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Discourse, 28 April 1842

Source Note

JS, Discourse, [, Hancock Co., IL, 28 Apr. 1842]. Featured version copied [ca. 28 Apr. 1842] in Relief Society Minute Book, pp. [35]–[41]; handwriting of ; CHL. Includes use marks. For more complete source information, see the source note for Nauvoo Relief Society Minute Book.

Historical Introduction

At a meeting of the held on 28 April 1842, JS delivered a discourse on the gift of healing, the order of the , and related topics. This was the society’s sixth meeting and the third time JS addressed its members. JS took 1 Corinthians chapters 12 and 13 as his text, emphasizing to society members the importance of magnifying whatever callings they individually held, rather than aspiring to office. Responding to circulating criticism that the women leading the organization were acting improperly in administering blessings of healing by , JS spoke at length on the topic, opining that miraculous signs such as healing the sick “should follow all that believe whether male or female” and that “if the sisters should have faith to heal the sick, let all hold their tongues, and let every thing roll on.” Contemplating his own mortality, and echoing a previous assertion that he would make the society a “kingdom of priests,” JS declared that he would deliver over to the society and the church the “ of the kingdom.” Secretary noted in the minutes following JS’s discourse that “the spirit of the Lord was pour’d out in a very powerful manner, never to be forgotten by those present on that interesting occasion.”
It appears contemporaneously took notes of JS’s instructions, as well as the rest of the meeting’s proceedings, on a separate document—no longer extant—and then, presumably shortly after the meeting, made the copy featured here in the minute book.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    See Discourse, 31 Mar. 1842.

  2. [2]

    Relief Society Minute Book, 28 Apr. 1842, [41], in Derr et al., First Fifty Years of Relief Society, 61.

    Derr, Jill Mulvay, Carol Cornwall Madsen, Kate Holbrook, and Matthew J. Grow, eds. The First Fifty Years of Relief Society: Key Documents in Latter-day Saint Women’s History. Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2016.

  3. [3]

    On 27 August 1844 John McEwan copied the discourse from the minute book into the back of Wilford Woodruff’s 1841–1842 journal.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation. *Discourse, 28 April 1842 Nauvoo Relief Society Minute Book Journal, December 1841–December 1842 History, 1838–1856, volume C-1 Addenda History, 1838–1856, volume C-1 Addenda “History of Joseph Smith”

Page [37]

President Smith continued by speaking of the difficulties he had to surmount ever since the commencement of the work in consequence of aspiring men, “great big ” as he call’d them, who had caused him much trouble, whom he had taught in the private counsel; and they would go forth into the world and ploclaim [proclaim] the things he had taught them; as their own revelations— said the same aspiring disposition will be in this , and must be guarded against— that every person should stand and act in the place appointed, and thus sanctify the Society and get it pure—
He said he had been trampled underfoot by aspiring Elders, for all were infected with that spirit, for instance , and had been aspiring— they could not be exalted but must run away as tho’ the care and authority of the were vested with them— he said we had a subtle devil to deal with, and could only curb him by being humble.
He said as he had this opportunity, he was going to instruct the Society and point out the way for them to conduct, that they might act according to the will of God— that he did not know as he should have many opportunities of teaching them— that they were going to be left to themselves,— they would not long have him to instruct them— that the church would not have his instruction long, and the world would not be troubled with him a great while, and would not have his teachings— He spoke of delivering the to this Society and to the church— that according to his prayers God had appointed him elsewhere
He exhorted the sisters always to concentrate their faith and prayers for, and place confidence, in those whom God has appointed to honor, whom God has plac’d at the head to lead— that we should arm them with our prayers.— [p. [37]]
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Source Note

Document Transcript

Page [37]

Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Discourse, 28 April 1842
ID #
819
Total Pages
7
Print Volume Location
JSP, D9:400–407
Handwriting on This Page
  • Eliza R. Snow

Footnotes

  1. [6]

    Although they were members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in good standing at the time JS gave this discourse to the society, the four men named had all had problems in their church service in recent years. The Pratt brothers became disillusioned following financial difficulties in 1837 with the Kirtland Safety Society Anti-Banking Company, an institution of which JS was president. Hyde defected in 1838 and criticized JS’s actions in relation to the conflict in northern Missouri. He returned in 1839 but was temporarily suspended from his apostolic office. JS reprimanded Page three weeks prior to this meeting, at a special church conference in Nauvoo, for failing to accompany Hyde across the Atlantic on a mission to Jerusalem. (Givens and Grow, Parley P. Pratt, 96–102; Woodruff, Journal, 29 May and 27 June 1839; JS, Journal, 7 Apr. 1842; Minutes and Discourses, 6–8 Apr. 1842; see also Derr et al., First Fifty Years of Relief Society, 56n158.)

    Givens, Terryl L., and Matthew J. Grow. Parley P. Pratt: The Apostle Paul of Mormonism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.

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

    Derr, Jill Mulvay, Carol Cornwall Madsen, Kate Holbrook, and Matthew J. Grow, eds. The First Fifty Years of Relief Society: Key Documents in Latter-day Saint Women’s History. Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2016.

  2. [7]

    JS expressed similar sentiments three weeks earlier while reflecting on his own mortality during a funeral sermon for Ephraim Marks. (Discourse, 9 Apr. 1842.)

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