“Your husband,” he began abruptly, “he has still upon him the taint of his Quaker upbringing, for the Lord Christ indeed taught long-suffering, and he sent them out at first, as we also have sent our missionaries, with nothing in their hand save a staff only, but afterwards he said, ‘Let him that hath a sword take it,’ and they said unto him, ’Lord, here are two swords,’ and he said, ‘It is enough,’ which I take to mean that where one sword is raised there must be another to ward off a blow or to strike in return.  But your husband is teaching the people that to bear arms, even in self-defence, is wrong.”

Susannah saw that already in Smith’s indomitable will the era of armed defence had begun.  Her hatred of the persecution caused her sentiments to chime with his.  She only said in defence of Halsey’s meekness, “My husband would have gone before now to give himself and all that he has to help these poor people if you had not interfered, Mr. Smith.”

A change of expression came in a moment over Smith’s hulking form, as if a different phase of him came forward to deal with a change of subject.  He turned upon her almost sharply, “There is one man in Kirtland who shall not go to Zion till peace is there.  If he went, would he not of his own accord rush into the forefront, into the hottest of the battle, not to fight but to receive the sword in his breast and be slain, even as Uriah the Hittite was slain?  Wherefore, I say unto you, he shall not go.”

Susannah, like all good women, had no keenness of scent for scandals, ancient or modern.  She did not remember who Uriah was, and took no offence.

The prophet had tarried in his pacing by the window; with hands clasped behind him he was looking absently out upon the driven snow.  Upon his face was an expression which Susannah only sometimes saw, and that in the moments which she felt to be his best.  She believed this man to have true moments of humility and high resolve; it was only a question with her how far they permeated his life.  In a minute more he turned again and spoke modestly and sadly enough.

“As I have said before, it is not in me to greatly love our brother Halsey’s manner of thought, but I perceive his holiness and the Church shall not lack his counsel.  I am here to-day to tell you how much it grieves me to set a constraint upon his conscience, yet I am here also to ask you to tell him from me that it is not the will of the Lord that he should continue to preach against the spirit of self-defence.”

When he was gone Susannah realised how angry she would have been if she had heard that Smith had rebuked her husband on this subject, yet now that the fiat lay in her own hands to impart with all gentleness, the task, because of her own fierce attitude toward the oppression, was grateful to her.

When the roof had been set on the white walls of the first great Mormon temple upon Kirtland Bluff, a small army, well armed, well provisioned, went out from Kirtland for the deliverance of Zion amid the prayers and huzzahs of the little community.  There were many who, like Halsey, bewailed in secret this taking of the sword, but the doctrine of non-resistance was never preached again.