Notice was this day given to John C. Bennett, that the First Presidency, Twelve, and Bishops had withdrawn fellowship from him, and were about to publish him in the paper, but on his humbling himself, and begging we would spare him from the paper, for his mother's sake, the notice was withdrawn from the paper. [Sidenote: Confessions of John C. Bennett.] _Thursday, 26_.--This forenoon I attended a meeting of nearly a hundred of the brethren in the Lodge Room, to whom John C. Bennett acknowledged his wicked and licentious conduct toward certain females in Nauvoo, and that he was worthy of the severest chastisements, and cried like a {19} child, and begged that he might be spared, in any possible way; so deep was his apparent sense of his guilt and unfitness for respectable society; so deeply did he feign, or really feel contrition for the moment, that he was forgiven still. I plead for mercy for him. [Sidenote: The Prophet's Political Attitude.] At one p. m. I attended a large and respectable meeting of the citizens of Nauvoo, near the Temple, and addressed them on the principles of government, at considerable length, showing that I did not intend to vote the Whig or Democratic ticket as such, but would go for those who would support good order, &c. The meeting nominated candidates for senators, representatives, and other officers, and expressed their entire disapprobation of the _Quincy Whig_, relative to my being concerned against Governor Boggs. I met with the Ladies' Relief Society, and gave them a short address; a synopsis was reported by Miss E. R. Snow. _Address of the Prophet to the Relief Society_. President Joseph Smith read the 14th chapter of Ezekiel--said the Lord had declared by the Prophet, that the people should each one stand for himself, and depend on no man or men in that state of corruption of the Jewish church--that righteous persons could only deliver their own souls--applied it to the present state of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints--said if the people departed from the Lord, they must fall--that they were depending on the Prophet, hence were darkened in their minds, in consequence of neglecting the duties devolving upon themselves, envious towards the innocent, while they afflict the virtuous with their shafts of envy. There is another error which opens a door for the adversary to enter. As females possess refined feelings and sensitiveness, they are also subject to overmuch zeal, which must ever prove dangerous, and cause them to be rigid in a religious capacity--[they] should be armed with mercy, notwithstanding the iniquity among us.