JS, , , , , , , , and , Prayer, [, Geauga Co., OH], 23 Oct. 1835. Featured version copied [between 27 and 28 Nov. 1835] in JS, Journal, 1835–1836, pp. 50–51; handwriting of ; JS Collection, CHL. For more complete source information, see the source note for JS, Journal, 1835–1836.
Historical Introduction
On 23 October 1835, the general church presidency and the presidency gathered in , Ohio, and offered this prayer for deliverance from the difficulties associated with financial debt, as well as for the redemption of , protection from mobs, and the means to purchase land in Missouri on which church members could settle. Also in attendance was JS’s brother , likely substituting for , an assistant church president, who was recovering from illness.
Church leaders were saddled with debts they had incurred on behalf of the church since at least early 1833. At the date of this prayer, still owed money for the purchase of land, including the (the land purchased in Kirtland for the ), and for goods purchased on credit to stock his . Efforts to raise funds to pay these debts, to publish the Doctrine and Covenants, and to construct the temple did not relieve the financial difficulties. In a June 1835 letter to his wife, , commented that church leaders in Kirtland “are considerably in debt, and are poor.”
Aside from finances, another concern weighed on church leaders at this time: the fate of Zion in , Missouri. In fall 1835, JS and other church leaders renewed discussions regarding the gathering to and redemption of Zion, likely in preparation for restoring the Saints to their lands in 1836. Accordingly, concern for the fate of the church in takes a prominent place in the 23 October prayer.
The prayer was copied onto pages 50–51 of JS’s 1835–1836 journal. The page has the residue of two red wafers that apparently held a loose sheet with the original draft of the prayer. Warren Parrish presumably attached the sheet to the page as he recorded the prayer into the journal on 27 November 1835.
ointed time and that without the shedding of blood; that he will hold our lives precious, and grant that we may live to the common age of man, and never fall into the hands nor power of the mob in nor in any other place; that he will also preserve our posterity, that none of them fall even to the end of time; that he will give us the blessings of the earth sufficient to carry us to Zion, and that we may purchase in that land, even enough to carry on <and accomplish> the work unto which he has appointed us; and also that he will assist all others who desire, accordingly to his , to go up and purchase inheritances; and all this easily and without perplexity, and trouble; and finally, that in the end he will save us in his . Amen.