History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

FIRST PRESIDENCY.
the churches, collect money, and administer to the
wants of the poor. The new translation of the bible
was again taken up and continued through the winter,
the new testament being completed and sealed up, not
to be opened till it reached Zion. 28
On January 23, 1833, the ceremony of washing feet
is instituted after John's gospel. Each elder washes
his own feet first, after which Joseph girds himself
with a towel and washes the feet of them all. "Behold,
verily, thus saith the Lord unto you, in consequence
of evils and designs, which do and will exist
in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days, I
have warned you, and forewarned you, by giving unto
you this word of wisdom by revelation, that inasmuch
as any man drinketh wine or strong drink among you,
behold it is not good, nor meet in the sight of your
father. And again, tobacco is not for the body, neither
for the belly, and it is not good for man. And
again, hot drinks are not for the body or belly."
28 Hardly had President Smith turned his back upon Zion, when dissensions
broke out among the saints there. He corresponded regularly with the Star,
giving advice and warning, but matters apparently grew worse, for in January
1833 a conference of twelve high priests was held at Kirtland, or Kirtland
Mills, as they now called their settlement, at which Orson Hyde and
Hyrum Smith were appointed to write an epistle to the brotherhood of Zion.
The document was dated Jan. 14th, and began: 'From a conference of 12 high
priests to the bishop, his council, and the inhabitants of Zion.' After premising
that Smith and certain others had written on this all-important sub-
ject, and that the replies received had not given satisfactory assurances of
confession and repentance, charges were made that old grievances, supposed
to be settled, had been again brought up in a censorious spirit, and that they
had accused Brother Smith of seeking after monarchical power and authority.
This complaint was made by Carroll in a letter dated June 2d. Again,
Brother Gilbert, on Dec. 10th, wrote a letter which contained ' low, dark, and
blind insinuations, which they declined to entertain, though the writer's
claims and pretensions to holiness were great.' Brother Phelps, Dec. 15th,
wrote a letter betraying ' a lightness of spirit that ill becomes a man placed
in the important and responsible station that he is placed in.' To a request
that Smith should come to Zion, made by Phelps in a previous letter, it was
answered that 'Brother Smith will not settle in Zion until she repent and
purify herself . . . and remember the commandments that have been given her
to do them as well as say them. ' Finally, it was threatened that unless these
disturbances should cease, they should all be cut off, and the Lord would seek
another place. Brother Ziba Peterson was delivered 'over to the buffetings
of Satan, in the name of the Lord, that he may learn not to transgress the commandments
of God.' Times and Seasotis, v. 801.
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