In the weeks before he was murdered,

Joseph Smith feared for his own life. He was also concerned about the well-being of his followers,

what was going to become of

the Latter-day Saints if he should be killed.

The last document in the Histories 1 volume is an essay by Joseph Smith called “Latter-say Saints.”

Joseph Smith had been concerned for quite a while about getting some good press from the non-Mormon media.

But books and newspapers across the country usually printed attacks of the Church.

But in 1843, he received an invitation to contribute

a chapter to a book that was to be titled A History of All the Religious Denominations in the United States. A few weeks before he was killed,

the finished book arrived on his doorstep.

And they're right there next to the Lutherans, the Jews, the Catholics, the Presbyterians, the Methodists,

all these other very well-established religions, was an essay called “Latter-day Saints” by Joseph Smith.

Imagine what this book meant to him at that time. It’s as if the Lord were saying: “Joseph,

don’t worry, the Church will endure.

Everything will be all right.

The Church has legitimacy, and it has permanency. This little denomination will flourish.”

He wrote a warm letter of thanks to the publisher after he got the volume and he promised that he would endorse the book in the local newspaper. On the 26th of June 1844,

one day before the martyrdom,

the endorsement appeared in the Nauvoo Neighbor. Joseph had kept his promise.