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.
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 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 sceptical 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 being 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 are 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 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, there 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 for ever 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 signsshallfollow them thatbelieve. 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 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 the youthful supplanter, and at another 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 prophets 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 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 or 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 it, 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 thyself down from this pinnacle, for it is written, that he shall 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 of knowledge with which he has been baffled by the Almighty from the beginning. If believers had to contendonlywith 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 greater than the cunning of the devil. But sign-seekers and the enemy 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 the same time. No less than seven occupied one female. Now modern christianity must be highly favoured, 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? Aretheydone away too? Miracles and devils done away! The canon of the scriptures 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 seive! 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 stand, when deceptive miracles, and lying wonders far greater than have ever been known since the foundation of the world, shall be practised, 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 its 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 Coran 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 hands are proverbially against every man as a profession. Neither was it done in Papal dominions, or 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 warwhoop, and tomahook, and scalping knife, to perpetrate this bloody outrage! But hold 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 propogating 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. Thev had but one alternative, 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 legislature 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 any thing 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 trammelled by the despotic shackles of monarchical government! A puritan christianity planted the tree of liberty on the solitary soil of 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, steam boats 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, were there, and were driven from their country for maintaining the right of conscience.
Now, who ever heard in all America of a priest pleading publically 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 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 canon?
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 a happy period of rest. Truth must and will prevail, and the kingdom of our God will be established in the mountains of Israel, just where all the prophets that have spoken of it, have seen 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 valley of the almost unknown mountain, they will be for ever invincible. With their peaceable and inoffensive habits, which have characterised 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 this body of people is composed are not like the heterogenous 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 lessons of forbearance and non-resistance Jesus Christ might have left on record, suited to particular circumstances, there is a predominance of scriptural instructions in favour 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 Barek. The prayer of Sampson was, that he might destroy his enemies; and God not only heard his prayer, but gave him strength to fulfil his request: out of an opposing army, God even commissioned one of his angels (not so holy a personage as some modern Christians) to killone hundred and eighty-five thousandin one night! 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 for ever 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 around 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 months' 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 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; all 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, out of every nation under the whole heaven. None can injure this people or war against them with impunity, 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 fifties, 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 acknowledgement. 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 father's heart to bleed. Better men of whom the world is not worthy have suffered even more in the same cause. I know this to be the true gospel revealed from the heavens 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 for ever 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 for ever.
I do not expect to coerce you by motives of fear, but 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, require 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 honour, 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, December20, 1847.
Americans and countrymen!—Farewell! I have been exiled from your soil for cherishing the inalienable rights of man. The principles of liberty and heaven-born truth have been the exclusive cause of the lawless banishment of thousands, of which number I am one. My wife and worthy brother have fallen victims to this cruel violation of constitutional rights. For nearly two years my six motherless children, between the tender ages of six and fifteen, have been inhumanly forced into the solitary wilderness—nine months of the time dwelling in a tent, and the remainder in a floorless log-cabin—often without flour, meal, or meat, and surrounded by savages of the fiercest tribes. From easy competence reduced to want, banishment, and the severest inclemencies of a northern climate! This is a faint outline of the picture of tens of thousands who have fallen victims to the unprovoked cruelty of an ungrateful country!
My honoured father, at the age of eighteen, mustered into his country's service, under the united command of Generals Washington and Lafayette, and was a youthful soldier at the siege of Yorktown, in the capture of Lord Cornwallis. My grandsire was bankrupted of thousands of dollars, held in promissory notes against the Continental government, which the great expense of the war of revolutionary freedom disqualified them ever to pay. My mother's sire was mustered among the superanuated veteran soldiers at the siege and capture of General Burgoyne.
Of myself: many of my early associates are in the highest legislatures of the nation, and among the roost distinguished citizens of the desk and bar. To them, and to my countrymen at large, I offer this farewell, and this monitory counsel. Americans! your sympathy for Greece, and your liberality to Ireland, and your response to the liberal efforts of the Pope, are relieved by a sad counter-check of cruel indifference and bigoted violence to your best, most peaceful, and industrious citizens at home. The shades of Washington, Henry, and Adams are ready to burst their tombs with burning indignation, at the contempt cast upon the sacred principles of liberty which they fought to establish. The lofty scorn manifested towards the outraged innocence of your suffering countrymen, cannot escape the pity and rebuke of all patriots and freemen. By such foul deeds of inhumanity your country is mortgaged and ready to be sold. The day of final redemption will soon be passed, except a vigorous and mighty effort is made to roll back the crimson tide of lawless misrule and popular outbreak.
Before our people experienced their sad disasters in the state of Illinois, they took the timely precaution, dictated by the force of alarming circumstances, toforewarnevery governor of the several States, and many other distinguished citizens, of the necessity of timely succour from our countrymen and rulers. Our property, liberty, and lives were in danger from systematic organization of rapacious and blood-thirsty citizens of Illinois and Missouri. The stormy clouds, which we distinctly foresaw were ready to burst in desolating fury upon our innocent heads, were distinctly pointed out to the nation. We respectfully petitioned for an asylum, in any one of the States that would grant us this boon of protection and citizenship, for which our fathers had fought and bled in the war of independence. Our petitions were barely answered, and coolly slighted. We were accounted as a people too clannish, like the ancient Hebrews, and too peculiar and exclusive, like the apostles of Palestine.
We had no alternative but to commend ourselves to the God of the oppressed, and take precipitate refuge, in the dead of winter, in the wild valleys of the mountains. To the God of justice, and the great Arbiter of the destinies of nations, we look to avenge our wrongs, and chasten the nation that has been deaf to the voice of her suffering and loyal citizens. He will hear our cries and avenge our wrongs. The time has come to set judgment to the line and righteousness to the plummet. The last and noblest experiment of popular self-government, and uninspired worship, has been tried in the young and giant Republic of America! The eagle of liberty has fled to the mountains, and there perched aloft to behold the desolation of nations. Proud and enterprising nation! out-stripping all other nations in lofty bearing and onward progress, your foot has stumbled in a hand's breadth of the prize! Angels might weep at the spectacle of so sudden a fall; but God is just, and the nation that will not serve Him shall be brought low.
You are weighed in the balances, and from henceforth, until you break the rod of the oppressor and redress the wrongs of the injured, your councils will be distracted, and your greatest chieftains will be at variance. Hand to hand, and toe to toe, every one against his fellow—your struggles will be sanguinary and obstinate. The people whom you have trodden down in your pride, and banished by tumultuous acts of violence, though comparatively few and but partially known, happen to be the choice ones of all the earth and the favourites of heaven. Their cause is espoused in the courts of the Lord of Hosts, even the God of all the earth. Other people, in different ages, have suffered as much, or even more than this people, but the time of recompenses had not come. The time to end all controversy, and establish a government that all nations could safely confide in, had not come. It has now come. The land of Columbus, and the promised land of Joseph, must be cleared of the briars and thorns, in order to make room for the upright of all nations to assemble themselves together, and enjoy a government of peace for a thousand years.
To the mountains, oh ye who would escape the convulsive throes of a perplexed nation, and the indignant blasts of the Almighty, in these years of "recompenses!" "Come out of her my people!" Patriots of America—friends of peace—advocates of justice! all ye that fear God and tremble at his word, separate yourselves from the tents of wickedness, and flee to the strongholds of Zion. For the day of the Lord cometh that will burn as an oven. The Lord reigns in the heights of Zion. From thence his voice will go forth as in days of old, when Sinai quaked under his feet. He will plead with all flesh. He is risen up as a strong man to run a race, or as one that is full of wine. The seeming insignificance of the Saints may tend to conceal the Almighty arm that is about to be made bare, not merely to redress their wrongs, but to humble all flesh. The light of your priesthood thickens the darkness and gloom that overhang the nation, and their efforts minister a soporific that renders the necks of your countrymen passive to the executioner's axe.
Descendants of Washington and Franklin! is there no hope? Must the best constitution, ever given to any uninspired nation, be made the sport of traitors and demagogues? Must the loftiest efforts at freedom and splendid nationality he crushed by a perplexing concentration of every thing humiliating to national pride and human ambition? Must the sons of venerated puritans so soon be covered with the inglorious gore of assassinations and belligerent carnage? Must thy cities be laid waste, whose lofty spires rival the mountain-tops, in courting the earliest sunbeams of the morning? Must thy daughters, the fairest workmanship of their Maker, be given to rapine and violence, when the eye of pity is turned away, and the aegis of angelic guardianship is reluctantly withdrawn? Except you bind up the broken in heart, and make restitution for robbery and rapine, and unprovoked banishment of loyal citizens, who poured out their blood as water at the voice of your governors and the mandates of your laws,—the vials of wo are in store for your unhappy country! No intercessor can stay the blast of divine indignation when the Almighty rises up to make inquisition for blood. The Most High solemnly interdicted any man to show mercy to Canaan when the cup of her iniquity was full. Jerusalem, the queen of cities! whose Temple was the pride and admiration of nations, having rejected the Saints, was made a heap of ruins under the curse of heaven.
Yet there is hope for America: let her senators teach wisdom, and her officers exact righteousness, and undo the heavy burdens, and redress the wrongs of her banished. Then the fruitful field shall not become barren, nor every man's hand be turned against his fellow; and the voice of mirth shall supersede the voice of mourning.
Land of my birth, and home of my fathers! my earliest impressions were devoted to your praise and glory. In my riper years I have never infringed your laws or quenched the spirit of your philanthropy. You have robbed me of my houses, and my farms, and martyred my dearest friends, and stripped me of reputation, and expelled me from your borders, without the shadow of impeachment, or of trial by jury. Contrary to my strongest predilections and educational attachments, you have sought to eradicate every vestige of my patriotism, and render frigid my warmest love to everything that endeared me to the friends and citizens of the country that was ever my pride and boast! My heart still yearns fondly over the land that was marked out in the council of Heaven to be the nursery of freedom, enterprise, and genius. And now, as I recede from your borders, and from the scenes of my toils and fond attachments with my desolate family, through extensive wilds to the mountains for safety and a home, my heart overflows and bursts with the sentiment—"Oh, that thou hadst known in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace!" In the meridian of life I go from the tombs of my fathers to build and plant, where the eagle of liberty soars aloft in the sunbeams of truth! My associates are called, and tried, and chosen; they are the virtuous and honourable of all the earth; the refuse of all nations, but accepted of God and escorted by his angels. Their bosoms beat high with every noble impulse of philanthropy and virtue; they are a magnanimous people, fitted to foster and garner up the scattered virtues of the human family, and open up a safe asylum to the oppressed of all nations; they have stood in the Thermopylae, and passed the Rubicon. The Roman Mutius could deliberately burn his hand to cinders as a token of the courage of his companions; so this people have proved, indisputably, that they possess all the elements of endurance and triumph. Their most arduous and perilous conflict is passed; and millions comforted, enlightened, and redeemed will reap the reward, and enter intotheirlabours. They are worthy. They have paid the last debt which the angel informed John must be liquidated in the blood of latter-day prophets, when the just could be avenged. Judgment is given unto them, and the richest benedictions of Heaven now await in Zion the upright and noble of all nations.
With sentiments of pure benevolence, I subscribe myself
Your exiled friend and humble servant,
ORSON SPENCER.
The following articles, on the Night of the Prophet's and Patriarch's Martyrdom, together with the suffering exit of the author's lamented wife, are 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 19th 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 significancy in the firmament and among the inhabitants of the earth. Multitudes felt the whisperings of wo 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 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 travelling 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 Fanuel 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 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 fled 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 the 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 thatmournful spiritshad saddened their hearts with during the night. The speaker stood up in the midst, not of an uniform 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.
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 council of the priesthood, soon returned the deadly steel to the scabbard; and the victorious triumph of loyalty 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 wheregamblingandlewdness, theftanddrunkennessshould 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 not delivered up to him for trial on theantiquated chargeof 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 assurances of protection! The soldiery in Nauvoo numbered near four thousand, while those in alliance with the bloody perpetrators in the country, 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 has 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, tranquillity 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 nightclothes, 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 to 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."