Counted as one of the first members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Lydia Knight's life story is full of hardships and revelations. The plot introduces her as a broken-hearted young mother. Lydia gets invited to Joseph Smith and Syndey Rigdon and the church. It gave her renewed hope and strength. These qualities guided this faithful pioneer woman as she moved from one place to the next, many times driven by an angry mob.

Reproduction of the original: Lydia Knight's History by Homespun

In 1820, a young farm boy in search of truth has a vision of God the Father and Jesus Christ. Three years later, an angel guides him to an ancient record buried in a hill near his home. With God’s help, he translates the record and organizes the Savior’s church in the latter days. Soon others join him, accepting the invitation to become Saints through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. But opposition and violence follow those who defy old traditions to embrace restored truths. The women and men who join the church must choose whether or not they will stay true to their covenants, establish Zion, and proclaim the gospel to a troubled world. The Standard of Truth is the first book in Saints, a new, four-volume narrative history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Fast-paced, meticulously researched, Saints recounts true stories of Latter-day Saints across the globe and answers the Lord’s call to write history “for the good of the church, and for the rising generations” (Doctrine and Covenants 69:8).

Few American religious figures have stirred more passion among adherents and antagonists than Joseph Smith. Born in 1805 and silenced thirty-nine years later by assassins’ bullets, he dictated more than one-hundred revelations, published books of new scripture, built a temple, organized several new cities, and became the proclaimed prophet to tens of thousands during his abbreviated life. Among his many novel teachings and practices, none is more controversial than plural marriage, a restoration of the Old Testament practice that he accepted as part of his divinely appointed mission. Joseph Smith taught his polygamy doctrines only in secret and dictated a revelation in July 1843 authorizing its practice (now LDS D&C 132) that was never published during his lifetime. Although rumors and exposés multiplied, it was not until 1852 that Mormons in Brigham Young’s Utah took a public stand. By then, thousands of Mormons were engaged in the practice that was seen as essential to salvation. Victorian America saw plural marriage as immoral and Joseph Smith as acting on libido. However, the private writings of Nauvoo participants and other polygamy insiders tell another, more complex and nuanced story. Many of these accounts have never been published. Others have been printed sporadically in unrelated publications. Drawing on every known historical account, whether by supporters or opponents, Volumes 1 and 2 take a fresh look at the chronology and development of Mormon polygamy, including the difficult conundrums of the Fannie Alger relationship, polyandry, the “angel with a sword” accounts, Emma Smith’s poignant response, and the possibility of Joseph Smith offspring by his plural wives. Among the most intriguing are the newly available Andrew Jenson papers containing not only the often-quoted statements by surviving plural wives but also Jenson’s own private research, conducted in the late nineteenth century. Telling the story of Joseph Smith’s polygamy from the records of those who knew him best, augmented by those who observed him from a distance, may have produced the most useful view of all.

""My Best for the Kingdom provides a valuable history of several little-known events in early Mormon history--the Church in Tennessee and Kentucky in the 1830s, the Danites in Missouri, Mormon resistance to Missouri persecutions, ... the James Emmett expedition, [and] pioneer Spanish Fork, Utah...John L. Butler's autobiography, given here in full, rivals and adds to the accounts of Hosea Stout and John D. Lee in telling the Mormon story of the 1830s, '40s, and '50s. Butler was a valiant militiaman, missionary, frontiersman, and bishop. A fast-moving, informative, well-researched and well-told account of Mormonism on the frontier...and pioneer Utah.""--Leonard J. Arrington quoted on the back outside jacket. This is the 3rd printing of My Best for the Kingdom (ISBN 978-1-365-73968-2) and is the same as the 2nd printing (ISBN 978-0-9843965-2-8) and 1st printing (ISBN 1-56236-212-7) versions except that the front & end papers (family chart and map) on the previous versions are now included as the final two pages.