suffered significant physical decline. In a later letter to Heber C. Kimball, Marsh expressed his profound regret, stating, 'The Lord could get along very well without me and He has lost nothing by my falling out of the ranks; But O what have I lost?!' Upon his return to Salt Lake City in 1857, he publicly addressed the congregation, explaining that his apostasy had begun when he became jealous of the Prophet, causing him to 'see double' and focus on perceived evils until he was blinded by anger and wrath. He explicitly sought reconciliation with George W. Harris, with whom he had clashed previously, and was subsequently welcomed back into full fellowship by a unanimous vote of the Saints.

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

I have frequently wanted to know how my apostacy began, and I have come to the conclusion that I must have lost the Spirit of the Lord out of my heart. The next question is, ‘How and when did you lose the Spirit?’ I became jealous of the Prophet, and then I saw double, and overlooked everything that was right, and spent all my time in looking for the evil; and then, when the Devil began to lead me, it was easy for the carnal mind to rise up, which is anger, jealousy, and wrath. I could tell you a hundred things, brethren, that occurred where I got wrong, but I have not time. I have been a long time away, and I have been a wanderer in a strange land, and I have suffered a great deal, and I have been a poor man, and I have been a sick man, and I have been a broken-down man, and I have been a man that has been afflicted in body and mind, and I have been a man that has been cast down, and I have been a man that has been in the dark, and I have been a man that has been in the light, and I have been a man that has been in the Church, and I have been a man that has been out of the Church, and I have been a man that has been in the world, and I have been a man that has been in the kingdom of God, and I have been a man that has been in the service of the Devil, and I have been a man that has been in the service of the Lord, and I have been a man that has been in the service of the Church, and I have been a man that has been in the service of the world, and I have been a man that has been in the service of the flesh, and I have been a man that has been in the service of the spirit, and I have been a man that has been in the service of the truth, and I have been a man that has been in the service of the lie, and I have been a man that has been in the service of the light, and I have been a man that has been in the service of the darkness, and I have been a man that has been in the service of the life, and I have been a man that has been in the service of the death, and I have been a man that has been in the service of the heaven, and I have been a man that has been in the service of the hell, and I have been a man that has been in the service of the God, and I have been a man that has been in the service of the man.