Footnotes
William Clayton stated that “the Temple was crowded with people.” (Clayton, Journal, 29 Jan. 1843.)
Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.
Willard Richards [V., pseud.], Nauvoo, IL, 24 Mar. 1843, Letter to the Editor, Daily Bee (Boston), 18 Apr. 1843, [2]; Matthew 11:11; Luke 7:28. By 17 March 1843, Richards and William W. Phelps began writing a series of letters under the pseudonym “Viator” to be published in the Boston Daily Bee. One of these letters to the Bee recounted the first part of the 29 January discourse, in which JS explained the three reasons John the Baptist was considered the greatest prophet. Records indicate Richards wrote that particular letter, apparently basing it upon the account of the discourse he had recorded in JS’s journal. On 15 May 1843, the Times and Seasons reprinted the Bee article. (JS, Journal, 6 and 17 Mar. 1843; “Truthiana No. 2,” draft, Truthiana, 1843, CHL; “Mormonism,” Times and Seasons, 15 May 1843, 4:199–200.)
Boston Daily Bee. Boston. 1842–1857.
“Truthiana,” 1843. Draft. CHL. MS 15537.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
JS’s journal notes that on 28 October 1842, “the brethren finished laying the temporary floor, and seats in the Temple.” The following May, a New York Herald correspondent reported that the temple construction was “going on rapidly” and that services were held “on the first floor every Sabbath,” during which JS frequently addressed the Saints. (JS, Journal, 28 Oct. 1842; “Late and Interesting from the Mormon Empire on the Upper Mississippi,” New York Herald [New York City], 30 May 1843, [2].)
New York Herald. New York City. 1835–1924.
See Discourse, 22 Jan. 1843; Historian’s Office, JS History, Draft Notes, 29 Jan. 1843, 11; and Luke 15:11–32.
See, for example, “The Elder Son,” Gospel Advocate and Impartial Investigator, 29 Apr. 1828, 121–122; Rayner, Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, 121–122; and “Review of a Discourse,” Trumpet and Universalist Magazine, 10 Jan. 1829, 112.
Gospel Advocate and Impartial Investigator. Buffalo, NY. 1827–1829.
Rayner, Menzies. Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus; Illustrated in Nine Lectures, Delivered in the First Universalist Church in Portland, Maine, 1833. Boston: Marsh, Capen, and Lyon, 1833.
Trumpet and Universalist Magazine. Boston. 1828–1862.
See Luke 15:31.
See Matthew 3:16; and John 1:32.
During an early 1841 discourse, JS taught that the Godhead “was Not as many imagined—three Heads & but one body.” Instead, he taught, “the three were separate bodys, God the first & Jesus the Mediator the 2d & the Holy Ghost.” (Discourse, ca. 16 Feb. 1841.)
JS earlier explained the form or sign of the dove. In an early 1841 discourse, he stated that “the dove which sat upon his shoulder was a sure testimony that he was of God.” JS suggested that the Saints could trust “any spirit or body that is attended by a dove” to be “a pure spirit.” Later, around the time he explained the figures in an illustration accompanying his translation of the Book of Abraham around March 1842, JS clarified that one of the figures was God “revealing, through the heavens, the grand Key words of the Priesthood; as, also, the sign of the Holy Ghost unto Abraham, in the form of a dove.” (Discourse, ca. 21 Mar. 1841; Book of Abraham Excerpt and Facsimile 2, 15 Mar. 1842 [Abraham, facsimile 2].)
In a March 1841 discourse, JS taught that John was a “lawful heir to the Levitical Priesthood” and the people were therefore “bound to receive his testimony.” (Discourse, ca. 21 Mar. 1841.)