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Letter to William W. Phelps, 11 January 1833

Source Note

JS, Letter, , OH, to , [, Jackson Co., MO], 11 Jan. 1833. Retained copy, [ca. 11 Jan. 1833] in JS Letterbook 1, pp. 18–20; handwriting of ; CHL. For more complete source information, see the source note for JS Letterbook 1.

Historical Introduction

On 11 January 1833, JS wrote a letter to in , enclosing with the letter a copy of a revelation dated 27–28 December 1832 and perhaps also a copy of a revelation dated 3 January 1833. In addition to transmitting the revelations, the letter responded to a communication from Phelps dated 15 December 1832 and to one from dated 10 December 1832. Although Phelps’s and Gilbert’s letters are no longer extant, Gilbert’s letter contained what and called “low, dark, & blind insinuations” and Phelps’s “a lightness of spirit.” Other communications from Missouri earlier in 1832 had revealed a rift between church leaders in Missouri and . In part to resolve these differences, JS traveled to Missouri in the spring of 1832 and met with various leaders, but subsequent letters indicated that problems remained. On 31 July 1832, JS reproved Phelps for his “cold and indifferent” spirit and accused other Missouri leaders of “raking up evry fault” and “looking for motes in the eyes of those who are laboring with tender and prayerful hearts continually for there salvation.” Phelps may have shown a repentant spirit at some point thereafter, because JS stated in a November 1832 letter that he had “the most implicit confidence” in Phelps “as a man of God.” JS’s response to the December communications from Phelps and Gilbert, however, shows that tension between Missouri and Ohio leaders persisted.
Revelations throughout 1832 and early 1833 called on the Saints to repent of their sins lest calamities should befall them, and JS wrote this letter to emphasize the importance of that instruction. Asserting that JS and other leaders were deeply interested in the welfare of those Saints living in , the letter outlined the problems that would afflict Missouri church members if they did not repent. It also chastised and for the contents of their previous letters.
JS’s letter implied that the Saints living in were not under the same condemnation as the “children of .” A revelation dated just two weeks earlier stated instead that the Ohio Saints’ willingness to “receive his [the Lord’s] will” was “pleasing” and “the rejoice over [them].” The letter reiterated some of the instructions contained in the 27–28 December revelation pertaining to those living in , Ohio, such as the direction to construct a . The revelation had told the “first labourers, in this last kingdom” to “appoint among yourselves, a teacher” and gain instruction in both secular and spiritual matters. According to this letter to , the school was to be “a ”—perhaps much like the “schools of the prophets” that Congregational and Presbyterian churches had established in the 1700s to train divinity students interested in the ministry. JS’s letter reported that Kirtland church leaders were in the process of establishing this school; later, in the summer of 1833, the Saints in would create their own “school of Elders.”
The original letter is not extant, but copied it into JS’s letterbook, probably soon after its composition. published an excerpt from the 27–28 December 1832 revelation in the February 1833 issue of The Evening and the Morning Star, which indicates that he received the letter and the enclosed revelation. Phelps also acted on JS’s instruction in the letter to make the Star more interesting by giving “the rise progress and faith of the church.” In the March 1833 issue of The Evening and the Morning Star, Phelps included an article titled “Prospects of the Church,” in which he stated his intent “to give the particulars of the rise and progress of the church.” The following month, Phelps published a column titled “Rise and Progress of the Church of Christ,” which he evidently intended as a series. Similar columns, including letters from those reporting on their preaching in the , followed in the April, June, and July 1833 issues of the Star.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    See Revelation, 3 Jan. 1833 [D&C 88:127–137]; and Revelation, 27–28 Dec. 1832 [D&C 88:1–126].

  2. [2]

    Letter to Edward Partridge and Others, 14 Jan. 1833; see also Letter to William W. Phelps, 31 July 1832.

  3. [3]

    See Revelation, 1 Mar. 1832 [D&C 78]; Minutes, 26–27 Apr. 1832.

  4. [4]

    Letter to William W. Phelps, 31 July 1832.

  5. [5]

    Letter to William W. Phelps, 27 Nov. 1832.

  6. [6]

    A September 1832 revelation stated that the “children of Zion” were under “condemnation” for “vanity and unbelief,” as well as for “treat[ing] lightly” the revelations and commandments they had received. (Revelation, 22–23 Sept. 1832 [D&C 84:54–56].

  7. [7]

    Revelation, 27–28 Dec. 1832 [D&C 88:1–2].

  8. [8]

    Revelation, 27–28 Dec. 1832 [D&C 88:74, 78–80, 122]. The 3 January 1833 revelation, which may have been included in this transmission, provided additional instructions regarding how to conduct this school. (Revelation, 3 Jan. 1833 [D&C 88:127–137].)

  9. [9]

    See Darowski, “Schools of the Prophets,” 1–3.

    Darowski, Joseph F. “Schools of the Prophets: An Early American Tradition.” Mormon Historical Studies 9 (Spring 2008): 1–13.

  10. [10]

    See Pratt, Autobiography, 99–100.

    Pratt, Parley P. The Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt, One of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Embracing His Life, Ministry and Travels, with Extracts, in Prose and Verse, from His Miscellaneous Writings. Edited by Parley P. Pratt Jr. New York: Russell Brothers, 1874.

  11. [11]

    “Commandments,” The Evening and the Morning Star, Feb. 1833, [5].

    The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.

  12. [12]

    “Prospects of the Church,” The Evening and the Morning Star, Mar. 1833, [4].

    The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.

  13. [13]

    See, for example, the following articles in The Evening and the Morning Star: “Rise and Progress of the Church of Christ,” Apr. 1833, [4]; “The Progress of the Church of Christ,” June 1833, [4]–[5]; and “Progress of the Church of Christ,” July 1833, [4]–[5].

    The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation. *Letter to William W. Phelps, 11 January 1833 Letterbook 1 History, 1838–1856, volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834] “History of Joseph Smith”

Page 20

in fearfulnes will speedily lay hold of the hypocrite, I did not expect that you had lost , but thought from your letters you had neglected to read them, otherwise you would not have writen as you did, it is in vain to try to hide a bad spirit from the eyes of them who are spiritual for it will shewe itself in speaking & in writing as well as all our other conduct, it is also useless to mak[e] great pretentions when the heart is not right before God, for God looks at the heart, and where the heart is not right the Lord will expose it to the view of his faithful saints, we wish you to render the Star as interesting as possable by setting forth the rise progress and faith of the church, as well as the doctrine for if you do not render it more interesting than at present it will fall, and the church suffer a great Loss thereby——
Joseph Smith Jr [p. 20]
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Source Note

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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Letter to William W. Phelps, 11 January 1833
ID #
140
Total Pages
3
Print Volume Location
JSP, D2:364–368
Handwriting on This Page
  • Frederick G. Williams

Footnotes

  1. [12]

    See Amos 6:1; and Book of Mormon, 1830 ed., 114 [2 Nephi 28:24].

  2. [13]

    John Whitmer and Oliver Cowdery took copies of JS’s revelations to Missouri in January 1832, and JS himself probably brought copies of additional revelations when he visited Missouri in spring 1832. Phelps, Whitmer, and Cowdery had been tasked to “review the Book of Commandments & select for printing such as shall be deemed by them proper, as dictated by the spirit.” (See Whitmer, History, 38; and Minutes, 30 Apr. 1832.)

  3. [14]

    See Acts 8:21.

  4. [15]

    See 1 Samuel 16:7.

  5. [16]

    JS had not previously expressed displeasure with The Evening and the Morning Star, which Phelps began publishing in June 1832. In a later history, JS remembered regarding the first issues of the Star as “a joyous treat to the Saints.” (JS History, vol. A-1, 216.)

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