| 493 of March, 1838, when he returned to Preston, leaving about forty members in charge of Elder James Lavender. Elder Russell continued to labor at Alston, Brampton, etc., and returned to Preston near the same time, leaving about sixty members in the care of Elder Jacob Peart.
"At Christmas, 1837, Priest Joseph Fielding was ordained elder, and several were ordained teachers, etc., at Preston; and in March, 1838, the church had extended from Preston to Penwortham, Longton, Southport, Eccleston, Whittle, Hunter's Hill. Chorley, and the intermediate region, through the labors of Elders Hyde, Kimball, and Fielding, and the members amounted to several hundreds in the regions of Preston and Clitheroe. During this month Elders Kimball and Hyde were diligently engaged in organizing the different branches; and on the first of April a General Conference was called at Preston, when the organization of the churches was completed, and many were ordained, among whom were Elders Joseph Fielding, Willard Richards, and William Clayton, to the high priesthood, and set apart by Elders Kimball and Hyde to preside over all the churches in England.
"On the 9th, Elders Kimball, Hyde, and Russell took leave of the saints in Preston and went to Liverpool, where they were visited by Elders Fielding, Richards, Clayton, and others; and on the 20th of April sailed for New York, on board the Garrick, the same ship they came out unto England.
"When Elders Fielding and Richards had returned to Longton they found a pamphlet, purporting to be written by the Rev. Richard Livesey, a Methodist minister, who had spent some time on a mission to the United States, as he says, and having nothing more important to attend to during his mission, it appears that he spent his time in gathering up a heap of lies and filth from the American papers, and imported them to England on his return; and finding that the work of God had commenced in his native land, and was likely to destroy his craft, set himself at work to condense his heterogeneous mass of transatlantic lies, and form the wonderful production of the Rev. Richard Livesey's tract
(page 493) |
