Skip to main content

Discourse, 21 May 1843, as Reported by Willard Richards

  1. Home > 
  2. The Papers > 

Discourse, 21 May 1843, as Reported by Willard Richards

Source Note

JS, Discourse, [, Hancock Co., IL, 21 May 1843]. Featured version copied [ca. 21 May 1843] in JS, Journal, 1842–1844, bk. 2, pp. [211]–[217]; handwriting of ; JS Collection, CHL. For more complete source information, see the source note for JS, Journal, 1842–1844.

Historical Introduction

On 21 May 1843, JS delivered a discourse in , Illinois, on the doctrines of salvation in 2 Peter 1. This chapter was a key text in Christian theological debates surrounding the doctrine of assurance of salvation. JS had commented publicly on this chapter in discourses as early as 1839 and as recently as the previous week—on 14 and 17 May 1843—while visiting Latter-day Saints outside of Nauvoo. On 21 May, in a Sunday morning meeting held in the unfinished Nauvoo , JS spoke for about two hours before a large crowd, recapitulating and expanding on the themes he addressed in the earlier discourses and providing “three grand secrets” or “keys” for interpreting the chapter. The first was to obtain knowledge of God through revelation. The second was to seek to “make your calling & election sure,” a reference to 2 Peter 1:10. The third and final key was to obtain “a more sure word of prophecy,” referring to a phrase in 2 Peter 1:19, which he interpreted as hearing an audible voice declaring that an individual would receive eternal life.
JS's scribe made uneven notes of the discourse, suggesting that Richards was attempting to capture JS’s words as he heard them. He may have used loose paper to take the notes, which he later copied—perhaps with refinements—into JS’s journal. member later recorded in a notebook a polished account of the discourse, which was presumably based on nonextant notes taken by Coray or by Martha Jane Knowlton Coray, Howard’s wife, who made contemporaneous notes of other JS discourses in the 1840s. Coray described the discourse as a sermon “On Election.” Latter-day Saints and also made polished accounts of the discourse, which suggests that they were reconstructed from notes taken during the discourse or from memory or both. All four accounts are featured here.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    See Historical Introduction to Discourse, 14 May 1843.

  2. [2]

    See Discourse, between ca. 26 June and ca. 2 July 1839; Discourse, 14 May 1843; and Discourse, 17 May 1843–A.

  3. [3]

    See Levi Richards, Journal, 21 May 1843.

    Richards, Levi. Journals, 1840–1853. Levi Richards, Papers, 1837–1867. CHL. MS 1284, box 1.

  4. [4]

    See Historical Introduction to Discourse, 4 July 1843.

  5. [5]

    Coray and Coray, Notebook, verso, [36]. Martha Jane Knowlton Coray recounted that “from the age of thirteen years,” she had been “much in the habit of noting down evrything, I heard and read which possessed any peculiar interest to me, in order to preserve facts.” According to one account, Coray “took in common hand every di[s]course that she heard him [JS] preach, and has carefully preserved them.” Coray’s daughter noted that “it was ever her [Coray’s] custom when going to meeting to take pencil and note paper; she thus preserved notes of sermons that would otherwise have been lost to the Church.” (Martha Jane Knowlton Coray, Provo, Utah Territory, to Brigham Young, 13 June 1865, Brigham Young Office Files, CHL; Obituary for Martha Jane Knowlton Coray, Woman’s Exponent, 1 Feb. 1882, 10:133; Lewis, “Martha Jane Knowlton Coray,” 440.)

    Coray, Martha Jane Knowlton, and Howard Coray. Notebook, ca. 1853–1855. CHL.

    Brigham Young Office Files, 1832–1878. CHL. CR 1234 1.

    Woman’s Exponent. Salt Lake City. 1872–1914.

    Lewis, Martha J. C. “Martha Jane Knowlton Coray.” Improvement Era 5, no. 6 (Apr. 1902): 439–440.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation. *Discourse, 21 May 1843, as Reported by Willard Richards Journal, December 1842–June 1844; Book 2, 10 March 1843–14 July 1843 *Discourse, 21 May 1843, as Reported by Franklin D. Richards *Discourse, 21 May 1843, as Reported by James Burgess Discourse, 21 May 1843, as Reported by Levi Richards History Draft [1 March–31 December 1843] *Discourse, 21 May 1843, as Reported by Howard Coray History, 1838–1856, volume D-1 [1 August 1842–1 July 1843] “History of Joseph Smith”
I love that man better who swears a stream as long as my arm. and administ[er]ing to the poor & dividi[n]g his substance. than the long smoothed faced hypo[c]rites
I dont want you to think I am very righteous. for I am not very righteous.—
God judgeth men according to the light he gives them.
we have a more sure word of prophecy. whereunto you do well to take heed— as unto a light that shineth in a dark place
we were eyewitnesses of his maje[s]ty and heard the voice of his excellent glory— &. what could be more [p. [212]]
View entire transcript

|

Cite this page

Source Note

Document Transcript

Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Discourse, 21 May 1843, as Reported by Willard Richards
ID #
1074
Total Pages
7
Print Volume Location
JSP, D12:320–323
Handwriting on This Page
  • Willard Richards

Footnotes

  1. [2]

    JS made similar self-effacing comments on previous occasions. On 29 October 1842, for example, JS stated that “he was but a man” and that the Saints “must not expect him to be perfect; if they expected perfection from him, he should expect it from them.” (Discourse, 29 Oct. 1842; see also JS, Journal, 8 Feb. 1843.)

  2. [3]

    See 2 Peter 1:19.

  3. [4]

    See 2 Peter 1:16–17.

Go to page