Show secured HISTORY OF JOSEPH SMITH Ali minutes of a me meeting kino q of the members of the kirtland safety society held on OH the 2nd and day of january 1837 at a special meeting of the kirtland safety society two thirds of afi the members being present S rigdon was called to the chair and W parrish chosen secretary the house was called to order and the object of the meeting explained by the chairman which was t to 0 annul the old constitution which was adopted by the society on the 2nd and day of november 1836 which was on motion by the unanimous voice voice of the meeting annulled I 1 ano 2nd to adopt articles of agreement by which the kirtland safety society are to be governed after much discussion and investigation the following preamble and articles of agreement were af adopted opted by the unanimous voice of the meeting we the undersigned undersigner under signed subscribers for the promotion of our temporal interests and for the better management of our different occupations which consist in agriculture mechanical arts and merchandising izing do hereby form ourselves into a firm or company for the before mentioned objects by the name of the kirtland safety society anti banking company and for the proper management or of said baid firm we individually y and jointly enter into and adopt the following articles of agreement art the capital stock of said society or firm shall not be less than four millions of dollars to be divided into shares of fifty dollars each and may be increased to any amount at the discretion of the managers art 2nd and the management of said company shall be under the superintendence of thirty two managers to be chosen annually by and from among the members of the same each member being entitled to one vote for each share which he she or they may hold in said company and said votes may may be given by proxy or in propria persona art 3rd ard it shall be the duty of said managers when chosen to elect from their number a treasurer and secretary it shall be the further duty of said managers to meet in the ta upper room of the office of said company on the first mondays of november and may of each year sear at 9 a in to inspect the books of said company and transact such other business as may be deemed necessary art ath it shall be the duty of said mana gers to choose from among among 11 their number seven men who shall meet in the upper room of said office on tuesday of each week at 4 p in to inquire into and assist in all matters matter pertaining to said company art ath each manager shall receive from the company one dollar per day for his hia services when called together at the annual and semiannual mee meetings tinas D the treasurer ind and secretary and theaven the seven even s the comm committee attee of the managers shall receive a compensation for their services as shall be agreed by the managers at their semiannual semi annual meetings art ath the first election of managers as set forth in the 2nd and article shall take place at the meeting of the members to adopt this agreement gre re ement who shall hold their offices ai until the first grat monday 0 of november 1837 unless removed by death or and until others are duly elected every annual election of managers shall take place on the first monday of november in each year it shall be the duty of the treasurer and secretary of said company to receive the votes of the members by ballot ballot and declare the election art ath the books of the company shall be always open for the inspection of the members art ath it shall be the duty of the managers of the company to declare a dividend once in six months which dividend shall be apportioned among the members according to the ahr instalments installments by them paid in art ath all persons subscribing stock in sa said id firm shall pay their first instalment installment at the time of subscribing and other instalments installments from time to time as shall be required by the managers art the managers shall give thirty days notice in in some public paper printed in this county previous to an instalment installment being paid in all subscribers residing out of the state shall be required to pay in half the amount of their subscriptions at the time of subscribing and the remainder or such part thereof as shall be required at any time by the managers after thirty days notice art leth the treasurer shall be empowered to call special meetings of the managers whenever he shall deem it necessary separate ep arate and aside from the annual and semiannual semi annual meetings art irth two thirds of the managers shall form a quorum to act at the semiannual semi annual meetings and any number of the seven the committee of the managers with the treasurer and secretary or either of them may form a quorum to transact business at the weekly meetings and in case none of the seven are present at the weekly meetings the treasurer and secretary must transact the business art irth tho the managers shall have power to 10 enact such bylaws by laws as they may deem necessary from time to time ime provided they do not infringe upon these articles of agreement art irth all notes given by said society shall be signed by the treasurer and secretary thereof and we the individual members of said saia firm hereby hold ourselves bound for the redemption demp tion of all such notes art gifth the notes given for the benefit of said s society shall be given to the treasurer in the following form ninety days after date we jointly and severally promise to pay A B or order dollars and cents value received A record of which shall be made in the books at the time of the amount and by whom given and when due and deposited with the files and papers of said society art irth any article in this agreement may be altered at any time annulled added unto or expunge expunged d by the vote of two thirds of the members of said society except the irth article that shall remain dalt unaltered ered during the existence of said company for the true and faithful fulfilment fulfillment ot of the above covenant and agreement wo we individually bind ourselves to each other under the penal sum rum of one hand red thousand dollars in witness whereof we h have av hereunto set our hands and seals the day and bdate date first above written in connection with the above articles of agreement of the kirtland safety society 51 I 1 published the following remarks to all who were preparing themselves and appointing their wise men for the purpose of building up zion and her stakes in in tho the january number of the messenger and advocate it is wisdom and according to the minds of the holy spirit that you ou should call at kirtland and receive council I 1 and instruction upon those principles that are necessary to further the great work of the lord and to establish the children of the kingdom according to the oracles of god as they are had among us and further we invite the brethren from abroad to call on us and take stock in our safety society and we would remind them also of the sayings of isaiah contained in the chapter and more particularly the ath and verses which ar are as follows surely the isles shall wait for me and the ships of first and to bring thy sons from far their silver and their gold not their bank notes with them unto the name of the lord thy god and to the holy one of israel because he hath glorified thee for brass I 1 will bring gold and for iron I 1 will bring silver and for wood brass and for stones iron I 1 will also make thy officers peace and thine ex actors righteousness 55 I 1 also chapter verse for zions sake I 1 will not hold my peace and for Jeru sake I 1 will not rest until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness and aid the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth 11 J SMITH junior during the winter the house of the lord at kirtland was filled to overflowing with attentive hearers mostly communicants and in the evenings of the same the singers met under the direction of elders luman carter and jonathan I 1 unior who gave instructions in the principles of vocal music on monday evenings ings the quorum of high priests meet in ia the west room of the attic story where they transact the business of their particular quorum on tuesday evenings the seventies occupy the same room on wednesday evenings the rooms axe are occupied by the quorum of elders and on thursday pm a prayer meeting is held in the lo 10 lower part of the housa hous free for all though generally conducted by patriarch joseph smith senior the twelve the high council and other quorums qu generally gendral meet each week to 0 transact business and during the week the kirtland high school is taught in the attic story by H M hawes esq professor of the greek and latin languages the school numbers from 1 35 to students divided into three departments the classics where the labrum languages 0 only are taught the english department where mathematics common arithmetic geography english grammar writing C and reading re adino are taught and the juvenile department tae the last two having each au an assistant instructor the school commenced in november and on the first wednesday in january the several classes passed a public examination in presence of the trustees of of the school parents and guardians and their progress in study was wag found of the highest order owing to the multiplicity of letters with which I 1 was crowded from almost every quarter I 1 was compelled to decline decelino all not postpaid and gave notice of the same in the messenger the brethren in missouri were very busy in gathering into caldwell county entering united states land building houses douses and preparing to put in crops in the spring on the first of february 1837 the firm of 0 cowdery co was dissolved by mutual consent and the entire establishment was transferred to joseph smith junior and sidney rigdon and warren 0 cowdery acted a as their agent in the printing office and bookbindery book bi bindery and editor of the messenger and advocate advocates 7 during the quarter ending march the ad 32 elders 7 priests 3 teachers and 2 deacons licenses were recorded in the license records in kirtland by ayt T burdick A short notice only was given that a solemn assembly would be called of the official members of the church on the ath of april for the purpose of washing anointing washing of feet rec receiving biving instructions and the further farther organization of the ministry meetings were held by the different quorums on monday ad tuesday ath and wednesday ath to anoint such of their respective members as had not been washed and anointed that all might be prepared for the meeting on the sixth at an early hour on thursday the sixth th the official members assembled in the house of the lord when the time for the first two or three hours was spent by the different quorums in washing of feet singing praying and preparing to receive instruction instruction from the presidency the presidents together with the seventies and their pr presidents si dents ie repaired paired to the west room in the attic story where for want of time the preceding evening it became necessary to seal th the e anointing of those who had recently been anointed and not sealed another subject of vital importance to the church was the establishing the grades of the different quorums qu it was ascertained that all but one or two of the presidents of the seventies were high priests and when they had ordained and set apart from the quorum of elders into the quorum of seventies they had conferred upon them the high priesthood also this was declared to be wrong and not according to the order of heaven new ew presidents of the seventies were accordingly ordained to fill the places of such of them as were high priests and the ex officio presidents and such of the seventies as had been legally ordained to the high priesthood were directed to unite with the high priests all the quorums gorums then assembled 2 in the lower room of the lords house where they were addressed by the presidents from the stand president joseph smith junior addressed the assembly and said that the Melchi sedek high priesthood was no other than the priesthood of the son of god that there are certain ordinances which belong to the priesthood from which flow certain results that th the presidents or presidency are over the ch church archand and revelations of the mind and will of god to the church are to come through the presidency this thia is the order of heaven and the power and privilege of this priesthood it is also the privilege lep of any officer in this church to obtain revelations so far as relates to his particular calling and duty in the church all are bound by the principles of virtue and happiness but one great privilege of the priesthood is to obtain revelations of the mind and will off of god it is also the privilege 0 of the MAbi sedek priesthood to reprove rebuke and admonish as well as to receive revelations if the church knew all the commandments one half they would condemn through 0 prejudice and ignorance A high priest is a member of the same mel chi ebi sedek priesthood with the presidency but not of the same power or authority in the church the seventies are also members of the same priesthood are a sort of traveling council or priesthood and may preside over a church or churches until a high priest can be had the seventies are to be taken from the quorum of elders and are not to be high priests they are subject to the direction and di dictation of the twelve who have of the ministry all are to preach the gospel by and influence ot of the holy lhost and no man can preach the gospel without the hol holy y ghost the bishop is a high priest and necessarily so s 0 because he is to preside over that particular branch of church affairs that are denominated the lesser priesthood and because we have no direct lineal descendant of aaron to whom it would of richt right belong this is the same or a branch of t the e same priesthood which may be illustrated by the figure of the human body which has different members which have different offices to perform all are necessary in their place and the body is not complete without all the members from a retrospect of the requirements of the servants of god to preach the gospel we find few qualified even to be priests and if a priest understands his duty his calling and ministry and preaches by the holy ghost his enjoyment is as great as if he were one of the presidency and his services are necessary in the body as are also those of teachers and deacons th therefore in viewing the church as a whole we may strictly denominate it one priesthood I 1 frequently rebuke and admonish my brethren and that because I 1 love them not because because I 1 wish to incur their displeasure or mar their happiness such a course of conduct is is not calculated to gain the goodwill good will of all but rather the ill will of many therefore the situ aaion in which I 1 stand is an important one so you see brethren the higher the authority the greater the difficulty of the station but these rebukes and admonitions become necessary necess necessary arv from the perverseness of the brethren for their temporal as well as spiritual welfare they actually constitute a part of the duties of my station and calling others have other duties to perform that are important and far less enviable and may be just as good like the feet and hands in their relation to the human bod body Y neither can claim priority or say to the other I 1 have no need of you after all that has been said the greatest and most important duty is to preach the gospel there are many causes of embarrassment of a pecan pecuniary iary nature now pressing upon the heads of the church they began poor were needy destitute and were truly afflicted by their enemies yet the lord commanded them to go forth and preach the gospel gosp fil to sacrifice their |