11 February 1898
Salt Lake City, Utah
11 February 1898
Elder James J. Keep
Clarkston, Utah
Dear Brother Keep,
Please excuse the delay of my answering your letter of the tenth on account of more urgent matters pending.
It is very interesting to review our past experiences when they have been so varied and active and useful as yours seem to have been. It has refreshed my memory of some very interesting labors that I performed in the British and European Mission, which I recall with very great pleasure, for the Lord, by the power of his spirit, worked mightily with and through his servants in spreading the Gospel and building up his church. We have great reason to be thankful that he has preserved us in the truth until the present time.
I return you a copy of your letter as you may wish to preserve it; the other I retain in this office. It will be to you like cheese or wine -- better the longer it is kept.
I understand that our Lord Jesus Christ is the very Eternal Father [Creator] of Heaven and Earth, as mentioned by Mosiah, chapter 15 and 4th verse, and as taught in the Gospel of John 1st and 1st verse. But in Revelation 1st chapter and 6th verse, where it is mentioned that “He hath made us Kings and priests unto God and His Father,” there is evidently another mighty and glorious character meant.
Now we must not get in a hurry to know beyond what is revealed, for if we do, we shall get into the dark and lose the testimony of what we do know. Let us be faithful to what we do know, that we may still grow in grace and in the knowledge of the truth. Then we shall be sure to get it sometime.
I am glad to hear from you, and pray the Lord to bless you still more and more in you old age, that you may finish your earthly career, having done all for your dead and living kindred that you can do, so as to meet with your relatives behind the veil with joy, thanksgiving and praise for ever more.
Your Brother in the Gospel,
F.D. Richards
Original copy given to Sarah Ann Clark Balls of Clarkston, Utah