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 both have been accustomed to in times that are
past.--Anxious seats and inquiry meetings, &c., 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 suppress 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
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 favour 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 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.
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 them 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 benefitted from, by reason of their being every where
spoken against; but 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 a 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.
Our Elders are versed in religious polemics, from discussions in the
pulpit, stage, bar-room, canal, and steam-boat, 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 them 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.
LETTER II.
IMMEDIATE REVELATION.
_Liverpool, May_ 15, 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 favoured 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 AND JUDGE OF ALL, has said that "no man
knoweth the Father but the Son, and no man knoweth the Son but he to
whom the Son revealeth 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 store-house 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. 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. Mere men and
women--servants and handmaidens--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 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 prophecy, 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, &c. 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 travels in pain, 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 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, 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 persecute 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 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.
LETTER III.
ON FAITH.
_Liverpool, June_ 1, 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
armour 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. 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 immediate revelation. They,
indeed, believed that Abraham, and Moses, and Samuel, and Noah, had
the faith of miracles, and enjoyed _immediate revelation_, and the
spirit of prophecy, &c. They believed that such an 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.)