HURLBURT'S EFFORTS TO DESTROY JOSEPH—HIGH COUNCILS ORGANIZED—THE CAMP OF ZION—A HARD JOURNEY—RATTLESNAKES IN CAMP—THE PROPHET'S PHILOSOPHY—ELDER HUMPHREY'S EXPERIENCE.  
With the opening of the year 1834, Joseph recorded his prayer that the Lord would deliver Zion and gather in His scattered people to possess it in peace, and that, in their dispersion, He would provide for them that they might not perish of hunger and cold.
 
At the same time he was pursued by threats against his own life. The apostate, Doctor P. Hurlburt, was determined to wreak his rage upon Joseph's person. Hurlburt had circulated vile falsehoods and presented lying affidavits among the people in the towns surrounding Kirtland, in the hope of exciting mobocratic violence. If personal considerations alone had been involved in these attempts of Hurlburt's to destroy him, the Prophet might have taken no steps to restrain him or to bring him to justice. But his duty to the Church demanded his preservation, and by his consent process of court was secured against Hurlburt, and later, on the 9th of April, 1834, that infamous creature was found guilty of threatening to kill, and was by a court at Chardon, Ohio, placed under bonds.
 
Many high councils exist in the Church at the present time, there being one in every Stake of Zion. It was on the 17th day of February, 1834, at Kirtland, however, that the Prophet organized the first high council of the Church. This tribunal consisted of twelve High Priests, and it was presided over by the Prophet and his two counselors, Sidney Rigdon and Frederick G. Williams. Its duty was to hear all matters of dispute between members of the Church who sought equity, and to decide such issues according to the principles of eternal justice. The plan of settling disputes and preventing litigation among brethren, which the Prophet was then inspired to introduce, has grown with the growth of the Church, and the high council has performed an important mission in the years which have followed. It has worked without fees; it has known no coercion; the honesty of its decisions have been beyond question; and often it has been appealed to by men not of the faith, that their disputes might be settled with fairness and economy. It has never usurped the function of the criminal courts; it has never sought to enforce its judgment by any civil process. It has only decreed according to clear and unmistakable justice and has left the parties to accept the judgment, and if not complied with or appealed from, to have Church fellowship withdrawn from them. The rules which the Prophet established to control its proceedings under divine guidance were delivered to it at the time of organization, and they, speaking of all the high councils which have since been organized, are still governed by them. To confirm the twelve chosen men in their places the Prophet laid his hands upon each one's head and blessed him with the gifts and authority necessary for his calling.
 
The first act of the high council at Kirtland was to declare Joseph Smith the President of the Church with Sidney Rigdon and Frederick G. Williams as the other members of the First Presidency.
 
All this time the cry of the exiled Saints in Missouri was ascending to heaven for the redemption of their homes and for their own release from oppression. In a revelation given to the Prophet February 24, 1834, the Lord made known that the wicked had been permitted to fill up the measure of their iniquities that those who are called after His name might be chastened for a season; because in many things they had not hearkened unto His commandments. He declared that in His own due time the punishment of His wrath should be poured out upon the persecutors of His Saints, and He promised the elect that they should repossess the goodly land from which they had been driven. The Prophet was commanded to gather up the strength of the Lord's house to journey to the land Zion to assist the scattered Saints. Two days later he departed for the East to obtain assistance for the work of the Lord. Other Elders were also called to perform similar missions. The Prophet traveled as far as Geneseo, New York, reaching there on the 15th day of March, 1834. On the way he preached to many of the congregations of Saints and also to many assemblages of unbelievers. On the 19th of March he began his return journey to Kirtland, which place he reached on the 28th. On the 18th day of April, 1834, while Joseph was jou............