Note that only the editorial content created specifically for this issue of the Elders’ Journal is annotated here. Articles reprinted from other papers, letters, conference minutes, and notices, are reproduced here but not annotated. Items that are stand-alone JS documents, such as the letter from Wilford Woodruff and others, are annotated elsewhere.
and his company, returned, on, or about the 10th of December; soon after which this dissenting band, openly, and publicly, renounced the church of Christ, of Latter Day Saints, and claimed themselves to be the old standard; called themselves the church of Christ, excluded that of Saints, and set at naught Br. Joseph, and the whole church, denounced them as heretics. How blind and infatuated are the minds of men, when once turned from righteousness to wickedness. They did not understand, that by taking upon them the name of Latter Day Saints, did not do away that of the church of Christ.— Neither did they consider, that the ancient church was the church of Christ, and that they were Saints. And again, it appears that they did not consider the prophecy of Daniel, which says, “The Saints shall take the kingdom,” &c. Again, “the Kingdom, and the greatness of the Kingdom, under the whole heaven, was given to the people, (the Saints,) of the Most High.” And the Saints here alluded to, were certainly Latter Day Saints; inasmach, as the above prophecy is to be fulfilled in the last days; and is yet future, as all professed readers of the bible will confess.
We have of late learned, that , and the most of this combination have openly renounced the book of Mormon, and become deists.
I will now leave , and give you some account of the movement of things here, as they are and have been.
You undoubtedly remember the visit, which I, in company with , made to the churches in Kentucky and Tennessee, in the summer of 1836. You may also recollect, the nature and result of our visit. We came to solicit assistance, for poor bleeding Zion: And we obtained, through the goodness of the children of God, in those regions, the sum of fourteen hundred and fifty dollars, which we delivered unto and , on our arrival at this place. But these men, instead of laying out the money for the benefit of poor bleeding Zion, purchased land for their own emolument. They generally did their business, independently of the aid, or counsel of either the , or High Council. This gave some uneasiness to the two authorities of Zion: not only because they purchased land with church funds, in their own name, for their own aggrandizement, but because they selected the place for the city , and appointed the spot for the to be built on, drew the plan of said house, and appointed and ordained a committee to build the same, without asking or seeking counsel, at the hand of either , High Council, or first Presidency; when it was well understood that these authorities were appointed for the purpose of counseling on all important matters pertaining to the Saints of God.
These two presidents also managed to get the town plot into their own hands, that they might reap the avails arising from the sales of the lots. In consequence of these, with other things, the High Council met by themselves on the 3rd day of April, 1837, and resolved to invite the two presidents, the and his council, and the two apostles, namely, and , to meet with them on the 5th inst. to which time they adjourned. Accordingly the above named authorities met, on the 5th, and after laboring diligently three days in succsssion, it was unanimously agreed upon, that the town plot, with four eighties adjacent to the plot, should be at the disposal of the and his counsel the High Council, the two presidents, and the two apostles. During this labor the two presidents acknowledged they were wrong, and they, to all appearance, willingly suffered themselves to be corrected by the Council.
In the beginning of May following, the Council again met, and resolved to have the above named property transfered into the hands of the , as an equivalent to the poor bleeding Zion money, and that the av[a]ils, of said land, should be thereafter applied to the benefit of the poor, and other public purposes. The business of the transfer of said property, was transacted by the two presidents, the and his counsel; by some means they managed to bind the in a mortgage, of three thousand four hundred and fifty dollars, to apply two thousand dollars of the avails of the town plot, which they had subscribed to the building of the , which they intended to have erected. Since that time, the affair of building the house, has fallen through. Consequently, many people have with [p. 37]