| 259 you I would tell you many things. . . I hope you will excuse me for writing this letter so soon after writing, for I feel as if I wanted to say something to you, to comfort you in your peculiar trial and present affliction. I hope God will give you strength that you may not faint. I pray God to soften the hearts of those around you to be kind to you and take the burden off your shoulders as much as possible, and not afflict you. I feel for you, for I know your state and that others do not; but you must comfort yourself knowing that God is your friend in heaven, and that you have one true and living friend on earth, your husband,
"JOSEPH SMITH."
In this letter, not intended for the public eye or ear, hence which could not have been written with any thought of deception, we recognize not only the sentiments of a tender and affectionate husband and father, but also of a man who could with supreme confidence in God trust these loved ones, even in the darkest trial, to his loving-kindness and tender care.
As soon as his obligations would permit he hurried home, if possible to be with his wife in her approaching trial. He reached Kirtland on Tuesday, November 6, immediately after his son Joseph was born.
This was their fourth child; one son was born to them at Harmony, Pennsylvania, in July, 1828, who died at birth. Early in 1831 they lost a pair of twins at Kirtland, who also died at birth. In place of these they adopted the motherless twins of Elder Murdock, one of whom died as before-related; the other is the Julia spoken of in the letter from New York.
On Tuesday, November 27, Joseph wrote W. W. Phelps as follows:-
"It is contrary to the will and commandment of God that those who receive not their inheritance by consecration, agreeably to his law, which he has given that he may tithe his people to prepare them against the day of vengeance and burning, should have their names enrolled with the people of God; neither is their genealogy to be kept, or to be had where it may be found on any of the
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