Kirtland Mills Feb. 3, 1834.

Dear Bro. Fosdick:

Your letter of the 10th. Jan. last is  just recd. and this day there has been a regular Council  of the H[igh] Priests & Elders in this place, and the subject spoken  of in your letter was, we believe, taken into due consideration.

We were very sorry to learn that Bro. J[oseph] Wood had gone  so far astray and offered such violence to the pure principles  of the Gospel of Christ. But, alas! Such is the depravity of man  when lost to a sense of the fear of God and of the ties which bind  [e]very virtuous man to the interest and happiness of his fellow man.

Every principle inculcated among you which is contrary  [to] virtue, to industry, to wisdom, to good order, to propriety,  and in fine, to the pure principles of godliness as contained in  the Scriptures of the old and new Testaments, the Book of Mormon  and the revelations and commandments of Jesus Christ, which  have been given to his Church in these last days, is entirely  foreign from the feelings of our breasts, and is that upon which we  look down with feelings of the utmost disapprobation; and as consc [i]encious men who expect to render an impartial account, before  [t]he searcher of hearts, of all our transactions here, we cannot  [lo]ok upon any principle contrary to the above with any degree  [of] allowance.

After some investigation of the case of Bro. Wood, in Council,  [it] was decided that he should be cut off from the Church.  [ac]cordingly the Council lifted their hands against him and  [he] was excluded from the church on this 3d. day of Feb. 1834.  [for] indulging an idle, partial, overbearing and lustful spirit, and  [not] magnifying his holy calling whereunto he had been  [ord]ained. These things were plainly manifest to the satisfaction  [of a]ll the council, and the spirit constrained us to separate him  [fro]m the church. Should bro. Joseph Wood, after learning  [th]e decission of this council, truly repent of all his sins and  bring forth fruit meet to the satisfaction of that branch of the  Church where he had committed the offences, he can be [p. 23]