RLDS Church History Search

Chapter Context

RLDS History Context Results

Source: Church History Vol. 3 Chapter 2 Page: 90

Read Previous Page / Next Page

90 General Assembly of the inhabitants of Zion, in July, 1834. . . .

W. E. McCLELLIN, Secretary."

We have not been able to learn that this organization ever accomplished anything more. It soon lost its identity, and none of its former adherents remained true to it. David Whitmer himself afterward renounced principles taught in the above communications which were received through him.

Sometime in 1849, Messrs. Alfred Bonny, I. N. Aldrich, and M. C. Ishem, of Kirtland, Ohio, addressed a letter of inquiry to Elder David Whitmer, which was answered by Elder Hiram Page, from Richmond, Ray County, Missouri, June 24, 1849, and published in the Olive Branch for August, 1849. From this letter it appears that they were not long in discovering their error. The following is an extract:-

"We have been frequently solicited by the brethren to know what they must do. To all inquiring brethren we say, we are not your masters to usurp authority over you, but we are your servants in Christ; and as we cannot justify wrong in ourselves or in others, we feel to acknowledge our errors, and say to all others, 'Go and do likewise.'

"It is well known by many that since we were driven from Far West by the Mormons (at which time we were obliged to go into an adjoining country where we could get the protection of the civil law) we have been lying dormant, while fifty odd persons have been appointed to rule and govern the church by Joseph Smith, and there were divisions and sub-divisions, until the true order of the Church of Christ was entirely neglected. In 1847 Brother William [William E. McLellin] commenced vindicating our characters as honest men. In that he did well. In September. 1848, he made us a visit and professed to have been moved upon by the same Spirit of God that led him to do us justice by vindicating our characters, moved upon him to come here and have us organize ourselves in a church capacity; but it must come through him, which would give a sanction to all that he had done, which would give a more speedy rise to the cause than anything else could; and by our holding him up, he could build up the church according to its true order, which would be a source of consolation to us. But we had

(page 90)

Read Previous Page / Next Page