Wilford Woodruff's personal appendix to the Book of Commandments

Wilford Woodruff hand-copied the Word
of Wisdom into his Book of Commandments

Rather than reproducing the text, the editors of the Joseph Smith Papers project included photographs of each page of an original the Book of Commandments (BOC) in their Published Revelations volume.(1) This was done in part to allow the modern reader to experience the revelations as they were by the original reader -- with the same size, font, color and type.  Wilford Woodruff's personal copy of the BOC was used as the source of this photographic reproduction.

The final "gathering" or the last 32 pages of the BOC were never printed. Because the printing press was destroyed by a mob, the BOC ends abruptly in the middle of a verse. Thanks to efforts by the Joseph Smith Papers scholars, we now are quite confident of the content that would have been included in the completed BOC. (2)



Wilford Woodruff's (3) copy of the BOC was probably bound in the fall of 1834, when he first began using his similarly bound first journal. Included in the back of his BOC were 12 blank pages upon which Woodruff added his own handwritten appendix.  It included a partial and full revelation, and several hymns probably copied from the Evening and Morning Star: (4)

Woodruff completed the abruptly
terminated revelation at the end
of Book of Commandments

Revelations:

• The remainder of the last, incomplete revelation of the BOC [D&C 64:36-43]
• The Word of Wisdom [D&C 89]

Hymns:

• "Age after age has roll'd away"
• "The great and glorious gospel light"
  
• "Ere long the vail will rend in twain"
  
• "Come ye children of the kingdom"
  
• "My soul is full of peace and love"
  
• "The happy day has rolled on"
  
• "Beyond those earthly scenes in sight"
• "There is a land the Lord will bless"
  

Woodruff was probably not aware of the remaining content that was to be included the BOC or he likely would have included it in his appendix.

Because Woodruff's handwritten appendix was not part of the published BOC it was not included by the Joseph Smith Papers editors. Included here are two photographs from Woodruff's appendix which include the remaining portion of the last revelation, and the first page of his copy of the Word of Wisdom.

Also included below is the text from his first recorded hymn, apparently originally sung with the gift of tongues and translated into English. (5)

Sang by the gift of Tongues and Translated
age after age has rolled away, according to the sad fate
of man. Countless millions [for] ever gone at length the
period of time has come that oft was seen by a prophetic
eye and writen too by all holy men [Inspired] of the Lord
a time which was seen by Enoch of Old at a time when
he stood upon the mount which was called the mountain
of God as he gazed upon nature and the corruption [of]
man and mourned their sad fate and wept
and cried with a Loud voice and heaved forth
his sighs Omnipotence Omnipotence o may I
see thee- and with his finger he touched
his eyes and he saw heaven he gazed on
eternity and sang an Angelic song and
mingled his [voice] with the heavenly throng
Hozana Hozana the sound of the trump around the throne
of God and echoed & echoed again and rang and
reechoed until eternity was filled with his
voice he saw yea he saw and he glorified
God the salvation of his people his city
caught up through the gospel of Christ
he saw the beginning the ending of man
he saw the time when Adam his father
was made and he saw that he was in
eternity before a grain of dust in the
ballance was weighed he saw that he em
-enated and came down from God he saw
what had passed and then was and is present
and to come therefore he saw the Last days the Angel
that came down to John and the Angel that [is]
now flying having the everlasting gospel to com
mit [unto] men- which in my soul I have recivd
and from death and bondage from the Devil
I'm freed [and] am free in the gospel of Christ
and Im waiting and with patience Ill wait
on the Lord hozana loud sound the trump cause
eternity to wring hozana for ever Im waiting the coming
of Christ a mansion on high a celestial abode a seat
on the right hand of God Angels are coming the holy
Ghost is falling upon the saints and will continue to fall
the saviour is coming yea the Bride groom prepare
ye prepare yea the cry has gone forth go wait on
the Lord the Angels in glory will soon be descending
go join you in singing the praises of God the trump
Loud shall sound the dark vail soon shall rend
heaven shall shake the earth shall tremble and
all nature shall feel the power of God, gaze ye
saints gaze ye upon him, gaze upon Jesus
hozana loud sound the trump his church is
caught up hozana praise him ye saints they
stand at his feet behold they are weeping they
strike hands with Enoch of Old they inherit a
city as it is writen the City of God, Loud sound
the trump, they receive a celestial crown hozana
hozana the heaven of heavens and the heavens
are filled with [the] praises of God Amen
Given February 27- 1833

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footnotes
(1) The full name of volume is The Joseph Smith Papers: Revelations and Translations, Volume 2, Published Revelations, which includes additional photographically reproduced texts.
(2) See Published Revelations, Appendix 1: "Proposed Sixth Gathering of the Book of Commandments," or my overview, "Sixth gathering of the Book of Commandments". The gathering was to include D&C 65-73, 75, part of 107,133 and "The Testimony of Witnesses."
(3) He signed his name"Willford Woodruff" in his copy of the BOC.
(4) Published Revelations, 3-4.  Some of these hymns can be found at http://www.earlyldshymns.com/1835_index_of_hymns.htm.
(5) See The Joseph Smith Papers: Revelations and Translations: Manuscript  Revelation Books, edited by Robin Scott Jensen, Robert J. Woodford, Steven C. Harper, Church Historian's Press (2009) pp. 509-511. Some background information can be found at http://www.juvenileinstructor.org/sang-by-the-gift-of-tongues-and-translated/, David Golding, Juvenile Instructor.