Letter to the Colesville Saints, 2 December 1830

  • Fayette [New York] Decr. 2nd. 1830

    Dearly beloved in the Lord

    According  to your prayers, the Lord hath  called, chosen, ordained, sanc tified and sent unto you,  another servant and Apostle  separated unto his gospel  through Jesus Christ his our  Redeemer, to whom be  all honor & praise hence forth and forever— even  our beloved brother Orson  Pratt, the bearer of these lines.  Whom I recommend unto  you as a faithful Servant [p. 196]

JS and John Whitmer addressed this letter to church members at Colesville, New York. JS included a note to his brother Hyrum Smith. Hyrum and his wife, Jerusha, lived at Colesville with a local church leader, Newel Knight, and his wife, Sally. Orson Pratt, ordained an elder the day before this letter was written, departed for Colesville to assist Newel Knight and Hyrum Smith in their missionary labors, as well as to deliver this letter and another from Oliver Cowdery.

Written at a time when the millenarian spirit enveloped early church members, the letter anticipated the destruction of the wicked followed by a thousand-year millennial peace.

This letter is recorded in a copy of Newel Knight’s autobiography dated ca. 1870-1871. The scribe is unknown.

Facts

Editorial Title
Letter to the Colesville Saints, 2 December 1830
ID #
52