| 165 the day of judgement [judgment] for sectarians, who die in ignorance, than for you. Repent ye then of your drunkenness, and of your cursing and blasphemy, and of your idleness, and filthiness and sloth, and of your lying, and cheating, and stealing, and extortion, and of all things wherein you take advantage of your neighbor, and cease from all your abominations, and begin to watch and to pray, and to meet with one another, and worship God in the spirit, as in former times, that you may blessed and preserved, and be permitted to enjoy the kingdom of God.
Another source of grief is to see so many of our young people and others, who profess to gather with the people of God, so soon forget the object of the gathering; forsake the society of the saints, join with the world, and with all manner of rude company, and scatter as sheep without a shepherd, or as wild partridges from their nests. I greatly fear that the Lord will say to such, as he said to the Jews of old:-"How oft would I have gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but ye would not."
Ford my part, I want to see a gathering in earnest. I want to see the saints expend the utmost of their means in employing the poor, and in 'building up, and polishing the corner stone of Zion.' To do this with full purpose of heart, and according to the council of his servants, serving God in righteousness, is salvation; to do it not, is destruction; and that more speedy and awful than many are aware of. If the saints would do this with all their might and means; Nauvoo, in one year would be the largest city in the west-in ten years the largest in America, and in fifteen years the largest in the world.
But to resume the subject of my journal, I would say that I am now there, opposite St. Louis, waiting for the ice to clear out of the river so that I can get my family to Nauvoo. I suppose there must be as many as one thousand emigrants at different points on this river, who will pour into Nauvoo as soon as the river opens. For my part, after a mission of three or four years, I feel as courageous in returning home, (not to rest) but to commence anew, to build and settle my family, as I did when first setting out in life. I feel to say like one of old, 'as to us, we will arise and build.' I would advise every one to freely spend their means in building good permanent improvements, such as completing the Temple and the Nauvoo House, and stores, and factories, and mills, and in short, every thing which will make business and employ the poor.
I purpose soon to communicate a piece for your paper on the subject of the gathering, and perhaps may write from time to time, on various other subjects. At present I must close, by subscribing myself your brother in Christ.
P. P. PRATT.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES AND SEASONS.
Dear Sir,-I would not wish to intrude on your valuable space, but if you can find room for a short letter I would esteem it as a favor. I commenced giving an out-line of the church from the days of the apostles; but it swelled beyond my expectations, and I was obliged to leave it about the twelfth century: from which time to the reformation by Wickliff in 1360, it was one mass of ignorance and superstition.-For while the Waldenses stood aloof from the Church of Rome, they had fallen into the grossest darkness, and they hailed as brethren every one who protested against the pope no matter as to their religious opinions. A Rev. master of arts in Liverpool attempted to prove that the Church of England received their priesthood and authority from the Waldenses; but with all the art he was master of he failed, for it is notorious that the reformation in that church by Henry the Eight was not a reformation in either doctrine or dicipline [discipline] but a transfer of the same power from the pope to the king, and what little reformation the church of England has experienced has been by peace-meal, for her ministers have been greedy dogs, and what the pope had instituted where money was to be received they have stuck to it like as many leeches, and sucked the very life's-blood from the people, and yet they are ashamed of, and cry mightily against, purgatory, but are very careful as soon as they hear of a death in any part of England to apply for a mortuary. What is that for? Why, to get the deseased [deceased] out of purgatory! This same M. A. of Liverpool is very boisterous against purgatory, but a firm believer in receiving the money. But to return more directly to the subject. We find Luther, and Melanchton busy in the 16th century endeavoring to throw some light around them and reform the morals of the people.-They drew an out-line of their doctrine and called a counsel.
But as it is with mankind that when once their minds are roused to a sense of their privileges, and elated with success, they run to the extremes; thus the absudities [absurdities?] of men laid foundations for churches, such for instance as the Ana-baptist, who took their rise about 1533, in Westphalia on the Netherlands. A furious rabble rose up pretending to have a commission from heaven, whose object was to overturn all civil institutions and establish a republic. They committed the most horrible excess. Their leaders were Mathias, a baker, and Boccold, a tailor. They contended for having all things common,
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