| 558 On December 4 and 5 a conference was held at Ramus, at which time the organization of the Ramus stake was discontinued.
December 13, the Twelve wrote an important epistle on baptism for the dead, temple building, and church rejection. By this epistle it appears that the Twelve understood as early as December 13, 1841, that unless the temple was completed speedily the rejection
the confines of a Missouri prison, where I had been thrust together with about sixty of my brethren, solely because we would not renounce the religion of heaven, Bro. D. C. Smith and myself purchased the remains of a printing establishment, had by the church in Missouri, which had been saved from the ruins by being buried in the earth, and after having carefully extracted the polluted soil of Missouri from the press and type, which, by the by, like ourselves, were none the better for having passed through the scrutinizing ordeal of an ungodly mob, we issued a prospectus for publishing this paper, under circumstances the most adverse possible. The only place we could obtain wherein to put our press was an underground room to an old warehouse, without any floor, and almost destitute of light. Here we succeeded in issuing a few copies of the paper, when disease (which we had contracted while laboring in a damp room) brought us upon our sick beds, and we were compelled to suspend business for several months. However, in the month of November we were permitted, through the blessings of a kind Providence, again to issue the paper, which has been published until the present time without interruption, notwithstanding two good and mighty men have fallen while acting as its editors.
The Times and Seasons is now placed on a permanent basis, with a liberal patronage, and its circulation is daily increasing. The building in which it is published was erected expressly for a printing establishment, with spacious rooms, where each branch can be carried on in its own department, without interfering with the other. The church also is in a flourishing and prosperous condition-more so than at any previous period since its rise; naught but joy and gladness seems to pervade the bosoms of the saints, and peace and happiness attend all their footsteps.
Under these circumstances I now take leave of the editorial department of the Times and Seasons, having disposed of my entire interest in the printing establishment, bookbindery, and stereotype foundry, and they are transferred into other hands. The editorial chair will be filled by our esteemed brother, President Joseph Smith, assisted by Elder John Taylor, of the Quorum of the Twelve, under whose able and talented guidance this will become the most interesting and useful religious journal of the day.
With these considerations I feel confident that the agents and friends of the Times and Seasons will exert themselves to support the press knowing that while it is under the supervision of him whom God has chosen to lead his people in the last days, all things will go right.
With these brief remarks, and a bosom filled with kind and grateful feelings towards all my friends, I will say to the patrons of the Times Farewell. E. ROBINSON.
NAUVOO, February 15, 1842.
-Times and Seasons vol. 3, pp. 695, 696.
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