JAN 1st 1861
This is the commencement of another new Year and of a vary
important year. Joseph Smith the Prophet said whoever lived to
see 1860 would live to see the foundation laid for some most awful
bloody wars and whoever lived to see those two figgures come together
1866 would live to see a day when the Earth would be deluged in blood
in many places & wthere would be such awful distress & calamity that
it would be a vexation to hear the report of it. We may prepare
ourselves for an awful time in the United States. The hand writing has
been seen upon the wall And our Nations is doomed to diestruction
the United States will be visited this year with much affliction
more than they have ever seen since they have been a Free Govern[men]t
and it will increase yearly untill they are destroyed. they are like
the Ox going to the slaughter they know not the day of their visitation
The Judgments of God await them because of their wickedness and
while we are looking for the judgments of God to rest upon the
United States & Great Babylon at large let us turn our Eyes towards
Zion in these vallies of the Mountains and ask what state are the
people in are they righteous & keeping the commandments of God
and preparing themselves for the great things of God which await
them or are they lying, stealing, swareing, & mingling with the
drunken yes many of those who are calling themselves
Saints are doing these things and they have great need to repent
before the Lord. or they will Be damned & the Judgments of
God will rest upon them
JAN 1st 1861
This is the commencement of another new Year and of a vary
important year. Joseph Smith the Prophet said whoever lived to
see 1860 would live to see the foundation laid for some most awful
bloody wars and whoever lived to see those two figures come together
1866 would live to see a day when the Earth would be deluged in blood
in many places &there would be such awful distress & calamity that
it would be a vexation to hear the report of it. We may prepare
ourselves for an awful time in the United States. The hand writing has
been seen upon the wall And our Nation is doomed to destruction
the United States will be visited this year with much affliction
more than they have ever seen since they have been a Free Government
and it will increase yearly untill they are destroyed. they are like
the Ox going to the slaughter they know not the day of their visitation
The Judgments of God await them because of their wickedness and
while we are looking for the judgments of God to rest upon the
United States & Great Babylon at large let us turn our Eyes towards
Zion in these vallies of the Mountains and ask what state are the
people in are they righteous & keeping the commandments of God
and preparing themselves for the great things of God which await
them or are they lying, stealing, swareing, & mingling with the
drunken yes many of those who are calling themselves
Saints are doing these things and they have great need to repent
before the Lord. or they will Be damned & the Judgments of
God will rest upon them
"Journal (January 1, 1860 – October 22, 1865)," January 1, 1861, The Wilford Woodruff Papers, accessed April 30, 2024, https://www.wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/p/GZmJ