In a major effort to reassure the Saints and decrease apocalyptic concern, no fewer than seven Church authorities spoke on the second coming in the same general conference in which the Manifesto was presented. Some advised the Saints not to expect Christ's advent in 1891- Gibson Condie recorded in his journal, "Some of the speakers referred to the year 1891, as a great many of the saints have an Idea that the Lord was to come and reign on earth." George Q. Cannon told members that there was too much "agitation" associated with the 1891 prophecy and that "no man knoweth the day nor the hour."
However, during the same conference, Moses Thatcher warned the Saints to "prepare themselves for 1891" as "the day of calamity is approaching. It is at the doors," and Apostle Francis M. Lyman told the Saints to "pray twice a day" to "be prepared for what is to come in 1891" Perhaps most tellingly, after the Manifesto's presentation at general conference, Woodruff promised the members: I will say to the Latter-day Saints, as an Elder in Israel and as an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are approaching some of the most tremendous judgments God ever poured out upon the world. You watch the signs of the times, the signs of the coming of the Son of Man. They are beginning to be made manifest both in heaven and earth. . . . and when you get through you will understand many things that you do not today.
[Journal of Mormon History, Vol. 22, No. 2, 1996, p. 27, 28 http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=mormonhistory, as quoted in The Last Days and December 1890 2nd Coming of Jesus Christ, y George D. Speer Sr., privately circulated]
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