Revelations published in The Evening and the Morning Star (, MO), vol. 1, nos. 1–10 and 12, and vol. 2, no. 13; edited by . The copy used for this transcription is currently part of a bound volume held at CHL; includes marginalia, archival notations, stamps, and bookplates.
The initial issues of The Evening and the Morning Star present revelations prominently on the first or second page of the newspaper. Beginning with the November 1832 issue, however, revelations were placed near the end of each issue. Each issue comprises four leaves (eight pages) that measure 12½ × 9⅞ inches (32 × 25 cm). Each page is set in two columns.
The volume used for this transcription was donated to the Salt Lake Temple by Lycurgus A. Wilson on 8 September 1894, according to a bookplate on the inside front cover of the volume. It was transferred to the library of the Church Historian’s Office sometime before 1923.
“Library Record for the Listing or Cataloguing of Books.” Historian’s Office, Library Accession Records, ca. 1890–ca. 1930. CHL. CR 100 429.
Historical Introduction
Soon after his into the church in 1831, was instructed by revelation to relocate to , Missouri, “and be established as a printer unto the church.” , who had been previously appointed to work on church publications, was directed to assist him. In early 1832, Phelps and his associates in Independence began work on the church’s first newspaper, The Evening and the Morning Star. Because of the difficulty of getting paper and other supplies to Independence, however, months passed before the first issue of the newspaper was printed in June 1832.
The newspaper’s prospectus announced that it would, in part, “be devoted to the revelations of God as made known to his servants by the , at sundry times since the creation of man, but more especially in these last days.” Though a small number of JS’s revelations appeared first in non-Mormon newspapers elsewhere, the Star was the first official periodical of the church to print them. As the church’s only periodical at the time, the Star also published counsel to church members, local and world news, editorials, hymns, and letters from missionaries. The Star regularly published general announcements to missionaries serving throughout the country and letters from church members in other states, evidencing that its circulation reached well beyond .
The press owned by , which was operated under the direction of the , was the only press in and indeed the only press for roughly one hundred miles. Reading material was scarce on the frontier, and it is likely that the town’s non-Mormon residents read the Star in addition to the Upper Missouri Advertiser, the secular paper published on the same press. In July 1833, when religious and political tensions between the Mormons and their neighbors had already created a tinderbox environment, an article titled “Free People of Color” appeared in The Evening and the Morning Star, quoting from statutes respecting the immigration of free persons of African descent. Many Missourians, largely sympathetic to the practice of slavery, interpreted the article as an attempt to invite free black people to settle in Missouri and were outraged. Four days after the editors of The Evening and the Morning Star printed a broadside extra in an attempt to calm the situation by clarifying the message of the offending article, a and most of the sheets of the still-unfinished Book of Commandments.
The destruction of the caused a six-month hiatus in the publication of the Star. In September 1833, was established in , Ohio, for the purpose of printing church materials, and was sent to to purchase a printing press and type. Upon his return, Cowdery resumed printing the Star in Kirtland from January until September 1834. Beginning in October 1834, the Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate succeeded the Star as the official church periodical.
Over the course of the Star’s fourteen-month run in , the paper printed nineteen full and seven partial revelation texts. Only two issues of the Missouri newspaper did not contain featured revelations: the April 1833 issue and the July 1833 issue, which was the final issue printed in Missouri. As in the Book of Commandments and the first edition of the Doctrine and Covenants (1835), little, if any, introduction or commentary accompanied the featured revelations. In addition to publishing the revelations as stand-alone pieces, The Evening and the Morning Star often published articles that quoted from the revelations—both from those printed as featured documents in the paper and from those that had not been published therein. Well before the Book of Commandments was expected to be completed, the editors of the Star advised readers to “search the revelations which we publish,” an admonition that presumed that the Latter-day Saints had access to earlier issues. In fact, for Mormons in , as well as those scattered around the country, the Star became the most accessible source for JS’s revelatory texts.
The revelations published in The Evening and the Morning Star appear to have been selected for their importance. Many of the published revelations addressed topics relating to church government, such as the roles of specific church officers, the laws and commandments to be kept by church members, and the proper administration of the of the Lord’s Supper. Other published revelations announced newly received theological principles or looked forward to the second coming of Christ. Revelations that were given to specific individuals providing counsel or were not published. After the Star moved to , no revelations were included in the ten issues of the newspaper published there.
The table that follows lists each of the revelatory items printed in the Star and its reprint, along with its bibliographic information. See Revelations Printed in The Evening and the Morning Star for a side-by-side comparison of the revelations printed in the Star and its reprint.
Key to column titles
Vol:Issue:
Volume and issue number
Star Print Date:
Month in which the item was printed in The Evening and the Morning Star
Star Pages:
Pages on which the item was printed in The Evening and the Morning Star
Reprint Print Date:
Month in which the item was printed in Evening and Morning Star
Reprint Pages:
Pages on which the item was printed in Evening and Morning Star
Date:
Date of item, followed by section number in Doctrine and Covenants, 1981 edition, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of the Latter Day Saints: Carefully Selected from the Revelations of God. Compiled by Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon, and Frederick G. Williams. Kirtland, OH: F. G. Williams, 1835. Also available in Robin Scott Jensen, Richard E. Turley Jr., Riley M. Lorimer, eds., Revelations and Translations, Volume 2: Published Revelations. Vol. 2 of the Revelations and Translations series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2011).
William W. Phelps, The Evening and the Morning Star Prospectus, Evening and Morning Star, June 1832 (Jan. 1835), 1–2; Crawley, Descriptive Bibliography, 1:32.
Evening and Morning Star. Edited reprint of The Evening and the Morning Star. Kirtland, OH. Jan. 1835–Oct. 1836.
Crawley, Peter. A Descriptive Bibliography of the Mormon Church. 3 vols. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1997–2012.
See, for example, Articles and Covenants, ca. Apr. 1830, and Revelations, 16 Apr. 1830 and ca. Aug. 1830, in “The Mormon Creed,” Painesville Telegraph, 19 Apr. 1831, [4] [D&C 20, 22, and 27:1–5, 14–15, 18]; Revelation, 7 Dec. 1830, in “Miscellaneous,” Painesville Telegraph, 17 Jan. 1832, [1] [D&C 35]; Revelation, 9 Feb. 1831, in “Secret Bye Laws of the Mormonites,” Painesville Telegraph, 13 Sept. 1831, [1] [D&C 42:1–69]; and Revelation, Sept. 1830–B, in Ezra Booth, “Mormonism—Nos. VIII–IX,” Ohio Star, 8 Dec. 1831, [1] [D&C 28].
See, for example, Notice, The Evening and the Morning Star, Aug. 1832, [7]; “Letters,” The Evening and the Morning Star, Nov. 1832, [4]; “Extract” and “Letters,” The Evening and the Morning Star, Jan. 1833, [7]; and “Extracts of Letters from the Elders Abroad,” The Evening and the Morning Star, Feb. 1833, [5]–[6]. JS, in a November 1832 letter to Phelps, added ten new subscribers to the Star, nine from Guyandotte, Virginia (now West Virginia), and one from Wooster Township, Ohio. (JS, Kirtland, OH, to William W. Phelps, [Independence, MO], 27 Nov. 1832, in JS Letterbook 1, pp. 1–4.)
The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.
JS Letterbook 1 / Smith, Joseph. “Letter Book A,” 1832–1835. Joseph Smith Collection. CHL. MS 155, box 2, fd. 1.
The only known surviving copy of the Upper Missouri Advertiser—no. 3, dated 11 July 1832—is located at the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, MA.
“Free People of Color,” The Evening and the Morning Star, July 1833, 109; “To His Excellency, Daniel Dunklin,” The Evening and the Morning Star, Dec. 1833, 114–115.
The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.
See, for example, Articles and Covenants, ca. Apr. 1830, in “The Articles and Covenants of the Church of Christ,” The Evening and the Morning Star, June 1832, [1], and June 1833, 97–98 [D&C 20]; Revelation, 1 Nov. 1831–A, in “A Revelation, Given November 1831,” The Evening and the Morning Star,Oct. 1832, [3] [D&C 68]; and Revelation, 4 Dec. 1831, in “A Revelation Given December 4, 1831,” The Evening and the Morning Star,Dec. 1832, [5]–[6] [D&C 72].
The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.
See, for example, Revelation, 9 and 23 Feb. 1831, in “Extract from the Laws for the Government of the Church of Christ” and “Items of Law for the Government of the Church of Christ,” The Evening and the Morning Star,July 1832, [1], and Oct. 1832, [2] [D&C 42:11–93].
The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.
See, for example, excerpt of Revelation, ca. 7 Mar. 1831, in “A Prophecy Given to the Church of Christ, March 7, 1831,” The Evening and the Morning Star,June 1832, [2] [D&C 45:1–67, 71].
The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.
Revelations addressed to individuals were officially restricted “to the parties concerned” until they could be published in the Book of Commandments. (Minute Book 2, 30 Apr. 1832.)
Minute Book 2 / “The Conference Minutes and Record Book of Christ’s Church of Latter Day Saints,” 1838, 1842, 1844. CHL. Also available at josephsmithpapers.org.
THE rise of the Church of Christ in these last days, being one thousand eight hundred and thirty years since the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, in the flesh; it being regularly organized and established agreeable to the laws of our country, by the will and of God in the fourth month and on the sixth day of the month, which is called April: Which commandments were given to Joseph, who was called of God and an of Jesus Christ, an of this Church; and also to , who was called of God an Apostle of Jesus Christ, an Elder of this Church, and ordained under his hand; and this according to the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to whom be all glory both now and forever. Amen.
For, after that it truly was manifested unto this first Elder, that he had received a remission of his sins, he was entangled again in the vanities of the world, but after truly repenting God ministered unto him by an holy , whose countenance was as lightning, and whose garments were pure and white above all whiteness, and gave unto him commandments which inspired him from on high, and gave unto him power, by the means which were prepared, that he should a Book, which Book contained a record of a fallen people, and also the fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the ; and also to the Jews, proving unto them, that the holy are true; and also, that God doth inspire men and call them to his holy work, in these last days as well as in days of old, that he might be the same God forever. Amen.
Which Book was given by inspiration, and is called The Book of Mormon, and is confirmed to others by the ministering of angels, and declared unto the world by them: Wherefore, having so great witnesses, by them shall the world be judged, even as many as shall hereafter receive this work, either to faith and righteousness, or to the hardness of heart in unbelief, to their own condemnation, for the Lord God hath spoken it, for we, the Elders of the Church, have heard and bear witness to the words of the glorious Magesty on high; to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Wherefore, by these things we know, that there is a God in Heaven, who is infinite and eternal, from everlasting to everlasting, the same unchangeable God, the maker of Heaven and earth and all things that in them is, and that he created man male and female, and after his own image, and in his own likeness created he them; and that he gave unto the children of men commandments, that they should love and serve him the only being whom they should worship, but by the transgression of these holy laws, man became sensual and devilish, and became fallen man: Wherefore the Almighty God gave his only begotten Son, as it is written in those Scriptures, which have been given of him, that he suffered temptations, but gave no heed unto them; that he was crucified, died, and rose again the third day, and that he ascended into Heaven to sit down on the right hand of the Father, to reign with Almighty power, according to the will of the Father. Therefore, as many as would believe and were in his holy name, and endured in faith to the end, should be saved; yea, even as many as were before he came in the flesh, from the beginning, who believed in the words of the holy Prophets, who were inspired by the , which truly testifies of him in all things, as well as those who should come after, who should believe in the gifts and callings of God, by the Holy Ghost, which beareth record of the Father and of the Son, which Father and Son and Holy Ghost, is one God, infinite and eternal, without end. Amen.
And we know, that all men must repent and believe on the name of Jesus Christ, and worship the Father in his name, and endure in faith on his name to the end, or they cannot be saved in the Kingdom of God: And we know, that Justification through the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, is just and true; and we know, also, that Sanctification through the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, is just and true, to all those who love and serve God with all their mights, minds, and strength, but there is a possibility that men may fall from grace and depart from the living God. Therefore let the Church take heed and pray always, lest they fall into temptation; yea, and even he that is sanctified also: and we know, that these things are true and agreeable to the Revelation of John, neither adding to, nor diminishing from the prophecy of his Book; neither to the holy Scriptures; neither to the Revelations of God which shal[l] come hereafter, by the gift and power of the Holy Ghost; neither by the voice of God; neither by the ministering of angels, and the Lord God hath spoken it; and honor, power, and glory be rendered to his holy name both now and ever. Amen.
And again, by way of commandment to the Church, concerning the manner of baptism: Behold whosoever humbleth himself before God and desireth to be baptized, and comes forth with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, and witnesseth unto the Church, that they have truly repented of all their sins and are willing to take upon them the name of Christ, having a determination to serve him unto the end, and truly manifest by their works that they have received the spirit of Christ unto the remission of their sins, then shall they be received unto baptism into the Church of Christ.
The duty of the Elders, , , and members of the Church of Christ. An Apostle is an Elder, and it is his calling to baptize and to ordain other Elders, Priests, Teachers and Deacons, and to of Christ according to the Scriptures, and to teach, expound, exhort, baptize, and watch over the Church, and to the Church by the laying on of the hands, and the giving of the Holy Ghost, and to take the lead of all meetings. The Elders are to conduct the meetings as they are led by the Holy Ghost. The Priests’ duty is to preach, teach, expound, exhort and baptize, and administer the Sacrament, and visit the house of each member, and exhort them to pray vocally and in secret, and also to attend to all family duties; and ordain other Priests, Teachers and Deacons, and take the lead in meetings; but none of these offices is he to do when there is an Elder present, but in all cases is to assist the Elder The Teachers’ duty is to watch over the Church always, and be with them, and strengthen them, and see that there is no iniquity in the Church, neither hardness with each other, neither lying nor back-biting nor evil speaking; and see that the Church meet together often, and also see that all the members do their duty; and he is to take the lead of meetings in the abscence of the Elder or Priest, and is to be assisted always, and in all his duties in the Church by the Deacons; but neither the Teacher nor Deacons, have authority to baptize nor administer the Sacrament, but are to warn, expound, exhort and teach, and invite all to come unto Christ.
Every Elder, Priest Teacher, or Deacon, is to be ordained according to the gifts and callings of God unto him, by the power of the Holy Ghost which is in the one who ordains him.
The several Elders composing this Church of Christ, are to meet in once in three months, to do Church business whatsoever is necessary. And each Priest or Teacher, who is ordained by a Priest, is to take a cirtificate from him at the time, which when presented to an Elder, he is to give him a , which shall authorize him to perform the duty of his calling.
The duty of the members after they are received by baptism. The Elders or Priests are to have a sufficient time to expound all things concerning this Church of Christ to their understanding, previous to their partaking of the Sacrament, and being confirmed by the laying on of the hands of the Elders; so that all things may be done in order. And the members shall manifest before the Church, and also before the Elders, by a godly walk and conversation, that they are worthy of it, that there may be works and faith agreeable to the holy Scriptures, walking in holiness before the Lord. Every member of this Church of Christ having children, is to bring them unto the Elders before the Church, who are to lay their hands on them in the name of the Lord, and bless them in the name of Christ. There cannot any one be received into this Church of Christ, who has not arrived to the years of accountability before God, and is not capable of repentance.
And baptism is to be administered in the following manner unto all those who repent: Whosoever being called of God and having authority given them of Jesus Christ, shall go down into the water with them, and shall say, calling them by name: Having authority given me of Jesus Christ, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. Then shall he immerse them in the water, and come forth again out of the water. And it is expedient that the Church meet together oft to partake of Bread and Wine, in remembrance of the Lord Jesus; and the Elder or Priest shall administer it, and after this manner shall he do, he shall kneel with the Church, and call upon the Father in mighty prayer saying: O God the Eternal Father, we ask thee in the name of thy Son Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this bread to the souls of all those who partake of it, that they may eat in remembrance of the body of thy Son, and witness unto thee, O God the Eternal Father, that they are willing to take upon them the name of thy Son, and always remember him, and keep his commandments which he hath given them, that they may always have his spirit to be with them. Amen. The manner of administering the Wine: Behold they shall take the Cup and say, O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee in the name of thy Son Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this Wine to the souls of all those who drink of it, that they may do it in remembrance of the blood of thy Son, which was shed for them, that they may witness unto thee, O God the Eternal Father, that they do always remember him, that they may have his spirit to be with them. Amen.
Any member of this Church of Christ, transgressing or being overtaken in a fault, shall be dealt with according as the Scriptures direct. It shall be the duty of the several churches, composing this Church of Christ, to send one or more of their Teachers to attend the several Conferences, held by the Elders of this Church, with a list of the names of the several members, uniting themselves to the Church since the last Conference, or send by the hand of some Priest, so that there can be kept a regular list of all the names of the members of the whole Church, in a Book kept by one of the Elders; whomsoever the other Elders shall appoint from time to time: and also, if any have been expelled from the Church, so that their names may be blotted out of the general Church Record of names. Any member removing from the Church where he resides, if going to a Church where he is not known, may take a letter certifying that he is a regular member and in good standing; which certificate may be signed by any Elder or Priest, if the member receiving the letter is personly acquainted with the Elder or Priest, or it may be signed by the Teachers or Deacons of the Church.
Articles and Covenants, ca. Apr. 1830, in “The Articles and Covenants of the Church of Christ,” The Evening and the Morning Star, June 1832, [1]–[2] [D&C 20]. This version reflects editing marks made in Revelation Book 1, indicating that the latter was used as a source text for the former.
The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.
TEXT: An extra space after this word and before the capitalized “T” of the following word suggests that the publishers planned for punctuation here, but no type impression is visible.
Revelation, 16 Apr. 1830 [D&C 22], begins here. This version reflects editing marks made in Revelation Book 1, indicating that the latter was used as a source text for the former. It is unclear why editors joined this revelation with the previous item. These two items and a third—Revelation, circa August 1830 [D&C 27]—were also consolidated in a non-Mormon publication, the Painesville Telegraph. A copy of the revelation in the handwriting of Sidney Gilbert also pairs the articles and covenants with the revelation of 16 April 1830, though Gilbert’s is not a direct copy of the text from either newspaper. (“The Mormon Creed,” Painesville Telegraph, 19 Apr. 1831, [4]; Gilbert, Notebook, [11]–[12].)