Minutes, 26–27 April 1832

JS later remembered Partridge’s extending of the hand as “solemn, impressive, And delightful.” Extending the right hand of fellowship was a practice of some Protestant churches at this time. Congregationalists, for example, performed it “when men were set apart to the pastoral office, to give them a public pledge of christian and ministerial fellowship.” Other denominations, including the Baptists, extended the right hand to those intending to join their church. Such practices were patterned after Galatians 2:9, which states that James, Cephas, and John gave to Paul and Barnabas “the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision.” (JS History, vol. A-1, 210; Emerson, “Right Hand of Fellowship,” 51; see Strickland, Backwoods Preacher, 31.)  

Emerson, Brown. “Right Hand of Fellowship.” In The Design, Rights, and Duties of Local Churches. A Sermon Delivered at the Installation of the Rev. Elias Cornelius as Associate Pastor of the Tabernacle Church in Salem, July 21, 1819, edited by Lyman Beecher, 51–54. Andover, MA: Flagg and Gould, 1819.

Strickland, W. P., ed. The Backwoods Preacher: An Autobiography of Peter Cartwright, for More Than Fifty Years a Preacher in the Backwoods and Western Wilds of America. London: Alexander Heylin, 1860.

Gilbert’s ordination may have been necessary in order for him to participate in the United Firm. All others in the firm were already high priests. Similarly, at a conference of high priests convened in Kirtland, Ohio, on 4 June 1833, JS dictated a revelation that John Johnson Sr. be admitted as a member of the United Firm and “accordingly he was ordained unto the high Priesthood and admited.” (Minute Book 1, 4 June 1833.)  

Strickland, W. P., ed. The Backwoods Preacher: An Autobiography of Peter Cartwright, for More Than Fifty Years a Preacher in the Backwoods and Western Wilds of America. London: Alexander Heylin, 1860.

Revelation, 1 Mar. 1832 [D&C 78].  

A later JS history indicated that at a break in the council, “a difficulty or hardness which had existed between Bishop Partridge and Elder Rigdon was amicably settled, and when we came together in the afternoon all hearts seemed to rejoice.” (JS History, vol. A-1, 210.)  

Revelation, 26 Apr. 1832 [D&C 82].  

Isaac Watts (1674–1748) composed the words of this hymn, which were originally “He dies! the Heavenly Lover dies.” Martin Madan later changed the first line to “He dies! the Friend of sinners dies!” The hymn was popular among several denominations at the time, appearing in its modified form in hymnbooks such as John Wesley’s A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodists. (Davidson, Our Latter-day Hymns, 206.)  

Davidson, Karen Lynn. Our Latter-day Hymns: The Stories and the Messages. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1988.

Both Gilbert and Whitney were already operating stores in Independence, Jackson County, Missouri, and Kirtland, Ohio, respectively. Whitney established N. K. Whitney & Co. with Gilbert in Kirtland in December 1826. The 20 July 1831 revelation establishing Missouri as the “Land of Zion” and Independence as Zion’s “centre place” also instructed Gilbert to “establish a store” in Independence so that the church could receive “money to buy lands for the good of the Saints.” After his arrival in Missouri in January 1832, Gilbert did so, transacting business under the name Gilbert & Whitney. (Staker, Hearken, O Ye People, 217; Revelation, 20 July 1831 [D&C 57:3, 8, 14]; Rollins, Reminiscences, 3–4; Jackson Co., MO, Deed Records, 1827–1909, vol. B, p. 33, 20 Feb. 1832, microfilm 1,017,978, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL; Eakin and Eakin, Jackson County Missouri Court Minutes Book 1, 127, 143–144.)  

Staker, Mark L. Hearken, O Ye People: The Historical Setting of Joseph Smith’s Ohio Revelations. Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2009.

Rollins, James H. Reminiscences, 1896, 1898. Typescript. CHL. MS 2393.

U.S. and Canada Record Collection. FHL.

Eakin, Joanne C., and O. B. Eakin, comp. Jackson County Missouri Court Minutes Book 1, 1827–1833, with Index; and Jackson County Missouri Death Register, 1883–1891. Independence, MO: By the author, 1988.

The revelation of 1 March 1832 instructed that the firm be formed by “an everlasting covinent.”a The 26 April 1832 revelation went a step further, stating that the group should be “bound together by a bond & Covennant,” apparently meaning that all firm members had to sign a legal and binding agreement, which Gilbert and Phelps were to draft.b Although such an agreement is no longer extant, John Whitmer may have started to copy the bond into his history of the church. A few lines before he recounted JS’s spring 1832 visit to Missouri, he wrote (but then crossed out) the words “Kn◊◊ all ◊en by these presents, that we Edward P◊◊t◊idg◊, Newel.”c  

Davidson, Karen Lynn. Our Latter-day Hymns: The Stories and the Messages. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1988.