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Minutes and Discourse, 9 June 1842

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Minutes and Discourse, 9 June 1842

Source Note

Female Relief Society of Nauvoo, Minutes, and JS, Discourse, , Hancock Co., IL, 9 June 1842. Featured version copied [ca. 9 June 1842] in Relief Society Minute Book, pp. [61]–[68], handwriting of ; CHL. For more complete source information, see the source note for Nauvoo Relief Society Minute Book.

Historical Introduction

On 9 June 1842, JS delivered a discourse on mercy to the . He opened the society’s eleventh meeting, held in the near the , with prayer and then addressed the assembled women. He began his discourse by reiterating counsel he had given them in March 1842, shortly after the Relief Society was organized. In that discourse, as well as in this 9 June sermon, he expressed concern that some who had been admitted may not have been worthy of membership. He continued his 9 June discourse by counseling the women to be charitable, humble, and merciful. JS briefly interrupted his discourse to give the Relief Society time to receive new members; he then continued his address. He emphasized that the purpose of the Relief Society was not only to relieve the poor, but also to reform the repentant and save souls. He concluded by offering to provide the society with a city lot and an unfinished house they could use to begin building homes for the poor.
As secretary of the Relief Society, recorded an account of JS’s discourse in her minutes for the 9 June 1842 meeting. Although the original loose minutes she took are no longer extant, Snow copied the minutes, including her account of JS’s discourse, into the Relief Society Minute Book, probably shortly after this meeting.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Discourse, 31 Mar. 1842; see also Relief Society Minute Book, 31 Mar. 1842, in Derr et al., First Fifty Years of Relief Society, 42–46.

    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.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation.
*Minutes and Discourse, 9 June 1842
Nauvoo Relief Society Minute Book History, 1838–1856, volume C-1 Addenda “History of Joseph Smith”

Page [61]

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, June 9th.
J. Smith opened the meeting by pray’r and proceeded to address the congregation on the design of the Institution— said it is no matter how fast the Society increases if all are virtuous— that we must be as particular with regard to the character of members, as when the Society first started— that sometimes persons wish to put themselves into a Society of this kind, when they do not intend to pursue the ways of purity and righteousness, as if the Society would be a shelter to them in their iniquity.
Prest. S. said that henceforth no person shall be admitted but by presenting regular petition signed by two or three members in good standing in the Society— whoever comes in must be of good report.
Harriet Luce and Mary Luce were receiv’d into the Society by recommend.
Objections previously made against Mahala Overton were remov’d— after which Prest Smith continued his address— said he was going to preach mercy Supposing that Jesus Christ and angels should object to us on frivolous things, what would become of us? We must be merciful and overlook small things.
Respecting the reception of Sis. Overton, Prest. Smith It grieves me that there is no fuller fellowship— if one member suffer all feel it— by union of feeling we obtain pow’r with God. Christ said he came to call sinners to repentance and save them. Christ was condemn’d by the righteous jews because he took sinners into his society— he took them <​up​>on the principle that they [p. [61]]
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Page [61]

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Document Information

Related Case Documents
Editorial Title
Minutes and Discourse, 9 June 1842
ID #
851
Total Pages
8
Print Volume Location
JSP, D10:130–134
Handwriting on This Page
  • Eliza R. Snow

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    In March 1842, shortly after the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo had been founded, JS counseled the women that the society was growing too rapidly and proposed “a close examination of every candidate” to ensure that “none should be received into the Society but those who were worthy.” He further cautioned them to proceed slowly, so that they might have “a select Society of the virtuous and those who will walk circumspectly,” and warned them to be “extremely careful in all their examinations or the consequences would be serious.” (Discourse, 31 Mar. 1842.)

  2. [2]

    In a later account, Eliza R. Snow echoed JS’s sentiment: “The Society soon became so popular that even those of doubtful character in several instances applied for admission, and to prevent imposition by extending membership to such ones inadvertently, stricter rules were adopted than seemed requisite at first. Each one wishing to join the Society was required to present a certificate of her good moral character, signed by two or more responsible persons.” (Eliza R. Snow, “The Female Relief Society,” Woman’s Exponent, 15 June 1872, 1:10. For an example of these petitions, see Susan Cuthbertson, Application to Nauvoo Female Relief Society, ca. Sept. 1843, in Derr et al., First Fifty Years of Relief Society, 149–150.)

    Woman’s Exponent. Salt Lake City. 1872–1914.

    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]

    Harriet Luce was married to John Luce. The couple had joined the church by April 1838 and moved to Nauvoo in 1841. Mary Wheeler Luce and her husband, Stephen Luce, joined the church in 1838 in Vinalhaven, Maine, and moved to Nauvoo by 1840. John and Stephen were brothers, making Harriet and Mary Luce sisters-in-law. (Woodruff, Journal, 13 Jan. and 7 Apr. 1838; 22 Aug. 1841; “List of Property in the City of Nauvoo,” 1841, Nauvoo, IL, Records, CHL; 1840 U.S. Census, Hancock Co., IL, 182; Ward, “Female Relief Society of Nauvoo,” 151–152; see also Wood, “Utah’s Forgotten Pioneer,” 234–243.)

    Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

    Nauvoo, IL. Records, 1841–1845. CHL. MS 16800.

    Census (U.S.) / U.S. Bureau of the Census. Population Schedules. Microfilm. FHL.

    Ward, Maurine Carr. “‘This Institution Is a Good One’: The Female Relief Society of Nauvoo, 17 March 1842 to 16 March 1844.” Mormon Historical Studies 3 (Fall 2002): 87–203.

    Wood, David Lyle. “Utah’s Forgotten Pioneer of 1847.” Journal of Mormon History 41, no. 2 (Apr. 2015): 226–258.

  4. [4]

    Mahala Ann Wallace Overton married Moses Overton in 1826. They moved to Jackson County, Missouri, by 1832. Mahala was widowed in 1834, and she and her children endured the forced expulsion of the Saints from Missouri in 1838. (Derr et al., First Fifty Years of Relief Society, 662; Patriarchal Blessings, vol. 3, p. 77; Johnson, Mormon Redress Petitions, 510.)

    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.

    Patriarchal Blessings, 1833–. CHL. CR 500 2.

    Johnson, Clark V., ed. Mormon Redress Petitions: Documents of the 1833–1838 Missouri Conflict. Religious Studies Center Monograph Series 16. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1992.

  5. [5]

    JS gave similar counsel in a discourse to the Relief Society two weeks earlier. (See Discourse, 26 May 1842.)

  6. [6]

    See Mark 2:14–17; and Luke 5:27–32.

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