JS, Blessing, to , [, Geauga Co., OH], 22 Sept. 1835. Featured version copied 3 Oct. 1835 in Patriarchal Blessing Book 1, pp. 14–15; handwriting of ; CHL. For more complete source information on Patriarchal Blessing Book 1, see the source note for Blessing from Joseph Smith Sr., 9 Dec. 1834.
Historical Introduction
On 22 September 1835, JS dictated a blessing for in , Ohio. In June 1834, a council of had instructed Phelps to go to Kirtland to receive an “ with power.” The following month, the Missouri high council further directed Phelps to “assist in the printing business” in Kirtland. Phelps left for Kirtland on 28 April 1835. He was assisting in the editing of the Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate and finalizing the 1835 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants for publication at the time he received this blessing. JS’s blessing refers to Phelps’s abilities with the written word and promises him spiritual and temporal blessings.
recorded the initial dictation of this blessing on 22 September 1835 and copied it into Patriarchal Blessing Book 1 on 3 October 1835.
Whitmer, History, 70; “Doctrine and Covenants,” LDS Messenger and Advocate, Aug. 1835, 1:170. Phelps had previously been in charge of the Independence, Missouri, printing office until its destruction in July 1833. He remained in Kirtland until after the dedication of the House of the Lord in March 1836. (William W. Phelps, Kirtland, OH, to Sally Waterman Phelps, Liberty, MO, Apr. 1836, William W. Phelps, Papers, BYU.)
Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate. Kirtland, OH. Oct. 1834–Sept. 1837.
Blessed of the Lord is , for he shall have the desires of his heart in the gift that pertaineth to writing the law of God, and in being an instrument in assisting to lift up an ensign to the nations. And according to the greatness of the desires of his soul, for blessings upon his friends, so shall the blessings of the Lord come upon him to the uttermost. The Lord will chasten him because he taketh honor to himself, and when his soul is greatly humbled he will forsake the evil; then shall the light of the Lord break upon him as at noon-day, and in him shall be no darkness so great is the glory that shall come upon him. And blessed is his name among all nations. He shall have part in that that coucheth beneath: and it shall be revealed unto him things by the hand of the Lord’s annointed that have been kept secret from the foundation of the world, concerning the last days. And he shall be a blessing unto his posterity from generation to generation, and shall be satisfied in beholding his enemies cut off out of the earth. He shall be filled with a fulness of the good things of the earth: with houses and with lands, [p. 14]