On Saturday, 9 April 1842, JS delivered a discourse at the funeral of member . The son of and Rosannah Robinson Marks, twenty-four-year-old Ephraim died of an undisclosed cause two days earlier. On Saturday morning, mourners assembled at the home of William Marks in , Illinois, and made their way in a procession to a of trees near the for funeral and burial services. In his sermon JS reflected on the untimely death of Ephraim Marks, as well as on the difficulty of losing his own brothers and in their youth. JS also considered his own mortality, telling those gathered at the service that he, too, was “liable to die as other men” although his life had been spared on previous occasions so that he could “accomplish such & such things.”

, who was in the audience, may have taken notes on the discourse when JS delivered this sermon or shortly thereafter. He later recorded portions of the discourse in his journal. That version is featured here. Woodruff’s text appears to be the earliest surviving version of the 9 April sermon, and it was later copied into JS’s 1838–1856 history.