This note dated 8 March 1832 was recorded in Revelation Book 2 and was composed in the style of a journal entry. It provides a glimpse into JS’s activities between 16 February and 8 March 1832, some eight months before JS began his first journal. In addition to mentioning a brief trip to , Ohio, and the dictation of two revelations, the entry records the selection and of and as “councillers of the ministry of the .” A November 1831 revelation stipulated that “one be appointed of the to preside over the & he shall be called President of the high Priest hood of the Church.” That revelation did not provide for the calling of standing counselors to the president, but it did authorize the president to call twelve high priests as temporary counselors when convening a court of the high priesthood. A precedent for the appointment of standing counselors may have been the designation of and as counselors to in June 1831 and the selection of and as counselors to Bishop in February 1832. Whatever the case, JS ordained Gause and Rigdon as standing counselors to the presidency of the high priesthood on 8 March 1832, six weeks after his ordination as president of the high priesthood.
Apparently, the significance of these ordinations warranted making note of them in a book that was intended mainly for recording revelations. This document, dated 8 March 1832, provides a retrospective account of events that occurred between 16 February and 8 March, the day of the ordinations. The document’s first-person narrative voice indicates that either JS wrote the note himself and copied it into the volume, or JS dictated it to Williams. If the note was originally written on loose paper, it may have been composed with the revelation book in mind, because it briefly recounts JS’s activities starting 16 February—the date of the first item recorded in the book. If Williams copied the note into the revelation book from a loose-leaf original, as he did with the revelations that surround it, he apparently did so sometime before JS left for on 1 April 1832.
The book contains no similar entries from JS, who did not begin an actual journal until November 1832. JS may have used the book for the note simply because it was accessible when he wanted to make a permanent record of the event. (See JS, Journal, 27 Nov. 1832.)
The eight documents that follow this note in Revelation Book 2—also likely copied before 1 April—are revelations from December 1831 through March 1832, several of which are out of chronological order. At some point, Williams listed this document in the book’s index as “Ordination of Jesse Gause & his call to be councillor.” It is unclear why Rigdon was not also listed in the index entry. Perhaps when Williams compiled the index, he only looked at the text on p. 10 of the book, which says “Chose this day and ordained brother Jesse Gause”; Rigdon’s name is listed on the next page. (Historical Introduction to Revelation Book 2; Revelation Book 2, Index, [1].)