, Journal excerpt, 1–4 Apr. 1843; handwriting of ; ten pages, measuring 6 x 3⅞ inches (15 x 10 cm); in William Clayton, Journals, 3 vols., Nov. 1842–Jan. 1846, CHL. Includes redactions and use marks.
Historical Introduction
’s personal journal from 1–4 April 1843 served as a source for JS’s journal entries for those dates. Clayton accompanied JS on a trip from to , Illinois, and kept detailed notes of JS’s activities and teachings, while , JS’s journal keeper, remained in Nauvoo. Richards evidently later composed JS’s journal entries for these dates from Clayton’s journal and from conversations he had with those who made the trip. As an important primary source for Richards’s information about JS’s activities at this time, Clayton’s journal entries for 1–4 April are reproduced here in full.
Page 70
written which no man knoweth save he that receiveth it. The new name is the key word.
Whatever principal of intelligence we obtain in this life will rise with us in the resurrection: and if a person gains more knowledge in this life through his diligence & obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come. There is a law irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world upon which all blessings are predicated; and when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.
The Holy Ghost is a personage, and a person cannot have the personage [p. 70]