Times and Seasons (, Hancock Co., IL), 15 Apr. 1842, vol. 3, no. 12, pp. 751–766; edited by JS. For more complete source information, see the source note for Letter to Isaac Galland, 22 Mar. 1839.
Historical Introduction
The 15 April 1842 issue of the ’s , Illinois, newspaper, Times and Seasons, was the fifth issue to identify JS as editor. The issue contained three editorial passages, each of which is featured below with an accompanying introduction. Two other JS texts printed in this issue—a discourse and minutes of the April 1842 special in Nauvoo—are featured as stand-alone documents elsewhere in this volume.
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.
While JS likely authored many of the paper’s editorial passages, John Taylor reportedly assisted him in writing content. No matter who wrote individual editorial pieces, JS assumed editorial responsibility for all installments naming him as editor except the 15 February issue. (Woodruff, Journal, 19 Feb. 1842; Times and Seasons, 1 Mar. 1842.)
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
After this communication I saw the light in the room begin to gather immedilately around the person of him who had been speaking to me, and it continued to do so until the room was again left dark except just around him, when instantly I saw as it were a conduit open right up into heaven, and he ascended up till he entirely disappeared and the room was left as it had been before this heavenly light had made its appearance.
I lay musing on the singularity of the scene and marvelling greatly at what had been told me by this extraordinary messenger, when in the midst of my meditation I suddenly discovered that my room was again beginning to get lighted, and in an instant, as it were, the same heavenly messenger was again by my bed side. He commenced and again related the very same things which he had done at his first visit without the least variation, which having done, he informed me of great judgments which were coming upon the earth, with great desolations by famine, sword, and pestilence, and that these grievous judgments would come on the earth in this generation. Having related these things he again ascended as he had done before.
By this time so deep were the impressions made on my mind that sleep had fled from my eyes and I lay overwhelmed in astonishment at what I had both seen and heard; but what was my surprise when again I beheld the same messenger at my bedside, and heard him rehearse or repeat over again to me the same things as before and added a caution to me, telling me that Satan would try to tempt me (in consequence of the indigent circumstances of my father’s family) to get the for the purpose of getting rich. This he forbid me, saying that I must have no other object in view in getting the plates but to glorify God, and must not be influenced by any other motive but that of building his kingdom, otherwise I could not get them. After this third visit he again ascended up into heaven as before and I was again left to ponder on the strangeness of what I had just experienced, when almost immediately after the heavenly messenger had ascended from me the third the third time, the cock crew, and I found that day was approaching so that our interviews must have occupied the whole of that night. I shortly after arose from my bed, and as usual went to the necessary labors of the day, but in attempting to labor as at other times, I found my strength so exhausted as rendered me entirely unable. My who was laboring along with me discovered something to be wrong with me and told me to go home. I started with the intention of going to the house, but in attempting to cross the fence out of the field where we were, my strength entirely failed me and I fell helpless on the ground and for a time was quite unconscious of any thing. The first thing that I can recollect was a voice speaking unto me calling me by name. I looked up and beheld the same messenger standing over my head surrounded by light as before. He then again related unto me all that he had related to me the previous night, and commanded me to go to my and tell him of the vision and commandments which I had received.
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Editorial Note
The first editorial passage introduced a letter Rabbi A. L. Landau of Breslau, Poland, wrote to an unnamed son who was in the process of converting to Christianity, which Landau insisted caused the family grief. Landau predicted his son would regret his decision on Judgment Day and begged for his recommitment to Judaism. The editor of the Times and Seasons sympathized with the father’s negative sentiments toward Christianity, reasoning that the Jewish experience with Christianity was limited to abusive interactions. The Times and Seasons previously published several significant articles discussing Jewish affairs in the , Europe, and the Middle East, including some by Jewish writers. Most of these materials were first published elsewhere, as was the case with Landau’s letter, which originally appeared in the -based Jewish Intelligencer.
THE JEWS.
The following is the letter of a Jew, to his son who had embraced christianity; and when we reflect that the Jews, as a people, have been proscribed, prosecuted, and persecuted; that they have been spoiled, robbed, murdered, pillaged and driven by the Christians,—that they have suffered banishment, exile, the confiscation of their property, and every kind of indignity and reproach, for ages and generations past, at the hands of their merciless persecutors, and cruel tyrants; we are not surprised that they shou[l]d cherish in their bosoms, feelings of disgust and abhorrence at the idea of their children embracing a religion which was so at variance with the principles of righteousness; which taught principles which were so sordid, avaricious and devilish, especially when we consider that on the continent of Europe, where a great majority of the Jews reside, they have nothing laid before them but a species of idolatry, which they have ever been taught to abhor from their infancy. What a pity that the pure principles of the gospel and the glorious precepts of the Redeemer should be so misrepresented by priestcraft, bigotry, superstition, and hypocrasy.—Ed.
Breslau, May 21, 1839.
My Dear Son:—I received the letter of the Berlin Rabbi, and when I had read it there ran tears out of my eyes in torrents; my inward parts shook, my heart became as a stone! How! do you not know that the Lord sent me already many hard tribulations? That many sorrows do vex me? But this new harm which you are about to inflict makes me forget [p. 754]
See, for example, “To Our Brethren the Israelites of Europe and America,” Times and Seasons, Aug. 1840, 1:157–159; “Restoration of the Jews,” Times and Seasons, 1 Dec. 1840, 2:232; “The Jews of Damascus,” Times and Seasons, 1 Mar. 1841, 2:341–342; “The Jews,” Times and Seasons, 15 May 1841, 2:407–408; 1 June 1841, 2:436; 1 Oct. 1841, 2:563–564; “Persecution of the Jews in Turkey,” Times and Seasons, 15 [1] Nov. 1841, 3:587; and “The Jews,” Times and Seasons, 15 Feb. 1842, 3:691–693.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.