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 The Author's Preface,   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   v

 Letter from the Rev. W. Crowel, A.M.,     ...   ...   ...   ...   ...    1

			LETTER I.
 General Introductory Remarks,       ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...    5

			LETTER II.
 Immediate Revelation,   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   34

			LETTER III.
 On Faith,   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   41  

			LETTER IV.
 On Water Baptism,       ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   48

			LETTER V.
 The Gift of the Holy Ghost,   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   55

			LETTER VI.
 Apostacy from the Primitive Church, ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   63

			LETTER VII.
 The Re-Establishment of an Apostolic Church,    ...   ...   ...   ...   72

			LETTER VIII.
 The True and Living God,      ...   ...   ...   ...    ...   ...   ...  84

[iv]			LETTER IX.
 The Priesthood,  ...   ...    ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   94 

			LETTER X.
 On Gathering,    ...   ...    ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...  103  

			LETTER XI.
 The Latter-day Judgments,     ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...  114

			LETTER XII.
 On the Restitution of All Things,   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...  124

			LETTER XIII.
 Miscellaneous Remarks on Restitution,     ...   ...   ...   ...   ...  136

			LETTER XIV.
 Summary and Final Appeal,     ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...  152

			LETTER XV.
 The Patriarchal Order,  ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...  191

 Night of Martyrdom,     ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...  228

	THE AUTHOR has, for some time, felt desirous to see the most prominent
subjects of the faith of the Latter-day Saints brought before the public in
continuous order, in one volume.
	This series of Letters was called forth by the letter of inquiry
prefixed, from the pelt of the Rev. William Crowel. This gentleman was at the
time, and still is (for aught I know), Editor of "The Christian Watchman,"
Boston, Massachusetts, U. S. A.--a leading paper of the Baptist denomination
in the United States.
	The Editor was also a clergyman of high repute for learning and piety in
that denomina-[vi]tion of people, and missionary elect to a foreign land. From
the elevated standing of this gentleman, and the nature of his inquiries,
being such as have come from many other distinguished acquaintance, relative
to the author's change of views, it seemed wisdom, after consultation with the
Prophet and Patriarch ( since martyred), to publish a brief reply to his
minute and interesting inquiries.
	The Author was extensively known in the New England and Middle States, as
a Preacher of the Baptist denomination. Reference for his character is given
to his Excellency George N. Briggs, Governor of the State of Massachusetts, by
whom he was once invited to take the pastoral charge of the church where his
Excellency resided, and of which he was a member; also to G. Reade, Esq.,
Connecticut, and Eliphalet Nott, D.D., LL.D., President of Union College, New
York, under whose Presidency he graduated in 1824; and also to N. Kendrick,
D.D., President of Hamilton Literary and Theological College, from whence the
Author graduated in 1829. The records of both these institutions [vii] will
show that the Author held the FIRST grade of honorable distinction at the time
he left them.
	These references are not given from vanity, but from the fact that almost
every man's character is traduced and vilified, the moment he embraces the
FAITH once delivered to the Saints.
	The present volume constitutes the third reprint. Several thousand copies
having been exhausted in a tract form, the present edition, in book form, was
repeatedly inquired after.
	The edition has been got out in the midst of multiplied engagements.
Truth in studied brevity has been aimed at, without seeking the least
embellishment of diction.
	If there has, in part of the volume, been the appearance of severity
towards the religions of modern (Christianity, it has been prompted solely by
the impulse of truth, in order to demolish error, before the Destroyer of the
Gentiles should expose iniquity with irretrievable loss to its victims.
	Scripture references have been studiously [viii] omitted, believing that
honest minds would readily find ample support from the Scriptures for all that
is contained in this little volume. It is, therefore, commended to the faith
and cordial reception of all who desire the salvation of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ, in sincerity and truth.

									ORSON SPENCER.

LIVERPOOL, January 1st, 1848.

									BOSTON, October 21, 1842.
	MY DEAR SIR,--On the confidence of an old acquaintance and kindly
intercourse, I have long lavished to address a friendly line to you; for, I am
sure, you have not forgotten the pleasant, though brief, interviews, which we
enjoyed at Middlefield. Since I saw you there, a great change has taken place,
as I have been led to believe, in your religious views, and a corresponding
one in your relations and circumstances; still, I trust, that you have not
forgotten the claims of friendship and acquaintance.
	I need not tell you how much I became interested in your family, so young
and so full of promise, nor of the strong confidence which I repose in your
piety and [2] conscientious regard for the will of God. I would not allow
myself to believe that you would profess what you did not sincerely believe,
nor that you would believe without good reason; still the change in your views
excited in me no little surprise. I have, therefore, been desirous to receive
from yourself an account of your views, and the reasons of your change. I am
also desirous to obtain from one in whom I can confide--one who is acquainted
with the facts--and one who is not prejudiced against it at the outset, some
account of the faith which you have embraced; of the personal character,
doctrines, claims, and influence of him who is called the leader--I mean
Joseph Smith.
	Does he claim to be inspired? Is he a man of prayer? a man of pure life?
a man of peace? Where is he now? Does he appear at the head of his troops as a
military commander? What is the nature of the worship among you, and wherein
does it differ from that of religious people with whom you have been
acquainted elsewhere?
	How many inhabitants has the city of Nauvoo? What is their condition,
occupations, and general character? What are the dimensions of the Temple, now
in course of erection? Do the Mormons suffer much persecution? if so, from
whom? Are the children instructed in learning and religion? It would give me
great pleasure to learn, also, how you are employed? whether your family are
with you? and also your present [3] views of truth and duty, and in what
respects they differ from the views which you formerly entertained?
	Excuse the number and minuteness of these inquiries. I take an interest
in all that affects the welfare of my fellow-men, and especially in what is so
important as their religious views and hopes. I am aware that the people, and
the views which you have adopted as your own, are peculiarly liable to
misrepresentation; but from you I may expect something more impartial. Now, if
you do not find the task too great a tax upon your time, I should be much
gratified in receiving as full and as speedy an answer to the queries above
proposed, with any other information in your possession, as may be convenient
to yourself.
	It may be gratifying to you, to learn that a powerful revival of religion
has been enjoyed in Middlefield, within a few weeks past, an account of which,
Mr. Bestor, the present pastor, has sent to me for publication in The
Christian Watchman, a copy of which I send you. I visited the town in the
summer, and found your old friends well. I also attended a ministers' meeting
at Brother Bestor's, and enjoyed a very pleasant interview. Several of the
brethren spoke of you in terms of kindness.
	My best wishes attend you. Present my regards to Mrs. Spencer, and
				Believe me, Very truly yours,
							WILLIAM CROWEL.

[4]	P. S.--You will understand that I ask for information for my private
benefit and satisfaction. I do not ask for anything to be published, unless
you see fit to give it for that purpose. I wish you to write as an old
friend.										W. C.

									NAUVOO, November 17, 1842.
	My Dear Sir:--I received yours of the 21st ult. about a week since, but
many engagements have prevented a more early reply.
	Your inquiries were interesting and important, and I only regret that I
have not more time and room to answer them as their importance and minuteness
demand.
	I am not at all surprised that my old friends should wonder at my change
of views; even to this day it is marvellous in my own eyes, how I should be
separated from my brethren to this ("Mormon") faith. I greatly desire to see
my Baptist brethren face to face, that I may tell them all things pertaining
to my views. and this work; but, at present, the care of my wife and six
children, with the labors of a civil office, forbid this privilege.
	A sheet of paper is a poor conductor of a marvellous [6] and controverted
system of theology; but receive this sheet as containing only some broken
hints upon which I hope to amplify in some better manner hereafter. You have
expressed confidence in my former conscientious regard for the will of God. I
thank you for this, because the virtues of many good men have been disallowed
upon some supposed forfeiture of public esteem. I thank God that you, and many
of the churches where I once labored, are more liberal.
	You, more than common men, know that it is in accordance with all past
history, that men's true characters suffer imprisonment, scourging, and death,
as soon as they become innovators or seceders from long-established and
venerated systems. Many have suffered martyrdom for literary and also
religious improvements, to whom after ages have done better justice. "Which of
the prophets have not your fathers persecuted, and slain them which told
before the coming of the Just One?"
	It was the misfortune of many of the former prophets, that they were
raised up at a period of the moral when apostacy and corruption rendered their
efforts indispensable, although such efforts proved unacceptable to those who
were in fault. Ancient prophets, you know, did not merely reiterate what their
predecessors had taught, but spoke hidden wisdom, even things that had been
kept secret for many generations; because the Spirit by which they were moved
had knowledge of all truth, and could disclose and reveal as it seemed wisdom
in God.
	The spirits that were disobedient, while once the longsuffering of God
waited in the days of Noah, doubtless despised the prophet that taught a
universal deluge. But Noah had a special revelation of a deluge, although [7]
the religious people of his day counted him an enthusiast. The revelation
given to Moses to gather an oppressed people to a particular place, was
equally one side of, and out of, the usual course of former revelations. John
came to the literal followers of Abraham and Moses; but he escaped not
persecution and death, because he breathed an uncharitable and exclusive
spirit towards the existing sects of the day. Still he was a revelator and
seer approved of God.
	And is it a thing incredible with you, brother, that before the great
sabbatic era, world's rest, or millennium, God should raise up a prophet to
prepare the people for that event, and the second coming of Jesus Christ?
Would it be disagreeable to those who love the unity of Saints, or improbable
or unscriptural to expect such a prophet to be possessed with the key of
knowledge, or endowed, like Peter, with the stone of revelation? If the many
hundred religious sects of this age should hereafter harmonize into one faith
and brotherhood, without the aid of special revelations, it would constitute
an unparalleled phenomenon. Should they become a bride fit to receive Jesus
Christ at his coming, it could not be according to Paul's gospel. For six
thousand years, apostles and prophets have constituted an essential part of
the spiritual edifice in which God dwells. Paul says it is by them the church
is perfected and brought to unity of faith.
	I know that you and I have been taught from our childhood, that the
church can be perfected without prophets; but where, I ask, is the first
scripture to support this view?
	As you kindly say, I have always been accustomed to offer a reason for my
faith; but be assured I was con-[8]founded and made dumb, when asked why I
taught another gospel than what Paul did--why I taught that revelation was
ended, when Paul did not--or why I taught that prophets were not needed, when
no inspire teacher ever taught such a doctrine. Error may become venerable by
age, and respectable from the number of its votaries, but neither age nor
popularity can ever make it truth.
	You give me credit for a conscientious regard for the will of God. It was
this that gave me the victory where many others, I fear, are vanquished. The
Spirit of God wrought mightily in me, commending the ancient gospel to my
conscience. I contemplated it with peaceful serenity and joy in believing.
Visions and dreams began to illuminate, occasionally, my slumbering moments
but when I allowed my selfish propensities to speak, I cursed "Mormonism " in
my heart, and regretted being in possession of as much light and knowledge as
had flowed into my mind from that source. When I preached or conversed
according to my best convictions, peace reigned in my heart, and truth
enlarged my understanding. Conviction and reverence for the truth, at such
times, seemed to reign in the hearts of those that heard me; at times,
however, some were ready to gnash their teeth, for the truth that they would
not receive and could not resist.
	I counted the cost, to myself and family, of embracing such views, until
I could read it like the child his alphabet, either upward or downward. The
expense I viewed through unavoidable tears, both in public and private, by
night and by day; I said, however, the Lord He is God, I can, I will, embrace
the truth.
	When I considered the weakness of the human [9] mind and its liability to
be deceived, I re-examined and held converse with the most able opposers to
"Mormonism," in a meek and teachable spirit; but the ease with which many,
wearing a high profession of piety, turned aside the force of palpable truth,
or leaned on tradition or inextricable difficulties, that they could not solve
into harmony with their professions, was very far from dissuading me from my
new views. What could I do? Truth had taken possession of my mind--plain,
simple, Bible truth. It might be asked if I could not expel it from my door;
yes, I could do it; but how would that harmonize with a sincere profession to
preach and practise the truth, by way of example to others? It was a crisis I
never shall, I never can forget. I remember it as an exodus from parents,
kindred, denomination, and temporal support. Has any one ever passed such a
crisis, they will say, at least, be careful of Brother Spencer's character and
feelings.
	Little as I supposed that I cared about popularity, competence, or the
fellowship of those who were sincerely in error, when I came to be stretched
upon the altar of sacrifice, and the unsheathed blade that was to exscind from
all these hung over me with perpendicular exactness; then, then, brother, I
cried unto the Lord to strengthen me to pass through the scene with his
approbation.
	While I was enquiring to know what the Lord would have me to do, many
brethren of different denominations warned and exhorted me faithfully; but
their warnings consisted very much in a lively exhibition of evils to be
endured, if I persisted; or, in other words, they appealed to my selfish
nature. But I knew too well that truth should not be abandoned through the
force of such [10] appeals, however eloquently urged. Some, with whom I
conversed, gave glowing descriptions of the obnoxious character of Joseph
Smith, and of the contradictory and unscriptural jargon of the Book of Mormon,
but it was their misfortune usually to be deplorably ignorant of the true
character of either.
	Of the truth of this statement many instances might be furnished, if the
limits of my sheet would allow. My own solicitude to know the character of Mr.
Smith, in order to judge of the doctrines propagated by him, was not so great
as that of some others. My aversion to the worship of man, is both educational
and religious; but I said boldly, concerning Mr. Smith, that whoever had
arranged and harmonized such a system of irresistible truth, has borne good
fruit. Some suggested that it would be wisdom to make a personal acquaintance
with Mr. Smith, previous to embracing his doctrines; but to me the obligation
to receive the truths of heaven seemed absolute, whatever might be the
character of Mr. Smith.
	I read diligently the Book of Mormon from beginning to end, in close
connection with the comments of Origen Bachelor, Laroy Sunderland, and Dr.
Hurlbut, together with newspapers and some private letters obtained from the
surviving friends of Mr. Spaulding, the supposed author of that book. I arose
from its perusal with a strong conviction on my mind, that its pages were
graced with the pen of inspiration. I was surprised that so little fault could
be found with a book of such magnitude, treating, as it did, of such
diversified subjects, through a period of so many generations. It appeared to
me that no enemy to truth or godliness would ever take the least interest in
publishing the contents of such a book; such appeared to me to be its godly
bearing, [11] sound morality, and harmony with ancient scriptures, that the
enemy of all righteousness might as well proclaim the dissolution of his own
kingdom, as to spread the contents of such a volume among men; and from that
time to this, every effort made by its enemies to demolish, has only shown how
invincible a fortress defends it. If no greater breach can be made upon it,
that has hitherto been made by those who have attacked it with the greatest
animosity and diligence, its overthrow may be considered a forlorn hope. On
this subject I only ask the friends of pure religion to read the Book of
Mormon with the same unprejudiced, prayerful, and teachable spirit that they
would recommend unbelievers in the ancient scriptures to read those sacred
records. I have not spoken of the external evidence of the truth of the Book
of Mormon, which is now worthy of much consideration; but the internal
evidence, I think, will satisfy every honest mind. As you enquire after the
reasons that operated to change my mind to the present faith, I only remark
that "Stevens' Travels" had some influence, as an external evidence of the
truth of the Book of Mormon.
	My present view, after which you also enquire, is, that the evidences,
both internal and external, have been multiplied. It may have caused surprise
and wonder to many of my respected and distinguished friends in New England,
how I could ever renounce a respectable standing in the churches and in the
ministry, to adhere to a people so odious in every one's mouth, and so
revolting to every one's natural liking; the answer in part is this--As soon
as I discovered an identity in the doctrines of the Latter-day Saints and the
Ancient Saints, I enquired whether the treatment [12] bestowed upon each was
also similar. I immediately began to dig deep to find the foundation and
cornerstone of the true church; I looked at the demeanor and character of
those who surrounded the Ancient Saints. The result of my observation seemed
to be, that even Jesus Christ had many objectionable points of character to
those who observed him. Those who were reputedly most conversant with Abraham,
Moses, and other prophets of the Lord, pronounced him unfit for the respect
and confidence of a pious community; and why did such men find so many
objectionable points in the character and conduct of Jesus Christ? for
substantially the same reasons that men of high intelligence and devotion find
fault with Joseph Smith and his doctrines. Those who bore down with heavy
opposition to Jesus Christ were honorable men, whose genealogy took in the
worthiest ancestry; they were the orthodox expositors of revealed truth. Those
who now oppose Joseph Smith (a person ordained and sent forth by Jesus
Christ), occupy the same high and respectable standing, and manifest a similar
bearing towards the reputed impostor of the present day. The ancient worthies
were the repositories of learning, and so are the modern worthies. The
ancients taught many things according to truth and godliness, and verily
believed they were substantially right in faith and practice; this is also
true of modern religious teachers.
	But in reply to my own question, why the ancient religionists opposed
Jesus Christ? I answer: in the first place, they mistook his true character
and conduct; in the second place, they were palpably ignorant of the wisdom
and godliness of many things in the character and conduct of Jesus Christ;
they considered that there was [13] absolutely a wide difference in the views
and conduct of Jesus Christ and themselves. The same is true of many
distinguished opposers to Joseph Smith; they consider that there is an
irreconcilable difference between themselves and Mr. Smith; and Mr. Smith, of
course, is in the wrong, and they are in the right.
	Now let us consider, first, wherein the ancients mistook the character of
Jesus Christ, and modern opposers to Mr. Smith do the same of him. The true
character of Jesus Christ was very imperfectly known to those who opposed him
in his own time. Many impostors that had preceded, had guarded the public mind
against a repetition of further abuse. He was eyed with dark suspicion
wherever he went. It may well be supposed, that sage precaution against him
was vehemently urged, lest through his great subtlety he might mislead even
some that were respectable. And what could he do to disabuse the public mind?
Prejudice and calumny outran and prepared a thorny reception for him in all
places; and so thick and dark was the fog and cloud of misapprehension and
falsehood that followed him, that dark suspicions and foul inferences would
obtrude upon the minds even of the honest, to weaken their convictions in his
behalf, and shake their conclusions. The tale of calumny never lost in
sharpness and effect by time or distance.
	Those who had not the privilege of a personal acquaintance with Jesus,
might be supposed to have no interest in favoring a personage whose
pretensions, if countenanced, would disturb their quietude, and impugn their
motives, and threaten the prosperity of a system that they supposed as old as
the days of Abraham, and teachings as orthodox as the sayings of Moses. But
whatever was said or done by Jesus that could possibly [14] be construed by
prejudiced minds to his disadvantage, these things were heeded with readiness,
and published in the social circle, and rivetted by the butt of ridicule upon
every mind; and those who loved to laugh at the expense of the innocent, could
furnish stock for the purpose, by retailing tales about the supposed impostor,
that had their origin in misapprehension and falsehood; but they were well
received and cheered by those who affected grave reverence for the Supreme
Deity, while they could trample with scorn (unconsciously) upon the brightness
of His glory in the person of His Son.
	Now let me ask if the character and conduct of Mr. Smith are not equally
misunderstood by modern religionists? Mr. Smith only claims to be a prophet,
raised up to usher in the last dispensation, while Jesus Christ was more
obnoxious in proportion to the superior magnitude of his claims as the Son of
God. How difficult it is for persons, in the present age, to form a correct
estimate of the true character and views of Mr. Smith. The public mind is
always forestalled concerning him. It is taken to be sound orthodoxy that
there is no more need of prophets or revelations; the canon of scripture is
full; consequently, the man that will claim to be a prophet, or revelator, or
seer, must be a base impostor and knave. With this educational prejudice,
sanctioned by the best men for a thousand years past and rivetted by solemn
vows to abide in orthodoxy, they see as though they saw not, and hear as
though they heard not.
	If excellent things are taught by Mr. Smith, it is considered by
prejudiced minds as a good bait employed to cover a well-barbed hook; by many
he is considered more detestable and dangerous, because, say they, "if he did
not mix so much good with his system, he would not be so dangerous and so
likely to deceive."
[15]	Again, can the people of this country obtain a correct knowledge of the
prophet through the religious prints? I apprehend they never will. Those who
control the religious prints, conceive they know, in the premises, that God
has not raised up such a prophet, therefore they will not tarnish the columns
of their periodicals by publishing anything favorable to him. While they feel
bound to withhold whatever might commend the prophet to the favorable regards
of impartial men, they feel solemnly constrained to advertise the public of
all rising heresies. Thus, while our supposed heresies are published from very
questionable data, our real virtues are buried in oblivion. We do not murmur;
if Jesus, the master, could not be known in his true character, but said, with
mingled pity and forgiveness, "they know not what they do," we cannot expect
better treatment from those who know but little of us, while they say much to
our disadvantage.
	Paul did the Ancient Saints much harm, and wasted them greatly, being
ignorant of their true character, and unbelieving as to their doctrines. It is
certain that the Latter-day Saints have received much harm from those who are
ignorant of their character, and unbelieving as to their doctrines. Religious
editors, generally, know very little of us, except what they have learned from
our enemies. Jesus Christ was entirely strips of his reputation by his
enemies, and was put to death by learned, yet ignorant, zealots, who were too
self-wise to be taught by one whom they knew to be an impostor in the start;
but those men were mistaken in the character of our Lord; and so are our
enemies mistaken in the character and views of the modern prophet.
	My own personal observation teaches that it is a very difficult matter to
instil into the minds of sectarian [16] churches, a true knowledge of the and
practice of Latter-day Saints. Though one should go among them that was once
highly esteemed by them, they are alarmed at his approach, and his virtues are
conceived to render him more deserving of a repulse. "His influence," say
they, "may be formidable; we must not bid him God speed," consequently he is
not asked to pray in the family or public meeting. If he can, by great effort,
get an opportunity to preach, it is not thought advisable for anybody to go
and hear him, lest they should be led away by his errors.
	Thus you see, brother, how difficult in former and latter days to bring
the true faith to the knowledge of men, through prejudice. They have prejudged
a matter of which they are almost wholly ignorant. This same notion of
treating new matters has veiled the sun in darkness, and hung the Prince of
Life in agonies. How long shall this treatment of the Saints be persisted in?
How long shall prophets be persecuted and slain, without being fully known,
and the servants of God be excluded from an impartial hearing, when they seek
to publish good tidings--even salvation to the inhabitants of the earth?
	Now let me ask my former friends in the eastern churches, with whom I
once held sweet intercourse, how it is possible for the Latter-day Saints to
introduce their views among the sectarian churches and the world, with any
more favorable reception than the Ancient Saints had in introducing theirs?
Prejudice and persecution faced them down always, and so it is in these days.
It is certainly a mistaken idea to suppose that people are much better now
than they were anciently, when the true Gospel was misunderstood, and its
promoters sincerely [17] accounted disturbers, and heretics worthy of
exemplary punishment. "But," say the wise and great men among the sectarian
churches, "we do understand the true gospel, and have already embraced it, and
it is only error and heresy we oppose; and the weight of our contempt and
ridicule is hurled at impostors and knaves, who palm off gross deceptions upon
the public, and lead captive ignorant zealots by pretended revelations and
spurious miracles." But do they not know that substantially the same charge
was brought against Jesus Christ and the primitive disciples? Let it be proved
that we are what our enemies call us; let us file our respective pleas and
come to a speedy and impartial trial. To this our opposers will not consent;
they intend to employ all the advantage of education and prejudice to exclude
us from a hearing--so did the opposers of the Ancient Saints; but I solemnly
ask whether it has ever been necessary, in any moral enterprise, for those who
have the truth on their side, especially gospel truth, to defend that truth by
foreclosing discussion, and shunning public investigation, and then carry on
their depredations by the use of such small arms as ridicule and preconceived
objections, that need only be brought to light to be dissipated like fog in
the meridian sun?
	Do temperance lecturers, bible and education agents, and other moral
reformers find it necessary to carry on their enterprises by such means? Do
they seek to avoid an open and frank discussion with the intemperate portions
of the community? Do they avoid a manly investigation because the intemperate
portions of the community combine, in their life and conduct, beastly
sottishness, unprovoked abuse to wives and children, a prodigal waste of
competence and ample fortunes, and the overthrow of [18] intellect, and the
dissolution of all moral ties? No, by no means! They seek the broad day-light
of public discussion, because they know the truth and power of that side of
the cause which they have espoused. They know that intemperance cannot survive
the impartial observation of good men. All we ask is that the word of God may
have free course. We wish that it may come distinctly to the knowledge of men,
that they may sit in impartial judgment upon it.
	By the word of God, we mean not only what was revealed for the Ancients
especially, but also what is now revealed for this generation. "Oh!" says the
objector, "he wants the word of Joseph Smith to have a free circulation, and
this we oppose, because it is blasphemous and preposterous." Yes, we want the
word of God by Joseph Smith, to be known and read of all men, because it is
written not with ink, but by the spirit of the living God. What were Peter,
Elijah, or Moses, but earthen vessels, by whom God communicated his own
knowledge power, and glory? Does not the word by Joseph commend itself to
every man's conscience where it is heard with due candor? I have never seen
that person who had read the Book of Mormon, and the Book of Doctrine and
Covenants entirely through, with an earnest desire to know whether it was of
God or not, who could raise any worthy objection against them. A few isolated
portions of these books are often selected out and made to speak some other
besides their true meaning, and thereby a dislike for these books is created;
consequently, some refuse to read them at all, while some others read only to
confirm their prepossessions and prejudices; and superficial inquirers hear
with credulity that such a minister, editor, or professor of some college, has
published [19] an expose or refutation of "Mormonism," that will inflict a
fatal wound upon this glaring and blasphemous heresy.
	Now, it is well known that the novelties of this age are so many and so
various, that no man has time to examine into them all; and many consider that
a hint from a pious editor, or distinguished reviewer, against "Mormonism," is
sufficient apology for them not to examine it. Now, under these
considerations, it is easy to divine that the doctrines of the Latter-day
Saints must travel through obstacles and difficulties of the greatest
magnitude; and I am ready, dear brother, to mourn over the prospect, because
many bad men, and some good men, will fight against the faith, not knowing
what they do. My bosom heaves with the deeper concern, because I know this to
be the true gospel, and that it will prevail, even though the foe should be as
great and powerful as the Lord's enemies were in the days of Noah. Pardon my
assurance when I say that those beautiful systems, called benevolent
operations, must come to nought; not because they are not honestly designed
for some good effect, but because they are a mixture of human device with the
wisdom of God, or the Gospel perverted. I know, too, that these beautiful
systems, together with the various orders of sectarianism, cannot well be
vanquished without a desperate struggle ensue. Sectarianism is old and
venerable, and having undergone many costly repairs, without much substantial
improvement, it never can be demolished without violent resistance. There is
an air of sacredness around it that it will stimulate its votaries insensibly;
and when they are assailed by the strong hand of Bible truth, rather than see
their fortress taken by the illiterate followers of the despised Prophet, will
summon to their aid the worst passions, and push [20] matters to the greatest
extremities. These remarks are amply supported by the history of the past,
both in respect to Former and Latter-day Saints.
	See the ancient Jew of our Lord's day--his piety was so scrupulously
exact--he knew the worth of his religion by the pains and expense it had cost
him. Every thing had with great trouble been fashioned into a system of
sacredness. They had been striving hard for a beautiful system of perfection
that would commend them to God, and mourned that any of Abraham's children
should teach that there was no resurrection, etc., and not harmonize with them
in bearing heavy burdens in order to save men's souls. And when an obscure
personage sprang up, and broke over their rules of piety, and mingled with the
profane without ceremonious washing and was seen to drink wine, probably, and
eat with the boisterous and odious classes, without pretending to wash away
the contagion that accrued, and to travel on the Sabbath day, and to pluck
ears of corn without any signs of confession, and to heap harsh-sounding and
heavy anathemas upon the most intelligent and devoted men of the age, and
claim to be a prophet, while he ignorantly conversed with an adulterous
woman--all this, the scrupulous Jew could not, and would not, bear; and his
anger was heightened to madness when he found that many adhered to the new
teacher, and occasionally a person of wealth and standing was won over to the
impostor by his artifice and jugglery. And as the influence of this odious
personage spread, especially among the common people, who had not sufficient
sagacity to detect his fraudulent tricks; and as the orthodoxy and piety of
the children of Abraham and Moses began to be suspected, and suspicion even
preached in synagogues [21] that were too holy for such pollution, the devoted
children of Abraham became exasperated. "If we let him alone," say they, "all
men will believe on him." Fearful to use the rod and power, by reason of the
Romans, to the utmost rigor, they, at first, sought to render him obnoxious to
Caesar; but as measures successively failed, they thirsted for his blood until
their pious malice was glutted in his expiring agonies. Then, thought they,
everybody may know that his miracles are all a humbug, because he could not
save himself.
	Now, brother, I ask you to stop and make a full pause by way of
reflection. How do devoted sectarians entertain the Latter-day Saints? Not
surely by a candid exposure of our errors, coupled with a patient effort to
reclaim us. By no means; said a highly respectable deaconess, "Brother
Spencer, I would rather have heard that you were dead." She knew in the
general that I had embraced "Mormonism;" but of the true character of
"Mormonism" she was grossly ignorant; and she was actually driven into fits
when she found I defended the doctrines of the Latter-day Saints. Look at the
conduct of devoted sectarians towards the Latter-day Saints, and mark the
resemblance to that of ancient Jews to former Saints. The same prescriptive
spirit reigns now as then--the same spirit that dictated expulsion from the
synagogue then, now closes the doors of meeting houses against us--the same
spirit that closed men's ears against the burning eloquence of Stephen then,
counsels men not to hear or go nigh "Mormon" preachers now.
	You ask "If the Latter-day Saints are persecuted; if so, by whom are they
persecuted?" The answer is a painful one, because it inculpates those who were
bound [22] to us by many tender ties. As a people we have been truly
persecuted from the beginning.
	From the moment we embrace this doctrine, in most cases we are virtually
banished from friends, and rank, and station, and business. Says the venerated
father, "If you have embraced that doctrine, my son, I never want to see your
face any more." Says the partner in trade, "If you are a "Mormon," we must
dissolve partnership forthwith." "If such an one occupying an important office
with profit and honor does not give up his `Mormonism,' we will sue him at the
law, and calumniate him, and embarrass him until he is ousted and broken up,
and obliged to leave our village." We are separated from men's company, while
the licentious, and profane, and intemperate are suffered to dwell in peace;
while our opposers cherish to their bosom the rankest infidels, they repulse
us with disdain; though none can point out aught wherein we differ from the
ancient apostles and prophets. Almost daily my eyes behold those who have
suffered too much to mention; but I would rather refer you to printed
documents, than to attempt a description of the sufferings of our people in
Missouri. From forty to sixty of our brethren suffered death, by violent
hands, in Missouri, and as many more, in consequence of the abuse and
privations to which they were exposed by an infuriated and bloodthirsty mob;
and the disappointment, privation, and homeless condition of survivors, was
very great. Many widows and orphans knew not what to do, having just begun to
live in a comfortable and thriving manner. They had almost forgotten their
first sorrow of parting from early friends and possessions, when lo! the
hideous mob came upon them; at one blow their homes were made desolate; in
some instances father and son were [23] no more; their sufferings in planting
themselves anew in this State, without means or friends, though I have often
heard them told, I will not attempt to rehearse.
	Perhaps some will say, "We understand the `Mormons' were in fault in that
matter, and brought merited sufferings upon themselves by their misconduct."
The same has always been understood to be true of all persecuted Saints. The
greater part of people probably thought Stephen deserved the punishment that
terminated his life. The same might be said of John the Baptist, who meddled
with the matrimonial concerns of those who did not acknowledge his
ecclesiastical jurisdiction. The Prophet Elijah was designated to death
because he troubled Israel. Daniel refused lawful obedience to the established
governor of the realm. In short, persecutors in every age, have always had a
plausible pretext for their doings, in the popular estimation of their own day
and age.
	You ask, "by whom we are persecuted?" In reply I could mention as
instigators of mobs, the names of a Baptist missionary, a Methodist and
Presbyterian minister. You may also be apprised that ex-Governor Boggs, of
Missouri, made affidavit that Joseph Smith was accessory to an attempt to
murder him; and that Governor Carlin, of Illinois, in the face of
superabundant testimony and law, gave a warrant to arrest him (Joseph Smith)
on that affidavit. A heavy reward has been offered for his apprehension, and
bold menaces are occasionally hung over our heads, that we as a people, shall
be driven from the State. These things have a tendency to check our
prosperity. In one instance some of our brethren were kidnapped from this
State by Missourians, and put to shame and scourging. The malignant and
vexatious [24] lawsuits to which our people have been subject, are exceedingly
numerous; and owing to our impoverished condition, rendered sometimes
distressing. But none of these things move us, because we know that if they
have hated the master, they will also hate the disciples. Such as are born of
the bond woman, will persecute those that are born of the free woman. But it
seems like a discouraging effort to attempt to convince our opposers that we
are persecuted, because editors and other philanthropic men are reluctant to
tell to the public our side of the matter. They themselves would thereby
become suspected of espousing our cause. Men are so sensitive on the subject
of our religion, that whoever speaks peaceably of it, perils his influence and
reputation; but hireling editors and priests will speak and publish against
us.
	You ask me to give an account of the faith which I have embraced. I
believe that Jesus Christ is God, co-eternal with God the Father; and that
such as have the knowledge of the Gospel and believe upon him, will be saved;
and such as believe not, will be damned. I believe the Old and New Testaments
to be the word of God. I believe that every person should be born, not only of
the spirit, but also of the water, in order to enter into the kingdom of God.
There are three that bear witness on earth, as there are three that bear
record in heaven--the spirit, the water, and the blood, bear concurrent
testimony to our obedience on earth; for the want of any one, or all of these
witnesses on earth, in our favor there will be no registry of our perfect
acceptance in heaven. Hence the baptism for the dead. The righteous dead have
a merciful provision made for them in the testimony of the three witnesses on
earth, which secures a record of their perfect acceptance in heaven, without
[25] which they cannot attain to the highest glory. I believe in the
resurrection of the dead, the righteous to life eternal, and the wicked to
shame and everlasting contempt. I believe that repentance towards God, and
faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, are among the elementary and cardinal truths
of the Gospel.
	In some, and, indeed, many respects do we differ from sectarian
denominations. We believe that God is a being that has both body and parts,
and also passions; also in the existence of the gifts in the true church
spoken of in St. Paul's letter to the Corinthians.
	I believe that every church, in gospel order, has a priesthood,
consisting of prophets, apostles, elders, etc., and that the knowledge and
power of a priesthood, ordained of God, as the ancient priesthood was, is
indispensably necessary to the prosperity of the church. I do not believe that
the canon of sacred scripture was closed with the revelation of John, but
believe that wherever God has a true church, there he makes frequent
revelations of his will; and as God takes cognizance of all things, both
temporal and spiritual, his revelations will pertain to all things whereby his
glory may be promoted, and the temporal and spiritual well-being of his people
advanced. Any people that are destitute of the teachings of prophets and
apostles, which come by immediate revelation, will soon fall into divisions
and strifes, and depart from the truth as it is in Jesus.
	You wish to know, "What is the personal character and influence,
doctrines and claims of him who is called the leader, Joseph Smith?" Joseph
Smith, when the great designs of heaven were first made known to him, was not
far from the age of seventeen; from that time to this he has had much said
about him, both of a favor-[26]able and unfavorable nature. I shall only speak
of his character as I believe it to be from an intimate acquaintance of more
than one year, and from an intimate acquaintance with those who have been with
him many years. No man is more narrowly watched by friends and enemies than
Mr. Joseph Smith; consequently, if he were as good a man as any prophet that
has preceded him, he would have as violent enemies as others have had. But I
hasten to give my own opinion.
	I firmly avow, in the presence of God, that I believe Mr. Joseph Smith to
be an upright man, that seeks the glory of God in such a manner as is well
pleasing to the Most High God. Naturally, he is kind and obliging; pitiful and

courteous; as far from dissimulation as any man; frank and loquacious to all
men, friends or foes. He seems to employ no studied effort to guard himself
against misrepresentation, but often leaves himself exposed to
misconstructions by those who watch for faults. He is remarkably cheerful for
one who has seen well-tried friends martyred around him, and felt the
inflictions of calumny--the vexations of lawsuits--the treachery of
intimates--and multiplied violent attempts upon his person and life, together
with the cares of much business. His influence, after which you inquire, is
very great. His friends are as ardently attached to him as his enemies are
violently opposed. Free toleration is given to all opposing religions, but
wherever he is accredited as a Prophet of the living God, there you will
perceive his influence must be great. That lurking fear and suspicion that he
may become a dictator or despot, gradually gives place to confidence and
fondness, as believers become acquainted with him.
	In doctrine, Mr. Smith is eminently scriptural. I [27] have never known
him to deny or deprecate a single truth of the Old and New Testaments, but I
have always known him to explain and defend them in a masterly manner. Being
anointed of God, for the purpose of teaching and perfecting the church, it is
needful that he should know how to set in order the things that are wanting,
and to bring forth things new and old as a scribe well instructed. This office
and apostleship he appears to magnify; at his touch the ancient prophets
spring into life, and the beauty and power of their revelations are made to
commend themselves with thrilling interest to all that hear.
	You inquire, "Does he claim to be inspired?" Certainly he does claim to
be inspired. He often speaks in the name of the Lord, which would be rank
hypocrisy and mockery, if he were not inspired to do it. It seems very
difficult for those who stand at the distance of many generations from the
true prophets, to realize what prophets are, and what ought to be expected
from them. I do not chide them for their ignorance and folly, however, because
I had nothing to boast of, previous to embracing the faith of the Latter-day
Saints. I understand that prophets may speak as they are moved by the Holy
Ghost at one time, while they may be very far from being moved by the Holy
Ghost as they speak at another. They may be endowed with power to perform
miracles and mighty deeds at one time, while they have no authority, and there
is no suitableness in doing the same at another time.
	You ask, "Is he a man of prayer, of a pure life, of peace? Does he appear
at the head of his troops as a military commander?" These questions I answer,
according to the best knowledge I have in the affirmative. As [28] a people we
perform military duty, as the laws of the State of Illinois enjoin and
require. The legion answers the purpose to keep the lawless and mobocratic at
a respectful distance; and the more "earthquake and storm" our enemies raise
about the Nauvoo Legion, and a military chieftain like the ancient Mahomet,
the greater fear and dread of us will be conveyed to the minds of the lawless,
who watch for prey, and spoil, and booty. I can assure you, that neither Mr.
Smith, nor any other intelligent Latter-day Saint, ever intends to make one
convert by the sword; neither are we such tee-total peace makers that any
savage banditti of lawless depredators could waste our property, violate
virtue, and shed innocent blood, without experiencing from us a firm defence
of law, of right, and innocence. We are to this day very sensitive to a
repetition of past wrongs that we still smart under. The Lord our God, who was
once called (by a man after his own heart) "a man of war," we trust will be
our defense and strong tower in the day of battle, if our country should ever
call us to scenes of carnage and blood.
	You ask, "What is the nature of the worship among you, and wherein does
it differ from that of religious people with whom you have been acquainted
elsewhere?" On the Sabbath some person usually preaches a sermon after prayer
and singing, and, perhaps, reading some scripture. We have, also, frequent
prayer meetings, in which all that are so disposed may join. The gifts are
variously exercised, sometimes in the way of prophecy, or in tongues;
sometimes in discerning of spirits, or interpretation of tongues. The
ordinance of baptism, together with the imposition of hands for the gift of
the Holy Ghost, is administered as occasion may require. Thus you will
perceive that our worship differs from what we [29] both have been accustomed
to in times that are past. Anxious seats and inquiry meetings, etc., are not
in use at all with us; although converts to our faith have swelled our numbers
greatly in every year that is past, yet we are very far from employing any
blustering effort to convert men. The spirit of God attends the truth with
sufficient power to save the upright; while those that hold the truth in
unrighteousness, and contend with it, are beyond the legitimate exercise of
divine power to save, and are led captive by the devil at his will.
	Our worship differs from that of other religious people, inasmuch as we
have the knowledge of God, and the true doctrine and order of his kingdom,
beyond all perplexing doubt and diversity of opinion. It is utterly impossible
for intelligent and devoted sectarian clergy to lead their hearers into any
considerable knowledge of God, for this very potent reason, that they neither
know much of him themselves, nor, indeed, have they the means of knowing him.
For this they are not at all culpable; but the fact is, nevertheless,
incontrovertible.
	I do not now speak to please men, nor to mortify them, but I know it to
be true, my brother, and therefore speak it boldly. Are you offended? Will you
stop here and throw down my letter with contempt, as though an ignorant
upstart had abused you? If I write plainly, it is with deep and painful
emotions. While writing I can hardly surpress a flood of tears. I know the
dilemma in which many of my religious brethren are placed, and the extreme
difficulty of approaching them; but whether they hear or forbear, I must tell
them that it is out of their power to attain to any considerable knowledge of
the true and living God. "But," say they, "have we not got the good old Bible,
which makes men wise unto [30] salvation?" You have, indeed, those venerable
truths which have many ages since made men wise unto salvation; and those
truths will teach you, if you take heed to them, that the Gentiles have been
broken off from the covenant favor of God as the Jews were. But these
scriptures cannot impart to you the gifts of the Holy Ghost; they cannot
ordain and qualify you to teach and preach the gospel and administer the
ordinances; they cannot give you promises and revelations that are expressly
for you.
	When the apostle Paul was in danger of being shipwrecked with his crew
(see Acts of the Apostles), it would have been poor consolation to him to read
the ancient history of Jonah's shipwreck, and pray over the subject in order
to know how the voyage would result to him; but how much greater his
consolation, and how much more certain his knowledge, when God ministers to
him by visions and angels, and promises both him and the crew preservation.
Philip wanted no better assurance of his duty to go to Gaza, than for an angel
of God to tell him to go; but if he had pored over ancient revelations, with
prayerful anxiety, in order to know the same, it would have been a poor guide.
The New Testament Saints did not lean upon Old Testament revelations for the
knowledge of present duties, or for aid in their present contingencies; they
looked directly to God for present fresh instruction and aid-- they obtained
what they looked for.
	The ancient Jews (contemporary with Christ), that leaned on the venerated
sayings of Abraham and Moses, and other old prophets, abode in darkness, and
became the prey of foul spirits, while the advocates of present revelations
were mighty through God, in signs and wonders, and marvellous deeds.
[31]	Now, let the religious people of this day depend exclusively upon the
ancient scriptures, rejecting present revelations, and they will be filled
with ignorance, and the spirit of unrighteousness will possess them; and they
cannot act with that certainty and power that those can, who know for
themselves by immediate revelation. But I have said it is impossible for them
to know much of the true God: the careful observer knows, that what one sect
or denomination teaches for doctrine, another will controvert and deny. There
is not that power in the doctrine of any one sect that gives it much
ascendancy over any other sect. The doctrines of all sects, though adverse to
each other, are about equally weighty and plausible; no one gets any
considerable ascendancy; if there appears to be light in one sect over another
sect, it shows an equal amount of an opposite character.
	It is an acknowledged duty of parents, in this church, to teach their
children the elementary principles of religion, training them up in the way
they should go. You ask if they are instructed in learning. As a people we aim
most diligently to give our children learning. Our persecutions, oppressions,
and poverty have operated greatly to the disadvantage of our children; still
we have a chartered university, that promises much benefit to us; and common
schools are extensively multiplying throughout the city.
	The present population of the city is from ten to twelve thousand. You
ask, "What is their condition, occupation, and general character?" The
condition of the people is as prosperous as circumstances will permit. Many of
them, like Jacob of old, have left a good patrimony at home that they are not
benefited from, by reason of their being everywhere spoken against; but [32]
though they had nothing but their staff in hand, and a little bundle upon
their back when they came, they have now in many instances a comfortable
cottage, a flourishing garden, and a good cow. There are many instances of
families being subject to privations, beyond what they were accustomed to in
early days; and there are some instances of deep penury, through sickness,
persecution and other uncontrollable causes; and there are also instances of
wealth; but be assured, sir, there is not a more contented and cheerful people
to be found. Families will consent to let father and brother go out preaching,
when their daily bread is barely supplied for a few months.
	Believing, as we do, that these are the last days, and that signal
matters await this generation; and that the harvest must be gathered soon, if
at all, you must not marvel if we do not all at once become rich, and build
large houses, and enclose productive farms. If riches were our object, we
might readily gratify the most ambitious grasp. We possess every facility for
being rich, but we long to behold the beauty of the Lord, and inquire in his
holy temple. The place of his sanctuary, which we greatly desire to beautify,
is a site of surpassing natural beauty. Upon it stands the incomplete
structure of a temple; in dimensions, a little over one hundred and
twenty-eight feet long, by eighty-eight feet wide, to be elevated in height a
little under sixty feet; the walls are made of well-wrought handsome stone.
The inhabitants are very industrious, being occupied in agriculture and the
various mechanical arts.
	Our people are mostly the working class of the community, from the United
States, and Great Britain and her Provinces. They are a very intelligent
people, especially so far as common sense and a general knowledge of men and
things are concerned.
[33]	Our Elders are versed in religious polemics, from discussions in the
pulpit, stage, bar room, canal and steamboat, of the fireside and highway
side; and, perhaps, you, are not aware that many, very many, are from the
most; enlightened portion of New England; men that have been rocked in the
cradle of orthodoxy and liberty; accustomed to fatigue, privation, and
opposition; and knowing that their religion has more light and truth, and the
power of the Holy Ghost to support it, than any other that has existed since
the days of the apostles, they are prepared to endure all things, with the
assurance that their reward is great in heaven.
	You wish to know the general character of the people. There is probably
less profanity, drunkenness, lewdness, theft, fighting, gambling, and
tavern-haunting, than in any other city of the same magnitude.
	But I must close my answer to your many and minute inquiries, having
already protracted it beyond my original design. Your letter contains many
important inquiries, similar indeed to what I have received from other
distinguished friends from different parts of the Union. You will accept my
apology for not answering at an earlier date; and though I design this epistle
to be a general answer to all similar inquiries, yet shall hereafter readily
reciprocate all private communications in the usual method of friendship and
affection.
					Most sincerely and truly yours,
								ORSON SPENCER.

								LIVERPOOL, May 15th, 1847.

	Reverend Sir--Agreeable to promise made in my first answer to your
letter, I now resume my pen to inform you, in a series of letters, of the
distinguishing tenets of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,
according to the faith which I myself do entertain, with all sobriety and
integrity of heart, before God and all good men. I had hoped, however, that
more leisure would have favored me, not only that I might more minutely and
perspicuously maintain the primitive faith, but also do it in such conciseness
and embellishment of diction, as both to please and enlighten.
	The first subject to which I will invite your attention will be that of
IMMEDIATE REVELATION. It shall be my direct aim to show in this letter, that
no person ever did partake of the gospel of salvation, or ever will partake of
it, without the spirit of revelation dwelling in his breast. This is the first
and also the last round in the ladder that leads to the perfect knowledge of
God. Without the same spirit of revelation that dwelt in the breasts of
prophets, patriarchs, and apostles in ancient time, no man can begin to know
God, neither can any man or set of men make any progress in the knowledge of
God, when that spirit is withdrawn from him.
	A word from the mouth of the Great Arbitrator of all controversy ought to
suffice. HE, THE GREAT GOD [35] AND JUDGE OF ALL, has said that "Neither
knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will
reveal him." Words cannot bear a plainer import. If any man knows Jesus
Christ, it is by revelation, and in no other way can he be known. Will you say
that apostles and prophets know him in this way, while others may know him
without themselves being gifted with the spirit of revelation? Absurd! Others
must know him by revelation as much as apostles and prophets. If they have not
the spirit of revelation, they, cannot judge what is a genuine and infallible
revelation when it proceeds from the pen of apostles, or even the lips of
angels, or of God himself; for the things of the Spirit are correctly judged
only by those who have the same spirit; hence all men must not only be born of
the spirit, but likewise be baptized into one and the same spirit.
	This spirit is the Spirit of God, and nothing less; and the Spirit of God
is the Spirit of revelation, because it is expressly declared that the spirit
takes of the things of God, and shows them unto men; even the deep things of
God are searched out and dispensed to men for their comfort and the
illumination of their minds. Hence Jesus declared that he would send them
another "comforter," even the spirit of truth; and the office of this spirit
of truth was to "lead into all truth." By this means we perceive that the
universal storehouse of all truth is thrown open and rendered available to
such as have been properly baptized into the spirit, as their occasion may
demand. Even the apostles were forbid to go out and preach until they were
endowed with the gift of the Holy Ghost. After they should receive this gift,
it would then become their duty to impart it unto all others freely, by the
imposition of hands, who should obey the gospel. [36] Males and females were
to partake of it, and see in vision things to come, and have their remembrance
of things past quickened into vivid and unambiguous recollection.
	It was this spirit of revelation that gave to the primitive church the
power of godliness; for it was simply the holy Spirit of God that rendered the
gospel the power of God unto salvation to them that believed; for therein was
the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. The gospel never took
any effect upon men's hearts unless the Spirit of God attended it. Whenever
God takes away from the church the spirit of revelation, he thereby takes away
the light of the church--the good spirit of the church, and the truth and
integrity of the church, and the comfort of the church, and also the power of
it. It becomes like the branch without sap, or the pale mortal corpse without
the living spirit.
	A church that is built upon the principle of revelation by the Holy
Spirit can never be prevailed against while that spirit continues with it. It
then becomes the power of God personified. Men and women--servants and
hand-maidens--attended by the Holy Spirit of God, know about men and things,
and matters and events, even as God knows; because they have precisely the
same spirit that God has. Things that never entered the heart of man to
conceive, and things that the tongue could never utter, are revealed by the
Spirit of God. As bodily eyes are to the corporal organization (causing, all
that wide difference that exists between him that sees and one that is wholly
blind) so are the eyes of intelligence which the Spirit imparts to a believer,
whereby he comprehends the different spirits of men from time to time and sees
events in the future as though they were actually and presently at hand. The
daughters of Philip can [37] speak prophetically, with as much unerring
certainty as God himself, according to the measure of the spirit given them,
because they have His Spirit, and consequently a given measure of
intelligence. And the scope of this increase of intelligence is expanded or
diminished, as God pleases to suit the occasion.
	When there is occasion to prophesy, or speak with new tongues, or
interpret, or rebuke diseases, and cast out evil spirits--His Spirit is given.
And it could be given as well to a beast as to a man for the same purpose, and
the same effect would follow. The beast of Balaam, when inspired of God, rose
immediately above his legitimate sphere of action, and spoke with a man's
voice, forbidding the madness of the prophet. The same spirit by which he
spoke would have enabled the dumb ass to rebuke disease, cast out devils, or
speak a variety of tongues. But God might withdraw that spirit, and he would
then be only a dumb ass, fit only to bear burdens, etc. Men are but little
more competent to heal the sick, cast out devils, and discern spirits, or know
the things of God or eternity, and make preparations for the future, than the
beasts, without the Spirit of God. When God wants to punish a generation or
generations, he does it effectually by withholding His Spirit. The world
travails in pains and groans in bondage, and oppression, and cruelty, and
strife, and bloodshed, and in ignorance, superstition, and zeal without
knowledge, when God shuts out the light of revelation. The revelations given
to the primitive age, bear about the same relation of benefit to the people of
this age, that the gift of food and manna, to those starving in former ages,
bears towards the supply of such as are in want now. Jesus Christ winds up his
sermon on the mount, by calling him a WISE man that [38] hears and obeys the
voice of revelation, and he shall never fall." At the same time he calls him
that hears and obeys not the voice of revelation, a FOOL, and such a man will
fall, and his fall will be great.
	We cannot be in any doubt what is meant by the expression "hearing"
Christ, or "these sayings of mine." Jesus says to such servants as he sends
out to preach (and none but such as are sent by revelation can preach) he that
heareth YOU heareth ME. But while they cannot hear without a preacher, neither
can they hear with a preacher, except the Father draw them, or, in other
words, except they have the Spirit of God, which is a spirit of revelation.
How could Peter know Jesus, when he heard his conversation and preaching?
Jesus testifies that, by the wisdom of flesh and blood, Peter did not know
him, but by the spirit of revelation from God out of heaven; and in order to
end all controversy throughout all ages, he declares that not only Peter, but
NO OTHER MAN, ever did or ever can know God, only as he is revealed to him
from heaven; and that man is "blessed" that has the spirit of revelation to
know the only true God and Jesus Christ. That man is accounted as a thief and
a robber that would know God or Jesus without the spirit of revelation.
	The Spirit of God was sent into the world for the express purpose of
acquainting men with Jesus Christ. By this spirit it was an easy matter for
men to know Jesus Christ, though he was everywhere spoken against, and the
whole country teemed with lies, and the great mass of people, reputedly good
as well as bad, thought that he ought to be stoned, mobbed, and crucified:
still it was easy to know him by the spirit of revelation; and it was
impossible to know him without that spirit. Thus, [39] dear sir, it is easy
for you, and all my former associates in the sectarian ministry, to know that
Joseph Smith was a prophet of the Lord, sent to prune the Lord's vineyard for
the last time.
	Says the Scripture, "No man, speaking by the Spirit of God, can call
Jesus accursed," although he "hung upon a tree." And I add, sir, with perfect
assurance, that no man can call Joseph Smith "accursed," or an "impostor,"
while speaking by the Spirit of God; for the Spirit of God will never dictate
any one to speak against the servant of God; but the spirit of the world and
of Satan will stir up men to speak against prophets and saints, and prosecute
and assassinate them. The scripture also says, that no man can call Jesus
Lord, but by the HOLY GHOST. Thus, reverend sir, you perceive that NO MAN, in
former ages or latter ages can call Jesus Lord, but by revelation from the
HOLY GHOST. It is by the person and agency of the HOLY GHOST only, that Jesus
promises to be with his preachers always unto the end of the world, in order
to reveal the truth unto honest hearers, and show them who are prophets and
true ministers of Christ, and also what is true doctrine. The HOLY GHOST will
always attend a true minister of God, and reveal to his humble, honest
hearers, his mission and authority beyond all reasonable doubt.
	Now, sir, let me say, distinctly, that the testimony of any number of
men, or of all men together, is no proof either for or against the authority,
doctrine, or mission of a prophet or true minister of God. For if no one man
can know a minister of God without revelation, then no large body of men can
know him; and surely they cannot testify of what they do not KNOW. No matter
what is said against Joseph Smith, or who, or how many, say [40] it, or
however credible the witnesses, they are not competent to testify, because
they have not the gift of revelation. This position, sir, is invincible,
because it is fortified by the voice of eternal truth, even the word of God,
which you profess publicly to believe, and preach and print. Flesh and blood
cannot reveal spiritual things, but our Father in heaven. The things of the
spirit require the same spirit to discern them. He that is spiritual can judge
all things, while he that has not the spirit of revelation cannot judge any
spiritual matters correctly, of any name or nature.
	Now, my dear friend, I close this second epistle praying that God will
give you the Spirit of understanding, which I assure you He will do, inasmuch
as you are humble and contrite, and seek it with all your heart.
					Your obedient servant,
							ORSON SPENCER.

								LIVERPOOL, June 1st, 1847.

	Reverend and Dear Sir--The next subject to which I will invite your
careful consideration, is that of FAITH.
	Do not be surprised that I should attempt the investigation of a subject
so common-place, with the view of imparting any new or useful instruction. The
numerous elaborate treatises that have heretofore been bestowed upon this
subject, have, I boldly aver, been like Goliath's armor against David--massive
and imposing, but, at the same time, alike inapplicable and ineffectual to the
case at issue.
	In order that you may be apprised of my position, without needless
circumlocution, I here distinctly observe, that there neither is, nor ever
was, any gospel or saving faith, in former or latter days, but the faith of
miracles, or the faith of immediate revelation. Can any man know God without
faith? Certainly not. The gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation.
To whom? To the unbelieving? No! but to them that have faith. The gospel of
Christ is, then, brought only to such as have faith. But what faith are they
to have in order to receive it? The answer is, the faith of immediate
revelation, or of the supernatural agency of the Holy Spirit.
	Now, sir, I ask you to listen a moment, and hear what the voice of God
says to you and me on this subject. [42] The righteousness of God is revealed
from FAITH to FAITH. Here, it is conceived, my position is invincibly
fortified beyond the power of rational conquest. God's righteous will is
revealed to FAITH. It is written, "The just shall live by faith." By what
faith shall the just live? Surely, nothing less than the faith of immediate
revelation. The fact that God's will was revealed to the faith of the Saints
anciently, does not supersede the necessity of his will being revealed to your
faith and to my faith now.
	The ancients could not believe for us or, in other words, their faith
could not be a substitute for our faith. "He that believeth not," for himself,
"shall be damned." Neither could a revelation to them be necessarily a
revelation to us. A revelation to Noah, to build an ark, is not suited to
Abraham, or Peter, or Francis Wayland, or Dr. Chalmers. No man, in this day,
can know that God ever revealed himself to Noah, or Abraham, unless it is now
revealed to him from heaven; and he cannot know that it is revealed from
heaven to him now, unless he has faith unto himself before God; and this
faith, which he must exercise for himself, is the faith of revelation, or the
faith of miracles.
	What ailed the Judaic churches in Christ's day? They certainly believed
on Moses and Abraham, and made habitual sacrifices in support of their faith.
Paul was a bright example of sincerity and fidelity in support of the Judaic
faith. He verily thought that he ought to do many things contrary to the name
of Jesus of Nazareth. But was the faith of Paul, and of the Judaic church
generally, the faith of immediate revelation, or the faith of miracles? By no
means. Paul originally, and his associates in the ministry, believed the
Mosaic scriptures from tradition and education, and not from immedi-[43]ate
revelation. They, indeed, believed the Abraham, and Moses, and Samuel, and
Noah, had the faith of miracles, and enjoyed immediate revelation, and the
spirit of prophecy, etc. They believed that such a high order of faith as
prevailed in the Mosaic and prophetic days was no longer necessary. (But,
afterwards, Paul concedes that one in his own state was one in ignorance and
unbelief.)
	Hence the spirit of prophecy, spoken of by Joel, as poured out in the
apostolic day, was, in their estimation, uncalled for. They supposed that the
canon of scripture was sufficiently full, when the prophet Malachi finished
his testimony, and closed up the age of miracles! Men may sincerely believe
the Bible, as many of the sects do believe it, without having it revealed from
heaven that the Bible is true, and it will never save them. They may believe
the Bible, even without knowing God; for the simple reason, that no man can
know God without God reveals himself to him. This was the condition of the
Judaic church. Many of them sincerely believed the Mosaic writings, but
detested and rejected the principle of immediate revelation, by which alone
they could know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he had sent. If they
had believed heartily in the doctrine of immediate revelation to all
believers, in all ages, they would have known Jesus Christ to be the Messiah,
as well as Moses, or Abraham, who saw his day and was glad. On the same
principle, dear sir, Christian denominations, in this day, believe the
apostolic scriptures sincerely, and do many things accordingly; but rejecting
the principle of immediate revelation to them-ward, they neither know Jesus
Christ nor his prophet Joseph, nor the power of God, as it is revealed from
faith to faith in our day.
[44]	We, sir, contend for the faith of miracles in our own day; but you and
your associates contend against it. The disciples of Jesus contended for it,
in their day; but the professed followers of Moses and Abraham contended
against it. Now, sir, to which of these sides do you belong? Can you find that
any people, who ever contended against the faith of immediate revelation and
miracles, such as was maintained by Samuel, Abraham, Barak, Daniel, and Noah,
ever prospered? Is there a single instance in scripture, from Genesis to
Revelations, where God manifests any fellowship for any faith short of a faith
of miracles and immediate revelation? If an inferior kind of faith has been
got up since the New Testament age, is it not well to inquire from whence it
has sprung, and what is the scriptural basis of its support? If such an
inferior faith is not revealed from heaven, it must certainly be from beneath,
and consequently, earthly, and sensual, and devilish. If it springs from the
precepts of men, and not from the direct and positive revelation of God, it
ought surely to be abandoned and forsaken at once. When men believe the Old
and New Testament scriptures from tradition, and the lips of a ministry that
is not sent and called by immediate revelation from heaven, their faith is
dead; and all such as float in this broad stream of traditionary faith, are
not and cannot be built up as lively stones to offer up spiritual sacrifices
to God.
	Hence, sir, the concession of Mr. C. G. Finney, and Nettleton, and of
your own Mr. Knapp, all great Revivalists, and talented and devout men, that
the "sectarian churches need to be converted over again." And I am constrained
to add, without any invidious feelings, that such teachers themselves need to
be converted from a [45] traditionary faith unto the same faith with the
ancient worthies, spoken of in the eleventh chapter to the Hebrews. They
themselves cannot know God without the same ancient faith that secured to its
possessors revelation from God and the power of working miracles, etc. God has
never called men to testify to the truth of the Old and New Testaments, unless
the truth has been revealed to them personally from the heavens. When it is
thus revealed, they will obey like the ancient saints, and the power of
godliness will follow their faith, "even healing of the sick, casting out
devils, and speaking with new tongues."
	You, sir, will surely admit, that the faith of the ancients was far
superior to modern traditionary faith, and was attended with a power which
this latter faith cannot, in its very nature, ever attain to. By the ancient
faith, or faith of immediate revelation, men wrought righteousness, subdued
kingdoms, stopped the mouths of lions, and quenched the violence of
fire--stayed the sun in the firmament, sealed up the heavens as brass for the
space of three years and a half, or opened the windows thereof for the rain to
descend in showers or torrents, even to a universal deluge. Surely it will be
no disparagement to such exalted names as yours, and that of my old
acquaintance President Barnes Sears, and my former instructor, President E.
Knott, to turn, like Paul, to the banner and standard of such a faith. By such
a faith they are prepared to work the works of God; and either in time or
eternity, to work even far greater works than Jesus ever wrought on the earth,
as his own word declares; for, sir, this kind of faith shall abide beyond the
veil; for God himself made the world by faith, and the spirits of the just
work by faith, and obtain revelation from God, and [46] minister the same to
militant believers on earth, from the faith of the sanctified in light, to the
faith of the militant here below. "The righteousness of God is revealed from
faith to faith." Surely we may count all things but loss for the excellency
the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord; for he that gets the knowledge of
Christ by revelation to himself and keeps it, shall never fall.
	Do you not preach, sir, the ancient faith spoken of in the eleventh
chapter of Hebrews, for modern believers to imitate? Or is the miraculous
faith of the ancients to be portrayed to men in this day, only as a beautiful
picture, to be admired by spectators, and not copied and imitated as a
doctrine of modern practice? If there is such a thing as common faith, in
distinction from the supernatural and miraculous faith, named in the eleventh
of Hebrews, what part of the scriptures teaches it? Please to name the chapter
and verse; and when you have pointed out to me the specific scriptures that
teach a faith inferior to that of prophesying or working miracles, etc.,
please to tell me wherein lies the power of such a faith? If it cannot reveal
anything to the children of men, how can it increase the sum of knowledge
without any reasonable prospect of filling the earth with knowledge, as the
waters cover the bed of the great deep? If it cannot forecast events beyond
the mere common prescience of human minds, how can the wise man foresee the
evil in time to hide himself? Is it not passing strange, sir, that from Adam
to Noah, and from Noah to Abraham, and from Abraham to David, and from David
to Malachi, and from John the Baptist to John the Revelator, the miraculous
faith should be tenaciously and rigorously contended for; while since that
day, men, professing godliness, not only contend for an inferior faith, but
contend against the anti-[47]quated faith that was sustained for more than
four thousand years, giving to God a great and glorious name for all his
wonderful works and mighty deeds?
	Why do the modern clergy commend the faith that put to flight the armies
of the aliens--quenched the violence of fire--and staggered not at promises
that required supernatural agency to fulfil, if we are not to imitate and
practice such faith? Why so much time and labor exhausted in order to define
and extol a faith that belonged exclusively to past ages; and if the
scriptures speak of no other faith that is pleasing to God, would it not be
better that mankind be informed more explicitly what is the nature and effect
of that common and inferior faith of which the Bible illustrations are so
inapplicable? Seeing that the Bible illustrations of faith pertain to examples
of a supernatural order, will you please to give us those that are of a
natural and common order, suited to our age, that is, and of a right ought to
be, free from supernatural and miraculous deeds, signs, wonders, and
prophecyings? In so doing, and publishing the same through your widely
circulated paper, you may rest assured that it shall have prompt insertion in
the STAR, and greatly oblige 
					Your humble and obedient servant,
								ORSON SPENCER. 

								LIVERPOOL, June 14th, 1847.

	Reverend and Dear Sir--You, sir, need no argument to convince you that
WATER BAPTISM is the first ordinance, after faith and repentance, that
initiates the believer into the kingdom of God.
	The kingdom of God is to be established upon the earth, according to the
pattern of the heavenly order, which if the first principle taught in the
memorable prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ, which prayer will be pertinent to
all believers on earth, until the object of the prayer is fully achieved, and
the kingdoms of this world have universally become the kingdom of God. And if
we were to search the kingdom of God from one end to the other, and from side
to side, we should not find a single adult believer in the whole heaven, who
had not been baptized with water.
	Do you ask why I make such a bold declaration, an how I know this
seemingly exclusive and uncharitable truth? I know it, sir, by the voice of
God from the heavens, and this voice is to you as well as me, if you will
receive it. Do not you believe the scripture that saith, "Except a man be born
of the WATER and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God?" I
know that you believe this scripture, and am persuaded that your ingenious
mind will not seek to pervert it from its plain and obvious import.
[49]	Whatever an over-jealous mind may fear concerning the state of the
penitent thief on the cross, and of devout and upright men that have lived and
died in every age of the world, still let God's word be accounted true, and
every man that gainsays it be esteemed a liar! No man ever puts on the uniform
of Christ's followers, such as is worn by subjects of the kingdom of Christ,
until he is "baptized into Christ" for the remission of sins. Hereby he "puts
on Christ." When an ambassador of Christ finds a man or woman that heartily
repents of his or her rebellion against the laws of Christ, he baptizes him
unto repentance for "remission of sins." By the ordinance of baptism, the
rebellious subject virtually says, "I hereby signify to all men my repentance;
and the lawful administrator as virtually says, "on the part of Jesus Christ,
whose Ambassador I am, (being called by revelation, and being authorized to
act in his name, and for him,) I pronounce this person's sins remitted,
according to his genuine repentance and faith in Christ."
	Now, sir, what objection can there be for a man sent from God to remit
sins by baptism, in the name and by the authority of the King of heaven? If
Christ has power on earth to forgive and remit sins, may he not send
forgiveness and remission by another, even by whom he will? And will not such
a remission and forgiveness of sins be as valid as though he administered the
ordinance of baptism himself? Undoubtedly it will be indisputably valid. And
what ordinance is so beautifully significant as that which expresses both the
penitence of the subject, and the cordial acceptance of the Ruler and Lord?
	Has not Jesus Christ a right to remit sins by baptism unto repentance?
Who shall say that the penitent believer's sins are not remitted by baptism?
Who shall [50] lay any sins to his charge? Is not God that justifies? Has not
Christ died? Has he not a right to say who are fit subjects for baptism? Has
he not a right to say by what ordinance sins shall be remitted? He has never
said that repentance and faith shall secure remission of sins to any one
without baptism. It is not in the power of any man or angel to find a license
in the Bible to receive a person into the kingdom of God without baptism.
Jesus Christ has never given any license, but, on the other hand, he has
explicitly said, in the most unequivocal language possible, that NO MAN can
"enter the kingdom" without water baptism, or being "born of the water."
	Do you ask, if I call baptism a saving ordinance? I reply, that
repentance and faith will not save anybody in the kingdom of God without
baptism. Some men, whose crimes are unpardonable in this world, may, and
doubtless do, repent and believe; but they cannot be baptized for the
remission of sins, nor forgiven "until the times of refreshing come from the
presence of the Lord in the restitution of all things." Righteous Noah was
"saved by water;" and the apostle Peter, rehearsing the fact, says that
baptism saved believers in his day in like manner.
	You, sir, must be perfectly aware that Jesus Christ has said, by the
mouth of his servant John, that BAPTISM constitutes no less importance of
character than one of the THREE GREAT WITNESSES of adoption and citizenship
into the kingdom of God on the earth--the SPIRIT, the WATER, and the BLOOD.
These three bear witness on the earth, and agree in one. One of these THREE
performs the double office of bearing witness on the earth, and also of
bearing record in heaven. Three witnesses appear to [51] be requisite in order
to prove our title good to a place in the kingdom of God; and the testimony of
these THREE, and nothing less, is recorded in heaven by the Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost. Who will dare to say that the THREE in heaven will accept of the
testimony of the two witnesses on earth, when God has explicitly said that he
requires the testimony of THREE, and nothing less?
	Do we forget that all men are to be judged out of the books? And if the
books show the absence of one WITNESS, and the consequent disagreement of the
three before named, can that person that is thus deficient of testimony, stand
acquitted from the books out of which he is judged? By no means! The THREE
witnesses will agree in one; and when they agree, the Spirit will bear the
testimony of the Water and the Blood to the recording angel, and these, united
with his own seal, will be placed on record until the books are brought
forward for judging the nations of the earth.
	Furthermore, no man can ever be born of the Spirit until he has first
been born of the water. The Holy Ghost will never condescend to become the
covenant guide and instructor, and holy comforter of any one, until he has
been baptized or born of water. Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye were
baptized? Peter told penitent believers that they might receive the Holy Ghost
after they were baptized; so said John the Baptist to those he baptized. If,
in a single instance, the Holy Ghost was given before baptism, still it was no
part of Christ's instructions to his apostles ever to confer the Holy Ghost
until after baptism--and then it was to be done by the laying on of hands.
	Men may receive a measure of the Spirit of God before baptism (even as a
child has in embryo the germ [52] of life before parturition); but no one has
a large measure of the Spirit, nor has any covenant claim to the Spirit, or in
other words, can be born of the Spirit, until he has been baptized in water.
"Jesus came by water," and was baptized in water for the remission of the
original sin of the world. He knew that baptism for the remission of sin was
necessary as an example, and also that by his "obedience many might be made
righteous," even as by the "offence of one, many were made sinners." Jesus
needed not only the testimony of water-baptism, but also, after baptism, the
testimony of the other witness--the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost was a personage
inferior in office to himself, but still the Holy Ghost was conferred upon
him, while coming out of the water, in "the form of a dove."
	The third witness to adoption is the "Cup of Blessing, or Sacramental Cup
of Wine," which, if men "drink not, they have no life in them." Now, sir, let
us abide strictly by the "law and the testimony," even as Jesus our patron has
done, and consider nothing unessential which our law-giver has both enjoined
and exemplified for obedience and salvation. Who is prepared to say that the
faithful will not take the cup of blessing even in the heavens, and drink wine
in our heavenly Father's kingdom? Who can say that the river of life that
proceeds from the throne of God in the celestial city, shall not be employed
to perpetuate the remembrance of baptismal water of adoption, and even
perpetuate sinless purity, like the leaves of healing that vow on the banks of
the crystal stream?
	Is it a thing incredible with you, sir, that God should remit sins
through baptism? It is with difficulty that I can persuade myself that you are
so distrustful of the power or wisdom of God. You read and expound the [53]
scriptures from Sabbath to Sabbath. You certainly believe that Naaman's
leprosy was washed away by water-baptism in Jordan; you also must believe that
men were healed of mortal diseases, by simply looking at a brazen serpent
lifted up in the wilderness. Do you not believe that the walls of Jericho fell
down under the simple blast of the rams' horns? and that the simple touch of
the hem of a garment, or of handkerchiefs, was attended with healing virtue to
them that believed?
	Why were the learned and devout Judaic churches surprised that Peter
should proclaim to thousands--"Be baptized for the remissions of your sins?"
and, on another occasion, even commanded Cornelius, as pious and devout a
believer as yourself, to be baptized in order that he might be saved--telling
the churches in a general circular epistle, that baptism would save them as
much as water saved Noah? Why should those same churches withdraw fellowship
from Paul because he believed Ananias, saying to him, "Arise and be baptized
and wash away thy sins," even as your church have disfellowshipped me, because
I believe as Paul did, and obey the same gospel which he preached, with all
its miraculous gifts, blessings, and priesthood? The secret and solution of
the whole surprise of the Judaic and modern churches are, that both overlook
the efficacious simplicity of Christ's ordinances, and know not the "power of
God," by which a mere look, touch, baptismal rite, or the imposition of a
hand, may secure blessings rich as heaven--power as great as
Gabriel's--knowledge as high as the throne of God--and life and felicity as
endless as eternity!
	Greatly blessed, sir is that men commissioned immediately from the
heavens to administer baptism unto repentance for remission of sins; and
blessed are they [54] who receive remission of sins from the hands of those
who act in "Christ's stead." Hence the grateful acknowledgments of David,
repeated by Paul--"Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins
are covered." Men who obey the Gospel are as well satisfied that their sins
are forgiven through baptism, as you, sir, would he satisfied of the validity
and legality of a creed, signed and sealed by his excellency the chief
magistrate of your State. They rejoice in the same, without ambiguity or fear
of being deceived. The spirit of bondage and fear (which is in sectarian
churches) does no longer wither up their hope, and blight the joy of their
acceptance with God.
	The heavens, that before seemed clouded with dismal forebodings and
doubtful omens, that kept the excellent Dr. Payson even, on a tumultuous sea
of mental storms and calms, is now clear and tranquil all the day and all the
year. They rejoice in the Lord ever more, and they know of a truth that by
keeping the commandments of God, their peace is like the gentle and
ever-onward current of a river. Driven from "city to city, and from one nation
to another people;" and "everywhere spoken against," belied, robbed, and
arraigned before "magistrates" for thefts, treason, blasphemy, etc., they are
distressed indeed, but not with mental doubts and fears. No; far from it; they
are borne down with expulsion from place to place--burning their
houses--despoiling their goods under shadow of legal
prosecution--whippings--priestly and editorial calumnies! These things, sir,
distress their bodies, and cause cold, and nakedness, and hunger, and an
uncertain dwelling place; but do not by any means impair their peace in
believing, or their joy in the Holy Ghost. None of these things move them.
				Yours,			ORSON SPENCER.

								LIVERPOOL, June 29th, 1847.

	Reverend and Dear Sir--The subject of my fifth letter is one of
surpassing importance. It is, sir, the "GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST," by the laying
on of hands.
	The magnitude of the subject warrants me to say, in few words what
belongs to it, without those copious scripture references which you can look
after at your leisure. If you will honestly listen to my description of the
office-work of the Holy Ghost, you will clearly perceive, that, since the time
Jesus left the earth, it is more extensive and important than even the work of
the other personages of the Godhead.
	The Holy Ghost performs the double office of a WITNESS on earth and a
RECORDER in heaven. Being an unembodied personage, he can move among men
without the danger of being mobbed and killed, as was not the case with Jesus
Christ. He takes up the work of man's redemption, just where Jesus Christ left
it, and has a distinct part to act until the second coming of Christ, then in
due time He also may obtain glory with the Father, even as Jesus does--yea, a
fulness of the Godhead by himself.
	According to promise he came on the day of Pentecost, either with a
retinue of sanctified spirits, or in the simple unity and grandeur of his own
potent agency, and filled the house. He then disbursed among the disciples
[56] a variety of tongues--gifts for men which the Conqueror had promised.
With the keys of revelation, peculiar to his office, he unlocked their
understanding (with perfect impunity to himself) and bore witness that Jesus
was Christ. His testimony not only confirmed the disciples who had been
previously baptized, beyond the shadow of all further doubt, but convinced
some thousands of the sin of unbelief.
	He immediately informed Peter to whom Christ had promised to send the
keys of the presidency over the church by the Holy Ghost (for he could do
nothing till the Holy Ghost should bring them), that He, the Holy Ghost, would
ever be an attendant upon penitent believers, that should be "baptized for
remission of sins," whenever his minister should lay on hands. He authorized
him to make a solemn standing PROMISE; to this effect, viz.: that the Holy
Ghost's presence as a WITNESS to truth, should invariably follow the
imposition of hands. But he also gave him to understand, that none should lay
on hands or preach but such as should be called by revelation, even as was
Aaron. He assured him that he would henceforth abide with the church, and
enable obedient believers to work certain miraculous signs, such as healing
the sick, casting out devils, nullifying the properties of poison wickedly
administered, and speaking with new tongues--and these and other confirmations
of the truth should invariably attend the true church to the end of the world,
or as long as true believers continued on the earth; and if these miraculous
signs did not follow believers, they might know that they were rejected of
God, as reprobate silver is rejected of men.
	The Holy Ghost further informed him, that he was the LIVING WITNESS on
earth, in connection with [57] the WATER and the BLOOD, and sealed up the
testimony of all the witnesses concerning all believers on earth, and then
took them to heaven and recorded them in the BOOKS by the mutual agreement of
the Father and the Son, against a time of awards and punishments. He also
informed him that he always obtained a perfect knowledge of Jesus Christ's
mind touching all church transactions on earth, and faithfully communicated
the same to chosen men and believers according to their capacity to receive
and use such knowledge; and should continue to act in this office of
enlightening and comforting the church, "until they all come to the unity of
the faith, and the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ," which he
possessed before he left the earth. And he will also communicate Christ's mind
concerning the destinies of nations and the judgments, famines, and
pestilences, etc., with which Jesus Christ would visit the earth.
	The Holy Ghost would also reveal the deep purposes of God, not only
concerning the future glory of the Church, but also concerning individuals
that lived before the foundations of the world, and what would be their state
in worlds that are future. And even all things that Jesus Christ knew
concerning the interests, salvation, and endless felicity and glory of the
church and the misery and final undoing of such as obey not God the Holy Ghost
would communicate in visions, dreams, and revelations. Thus the earth would be
filled with knowledge, and Christ would again return here with all the
departed saints, and literally bring down a celestial city of splendid
mansions--even the New Jerusalem--and God would once more dwell with men in
peace.
	Let it be understood, that not only apostles, but all [58] obedient
believers in the primitive age, had the gift of the Holy Ghost, and
consequently, the "spirit of prophecy." "He that hath the testimony of Jesus
hath the spirit of prophecy." How do men have the testimony of Jesus? I
answer, through the agency of the Holy Ghost. Let it be understood, and marked
with INDELIBLE EMPHASIS, that the HOLY SPIRIT is the GREAT WITNESS on earth,
that he, the spirit of truth, has transmitted the mind of Jesus to believers
in visions, dreams prophecyings, etc. For this purpose Jesus sent the SPIRIT
into the world, that he might reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, and
of judgment.
	The Spirit though unembodied, now acts in all the authority, influence,
and power that Jesus himself would do if he were on the earth in very person.
But he acts upon and through the body of Christ, which is the church; through
the Spirit's possession of the church, it displays the MANIFOLD WISDOM OF GOD.
Whatever varied and abundant wisdom Jesus himself possessed, the true Church
ever has in a measure, and is destined to have, even to perfect fulness--"the
fulness of his stature."
	But how is the true church to show forth all the omniscience and potency
of Jesus? I answer, sir, by the Spirit of God that is in the church, by "the
laying on of hands." By this spirit it is signified to Paul what shall befall
him at Jerusalem; and also that the true Church shall cease from off the
earth, with all its miraculous gifts and blessings, before the second coming
of Christ. By the same spirit, John saw that an angel would again come in the
midst of heaven to restore the original primitive gospel to the earth. By the
same spirit Zechariah heard and saw the angel that should bring it, speak to a
[59] "young man." Isaiah saw the young man take a "sealed book from the
earth," that should be a "marvellous work and wonder," confounding the "wisdom
of the wise." By this spirit the camp of Israel saw and heard seventy elders
prophesy the very hour and moment that hands were laid upon them. Paul saw and
heard more than twelve disciples speak "with tongues and prophesy," as soon as
the "Holy Ghost" was conferred by "laying on of hands."
	No sooner had Ananias laid his hands on Saul, than the Holy Ghost, ever
faithful to his "promise," filled the person of Saul, and opened his eyes. The
same spirit signified to Philip a mission to Gaza, and after he had baptised
the Ethiopian, caught him away with power. By it also, Sampson stretched forth
an arm of omnipotence and slew a thousand men; and at another time overthrew a
large and capacious building, being filled with people, besides containing
three thousand men and women upon the roof. And by the same spirit, in this
day, the blind have been made to see, the lame to walk, and the deaf to hear,
and hundreds of persecuted famishing Saints, on the banks of the Mississippi,
have been miraculously fed by quails, as ancient Israel were fed in the
wilderness.
	Now, sir, can you tell me why sin and blasphemy against the Holy Spirit
constituted a more heinous and unpardonable offence than sin against the "Son
of Man?" Surely there is an importance attached to the office work of this
DIVINE AND MARVELLOUS WITNESS on the earth that deserves attention. If there
is no forgiveness of such an offense, it becomes all men, not only to hear
before they judge, but also to judge "righteous judgment." Jesus Christ has
told us that he placed in his church apostles and prophets, with gifts of
miracles, [60] tongues, etc. These gifts were the gifts of the spirit and you
will not deny that the Spirit of God, so far as the New Testament speaks of
him, was a spirit of Almighty power, as displayed in numerous gifts and ways.
	Now, sir, what has become of this miraculous and Almighty Spirits? Has he
ceased wholly from the earth? If so, then the WATER and the BLOOD are the only
witnesses now left on the earth. But perhaps you will say that the same spirit
still remains, without exercising his miraculous gifts and powers (seeing they
are not now necessary). Shall we then understand that this Almighty Spirit is
still on the earth, and in the diversified and convicting churches, and
comparatively silent and inefficient, withholding from these churches (which
are by supposition the BODY of Christ), his majestic displays of supernatural
power in prophecies, healings, tongues; causing the dumb ass to speak with
man's voice causing powerful armies to flee before the pursuit of one man; and
yet the world is perishing for lack of knowledge, and Christianity losing
ground every day? Might we not as soon think the spirit has grown old to
dotage, or lost his first love, or been beguiled into other pursuits of less
importance? Surely he never wrought so lazily, or in such imbecility and
indifference in any other age, when true believers or prophets were on the
earth? Strange, indeed, sir, that he should drop off so suddenly his royal

robes of prophetic, miraculous grandeur and power, to become the silent and
inefficient inmate of more than six hundred clashing, contentious churches,
that are yearly subdividing into minute fragments, to the confusion of all
common sense throughout boasting Christendom! What a falling off of the
spirit's power and of the spirit's light and unity. Will the Holy and [61]
Eternal Spirit of God endorse such a powerless, distracted state of things, as
being in any way connected with his presence on the earth, or in any way the
result of his doings? No, sir, by no means. For the honor of this illustrious
personage, let us never ascribe to HIM such a powerless, distracted
organization of heterogeneous ignorance and imbecility, as modern Christianity
presents in contrast with ancient Christianity. The heavens may well blush
with shame at this modern picture, purporting to be the kingdom of God on the
earth. If it is the kingdom of God, how shorn of its miraculous strength! How
are the prophets and seers covered! How dim that fine gold that once shone
resplendent with the celestial lustre of prophetic visions! Then men spoke as
they were moved by the Holy Ghost, and the sick were healed, and he that lied
to them was paralyzed in instantaneous death, at times.
	Orators "boast," as it is written of them in these "perilous times," of
the spread of Christianity. Christianity spreading! Where is the evidence of
its increase of power or knowledge? Where the least signs of approximation to
"unity of faith," and the "measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" in
"manifold wisdom and power?" Where the ornamental beauty and symmetry of the
Bride that is preparing for the marriage feast of the Lamb? How many ten
thousand years must elapse before it can be said of Christianity, "the Bride
hath made herself ready!" "clear as the sun, fair as the moon, and terrible as
an army with banners." Surely, since her prophets have lost their power, "to
quench the violence of fire, and subdue kingdoms, and stop the mouths of
lions," and her servants and handmaids to see visions, etc., the beauty of the
Bride has failed--her [62] breasts have diminished--her face is wrinkled--her
eyes are dim and cannot see afar off; she is no longer a chaste virgin
espoused to one husband--but she has as many husbands as sects, and yet none
of those with whom she is now living can be called her husband.
	Now, sir, will the Spirit join with such a Bride, and say to Jesus, the
Great Bridegroom, "come!" the Bride hath made herself ready! No, sir, the
Spirit of God will say, "I never knew you; depart from me, you pusillanimous,
benighted, powerless, contentious Christianity." "Thou, Aholibah and
Aholibamah, thy lewdness is in all high places;" "it thou hast played the
harlot with many lovers--yea, thou hast even hired lovers" (with human
inventions), instead of commanding admiration by the grace of thy "seers," and
the "visions of thy handmaids," and the "healing power of thine elders." Thou
shalt be burned with fire.
	In humble assurance of your willingness to see the unsheathed glittering
sword of truth, I have the pleasure to subscribe myself,
		     		Your humble servant,
							For Christ's sake,
									ORSON SPENCER.
     

								LIVERPOOL, July 12th, 1847.

	Reverend and Dear Sir--The subject of my sixth letter is, APOSTACY FROM
THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
	If modern Christianity is only an enlargement of the system of early
apostacy from the true Apostolic Church of Christ, it certainly deserves the
most serious consideration. It shall be my direct object in this epistle to
show, that modern Christianity possesses such a faint resemblance to that
system of faith established by Jesus Christ and his apostles, that it cannot
be called a likeness, or a copy, of even an imitation.
	Startle not, reverend sir, if I unhesitatingly declare that a counterfeit
bill of currency, that should have no more resemblance to a true emission from
the bank, than modern Christianity has to the ancient religion, would never be
likely to do much harm. Modern Christianity is the very opposite extreme and
counterpart of the ancient order of "apostles and prophets." If you will read
patiently, I will show clearly the proof of my position.
	In the Primitive Church, the Holy Ghost, after Jesus left the earth, came
and took possession, and constituted the grand main-spring, life, light, and
power of it. And the Apostle Peter (of indisputable authority) declares, in
the Second of Acts, that the promised gift of the Holy Ghost SHOULD CONTINUE
even to all the Lord our God should call. 
[64]	But this wonderful agent is not known in modern Christianity. His
powerful agency, as foretold by Joel in prophecy, in tongues and
interpretations, in discerning of spirits and in healing, is not now
recognized as being any part of the present Christianity. That Spirit that was
to make amends for the departure and absence of Jesus, by acquainting
believers with all truth--past, present and future--that they might be
comforted with knowledge and light, such as could not be obtained from books,
whether inspired or uninspired, was the great sine qua non or essential thing
in ancient Christianity; but in modern Christianity, the fruits of such a
spirit would be sneered at, even by divines! "What!" exclaims one, "prophecy
in these days! speak in tongues now! heal the sick now! have visions of future
things, and even heavenly things like unto the ancients!" The exclaimant
stands aghast with astonishment, as a perfect stranger to the most obvious and
conspicuous principles of ancient Christianity.
	Modern Christianity professes to derive all its light, and its various
clashing creeds, from the Old and New Testaments. If modern Christianity is,
indeed, the offspring of the Bible, it is a prodigy with many hundred heads;
but ancient Christianity drew its light from the ROCK of immediate revelation,
and previous scriptures were only confirmatory of the Spirit's testimony.
Illiterate fishermen, like Peter, traditionated by a corrupt priesthood, could
know next to nothing of the written manuscripts of the Bible. What he learnt
was not from flesh and blood, but from the spirit of revelation, and let it be
always in your mind, sir, that Christ has said, that on THIS ROCK of immediate
revelation, "He will build His church."
[65]	A Christianity contained exclusively in a small volume like the Bible, is
an insult to the capacious revelations of the Eternal Spirit of God, that even
searches the deep things of God--a mere drop compared with the mighty ocean!
The full biography of Jesus Christ contained in the New Testament? Nonsense!
Preposterous mockery! You certainly are not ignorant of the last verse in
John's Gospel--"The world itself could not contain the account, if written, of
the acts and doings of Jesus Christ." But shall the knowledge of Christ be
hurled in oblivion because his acts and sayings cannot be written? No, by no
means; God forbid! What saith the Scriptures? the all-wise "Spirit shall bring
all things to your remembrance, even the deep things of God--things that the
tongue cannot utter, nor the heart conceive."
	Without the Holy Spirit of revelation, to take of the things of Jesus and
convey them to the knowledge of men, I boldly aver that NO man can harmonize a
consistent system from the Old and New Testaments, or find eternal life. Every
man must be born of that spirit which gives revelation and knowledge of
Christ, or he can never see the kingdom of God. But a prominent feature in the
creed of modern Christianity is, that there is no further need of revelation,
consequently the distinct office-work of the Spirit, to bring to mind
unwritten acts and doctrines of Christ, and harmonize those which are written
and scattered promiscuously through the Bible, is abrogated and deemed
superfluous by modern Christianity.
	O thou benighted advocate of modern Christianity, how long shall thine
eye be veiled in reading the New Testament, and thine heart be too gross to
perceive the beauty, and comfort, and power of that blessed Spirit [66] that
gave life and salvation to ancient Christianity? Hast thou lost all admiration
for the Spirit's miraculous gifts, power, and blessing, settled down under
reconciliation to a load of doubts and fears, hoping that death will remove
thy tormenting burden? Vain hope! No longer then do despite to that Eternal
Spirit of revelation that is freely promised to all that will honestly receive
it. If Gentile Christians are ashamed of the Jew, because a veil was before
his eyes in reading the Old Testament, has not the Jew equal cause to be
ashamed of the Gentile, that has so soon turned away from the primitive path
of the Spirit's gifts of visions, prophecies, healings, etc., and thereby been
"cut off for not continuing in His goodness," according to the warning threat
of Jehovah against Gentiles?
	Where, sir, are the splendid gifts of apostles and prophets, evangelists,
pastors and teachers, that Christ gave to men, and set in his church, forever
to continue in the ministry, edifying "the BODY of Christ till we all come to
the unity of faith," and to such a knowledge of God, and fulness of power and
wisdom as dwelt even in Jesus? They are nowhere to be found in modern
Christianity! Modern Christianity has the effrontery and shamelessness even to
say that she does not need them; consequently she says that she does not need
"to come to unity of faith," and to that full and potent knowledge of God that
Jesus in the flesh possessed, and had decreed that all Saints should possess
and be like their "elder brother."
	Not one of these great and precious gifts is retained. The bare name of
evangelists and pastors is retained in modern Christianity, without the shadow
of the power and prophetic knowledge of the Holy Ghost, with which [67] these
officers were obliged to be indued in the primitive church. She admits,
indeed, the form of the office, "denying the power." She says, indeed, that
she can come to "unity of faith," etc., without apostles, and without the help
of the good old-fashioned Almighty Holy Ghost.
	But how long a time does she want to run for this prize of "unity of
faith," etc? She has been running for the stakes nearly EIGHTEEN HUNDRED
YEARS, and is further from the goal than when she started. When she started,
"false apostles and deceitful workers" were her champions. In order to win the
prize, these shed the blood of true apostles, and the blood of saints was
found on their garments. And when her followers found that she had only the
form or name of apostles and prophets, without the power, she said, "We have
no further need of apostles; they have done their work, and miracles have
ceased." Oh thou blood-guilty, "lying" Gentile Christianity! thy lineage takes
hold of the mother of abominations, clothed in scarlet! How great will be the
severity of God's judgments upon all that are accessory to modern
Christianity, except they repent and obey the Gospel!
	She has also changed the ordinances. Where is now the ordinance of
anointing with oil? Where the ordinance of imposition of hands? The healing of
the sick is given up to medical men, whose reliance is on anything but the
power and established ordinance of God. Is it not written for the benefit of
the sick, that they should call for the elders of the church, whose duty it is
"to anoint the sick with oil, and lay on hands, and they shall recover?" Now,
the consequence of changing this one ordinance of the Bible to the medical
nostrums of men, is the literal death of thousands, who change the [68]
ordinance and contribute to make this whole earth the burying ground of
nations.
	Sir, may I not significantly ask, will the priests of the day return unto
the Lord and teach his "law and his testimony," or will they with hearts of
stone see the inhabitants of the earth perish under the curse of "trusting in
medical man and making flesh an arm?"
	The prophet Isaiah says, the consequence of changing the ordinances is,
to make the earth empty and desolate! But this is not the only ordinance that
is changed. By laying on hands for the gift of the Holy Spirit, the authority
to prophesy, speak with new tongues, and cast out devils, is conferred. Now,
unless boasting Christianity has secured peace and fellowship with the devil,
it is of much importance to know how to cast him out. Unless she has wisdom
and power, and the spirit of prophecy, to supersede the need of the Holy
Spirit, it is very essential to observe the ordinances by which, alone, it is
conferred.
	But it is certain, that if the Holy Spirit, in all its supernatural
office-work of miraculous omnipotence and wisdom, does not come and reign on
the earth, then the kingdom of God will never come on the earth as it exists
in heaven. But the scriptures assure us that the kingdom of God will break in
pieces all other kingdoms, and be established on earth, even as it is in
heaven, and the palace of God (tabernacle) be in the midst of the human
family.
	The Holy Ghost is the grand agent by which the different orders of
priesthood, have all their authority wisdom, and power, to teach and
administer the laws and ordinances of heaven to men on earth. The "MANIFOLD
WISDOM OF GOD" flows through these orders of priesthood from heaven to earth.
But modern Christianity has abolished these orders of priesthood, as no [69]
longer necessary; consequently, the communications from heaven to earth have
been stopped for nearly eighteen hundred years; and from this cause, our race
has witnessed the most appalling picture of the progress of crime and
wretchedness, that has ever pervaded the earth since the dawn of creation. No
man has sufficient knowledge of figures to enumerate THE MILLIONS that have
been slain in war, since the Gentiles were cut off for unbelief. The
pestilence has never slumbered since man rejected the healing ordinance of
God, for the aid of physicians that is of no value. Famine has locked hands
with pestilence, causing rot, and blast, and mildew, to lead many to fear that
God had repented himself of the "promised seed time and harvest."
	The social virtues that ought to be, and ever would be, under the reign
of God, like salubrious breezes of heaven, have become like the antagonistic
and forked teeth of a picking cylinder, that, turned ever so much, will still
be picking either in the offensive or defensive. The number of the oppressed
is becoming so fearfully great and vast, that the captors know not where to
find either room or keepers for their prisoners. The yoke of intolerance must
have fresh iron fastenings of unheard of tenacity and rigor. The oppressor
feels the danger of an awful outbreak from desperation that can be smothered
no longer. The elements of revolution and self-destruction, are sown deep in
every government, and in every religious and social system that has not for
its basis truth, immediately and continually revealed from heaven!
	Now, all this direful state of things is because men have "forsaken God,
the fountain of living waters, and hewn them out cisterns that can hold no
water."
	"From the crown of the head to the soles of the feet," [70] modern
Christianity, whether Protestant or Catholic, "is full of wounds and bruises,
and putrefying sores."
	The prophets and apostles foresaw the Gentile apostacy that would spread
over the earth, under the plausible name of Christianity, obliterating the
knowledge of God, and "denying the power of God, and changing his laws and
ordinances," till "gross darkness should cover the people." They saw the
"mystery of iniquity" working, and boldly foretold the "falling away,"--the
exaltation of the man of sin--the removal of the priesthood and light of truth
from the seven churches of Asia--the refusal to "teach all things that Jesus
commanded"--the irresistible fact, that men would not "endure sound
doctrines," but would multiply discrepant teachers to suit "itching ears"--the
introduction of "damnable heresies," and the "doctrines of devils," and the
church becoming like a blood-guilty "harlot" that had exterminated the whole
order of apostles, and prophets, and spiritual gifts and even denied the need
of any such order of gifts and ministry as existed in the primitive church!
	The first doctrine of the devil in the garden was that it was not
necessary to obey God concerning a particular tree of the garden; and the same
doctrine of devils has by inches and by piece-meal, removed and broken every
command of Christ, and put bishops and doctors in the seats of apostles and
prophets, and the ordinance of sprinkling infants, in place of baptism;
virtually saying "that God doth know," that without the aid of apostles and
the gift of the Spirit by laying on of hands, you can know truth enough; and
without baptism "for remission of sins," you can be forgiven through prayer at
the alter.
	Permit me sir, in conclusion, to remind you of the reproof given by an
inspired wise man: "Say not thou [71] what is the cause that the former-days
were better than these? for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this." The
true and only rational revealed cause why modern Christianity is so weak,
contentious, discrepant, and so unlike the majestic, almighty Christianity of
apostolic days, is, because apostate, uninspired men "HAVE TRANSGRESSED the
LAWS, CHANGED the ORDINANCE and BROKEN the EVERLASTING COVENANT." Therefore,
"the earth is defiled under the inhabitants thereof." "Gentile" Christianity
will yet be compelled to come from the "end of the earth, and say, surely our
fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit."
	And God has said, sir, because "your (Gentile) fathers have forsaken him,
and have not kept his law," "therefore," says God, "behold, I will this once
cause them to know mine hand and my might, and they shall know that my name is
the Lord." The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled, for; the
Lord hath spoken this word: "The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world
languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish. The
earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof, because they have
transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, and broken the everlasting
covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell
therein are desolate; therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and
few men left."
	In view of these things, dear sir, my fervent prayer is, that you and all
my brethren in the sectarian ministry will, from this day forth, stay their
hand and voice from upholding, modern, boasting Christianity--that is a
"stink" in the nose of Jehovah--that is depopulating the earth and abrogating
the laws and ordinances of God, and sin no more, and thereby follow the humble
example of
						Your obedient servant,
									ORSON SPENCER.

							LIVERPOOL, August 28th, 1847.

	Reverend and Dear Sir--The next subject in the order of my promise,
contained in my first letter to you is, THE RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF AN APOSTOLIC
CHURCH after the similitude and power of the primitive church. Such an
occurrence as this, truly demands proof of a palpable and satisfactory order,
which, by the help of God I will proceed to give you.
	The beloved apostle John, who survived many of his fellow-laborers in the
gospel, and saw many damnable heresies coming into the church, and making
havoc of all the faithful, and even the seven most faithful churches in all
the earth, probably, right under his own faithful supervision, yielding to
APOSTACY, and going over to Satan--this apostle, dear sir, in his solitary
grief, was shewn, by revelation from God, the RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE TRUE
CHURCH, with such wrath and vengeance following its wake, as should make an
utter end of wickedness, give the righteous a thousand years' rest, cleanse
the earth by blood, and burning, and bind the devil until the "little season."
	Now mark, sir, the emphatic words of this apostle before he left the
earth, concerning what he saw would come in the last days. Hear now with a
fixed ear, and an unbiased determined purpose to believe, and abide [73] the
declaration of your own apostle John. Now to the momentous words that cheered
the few banished persecuted Saints, that survived the bloody hand of Gentile
apostacy. Says he--"I saw another angel flying through the midst of heaven,
having the everlasting gospel to preach to all nations, kindreds, tongues, and
people; saying, Fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment
is come."
	There is no obscurity about this language. It is quite as intelligible
and free from ambiguity as the language that predicted the marvellous manner
of the coming of Christ, which, however, men would not understand, through
prejudice. "Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son," etc.
	Now, sir, is it at all incredible that an angel should come to men? Or is
it incredible that he should come soaring, or "flying in the midst of heaven
to earth?" You certainly believe, that Jesus Christ and Elijah soared from the
earth up through the air, or visible heavens. Is it not also credible, that
God should employ an angel to carry a message to the nations? And as God
ministered the law by angels to one man, Moses, for a whole nation, even so
the angel that John saw, would minister his gospel message to some particular
man, and that man should bear it to the nations of the earth.
	Now, to what man might we expect an angel would bring a message of such
vast importance? A great and wise man, or obscure or ignorant, or an old or
young man? If we look at the past, we shall find that John was a boisterous
fellow, from the wilderness, that had no fellowship for any existing religion
whatever. He struck the axe deep at the root of every religious organization,
notwithstanding there were, probably, some good [74] men in every sect, but
they were in error. This man sir, was first and chief pioneer to the Lord of
life.
	And who comes next to receive a message for all nations, and hold the
keys of revelation for all nations? Now, reverend sir, fix the eye of your
mind steadily upon him. And who is he? An honest, hardy, illiterate, bold,
rough fisherman, that perhaps never saw the inside of a gentleman's drawing
room. Here, sir, is the wisdom of God, and confusion for man. But to return.
Who is the man, to whom the angel shall give the gospel message of all
nations, in the last days, according to the vision of John, the revelator? Let
God, the Holy One of all the earth, speak in this matter, and let all the ends
of the earth believe HIS holy word.
	The Lord God of all flesh, sir, by the mouth of his servant Zechariah,
tells us precisely what kind of man this angel would speak to, and give the
gospel, in the last dispensation. Speaking of the two great events (the
building of Zion and Jerusalem, in the last days,) Zechariah, with his ear
open to the revelation of the same great event as John's was, says he heard
the mandate of the Almighty to the angel, saying, "Go and speak to that young
man."
	Here we have it, Sir, in the language and testimony of God himself, by
the mouths of his two servants, John the revelator, and Zechariah. John saw,
after much; inquiry before God about the restoration of the gospel to the
earth, in clear vision the angel in his downward flight through the heavens to
earth, and also heard him proclaim his errand, and the message of joy and woe
to the nations of the last days. The other servant of God, Zechariah, like
John, equally intent to know whether the true gospel ever would triumph in all
the earth, and [75] wickedness come to an end, had the happiness to see the
angel, at the end of his downward flight, place his feet upon the earth, and
witness the finger of God raised, and pointing the angel to a young man,
saying, "Go, speak to that young man."
	Now, sir, that you may be convinced beyond controversy, I will beg your
attention to the marvellous coincidence between the matter of fact, as related
by a guileless young man, and the declaration of John and Zechariah; but first
you must readily admit that, according to the testimony of two prophets of
God, an angel must came down through the midst of heaven to earth, in some
period of the last days, subsequent to the lifetime of John, with such a
gospel as was not on the earth; and that angel must communicate his gospel
message to some certain young man which the finger of God should point out to
the angel.
	Now, was the young man Joseph the man, or look we for another? His
testimony concerning the angel that he saw, and the message that he received,
if you will read it, coincides perfectly with what the two prophets had long
since declared should take place. He was, indeed, an illiterate and obscure
youth of seventeen, of humble parentage, from the mountains of Vermont; but
was he any less fit to receive such a message than any other youth, because he
was illiterate or poor, or obscure, or rough and vulgar. This simple country
youth told a tale of what he had seen and heard, in the face of all the broad,
blazing science and Christianity of the nineteenth century; but was he any
less likely to be the youth that the prophets saw and spoke of on that
account? Was it a marvellous tale that he told? so likewise was the tale that
the Virgin Mary told about [76] her offspring, as begotten of God the Father.
Did the message that Joseph received, lead him to disfellowship all the
religious systems of the day, as incompatible with the primitive pattern? so
did Jesus, with the religions of his day. But lest some lingering doubt should
remain upon your mind, whether the young man Joseph was the identical youth
spoken of by the prophets just named, you shall have other proofs until reason
is satisfied.
	The prophet Daniel being greatly beloved of God, and of great faith, saw
this scene of the visitation of the angel to the young man, and the laying of
the corner-stone of a millennial kingdom, and the time of its organization,
and calculated the same to a day, as will be developed in due time. Job wished
that his words, or revelations and history, were written with a pen of iron
(the engraver's tool) and laid in a rock. Now many of the prophets that lived
and suffered on the American continent, and settled that continent about the
time of the destruction of Jerusalem under Zedekiah, also wished their words
written and laid in rock or stone. By great faith they obtained permission to
have their records and prophecies laid up in stone, being neatly engraved with
a pen of iron, on plates of the most enduring metal. Daniel saw this stone
that contained the records and spoke of it. Now this stone, containing the
words of these prophets of that "other fold" spoken of by Christ, had been
buried about fourteen hundred years previous to its discovery, probably to a
considerable depth in the earth, in what was then called the Mountain of
Cumorah. Daniel's language is very remarkable in regard to the manner in which
this stone, without its contents, in connection with the angelic message,
should come forth "out of the mountain without hands." The stone, probably, in
consequence of the wear [77] of the elements upon the earth, under the
guidance of God, was gradually resurrected from the depths of its burial,
until it was literally out of the mountain, and visible without the aid of
hands.
	Oh! how marvellous, literal, and exact the fulfillment of Daniel's
prophecy! THE MOUNTAIN! The VISIBILITY OF THE LONG BURIED STONE WITHOUT HANDS!
The contents of this stone, long harped upon by commentators, joined with the
whole of the angelic message foreseen by John and Zechariah, were to lay the
foundation of a kingdom that should extend over the whole earth, and break in
pieces all others, and never be thrown down. Daniel not only saw the stone,
and mountain, and young man, and the whole beginning of this latter day work,
and calculated the precise year and day of the month when the kingdom (not the
coming of Christ) should be set up; but he describes the small and weak
governments into which the four great universal governments should be divided
and subdivided. The governments that should exist on the earth when this stone
should be brought to light, would be, in comparison with the four universal
and potent governments of previous ages, as the numerously divided toes of a
man's feet in magnitude to his body.
	When Jesus Christ came to organize the kingdom, the Romish government was
universal, and all the world were required to be taxed for its support;
consequently, Daniel did not speak of his organization, which all the apostles
saw and declared would be overcome. But he saw that the kingdom which Christ
would never take from the earth would be set up, when the image of great
kingdoms would be reduced to the simile of mere toes, or petty kingdoms, just
such as exist all over the earth now [78]--weak and small and huddled together
as thick as some of the supernumerary toes of the feet of some ancient
prodigies.
	The kingdoms of this world, just precisely like the religions of this
world, are small, very numerous, and contentious--all the present governments
of the earth being based on mixed, heterogeneous, and discordant principles,
will readily crumble, like dry clay, before the march of truth, until the dust
thereof is carried away and these kingdoms and diversified religions are known
only in the past. You, sir, know very well whether the signs of the times
fully indicate the tottering state, and general disruption of all the
governments of the earth. But before I close this part of my subject, I will
still multiply the testimony of the prophets even further upon it.
	Omitting Ezekiel, I will next introduce the testimony of Isaiah. This
prophet has probably said more on the re-establishment of the church in the
last days, and the surpassing glory of it, then any other, and deserves rather
to be read as a whole than suffer mutilation from a single extract or two. How
any man can read Isaiah's testimony and not see that an extraordinary scene,
just like the one have been describing, was in full vision before him, it is
difficult to explain, except his heart waxed gross and dull to perceive, and

the veil remains untaken away in reading the Old Testament prophecies.
	Instead of citing passages of scripture verbatim, I will here name
topics, which Isaiah distinctly exhibited bearing directly upon the subject at
issue. First, he speaks unequivocally of an extraordinary BOOK, and says it
would be a "sealed book," that neither the learned nor unlearned could read.
Second, in the context, he gives a cutting rebuke, because there is no prophet
or seer [79] to read it; and administers a most withering reproof to the
religious world, that draw near to Him with their lips, and honor Him with
their mouths only; and for lack of the spirit of revelation and prophecy,
resort to their own ingenuity of teaching the fear of the Lord by human
precepts. Third, he says the "vision" of all is become as a BOOK that is
sealed which cannot be read. How is this, sir, that the prophesies and
revelations of all are locked up in a book, that neither learned nor unlearned
can read, and the men that uttered them, prophets and seers, are covered--shut
out from the knowledge of mankind?
	The visions of the Old and New testament are so plainly legible in many
books that he who runs may read. Those who had these latter visions, instead
of being covered or unknown, are well known, and preached every Sabbath day.
Don't shrink from this issue, sir, but meet it like one who feels his destiny
to be suspended on a correct faith in revealed truth. What mysterious
collection of visions, arranged into the form of a BOOK, that no uninspired
man can read, IS THIS? It must be the visions of some prophets and seers, that
have lived and prophesied to some people that have now faded from the
knowledge of men. Mankind is ignorant of then. And when the BOOK, that
contains their records is found (taken out of the earth as I shall show by
Isaiah's testimony), no man can read it or is the wiser for it (unless God
reveals it).
	Now, sir, as you are a teacher, professing to be sent from God, I again
ask, whose visions are all these, so curiously wrapped up in a BOOK, and
sealed too, and kept hid from the knowledge of mankind? You will not deny that
the prophet saw a book, containing important records of some certain unknown
prophets and seers. [80] But if you believe the prophet, as I know you do, and
humbly acknowledge, that you cannot tell what this mysterious BOOK of RECORDS
means; then, by the spirit and blessing of God, I will further endeavor to
show that it is the same that the angel announced to the young man Joseph.
	This mysterious BOOK of records was found in that identical stone, spoken
of by Daniel the prophet. The prophets and seers, whose records constitute
that book, lived among a mighty nation on the American continent whose history
is as important as that of other continents in its place.
	Another topic dwelt upon by Isaiah is that "truth" (plainly alluding to
this book of inspired records) should "speak out of the ground, and thy speech
shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be as of one that hath a
familiar spirit out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the
dust."
	It is a marvellous thing that this wonderful book of the visions of all
the American seers should be so skillfully entombed in stone, and then buried
in the earth? Where should they have deposited it, so that it could have
answered the purpose intended, so well as in the ground? How could the STONE,
containing it, ever have been CUT OUT OF THE MOUNTAIN WITHOUT HANDS, if it had
never been put into the mountain? Isaiah says the people should be besieged
and brought low (nearly all were slain), but by the records of their seers
should, after a long time, speak out of the ground, and their records should
be as the voice of a familiar spirit. Who, sir, that has read them does not
clearly perceive that they speak familiarly of things past, present, and to
come? So truly do these records [81] speak of what shall transpire, after the
BOOK has been shewn to them, that many have slanderously said, that it was
written by an eye-witness of the things spoken of. It speaks also of the ruins
of cities--of antiquities since discovered on the American continent, by
travellers and antiquarians, that have excited the curiosity and wonder of the
world.
	This Book of Mormon, is one of the most unexceptionable and God-honoring
books that was ever published to the world. An uninspired man might as well
attempt to originally compose the Old and New Testament, as it. Its language
(the best butt of cavillers) is said not to harmonize with the philological
rules of the nineteenth century. One word in reply. Peter and John were
illiterate men, who spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, and their
language was accredited to unlearned men by their hearers. Now, if redundant
and ungrammatical language may be the medium through which the Holy Ghost
communicates by men in speaking, may it not; with equal propriety be employed
in writing by a similar class of men? It is not denied, that there is
something wonderful about all this matter. The prophet Isaiah considered it
wonderful, when he called it a "marvellous work: a marvellous work and a
wonder." The wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of
their prudent shall be hid." All the learned commentaries of divines, as this
gospel advances, shall be buried in oblivion, as so much rubbish.
	God declares, by the same prophet, that he has seen the wickedness of the
wicked, and the oppression of the poor and upright, until he rises up to "do
his work, his strange work, and to bring to pass his act, his strange act." He
warns men against making a mock of this strange [82] and marvellous work, lest
their "bands be made strong," for he has decreed a consumption upon the whole
earth." This is what John also says--"The hour of His judgment" is measurably
simultaneous with the proclamation of the Gospel. Habakkuk, the prophet, told
men to wait for this same vision of American prophets, written on tables
(tabular plates), which would be a long time before it made its appearance:
but it would "surely come," because God had promised these seers that a
remnant of their seed, on that continent should be saved. No pen can describe
the joy and exultation that they must have felt in obtaining such a promise,
or the bliss now experienced by them in the fulfillment of it. But for the
fulfillment of this promise, none of them or their righteous contemporaries
would ever have been made perfect.
	Oh! how great the goodness and mercy of God to every nation, without
respect of persons! How great too, the indebtedness of this generation to
Almighty God for that most precious "stone" of prophetic records, that reveals
at once the history of the American continent--a continent of otherwise
unfathomable antiquities and wonders--a land that embowels the bones of a
numerous and mighty race of people, with all their implements of husbandry and
of art! Where, also, are the ruins of splendid cities, the former glory of
which might surpass even gigantic London! Within that stone, too, was written
with a pen of iron, as infallibly as the marks on Belshazzar's palace, the
future destiny of the American people.
	In conclusion, do you ask if the Apostolic Church is again
re-established, where is it? I reply, it is in the mountains, where the Lord's
House is to be built in the last days. Driven by the cruel hand of persecution
to [83] the very place where the Lord has declared He will "hide them till the
indignation be overpast." Do you also ask what kind of organization this
Church has? The answer is, the same as that of the Apostolic Church in the
days of Peter, consisting of Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, etc.; with the
gifts of healing, tongues, interpretation, casting out devils, prophecyings,
etc. Do you ask who has seen any of these miraculous fruits of this Church? I
answer a hundred thousand living witnesses are ready to testify that the
"signs" which Christ said "shall follow them that believe," do, in very deed,
follow believers in this Church. Do you say, are they credible witnesses? They
were generally accounted credible persons, until they believed and obeyed this
Gospel. Do their lives show that they do sincerely believe and love the
Apostolic Gospel which they profess? Nothing as yet has been able to separate
them from it; neither home nor country, nor the inheritances of their fathers,
nor penury nor reproach, nor evil report, nor cold, nor nakedness, nor no
certain dwelling-place for years!
	I now close this simple and unembellished statement of truth, being
written in a state of convalescence from severe sickness, hoping a portion of
your enquiries will have been satisfactorily answered,
			     	Your friend and servant,
							ORSON SPENCER.

[84]                             

							LIVERPOOL, September 13th, 1847.

	Reverend and Dear Sir--In this epistle I shall endeavor to set before you
a description of the person, abode, and character of THE TRUE AND LIVING GOD.
In so doing I trust it will not be imputed to arrogance if I borrow my apology
from the language of St. Paul--"As I passed by I beheld an altar with this
inscription, `To the Unknown God.' Whom ye ignorantly worship, him declare I
unto you."
	The people of Paul's day had, for several generations, been unaccustomed
to receive revelations from the true God, believing, generally, that
revelations from God had ceased with Malachi. They supposed that the canon of
scripture was complete long before their time, and they considered that the
great law-giver, Moses, had established an immutable code of laws and
government, suited to the condition of people of all ages and circumstances
whatever, to the end of time; and the Jews, to this very day, entertain the
same opinion.
	Laboring under this most blighting and soul-darkening opinion for several
centuries, without the light of any new revelation, and without the aid of
that immediate inspiration which attended Moses and the prophets, their
foolish hearts became darkened as a necessary consequence. Inflated with
pride, and a false but sincere reverence for the scriptures of a previous age,
they be-[85]came a conspicuous and warning example to this generation of
ignorance, not only of the scriptures, which they carefully memorized, but
also of all the essential attributes of the person, character, and doctrine of
God.
	Now, sir, during the long period of sixteen or eighteen hundred years, in
which the light of immediate revelation has not shone, the religious world
have fallen into similar and even far greater darkness. The true and living
God is not known, as I shall proceed to show.
	The religious world have an abundance of zeal for God, and diligence in
spreading the scriptures and their missionaries over the face of the earth;
but, alas! the God they profess to worship is an unknown God, and this
ignorance of God is the legitimate consequence of not having immediate
revelation from him, during a long period of near eighteen hundred years; and
unaided by the spirit of inspiration, the ancient scriptures have become a
dark and obscure book--their import has been warmly debated by a thousand
learned disputants, without any prospect of approximation to unity.
	A very general conviction concerning the character of God now is, that He
is a Being without body, or parts, or passions. A greater absurdity cannot be
furnished in all the annals of heathenism. Even images of wood, and brass, and
stone, are scarcely more remote from the picture of the true God, than the
theory of a passionless, matterless God--an inconceivable sort of chaotic
being, that is without form, or void, or dwelling place! a being whose
circumference is everywhere, and his centre nowhere!
	Another theory concerning God, that is entertained by Jewish Rabbins,
though of an opposite character, is not much more extravagant than the common
orthodox [86] theory, viz., the Rabbins suppose that God is a Being of some
"millions of miles in length."
	Again, the popular notion of modern Jews, as expressed in a recent number
of the Jewish Chronicle, is that the Almighty God is a being of such infinite
dimensions, that He cannot condense himself sufficiently to speak to men or be
tangible or visible to mortals. Accordingly, when he gives revelation to men,
He creates a fictitious or imaginary messenger, through whom he communicates
his will, and this messenger has no real existence in the eye of God, and only
in the momentary perception of the person addressed.--(See Millennial Star,
No. 15, Vol. IX. also Jewish Chronicle.)
	From the foregoing it may be seen how grossly ignorant both Jews and
Christians are of the person of God the Creator and Savior of the world! All
this, too, in an age of the world boasting of blazing light! of a millennial
dawn! of the unparalleled march of improvement! but alas! the very God and
Father of us all, who ought to be truly known in order to be rightly
worshipped, is regarded as the most insensible (a God without "passion" must
be insensible), and irrational, and unattractive as to form, of all beings
that can be conceived of; and the most surprising feature in all modern
theology in an age of sanity is, that this notion concerning the person of God
is deducible from the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.
	The New Testament tells us most unequivocally what kind of person God
has, and whether he is a Being having both passion and physical form. It tells
whether he can be so "condensed" as to speak to men, and be seen of them, and
talk to them face to face, as a man talks to his fellow man. The New Testament
declares that in [87] Jesus Christ dwelt the "FULNESS OF THE GODHEAD, BODILY."
	Now, if the Godhead dwelt in the body of Christ, then it is certain that
God is not without a body. But He has a body; and what is His body like unto?
The New Testament tells us what His body is like. It is so nearly and exactly
like unto the body of Christ, that there is no difference. Paul says, that
Christ was the "express image of his person." It is then beyond all dispute
that the body and person of Jesus Christ and the Father are alike. Language
cannot express the similitude of the Father and the Son in plainer or stronger
terms. Then, if we can show from the New Testament what kind of body or person
Jesus Christ had, we can also tell what kind of body the Father has, because
they are alike. One is the express image of the other. If one has a fleshy
material body, the other has the same. If one resembles in stature the seed of
the woman, the other also wears the same resemblance. If one can be so
"condensed" as to speak and walk, and feel and act like a man, the other can
do the same. If one wearing a body of flesh and bones, in all points like unto
his brethren, is capable of holding all power in heaven and earth, and also of
displaying the brightness of celestial glory, the other can do the same in a
similar body of flesh and bones.
	Well, now, what kind of body or person had Jesus Christ, which looked so
much like the Father's person? Was it an airy, invisible, evanescent, mystical
nothing, which some would denominate spirits? No, by no means; very much
otherwise. Hearken now, my dear sir, and all ye readers, that have an honest
desire to know the living and true God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent, in
order that men might know from the person of [88] the Son what is the personal
appearance of the Father. He, "the Word, was made flesh and dwelt among us
(and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the father)
full of grace and truth." Jesus had a fleshy form, like the seed of Abraham,
and being begotten of the Father, he partook of his likeness. Men beheld his
glory in human form, and Paul says that his glory was the glory of the Father.
	It appears from the conduct of some of his disciples, that they, like
sectarian churches now, were tinctured with the idea that Christ, after his
death and resurrection, was purely and exclusively a Spirit; but he tells them
to handle him and see that "a Spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me
have." And he ate and drank with them as aforetime with his resurrected body,
and afterwards ascended up from their midst with the same bloodless body into
heaven; and in like manner will he come again:
	Thus, sir, the notion of a God that is exclusively Spirit without bodily
form, was banished from the minds of the disciples that saw the bodily image
of the Father in the person of the Son after his resurrection. From heaven he
will come again in like manner, and every eye shall see him, and they that
have pierced him. But the popular God of modern times, that has no body or
parts, cannot be seen. But, sir, this popular God that has sprung into
fashion, since the age of revelation, has no resemblance to Jesus Christ, who
has both body and parts, and is the exact image of his Father. Jesus Christ
declared that he could exercise all power in heaven and earth while he was in
the body. His Father could do the same, because they were alike. It required
no extraordinary condensation of the infinity of Jesus in order to reveal
him-[89]self to men, or in order that men should behold his glory.
	But we have other proofs that the person of God the Father is like the
bodily form of Christ's resurrected person. God has declared that man is in
his image. Man as created in the image of God, and in the likeness of God; and
the bodies of holy men are destined to be like unto Christ's own most glorious
body; that is as much as say that they are like the body of Christ in the
heavenly state.
	If the foregoing, and many other similar passages of scripture, do not go
to show that the Supreme Being bears a personal appearance like unto the
person of his on, and consequently like unto any other resurrected body of a
righteous man, then we are in a labyrinth of doubt how to interpret the most
plain and unequivocal language. If the language of scripture does not bear me
out in the conclusion that man is in the form of God, then there is no
infallible way-marks or criteria by which I can safely interpret scriptures.
And the votaries of Vishnoo have as good scriptural reason to believe in their
theory of deific annihilation, as others have to believe in God without body,
or parts, or passions.
	The scriptures plainly deny both theories, as they do that God is a
person some millions of miles in the height of his stature. Common sense
cannot grasp the idea of any being or thing whatever, that is without body or
parts. Even the most subtle and refined spirit conceivable, is a material
existence as far removed from immateriality as the east is from the west.
	Now, sir, suffer me to entreat you to abandon all such rude theories
concerning God, which are as baseless and unscriptural as the most extravagant
vagaries of the heathen, and confine your faith to the simple, obvious
tes-[90]timony Jesus and the prophets. And remember that this is not a subject
of little importance; for it is written that, to know God and Jesus Christ is
eternal life. No man can understand the import of eternal life, nor how it is
secured to believers, that does not know God and Jesus Christ. In God and
Christ is eternal life. This life is not barely the perpetuity of existence,
for even the wicked exist for ever, but it is called in scripture the "power
of endless life." This power of multiplying or creating life emanated in that
Melchizedek priesthood of which Jesus is the head and High Priest. This is the
gift of God to men who keep his commandments, and the greatest of all gifts.
Unsearchable riches accompany this gift. When God created man, he created him
in his own image (male and female), in order that he too might have the power
of multiplying life after the order of Melchizedek through obedience.
	Now, sir, should it not be a matter of delight to you that man is created
in the image of God, and crowned with glory and honor through faith in Christ?
Will not Peter and his fellow-disciples rejoice to recognize that same Jesus
who ascended to heaven with a body like their own, and if Jesus bears the
image of his Father, they will be equally familiar with the Highest. What is
there, sir that contributes more to the glory of God than his creative power,
by which he brings myriads of living intelligences into being, through whom a
chaotic universe is organized into works of beauty, taste, grandeur, and
glory? All these creations are for the righteous pleasure of Him who created
them.
	We all are the offspring of God, and the loyal offspring of God are the
greatest delight and concern of God. For them he is ever ready to make the
greatest [91] sacrifice possible. Not only is filial reverence displayed from
them to Him, the fountain of life, but by them is shown forth the manifold
wisdom and power of God. And when men, by humble obedience, become worthy of
eternal life, the Almighty bestows upon them the like precious creative gift.
But this gift of life is in his Son, and He never bestows it upon unworthy
subjects. Thus by the law of adoption men become the sons and daughters of the
Almighty, and receive the priestly "power of endless life," which is after the
order of the Son of God. Hence the marvellous language of scripture, "I said
ye are God's to whom the word of God came." Jesus virtually said, on one
occasion, "If holy men are the sons of God, and consequently heirs to His
throne, privileges, and glory, then marvel not that I (Jesus) should claim to
be a God or the Son of God!" For Paul says, "there be in heaven Gods many, and
Lords many, yet to us there is but one God. Howbeit there is not in every man
that knowledge."
	In conclusion, I will drop a passing remark or two concerning the abode
or dwelling place of God, with a brief hint of his moral attributes. As Jesus
is our light and example, we can learn of the Father's abode from his Son. The
Son ascended up into heaven and to his God and our God. The scriptures
abundantly declare that a place called heaven is the peculiar dwelling place
of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if heaven is not a
literal bonafide place, but only an imaginary phantom, then it follows that
Jesus went to no place, but continued to ascend up, till, in his glorious
flight, He reached--shall I call it Nichban--an imaginary phantom--or
annihilation!
	Be not displeased, dear sir, I am not trifling with your religion, but am
bound by truth and the love of God, [92] to unfold its naked absurdity, in
order that you, my beloved friend, and all good men may recoil from such gross
Gentile vagaries, and exclaim, in the language of scripture, "Our fathers have
inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit." If you will
read carefully the scripture accounts of the visions of holy men, that have
been permitted to look upon the heavenly residence of God, where Jesus and all
the resurrected bodies of the righteous abide, and eat and drink, you will be
constrained to acknowledge every appearance of a splendid local abode.
Mansions, streets, rivers, trees, precious metals, thrones, persons, apparel,
animals, ministering personages in all the courtly livery of unspeakable
celestial glory! The heaven of all the holy prophets!
	God's holy dwelling place, is literal, local, real, and, to its
occupants, it is visible and tangible. It is by no means a matterless,
passionless, mystical region of ecstatic and endless songs from the lips of
immaterial spirits offered in praise to some Great Spirit, equally passionless
and immaterially chaotic, spreading infinitely through all space without
centre or circumference. If such is the God that men expect to adore in
heaven, mankind would present but a faint image of him, yea, even Jesus, who
partook of man's likeness, could not have been the brightness of the Father's
glory, and express image of his person. He declares that He has given us an
image and likeness of himself in the person of man. But who would ever
recognize their Father and Jesus in the person of a boundless, centreless
being, of no body or parts, infinitely expanded.
	But it is sometimes urged that man only resembles God in his moral
attributes. Morally, say the divine and doctor, man bears the image of God.
Aye, indeed! The [93] absurdity of such a supposition is still greater. By
moral, I must then understand that the resemblance between God and man,
consists in their being of like social, civil, and religious temperament and
affection. Other things being equal, a holy man, as Adam originally was, would
cherish the same propensities with God--have a similar sense of justice and
truth according to the measure of knowledge belonging to each. But the
absurdity and query are here; an immaterial, infinitely expanded God, without
physical form and locality, is as unlike to man as light to darkness, or as
the most diverse animals can be supposed to be, and cannot in the nature of
things have those sympathies and moral sensibilities that man has. Material
sensibilities must differ from those which are immaterial, as much as the
elements of land and water differ.
	My sheet being full, allow me to subscribe myself
					Your friend and servant,
								ORSON SPENCER.

								LIVERPOOL, September 30th, 1847.

	Reverend and Dear Sir,--In close connection with an account of the
character of God, I will proceed to give you a brief and succinct description
of THE PRIESTHOOD. It is feared, however, that the present subject will not be
more congenial to your views than the foregoing. Still it shall be treated
according to the spirit of the scriptures of the old and New Testaments, which
you ardently profess to believe.
	You will admit that God is the righteous Ruler over all the moral and
intelligent creatures of the universe. His government is both temporal and
spiritual. Not even a sparrow falls to the ground without His notice. He
clothes the lilies of the field; much more doth He watch over all the varied
interests of intelligent beings both in heaven and upon earth.
	I shall then define priesthood to be that order of authoritative
intelligences by which God regulates, controls, enlightens, blesses or curses,
saves or condemns all beings. To it, under God, all things are subservient in
righteousness, whether in heaven, earth, or hell. God the Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ is at the head of all genuine priesthood. But as it is His will
that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father, Jesus now
stands accredited as the Apostle and High Priest of our profession.
Subordinate priests in the same [95] apostolic order of the Son of God, are
such as he has put in his church. These are called apostles, prophets,
evangelists, teachers, etc.
	Now, sir, by means of this order, extending from Jesus the High Priest,
to the lowest grade of priesthood in conjunction with the Holy Ghost, God
teaches and governs all things. Out of the line of this order, there no power
whatever that is acknowledged and approved of God. Magistrates, rulers, kings,
potentates and principalities, if not legitimately ordained and clothed with
the authority of this priestly order of the Son of God, are usurpers, and not
of God--for the scriptures declares that there is no power that is not of God.
Even the angelic order is in the line of subordination to Jesus Christ, and is
the same chain of priesthood with apostles and prophets upon the earth.
	The priesthood exhibits a regular gradation of knowledge and authority
from Jesus the great High Priest in heaven, to the lowest description of
ordination in the church below. Jesus said that "all power was given him in
heaven and upon earth." But how did he propose to exercise all that power
which was given him both among the nations of the earth and in heaven? My
answer is, that he proposed to do it through a delegation of power to the
different orders of his priesthood. We are told distinctly what the priesthood
consists of, which is established on the earth, viz., apostles, prophets,
evangelists, etc. The heavenly order minister to the authorities of the
earthly order. The ruling object to be accomplished by the latter is, the work
of the ministry, the perfecting of the Saints, the edifying of the body of
Christ.
	The first object of this priestly order is to teach all nations to become
loyal and good citizens of the kingdom [96] of God, observing all the
commandments of God. One universal commandment of God is, for all men
everywhere to repent and be baptized, and keep all other laws of God, as they
shall be dispensed from the great High Priest through the delegated
authorities. Now if all men do not obey these commands, they are liable to be
dealt with as transgressors, and punished as evil doers. The command to obey
is imperative upon all men. Hence whatever orders of civil government, or
order of domestic compact, or order of business transaction, or order of
religious worship, or rule of commercial transaction may contravene the
established order of priesthood, the same must bow to the requisition of the
inspired priesthood of God; and God acknowledges no other power with
approbation.
	Now, dear sir, it is this imperative attitude of authority and power,
which the Almighty boldly claims, and fearlessly attempts to exercise, through
a chosen priesthood over all mankind, Jews and Gentiles, that greatly
displeases the rebellious portion of our race. They cannot bear that this "man
should reign over them." False notions of independence and liberty rise
against an order of delegated authorities claiming inspiration and officiality
from God. The rebellious profess that they are ready to obey the Almighty God,
but as for these men claiming priesthood, "we will not have them, to reign
over us."
	The abuses practiced by an apostate and uncalled priesthood for the last
seventeen hundred years, have wrought an honest but wofully misguided
prejudice against the true priesthood; and a large portion of mankind demand
also, that God shall communicate with themselves directly, without the
intervention of agencies [97] chosen from mere men like themselves. And this
captious spirit of dictation as to the manner in which God shall teach and
govern them, has been fostered in their minds by the erroneous notion that God
is such a centreless, boundless spirit of ubiquity, that he can teach and
govern all worlds without the aid of other agencies. We might as well suppose
that he can see without eyes, or hear without ears. But God's being like man,
though infinitely exalted above him, and unspeakably perfected in every
faculty and power, puts to shame these dark vagaries about the inutility of
delegated powers.
	During the whole period of the world, God has ever and invariably
attempted to teach and govern mankind by means of an established priesthood
consisting of men; and this priesthood has been as invariably resisted from
the days of righteous Abel till now. By this priesthood, it is the design of
God to establish a Divine government upon the earth, even as it is established
in the heavens. All other forms of government have proved a complete failure
in every nation and period, in which the experiment has been attempted.
	But the most humiliating feature in the whole history of governments is,
that many have sought to ape the Divine government with an uninspired
priesthood. They have thereby made every species of religious government a
stink and confusion in all the earth. Their uninspired systems have been like
a fair woman without discretion, or like jewels in a swine's snout. Sometimes
they have united church and state, and swayed a sceptre of oppression; at
other times they have been passive and non-resistant, even to the utter
extinction of thousands whose defenseless blood has crimsoned the earth. But
the time for experimenting upon false forms of government, civil [98] or
religious, has nearly gone by, never to return, "save for a little season."
	A priesthood chosen not of men, but chosen first of God, and inspired
with his wisdom, truth, and power, is now called and ordained to teach all
nations, and fill the earth with the knowledge of God. By means of this order,
and this order alone, the kingdoms of this world, whether temporal or
spiritual, pagan or Christian, are all to be merged in one universal kingdom.
And this will be the best and greatest kingdom ever known this side of heaven.
Its constitution, laws, and method of administration will be after the model
of the heavenly order. It will embrace politics, arts, war, merchandise,
science, and religion--things temporal and things spiritual. And the energy
and wisdom of Omnipotence will, like the little leaven in meal, increase and
magnify in the priesthood, till the whole world is brought into happy
subordination to this plan of government. The nations of the earth will then
become one family and brotherhood. Kings and rulers, of all grades, will then
be chosen of God through the priesthood, of which priesthood rulers will be a
part and portion; and without being ordained to the priesthood, no man ever
can rule in this great kingdom.
	Thus, dear sir, you perceive that I attach great importance to the
priesthood, am consider it the grand instrumentality of revolutionizing, and
saving, and governing the whole earth. But what harm in all this? Do you think
there is too much power invested in this chosen order of men? Why, certainly
not! They have not chosen themselves; neither have they come to office by the
votes of the unthinking mass; nor by blind hereditary lineage, nor by violence
and the usurper's arts. They have been chosen of God, who knew their spirits
[99] before the foundation of the world. They are a royal priesthood and holy
nation, for God will have no other in his priesthood. Says Jesus to his
apostles, "Ye have not chosen me but I have chosen you." Whom God approves men
should not refuse.
	Moses was a priest and law-giver, and had to do with the temporal and
spiritual affairs of his subjects. Moses sought to unite church and state, in
obedience to the command of God. Joshua was also a priest and ruler, and
united both temporal and spiritual interests in his government. David was a
priest and king, and likewise Solomon, his son. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were
as such directed, by God, in their temporal concerns or movements as they were
in their spiritual devotions. Jesus Christ came to establish a temporal
kingdom fully as much as a spiritual kingdom. Both Jews and Romans suspected
his designs, and charged him with the crime of treason. They said that he
called himself a king. Some will say that he explicitly declared that is
kingdom was not of this world. True: He did make this declaration; but what
does it prove? It proves simply, that this world was not the father, author,
origin of His kingdom. His kingdom was from heaven, and He had come here for
the very important purpose of establishing it on the earth. He called it
kingdom of heaven, in distinction from kingdoms that were of earthly origin.
	It is strange, indeed, that the sectarian clergy should borrow the idea
that His kingdom was not a temporal kingdom as well as a spiritual. It was the
prayer of His heart, and the prayer that He taught His disciples, that God
would establish His kingdom on earth, and cause his will to be done here as it
is done in heaven. Consequent-[100]ly, he organized the kingdom here after the
pattern of heaven, with all proper officers, and laws suited to every temporal
and spiritual occasion, and then gave commandment that all nations should
yield allegiance to the laws and authorities established, and also submit
themselves to the ordinance of His kingdom. And being in possession of living
teachers, even the world of inspired men, they (all mankind, if they would
obey) would be thoroughly furnished to "every good word and work." In other
words, they would know how to act in every calling and sphere of business,
whether temporal or spiritual.
	Jesus Christ did not design that his servants should fight one another,
or fight and conquer mankind into allegiance to Him. The world would act on
these principles through disobedience, but his disciples would not because
they were shown a better way to universe; dominion and government.
	The priesthood, being an office of great responsibility, is guarded
rigidly against intruders. Man may lawfully desire this office, but he has no
right to take it of himself, but he must first be called and appointed to it
as Aaron was, by God, through a prophetic voice. Neither is man required to
study, and artificially qualify himself for receiving it. God takes men as
they are, and with the gift of priestly office He bestows the requisite
qualifications. The ordination of heaven put upon the head of any man, however
ignorant, is a voucher for requisite qualification and blessing. Every man is
there by thoroughly furnished for the discharge of all the duties of his
respective calling. They are not all apostles, however, neither are all
prophets or pastors. But every one has his calling of God, and in the
legitimate sphere of that calling he acts as God, and in the authority of God.
[101] Some have authority only to baptize unto repentance for remission of
sins, as John the Baptist. Such an confer no more authority than they possess
in themselves. Others have authority to bless, and whom they bless are blessed
in very deed. They have similar authority to curse, and whom they curse are
cursed in very deed. Jacob blessed his sons, and the heavens sealed and
confirmed the same upon their heads. Paul cursed Elymas, the sorcerer, with
blindness, and the same curse was sealed and confirmed upon him immediately.
Elisha cursed Gehazi, his servant, and leprosy cleaved to him from that time.
Elijah shut up the windows of heaven that it rained not for the space of three
years and six months, by the same delegated power, and again they were opened
at his voice. He was a man of like passions with ourselves. All men are not
ordained to this power, and when they are not, they are wholly incapable of
exercising it. It is office that gives recognition and legality to a deed of
conveyance and ownership. It is divine appointment and official calling that
give efficacy to the priesthood. But many generations have contented
themselves to preach and support preachers who have no divine appointment.
	The consequence is, that men have been self-appointed to the ministry and
spread dissension and confusion abroad. The knowledge of the true and living
God has gradually receded from the earth, and darkness, even gross darkness,
covered the people. The ordinances that impart healing virtue and the power
and light of truth, have either been changed or abolished. The apostolic
office has been counted as a thing out of date, and the spiritual gifts have
been done away. The religious world has been too much like King Saul. [102]
After he had been forsaken of God, and the power and Spirit of his anointing
given to David, this unhappy monarch resorted to every miserable device, (even
to the aid of witches), in order to obtain knowledge and influence. But the
curse of disobedience followed him to the day of his death.
	The religious sects, in like manner, have resorted to seminaries and the
polish of schools, also to the theological comments of time-honored fathers,
(who were as ignorant as themselves) ever learning, yet never coming to the
knowledge of truth. Bibles have been translated again and again; learned
volumes have been written in explanation, and even wars have been instigated
by the supposed defenders of the faith, and the earth crimsoned by human gore.
All these evils and curses have arisen from a spurious priesthood.
	In view of these things, is it not time, sir, to let God resume the reins
of government and once more establish a holy priesthood, which shall be after
the calling of Aaron, and after the order and power of endless life? That this
may be the unfeigned choice of all who seek after God, is the continued prayer
of
						Your old friend and servant,
									ORSON SPENCER.

								LIVERPOOL, October 13th, 1847.

	Reverend And Dear Sir--You have doubtless been ready to ask, time and
again, why this GATHERING together of such large bodies of Saints? Why can
they not stay in their former residences, like other Christians? And may they
not do more good to their fellow-men by scattering about amongst the people
promiscuously? Why go away off to some distant part of the earth? Is not the
Almighty God to be found as much in one place as another? Furthermore, says
one, it is exceedingly dangerous to community at large to allow any large body
of people of the same faith and doctrine, to assemble themselves in any one
place, their influence being rendered formidable by reason of concentration
and union.
	My dear sir, have not cogitations like these passed through your mind,
and been reiterated in your hearing more than once, concerning Latter-day
Saints? Delusion! delusion! is reiterated on many sides. What can these
Latter-day Saints mean, selling out their possessions at so great a sacrifice,
and leaving a comfortable and pleasant home for a far distant land, even
crossing the wide Atlantic! Has there been the like fanaticism since the time
of the crusades? On the land, hundreds of wagons, yea thousands in all, are
seen rolling their whitened canvas over the wide prairies, accompanied by
their flocks and herds; and on the ocean a multitude [104] of ships are
wafting the inhabitants of distant islands and continents to the same
destination!
	Now, I propose to meet these inquiries and reflections promptly and
fairly. In the first place, if the church is guided by the spirit of
revelation, God, the author of all true revelation, knows what is good for his
people, and He will not require them to gather without good and sufficient
reasons. For the church that is not guided by the spirit of sacred
inspiration, is guided by mammon or the devil; for every church will serve God
or mammon. "Well," says one, "I don't believe that God ever did, or ever will,
require people to gather together and leave their country and kindred." Aye,
indeed; but you believe the Bible, I trust, which informs you not only how God
has gathered his people in different periods of the world, but also, that He
will gather them together in the dispensation of the fulness of times.
	Do I need to remind you, sir, that God required Abraham to rise up and
leave his country and kindred, and go in search of a country that he should
afterwards show him? He was obedient, and went from one country to another,
the Lord being his counsellor and guide. The ancient saints and prophets
generally were "strangers" in consequence of being called to leave their home
and country. Their obedience to such a call, through faith, constituted them
heirs of an inheritance. Abraham became an heir of the country which he was
not permitted to possess in time, but he will hold the same in eternity, with
a city built upon it according to the counsel of God.
	In the dispensation given to Moses, he was required to gather the people
out of all the land of Egypt, and [105] take them to the land of Canaan; and
what was very remarkable, he was required to slay and destroy the inhabitants,
in order to make room for the great gathering of the Hebrews. The children of
God and the people of this world cannot dwell together; they are always
contrary one to the other.
	What fellowship hath Christ with Belial, or believers with unbelievers?
The Egyptians could have no fellowship with the Hebrews after they were told
that a prophet had sprung up among them. The Hebrews told a marvellous tale
about the Lord appearing to Moses in the "burning bush." They pretended to
have revelation and work miracles as in the early days of Potiphar and Joseph;
but this pretension to angels, prophets, and miracles, speedily sundered all
ties of harmony and fellowship, and it was necessary for the Hebrews to leave
the country. God required it of them, and even ordered them into an
unpromising wilderness, to be subject to hunger, and thirst, and many
hardships.
	The same spirit of opposition to miracles, prophets, and angels exists
now; and the righteous can no more keep the ordinances and commandments of God
now, without persecution even to death from the world, than the Hebrews could
do it. For the same reason Lot gathered out of Sodom--even angels could not
stop a night in Sodom without being mobbed; accordingly the Lord commanded him
to gather up so many as would go with him and flee to the mountain. His reason
for the gathering in this case was, that He could not properly punish the
Sodomites, unless the righteous were gathered out of the city in the first
place. Likewise, when Jerusalem was about to be destroyed, Jesus instructed
his disciples to flee to the mountain.
[106] It was persecution that scattered the primitive Saints abroad in the
days of Jesus. Jesus had taught Paul and Peter, that the Saints could not be
preserved on the earth, and the kingdom built up, without the Saints were
gathered together in one. He told them, absolutely and unequivocally, that he
should gather the disciples in the day of restitution. Such was their sense of
the immediateness of gathering, and of the second coming of Christ, that they
were troubled when the disciples were gathered, lest the day of the Lord was
at hand; but Paul disabused them, and told them that there must be a "falling
away" before the notable day of the Lord should come.
	Paul informed his brethren, that in the dispensation of the fulness of
times, God would gather together in one, all things both in heaven and upon
earth and under the earth. John speaks of the same, probably as the day of the
great battle of God Almighty. Jesus signified that he would gather his people,
the elect, even if he had to send his angels to the four corners of the earth
to bring them, after the manner in which he sent to Sodom to bring Lot out of
it to a place of safety. He declared he would gather the wheat into the
garner, and the tares into bundles to be burned. The prophets, too, long
before the meridian of time, saw with enrapturing vision the sons coming from
afar, and the daughters from the ends of the earth.
	Isaiah says, "The Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the
brightness of thy rising. Lift up shine eyes round about, and see, all they
gather themselves together, they come to thee; thy sons shall come from far,
and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side. Then shalt thou see and flow
together, and shine heart shall [107] fear and be enlarged, because the
abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles
shall come unto thee. Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to
their windows? Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish
first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto
the name of the Lord thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel. And the sons of
strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee,
that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles. And he shall set up
an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and
gather together the dispersed of Judah from the corners of the earth."
	The gathering of Saints to one place is necessary in order to preserve
their genealogies, and to secure to them those inheritances, the title to
which must be substantiated by legitimate records, kept in the archives of the
house of God. Whenever God has had a people, he has been careful to instruct
them to keep an accurate record of marriages and the issues of marriage; from
Adam to Noah, and from Noah to Abraham, and thence to David down to Jesus
Christ, the genealogy must necessarily be preserved. Says David, "God setteth
people in families as a flock." "He arrangeth them in families." But if these
families intermarry with those who do not keep the laws of God, nor conform to
his ordinances, the records of genealogy are soon obliterated from the
knowledge of men, and the proof of a legitimate title to inheritance is
thereby extinct; and unless Saints are gathered out from the midst of
unbelievers, they are more liable to intermarry and become alienated from the
ordinances and covenants of the Lord. If Isaac and Ishmael have no records of
parentage, how can one claim rights of lineage [108] above another? God will
assign rewards to men according to the records of their deserts, and one great
prerequisite to the final restitution of all things, is the reviving and
establishing of proper records of genealogy, and covenants, and promises, and
patriarchal blessings.
	In one instance God had to rescind the marriages of a numerous people,
because such marriages, by their issue, would tend to frustrate the grace of
God to the righteous, and entail blessings upon a strange people that God
designed to curse. The ordinances of the church and institutions of God's
house cannot be carried into execution in a land belonging to "aliens from the
commonwealth of Israel;" because aliens from God will not have the Lord to
rule over them. They consider that the laws of God set two against three, and
three against two, the father-in-law against the son-in-law, etc.; and so do
they have this effect, and always will have it, until the Saints are separated
from their adversaries. Before there can be anything like a true, godlike,
peaceful millennium, a separation must take place between the righteous and
disobedient; even as a shepherd divideth the sheep from the goats, even so
must God's will be done with friends and foes on earth, like as in heaven.
	Had the Jews received Jesus Christ, he would have set up just such a
kingdom on earth as in heaven, and the honest from all nations would have been
gathered to his standard. But seeing they would pierce the Shepherd and
scatter the sheep through a long cloudy day, as it had been prophesied of him
and his followers; he, nevertheless, assured his disciples that his people
should be gathered, in the latter days, as wheat into the garner. John says to
the Saints in the last days, that are scattered among the confused nations of
the whole earth--"Come [109] out of her, my people, and be not partakers of
her sins, that ye receive not of her plagues." Here the reason why Saints
should come out of other nations is distinctly avowed--"to escape her
plagues." The same reason that was assigned why Lot should go out of Sodom.
	The idea prevalent that God would inflict all his judgments in one great,
tremendous DAY, is as absurd as the notion is universal. The famine and dearth
were at the command of Elijah. The earthquake that swallowed up Dathan and the
company of Abiram, was at the command of Moses. Moses also stretched out his
hand as a signal to the accumulated seas to overwhelm the Egyptians, and they
obeyed his mandate. But I will not multiply proofs. God will pour out his
vials of wrath, and distress the nations till they will learn and practice
righteousness; and his people must flee to their appointed hiding place till
the indignation is overpass, otherwise they have no guaranty for their safety.
The Hebrews were obliged to mark their houses, lest the destroying angel
should slay both them and the Egyptians. The Lord God--has decreed a
consumption upon the whole earth, therefore let the righteous flee to the
strongholds of Zion, that are preparing in that land that was promised to the
Patriarch Joseph, while it is an accepted time, and the evil days come not.
	Jesus cautioned Jerusalem Saints to beware of imitating the silly and
dilatory part of Lot's wife. The righteous are no more secure from approaching
judgments than the wicked, except they obey the commands of God. Even a
prophet was once slain by a lion, because he dared to disobey the Lord. No man
should neglect any means by which he can be removed, and help to remove
others, from those nations that are as inevitably doomed to [110] destruction
for rebellion, as the Canaanites of former times.
	Sir, we feel the very same extraordinary interest in depositing our very
bones in the land of Zion, that the patriarchs formerly felt when they
commanded that their bones should be removed to the country and burying-place
which God had designated. If there is enthusiasm in this sentiment, sir, it is
the enthusiasm of patriarchs and prophets that kept the divine mandates, and
knew well the order of the resurrection, and the necessity of having their
bones laid on the identical land that should afterwards be their possession
and inheritance for ever and ever. Did not the Lord apportion off the land of
Canaan to the twelve tribes to be their inheritance for ever. And shall not
the one hundred and forty-four thousand in the latter days be equally
tenacious to possess the very inheritance that was promised them to be a
perpetual possession in time and eternity? There, their bones, like the
precious valley of dry bones, will be the guardian care of angels, and in the
resurrection stand up like a consolidated army, while the disobedient and
ungodly shall be scattered and driven as chaff before the wind.
	The aged and infirm among us, fervently desire to carry their bones,
while animated with life, to the land of Zion, as an expression of their faith
in the promise of God, that he will resurrect them and plant them in that same
"heavenly" country which they now seek. What Canaan was to ancient Saints and
prophets, the land of Joseph will be to the Saints, and prophets of the last
days, and more abundantly. If men have not the spirit of gathering they are
blind and cannot see afar off, and are nigh unto burning. The gathering is one
great test of faith, by which you may know who is on the Lord's side. Kindred
spirits long to congregate together.
[111] The language of Ruth is expressive of the desires of God's people in all
ages. "Thy people are my people, and their God is my God, and where thou goest
I will go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge." Her sister Orpah could forego
the society of Saints and the ordinances of God, sooner than part with her
native country and kindred. A portion of Lot's family saw no wisdom in the
gathering until it was too late. Sir, the gathering is the great universal
national preacher of the last days. It speaks in trumpet tones out of every
nation where it has been commenced. As birds retire before a storm, and fowls
before the darkness of night, so the multitudes going out by sea and land is a
practical warning that cannot be mistaken by those that remain.
	The nations wonder at the spectacle of such multitudes going out of their
midst under the warning voice of Jehovah, and are ready to cry out, Who are
these that fly as clouds and as doves to their windows? Who are these
Latter-day Saints? What is their doctrine, and whither are they fleeing? The
sound of the gathering goeth into all the earth. The fear and dread of
approaching calamities take possession of the nations. The righteous are being
withdrawn apart, in order that the Almighty may stretch out his chastening
hand, and inflict his sore judgment upon rebellious nations. There is no room
to mistake the faith and sincerity of those whose gathering together is
without a parallel for magnitude of enterprise. The Israelites performed a
journey that might have been compassed in about forty days, but the latter-day
gathering brings sons and daughters from the ends of the earth.
	The great design of Jesus in bringing the righteous to unity of faith and
the knowledge of God, is wonderfully facilitated by bringing the righteous
together in one [112] place. The ancient Jews were taught of God to build up
Jerusalem as a place of gathering; and those whose circumstances forbade them
to locate there, either from political or agricultural interests, were
required to visit Jerusalem at least three times a year, where they could
interchange hospitalities and friendships, and contract matrimonial alliances,
etc. Also, in addition to these facilities of union, their baptisms were to be
performed in the national font; their marriage rites and records of genealogy,
were to be performed and deposited in the archives of the great Temple of the
Lord at Jerusalem.
	In this great city of gathering, their frequent and splendid national
festivals were to be held from generation to generation. By these multiplied
means, the union of Jews became proverbially strong; and their attachments to
their nation and kindred, and national rights and usages, became as enduring
as their existence. If, perchance, they should be scattered amongst the remote
nations of the earth, still the recollection of their journeyings to Jerusalem
in social groups, their splendid festivals at the national capital, their
royal affinity with the great and good of God's people, vibrated through their
minds with resuscitating power. There it was that the Almighty condescended to
reveal his acceptance of their sacrifices, and bless the people from the
greatest to the least, and even speak to the people through their High Priest
at least once a year.
	Now, when God shall build up Zion and his Holy House in the tops of the
mountains, and all nations flow into it, will he not appear in his glory? Such
a measure of union, and strength of attachment to the Lord and his people, the
last days will exhibit as was never before realized on earth; then will Zion
rise [113] and shine, her light being come, and the glory of God being risen
upon her--yea, be an eternal excellency and the praise and joy of the whole
earth!
	Who, sir, can contemplate the glory of Zion, when God shall have gathered
his people from the four corners of the earth, and made of them a great
nation, an "innumerable company," and blessed them with his own laws and
ordinances, binding them together in a new and everlasting covenant, without
the most thrilling emotions of love, gratitude, and joy, in believing? Break
out, O thou inhabitant of Zion, and sing for the glory that shall shortly be
revealed; when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdom of Christ,
and the stakes thereof shall no more be thrown down for ever!
	Now, sir, in conclusion, may I not say, with all deference to the
misguided teachers of modern Christianity, that the Lord is performing a
marvellous work and a wonder in the greatest of all gatherings since the
foundation of the world. He is gathering his righteous hosts from the nations
of the earth to one place, and setting his forces in battle array against the
powers of darkness, and against all flesh that exalts itself against the
knowledge of God. And by truth and by judgments, he will thoroughly cleanse
the earth, and overthrow more wickedness in ten years to come, than blind,
boasting, self-righteous modern Christianity can in ten thousand years.
	Please to accept my warmest desires for your present and everlasting
peace and welfare.
							Your humble servant,
									ORSON SPENCER.

								LIVERPOOL, October 28th, 1847.

	Reverend and Dear Sir--THE LATTER-DAY JUDGMENTS, the subject of my
present letter, deserve a careful consideration among the topics peculiar to
Latter-day Saints.
	You must be already aware that it is a part of my faith that God designs
to set up his kingdom on the earth in order that the meek may inherit the
earth as their celestial abode; and as he will not employ his enemies to
administer even temporal affairs within the bounds of his kingdom, his kingdom
will consequently be a temporal one, and wholly and exclusively conducted by
his own loyal subjects, according to his righteous will. He will proceed from
conquest to conquest, until all other kingdoms are overthrown and merged in
one--even his own kingdom.
	The means by which he will subdue and overcome the nations of the earth
are two, viz., TRUTH and JUDGMENT. He explicitly declares, that he will lay
judgment to the line and righteousness to the plummet. His latterday
proclamation is, "Fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment
is come." The salvation that he offers is temporal, spiritual and eternal; and
the judgments which he will inflict are also similar. As a supreme lawgiver,
he claims the submission of all the inhabitants of the earth. Nor is it
necessary that his [115] servants should be for ever preaching the gospel on
the earth, in order to effect a universal reconciliation of all men to their
God. All men will not obey the truth, herefore what the truth will not save
through faith, God's judgment will destroy through their unbelief. And these
judgments will be executed speedily, even as I the days of Noah and Lot. God
formerly gave the habitants timely warning before the deluge came, and before
the fire descended from heaven.
	The gospel must first be preached, and then the judgments will follow in
quick succession. Even as a chalk-line makes an impression for the saw and the
chisel, God's judgments will make an impression, sensible and summary. The day
of vengeance has long been in his heart. A day when his jealousy and wrath
shall burn like fire, even to the lowest hell. The wicked and diabolical
spirits will be pursued, even to their dens of darkness, and there scourged
and bound. The righteous veterans that have long since fought and bled, in
order to establish a reign of righteousness and truth on the earth, and prayed
with uplifted hands for this day of truth and judgment, their language is,
"How long, O Lord, wilt thou not avenge our blood on them that dwell on the
earth?" But God, who is long-suffering--not willing that any should perish,
but rather that they should repent ad be saved--has nevertheless reserved the
worst spirits the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of
God. That day is even now dawned. God has commenced to reveal his wrath
against all them that obey not the gospel. It is a day of revelation and
prophecy.
	The righteous are timely advised to gather out and separate themselves
from those that will not obey the gospel. They are not disobedient to the
great revelation [116] of mercy to them that obey, and of wrath to them that
are contentious and obey not the truth. The winds and waves are wafting
thousands to the land of refuge. The prairies and wilderness reverberate with
the songs of the outcast but chosen and elect ones of God. A more intelligent,
enterprising, and bold race of Saints, perhaps, has never been summoned to the
help of the Lord against the mighty, since the foundation of the world. Their
fortitude, patience, and invincibility, are indelibly written in their
bloodstained pathway through Missouri and Illinois. The old arts of tormenting
the sick by burning their houses, and of famishing the robust by plundering
their crops, and forcing the sale of property by threats of murder and arson,
are fruitless, Prison walls and tragic scenes of assassination and
expatriation have spent their fury to no purpose. The daring sons of Pharaoh,
Cain, and Judas are baffled and confounded at such godlike firmness.
Occasionally a priest, goaded on by the loss of his flock, has dared to act as
champion, and throw the gauntlet for public discussion, but the inevitable
discomfiture that has followed, has taught him the superior policy of evading
discussion. But, dear sir, no man can long be a neutral in this warfare. He
must choose his side. If truth fails to bring down high looks, judgments will
not fail. Those judgments which began at the house of God, in Kirtland,
Independence, and Nauvoo, have been seriously felt by the Saints of God. But
if the righteous scarcely escape, where shall the sinner and ungodly appear?
The latter-day judgments that shall befall their enemies will be far more
insupportable and abiding.
	There was no part of the United States ignorant of the murderous doings
of their countrymen towards the [117] Latter-day Saints. The news spread over
the continent, and reached even the remote islands of the Pacific with almost
telegraphic speed. Nobody that loved justice, or felt the bowels of humanity,
had the least need to be ignorant of the distress, and famine, and sickness,
and nakedness that were inflicted on the innocent worshippers the only true
God by their countrymen. Presidents and governors, judges and lawyers,
priests, physicians, and common people, all were made acquainted with the
diabolical outrages. They were not only warned but forewarned. What has been
the consequences? For the last sixteen years the fluctuations of business have
been like the troubled ocean. Panic and depression have been successive as
light and darkness, with the exception of incalculable irregularity and
confusion. In the place of wealth there has followed bankruptcy; for peace,
national war; and for the blood of one murdered servant of God, there have
been tens, and even hundreds, laid weltering in their gore. Some of the best
blood of the nation (so counted) has been demanded by Him that said, "Touch
not my prophets and do my anointed no harm." The word of the Lord to all
Israel, on the eve of the Carthage tragedy, was, if they, (the enemy) begin to
shed blood, the sword shall waste the blood of the nation. And how are the
sons of the mighty fallen? What wailing and lamentation are heard from high
places over distinguished, slaughtered Americans! And the end is not yet.
	But what shall I say of time-honored orthodoxy? Poor creature! Her glory
is being fast turned into shame. Many of her lovers are forsaking her, and the
balance are too sleepy to wakeup. They refuse to be fascinated,
notwithstanding all her meretricious arts. Education, tracts, missions, and
moral reform, are a vain thing for [118] strength. The Lord is a jealous God,
and will not give His glory to another gospel; but he will curse all the
systems of men that are built upon human precepts merely without the authority
of immediate revelation. The various systems of modern Christianity are cursed
already wherever the true gospel is proclaimed. That sincerity, fidelity, and
zeal, which your churches and your preachers once had is taken away from them;
and your preachers have no longer power to preach with effect. The reason and
cause of all this is, the true light has come; consequently, they have no
longer any apology for upholding systems of error and false religions. The
Spirit of God will be withdrawn from your ministry and your churches, just in
proportion as the true light shines and the true gospel is rejected.
	When the devout Jews rejected the novel doctrines of Jesus and his
apostles, the virtues which they previously possessed either withered up or
were withdrawn from them, and communicated to infidels or Gentiles. So it is
now. While the devout priests and churches reject the gospel ministered by an
angel to Joseph, and confirmed by the Signs following, their former virtuous
principles forsake them. They become filled with the spirit of envy, hatred,
and malice towards the Saints. They retail groundless slanders, and often are
foremost in instigating mobs, refusing common civilities and hospitality to
the servants of the Most High; and so sanguine is their opposition, that they
even believe it would be well for the cause of religion, if the Saints were
exterminated and put to death. So believed the devout Jews, who persecuted the
prophets and slew the Holy and Just One. Thus, by step after step, the
professedly pious are brought to become accessory to blood-guiltiness, and
bring upon [119] themselves all the blood that has been shed from the days of
righteous Abel till now.
	Oh! my much-loved friend, will you not shudder at the sight of such a
catastrophe before the modern churches? What an awful curse! Given up by God
to believe Saints to be sinners, and then to war against them even to
blood-guiltiness! Strange and deplorable infatuation! One would think that the
snares and pitfalls into which God precipitated ancient persecutors, would
prove an effectual warning to modern persecutors, to beware how they plunged
themselves into a worse destruction! Oh, how great the severity of God towards
them that strive with their Maker, and spurn the faith once delivered to the
Saints as no longer needed! The very religion of modern Christianity is now
about as great a curse as can be indicted upon its possessors, without doing
violence to their power of agency. It is the prolific cause of blindness and
hardness of heart. A false religion is worse than no religion, because it is a
lure and a lullaby, that excludes true religion from taking effect.
	Modern religion rejects immediate revelation; consequently, all that
knowledge that flows from visions and dreams, and the ministry of angels, and
the prophetic inspiration of the Holy Ghost. A greater curse cannot be well
conceived. There never was a people that lived a hundred years, or even fifty
years, without immediate revelation from God, but they fell into gross
darkness and contention, and those hurtful lusts that drown men's souls in
perdition. There never was a people that survived the gift and blessing of
immediate revelation any considerable length of time, except they fell into
idolatry and worshipped strange gods; and their sorrows shall be multiplied
that hasten after strange gods. All Israel fell [120] into the worship of
Baal, and hundreds of them became prophets to Baal. They, indeed, were the
descendants of the mightiest Saints that ever lived, such as Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, and Moses, etc. They had in their possession the writings and
traditions of their fathers, but still they were cursed because they rejected
the knowledge of God through immediate revelation. They became like blind men
groping in the dark. They taught their children to rebel against prophets and
miraculous gifts.
	Modern Christians, with the Bible in their hands, are in as gross
darkness as the worshippers of Baal. The god they worship is no more like the
person of Christ, or the person of man, than Baal was. Their order of church
authorities and church gifts, and ordinances of healing and anointing, are
probably about as remote from the apostolic pattern, as the worship of Mahomet
or Vishnu is. Do not believe, sir, for a moment, that I intend, by this
humiliating remark, any disrespect to the supporters of modern Christianity.
No: God forbid. As good a man as Paul the apostle, was once as vehemently
opposed to immediate revelation and spiritual gifts as you are, or any other
abettors of modern Christianity; but, by timely repentance, he escaped that
awful curse of aversion to the only means of knowing the only true and living
God. But multitudes of his countrymen still adhered to the belief that the
gift of revelation had ceased, and prophets and miracles were no longer
necessary. And you firmly believe that the curse indescribable has followed
them to this day. Oh! how astonishing it is that you, sir, and your
high-minded associates in modern Christendom, should plunge into the same
doleful abyss--reject the same doctrines and ordinances, as no longer
necessary, [121] and entail the same curse upon your children for generations
to come! In this you are fighting against Jehovah. Every year and every day
while you persist, the darkness of your minds will become more gross, and you
will bring the worst passions into the field of conflict against the saints.
God will withdraw his Spirit from you, and you fill ultimately be forced,
through weakness and multiplied divisions and contentions, to unite the
scattered fragments of sectarianism on some common platform of anti-scriptural
invention. On this platform, and with this consolidated power of anti-Christ,
the great battle is destined to be fought that he shall silence the spirit of
anti-revelation or a thousand years!
	Alas! the deplorable destiny of those that war against prophets and
apostles, and the spirit and power of primitive godliness! Such, in all former
ages of the world, have been cursed with wars, conflagrations, famine,
pestilence, and the vagaries of an oppressive superstition. But, in the
latter-days, God has decreed a consumption upon the whole earth. The religion
that is not based on the immediate interposition of the wisdom and power of
God, from day to day, and time to time, will not, cannot, and shall not stand,
for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it, and let all the inhabitants of the
earth hear it. Yea, sir, such religions shall be as the chaff which the wind
driveth away, even as the small dust of the threshing floor. God despises the
religion that professes to flourish without the aid of constant revelation
from the heavens; and he will shoot out the hot arrows of his wrath against
it, until there is not a vestige or semblance of it left on the face of the
whole earth. The potsherds may strive with the potsherds of the earth, but woe
unto him that striveth with his Maker! 
[122] Alas the day, when God shall withdraw his spirit from all flesh! Then
confidence between man and his fellow, will give place to distrust and
jealousy, evil surmising, hatred, robbery and blood-guiltiness will spread
their direful influence through all communities! The cords of domestic union
will be severed! The weak will be compelled to bow to the yoke of the
strong--might will become the strongest pretext for the right! The carcasses
of the poor and infirm will bleach uncovered upon the earth! The stench of
putrefaction will impregnate the atmosphere with poisonous pestilence; insects
and noisome creatures will breed innumerably to the annoyance of man! "The
sword shall devour from one end of the earth to the other--the earth shall be
soaked in blood,"--the rivers shall become bloody, and the fountains of water
shall no longer be pure. Many that lie down at night shall not awake in the
morning. The fruitful field shall become sterile and barren, because no man
knoweth for whom his fruits are growing. "The earth becometh empty and
desolate." The master and servant are brought to a level. The priest is as
void of consolation as the people. Paleness and fear are depicted on every
human face. Traffic in merchandise, as a business, is wholly abandoned. Men
cease to sow and to plow, in hope. Never before did the Almighty commence such
an awful warfare against the inhabitants of the earth; never before was there
witnessed such a succession of plagues and dire calamities amongst men!
	After peace is taken from the earth, an agent, by the name of Death
(probably invisible except to spirits, and such as have the spirit of
revelation), will go forth on the face of the earth and destroy one-fourth
part of mankind. In the midst of this destruction of one-fourth of
man-[123]kind, martyred Saints will ask the Lord to hasten the work of human
destruction. An earthquake, and the lapse of stars from heaven, then begin to
destroy the frail tenure of human hope; and even the great men, and mighty and
chief captains become desperate, like the most effeminate and pusillanimous.
Every successive plague is increasingly awful and unendurable. The plagues
that fell upon Egypt will sink into insignificance and fade out of memory
before the plagues which were shown to the revelator John, and which shall
usher in the final consummation of the "mystery of God." The opening of the
"bottomless pit" is followed with three woes which are inflicted upon men, and
which are suited to the incorrigible condition of such obdurate spirits as no
inferior engines of torment and destruction should subdue. But neither the
torment inflicted by the sting of the locusts, like unto scorpions; nor that
which is inflicted by the horses of that great army of two millions, whose
mouths emit fire, smoke, and brimstone, and whose tails, being like serpents
having heads, destroy both before and behind wherever they go; yet none of
these things will lead these latter-day enemies to new revelations, unto
repentance.
	Now, sir, in conclusion, I have endeavored, briefly, to direct your mind
to the vortex of indescribable calamities into which the sentiments of modern
Christianity are calculated to precipitate all who know not God (by immediate
revelation), and obey not the gospel revealed from heaven in this our day--a
day of mercy and judgment.
	With fervent desires that you and your posterity may escape the day of
wrath, and seek for glory, and honor, and immortality, I subscribe myself,
						Your old friend and servant,
									ORSON SPENCER.

								LIVERPOOL, November 14th, 1847.

	Reverend and Dear Sir--THE RESTITUTION OF ALL THINGS, is a subject
deserving rather a voluminous treatise than the contracted limits of a single
letter; still some out-standing features of this very prominent part of
scripture revelation shall be briefly touched upon. The apostle says that the
heavens must receive (Jesus) until the times of the restitution of all things,
which God Hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy Prophets since the world
began.
	By the term restitution, the scriptures mean putting all things on a
permanent and righteous basis. All things are not, and never have been, on a
righteous basis since the fall of Adam.
	After the expulsion of Lucifer and his associates from heaven, order and
harmony were restored, and the everlasting system of progressive intelligence
and felicity again established on an immutable basis, so far as heaven was
concerned. And even among the third part of heaven, drawn away by the apostacy
of Lucifer, there might possibly have been some persons capable of ultimate
restoration in the interminable ages of futurity. Of this, however, it may,
perhaps, be said that no man knoweth. No man, surely can know unless it is
revealed to him from heaven. The possibility, however, of redeeming all flesh
from the transgression laid upon mankind in [125] this mortal state, through
obedience to the gospel, is abundantly revealed in the scriptures. However
wrong may have been the conduct and opinions of the inhabitants of the earth,
obedience to the gospel will reinstate them in the course of permanent
felicity, intelligence and righteousness.
	There are particular and set times for the restitution of all those
things which God has spoken of by the prophets. God had spoken of the subject
of restitution by all the prophets since the world began; indeed there never
was a prophet on the earth whose business did not engage him more or less in
the works of restitution. But long periods have elapsed on earth in which no
prophets have been known. During such periods the work of restitution has
invariably ceased. Iniquity and misery have been made to abound and gross
darkness has spread over all people. But at particular periods God would raise
up prophets, and then the work of restitution would commence and continue
until the prophets were slain or otherwise removed from the earth. It is
during such particular times of restitution in the latter days, that even
Jesus himself may appear from the heavens, in order to give direction and
mighty impulse to the work of restitution. Noah was raised up to stay the
progress of wickedness and build up the waste places. Wickedness was swept off
the earth according to his prophecyings and teachings, and a race of righteous
men put in the place of the wicked to people the earth. It was also a time of
restitution when Abraham was commissioned to reform mankind by truth and
judgment, teaching them to walk in the old paths of revelation and immediate
and constant intercourse with the heavens.
	Again, in mercy, God raised up Moses, and recom-[126]menced the same work
of restitution which was subsequently undertaken by John the Baptist, under
the immediate supervision of Jesus himself. But it was not competent for any
one prophet in the short period of his ministry on the earth, to set
everything right that was wrong; but each did what he could, under existing
circumstances, with the people with whom he had to do. The spirit of
revelation rested upon each successive prophet to perform that work which was
most fit and necessary to the age in which he lived. No one could attend to
all things; and many things are yet to be revealed that have been kept secret
since the foundation of the world. No man has ever understood all those
measures and principles by which the human family can be brought to the
highest degree of perfection. The angels probably do not know them, and even
the Son himself did not know them, but the Father only.
	The reign of a thousand years of righteousness will probably do much to
correct, ennoble, and exalt mankind and beautify the works of his hands, and
felicitate all flesh. Whatever principles and measures can contribute to exalt
and felicitate mankind in the sight of the heavens is yet to be done. The
profound philosophy and science of the highest intelligences, with all the
embellishments which art, and taste, and genius, can secure, are destined to
become tributary to the righteous; and when these things shall take place in
the times of the restitution of all things, God will be crowned with ineffable
glory and honor, blessing and dominion, for ever and ever. Amen.
	The spirit of apostacy has stripped and shorn true religion of all its
luscious and beautiful fruit, and left nothing scarcely but the naked,
withered hulk of false [127] spirituality. Religion has been taught, by
Protestant dissenters, as a science almost wholly abstracted from civil
government--from political, social, and domestic institutions, and also from
the useful and fine arts. It has been circumscribed to the most revoltingly
contracted limits.
	In the zeal of its advocates to put down an illegitimate and bastardly
union of church and state, that had long darkened the moral atmosphere of the
earth, and made nations groan under oppression, and sigh and mourn that
religion was the wedded ally of the civil sceptre, they pushed off into the
opposite extreme of imbecile, naked, and sterile spirituality; thereby
proving, plainly, that any religion that is not based on constant and
immediate inspiration of the Holy Ghost, can neither walk long with or without
the crutches of governmental aid and support. It will not only become a stink
in the nostrils of Jehovah, but soon cause great dissatisfaction and fall into
merited contempt and ignominy.
	The best biographies of such men as David Brainard and Edward Payson, are
a fair exhibition of internal mental turmoil, and fitful commotion of spirit,
and servile bondage to a law that neither they nor their fathers could keep.
Poor, misguided but honest men! How happy might they have been had they known
the true primitive gospel that Paul preached by the infallible light of
inspiration! How joyful the intelligence to the honest but misguided, when the
glad news of restitution shall reverberate in their prisons, and cause the
captive exile to haste into light and liberty! Not only will the hopes and
faith of men be set right in the times of restitution, but the earth itself
will undergo an important change, and the heavenly bodies or planetary system.
The islands [128] shall flee, and continents be united, and the waters be
restored to their proper bounds, no more to break over their proper barriers.
The curse shall be clean removed from the earth, and the air shall become
salubrious and delightful. The animal race shall cease from their animosity
and virulence of temper. The lion and the lamb shall lie down together; and
there shall nothing hurt or destroy in all God's holy mountain. In short, all
things that are now wrong shall be set right. Human life shall be prolonged;
the infant shall die an hundred years old. The power and perpetuity of life
will be secured to the ultimate extinction of death from off the earth. Death,
the last enemy, will be conquered and swallowed up in victory. When every form
and power of sin ceases, may we not expect that death will also cease? Death
hath passed upon all men in that all have sinned. Sin is the sting of death,
and the cause of it. It is true that Jesus died, although he never sinned
after the similitude of Adam's transgression; but he took upon him Adam's
nature, and became sin for us, though he knew no sin. But it was not possible
for him to be holden of death, or to see corruption, because he was holy.
	When a holy seed shall be raised up from the loins of the righteous,
which know no sin (which will be the case when the devil is bound), then their
bodies will not see corruption. They shall not all sleep (or die), but they
shall be changed. Those who partake of the curse of Adam will be changed in a
moment, without knowing corruption; but the posterity of such as are changed
will be the legitimate heirs of sanctified bodies, upon whom death has no
conceivable claim. Death will not pass upon them, because they have not
sinned. Their bodies are generically spiritual and holy, like Christ's own
most glori-[129]ous body. Then will the seeds of death become extinguished
from the human body, and man will stand as holy and pure as in his pristine
creation, blooming with health, vigor, and immortality. Then he is prepared to
hold intercourse with the heavens, and to reign with Christ on the earth.
	You will perceive, sir, a difference in the liability of such persons as
are born during the reign of righteousness, who do not sleep or die, and those
who must die by reason of sin. The former know not the dominion or sting of
sin, but are as the trees of the Lord's planting--righteous. The latter must
needs die and be resurrected. Jesus was the first fruits of them that slept.
In the case of all others, corruption followed death; and a longer period must
elapse before their bodies could be resurrected by reason of corruption. But
Jesus was first and foremost to ripen into immortality. Corruptibility did not
pertain to him, of course it was not necessarily prerequisite of his
resurrection and immortality; but with all others, down to the period when it
is said that they should not sleep, corruption must precede the resurrection.
If the body of Jesus did not corrupt and moulder back to dust, then it is
evident that he had substantially the same sort of corporal frame after his
resurrection that he had before. The spirit resting upon him without measure,
animated and resuscitated his body with no other material change than that of
loss of blood. He showed his disciples his body, and told them to handle him
and see of what material it was: "a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see
me have." He showed them, demonstratively, in his own person, a proper
specimen of a living resurrected body. He showed them that a spirit did not
possess flesh and bones as a resurrected body did. He also [130] proved
another thing, viz.: that a resurrected body retains probably all the five
senses common to a mortal body. He ate and drank with them, and showed them
that his person was identically the same as before his death. Here then is a
specimen of corporal immortality. In this person we may see what all
resurrected bodies will be, for we shall be like him. Life and immortality are
brought to light in the example of Christ's resurrected body. Such is the
organization of a resurrected body, in consequence of the expulsion of the
seeds of death, the last enemy, that decay and disease have no further power
or influence.
	The immediate resurrection of Jesus, after the lapse of only three days,
was one of the greatest blessings and honors that could be conferred. In
addition to all the faculties and powers which he possessed previous to his
death, he also had those of an immortal being; instead of lingering a long
time, with barely the circumscribed and limited powers and privileges of a
disembodied spirit, he was blessed in body, soul, and spirit united. The key
to innumerable lives and boundless dominions was given him on the third day
after his death. It was his sole prerogative to say how long the dead should
sleep before they should be resurrected. All the innumerable privileges of a
resurrected body--privileges unspeakable and even unlawful to be uttered by
reason of the hardness of men's hearts--were conferred upon him! He held the
key of death and hell. No one could come forth from the tomb without his
orders--none could felicitate his spirit by possessing his own body till Jesus
should grant permission. His friends could all be called forth at his
pleasure, and be reinstated on the earth as he had been, with all their
friends and posterity after them, but no enemy could resuscitate the
slumbering ashes of his tomb, [131] till Jesus should speak the word and grant
permission.
	His attention would be especially directed to the speedy and early
restitution of such as had been beheaded for his sake and the gospel's. They
should be the very first to be raised, and others in their time and order; but
the wicked enemies! alas, how long they must lie unnoticed! A thousand years,
at least, must roll slowly away before their mouldering bodies could be
allowed to have a living re-organization! Long and doleful banishment from the
joys of life and immortality! In the meantime the righteous are restored to
their own bodies, now immortalized for ever; they are reinstated on the earth
in the company of kindred spirits, while their enemies are trodden down as so
much dust under the soles of their feet.
	How remarkable a contrast between the righteous and the wicked! They that
sowed to the Spirit are reaping the fruits of the Spirit, which are life
everlasting. They inherit the earth and multiply upon it, and build cities and
temples, and their posterity are as numerous as the sands upon the sea shore.
How glorious the rich reward of keeping the commands of God! but, alas! where
are the wicked all this time? Where are those who have sown to the flesh,
during this long and glorious reign of the righteous on the earth? Poor,
wretched creatures! they are reaping corruption, just according to what they
sowed. Once they scorned the righteous, and oppressed the hireling, and
sneered at prophets, and said they needed no revelation in their day and age.
But where are they now? Their bodies mingle with the dust of the streets and
of the field, that men tread upon daily. Their memories are nearly faded from
remembrance. Their posterity can no where be found on the earth. [132] When
the wicked return from their banishment (so many as do return, for they shall
be visited after many days), they have becomes an inferior race of beings; the
righteous have outstripped them in knowledge, and happiness, and power, and
dominion, and glory, and honor.
	The resurrection will bring about a great restitution, both to the
righteous and to the wicked. The righteous will receive the reward of
righteousness, and the wicked will receive the wages of sin. When the wicked
are swept off the earth, the books will be opened and examined in order to
know whose names are recorded; and those "that are found written in the book
shall be delivered;" and such shall be resurrected immediately, and shine as
the brightness of the firmament on account of the illustrious part they had
taken in Christ's service. But the wages of the wicked shall be paid off in a
long night of death before they rise; and when they rise, it shall be to shame
and everlasting contempt. If their long banishment and death are followed by a
subdued and humbled spirit of loyalty to truth, still their late resurrection,
with all its doleful accompaniments, will be an eternal stigma on their name.
It will always be known that they were once banished and trod under foot a
thousand years at least, in consequence of their disgraceful rebellion against
the laws and ordinances of God's government. Neither they nor their posterity
can ever wipe off the disgrace; they may repent and reform, and become truly
loyal to God, still their former rebellion against immediate revelation and
prophets, will stand on record eternally, and crimson their faces with shame,
and furnish occasion for contempt to their name at the retrospect. Many
ancient Saints endured "tortures, not accepting deliverance, in order that
they might obtain a better resurrection."
[133] The domestic tie is the strongest bond of union, and the most prolific
source of virtue and happiness that appertains to mankind on earth or in
heaven. Hence the promise made to Abraham of an innumerable domestic
confederation, and to all others also, who should be heirs of the same faith
with faithful Abraham. But the wicked are disembodied spirits, without flesh
and bones, and cannot partake of the blessings of domestic union, and that
friendship and fellowship that the whole family of God in heaven and upon
earth enjoy. Poor, desolate spirits, that once despised prophecyings and
forbid to speak in tongues, ye are now left without the sweet ties of
parentage, and the endearing builds of filial and conjugal affection! The
social circle in which you move, and the government under which you are
organized, have lost their most lovely and essential ligaments of union and
strength. How gladly would wicked spirits accept the bodies of the inferior
animals as their tabernacle, might they be permitted to do so; even the swine
would be a desirable habitation rather than none at all.
	The angels that kept not their first estate are reserved in chains (have
not the liberty of embodied spirits) to the far distant period of final
judgment, when death and hell shall be judged after the lapse of a thousand
years and a "little season;" even then death and hell, with all others whose
reprieve is not found written in the book, must fall victims to the second
death. Oh! dreadful consequence of sin! How oft would I have gathered you, as
a hen gathereth her chickens under her wing, but ye would not; but now, your
house is left unto you desolate!
	But, alas! sir, how many attach no more importance to the resurrection,
than merely the fact of its being an evidence that we shall survive the
dissolution of death? but blessed are those who understand and have part in
[134] the first resurrection, for on such the second death hath no power. Sir,
my heart swells with deep concern that all men might obey the only true
gospel, that entitles to a part in the first resurrection!
	The limits of my letter forbid me to exhort; but suffer me to say, unless
you have the same faith with Daniel and Elijah, and the same spirit of
revelation with Peter, Abraham and Moses, you can never associate with
resurrected bodies, neither with holy angels, nor with God. In your flesh you
never can see God. All former Saints were united with the spirits of the just,
and angels, and Christ, and God the judge of all; and if you are not united to
the same by supernatural faith, and the spirit of vision and revelation, you
may bid farewell to every endearing social tie, and launch forth among, the
disembodied powers of the air; and there, with bitter regret and wailing,
lament over that fallen and lost bodily image of your Maker, laid low in
corruptible ruins through your transgression and hatred of the ministry of the
Prophet of the last days. There, this spectacle of your rebellion against
prophets (monument of your shame) must lie till your self-righteous spirit is
subdued, or be raised only to encounter the mortal grasp of a second death.
	Yes, sir, while the restitution will elevate the righteous to their
proper level in the scale of being, where the wicked cannot molest, it will
also depress the wicked to their humiliating level. It will separate them to
their own place, and the want of bodies will prove an impassable gulf between
them and happiness. In this state they may, indeed, contemplate what they have
lost, without the power of recovering it. Oh! tantalizing state of keen
despair! Dreadful chains! Cruel death holds that once noble image of thy Maker
fast in mouldering ruins, [135] as a monument of thy contempt of prophets!
Now, thou needest supernatural power to restore to thee that lost image of thy
Maker! Now, thou needest a new name and key to resurrecting power, but thou
hast despised these things, and said thou hast no need, therefore thy light is
put out and clean gone! Now, angels offer to minister to thee, and prophets to
become thy teachers, but thou wouldst have none of these; therefore they will
withdraw from thee for a long and dreary night, in which thou wilt often cry
out with bitter wailing, "Would God it were morning!"
	Now, sir, may a consideration of these truths lead you to choose the good
and refuse the evil, and stand on the immutable basis of every one that is
taught of God, is the unceasing desire of
						Your humble servant,
								ORSON SPENCER.

									LlVERPOOL, November 30th, 1847.

	Reverend and Dear Sir--A question has sometimes been asked concerning
infants--with what bodies will they come forth? Will they be raised in the
stature of manhood or adult size? We believe not; but as they fall so will
they rise again--the size of their stature when they rise, will be the same as
when they fell asleep in death. Little children are the subjects and residents
of the kingdom of heaven. Their angels do always behold the presence of our
Father in heaven.
	It is not the size of a person's stature that constitutes any certain
mark of the measure of one's capacity, either to exercise power or to enjoy
felicity. Jesus possessed all power in a mere stature of human size. Still,
nothing is fully perfect till it has attained the measure of the grand
Designer, and accomplished the end of its creation. Hence it may, with some
probability, be inferred, that children will mature and come to their full
stature after the resurrection; this, however, is more a matter of opinion
than of any direct revelation that has come to my knowledge.
	It will, of course, from what has been said, be discovered that the
righteous will enjoy a happy recognition of each other in every endearing
relation that is common to mankind in their present mortal state. Their
familiarity will be that of perfect innocence and felicity. Child-[137]ren, in
the millennium, or after the first resurrection, will need the same paternal
care, tutorage, and guidance, which is required by them now. In the absence of
their proper parents, they will, doubtless, receive adopted parents, or an
equivalent guardianship of the angels from God. Such is the established order
of progressive intelligence, through the medium of living teachers, that all
the redeemed of heaven and earth, are under the special guardianship of the
ministering authorities of God.
	Oh! how happy and blessed are those parents and children, husbands and
wives, who shall meet in the palaces of the just, and recognize each other
after so long an absence! Unspeakable joyful that day and hour when friends,
that have been long separated, shall again strike hands together, and
celebrate their re-union in the courts above. To die is gain, because the
righteous are exalted and introduced to higher orders of intelligence. New
fields of discovery and enjoyment are constantly opening, to intensify their
interest and swell their bosoms with the liveliest emotions. They may and do
remember their righteous friends that are left behind, for a little season,
with kind desires, and cannot advance in knowledge and glory very
advantageously without them; still it is the knowledge which they possess of
superlative glories ahead, that principally occupies their minds. Truths and
keys, explanatory of the boundless and skillful works of God, and facilitating
their progress towards dominion, and power, and blessing, and salvation, are
continually warming up their hearts and inciting them to onward deeds. The
valiant and faithful that have fought a good fight and kept the faith, are
hailed with delight and thanksgivings on their reception to the heavenly
courts, [138] and most cordially welcomed to the embrace of the great and
venerable progenitor of our race.
	Thrice happy are those who keep their present estate, and secure an
imperishable inheritance on this planetary portion of their interminable
existence; and equally deplorable, on the other band, the condition of those
who, filled with the delusive spirit of anti-revelation, keep not their
present estate, and prefer the darkness of no revelation, in their day;
because they have changed the ordinance, and transgressed the laws, and broken
the everlasting covenant.
	Again, it may be asked: Will not those who have died without the
knowledge of the gospel, during many centuries past, perish for want of the
gospel? And where is the justice of leaving persons to perish, for want of
that which it is not in their power to obtain?
	Were not many of our ancestors, that have died in past generations, good
people, yet as the gospel was not revealed in their day, and they could not
enter the kingdom by being born of the water and of the Spirit, have they
perished? These, indeed, are interesting inquiries. To the first inquiry I
respond--they have not perished; in the sense or manner in which those have
perished who have rejected the offers of the gospel; not having known the
gospel, they have never rejected it. They have not disobeyed laws and
ordinances of which they have not heard, or which were never imposed upon
them. They are neither rewarded nor punished according to gospel laws; but
such as have lived without law, will be judged without law. Where there is no
law, there is no transgression; where there is nothing given, there is nothing
required; but it is required according to what a man has. Whatever light they
have had, by that light will [139] they be judged; and whatever privileges and
blessings the law, under which they have lived, can confer, such will be
awarded to them. Still our fathers, who have died without the gospel, are in a
condition far inferior to those who have received and obeyed the gospel.
	This condition of theirs is consequent upon the early transgression of
their progenitors. The condition itself may not be blameworthy. Their conduct,
in a pre-existent state, may have deserved for their bodies in this world to
be without the privilege of the gospel; or withholding gospel privileges from
them in this world, may be followed with future blessings compensatory for
their loss, when they shall prove themselves worthy of a better condition. The
gospel martyr sustains a great loss, but the magnitude of his reward is
designed to overbalance his loss.
	Our devout and worthy fathers that have died without the gospel, cannot,
indeed, enter the celestial kingdom of Jesus Christ without conformity to the
identical laws and ordinances of his kingdom. But provision is made for them,
whereby they can conform to the requirements of the gospel, not altogether in
their own persons alone, but through proxy, or the obedience of others,
provided they voluntarily accept of that obedience rendered by others for
their benefit.
	Startle not, my dear sir, at this idea that is so repugnant to the
prejudice of protestants. The principle of substitution is at the foundation
of the great work of redemption, and forms a chain of gratitude and obligation
of the purest and noblest metal. Jesus died for others, because they could not
have saved themselves without his obedience for them. The preachers of
righteousness pass through many tribulations, and sacrifice houses, lands, and
country, in order that others may become rich, both [140] temporally and
spiritually; without this order of suffering, the just for the unjust, no man
could be saved.
	Paul says, "I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is
behind of the afflictions of Christ, in my flesh, for his body's sake, which
is the Church." Every man that has the priesthood of Christ may suffer in his
measure and degree a propitiatory sacrifice, according to the degree of
priesthood with which he is clothed. He may become a subordinate savior to his
fellow-men, Christ being, however, the CAPTAIN of all men's salvation. Hence,
the prophets plumply call men SAVIORS who shall be raised to officiate in
Mount Zion.
	Paul also instructs Timothy how he can save men and himself. This
distribution of salting gifts, instead of eclipsing Jesus of the glory of
salvation, magnifies his glory, because he is the spring and source of all
salvation. God the Father reigns over all, and Jesus under him, and men reign
under Jesus as kings and priests. Kingdoms rise up within kingdoms, but Christ
is the King of kings. Peter tells how the devout and honorable dead may be
saved, who never heard the gospel on earth. He says, the living may be
baptized for them, and then they can be judged according to men in the flesh;
and the Apostle Paul, writing to the Corinthians on this subject, says: "Else
why are ye baptized for the dead?" Baptism for the dead was better understood
in Peter's days than the doctrine of the resurrection. Doctrines are sooner
obliterated from the mind than ordinances. But after the destruction of the
Temple, and the baptismal font, baptisms for the dead must of course cease,
because there was no longer an acceptable place for this ordinance to be
administered. Peter explicitly declares, that the gospel was preached to the
dead, by which also [141] he (Christ) went and preached to the spirits in
prison. Now, if the gospel was preached to the dead, then mercy, and
deliverance, and salvation, were preached to the dead; but these could not be
preached to them without the ordinances, because the ordinances of baptism,
and gift of the Holy Ghost, are a part of the gospel; for except a man is born
of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. But if a
righteous man is baptized for his departed friend, the law requiring baptism
is magnified, and God can justify the departed spirit that believes, and
accepts the same.
	Baptism for the dead, however, only takes away the disabilities under
which they labor; unless this is done for them they cannot be redeemed,
however penitent they may become. The blood of Christ took away the
disabilities of all the human family, so that all mankind can now be saved
through faith and obedience. But no man is saved by the blood of Christ,
without faith and obedience; and if they count His blood an unholy thing, and
sin against the Holy Ghost, there is no more sacrifice for sin, neither is
there forgiveness for such in "this world, nor in the world to come." No
person will be led by the Spirit to be baptized for any such description of
persons; no person that is the friend of Christ will ever lend a helping hand
towards redeeming such obdurate spirits. Many worlds must pass away before
they can be fit subjects for the visitation of God's mercy. But there are
those who will prove their lineage to be descended from those who slew the
prophets, and "fill up the measure of their fathers," and some will even shed
innocent blood, for whom there is no resurrection, only to be plunged into a
lake of fire, and writhe under the gnawings of the worm that never dies. Among
[142] those in former ages who were of the lineage of the murderers of
prophets, priests and high-minded divines are distinctly noticed by Jesus
Christ, and their pedigree flatly exposed; and, sir, if you will allow me any
credit for veracity, and attach any weight to the most palpable and
irrefutable proof, you may assuredly know, that preachers of modern
Christianity have occupied a conspicuous part in the tragic scenes of Missouri
and Illinois. I will admit that many distinguished divines do eloquently extol
the ancient prophets, speak in glowing diction of the faith of Daniel,
Abraham, and Sampson and of illustrious miracles, and beautifully portray the
crucifixion, agony, and triumph of Jesus. But, alas! with the next breath, and
while soaring aloft with the ardent sympathies of their hearers, they prove
that pedigree to be that of the self-same murderers of the very prophets they
affect to eulogize. Electrified and warmed up in the pseudo atmosphere of
Calvary, and the story of redeeming love for a cloak of maliciousness their
words, though smoother than oil, are sharper than drawn swords. The innocent
Saints feel their piercing thrusts from pulpits that bear the cognomen of St.
Peter, St. Paul, and St. Jude.
	Lewd men of the baser sort catch the Lethean fire and throughout the
nation the righteous poor feel the Upean blast that sprung from the sacred
dealt. Thousands are thrown out of employment--writs, and every species of
oppression are poured out like a storm of hail upon them. Property is
sacrificed--the Saints flee homeless and shelterless, to seek an asylum in the
wilds of the everlasting hills.
	Again, I will invite your attention to the union of the fathers and the
children, and a faint outline of to [143] innumerable kingdoms that are to
rise up in the boundless dominions of the Supreme King. No king on earth or in
heaven is so omnipotent or omnipresent as not to need subordinate ruling
agencies, in order to control innumerable subjects. Hence, the Lord God of all
the earth has a host of holy angels that communicate his will, and minister
his pleasure among the hosts of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth. From
the highest heaven, even his own peculiar dwelling-place, to the lowest heaven
and from thence to the earth, this order of delegated authorities is
maintained. His dominions extend through it space, and the number of his
constantly increasing objects cannot be computed.
	How, then, are these innumerable kingdoms governed? Every organization
has its own president or ruler, from the orbit of countless millions to the
smallest division that convenience may require, from the ruler of any cities
to the ruler of the smallest ward of a city. A man's gift maketh room for him,
and bringeth him into the presence of great men.
	Now, the strongest tie of government, of union, strength, and happiness
in any confederation whatever, either in heaven or on earth, is that which
springs from parentage, or the paternal tie. The first lesson of address which
God teaches his subjects is to call him father--our Father, etc. The father
feels the strongest of all attachments to his children; for them he toils and
provides, and to them he gives the fruit of his labors, and the wisdom and
knowledge that flow from his lips. Every father expected to look after his own
progeny. If it were not that the hearts of the fathers were turned to the
children, in the last days, the earth would be smitten with such a sore and
heavy curse that no flesh would be saved; [144] but for the elect's sake, and
for the sake of the fathers who have obtained promises concerning their
posterity in the last days, the earth will be preserved as an inheritance for
righteous men. From the dust of mother earth has arisen a sufficient number of
righteous men to secure the endless perpetuity of existence among the worlds
that God has made. Glory and honor be to God for this unspeakable favor! Some
worlds have passed away and are not, doubtless, because they abode not in the
law given them.
	According to promise, God has sent Elijah just in the dawn of the great
and notable day of sweeping the wicked with the besom of his wrath, to turn
the hearts of the children to the fathers. The children are told of kindred
ties between them and such as once held the true priesthood, and wrought
righteousness on the earth, and of their consequent heirship to thrones and
dominions through faith. Through the gift of the Spirit they respond to the
same, as good tidings of great joy. The Spirit of God works in them mightily,
that they may come to the knowledge of their ancestors, that were once in
honorable remembrance before God for their faith and priesthood. By
revelation, and by records and traditions, and by the spirit of adoption, they
will learn their relationship to the heavens; and the vacant links of lineage
between them and their forefathers in the priesthood, will be sought after on
earth, and under the earth, and in the heavens, in the set times of
restitution; for God will gather together in one in Christ, all things in
heaven and upon the earth and under it, in the dispensation of the fulness of
times.
	The different federative unions of the whole family of heaven and earth,
when organized according to the [145] law of adoption, have their own
respective patriarch or resident to represent them in the grand council of the
just, Jesus Christ being head over all things to the church, in all ages,
worlds without end. Every dispensation under him has its own presidency and
grand council, from whence emanate all the laws that spring from the Apostle
and High Priest of our profession in the heavens.
	By the federative laws of adoption, a representation may be had in the
grand council of each dispensation, with more practical facility and order
than otherwise. Jesus is an advocate for the whole human family before the
Father; "and every High Priest taken from among men is ordained for men in
things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for
sins."
	A mediatorial and intercessorial work pervades the priesthood, according
to the measure of the grace bestowed. The union of families, not according to
the capricious and changeable institutions of men, but according to he laws of
heaven, upon the basis of virtuous affection, and upon the confidence of
permanent security in righteousness, will form a solid phalanx against the
intrusion of discord and the spirit of alienation from God. The righteous will
be bound together by the ties of adoption and kindred, in the "bundle of
eternal life." This united confederation of strength and affection will be
peculiarly needed, in order to endure the shock which society must receive
both in heaven and upon earth, and under the earth, in the last dispensation;
for every tree that the Eternal Father hath not planted shall be hewn down,
and the institutions of men shall come to nought. Every man's hand shall be
against his fellow; and while distrust and discord shall insinuate their
baneful influence into [146] the secret chambers of the most familiar
acquaintance, the Saints shall have peace like a river, and their union and
joy shall abound. Then the nations that have sneered at prophets will be
filled with disquietude and fear! Violence and rapine will stalk abroad with a
bold front! Innocence, and integrity and virtue, will hide in confusion, or be
utterly banished! But the Church--"the pillar and ground of the truth"--will
be quiet and undisturbed! Virtue and innocence, truth and wisdom, will abound
within her gates! She will come up from her tribulations like sheep from the
washing--fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with
banners!
	And when the victory of truth over error is won, all nations will fear
the name of the Lord our God. "The law shall go forth from Zion, and the word
of the Lord from Jerusalem." The Jews shall be gathered to Jerusalem, and the
city shall have been built in troublesome times. The outcasts of Judah shall
re-occupy their own land; and the gatherings of Israel shall be commemorated
in everlasting songs and festivals, because the greatness of the work shall
surpass any deliverance that Israel has ever experienced before from the hand
of the Lord. "Therefore, behold the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall
no more be said, The Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel out of
the Land of Egypt. But the Lord liveth that brought the children from the land
of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them. And I will
bring them again into their land, that I gave unto their fathers. Behold, I
will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and
after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every
mountain, and from every hill, and [147] out of the holes of the rocks, for
mine eyes are upon all their ways. I will cause them to know mine hand and
might, and they shall know that my name is the Lord." And Satan shall be
bound, on the face of the whole earth; and for the first time in the lapse of
more than six thousand years, there shall be made a perfect demonstration of
the majesty and glory of the kingdom of God on the earth; and the purity,
efficiency, and wisdom of his laws.
	Jesus Christ shall come in like manner as he went up. He shall set his
feet upon Mount Olives, and the earth shall quake at his presence. His nation
shall knowledge their Lord and their God, whom their fathers had crucified.
The city of the New Jerusalem all come down out of heaven, even the city of
the Great King. In this city will be displayed the skill of the great
architect of the world,--the builder and maker is God. The names of the twelve
tribes, and of the twelve apostles of the Lamb will not be the least
distinguishable in this most extraordinary city that was ever revealed to man.
	This vision of the future residence of the apostles and patriarchs,
appears to have been unfolded to the apostle John, in a kind of farewell
visit, and must have ravished his heart with unspeakable delight and ecstacy.
His soul was suffused with joy and rapture, and he fell prostrate with
feelings of worship toward the messenger of such tidings. Jesus had, indeed,
told the apostles that he would go away and prepare mansions for them. And
that there were many mansions. But never, before, probably, had he described
the celestial state and residence so beautifully and minutely as now. The
height, and length, and breadth of the city, and the names of [148] some of
the most distinguished personages who should occupy mansions therein, together
with the gates of pearl, and the foundation walls of all manner of precious
stones, were distinctly shown to him.
	The future residence of the Saints, we perceive, is not an ideal thing
without reality. They will need houses for their persons, and for their
families as much in their resurrected condition as in their present state;
they will be as sensible of the works of art, taste, beauty and grandeur,
there as now, and far more so.
	In this identical world, where they have been robbed of houses and lands,
and wife and children, they shall have an hundred fold. The nations of the
earth shall bring their glory into the city of their immortal residence. And
the diversified wisdom of Solomon, displayed above all earthly kings, shall be
but a miniature picture of the visible and tangible glories that will be
exhibited to the eyes and ears of resurrected Saints on the very earth where
they once suffered. If ever an earthly sovereign sat upon a throne, and swayed
a royal sceptre, and wore a glittering crown of surpassing richness and
beauty, then shall men and women who have suffered loss and shame for the
gospel's sake, be seated upon thrones in the city of the New Jerusalem, and
their mandates shall be heard and obeyed to the ends of the earth; and the
riches, and dominion, and power, and blessing, and glory, that shall encircle
them, no tongue can describe. Oh! wonderful transition, from darkness to
light, and from the degrading bondage of Satan into the liberty of the sons
and daughters of God! Glorious emancipation! Who can contemplate the
recompense of reward without ample satisfaction for all the withering scorn,
and piercing sarcasm, and bloody hatred, that have been endured? Give me a
name [149] that shall never perish--a habitation among heaven's kings--a seat
in the council of the just, where the fairest among the sons of men shall
sometimes minister in his own person, and it shall suffice for having fought a
good fight, and kept the faith once delivered to the Saints. Oh! enchanting
prospect of rapturous delight!

      "The thought of such amazing bliss
   	  Should constant joys create."

	But grovelling unbelief will ask, How can such an immense city be let
down to the earth, or suspended over it, and contiguous to it? I reply, How
can the earth be suspended in vacant space? How could Jesus ascend up till the
eye could see his person no longer? How could Elijah go up in the chariot of
Israel? How could the angel fly through the midst of heaven, that the prophets
Zechariah, John and Daniel saw speaking to the young man Joseph? How can
Christ come with his ten thousand Saints, and descend with a shout? How will
Saints, by tens of thousands and millions, be caught up to meet him in the
air? How do birds fly in the air, and vast planets hang on nothing? Oh!
marvellous unbelief! Shall not He who organized worlds out of their chaotic
state, reorganize them at his pleasure, so as to suit the capacity and
pleasure of immortalized bodies, that have kept their second estate, and have
obtained right and title to enter the pearly gates of the royal city?
	Isaiah says, that the Lord's work, in the last days, shall be a
marvellous work and a wonder. The changes wrought in the condition of the
earth will be very great. The face of its surface will be greatly changed.
There are many islands and lofty barren mountains, and sunken pestiferous
valleys, and sterile plains, that will be [150] revolutionized. Indeed, far
the greatest part of the earth stands covered with water. The earth shall reel
to and fro like a drunken man, and shake terribly before the coming of the Son
of Man. It shall even be turned upside down; and the approach of Christ shall
be indicated by a succession of great events and changes. But a most
extraordinary appearance in the heavens shall be distinguished, and known as
the sign of the coming of the Son of Man. Whether this sign of the Son of Man
will be some planetary body of an imposing aspect, first making its appearance
in the heavens and gradually approximating to the earth, or whether it shall
be stationary, is not, and probably will not be, fully revealed, except to the
children of revelation, for that day shall come upon the nations as a snare.
	But it is revealed that an extraordinary sign in the heavens shall make
its appearance, announcing, with sublime and terrific grandeur, the near
approach of the Son of Man. The calamitous state of the nations, convulsed
with the sword, pestilence, and famine, with which God will plead with all
flesh before the Son of Man shall come; followed also with great convulsions
of nature, will lead many to practice wild and visionary impositions,
pretending that Christ has indeed come, and that he has been seen in the
wilderness, or in the secret chamber, etc. But let it be understood
distinctly, that even as a remarkable star escorted the Son of Man in his
first advent, and became not only visible but stationary, over the very point
of earth where Jesus was born--marvellous indeed!--even so, and much more
visible will be his second coming.
	The brilliancy of the lightning, extending over the whole heaven, from
east to west, will not be more mani-[151]fest to the inhabitants of the earth
than the approach of the Son of Man at his second coming. Still many will
behold, wonder, and despise, and perish; because it is written, that whosoever
shall reject that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people. The false
signs and wonders that shall be got up in opposition to the true, will deceive
and harden the nations, and they will not discern between him that serveth God
and him that serveth him not.
	Even the sign of the coming of the Son of Man may he contemplated by
multitudes, barely as an unaccountable phenomenon; and familiarity with the
sight of it will beget indifference, hardness of heart, and contempt for all
such things.
						Your humble servant,
								ORSON SPENCER.

								LIVERPOOL, December 13th, 1847.
	Reverend and Dear Sir--Having given you an epitomised view of the
doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in a short
series of Thirteen Letters, I now make this SUMMARY AND FINAL APPEAL to you,
and to all persons to whom the foregoing Letters may come.
	Before parting with you, I will endeavor to obviate some objections that
might be supposed to arise, and give some further confirmatory proof of the
truths that have been advanced.
	You may be ready to inquire with great earnestness, can it possibly be
that the religious world have been so grossly mistaken and actually deluded
for so many centuries? Can so many divines of celebrated learning and devotion
have been all this time in error? Is it possible that that illiterate young
man, Joseph Smith, should be the first, after the lapse of so many ages, to
break the spell of darkness, and pierce the clouds of error, and let in the
sunshine of eternal truth upon the whole world? Is it possible that he whom we
have been accustomed to regard as the blackest impostor--about whose moral
character there hang so many shades of suspicion? Can he be, in very deed, a
true prophet of God?
	I do not wonder at your inquiries; but I do marvel that any good man
should have a lingering doubt. Your [153] inquiries and objections I will
briefly answer. Why should not the religious world be mistaken? Do not the
great mass of the human family profess to be religious? Are not the millions
of China and Asia religious? Here is nearly one-half of the human family
ardently devoted to their religion--they are sincerely devoted to their
religion--the multitudes of their pagodas, and the great expense and sacrifice
attending their worship, prove incontestably their sincerity; and the long
antiquity of their religion has rendered it venerable as yours.
	You readily say, that the myriads of Asia are deceived and mistaken. But
may they not retort upon you and say--how is it that we, whose religion is so
ancient and so universally believed, should be (all of us) in such gross
error? Now, may not the reply that would fit them be applicable to the
advocates of modern Christianity? They are all the children of Adam as much as
you, and as much the offspring of our common parent. Their rulers and divines
are as respectable among their own countrymen as yours are among your
countrymen. It is no worse for modern Christendom to be in error than for
paganism. Paganism can boast of more learning and oratory, and of more
universal, enduring, and mighty governments than modern Christianity! Paganism
can boast of more union and stability than modern Christianity. But I am no
advocate of either paganism or modern Christianity. I believe that the whole
world lieth in darkness, in consequence of transgressing the laws of God.
Modern Christianity has had a fair trial for success. Kings and potentates
with vast and populous dominions, have been arrayed on its side. Eighteen
hundred years have testified to its ragged end crippled march. The sovereigns
of Europe and rulers of America [154] are on its side. But what a haggard
picture of union does the theatre of modern Christianity present! A garment of
as many colors as the various religious creeds of modern Christianity would
constitute a phenomenon fit to be carried about as a curiosity.
	In Catholic countries there is the largest share of unity of creeds. In
Protestant countries every city, town, and village presents the picture of
religious collision and jargon. Now, these contending parts must necessarily
be wrong, for God is not the author of confusion, but of peace. And if the
constituent parts are wrong, the aggregate must also be wrong. But whether the
balance of wisdom and virtue lies with Christians or Pagans, one thing is
certain, that no man, by searching, can find out God or know the Almighty unto
perfection! The world by wisdom know not God. No man can ever know God unless
God reveals himself to him. Those whom God selects to communicate revelations
to men are not the wise and mighty, but rather such as are accounted weak and
foolish, and unholy. This is the description of men that God generally chooses
to do his work on the earth. Again, it is said that the doctrines of the
Latter-day Saints may be good enough, but their characters are too
reprehensible. Testimony from many reliable sources is against them; and we
have seen with our own eyes a want of that fervent piety that ought to
distinguish a people entrusted with the ordinances and gifts of salvation.
This, I think, is the most weighty and popular objection that is urged by the
opposers of the Latter-day Saints--if they were a respectable people, their
doctrines could be better endured. Now I propose to consider this objection,
and canvass it thoroughly, in order that no man shall ever raise the same
objection again, with any [155] hope of success; but before I try their
character, let us inquire what is the proper standard or rule by which
character is to be tested.
	Some people consider that no man can have a good character who is not
religious; this is a common opinion among religious people. An infidel, say
they, is odious, and feels no responsibility; and no one is religious unless
his faith harmonizes with their own religious creed. In some countries, what
would be accounted moral and virtuous, would in others be stamped as immoral,
unvirtuous, and sacrilegious. Another, more plausible, says, "let all men do
as they would be done by," and then their characters will be good. This,
however, is a very vague rule indeed; for instance, the Emperor Charles Fifth,
of Germany, says: "If I were as great a heretic as Martin Luther or John
Calvin, I ought to be banished, or even put to death." Thus the Emperor
conscientiously carries out the rule, and orders the famous Reformer (heretic)
to be put to death. The above rule, unaccompanied by the spirit of revelation,
is often defective and made the pretext for deeds of blood-guiltiness. What,
then, is the true and infallible standard of character? I answer, it is
revealed in the Gospel. God is the only good being and standard of goodness;
such as comply with his revealed will are good, and do good, and there is no
iniquity in them.
	Compliance with the divine will is the only true standard of character.
To this test, then, let us bring the character of the Latter-day Saints, and
that of their opposers. What is the faith of each? Let us inquire. According
to their faith, so will be their works or their character. Says James, "I will
show my faith by my works." You may not only know a man's faith by his works.
but his works are also known by his faith. If his [156] faith is bad, his
works will also be bad; and if his works are bad, his character is bad.
	It was the faith of Christ to receive the revelations of God his father
unto obedience in all things. This faith led him to work the works of God,
which were healing the sick, prophesying, casting out devils, speaking in
tongues, and doing many miracles, and revealing the will of his Father. But
the pious Jews, chief priests, etc., had another sort of faith: they believed
in the God of Abraham and Moses, but believed that the age of miracles was
past, and they forbade to prophesy and speak with tongues. Their faith was,
that there was no further need of new revelation, and that the canon of
Scripture was full. They believed that the Sanhedrim established by Moses was
sufficient for the perfection and government of the Church, without apostles,
and prophets, and various gifts. Their faith was not the faith of God, nor of
immediate revelation (although they said they believed in old revelations);
neither was it the faith of miracles, and prophecyings, and tongues, and
healing.
	What, then, was the faith of those pious men that sent their missionaries
over sea and land, and preached eloquently, and wept copiously over the
pathetic doctrines of Abraham and Moses? Why, to be plain sir, it was the
faith of devils; and their anti-revelation doctrines were the doctrines of
devils. Their works were of the devil, because their faith was opposed to
immediate revelation, and their character was like their works--bad and
abominable in the eyes of God, and Saints, and holy angels; and yet these same
pious Jews claimed that they were the only true Christians! What a pity
(thought they) that this arch-impostor should succeed in misleading and
deluding so many followers. It was due to his [157] wickedness that he got
killed, and it was a pity that his doctrines did not die with him. Doubtless
some Solomon Spaulding story was current to prove that he was born of a
harlot, and her husband, like another Judge Hale, was ready to swear that he
was not the father of the child.
	Now, sir, from the foregoing thirteen Letters, you will see plainly what
is the acknowledged faith of the Latter-day Saints. It is precisely the same
with the faith of the ancient apostles and prophets. They have proved before
the face of mankind, and in the sight of angels, that they believe the
doctrines set forth in these Letters and in the Scriptures, by persecutions,
banishment, loss of goods, houses, and lands; yea, even of life itself; for
they are a spectacle unto all men, and their characters are good in the sight
of God, and angels, and saints, because they keep the commandments and
ordinances of God, even unto death--not counting their lives dear unto them,
in order that they may be found in the same faith for which apostles and
prophets have contended earnestly and bled freely.
	Their character is that of compliance with the revealed will of God, the
only true standard of character. They have preached the word to the nations of
the earth, under privations and abuses, and perils hitherto unknown, since the
days of the apostles. It is no vanity to say, there is none like them in all
the earth. They fear God and work righteousness.
	If any class of people were ever entitled to a good character, it is the
Latter-day Saints. They have earned a title to it by conformity to the only
true rule and standard of character that was ever revealed to man, viz.,
compliance with the doctrines and ordinances of heaven. On this platform, sir,
I am willing to try the character of [158] Latter-day Saints before any
tribunal of impartial justice and it is on this platform alone that all men
must be tried, who have ever heard the gospel of Christ. When the Saints and
their opposers are brought before this tribunal of high heaven, think you not
that our accusers will be filled with shame at their groundless accusations?
This people during the last seventeen years (since 1830), have endured the
fatigue and expense of emigrating from their former homes; built cities, and
towns, and farms, and been robbed of them. Many of them have journeyed, making
their own bridges and roads, traversing prairies and mountains, and some have
emigrated by ships around the greater half of the globe. They have preached
the gospel to many nations, and brought some hundreds of thousands into
obedience to it. In doing this, they have been unaided by any missionary funds
or salary--been compelled all the time to face an incessant and pitiless storm
of scandal and vituperation. The pulpit, and the bar, and the medical faculty
have poured out upon them their "rape and canister shot, and caused their
combustible shells to burst thick around their pathway; still they survive,
and the truth floats over every ocean, and converts to their standard are
multiplying beyond the aggregate increase of long venerated denominations.
What but the power of God could have secured these great and blessed results
in the very teeth of boasting Christendom? Pure, eternal, and almighty truth
has done it.
	Why should you marvel at the success of this religion, seeing it is based
on the same principles as the religion of all the prophets ever since the
foundation of the world. The Bible recognizes no other religion than that of
prophets and supernatural faith, and miracles, and immediate revelation. It is
not possible to point out a [159] single pious man or woman, whose name or
piety is recorded within the lids of the Bible, that did not profess the name
religion--the same gifts of supernatural faith, prophecyings, healings,
tongues, that Latter-day Saints profess. Ancient Saints believed in a similar
administration by angels--ancient Saints knew nothing of any religion that did
not embrace immediate intercourse with God and angels, or that did not
communicate the gifts of healing, tongues, and prophecyings. They knew,
indeed, what it was to smart under the lash of false religions; but the
ancient Saints regarded no man as pious or acceptable to God, who did not
profess to believe in the ministration of angels, and the immediate
inspiration of the Holy Ghost. John, and Jesus, and the Apostles, laid the axe
at the root of all religions but their own; and they relieved fully and
heartily in these and such like things. And the great bone of contention
between them and their pious adversaries was mainly about the gifts and
blessings of a supernatural order!--the latter making a mock of tongues, and
despising prophecyings, and miracles, as being needless in that day and age of
the world;--the former maintaining that the faith of Daniel, Sampson, and
Noah, was as necessary to salvation as it ever had been in the early age of
the world. Indeed, if you will look through the whole Bible, you will find
that every man of Bible piety believed in prophets, and angels, and visions,
and miracles; and any one who did not believe as they did were accounted
rebels, or hypocrites, and excommunicated accordingly.
	I know, indeed, that out of the lids of the Bible you may find pious
creeds, that set aside all further revelation, and the further ministration of
angels, and prophets, and represent the supernatural faith of Moses and Elijah
[160] as no longer needed; but no such representation can be drawn from any
part of the contents of the Bible. Men of supposed splendid piety can be found
in modern churches, who know nothing of the gift of the Holy Ghost in
prophesying and tongues, or healing, and who never dreamed of having the
ministration of an angel; and would sneer at the whole system of prophets and
angels, and present miracles. And what I ask of them is, that they will
abandon all pretext of Bible authority for such piety. The Bible recognizes no
such piety, neither does it entertain any fellowship for it; but down to the
day when the last revelation was uttered, it never breathed an intimation that
the faith of miracles would cease, or the gifts of healing, except through
transgression; but the ancient faith of Abraham and Moses was strenuously
contended for, till the last man sealed his testimony with his blood.
	The advocates of old revelations, and old prophets, and former day
miracles, were very numerous in Paul's day; but they hated new revelation and
the power of the Mosaic and Samsonic faith as they did poison.
	The doctrine of constant revelation in the true Church, left them as
barren of Bible piety as the fallen angels. Go back to whatever part of the
history of Bible piety you will, you will never be able to glean up anything
in the shape or likeness of modern piety; but you will pick up the hot
indignation of apostles and prophets against all such pretended piety. The
Bible wages an uncompromising war against modern piety that wears the mask of
friendship for ancient revelations and miracles, while it resists the same
faith and power in its own day. It is no new thing to have revelation and
miracles cease: they were discontinued in consequence of transgression [161]
several different periods of the world. Previous to the days of John the
Baptist, and before the days of Moses and Abraham, revelation had ceased.
These men were raised up as so many new revelators, in order to overthrow the
false and discordant religions, and establish the knowledge of the true God on
the earth. As soon as prophets have ceased to reveal the will of God, people
have turned into jangling about creeds. The old revelations have been
distorted and pulled all to tatters; manuscripts have been picked up, and
uninspired men, with all pomposity and pedantry, have set themselves to
adjudicate and determine what was genuine, and what was spurious revelation.
You might as well set blind men without a telescope to examine the propriety
of local relationship of the starry bodies in the heavens. Alas! the eager
folly of biblical researches! Send one, as well, I the darkness of midnight to
search a hay-mow for a cambric needle! As though the Almighty could not hide
himself from the gaze of transgressors, and withhold the key of knowledge from
those that "despise propheyings." But I turn from the vain and sickening
labors of the erudite religionist. His pathway is a mazy labyrinth--the
further he goes, the more inextricable his difficulties! The cost of his
wearisome and fruitless labors overpowers the remnant of his veracity, and he
seeks an glorious reward for his labors in decoying others, as foolish as
himself, into the same learned labyrinths of error. He tells what this man has
said, and that man has written; but from God, the fountain of all truth, he
has obtained no intelligence--he has heard nothing. Having felt a little of
the mesh cords of this entanglement, in pity I turn away.
	The faith of visions, miracles, angels, revelations, and [162] prophets,
is the only religion of the Bible. With what contempt would Abraham look upon
the religion that immediately preceded the days of Moses! With what
indignation would Moses and Elijah look upon the religion that immediately
preceded John, and denied any further revelation!
	How abhorrent to apostles must be the conduct of those who, having
persecuted and slain the defenders of the faith of miracles, then turned round
and said, "We need no more such faith--miracles are done away." Their
posterity approve their sayings, and teach the same theology. Blush, O thou
foul prince of darkness, at the consummate folly and credulity of thy
followers! What would the revelator John say to a grave assembly or synod of
divines that should meet together in solemn council to devise means how to
check the doctrine of new revelation and miracles? After showing them that he
was identified with the selfsame obnoxious advocates of such a doctrine, and
that his banishment, and the martyrdom of his fellow apostles, had sprung from
the same spirit of anti-revelation and anti-miracles, that now convenes this
grave council of bishops; with mingled pity and indignation he concludes a
most touching remonstrance against their unhallowed opposition to prophets, by
pointing the assembly to the tragic scenes of Calvary, where anti-revelation
had matured a full cup. When men come to the knowledge of God through the
principles of immediate revelation, and the power of the Holy Ghost, nothing
can separate them from the love of God but their own transgressions; neither
sword, nor famine, nor peril, nor principalities, nor powers, can separate
them from the gospel. They know in whom they believe. Who could convince Jacob
of the fallacy of visions, after [163] that he experienced at Bethel? Who
could dissuade Peter from the faith of miracles, after witnessing the lame man
healed at the gate of the temple? Would David or his mighty men doubt the
power of God, after single individual had lifted up his spear and slew eight
hundred at one time? Would mobbing and imprisonment force Sampson to abandon
his supposed delusion, after he had put to flight an army of thousands? No;
vain hope of all the adversaries to miracles!
	How long shall men wage a war of scandal, extermination, and massacre
against the advocates of miracles? Yet the nineteenth century--blush to hear
the undeniable charge?--yea, the Christendom of the nineteenth century has
espoused the old persecutors' warfare, as keenly as the persecutors of
Stephen, Daniel, and Moses. Are they so forgetful of all sacred and profane
history as not to know that they are fighting the battles of Cain, Esau,
Jannes and Jambres, Judas, and Herod, over again? The former persecutors
fought against new revelations, and the latter persecutors do the same--the
former Saints were called lying, blasphemous impostors, and the Latter-day
Saints are called the same. There always was an attempt to crush former Saints
by scandalizing their character, robbing and slaying them--the same luckless
attempt is again renewed in the nineteenth century.
	Almost anything can be tolerated sooner than the admission that the God
of miracles and angels reigns again on the earth. Bible Saints never lived in
any other age than an age of miracles, visions, and angels. They knew that
true Saints never would live in any other age. They knew that the gospel could
not be communicated to any people of any age without revelation; for therein
is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. A gos-[164]pel
without revelation is no gospel. A gospel without the gifts and power of the
Holy Ghost and the ministry of angels, is no gospel. There cannot be found the
first instance of a true minister of God, throughout the whole record of
inspiration, who did not possess the gift of inspiration and the spirit of
prophecy. No man can say that Jesus is the Christ, but by the Holy Ghost; and
the Holy Ghost leads every man, who is loyal to His dictates into all truth,
sooner or later. The deep things of God, and the keys of divine power, are
available to him. By obedience he is sure to reach the measure of the power
and wisdom attained by Christ himself--the manifold wisdom of GOD, even, is to
be possessed and shown forth by the Church.
	Bible Saints were always familiar with the ministration of angels. And it
is only such as are wholly unlike Bible Saints who are not familiar with the
ministration of angels. Those who are unlike Bible Saints have always, in all
ages, denied the ministry of angels, and gift of prophecy, and healing, in
their own day. And it is a certain test and evidence, that a man is not born
of the Spirit when he denies these things; for no man that has the Spirit of
God can speak lightly of God; but he will extol His power for himself, and not
for another. Men that have not the Spirit of God may tell what great things
faith wrought in former ages, but can tell nothing from their own experience
of the same power. It is, indeed, a marvellous thing, that men should affect
to regard "Bible piety" as a standard or copy, which all are bound to imitate,
and at the same time adopt an inferior rule of piety that discards and
abrogates all the more conspicuous and powerful features of primitive piety!
How they can have the temerity and effrontery [165] to impose upon a community
a system of religion, that is the counterpart of Bible piety, I am at a loss
to conceive. A gospel without immediate and accompanying revelation! Who ever
heard of such a thing, except from transgressors sitting in the region and
shadow of death? No Bible Saint ever saw such a thing in his day. Neither Abel
nor Enoch, Abraham nor Moses, David nor Peter, ever saw such a gospel in their
day. The only gospel that these men ever knew of or fellowshipped, was a
gospel distinguished by revelations, visions, and angels. Such a gospel
rejoiced their hearts, because it was the power of God, and wisdom of God. It
nerved the arm of Sampson, so that scores and hundreds of men could no more
stand before his might than before a volcanic eruption, or an avalanche from
idle mountain. It gave elasticity to David, so that he could leap a wall, or
rush through a troop. It struck with blindness the mobbers of Sodom; opened
prison gates to Peter; cursed Elymas with blindness; enabled men to walk
unsinged through the fiery burning of the furnace, heated seven-fold hotter
than usual! This, sir, is the gospel, and the only gospel. It exhibits the
power of God, and the wisdom and might of God. Any other gospel is a curse to
men, and a stink in the nose of God. Angels have once tried to preach another
gospel; and what has been the result of their efforts? They have been hurled
down and are even now reserved in chains under darkness, to the judgment of
the great day; and those who first began to preach modern Christianity have
doubtless shared a doom scarcely less awful.
	The first step stone to modern Christianity was laid on the smoking reins
of primitive Christianity. The Christian enemies to new revelations and
miracles, actually waded through the blood of apostles and prophets, in [166]
order to establish the system of anti-revelation. And did their descendants
and abettors realize the bloody and accursed origin of that system that wars
against new revelations and prophets, and angels, many of them would shudder
at their blind zeal and self righteousness! God winks at the conduct of the
latter, because they know not what they do; but he commands all men everywhere
to repent, else he will hold them guilty of all the blood that has been shed
from the days of righteous Abel till now. God is my witness that I speak the
truth in Christ Jesus and lie not.
	The history of modern Christianity, from the day when the first martyr
fell under its bloody hatred, is a history of contention, persecution, and
massacre, that causes all heaven to weep. Rivers of blood have flowed in its
wake. Crimination and re-crimination from the pulpit and the press, have
agitated the people, from the throne down to the otherwise peaceful cottage.
The battlefield has been soaked with the blood of its victims, and it is
difficult to tell whether Catholic or Protestant domination can count the most
victims, except as one may have held a longer and stronger ascendancy than the
other. The first two or three centuries were bloody beyond description. All
denominations recoil at the history of their pedigree during this early and
bloody period. The links in the chain of supposed apostolic succession are so
bloody, that even the "dark ages" cannot conceal their crimson hue. The period
when this famous chain of succession has not been colored with human gore, is
short. The records of the suffering Waldenses, in the valleys of Piedmont,
will always tell a tale of woe, at which humanity must blush. The history of
the Protestant Reformation in Germany and England, including the [167]
massacre of sixty thousand Protestants in France, at one time, is a serious
comment on the pseudo apostolic line of priesthood. But when Protestantism
came into power, under Henry and Elizabeth, it proved to a demonstration that
the Protestants had the same priesthood handed down through seas of human
gore; excommunicating, torturing, and killing Catholic heretics in like manner
as the Catholics had previously done to others.* {* 1. It was death to make a
new Catholic priest within the kingdom. 2. It was death for a Catholic priest
to come into the kingdom from abroad. 3. It was death to harbor a Catholic
priest coming from abroad. 4. It was death to confess to such a priest. 5. It
was death for any priest to say mass. 6. It was death for any one to hear
mass. 7. It was death for any one to deny, or not to swear, if called on, that
this woman (Elizabeth) was the head of the church of Christ. 8. It was an
offence punishable by heavy fine not to go to the Protestant church, �250,
equal to �3,250 of present English money.--Penal Statutes partied in the reign
of Queen Elizabeth.}
	The United States of America were first settled by fugitives from the
intolerance and bigoted persecution of the mother country; and it now becomes
no wonder that after all this tragic drama of inhuman and brutal outrages for
near eighteen hundred years, the children of them that slew the prophets,
should deny the need of any further revelations, and also of any more apostles
and miracles! But, sir, the Heavens are more compassionate. The Heavens feel
the need to give further revelation, lest the whole earth be speedily
destroyed through the abominations of this mother of harlots and her numerous
progeny. 
	There are thousands of honest hearted people that deserve a better
destiny than to be made the deluded prey and spoil of such abominations, under
the flattering [168] name of Christianity. It is to such these letters are
designed to be a benefit. It is in vain for Protestants to charge the bloody
axe of persecution against the Catholics, or for one sect of Protestants to
charge vilify another sect. Knox and Calvin were relentless, if not actually
murderous enemies of the Catholics; and there is scarcely a consequential
Protestant sect in England, or the United States of America, that has not
proven out their shameful and bloody pedigree by acts of banishment, hanging,
confiscation of property, or proscription of caste.
	These charges against the Christianity that has sprung up since the days
of revelation, are capable of the most undeniable proof. It is no marvel that
intelligent and high minded men in every country have become so skeptical
towards the prevailing religions of the day. The skepticism of France was a
misnomer; it was not in reality a warfare against the true Bible, but against
the horrid impositions supposed to be deducible from the Bible. If the Bible
had been fairly represented by the true church, France would never have waged
such a bloody war against it as it did in the days of its revolution. The
illuminati of France had sense enough to detect the fooleries and impositions
of priestcraft, and the nonsensical notion of a God without body or parts, and
in their misguided rage they mistook the Bible to be the source of these false
religions.
	The foregoing is only a cursory hint of the bloody character of modern
Christianity, from the time when it slew the apostles who held the keys of
revelation, and has ever since denied the need of any further revelation; for
a hundred volumes of the size of the Bible, would not suffice to detail such
instance where men and women [169] have been whipped, hung, ripped open, or
gibbeted, or burnt, or their ears bored, and their faces branded with hot
irons. The massacres of France, half-murdered Ireland, Germany, and England,
if written in detail, would make an imposing library. Fortunate for humanity's
sake, that no one religious power has any greater predominance than it has;
else the want of religious checks and balances would now be as fatal to the
minority as the exhalations of the Upas. Yet, after all this, Christianity
claims to be tolerant and catholic; and her bishops, enthroned in a salary of
more than �27,000 sterling per annum, claim a regular succession from St.
Peter. They might better have said from the murderers of St. Peter. Oh, shame
on the cry of apostolic succession! What a transformation Peter must have
undergone by this chain of succession! His gifts of discernment and healing
gone! The spirit of prophecy and tongues has left him! The power to open
prison doors, and of converse with angels, has left him impotent as other men!
Marvellous falling off of every thing but salaries, and pomp, and persecution!
Many suppose that Christ's Church must have been perpetuated on the earth,
because it is said that the gates of hell should not prevail against it.
Strange and fallacious argument for he continuance of the Church! Can it be
supposed for a moment, that the Church is prevailed against, because it is
removed from the earth? Jesus was removed from his life and gave up the ghost,
but was he therefore prevailed against? Did he not triumph over death, and
ascend up on high, and lead captivity captive? Did he not thereby acquire the
possession of all things in heaven and upon earth?
	It should not be supposed, that because all the [170] Saints were put to
death, or became extinct from the earth, that they have any less dominion over
the wicked men and fallen angels; on the other hand, by removal they increase
in power and glory, and have authority increased upon their heads. The
generations of the wicked have been prevailed against, ever since the Church
left the earth. The curses that have followed the Jewish and Gentile enemies
of the Church, from the days of the primitive Church till now, are perfectly
visible to any but such as have eyes and see not, and ears and hear not. The
Jews and Gentiles are like two inebriates, each sees clearly how very drunk
the other is, but discovers not his own intoxicated and besotted condition.
The Gentiles say that the Jews, through transgression, have lost the Urim and
Thummim, and Ephod and Teraphim, and been proscribed and banished, and
thousands killed and scattered, as a by-word and proverb, among all nations.
On the other hand, the Gentiles have lost the gifts and blessings of the
Spirit, with all the holy order of apostles and prophets; and wiping the slush
from their bloody hands, say they have no need of them.
	Alas, sir, when shall the veil that covers all nations (both Jews and
Gentiles) be removed, and self-righteous religionists confess that their sins
have separated, between them and their God, and hid his face from them? When
will the sectarian priesthood, that now arrogantly say, we are rich and
increased in goods, and have need of nothing, have humility enough to confess
that they are blind and naked, and destitute of all things, seeing that they
are without the gifts of the Spirit, and the key of knowledge (revelation) and
the authority of the priesthood?
[171] I know it is very difficult to convince sectarians that they are not a
pious people. "Why," say they, "do we not manifest much more fervency of
spirit, and studied sacredness of deportment, and punctilious exactness, in
observing the Sabbath than Latter-day Saints? Do we not show to all men great
self-abasement in confessing our sins to be like crimson and scarlet, and our
iniquities to be like mountains in magnitude? Are we not scrupulously guarded
against all levity and biding conversation? Are not our preachers very grave,
and apparently devoted and holy in their bearing? Do not their frequent sighs
and insuppressible groans, as their spirits are weighed down under the
conviction of the worth of souls, and the vast responsibility of the Lord's
watchmen, indicate profound piety? Do they not fast often and pray much? Are
they not orthodox and evangelical, insisting much upon the new birth and a
radical change of heart? "How can it be that a people of this description are
not pious and exceedingly holy? The preachers speak, and even walk in measured
carefulness and peculiarity of manner, so that a preacher is generally known
by his walk, and dialect, and sober, grave countenance.
	Now, sir, when I have conceded most liberally to the above, what does it
all prove? Why, sir, one act of obedience to God is better than the most rigid
conformity to all the precepts of men. The more devoted and sincere people are
in error, so much more agreeable to the prince of darkness. What a meagre
atonement does a demure countenance, and sanctimonious sighs and groans, and
self-loathings make, for transgressing the law of God, and changing an
ordinance! Take, for instance, the ordinance of laying on of hands for healing
the sick. Had this ordinance been perpetuated in the Church, millions [172]
upon millions of the human family might have been saved from premature death.
Through this ordinance, Jesus Christ has said, "they shall recover." Through
the skeptical abandonment of this ordinance countless millions have not lived
out half of their days. How much compensation does it afford to the countless
victims of disobedience, for men to assume a grave, long face, and strive to
elongate the name of God by gracious sounds, as though the name of God was too
short without beings stretched for such holy lips.
	Take another ordinance, viz., the gift of the Holy Ghost, by laying on
hands. What a flimsy and miserable equivalent for the absence of the
Comforter, and spirit of prophecy and revelation, are seminaries of learning,
and a multitude of oblations, and prayers, and frequent fasting! It is too
much, sir, like the drunken boy, who, having broken his master's bottle,
boastingly claimed credit for saving the cork!
	Neglect of the weighty matters of laws and ordinances is to be atoned for
by pious breathings in private journals for posthumous publication; and by
elaborate sermons and comments they make plain things profoundly obscure; and
every year increases the necessity of additional learning, in order to
disentangle the profound knottiness of theological disquisitions and
exegetical comments. The very religious opposers of Jesus Christ, whose hands
were accessory to his death, had a most fervent and devout spirit, and were
eminently pious; but the doctrine of new revelations, and the gifts of
healing, tongues, and prophecyings, disturbed the equanimity of their devout
hearts, and their rage rose to the pitch of desperation and blood-guiltiness.
	No matter how much men confess, and pray, and [173] sacrifice--no matter
how sincere and conscientious they are in error, if their religion does not
lead them to keep the commands and ordinances of the true and living God,
their worship is vain, and their faith is vain. Except they hearken to the law
of God and the testimony of God, here is no light in them. Sincerity is
nothing without obedience; both wicked men and devils are sincere in many
things which God abhors. A man coming to the forks of four roads might pray
months and years to be guided in choice of the right road, but if he would not
believe the testimony of the Lord's servant who should tell him the only true
road, he would still remain in doubt and fear.
	"Well," says a very strenuous objector, "now to end all controversy, just
show us one real genuine miracle, and I will thereupon believe, and be
baptized, and forever after hold my peace." Aye, indeed! a very common
sentiment, but a strange one coming from the lips of a professed believer in
the Bible. He that is no hypocrite, but a true believer in the Bible, has the
explicit promise of God's own word, that miraculous signs shall follow them
that believe. Now, if they do not follow believers, then God is a liar, and no
longer worthy of confidence; but if God is true, and the signs do not follow,
then your faith is vain, and will not save from damnation. "But," says the
objector, "miracles were anciently wrought to prove the divine mission of the
servants of God. Now prove to me that you are a servant of God, by the
attestation of an indisputable miracle, for in apostolic days, even wicked men
said, a notable miracle hath been done, and we cannot deny it." Yes, very
true, and other wicked men have testified to the same in these days, and
sometimes they would deny it, and alternately [174] confess it, according to
the spirit that was upon them. Saul, the king, could tell the truth about
David at one time, and at another deny it--at one time worship youthful
supplanter, and at another time thirst for his blood. Miracles may sometimes
have been the occasion of leading persons to believe the word of God, but
their prominent design was never in any age of the world to introduce new
revelation.
	Moses was a believer before God spoke to him in the burning bush. John
the Baptist, who introduced the Christian dispensation, and was the harbinger
of Christ, probably never saw any miracle, except at the descent of the dove
at the baptism of Jesus. "John wrought no miracle." Joseph Smith was a
believer before the angel which John and the other apostles spoke of, ever
visited him. Miracles may confirm the faith of such believers as have the Holy
Ghost confirmed upon them, whereby they are able to distinguish between true
and false miracles. To others they often prove a snare and a trap.
	While miracles confirmed the Hebrews in the faith of God, miracles also
confirmed the Egyptians in the faith of Satan. Many who witnessed the miracles
of Jesus were as keen for mobocracy and murder as the bloodiest. This parade
about miracles, being designed to introduce Christianity, and confirm and
attest all genuine revelation, is a humbug that has always been started
whenever a new revelation was given to man. The pious Jews insisted constantly
that the disciples should prove their authority by miracles. It was about the
first and last thing that they ever said to Jesus: "WORK A MIRACLE!" "come
down from the cross and we will believe." He told them, in language of the
keenest rebuke, that they should not be seeking after "signs." He [175] told
them that it indicated a wicked and adulterous spirit to ask him to give them
miraculous signs. The devil and devout Jews fairly made game of Christ and his
disciples, because when they were asked to do miracles they refused. But still
the devil, and many ministers and churches, continued to demand signs and
miracles, and stormed and raged greatly because these men would never work
miracles in a way to satisfy them.
	These sagacious and pious adversaries of Jesus were always able to detect
some flaw--some cunning artifice trick of the devil--in whatever Christ or the
apostles did (as they said). Now modern divines and churches, taking up this
old cudgel against the Saints, have even asked Latter-day Saints to drink a
cup of poison. "Drink it," says one--"now drink, or we will not believe you
are sent of God. Aye, now we know you are not sent of God to preach!"
Forgetting that the first sign-seeker once said, if you are the Son of God,
"cast myself down from this pinnacle, for it is written that he all give his
angels charge concerning thee."
	Now, sir, if irony were admissible on a subject of this nature, I would
tauntingly add--how Satan did trap this impostor! He drove him into an
extremity for pretending to work miracles, didn't he? But I forbear; let him
that hath ears to hear, hear what the Spirit saith unto the sign-seekers!
	It may seem marvellous to some if I should say that Satan can work signs
and wonders far surpassing the greatest knowledge of men. The power of Satan
has probably never been fully exhibited to men on the earth. The grand
adversary of heaven and earth has not warred against even the throne of the
Eternal God, without acquiring some acquaintance with those powers and keys
[176] of knowledge with which he has been baffled by the Almighty from the
beginning. If believers had to contend only with flesh and blood, or mere men
in mortal flesh, they might rejoice in the hope of a far more speedy victory;
but, on the other hand, they have to contend against principalities and powers
of a supernatural order. Spirits as much superior in power and cunning to the
worst men in the flesh, as the full grown man is to the slender child. Men
have acquired some knowledge of the laws that govern fire, air, and water; and
some imperfect knowledge of the laws that govern minds, or the spirits of men;
but the knowledge of fallen angels and outcast spirits, is sufficient to
astonish and confound the wisest of men that are not inspired with the wisdom
of God. The Satanic powers have always excited the greatest wonders
contemporaneous with the wonders wrought by the servants of God. In the days
of Moses, and also of Jesus Christ, men were inspired by Satan with more than
mere human powers; and in this last dispensation, wicked men, that yield
themselves to become the willing instruments of unrighteousness to the devil,
will again acquire skill in cunning and deceivable arts, whereby they will
bring down fire from heaven, and confound all those who know not the laws and
powers of spirits, and the extensive influence that the prince of the power of
the air has over the natural elements. Men who do not need power from God to
cast out devils will find themselves made fast in his chains beyond the power
of extricating themselves. But while the Saints have not power of themselves
to detect the lying wonders of Satan, and withstand them--yet, through faith,
and the keys and gifts of revelation from God, they will be able to stand and
overcome; and the power of God will be [177] greater than the cunning of the
devil. But sign-seekers and the enemies of new revelations will be arraigned
under the banner of the father of lies, and believe a lie that they may be
damned. Jesus found foul spirits and devils so thick, in his days, that he had
occasion frequently to cast them out of persons, and also to empower others to
cast out devils. Some instances are recorded where many of these fallen
spirits took possession of a single person at one and at the same time. No
less than seven occupied one female. Now, modern Christianity must be highly
favored, if they are so much better than primitive Saints, that they can
escape the annoyance of these multiplied and troublesome spirits.
	How is it, sir, that devils do not trouble modern churches, as they did
the primitive Saints? Are they done away too? Miracles and devils done away!
The canon of Scripture closed! Miracles and devils ceased! Happy Christianity;
thy warfare has ceased--thy troubles are ended! Blessed rest! Joyful reign of
righteousness! As many ways to heaven now as there are eyelets in a sieve! Oh,
brother, blush for thy theology, and for the doleful conclusions to which thy
creeds have brought thee!
	The reign of Satan, for near eighteen hundred years, has almost effaced
every relic of Bible truth from the earth. Every thing that is valuable and
powerful in the ancient system of prophets is done away, and the devil himself
is supposed, by many, to be merely the evil passions of men. But, sir, the
devil is not dead nor done away. But the gospel of apostles will rouse him up
again; and knowing that his time is short, he will show his spite again on
those bodies from which he shall be expelled by the apostolic priesthood, in
choking, tearing, and casting them down to the ground. And who shall be able
to [178] stand, when deceptive miracles, and lying wonders, far greater than
have ever been known since the foundation of the world, shall be practiced,
and deceive many?
	Now, sir, before I close this appeal, suffer me to allude to the
intolerant and cruel persecution of the Saints in Illinois. The nineteenth
century, and the great republic of the United States of North America, must
have the pages of their history blackened with the record of a persecution
that classes with the bloody acts of Nero and Caligula. From fifteen to twenty
thousand citizens of the United States were forced in an illegal, violent and
inhuman manner to forsake their homes and possessions in the State of
Illinois, the greater part of them during the inclemency of the winter of
1846. A large and populous city of eleven thousand and thirty-five souls of
men, women and children has been compulsorily evacuated, under the dread of
inevitable massacre if they persisted to occupy their firesides and homes.
	Continued acts of house-burning and mid-day assassinations, and midnight
murder, and large gatherings of armed and lawless forces, with heavy pieces of
artillery, necessitated this numerous people to leave their flourishing city,
merchandise, and farms, in the most inclement period of the year, for the
purpose of self-preservation.
	This glaring act of expatriation, robbery, arson and assassination, was
not done in a corner. It did not occur among the barbarous and half-civilized
portions of the globe. It did not transpire in the dominions of the Ottoman,
where the Koran and Islamism must father such inhuman deeds. It was not done
in the jungles of Africa, where kidnapping and inhuman enslavement of men have
called forth the repudiating censure of all nations. It was not done by
clannish wandering Arabs, whose [179] hands are proverbially against every man
as a profession. Neither was it done in Papal dominions, nor under the
despotic sway of the Sublime Porte, or the autocrat of Russia.
	Neither did the red men of the wilderness spring from their thicket with
a war whoop, and tomahawk, and scalping-knife, to perpetrate this bloody
outrage! But old still, modern Christianity! The inquisitor of blood is in
pursuit of thee, even to the gates of thy stronghold. Thou canst not cover thy
hiding place with the screen of Papacy, for she was not there. Thou canst not
say that the autocrat of the Greek religion, with iron despotism, cast these
men into prison for teaching the Bible. Neither was it the sword of the
Mussulman propagating his religion. There was no Mahometanism in Illinois.
Neither canst thou charge it upon the Monarchical Institutions of Europe or
established Episcopacy. "Thou art the man." Free Republican Christianity, you
did it! In thy youthful beauty, the rising pride and envy of nations, thou
didst it! Thy priests and laymen rose from their devout knees, and lighted the
fagot and torch of the incendiary. The sick man and (gravis) mother begged for
God's sake, and for humanity's sake, you would spare their humble cottages
which their brawny hands had reared in the midst of loneliness, want, and
insalubrity of climate. Yet their cries were unheeded. They had but one
alterative, either to be thrust out upon miasmatic ground, or remain and burn
with their habitations. The man that persisted to watch his stack of grain
against the incendiary, was shot dead in the act. Durfee's blood crimsons
the skirts of Republican Christianity in Illinois. Where were the rulers and
governors? Did they hear of it? "Oh! it's nobody but Mormons!" Where was the
legis-[180]lature of Illinois when the Smiths were shot in prison, in the
sight of all Carthage, by hundreds in a painted gang? the governor threatening
to destroy the city in person if they did not keep the peace, and deliver the
Smiths for trial! What did the supreme legislature, delegates from more than
four hundred thousand people of Illinois, in fresh review of these scenes of
assassination, do? They repealed the city charter of Nauvoo. The mob made one
gap in the law by assassination, and the state government, following the
example, threw down the whole enclosure that guarded the rights and privileges
of thousands by repealing the charter. Where were the Illinois priests of
modern Christianity at that time? A distinguished clergyman of the city of
Quincy, in their defence, said to the writer, "We (the clergy) had nothing to
do with those scenes in Hancock." Aye, indeed! neither had the pharisaic
priests anything to do with the robbed and wounded man, but the good Samaritan
picked him up and carried him to an inn, and paid his bill. But Jesus Christ
had to do with making an eternal record of the difference between the conduct
of the good Samaritan, and the hypocrite of high priestly profession. Even a
priest commanded the mob force in the final attack upon the city, that
expelled the remnant of Saints that were too poor to get away sooner. This
remnant were left shelterless and sick, famishing upon the west bank of the
Mississippi, where the quails of heaven actually fed them as they lay upon
their couches, and in their wagons, in the sight of both friends and foes.
Hear it! thou stronghold of modern Christianity! say not what great things you
would do if you were not trammeled by the despotic shackles of monarchical
government! A puritan Christianity planted the tree of liberty on the solitary
soil of [181] America, from choice seed of her own selection. After being long
nursed and watered by her numerous and learned priesthood, these are the full
grown fruits of it: kidnapping, robbery, rapine, arson, and murder.
	Systematic efforts were made, more than once, to prevent the influx of
provisions into Nauvoo, in order that famine, in a land of plenty, might
coerce the inhabitants to flee their City, in building which they had sweat
and toiled, and many had died. Time and again, steamboats were hailed and
searched, in order to stop barrels of flour from going to Nauvoo, that had
been purchased by our citizens in a time of scarcity at St. Louis. And
provisions and other necessaries, had actually to be freighted for Madison and
other river towns, in order to escape detection. Teams loaded with pork from
inland counties were arrested, and turned to other markets, as though it were
an acknowledged siege for the purpose of causing starvation. I know these
things to be true, and my blood warms with mingled pity and indignation at the
recollection of scenes of which I have been an eye-witness.
	At this time, and in this day of revivals, where were the ten thousands
of priests that officiate at the altar? Where were the innumerable converts to
modern Christianity? What part did they all take towards regulating public
opinion and preventing human slaughter? The sons and daughters of the puritans
were there in affliction for the gospel's sake; and no less than two venerable
pensioners, Hatch and Hinsdale, that fought in the revolutionary struggle for
American Independence, where there, and were driven from their country for
maintaining the right of conscience.
	Now, who ever heard in all America of a priest [182] pleading publicly
against these outrages, and importuning the throne of God in behalf of these
suffering sons and daughters of God? Modern American Christianity must
redouble her gracious sanctimonious looks in order to cover up this horrid
indifference to lawless violence and suffering humanity.
	The statesman that fears not God, nor regards man, may have some
semblance of apology for his indifference; but American churches have none.
But, where were the statesmen that make high professions of patriotism, and
sensitive regard for the national honor of the United States? Could no
disgrace accrue to the nation, when twenty thousand peaceable, industrious
citizens were violently robbed of millions of property without a shadow of
requital? What security can foreign emigrants have for colonizing on the
western lands, if whole cities and towns may be depopulated at a single blast
of the popular caprice with impunity? What regard can American statesmen be
supposed to entertain for the sacred and inalienable rights of the people,
while no man ever opened his mouth either in the halls of Congress, or of
State legislatures, against the most palpable and gross infractions of the
Constitution that ever transpired since the existence of the United States
government?
	The Constitution guarantees to every man the right to worship God
according to the dictates of conscience and without molestation. It promises
the right of property, and the defence and protection of peaceable and
unoffending citizens; but millions of property have been illegally plundered,
and thousands of patriotic and worthy citizens have been deprived of the
liberty of common citizens, and forced into the wilds of the mountains in the
most inhuman manner. Had any foreign nation [183] committed a small part of
this damage upon their commercial interests, would not the national executive
have demanded redress for spoliations, even at the mouth of the cannon?
	But I would not have you think, sir, by these remarks, that I entertain
any acrimonious feelings towards my country. No; far from it. I love my native
land, though cruelly exiled from it, because it is in that land that liberty
is destined to flourish above all lands. That land has been set apart in the
councils of eternity, and dedicated as the nursery of virtue and religious
liberty. That is emphatically a land of promise. Its very soil is hallowed
above all others, for the literal production of truth. There the blessings
promised to Joseph are to be first displayed and enjoyed. There the ensign is
to be first lifted up to all nations; and all nations, or the upright of all
nations, are to flow together there. Every description of product and variety
of climate is there. Notwithstanding the degeneracy and corruption of the
civilized portions of that land, there is more toleration in the government
and constitution, and more facilities for the introduction and spread of
gospel truth in that land, than any other under the whole heaven. It is the
very place. and probably the only place on this planet, where the true and
eternal kingdom of God could get a footing, and survive the blasts of
persecution, and the rage of fallen and apostate spirits of men and devils.
Hitherto the Saints of God have been slaughtered, or compelled, like the city
of Enoch, to forsake the earth.
	But the Book of Mormon, and the angelic message to the young man Joseph,
have dug the grave of apostacy, and laid the axe at the root of false
religions. The earth is destined to enjoy a reign of righteousness, and [184]
a happy period of rest. Truth must and will and the kingdom of our God will be
established in the mountains of Israel, just where all the prophets that have
spoken of it, saw it rise and flourish, never more to be thrown down.
	When thousands that now compose the Church, and who have proved before
the American people that the cords of their union cannot be sundered by the
hottest thunderbolts of persecution, are assembled in the remote, extensive,
and fertile valleys of the almost unknown mountains, they will be for ever
invincible. With their peaceable and inoffensive habits, which have
characterized their movements from the beginning, no people will ever be
likely to assail them again, till their numbers and strength will be too
forbidding. The accessions to this people have never been so great as during
the last six months. The certainty that this people will survive all
opposition, and triumph over every obstacle, was never so palpably manifest as
at this very moment. Famine and war, pestilence, bankruptcy, treachery, and
distrust are causing panic and fear among the nations. Those who love peace
and retirement, and abhor contention, crime, and revolution, must seek an
asylum among the Saints, for it cannot be found elsewhere on the earth. The
Lord God himself will stir up the nations to anger and strife, and thrash them
as with a flail, and sift them as with a sieve. And the honest in heart will
flee to the Lord's hiding place, in ships and in companies even as clouds and
as doves to their windows.
	While the unity of great and powerful nations is undergoing a rapid
conversion into fractional weakness, the strength of Israel is accumulating
and augmenting beyond all former precedent. The materials of which [185] this
body of people is composed are not like the heterogeneous masses that
constitute other nations; but they are select and chosen ones out of every
nation whose views--religious, political, social, and pecuniary--are
previously all cast in the mould of unity; like the materials of Solomon's
temple, they are all fitted for their place and destination before they are
brought together. The ten millions of Mexico could not stand even before the
ten thousand of the United States; because the latter were united and subject
to orderly discipline; while the former were distracted and divided. The hosts
of Israel have never yet offered the first forcible resistance to the violent
and lawless assaults of their enemies; yet the principles of self-defence are
alike compatible with their feelings and their faith, and by no means
obnoxious to the practice of Abraham, Joshua, or David, or even Jesus Christ.
	When governments become too weak or perverse to protect their subjects,
it then becomes the divine and inalienable right of all men to protect
themselves by all lawful and just means. Whatever lesson of forbearance and
non-resistance Jesus Christ might have left on record, suited to particular
circumstances, there is a predominance of Scriptural instructions in favor of
self defence, and innumerable examples to prove that the "Lord is a man of
war." Time would fail to make mention of Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Sampson,
David, and Barak. The prayer of Sampson was, that he might destroy his
enemies; and God not only heard his prayer, but gave him strength to fulfill
his request; out of an opposing army, God even commissioned one of his angels
(not so holy a personage as some modern Christians) to kill one hundred and
eighty-five thousand in one night! [186] Indeed! say you; could God do such a
bloody deed? Surely; and he that causelessly strikes the second cheek will be
repaid, for "the day of vengeance is in his (God's) heart;" but those who
proudly say, that they have no further need of revelation, will find that day
to come upon them unawares, even as a "thief in the night."
	Sir, Zion is from henceforth and forever invincible--she has run the
gauntlet and is safe. After being submerged in a series of sufferings for
seventeen years, she now stands purified tried, and made white; "she has
passed the baptismal ordeal of suffering, and power is given unto her to
withstand and overcome;" she has put on her beautiful garments, and the mighty
God of Jacob is her strength; the keys of power are given unto her; and the
angels of God camp around about her; she is entrenched in the munition of
rocks, even the everlasting hills; by her the ensign of truth and liberty is
lifted up to all nations; the pure and wise of all nations may safely rally
round her standard, and go up to the house of the God of Jacob, and learn his
ways. God called his Son out of Egypt after persecutors had shot out the
arrows of their wrath in vain. If God's people have been able to stand under
persecutions while in the midst of their enemies, much more may they expect to
abide when separated by the distance of month's journeyings, and by lofty
mountains covered with perpetual snow. The mightiest nations already heave
with convulsive throes, and travail in great pain; they have enough to do
without wasting their blood, and treasure, and unprovoked wrath upon the
Saints; and God will soften the hearts of the nations for the good of his
people, from time to time, until their palaces and towers will be the
admiration and delight of all the ends of the earth. The [187] nucleus of the
mightiest nation that ever flourished on the earth is planted; the rapidly
rising greatness of this people will constitute one of the greatest wonders of
the age; and the elements of a great and mighty people have been clearly
demonstrated to belong to this people. Union, it is said, is strength; this
has already become proverbially a distinguishing feature of the Saints.
Driven, and scattered, and robbed in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois, they have
readily re-assembled and re-united. Knowledge is said to be power; knowledge
has been acquired in the practical school of experience; they are almost
universally familiar with the undisguised operations of the hearts of their
fellow men. No people ever had the same opportunity to learn the diversified
motives that govern the minds of men and women; no people, as a body, ever had
the acquaintance with the laws, government, and religion, and usages of
civilized and barbarous nations, which has been enjoyed by the Latter-day
Saints. No people of modern ages ever had their ingenuity and physical ability
so extensively taxed in order for self-support, and the acquisition of
knowledge, and propagation and defence of the truth. The moral virtues of
forbearance, long-suffering, fortitude, love to enemies, and self-command
under fiery temptations, have been stretched to their utmost tension; indeed,
they are a tried people--the word of the Lord has tried them. They have kept
the commandments of God, and are not found wanting.
	This, sir, is Zion, the care of angels, and the delight of the Holy One
of Israel! Those who love righteousness and retirement from the din of war,
and from the plague, and assassin, and incendiary, will seek her peaceful
gates, of every nation under the whole heaven. None can injure this people or
war against them with impunity, [188] for the Lord is their shield and
defence. When ancient Israel entered the land of Canaan, it is said that the
Lord caused the fear of them and the dread of them to rest upon all the
nations round about. The same God now, will again cause all nations to dread
the opposition of the people of the Saints of the Most High.
	Sir, it need not be disguised that the armies of heaven are leagued with
the Saints in the covenant of everlasting union. You are not ignorant of God's
judgments at the Red Sea, or of the destruction of the companies of fifty, and
of his interposition in behalf of Israel in the valley of Gibeon. Neither is
his arm shortened now, that he cannot save; His wonders have been multiplied
on every hand in this day, according to the observation of thousands who are
ready to attest that the blind have been made to see, the deaf to hear, and
the palsied have been made sound, and many blasphemous opposers have been
visited with as swift and utter destruction as Ananias and Sapphira.
	Now, sir, what more shall I say, in order to convince you and all honest
men, that God has set up his kingdom, against which no power can possibly
prevail?
	You kindly acknowledge that my testimony is credible; all my numerous
acquaintance must concur with you in this acknowledgment. I have told you the
truth as it is in Christ Jesus, and as I expect to meet it at the final bar of
righteous retribution. My sufferings and expatriation for the gospel's sake,
are the seal of my testimony in Christ. I have literally sacrificed wife, and
houses, and lands, for the truths which I have inculcated in this volume. My
motherless children are now in the wilderness in their solitary cabin,
surrounded with savage tribes, and subject to privations that make a fathers
heart to bleed. Better men of whom the world is not worthy [189] have suffered
even more in the same cause. I know this to be the true gospel revealed from
the heaven for the salvation of this generation; and all those whom it does
not save through faith, it will damn through unbelief. If you have read these
truths carefully, your final destiny will hang on the decision you may make@it
is to you the voice of God, and the warning of the servant of God. Wait not
for an angel of God to speak in your ear, or for one to come from the dead; if
you hear not the servant of God, neither will you be persuaded though one rose
from the dead. Not only your own salvation, but the interests of your family
and your kindred will probably be seriously affected by the decision you now
make.
	When the devout Jews, with reckless obstinacy, said, "His blood be upon
us and upon our children," you know what afterward ensued down to this day.
With the knowledge which this gospel communicates, you cannot be a neutral.
The blood and sufferings not only of the Saints of the nineteenth century, but
also of all others from the days of righteous Abel till now, will be
chargeable to you if you obey not this gospel; if you reject this gospel, your
children's children, to the latest generation, will forever bewail the choice
you may make. You stand in some measure as the representative of your
posterity; therefore, ponder well the decision you may make. I know that you
are surrounded by a knot of priests, distinguished for the wisdom of schools
and seminaries; and the obstinate creeds and usages of modern Christianity
hold over you a threatening rod of proscription and slaughter; but except you
have courage to escape, and sufficient love of truth to induce you to peril
even all things for the gospel, your die is cast, and your doom is with the
lost and damned forever.
	I do not expect to coerce you by motives of fear, but [190] I know that
judgments will and do follow this gospel; and knowing the terror of the Lord,
I persuade--I dare not say less; I would say more if the power of utterance
were given me. All is not right with you; you acknowledge that you do not
understand the prophets and the Apocalypse; also that modern Christianity is
weak, divided, and contentious--not having the power and order of ancient
prophets and apostles. Pause and consider well before you reject the only
light that can save this generation? Your old friend and acquaintance asks you
to pause. The deplorable prospect of your kindred for generations to come, who
may be involved in the consequences of your rebellion, requires you to pause;
the interests of the denomination that look to you for spiritual guidance,
require you to consider well the decision you may make. I know that you are in
a strait place; Paul was once in a similar condition; but the sterling
integrity of his heart saved him. He burst off the shackles of false
religions, and overleaped the religious usages of ages, and received counsel
and baptism at the hands of the most despised people that ever lived.
	But enough, perhaps, has been said; what I say to you, I say unto all
men--rulers and subjects, priests and people! I have set before you life and
death. If you reject the gospel, I am innocent of your blood; if you receive
it, glory, and honor, and immortality await you. The apostolic fathers and the
angels of God watch to record your decision. With sentiments of high respect,
I subscribe myself,
							Your humble servant,
									ORSON SPENCER.

								LIVERPOOL, January 13th, 1853.
 	Reverend and Dear Sir--At our last interview, in November last, you
desired a more full and entire expression of my views, concerning the tenets
of a people whose notoriety is fast spreading among the nations of the earth,
and commanding their intense consideration. I am fully aware, that if my views
as to the doctrine of the Patriarchal Order should fortunately obtain any
acceptance with yourself, or an enlightened public, that acceptance must be
secured by the irresistible force of truth and divine revelation. The usage of
all Christian nations, and the most inveterate prejudice, will rear their most
potent bulwarks against it. But I entertain this encouragement, however, that
the spirit of the age justifies investigation into every subject that proposes
to ameliorate the condition of the human family, whether it regards domestic
compact or political or strictly religious organization. Domestic compact is
the first order of all social organization, and must even antecede all civil
government, and contribute much to the genius and character of the same. It is
the basis, upon which every super-structure of society must be reared. The
laws regulating marriage and divorce, and the license of sexual intercourse,
without any prescribed order of marriage at all, range in great variety and
discrepancy among different Christian nations. And the laws of Christendom
differ widely from [192] the other three-fourths of the whole family of man,
and also differ indisputably from the laws of the Old and New Testament. If
the intercourse of the sexes is not regulated in wisdom and purity, the result
will be that every consequent branch and order of society will be vitiated
thereby. First make the tree good; and the fruit will be also good. A pure
fountain will not send forth bitter streams. A fig tree will not bear
thistles.
	When parentage is established after a wholesome and righteous order, the
consequence will be felt in every social and civil organization whatever, both
in this world and beyond the limits of this world. It is not in the power of
any government, or of any religious community, or reform association, to
create good order and great prosperity, with a corrupt Patriarchal order at
the foundation. What that pure and perfect Patriarchal order is, upon which
the welfare of society so much depends, it will be my object to show in this
letter. Here let me say, that the family order which God established with
Abraham and the Patriarchs, was the order observed among celestial beings, in
the celestial world. And this family order is not the only one at which God
sits as the Head, and first pattern in the series of matrimonial examples; but
it is of perpetual duration, both in and beyond this world. It is utterly
absurd to suppose the anomaly of such an existence as a father without a
mother. Everything in the analogy of nature forbids such an idea. The analogy
of birds, fish, quadrupeds, creeping things, and vegetables, forbids it. Have
not we all, one Father? We are all his offspring. A large family to be
ascribed to one father! But where is the Scripture that ascribes the origin of
all diverse sons to one and the same mother? When God sets up any portion of
his kingdom upon the [193] earth, it is patterned after his own order in the
heavens. When he gives to men a pattern of family organization in the earth,
that pattern will be just like his own family organization in the heavens. The
family of Abraham was transcript of a celestial pattern. The likeness was
drawn by a master artist, who was perfectly familiar with the celestial
pattern. Abraham's family was a fresh organization, designed to effect the
perpetuity and increase of God, in an endless succession of families. And very
family which God institutes upon the earth, is fashioned like his own original
family, in the heavens. A heavenly family was a perfect family, both as to the
ordinance by which it was united, and as to the laws which rewarded or
punished the observer or violator of the same. Abraham's family was required
to be equally effect. God testified of Abraham, that he walked before him in
perfection, and also that his family was organized on correct principles; his
children and household, including his wives and servants, were conducted just
according to the mind of God. This family order of Abraham was spread out
before God, and met with his entire and full approbation. And why did God
approve of it? Because it is the only order practiced in the celestial
heavens, and the only peaceful, united, and prosperous order that will endure,
while man-invented orders and devices will utterly deceive and perish with the
using. Now, God testified that Abraham's conduct, with his wives and children,
and servants, and all included in his household, was perfectly right and
proper, and he knew that he would continue to practice righteousness.
Consequently, Abraham was perfectly virtuous and pure, and so were is wives.
And all his marriages were perfectly honorable, whatever number of wives he
might have, and his [194] bed was never defiled; nor were his children
illegitimate, as God did not forbid him to marry, as many human governments
forbid men to do. Thousands of innocent, unoffending children are yearly born
under the burden of infamous illegitimacy, while the offending parents,
instead of being punished for such an offense, are punished if they seek to
avoid the offense by marrying the objects of their love, and thereby ensure
honorable sustenance upon their offspring. How many virtuous females would
infinitely prefer to unite their destinies to one and the same honorable,
virtuous, and high-minded man, than to separate their destinies each to an
inferior, unvirtuous, and vicious man? The consequence of the latter
connection in vitiating their offspring, is too great to be told or fathomed
by a finite mind; it takes hold upon worlds to come.
	Shall such virtuous and innocent females, though they may be poor and low
in the scale of fortune's partial smiles--shall they be denied the right to
choose the objects of their love? Shall they be refused by the stern threats
of law, to marry whom their hearts desire? Must they, through the operation of
hideously contracted laws, be virtually doomed to resort to infamous
prostitution, entailing disease, infamy, and death upon themselves and their
offspring, or to marry an inferior grade of corrupt, vicious men, debauchers,
gluttons, drunkards, and idlers, or remain in perpetual celibacy, and
frustrate the designs of their creation, and violate the first and foremost
command of God, to multiply and replenish the earth? Who does not know that
God is ashamed of such narrow, contracted laws and of their advocates, who are
so grossly ignorant of the first great principles of legislation? Sir, if time
would permit, I would clearly demonstrate, that [195] a prohibition to marry
should be predicated upon transgression and the commission of crime. The
crimes of Saul and David worked a forfeiture of their title to their wives,
and transferred them into the hands of more virtuous and loyal men.
Progression in knowledge and increase in dominion, power, and happiness, are
inseparably connected with the multiplication of the human family. But the
all-wise God checks the advancement of transgressors towards dominion, power
and happiness, by withholding the antecedent means. He prevents the
multiplication of fallen angels, while he commands the obedient to multiply,
and inasmuch as they are called to the heart-rending scene of forsaking their
wives for the gospel's sake, they have the assurance of being repaid an
hundred fold. Thus it appears that God blesses good men by multiplying and
increasing them, and punishes evil-doers, by blotting out their names, and
cutting off from the earth their posterity. The history of the Patriarchs is a
series of blessings of this sort. The blessings bestowed upon their numerous
wives, are of the same kind also. And no tale of grief or occasion for
lamentation, was more conspicuous in the history of the Patriarchs, or of
their wives, than to be written childless and without posterity on the earth.
God always attached an honorable distinction to males and females who engaged
in the sacred system of plurality according to the conditions he laid down for
them to observe.
	Only a cursory reading of the history of the Patriarchs will illustrate
the honorable attitude in which God regarded them.
	Not only was Abraham honorable, virtuous and pure in taking to himself
two wives, but Sara and Hagar were also honorable, virtuous, and pure in
consenting to be [196] made the wives of one and the same man. "How so," say
you? Why, because the Almighty distinctly certified and caused the same to be
made a matter of record that they and their Lord and husband, Abraham were
honorable in so doing. Do you marvel that I make this assertion in proof of
plurality? Marvel not.
	The Almighty, dear sir, actually visited this husband of two wives, and
went into a discussion of his family and domestic concerns; concerns, by the
way, more important to the progress of his kingdom and to the everlasting
happiness of the human family, than many have seriously thought of. What did
he say about his family matters? Did he say. "Abraham, beware of a carnal
mind! beware of the lust for woman!" Did he say the first word of the kind? No
sir; I repeat it, no sir; he said no such thing. Well, tell us plainly what he
did say. Why, read it for yourself, upon your knees, it your heart is not
otherwise humble enough to receive this doctrine. He virtually said this to
Abraham--"Abraham, I find no fault with your taking two wives, but on the
other hand, I bless you for it, and I bless you in doing it, and I bless them
in becoming your wives, above all other women upon the earth. I bless you and
your wife Sarah with the strength and joy of your youth; you shall have a son.
You shall not only have a son, but you shall have even nations of sons and
daughters. Your wife Hagar also shall be greatly blessed among women for what
she has done, kings and potentates, and even nations shall be among her
offspring. Mine angel shall wait upon her, and instruct and comfort her, and
see her wants supplied. And Sarah, seeing she had faith while herself was
barren, to give Hagar to you to wife, shall herself even yet have a son,
notwithstanding her age. And your posterity shall [197] be as the dust of the
earth for number and multitude, and as the sands upon the sea-shore."
	Though Abraham had many wives and concubines, yet we have no knowledge
that any reproof was ever administered to him from God; but we have a certain
assurance that he was a favorite child and heir of God, and with his sons was
safely lodged in the Kingdom of God.
	I will next call your attention to the marriage practice of Jacob, one of
the most illustrious prophets, and a grandson of Abraham. Jacob had several
wives, and by them were born unto him the Twelve Patriarchs, after whom all
the Tribes of Israel were named. Now, sir, one of these wives was honored with
being the lineal mother of Jesus Christ, according to the flesh. What! Jesus
Christ descended from a man who advocated the doctrine of a plurality of
wives, and actually had many wives! Why he was as bad as Mahomet! "I wonder,"
says one, "that God ever kept a record of such a lineage, seeing it favors the
doctrine of a plurality of wives." Why, sir, this was one object of keeping
the record of Christ's lineage, that it might sustain this very doctrine.
Another object was, that the promised seed might be accurately traced out. All
the time that Jacob was laboring with Laban, for the purpose of getting his
daughters for his wives, God was with Jacob, upholding him and enriching him
by his supernatural arm, in order that he might have ample means to support
his many wives and their numerous children, whereby he might become a king
over a numerous and mighty nation, springing from his own loins. Did the Lord
ever frown upon him for living with his several wives? No, never. On the
contrary, hosts of angels went out to meet him, and they [198] stood by him
and blessed him when he was in danger from his brother Esau.
	Furthermore, in support of the good conduct of these men who taught and
practiced upon the doctrine of a plurality of wives, the Lord God has said,
that it shall be a memorial to all generations, that he is the Lord God of
Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now, sir, let it be
distinctly understood that this memorial is for this generation in common with
all other generations. "What is the MEMORIAL," say you, "that this generation
is to call to mind, and by no means suffer to slip out of their mind at any
time?" Why, sir, it is, the self-same founders and corner-stones of the whole
house of Israel, even the whole Israel of God, were pluralists in the fullest
sense of the word. And God wants this generation to remember it and not forget
it; and not only should this generation remember it, but all generations
should remember it; for it is God's memorial, and so revealed in His most holy
word, which is able to make wise unto salvation.
	"Well, I declare," says one, "I did not know but this system of polygamy
was the practice of some dark age, which God rather winked at through their
ignorance, and in consequence of their being sprung from heathenish parents.
But now it does seem that God really delighted in these polygamists and their
practices, and wanted all generations to know it, and to know it distinctly,
and never forget it." "Well," says one, "if this is the case, then surely the
veil has been over my eyes in reading the Scripture; for I never discovered
before, that polygamy was a blessing and duty binding upon God's people in all
generations. I always thought that it was confined to the Patriarchal age
until now. Now, it seems to be extended [199] to this and all generations. I
see now, indeed, that Paul says that all those who are of the faith of Abraham
are heirs of the same promises and of the same blessings."
	In looking into the law of Moses, I perceive that Moses enacted that,
where a man had two wives, and each of the wives had sons, the birthright
should appertain to the son who should be born first, whether the mother of
that son was first in the date of marriage or not.
	Now let us go a little further, and look into the moral character of
Elkanah and his two wives. Was Elkanah, the father of Samuel the prophet, a
good man? Were Elkanah's wives good women, that gave themselves in perpetual
wedlock to one and the same man, and had many children by him? Now, Hannah,
one of these wives, was barren, and had no children; yet Hannah was a firm
believer, and she knew the Scriptures; and she knew that children were the
heritage of the Lord, and the thought of being deprived of that heritage
grieved her soul and made her spirit sorrowful continually before the Lord.
She knew that her barrenness would be ascribed by her sisters to some
displeasure which the Lord entertained towards her; because that one of the
greatest blessings which the Lord could confer upon a woman, would consist in
making her a mother of nations, like Sarah of old; therefore she gave the Lord
no rest till she obtained the promise made to Abraham and Sarah, and bore
Samuel, and lent him to the Lord, according to her promise and covenant, all
the days of his life. Her faith and her conduct so pleased the Lord, that he
blessed her more abundantly than she at first dared to ask. He gave her three
more sons and two daughters.
	Who now, after reading this history, can even doubt for a moment that
Elkanah's wife ranked with holy [200] women, and Elkanah, the husband of two
wives, ranked with holy men. And God not only authorized the marriage of one
man to several women, but also blessed all concerned in it, even with the
greatest blessings, as we shall soon discover.
	"Well," says one, "did God really give some of the greatest and best of
men, many wives, because he was pleased with that domestic order and plan for
holy and righteous purposes, whereby the righteous would outnumber the wicked
and surpass them in wisdom, might, happiness, and dominion? Or did he barely
suffer it as a contingent weakness of nature, without really justifying the
practice?"
	I reply, he not only permitted it, but he actually revealed it as an
abiding and everlasting law of his kingdom. He himself, the Great Jehovah,
commanded in the beginning, that men should marry and multiply; and he
prescribed the penalty for violating a marriage contract. He joined men and
women together through an appointed and consecrated order of men, and no man
could take the honor and office of marrying a couple without his authority.
The Lord has told us that he gave the wives of King Saul into David's bosom,
to become the wives of David. Why did he so? Because Saul broke his
commandment and became wicked, the Lord took the wives of Saul and gave them
to David, whom Saul sought to kill. But David also, after a time, forgetting
the strict mandates of God in regard to marrying and the everlasting shield of
protection thrown around his neighbor's wife, took the wife of Uriah to his
bosom without the approbation of God or his Prophet Nathan, and then sought to
cover his crime by blood-guiltiness. But God cursed him for it, and then took
away his wives and gave [201] them to another. He, in reproving David, told
him that he would have given him more wives if he had asked him. Hereby we
learn that God himself gives men many wives that are faithful and obedient,
and takes them away from transgressors. If King Saul had been allowed to keep
his many wives after death, he would still have the signal blessings of such
good men as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
	Having shown that God has commanded marriage,a nd that he determines
whether a man may have many wives or few, or none at all, I next proceed to
show that the promise of God, of which so much is said in the Old and also in
the New Testament, pre-eminently and emphatically pertains to the increase of
the kingdom of God, to which there is no end. It pertains to the seed of the
righteous. Don't startle, sir, at my position, but read and ponder well what I
say, before you condemn it or allow yourself to condemn that which you have
not examined. The Apostles of Jesus Christ said that those who had the faith
of Abraham were heirs of the same promise. What, the Holy Apostles of Jesus
Christ concerned in encouraging and countenancing plurality of wives? "Awful!"
says one, "I don't want to read or hear any more." But hold a moment. Do
thyself no harm. Be patient and receive the truth, for truth is better than
gold. And this is God's truth, of which the Holy Ghost will bear witness to
you as well as me, if you will honestly receive his testimony; and my prayer
is that you will not resist the Holy Ghost. The Apostles of Christ thought
that a man or woman did pretty well, if they had the faith of Abraham, and
obtained the same promise. Such persons would be very likely to get into the
same heaven with Abraham. When God told Abra-[202]ham that he would make of
him a great nation through obedience, he believed it. But there was one thing
Abraham did not believe, and could not believe. "What is that?" say you. He
did not believe that he should ever become a great nation while he had no
child. As good a man as he was, he would have staggered at such an idea. From
the very day that God made a covenant with Abraham, Abraham became anxious
concerning a posterity. "Well," says one, "this doctrine looks strange to me.
It seems to have a carnal and fleshly bearing, and a spirit that looks
mysterious to me. It is very different from what I have always been taught. I
have been taught to believe that holiness and purity of heart, faith, hope,
and charity, were the main things for Abraham or any other Saint to obtain, in
order to get to heaven. And if I possess all these, I think that I shall do
well enough if I never am married, or have any children at all." I have no
doubt many an objector thinks as you do. But sir, let me ask you--are you one
of Abraham's children? Do you, in the end of your probation here, expect to go
into Abraham's bosom and sit down in the kingdom of God, with Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob? Even with those old and notorious polygamists? "Well," says the
objector, "I really don't know what to think. I know that Paul says that we
are heirs of the same promise Isaac was. And Isaac was a child of promise
obtained by great faith and hope, obedience, and mighty prayer on the part of
his parents."
	Was it really the great aim of Abraham, in walking before God and
becoming perfect, to become the father of an innumerable posterity of
righteous children, whereby he might reign over them as king and ruler under
Christ forever? Was this the heritage that God would give him? [203] Was it
for this that he anxiously prayed? Was this the blessing that God promised?
Was this promise the blessing which all Abraham's children are to inherit
through faith, and the thing which they are to seek after in whatever age of
the world they may live? Yes, dear sir, this was the promise made to Abraham.
The land of Canaan was the place for him and his seed after him. This land,
however, would have been almost entirely valueless to Abraham if he had never
had any children to possess it with him. Now, dear sir, I want you to
understand that the promise made to Abraham, and to all that have the faith of
Abraham, is the greatest promise that could be made to him, and one that
contains the richest, purest, and most exalted blessings conceivable. Let no
man for a moment attach the least idea of impurity, or of selfish carnality,
to any promise made to Abraham, or any of God's covenant, law-abiding people.
For the Holy One of Israel gives none but purely good gifts to faithful
people. If you have thought that the promise of a great posterity to Abraham
springing from his own loins, tended to sinful lust, and expressed the same
with a sneer, may God forgive you through speedy repentance and turning from
the error of your ways. Be assured that the God of all the earth does not try
men in the most rigid ordeal, as he did Abraham, and then, after the most full
and complete acceptance of his long-scrutinized integrity and faith, proceed
to make him a promise under all the sanctions of an oath and covenant, while
that same promise is a mere trifle--a doubtful blessing. If tradition has led
you to entertain any such notion, examine your views at once, and renounce
your errors, lest they make the promises of God of none effect, and thereby
destroy your soul.
[204] I would here say, that the promise made to Abraham and all who are heirs
of the same promise through faith, extends to all generations, in this life,
and to all generations to come, for ever and ever. That is, Abraham and Sarah
will continue to multiply, not only in this world, but in all worlds to come.
And the same is true of all the sons and daughters that obtain a fullness of
the promise made to Abraham.
	Now, sir, take a little time, and look at the promise made to Abraham and
Sarah, and see if it is not ample to satisfy the most exalted conceptions of
any holy beings. For a moment, suppose it possible to sunder all social and
family ties, then you will see man separate and distinct from every member of
the family of his heavenly Father. What a spectacle of wretchedness and
desolation!
	Again, surround the father and mother with thousands of millions of fond
and righteous children, then lop off one branch after another until all is
gone. What is the result? Every blow that excinds a member from those fond
parents opens a fountain of grief and sorrow inexpressible. Why? Because, the
fondest hopes and richest joys of affection and inextinguishable love were
there garnered up by the strong cords of consanguinity and family
relationship.
	Are there any ties so endearing? so fruitful of happiness? Are there any
so painful to be sundered? Hear the language of a father over the dead body of
a departed son. "Oh Absalom! my son, my son, would to God I had died for thee,
my son! "Have you followed the companion and wife of your youth, and the
mother of your children, to the silent charnel-house of death! Even there, you
have felt an inexpressible draught upon the fountain of your bliss! No
language could portray the [205] deep anguish and grief of your soul on that
occasion. With her you had become one, even as one flesh. For sake you would
have left the father that dandled upon his knees, and whose noble brow had
sweat in order to supply your early wants. For her sake you would have left
the maternal embrace of her that pillowed upon her bosom with sweet kisses and
honeyed epithets. You did not leave them because you loved the parents less;
but you loved the wife more. By marriage you have now entered upon a higher
law of affinity, and had thrown around you a stronger bond of affection, for
the increase of bliss and the perpetuity of celestial ties. When that wife is
laid low in death (for whose sake you might be willing to lay down your life,
even as Christ laid down his life for the Church), you feel an inexpressible
pang of anguish which nothing but the resurrection can soothe or allay. And I
do not mean the resurrection of a sister merely, or of an immortal being. No,
far from this. I mean the resurrection of the wife! the identical wife of your
bosom; that will allay and soothe your anguish. You would not, you cannot,
mourn the death of a female that is not your wife, as you would for a wife.
Will the resurrection return you a mere female acquaintance that is not to be
the wife of your bosom in eternity? No. God forbid. But it will restore you
the wife of your bosom immortalized, who shall bear children from your own
loins in all worlds to come, and that without pain or sorrow in travail. This,
sir, was couched in the promise made to Abraham. This makes the promise great.
This, sir, strengthens, enhances, and immortalizes ties of the richest,
sweetest texture. Companion and wife of my youth! Mother of my orphan
children! Shall I then press you once more to my bereaved bosom,
im-[206]mortalized, beatified, and glorified! Ah, yes. Sweet hope! Glorious
promise! Precious wedlock! Hallelujah to the God of Abraham, that has made
such a covenant! He has renewed his covenant unto Isaac and Jacob, and through
Paul, and all the Apostles, he has confirmed the same for an everlasting
covenant in all generations.
	The grave has no victory, death has lost its sting through the new and
everlasting covenant made known to Abraham. Husbands and wives will be
reunited. Parents and children will resume their place in the family order,
and then will the mother that was once childless (until God heard her prayer,
and promised to make her a mother of nations) rejoice unspeakably in receiving
the filial affection of her loved ones. Do the son and daughter ever know how
to appreciate their great obligations to their parents before they have had
children of their own? No, by no means. Do the human family know how to
appreciate their deep indebtedness to God their heavenly Father, before they
themselves have filled the place of parents? No, never. If you could suppose a
large society built up without family ties, you would find the essential
ligaments and sinews of that society absolutely wanting. All that gives tune
and harmony to the social compact is entirely absent. Take these ties away
from any supposable social compact, and no government or social organization,
I venture to say, could ever be perfected, or even maintain any more than a
short-lived existence. Fallen angels that kept not their first estate are
chained, by not being permitted to multiply lives; and from them came the
doctrine of devils that forbids men to marry. A more effectual plan for
destroying the happiness and stability of human society was never invented by
the devil, than to forbid men to marry. If [207] that plan were carried out,
it would assimilate the condition of the human family to that of the fallen
angels, as much as any one thing that we can conceive of. Do not startle, sir,
if I should tell you that monogamy, or the one-wife system, adopted throughout
Christendom, is a very defective system. It does not answer the demands of
society, and it is altogether inferior to the Patriarchal system of polygamy,
as introduced by God himself. Debauchery and whoredoms are pre-eminently
practiced among Christian nations, where the former system is generally
established by the law of the land. Heathen nations, previous to their
intercourse with Christian nations, have been comparatively free from these
abominable lusts. How awfully did the sons of Jacob avenge the abuse of their
sister Dinah, upon the perpetrators of that debauchery. Yet their father, a
mighty prophet of God, had taught them the propriety of having many wives.
	One thing further. Sir, do not take offence if I prefer a serious charge
against Christianity, touching this very thing. But hear it calmly, for
Christianity must be weighed in the balances, with all her boasted
institutions. Her supposed fine jewels, but rather meretricious ornaments,
must be taken away. The time is at hand when that attire with which she has
played the harlot, by forbidding marriage, or limiting it where God has not
limited it, must be regarded as refuse silver. In the law of marriage, all
Christendom has broken the new and everlasting covenant made with Abraham. In
the fulfillment of that covenant, God gave Abraham many wives and concubines,
and thereby expressed his designs how all the faithful seed of Abraham, in all
generations and future worlds, should fulfill the command of Jehovah to
multiply [208] and replenish. But Christendom, in the face and front of this
covenant, has not only broken it, but by legal enactments, forbidden all men
within the pale of her wide dominion, to keep or observe it. The established
order of Patriarchs and Prophets, and the revealed will of heaven, have been
set at nought.
	The old way marks, that guided the brightest exemplars of obedience to
heavenly mandates, from Abraham to John the Revelator, have been most
sacrilegiously trampled under foot. Remember, sir, that the covenant made with
Abraham, was everlasting, and it also embraced all the righteous seed of like
faith, not only through and during the Apostolic age, but in all ages of the
world. But how can this covenant be fulfilled in Christendom? Now, go forth
from one side of Christendom to the other, from East to West, and from North
to South, and tell me in what corner of Christendom, Abraham, or any like him,
could dwell in peace with his wives and concubines? Or Elkanah and his wives?
Or David, with his own wives, and the wives of King Saul, which God gave him?
Or what King, even though he had the wisdom and integrity of Solomon, before
his transgression, could live in security with his hundreds of wives? But I
forbear to multiply examples and questions of this sort. The laws of Christian
nations are an unmistakable answer to these serious questions. These laws
would indict heavy penalties of distress and infamy upon such men. And these
laws too are the laws of Christian nations. The Turk and the Heathen have
never cast the first vote to enact these laws. "Well," say, Christendom, "if
we have made such laws, and these laws are nothing less than a violation of
the everlasting covenant made with Abraham and all his seed, what is the
harm?" Says one [209] denomination of Christians, (and many others join with
them in the defence,) "I still think the laws are pretty good, and no one man
should have more than one wife." Well, Christian, you have a brazen front, not
only to break the everlasting covenant, but also to go a step, yea, a long,
bold stride, further, by justifying the act. Now, Christian denominations,
seeing you have joined together to justify yourselves, there is no other way
than to bring you to a speedy trial for your obstinate defence of such laws as
prevent the full development of the everlasting covenant. Now to the proof of
your guilt. We will call in but one witness, whose testimony is in all cases
conclusive and the end of all controversy. Well, let us hear who is this
all-sufficient witness, that dares to confront all Christendom, and arraign
the conduct of many great and devout nations. Well, the witness is no less
than the God of Jacob, the King over all kings.
	What does he say about transgressing the laws and breaking the covenant
by which such men as Abraham were to become a multitude of people that could
not be numbered by any figures that the ingenuity of man could invent or even
conceive of? He says, "the EARTH IS DEFILED! under the inhabitants thereof,
because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the
everlasting covenant; therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they
that dwell therein are desolate." Here, sir, is the testimony of God as to
what has been the result of breaking the marital laws and covenant. Almost
universal defilement, prostitution, abortion, the natural affections turned
out of their legitimate channel, and virtually extinguished, and men and women
have become filled with jealousy, envy, and every abominable lust, and but for
purposes of commerce and selfish gain, [210] would hardly mingle together.
More mischief and crime are traceable to the perversion and misunderstanding
of the marriage rite than to any other ordinance ever instituted by men.
	Domestic organization is the first and foremost foundation of all
society, and of all government. And if the foundation be removed, what shall
the righteous do? The righteous can neither preserve themselves from
defilement nor others. Hence the whole earth is defiled. If I had the voice of
a trumpet and the engine of superhuman power, I would penetrate the ears of
all Christendom with a sense of this awful, defiling, desolating sin! I would
at once call the attention of congress and parliament, and civil and
ecclesiastic cabinets, to this one great foundation of society. I would show
them that this is not only a foundation, but it is the foundation of society.
Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid. Whatever
superstructures are built upon any other foundation, will be attended with
unspeakable defilement and desolation to all who build thereon. "But," says
one, "I wish you would tell us distinctly what is the true and only foundation
of all social order and government that shall bring mankind to the zenith of
perfection and glory? and where shall I look to find it? "Well, now listen,
and hear attentively, and I will tell you unmistakably; or rather I will stand
aside and let higher authority tell you. The Lord, yea, the Lord God shall
tell you where to look. Therefore hear thou him. And what does He say? He
says, "look unto Abraham, your Father, the rock from whence ye were hewn, and
unto Sarah, that bare you?" There you have it, right from the Lord. O!
Christendom. There you have it, all ye legislators and rulers! There it is,
simple and plain, all ye reformers and [211] philanthropists, just as it fell
from the lips of our Maker.
	Abraham is the rock--the father of the faithful! and Sarah is the mother
and pattern for all women! She was the bright pattern of conjugal loyalty and
faith for females, wives, and mothers, of all ages. When she had not child of
her own, and she knew by revelation that her domestic bliss for time and all
eternity was involved in becoming a mother; then, yes, then, she stepped forth
and gave Hagar to her husband, for to be his wife, and a mother of his
children. By that act the heartstrings of the wife were felt after, and
stretched to their utmost power of endurance. She had given to her husband the
beauty and joy of her youth--the captivating loveliness of female affections
and unsullied virtue for scores of years, and now, God called upon her to
divide or share her husband with another, that husband, with whom her artless
love and guileless confidence had been garnered up for many years as safely
(in her view) as in the pavilion of the Eternal Throne. She believed Abraham
still, and while the deepest struggle that ever pervaded the bosom of
innocence and loveliness was threatening her breast, victory declared in her
favor, and salvation shone as glittering pearls in the coronet of Sarah, from
that day. Heaven could not withhold from her the desire of her heart. An
endless perpetuity of lives became hers. The hitherto desolate and barren
could now smile at the reward of her triumph, and look prophetically forward
upon the endless train of her offspring, surpassing the dust of the earth for
number. Daughters of Israel! Look unto Sarah; her that bare you. If you suffer
with her, you shall reign with her. Hear it! You shall be heirs of the same
promise! Paul and all holy Apostles bear me witness that I speak the truth and
lie not. A queen's [212] coronet awaits you. With Rachel, Hannah, Elizabeth,
and Mary, you shall swell the chorus of thanksgiving and holy rejoicings
throughout all ages.
	But to whom are the righteous sons of men to look? I answer, they are to
look unto Abraham our father; he is our example and pattern. He is the rock
that the gates of hell will not prevail against, as much as Peter was, and
obtained the testimony of God that he would command his children and his
household before the Lord. But because men have not looked to the covenant
made with him, and observed the laws thereof, and the ordinance thereof, the
earth is defiled and the inhabitants cursed, and a universal desolation of men
is speedily threatened. If the present order of things in Christendom is
suffered to come to a legitimate issue, the time is at hand when few men will
be left. But many women comparatively will be left. The strong ties of society
are nearly all sundered. The marriage ties instituted by Christendom are a
mere rope of sand. A few years will show that these ties are based merely upon
the authority of man, and by no means founded upon the authority of God. When
this fact is discovered, society will swing loose from its fastenings and
former moorings, a miserable wreck in the swift wake of the dreadful cataract!
Wars and abominations will spread over the earth, until it is empty and
desolate.
	Are there many in Christendom that attach any divine sanctions to
Christian marriage? No, there are not. Tradition and education are the
principal impediments against an unbridled and pernicious intercourse of the
sexes. These impediments are almost entirely demolished in high places,
whether civil or ecclesiastical. It is only a few sects of very limited
numbers and influence, that [213] suppose God has had anything to do in
solemnizing the marriage rite, as it is generally observed among Christian
nations. One excellency of Abraham was, that he would never venture to take a
wife, unless he obtained permission and revelation from the Lord to do so.
When he acquired a wife, the favor was obtained of the Lord, as the lawful
giver of that wife. When he was united in marriage with any woman, it was God
who joined them together, and no mere man had a right to put them sunder
without permission from the same source. Abraham walked before God with a
perfect heart. Isaac and Jacob did the same, and commanded their wives and
children and households to do the same. Accordingly God fulfilled his promise,
and multiplied them, and declared that he would abide in that covenant in all
successive generations of them that kept his laws. But did they marry without
first obtaining a revelation to do so from heaven? No, never! Had they ever
married without divine permission and revelation, under divinely delegated
hands, they would have been guilty of breaking the covenant and transgressing
the laws of that covenant. If David had asked God for more wives, the Lord
says that he would have given him such and such things. But he trusted in the
authority of a king, entirely dispensing with any revelation from God; the
result of his conduct was, that he became as one that had no wife at all. Yea,
he broke the covenant, and changed the ordinance of marriage from divine
permission to self-permission and became desolate. He therefore, in
consequence of that, became utterly desolate of wives or children for the
world to come. The whole Jewish nation professed allegiance to God, yet Jesus
denied their authority to multiply and increase--calling them an adulterous
generation. They [214] had substituted human permission and mere human
authority to marry in place of divine revelation; hence their connection was
adulterous, and their children being illegitimate, could not claim the promise
pertaining to Abraham's seed. Now, God always kept a record of the lineage of
Abraham's seed, and of necessity a record of their marriages. Consequently an
unlawful marriage would vitiate the connection, and render the offspring
illegitimate as to divine inheritance, and make void the promise of God to all
such children whether Jew or Christian. In the days of Ezra the Prophet, many
persons sent in their request for a share in the office of the Priesthood; but
though diligent search was made in all the records to discover their lineage
rights to the same, as there was no record found, they were rejected; and thus
it will be in the resurrection, with all those whose names and marriages are
not found on record. And they that have wives will be as though they had none,
and they that have children will be as though they had none. For all contracts
and alliances that are not made according to the covenants and laws made in
Abraham, will be null and void after this life, and of no more force or
obligation whatever. "Well," says a member of Christendom, "if these things
are so, I have been greatly deceived, and wish speedily to be set right; I
truly love her whom I have been accustomed to call my wife, and I should not
wish to be separated from her in the eternal world, nor from our dear
children. Is it too late for me to make sure my title to her and our
children?" No, sir. Walk before God and be thou perfect, and thou shalt be an
heir of Abraham. If you want your wife to all eternity, that which was said to
David is applicable to you--"If thou hadst asked, I would have given thee."
Objector, do you [215] hear this which God says to David? "If thou hadst
asked." But why should men ask God when they want marry? The true answer
is--That they may get revelation and permission. Did Abraham always ask God
when he wanted to get a wife? Most assuredly he did. Was this a part and
condition of the everlasting covenant? It was. Was it a perpetual law of that
covenant that no man should take a wife without the authority of revelation
from God? It was. Was there any "ordinance" or ceremony of marriage necessary
to be conformed to? Most assuredly. Could any man, without regard to his
standing before God, administer this ordinance? No! no! by no means. He must
be a man that walks before God with a perfect heart, in order that God can
condescend to converse with him and reveal his mind to him.
	"Well," says the objector, "might not men, even magistrates and rulers,
so change the ordinance of marriage that they would not be obliged to ask God
every time, and go to some Revelator or Prophet to solemnize the marriage?"
No! no! Never! never! The laws of this covenant are everlasting and
unchangeable. David was a great king, and had as good a right to enact laws
and institute ordinances of marriage, or abolish them, or change them, as any
mere man whatever. But King David had no right, and he still smarts under the
loss and damage he sustained by his temerity, when he neglected to "ask" God.
Jesus Christ says of David, "He has not ascended into heaven." Who does not
know that if children are conceived in sin, or by an unlawful marriage of
their parents, the taint of corruption and fornication will naturally cleave
to them as a besetting predisposition to sin! This truth David acknowledged
and deplored when he transgressed the laws and broke the everlasting [216]
covenant. There is, perhaps, no evil more pernicious to the human family than
sexual defilement. This evil is moral, social, political, and spiritual. It
affects the body, soul, and spirit of man, and extends its influence through
time and throughout all eternity, except as it is arrested by the mighty hand
of God. Some have attempted to stay the tide of prostitution, purge society of
gross debauchery and licentiousness; but their efforts are all in vain, though
their motives may be humane and kind. First make the tree good, or lay the axe
at the root thereof. The root of the evil lies in breaking the covenant of
marriage as instituted with Abraham. Therefore the earth is defiled, and a
curse rests upon the inhabitants.
	"Well," says one, "if these things are true, and the ordinance of divine
marriage is of such unspeakable consequence and importance, I wonder the New
testament does not say more about it." I reply, the New Testament says much
about it. The New Testament gives more prominence to this ordinance, if
possible, than the Old Testament. But wisdom is profitable in all things. If
the Apostles had to do with a whole generation that was adulterous, and who
had broken the laws and covenants made with Abraham, the Apostles would be
likely to instruct the people first to walk before God perfectly, through
faith, repentance, and baptism, even as the gospel was preached to Abraham.
And when the people were brought to believe in the necessity of a revelation
from God, and were ready to subscribe to the conditions of that great promise
made to Abraham, then would be sufficient time to show them through what
ordinance, laws, and covenant, they could become the fathers of great nations
and the mothers of great nations. John did at the very beginning lay the axe
at the root, and told the whole nation of Jews--Abra-[217]ham's posterity--to
repent, and bring forth the fruits of Abraham, and do the works of Abraham, if
they would become his children and heirs of the same great promise. How could
they be an adulterous generation if they had walked in the footsteps of
Abraham, as to sexual connection? Almost in the beginning of the New Testament
history, Zacharias, the father of John, while speaking of the birth and name
of his son, John the Baptist, represents the circumstance as a "remembrance"
of the "promise" made to our fathers Abraham, etc., and also as a fulfillment
of the oath and covenant made with Abraham. His words are as follow--"To
perform the mercy promised our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant, the
oath which he swore to our father Abraham."
	Now Zacharias was a Prophet well versed in the knowledge of the true
nature of the "promise" made to Abraham, and the "oath and covenant." He knew
that the "promise" and "covenant" had special reference to posterity, or an
innumerable offspring. He knew, too, that he could not have the blessings of
that "covenant," neither could he be an "heir" of the same "promise" without
children. But Zacharias and his wife Elizabeth were old and had no children.
Now they had the same concern about posterity that Abraham and Sarah had, and
also that Jacob and Rachael had, and likewise that Elkanah and Hannah had.
Their prayer went up to God continually. "Lord, let me be a partaker of the
`promise' made to Abraham, and of the blessings of the same `covenant.' "But
though Zacharias was a very good man, and his wife a very good woman, his
faith was not quite strong as Abraham's. He prayed mightily for a son, but
when an angel came and made him the same "promise" in his old age, that was
made to Abraham, his faith [218] wavered, while Abraham staggered not at the
"promise." But when the "promise" was fulfilled, he acknowledged with great
joy and thankfulness that God was true to His "promise" and "covenant" made
with Abraham and the fathers. Now, who does not see that God was determined to
fulfill this "covenant" and "promise" with all the faithful seed of Abraham in
every generation of them that keep his laws. Neither age nor barrenness, nor
any other obstacle, should prevent the faithful from inheriting the "promise."
And Mary, too, the mother of Jesus, gives her testimony to the same effect,
and in support of the same "covenant" and "promise." She was a virgin and
unmarried, yet full of faith. Her testimony is, "He hath holpen his servant
Israel in remembrance of His mercy, as He spake to our fathers, to Abraham,
and to his seed forever." Now, if persons in those days understood the nature
and perpetuity of the "covenant" with Abraham, as well as Mary did, they never
would ask if the New Testament said much relating to posterity, and
consequently to the "covenant" and ordinance and laws regulating the ordinance
by which that posterity is to be propagated and made lawful "heirs" of the
promises. In the 7th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, while speaking of
the Hebrews in Egypt, the writer says, in these words--"When the time of the
promise drew nigh which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and
multiplied in Egypt." Now, whoever reads this history alluded to by Luke, will
discover a most remarkable fruitfulness and increase of that people, perhaps
unequalled by any other people in the records of time. In the short period of
four hundred and thirty-two years, an increase from seventy-two persons to
probably near 3,000,000, exclusive of deaths. Pharaoh, king of Egypt, alarmed
at [219] their increase, says that they had become more numerous than the
Egyptians, and hence they resorted to cruel oppression in order to check their
growth. The Abrahamic system of plurality was hereby demonstrated to give
Israel a great advantage over others. The Egyptians could not defeat the
purpose of God, and his "oath" and "promise" to Abraham concerning this
increase. Neither can men frustrate His purpose and "promise" to Abraham
concerning the Latter-day Saints, the seed of Abraham, in which he has
resolved to increase and multiply them exceedingly, because the time of the
promise has fully come, in which he will make the seed of Abraham of this day
and age to multiply and become a great nation. Let the nations of the earth
renew the ancient cruelties if possible, and slay all of our male children,
and enact laws against a plurality of wives, and they will find themselves
engaged in a warfare against the God of Jacob. And they will find themselves
thwarted and entirely foiled in all such wicked purposes. God will fulfill His
promise to all His children in every generation.
	Jesus has promised, that if any man hath left father and mother, wife and
children, etc., for his sake and the Gospel's, he shall have an hundred-fold
in this time, and in the world to come life everlasting. No one should doubt
this "promise." It will be fulfilled unto the uttermost.
	Why was the law instituted, that when a man died, his brother (who might
be supposed already to have a wife) was required to take his widow and raise
up children unto the deceased? What advantage could the deceased derive from
the increase of his children after his death? We answer, none; unless the
deceased could come into possession of those children in eternity, and they
become a part of the nation over whom he is to preside.
[220] This is the Bible truth of the matter. The increase of the righteous is
aided and guarded by divine laws, not only in this world, but out of the world
also. A righteous man's rights are secured to him by the Almighty, before he
dies, and after his death. And the dearest and most sacred rights which a man
has, and the richest treasures which he can possess, either in time or
eternity, are vested in his family, as we have previously shown. Men's wives
and children are dearer--far dearer, and infinitely more valuable than their
houses and lands. But God secures to his covenant people, not only their
lands, hut their wives and their children. Although Abraham has not yet got
possession of the land of Canaan, yet he is sure to possess it, with his
family. He loved his wives and would have died for them, as every righteous
man should be willing to do. And if men do not appreciate the family ties,
even as Abraham did, they are not worthy to enjoy them, and deserve to be
ranked and classed off with those who are "without natural affection, covenant
breakers, backbiters, disobedient to parents, haters of God." They hate Cod,
because the things that God loves, they hate; and the persons that God loves,
they hate. God loved Abraham, and loved the family order and the domestic
relations which Abraham instituted. And He loved David and Solomon, so far as
they carried out and observed the same order. Men who hate the pure and
righteous family order instituted by Abraham, Jacob, and all the Prophets,
will also hate God. Why? Because he is the lover and friend of the same order.
Yea, he is the sole founder and determined supporter of that very order. And
any warfare against that order is a warfare against God. And there is no
better mark of infallible enmity to God than to see a man opposing the order
of [221] God knowingly. It is a sure evidence that such a man has not the
faith which Abraham or Zacharias possessed, and that he is not a fit subject
to join Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the Kingdom of God, either in this world
or the next. Abraham's faith led him to value this very same domestic order
and privilege more than his country, or houses and lands, or even his life. He
never would be contented till he obtained a promise from God, that he should
have this very thing that I am talking about. And when a man undervalues this
"promise," he not only shows himself to be destitute of a saving faith, but
also destitute of the essential germ of natural affection, to that degree that
he is very liable to become a scoffer and mocker of the "last days," "speaking
evil" of such "dignities" as Abraham and Brigham and all other illustrious
Prophets and sons of God. He is very likely to represent the "grace" of God to
be "lasciviousness." He is very likely to consider the "promise" made to
Abraham, which all holy men and women prized as grace and favor, to be no
favor, but rather a system of carnal abomination; and to sneer at it as such.
Thereby he seeks to uproot and demolish the very foundation laid by Prophets
and Apostles. And women, too, that knowingly undervalue this "promise," and
Patriarchal order, do most alarmingly manifest symptoms of being without
natural affection, and destitute of the faith and righteousness of holy women
of old, and insensible to the blessing of becoming mothers of nations, and
wearing the coronet of Sarah, Rachel, Hannah, Elizabeth, and Mary. They have
forgotten the natural use of women, as revealed from heaven, and become
despisers of thrones, and dominions and principalities, and powers. Yet we
hope better things of the righteous, though we thus speak, and things that
accompany salvation.
[222] "But," says the objector, "though I admit that many parts of the New
Testament favor your views, beyond what I had ever supposed, yet I do not see
how Paul's views can harmonize with yours." I reply: Paul was an
unquestionable advocate of the "faith," and "promise," and "covenant" of
Abraham, and of the necessity of our heirship to the same "promise." "Well,
well, I admit that; but was he an advocate of marriages" I reply yes; Paul was
a firm advocate of marriage. The notion that marriage was not very necessary,
and that men should be limited and forbidden to marry more than one wife, or
even any wife at all, was being introduced in his day. And this anti-Christian
notion was threatening to break the covenant, and kill off the Apostles and
bring in a most damnable heresy. Paul boldly calls "forbidding to marry," a
doctrine of devils. The devil not being allowed to have a body, or to marry,
and the children of this wicked one not being allowed to have a body for one
thousand years after death, or to marry in that time, it is very befitting the
devil's ethics to forbid Abraham's seed to marry. If he should succeed in the
prevention of marriage he would make the promise to Abraham null and void, and
God a liar, and demolish the whole plan of salvation, and defile the whole
earth. Hence there is no one thing named within the lids of the Bible to which
the devil is more opposed than to the Patriarchal system of marriage. He would
probably offer a higher bounty to any Pharisee, or other person, to come into
his service in opposition to that system, than for any other campaign
whatever. If he could not break up that system, his next best move would be to
kill off Abraham's seed, and the advocates of the system. Hence the devil
sought to have Esau kill Jacob, a child of "promise;" and the [223] Egyptians
sought to kill Moses and the male children of the Hebrews; and Herod and the
Jews sought to kill Christ, the promised seed. And, if I mistake not the
spirit of prophecy, he will again wage a bloody war against this system, and
all who believe in the same system and "promise."
	Well, what more did Paul say, besides calling antimarriage the devil's
doctrine? Why, he goes straight forward and insists that the officers of the
Apostolic Church should absolutely and positively marry. Apollos and Cephas
knew their duty well enough to have a sister or wife along with them; and it
was not Paul's prerogative to direct them, who were Apostles like himself; but
he had a right, as an Apostle, to instruct inferior officers, Elders, Bishops,
and Deacons. Accordingly he does direct that they, each of them, shall have,
at least, one wife. "Well," says one, "I did not think that Paul would be so
contaminated as to teach any such thing, after saying so much as he has about
faith in the `promise' and `covenant' of Abraham and the fathers. But where do
you find it?" Read his Epistle to Titus, and that tells you how he instructed
Titus "to ordain Elders in every church, if they were blameless, and the
husband of one wife." It seems from this that Paul did not consider that an
Elder was a fit subject for ordination to the Holy Priesthood, unless he had,
at least, one wife. And if any one will read Paul's writings, they will
discover that he also positively requires that a "Bishop," which is another
order of the Priesthood, should be the husband of, at least, one wife also.
And even a "Deacon," who possesses the smallest measure of the Priesthood, is
most emphatically required to have one wife.
	Now, the conclusion of the whole matter from Paul's [224] writings is,
that every order and degree of Priesthood, from Apostles to Deacons, had more
or less wives. If Paul was an exception among Apostles (which I do not for a
moment admit), it must have been for some peculiar reasons, which I will not
now explain.
	The subject of plurality had come in a regular succession of Patriarchal
practice down to the Apostolic age; and it was only when somebody possessed of
a wicked; ignorant spirit, forbade it, or sought to be superstitiously
righteous above what was written, that Paul noticed it, which he did by
denouncing its prohibition most unsparingly as a doctrine of devils. On the
other hand, Paul sustains the first great command of God, given in the
garden--to multiply; and entering into the spirit of the Patriarchal order,
and the spirit of God, he shows that a woman is a richer prize and blessing to
a man than anything else. He shows what she is created for, and who she is
created for. He shows that a man could not even be in Christ, in the fullest
sense, without being united to a woman. "But," says one, "how does Paul show
all this? Your assertions would convey the idea that Paul was thoroughly
grounded in the faith of Abraham as to the great `promise.' Where do you find
so much proof?" Read his own words for yourself. Here they follow: "The woman
is the glory of the man." Take woman from man, and you take away the best
thing of which he can boast: you take away his crown and his glory. Again,
"the woman is created for the man." The "what for," and the "who for," need no
explanation. Again, "let the younger women marry, guide the house, and bear
children." "Marriage is honorable in all, but whoremongers and adulterers God
will judge."
	"Well," say you, "I am partly constrained to feel [225] satisfied that
all the New Testament writers fully agree with you, as to the divine authority
and perpetuity of the Patriarchal system of marriage, and increase of their
posterity; but I want one more additional proof in favor of the system, before
every relic of doubt can be swept from my mind. I want you to show me
distinctly, that Christ Jesus was ever married, or ever had a wife, or that he
ever will be married and have a wife. If you can satisfy my curiosity on this
one remaining point, then I will forbear." Well, this makes me think of a
similar question dictated by the Holy Ghost 1800 years ago. The question was
this: "Who shall declare his generation? "Now, sir, if you can believe an
angel from heaven, and the light of human eyes on this point, you will not
need much of my testimony to confirm it. A certain angel, spoken of in the
Revelation of St. John, willing to gratify curiosity upon this same
interesting subject, says to one, "Come hither, and I will show the Bride, the
Lamb's wife." Now, if that angel tells truth, he showed this interesting
personage the Bride, the Lamb's wife, to the inquisitive person who wanted to
know about the wife of Christ. Again, John the Revelator, says, most
distinctly, that the Lamb's wife hath made herself ready, and blessed are
those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Now, if the Lord has
in very deed shown unto men in the flesh, the very Bride, and wife of Christ,
and also the nuptial celebration, then an honest mind may be at rest upon this
subject. The first miracle that Jesus wrought, was used to grace a nuptial
celebration. And sir, God claims to be the Father of the human family, that
is, of our spirits; and so far as the body of Jesus our elder brother is
concerned, he is his Father in the flesh. He made a covenant with Jesus [226]
Christ, our eldest brother, that his family, after whom all heaven is named,
should increase without end. The same was repeated to Abraham, and all that
are Christ's, down to the last person that shall ever be born. The last child
of Christ that is born, whether in the Millennium or final consummation and
end of all things, will claim this "promise" of endless increase.
	"Well, before I close my queries, one thing more. Are not those awful and
multiplied denunciations contained in the Scriptures, against adultery,
fornication, Babylon, mother of abominations, whore of all the earth, spoken
against spiritual wickedness, instead of sexual and bodily lusts and
transgressions of the covenant with Abraham? "I reply, these were spoken
against actual deeds of sexual defilement in the flesh. Men are not judged on
the score of spiritualities, but they are judged for the deeds done in the
body. The whole earth is defiled by actual transgression. This general
defilement has arisen from breaking the covenant, transgressing the laws, and
changing the ordinance of marriage from divine permission to the shallow
authority of magistrates and unordained priests. The grand design of God in
bringing the spirits of men and women to occupy bodies upon this earth was, in
order to establish a system of perfect Patriarchal government, according to
the pattern of the family of Heaven. That portion of our universal family
which transgressed and warred in heaven, were indeed permitted to come to this
same earth with the rest of the human family. But when the spirits that kept
their first estate were allowed to take bodies, the disobedient were denied
this privilege. And those who kept not the "covenant" and laws of this second
estate, as revealed to Abraham, and all who are Christ's, will not be allowed
to retake their bodies after [227] death on a level with the obedient. The
heirs of the Abrahamic "promise" will retake their bodies, and resume the
family relationship, just as they are on the earth; husbands and wives,
parents and children; incorruptible and immortal, however. But where will
those be who are not heirs of the "promise"? They will be kept back, because
they kept not their second estate, for the long and dark period of a thousand
years, without those bodies which they refused to subject to the law of Christ
and Abraham. What a long, dreary dissolution of family ties--of husbands and
wives; parents and children! But I forbear. Blessed are the faithful who keep
His commandments, and have right to the tree of life, and who are not written
childless in the earth, and their names blotted out of remembrance; but are as
the willows planted by the water courses, and as a handful of corn whose fruit
shall shake as the cedars of Lebanon.
	Similar chains and imprisonment await those who abide not the laws
pertaining to this second estate. Their bodies will be withheld from them, and
their advancement in knowledge and power during an appointed time, must
measurably cease. He who holds the keys of the resurrection and endless lives,
will say to them: "Wait till I bid you come forth. The marriage feast is
indeed ready, but you are not invited guests just now. Wait till I call for
you."
					Respectfully Yours, &c.,
							ORSON SPENCER.

THE following article, on the Night of the Prophet's and Patriarch's
Martyrdom, is inserted in this volume in order to perpetuate the memories of
the just, and render to the heavens a tribute of gratitude for their manifest
interest in the tried condition of Saints on earth--
	Twenty-seventh of June, 1844. Eventful period in the calendar of the
nineteenth century! That awful night!! I remember it well--I shall never
forget it! Thousands and tens of thousands will never forget it! A solemn
thrill--a melancholy awe comes o'er my spirit! The memorable scene is fresh
before me! It requires no art of the pencil, no retrospection of history, to
portray it. The impression of the Almighty Spirit on that occasion will run
parallel with eternity! The scene was not portrayed by earthquake, or
thunderings and lightnings, and tempest; but the majesty and sovereignty of
Jehovah was felt far more impressively in the still small voice of that
significant hour, than the roaring of many waters, or the artillery of many
thunders, when the spirit of Joseph was driven back to the bosom of God by an
ungrateful and blood-guilty world. There was an unspeakable something, a
portentous significance in the firmament and among the inhabitants of the
earth. Multitudes felt the whisperings of woe and grief, and the forebodings
of tribulation and sorrow that they will never forget, though the tongue of
man can never utter it. The Saints of [229] God, whether near the scene of
blood, or even a thousand miles distant, felt, at the very moment the Prophet
lay in royal gore, that an awful deed was perpetrated. O, the repulsive chill!
the melancholy vibrations of the very air, as the prince of darkness receded
in hopeful triumph from the scene of slaughter! That night could not the
Saints sleep, though uninformed by man of what had passed with the Seer and
Patriarch, and far, far remote from the scene; yet to them sleep refused a
visitation--the eyelids refused to close--the hearts of many sighed deeply in
secret, and enquired, "Why am I thus?"
	One of the Twelve Apostles, while traveling a hundred miles from the
scene of assassination, and totally ignorant of what was done, was so
unaccountably sad, and filled with such unspeakable anguish of heart, without
knowing the cause, that he was constrained to turn aside from the road and
give utterance to his feelings in tears and supplications to God. Another
Apostle, twelve hundred miles distant, while standing in Faneuil Hall, Boston,
Massachusetts, with many others, was similarly affected, and obliged to turn
aside to hide the big tears that gushed thick and long from his eyes. Another,
President of the High Priests, while in the distant State of Kentucky, in the
solitude of midnight, being marvellously disquieted, God condescended to show
him, in a vision, the mangled bodies of the two murdered worthies, all
dripping in purple gore, who said to him, "We are murdered by a faithless
State and cruel mob."
	Shall I attempt to describe the scene at Nauvoo on that memorable
evening? If I could, surely you would weep, whatever may be your faith or
scepticism, if the feelings of humanity are lodged in your bosom; all
prejudice and mirth would slumber, till the eye of pity had [230] bedewed the
bier, and the heart had found relief in lamentation. Before another day
dawned, the messenger bore the tidings into the afflicted city; the picquet
guards of the city heard the whisper of murder in silent amazement, as the
messenger passed into the city. There the pale muslin signal for gathering the
troops hung its drooping folds from the Temple spire (as if partaking of
nature's sadness), and made tremulous utterance to the humble soldiery to
muster immediately. As the dawn made the signal visible, and the base tone of
the great drum confirmed the call, fathers, husbands, and minor sons all
seized the broken fragment of a dodger, or a scanty bone, for the service that
might be long and arduous before their return, or swallowed some thickened
milk (as might be the case) and deaf to the muster ground; the suspicious
mother and children followed to the door and window, anxious to see the
gathering hosts emerge from their watch-posts and firesides, where rest and
food were scanted to utmost endurance. The troops continued to arrive, and
stood in martial order, with a compressed lip and a quick ear. They waited
with deathly but composed silence, to hear the intelligence that mournful
spirits had saddened their hearts with during the night. The speaker stood up
in the midst, not of a uniformed soldiery of hirelings, for they had no wages;
their clothing was the workmanship of the diligent domestic--the product of
wife and daughters' arduous toil; their rations were drawn from the precarious
supplies earned in the intervals between preaching to the states and nations
of the earth, and watching against the intrusions and violence of mobs. The
speaker announced the martyrdom of the Prophet and Patriarch, and paused under
the heavy burden of the intelligence.
[231] But here I must pause; my pen shall touch lightly, as it must feebly,
that hallowed--that solemn and ever memorable hour! The towering indignation;
the holy and immutable principle of retribution for crime that dwells
eternally in the bosom of God, insensibly impelled the right hand almost to
draw the glittering sword, and feel the sharpness of the bayonet's point, and
its fixedness to the musket's mouth. But the well-planted principle of
self-command, and also of observing the order of heaven and the counsel of the
priesthood, soon returned the deadly steel to the scabbard; and the victorious
triumph of royalty to God, in committing evil-doers to him that judgeth
righteously, and who hath said, "vengeance is mine, and I will repay,"
prevailed over the billows of passion; and in the transit of a fleeting moment
the holy serenity of the soldiery, depicted by an occasional tear, showed to
angels and men, that the tempest of passion was hushed, and wholly under the
control of the spirit of wisdom and of God. It was the most unearthly and
morally sublime scene that I ever witnessed. Contemplate a city and community
of 20,000 people, whose love for their leader, the prophet of the Lord, was
warm and abiding as the love of David and Jonathan, in an evil moment betrayed
by a sovereign State! Under his instructions they had been taught the ways of
truth and salvation--they had been gathered from remote parts, even distant
islands and continents, that they might hear the word of the Lord from his
lips, and build up a city where gambling and lewdness, theft and drunkenness
should have no admittance! And the life of Joseph was considered so necessary
to the work of God, and the welfare of the human family, that many thousands
could readily have died in his stead, if that could have preserved his life.
But the Governor of Illinois, the Commander-in-Chief of 80,000 organized
militia, threatened the speedy demolition of the whole city of Nauvoo, if
Joseph was [232] not delivered up to him for trial on the antiquated charge of
treason! He made the most solemn assurance, and pledged the sacred faith of
the State, that he should be kept safe and unharmed until he could have a fair
and impartial trial. But oh! the cruel perfidy of that modern Nero, the
Governor! and the bloody butchery of the soldiery (some of whom had been
disbanded and others had not), that could deliberately murder innocent and
helpless men, that had surrendered at discretion, after all the strongest
assurance of protection! The soldiery in Nauvoo numbered near four thousand,
while those in alliance with the bloody perpetrators in the county were not
more than one-half the number. They would have been an easy prey to the
merited revenge of the outraged force at Nauvoo; but that force bore the
outrages with coolness and wisdom that have never been equalled by uninspired
men. They governed themselves under circumstances the most extraordinary, and
hearkened calmly to the voice of wisdom, when their pain and grief were almost
insupportable. The soldiery on the Temple square heard, but felt that there
was no adequate victim for vengeance in the county, or even in the destruction
of the whole State. Some, least tender in their hearts, found relief in tears.
In the houses of the Saints, aside from the soldiery, females, less competent
to bear the news than husbands and fathers, in some instances lost their
sanity of mind for a season; but as the sun arose and the people congregated
on the green, after being exhorted to give their enemies into the hands of Him
that judgeth righteously, tranquility and order ensued. But not so with the
mob. During all the bloody night their houses were hastily deserted by men,
women, and children. So great was the consternation and so precipitate the
flight, that even females fled in their night-clothes, almost naked, and
continued their flight amid imprecations and shrieks for the distance of even
fifty miles, where, exhausted and frightened, they alarmed villages, and the
city of Quincy by the ringing of bells, and the speedy gathering of every
person that could bear arms for their defence; but no man pursued, though "the
wicked fled."

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