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Blessing to John Whitmer, 22 September 1835

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Blessing to John Whitmer, 22 September 1835

Source Note

JS, Blessing, to , [, Geauga Co., OH], 22 Sept. 1835. Featured version copied 2 Oct. 1835 in Patriarchal Blessing Book 1, p. 14; 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 blessings for and other church leaders who were then in Ohio. Whitmer, one of the presidents of the Missouri , had been appointed on 23 June 1834 “to receive his endowment in Kirtland with power from on high” and had traveled there in spring 1835. He then worked in the church’s as editor of the church newspaper Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate. The blessing featured here promised Whitmer prosperity in both temporal and spiritual matters.
served as scribe during the blessing’s dictation on 22 September and recorded the text into Patriarchal Blessing Book 1 on 2 October 1835. himself may have possessed a copy of the blessing titled “J. Whitmer—Prophetical Blessing.”

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    For more information on the context of these blessings and their recording in Patriarchal Blessing Book 1, see Blessing to David Whitmer, 22 Sept. 1835.

  2. [2]

    Minutes, 3 July 1834; Minutes, 23 June 1834; Whitmer, History, 70–71.

  3. [3]

    Editorial, LDS Messenger and Advocate, Sept. 1835, 1:192.

    Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate. Kirtland, OH. Oct. 1834–Sept. 1837.

  4. [4]

    M. Wilford Poulson apparently obtained a small collection of original John Whitmer documents in the 1930s. An inventory he made of the collection noted a “Prophetical blessing to John Whitmer Sep. 22, 1835.” Someone—likely Poulson himself—made a typescript of the blessing that has only minor differences from the blessing in the patriarchal blessing book. Unfortunately, whatever document the typescript was made from is no longer extant. (M. Wilford Poulson, “Books Purchased,” 1938–1951, 5; “J. Whitmer—Prophetical Blessing,” 22 Sept. 1835, typescript, M. Wilford Poulson, Papers, BYU.)

    Poulson, M. Wilford. Papers, 1826–1964. BYU.

Page 14

Blessed of the Lord is brother : he shall live to a good old age, and his generations after him shall be blessed. He shall live to a good old age, and wax more and more steadfast in the work of the Lord, and he shall make a choice record of Israel unto the memory of his name. He shall truly be chastened wherein he steps aside, yet he shall escape the hand of the Destroyer, and shall never fall by the hands of his enemies: and he shall be avenged of the wrongs he has sustained by them. He shall be blessed, and a means of bringing many blessings upon his ’s family. He shall be blessed with abundance of the good things of the this earth, with houses and lands, in the fruit of the field, with horses and with asses and with she asses, with gold and with silver, and with precious stones, even the things of the lasting mountains. He shall be made mighty in the hands of his God in bringing to pass the redemption of . The Lord shall be on his right hand and on his left; shall go before his face and shall be his rear ward, and shall turn aside all the shafts of the <​his​> enemies. And he shall go down to his <​in​> honor and with gray hairs, to the grave, and shall be caught up in the cloud to meet the Lord, and shall ever be with him; even so. Amen.
, Clerk and Recorder.
Given September 22, 1835, and recorded October 2, 1835. [p. 14]
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Source Note

Document Transcript

Page 14

Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Blessing to John Whitmer, 22 September 1835
ID #
1516
Total Pages
1
Print Volume Location
JSP, D4:430–433
Handwriting on This Page
  • Oliver Cowdery

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Whitmer was appointed to write a history of the church in 1831. (Revelation, ca. 8 Mar. 1831–B [D&C 47:1–3]; Revelation, 11 Nov. 1831–A [D&C 69:1–3]; Minute Book 2, 9 Apr. 1831; Minutes, 23 June 1834; see also Whitmer, History.)

  2. [2]

    Peter Whitmer Sr.

  3. [3]

    See Revelation, 7 Aug. 1831 [D&C 59:3].

  4. [4]

    See Deuteronomy 33:15.

  5. [5]

    See Revelation, 22–23 Sept. 1832 [D&C 84:88]; Isaiah 52:12; 58:8; Book of Mormon, 1830 ed., 498–499, 501 [3 Nephi 20:42; 21:29]; and Revelation, 7 May 1831 [D&C 49:27].

  6. [6]

    See 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17; and Revelation, 27–28 Dec. 1832 [D&C 88:96–98].