| 392 expected. The continued threats of death to individuals of the church, if they make their appearance in Jackson County, prevent the most of them, even at this day, from returning to that county to secure personal property which they were obliged to leave in their flight.
"On Sunday, December 15, W. W. Phelps wrote from Clay County, Missouri, to the brethren in Kirtland a letter which gives an index to the situation. 1
1 Dear Brethren:-It has been some time since I have dropped you a line, and in the midst of solitude I write. I need not give you new details of our persecutions, for, as all true Christians that have gone before us, from Abel down to the beginners of reëstablishing Zion now, have invariably suffered all manner of affliction, from common scourging even unto death. It would not alter the decrees of God, nor lessen the necessary chastisement of them that are chosen from the foundation of the world, but who have to be tried as gold seven times purified before they are found faithful and true for that kingdom, where the sons of God only are made equal with Jesus Christ, having overcome, by righteousness.
The situation of the saints, as scattered, is dubious, and affords a gloomy prospect. No regular order can be enforced; nor any usual discipline kept up-among the world; yea, the most wicked part of it, some commit one sin, and some another. (I speak of the rebellious, for there are saints that are as immovable as the everlasting hills.) And what can be done? We are in Clay, Ray, Lafayette, Jackson, Van Buren, etc., and cannot hear from each other oftener than we do from you. I know it was right that we should be driven out of the land of Zion, that the rebellious might be sent away. But brethren, if the Lord will, I should like to know what the honest in heart shall do? Our clothes are worn-out-we want the necessaries of life, and shall we lease, buy, or otherwise obtain land where we are, to till that we may raise enough to eat? Such is the common language of the honest, for they want to do the will of God. I am sensible that we shall not be able to live again in Zion, till God or the President rules out the mob.
The Governor is willing to restore us, but as the Constitution gives him no power to guard us, when back, we are not willing to go. The mob swear if we come we shall die! If, from what has been done in Zion, we, or the most of us, have got to be persecuted from city to city, and from synagogue to synagogue, we want to know it; for there are those among us that would rather earn eternal life on such conditions, than lose it. But we hope for better things; and shall wait patiently for the word of the Lord.
I do not write this letter to entertain you with news, or for to wake you up to our dreadful condition, but that you may timely give us some advice what is best to do in our tarry till Zion is redeemed. Sometimes I think I will go right to work upon a small piece of land and obtain what I want for my growing family; then again I feel like writing the horrid history of the mob against the "Mormons"-preambling it with the martyrs that have been nailed to the cross, burned alive, thrown to wild beasts and devoured, fried in pans broiled in gridirons, or beheaded for the sake of their religion and faith in Jesus Christ. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven," etc. If this world embraced much of eternity, I should soon be sick of it; but for all our sorrow we shall have joy!
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