During a visit to New York in 1832, Joseph Smith marveled at the “truly great and wonderful” buildings he encountered in “the most splendid part of the city.” In one of the few letters he wrote in his own hand, (“of his outgoing correspondence only about two dozen extant letters bear the marks of his own pen“), without the filter of a scribe, we glimpse something of the largeness of soul of an everyday prophet wowed by the wonders of his own time. To his wife, Emma, he wrote,
Read Full Article »Can the great God of all the Earth, maker of all things magnificent and splendid, be displeased with man for all these great inventions saught out by them? My answer is no, it cannot be, seeing these works are calculated to mak[e] men comfortable, wise, and happy. Therefore, not for the works can the Lord be displeased. Only aganst man is the anger of the Lord kindled because they Give him not the Glory.
