Messenger and Advocate/3/10

← Number 9

Messenger and Advocate Volume 3, Number 10

Number 11→

Source document in Mormon Publications: 19th and 20th Centuries online archive: Messenger and Advocate Vol. 3 Note: Some headings and bracketed texts are editorial and not part of the original text.

LATTER DAY SAINTS'
MESSENGER AND ADVOCATE
Volume III. No. 10.]	KIRTLAND, OHIO, JULY, 1837.	[Whole No. 34.

COMMUNICATIONS.

The following letter we publish, because we deem it of importance to the Saints, not only here but elsewhere, that they should be possessed of accurate information relative to any, and all points concerning the location and the improvements our brethren are making in the west. We might give a flattering description of the country, but we deem it unnecessary. Most of our readers are acquainted with the geography of the country from reading, or from the oral accounts of travellers [travelers] of their own private acquaintance. We therefore give the letter entire, except a clause of a private nature and our readers can judge for themselves. FAR WEST. May 7, 1837. DEAR BROTHER IN THE LORD, Permit me to drop you a few lines to show you our progress temporally and spiritually. A multiplicity of business has prevented me from writing much the year past, but the greatness of our doings and the importance of the occasion require a recital to you for your consolation.-Monday the 3d of July, was a great and glorious day in Far West; more than fifteen hundred saints assembled in this place, and, at 1/2 past 8 in the morning, after a prayer, singing, and an address, proceeded to break the ground for the Lord's House; the day was beautiful, the Spirit of the Lord was with us, a cellar for this great edifice, 110 long by 80 broad was nearly finished: on Tuesday the fourth, we had a large meeting and several of the Missourians were baptized: Our meetings, held in the open prairie, or, in fact larger than they were in Kirtland when I was there. We have more or less to bless, confirm and, baptize every Sabbath. This same day our school section was sold at auction, and although entirely a prairie, it brought on a years credit, from 3 1/2 to $10,20 an acre, making our first school fund $5070!! Land can not be had round town now much less than $10 per acre. Our numbers increase daily, and, notwithstanding the season has been cold and backward, no one has lacked a meal, or went hungry. Provisions to be sure have risen, but not as high as our accounts say they are abroad. Public notice has been given by the mob in Davis county, north of us, for the Mormons to leave that county by the first of August, and go into Caldwell. Our enemies will not slumber, till Satan knows the bigness of his lot. Our town gains some, we have about one hundred buildings, 8 of which are stores. If the brethren abroad are wise, and will come on with means, and help enter the land and populate the Co. and build the Lord's House, we shall soon have one of the most precious spots on the Globe. God grant that it may be so. Of late we receive but little news from you: and we think much of that is exaggerated. As ever, W. W. PHELPS. N. B. Please say in your Messenger: "A Post office has been established at Far West, Caldwell County, Missouri. Our brethren will now have a chance to write to their friends." The following extract which we have taken from Milner's Church history, will show, the propensity of mankind to deviate, from that course which the God of heaven has pointed out for his servants to pursue, if they would secure his approbation. Our heavenly Father has revealed his will to the children of men so repeatedly, that no one, who has attentively read those divine communications can plead ignorance of his will, or of the gospel which he has caused to be promulgated for the salvation of mankind. He so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that the world through him might be saved. Our Savior made his appearance in the flesh, ordained his apostles, and after preaching and instructing them in the principles of his religion during three years, suffered crucifixion, and ascended to heaven. His apostles zealously propagated the religion they had embraced, notwithstanding the opposition they met and the sufferings they endured, were all

529

pointed out to them by their Master before he was taken from them.-Their lives were but a continued warfare, and what the apostle of the Gentiles said near the close of his earthly career, might with little or no variation be said by all the others. I am now about to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.-But what we particularly notice in the history of which the following is an extract, is that even in the first century, while those eminent men were yet living who received their instructions from the great head of the church, and held communion with the unseen world through the medium of that Spirit which was promised them, to lead them into truth, the great proneness in mankind to apostatize, or substitute something for religion, or some of its ordinances which the God of heaven never accepted. The great apostle of the Gentiles when he came to Miletus before he went to Rome called the elders of the church of Ephesus and charged them as follows. "Take heed therefore, to yourselves and to all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your ownselves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them." The history of the church subsequent to that period fully verifies that prediction. We therefore recommend the candid perusal of this extract, and hope our readers may profit by the instruction contained in it. Such were the perversions of the doctrine of the incarnation and atonement of the Son of God. Nor did the doctrine of justification by faith only, which St. Paul had so streneously [strenuously] supported, escape a simular [similar] treatment.-In all ages this doctrine has been either fiercely opposed, or basely abused. The epistle to the Galations [Galatians] describes the former treatment: The epistle of Jude the latter. The memoirs of these heretics, short and imperfect as they are, inform us of some, who professed an extraordinary degree of sanctity, and affected to be abstracted altogether from the flesh, and to live in excessive abtemiousness [abstemiously]. We find also that there were others, who, as if to support their Christian liberty, lived in sin with greediness, and indulged themselves in all the gratifications of sensuality. Nothing short of a spiritual illumination and direction can indeed secure the improvement of the grace of the gospel to the real interests of holiness. At this day there are persons, who think that the renunciation of all our own works in point of dependence must be the destruction of practical religion; and they are thence led to seek salvation "by the works of the law:" while others, admitting in words the grace of Jesus Christ, encourage themselves in actual sin. A truly humbled frame, and a clear insight into the beauty of holiness, through the effectual influence of the divine Spirit, will teach men to live a sanctified life by the faith of Jesus.-The Gentile converts by the Gnostic heresy, and the Jewish by that of Ebion, were considerably corrupted toward the close of the century. The latter indeed of these heresies had been gradually making progress for some time. We have seen, that the object of the first council of Jerusalem was to guard men against the imposition of Mosaic observances, and to teach them to rely on the grace of Christ alone for salvation. But self-righteousness is a weed of too quick a growth to be easily eradicated. The Pharisaic Christians, we may apprehend, were not immediately advanced to the full size of heresy. But when they proceeded to reject St. Paul's writings we may fairly conclude, that they fully rejected the article of justification.-A separation was made; and the Ebionites, as a distinct body of men, deserved the name of heritics [heretics]. St. Paul indeed, who, with an eagle's eye, had explored the growing evil, was now no more in the world.-But the HEAD of the Church prolonged the life of his favorite John to the extreme age of a hundred: and his authority checked the progress of heretical pravity. He resided much at Ephesus, where Paul had declared, that grevious [grievous] wolves would make their appearance. Jerome says, that he wrote his gospel, at the desire of the bishops of Asia, against Cerinthus and Ebion. Indeed such expressions as these, "the

530

passover, a feast of the Jews,"-and "that sabbath day was an high day," seem to indicate, that the Jewish polity was now no more, it not being natural to give such explications of customs, except to those who had no opportunity of ocular inspection. I cannot but think, that Dr. Lardner, who is no friend to the vital doctrines of Christianity, has betrayed, in his attempts to shew [show] that St. John in his gospel did not intend to oppose any particular heresies, his own predilection for Socinianism. In truth, there are various internal proofs which corroborate the testimony of Jerome. The very beginning of his gospel is an authoritive [authoritative] declaration of the proper Deity of Jesus Christ: The attentive reader cannot but recollect various discourses to the same purport: The confession of Thomas, after his resurrection, stands single in St. John's gospel: The particular pains, which he takes, to assure us of the real death of his master, and of the issuing of real blood and water from his wounded side, are delivered with an air of one, zealous to obviate the error of the Docetæ: Nor can I understand his laying so grhat [great] a stress on Jesus Christ's coming in the flesh in any other manner. While this apostle lived, the heretics were much discountenanced. And it is certain that Gnostics and Ebionites were always looked on as perfectly distinct from the Christian church.-There needs no more evidence to prove this, than their arrangement by Irenæus and Eusebius under heretical parties. Doubtless they called themselves Christians; and so did all heretics, for obvious reasons: and, for reasons equally obvious, all, who are tender of the fundamentals of Christ's religion, should not own their right to the appellation. Before we dismiss them I would remark, 1. That it does not appear by any evidence which I can find, that these men were persecuted for their religion. Retaining the Christian name; and yet glorifying man's righteousness, wisdom and strength, "they spake of the world, and the world heard them."-The apostle John in saying this, had his eye, I believe, on the Docetæ particularly. In our own times persons of a similar stamp would willingly ingratiate themselves with real Christians; and yet at the same time avoid the cross of Christ, and whatever would expose them to the enmity of the world. We have the testimony of Justin Martyr, that Simon was honored in the Pagan world, even to idolatry. What stress is laid on this circumstance in the New Testament, as an evidence of the characters of men in religious concerns, is well known. 2. If it be made an objection against evangelical principles, that numbers, who profess them, have run into a variety of abuses, perversions and contentions, we have seen enough, even in the first century, of the same kind of evils to convince us, that such objections militate not against divine trnth [truth], but might have been made with equal force against the apostolic age. 3. A singular change in one respect has taken place in the Christian world. The two heretical parties above described, were not much unlike the Arians and Socininans at this day. The former have, radically, the same ideas as the Docetæ, though it would be unjust to accuse them of the Antinomian abominations which defiled the followers of Simon: The latter are the very counterpart of the Ebionites. The Trinitarians were then the body of the Church; and so much superior was their influence and numbers, that the other two were treated as heritics [heretics]. At present the two parties, who agree in lessening the dignity of Christ, though in an unequal manner, are carrying on a vigorous controversy against one another, while the Trinitarians are despised by both as unworthy the notice of men of reason and letters. Serious and humble minds will, however, insist on the necessity of our understanding that certain fundamental principles are necessary to constitute the real gospel. The divinity of Christ,-his atonement,-justification by faith,-regeneration-these they will have observed to be the principles of the primitive Church: and within this inclosure [enclosure], the whole of that piety which produced such glorious effects has been confined: and it is worthy the attention of the learned men to consider whether the same remark may not be made in all ages. IV. Thus have we seen a more astonished revolution in the human mind and in human manners, than ever took place in any age, effected without any human power, legal or illegal, and

531

even against the united opposition of all the powers then in the world: and this too not in countries rude or uncivilized, but in the most humanized, the most learned, and the most polished part of the Globe,-within the Roman Empire,-no part of which was exempted from a sensible share in its effects.-This empire, within the first century at least, seems to have been the proper limit of Christian conquests. If an infidel or sceptic [skeptic] can produce any thing like this effected by Mahometanism, or by any other religion of human invention, he may then with some plausibility compare those religions with Christianity: But, as the gospel stands unrivalled [unrivaled] in its manner of subduing the minds of men,-the argument for its divinity from its propagation in the world, will remain invincible. And, surely, every dispassionate observer must confess, that the change was from BAD to GOOD. No man will venture to say, that the religious and moral principles of Jews and Gentiles, before their conversion to Christianity, were good. The idolatries, abominations, and ferocity of the Gentile world will be allowed to have been not less than they are described in the first chapter to the Romans: and the writings of Horace and Juvenal will prove, that the picture is not exaggerated.-The extreme wickednes [wickedness] of the Jews is graphically delineated by their own historian, and is neither denied nor doubted by any one. What but the influence of God, and an effusion of his Holy Spirit,-the first of the kind since the coming of Christ, and the measure and standard for regulating our views of all succeeding ones,-can account for such a change? From the Acts of the Apostles and their Epistles, I have drawn the greater part of the narative [narrative]; but the little that has been added from other sources is heterogeneous.-Here are thousands of men turned from the practice of every wickedness to the practice of every virtue: many, very suddenly, or at least in a short space of time, reformed in understanding, in inclination, in affection; knowing, loving, and confiding in God; from a state of mere selfishness converted into the purest philanthropists; living only to please God and to exercise kindness toward one another; and all of them, recovering really, what philosophy only pretended to,-the dominion of reason over passion; unfeignedly subject to their maker; rejoicing in his favor amidst the severest sufferings; and serenely waiting for their dismission into a land of blissful immortality.-That all this Must be of God is demonstrative:-but the important inference, which teaches the divine authority of Christ, and the wickedness and danger of dispising [despising], or even neglecting him, is not always attended to by those who are most concerned in it. But the Christian Church was not yet in possession of any external dignity or political importance. No one NATION as yet was Christian, though thousands of individuals were so;-but those chiefly of the midling [middling] and lower ranks. The modern improvements of civil society have taught men. However, that these are the strength of a nation; and that whatever is praise-worthy is far more commonly diffused among them, than among the noble and great. In the present age it should be no disparagement to the character of the first Christians, that the Church was chiefly composed of persons too low in life, to be of any weight in the despotic systems of government which then prevailed. We have seen one person of uncommon genius and endowments, and two belonging to the Imperial family, but scarce any more, either of rank or learning, connected with Christianity. We ought not then to be surprised, that Christians are so little noticed by Tacitus and Josephus: These historians are only intent on sublunary and general politics: they give no attention even to the eternal welfare of individuals.-Nor is this itself a slight exemplification of the genius of that religion, which is destined to form men for the next life, and not for this. In doctrines the primitive Christians, agreed: They all worshiped [worshipped] the one living and true God, who made himself known to them in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost: Each of these they were taught to worship by the very office of baptism performed in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost:-And the whole economy of grace so constantly reminded them of their obligations to the Father wo [who] chose them to salvation, to the Savior who died for them, and to

532

the Comforter who supported and sanctified them; and was so closely connected with their experience and practice, that they were perpetually incited to worship the Divine Three in One. They all concurred in feeling conviction of sin, of helplessness, of a state of perdition: in relying on the atoning blood, perfect righteousness, and prevalent intercession of Jesus, as their only hope of heaven. Regeneration by the Holy Ghost was their common privilege, and without his constant influence they owned themselves obnoxious only to sin and vanity.-Their community of goods, and their love-feasts, though discontinued at length, probably because found impracticable,-demonstrated their superlative charity and heavenly-mindedness. Yet a gloomy cloud hung over the conclusion of the first century. The first impressions made by the effusion of the Spirit are generally the strongest and the most decisively distinct from the spirit of the world. But human depravity, overborne for a time, rises a fresh, particularly in the next generation. Hence the disorders of schism and heresy. Their tendency is to destroy the pure work of God.-The first Christians, with the purest charity to the PERSONS of heretics, gave their errors no quarter; but discountenanced them by every reasonable method. The heretics, on the contrary, endeavored to unite themselves with Christians. If the same methods be at this day continued;-if the heretic endeavor to promote his false religion by pretended charity, and the Christian stand aloof from him, without dreading the charge of bigotry, each act in character, as their predecessors did. The heretics by weakening men's attachment to Christ, and the schismatics by promoting a worldly and uncharitable spirit, each did considerable mischief; but it was the less, because Christians carefully kept themselves distinct from the heretical, and thus set limits to the infection. It has been of unspeakable detriment to the Christian religion, to conceive that all who profess it, are believers of it, properly speaking. Whereas very many are Christians in NAME only, never attending to the nature of the gospel at all. Not a few glory in sentiments subversive of its genius and spirit. And there are still more who go not so far in opposition to godliness; yet, by making light of the whole work of grace on the heart, they are as plainly void of Christianity. We have seen the first Christians individually converted: and, as human nature needs the same change still, the particular instances of conversion described in the Acts, are models for us at this day. National conversions were then unknown; nor has the term any proper meaning. But when whole countries are supposed to become Christians merely because they are so termed; when conversion of heart is kept out of sight; and when no spiritual fruits are expected to appear in practice;-when such ideas grow fashionable, opposite characters are blended; the form of the gospel stands, and its power is denied. But let us not anticipate:-These scenes appeared not in the first century. THE perpetual vicissitude that prevails in the system of the universe, and in the conduct of Providence, is adapted to the nature, and conducive to the happiness of man. The succession, of day and night, alternate labor and repose, the variations of the changing seasons lend to each other, as it returns, its peculiar beauty and fitness. We are kept still looking forward, we are ever hovering on the wing of expectation rising from attainment to attainment, pressing on to some future mark, pursuing some yet unpossessed prize. The hireling, supported by the prospect of receiving the evening's reward, cheerfully fulfills the work of the day. The husbandman, without regret, perceives the glory of summer passing away, because he lifts up his eyes and "beholds the fields white unto the harvest;" and he submits joyfully to the painful toil of autumn, in contemplation of the rest and comfort he shall enjoy, when these same fields shall be white with snow. It is hunger that gives a relish to food; it is pain that recommends case. The value of abundance is known only by those who have suffered want, and we are little sensible what we owe to God, for the blessing of health, till it is interrupted by sickness. The very plagues which mortality is heir to, have undoubtedly their uses and their ends: and the sword may be

533

as necessary to draw off the gross humors of the moral world, as storm and tempest are to disturb the immorral [immoral] stagnation, and to chase away the poisonous vapours [vapors] of the natural. Weak shortsighted man is assuredly unqualified to decide concerning the ways and works of infinite wisdom; but weak, laboring, wretched man, may surely repose unlimited confidence in infinite goodness. During the dreadful time when there was no king in Israel, the whole head was so sick, the whole heart so faint, the whole mass so corrupted, that an ocean of blood must be drained off, before it can be restored to soundness again. Not only one rotten limb, but the whole body is in danger of perishing, and nothing but a painful operation can save it. The skillful, firm, but gentle hand of Providence takes up the instrument, cuts out the disease, and then tenderly binds up the bleeding wounds. Relieved from the distress of beholding brother lifting up the spear against brother, from hearing the shouts of the victor, and the groans of the dying, we retire to contemplate and to partake of the noiseless scenes of domestic life; to observe the wholesome sorrows and guiltless joys of calmness and obscurity; to join in the triumphs of sensibility, and to solace in the soft effusions of nature; to "smile with the simple, and feed with the poor." The calm, untumultuous, unglaring scenes of private life, afford less abundant matter for the pen of the historian, than intrigues of state, senatorial contention, or the tremendous operations of the tented field, but these supply the moralist and the teacher of religion with more pleasing, more ample, and more generally interesting topics of useful information, and salutary instruction. What princes are, what statesmen meditate, what heroes achieve, is rather an object of curiosity than of utility. They never can become examples to the bulk of mankind. It is when they have descended from their public eminence, when they have retired to their private and domestic station, when the potentate is lost in man, that they become objects worthy of attention, patterns for imitation, or beacons set up for admonition and caution. For the same reason the meek, the modest, the noiseless exhibition and exercise of female excellence, occupy a smaller space in the annals of human nature than the noisy, bustling forensic pursuits and employments of the other sex. But when feminine worth is gently drawn out of the obscurity which it loves, and advantageously placed in the light which it naturally shuns, O how amiable, how irresistible, how attractive it is! A wise and good woman shines, by not seeking to shine; is most eloquent when she is silent, and obtains all her will, by yielding, by submission, by patience, by self denial.-HUNTER. SUMMARY OF THE NEWS OF THE DAY. Accounts from foreign prints announce the death of Wm. IV the King of England: and give particulars of the splendid funeral arrangements. Arrangements are making for the new Government under the reigning Queen. Another strugle [struggle] will ensue at the election for the ascendancy in power: indeed so important is considered the election that on its event depends, the particular cast of the Government for a series of years to come. Spain still remains in a state of intestine warfare. The armies of Don Carlos are mostly successful, and it would be no matter of surprise if he should get seated upon the throne, although there is no probability he would long remain in quiet possession of it. The Government of Buenosayres [Buenos Aires] has declared war against Peru, for the alleged crime of promoting anarchy in the argentine confederation by consenting to and aiding the military expedition, which armed in the territory of Bolivia, have invaded the Republic: All the Republics of South America, except the Banda Oriental and the old Republic of Columbia, are mingled in the strife. Our relations with foreign powers, remain unchanged since our last, we believe they are all of a friendly nature. Mexico has manifested some little uneasiness in consequence of the part some of our citizens have taken in behalf of Texas, which Mexico considers in the light of revolted subjects. We believe humanly speaking, we have nothing to fear from Mexico, but we hope and trust our Government will be as ready and willing to mete out justice to Mexico as to England

534

France or Russia. Texas appears confident she shall maintain her Independence, and is prepared and preparing to resist any and every aggression of her rights. Our domestic concerns do not essentially differ from what they were one month since. Trouble and distress are the topics of conversation amongst politicians, merchants, mechanics and demagogues; money, banks and bankruptcies are reiterated by some, while others contend there is no distress other than that caused by overtrading. Our travels and observations warrent [warrant] us in saying that crops are very good almost universally through our own country. The public prints for the most part go to establish the same fact. Crimes misdemeanors and casualties, continue to occupy a space in all public journals. Transgression is prevalent, sin abounds, time rolls on, with its accustomed velocity, the world is in commotion, and every circumstance, with every evidence to our senses, show that the adversary of all righteousness is not yet bound. FROM ELDERS ABROAD. Since the publication of our last we have received very few communications from the travelling [traveling] elders. Brother Joseph Rose writes us under date of July 27th from Huntersville, Tippacanoe Co. Ia. where he has been laboring some time. He writes us that he has baptised [baptized] 13 in that place, or its vicinity. Brother R. complains of some ill health, and says that he has more calls for preaching than he can fill, and expresses an earnest wish that some good faithful elder from this place or elsewhere, would come to his assistance. Elders who have travelled [traveled] alone, and preached the gospel among friends and foes, and have labored under any bodily infirmity, know, at least, how to sympathize with brother Rose. We earnestly wish the Lord would inspire some elder with courage and confidence to go and assist him. It would be a relief to him, and we trust, would subserve the cause of truth and righteousness. We have also recently received a communication from a member of our church in Medfield, Massachusetts, wishing an elder to call in that town and preach, giving the opinion decidedly that good might be done in that place; adding that no one of our elders had ever preached there. Elder Geo. A. Smith and M. F. Cowdery have written us from West Carrol Co. Ohio, expressive of their faith and perseverance in the cause.-They express their gratitude for the kindness shown them in many instances, as well as the abuse they have received in others. May the Lord assist our young brethren by his Spirit, continually.