Minutes and Discourse, 1–5 October 1841
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Source Note
General Conference of the Church, Minutes, and JS, Discourse, , Hancock Co., IL, 1–5 Oct. 1841. Featured version published in “Minutes of a Conference of the Church,” Times and Seasons, 15 Oct. 1841, vol. 2, no. 24, 576–580. For more complete source information, see the source note for Letter to Isaac Galland, 22 Mar. 1839.
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Historical Introduction
In early October 1841 in , Illinois, JS presided over a general of the , the minutes of which were published in the Times and Seasons. The conference was supposed to commence on 1 October but was delayed due to inclement weather that prevented the congregation from assembling at the meeting ground near the Nauvoo . Over the next four days, the conference met each morning and afternoon. The first meeting of the conference, held on the morning of 2 October, was conducted without the members of the , who were attending the cornerstone ceremony for the . JS attended and presided over all the meetings that followed, in which church leaders and members conducted a variety of business. Among the many matters discussed and voted upon were filling vacant church leadership positions, the counsel to to the Nauvoo area and the neglect of some Saints to follow that counsel, and the petitioning of Congress regarding the Saints’ expulsion from .On 3 October, JS gave a discourse at the conference on the church’s practice of for the dead, whereby church members were baptized on behalf of their deceased relatives. In accordance with a January 1841 revelation—which instructed that baptisms for the dead should be performed in the —JS announced, “There shall be no more baptisms for the dead, until the can be attended to in the font of the Lord’s House; and the church shall not hold another general conference, until they can meet in said house.” JS counseled church members to direct their energies to building the house of the Lord.and were appointed as secretaries of the conference. Their notes were apparently combined to create the minutes that were then published in the 15 October 1841 issue of the Times and Seasons.
Footnotes
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1
For more on the Nauvoo House cornerstone, see Memorandum, 2 Oct. 1841.
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2
See Letter to the Saints Abroad, 24 May 1841; and Letter from Almon Babbitt, 19 Oct. 1841.
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3
See Revelation, 19 Jan. 1841 [D&C 124:29–32].
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his mission, which was listened to with intense interest; and the cenference, by vote, expressed their approbation of the style and spirit of said letter. The President then made remarks on the inclemency of the weather and the uncomfortable situation of the with regard to a place of worship, and a place of public entertainment.
The was then called upon by the President, to elect a general church Clerk in place of deceased. Conference made choice of . Br. then called upon the conference to elect a of the ’s , in place of , deceased. Br. was nominated and duly elected.
Br. then presented to the notice of the conference, the business commenced at a late special conference, with regard to the appointment of suitable and faithful men to the several important stations of labor in this and other countries.
Br. then addressed the conference on the importance of order and uniformity of instruction, and, of a unanimity of effort to spread the work of the kingdom. Joseph Smith then made some corrections of doctrine in quoting a passage from 1 Cor. 12, 28, showing it to be a principle of order or gradation in rising from one office to another in the .
Br. made remarks disapprobatory of the course pursued by some , in withstanding the efforts of the Presidency to the saints, and in enticing them to stop in places not appointed for the gathering; particularly the conduct of Elder of . Brs. and having travelled in places where Br. had been in his journeying eastward from his visit to , testified that he had in many places taught doctrine contrary to the revelations of God and detrimental to the interest of the church.
Moved, seconded and carried that Elder be disfellowshiped by the conference as an Elder till such time as he shall make satisfaction.
Closed with singing by the choir, Hymn 124—and prayer by Br. .
Conference adjourned till to-morrow morning, 9 o’clock.
Sunday 3rd, A. M. Conference assembled and was called to order by , and divine service commenced by the choir singing Hymn 274 and prayer by Br. .
President Joseph Smith, by request of some of the , gave instructions on the doctrine of for the Dead; which was listened to with intense interest by the large assembly. The speaker presented “Baptism for the Dead” as the only way that men can appear as saviors on mount Zion. The proclamation of the first principles of the gospel was a means of salvatien to men individually, and it was the truth, not men that saved them; but men, by actively engaging in rites of salvation substitutionally, became instrumental in bringing multitudes of their kin into the kingdom of God. He explained a difference between an angel and a ministering spirit; the one a resurrected or translated body, with its spirit, ministering to embodied spirits—the other a disembodied spirit, visiting and ministering to disembodied spirits. Jesus Christ became a minestering spirit, while his body laying in the sepulchre, to the spirits in prison; to fulfil an important part of his mission, without which he could not have perfected his work or entered into his rest. After his resurrection, he appeared as an angel to his disciples &c. Translated bodies cannot enter into rest until they have undergone a change equivalent to death. Translated bodies are designed for future missions. The angel that appeared to John on the Isle of Patmos was a translated or resurrected body.— Jesus Christ went in body, after his resurrection, to minister to translated and resurrected bodies. There has been a chain of authority and power from Adam down to the present time. The only way to obtain truth and wisdom, is not to ask it from books, but to go to God in prayer and obtain divine teaching. It is no more incredible that God should save the dead, than that he should raise the dead. There is never a time when the spirit is too old to approach God. All are within the reach of pardoning mercy, who have not committed the unpardonable sin, which hath no forgiveness, neither in this world, nor in the world to come. There is a way to release the spirit of the dead; that is, by the power and authority of the Priesthood—by binding and loosing on earth [p. 577]
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