234 Mr. Marquis and his friends claiming the use of the house after the debate to the exclusion of Mr. Bays, and many responsible persons desiring to hear the latter gentleman speak, some twenty-five men turned out on the morning of the 4th, and by noon had a comfortable place which they called "Gospel Arbor," under which services were held without any to "molest or make us afraid."
We earnestly hope the good people of our State may never again be called upon to witness a transaction at once so manifestly unfair and disreputable as the circumstance referred to above.
STOCKDALE, Wilson County, Texas, July 8, 1878.
Signed: D. T. Hale, T. N. Russell, G. W. Humphreys, D. C. Pennell, Peter Mason, Thos. Day, John McWharton, M. L. Curry, J. C. Dickens, B. F. Myers, James Estill, J. A. Currie, Nathan Jackson, Wm. C. Burris, T. Miller, M. T. Ward, H. Henson, S. A. Edmison, J. G. Edmison, J. A, Walker, W. R. Estill.
To Whom it May Concern: In answer to a request, I hereby state as president. of the meeting in which a discussion was held between Mr. Marquis, of the Christian Church, and Mr. Bays, of the Latter Day Saints, that, in my opinion, in the discussion of the first three propositions Mr. Bays fully sustained all that he proposed to do, and Mr. Marquis never dislodged him in one instance. But in the arguments offered upon the fourth proposition, neither gained any decided point in the direction of gospel truth as touching the question of "Baptisms."
Signed: J. B. CONE.
STOCKDALE, Wilson County, Texas, July 3, 1878.
I hereby state, as I was moderator for Mr. Marquis, the above to be true, as my opinion, to the best of my judgment.
J. T. FERGUSON.
-The Saints' Herald, vol. 25, pp. 260, 261.
July 11, John Whitmer one of the eight witnesses to the Book of Mormon, died at Far West, Missouri.
July 28, 1878, Elder Thomas Dobson, of the High Priests' Quorum, a veteran in the cause, and a faithful and true man, died at his home in Deloit, Iowa. Elder Charles Derry, who knew him well, and who had often been associated with him in church work, wrote of him as follows:
In his death the church militant loses one of its noblest members. It may have more brilliant men, but I doubt if it has any better. His life was devoted to the cause of truth, he cared for nothing more, he was a pattern of piety, a model of industry, and an example of self-sacrifice that renders him truly an ornament to the church. He was in truth a man of God. "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his." . . . A life like his, since he obeyed the truth, will do to pattern by. I would to God mine was as even, as free from errors, and as worthy of divine acceptance. Universally beloved, not for his brilliancy, nor for
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