Recently, some of the Nauvoo-era William Clayton journals have been released by a critic of the Church. The entry for Sunday, October 27, 1844 reads, in part (*):
P.M I attended the High Priest
quorum. The subject of the two sticks was discussed but concluded that we none
of us knew the full meaning of the language but the opinion is that the stick
of Joseph refers to the Records of all the scattered tribes except Judah.
It appears that early LDS did not believe that the “stick”
of Ephraim was exhausted by the Book of Mormon. See also D&C 27:5, where
the Book of Mormon is not the stick but instead is the record
of the stick of Ephraim.
(*) my thanks to my friend Jacob Vidrine for making me aware
of this entry
Further Reading:
