Provo, Utah Co, Utah Territory
Brother Lyman Wight
Your letter dated Mountain Valley Augt. 4 [18]57 has just arrived,
it has been detained from us by the Army of the United States, and it has very
fortunately survived the almost universal destruction of all our Mail matter, we regret
that we could not have received your history in season for publication; a sketch which
had been prepared you will see in the Deseret News, which is now published at
Fillmore, 100 miles from this City.
The brief sketch of the History of the Twelve, had been
forwarded to the Printers, they are only intended as a synopsis, leaving each of them
the opportunity to publish the same in full, at their leisure.
Your letter has been read to George A. Smith, Amasa Lyman,
Charles C. Rich, and your two nephews Stephen and Ephraim Wight, who are all present
while I am writing this.
We have ever entertained the warmest feelings for you personally,
and regret exceedingly that your course has led you from our midst; instead of
building up ourselves, we have labored as one man to build up the Kingdom of God:
you complain that Prest. Young used the pronoun I too much to suit you. He was
the President of the Twelve, and the quorum backed him up and sustained him, you
claiming more authority than the Eleven, went your own way, we regret the result
exceedingly: it was your duty not only to council with the Twelve, but to take their
counsel.
You refer to the revelation which says "it is my will t[h]at
my servant Lyman Wight shall continue in preaching for Zion, in the spirit of meekness" &c
the spirit of meekness was the condition of the promise. "I will receive him unto myself" [Doctrine and Covenants 124:18-19]
whichwhich appears to us to be evidently wanting, when you declared in Nauvoo that you would not
turn your hand over to be one of the Twelve, and it seems to us impossible that you should
forget the caution of the Lord in the Book of Covenants in June 1831 "let my servant Lyman
Wight beware for Satan ^Brother Lyman^ desireth to sift him as chaff". Brother Lyman we ask you, to
think for a moment of the great promises made to men in ^an^ the foundation of Jany 1841 who
have fallen, or who have apostatized us and remember that all those promises are upon cond^it^ions
We will name Bennet the Lord promised to crown him with glory if he continued;
also George Miller is declared without guile, did he "continue"? William Lowe you remember
had great blessings in the same revelation, and the conditions of them all, that he continue
to observe the counsels of the Presidentcy. when Joseph was taken away, the Priesthood
continued with the quorum of the Twelve, with the fulness of the authority of the Priesthood,
and when you turned your heels against it, Satan had you in his [sive], and like chaff
you were blown away. Come back again, brother Lyman, and dwell in Zion, and
resume your duty enjoined upon you by the Lord, and preach for Zion in meekness, and
listen to the councils of the Presidency, the Church, and dare to arrogate to yourself
authority over your brethren. Brigham Young ordained you to the apostleship he was the
President of the quorum, and every member of that quorum whom Satan did not blow away
as chaff, have stood with and by him, and faced every storm with him, as you would
have done, if the light of the Spirit had been with you, "and he that gathereth not with us,
scattereth abroad".
Prest. Young by his persevering industry, untiring energy, and unexampled
faithfulness, has been enabled to gather the Saints into the mountains, to the very place that Joseph
had organized a company to explore: sent the Elders to almost every nation; translated the
book of Mormon, and the revelations into many languages, and published them to the four
quarters of the earth; and been enabled to defend the Saints from the unconstitutional aggressions
of our chief Magistrate. The God of Israel hath done [him] thus his servant Brigham, and
his faithful brethren who have stood by him while those who led away factions, have wasted
& are forgotten: many from your State and even some of your own posterity have found their way to Zion
Page 538
is
missing.
You complain that Orson Hyde, W. W. Phelps and T. B. Marsh have been received into the
Church. Hyde and Phelps were received and endowed by Joseph Smith, and we have yet to learn that
even you objected to it in his life time. Marsh lived upon [illegible] for [more] a sco[r]e of years, and finally
wandered a miserable object of pity, poor, naked, destitute and disconsolate, and appeared befo[re] a
congregation of 8000 Saints, and humbly asked them to forgive him, and let him at least dwel in
our midst; they did forgive him, and permitted him to be baptized, and he remains a member,
a living, palsied, limping spectacle of the fruits of apostacy, had you have been in the midst of
Zion, he would have asked you, as he did all the Saints, to forgive him.
You remind us that in Jackson Co., in Zion's camp, and in Caldwell, you were
called upon to lead the Armies of Israel, when they were surrounded by their enemies, the
hosts of hell; the reason you was called upon was, you was at your post, then, you was there
in the midst of Israel, valiant in the testimony of Jesus and the defence of Israel; but when the
tremendous power of one great man James Buchanan goaded on by the clamor of the people, was hurling his legions
upon the Children of Zion, ^to crush from the Earth, the Priesthood;^ and when the nerve of every faint hearted member trembled to the center,
and the bloody war cry was reiterated from every corner of Christendom "wipe out Mormonism",
where was its old defender? was he in the midst of the trouble; was he the foremost to
defend the innocent; to lift the Standard of Zion; to face the monster; fearless, and
determined to encourage the Saints in the dread encounter? or was he reclining at his
ease in the sunny plains of the far famed Elysium of bliss, Texas, writing to me and
my Brethren the Twelve, as if in bitter irony "I thought you was too popular to think
of an old codger like me."
You was cut off from the Church in the latter part of 1848, the subject
was brought up on the receipt of a pamphlet which you published against the
Authorities of the Church.
Brother Lyman come home to Zion, mingle in our midst, confess
and forsake your sins, and do right, as we and all men have to do, in order to enjoy
the favor of God, and the gift of the Holy Ghost, and have fellowship with the Saints,
then, and not 'till then, will your path be lit up so that you can walk in safety,
and be filled with the power of God, and the fire of Zion burn in your bosom,
until that time you will not be in a situation to build up Zion & defend her
interests. We all feel interested in your welfare; you have no enemies here; the
longer you stay away from us, the more alienated your feelings become; the Lord
dwells in Zion; His Spirit and power is in our midst: He has delivered us and
given us the victory up to the present day, and we acknowledge his hand in all
these things.
Brothers G. A. Smith, A. Lyman, C. C. Rich and your nephews Ephraim
and Stephen Wight, all wish to be remembered to you with the best of feelings:
we all respect you for you gallant course in defending your brethren against their
persecutors in times past, and trust that the day is not far distant when we
may again see you a humble man, with your brethren in Zion building up the
Kingdom of God.
We shall be pleased to receive a letter from you at any time.
Yours truly
W. Woodruff