| 339 into his own bosom; and from thence went forth the saying, Zion is fled.
(To be Continued.)
COMMUNICATIONS.
[For the Times and Seasons.]
BAPTISM-THE MODE OF ITS ADMINISTRATION-ITS EFFICACY-DR. MOSHIEM-STATE OF THE RELIGIOUS WORLD-THE APOSTASY [APOSTASY], &c., &c
(Continued.)
BROTHER TAYLOR:-
The people of this enlightened age profess to believe the Bible, but when we lay before them the glorious principles and truths it contains, they are ready to take our lives, persecute us with mobs, tar, feathers, stripes, stones, and heap all manner of reproach, abuse and indignities upon us. St. John XV: 18-21; 'If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the word, the world would love its own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my names' sake, because they know not him that sent me.' For preaching the truths of the Bible, and worshipping God according to its teachings, the 'Church of Jesus Christ of latter Day Saints,' has been driven four times from their peaceful homes. Many of them have died martyrs for the cause of Jesus, bearing testimony of the truth of the great latter-day work, which is to gather the house of Israel from their long dispersion, restore the Jews to the land of their fathers, gather out the honest in heart from among the wicked, and prepare the way for the second advent of the Messiah, when he shall appear in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, to take vengeance on the wicked and they that know not God. The work of extermination has been carried to the very seat of domestic retirement, and the blood of mothers and children has flowed for the gospel which we preach, and declare to be the gospel of Jesus Christ. We preach the doctrine of baptism, for the remission of sins-so did Christ and the apostles. We believe in laying on hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost, and for the healing of the sick, &c: the apostles believed in, and practiced the same ordinances. Acts-VIII: 14-17; 'Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto him Peter and John: who, when they were come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost: (for as yet he had fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.') Why had they not received the Holy Ghost? They had been baptized but the Holy Ghost had 'fallen upon none of them.' The reason is very obvious. They had not received the laying on of hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost. They had got just where the sectarian world stop with the ordinance. They could not receive the Holy Ghost without the laying on of hands, yet the religionists of the present day profess to have received the Holy Ghost, when hands has not been laid on for its reception, and some of them have not even so much as been baptized.-They are surely going to heaven upon 'flowry beds of ease.' But we shall see whether those who had been baptized at Samaria received the Holy Ghost, and what kind of an operation they had to go through to obtain it. Read the verse that follows, in the Bible, those we last quoted. It reads thus: 'Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost.' This explains the whole matter and agrees precisely with the doctrine we have been advocating; that baptism is for the remission of sins, but before they can receive the Holy Ghost, they must attend to the imposition of hands. This is so plain that a school-boy, not yet out of 'baker' can see into it; yet our great men of science, biblical research and literati accuminis, cannot fathom this simple mystery. They are sending embassadors [ambassadors] to the islands of the sea, and missionaries to the heathen, with the sacred volume in their hand, and they are as ignorant of its principles, and the glorious gospel it contains, as the various savage to whom they are sent. They boast of the rapid spread of the gospel, and the great light of heaven, which is daily augmenting, and spreading its radiance over the world, but when we find out the truth of the matter, the world has not been saluted with the sound of the true gospel for several of the last centuries. Verily the great light of which men boast, has dazzled their eyes, so that they cannot see the first rudiments of the gospel of Christ. O, that the people of this enlightened age-who have been
--"By the glare of false science betrayed,
That leads to bewilder and dazzles to blind,--"
would read the Bible and learn doctrine. We have already proven by the Bible, that there was but one mode of baptism, and that was immersion. However, we will make another extract from Dr. Moshiem upon this subject. On page 28, paragraph 8, it reads thus: 'The sacrament of baptism was administered in this
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