| 1122 peace and good will to all mankind, we hereby APPEAL for peace to the ends of the earth, and ask the protection of all people, while we use every fair means in our power to obtain our rights and immunities without force; setting an example for all true believers that we will not yield our faith and principles for any earthly consideration, whereby a precedent might be established, that a majority may crush any religious sect with impunity; knowing that if we give up our rights in Jackson county, farewell to society! farewell to religion! farewell to rights! farewell to property! farewell to life! The fate of our church now, might become the fate of the Methodists next week, the Catholics next month, and the overthrow of all societies next year, leaving nation after nation a wide waste where reason and friendship once were!
Another, and the great object which we mean to accomplish, is the salvation of the souls of men and to bring to pass a glorious work, like many other religious denominations, in all ages, we shall license elders to preach the everlasting gospel to all nations according to the great commandments of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as recorded in St. Matthew, "Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptising [baptizing] them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world."
Thus we shall send laborers into the Lord's vineyard to gather the wheat, and prepare the earth against the day when desolations shall be poured out without measure; and as it now is and ever has been considered one of the most honorable and glorious employments of men to carry good tidings to the nations, so we shall expect the clemency of all men, while we go forth, for the last time, to gather Israel for the glory of God, that he may suddenly come to his temple; that all nations may come and worship in his presence, when there shall be none to molest or make afraid, but the earth shall be filled with his knowledge and glory.
We live in an age of fearful imagination, with all the sincerity that common men are endowed with, the Saints have labored, without pay, to instruct the United States, that the gathering had commenced in the western boundaries of Missouri, to build a holy city, where, as may be seen, in the eighteenth chapter of Isaiah, "the present should be brought unto the Lord of Hosts, of a people scattered and peeled, and from a people terrible from their beginning hitherto: a nation meted out and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled, to the place of the name of the Lord of Hosts the mount Zion" and how few have come forth rejoicing that the hour of redemption was nigh! and some that came have turned away, which may cause thousand to exclaim amid the general confusion and fright of the times, "remember Lot's wife."
It would be a work of supererogation to labor to shew [show] the truth of the gathering of the children of Israel in these last days; for the prophet told us long ago, "That it should no more be said, the Lord liveth that brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, but the Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the North, and from the lands whither he had driven them" and so it must be for the honor and glory of God.
The faith and religion of the Latter-day Saints, are founded upon the old Scriptures, the Book of Mormon, and direct revelation from God, and while every event that transpires around us, is an evidence of the truth of them, and an index that the great and terrible day of the Lord is near, we entreat the philanthropist, the moralist, and the honorable men of all creeds and sects, to read our publications, to examine the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and the Commandments, and listen to the fulness [fullness] of the gospel, and judge whether we are entitled to the credit of the world, for honest motives and pure principles.
A cloud of bad omen seems to hang over this generation, men start up at the impulse of the moment and defy and outstrip all law, while the destroyer is also abroad in the earth, wasting flesh without measure, and none can stay his course: in the midst of such portentious [portentous] times, we feel an anxious desire to prepare, and help others to prepare, for coming events; and we candidly believe that no honest man will put forth his hand to stop the work of the Lord, or persecute the Saints. In the name of Jesus Christ, we intreat the people of this nation to pause before they reject the words of the Lord, or his servants: these, like all flesh, may be imperfect, but God is pure hear ye him!
While we ask peace and protection for the saints, wherever they may be, we also solicit the charity and benevolence of all the worthy on earth to purchase the righteous a holy home, a place of rest, and a land of peace, believing that no man who knows he has a soul, will keep back his mite, but cast it in for the benefit of Zion; thus, when time is no longer, he with all the ransomed of the Lord, may stand, in the fulness [fullness] of joy, and view the grand pillar of heaven, which was built by the faith and charity of the Saints, beginning at Adam, with his motto in the base, "Repent and live" surrounded with a beautiful sign, supported by
(page 1122) |
