by calling upon to sing a new song which he had just composed.
not being quite ready.
The arose and stated to brother the object the council had in view in writing to the governors. It is necessary that they should have an opportunity of filling up the cup of their iniquity so that they may be swept off the earth. As to the troubles of going to California and sustaining ourselves there he should not be afraid to risk 500 men to go and take the country. When we go there we shall go ten thousand strong, and run no risk of being cut off by the way, and when the City of Zion is once established there will no man be permitted to go out from among us and tell tales. Before we get there the Lamanites will be our friends. The gentiles have sealed their own [p. [146]]
See Revelation, 16–17 Dec. 1833 [D&C 101:11]; and Revelation, 24 Feb. 1834 [D&C 103:3]. On 4 March 1845 Orson Spencer similarly opined that the governors who received the council’s letter would “enhance the bitterness of their own cup if they dont listen to us.” (Council of Fifty, “Record,” 4 Mar. 1845.)
“City of Zion” originally referred to the New Jerusalem that the Latter-day Saints intended to build in Independence, Missouri. When JS sent a square-mile plat for the city of Zion to the Latter-day Saints at Independence, he explained, “Where this square is thus laid off and supplied lay off another in the same way and so fill up the world in these last days.” This opened the door for other cities of Zion. (Revelation, 20 July 1831 [D&C 57:2]; Plat of the City of Zion, ca. Early June–25 June 1833.)