According to the statement of provenance accompanying this document, among those visited by Joseph Smith in Philadelphia during his trip to the nation’s capitol in the winter of 1839-40, was a Wilkinson family who at the time were not members of the Church but later joined. Nothing is known of this visit except that the family were so impressed by the thirty-five-year-old Prophet that prior to his departure they asked him to autograph their family album, which was the occasion for the following lines.
Virtue is one of the most prominent principles that enables us to have confidence in approaching our Father who is in heaven in order to ask
wisdom at his hand therefore if thou wilt cherish this principle in thine heart thou mayest ask with all confidence before him and it shall be poured out upon thine head and thou shalt not lack anything that <thy> soul desires in truth and again the <Lord> shall bless this house and none of them shall fail because they turned not away the servants of the Lord from their doors even so Amen. – Joseph Smith Jr
