“— January 30. 1839—. To the faithful— Brethren and Sisters of the Church of Latter Day Saints in Alston Dear Brethren, inasmuch as wisdom is only to be spoken amongst those who are wise; I charge you to read this letter to none but those who enter into a covenant with you, to keep those things that are revealed in this letter from all the world, and from all the Churches, except the Churches to whom I myself have ministered, viz, the Church in Alston and the branches round about to whom I ministered, and to none else, & to none but the faithful amongst you, & Wo be to the Man or Woman that breaketh this Covenant. Now the Indians who are the Children of the Nephites & the Lamanites, who are spoken of in the Book of Mormon, have all been driven to the Western boundaries of the by the Gentiles, as I told you they have now to be visited with the Gospel, for the day of their redemption is come. & the Gentiles have now well nigh filled up the measure of their wickedness & will soon be cut off— for they have slain many of the people of the Lord, & scattered the rest, & for the sins of God’s people, the Gentiles will now be suffered to scourge them from City to City, & from place to place & few of all the thousands of the Church of Latter Day Saints will stand, to receive an inheritance in the land of promise. which is now in the hands of our enemies. But a few will remain and be purified as Gold seven times refined, and they will return to Zion with songs of everlasting joy, to build up the old waste places, that are now left desolate— Now the thing that I have to reveal to you is sacred, and must be kept with care, for I am not suffered to reveal it, at all to the Churches, in this land because of their wickedness and unbelief, for they have almost cast me out from amongst them, because I have testified of their sins to them, and warned them of the judgments, that have yet to come upon them, and this thing that I now tell to you will not come to the knowledge of the Churches until they are purified. [p. 932]