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Discourse, 28 April 1842

Source Note

JS, Discourse, [
Nauvoo

Principal gathering place for Saints following expulsion from Missouri. Beginning in 1839, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased lands in earlier settlement of Commerce and planned settlement of Commerce City, as well as surrounding areas....

More Info
, Hancock Co., IL, 28 Apr. 1842]. Featured version copied [ca. 28 Apr. 1842] in Relief Society Minute Book, pp. [35]–[41]; handwriting of
Eliza R. Snow

21 Jan. 1804–5 Dec. 1887. Poet, teacher, seamstress, milliner. Born in Becket, Berkshire Co., Massachusetts. Daughter of Oliver Snow and Rosetta Leonora Pettibone. Moved to Mantua, Trumbull Co., Ohio, ca. 1806. Member of Baptist church. Baptized into Church...

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; CHL. Includes use marks. For more complete source information, see the source note for Nauvoo Relief Society Minute Book.

Historical Introduction

At a meeting of the
Female Relief Society of Nauvoo

A church organization for women; created in Nauvoo, Illinois, under JS’s direction on 17 March 1842. At the same meeting, Emma Smith was elected president, and she selected two counselors; a secretary and a treasurer were also chosen. The minutes of the society...

View Glossary
held on 28 April 1842, JS delivered a discourse on the gift of healing, the order of the
church

The Book of Mormon related that when Christ set up his church in the Americas, “they which were baptized in the name of Jesus, were called the church of Christ.” The first name used to denote the church JS organized on 6 April 1830 was “the Church of Christ...

View Glossary
, and related topics. This was the society’s sixth meeting and the third time JS addressed its members. JS took 1 Corinthians chapters 12 and 13 as his text, emphasizing to society members the importance of magnifying whatever callings they individually held, rather than aspiring to office. Responding to circulating criticism that the women leading the organization were acting improperly in administering blessings of healing by
laying on hands

A practice in which individuals place their hands upon a person to bestow the gift of the Holy Ghost, ordain to an office or calling, or confer other power, authority, or blessings, often as part of an ordinance. The Book of Mormon explained that ecclesiastical...

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, JS spoke at length on the topic, opining that miraculous signs such as healing the sick “should follow all that believe whether male or female” and that “if the sisters should have faith to heal the sick, let all hold their tongues, and let every thing roll on.” Contemplating his own mortality, and echoing a previous assertion that he would make the society a “kingdom of priests,” JS declared that he would deliver over to the society and the church the “
keys

Authority or knowledge of God given to humankind. In the earliest records, the term keys primarily referred to JS’s authority to unlock the “mysteries of the kingdom.” Early revelations declared that both JS and Oliver Cowdery held the keys to bring forth...

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of the kingdom.”
1

See Discourse, 31 Mar. 1842.


Secretary
Eliza R. Snow

21 Jan. 1804–5 Dec. 1887. Poet, teacher, seamstress, milliner. Born in Becket, Berkshire Co., Massachusetts. Daughter of Oliver Snow and Rosetta Leonora Pettibone. Moved to Mantua, Trumbull Co., Ohio, ca. 1806. Member of Baptist church. Baptized into Church...

View Full Bio
noted in the minutes following JS’s discourse that “the spirit of the Lord was pour’d out in a very powerful manner, never to be forgotten by those present on that interesting occasion.”
2

Relief Society Minute Book, 28 Apr. 1842, [41], in Derr et al., First Fifty Years of Relief Society, 61.


Comprehensive Works Cited

Derr, Jill Mulvay, Carol Cornwall Madsen, Kate Holbrook, and Matthew J. Grow, eds. The First Fifty Years of Relief Society: Key Documents in Latter-day Saint Women’s History. Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2016.

It appears
Snow

21 Jan. 1804–5 Dec. 1887. Poet, teacher, seamstress, milliner. Born in Becket, Berkshire Co., Massachusetts. Daughter of Oliver Snow and Rosetta Leonora Pettibone. Moved to Mantua, Trumbull Co., Ohio, ca. 1806. Member of Baptist church. Baptized into Church...

View Full Bio
contemporaneously took notes of JS’s instructions, as well as the rest of the meeting’s proceedings, on a separate document—no longer extant—and then, presumably shortly after the meeting, made the copy featured here in the minute book.
3

On 27 August 1844 John McEwan copied the discourse from the minute book into the back of Wilford Woodruff’s 1841–1842 journal.


Footnotes

  1. [1]

    See Discourse, 31 Mar. 1842.

  2. [2]

    Relief Society Minute Book, 28 Apr. 1842, [41], in Derr et al., First Fifty Years of Relief Society, 61.

    Derr, Jill Mulvay, Carol Cornwall Madsen, Kate Holbrook, and Matthew J. Grow, eds. The First Fifty Years of Relief Society: Key Documents in Latter-day Saint Women’s History. Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2016.

  3. [3]

    On 27 August 1844 John McEwan copied the discourse from the minute book into the back of Wilford Woodruff’s 1841–1842 journal.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation.
*Discourse, 28 April 1842
Nauvoo Relief Society Minute Book Journal, December 1841–December 1842 History, 1838–1856, volume C-1 Addenda History, 1838–1856, volume C-1 Addenda “History of Joseph Smith”

Page [35]

Prest.

The highest presiding body of the church. An 11 November 1831 revelation stated that the president of the high priesthood was to preside over the church. JS was ordained as president of the high priesthood on 25 January 1832. In March 1832, JS appointed two...

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J. Smith arose and call’d the attention of the meeting to the 12th Chap. of 1st Cor. “Now concerning spiritual gifts” &c.— Said that the passage which reads “no man can say that Jesus is the the Christ <​Lord​> but by the holy ghost,” should be translated, no man can know &c
1

See 1 Corinthians 12:1, 3.


He continued to read the Chap. and give instructions respecting the different offices, and the necessity of every individual acting in the sphere allotted him or her; and filling the several offices to which they were appointed— Spoke of the disposition of man, to consider the lower offices in the
church

The Book of Mormon related that when Christ set up his church in the Americas, “they which were baptized in the name of Jesus, were called the church of Christ.” The first name used to denote the church JS organized on 6 April 1830 was “the Church of Christ...

View Glossary
dishonorable and to look with jealous eyes upon the standing of others— that it was the nonsense of the human heart, for a person to be aspiring to other stations than appointed of God— that it was better for individuals to magnify their respective callings, and wait patiently till God shall say to them come up higher. He said the reason of these remarks being made, was, that some little thing was circulating in the
Society

A church organization for women; created in Nauvoo, Illinois, under JS’s direction on 17 March 1842. At the same meeting, Emma Smith was elected president, and she selected two counselors; a secretary and a treasurer were also chosen. The minutes of the society...

View Glossary
, that some persons [p. [35]]
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Source Note

Document Transcript

Page [35]

Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Discourse, 28 April 1842
ID #
819
Total Pages
7
Print Volume Location
JSP, D9:400–407
Handwriting on This Page
  • Eliza R. Snow

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    See 1 Corinthians 12:1, 3.

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