It is true, that we have suffered much in consequence of your behavior--_the cup of gall, already full enough_ for mortals to drink, was indeed _filled to overflowing_ when _you_ turned against us. One with whom we had oft taken sweet counsel together, and enjoyed many refreshing seasons from the Lord--"had it been an enemy, we could have borne it." "In the day that thou stoodest on the other side, in the day when strangers carried away captive his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Far West, even thou wast as one of them; but thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother, in the day that he became a stranger, neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress." However, the cup has been drunk, the will of our Father has been done, and we are yet alive, for which we thank the Lord. And having been delivered from the hands of wicked men by the mercy of our God, we say it is your privilege to be delivered from the powers of the adversary, be brought into the liberty of God's dear children, and again take your stand among the Saints of the Most High, and by diligence, humility, and love unfeigned, commend yourself to our God, and your God, and to The Church of Jesus Christ. Believing your confession to be real, and your repentance genuine, I shall be happy once again to give you the right hand of fellowship, and rejoice over the returning prodigal. Your letter was read to the Saints last Sunday, and an expression was taken, when it was unanimously-- _Resolved_, That W. W. Phelps should be received into fellowship. "Come on, dear brother, since the war is past, For friends at first are friends again at last." Yours as ever, JOSEPH SMITH, JR. Some time after this, when laying out work for the brethren to do, in a sudden burst of kindness he said to his secretary: Write Oliver Cowdery, and ask him if he has not eaten husks long enough. If he is not almost ready to return, be clothed with robes of righteousness, and go up to Jerusalem. Orson Hyde hath need of him. A letter was written accordingly, but the Prophet's generous tender of forgiveness and fellowship called forth no response from Oliver Cowdery, once the second Elder of The Church, and the first to make public proclamation of the Gospel to the world. Subsequently, however, he did return, namely in 1848.