| 595 Church of Christ of Latter Day Saints, who were first organized with six members on the sixth of April, 1830, but who now number many thousands, both in America and Europe.
This Church professes to hold to the ancient order of the Gospel, as revealed both in the Bible and in this American record. They discard infant baptism, as an invention of priestcraft, and hold to the baptism of penitent believers for remission of sins, and to the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands in the name of Jesus; and to the gifts of healing, prophecy, miracles, &c., as Jesus has promised in his Word.
The Church of the Saints thus organized upon the ancient order and faith once delivered to the saints, must grow and flourish, and spread among all nations, and must increase in faith, and power, and might, and glory, until, as a bride adorned for her husband, she is prepared for her coming Lord, and for the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Perhaps a few words of one of the prophets, as contained in this ancient record, will serve to shew [show] what is at hand to be fulfilled, in plainer terms than any modern style of language can express. From the 57th page of the first Book of Nephi, as contained in this ancient record, I extract the following: --
"The Lord will proceed to make bear his arm in the eyes of all the nations, in bringing about his covenants and his gospel unto those who are of the house of Israel. Wherefore he will bring them again out of captivity, and they shall be gathered together to the lands of their inheitance [inheritance]; and they shall be brought out of obscurity and out of darkness; and they shall know that the Lord is their Saviour [Savior] and their Redeemer, the mighty one of Israel. And the blood of that great and abominable Church, which is the whore of all the earth, shall turn upon their own heads, and they shall be drunk with their own blood. And every nation which shall war against thee, O house of Israel, shall be turned one against another, and they shall fall into the pit which they digged to ensnare the people of the Lord; and all that fight against Zion shall be destroyed. And that great whore, who hath perverted the ways of the Lord, yea, that great and abominable Church, shall tumble to the dust, and great shall be the fall of it. For, behold, the time cometh speedily that Satan shall have no more power over the hearts of the children of men; for the day soon cometh that all the proud and they who do wickedly shall be as stubble, and the day cometh that they must be burned. For the time soon cometh that the fulness [fullness] of the wrath of God shall be poured out upon all the children of men, for he will not suffer that the wicked shall destroy the righteous; therefore he will preserve the righteous by his power, even if it so be that the fulness [fullness] of his wrath must come, and the righteous be preserved, even unto the destruction of their enemies by fire. Wherefore, the righteous need not fear, for they shall be saved, even if it so be as by fire. Behold, I say unto you, that these things must shortly come, yea, even blood, and fire, and vapour [vapor] of smoke, must come, and it must needs be upon the face of this earth; and it cometh unto men according to the flesh, if it so be that they harden their hearts against the Holy One of Israel; for behold the righteous shall not perish; for the time surely must come, that all who fight against Zion shall be cut off. And the Lord will surely prepare a way for his people, unto the fulfilling of the words of Moses, which he spake saying, "A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you, like unto me; him shall you hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you." And it shall come to pass, that all those who shall not hear that prophet shall be cut off from among the people.
And now I Nephi declare unto you, that this prophet of whom Moses spake was the Holy One of Israel, wherefore, he shall execute judgment in righteousness; and the righteous need not fear, for they are those who shall not be confounded. But it is the kingdom of the Devil which shall be built up among the children of men, which kingdom is established among them which are in the flesh; for the time speedily shall come that all the churches which are built up to get gain, and all those which are built up to get power over the flesh, and those which are built up to become popular in the eyes of the world, and those who seek the lusts of the flesh, and the things of the world, and to do all manner of iniquity,-yea, in fine, all those who belong to the kingdom of the Devil are they who need fear and tremble, and quake; they are those
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