EXTRACT FROM LETTER OF ORSON HYDE TO EBENEZER ROBINSON, SEPTEMBER 19, 1844

Steam Boat North Bend,
Sept. 19th, 1844.

BRO. E. ROBINSON, * * *
You have probably received something by way of counsel from Nauvoo from Brother Young, if so, I trust you will regard it as coming from "the proper source." We have had a charge given us by our prophet, and that charge we intend to honor and magnify. It was given in March last. He said, "let no man take your crown, and though you should have to walk into death, fear not, neither be dismayed." "You have to die but once." "To us were committed the Keys of the Kingdom, and every gift, key and power, that Joseph ever had," confirmed upon our heads by an annointing, which Bro. Rigdon never did receive.
We know the charge which the prophet gave us, and the responsibility which the Spirit of the living God laid on us through him, and we know that Elder Rigdon does not know what it was. We have counted the cost of the stand we have taken, and have firmly and unitedly, with prayer and with fasting--with signs and with tokens, with garments and with girdle, decreed in the name of Jesus Christ, that we will honor our calling, and faithfully carry out the measures of the prophet so far as we have power, relying on the arm of God for strength in every time of need. * * *
I know that the curse of God will fall upon ebery one that tries to give us trouble or to weaken our hands in the work in which we are engaged, for this promise we have obtained from ther Lord in solemn convocation. * * *
I want you to read this letter to the Saints in Pittsburg, not to the world.
My kind love to all the Saints, to yourself and family.
Yours truly,
O. HYDE.

Letter of Orson Hyde to Ebenezer Robinson, September 19, 1844, as cited in "Utah Not Responsible," The Return 2, no. 4 (April 1890):253, emphasis retained.


NOTE

Sidney Rigdon, a member of the First Presidency, received his first anointing and endowment on May 11, 1844.

The following apostles did not receive their second anointing prior to March 1844:
William Smith (endowed May 12, 1844)
John E. Page (did not receive his endowment in the lifetime of Joseph Smith)
Lyman Wight (endowed May 14, 1844)


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