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 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 not 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 grape 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 recognises no other
religion than that of prophets and supernatural faith, and miracles,
and immediate revelation. It is not possible to point out a single
pious man or woman, whose name or piety is recorded within the lids of
the Bible, that did not profess the same 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 believed
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, were as necessary to
salvation as they 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 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 prophecying 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 recognises 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 in 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 the local
relationship of the starry bodies in the heavens. Alas! the eager folly
of biblical researches! Send one, as well, in 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 prophecyings." But I turn
from the vain and sickening labours 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 labours
overpowers the remnant of his veracity, and he seeks an inglorious
reward for his labours 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 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 self same 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 what 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 a 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 persecutor's 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 Jambes, Judas and Herod, over
again. The former persecutors fought against new revelations, and
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 gospel 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 to
impose upon 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 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 or Enoch, Abraham or
Moses, David or 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 the 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 sevenfold 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
ruins of primitive christianity. The christian enemies to new
revelations and miracles, actually waded through the blood of apostles
and prophets, in order to establish the system of anti-revelation. And
did their descendants and abettors realise the bloody and accursed
origin of that system that wars against new regulations 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 every where 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 battle field 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 ascendency 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 coloured with human gore, is short. The records of the
suffering Waldenses, in the valleys of Piedmont, will always tell a
tale of wo, at which humanity must blush. The history of the protestant
reformation in Germany and England, including the 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.[A]
[Footnote A 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 harbour 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 passed 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, that the children
of them that slew the prophets, should deny the need of any further
revelation, 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 abomination 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 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 and 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 cast.
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 sceptical towards the prevailing religions of the day. The
scepticism 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 each instance where men and women 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 even
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 have left him! The power to
open prison doors, and of converse with angels, have 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 the
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 this 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 saints were put to
death, or became extinct from the earth, that they have any less
dominion over 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 Thummin, and Ephod and Teraphim, and been proscribed and banished,
and thousands killed and scattered, as a bye 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.
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
trifling 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.