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Times and Seasons, 15 September 1842

Source Note

Times and Seasons (
Nauvoo

Principal gathering place for Saints following expulsion from Missouri. Beginning in 1839, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased lands in earlier settlement of Commerce and planned settlement of Commerce City, as well as surrounding areas....

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, Hancock Co., IL), 15 Sept. 1842, vol. 3, no. 22, pp. 911–926; edited by JS. For more complete source information, see the source note for Letter to Isaac Galland, 22 Mar. 1839.

Historical Introduction

JS served as editor for the 15 September 1842 issue, the twenty-second issue in the third volume, of the Times and Seasons, a
church

The Book of Mormon related that when Christ set up his church in the Americas, “they which were baptized in the name of Jesus, were called the church of Christ.” The first name used to denote the church JS organized on 6 April 1830 was “the Church of Christ...

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newspaper published in
Nauvoo

Principal gathering place for Saints following expulsion from Missouri. Beginning in 1839, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased lands in earlier settlement of Commerce and planned settlement of Commerce City, as well as surrounding areas....

More Info
, Illinois. He was assisted in his editorial responsibilities by
Wilford Woodruff

1 Mar. 1807–2 Sept. 1898. Farmer, miller. Born at Farmington, Hartford Co., Connecticut. Son of Aphek Woodruff and Beulah Thompson. Moved to Richland, Oswego Co., New York, 1832. Baptized into Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Zera Pulsipher,...

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and
John Taylor

1 Nov. 1808–25 July 1887. Preacher, editor, publisher, politician. Born at Milnthorpe, Westmoreland, England. Son of James Taylor and Agnes Taylor, members of Church of England. Around age sixteen, joined Methodist church and was local preacher. Migrated ...

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. Together, these three men produced the semimonthly newspaper, including composing its editorial material. While the extent to which JS was involved in the creation and publication of this issue is unclear, as the newspaper’s editor he was responsible for its content.
1

See Historical Introduction to Times and Seasons, 1 Sept. 1842.


The 15 September 1842 issue contained both non-editorial and editorial material. Non-editorial content in the issue included an installment of the “History of Joseph Smith,” a description of Mount Sinai from an English clergyman, an extract of a letter from
Parley P. Pratt

12 Apr. 1807–13 May 1857. Farmer, editor, publisher, teacher, school administrator, legislator, explorer, author. Born at Burlington, Otsego Co., New York. Son of Jared Pratt and Charity Dickinson. Traveled west with brother William to acquire land, 1823....

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on the desire of many converts in
England

Island nation consisting of southern portion of Great Britain and surrounding smaller islands. Bounded on north by Scotland and on west by Wales. Became province of Roman Empire, first century. Ruled by Romans, through 447. Ruled by Picts, Scots, and Saxons...

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to immigrate to
Nauvoo

Principal gathering place for Saints following expulsion from Missouri. Beginning in 1839, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased lands in earlier settlement of Commerce and planned settlement of Commerce City, as well as surrounding areas....

More Info
, and a letter from the
First Presidency

The highest presiding body of the church. An 11 November 1831 revelation stated that the president of the high priesthood was to preside over the church. JS was ordained as president of the high priesthood on 25 January 1832. In March 1832, JS appointed two...

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“to all the Saints in Nauvoo.”
2

This First Presidency letter is featured as a separate document in this volume. (Letter to “All the Saints in Nauvoo,” 1 Sept. 1842 [D&C 127].)


In addition, the issue contained a notice that a concordance of scripture and writings about the church’s ecclesiastical history published by
Benjamin Winchester

6 Aug. 1817–25 Jan. 1901. Farmer, author, merchant, brick maker. Born near Elk Creek, Erie Co., Pennsylvania. Son of Stephen Winchester and Mary Case. Baptized into Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, early 1833, in Elk Creek. Moved to Kirtland, ...

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in
Philadelphia

Port city founded as Quaker settlement by William Penn, 1681. Site of signing of Declaration of Independence and drafting of U.S. Constitution. Nation’s capital city, 1790–1800. Population in 1830 about 170,000; in 1840 about 260,000; and in 1850 about 410...

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was available; a reprinting of a letter from church member William Rowley reporting on his missionary efforts in
Liverpool

Seaport, city, county borough, and market-town in northwestern England. Experienced exponential growth during nineteenth century. Population in 1830 about 120,000. Population in 1841 about 290,000. First Latter-day Saint missionaries to England arrived in...

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, England; a reprinting of an article in the Antigua Herald on an earthquake on the Caribbean island of Antigua; a brief letter to the editor from
apostles

Members of a governing body in the church, with special administrative and proselytizing responsibilities. A June 1829 revelation commanded Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer to call twelve disciples, similar to the twelve apostles in the New Testament and ...

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Brigham Young

1 June 1801–29 Aug. 1877. Carpenter, painter, glazier, colonizer. Born at Whitingham, Windham Co., Vermont. Son of John Young and Abigail (Nabby) Howe. Brought up in Methodist household; later joined Methodist church. Moved to Sherburne, Chenango Co., New...

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and
Heber C. Kimball

14 June 1801–22 June 1868. Blacksmith, potter. Born at Sheldon, Franklin Co., Vermont. Son of Solomon Farnham Kimball and Anna Spaulding. Married Vilate Murray, 22 Nov. 1822, at Mendon, Monroe Co., New York. Member of Baptist church at Mendon, 1831. Baptized...

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;
3

This letter is featured as a separate document in this volume. (Letter from Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball, 12 Sept. 1842.)


and a notice that copies of hymnbooks and of the Book of Mormon were available for purchase.
4

“History of Joseph Smith,” “Ascent of Mount Sinai,” “Extract of a Letter,” “Tidings,” “Winchester’s Concordance,” “Letter from William Rowley,” “Earthquake at Antigua,” and “Books of Mormon, &c.,” Times and Seasons, 15 Sept. 1842, 3:915–920, 923–926.


The issue’s editorial content, featured here with introductions to each passage of text for which JS was ultimately responsible, included commentary on the Book of Mormon in light of recent archaeological discoveries, reflections on the risks of philosophizing about religious matters, a condemnation of the way government officials condoned the expulsion of church members from
Missouri

Area acquired by U.S. in Louisiana Purchase, 1803, and established as territory, 1812. Missouri Compromise, 1820, admitted Missouri as slave state, 1821. Population in 1830 about 140,000; in 1836 about 240,000; and in 1840 about 380,000. Latter-day Saint ...

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in 1838, and a report of a recent discourse delivered by
Sidney Rigdon

19 Feb. 1793–14 July 1876. Tanner, farmer, minister. Born at St. Clair, Allegheny Co., Pennsylvania. Son of William Rigdon and Nancy Gallaher. Joined United Baptists, ca. 1818. Preached at Warren, Trumbull Co., Ohio, and vicinity, 1819–1821. Married Phebe...

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to church members in
Nauvoo

Principal gathering place for Saints following expulsion from Missouri. Beginning in 1839, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased lands in earlier settlement of Commerce and planned settlement of Commerce City, as well as surrounding areas....

More Info
. The issue also included editorials encouraging church members living outside the city to send donations to facilitate the construction of the Nauvoo temple, urging traveling elders to arrange for the free delivery of the Times and Seasons and the Wasp through the postal service, and insisting that JS was consistent in condemning vice and promoting virtue.
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.
5

See “Editorial Method”.


Footnotes

  1. [1]

    See Historical Introduction to Times and Seasons, 1 Sept. 1842.

  2. [2]

    This First Presidency letter is featured as a separate document in this volume. (Letter to “All the Saints in Nauvoo,” 1 Sept. 1842 [D&C 127].)

  3. [3]

    This letter is featured as a separate document in this volume. (Letter from Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball, 12 Sept. 1842.)

  4. [4]

    “History of Joseph Smith,” “Ascent of Mount Sinai,” “Extract of a Letter,” “Tidings,” “Winchester’s Concordance,” “Letter from William Rowley,” “Earthquake at Antigua,” and “Books of Mormon, &c.,” Times and Seasons, 15 Sept. 1842, 3:915–920, 923–926.

  5. [5]

    See “Editorial Method”.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation. *Times and Seasons, 15 September 1842
*Times and Seasons, 15 September 1842
*Times and Seasons, 15 September 1842 *Times and Seasons, 15 September 1842 *Times and Seasons, 15 September 1842 *Times and Seasons, 15 September 1842 *Times and Seasons, 15 September 1842 *Times and Seasons, 15 September 1842 *Letter from Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball, 12 September 1842 Times and Seasons, 15 September 1842 History, 1838–1856, volume D-1 [1 August 1842–1 July 1843] “History of Joseph Smith” *Letter to “All the Saints in Nauvoo,” 1 September 1842 [D&C 127] Journal, December 1841–December 1842 Times and Seasons, 15 September 1842 Doctrine and Covenants, 1844 History, 1838–1856, volume D-1 [1 August 1842–1 July 1843] “History of Joseph Smith”

Page 914

receive an honour, and the other a blow.
So far the arrangements of the palace are simple and easily understood; but on the left are several distinct and independent buildings, as will be seen by the plan, the particulars of which, however, I do not consider it necessary to describe. The principal of these is the tower, on the south side of the second court. This tower is conspicuous by its height and proportions, but on examination in detail it is found unsatisfactory and uninteresting. The base is thirty feet square, and it has three stories. Entering over a heap of rubbish at the base, we found within another tower, distinct from the outer one, and a stone staircase, so narrow that a large man could not ascend it. The staircase terminates against a dead stone ceiling, closing, all farther passage, the last step being only six or eight inches from it. For what purpose a staircase was carried up to such a bootless termination we could not conjecture. The whole tower was a substantial stone structure, and in its arragements and purposes about as incomprehensible as the sculptured tablets.
East of the tower is another building with two corridors, one richly decorated with pictures in stucco, and having in the centre the elliptical tablet represented in the engraving opposite. It is four feet long and three wide, of hard stone set in the wall, and the sculpture is in bas-relief. Around it are the remains of a rich stucco border. The principal figure sits cross-legged on a couch ornamented with two leopards’ heads; the attitude is easy, the physiognomy the same as that of the other personages, and the expression calm and benevolent. The figure wears around its neck a necklace of pearls, to which is suspended a small medallion containing a face; perhaps intended as an image of the sun. Like every other subject of sculpture we had seen in the country, the personage had earrings, bracelets on the wrists, and a girdle round the loins. The headdress differs from most of the others at Palenque in that it wants the plumes of feathers. Near the head are three hieroglyphics.
The other figure, which seems that of a woman, is sitting cross-legged on the ground, richly dressed, and apparently in the act of making an offering. In this supposed offering is seen a plume of feathers, in which the headdress of the principal person is deficient. Over the head of the sitting personage are four hieroglyphics. This is the only piece of scultured stone about the palace except those in the courtyard. Under it formerly stood a table, of which the impression against the wall is still visible, and which is given in the engraving in faint lines, after the model of other tables still existing in other places.
At the extremity of this corridor there is an aperture in the pavement, leading by a flight of steps to a platform; from this a door, with an ornament in stucco over it, opens by another flight of steps upon a narrow, dark passage, terminating in other corridors, which run tranversely. These are called subterraneous apartments; but there are windows opening from them above the ground, and, in fact, they are merely a ground-floor below the pavement of the corridors. In most parts, however, they are so dark that it is necessary to visit them with candles. There are no bas-reliefs or stucco ornaments; and the only objects which our guide pointed out or which attracted our attention, were several stone tables, one crossing and blocking up the corridor, about eight feet long, four wide, and three high. One of these lower corridors had a door opening upon the back part of the terrace, and we generally passed through it with a candle to get to the other buildings. In two other places, there were flights of steps leading to corridors above. Probably these were sleeping apartments.

Editorial Note
The first editorial selection in this issue follows a lengthy excerpt from a book by explorer John Lloyd Stephens that described the remnants of ancient Mayan buildings in Central America and recounted the history of the region’s indigenous populations.
1

Stephens’s book was popular in the United States and spurred public interest in the Maya, helping to introduce Americans to the idea that ancient civilizations in the Americas were much more complex than previously believed. In September 1841, JS received both volumes of Stephens’s book as a gift from John M. Bernhisel. JS subsequently thanked Bernhisel for the volumes, stating that he had read them “with the greatest interest & pleasure.” Wilford Woodruff, who delivered the volumes to JS for Bernhisel, similarly read them with great interest. (Stephens, Incidents of Travel, 2:309–319; “Extract from Stephens’ ‘Incidents of Travel in Central America,’” Times and Seasons, 15 Sept. 1842, 3:911–915; Letter from John M. Bernhisel, 8 Sept. 1841; Letter to John M. Bernhisel, 16 Nov. 1841; Woodruff, Journal, 13 Sept. 1841.)


Comprehensive Works Cited

Stephens, John L. Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan. 2 vols. 11th ed. New York City: Harper and Brothers, 1841.

Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

In commentary following the excerpt, the editors claimed that these discoveries provided evidence that the Book of Mormon, which presents itself as a history of ancient inhabitants of the Americas, was in fact a revelation from God.
2

The editors published commentary on the Book of Mormon and an excerpt from a different book on archaeology in the previous issue of the Times and Seasons. (“Books,” Times and Seasons, 1 Sept. 1842, 3:908–909.)



☞The foregoing extract has been made to assist the Latter-Day Saints, in establishing the Book of Mormon as a revelation from God. It affords great joy to have the world assist us to so much proof, that even the most credulous cannot doubt. We are sorry that we could not afford the expense to give the necessary cuts referred to in the original.
Let us turn our subject, however, to the Book of Mormon, where these wonderful ruins of Palenque
3

Palenque was a Mayan city in the southern region of the present-day Mexican state of Chiapas. The excerpt of Stephens’s book in this issue of the Times and Seasons described ruins that Stephens investigated at this site. (Perera and Bruce, Last Lords of Palenque, 4–14; “Extract from Stephens’ ‘Incidents of Travel in Central America,’” Times and Seasons, 15 Sept. 1842, 3:911–915.)


Comprehensive Works Cited

Perera, Victor, and Robert D. Bruce. The Last Lords of Palenque: The Lacandon Mayas of the Mexican Rain Forest. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985.

are among the mighty works of the Nephites:—and the mystery is solved.
On the 72d page of the third and fourth edition of the Book of Mormon
4

The third edition of the Book of Mormon was published in 1840 in Nauvoo. The fourth edition of the Book of Mormon was published in 1841 in Liverpool, England. (The Book of Mormon, 3rd ed. [Nauvoo, IL: Robinson and Smith, 1840]; The Book of Mormon, 1st European ed. [Liverpool: Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and Parley P. Pratt, 1841].)


it reads as follows: And it came to pass that we began to prosper exceedingly, and to multiply in the land. And I, Nephi, did take the sword of Laban, and after the manner of it did make many swords, lest by any means the people who were now called Lamanites, should come upon us and destroy us: for I knew their hatred towards me [p. 914]
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Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Times and Seasons, 15 September 1842
ID #
8156
Total Pages
16
Print Volume Location
JSP, D11:86–102
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Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Stephens’s book was popular in the United States and spurred public interest in the Maya, helping to introduce Americans to the idea that ancient civilizations in the Americas were much more complex than previously believed. In September 1841, JS received both volumes of Stephens’s book as a gift from John M. Bernhisel. JS subsequently thanked Bernhisel for the volumes, stating that he had read them “with the greatest interest & pleasure.” Wilford Woodruff, who delivered the volumes to JS for Bernhisel, similarly read them with great interest. (Stephens, Incidents of Travel, 2:309–319; “Extract from Stephens’ ‘Incidents of Travel in Central America,’” Times and Seasons, 15 Sept. 1842, 3:911–915; Letter from John M. Bernhisel, 8 Sept. 1841; Letter to John M. Bernhisel, 16 Nov. 1841; Woodruff, Journal, 13 Sept. 1841.)

    Stephens, John L. Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan. 2 vols. 11th ed. New York City: Harper and Brothers, 1841.

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

  2. [2]

    The editors published commentary on the Book of Mormon and an excerpt from a different book on archaeology in the previous issue of the Times and Seasons. (“Books,” Times and Seasons, 1 Sept. 1842, 3:908–909.)

  3. [3]

    Palenque was a Mayan city in the southern region of the present-day Mexican state of Chiapas. The excerpt of Stephens’s book in this issue of the Times and Seasons described ruins that Stephens investigated at this site. (Perera and Bruce, Last Lords of Palenque, 4–14; “Extract from Stephens’ ‘Incidents of Travel in Central America,’” Times and Seasons, 15 Sept. 1842, 3:911–915.)

    Perera, Victor, and Robert D. Bruce. The Last Lords of Palenque: The Lacandon Mayas of the Mexican Rain Forest. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985.

  4. [4]

    The third edition of the Book of Mormon was published in 1840 in Nauvoo. The fourth edition of the Book of Mormon was published in 1841 in Liverpool, England. (The Book of Mormon, 3rd ed. [Nauvoo, IL: Robinson and Smith, 1840]; The Book of Mormon, 1st European ed. [Liverpool: Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and Parley P. Pratt, 1841].)

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