Death of Col. R. B. Thompson

City of Nauvoo August 28th, 1841.

Br. Robinson:-

Allow me to say a few words upon the melancholy occasion of the death of our lamented Brother R. B. Thompson. A man whom it has pleased our heavenly Father to take from us at a time when his services were needed more, if possible, than they had been at any time previous. But he is gone-gone to that "bourne from whence no traveler returns." We have the assurance however that he died firm in the faith of the gospel; in the hope of a glorious resurrection. Having been through all the persecution in Missouri, he very well knew was suffering for the sake of his religion was, but to his honor be it said, he never for one moment turned to the right or left, but kept a straight forward course. He had many trials and tribulations to encounter, but they were counted as nought [naught] in comparison to the blessings of heaven. A Merciful Providence who had given the church such a useful man, in his own wise purpose has taken him from us-Let us not complain but console ourselves with the reflection, that "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord." Let us be prepared that on the morning of the first resurrection, we may be found among those who have fought the good fight and been as firm and steadfast as our deceased brother.

To you his loss must be severely felt, for but a few days since, we were called upon to announce the death of our esteemed brother Don Carlos Smith, and now ere the lapse of another number of the paper, we are called upon to announce the death of its other Editor. But you have the consolation that he was one of the Lord's chosen, and he must have taken him for some wise purpose. But deeply must his loss be felt by the church at large; in him she has lost one of her brightest ornaments, one of her ablest advocates,

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and one of her distinguished writers. It was his constant desire and greatest happiness to promulgate the gospel to his fellow man, and show them the way of eternal life, that they too might be saved in the kingdom of heaven, and receive that crown prepared for those who hold out faithful to the end.

He has left an affectionate wife and one child to mourn his loss. To that God who has been so kind and merciful to us thus far, would we ask to be a father to the fatherless, and a husband to the widow. In him they have lost every thing that was dear in a husband and parent-ever kind and affectionate. But they will look forward to that happy period when they shall again meet in a brighter and better world, where the "weary are at rest and the wicked cease from troubling."

May we who survive our departed friend & brother, study to imitate the good examples he has set, that when we shall stand before the bar of God, we may with our departed friend, receive the welcome plaudit of, "Come up hither ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you, from the foundation of the world."

Yours in the bonds of the new and Everlasting Covenant,

W. Waterman Phelps.