Times and Seasons (, Hancock Co., IL), 15 Mar. 1842, vol. 3, no. 10, pp. 719–734; edited by JS. For more complete source information, see the source note for Letter to Isaac Galland, 22 Mar. 1839.
Historical Introduction
The 15 March 1842 issue of the ’s , Illinois, newspaper, Times and Seasons, was the third issue that identified JS as editor. This issue contained four editorial passages, each of which is featured here with accompanying introductions. Several other JS texts printed in this issue, including an excerpt from the Book of Abraham and several pieces of correspondence, are featured as stand-alone documents elsewhere in this volume.
Note that only the editorial content created specifically for this issue of the Times and Seasons is annotated here. Articles reprinted from other papers, letters, conference minutes, and notices, are reproduced here but not annotated. Items that are stand-alone JS documents are annotated elsewhere; links are provided to these stand-alone documents.
While JS likely authored many of the paper’s editorial passages, John Taylor reportedly assisted him in writing content. No matter who wrote individual editorial pieces, JS assumed editorial responsibility for all installments naming him as editor except the 15 February issue. (Woodruff, Journal, 19 Feb. 1842; Historical Introduction to Times and Seasons, 1 Mar. 1842.)
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
store the label, unbind the bird, and let her tower unfettered in the air—then will the nation have repose, and the present minions of power hide their faces in the dust. Many of ’s noble sons detest her acts of cruelty and crime, and gladly would they wipe them from the escutcheon of her fame, and will; yes, they will lend a helping hand—and all must help, for the time is at hand,—and if man, rebellious, cowardly, faltering man, will not do the work, the thunderings of Sinai will wind up the scene—the blood of the murdered Mormons cries aloud for help, and the restoration of the inheritances of the saints; and God has heard the cry—and if the moral battle must be fought, and the victory won, he who answers by fire will cause sword and flame to do their office, and again make the Constitution and the Laws paramount to every other consideration—and I swear by the Lord God of Israel, that the sword shall not depart from my thigh, nor the buckler from my arm, until the trust is consummated, and the hydra-headed, fiery dragon slain. This done, the proud southron will no longer boast of ill-gotten gain, or wash his hands in the blood of the innocent, or immure the freemen of the within ’s sullied, poisoned, deathly prison walls. Let us always take refuge under the broad folds of the Constitution and the Laws, and fear no danger, for the day of vengence will assuredly come when the Omnipotent hand of the Great God will effect the restitution of the trophies of the brigand victories of , and again place the saints on high.
Yours, Respectfully,
.
General Joseph Smith.
————
Editorial Note
The first editorial passage in this issue introduced one in a series of articles published in the Times and Seasons concerning the Jewish people. Though this particular article was reportedly reprinted from a publication called the Jewish Intelligencer, it originally appeared in Samson Raphael Hirsch’s 1837 book [Horeb]: Versuche über Jissroels Pflichten in der Zerstreuung (Horeb: Essays on Israel’s duties in the Diaspora). Hirsch, rabbi of a Jewish community in Oldenburg, Germany, was the leader of Modern Orthodox Judaism, an ideological response to the spread of Reform Judaism in Europe during the early nineteenth century. In the material excerpted from Horeb, Hirsch explicated concepts of righteousness, almsgiving, and charity.
THE JEWS.
The following will show what the feelings of the Jews are, in regard to moral rectitude, and that although persecuted, afflicted, robbed and spoiled, they still adhere with great tenacity to their ancient moral code, and maintain principles of benevolence and charity which many of our professedly enlightened christians would do well to imitate.—Ed.
Rabbi Hersch’s Essays on Israel’s duties in Dispersion. The Head Rabbi of the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg.
“Commandments. The commandment of God is duty for Israel, the will of God the only ground of obligation for all our duties; can there be any other ground for obligation for any duty, which any one is bound to perform? Is it possible to imagine that any thing should be a duty, without thinking it to be at the same time the will of God? Duty signifies rule of action; but every thing necessary for action; we ourselves, with all our faculties and powers, and the world that surrounds us belong to God:—who has then to dispose of us but God? If this be true for all men, how much more for Israel, who have a double bond of union with the Creator; who not only made them as men, but has also fixed the bounds of their habitation among men. The command of God is therefore duty, and the will of God the obligation to duty. . . . . If, therefore, each command of God was an enigma; and if a thousand unanswered and unanswerable questions obtruded themselves on us, concerning each, still the obligation to obedience would be in no degree lessened. If any one ask why should I do this, why avoid that? we have only one answer to give—because it is the will of God; and we are to serve God with every capability, every faculty, every breath. . . . . We should be bound to obey, not on this account, or the other, but because God requires it, if we do it not for this reason, how can we be the servants of God? how can we be said to obey God? The Jew who faithfully observes and keeps the law of God, as he gave them to the congregation of Jacob, is, in the full and unlimited sense of the word, a Jew—as he does this in order to fulfil the will of God—he is a servant of God, although he may never have understood the connexion, or import of even one of all the divine commands, and has obtained great, yea, the greatest happiness on earth: for the pure in heart know no higher bliss than the fulfilling the divine will.
He makes the following remarks on alms giving, founded on Deut. vii: 2.—Thou shalt open thine hand wide to thy brother, to thy poor. With these words God calls thee to thy most lovely, thy most holy employment; to that in which thou art most like himself: he calls thee to be a blessing, with all that he has given thee, to be a blessing to all about thee. Look around in the great household of thy Father, every thing is appointed to thy blessing. Every thing helps, and is helped; every thing takes and gives, and receives [p. 725]
Articles related to the Jewish people were culled from a variety of sources and previously appeared in the March, May–July, and October 1841 and 15 February 1842 issues of the Times and Seasons. The series continued in subsequent issues.
The article has not been located, but it was likely published in an issue of Jewish Intelligence (often referred to as the Jewish Intelligencer), the official newsletter of the London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews. (Gidney, History of the London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews, 33–34, 144–145; “Persecution of the Jews in the East,” Standard [London], 4 Aug. 1840, [1].)
Gidney, W. T. The History of the London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews, from 1809 to 1908. London: London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews, 1908.
Hirsch, Horeb, clv, 427–428, 430; Ayerst, Jews of the Nineteenth Century, 143, 145, 147–148.
Hirsch, Samson Raphael. Horeb: A Philosophy of Jewish Laws and Observances. Vol. 1, translated and annotated by Isidor Grunfeld. 3rd ed. London: Soncino, 1972.
Ayerst, W. The Jews of the Nineteenth Century: A Collection of Essays, Reviews, and Historical Notices Originally Published in the “Jewish Intelligence.” London: B. Wertheim, 1848.
Efron et al., Jews: A History, 288–289; Isidor Grunfeld, “Introduction: The Historical and Intellectual Background of the Horeb,” in Hirsch, Horeb, xxv–xxxii.
Efron, John, Steven Weitzman, Matthias Lehmann, and Joshua Holo. The Jews: A History. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; Prentice Hall, 2009.
Hirsch, Samson Raphael. Horeb: A Philosophy of Jewish Laws and Observances. Vol. 1, translated and annotated by Isidor Grunfeld. 3rd ed. London: Soncino, 1972.