| 519 TIMES AND SEASONS
"TRUTH WILL PREVAIL"
Vol. 2. No. 21.] CITY OF NAUVOO, ILL. Sept. 1st, 1841 [Whole No. 33.
Times and Seasons.
City of Nauvoo,
Wednesday, 1st, 1841.
Death of Col. Robert B. Thompson.
With feelings, too pungent to be expressed, we have to record the death of our esteemed and much beloved Brother Robert Blatsell Thompson.
Br. Thompson was just in the prime of life, having attained to his 30th year-for the last five or six years he had been a faithful and an efficient Elder of this church; laboring incesantly [incessantly] for the cause of truth, for which he has now gone to receive his reward-nearly two years past, he had officiated as scribe to President J. Smith, and Clerk for the church, which important stations he filled with that dignity and honor befitting a man of God; being always ready to pursue the ardious [arduous] duties assigned him, with cheerfulness and pleasure. He had also become familiar to our readers, by acting as an assistant, to our deeply lamented and deceased Brother, Don Carlos Smith, in editing this paper; by his pen was the obituary notice of Bro. Smith, published in our last, written, in apparent good health. Just 20 days from the death of the latter, he departs this life in the triumphs of faith, bearing testimony, in his dying moments of the truth of the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and of the faith of the new and everlasting covenant; rejoicing greatly, that his time had come, when he too could go, and be at rest in the paradise of God.
His sudden demise is a faithful monitor, to us who remain, that "in life we are in the midst of death;" it therefore, becomes us to be always ready, for in an unexpected hour the messenger calls and we must obey.
We refer our friends to the following communication from the pen of President Wm. Law.
Bro. Robinson:
You will please set forth in the Times and Seasons, the following mournful communication, even the death of our much beloved and deeply lamented Brother Robert. B. Thompson, which melancholy event took place at his residence in Nauvoo, on the morning of the 27 ultimo, at ten o'clock, in the 30th year of his age.
The deceased had been ill for ten or twelve days, but his friends fondly hoped that he would soon recover-When alas! he was taken from us, as it were in a moment, suddenly. As a prince falleth, so he fell in his youthful manhood; when the flowers of his genius had began to spread forth in resplendent beauty, and in power; and to shed their rich fragance [fragrance] abroad upon the world.
Permit me, if you please, to speak somewhat of his virtues, (now that he is gone,) in as much as I knew him long and well; I knew him when he was but as a babe in the church and kingdom of our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. His zeal was untiring, and his mind was swallowed up in his strong desire to promote the cause of righteousness, and the happiness of his fellow man; and although but a youth, he met and vanquished, (in strong debate,) such hireling priests as were led (through fear of their craft,) to oppose the sacred truths which he was then engaged in promulging [promulgating]; this was in Upper Canada. We next find him in the State of Missouri, in the day when the enemy was upon our people; shrinks he in that hour of danger! No! ah no! but he exposes his delicate form in the field of battle, in unequal combat with a deadly foe; to shield the innocent, to protect helpless women and children from the bloody hands of a ruthless mob, and for his holy religion.
After being driven from his pleasant home in the State of Missouri, (ever true to his religous [religious] faith and to his friends,) we find him in the bosom of the church at Nauvoo, in the friendly state of Illinois, toiling amidst sickness and distress, to support his family, and to administer to the needy, the widows and the fatherless; (made such by the cruelties of Gov. Boggs and his vile associates.) Nor was his pen idle, in the public prints he sets forth our wrongs and suffering in Missouri, in language so touching as to melt into sympathy the hearts of the generous sons and daughters of Illinois.
As one of the editors of the Times and Seasons he manifested a rich talent, and a strong disposition to promote the cause of truth.
Amidst all his sorrows and afflictions he was never heard to murmur or complain, but always expressed his implicit confidence in the arm of the mighty God of Jacob. He was a fond husband, a tender parent and a true and faithful friend.
Ascribe to Pres't. Joseph Smith, he discharged
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