Sample Documents from the Series
Return to Document Library
LETTER TO WILLIAM W. PHELPS
31 JULY 1832
Letter, JS, Hiram, Ohio, to William W. Phelps, Independence, Missouri, 31 July 1832, RC, 7 pp., in hand of Frederick G. Williams, Endorsed: "Joseph Smiths Letter / to Zion 1832 <July 31> / <N. K. Whitney>"; "July 31 1845 / N. K. Whitney handed to me," JS Collection, Church History Library.
Hyram July 31 – 1832——
Broth[er] William [Phelps] I have received your letter dated 30th June and procede this morning to answer it. I sit down to dictate for Broth[er] Frederick [Williams] to write but cannot write my feelings, neither can toungue, or language paint them to you. I only can observe that I could wish, that my heart, & feelings thereof might for once be laid open before [you], as plain as your own natural face is to you by looking in a mirror; Verily I say unto you my only hope and confidence is in that God who gave me being in whom there is all power who now is present before me & my heart is naked before his eyes continually he is my comfe[r]ter & he forsaketh me not in the seventh trouble and in the mean time I have learned by sad exper<i>ance there is no confidence to be placed in1 man that the spirit of man is as cold as the northern blast and had I not considered the great care and multitude of business which is crowding upon your mind I could not have excused the cold and indifferent manner in which your letter is writen, true you have expressed fellowship, but the spirit which I possess enjoy, the feeling of my soul enquires does this letter give me the important information which I stood in need of at the present critical moment from your hand concerning yourself your family & business & the faith & fellowship & prosperity of the brethren in Zion &c let your own heart and the integrity of your own soul answer this question & excuse the warmth of feeling of your unworthy yet affectionate brother in the Lord travling through affliction and great tribulation, you informed me that you wrote a few lines to bear up our strength in the glorious labour wherewith our Saviour hath been pleased to call us, I rejoice exceedingly for the little strength & information God has been plesed to give me through your letter–viz–to hear that our brethren from this place & Nelson have arived safe in Zion and as I trust without accident this is the mercy of our God, but in the discharge <of my Duty,> must inform you that they left here under this displeasure of heaven for several reasons now what I write I write without sparing any (or the feeling of any) knowing that God will bear me up in what I write, I will give you some of the reasons, firstly making a mock of the profession of th <fa>ith2 in the commandments by proceding contrary thereto in not complying [p. 1]
with the requirements of them in not obtaining reccommends &c seccondly, that the church should procede to receive Wm McLelin into there fellowship & communion on any other conditions, then the filling [of] his mission to the South countries according to the commandment of Jesus Christ, I cite your minds to thise saying he that loveth Father or Mother wife & Children more than me is not worthy of me thus saith the Lord Thirdly the unorganized & confused state in leaving here, and the evil surmisings which were among them & neglect of duty &c more then this I do not wish to mention, now therefore the buffitings of the advesary be upon all those <among you> who are eniquitous persons and rebelious, I would inform you <them> they do not have my right hand of fellowship, but I will leave this subject for will not my God and your God do right, I return to your letter you informed me slightly that you heard of the accident to broth[er] Whitney at Greenvill Id [Indiana] A question how did you hear, did any of you receive letters writen by any of us informing you of the critical situation we were placed in, if so how did you treat them if not so have you writen to us to give us that information which would be calculated to releave the mind of its painful anxciety concerning you, whether that fellowship and brotherly love continued among you towards us which you professed when we left you, it is true we received a letter from brother John Carl [Corrill] by the hand of Broth[er] [Algernon Sidney] Gilbert after we arived home from Indiana who had arived here before us, but what did it contain, it gave us this inteligence, that the Devel had been to work with all his inventive immagination to reward us for our toils in travling from this country to Zion amidst a crooked & perverse generation leaving our familys in affliction amidst of death upon the mercy of mobs & of brethren who you know sometimes are found to be u[n]stable unbeleiving, unmerciful & unkind, and in this trying situation to keep in the commandment of God we took our lives in our hands and traveled through evry combination of wickedness to your country for your salvation & for our travail & our toils, suffering & privations as I said before [p. 2]
we learned by Broth[er] Johns letter that the devel had set to work to reward us by stirring up your hearts (I mean those who were engaged in this wickedness) by raking up evry fault, which those eyes that are filled with beams could see in looking for motes in the eyes of those who are laboring with tender and <prayerful> hearts continually for there salvation, and not being content with bringing up those things which had been settled & forgiven & which they dare not bring to our faces but many with which we were charged with were absolutely false & could not come from any other sourse [source] than the father of all lies & this is the thanks & the reward the advisary [adversary] saught to reward us by the instrumentality of those who should have been our staff & after our detention on the road I often times wandered alone in the lonely places seeking consolation of him who is <alone> able to console me, while my beloved Brother Whitney (who is without gile) poured out his soul with much weeping upon his pillow for you or for Zion while I in <the> lonely places communed with him which<o> is altogether lovely witnessed your case & viewed the conspiricy with much grief and learned the displeasure of heaven and veewed [viewed] the frowns of the heavenly hosts upon Zion & upon all the earth, and my Brethren I would inform you that I do not fellowship the letter which was writen to me by Bro John & neither the spirit thereof, I do not plead guilty of the charges made against me in that letter. I have not given occasion of offence to the brethren or sisters in Zion, neither of Jealousy, or evel surmisings. I have ever been filled with the greatest anxiety for them, & have taken the greatest int[e]rest for there welfare. I am a lover of the cause of Christ and of Virtue chastity and an upright steady course of conduct & a holy walk, I dispise a hypocrite or a covenant breaker, I judge them not, God shall Judge them according to there works, I am a lover even of mine enimies for an enimy seeketh to destroy openly, I can pray for those who dispitefully use and persicute me, but for all I can not hope, and now I conjure [adjure] you and exhort mine accusers and the hypocrite in Zion in the love of Christ [p. 3]
yea in the name of Jesus of Naz[a]reth to remember the covenant which they have made with God, and to me & repent of there iniquities and give satisfaction to the innocent whom they have injured I appeal to your conciences, and if appealing to your conciences by all the ties which bind man to man which are st[r]onger than death will not open your eyes & let you see the stand<te> & standing which you are in and bring you to repentance I then appeal to a higher court even the court of heaven the tribunal of the great God & there I & my Brethren (I mean Broth[ers] Sidney [Rigdon] & Newel [Whitney]) will meet them you to be weighed in the ballance and there the innocent shall not suffer and the guilty go unpunished for the Lord God Almighty will do right I bear you record that my self Bro Sidney & Newel as far as any thing that I know have ever maintained the purest desires for your welfare and do still our object in going to Zion was altogether to keep the commandments of God the most high, when Bro Sidney learned the feelings of the Brethren in whom he had placed so much confidence for whom he had endured so much fateague & suffering & whom he loved with so much love his heart was grieved his spirits failed & for a moment he became frantick & the advisary taking the advantage, he spake unadvisedly with his lips after receiving a severe chastisement resigned his commision and became a private member in the church, but has since repented like Peter of old and after a little suffering by the buffiting of the Satan has been restored to his high standing in the church of God, now this is a warning to all to whom this knowledge may come, and he that thinks he stands, let him take heed least he fall, tell Bro Edward [Partridge] it is very dangerous for men who have received the light he has received to be a seeking <after> a3 sign, for there shall no sign be given for a sign except as it was in the days of Lot. God sent angels to gather him & his family out of Sodom while the wicked were distroyed by a devouring fire behold this is an exsample; but I must return to your letter again you complain that there have already [p. 4]
tomany deciples arived there for the means, tell brother Edward to remember Ananias & Sophria, remember also that your own wickedness hedge up your own ways, you suffer your children; your ignorant & unstable Sisters, & weak members who are acquainted with your evil hearts of unbelief to write wicked and discouraging letters to there reletives who have a zeal but <not> according to knowledge and prophe[c]y falsly which excites many to believe that you are putting up the Indians to slay the Gentiles which exposes the lives of the Saints evry where you observe that God has been merciful, very true then never forget to revere his holy name for ever, that circumstances are as well with you as they are, you requested me to preserve all the origeonal copies of the commandments, my reasons for not sending the remainder, & also the Vision I think will give you satisfaction towards me I have much care and tribulation calculated to weigh down and distroy the mind and in times past they have been snatched from under my hand as soon as given I will send them to you as soon as possable, but I will exhort you to be careful not to alter the sense of any of them for he that adds or diminishes to the prop[h]ecies must come under the condemnation writen therein, you mention concerning the translation I would inform you that they will not go from under my hand during my natural life for correction, revisal or printing and the will of [the] Lord be done therefore you need not expect them this fall, Brother Frederick is employed to be a scribe for me of the Lord——we have finished the translation of the New testament great and marvilous glorious things are revealed, we are making rapid strides in the old book and in the strength of God we can do all things according to his will the rage of the enemy is abating in this regeon of the country and while God is rembering [remembering] mercy unto us and making us mighty to the pulling down the strong hold of Satan, having sent down the Angel of God to trouble the waters that a few more sick folk may be healed he is streaching forth his hand in awful [p. 5]
Judgment upon all the face of the earth, we have information which may be relyed upon that the cholera is cutting down its hundreds in the city of New York p[e]r day also is raging in Boston Charleston Rochiste[r] Albany & Buffalo and in all the large citys in the eastern country, we have Just received a letter from sister Elmira Scoba who is now at Detroit to visit her friends she states that the cholera is raging in that city to an alarming degree, hundreds of families are a fleeing to the country and the country people have become alarmed and torn up the bridges and stopped all communication and even shot peoples horses down under them who attempt to cross the river or any express two steam boats loaded with troops for the Indian expedition while going up [the] Detroit river the cholera made its attact upon the soldiers about fifty died the rest disbanded (about six hundred in number) and the last account we have of them they could find no quarters among the inhabitants and were a dying in the sheds and fields and nobody to bury them while between us and you the Indians are a spreading death and devestation wherever they go no force has as yet been brought sufficient to stand before them frequent cases of the cholera occures on steem boats and <other> water crafts on the Lakes the dysentary and the Cholera Morbus are the prevailing deseases as far as our information extends and is so malignant that it baffles the skill of the most eminent Phisicians we have news from our brethren who have gone to the east God is with them pulling down the strong holds of Satan two brethren are here from the east Newhampshire & one from Vermont who are Elders and worthy young men who were brought in by the hands of Bros. Lyman Johnson & Orison Pratt who are like Peter & John building up the cause of God wherever they go and healing the sick they have baptized better then sixty since they left here we also here from many others whose good success in gaining converts to the redeemers [p. 6]
cause is a proof of there faithfulness in the high calling I would exhort Bros Oliver & John to be ware of seducing spirits and stand firm in the liberty wherein they have been set free and never be weary in well doing which is also my exhortation to all those in Zion that love the appearing of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ. I went to Kirtland last week and held a meeting on the Lord[’s] day and found the brethren strong in the faith and enjoying the sweet influence of the holy spirit cheering there hearts and enlarging there understandings and binding there souls to gethe[r] that nothing but death can break asunder we found the brethren in the injoyment of tolerable health except Sister Elliott whom the Doctors <(two of them)> had given over & Bro Sidney[’s] seccond daughte[r] but were restored to health by the preayer of faith, Father Johnsons family & mine are enjoying tolerable health inso much we cannot complain. Sister Sarah Jackson came to live with us yesterday you have the prayers of us all day<i>ly and I think I can say almost hourly and in this day of calamity the saints & sinner[s] hearts are almost failing them for fear and are crying to whom shall we go or whethe[r] shall we flee O my God spare Zion that it may be a place of Reffuge and of safety. I have a partickular request to make of Bro John Whitmer that is as soon as you receive this letter for him to assertain the exact number of Deciples that have arived in Zion & how many have received there inheritence and the stat[e]4 and standing of each branch o[f] the church and of this inteligence communicate to us as soon as it can be done by letter such as is not wisdom to publish in the paper, I exhort Bro John also to remember the commandment to him to keep a history of the church & the gathering and be sure to shew him self approoved whereunto he hath been called
This is a copy of a letter writen to Broth[er] Wm Phelps, July 31– 1832 from Hyram except a few words on the wrapper by way of exhortation complementary &c
Joseph Smith Jr. [p. 7]
[reverse side, outside wrapper]
Copy of a letter writen to Broth[er]
William Phelps Zion
Editor of the Evening & morning Star