University of California Berkeley PARSONS' TEXT BOOK BY A. H. .PARSONS Of the Reorganized Ckurch of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints HERALD PUBLISHING HOUSE LAMONI. IOWA- Copyrighted 1902 By A. H. Parsons. ELDER A. H. PARSONS. PREFACE. In presenting the second and revised edition of Parsons' Text-Book, I do so as the servant of the church. It is the property of the church. I trust that after months of careful work in recompiling, all errors found in the former have been worked out and that no new ones have crept in. It may seem a small task to one that never had any experience, but I have found that the best of our writers are not so careful as they should be in quoting. I have sought to give the exact statement of the author and I have been greatly assisted by the following brethren : Arthur Allen, F. M. Slover, C. J. Hunt, Ammon White, B. J. Scott, L. G. Holloway, J. A. Tan- ner, Samuel A. Burgess, J. W. Peterson, A. M. Fyrando, J. F. Mintun, F. G. Pitt, Peter Anderson, E. C. Briggs, and Joseph B. Smith. We thank these brethren for their assistance. All citations and quotations from the Book of Mormon are from the latest, the Authorized Edition. Your servant and colaborer in Christ our Lord, A. H. PARSONS. PARSONS' TEXT BOOK. EARLIEST PRINTED WORKS ON THE ANTIQUITIES OF AMERICA. Captain Dupaix's work was published in Paris in 1834-35. Travels in Central America, p. 262. Colonel Galindo in 1836 . . . examined them under a com- mission from the Central American government. His com- munications on the subject were published in the proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of Paris and in the Literary Gazette of London. Ibid., p. 131. Palacios' work was published in 1860 in English. Native Races, vol. 4, p. 79. Josiah Priest's work was published in 1833, copyrighted March 21, 1833. Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg's work was published in 1857- 1859. American Encyclopedia, vol. 3, p. 214. John L. Stephens' work of his travels in Central America was published in 1841. Mr. Waldec's work was published in 1845. Travels in Cen- tral America, vol. 1, p. 297. William Pidgeon's work, Antiquarian Researches, was pub- lished in 1858. Fuente's work on the early inhabitants of America was published in Spanish in 1787, but never published in the English language. Baron Humboldt's work was published in the French lan- guage, between 1809 and 1825; and in the German, 1836; English, 1846. Del Rio's work was published in London, England, in 1822. A London newspaper stated in 1833 of this work, "The facts contained in it as having recently come to light." 8 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK H. H. Bancroft, in 1875. Desire Charnay, 1860; second edition in 1884. J. D. Baldwin, first edition, 1872. E. G. Squires, 1854. Delafield, in 1839. Short, in 1880. Donnelly, in 1882. Lord Kingsborough, first work in 1830; second edition in 1845; it cost six hundred dollars. AMERICA'S PROGENY. Antiquarian evidence submitted in proof of the claims made by the fiook of Mormon. William Pidgeon says: "It can not be any longer doubted that there has been a day when this continent swarmed with millions of inhabitants, when arts and sciences flourished, when men lived, and labored, and reigned, and fought, and were, in turn conquerors, and conquered, subjects, and kings." Antiquarian Researches, introduction. See Book of Mormon, pp. 286 and 682. John L. Stephens says: "Here were the remains of a cul- tivated, polished, and peculiar people, who had passed through all the stages incident to the rise and fall of nations; reached their golden age, and perished, entirely unknown. . . . These were the only memorials of their footsteps upon earth. We lived in the ruined palace of their kings, we went up to their desolate temples and fallen altars, and wherever we moved we saw the evidence of their taste, their skill in arts, their wealth and power." Travels in Central America, vol. 2, p. 356. See Book of Mormon, pages 617 and 624. J. D. Baldwin says: "This ancient race seems to have occupied nearly the whole basin of the Mississippi and its tributaries. . . . To find the chief seats and most abundant remains of the most remarkable civilization of this old American race, we must go still farther south into Central America and some of the more southern states of Mexico. PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 9 Here ruins of many ancient cities have been discovered, . . . Most of these ruins were found buried in dense forests, where, at the time of the Spanish conquest, they had been long hidden from observation. . . . The evidence they furnish that their builders had remarkable skill in architecture and architectural ornamentation. . . . These edifices were finely and often elaborately finished, plaster, stucco, and sculpture being used." Ancient America, pp. 32, 93, 99. Professor Le Plongeon says: "Anciently, this country [Yucatan] now well-nigh depopulated, was thickly peopled by a highly civilized nation. If we are to judge by the great number of large cities whose ruins exist, scattered in the midst of the forests throughout the country, and by the stu- pendous edifices, once upon a time temples of the gods, or palaces of the kings and priests, whose walls are covered with inscriptions, bas-reliefs, and other interesting sculptures that equal in beauty of design and masterly execution those of Egypt and Babylon." Sacred Mysteries, p. 70. Desire Charnay says: "Numerous races who succeeded each other, amalgamated on this continent, which, until lately, was supposed to be so new, and is in truth, so old." Ancient Cities of the New World, p. 132. See Book of Mormon, page 232. Josiah Priest says: "But what has finally become of these nations, and where are their descendants, are questions which, could they be answered, would be highly gratifying." American Antiquities, p. 373, edition of 1833. William Pidgeon says: "But it yet remains for America to awake her story from sleep, to string lyre, and nerve the pen, to tell the tale of her antiquities, as seen in the relics of nations, coeval, perhaps, with the oldest works of man."- Antiquarian Researches, page 11, edition of 1858. H. H. Bancroft says: "There are numerous vague tradi- tions of settlements or nations of white men, who lived apart from the other people of the country, and were possessed of an advanced civilization." Volume 5, p. 24. William C. Bryant says: "But behind these Indians, who were in possession of the country when it was discovered by 10 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK Europeans, is dimly seen the shadowy form of another peo- ple who have left many remarkable evidences of their habits and customs and of a singular degree of civilization, but who many centuries ago, disappeared. . . . The evidences of the presence of this ancient people are found almost everywhere upon the North American Continent." History of the United States, vol. 1, p. 20, edition of 1876. See Book of Mormon, pp. 33, 96, 97, and 307. Right Rev. Charles P. Mcllvaine, D. D., says: "Suppose that in searching the tumuli that are scattered so widely over this country, the silent, aged, mysterious remembrancers of some populous race, once carrying on all the business of life where now are only the wild forests of many centuries, a race of whom we ask so often, who they were, whence they came, whither they went." Preface to Delafield's work, second paragraph, American Antiquities, edition of 1839. See Book of Mormon, page 61. RELICS OF TWO CIVILIZED NATIONS. J. D. Baldwin says: "The evidence of repeated recon- structions in some of the cities before they were deserted has been pointed out by explorers. . . . Architectural char- acteristics so different from each other, that it is as impos- sible to attribute them all to the same people as to believe they were all built at the same epoch." Ancient America, page 156. See Book of Mormon, page 714. William Pidgeon says: "From these facts, in connection with the traditions of De-Coo-Dah respecting the ancient inhabitants of these regions, as of various languages, cus- toms, and color, we are led to the conclusion that at least two distinct races of men have occupied this territory at dif- ferent eras, and that both became nationally extinct anterior to the occupation of the present Indian race." Traditions of De-Coo-Dah, page 176. Desire Charnay says: "The lintels, ... of stone, were cov- ered with sculptures and inscriptions. ... In this building are curious traces of masonry out of character with the general PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 11 structure, showing the place to have been occupied at two different epochs." Ancient Cities of the New World, page 333. Again he says: "Here and there closed up passages, walls rebuilt with materials other than those employed in the older construction, seem to indicate that the palace was occupied at two different periods." Ibid., page 110. See Book of Mormon, pages 231 and 232. J. D. Baldwin says: "Ruins and other vestiges reveal- ing an ancient civilization are found throughout the whole southern section of North America, extending as far north as New Mexico and Arizona. But here the antiquities do not all belong to the same period in the past." Ancient America, page 76. Markham says: "The ruins, scattered over Peru, differ in style, and thus give evidence of having been erected at dif- ferent epochs." Peru, by Markham, page 65. (Quoted from report of Archasological Committee, page 25.) Short says: "They were preceded by a race possessed of no inferior civilization, who were not their ancestors, but a distinct people." North Americans of Antiquity, page 27. J. D. Baldwin says : "These are not the oldest cities whose remains are still visible, but they may have been built, in part, upon the foundations of cities much more ancient. ... It can be seen that some of the ruined cities which can now be traced were several times renewed by reconstructions." Ancient America, pp. 156, 152. See Book of Mormon, pages 231 and 232. Again he says: "According to Montesinos, there were three distinct periods in the history of Peru. Third and last came the period of the Incas who revived civilization and re- stored the empire. ... It was originated, he says, by a people led by four brothers, who settled in the valley of Cuzco, and developed civilization there in a very human way. The youngest of these brothers assumed supreme authority, and became the first of a long line of sovereigns." Ancient America, page 264. See Book of Mormon, pages 5 and 6. Laman, Lemuel, Sam, Nephi. 12 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK He again says: "This old town became a ruin in ancient times. After remaining long in a ruined condition it was again rebuilt, and again deserted after a considerable period of occupation. It is still easy to distinguish the differences in construction between the two periods. "The standing walls rest upon ruins of greater antiquity;" and while the primitive masonry is about six feet thick, that of the later period is only from a foot to a foot and a half thick." Ancient America, page 80. See Book of Mormon, pages 202, 269, 270, and 682. AMERICA'S PROGENY. ANTIQUARIAN EVIDENCE IN PROOF OF THE CLAIMS MADE BY THE BOOK OF MORMON. William Pidgeon says: "It can not be any longer doubted that there has been a day when this continent swarmed with millions of inhabitants, when arts and sciences flourished, when men lived, and labored, and reigned, and fought, and were, in turn conquerors, and conquered, subjects, and kings." Antiquarian Researches, introduction. (Book of Mormon, p. 286, v. 157, and p. 682, v. 9. I quote from Lamoni edition of 1908.) John L. Stephens says: "Here were the remains of a culti- vated, polished and peculiar people, who had passed through all the stages incident to the rise and fall of nations; reached their golden age, and perished, entirely unknown. . . . And these were the only memorials of their footsteps upon earth. We lived in the ruined palace of their Kings; we went up to their desolate temples and fallen altars, and wherever we moved we saw the evidence of their taste, their skill in arts, their wealth and power." Travels in Central America, vol. 2, p. 356. (Book of Mormon, p. 617, v. 8.) J. D. Baldwin says: "This ancient race seems to have occupied nearly the whole basin of the Mississippi and its tributaries. ... To find the chief seats and most abundant remains of the most remarkable civilization of this old American race, we must go still farther south into Central PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 13 America and some of the more southern states of Mexico. Here ruins of many ancient cities have been discovered, . . . Most of these ruins were found buried in dense forests, where, at the time of the Spanish Conquest, they had been long hidden from observation. . . . the evidence they furnish that their builders had remarkable skill in architecture and architectural ornamentation. . . . These edifices were finely and often elaborately finished, plaster, stucco, and sculpture being used." Ancient America, pp. 32, 93, 99. Professor Le Plongeon says: "Anciently, this country (Yucatan) now well nigh depopulated, was thickly peopled by a highly civilized nation. If we are to judge by the great number of large cities, whose ruins exist, scattered in the midst of the forests throughout the country, and by the stupendous edifices, once upon a time temples of the gods, or palaces of the kings and priests, whose walls are covered with inscriptions, bas-reliefs, and other interesting sculptures that equal in beauty of design and masterly execution those of Egypt and Babylon." Sacred Mysteries, p. 70. Desire Charnay says: "Numerous races who succeeded each other, and amalgamated on this continent, which, until lately, was supposed to be so new, and is in truth, so old."- Ancient Citfes of the New World, p. 132. (Book of Mormon, p. 232, vs. 62, 63.) Josiah Priest says: "But what has finally become of these nations, and where are their descendants, are questions which, could they be answered, would be highly gratifying." Ameri- can Antiquities, p. 373. Edition of 1833. William Pidgeon says: "But it yet remains for America to wake her story from sleep, to string lyre, and nerve the pen, to tell the tale of her antiquities, as seen in the relics of nations, coeval, perhaps, with the oldest works of man." Antiquarian Researches, p. 11. Edition of 1858. H. H. Bancroft says: "There are numerous vague tradi- tions of settlements or nations of white men, who lived apart from the other people of the country, and were possessed of an advanced civilization." Vol. 5, p. 24. William C. Bryant says: "But behind these Indians, who 14 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK were in possession of the country when it was discovered by Europeans, is dimly seen the shadowy form of another people who have left many remarkable evidences of their habits and customs and of a singular degree of civilization, but who many centuries ago, disappeared. . . . The evidences of the presence of this ancient people are found almost everywhere upon the North American Continent." History of the United States, vol. 1, p. 20. Edition of 1876. (Book of Mormon, pp. 33, 96, 97, 307.) Right Rev. Charles P. Mcllvaine, D. D., says: "Suppose that in searching the tumuli that are scattered so widely over this country, the silent, aged, mysterious remembrancers of some populous race, once carrying on all the business of life where now are only the wild forests of many centuries, a race of whom we ask so often, who they were, whence they came, whither they went." American Antiquities, second paragraph, preface to Delafield's work. Edition of 1839. (Book of Mormon, p. 714.) J. D. Baldwin says: "Some investigators, who have given much study to the antiquities, traditions, old books, and prob- able geological history of Mexico and Central America, believe that the first civilization the world ever saw appeared in this part of Ancient America, or was immediately connected with it. They hold that the human race first rose to civilized life in America, which is, geologically, the oldest of the continents." Ancient America, pp. 159, 160. Desire Charnay says: "On looking at them, I seem to myself to be carried back a thousand years amidst that grand old race whose ruins I am here to study." Ancient Cities, p. 103. Quoted from H. A. Stebbins' lectures, revised edition of 1901. Again he says: "Notwithstanding the assertion of most historians respecting the work of the Aborigines, it is difficult to account how with the tools they were acquainted with they could cut not only the hardest substances, but also build the numerous structures which are still seen in Mexico and Central America, together with the sculptures, bas- PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 15 reliefs, statues, and inscriptions like those we reproduced." H. A. Stebbins' lectures, p. 27. RELICS OF TWO CIVILIZED NATIONS. J. D. Baldwin says: "The evidence of repeated recon- structions in some of the cities before they were deserted has been pointed out by explorers. ... Architectural charac- teristics so different from each other, that it is as impossible to attribute them all to the same people as to believe they were all built at the same epoch." Ancient America, p. 156. (Book of Mormon, pp. 232, 235.) William Pidgeon says: "From these facts, in connection with the traditions of De-Coo-Dah respecting the ancient inhabitants of these regions, as of various languages, cus- toms, and color, we are led to the conclusion that at least TWO distinct races of men have occupied this territory at different eras, and that both became nationally extinct anter- ior to the occupation of the present Indian race." Traditions of De-Coo-Dah, p. 176. Desire Charnay says: "The lintels, ... of stone, were cov- ered with sculptures and inscriptions. ... In this building are curious traces of masonry out of character with the general structure, showing the place to have been occupied at TWO different epochs of time." Ancient Cities of the New World, p. 333. Again he says: "Here and there closed up passages, walls rebuilt with materials other than those employed in the older construction, seem to indicate that the palace was occupied at TWO different periods." Ibid., p. 110. (Book of Mormon, pp. 232, 714.) J. D. Baldwin says : "Ruins and other vestiges that reveal an ancient civilization are found throughout the whole south- ern section of North America, extending as far as New Mexico and Arizona. But here the antiquities do not all belong to the same period in the past." Ancient America, p. 76. Markham says: "The ruins, scattered over Peru, differ in style, and thus give evidence of having been erected at 16 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK different epochs." Peru, by Markham, p. 65, quoted from report of Archaeological Committee, p. 25. John T. Short says: "They (Indians) were preceded by a race possessed of no inferior civilization, who were not their ancestors, but a distinct people." North Americans of Antiquity, p. 27. J. D. Baldwin says: "These are not the oldest cities whose remains are still visible, but they may have been built, in part, upon the foundations of cities more ancient. . . . It. can be seen that some of the ruined cities which can now be traced were several times renewed by reconstructions. "- Ancient America, p. 156, 152. (Book of Mormon, p. 232.) Again he says: "According to Montesinos, there were three distinct periods in the history of Peru. . . . Third and last came the period of the Incas who revived civilization and restored the empire. ... It was originated, he says, by a people led by FOUR brothers who settled in the Valley of Cuzco, and developed civilization there in a very human way. The youngest of these brothers assumed supreme authority and became the first of a long line of sovereigns." Ibid., p. 264. (Book of Mormon, pp. 5, 6: "Laman," "Lemuel," "Sam," and "Nephi.") Again he says: "This old town became a ruin in ancient times. After remaining long in a ruined condition it was again rebuilt, and again deserted after a considerable period of occupation. It is still easy to distinguish the differences in construction between the TWO periods. "The standing walls rest upon ruins of greater antiquity;" and while the primitive masonry is about six feet thick, that of the later period is only from a foot to a foot and a half thick." Ibid v p. 80. (Book of Mormon, pp. 270, 682. Albert Gallatin says: "However small may have been the number of those first emigrants, an equal number of years would have been more than sufficient to occupy in their own way, every part of America." Transactions of the American Ethnological Society, vol. 1, p. 179. PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 17 FIRST SETTLEMENT FROM THE TOWER OF BABEL. Josephus says: "After this (confusion of tongues) they were dispersed abroad, on account of their languages, and went out by colonies everywhere; and each colony took possession of that land which they light upon, and unto which God led them; so that the whole continent was filled with them, both the inland and maritime countries. There were some also who passed over the sea in ships, and inhabited the Islands." Antiquities of the Jews, chapter 5, p. 36. (Book of Mormon, pp. 202, 292, 714.) H. H. Bancroft says: "Votan ... is said to have been a descendant of Noah, and to have assisted at the building of the tower of Babel. After the confusion of tongues he led a portion of the dispersed people to America." Native Races of the Pacific States, vol. 5, pp. 27, 28. Josiah Priest says: "A colony, very soon after the con- fusion of the language of mankind, found their way to what is now called America." American Antiquities, p. 199. Edi- tion of 1833. Donnelly says: "After men had multiplied, they erected a very high 'zacuali,' which is to-day a tower of great height, in order to take refuge in it should the second world (age) be destroyed. Presently their languages were confused, and, not being able to understand each other, they went to different parts of the earth." Atlantis, pp. 103, 104. Edition of 1882. Desire Charnay says: "Veytia, like all historians of that time, places the primitive home of the Toltecs in Asia, to make his account agree with Genesis, where it is said that after the destruction of the Babylonian tower, 'the Lord scattered the sons of men upon the face of all the earth.' ... by means of large flat canoes, and square rafts made of wood and reeds; the former are described, and called, acalli, 'Water houses,' in their manuscripts. . . whence originated the various tribes, which peopled America. "- Ancient Cities of the New World, p. 79. H. H. Bancroft says : "Noah's ark, says Ulloa, gave rise to a number of such constructions; and the experience gained during the patriarch's aimless voyage emboldened his descend- 18 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK ants to seek strange lands in the same manner. Driven to America and the neighboring islands by winds and currents, . . . they remained and peopled the land. . . . Siguenza . . . conjectured that . . . (they) left Egypt (Babylon) for America shortly after the confusion of tongues, . . , Clavi- jero considers it proven by the native flood myths and tradi- tions of foreign origin, that the Americans are descandants of Noah. He quotes the (Toitec) tradition of Votan, who is declared to have been closely connected with the Babei builders. . . . According to the common version of the Mexican flood myths, Coxcox and his wife Xochiquetzel were the only human beings who escaped from the great deluge which covered the face of the earth,- in the age of water. How when the water went down, the ark in which they had saved themselves the hollow trunk of a bald cypress rested upon the peak of Culhuacan; and how the dumb children that were born to the rescued pair were taught many languages by a dove. . . . The Peruvians were acquainted with the deluge, and believed that the rainbow was the sign that the earth would not again be destroyed by water. This somewhat startling announcement is made by Lord Kings- borough, and he shows that there can be no reasonable doubt on the subject in an eminently characteristic manner. . . . Many of these flood myths are supplemented with an account of the attempt to provide against a second deluge, by build- ing a tower of refuge, resembling more or less closely the biblical legend of the Tower of Babel. Thus a Cholultec legend relates that . . . the anger of the gods was aroused, and they slew many of the builders, so the work was stopped. . . . Those myths have led many writers to believe that the Americans had a knowledge of the Tower of Babel, while some think that they are the direct descendants of certain of the builders of the tower, who after the confusion of tongues, wandered over the earth until they reached America. . . . The tradition of the Toltecs regarding their travels before they reached Huehue Tlapallan has been the theme of much speculation, especially as connected with their descent from the Babel builders. . . It is found in the histories PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 19 of the Toltecs that . . . man and all the earth were destroyed by great showers and by lightnings from heaven, so that nothing remained, and the most lofty mountains wer2 , . . submerged to the depth of ... fifteen cubits; and here they add other fables of how men came to multiply agair, from the few who escaped the destruction in a ... ciosefl chest; and how after multiplying the men built ... a very high tower, in which to take refuge when the world should be a second time destroyed. After this their tongues became confused, and not understanding each other, they went to different parts of the world. The Toltecs, seven in number, with their wives, who understood each other's speech, after crossing great lands and seas, and undergoing many hardships, finally arrived in America, which they found to be a good land." Native Races of the Pacific States, vol. 5, pp. 10, 16, 17, 21. (Book of Mormon, p. 714. As to the number that came with Lehi.) Albert Gallatin says: "I can not see any possible reason that should have prevented those who after the dispersion of mankind towards the east and northeast, from having reached the extremities of Asia, and passed over to America within five hundred years after the flood." Transactions of the American Ethnological Society, vol. 1, p. 179. John T. Short says: "Aboriginal Americans believed in the flood and had traces of the Tower of Babel." North American Antiquities, p. 263. Josiah Priest says: "This is consented to on all hands, and even contended for by the historian, Humboldt. In order to show the reader the propriety of believing, that a colony, very soon after the confusion of the language of mankind, found their way to what is now called America, we give the tradition of the Azteca nation, who once inhabited Aztalan. . . . The tradition commences with an account of the deluge, as they had preserved it in books made of the buffalo and deer skin, on which there is more certainty than if it had been preserved by mere oral tradition, handed down from father to son. "They begin by painting, or as we woud say, by telliner us 20 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK that Noah, whom they called Tezpi, saved himself, with his wife, whom they call Xochiquetzal, on a raft or canoe. . . . The raft or canoe rested on or at the foot of a mountain, which they call Colhuacan. . . . The men born after this deluge were born dumb. ... A dove from the top of a tree distributes languages to them in the form of an olive leaf. . . . They say, that on this raft, beside Tezpi and his wife, were several children, and animals, with grain, the preservation of which was of importance to mankind. . . . When the Great Spirit, . . . ordered the waters to withdraw, Tezpi sent out from his raft a vulture, which never returned, on account of the great quantities of dead carcasses which it found to feed upon. Is not this the raven of Noah, which did not return when it was sent out the second time, for the very reason here assigned by the Mexicans? Tezpi sent other birds, one of which was the humming bird; this bird alone returned, holding in its beak a branch covered with leaves. Is not this the dove? Tezpi, seeing that fresh verdure now clothed the earth, quitted his raft near the Mountain of Colhuacan." American Antiquities, pp. 199, 200. Edition of 1833. Again he says: "The tongues distributed by this bird were infinitely various, and dispersed over the earth. But; that it so happened that fifteen heads of families were permitted to speak the same language, these are the same shown on the plate. These traveled till they came to a country which they called Aztalan." Ibid., p. 202. (Genesis 11: 9; Book of Mormon, p. 714.) "While scientists are searching the banks of the Euphrates for some traces of the Tower of Babel, a most important dis- covery concerning this famous structure is reported from the Southwest. In the mysterious cliff ruins of that romantic region students have found what they believe to be a corrob- oration of the Bible story of the Tower of Babel. . . . What more likely than that, having lived in the shadow of the Tower of Towers on the plains of Shinar, and having helped build it, they should have departed from that place with the tower idea indelibly impressed jpon their minds? What PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 21 more natural in the sequence than that they should have retained that idea when they built in other parts of the world? What more plausible than that the southwestern, cliff dwellers who were, perhaps, the first arrivals from Babel upon this continent should have reproduced that form of structure which must have transcended the thought of all other structural forms in the mind of any that hailed from Babel? One can look at the wonderful towers of the Cliff Palace in Southwest Colorado and seeing them in the light of this new discovery, utter a beatitude like, 'Blessed were the ancient cliff builders, for they saw Babel.' . . . The most satisfactory proofs of this corroboration of the Bible story of Babel are to be found within a one hundred mile radius of the four corners, the Southwesterner's name for the point at which Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico meet. In this canyon scarred land are the three most wonderful cliff villages in the world, the Cliff Palace with one" hundred and forty-five rooms, the Spruce Tree House, with ninety, and the Balcony House with thirty. They are all within a day's ride of Mancos, Colorado, and the greatest distance between any two of them is four miles." Saint Louis Post- Dispatch, Sunday Magazine, December 31, 1905. HOW THE TOWER OF BABEL WAS BUILT. From the Jewish Encyclopedia, we find the following: "Six hundred thousand men were engaged forty-three years in building the Tower of Babel. It had reached such a height that it took a whole year to hoist up necessary building material to the top ; in consequence material became so valua- ble that the people cried when a brick fell and broke, while they remained indifferent when a man fell and was killed. They behaved also heartlessly toward the weak and sick who could not assist in any great extent in the building. God at first permitted the people to continue with their work, waiting to see whether they would not desist from their sinful undertaking, and when they still continued, he endeavored to induce them to repent, but all in vain. The confounding of languages (before that, they had all spoken Hebrew) then 22 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK compelled them to give up the work, many also perishing on the occasion; for if anyone received stones instead of mortar, through misunderstanding of his fellow-workers, he grew angry and threw the stones upon the one who had given them. The mighty tower was blown down by winds; according to the opinion of others, one third of the building was consumed by fire, one third sank into the earth, and one third remained standing. This remnant of the Tower is said to be at Bor- sippa." THE SECOND COLONY FROM JERUSALEM. William Penn wrote thus, August 13, 1683: "The natives . . . are generally tall, straight, well-built, and of singular proportion ; they tread strong and clever, and mostly walk with a lofty chin. . . . Their eye is little and black, not unlike a straight-looked Jew. ... I have seen among them as comely European-like faces of both sexes as on your side of the sea; and truly an Italian complexion hath not much more of the white, and the noses of several of them have as much of the Roman. . . . For their original, I am ready to believe them to be of the Jewish race I mean of the stock of the Ten Tribes and that for the following reasons; first, ... in the next place, I find them to be of the like countenance and their children of so lively a resemblance that a man would think himself in Duke's Place or Berry street in London when he seeth them. But this is not all: they agree in rites, they reckon by moons, they offer their first fruits, they have a kind of a Feast of Tabernacles, they are said to lay their altars upon twelve stones, their mourning a year, customs of women, with many other things that do not now occur."- Atlantis, p. 185. Edition of 1882. (Book of Mormon, pp. 4, 63.) John L. Stephens says: "According to the manuscript of Don Juan Torres, a grandson of the last King of Quinches, . . . the Toltecs as themselves, descended from the house of Israel, who were released by Moses from the tyranny of Pharaoh, after crossing the Red Sea, fell into idolatry." Travels in Central America, vol. 2, p. 172. PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 23 Donnelly says: "There is scarcely a prominent fact in the opening chapters of the Book of Genesis that can not be duplicated from the legends of the American nations, and scarcely a custom known to the Jews that does not find its counterpart among the people of the New World. Even in the history of the creation we find these similarities: The Bible tells us (Genesis 1:2) that in the beginning the earth was without form and void, and covered with water. In the Quiche legends we are told, 'At first all was sea no man, animal, bird, or green herb there was nothing to be seen but the sea and the heavens.' The Bible says (Genesis 1, 2) : 'And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.' The Quiche legend says, 'The Creator, the Former, the Dominator the feathered serpent those that give life, moved upon the waters like a glowing light.' "The Bible says (Genesis 1:9), 'And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.' The Quiche legend says, 'The creative spirits cried out "Earth!" and in an instant it was formed, and rose like a vapor cloud; imme- diately the plains and the mountains arose, and the cypress and pine appeared.' The Bible tells us, 'And God saw that it was good.' The Quiche legend says, 'Then Gucumatz was filled with joy, and cried out, "Blessed be thy coming, O Heart of Heaven, Hurakan, thunderbolt." ' "The order in which the vegetables, animals, and man were formed is the same in both records. "In Genesis (2: 7,) we are told, 'And the Lprd God formed man out of the dust of the ground.' The Quiche legend says, 'The first man was made of clay; but he had no intelligence, and was consumed in the water.' In Genesis the first man is represented as naked. The Aztec legend says, 'The sun was much nearer the earth then than now, and his grateful warmth rendered clothing unnecessary.' "Even the temptation of Eve reappears in the American legends. Lord Kingsborough says, 'The Toltecs had paintings of a garden, with a single tree standing in the midst; round the root of the tree is entwined a serpent, whose head appear- 24 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK ing above the foliage displays the face of a woman. Torque- mada admits the existence of this tradition among them, and agrees with the Indian historians who affirm that this was the first woman in the world, who bore children, and from whom all mankind are descended.' (Mexican Antiquities, vol. 8, p. 19.) "There is also a legend of Suchiquecal, who disobediently gathered roses from a tree, and thereby disgraced and injured herself and all her posterity." (Mexican Antiquities, vol. 6, p. 401.) Quoted from Atlantis, pp. 198-200. H. H. Bancroft says (Duran's Theory of the Indians gives the traditions) : "That their ancestors, while suffering many hardships and persecutions, were prevailed upon by a great man, who became their chief, to flee from that land into another, where they might have rest; they arrived at the sea- shore, and the chief struck the waters with a rod he had in his hand; the sea opened, and the chief and his followers marched on, but were soon pursued by their enemies; they crossed over in safety, and their enemies were swallowed up by the sea. . . . Another tradition transmitted from genera- tion to generation, and recorded in pictures, is that while their first ancestors were on their journey to the promised land, they tarried in the vicinity of a certain high hill; here a terrible earthquake occurred, and some wicked people who were with them were swallowed up by the earth opening up under their feet. . . . The Israelites were divided into tribes and chiefs over them, so the Indians divided themselves; each tribe forming a little community within the nation and as the nation hath its particular symbol so hath each tribe the badge from which it is demonstrated (or designated.) . . . The Hebrew nation were ordered to worship Jehovah the true and the living God, who by the Indians is styled Yohewah. . . . Their opinion that God chose them out of all the rest of man- kind as his peculiar and beloved people, fills both the white Jew and the red American with that steady hatred against all the world, which renders them hated and despised by all."- Native Races, vol. 5 (footnote on pages 89, 90, 91, 92). (Book of Mormon p. 15.) PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 25 Donnelly says: "The Mound Builders made sun-dried brick mixed with rushes, as the Egytians made sun-dried bricks mixed with straw; they worked in copper, silver, lead, and there are evidences, as we shall see, that they wrought even in iron." Atlantis, p. 376. Josiah Priest says: "Among these ancient nations are found many more traditions corresponding to the accounts given by Moses, respecting the creation, the fall of man by means of a serpent the murder of Abel by his brother, etc. ; . all of which are denoted in their paintings, as found by the earlier travelers among them." American Antiquities, p. 203. Desire Charnay says: "Toltecs . . . were supposed to have come from the west, and to have brought with them maize, cotton, seeds, and the vegetables found in this country; that they were cunning artists in working gold, precious stones, and other curiosities." Ancient Cities of the New World, pp. 82, 83. ABORIGINES, ISRAELITES: DESIGNATED BY THEIR LANGUAGE. H. H. Bancroft says: "The theory that the Americans are Jewish descent has been discussed more minutely and at greater length than any other. Its advocates, or at least those who have made original researches, are comparatively few, but the extent of their investigations and the multitude of parallelisms they adduce in support of their hypothesis, ex- ceed by far anything that we have yet encountered." Native Races of Pacific States, vol. 5, pp. 77, 78. (Book of Mormon, pp. 2, 234.) Donnelly says : "It would appear as if both the Phoenicians and Egyptians drew their alphabet from a common source, of which the Maya is a survival, but did not borrow from one another. They followed out different characteristics in the same original hieroglyph, as, for instance, in the letter b. And yet I have shown that the closest resemblances exist be- tween the Maya alphabet and the Egyptian -signs in the c, h, t, i, m, n, o, q, and s, eleven letters in all; in some cases, as in the n and k, the signs are identical; the k, in both alphabets, is not only a serpent, but a serpent with a 26 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK protuberance or convolution in the middle! If we "add to the above the b and u referred to in the 'Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society/ we have thirteen letters out of sixteen in the Maya and Egyptian related to each other. Can any theory of accidental coincidences account for all this? And it must be remembered that these resemblances are found between the only two phonetic systems of alphabet in the world." Atlantis, p. 232. Again he says: "Why is it that we find in Ptolemy's Geography of Asia Minor, in the list of cities in Armenia Major in A. D. 140, the names of five cities which have their counterparts in the names of localities in Central America? ARMENIAN CITIES. CENTRAL AMERICAN LOCALITIES. Choi. Chol-ula. Colua. Colua-can. Zuivana. Zuivan. Cholima. Colima. Zalissa. Xalisco. Atlantis, p. 178. Marquis de Nadaillac (Na-da-yak') : "There is a very distinct resemblance in some of these hieroglyphics (of Cen- tral America ) to those of Egypt." Prehistoric America, p. 328. Edition of 1901. John T. Short says: "Senor Melgar, a Mexican is convinced that he sees a resemblance between the names employed by the Chiapenecs in their calendar and the Hebrew," and Mr. Short gives the following list: ENGLISH. CHIAPENECS. HEBREW. Son. Been. Ben. Daughter. Batz. Bath. Father. Abagh. Abba. Star in Zodiac. Chimax. Chimad. King. Molo. Maloc. Name applied to Adam. Abagh. Abah. Afflicted. Chanam. Chanan. God. Elab. Elab. September. Tsiquin. Tischiri PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 27 More. Chic. Chi. Rich. Chabin. Chabic. Son of Seth. Enot. Enos. To give. Votan. Votan. River of Arica. Lambat. Lambotus. North American Antiquities, p. 475. Edition of 1888. Elder S. F. Walker quotes Professor Rafenesque: "But in the great variety of Egyptian forms of the same letters, I thought that I could trace some resemblance with our Ameri- can glyphs. In fact, I could see in them the Egyptian cross, snake, circle, delta, square, trident, eye, feather, fish, hand, . . . and a hundred other nameless signs of Egypt." He quotes Le Plongeon: "I must speak of that language which has survived unaltered through the vicissitudes of the nations that spoke it thousands of years ago, and is yet the general tongue in Yucatan . . . the Maya. . . . The Maya, containing words from almost every language, ancient or modern, is well worth the attention of philologists. . . . One third of the tongue is pure Greek. Who brought the dialect of Homer to America? Or who took to Greece that of the Mayas? Greek is the off- spring of the Sanscrit. Is Maya? Or are they coeval? A clew for the ethnologists to follow the migrations of the human family on this continent. Did the bearded men whose portraits are carved on the massive pillars of the fortress of Itza, belong to the Maya nation? The Maya is not devoid of words from the Assyrian. . . . The Maya language seems to be one of the oldest tongues spoken by man, since it contains words and expressions of all or nearly all of the known polished languages of the earth." Ruins Revisited, pp. 175-178. "The primeval inhabitants of North America were Asiatics in their features, their language, and their arts, and tradi- tion speaks of them as moving from the direction of Asia." Sketches of Creation, p. 362. H. H. Bancroft says: "Joseph Merrick, esq., a highly respectable character in the church at Pittsfield, gave the following account: That in 1815, he was leveling some ground ... on Indian Hill. . . . After the work was done, walking 28 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK over the place, he discovered, near where the earth had been dug the deepest, a black strap, as it appeared, about six inches in length, and one and a half in breadth, and about the thickness of a leather trace to a harness. . . . After some time, he thought he would examine it; but in attempting to cut it, found it as hard as bone; he succeeded, however, in getting it open, and found it was formed of two pieces of thick rawhide, sewed and made water tight with the sinews of some animal, and gummed over; and in the fold was contained four- fold pieces of parchment. They were of a dark yellow hue, and contained some kind of writing Mr. Merrick saved and sent them to Cambridge, where they were examined, and discovered to have been written with a pen, in Hebrew, plain and legible. . . . Quotations from the Old Testament. The other discovery was made in Ohio, and was seen by my father, Mr. A. A. Bancroft, who thus describes it: About eight miles southeast of Newark there was formerly a large mound . . . the county surveyor . . . who had for some time been searching ancient works, turned his attention to this particular pile. He employed a number of men and proceeded at once to open it. Before long he was rewarded by finding in the center and near the surface a bed of the tough clay generally known as pipeclay, which must have been brought from a distance of some twelve miles. Imbedded in the clay was a coffin, dug out of a burr oak log, and in a pretty good state of preservation. In the coffin was a skeleton, with quite a number of stone ornaments and emblems and some open brass rings, suitable for bracelets or anklets. These being removed, they dug down deeper, and soon discovered a stone dressed to an oblong shape, about eighteen inches long and twelve wide, which proved to be a casket, neatly fitted and completely water-tight, containing a slab of stone of hard and fine quality, an inch and a half thick, eight inches long, four and a half inches wide at one end, and tapering to three inches at the other. Upon the face of the slab was a figure of a man, apparently a priest, with a long flowing beard, and a robe reaching to his feet. Over his head was a curved line of characters, and upon the edges and back of the stone were PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 29 closely and neatly carved letters. The slab, which I saw myself, was shown to the Episcopalian clergyman of Newark, and he pronounced the writing to be the ten commandments in ancient Hebrew." Native Races of the Pacific States, vol. 5, pp. 93-95. H. H. Bancroft says: "For instance, both Jews and Ameri- cans gave their temples into the charge of priests, burned incense, anointed the body, practiced circumcision, kept per- petual fires on their altars, . . . slew the adulterer, made it unlawful for a man to dress like a woman, or a woman like a man, put away their brides if they proved to have lost their virginity, and kept the ten commandments." Native Races, vol. 5, pp. 82, 83. Again: "The Mexicans applied the blood of - sacrifices to the same uses as the Jews; they poured it upon the earth, they sprinkled it, they marked persons with it, and they smeared it upon walls and other 4 inanimate things. "No one but the Jewish high priest might enter the Holy of Holies. A similar custom obtained in Peru. Both Mexicans and Jews regarded certain animals as unclean and unfit for food. . . . Absolutions formed an essential part of the cere- monial law of the Jews and Mexicans. The opinions of the Mexicans with regard to the resurrection of the body, accorded with those of the Jews." Ibid., pp. 85, 86. Delafield says: "Baron Humboldt considers the Mexican paintings as rather corresponding with the hieratic than the hieroglyphic writings of the Egyptians, as found on the rolls of papyrus in the swathings of the mummies, and which may be considered paintings of a mixed kind, because they unite symbolical and isolated characters with the representa- tion of an action. It is the opinion of the author that further investigations and discoveries in deciphering Mexican hiero- glyphic paintings will exhibit a close analogy to the Egyp- tian." American Antiquities, p. 46. (Book of Mormon, p. 713.) Again: "One of the most interesting sources of comparison between Mexico, Peru, and Egypt, is to be found in an investigation of their hieroglyphic system. Each of these 30 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK countries had a peculiar method of recording events by means of hieroglyphic signs, sculpturing them on monuments and buildings and portraying them on papyrus (papirus) and maguey." Ibid., p. 42. "Many Chiapanecs and Hebrew words are almost the same in Son, Daughter, Father, Star; in Zodiac, King; name applied to Adam, Afflicted, God, September, More, Rich, Seth son of Adam. McNair Wright says, that the native of South America had five cities with names identical with cities in Asia Minor, this can hardly be accidental." Bricks from Babel, p. 164. LED TO AMERICA BY FOUR BROTHERS. J. D. Baldwin says: "According to Montesinos, (Mon-ta- se-nos) there were three distinct periods in the history of Peru. First, there was a period, which began with the origin of civilization, and lasted until the first or second century of the Christian era. ... It was originated, he says, by a people led by four brothers, who settled in the Valley of Cuzco, and developed civilization there in a very human way. The youngest of these brothers assumed supreme authority, and became the first of a long line of sovereigns." Ancient America, p. 264. (Book of Mormon, pp. 5, 6.) "Its first inhabitants flowed in abundantly toward the Valley of Cuzco, conducted by four brothers, . . . The youngest of the brothers, who, according to tradition, was at the same time the most skilled and hardy." Peruvian Antiquities, p. 52; 1853. THE CALENDAR OF THE ANCIENT AMERICANS INDICATES THEIR ORIGIN. Donnelly says: "The Mexican century began on the 26th of February, and the 26th of February was celebrated from the time of Nabonassor, 747 B. c., because the Egyptian priests, conformably to their astronomical observations, had fixed the beginning of the month Toth, and the commencement of their year, at noon on that day." Atlantis, p. 368. Bancroft, in his footnotes, says: "They count time after the manner of the Hebrews, reckoning years by lunar months." PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 31 Native Races of the Pacific States, vol. 5, p. 92. (Book of Mormon, p. 335, v. 9.) John T. Short says: "The calendar system of the Mayas and Nahuas present analogies to the system employed by the Persians, Egyptians, and certain Asiatic nations, and the presumption is very strong that the latter furnished the ground plan upon which the Nahua system was constructed." North Americans, p. 519. Marquis De Nadaillac, (Na-da-yak') says: "The various races which occupied Central America had some knowledge of astronomy. They were acquainted with the division of time founded upon the motion of the sun, and long before the conquest they possessed a regular system." Prehistoric America, p. 305. (Book of Mormon, p. 585.) Donnelly says: "It will be conceded that a considerable degree of astronomical knowledge must have been necessary to reach the conclusion that the true year consisted of three hundred and sixty-five days and six hours (modern science has demonstrated that it consists of three hundred and sixty- five days and five hours, less ten seconds) ; and a high degree of civilization was requisite to insist that the year must be brought around, by the intercalation of a certain number of days in a certain period of time, to its true relation to the seasons. Both were the outgrowth of a vast, ancient civiliza- tion of the highest order." Atlantis, p. 368. Josephus says: "Berosus mentions our father Abram, with- out naming him, when he says thus, 'In the tenth generation after the flood, there was among the Chaldeans a man right- eous and great, and skilled in the celestial science.' " Anti- quities of the Jews, book 1, chap. 7, par. 2, p. 38. (Book of Mormon, p. 350.) J. D. Baldwin says: "Mr. Schoolcraft gives this account of a discovery made in West Virginia: 'Antique tube: tele- scopic device. In the course of excavations made in 1842 in the easternmost of the three mounds of the Elizabethtown group, several tubes of stone were disclosed, the precise object of which has been the subject of various opinions. The longest measured twelve inches, the shortest eight. Three 32 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK of them were carved out of steatite, being skillfully cut and polished. The diameter of the tube externally was one inch and four tenths; the bore, eight tenths of an inch. This caliber was continued till within three eighths of an inch of the sight end, when it diminished to two tenths of an inch. By placing the eye at the diminished end, the extraneous light is shut from the pupil, and distant objects are more clearly discerned." Ancient America, p. 42. Again he says: "In this part of Mexico Captain Dupaix examined a peculiar ruin, of which he gave the following account: 'Near the road from the village of Tlalmanalco to that called Mecamecan, about three miles east of the latter, there is an isolated granite rock, which was artificially formed into a kind of pyramid with six hewn steps facing the east. The summit of this structure is a platform, or horizontal plane, well adapted to observation of the stars on every side of the hemisphere. It is almost demonstrable that this very ancient monument was exclusively devoted to astronomical observations, for on the south side of the rock are sculptured several hieroglyphical figures having relation to astronomy. The most striking figure in the group is that of a man in profile, standing erect, and directing his view to the rising stars in the sky. He holds to his eye a tube or optical instru- ment. Below his feet is a frieze divided into six compart- ments with as many celestial signs carved on its surface.' It has been already stated that finely wrought 'telescopic tubes' have been found among remains of the Mound Builders. They were used, it seems, by the ancient people of Mexico and Central America, and they were known also in ancient Peru, where a silver figure of a man in the act of using such a tube has been discovered in one of the old tombs." Ancient America, pp. 122, 123. Again: "They had an accurate measure of the solar year and a system of chronology." Ibid., p. 187. Josiah Priest quotes Atwater: "I am convinced from an attention to many hundreds of these works, in every part of the west which I have visited, that their authors had a knowl- PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 33 edge of astronomy." American Antiquities, p. 265. Edition of 1833. Delafield says: "I have also recognized in 'your memoir on the division of time among the Mexican Nations, compared with those of Asia, some very striking analogies between the Toltec characters and institutions of observed on the banks of the Nile. Among these analogies there is one which is worthy of attention. It is the use of the vague year of three hundred and sixty-five days, composed of equal months, and of five complementary days, equally employed at Thebes and Mexico, a distance of three thousand leagues (9,000 miles). . . . The use of a year of three hundred and sixty-five days and a quarter, is a proof that it was either borrowed from the Egyptians, or that they had a common origin." American Antiquities, pp. 52, 53. Again: "From the earliest ages, we find skill and knowl- edge in astronomy; and the more we examine, the more we are surprised at the extent of astronomical science in the earliest history of the world." Ibid., p. 48. ABORIGINES OF AMERICA METAL WORKERS. Nadaillac says: "Excavations near Davenport, Iowa. . . . The objects placed with the dead consisted of a large sea- shell, . . . two unused copper axes." Prehistoric America, p. 113. Josiah Priest says: "A Mr. Thomas Lee discovered, not long since, on his farm, in Tompkins County in the State of New York, the entire iron works of a wagon, reduced to rust. From this discovery much might be conjectured re- specting the state of cultivation, as a wagon denotes not only a knowledge of mechanic arts, equal, perhaps, in that respect with the present times; but also that roads existed, or a wagon could not have traversed the country." American Antiquities, p. 254. Edition of 1834. Morse says: "In clearing out a spring near some ancient ruins of the west, on the bank of the Little Miami, not far its entrance into the Ohio, was found a copper coin, four feet below the surface of the earth; from the fac simile of 34 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK which it appears, that the characters on the coin are old Persian characters." (Morse's Universal Geography, vol. 1, p. 442.) Ibid., T74. Josiah Priest says: "In Virginia, near Blacksburgh, eighty miles from Marietta, thjere was found the half of a steel bow, which, when entire, would measure five or six feet. P. 177, edition of 1834. Nadaillac says: "At Swanton, Vermont, an old burial place has been discovered, in the midst of a forest where ven- erable trees replaced others yet more ancient. Here the exca- vations yielded numerous copper tubes, the length of which varied from three to four inches. The sheet of copper had been drawn out, beaten, and rolled in a manner giving a very high idea of the skill of the workman." Prehistoric America, p. 165. (Book of Mormon, p, 63. ) J. D. Baldwin sa^s: "Relics of art have been dug from some of the mounds, consisting of a considerable variety of ornaments and implements, made of copper, silver, obsidian, porphyry, and greenstone, finely wrought. There are axes, single and double; adzes, chisels, drills or gravers, lance heads, knives, bracelets, pendants, beads, and the like, made of copper." Ancient America, p. 40. Again: "Modern mining on Lake Superior began effect- ively in 1845. The whole copper region has not been fully explored. Works of the ancient miners are found at all the mines of any importance; and they show remarkable skill in discovering and tracing actual veins of the metal." Ibid., p. 46. (Book of Mormon, p. 742.) Donnelly says: "We find the remains of an iron sword and meteoric iron weapons in the mounds of the Mississippi Valley, while the name of the metal is found in the ancient languages of Peru and Chili, and the Incas worked in iron on the shores of Lake Titicaca." Atlantis, p. 462. (Book of Mormon, p. 742.) Nadaillac says: "In one mine, which had been choked up in the course of years with earth and vegetable refuse, the re- mains of several generations of trees, was found, at about eighteen feet from the surface, a block of metal measuring PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 35 two feet long by three wide and two thick, and weighing nearly six tons. This mass had been placed on rollers from six to eight inches in diameter, the edges of which still bore the marks of a sharp instrument." Prehistoric America, p. 178. Again: "Everywhere copper implements were found side by side with stone, mostly bearing marks of long service. One mallet weighed more than twenty pounds. Like all other copper objects it had been made by hammering unheated. . . . Toltecs worked in gold, silver, copper, tin, and lead. Their jewelry is celebrated." Ibid., pp. 179, 180. Edition of 1901. Josiah Priest says: "In the county of Haversham, in North Carolina, was lately dug out of the earth, at a place where the gold ore is found, a small vessel in the form of a skillet. It was fifteen feet under ground, made of a compound of tin anu copper, with a trace of iron." American Antiquities, p. 398. Again : "Weapons of brass have been found in many parts of America, as in the Canadas, Florida, etc. with curiously sculptured stones, all of which go to prove that this country was once peopled with civilized, industrious nations." Ibid., p. 223. Edition of 1834. (Book of Mormon p. 758.) Desire Charnay says: "Hatchets, arms, and scissors were made of copper found in the mountains of Zocatollan." An- cient Cities, p. 70. William Pidgeon says: "On bank of the River Des Peres, in Missouri, was found, ... a genuine Roman coin. A Persian coin also found on the bank of the Ohio River." Antiquarian Researches, pp. 16, 17. "Brass, an important alloy, consisting of copper, and zinc. The proportions in which the two metals are combined differ considerably in different kinds of brass. It is malleable and ductile so that it can be easily rolled into thin sheets, or hammered into any desired shape. This alloy was known to the ancients and was made by them before they had any knowledge of metal zinc as such. It was well known by Strabo, who describes the mode of manufacture. . . . And it is not at all unlikely the same was the case with bronze, and one of its constituents, tin." Century Dictionary. "Among the Greeks, and Romans, books of wood were 36 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK common. For the more important purposes they also employed ivory as well as bronze and other metals." American Cyclo- pedia, Art. "Book." "Copper and brass plates were very early in use, and a bill of feoffment on copper was some years since, discovered in India, bearing date one hundred years before Christ. "- Condensed Cyclopedia (W. S. Trigg, Pub., N. Y.), vol. 3, no. 231, p. 57. "The materials generally used by the ancients for their books were liable to be easily destroyed by the damp, when hidden in the earth; and in times of war, devastation, and rapacity, it was necessary to bury in the earth whatever they wished to preserve from the attacks of fraud and violence. With this view Jeremiah ordered the writings which he deliv- ered to Baruch to be put in an earthen vessel. (Jeremiah 32.) In the same manner the ancient Egyptians made use of earthen urns or pots of proper shape for containing whatever they wanted to inter in the earth and which without such would have been destroyed." Watson's Bible Dictionary, 171, (Book of Mormon, p. 7.) "Tablets, and sometimes several tablets formed into a book, like the wooden tablets consisting of plates of lead, copper, brass and other metals were anciently used either to form leaves in which the wax might be spread, or else for the writings to be engraved upon them. The latter process is exceedingly ancient. Pliny mentions that leaden sheets or plates were used for important public documents." Pictorial Illustrations of the Bible, by Robert Sears. "And every base had four brazen wheels, and plates of brass."! Kings 7: 30. Apocrypha: "And he commanded that this writing should be put in tables of brass."---! Maccabees 14: 48. J. D. Baldwin says: "They had great skill in the art of working metals, especially gold and silver. Besides these precious metals, they had copper, tin, lead, and quicksilver. . . . Their goldsmiths and silversmiths had attained very great proficiency. They could melt the metals in furnaces, cast them in moulds made of clay and gypsum, hammer their work PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 37 with remarkable dexterity, inlay it, and solder it with great perfection." Ancient America, pp. 248, 249. Josiah Priest says: "Near the falls of Ohio, six brass orna- ments, such as soldiers usually wear in front of their belts, was dug up, attached to six skeletons." American Antiquities, p. 226. Edition of 1834. Delafield says: "In Liberty Township, Washington County, Ohio, are yet to be seen twenty or thirty rude furnaces, built of stone, with hearths of clay, containing pieces of stone-coal and cinders, perhaps used in smelting ore. Large trees are still growing on them, and attest their age. They stand in the midst of a rich body of iron ore, and in a wild, hilly, and rough part of the country, better adapted to manufacture than to agriculture." American Antiquities, p. 55. (Book of Mormon, p. 63.) Donnelly says : "The Mound Builders made sun-dried brick, mixed with rushes, as the Egyptians made sun-dried bricks mixed with straw; they worked in copper, silver, lead, and there are evidences, as we shall see, that they wrought even in iron. Copper implements are very numerous in the mounds. Copper axes, spearheads, hollow buttons, bosses for ornaments, bracelets, rings, etc., are found in very many of them strik- ingly similar to those of the Bronze Age in Europe." Atlantis, p. 376. (Book of Mormon, p. 15.) THE GREAT PERUVIAN PUBLIC ROADS. J. D. Baldwin says: "Nothing in ancient Peru was more remarkable than the public roads. No ancient people has left traces of works more astonishing than these, so vast was their extent, and so great the skill and labor required to construct them. One of these roads ran along the moun- tains through the whole length of the empire, from Quito to Chili. "Another, starting from this at Cuzco, went down to the coast and extended northward to the equator. These roads were built on beds or 'deep Binder structures' of masonry. The width of the roadways varied from twenty to twenty-five feet, and they were made level and smooth by paving, and in some 38 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK places by a sort of macadamizing with pulverized stone mixed with lime and bituminous cement. This cement was used in all the masonry. On each side of the roadway was 'a very strong wall more than a fathom in thickness.' These roads went over marshes, rivers, and great chasms of the sierras, and through rocky precipices and mountain sides. The great road passing along the mountains was a marvelous work. In many places its way was cut through rock for leagues. Great ravines were filled up with solid masonry. Rivers were crossed by means of a curious kind of suspension bridges, and no obstruction was encountered which the builders did not overcome. The builders of our Pacific Railroad, with their superior engineering skill and mechanical appliances, might reasonably shrink from the cost and the difficulties of such a work as this. Extending from one degree north of Quito to Cuzco, and from Cuzco to Chili, it was quite as long as the two Pacific railroads, and its wild route among the mountains was far more difficult. "Sarmiento, describing it, said, 'It seems to me that if the emperor (Charles V) should see fit to order the construction of another road like that which leads from Quito to Cuzco, or that which from Cuzco goes toward Chili, I certainly think he would not be able to make it, with all his power.' Humboldt examined some of the remains of this road, and described as follows a portion of it seen in a pass of the Andes, between Mansi and Loxa: 'Our eyes rested continually on superb remains of a paved road of the Incas. The road- way, paved with well-cut, dark porphyritic stone, was twenty feet wide, and rested on deep foundations. This road was marvelous. None of the Roman roads I have seen in Italy, in the South of France, or in Spain, appeared to me more imposing than this work of the ancient Peruvians.' He saw remains of several other shorter roads which were built in the same way, some of them between Loxa and the River Amazon. Along these roads at equal distances were edifices, a kind of caravanseras, built of hewn stone, for the accom- modation of travelers. These great works were described by every Spanish wri+r on Peru, and in some accounts of them PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 39 we find suggestions in regard to their history. They are called 'roads of the Incas,' but they were probably much older than the time of these rulers. The mountain road running toward Quito was much older than the Inca Huayna Capac, to whom it has sometimes been attributed. It is stated that when he started by this route to invade the Quitus, the road was so bad that 'he found great difficulties in the passage.' It was then an old road, much out of repair, and he immedi- ately ordered the necessary reconstructions. Gomara says, 'Huayna Capac restored, enlarged, and completed these roads, but he did not build them, as some pretend.' These great artificial highways were broken up and made useless at the time of the Conquest, and the subsequent barbarous rule of the Spaniards allowed them to go to decay. Now only broken remains of them exist to show their former character." Ancient America, pp. 243-246. (Book of Mormon, p. 617.) Nadaillac says: "The accounts of Spanish historians leave no doubt of the existence of roads, made for the convenience of travelers, and above all to give access to the religious cen- ters. Some of them extended beyond the limits of Yucatan, and stretched into the neighboring kingdoms of Guatemala, Chiapas, and Tobasco. Some of these roads were paved; such were the Calzadas spoken of by Cogolludo and Bishop Landa, which led to Chichen-Itza, Uxmal, Izamal, and to Tihoo, the ruins of which have been used to build the modern town of Merida. These last highways measure from between seven and eight yards in width; they are made of blocks of stone, covered with very well-preserved mortar and a layer of cement about two inches thick. The rivers were spanned by bridges of masonry; Clavijero, who traversed the whole of Mexico during the last century, speaks of having seen still standing in many places, the massive piers intended to support them." Prehistoric America, p. 349. Donnelly says: "The American nations built public works as great as or greater than any known in Europe. The Peruvi- ans had public roads, one thousand five hundred to two thou- sand miles long, made so thoroughly as to elicit the astonish- ment of the Spaniards. At every few miles taverns or hotels 40 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK were established for the accommodation of travelers. Hum- boldt pronounced these Peruvian roads 'among the most useful and stupendous works ever executed by man.' They built aque- ducts for purposes of irrigation, some of which were five hun- dred miles long. They constructed magnificent bridges of stone, and had even invented suspension bridges thousands of years before they were introduced into Europe. . . . The Peruvians made large use of aqueducts, which they built with notable skill, using hewn stones and cement, and making them very substantial. One extended four hundred and fifty miles across sierras and over rivers. Think of a stone aqueduct reaching from the City of New York to the State of North Carolina! The public roads of the Peruvians were most remarkable; they were built on masonry. One of these roads ran along the mountains through the whole length of the empire, from Quito to Chili; another, starting from this at Cuzco, went down to the coast, and extended northward to the Equator. These roads were from twenty to twenty-five feet wide, were macadamized with pulverized stone mixed with lime and bituminous cement, and were walled in by strong walls 'more than a fathom in thickness.' In many places these roads were cut for leagues through the rock; great ravines were filled up with solid masonry; rivers were crossed by suspension bridges, used here ages before their introduction into Europe." Atlantis, pp. 141, 393, 394. William H. Prescott says: "One of these roads passed over the grand plateau, and the other along the lowlands on the borders of the ocean. The former was much the more difficult achievement, from the character of the country. It was con- ducted over pathless sierras buried in snow; galleries were cut for leagues through the living rock; rivers were crossed by means of bridges that swung suspended in the air; preci- pices were scaled by stairways hewn out of the native bed; ravines of hideous depth were filled up with solid masonry; in short, all the difficulties that beset a wild and mountainous region, and which might appall the most courageous engineer of modern times, were encountered and successfully overcome. The length of the road, of which scattered fragments only PARSONS' TEXT BOO*K 41 remain, is variously estimated, from fifteen hundred to two thousand miles; and stone pillars, in the manner of European mile stones, were erected at stated intervals of somewhat more than a league, all along the route. "Its breadth scarcely exceeded twenty feet. It was built of heavy flags of free stone, and in some parts, at least, covered with a bituminous cement, which time has made harder than the stone itself. In some places, where the ravines had been filled up with masonry, the mountain torrents, wearing on it for ages, have gradually eaten a way through the base, and left the superincumbent mass such is the cohesion of the materials still spanning the valley like an arch! Over some of the boldest streams it was necessary to construct suspen- sion bridges, as they are termed, made of the tough fibers of the maguey, or of the osier of the country, which has an extraordinary degree of tenacity and strength. These osiers were woven into cables of the thickness of a man's body. The huge ropes, then stretched across the water, were conducted through rings or holes cut in immense buttresses of stone raised on the opposite banks of the river, and there secured to heavy pieces of timber. Several of these enormous cables, bound together, formed a bridge, which, covered with planks, well secured and defended by a railing of the same osier ma- terials on the sides, afforded a safe passage for the traveler. The length of this aerial bridge, sometimes exceeding two hundred feet, caused it, confined, as it was, only at the ex- tremities, to dip with an alarming inclination towards the center." Conquest of Peru, vol. 1, pp. 84-86. Edition of 1893. ABORIGINES OF AMERICA WERE WARRIORS. J. D. Baldwin says: "Another class of these antiquities consists of inclosures formed by heavy embankments of earth and stone. ... In some cases the ditches or fosses were on the inside, in others on the outside. . . . 'Lines of embank- ment varying from five to thirty feet in height, and inclosing from one to fifty acres, are very common, while inclosures containing from one hundred to two hundred acres are not infrequent, and occasional works are found inclosing as many 42 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK as four hundred acres.' . . . About one hundred inclosures and five hundred mounds have been examined in Ross County, Ohio. The number of mounds in the whole State is estimated at over ten thousand, and the number of inclosures at more than one thousand and five hundred. . . . They are more numerous in the regions on the lower Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico than anywhere else; and here, in some cases, sun-dried brick was used in the embankments. . . . Harrison Mound, in South Carolina, is four hundred and eighty feet in circumference and fifteen feet high. Another is described as five hundred feet in circumference at the base, two hun- dred and twenty -five feet at the summit, and thirty-four feet high. ... At Seltzertown, Mississippi, there is a mound six hundred feet long, four hundred feet wide, and forty feet high. The area of its level summit measures four acres. There was a ditch around it, and near it are smaller mounds. . . . 'The north side of this mound is supported by a wall of sun-dried brick two feet thick, filled with grass, rushes, and leaves.' ... In the Southern States these works appear to assume a closer resemblance to the mound work of Central America." Ancient America, pp. 19, 20, 23, 24, 27. (Book of Mormon, p. 689.) QUADRUPEDS WERE NATIVES OF AMERICA. Prof. August LePlongeon, M. D., of Brooklyn, New York, January 8, 1889, said: "I informed him [Reverend Mr. Lamb] that seventeen species of fossil horses had been dis- covered in America. That the buffaloes were cattle, that the mountain sheep still lived in the Rocky Mountains, and that peccaries or wild pigs roamed yet in large numbers in the forests of Central America." Autumn Leaves. (Book of Mormon, p. 63.) Prof. A. Winchell says: "It is a curious fact that so many generi now extinct from the continent, but living in other quarters of the globe, were once abundant on the plains of North America. Various species of the horse have dwelt here for ages. . . . Here, too, the camel found a suitable home." Sketches of Creation, p. 210. Edition of 1875. PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 43 Donnelly says: "Recent discoveries in the fossil beds of the bad lands of Nebraska prove that the horse originated in America. . . . Fossil remains of the camel are found in India, Africa, South America, and in Kansas." Atlantis, pp. 54, 55. Again: "We find in America numerous representations of the elephant." Ibid., p. 8, 95, 737. Desire Charnay says: "Found in the ruins of Tula the bones of swine, sheep, oxen, and horses in fossil state, indi- cating an immense antiquity." Ibid., p. 350. (Book of Mor- mon, pp. 537, 617.) Extract from a letter of Augustus Le Plongeon, to Elder S. F. Walker, January 8, 1889 : "Your favor of December 28 came to hand three days ago. . . . This calls to my mind the visit of a certain Reverend Mr. Lamb, who introduced himself to me by stating that he resided at Salt Lake City, and was there combating the Mormon doctrine and showing that their pretended revelations were all humbug. "He presented me with a book published by him in which he pretended to show many absurdities contained in the Book of Mormon. He finished by telling me that he had called upon me in order to obtain my opinion on what is said in the book relative to the animals such as the horse, the pig, the cattle, and sheep that lived anciently on the Western Conti- nent, which, he contended, proves that the whole book is an absurd fabrication ; and hoped that I would help him with my knowledge in showing it to be such. "The man evidently either had been misinformed concern- ing me, or had not taken the trouble to inquire. When he ceased speaking, I asked him if he was a Christian, to which he emphatically answered, Yes! And I as emphatically re- plied, No! because he did not follow the doctrine of Jesus 'Do not do to others what you do not wish others to do to you.' I informed him that I did not care a straw if the Book of Mormon was a revelation or a fabrication. That I con- sidered every man had an absolute right to worship Deity as best he thought. That on the other hand I could not join him in disproving the Book of Mormon in the part in which the animals mentioned are said to have lived on the American 44 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK Continent, because I was not in the habit of making a fool of myself if I could help it. "Then I informed him that seventeen species of fossil horses had been discovered in America, that the buifaloes were cattle, that the mountain sheep lived in the Rocky Mountains, and that peccaries or wild pigs roamed yet in large numbers in the forests of Central America. "AUGUSTUS LE PLONGEON." "The. above extract was taken from a letter written to my husband, by Mr. Le Plongeon. "MRS. M. WALKER." "LAMONI, IOWA." ELEPHANTS USED IN AMERICA. Milwaukee Free Press, for September 5, 1903, says: "Most remarkable of the minor finds made at Paradon is that of the remains of elephants. Never before in the history of Mexico has it been ascertained positively that elephants were ever in the service of the inhabitants. The remains of the elephants show plainly that the inhabitants of the buried cities made elephants work for them. Elephants were as much in evi- dence in the streets of the cities as horses. Upon many of the tusks that have been found were rings of silver. Most of the tusks have an average length, for grown elephants, of three feet, and an average diameter at the roots of six inches. . . . The flood which destroyed the ancient cities did not have any connection whatever with the deluge, as far as can be learned by scientific investigations." (Book of Mormon, p. 737.) The foregoing from the Free Press was furnished me by Elder J. W. Peterson. ANCIENT AMERICANS WERE FARMERS AND MANUFACTURERS. Chicago Record, September 27, 1897: "Dempsy Waggy, a farmer residing in Madison County, Indiana, probably has the most interesting field of corn in the State. Two years ago Waggy and Doctor Cullen, a neighbor, were hunting in Ar- kansas. They were staying in a small village named Marked PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 45 Tree. . . . During their stay some northern scientists visited the mounds and began explorations, finding many trinkets. . . . Both jars were air-tight, and when opened were found to contain corn. It was bright, yellow, solid, and dry as though it had just been shelled. The explorers took these vessels, but gave Waggy a handful of the corn. "He wrapped it up in a handkerchief and threw it into his traveling chest. There it lay for two years. . . . Waggy came across the seeds last spring and planted them in his garden. He was surprised when tiny blades shot up through the ground." (Furnished by Elder J. W. Peterson.) Prescott says: "These magazines were found by the Span- iards, on their arrival, stored with all the various products and manufactures of the country, with maize, cocoa, quinna, woolen. and cotton stuff of the finest quality, with vases and utensils of gold, silver, and copper." Conquest of Peru, vol. 1, p. 81. Donnelly says: "Traces of cloth with 'doubled and twisted fiber' have been found in the mounds; also matting; also shut- tle like tablets, used in weaving." Atlantis, p. 380. Weekly Inter-Ocean, December 23, 1890: "A musical in- strument found some three miles from the village of Mendon, twenty miles from Quincy, Illinois. The wood of it having decayed but the copper which seems to have constituted the sounding-board and keys, still remaining in good condition. It was made entirely of copper, rivets of copper, a broad sheet of copper, copper pegs, and copper keys. The instru- ment seemed to have been a combination of a harp and of a violin. The shape is three-cornered, like a harp, but the strings were stretched across a bridge and fastened to the keyboard at either end as in a violin. There is no instru- ment like it in modern use. The mysterious part of the whole relic is that there are ten hieroglyphic characters cut into the copper sounding-board close by the pegs. These hiero- glyphics are unlike any musical signs known in modern times. They resemble the hieroglyphics which were found on the Davenport tablets. Also the Grave Creek tablet." Donnelly says: "There have also been found numerous 46 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK musical pipes, with mouthpieces and stops; lovers' pipes curi- ously and delicately carved, reminding us of Bryant's lines."- Atlantis, p. 380. Donnelly says: "The cultivation of the cotton plant and the manufacture of its products was known to both the Old and New World. Herodotus describes it (450 B. c.) as the tree of India that bears a fleece more beautiful than that of the sheep. Columbus found the natives of the West Indies using cotton cloth. It was also found in Mexico and Peru. It is a significant fact that the cotton .plant has been found growing wild in many parts of America, but never in the Old World." Atlantis, pp. 59, 60. J. D. Baldwin says: "Fragments of charred cloth made of spun fibers have been found in the mounds. A specimen of such cloth, taken from a mound in Butler County, Ohio, is in Blackmore Museum, Salisbury." Ancient America, p. 41. Montezuma said: "Gold and native fabrics of the most delicate character, shields, helmets, cuirasses, collars, brace- lets, sandals, fans, pearls, precious stones, loads of cotton cloth, extraordinary manufactures of feathers, circular plates of gold and silver as large as carriage wheels." Mexico, New Mexico, and California, vol. 1, p. 26. (Book of Mormon, p. 737.) COMPASS WAS USED BY THE ABORIGINES OF AMERICA. Donnelly says: "In A. D. 868 it was employed by the Northmen." (The Landnamabok, vol. 1, chap. 2.) An Italian poem of A. D. 1190 refers to it as in use among the Italian sailors at that date. In the ancient language of the Hindoos, the Sanscrit which has been a dead language for twenty-two hundred years the magnet was called 'the precious stone be- loved of iron.' The Talmud speaks of it as 'the stone of attrac- tion; and it is alluded to in the early Hebrew prayers as 'Kala- mitah,' the same name given it by the Greeks, from the reed upon which the compass floated. ... In the year 2700 B. c. the Emperor (of China) Wangti placed a magnetic figure with an extended arm, like the Astarte of the Phoenecians, PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 47 on the front of carriages, the arm always turning and point- ing to the south, which the Chinese regarded as the principal pole. "_Atlantis, pp. 440-442. "Chinese invented the mariners compass eleven centuries before Christ." See Light in Darkness, by J. E. and A. H. Godbey, p. 289. "Earliest references to the use of the compass are to be found in Chinese history, from which we learn how, in the sixty-fourth year of the reign of Ho-ang-ti (2634 B. c.) the Emperor Hiuan-yuah, or Ho-ang-ti, attacked one Tchi- yeou, on the plains of Tchou-lou, and finding his army embar- rassed by a thick fog raised by the enemy, constructed a chariot (Tchinan) for indicating the south, so as to distin- guish the four cardinal points, and was thus enabled to pursue Tchi-yeou, and take him prisoner." Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. 6, p. 226. Chambers' Encyclopedia: "It appears, however, on very good authority, that it [compass] was known in China, and throughout the east generally, at a very remote period." Vol. 2, p. 546. (Book of Mormon, p. 63.) ABORIGINES OF AMERICA CAME IN VESSELS. J. D. Baldwin says: "According to the old traditions of both Mexico and Peru, the Pacific coast in both countries was anciently visited by a foreign people who came in ships." Ancient America, p. 170. Josephus says: "God also commanded them to send colo- nies abroad, for the thorough peopling of the earth." Antiq- uities of the Jews, book 1, chap. 4, p. 35. Again: "After this they were dispersed abroad, on ac- count of their languages, and went out by colonies everywhere [America would come under this 'everywhere'] and each colony took possession of that land which they light upon, and unto which God led them; so that the whole continent was filled with them, both the inland and maritime countries. There were some also who passed over the sea in ships, and inhabited the islands." Ibid., chap. 5, p. 36. Desire Charnay says: "Veytia, like all historians of that 48 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK time, places the primitive home of the Toltecs in Asia, to make his account agree with Genesis, where it is said that after the destruction of the Babylonian Tower, 'the Lord scattered the sons of men upon the face of all the earth.' Ac- cording to him, they crossed Tartary and entered America through the Behring Straits, by means of large flat canoes, and square raits made of wood and reeds; the former are described, and called acalli, 'ivater-houses' in their manu- scripts." Ancient Cities of the New World, p. 79. (Book of Mormon, p. 716.) J. D. Baldwin says: "Pizarro went down the coast, landing from time to time to explore and rob villages, until he reached about the fourth degree of north latitude, when he was obliged to return for supplies and repairs. ... On the next voyage, one of the vessels went half a degree south of the Equator, and encountered a vessel 'like a European cara- vel,' which was, in fact, a Peruvian balsa, loaded with merchandise, vases, mirrors of burnished silver, and curious fabrics of cotton and woolen." Ancient America, p. 225. CURRENTS IN THE OCEAN. H. H. Bancroft says: "There have been a great many in- stances of Japanese junks drifting upon the American coast, many of them after having floated helplessly about for many months. Mr. Brooks gives forty-one particular instances of such wrecks. ... A drifting wreck would be carried towards the American coast at an average rate of ten miles a day by this current." Native Races of the Pacific States, vol. 5, pp. 52, 53. "Lieutenant Maury's theory of the trade winds, which he demonstrated and published in 1856 or 1857. . . . Illustration of the great rivers of the sea (as they are called) you would find that east of Borneo one of these currents sets across north of the Equator, directly towards Central America. See also Johnson's Encyclopedia, vol. 2, p. 341." Quoted from Book of Mormon Lectures, by Elder H. A. Stebbins, p. 22. Bancroft says: "Noah's Ark, says Ullao, gave rise to a number of such constructions; and the experience gained dur- PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 49 ing the patriarch's aimless voyage, emboldened his descend- ants to seek strange lands in the same manner. Driven to America and the neighboring islands by winds and currents." Native Races of the Pacific States, vol. 5, p. 10. (Book of Mormon, p. 727.) A HOLE IN THE TOP AND IN THE BOTTOM. "The little steamer Norton, which is to sail from Long Island Sound for Southern France, ... is claimed by her builder and captain, a craft that can not sink. . . . Water is admitted through holes in the outer bottom. When the boat careens, the body of water between the bottoms presses the air in the compartments, and acts as a ballast, the air serving as a cushion. This prevents the boat from cap- sizing or from diverging far from its center, even in the roughest sea." Philadelphia Record, 1890. Donnelly says: "They came from the East in ships or barks to the land of Potonchan (America), which they com- menced to populate." Atlantis, p. 167. John T. Short says: "That all the natives came from seven caves, and that these seven caves are the seven ships or galleys in which the first populators of the land came." North Americans of Antiquities, p. 242. Sdition of 1880. (Book of Mormon, p. 718.) ANCIENT AMERICANS WORSHIP GOD THE FATHER AND JESUS CHRIST THE SON. Prescott says: "The Peruvians, like so many of the other Indian races, acknowledge a Supreme Being, the creator and ruler of the universe, whom they adored." Conquest of Peru, vol. 1, p. 108. Donnelly says: "On the western wall (of the Cuzco temple) was emblazoned a representation of the Deity." Atlantis, p. 22. H. H. Bancroft says in regard to their belief of the creation : "That man was created in the image of God. . . . The character 50 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK and history of Christ, and Huitzilopochtli, present certain analogies.'' Native Races, vol. 5, pp. 85 and 86. J. D. Baldwin says: "The cross is one of the most common emblems present in all the ruins. This led the Catholic missionaries to assume that knowledge of Christianity had been brought to that part of America long before their arrival; and they adopted the belief that the gospel was preached there by Saint Thomas." Ancient America, p. 109. Donnelly says : "When the -Spanish missionaries first set foot upon the soil of America, in the fifteenth century, they were amazed to find the cross was as devoutly worshiped by the red Indians as by themselves, and were in doubt whether to ascribe the fact to the pious labors of Saint Thomas or to the cunning devices of the Evil One. The hal- lowed symbol challenged their attention on every hand." Atlantis pp. 319, 320. Cross from monuments of Palenque. Cross from Central Cross from monuments America. of Egypt. Atlantis, pp. 319, 320, 322: Josiah Priest says: "On the breast of this person lay what had been a piece of copper in the form of a cross. . . . The cross on the breast of this skeleton, excites the most surprise, as the cross is the emblem of the Christian religion." American Antiquities, p. 180. Edition of 1833. H. H. Bancroft says: "In a tablet on the wall of a room at Palenque is a cross surmounted by a bird. . . . One of the most remarkable emblems of Maya worship in the estima- tion of the conquerors, was the cross, which has also been PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 51 noticed in other parts of Central America and in Mexico." Native Races, vol. 3, pp. 135, 467, 468. Desire Charnay says: "Since the cross was a symbol of Tlaloc, the temple in which it stood must have been dedicated to him, and perhaps Quetzalcoatl also, ... in our cut of the temple of the cross." Ancient Cities of the New World, pp. 214, 252. "New Spain, as Talonaca, they expected the second coming of the Son of God into the world." Mexican Antiquities, vol. 6, p. 413. "Aztec, God of war, was said to have been born of a holy virgin." Panorama of Nations, p. 413. "Torquemanda, says the Bishop of Chiapa, when he passed through Yucatan, sent his ecclesiastic to the interior of the country, who at the end of a year wrote to him that he had questioned a principal lord about the ancient religion, who informed him that they knew and believed in God, who resided in heaven ; and that their God was the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; that the Son was called Bacab, who was born of a virgin named Chibirias, who was in heaven with God, and that the name of the mother of Chibirias was Oschil; and that the Holy Ghost was called Echuah. Bacab, the Son, he said, was put to death by Eopuco, who scourged him and put a crown of thorns upon his head, and placed him with his arms stretched upon a beam of wood, to which they believed he had not been nailed, but tied, and that he died there, and remained during three days dead, and the third day came to life and ascended to heaven, where he is with the Father; and immediately afterward Echuah coming, who is the Holy Ghost, filled the ^arth with whatever it stood in need of." Mexican Antiquities, vol. 6, p. 141. De Salcar says: "The chiefs and men of rank in the province of Chiapa were acquainted with the doctrine of the most Holy Trinity. They called the Father Icona, the Son Bacab, and the Holy Ghost Estruach, and certainly these names resemble the Hebrew, especially Estruach, . . . the tradition current in Yucatan of Bacab and his crucifixion, . . . so in these Mexican paintings many analogies may be traced between the events to which they evidently relate and the 52 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK history of the crucifixion of Christ as contained in the New Testament. ... In the fourth page of the Borgian manuscript, he seems to be crucified between two persons who are in the act of reviling him, who hold as would appear halters in their hands, the symbols perhaps of some crime for which they were themselves going to suffer." Ibid., p. 166. "It deserves to be remarked, that both of the hands of the figure seemed to be pierced with nails, the heads of which are invisible. The tradition current in Yucatan that Eopuco crowned Bacab with thorns appears also to be preserved in its headdress. A crown of thorns of another fashion may perhaps be recognized on the head of another piece of ancient sculpture discovered by Mons. Dupaix. . . . The crown seems to be formed out of the thorny leaves of the aloe." Ibid., vol. 7, p. 169. (Book of Mormon, pp. 143, 631.) THEY HAD SACRED WRITINGS. Diego de Mercado says he conversed with an aged Otomie Indian who said, "They in ancient times had been in posses- sion of a book, which had been handed down successively from father to son, who was dedicated to the safe custody of it, and to instruct others in its doctrines." Mexican An- tiquities, vol. 6, p. 409. Doctor West, of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, relates that an old Indian informed him, "That his fathers in this country, had, not long since, been in the possession of a book, which they had, for a long time, carried with them, but having lost the knowledge of reading it, they buried it with an Indian chief." American Antiquities, p. 69. Edition of 1833. "Among the vast multitude of painted representations found by this author, [Baron Humboldt] on the books of the natives, made also frequently of prepared skins of animals, were de- lineated all the leading circumstances and history of the deluge, of the fall of man, and of the seduction of the woman by the means, of the serpent, the first murder as per- petrated by Cain, on the person of his brother Abel." Ibid., p. 200. Bancroft says: "In its pages were described the Nahua PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 53 annals from the time of the deluge, or even from the creation, together with all their religious rites, governmental system, laws and social customs; ... to the divine book was added a chapter of prophecies respecting future events and the signs by which it should be known when the time of their fulfillment was drawing near." Native Races, vol. 5, pp. 251, 252. Ellen Russell Emerson says: "The Ujibway Indians, relates 'Mr. Copway,' had three depositories for sacred records near the waters of Lake Superior. Ten of the wisest and most venerable men of the nation dwelt near these, and were appointed guardians of them." Indian Myths, pp. 225, 226. "The materials generally used by the ancients for their books were liable to be easily destroyed by the damp, when hidden in the earth; and in times of war, devastation, and rapacity, it was necesary to bury in the earth whatever they wished to preserve from the attacks of fraud 'and violence. With this view, Jeremiah ordered the writings which he delivered to Baruch to be put in an earthen vessel. (Jere- miah 32.) In the same manner the ancient Egyptians made use of earthen urns or pots of a proper shape for containing whatever they wanted to inter in the earth, and which without such care would have been soon destroyed. We need not wonder, then, that the prophet Jeremiah should think it necessary to inclose those writings in an earthen pot which were to be buried in Judea, in some place where they might be found without much difficulty on the return of the Jews from captivity." Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, p. 255. S. G. Goodrich says: "Montezuma was sovereign of the empire of Mexico when the Spaniards landed there. The monarch was soon informed of the arrival of these strangers. Throughout the vast extent of his kingdom carriers were placed at different distances who speedily acquainted the court with everything that happened. In the most distant provinces, their dispatches were composed of pieces of cotton upon which were represented in pictures the several circum- stances of the affairs that required the attention of the gov- 54 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK ernment. The figures, or pictures, were intermixed with hieroglyphic characters which supplied what the art of the painter had not been able to express. It was to be expected that a prince who had been raised to the throne by his valor, who had extended his empire by conquest; who was in pos- session of numerous and disciplined armies, would have dis- patched troops immediately to disperse a handful of strangers who dared to infest and plunder his domains. But this step was neglected. .. . . The writers of this superstitious nation have not scrupled to declare to the whole world that a short time before the discovery of the New World it had been foretold to the Mexicans that an invincible people from the East would soon come among them who would in a terrible manner avenge the gods irritated by their horrid crimes." Pictorial History of America, pp. 69, 70. Again he says in relating the kind of material they used for writing upon: "It much resembles the Egyptian paper manufactured from the papyrus. It was made from the agave ... or aloes. Some of the hieroglyphics now extant are painted on deerskins. . . . Immense quantities of Mexican manuscripts were burnt by the Spaniards." Ibid., p. 29. Edition of 1850. (Book of Mormon, pp. 35, 37, 149.) AMERICANS WROTE HISTORICAL BOOKS. J. D. Baldwin says: "It is known that books or manu- script writings were abundant among them in the ages pre- vious to the Aztec period. They had an accurate measure of the solar year and a system of chronology, and many of their writings were historical. . . . Las Casas wrote on this point as follows : 'It should be known that in all the commonwealth of these countries, in the kingdoms of New Spain and else- where, among other professions duly filled by suitable persons, was that of chronicler and historian. . . . These chroniclers had likewise to calculate the days, months, and years; and though they had not writing like ours, they had their symbols and characters through which they understood every thing; and they had great books, which were composed with such ingenuity and art that our characters were really of no great PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 55 assistance to them. Our priests have seen those books, and I myself have seen them likewise, though many were burned at the instigation of the monks, who were afraid they might impede the work of conversion.' Books such as those here described by Las Casas must have contained important his- torical information." Ancient America, pp. 187, 188. Prof. John T. Short says: "The infamous crime committed against the cause of knowledge, and the irreparable injury done to the natives, their successors, and to the students of history for all time, by the destruction of those valuable manu- scripts must ever remain." North Americans of Antiquities, p. 429. Desire Charnay says: "Documents were not wanting, and had the religious zeal of the men of that time been less ill- judged, they would have found in the various and multiform manuscripts, in the charts or maps, in the idols, in the pottery and living traditions, ample and reliable materials from which to write an exhaustive history." Ancient Cities, p. 270. J. D. Baldwin says: "Humboldt mentions books of hiero- glyphical writing found among the Panoes, on the River Ucayali, which were 'bundles of their paper resembling our volumes in quarto.' A Franciscan missionary found an old man sitting at the foot of a palm tree and reading one of these books to several young persons. The Franciscan was told that the writing 'contained hidden things which no stranger ought to know.' It was seen that the pages of the book were 'covered with figures of men, animals, and isolated characters, deemed hieroglyphical, and arranged in lines with order and symmetry.' The Panoes said these books 'were transmitted to them by their ancestors, and had relation to wanderings and ancient wars.' " Ancient America, pp. 255, 256. (Book of Mormon, pp. 16, 98, 157, 167.) ANCIENT AMERICANS BUILT HOUSES OF WORSHIP. Prescott says: "The most renowned of the Peruvian tem- ples, the pride of the capital, and the wonder of the empire, was at Cuzco, where under the munificence of successive sov- 56 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK ereigns it had become so enriched that it received the name of the . . . Place of Gold. It consisted of a principal building and several chapels, and inferior edifices, covering a large extent of ground in the heart of the city, and completely en- compased by a wall, which, with the edifices, was all con- structed of stone. . . . And was so finely executed that a Spaniard, who saw it in its glory, assures us that he could call to mind only two edifices in Spain, which, for their work- manship were at all to be compared with it. ... The interior of the temple was the most worthy of admiration. It was lit- erally a mine of gold. . . . Other temples and religious dwell- ings were scattered over the provinces, and some of them con- structed on a scale of magnificence, that almost rivaled that of the metropolis." Conquest of Peru, vol. 1, pp. 112, 116. Edition of 1893. Donnelly says of the Cuzco temple, Place of Gold: "The interior of the temple was literally a mine of gold. On the western wall was emblazoned a representation of the Deity, consisting of a human countenance, looking forth from amid innumerable rays of light, which emanated from it in every direction in the same manner as the sun is often personified with us. The figure was engravened on a massive plate of gold, of enormous dimensions, thickly powdered with emeralds and precious stones." Atlantis, p. 22. "The half buried ruins of an ancient temple with huge gran- ite columns carved in the shape of rattlesnakes is the inter- esting discovery made by four veteran prospectors, who recently went out upon the Colorado desert to search for new mines. ... A rough approximation of the extent of the ruins showed the temple to be about four hundred and twenty feet wide" Philadelphia Record, July 24, 1893. "When the Peruvians of Cuzco carried their victorious arms across the Cordilleras to this district [possibly the land of Zarahemla], they beheld this temple [possibly in the city of Zarahemla] the doors of which are said to have been of gold inlaid with precious stones with astonishment, not only because it rivaled if not surpassed in splendor the famous TemDle of the Sun at Cuzco, but because it contained no PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 57 image or visible symbol of a god. It was raised in honor of an invisible and mysterious Deity, whom the inhabitants called Pachacamac, the creator of the world." Chambers' Encyclopedia, article "Peru," vol. 6, p. 193. Edition of 1887. Milwaukee Free Press, Saturday morning, September 5, 1903: "Dr. Nicolas Leon, archaeologist and ethnologist of the Mexican Museum of Mexico, has returned to the City of Mexico after a stay of two weeks in the State of Coahuila; where he made several important investigations of the recent finds of cities and animals of antediluvian times. . . . The excavations made so far show that a large city was buried not far from the present town of Paradon by an immense amount of earth, which was evidently washed down from the mountain floods. How long ago the catastrophe occurred can not be determined. Portions of buildings so far unearthed show that the city at least the largest of the cities that were covered by the debris of the flood, there being at least three cities destroyed was very extensive. The indications are that there were many massive structures in the city and that they were of a class of architecture not to be found elsewhere in Mexico. According to the estimates of the scientists under whose directions the excavations are being made, the city in question had a population of at least fifty thousand. The destruction wrought by the flood was com- plete. All the inhabitants of the cities were killed, as well as all the animals. Skeletons of the human inhabitants and of the animals are strewn all through the debris, from a depth of three feet, showing that all the debris was deposited almost at once. Measurements show that the debris is on an average of sixty feet deep where the largest of the cities stood." (Book of Mormon, pp. 286, 486, 617, 624, 631, 682.) ABORIGINES OF AMERICA BELIEVE IN THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD. Prescott says: "Among the traditions of importance is one of the deluge, which they held in common with so many of the nations in all parts of the globe, . . . resurrection of 58 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK the body, which led them to preserve the body with so much solicitude." Conquest of Peru, vol. 1, pp. 106, 107. Donnelly says: "Peruvians believed in the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body, and they too pre- served the bodies of their dead by embalming them. . . . When we consider it closely, one of the most extraordinary customs ever known to mankind is . . . embalming of the body of the dead man, with a purpose that the body itself may live again in a future state." Atlantis, pp. 144, 179. Pidgeon says: "Ancient Egypt, first in science and famous in art, has also left her impress here. In 1775, some of the first settlers in Kentucky, whose curiosity was excited by something remarkable in the arrangement of stones that filled the en- trance to a cave, removed them, and on entering, discovered a number of mummies preserved by the art of embalming in as great a state of perfection as was known by the ancient Egyptians, eighteen hundred years before Christ, which was about the time that the Israelites were in bondage in Egypt. ' Traditions of De-Coo-Dah, p. 19. Ysleta, Texas, January 5, 1893: "A few days ago Manuel Garrizo, found . . . the head of a man inclosed in a box of virgin silver ... in a mound at the foot of the Horsehead hills. . . . The mound which is a small one, had always been looked upon as natural, but now turns out to be the burial place of a dead and vanished race. . . . The box is roughly made, and is covered with rude hieroglyphics. . . . The head had been subjected to an embalming process." Philadelphia Press, January 6, 1893. Prescott says: "Their [the Peruvians'] ideas in respect to a future state of being deserve more attention. They admitted the existence of the soul hereafter, and connected with this a belief in the resurrection of the body. They assigned two distinct places for the residence of the good and of the wicked, the latter of which they fixed in the center of the earth. The good they supposed were to pass a luxurious life of tranquility and ease, which comprehended their highest notions of happiness. The wicked were to expiate their crimes by ages of wearisome labor. ... It was this belief in the resur- PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 59 rection of the body, which led them to preserve the body with so much solicitude." Conquest of Peru, vol. 1, pp. 106, 107. "Resurrection of the body we must observe is peculiarly Christian, . . . when the Spaniards opened their tombs and scattered the bones the Peruvians entreated them not to do so assuring them that these bones were to be united in the resurrection." Mexican Antiquities, vol. 6, p. 413. (Book of Mormon, pp. 253, 255, 448, 449.) WHAT SOME OF THE ABORIGINES OF AMERICA BELIEVE. The following article by A. M. Fyrando appeared in the Saints' Herald for April 17, 1907: "Moooc TRIBE: They believed in one God, before the white man came; that God made this country especially for them. In their old country from which they came there was a sacred mountain which all of them visited once a year, to worship and be relieved of their sins.' "JACARILLAS, OF THE APACHE TRIBE: 'Believe in a Messiah to come.' CROW TRIBE: 'Believe in the coming of a Messiah . . . who will re-create the earth, for the benefit of the Indians.' Ibid., p. 361. "Sioux TRIBE: 'Look for the coming of an Indian Messiah who will cause the dead Indians to come to life, repeople the country, and restore the Indians' enjoyment.' "OMAHA TRIBE: 'Have a tradition of the flood, and of an Indian finding a man in a wigwam building a big canoe, before the floods came.' Ibid., p. 377. "PiUTE TRIBE: 'Their medicine-men cure by the laying on of hands, asking the good spirit to make the sick one well.' Ibid., p. 388. "UTE TRIBE: 'Their medicine-practice "faith cure." ' Ibid., p. 288.' "DELAWARE INDIANS: 'Believed that everyone has a guard- ian spirit, which visited them in dreams, tells them what to do, or of what may happen.' They also relate that long ago, on the Atlantic coast, a young Indian had a dream 60 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK before the discovery of America by white men. He related it in their temple thus. He saw a large canoe with pinions (wings) coming across the great waters, containing strange people and predicted that in ten years people with white faces would come; he related this in the temple every year for ten years, and they came, in a boat as described, [Colum- bus and his men writer].' Ibid., p. 299. "WESTERN SHOSHONES: 'Separate, or have their women to live apart from their families in a house, called the sick house (hoo-ne-gar-nee) during the monthly period, there to remain for eight to ten days. The male members of the tribe could not be induced to touch anything these women had used during the time of their retirement or enter one of these houses, believing evil would follow the breaking of an ancient custom.' Ibid., p. 387. "MESCALEROS, OF THE APACHE TRIBE: 'They believe their ideas of religion, of future punishment, of the formation of the world and creation of man, of baptism, are the ancient Indian ideas.' " 'They reason from sun, moon, and stars that there is a God.' Ibid., p. 402. "DAKOTA TRIBE: 'They worship the Great Spirit, as the creator of all things, and governor of the universe, the source of all good, but of no evil whatsoever. They believe in an evil spirit, constantly engaged in evil; both are eternal, but the evil spirit is subordinate to the Good Spirit (see Ibid., p. 580).' "POTTAWATTAMIE TRIBE: 'Believe in one great supreme Creator, and of a future state of rewards and punishments. (See Ibid., p. 325.) Near Pueblo, the Government agent found a copper bracelet. Doctor Crane, in his Crania America, says the Iroquois Confederacy of six tribes were unsurpassed mentally by any people, the brain capacity of the skull being 88 inches, or less than 2 inches less than the Caucasian race. (See Ibid., p. 461).' " 'Eleventh census report of 1890 by the Government, under Robert F. Parker, superintendent, and Carrol D. Wright, PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 61 commissioner of labor in charge, Washington, District of Columbia.' "We also append an article clipped from the Chicago Record- Herald of February 5, there being strong points of similarity with Book of Mormon history: " 'INDIANS AND "TEN LOST TRIBES." " 'The Indians are the most superstitious people on earth,' said a man a few days ago who had taught for years in a Creek Indian school. 'They have myths and legends by the score. Some of them are as beautiful and picturesque as the legends of the old Greeks and Romans/ writes the Chickasha correspondent of the Kansas City Star. " 'I boarded for five years with a Creek Indian who had been educated at Carlisle. He knew the Indian legends and used to tell them to me and his children as we sat around the fireplace of an evening. You know the Creeks have a legend that they are one of the lost tribes of Israel. This Indian was the son of a medicine man who was once great and powerful in the tribe. All his knowledge of Indian lore came from his father, the medicine man. " 'This medicine man said that the Creeks were one of the lost tribes of Israel. The legend ran that they were once associated with the other tribes and that they had wandered and became separated. They wandered for years far to the north until they came to a sea. There they built boats and embarked. They steered their course by the wand of a medicine man. Each morning he went to his tepee and set up his divining-rod and told them which direction to pursue. They followed this rod from a warm country to a cold sea on which they set sail. The sea was crossed and then they traveled toward the south again. " 'The Creeks have a covenant of their tribe which is kept with the chiefs. No one but the elect is ever permitted to see this guarantee of the genuineness of the Creek faith and origin.' "ALMA M. FYRANDO." "MAGNOLIA, IOWA." 62 v PARSONS' TEXT BOOK THE WORD "MORMON" AND ITS ORIGIN. Benham says: "Mormon is derived from the Galic Mor, meaning 'great' and the Egyptian Mon, meaning 'good.' Thus put together means 'Great good.' " Dictionary of Religions, p. 720. Published 1887. " 'Mormon' One "of a sect in the United States, followers of one Joseph Smith." American Dictionary, p. 859. Pub- lished 1876. Cyclopedia of Religious Knowledge: "Mor is Galic, means 'great.' Mon is Egyptian, and means, 'good.' The two put together Mormon means, 'Great good.' " Published at Hartford, Connecticut, 1902. IS IT ANOTHER GOSPEL? Testimonies of different ministers as to the Book of Mormon being another gospel, in answer to a question asked them by Bishop C. J. Hunt, Rev. W. T. Moore, M. A., LL. D., wrote February 8, 1906, as follows: "Of course, if the book found taught the same gospel principles contained in the New Testa- ment it would undoubtedly be the same gospel and not an- other. It might be another book, but it could not be another gospel, if it taught practically the same gospel that is in the New Testament. . . . Whatever is the same is the same, and if any book should teach practically the same gospel found in the New Testament this would certainly not be another gospel, though the book might differ in every other respect from the New Testament." (Italics mine.) Rev. 0. P. Gifford, D. D., wrote, March 22, 1906: "Sup- posing such a book to be found, I should say it would be another witness of the same gospel." (Italics mine.) Rev. George Batchelor, Unitarian, February 10, 1906, wrote: "I should say, . . . that the imaginary documents that you describe would be another version of the same gospel." (Italics mine.) Rev. D. M. Mohler, a Dunkard minister, wrote, March 11, 1906: "If it is just like the New Testament gospel it would not be another gospel" (Italics mine.) Rev. James D. Moffat, Presbyterian, wrote, February 10, PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 63 1906: "If all the conditions were fulfilled and the book were found, there would probably be considerable discussion as to the meaning: of its contents, on the answer to which its ap- propriate designation would depend. It is hardly conceivable, however, that anything more than confirmatory evidence to our present gospel will ever be discovered in the future." Rev. Charles P. Mcllvaine, D. D., bishop of the diocese of Ohio, says: "What a wonderful book is the Bible! But what connection has the Bible with American antiquities? Be- cause of all antiquities, it is the most valuable and marvelous specimen; because with all antiquities it is associated in the most important and interesting relations; because the most valuable discoveries in antiquity must appeal to the Bible for interpretation; . . . Suppose that in searching the tumuli that are scattered so widely over 'his country, the silent, aged, mysterious remembrancers of some populous race, once carry- ing on all the business of life where now are only the wild forests of many centuries, a race of whom we ask so often, who they were, whence they came, whither they went; suppose that under one of those huge structures of earth which remain of their work, a book were discovered, an alphabetic history of that race for a thousand years, containing their written language, and examples of their poetry and other literature, and all undeniably composed many hundreds of years before any of the nations now possessing this continent were here! What a wonder would this be! What intense interest would attach to such a relic!" Preface to John Delafield's work on antiquities of America, p. 1. ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS ASKED BY BISHOP C. J. HUNT; ON MEANING OF THE WORD "STICK." What is meant by the "stick of Judah" and the "stick of Ephraim, or Joseph?" (Ezekiel 37: 15-20.) Does the first refer to the Bible, and the second to a record? Rev. Dr. John Henry Barrows, president of the Oberlin Col- lege (Congregational), Oberlin, Ohio, gave his answer in a letter dated December 7, 1899: "The prophets were accustomed to act or enact signs or 64 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK pictures before the people in order to make vivid their teach- ings. Ezekiel enacted this sign before the people. If you will turn to Numbers 17:2 you will notice that the names of the tribes of the children of Israel were written on rods or sticks; and so Ezekiel, inspired of the Lord, takes one stick and writes upon it for Judah, and for the children of Israel. Judah, Benjamin, Levi, and a part of Simeon remained faithful to the house of David, and constituted the southern kingdom. Then the prophet took another stick and wrote upon it for Joseph, the general name of the ten north- ern tribes. And he called it the stick of Ephraim, because Ephraim was the chief tribe. Then he joined the two sticks together to indicate their unity. The prophet himself explains by divine command what this all means. 'Thus saith the Lord God, Behold I take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim,' because Ephraim was the chief tribe. The stick of Joseph was in the hand of Ephraim; but the stick of Judah was in the Lord's hand. And they were to be made one. This gathering together of the children of Israel took place first on the return from Babylon; when in some measure the distinction between Israel and Judah ceased. Of course the final unity of Judah and Israel is to be in Christ and his kingdom." * Dr. R. S. Storrs, for fifty-four years pastor of the Church of the Pilgrims, Brooklyn, New York, instructed his secre- tary, December 21, 1899, to write: "He understands 'stick' to mean 'tablet,' and the two placed together to represent the union of the whole Hebrew nation." Rev. J. Hogan, S. S., D. D., Catholic, New York City, who is a very noted writer and minister, to which he replied De- cember 27, 1899: "The sticks referred to were two real sticks, representing royal scepters, with labels meant to indicate that they denoted the southern and northern kingdoms of Judea. They were put together in order to attract attention and give occasion to the prophet to explain what they symbolized; viz: the return of respresentatives of the divided kingdoms to their own (the promised) land to make a united nation. Ezekiel wrote dur- PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 65 ing the captivity of Babylon and his prophecy was an encour- agement. It was a common thing with the prophets to use symbols of various kinds to convey their message in a more striking manner." Elder J. W. Ellis, LL. D., Ph. D., Christian, writing from Plattsburg, Missouri, December 19, 1899: "The word stick in these passages is translated from the Hebrew, primarily meaning a tree, wood; any wood; as a stick, rod, etc. The reference is to the writing on rods the names of Aaron and Levi, etc. (See Numbers 17: 3.) The tribes of Judah and Benjamin make up the kingdom of Judah; the other tribes make up Israel. The joining of the sticks end to end is symbolical of a united kingdom. The stick of Joseph is representative of the tribe of Joseph; of Ephraim, the descendants of Ephraim, etc." The following from the pen of W. W. Bowling, of Saint Louis, Missouri, who for thirty-five years has been and still is a popular writer and publisher in and for the Christian Church, will be of interest: "The 'sticks' are the tribal rods, (see Numbers 17: 1-3,) the union of the two rods was a prophecy in action of the brotherly union which is to unite the ten tribes and Judah." "Stick (ets) a piece of wood. The use of staves for writ- ing upon as illustrated in Ezekiel 37: 16-20, was a frequent practice for ancient nations." McClintock and Strong, En- cyclopedia-, article "Stick." "The rolls or parchment containing writing, consisted of a single long strip, either paper or parchment, and Mr. Smith says (Bible Dictionary), 'was usually kept rolled upon a stick, and was unrolled when a person wished to read it.' " Peloubet Edition, page 566. Historians find this custom of writing in the days of Josiah, 710 years B. C. : "The king being impatient to know the contents, the scribe begins to read immediately; and as the books of the times were written upon long scrolls, and rolled upon a stick, the latter 66 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK part of the book would come first." History Holy Bible, John Kitto, D. D., F. S. A., p. 403. Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature, by Rev. John McClin- tock, D. D., and James Strong, D. D., LL. D., vol. 9, page 1023: "STICKS. The use of billets or staves of wood for writing upon as illustrated in Ezekiel 37: 16-20, is a frequent practice with primitive nations. This indeed is not the first instance of the practice in scripture; for, so early as the time of Moses, we find a parallel example of writing upon rods. (Numbers 17: 6.) The custom existed among the early Greeks; as we are informed the laws of Solon, preserved at Athens, were inscribed on billets of wood called axones. Several sticks with writing upon them were united together in a kind of frame or table, in the manner of a book so constructed that each stick might be turned for the facility of reading. "ROLL. A book in ancient times consisted of a single long strip of paper or parchment, which was usually kept rolled upon a stick and was unrolled when a person wished to read it. What the material was in Old Testament times we are not informed; but as a knife was required for its destruction (Jeremiah 36:23), we infer that it was parchment. The writing was arranged in columns resembling a door in shape, and hence deriving their Hebrew name "leaves," The con- clusion has been drawn that the use of such material as parchment was not known until the seventh century before Christ. But this is to assume, perhaps too confidently, a late date for Psalms 40, and to ignore the expression, 'roll to- gether,' used by Isaiah (34: 4). Ibid., page 67. " Take thee one stick.' The symbolic action thus pre- scribed to the prophet was based on the well-known historical fact that the tribes of Israel in Mosaic times had been repre- sented by a rod, on which was inscribed the name of the tribe (Numbers 17), but whether the stick Ezekiel was instructed to take was a staff, or a block, or simply a piece of wood, cart not be decided. "Stick alluding- to Numbers 17:2, the tribal rod. The PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 67 union of the two rods was a prophecy in action of the brotherly union which is to reunite the ten tribes and Judah. As their severance under Jeroboam was fraught with the greatest evil to the covenant people, so the first result of both being joined by the spirit of life to God is, they become joined to one another under the one covenant king, Messiah- David. "Judah and . . . children of Israel his companions i. e., Judah, and besides Benjamin and Levi, those who had joined themselves to him of Ephraim, Manasseh, Simeon, Asher, Zebulun, Issachar, as having the temple and lawful priest- hood in his borders. (2 Chronicles 11:12, 13, 16; 15:9; 30: 11, 18.) The latter became identified with Judah after the carrying away of the ten tribes, and return with Judah from ^Babylon and so shall be associated with that tribe at the future restoration. For Joseph the stick of Ephraim Ephraim's posterity took the lead, not only of the other de- scendants of Joseph, . . . but of the ten tribes of Israel. . . . God had transferred the birthright from Reuben ... to Joseph, whose representative, Ephraim . . . was made. (Genesis 48: 19; 1 Chronicles 5:1.) "Stick of Joseph . . . Ephraim, of the descendants of Joseph, had exercised the rule among the ten tribes; that rule, symbolized by the 'stick,' was now to be withdrawn from him, and to be made with the other, Judah 's rule, in God's hand. Commentary by Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown, vol. 2, pp. 566, 567." STICKS, ROLLS, AND RODS. (These can be placed on canvas or on the blackboard, which will help an audience to comprehend the facts as set forth. A. H. Parsons.) EZEKIEL 37TH CHAPTER. STICKS. ROLLS. RODS. PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 71 "ARIEL" SIGNIFIES JERUSALEM. Barnes' notes on Isaiah: "To Ariel. There can be no doubt that Jerusalem is here intended. 'Yet I will distress Ariel.' The reference here is doubtless to the siege which God says (verse 3) he would bring upon the city. 'And there shall be heaviness and sorrow.' This was true of the city in the siege of Sennacherib, to which this probably refers. 'And shalt speak out of the ground.' The sense here is that Jerusalem that had been accustomed to pride itself on its strength would be greatly humbled and subdued. It would use the suppressed language of fear and alarm as if spoken from the dust, or in a shrill, small voice like the pretended conversers with the dead. 'And the vision of all.' The vision of all the prophets; that is, all the revelations which God has made to you. The sense is, that although they had the communications which God had made to them, yet they did not understand them. They were ignorant of their true nature as a man who can read is of the contents of a letter that is sealed up, or as a man who can not read is of the contents of a book that is handed to him. " 'As the words of a book.' It properly means anything that is written. 'And the book is delivered.' That is, they are just as ignorant of the nature and meaning of the reve- lations of God as a man of the contents of a book who is utterly unable to read." Isaiah One and His Book One, by George C. M. Douglass, D. D., professor of Hebrew in Free Church College, Glasgow: " 'Ariel' means 'the lion of God.' ... It was the sad task assigned to Isaiah to see and hear the people mock at his message (29: 9, 14). The evil condition of the people is owing to spiritual darkness. Isaiah goes on to speak of their state as one of 'deep sleep'; a word not found again in this book, and not common elsewhere. It suggests an unnat- ural sleep, almost always traced to the immediate working of God, and in the way of judgment. Accordingly it affects especially those who ought to have been the eyes and the heads of the people; namely, the prophets and the seers, Isaiah 72 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK styles them the eyes of the people. Israel, under the influence of this spirit of deep sleep poured out by Jehovah, was like a man who has taken a powerful narcotic ; under the influence of the dose, not wishing to be disturbed, he closes his eyes and covers his head deprived of their eyes and having prac- tically lost their heads, no wonder that to them the true mes- sage of God is powerless and meaningless. For a time the Law and the Testimony had been bound up and sealed among Isaiah's disciples (8: 16). That was during the dark days of Ahaz yet now, when Isaiah would have stirred the people up for a better time, they made the excuse that they could not read his book because it was sealed, or if it was handed open to another, he replied that he had not learned to read; no doubt he had left this task to the prophets and heads with their pretended visions (38: 15-18). These men were of no use in the present emergency. Therefore Jehovah was about to act in a way the most marvelous that could be conceived. . . . The forest of Lebanon should change places with the fruitful field, and this in a very little while, as at 10 : 25. Amid these changes the deaf and the blind should recover their lost senses, and thus Isaiah would see a happy issue. His book had been reckoned useless as a sealed book (verse 11), but now even the deaf should hear it, presumably while the blind read it to them. The meek and the poor are often the representatives of the true Israel. Their joy is an ever increasing Joy, for it is in the Holy One of Israel." Pages 250-254. Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical Commentary, by Schaff, page 316: "The Lord causes Jerusalem to be told that he will besiege and afflict her greatly, so that she, bowed low in the dust, will let her voice sound faintly as the spirit of one dead (verse 4), but the comforting promise is annexed that the enemies of Jerusalem will suddenly become as fine dust; or as flying chaff (verse 5) . The whole force that fight against Ariel, i. e., the mount of God, will pass away as a vision of a dream in the night (verse 7). In verses 9 to 12 the prophet himself depicts the effect of his words on the obdurant people, they PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 73 build on other aid. They therefore hear the words of the prophet in fixed amazement (verse 9), for they are blind (verse 10), and in relation to the prophecy they are as'one who has to read a sealed document, or as one who has an unsealed writing given him to rei.d, but he can not read. Reading was an art which was not understood by everyone. He who could not himself read, must request another to read to him. Thus was it too with the prophecy of Isaiah. The people must apply to their prophets to interpret it for them. If anyone reaches me a sealed paper, in order that I may read it to him, he must give permission to unseal it. It appears to me the 1 comparison here made use of is pure im- agery. It is very unlikely that anyone could not comply with the request to read a document because it was sealed. The prophet only imagines such a case. The words of Isaiah were to many among those prophets of the people sealed words, i. e., intelligible as to their verbal meaning, but incom- prehensible as to their inner signification." Pulpit Commentary, by Rev. H. D. M. Spence, M. A., Dean of Gloucester, and Rev. Joseph S. Exell, M. A., pages 493, 494: " 'Ariel' is clearly a mystic name for Jerusalem, parallel to 'Sheshach' as a name for Babylon. (Jeremiah 25: 26.) It is generally explained as equivalent to Ari-El lion of God or hearth of God, or altar of God. /Thy speech shall be low.' The feeble cries of a people wasted and worn out by a long siege resemble those which seemed to come out of the ground when a necromancer professed to raise a ghost. 'Thy speech shall whisper,' literally, chirp. 'The Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep.' Here is a spiritual dead- ness and impassiveness, an inability to appreciate spiritual warning. *The vision of all' the entire vision 'as the words of a book.' Rather, the words of a letter or writing. Written documents were often sealed up to secure secrecy. When the writing was on a clay tablet it was often inclosed in a clay envelope. Rolls of papyrus or parchment were secured differ- ently. 'One that is learned.' One that can read writing, which the ordinary Jew could not do. Neither the learned 74 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK nor the unlearned Jew would be able to understand Isaiah's prophecy so as to realize and accept its literal truth. 'To him that is not learned.' That can not read writing. Even in our Lord's day the ordinary Jew was not taught to read and write. 'I will proceed to do a marvelous work.' Commentators are not agreed what this marvelous work was. Some think it to be the hardening of the hearts of the Jews to such an extent that even the appearance of wisdom and understanding which the rulers of the people had hitherto retained would completely disappear. 'Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field.' Lebanon, the wild forest, shall become smiling garden ground, while garden ground shall revert into wild, uncultivated forest. An inversion of the moral condition of Judea is shadowed forth by the metaphor. 'Deaf shall hear.' The spiritually deaf shall have their ears opened, many of them, and shall under- stand the words of scripture addressed to them." "A designation given by Isaiah to the city of Jerusalem (Isaiah 29: 1, 2, 7). We must understand by it either "lion of God" or the "chief city." Smith's Bible Dictionary, p. 52. TESTIMONY AS TO THE CHARACTERS ON THE PLATES FROM WHICH THE BOOK OF MORMON WAS TRANSLATED BY JOSEPH SMITH. Martin Harris says: "I went to the city of New York and presented the characters which had been translated, with the translation thereof, to Professor Anthon, a gentleman celebrated for his literary attainments. Professor Anthon stated that the translation was correct, more so than any he had before seen translated from the Egyptian. I then showed him those which were not translated, and he said they were Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyric, and Arabic, and he said that they were the true characters. He gave me a certificate certifying to the people of Palmyra that they were true characters, and that the translation of such of them as had been translated was also correct. I took the certificate and put it into my pocket, and was just leaving the house, when Mr. Anthon called me back, and asked me how the young PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 75 man found out there were gold plates in the place where he found them. I answered that an angel of God had revealed it unto him. He then said to me, 'Let me see the certificate.' I accord- ingly took it out of my pocket and gave it to him, when he took it and tore it to pieces, saying there was no such thing now as ministering of angels, and that if I would bring the plates to him, he would translate them. I informed him that part of the plates were sealed, and that I was forbidden to bring them. He replied, 'I can not read a sealed book."- Church History, vol. 1, p. 19. Prof. Anthon said: "This paper, in question, was in fact a singular scroll. It consisted of all kinds of crooked characters, disposed in columns, and had evidently been prepared by some person who had before him, at the time, a book containing various alphabets, Greek and Hebrew letters, crosses, and flourishes; Roman letters inverted or placed sideways, were arranged and placed in perpendicular columns ; and the whole ended in a rude delineation of a circle, divided into various compartments, decked with various strange marks." Church History, vol. 1, pp. 21, 22. E. D. Howe says: "When the plates were said to have been found, a copy of one or two lines of the characters were taken by Mr. Harris to Utica, Albany, and New York; at New York they were shown Doctor Mitchill, and he referred them to Professor Anthon, who translated and declared them to be the ancient shorthand Egyptian." History of Mor- monism, p. 273. TESTIMONY OF THE THREE WITNESSES TO THE BOOK OF MORMON. "Be it known unto all nations, kindreds, tongues, and peo- ple, unto whom this work shall come, that we, through the grace of God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, have seen the plates which contain this record, which is a record of the people of Nephi, and also of the Lamanites, their breth- ren, and also of the people of Jared, who came from the tower of which hath been spoken; and we also know that they have 76 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK been translated by the gift and power of God, for his voice hath declared it unto us; wherefore we know of a surety, that the work is true. And we also testify that we have seen the engravings which are upon the plates; and they have been shown unto us by the power of God, and not of man. And we declare with words of soberness, that an angel of God came down from heaven, and he brought and laid before our eyes, that we beheld and saw the plates, and the engravings thereon; and we know that it is by the grace of God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, that we beheld and bare record that these things are true; and it is marvelous in our eyes, nevertheless, the voice of the Lord commanded us that we should bear record of it; wherefore, to be obedient unto the commandments of God, we bear testimony of these things. And we know that if we are faithful in Christ, we shall rid our garments of the blood of all men, and be found spotless before the judgment seat of Christ, and shall dwell with him eternally in the heavens. And the honor be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, which is one God. Amen. "OLIVER COWDERY. "DAVID WHITMER. "MARTIN HARRIS." Book of Mormon. TESTIMONY OF EIGHT WITNESSES. "Be it known unto all nations, kindreds, tongues, and peo- ple, unto whom this work shall come, that Joseph Smith, jr., the translator of this work, has shown unto us the plates of which hath been spoken, which have the appearance of gold; and as many of the leaves as the said Smith has translated, we did handle with our hands: and we also saw the engravings thereon, all of which has the appearance of ancient work, and of curious workmanship. And this we bear record with words of soberness, that the said Smith has shown unto us, for we have seen and hefted, and know of a surety that the said Smith has got the plates of which we have spoken. And we PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 77 give our names unto the world, to witness unto the world that which we have seen; and we lie not, God bearing witness of it. "CHRISTIAN WHITMER. "JACOB WHITMER. "PETER WHITMER, JR. "JOHN WHITMER. " HIRAM PAGE. "JOSEPH SMITH, SR. "HYRUM SMITH. "SAMUEL H. SMITH." Book of Mormon. MISCELLANEOUS TESTIMONY CONCERNING THE BOOK OF MORMON AND VERACITY OF THE WITNESSES TO THE SAID BOOK. Oliver Cowdery died at Richmond, Missouri, March 3, 1850; his dying charge to David Whitmer being, "Brother David, be true to your testimony to the book of Mormon." Church History, vol. 1, p. 50. Martin Harris died at Clarkston, Cache Comity, Utah, July 10, 1875. Answering the question of H. B. Emerson, of New Richmond, Ohio, "Did you go to England to lecture against Mormonism?" he said, "I ancv/er emphatically, No, I did not; no man ever heard me in any way deny the truth of the Book of Mormon." Church History, vol. 1, pp. 50, 51. David Whitmer died at Richmond, Missouri, January 25, 1888. ."On Sunday evening at 5.30, January 22, 188S, Mr. Whitmer called his family and some friends to his bedside, and addresing himself to the attending physician, said, 'Doc- tor Buchanan, I want you .to say whether or not I am in my right mind before I give my dying testimony.' The doctor answered, 'Yes, you are in your right mind, for I have just had a conversation with you.' He then addressed himself to all around his bedside in these words, 'Now you must all be faithful in Christ; I want to say to all of you that the Bible and the record of the Nephites (Book of Mormon) is 78 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK true, so you can say that you have heard me bear my testi- mony on my deathbed.' " Richmond Democrat January 2G, 1888. TESTIMONY OF TWENTY-ONE PERSONS AS TO THE VERACITY OF MR. WHITMER. "We the undersigned citizens of Richmond, Ray County, Missouri, where David Whitmer, sr., has resided since the year A. D., 1838, certify that we have been long and intimately acquainted with him and know him to be a man of the highest integrity, and of undoubted truth, and veracity: A. W. Doniphan; G. W. Dunn, judge of the fifth judicial circuit; T. D. Woodson, president of Ray County Savings Bank; J. T. Child, editor of Conservator; H. C. Garner, cashier of Ray County Savings Bank; W. A. Holman, county treasurer; J. S. Hughes, banker; James Hughes, banker; D. C. Whitmei attorney at law ; James W. Black, attorney at law ; L. C. Cant- well, postmaster; Geo. I. Wasson, mayor; Jas. A. Davif, county collector; C. J. Hughes, probate judge and presiding justice of Ray County court; George W. Trigg, county clerk: W. W. Mosby, M. D.; Thos. McGinnis, ex-sheriff of Ray County; J. P. Quesenberry, merchant; W. R. Holman, furni- ture merchant; Lewis Slaughter, recorder of deeds; Geo. W. Buchanan, M. D.; A. K. Reyburn. Given at Richmond, Missouri, this March 19, A. D. 1881." Church History, vol. 1, p. 56; also Richmond Conservator, March 24, 1881. CHANGES. Book of Mormon committee report, published in the Saints' Herald, August 23, 1884: "While the changes are ma< t y, they are such as do not affect the doctrine taught, or destroy tne sense in any respect, but are of the following character:- Where in the manuscript 'which are,' 'which had,' 'whlcn was,' and 'they which,' are found they are changed to 'who are,' 'who had,' 'who was' and 'those who.' . . . These changes, numbers of which were made in the manuscript snce the Palmyra edition was published in 1830, and prior to the pub- PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 79 lishing of the Kirtland Edition in 1837, appear to have been made by whom we can not learn. "WM. H. KELLEY, "ALEX. H. SMITH, "THOS. W. SMITH, "Committee." CHARACTER OF EARLY SAINTS. Mr. Smucker says: "It is utterly incredible that Joseph Smith who, great impostor as he was, never missed an oppor- tunity to denounce seducers and adulterers as unfit to enter into his church, should have been concerned directly or indi- rectly in proceedings like these; though it is scarcely surpris- ing that when such stories have been circulated by men whom the prophet had thwarted or reprimanded there should have been found some persons willing to credit them. . . . We must remember, too, that Smith universally in all his letters, reve- lations, and speeches denounced adultery and fornication. Subject, as all founders of religious systems are, to calumny, we can not resist the doubt that there may have been mis- representation and exaggeration, both as to the character of Joseph Smith and the cause of his untimely end." Smucker's History, pp. 174, 379. General Doniphan said in 1881 as found in the Kansas City Journal, of the troubles in Missouri between Latter Day Saints and the Missourians: "I located in Lexington, Mis- souri, in 1830. Three years afterward I moved to Liberty, Clay County. The first acquaintance I had with the ministers of this peculiar denomination was in 1831. They were north- ern people, who, on account of their declining to own slaves, and their denunciation of the system of slavery were termed 'Free soilers.' The majority of them were intelligent, indus- trious, and law-abiding citizens. Soon after they came to Jackson County they established a newspaper at Independence called The Morning and Evening Star, edited by W. W. Phelps, in which they published their peculiar tenets. This of course caused hard feelings between them and the people of the county, which culminated in the month of July, 1833, in a mob 80 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK tearing down the printing house, and destroying a great amount of their property, and tarring and feathering Bishop Partridge, and committing numerous other outrages. In 1836-7, I was a member of the legislature, and drew the bill organizing Caldwell County for the Saints exclusively, and the offices of the county were given to their people. . . . While they resided in Clay County they were a peaceable, sober, industrious, and law-abiding people, and during their stay with us not one was ever accused of a crime of any kind." In a sworn statement Benjamin Mark ell, a resident of Kirt- land, not a Saint, testified November 29, 1884, as follows: "I was acquainted with old Father Smith's whole family. Knew Joseph, Hyrum, Carlos, William, and all the rest who came here. . . . Hyrum was, I always thought, a very exemplary man. William was more fond of fun and sport. I dwelt with Joseph Smith when he lived here. At one time I loaned him about two hundred dollars in money. He paid me as he agreed. At different other times I loaned him small sums; he always paid me and acted honorably." Pioneer Reminiscences Ex- amined, Willoughby Independent (Ohio). Hubert H. Bancroft says: "When the testimony on both sides is carefully weighed, it must be admitted that the Mor- mons in Missouri and Illinois were, as a class, a more moral, honest, temperate, hard working, self-denying, and thrifty people than the Gentiles by whom they were surrounded." History of Utah, p. 164. Reuben P. Harmon, being duly sworn, testified as follows: "I came to Kirtland in the year 1822. . . . Q. Were you acquainted with Joseph Smith? A. I was acquainted with him. Q. You may state anything you know about his con- duct as being bad? A. I never knew anything bad about him. . . . Q. What was (his) that reputation? A. I regarded that it was good. Q. What was his reputation for honesty? State that - A. I never heard it questioned. Q. Did you belong to the church? A. I did not belong to any church. ... Q. Just state how the people here compared with people in other places? A. If I was to state what I know, I would say that I had no right to question their honesty. I have heard reports, PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 81 but I do not know anything against them." Braden and Kelley Debate, pp. 391, 392. A. E. Sanborn, having been produced and duly sworn, tes- tifies as follows: "Q. Mr. Sanborn, where do you live? A. I live about a mile east of here [Kirtland]. Q. How long have you lived here? A. About forty-seven years. . . . Q. Were you personally acquainted with Joseph Smith? A. Yes, sir. I was acquainted with Joseph Smith. . . . Q. You may state all you know about him? A. Well, I knew him to be a kind, generous and truthful neighbor; he was a very kind man. Q. What was his general moral character? A. It was good." Ibid., pp. 393, 394. Rev. James K. Applebee, in 1886, said after quoting the Word of Wisdom (section 86, page 244, Doctrine and Cove- nants) :'"In his Word of Wisdom Joseph Smith teaches that it is not good to drink wine or strong drinks, excepting in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and then it should be home made grape wine; that it is not good to drink hot drinks or chew or smoke tobacco; that strong drinks are for the wash- ing of the body, and that tobacco is an herb for bruises and sick cattle. . . . Anyhow it has had its effect on the Mormon people so that next to being the thriftiest, they are the soberest people on this continent." Saints' Herald, p. 806, December 25, 1886. Quincy, Illinois, Argus, March 16, 1839 : "We give in to-day's paper the details of the recent bloody tragedy acted in Mis- souri the details of a scene of terror and blood unparalleled in the annals of modern, and under the circumstances of the case, in ancient history a tragedy of so deep and fearful, and absorbing interest, that the very life blood of the heart is chilled at the simple contemplation. We are prompted to ask ourselves if it be really true, that we are living in an enlight- ened, a humane and civilized age in an age and quarter of the world boasting of its progress in everything good, and great, and honorable, and virtuous, and high-minded in a country of which, as American citizens, we could be proud whether we are living under a constitution and laws, or 82 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK have not rather returned to the ruthless times of the stern Atilla to the times of the fiery Hun, when the sword and. flame ravaged the fair fields of Italy and Europe, and the darkest passions held full revel in all the revolting scenes of unchecked brutality and unbridled desire? We have no lan- guage sufficiently strong for the expression of our indignation and shame at the recent transaction in a sister State and that State Missouri a State of which we had long been proud, alike for her men and history, but now so fallen that we could wish her star stricken out from the bright constella- tion of the Union. We say we know of no language suffi- ciently strong for the expression of our shame and abhor- rence of her recent conduct. She has written her own charac- ter in letters of blood and stained it by acts of merciless cruelty and brutality that the waters of ages can not efface." Persecution of the Saints, pp. 178-180. Quoted from Truth Defended, p. 220, by Elder Heman C. Smith. The Democratic Association, of Quincy, Illinois, on February 28, 1839, after inviting other citizens to meet with it, adopted the following resolutions: "Resolved, That we regard the rights of conscience as natural and inalienable, and the most sacred guaranteed by the Constitution of our free Government. Resolved, That we regard the acts of all mobs as flagrant violations of law, and those who compose them, individu- ally responsible, both to the laws of God or man for every depredation committed upon the property, rights, or life of any citizen. Resolved, That the inhabitants upon the western frontier of the State of Missouri in their late persecutions of the class of people denominated Mormons, have violated the sacred rights of conscience, and every law of justice and humanity. Resolved, That the governor of Missouri in refus- ing protection to this class of people when pressed upon by an heartless mob, and turning upon them a band of un- principled militia, with orders encouraging their extermina- tion, has brought a lasting disgrace upon the State over which he presides." Persecution of the Saints, pp. 190, 191; Ibid., pp. 220, 221. PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 83 The Western Messenger, of Cincinnati, Ohio, about Novem- ber or December, 1840, contained the following: "Reader! Let not the word Mormon repel you! Think not that you have no interest in the cruelties perpetrated on this poor peo- ple! Read, we pray you, the history of this persecuted com- munity; examine the detailed facts of these atrocities; reflect upon the hallowed principles and usages trampled under foot by ruffians; bring before your mind the violations of all law, human and divine, of all right, natural and civil, of all ties of society and humanity, of all duties of justice, honor, hon- esty, and mercy, committed by so-called freemen and Chris- tians and then speak out, speak out, for prostrate law, for liberty disgraced, for outraged man, for heaven insulted. " 'Loud as a summer thunderbolt shall waken a people's voice.' "We speak strongly, for we feel strongly; and we wish to attract attention to a tragedy of almost unequaled horror, which has been unblushingly enacted in a State of this Union. Its history should be trumpeted abroad until the indignant rebuke of the whole land compels the authors, abettors and tolerators of these wrongs, to make the small return now in their power, for their aggravated injustice. Life can not be restored to the murdered, nor health to the broken down in body and soul, nor peace to the bereaved; but the spoils on which robbers are now fattening can be repaid; the loss of the destitute can be made up; the captive can be freed, and until by legislative acts she makes redress Missouri is dis- graced. . . . But when after months, we may say years of suffering from similar outrages, harassed by anxieties, goaded by wrongs, and under the advice of authorities, civil and military, these poor fellows, deserted by the militia guard, unprotected by the State, did at last defend their houses from pillage, their children and wives from abuse, themselves from murder then was the cry of 'Mormon war' raised, and Gov- ernor Boggs, to his lasting infamy, sent out his orders for exterminating these citizens of Missouri, whom it was his duty under oath to save. In his order of October 27, he says: 'The 84 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK Mormons must be treated as enemies and must be extermi- nated or driven from the State, if necessary for the public good.' The Mormons had only defended themselves against infuriated and lawless rioters; so soon as General Lucas ar- rived and presented the governor's orders, they submitted to the authorities of the State. They gave up their arms and were made prisoners." Truth Defended, pp. 221, 222, 223. Davis H. Bays, the "child of providence," has this to say: "While the Mormons, and more especially the leaders, were doubtless responsible for a liberal share of these troubles, yet for this flagrant outrage upon the rights and liberties of free American citizens, there can not be offered even the shadow of excuse. The plea that the Mormons had violated the laws of the State can not be offered in justification of so grave an offense against the cause of humanity, and the peace and dignity of the State of Missouri. If the Mormons had violated the laws of the State, as their enemies charged, why not try them for their offenses, and if found guilty, punish them according to the provisions of the law they are charged with having violated? To say they could not be convicted, if guilty, can not be entered as a plea in abatement of the offense, for certainly if the State had the power to expel the entire Mormon citizenship from the State, it must have pos- sessed the power to enforce its laws against the individual transgressor. It matters not what their peculiarities, or how absurd may appear the tenets of their religion, they were American citizens, amenable to the laws of the country, and as such should have been protected in their rights of citizen- ship. A great nation, a sovereign State, and a large-minded, liberty-loving people can well afford to deal justly, even with 'Mormons.' The scenes of Independence and Carthage can never again be repeated in the United States, and well for the honor of a great nation that it is so." The Doctrines and Dogmas of Mormonism, pp. 396, 397. PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 85 RETRIBUTION. ORDER OF GENERAL COMMANDING UNITED STATES FORCES IN MISSOURI. "HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF THE BORDER, KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, August 25, 1863. (General Order No. 11.) "First. All persons living in Cass, Jackson, and Bates Counties, Missouri, and in that part of Vernon included in this district, except those living within one mile of the limits of Independence, Hickman's Mills, Pleasant Hill, and Harrison- ville, and except those in that part of Kaw Township, Jack- son County, north of Brush Creek, and west of the Big Blue, embracing Kansas City and Westport, are hereby ordered to remove from their present places of residence within fifteen days from the date hereof. Those who within that time, establish their loyalty to the satisfaction of the commanding officer of the military station nearest their present place of residence, will receive from him certificates stating the fact of their loyalty, and the names of the witnesses by whom it can be shown. All who receive such certificate will be per- mitted to remove to any military station in this district, or to any part of the State of Kansas, except the counties on the eastern borders of the State. All others shall remove out of this district. Officers commanding companies and detach- ments serving in the counties named, will see that this para- graph is promptly obeyed. "Second. All grain and hay in the field, or under shelter, in the district from which the inhabitants are required to remove within reach of military stations, after the 9th day of September next, will be taken to such stations and turned over to the proper officer there, and report of the amount so turned over made to district headquarters, specifying the names of all loyal owners and the amount of such produce taken from them. All grain and hay found in such district after the 9th day of September next not convenient to such stations, will be destroyed." History of Caldwell and Livingston Counties, Missouri, 1886, p. 51 ; Truth Defended, pp. 224, 225. 86 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK Josiah Quincy, the honored president of Harvard College, says: ''Polygamy, it must be remembered formed no part of the alleged revelations upon which the social life of Nauvoo was based; indeed, the recorded precepts of its prophet were entirely opposed to such practice, and it is at least doubtful whether this barbarism was in any way sanctioned by him." Figures of the Past. MESSAGE OF THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS IN RELATION TO THE DISTURBANCES IN HANCOCK COUNTY, DECEMBER 23, 1844. "Justice however requires me here to say, that I have in- vestigated the charge of promiscuous stealing and find it to be greatly exaggerated. I could not ascertain that there were a greater proportion of thieves in that community than any other of the same number of inhabitants; and perhaps if the city of Nauvoo were compared with Saint Louis or any other western city the proportion would not be so great. ... I have reason to believe, too, that the report of an alliance with the Indians was a groundless calumny." Page 7. "A system of excitement and agitation was artfully planned and executed with tact. It consisted in spreading reports and rumors of the most fearful character. As example: On the morning before my arrival at Carthage I was awakened at an early hour by the frightful report, which was asserted with apparent confidence and apparent consternation, that the Mor- mons had already commenced the work of burning, destruc- tion, and murder, and that every man capable of bearing arms was instantly wanted at Carthage for the protection of the county. We lost no time starting, but when we arrived at Carthage we could hear no more concerning the story. . . . No such forces were sent, nor were any such offenses com- mitted at that time, except the stealing of some provisions, and there was never the least proof that this was done by a Mormon." Ibid., p. 8. "On the 23d or 24th day of June, Joseph Smith, the mayor of Nauvoo, together with his brother Hyrum, and all the mem- bers of the council, and all others demanded, came into Car- PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 87 thage and surrendered themselves prisoners to the constable on the charge of riot. They all voluntarily entered into a recognizance before the justice of the peace for their appear- ance at court to answer the charge. And all of them were discharged from custody except Joseph and Hyrum Smith, against whom the magistrate had issued a new writ on a com- plaint for treason. They were immediately arrested by the constable on the new charge and retained in his custody to answer it. The overt act of treason charged against them consisted in the alleged levying of war against the State by declaring martial law in Nauvoo, and in ordering out the legion to resist the posse comitatus. Their actual guiltiness of the charge would depend upon circumstances. If their opponents had been seeking to put the law in force in good faith and nothing more, then an array of a military force in open resistance to the posse comitatus, and the militia of the State most probably would have amounted to treason. But if those opponents merely intended to use the process of the law, the militia of the State and the posse comitatus as cats' paws to compass the possession of their persons for the purpose of murdering them afterwards, as the sequel demonstrated the fact to be, it might well be doubted whether they were guilty of treason." History of Illinois, Thomas Ford, p. 11. "Last week we '(Rustler) stated that it was a sad mistake the people of Hancock County made when they drove the Mor- mons out of Nauvoo, and the Quincy Journal comments thus: 'This is the first time that the writer has ever heard or known of a Nauvooite saying straight out that the people of Hancock County made a great mistake when they drove the Mormons out, but we have long inclined to the belief that they did indeed make a mistake, a sad, sad mistake." Quoted from Saints' Herald, December 23, 1893. Hon. Josiah Quincy, certainly needs no formal introduction to the public. While not a believer in Mormonism in any sense, he visited Nauvoo in company with Hon. Charles Francis Adams, and took notes as follows: "It is by no means improbable that some future text-book for the use of genera- tions vet unborn will contain a question something like this: 88 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK What historical American of the nineteenth century has ex- erted the most powerful influence upon the destinies of his countrymen? And it is by no means impossible that the answer to that interrogatory may be thus written: Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet. And the reply, absurd as it doubtless seems to most men now living, may be an obvious commonplace to their descendants. History deals in surprises and paradoxes quite as startling as this. The man who estab- lished a religion in this age of free debate, who was and is to- day accepted by hundreds of thousands as a direct emissary from the Most High such a rare human being is not to be disposed of by pelting his memory with unsavory epithets. Fanatic, impostor, charlatan he may have been; but these hard names furnish no solution to the problem he presents to us. Fanatics and impostors are living and dying every day, and their memory is buried with them; but the wonderful influence which this founder of a religion exerted and still exerts throws him into relief before us, not as a rogue to be criminated, but as a phenomenon to be explained." Figures of the Past, pp. 376, 377. Jacob Gregg, being duly sworn, testified: "I held the office of sheriff in this county in 1833. . . . During my term of office is when the Mormons were driven from Jackson County, Mis- souri. I was not in that affair in any way (not a member of the church) ... I did not have much communication with the Mormons while they were in this county. I took the census, and my impression was that they were a rather law-abiding class of citizens. I know I did not see anything wrong with them; they compared with other people here in the county; appeared to be a law-abiding class of citizens, and I think they were about as good and as intelligent as their neighbors." Plaintiff's Abstract, pp. 287, 289. AN INTERVIEW WITH EX-GOVERNOR DRAKE OF IOWA. BY ALEXANDER M'CALLUM. One day in the latter part of May, 1903, I found myself seated in a railway coach at Centerville, Iowa. Some of UP had taken refuge there from a violent thunderstorm. The PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 89 thunder and lightning: were incessant. The windows were all closed and the air soon became very oppressive, being heavy with tobacco smoke. By and by I turned to a gentleman who was seated behind me, smoking, and said, "I hate to disturb one who enj'oys a cigar as you seem to enjoy that; but is not that smoke getting pretty thick in here?" He laughed and said: "I don't know, those ladies seem to enjoy it," glancing at the ladies of the party, who were fan- ning themselves and gasping for breath. However, he went to the door and threw away his cigar and came and sat down by my side. We engaged in conversation and I learned that he was Ex- Governor Drake. I told him that Latter Day Saints were much opposed to the use of tobacco. Our talk drifted to church matters and I told him that I married into the "notorious" Smith family. "Joseph Smith," said he, "of Lamoni, Iowa? I know him well. He is a fine man. I knew his father and mother. We lived neighbors to them. They were nice people in every way, as was Hyrum Smith, also, whom I knew well. Joseph Smith had nothing to do with the introduction of polygamy; that was done by Brigham Young, long years after Joseph died. The only thing that we ever thought Joseph did wrong in was in claiming to be a prophet." This opinion is no more true than if it had been uttered by any other man; but it has more weight coming from one so universally loved and respected as was Ex-Governor Drake. INDEPENDENCE, MISSOURI: Autumn Leaves, pp. 4 and 5, January, 1904. Letter written to D. H. Bays, and published in the Chris- tian-Evangelist, November 2, 1899: "Dear Sir: Yours of August 9 has been duly received. My statement, that you did not know what the Spalding theory involved, was made be- cause your book indicates nothing to show that you ever heard of Spalding having written three manuscripts; the first of which simply outlined the story and is the one now in Oberlin. The second was prepared for the printer; the plot of the story 90 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK changed as to place from which Indians came here, and the names changed to suit the change in the plot. This is the one which furnishes the basis for the Book of Mormon. . . . I can not establish these facts except by hearsay evidence, which Greenleaf would bar, and yet I do not know of any historical fact not now within the knowledge of living wit- nesses that can be established by any but hearsay evidence." A. T. Schroeder, attorney of Salt Lake City, Utah. Rev. D. H. Bays' reply: "I very much regret that from a library covering considerably over one thousand books and pamphlets on the subject of Mormonism, you are unable to furnish me with a single fact in support of the old, exploded 'Spalding Manuscript theory' of the origin of the Book of Mormon. . . . That there is nothing in my book to indicate that I had ever heard that Spalding had 'written three manu- scripts', is certainly true, and for the obvious reason that in that work I deal with facts rather than fancies and unsup- ported assertion.* I was, at the time my book was written, fully aware that such assertions had repeatedly been made, but as I have never been able to obtain the testimony of a single witness in support of the claim, I have unhesitatingly dismissed it as an idle speculation." Christian-Evangelist, November 2, 1899, p. 1394. THE OPINIONS OF SIXTY PROMINENT MINISTERS, JOURNALISTS, AND HISTORIANS ON PRE- HISTORIC CIVILIZATION IN AMERICA. THE BOOK OF MORMON NEEDED. Question, asked by Bishop C. J. Hunt: "Please favor me with the name of a book, if you can, that will give an authentic account of the peopling of America, the builders of the great cities, temples, etc., centuries before the coming of Columbus, or occupancy by the Indians, as proven by archaeologists." Answers came as follows: Rev. G. Campbell Morgan, D. D., London: "I am afraid 1 can not help you." Rev. Newell Dwight Hillis, D. D., Brooklyn: "The best PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 91 book that I know on the subject regarding which you write, is McMaster's History of the People of the United States, four volumes." The editor of the Christian Instructor, Philadelphia, wrote: "The best book we know of for your reading is Andrew Bryce's American Commonwealth." Walter Lemley, editor Zion's Watchman, Albany, New York: "I am sorry to say that I do not know of any such book." Bishop T. N. Morrison, Episcopalian, Davenport, Iowa: "I can not name a book to you covering the ground." Bishop C. C. Grafton, Protestant Episcopal, wrote from Baltimore: "I should be glad to answer your question if I were able to do so. I do not remember the name of a book giving the information you desire." Rev. J. G. Monfort, editor Herald and Presbyter, Cincinnati, Ohio: "The Antiquarian and Oriental Journal is the highest authority in this country on this subject." J. J. Summerbell, editor Herald of Gospel Liberty, Dayton, Ohio: "I would recommend you to consult a large cyclopedia, or several, such as are found in public libraries, ... I am not qualified to pronounce on the reliability of the various authors, and might mislead. Your position is correct, of the civilization, and civilizations long ago." Rev. J. G. Butler, Lutheran, Washington: "I regret that I am not able to give you the information you desire. I have made some inquiry, but have not found anyone who knows more than I about this long ago history." The International Reform Bureau, Washington: "We spent considerable time trying to hunt up the matter, . . . but failed." Rev. J. C. McQuiddy, office editor, Gospel Advocate, Nash- ville, Tennessee: "De Roo's Prehistoric America, in two volumes, . . . will give you the information you desire." Rev. A. P. Doyle, Catholic, Washington, says De Roo's works "are the most reliable." Rev. L. L. Carpenter, Christian, Wabash, Indiana: "I 92 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK regret to say that I am not able to give you the asked for information." Rev. D. G. Porter, Christian, Waterbury, Connecticut: "I doubt very much whether there is any book relating to the subject which can properly be called authentic." Rev. T. J. Golighty, Christian, Lebanon, Kentucky: "The book you call for I have never been able to find myself." G. F. Bowerman, librarian, Public Library of the District of Columbia, Washington: "I think that you will find what you need in volume 1 of Winsor's Narrative and Critical History of America." W. E. Huntington, president of Boston University: "I do not feel competent to answer this request very fully, but judge from what I know of the literature on such questions that Prescott's work on Mexico and Bancroft's large book on the Races of America would be as satisfactory as any you might consult." Philip Cowen, publisher American Hebrew and Jewish Mes- senger, New York: "Replying to your letter . . . asking for a book that will give an authentic account of the peopling of America, etc., before the coming of Columbus, I would say that there is no one work which contains this matter." B. A. M. Schapiro, Jew, editor The People, The Land, and The Book, New York: "I think Prescott's works will give you the information you need." Prof. I. Friedlanender, of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, New York: "I am extremely sorry of not being able to give you the desired information. I never made a study of the subject mentioned in your letter." Henry G. Talmage, associate editor, Sunday School Times, Philadelphia: "Almost any good history of America would give the theories of the peopling of America before Columbus' time." Rev. I. L. Kephart, United Brethren, editor Religious Tele- scope, Dayton, Ohio: "Baldwin's Ancient America ... is the book you want." Rev. D. R. Miller, D. D., United Brethren, Saint Marys, Ohio: "A satisfactory description of the people about whom PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 93 you inquire is not well established, nor can we find a book which will authentically and satisfactorily account for them. Yet it is reasonably certain that there were approximately such." F. L. Piper, editor of the World's Crisis and Advent Chris- tian Messenger, Boston: "There probably is no such book as you ask for." Rev. George Batchelor, editor of the Christian Register, Boston: "All the best work that is now done* in history is done by specialists, so that it is impossible for me to name any one book that covers all the ground you indicate." W. W. Prescott, Adventist, editor of the Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Washington: "I am unable to give you the name of any book containing the account of the original peopling of America." M. C. Wilcox, Adventist, editor of the Signs of the Times, Mountain View, California: "I know of no such book which gives any authentic account. The only records which we have at all are what have been left in the ruined temples and hieroglyphics of that people. Probably the Mexicans and Peruvians were their descendants, but they have left us no au- thentic account. But no one has yet been able to decipher the inscriptions on the monuments so as to get from them the his- tory of the people. Of course, from the Bible, one thinks that they must have been descendants of Noah. Remains have been found which would indicate that they had some knowledge of God's 'Ten words,' and the tradition of the flood has been held by many of the later tribes or aboriginal Americans. The present tribes of Indians may some of them be descendants of the earlier inhabitants, greatly degenerated." J. H. Moore, office editor of the Gospel Messenger, Elgin, Illinois, a German Baptist Brethren paper, said: "I am not able to give you the desired information regarding the books treating of the history of this country prior to the discovery of America by Columbus." Henry Temple, professor of ancient history in the Wash- ington and Jefferson College, Presbyterian, Washington, Penn- sylvania, gave short accounts of Briton's Chronicles of the 94 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK Mayas, E. J. Payne's History of the . New World Called America, and John Fiske's Discovery of America, then said: "These books represent the sanest scholarship on this matter and are free from the wild dreams [which] destroy the value of so many of the popular books about the civilization of ancient America." The following gentlemen sent names of books on American archaeology but did not commit themselves, as a rule, to their authenticity: Rev. John Alexander Dowie, Zion City; Rev. J. A. McFaul, Catholic, bishop of Trenton, New Jersey; Rev. G. B. Winton, editor of the Christian Advocate, Nashville, Tennessee; Rev. A. H. Bradford, Congregationalist, Montclair, New Jersey; E. B. Ebey, editor of the Free Methodist, Chi- cago; Rev. J. Sheatsley, Lutheran, Delaware, Ohio; Rev. G. T. Cooperider, editor Lutheran Standard, Columbus, Ohio; J. B. Warren, Ph. D., Presbyterian, Milan, Ohio; Rev. Louis Klopsch, editor of the Christian Herald, New York; Rev. Archibald McLellen, editor of the Christian Science Journal, Boston; Rev. C. H. Forney, editor of the Church Advocate, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. We now present a number of extracts from some of the historical works referred to by the above named clergymen and noted writers, also statements from journals, etc., which show their own unsettled minds and diversified theories re- garding prehistoric civilization in America. Stories of Pioneer Days, etc., introduction, page 13, W. E. and L. V. Chapin, said of the aboriginal Americans: "Whose antiquity is unknown." Josiah Priest, in American Antiquities, edition of 1838, page 361, (1833 edition, p. 373,) says: "But what has finally be- come of these, nations, and where are their descendants, are questions, which, could they be answered, would be highly gratifying." W. Pidgeon, in his Tradition of De-coo-dah and Antiquarian Researches, edition of 1853, page 11, says: "But it yet re- mains for America to awake her story f-om sleep, to string lyre, and nerve the pen, to tell the tale of her antiquities, as PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 95 seen in the relics of nations, coeval perhaps with the oldest works of man." Palmyra to Independence, p. 3. The Christian Herald, New York, July 8, 1903, quoted Doctor Leon, the eminent archaeologist of the National Mu- seum, after he had visited wonderful ruined cities, etc., of Mexico. He said: "It is strange we should know nothing of the existence of a people so highly civilized as to erect such edifices." Marquis de Nadaillac, in Prehistoric America, page 395, says: "Everything proves the power and wealth of a peo- ple the very name of whom has remained uncertain." Again: "At every turn South America presents vestiges of a vanished race, of a culture now lost; and we are al- ways compelled to one conclusion as to our absolute power- lessness to decide on the origin or cause of the decadence of these races, now represented by a few miserable savages with- out a past, as without a future." Presidency and Priesthood, pp. 270, 271. Prof. John L. Stephens, in. Travels in Central America, etc., volume 2, page 356, said: "What we had before our eyes was grand, curious, and remarkable enough. Here were the re- mains of a cultivated, polished, and peculiar people, who had passed through all the stages incident to the rise and fall of nations, reached their golden age, and perished entirely un- known. The links that connected them with the human family were severed and lost, and these were the only memorials of their footsteps upon earth. We lived in the ruined palace of their kings; we went up to their desolate temples and fallen altars; and wherever we moved we saw the evidence of their taste, their skill in arts, their wealth and power." H. H. Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States, Tolume 5, page 146, says: "Stephens' account has been the chief source from which all subsequent writers, including myself, have drawn their information." Lectures by H. A. Stebbins, p. 71. John Ranking, in Historical Researches on the Conquest of Peru, Mexico, etc., speaking of the origin of the native races, page 290, said: "Clavijero acknowledges, that the more he 96 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK endeavors to elucidate these questions, the more he is puzzled and reduced to despair." Zion's Ensign, vol. 16, p. 5. S. B. Evans, in Chicago Times, 1881, says: "There have been at least two civilizations that have lived and dwindled away on the continent prior to the Aztecs or Toltecs, of Mexico; the last of which must have ceased to exist at least from a thousand to fifteen hundred years ago, and occupied the time of at least one thousand years of civilization here." Parsons' Text Book, p. 13. Peru, by Markham, page 68, says: "These marvelous ruins point to the former existence of a large population, and to the guiding hand of some powerful sovereign; but their history is entirely lost in remote antiquity." Committee's Report, p. 26. Professor Le Plongeon, in Sacred Mysteries, page 70, says: "Anciently, this country [Yucatan] now well-nigh depopu- lated, was thickly peopled by a highly civilized nation. If we are to judge by the great number of large cities whose ruins exist, scattered in the midst of the forests throughout the country, and by the stupendous edifices, once upon a time temples of the gods; or palaces of the kings and priests, whose walls are covered with inscriptions, bas-reliefs, and other interesting sculptures that equal in beauty of design and masterly execution, those of Egypt and Babylon." Parsons' Text Book, pp. 3, 4. Prescott, volume 1, pages 12 and 13, speaking of the yarious races of ancient America, and more particularly of the west central part of South America: "Who this race were, and whence they came, may afford a tempting theme for inquiry to the speculative antiquarian. But it is a land of darkness that lies far beyond the domain of history." Committee's Report, p. 20. Professor Baldwin in his work issued in 1871, says in its preface: "The purpose of this volume is to give a summary of what is known of American antiquities. . . . Many of the more important of these works are either in French or Span- ish, or in great English quartos and folios . . . and not one PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 97 of them attempts to give a comprehensive view of the whole subject." Doctor George L. Cole, archaeologist, writing to the Epivorth Herald, a Methodist Episcopal paper, December 3, 1904, said of the "home of primitive man" in Colorado and New Mexico, after giving account of several great stone buildings: "Un- covering forty or fifty rooms in different portions of the great building, we were able to gather much as to the life, habits, and customs of the strange people who once dwelt here, but whose history is otherwise unwritten and unknown." Reverend Doctor Baum, president of the Records of the Past Exploration Society, Washington, is reported in the Denver Post, 1904, on the great prehistoric people of the southwestern part of the United States. Of their buildings he said: "They vary from two-room dwellings to structures containing over two thousand rooms." Of the people he said: "I believe this region maintained a population of over ten millions of people. The time and the cause of their disappearance is the problem we are trying to solve." The Gospel Messenger, representing the German Baptist Brethren Church, (Dunkard,) Elgin, Illinois, January 10, 1903, said editorially: "Most of our readers have wondered where the American Indians came from. Then they have puz- zled themselves about the Mound Builders, and still more about the intelligent races that built great cities in Mexico and Cen- tral America long before the time of Columbus. Many books have been written on these subjects, and still the learned world is searching for more light." Again, quoting Professor E. Seler, of Berlin, the Messenger said: "Where the various prehistoric peoples originally came from, no one knows. I do not think that they came from Asia in comparatively recent times. Man is very old in America, I think; perhaps he antedates the glacial period." Dellenbaugh, in North America of Yesterday, 1901, page 428, said: "The manner in which America was originally peopled has been the cause of considerable speculation. . . . It is my belief that all the tribes of the northwest migrated 98 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK there from the south and southeast, and not within recent geological time from the Asiatic direction." Zion's Ensign, March 9, 1905. Encyclopedia Britannica, volume 1, 1878, article "America": "If we consider every little "wandering horde a distinct com- munity, we have a greater number of nations here than in all the rest of the world. . . . We think we perceive them all to be descended from the same stock, notwithstanding the prodi- gious diversity of their languages." Zion's Ensign, vol. 16, no. 11. Doctor West, of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, relates that an old Indian informed him that his fathers in this country had not long since been in the possession of a book, which they had for a long time carried with them, but having lost the knowledge of reading it they buried it with an Indian chief." Views of the Hebrews, p. 223, quoted from Josiah Priest Autobiography of America, p. 67. C. J. HUNT. DELOIT, IOWA. Saints' Herald, August 30, 1905. SOME OBJECTIONS TO THE BOOK OF MORMON. CONSIDERED IN THE LIGHT OF HISTORICAL AND SCIENTIFIC FACTS. "Of the rivers of Arabia, none are navigable; few are perennial or reach the sea. Some such, however, have been marked ... by the travelers, Wellsted and W. B. Harris. Glaser . . . would identify the Wady Humd, first traced by Doughty, which traverses the Hijas and flows into the Red Sea." Dictionary of the Bible, vol. 1, p. 132. The New Inter- national Encyclopedia says: "The Wadj Rumen is the long- est river, traversing under different names the entire country from west to east." Volume 1, p. 691. " 'Arabia Felix' the southern coast, Hadramanta here are found all the fruits of temperate and warm climates, among which the date, the fruit of the palm tree, is the most common, and is, along with species of grain called dhourra, the staple article of food." Encyclopedia Biblical Literature, vol. 1, p. 180. PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 99 "Among the minerals of Arabia, may be mentioned iron, copper, lead, coal, basalt, and asphaltum." International Cyclopedia, vol. 1, article "Arabia," p. 692. EVIDENCING A KNOWLEDGE OF BURIED RECORDS. "The Ojibway Indians, relates Mr. Copway, had three de- positories for sacred records near the waters of Lake Supe- rior. Ten of the wisest and most venerable men of the nation dwelt near these and were appointed guardians over them. Fifteen years intervened between the opening of these records. If any vacancies had been caused by death, others were chosen in the spring of the year; and in the month of August these were called to witness the ceremony. As they were opened, all the information respecting them was given. After this, the plates were closely examined, and if any had begun to decay, they were taken out, an exact copy was made and placed in its stead. The old one was divided equally among the wise men. It was very highly valued for being deposited; every fiber was sacred, and was considered capable of en- dowing the possessor with wisdom. These records were writ- ten on slate rock, copper, lead, and the bark of birch trees. It is claimed they contain the transcript of what the Great Spirit gave the Indian after the flood, which has been trans- mitted by the hands of wise men to other parts of the country ever since. There is a code of moral laws which the Indian calls a 'path made by the Great Spirit.' They believe a long life will result from obedience thereto. The records contain certain emblems, which transmit the ancient form of worship, and the rules for the dedication to the four spirits who alone are to expound them. In them are represented how men lived before death entered the world; and the path he then followed marked out an example for those of the present time." Prehistoric America, by Rev. S. B. Peet, vol. 1, p. 244. SIDNEY RIGDON'S WHEREABOUTS DESIGNATED. November 2, 1826: Solemnized a marriage contract be- tween John G. Smith and Julia Giles, in Geauga County, Ohio. December 13, 1826, returns and record of marriage. 100 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK January, 1827: Held public meetings in Mantua, Ohio. Hayden's History of the Disciples of the Western Reserve, p. 237. February, 1827: Preached funeral discourse of Hannah Tanner, Chester, Ohio. March, April, 1827: Held protracted meetings in Mentor, Ohio, baptizing Nancy M. Sanford, William Dunsen and wife and others. June 5, 1827: Solemnized marriage between Theron Free- man and Elizabeth Waterman, Geauga County, Ohio. June 15, 1827: Baptized Thomas Clapp- and others, Men- tor, Ohio. July 3, 1827: Solemnized marriage between James Gray and Mary Kerr, Mentor, Ohio. July 19, 1827: Solemnized marriage between Alden Snow and Ruth Parker, Kirtland, Ohio. August 23, 1827 : Meeting with the Ministerial Association, New Lisbon, Ohio. History of the Disciples, pp. 55, 57. October 9, 1827 : Solemnized marriage of Stephen Sherman and Wealthy Matthews, Mentor, Ohio. October 20, 1827: Ministerial Council at Warren, Ohio. History of the Disciples, p. 137. November, 1827: Preaching at New Lisbon, Ohio. History of the Disciples, pp. 72-75. December 6, 1827: Solemnized marriage of Oliver Wait and Eliza Gunn, at Concord, Geauga County, Ohio. December 13, 1827: Solemnized marriage of Roswell D. Cottrel and Matilda Olds, Concord, 'Ohio. January 8, 1828: Return of marriage made at Chardon, Ohio. February 14, 1828: Solemnized marriage between Otis Herrington and Lyma Corning, Mentor, Ohio. March, 1828: Instructing class in theology, in Mentor, Ohio, Zebulon Rudolph being a member. Also held great religious meetings in Mentor and Warren, Ohio. History of the Disciples, p. 198. March 31, 1828: Returns made to Chardon, Ohio. PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 101 April, 1828: Holds great religious revival at Kirtland, Ohio. History of the Disciples, p. 194. May, 1828: Meets Campbell at Shalersville, Ohio, and holds protracted meetings. History of the Disciples, p. 155. June, 1828: Baptized Henry H. Clapp, Mentor, Ohio. August, 1828: Attended great yearly association at War- ren, Ohio. September, 1828: Solemnized marriage between Luther Dille and Clarissa Kent. September 18, 1828: Solemnized marriage between Na- Chore Corning and Phoebe E. Wilson, Mentor, Ohio. October 13, 1828: Returns made to Chardon, Ohio. January 1, 1829: Solemnized marriage between Albert Churchill and Anna Fosdick, Concord, Ohio. February 1, 1829: Solemnized marriage between Erastus Root and Rebecca Tuttle. February 12, 1829 : Returns made to Chardon, Ohio. March, 1829 : Protracted meeting at Mentor, Ohio. April 12, 1829 : Protracted meeting at Kirtland, Ohio. July 1, 1829: Organized church at Perry, Ohio. History of the Disciples, p. 346. August 13, 1829: Solemnized marriage between John Strong and Ann Eliza Moore, Kirtland, Ohio. September 14, 1829 : Solemnized marriage between Darwin Atwater and Harriet Clapp, Mentor, Ohio. September, 1829: Meeting at Mentor, Ohio; baptized J. J. Moss, Disciple minister of note. October 1, 1829: Solemnized marriage between Joel Rob- erts and Relief Bates, Perry, Ohio. October, 1829: At Perry, Ohio. History of the Disciples, pp. 207-409. November, 1829: Wait Hill, Ohio; baptized Alvin Wait. History of the Disciples, pp. 204-207. December 31, 1829: Solemnized marriage between David Cloudier and Polly Johnson, Chagrin, Ohio. January 12, 1830: Returns to Cleveland, Ohio. March, 1830: Mentor, Ohio. 102 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK June 1 to 30, 1830: Mentor, Ohio. Millennial Harbinger, p. 389. July, 1830: Protracted meeting at Pleasant Valley, Ohio; baptized forty-five. August, 1830: With Alexander Campbell at Austintown, Ohio. History of the Disciples, p. 209. November 4, 1830: Solemnized marriage between Lewis B. Wood and Laura Cleveland, Kirtland, Ohio. December, 1830: Was converted to the faith of and united with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints under the preaching of P. P. Pratt and Oliver Cowdery. The State of Ohio, Geauga County, ss. (probate court) : I, H. K. Smith, judge of the probate court in and for said county, hereby certify that the above and foregoing certifi- cates, numbering from one to sixteen, were truly taken and copied from the record of marriages in this county, preserved in this office, where the same by law are required to be kept. In testimony whereof I have set my hand and affixed the seal of said court at Chardon, this 27th day of April, A. D., 1891. (Signed) H. K. SMITH, [SEAL] Probate Judge. In the probate court, State of Ohio, Cuyahoga County, ss. I, Henry C. White, judge of said court, do hereby certify that the foregoing is a true and correct transcript taken from the marriage records in this office, where the same is by law required to be kept. (Signed) HENRY C. 'WHITE, Probate Judge. [Seal] BY H. A. SCHWAB, Dept. Clerk. The above obtained by Elder E. L. Kelley, as found in Saints' Herald, vol. 41, pp. 733 and 734, November, 1894. FACTS GATHERED BY ELDER J. F. MINTUN; AS FOUND IN A TRACT ON THE BOOK OF MORMON. The wife of Rev. Solomon Spalding wrote in 1839, as printed in the Boston Recorder: "In the town of New Salem (sometimes called Conneaut) were numerous mounds and forts. PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 103 "Mr. Spalding . . . conceived the idea of giving an historical sketch of this long lost race. His sole object in writing this historical romance was to amuse himself and neighbors. This was in 1812. "From New Salem we removed to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Here Mr. Spalding found an acquaintance and friend in the person of Mr. Patterson, v/ho . . . borrowed it for perusal. "At length the manuscript was returned to the author . . . Mr. Spalding, deceased, in 1816. The manuscript fell into my hands and was carefully preserved. "The excitement in New Salem became so great that the inhabitants had a meeting and deputed Dr. Philastus Hurlbut ... to obtain from me the original manuscript of Mr. Spalding. . . . This was in 1834." Mrs. M. S. McKinstry, daughter of Reverend Spalding, wrote April 3, 1880, as printed in Scribner's Magazine, August, 1880. From this article I extract: "During the war of 1812 I was residing in a little town in Ohio called Conneaut. . . . There were some round mounds of earth near our house which greatly interested him (Mr. Spalding) .... He talked with my mother of these discoveries in the mounds, and was writing every day as the work progressed. Afterwards he read the manuscript which I had seen him writing, to the neighbors. "We removed from Conneaut to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. "In 1816 my father died at Amity, Pennsylvania, and directly after his death my mother and myself went on a visit to Onondaga Valley, New York. . . . We carried all our per- sonal effects with us, and one of these was an old trunk in which my mother had placed all my father's writings which had been preserved. . . . There were sermons and other papers, and I saw a manuscript about an inch thick closely written. . . . On the outside of this manuscript was written the words Manuscript Found. ... I was about eleven years of age at this time. "In 1820 she (Mrs. Spalding) married Mr. Davison of Hartwick's, a village near Cooperstown, New York, and sent for the things she had left at Onondaga Valley, and I re- 104 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK member that the old trunk with its contents reached her in safety. "I believe it was in 1834 that a man named Hurlbut came to my house at Monson, Massachusetts, to see my mother, who told us that he had been sent by a committee to procure the 'Manuscript Found,' written by the Rev. Solomon Spalding, so as to compare it with the Mormon Bible. . . . On the repeated promise of Hurlbut to return the manuscript to us, she gave him a letter to Mr. Clark to open the trunk and deliver it to him. We afterward heard that he did receive it from Mr. Clark at Hartwick's, but from that time we have never had it in our possession, and have no present knowledge of its existence." I have now traced the existence of the manuscript that has been made to do service in opposing the claims for the origin of the Book of Mormon, from the time it was written in 1812 to 1834, when Hurlbut obtained it. Mr. D. P. Hurlbut wrote August 19, 1879, from which I extract : "I visited Mrs. Matilda (Spalding) Davison at Monson, Massachusetts, in 1834, and never saw her afterwards. I then received from her a manuscript of her husband's, which I did not read, but brought home with me, and immediately gave to Mr. E. D. Howe, of Painesville, Ohio, who was then engaged in preparing his book Mormonism Unveiled."- Braden-Kelley Debate, p. 91. Mr. E. D. Howe wrote, July 26, 1881, to Apostle T. W. Smith, in which letter is the following: "The manuscript that came into my possession I sus- pect was destroyed by fire forty years ago." Saints' Herald, vol. 28, p. 269. Mr. L. L. Rice wrote from Honolulu, Sandwich Islands, March 28, 1885, to Joseph Smith, from which I extract: "The Spalding Manuscript in my possession came into my hands in this wise. In 1839-1840 my partner and myself bought of E. D. Howe the Painesville Telegraph, published at Painesville, Ohio. The transfer of the printing depart- ment, types, press, etc., was accompanied with a large col- PARSONS'. TEXT BOOK 105 lection of books, manuscripts, etc., this manuscript of Spal- ding's among the rest. So, you see, it has been in my pos- session over forty years." Church History, vol. 4, p. 471. SPALDING'S ROMANCE FOUND. "The theory of the origin of the Book of Mormon in the traditional manuscript of Solomon Spalding will probably have to be relinquished. That manuscript is doubtless now in the possession of Mr. L. L. Rice, of Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands. ... It was enveloped in a coarse piece of wrapping paper, and was indorsed in Mr. Rice's handwriting, "A manuscript story." There seems no reason to doubt that this is the long lost story. Mr. Rice, myself and others compared it with the Book of Mormon and could detect no resemblance between the two, in general or in detail. There seems to be no name or incident common to the two. . . . Some other explanation of the origin of the Book of Mormon must be found, if any explanation is required. "JAMES H. FAIRCHILD." Ibid., pp. 470, 471. "HONOLULU, SANDWICH ISLANDS, May 14, 1885. "MR. JOSEPH SMITH: "Dear Sir: . . . Two things are true concerning this manu- script in my possession first, it is a genuine writing of Solo- mon Spalding; and second, it is not the original of the Book of Mormon. "Very respectfully yours, "L. L. RICE." Ibid., p. 473. Davis H. Bays says: "The usual debater undertakes to trace the Book of Mormon to the Spalding romance through Sidney Rigdon. Nothing can be more erroneous, and it will lead to almost certain defeat. The well-informed advocate of Mormonism wants no better amusement than to vanquish an opponent in discussion who takes this ground. The facts are all opposed to this view, and the defenders of the Mor- mon dogma have the facts well in hand. I speak from ex- perience." Page 22. Quoted from The Truth Defended, p. 39. 106 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK Saint Louis Christian Publishing Company, 1897, has this to say on Bays' book, Doctrine and Dogmas of Mormonism: "The subject is given a thorough treatment by one well versed in Mormonism. The author's knowledge of the teaching, doc- trines and dogmas of the Mormon church was obtained by a close relationship with all the prominent leaders of that faith. It is certainly a book of reference, accurate and relia- ble. Every important question pertaining to the peculiarities of the Mormons is discussed and answered from a biblical and philosophical standpoint. The author does not use ridi- cule or burlesque to supply the place of logic and argument. He meets every question with painstaking arguments, showing great familiarity with the fundamental principles relied on by Mormons to sustain their doctrines. A careful study of this work will convince the reader that the author has com- pletely examined and refuted the 'doctrines and dogmas of Mormonism.' " Introductory of the Truth Defended, by Elder Heman C. Smith. WOE TO THE LAND SHADOWING WITH WINGS. A WORD IN A FIT PLACE. A copy of the Armory, published at Boston, Massachusetts, by H. L. Hastings, for August, has been sent us by some friend of the cause. In it is an article from Israel's Messiah, entitled, "A refuge for persecuted Jews." From this article we quote the following: "Rabbi Isaac Leeser, of Philadelphia, the translator of the Hebrew Bible, says that the prophecy in the eighteenth chap- ter of the Prophet Isaiah, 'Ho! to the land with spreading wings, which is beyond the rivers of Cush, that sendeth on the sea embassadors, and in vessels of gomeh messengers over the face of the waters,' is a prophecy relating to America. Standing where the prophet stood, and looking 'beyond the rivers of Cush,' or Ethiopia, the first land we strike is the Western World. And this land, the very name of which was then unknown, with its emblem, the eagle with 'spreading wings,' whose embassadors are all sent by sea, in the swift- PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 107 est ships, has opened to the sons of Israei such a refuge as no other land afforded for seventeen hundred years. Into this land the teeming multitudes of earth have poured at a rate unexampled in history; and in this land was first enun- ciated the grand doctrine that all men were created free and equal; and that Jews as well as Gentiles had 'a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' Some other nations have since ceased to persecute the Jews, but the statute books of the United States of America have never been stained with laws against the exiled sons of Israel; and here for the first time since their dispersion, was an asy- lum opened where the Jewish wanderer could find rest, justice, and right." International Cyclopedia. "Ethiopia, the biblical Kush. Originally, all the nations inhabiting the southern part of the globe, as known to the ancients; or rather, all men of dark-brown or black color, were called Ethiopians. Later this name was given more particularly to the inhabitants of the countries south of Libya (see gen. hist.) and Egypt, or the upper Nile, extend- ing from 10 to 25 degrees north latitude, 45 to 58 degrees east longitude the present Nubia, Sennaar, Kordofan, Abys- sinia." Quoted from the Saints' Herald for July 9, 1902, vol. 49, pp. 679, 680. From the article of Bishop C. J. Hunt. FACTS I GATHERED MYSELF, IN CONFIRMATION OF THE BOOK OF MORMON BEING TRUE. "The wisdom of their wise men shall perish." Isaiah 29: 14. A PARADIGM OF MODERN AND ANCIENT WORDS. Book of Mormon, 1830. Recent Discoveries. Cumeni, a city (pronounced, Cuemani, a river just north ku' men-i). of the Equator. Alma 26: 15. Naphtali, section of country, Napiare, river. 2 Nephi 9: 61. Nephi, man's name. 1 Nephi Nechi, a river almost east of 1: 1. the isthmus. 108 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK Cumorah, a section of coun- Coromora, a river, north part try, (pronounced, ku-mo'- of South America. rah.) Mormon 3 : 3. Jarom, a man's name. Ja- Jiron, a town. rom 1: 1. Manti, a man's name. Alma Manati, a city in the north 1: 78. part of South America. Moroni, a man's name. Moreno, a city in the Central Ether 1 : 82. part of Colombia. Foregoing information was taken from Rand McNally & Co.'s Atlas of the World, copyrighted in 1905. In Ecuador, we find the "Morona River" corresponding with the name "Moroni." (Ether 1: 1.) Moroni, as found in northern part of South America. Pictorial Atlas. In Venezuela, is found the word Morni. Rand McNally & Co.'s Atlas, 1906. John T. Short says (North American Antiquities, p. 438) that the translation of the days (of Maya's) are equivalent to the following: "Muluc," (Book of Mormon, Alma 23: 32 "Mulek"; Mosiah 11:78: "Mulok," and 13:3: "Muloki,") which Mr. Short says means "reunion." "Ben," which is an abbreviation of the Book of Mormon, "Benjamin" (Omni 1:40). "Lamot," corresponding with "Lamoni," (Alma 12: 35). Again he says that they called one of their months "Cumhu," almost the same as "Cumeni" (Alma 26: 15) Fourteen words, many of which are identical with Book of Mormon names. p. par. B. of M. 753 37 Akish, now called Ake, Baldwin's Ancient America, p. 144. 626 31 Gilgal, now called Galal, Baldwin's Ancient America, p. 146. 729 40 Kib, now called Kabah, Baldwin's Ancient America, p. 155. PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 109 364 29 Ishmael, now called Izamal, Baldwin's Ancient America, p. 144. 95 13 Nephites, now called Neophites, Bancroft, Native Races, vol. 1, p. 450. 627 38 Laman, now called Laman, Universal Geography, E. Reclus, vol. 3, p. 283. 510 15 Manti, now called Manti, American Antiquarian, Rev. S. D. Peet, March, 1900, p. 129. 525 5 Moroni, now called Moroni, any map S. A., Div., French and Dutch Guiana. 510 15 Cumeni, now called Cuemani, any atlas, map of Columbia. 689 27 David, now called David, Columbian atlas world, S. A. Colombia, northwestern part. 81 52 Sam, now called Sami, U. S. Bur. Eth., vol. 19, pp. 605, 625, 628. 562 129 Mulek, now called Muluc, North Americans of Anti- quity, J. T. Short, p . 438. 714 6 Moron, now called Moron, Bradley's Atlas Argentine Republic, "J. 19." 387 73 Desolation, now called Desaldo, any good atlas, Cape, West Nicaragua. The foregoing is quoted from an article by Fred B. Farr in Saints' Herald. FACTS GATHERED BY BRETHREN MILLER AND THOMAS, OF PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA. "For the wisdom of their wise men shall perish." Isaiah 29: 14. Book of Mormon, 1830. Lately Found. Nephites. Neophites. Laman. Laman. Manti. Manti. Cumeni. Cuemani. Moroni. Morona, Maroni, Marroni. David. David. 110 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK Sam. Sami. Mulek. Muluc. Moron. Moron. Desolation. Desaldo (the Spanish name for desolation). Bancroft, Native Races, volume 1, page 450, edition 1882, "Neophites," an Indian tribe. Stamford's Compendium of Geography of Central and South America, volume 2, page 23, edition of London, 1901: "Mexican and Central American Stock Races and Language. Ethnical and Historical Relations." Stock. Main Division. Location. Nicaragua. Chontal LAMAN. Honduras. Costa Rica. Universal Geography by E. Reclus, "America," volume 3, page 283: '"The Lamans . . . mostly designated by the names of the rivers, inhabited by them." Laman is also on the map of Central America, volume 3, page 282, of the Universal Geography. American Antiquarian, volume 22, No. 2, March and April, 1900, page 129, Reverend S. D. Peet, Ph. D., editor, 5817 Madison avenue, Chicago, Illinois: "Near Manti, Ecuador, a remarkable archa?ological relic has been found one of the most interesting monuments in South America, of an unknown and extinct civilization. Upon a plat- form of massive rock blocks of stone, on the summit of a low hill, is a natural amphitheater, and arranged in a perfect circle are thirty enormous stone chairs, evidently the seats of the mighty. Each chair is a monolith cut from a solid block of granite, and they are fine specimens of stone-carv- ings. The seats rest upon the back of a crouching sphinx which has a decidedly Egyptian appearance. There are no backs to the chairs, but two broad arms. This is supposed to have been a place of meeting an open-air council of the chiefs of several tribes that made up the prehistoric nations PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 111 which were subdued by the Incas of Peru several hundred years before the Spanish invasion." Rand, McNally & Co.'s Index Atlas of the World, revised edition, page 351, map of Colombia, "M. 10." Near the equator you will find the city of Cuemani. Compare with our Archaeological Committee's Report on the Book of Mormon, map of the Land of Zarahemla, map No. 14, and you will find that Rand, McNally & Co. find Cuemani just where the Book of Mormon map locates Cumeni. Prehistoric America by Nadaillac, "In the French colony of Guiana, ... on the banks of the Maroni." Page 27. Edi- tion of 1901. Morona River in Ecuador. (See Rand, McNally & Co.'s Index Atlas of the World, revised edition, page 367, Morona River, "B 3," in Ecuador.) "Departing from there we went farther for eight miles and came to a people called Marroni. They are a very numerous people, and received us very well." The above was taken from a book published in 1567 in German. A careful transcript of the title-page reads as follows: "The Conquest of the River Plate "1535-1555. "Voyage of Ulrich Schmidt to the Rivers La Plata and Para- guia, from the original German edition of 1567. "Translated for the Hakluyt Society, London, 1891." U. S. Bur. Ethn., vol. 19, part 2, pp. 605, 625, 628. Under the column of "men and boy's names" we find "Sami." Professor Thomas of the U. S. Bur. Ethn., tells us this name was found among an ancient tribe, one who preserved their language and customs from contamination with foreign tribes or people. John T. Short, North Americans of Antiquity, page 438: "Muluc" means "reunion." Again, "Muluc" "to join to- gether." (See U. S. Bur. Ethn., vol. 6, p. 238.) "To gather together scattered things." Brinton, p. 217. Bradley's Atlas of the World, edition 1895, Argentine Re- public, "J. 19," Moron. 112 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK Universal Geography by E. Reclus, America, volume 4, page 425: "The long spear shaped island of which it forms a part has been well named a 'land of desolation' recalling at the south- ern extremity of the New World that other land of desolation which lies at its northern extremity." Stamford's Compendium of Geography, volume 2, page 487, edition of London, 1901: In the west central part of Nica- ragua the west .seashore, 12 north latitude, "Cape Desaldo." PARALLELS AS FOUND IN THE BIBLE AND BOOK OF MORMON. Bible names of men. Adam, Genesis 5: 1. Noah, Genesis 5: 29. Abraham, Genesis 17: 15. Isaac, Genesis 22: 2. Jacob, Genesis 27: 11. Nahor, Genesis 24: 15. Joseph, Genesis 30 : 24. Levi, Genesis 29 : 34. Laban, Genesis 24: 29. Aaron, Exodus 4: 14. Moses, Exodus 2 : 10. Lemuel, Proverbs 31: 1. Samuel, 1 Samuel 1 : 20. Ishmael, Genesis 16: 15. Gideon, Judges 6: 11. Helem, 1 Chronicles 7: 35. Manasseh, Genesis 41: 51. Nimrod, Genesis 10 : 8. Sariah, Genesis 18: 6. Isaiah, Isaiah 1: 1. Jeremiah, Jeremiah 1 : 1. Timothy, 2 Corinthians 1 : 1. Book of Mormon name? of men. Adam, 1 Nephi 1: 160, p. 15. Noah, Book of Alma 11: 3. Abraham, 1 Nephi 4 : 29. 275. Isaac, Jacob 3: 6. Jacob, Jacob 2 : 69. Nehor, Alma 1 : 22, p. 300. Joseph, 2 Nephi 2 : -6, p. 87. Levi, Ether 1 : 6, p. 714. Laban, 1 Nephi 1 : 71, p. 8. Aaron, Mosiah 11: 203, p. 289. Moses, Jarom 1: 11, p. 197. Lemuel, 1 Nephi 1 : 37, p. 5. Samuel, Helaman 5: 6, p. 587. Ishmael, 1 Nephi 2 : 12, p. 17. Gideon, Mosiah 9: 77, p. 262. Helam, Mosiah 11 : 22, p. 275. Manasseh, Alma 8: 3, p. 335. Nimrod, Ether 3 : 60, p. 731. Sariah, 1 Nephi 1 : 32, p. 5. Isaiah, Nephi 9:4, p. 654. Jeremiah, Nephi 9 : 4, p. 654. Timothy, Nephi 9 : 4, p. 654. PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 113 Jonas, John 21: 15. David, 1 Samuel 16: 19. Joshua, Numbers 14:6. Benjamin, Genesis 35: 18. Ammon, Genesis 19: 38. Amalek, Genesis 36: 12. Heth, Genesis 10: 15. Israel, Genesis 48: 2. Jared, Genesis 5: 15. Kish, 1 Samuel 9: 1. Lehi, Judges 15: 9. Mary, Matthew 1: 16. Zedekiah, Jeremiah 29 : 22. Jonas, Nephi 9: 4, 654. David, Mormon 1 : 27, p. 689. Joshua, Mormon 1 : 27, p. 689. Benjamin, Omni 1: 40, p. 202. Ammon, Mosiah 5: 23, p. 228. Amaleki, Omni 1 : 40, p. 202. Heth, Ether 3: 69, p. 732. Israel, 1 Nephi 5: 105, p. 55. Jared, Ether 1 : 36, p. 718. Kish, Ether 1 : 6, p. 714. Lehi, 1 Nephi 1: 3, p. 2. Mary, Mosiah 1 : 102, p. 216. Zedekiah, 1 Nephi 1 : 3, p. 2. VARIOUS WORDS USED ON BOTH CONTINENTS. Zif (month), 1 Kings 6:1. Jerusalem, Joshua 10: 1. Sidon, Genesis 10: 15 (man). Ephraim, Genesis 41: 52 (man). Tower, Genesis 11: 5 (Babel). Boaz, Ruth 2: 1 (man). Antipas, Revelation 2: 13 (man). Gad, Genesis 30:11 (man). Jordan, Genesis 13: 10 (river). Midian, Genesis 25: 2 (man). Salem, Genesis 14: 18 (city). Shem, Genesis 5: 32 (man). Ziff, Mosiah 7:6, p. 239 (money) . Jerusalem, 1 Nephi 1 : 67, p. 7 (C). Sidon, Alma 10 : 86. Ephraim, Ether 3: 46, p. 730. (H). Tower, Ether 1:5, p. 714. (Babel). Boaz, Mormon 2 : 22, p. 697. (city). Antipas, Alma 21 : 89, p. 474 (H). Gad, Nephi 4:38, p. 627 (city). Jordan, Mormon 2 : 28, p. 698 (city). Midian, Alma 14:25, p. 391 (land). Salem, Alma 10: 11, p. 350 (land). Shem, Mormon 1 : 48, p. 691 (land). 114 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK BAPTISM BY IMMERSION IN WATER. Mosheim says: "Baptism was publicly administered. . . . The candidates for it were immersed wholly in water." Book 1, cent. 2, part 2, chapter 4, vol. 1; edition of 1841, p. 137. Smith, in his Dictionary of the Bible, says: "Baptism, . . . properly and literally mean immersion." Page 96. Rev. John Wesley says: "We are buried with him." Allud- ing to the ancient manner of baptizing by immersion : "That as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory" glorious power of the Father, so we also by the same power should rise again: and as he lives a new life in heaven, so we should walk in newness of life. This, says the apostle, our very baptism represents to us." Notes on Romans 6 : 4, p. 376. Again he says: "That he might sanctify it through the word the ordinary channel of all blessings; having cleansed it from the guilt and power of sin, by the washing of water in baptism, if with the 'outward and visible sign,' we receive the inward and spiritual grace." Notes on Ephesians 5: 26, p. 500. Again: "Which he wrought in you, when ye were as it were buried with him in baptism. The ancient manner of baptizing by immersion." Notes on Colossians 2: 12, p. 520. Rev. Cardinal Gibbons says: "For several centuries after the establishment of Christianity, baptism was usually con- ferred by immersion; but since the twelfth century, the practice of baptizing by infusion has prevailed in the Catholic Church, as this manner is attended with less inconvenience than baptism by immersion." The Faith of our Fathers, p. 317. Edition of 1897. Novatus: "Who, aided by the exorcists, when attacked with an obstinate disease, and being supposed at the point of death, was baptized by aspersion, in the bed on which he lay: if indeed, it be proper to say that one like him did receive baptism. But neither when he recovered from dis- ease, did he partake of other things, which the rules of the church prescribed as a duty, nor was he sealed (in confirma- tion) by the bishop. But as he did not obtain this, how PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 115 could he obtain the Holy Spirit?" Campbell and Purcell de- bate, p. 110. Rev. W. B. Boggs says: "THe Greek, or Eastern Church, so called in distinction from the Roman, Latin, or Western Church, extends over Greece and all through Russia, from the Black Sea to Siberia, and has branches scattered through Egypt, Abyssinia, Arabia, Palestine, and other African and Asiatic countries. Now it is well known that the Greek Church has always practiced, and still invariably practices, immersion in baptism, even in the severe climate of Northern Russia." The Baptists, p. 82. John Wesley: "The antitype whereof the thing typified by the ark, even baptism, now saveth us that is, through the water of baptism we are saved from the sin which over- whelms the world as a flood." Notes on 1 Peter 3: 21, p. 615. Bishop Bossuet, a Catholic, says: "In fine, we read not in the Scripture that baptism was otherwise administered, (than by immersion;) and we are able to make it appear by the acts of councils, and by the ancient rituals, that for thirteen hundred years baptism was thus administered throughout .the whole church." Tri-lemma, p. 98, published in 1883. Bishop Pise, a Catholic, says: "There are many things believed by all Christians at the present day, not to be found in the Scripture. . . . We nowhere find that the apostles oaptized infants, and if it be proper and necessary to baptize infants as well as adults, we have no other authority, and must depend entirely on tradition." Tri-lemma, pp. 97, 98. Neander says: "The usual form of submersion at baptism, practiced by the Jews, was passed over to the Gentile Chris- tians. Indeed this form was the most suitable to signify that Christ intended to render an object of contemplation by such a. symbol; the immersion of the whole man in the spirit of a new life." Planting and Training of the Christian Churc'h, p. 161. Quoted from The Baptists, by Rev. W. B. Boggs, pp. 68, 69. Venema says: "It is without controversy that baptism in 116 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK the primitive church was administered by immersion into water, and not by sprinkling." Ibid., p. 69. Professor Kurtz, of the Ecclesiastical History at Dorpat, says: "Baptism was administered by a complete immersion in the name of Christ, or the Triune God." Ibid., pp. 69,' 70. Dr. Philip Schaff, of New York, says: "The usual form of the act was immersion, as is plain from the original mean- ing of the Greek words, from the analogy of John's baptism in the Jordan, . . . and finally from the custom of the ancient church, which prevails in the East to this day." History of Ancient Christianity (first cent), vol. 1, p. 123. Ibid., p. 70. Martin Luther says: "First, the name baptism is Greek; in Latin it can be rendered immersion, when we immerse anything into water, that it may be all covered with water. And although that custom has now grown out of use with most persons (nor do they wholly submerge children, but only pour on a little water), yet they ought to be entirely im- mersed, and immediately drawn out. For this the etymology of the name seems to demand." Ibid., pp. 70, 71. John Calvin says: "The word baptize itself signifies im- merse, and it is certain that the rite of immersing was observed by the ancient church." Ibid., p. 71. Archbishop Tillotson, an Episcopalian, says: "Anciently those who were baptized were immersed, and buried in the water, to represent their death to sin, and then did rise up out of the water, to signify their entrance upon a new life, and to those the apostles alludes, Romans 6 : 4-6." Sermons, vol. 8, p. 179. Ibid., p. 73. Doctor Whitby says: "It being so expressly declared here (Romans 6: 4 and Colossians 2: 12) that we are 'buried with Christ in baptism,' by being buried under water, and the argument to oblige us to a conformity to his death by dying to sin, being taken hence; and this immersion being religiously observed by all Christians for thirteen centuries, and approved by our church, and the change of it into sprinkling, without either any allowance from the author of this institution, or any license from any council of the church, it were to be wished that this custom might be again of general use." PARSONS' TEXT 'BOOK 117 Commentary on the New Testament, Romans 6: 4. Ibid., p. 74. Dr. Cunningham Geikie says: "John resisted no longer, and leading Jesus into the stream, the rite was performed. . . . Holy and pure before sinking under the water, he must yet have risen from them with the light of a higher glory in his countenance. . . . Past years had been buried in the waters of the Jordaa. He entered them as Jesus, the Son of Man; he rose from them the Christ of God." Ibid., p. 75. Presbyterian Westminster Assembly of Divines: "In this phrase the apostle seemeth to allude to the ancient manner of baptism, which was to dip the persons baptized, and as it were, bury them under the water for a while, and then to draw them out of it and lift them up, to represent the burial of our old man and our resurrection to newness of life."- Annotations, published in folio, under the auspices of the Assembly; Annotations on Romans 6:3, 4. Ibid., pp. 76, 77. Dr. Adam Clarke says: "We are buried with him by bap- tism into death. It is probable that the apostle here alludes to the mode of administering baptism by immersion, the whole body being put under the water, which seemed to say, the man is drowned, is dead; and when he came up out of the water, he seemed to have a resurrection to life; the man is risen again; he is alive!" Comment on Romans 6: 4. Ibid., p. 79. Alexander De Stourdza, of the Greek Church, says: "The verb baptizo, immergo, has in fact, but one sole acceptation. It signifies literally, and always, to plunge. Baptism and immersion are therefore identical, and to say baptism by aspersion, is as if one should say immersion by aspersion, Rev. D. Z. Sakellarios, a Greek Catholic, says: "The true meaning of the word baptizo is expressed by the word itself. Rantizo means to sprinkle ; louo, to wash ; epikeo, to pour upon. Bapto, or baptizo, means to immerse or baptize." Ibid., p. 87. Rev,, Dr. T. DeWitt Talmage baptizes a student in the River Jordan: "It was a scene of unimaginable solemnity. A comrade in our Holy Land journey rode up by my side that day and told me that a young man who is now studying for 118 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK the gospel ministry, would like to be baptized by me in the Jordan. I got all the facts I could concerning his earnestness and faith. . . . Then I read from the Bible the account of baptism in that sacred stream and implored the presence of the Christ on whose head the dove descended at the Jordan. Then as the candidate and myself stepped into the waters, the people on the bank sung in full and resounding voice: 'On Jordan's stormy banks I stand.' By this time we had reached the middle of the river. As the candidate* sunk under the floods and rose again." Philadelphia Record, October 27, 1891. BAPTISM BY IMMERSION IN WATER FOR THE REMISSION OF SINS. Mosheim says: "The effect of baptism was supposed to be the remission of sins." Book 1, cent. 3, part 2, chap. 4, vol. 1, p. 189. Edition of 1841. John Wesley says: "Baptism administered to real peni- tents, is both a means and seal of pardon. Nor did God ordinarily in the primitive church bestow this on any, unless through this means." Notes on Acts 22: 16, p. 340. Again: "The knowledge of the remission of our sins being the grand instrument of present and eternal salvation, (He- brews 8: 11, 12.) But the immediate sense of the words seems to be, to preach to them the gospel doctrine of salvation by the remission of their sins." Ibid., p. 144. Rev. Alexander Campbell says: "Remission of sins can not be enjoyed by any person before immersion. Belief of this testimony is what impelled us into the water, knowing that the efficacy of His blood is to be communicated to our consciences in the way which God has pleased to appoint." Christian Baptism, p. 521. Quoted from the Tri-lemma, p. 195. PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 119 HISTORICAL FACTS TO PROVE THAT THE ELEMENT OF WATER WAS NOT WANTING FOR BAPTIZING BY IMMERSION. Rev. W. B. Boggs says: "Visited the Holy Land in De- cember, 1878, and bathed in the Jordan at the traditional place of baptism, east of Jericho. At that time the water was low, and at that particular place was comparatively shallow, and yet it was waist deep at one third of the way across, and to have gone farther would have required swim- ming. Both above and below this place it was much deeper. It has also been said that there were no facilities at Jerusalem for the immersion of three thousand people in one day. Now, the fact is that the water supply of the city was very abund- ant, considering that Jerusalem was but a small city com- paratively. There were, within the walls and outside, in the immediate vicinity, various tanks and reservoirs of very large proportion. Some of them may be briefly described. "The pool of Bethesda is three hundred and sixty feet long, ^ne hundred and thirty wide, and seventy-five deep. The pool of Siloam is fifty-three feet long, eighteen wide, and nineteen deep. It now holds two or three feet of water, which can readily be increased to a much greater depth. . . . The upper pool is three hundred and sixteen feet long, twr hundred and eighteen wide, and eighteen deep, covering an acre and a half of ground. . . . The lower pool, or pool of Gihon, is five hundred and ninety-two feet long, two hundred and sixty wide, and forty feet deep, having an area of more than three and a half acres. . . . Doctor Thomson, the mission- ary to Palestine already quoted, in seeking to locate the scene of the eunuch's baptism by Philip, says: 'He would then have met the chariot somewhere southwest of Latron. There is a fine stream of water, called Murubbah, deep enough even in June to satisfy the utmost wishes of our Baptist friends. ... At Velumpilly, ten miles north of Ongole, in the Madras Presidency, in the month of July, 1878, two thousand two hundred and twenty-two persons were baptized by immer- sion in one day. The administration of the ordinance was 120 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK characterized by due decorum and solemnity. Then* were six administrators, but only two of them at a time were engaged in baptizing. They relieved each other when necessary. It occupied about nine hours. At Ongole, the writer (Rev. W. B. Boggs,) baptized one hundred and eighty-seven persons on Sunday evening, April 11, 1880. There was no undue haste. The usual formula was deliberately pronounced at the bap- tism of each one. The service occupied about an hour and a half." The Baptists, pp. 100-104. "Lieutenant Lynch, of the United States Navy, was sent by his Government, in 1848, in charge of an expedition to explore the River Jordan and the Dead Sea, for antiquarian and scien- tific purposes. They passed down the entire length of the Jordan in boats, from the Lake of Galilee to the Dead Sea. "The river was found to vary in width from seventy-five to two hundred feet; and in depth from three to twelve feet. At Bethabara, where tradition has fixed the place of our Savior's baptism, and where John baptized the multitudes, Lieutenant Lynch gives the width as one hundred and twenty feet, and the greatest depth as twelve feet." Ibid., pp. 98, 99. Dean Stanley, who traveled in the Holy Land in 1853, says : "What then was baptism in the apostolic age? ... In that early age the scene of the transaction was either some deep wayside spring or well, as for the Ethiopian, or some rushing river, as the Jordan, or some vast reservoir, as at Jericho or Jerusalem, whither, as in the baths of Caracalla, at Rome, the whole population resorted for swimming or washing." Ibid., pp. 94, 95. EXAMPLE OF THE APOSTLES AS GOOD AS A COMMAND. "The apostles were commissioned by the Lord to teach the disciples to observe all things he had commanded them. Now we believe them to have been faithful to their Master, and consequently he gave them to know his will. Whatever the disciples practiced in their meetings with the approbation of the apostles, is an equivalent to an apostolic command to us to do the same. To suppose the contrary, is to make the half of PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 121 the New Testament of noneffect. For it does not altogether consist of commands, but of approved precedents. Apostolic example is justly esteemed of equal authority with an apostolic precept. Hence, say the Baptists, 'Show us where Paul or any apostle sprinkled an infant, and we will not ask you for a command to go and do likewise.' It is no derogation from the authority for observing the first day of the week, to admit that Christians are nowhere in this volume commanded to observe it. We are told that the disciples, with the counte- nance and presence of the apostles, met for worship on this day. And so long as we believe they were honest men, and taught all that was commanded them, so long we must admit that the Lord commanded it to be so done. For if they allowed, and by their presence authorized, the disciples to meet reli- giously on the first day, without any authority from their King, there is no confidence to be placed in them in other mat- ters. Then it follows that they instituted a system of will wor- ship, and made themselves lords instead of servants. But the thought is inadmissable, consequently the order of worship they gave the churches was given them by their Lord, and their example is of the same force with a broad precept. "- Christian Baptist, p. 180. LAYING ON OF HANDS, FOR CONFIRMATION. Bishop John B. Purcell, of the Catholic Church of Cincin- nati, Ohio, said: "But neither when he (Novatus) recovered from disease, did he partake of other things, which the rules of the church prescribed as a duty, nor was he sealed (in confirmation] by the bishop. But as he did not obtain this, how could he obtain the Holy Spirit?" Campbell and Purcel! Debate, p. 110. Tertullian says: '"The flesh is overshadowed by the im- position of hands, that the soul may be enlightened with the Spirit." The Faith of our Fathers, p. 323. Saint Cyprian says: "Because they (the Samaritans) had received the legitimate baptism, . . . what was wanting, that was done by Peter and John, that prayer being made for 122 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK them, and hands imposed, the Holy Ghost should be invoked and poured forth upon them. Which now also is done amongst us, so that they who are baptized in the church, are presented to the bishops of the church, and by prayer and imposition of hands, they receive the Holy Ghost, and are perfected with the seal of the Lord." Ibid., pp. 323, 324. Saint Jerome says: "Do you know, . . . that it is the prac- tice of the churches that the imposition of hands should be performed over baptized persons, and the Holy Ghost thus invoked?" Ibid., p. 325. Rev. John Wesley said: "And when they believed, they were to be baptized with the baptism (not of the Jews, or of John, but) of Christ. The next thing was to lay hands upon them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost." Notes on Hebrews 6: 1, p. 574. Bingham says: "All those testimonies likewise which require heretics to have imposition of hands from the bishop, in order to obtain the gift of the Holy Ghost, are a further evidence of this practice. To which purpose we have the decrees of Pope Leo and Ciricius, who particularly observes this to have been the general practice of the whole church, both eastern and western, as well as the church of Rome, in the reception of those who had been baptized in any heresy or schism. And to all persons baptized in the church. Saint Austin is a fur- ther witness, who says, That in propriety of speech, neither the apostles, nor any other man, but Christ alone, as he is God, could give the Holy Ghost; for the apostles only laid hands on men, that the Holy Ghost, by their prayers, might descend upon them; which custom the church has now ob- served and practiced by her governors also." Antiquities, vol. 1, book 12, chap. 2, p. 550. Cardinal Gibbons says: "Confirmation is a sacrament in which, through the imposition of the bishop's hands, unction, and prayer, baptized persons receive the Holy Ghost." Faith of Our Fathers, p. 320. A General History of the Baptist Denomination in America and Other Parts of the World, by David Benedict, A. M., pub- PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 123 lished in Boston (55 Coitihill street) by Lincoln and Edmonds in 1813, says (vol. 1, p. 487) : "The doctrine of laying on of hands was, at the beginning of this church, [First Baptist Church, Providence,] held in a lax manner; but it became afterwards a term of communion, and continued so until after Doctor Manning came among them; he prevailed with the church to admit to occasional communion, those brethren who were not convinced of the duty of coming under hands; but very few such were received as members till after his death. But on August 4, 1791, the church had a full meeting, when this point was distinctly considered, and a clear vote was gained to admit members who did not hold that doctrine. But notwithstanding this vote, the laying on of hands, not as an ordinance, but as a form of receiving new members, was generally practiced until 1808, when the pastor of the church, who had been educated in the belief of this ceremony, as his father was an advocate for it, and who had hitherto practiced it, not however, without troublesome scruples of its propriety, found his mind brought to a stand on the subject, and after duly weighing the matter informed the church that he could no longer continue the practice, and unless they could excuse him, he must ask a dismission from his pastoral care. After a full discussion of the subject, the church, with but one dissenting voice, voted not to dismiss him and laying on of hands of course fell into neglect. Some few worthy members were desirous of retain- ing both their pastor and this ancient ceremony, but not being disposed to act against the voice of the church, no division and but little controversy ensued." (Supplied by F. M. Slover.) I submit the following, taken from an old Baptist Hymn Book, compiled by John Tillinghast, Providence, 1842: "If Christians disagree And walk by different laws, It plainly does appear to me Their teachers are the cause. 124 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK "They teach the word in part, In part their duty do: The cause why Saints divide in heart, And different ways pursue. "If ministers would read And preach the gospel clear, Christ's followers would be agreed And walk together here. "They all would realize The doctrine as it stands, Repent, believe and be baptized, And pray and lay on hands. "All eye to eye would see, Together lift their voice, And this would make the table free And Christians all rejoice." The foregoing was supplied by Bishop C. J. Hunt. Mr. Comer, pastor of the Baptist Church of Newport, Rhode Island, 1726, has this to say of the labors of Doctor Benedict: "The laying on of hands was held in a lax manner, and his attempts to urge it as an indispensable duty though not as a term of communion, gave offense to two leading members in the church, and was the means of his being dismissed from his office." Ibid., p. 497. Again in 1742 this church wakes up on this subject, and in the Philadelphia association in September, takes a firm posi- tion in framing their creed as follows: "We believe that laying on of hands, with prayer, upon baptized believers, as such is an ordinance of Christ, and ought to be submitted unto by all ... for the farther reception of the Holy Spirit of promise." Historical Vindications, by Professor Cutting. Rupp's History of Religious Denominations, page 81, speak- ing of the English and Welsh Baptists in their mode of con- firmation, the laying on of hands, says: "It was recognized as an ordinance of Christ in their confessions, and practices in PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 125 many of their churches for more than a hundred years after their first formation. It seems to have grown into disuse by slow degrees and yet was earnestly advocated and contended for by many of their most learned and influential men. This was the case in England and America." Andrew Rivet says: "The imposition of hands joined with the doctrine of baptism, (Hebrews 6: 2,) refers to that solemn benediction of baptized persons which the ancients so often speak of, and which was in use in the primitive church. "- Rivet, Cathol. Orth. Tract 3:29. Quoted by Bingham, vol. 8, p. 173. Herzog says: "In the apostolic church the laying on of hands was connected with baptism, as the means of communi- cating the gift of the Holy Ghost. . . . Baptism was incomplete without the laying on of hands, and the gift of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, Protestant polemics should never have al- lowed itself to accept the declaration that these passages, Acts 19: 6, and &: 12-19, Hebrews 6:1, 2, did not refer to the Holy Ghost, but only to the special gifts of the Spirit in apostolic times." Herzog's Prost. Theol. Encyc. Dr. William Gouge, a Puritan minister, says: "Ordinary cases wherein imposition of hands was used, were (1) blessing children by our Savior, (2) setting men apart to the public function of ministers of the word, (3) deputing men to some special work, (4) confirming such as had been instructed in the principles of religion." Camfield, p. 35. Edmund Calamy, a Presbyterian minister, says: "Whereto I answer, that there is a general unanimity among those who have been most diligent in searching into ecclesiastical antiq- uity, in reporting this as the current practice of the primitive church; and that not only while miraculous gifts continued, but afterward. That it is convenient and warrantable by Scrip- ture as well as antiquity, was the opinion of our first reform- ers here in England and the most celebrated divines we have had amongst us ever since. This was also the judgment of the learned Grotius, who was perhaps one of the greatest men these parts of the world ever produced. Nay, the same was the sentiment of the famous Calvin, who founded confirmation 126 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK by imposition of hands on Hebrews 6: 2, where we find laying on of hands in the rank of fundamental, in the fourth place, after repentance, faith and baptism, and before the resurrec- tion and eternal judgment." Practical Discourse Concerning Vows, published 1704. The celebrated Puritan, John Milton, says: "In the case of the baptized, imposition of hands conferred, not indeed saving grace, but miraculous powers and the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit." Christian Doctrine, p. 449, edition Cambridge, 1825. Richard Baxter, the celebrated nonconformist, says: "But let us inquire whether the Scriptures lay not some kind of obligation on us to use this ceremony in confirmation, to which end let these several things be considered. (1) We find in Scripture a blessing of church members with the laying on of hands. (2) We find in Scripture that the Holy Ghost is promised in a special manner to believers, over and above that measure of the Spirit which caused them to believe. (3) We find that prayer with laying on of hands, was the outward means to be used by Christ's ministers for the procuring of this blessing Holy Ghost. (4) We find that this was a fixed ordinance to the church, and not a temporary thing." Minis- terial Imposition of Hands in Confirmation, p. 271. Again he says: "When I have proved it once appointed, it lieth on the contrary-minded to prove it changed or ceased. If I show them an obligation once laid, they must prove it taken off. Their only argument is, that the persons and occasions were only extraordinary, and are ceased, and there- fore so is the sign and means. . . . The use and ends of the ancient imposition of hands do still continue: therefore, we are to judge that the sign and means is not to cease. The baptized believer may still want the joy of the Holy Ghost, and boldness of access to God, and the shedding abroad of fuller love in the heart. . . . The Scripture signifieth to us, that imposition of hands was of standing use in the church, and therefore not to cease." Ibid., p. 272. Seventh-day Baptist Confession of Faith, adopted at a General Conference in 1833, 15 sec.: "Concerning imposition PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 127 of hands, we believe it was the practice of the apostles and the primitive church, to lay hands upon the newly baptized believers, and it should be perpetuated in the church." Rupp's History of Religious Denominations, p. 81. Mr. Vavasor Powell, a Baptist minister of Wales, says: "Laying on of hands, on newly baptized, and anointing the sick .with oil, according to the apostolic direction." Crosby, vol. 1, p. 378. Professor Cutting, of the Rochester University, in his His- torical Vindications, page 96, says: "It must appear from these quotations that the laying on of hands was of very general prevalence among the first Baptists in this country." Besides this we have their declaration in favor of the rite in their first confession as set forth by the Philadelphia Associa- tion in September, 1742. APOSTASY FROM THE PRIMITIVE ORDER. Mosheim says: "Christian churches had scarcely been gathered and organized, when here and there men rose up, who, not being contented with the simplicity and purity of that religion which the apostles taught, sought out new in- ventions, and fashioned religion according to their own liking." Book 1, cent. 1, part 2, chap. 5, vol. 1, p. 88. Edition of 1841. "For the noble simplicity and the majesty dignity of the Christian religion were lost, or, at least, impaired when these philosophers presumed to associate their dogmas with it, and to bring faith and piety under 1 the dominion of human reason." Ibid., book 1, cent. 2, part 1, chap. 1, p. 104. "These councils, of which no vestige appears before the middle of this century, second, changed nearly the whole form of the church. For by them, in the first place, the ancient rights and privileges of the people were very much abridged; and on the other hand, the influence and authority of the bishops were not a little augmented. At first, the bishops did not deny, that they were merely the representatives of their churches, and that they acted in the name of the people ; but by little and little, they made higher pretensions, and 128 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK maintained that power was given them by Christ himself, to dictate rules of faith and conduct to the people." Book 1, cent. 2, part 2, chap. 2, vol. 1, p. 117. Edition of 1841. "It is certain that to religious worship, both public and private, many rites were added, without necessity and to the great offense of sober and good men." Ibid., chap. 4, p. 132. John Wesley says: "The gifts of the Holy Ghost were no longer to be found in the Christian church.; because the Chris- tians had turned heathens again, and had only a dead form left." Ninety-fourth sermon, vol. 2, p. 266. Again: "I doubt whether you ever knew a Christian in your life. ... I believe it: you never did; and, perhaps you never will; for you will not find them in the great and gay world, . . . though they are called Christians, yet they are as far from it as hell is from heaven." Sixty-sixth sermon, vol. 2, p. 65. Professor Swing, of Chicago, said: "This kingdom of the Lord has either by accident or design been broken up into many fragments, and we meet to-day in the name of only one of these numerous and widely scattered parts. . . . This house which we dedicate to God this day, wears the name of Presbyterian upon its party flag, not because the kingdom of Christ is Presbyterian, but because our form of church gov- ernment and of thought are cast in the Presbyterian mold."- Chicago Tribune, 1874. Marsh says: "The revolution under Constantine (beginning of the fourth century) was one from which almost every- thing which the Christian values might be hoped. But alas! such is the depravity of hilman nature, it was one in which almost everything of evangelical worth was lost. Constan- tine brought the world into the church, and the church was paralyzed. . . . The body existed, but the Spirit had fled. Constantine set up an immense national church, but the humility, faith, and the spirituality of the age of Polycarp had passed away." Pages 198, 199. Reverend Jones says: "Now they began to new-model the Christian church, the government of which was, as far as possible arranged conformably to the government of the state. PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 129 The emperor Constantino, himself assumed the title of bishop and claimed the power of regulating its external affairs and he and his successors convened councils in which they pre- sided, and determined all matters of discipline." Gospel Reflector, p. 10. Barton W. Stone says: "By a comparison of the present state of Christianity with what it was once, all are brought to the conclusion that we are yet in the apostasy under the reign of the man of sin ; yet in Babylon, yet in the wilderness." Presidency and Priesthood, p. 97. Rev. A. Campbell says: "Since the full development of the great apostasy foretold by prophets and apostles, numerous attempts at reformation have been made. . . . But we know of none that has fully attained to that model." Preface to the Saint Louis Edition of Christian System, pp. 291, 292. Rev. T. A. Goodwin, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, at Indianapolis, Indiana, February 23, 1890, said: "For more than seventeen hundred years the church has been tinkering at her creeds until they are a theological hodge podge, in many cases widely departing from the faith once delivered to the Saints. . . . What of Methodism and some other creeds, for nearly three hundred years they have been quartered in a house of theological patchwork. The whole needs to be torn down and reconstructed from cellar to garret, so as to make a systematical and congruous structure con- sistent with itself and the Bible." Indianapolis Herald. Rev. Dr. B. Colman, a Congregational minister, says: "The confession of the name of Christ is after all very lame and will be so till the discipline which Christ ordained be restored." Episcopalian Watchman, May 2, 182p, pp. 51, 52. Rev. R. Williams, a Baptist minister, says: "'I conceive that the apostasy of anti-Christ hath so far corrupted all, that there can be no recovery out of that apostasy till Christ shall send forth new apostles to plant churches anew.' Knowles' History, p. 172." Presidency and Priesthood, p. 235. "Rev. T. G. Jones, D. D., in his History of the Origin and Continuity of the Baptist Church, says: *As a visible and 130 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK located organization, where is the church founded at Jeru- salem? For long ages it has ceased to exist, in member di- gesta.' Page 46." (Quoted from Presidency and Priesthood, p. 124.) "Second Thessalonians 2:3: 'Except there come a falling away first.' We have the original word apostasia in our word apostasy; and by this term we understand a dereliction of the essential principles of religious truth either a total abandon- ment of Christianity itself, or such a corruption of its doc- trines as renders the whole system completely inefficient to salvation." Adam Clark, Bible Commentary, vol. 6, p. 1565. John Wesley says: "It does not appear that these extraor- dinary gifts of the Holy Ghost were common in the church for more than two or three centuries. We seldom hear of them after that fatal period, when Emperor Constantine called himself a Christian; and from a vain imagination of pro- moting the Christian cause thereby, heaped riches and power and honor upon the Christians in general; but in particular upon the Christian clergy. From this time they almost totally ceased; very few instances of the kind were found. The cause of this was not (as has been vulgarly supposed) 'be- cause there was no more occasion for them,' because all the world had become .Christian. This is a miserable mistake; not a twentieth part of it was then nominally Christian. The real cause was, 'the LOVE of many,' almost of all Christians, so-called, was 'WAXED COLD.' The Christians had no more of the Spirit of Christ than the other heathens. . . . This was the real cause. . . . The Christians had turned heathen again and had only a dead form left." Ninety-fourth sermon, p. 266, vol. 2. Dr. T. DeWitt Talmage, on the need of a new creed, said: "I am sorry to have the question disturbed at all. The creed did not hinder us from offering the pardon and comfort of the gospel to all men, and the Westminster Confession has not interfered with me one minute. But now that the electric lights have been turned on, the imperfections of creed and everything that man fashions is imperfect let us put the old creed respectfully aside and get a brand new one. I PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 131 move for a creed for all our denominations made out of Scripture quotations pure and simple." Globe-Democrat, March 3, 1890. Rev. Mr. Campbell says: "Under the present administra- tion of the kingdom of heaven, a great apostasy has occurred, as foretold by the apostles. As the church, compared to a city, is called 'Mount Zion,' the apostate church is called 'Babylon the Great.' Like Babylon the type, 'Mystery Babylon,' the antitype, is to be destroyed by a Cyrus that knows not God. She is to fall by the sword of infidels, supported by the fierce judgments of God. 'The Holy City' is still trodden under foot, and the sanctuary is filled with corruptions. It is, indeed, a den of thieves; but strong is the Lord that judges the apostate city." Christian System, p. 190, second edition, published at Saint Louis, Missouri. J. H. Merle D'Aubigne says: "But the writings of these very apostles forewarn us that from the midst of these breth- ren, there shall arise a power which shall overthrow this sim- ple and primitive order." Page 2. "The living church retiring by degrees to the lonely sanc- tuary of a few solitary souls, an exterior church was sub- stituted in place of it, and installed in all its forms as of divine institution. Salvation no longer flowing forth from that word which was now hidden it began to be affirmed that it was conveyed by means of certain invented forms, and that none could obtain it without resorting to such means." Page 3. "An edict of Theodosius 2, and of Valentinian 3, proclaimed the bishop of Rome 'ruler of the whole church.' " Page 4. "Works of penance, thus substituted for the salvation of God, multiplied in the church from the time of Tertullian to the thirteenth century." Page 8. "The kingdom of heaven had disappeared; and men had opened in its place on earth, a market of abominations. "- Page 12. "The internal strength of the church was gone, and its life- . less and exhausted frame lay stretched over the Roman world." Page 14. 132 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK "The popes had added now this, and now that article to the Christian doctrine. They had changed or removed only what could not be made to square with their hierarchy; what was not opposed to their policy, was allowed to remain during pleasure." Page 17. "The Lord has wrought in you, that the light of his holy word may again shine forth in Germany, where, for so many ages, it has been, alas! not only stifled, but extinct." Page 30. WAS IT A TRUTH THAT THE CHURCHES WERE WRONG? Joseph Smith, a young man in his fifteenth year, in the State of New York, a resident of Palmyra, went into the woods in 1820, to pray; and while engaged in prayer, he says: "I saw two personages, (whose brightness and glory defy all description,) standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name, and said, (pointing to the other,) 'This is my beloved Son; hear him.' My object in going to inquire of the Lord, was to know which of all these sects was right, that I might know which to join. ... I asked the per- sonages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right for at this time it had never entered into my heart that all were wrong and which I should join. I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those pro- fessors were all corrupt. 'They draw near me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; they teach for doctrine the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.' " Church History, vol. 1, pp. 9, 10. CONFIRMING THE STATEMENT OF JOSEPH SMITH. Rev. J. D. Williamson said before the presbytery at Cleve- land, Ohio: "To suppose that those Westminster divines reached the high watermark of biblical statements of truth is to my mind preposterous." Cleveland Plain Dealer, Octo- ber 8, 1899. PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 133 Rev. Dr. Henry Van Dyke, a Presbyterian, said: "Why should we retain in our creed what none of us believe, what all our teachers of theology reject, and what serves only to bring reproach upon our doctrine among them that are with- out?" Presidency and Priesthood, p. 210. Philip Schaff, D. D., LL. D., said: "We need a theology and a confession that is more human than Calvinism. . . . These doctrines are no longer believed by a majority of Pres- byterians, nor preached by any Presbyterian minister, as far as I know." Ibid., pp. 210, 211. Rev. David Swing, of Chicago, February 1, 1874, said in his sermon at the dedication of the Presbyterian church: "The kingdom of the Lord has, either by accident or design, been broken up into many fragments and we meet to-day in the name of only one of these numerous and widely scattered parts. . . . Until the wise men have shown us that all these sects must be solved into one, let us feel that we are only one among a multitude of these kingdoms of God. This house which we dedicate to God this day wears the name of Presby- terian upon its party flag, not because the kingdom of Christ is Presbyterian, but because our form of church government and of thought are cast in the Presbyterian mold." Chicago Tribune, 1874. "The present popular exhibition of the Christian religion is a compound of Judaism, heathen philosophy, and Chris- tianity." Christian Baptist, p. 9. "The worshiping establishments now in operation through- out Christendom, increased and cemented by their respective voluminous confessions of faith, and their ecclesiastical con- stitutions, are not churches of Jesus Christ, but the legitimate daughters of that mother of harlots, the church of Rome."- Millennial Harbinger, vol. 3, p. 362. "I read, some time since, of a revival in the State of New York, in which the Spirit of God was represented as being abundantly poured out on Presbyterians, Methodists, and Bap- tists. I think the converts in the order of the names were about three hundred Presbyterians, three hundred Methodists, and two hundred and eighty Baptists, . . . these being all 134 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK regenerated without any knowledge of the gospel. ... I think it would be difficult to prove that the Spirit of God had any- thing to do with the aforesaid revival." Christian Baptist, p. 50. "A reformation of popery was attempted in Europe, full three centuries ago. It ended in a Protestant hierarchy, and swarms of dissenters. Protestantism has been reformed into Presbyterianism that into Congregationalism and that into Baptistism, etc., etc. Methodism has attempted to reform all, but has reformed itself into many forms of Wesley ism. None of these has begun at the right place. All of them retain in their bosom, in their ecclesiastical organizations, worship, doctrine, and observances, various relics of popery; they are at best but a reformation of popery." Ibid., p. 15. "The Baptists, too, have got their schools, their colleges, and their Gamaliels, too and by the magic of the marks of the beast, they claim homage and respect, and dispute the high places with those very rabbis whose fathers were wont to grin at their fathers." Millennial Harbinger, vol. 1, p. 15. "Protestantism characterizes Romanism as the 'great apos- tasy,' and of this fact there can be no doubt according to the language of the Apostle John; but John calls Rome 'the mother of harlots.' And how can she be a mother without having daughters? And who are the daughters? Answer: The Protestant sects; and the difference between mother and daughters is made manifest in the fact that while the mother of harlots affiliates with paganism in its grosser forms, the daughters, arrayed in meretricious ornaments, and exhaling sweeter perfumes, are found confederating with paganism in its subtler forms." Christian Leader, October 6, 1896. THE RESTORATION LOOKED FOR. John Wesley says: "The times which we have reason to believe are at hand (if they are not already begun) are what many pious men have termed the time of 'the latter day glory,' meaning, the time wherein God would gloriously dis- play his power and love, in the fulfillment of the gracious PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 135 promise that, 'the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth, as the waters cover the sea.' . . . Neither he, nor the gen- erality of Christians, so-called, saw any signs of the glorious day that is approaching. But how is this to be accounted for? How is it that those who can now 'discern the face of the sky,' ... do not discern the signs of these glorious times, which, if not begun, are nigh even at the door? . . . They can see no signs at all of God's arising to maintain his own cause, and set up his kingdom over all the earth. . . . What could God have done which he hath not done, to convince you that the day is coming, that the time is at hand, when he will fulfill his glorious promises, when he will arise to main- tain his own cause, and to set up his kingdom over all the earth?" Seventy-first sermon, vol. 2, pp. 95, 96, 98. Sir Isaac Newton said: "About the time of the end, in all probability, a body of men will be raised up who will turn their attention to the prophecy; and insist upon their literal fulfillment in the midst of much clamor and opposition. "- William Newton, Lecture on Daniel, p. 201. Rev. Dr. B. Colman says: "The confession of the name of Christ is after all very lame and will be so till the discipline which Christ ordained be restored." E. W., pp. 51, 52. Alexander Campbell said: "The primitive gospel in its effulgence and power is yet to shine out in its original splendor to regenerate the world." Hayden's History, p. 37. Alexander Campbell: "Societies indeed may be found among us far in advance of others in their progress towards the ancient order of things, but we 'know of none that has fully attained to that model." Christian System, pp. 291, 292. second edition. "But the preparation of a people for the coming of the Lord must be the result of the restoration of the ancient gos- pel and order of things." Ibid., p. 311, published at Saint Louis, Missouri. Rev. Roger Williams : " 'There can be no recovery out of that apostasy till Christ shall send forth new apostles to plant churches anew.' Knowlis History, p. 172." Presidency and Priesthood, pp. 109, 110. 136 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK Alexander Campbell said: "Some new revelation or some new development of the revelation of God must be made, be- fore the hopes and expectations of all true Christians can be realized or Christianity save and reform the nations of this world? We want the old gospel back and sustained by the ancient order of things and this alone by the blessing of the divine Spirit is all we do want, or can expect, to reform and save the world. And if this gospel as proclaimed and enforced on Pentecost can not do this, vain are the hopes, and disappointed must be the expectation of the so-called Christian world." Christian System, p. 250, published at Saint Louis, Missouri. Alexander Campbell says: "If Christians were and may be the happiest people that ever lived, it is because they live under the most gracious institution ever bestowed on men. The meaning of this institution has been buried under the rubbish of human traditions for hundreds of years. It was lost in the Dark Ages and has never been, till recently, dis- interred. Various efforts have been made, and considerable progress attended, them; but since the Grand Apostasy was completed, till the present generation, the gospel of Jesus Christ has not been laid open to mankind in its original plain- ness, simplicity and majesty. A veil in reading the New In- stitution has been on the hearts of Christians as Paul declares it was upon the hearts of the Jews in reading the old Institu- tion toward the close of that economy." Christian System, pp. 192, 193, published at Saint Louis, Missouri. "The preaching that is to bring America into the fellow- ship of the apostolic church must be accompanied by a revival of apostolic gifts, and I believe it will be." Rev. Lewis T. Wattson, in Pulpit of the Cross. "And should the apostolic church finally be reproduced, thereby bringing Christ to the earth again in personal power and rest-giving influence, what would then be the prospect before us? . . . The full realization of this splendid ideal is what the world is waiting for, and until it is realized we must continue to trust, pray, labor, hope, and patiently wait." PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 137 W. T. Moore, in The Christian Evangelist, December 18, 1890. DARKNESS SO THICK THAT IT. CAN BE FELT. "At Salem an intelligent writer said: 'Perhaps it was never darker since the children of Israel left the house of bondage.' Dr. Samuel Adams and Hon. Wheeler Morten, and others also, testify that 'it could be felt on waving the hand in the air' the same language used by Moses concerning the supernaturally and miraculously produced cloud that shut down over Egypt, causing a thick darkness of three days' duration." Facts of the Times, p. 283. "Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt." Exodus 10: 21. "Could feel the vapor of darkness." Book of Mormon, p. 625. INDICATION OF A CHANGE IN THE CLIMATE, AT SOME PERIOD OF THE PAST. Prof. John T. Short says: "The next stratum is from three to four feet in thickness, and consisted of a brown alluvium of the Eocene region, and was composed of vegetable matters of a tropical production. It contained all the re- mainder of the skeleton. Most of these vegetables were in a great state of preservation and consisted of a large quantity of cypress burs, wood and bark, tropical cane, ferns, pal- metto leaves, several stumps of trees, and even the greater part of a flower of the strelitzia class, which, when destroyed, was not full bloom. . . . These various matters had been torn up by their roots and twisted and split into a thousand pieces apparently by lightning combined with a tremendous tempest or tornado; and all were involved in one common ruin." American Antiquities, pp. 118, 119. Edition of 1880. (Book of Mormon, pp. 624, 625.) Larkin's Ancient Man in America, published in 1880, page 19, says : "My theory that the prehistoric races used, to some 138 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK extent, the great American elephant, or mastodon, I believe is new, and no doubt will be considered visionary by many readers, and more especially by prominent archaeologists. Finding the form of an elephant engraved upon a copper relic some six inches long and four wide, in a mound on the Red House Creek, in the year 1854, and represented in harness with a sort of breast collar with tugs reaching past the hips, first led me to adopt the theory." American Archae- ology, p. 75. Dana says: "Viewing the globe as a whole, in this Quater- nary era, we observe, 1. The gigantic size as well as large numbers of the species, the elephants, lions, bears, and hyenas of the Orient far larger than the modern kinds; so also the horse, elephant, mastodon, beaver, and lion of North America." Manual of Geology, p. 571, published 1880. TREPANNING IN ANCIENT AMERICA. M. D. Nadaillac says: "Trepanned skulls have also been taken from a mound near Sable River, . . . They were often surgical, and made upon the skull of the living (figure 218). Every age and both sexes were subject to them. Their posi- tion, form, and length varied according to the wound or the nature of the malady they were supposed to relieve." Pre- historic America, pp. 510, 511, edition, 1901. PUNCTUATION. Punctuation is a matter of individuality. "It has become a recognized principle, that punctuation is as much a matter of taste and judgment as of rigid rule." Bigelow's Handbook of Punctuation. "'Those who think everything in the Bible inspired of God, including its divisions into chapters, verses, and punctuation, should read the following and profit by it: "Of the four generally used points, only the period (.) dates earlier than the fifteenth century. The colon (:) is said to have been first introduced about 1485; the comma (,) some thirty-five years later, and the semicolon ( ;) about 1570. "Not till the tenth century was the uncial character aban- PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 139 doned, and the cursive or running hand generally adopted; but it was felt necessary long before this time to have re- course to something like punctuation. This is indicated in some manuscripts by a point or a space, and in others by writing the text in short lines, according to the sense. The latter system, known as 'stichometry' was introduced in the second half of the fifth century, while punctuation proper dates no farther back than the invention of printing (1438)." Bagster. "The modern came into use very gradually after the in- vention of printing, the comma, parenthesis, note of interro- gation, and period being the earliest introduced, and the note of exclamation the last. The first printed books have only arbitrary marks here and there, and it was not until the sixteenth century that an approach was made to a regular system by the Manutii of Venice." American Encyclopedia, article on punctuation; quoted from Facts of the Times, p. 268. Quackenbos' Rhetoric, page 81: "The modern system of punctuation was invented by Manutius, (Manutii) a learned printer who flourished in Venice at the commencement of the sixteenth century. To him we are indebted for developing the leading principles of the art, though in some of their details they have since that time undergone considerable modifi- cation." Ibid., pp. 268, 269. ANCIENT RELIGION OF TRINITY. George Rawlinson says: "Roman-gods Minerva, Jupiter, and Juno. The three together form the Capitoline Triad. . . . The only theory which accounts for all the facts, for the unity as well as the diversity of the ancient religion, is that of a primeval revelation variously corrupted." Ancient Re- ligion, pp. 33, 176. Frederich says : "Greek triad of Zeus, Athene, and Apollo bears an unmistakable analogy to the Christian trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." Odyose, part 3, pp. 65, 68, 69. Malbet says: "They the Gomerites of Northern Europe 140 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK in ancient times held the eternity and unchangeableness of the supreme God. Yet the supreme gods are three Odin, Freya, and Thor; this triad of gods run through all myth- ologies." Northern Antiquities. Osborn says: "Theirs (Egyptians') was a religion of self- justification of ritual. They had dim glimpses of God's unity and trinity. Also of the incarnation of deity." Antiq- uities of Egypt, vol. 1, p. 152. Professor LePlongeon says: "The idea of a sole and ominpotent Deity, who created all things, seems to have been the universal belief of early ages and among all the nations that had reached a high degree of civilization. . . . The Hin- doos had the same conception about a Deity as was held by the Egyptians, . . . that there are only three gods, and that these three designate one sole Deity. . . . These conceptions concerning the triune god have come down through the vista of ages." Sacred Mysteries, pp. 53, 55, 58. THE CROSS KNOWN LONG BEFORE THE CHRISTIAN ERA. Donnelly says: "From the dawn of organized Paganism in the Eastern World to the final establishment of Christianity in the Western, the cross was undoubtedly one of the common- est and most sacred of symbolical monuments; and to a remarkable extent, it is so still in almost every land where that of Calvary is unrecognized or unknown. . . . All these and similar traditions are but mocking satires of the old Hebrew story jarred and broken notes of the same strain. . . . Its undoubted antiquity, no less than its extraordinary diffusion, evidence that it must have been, as it may be said to be still in unchristianized lands, emblematical of some funda- mental doctrine or mystery. ... In Egypt, Assyria, and Britain it was emblematical of creative power and eternity; in India, China, and Scandinavia, of heaven and immortality. . . . In both hemispheres it was the common symbol of the resur- rection, or sign of the life to come; and finally in all heathen communities, without exception, it was the emphatic type, PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 141 the sole enduring evidence of the divine unity. . . . The Buddhists and Brahmans, who together constitute nearly half the population of the world, tell us that the decusated figure (cross), whether in a simple or a complex form, symbolizes the traditional happy abode of their primeval ancestors. . . . A circle and a cross; the one to denote a region of absolute purity and perpetual felicity; the other, those four peren- nial streams that divided and watered the several quarters of it" (earth). Atlantis, pp. 317-323. Donnelly says: "It was the symbol of symbols, the mys- tical Tan, the hidden wisdom not only of the ancient Egyp- tian but also of the Chaldeans, Phoenicians, Mexicans, Peru- vians, and of every other ancient people. . . . Thus it was figured on the gigantic emerald or glass statue of Serapis which was transported 293 B. c. . . . destroyed . . . (by) Theo- dosius A. D. 389 despite the earnest entreaties of the Egyp- tian priesthood to spare it because it was the emblem of their God and of 'the life to come.' "Atlantis, p. 319. Eusebius says: "The very name of Jesus, as also that of Christ, was honored by the pious prophets of old. And first, Moses himself having intimated how exceedingly august and illustrious the name of Christ is. ... But the prophets that lived subsequently to these times also plainly announced Christ before by name." Ecclesiastical History, pp. 21, 22. "Greek cross is found on Assyrian tablets, on Egyptian and Persian monuments, on early Asiatic and Greek coins and on Etruscan pottery. . . . Latin cross, or crux immissa, is also found on coins, medals, and monuments anterior to Christ. . . . Egyptian (cross) symbol of life. . . . This is a symbol of wonderful diffusion. It is the sacred emblem of Vishnu and the swastika 'of the Buddhist, it is found on Celtic monu- ments, on Etruscan Cinerary urns and those taken by Cesnola from the Phoenician tombs of Cyprus. . . . The Spanish con- querors of the New World found crosses of stone and wood erected in Mexico, Central and South America. The Muyscas and the Mayas reverenced it, and among the Toltecs it was called the 'tree of nutriment,' the 'tree of life.' " American Cyclopedia, vol. 5, p. 512. 142 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK Baldwin says: "The cross, even the so-called Latin cross, is not exclusively a Christian emblem. It was used in the Oriental World many centuries (perhaps millenniums) before the Christian era. . . . The cross is found in the ruins of Nineveh. Mr. Layard, describing one of the finest specimens of Assyrian sculpture (the figure of 'an early Nimrod king' he calls it), says: 'Round his neck are hung the four sacred signs; the crescent, the star or sun, the trident, and the cross.' " Ancient America, pp. 109, 110. MODERN MIRACLE. Attested by a good Methodist minister: "Ezra Booth, of Mantua, a Methodist preacher of much more than ordinary culture, and with strong natural abilities, in company with his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, and some other citizens of this place, visited Smith at his home in Kirtland, in 1831. Mrs. Johnson had been afflicted for some time with a lame arm, and was not at the time of the visit able to lift her hand to her head. The party visited Smith partly out of curiosity, and partly to see for themselves what there might be in the new doctrine. During the interview, the conversa- tion turned on the subject of supernatural gifts, such as were conferred in the days of the apostles. Some one said, 'Here is Mrs. Johnson with a lame arm; has God given any power to men now on earth to cure her?' A few moments later, when the conversation had turned in another direction, Smith rose, and walking across the room, taking Mrs. Johnson by the hand, said in the most solemn and impressive manner: 'Woman, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I command thee to be whole,' and immediately left the room. The company were awe-stricken at the infinite presumption, of the man, and the calm assurance with which he spoke. The sudden mental and moral shock I know not how better to explain the well- attested fact electrified the rheumatic arm Mrs. Johnson at once lifted it up with ease, and on her return home the next day she was able to do her washing without difficulty or pain." Hayden History, p. 250. Mr. Kennedy, in his book on Mormonism, pages 121 and PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 143 122, verifies the statement, and adds: "Upon her return home she discovered that she could use it equally with the other, and thus it remained until her death, fifteen years later." Quoted from White-Sewell Debate, p. 39. "DAYS," AS USED IN THE BIBLE, MEANS YEARS. "Forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniqui- ties, even forty years." Numbers 14 : 34. "I have appointed thee each day for a year." Ezekiel 4 : 6. "Mr. Wintle has shown that both the New Testament and classic writers use times (or seasons) for years; so we some- times say so many summers or winters. These years usually consisted of three hundred and sixty days, prophetically used for years. Thus three years and a half, or twelve hundred and sixty days, will stand for so many years." Cottage Bible (quoted from Facts for the Times, p. 38). Alexander Campbell: "A time is one revolution of the earth." Ibid. Professor Bush : "Nay, I am even ready to go so far as to say that I do not conceive your errors on the subject of chronology to be at all of a serious nature, or in fact to be very wide of the truth. In taking a day as the prophetical term for the year, I believe you are sustained by the soundest exegesis, as well as fortified by the high names of Mede, Sir Isaac Newton, Bishop Newton, Kirby, Scott, Keith, and a host of others who have long since come to substantially your conclusions on this head." Advent Library, no. 44, p. 6; Ibid., pp. 38, 39. Barnes: "Revelation 12: 6: 'A thousand two hundred and threescore days.' That is regarding these as prophetic days, in which a day denotes a year, twelve hundred and sixty years. The same period evidently is referred to in verse 14, in the words, 'for a time, times, and a half a time'; and the same period is undoubtedly referred to in Daniel 7: 25, 'And they shall be given into his hand until a time, and times, and the dividing of time.' " Ibid., p. 40. Bagster: "Until a time (i. e., a year), times (two years), and the dividing of time (i. e., half a year), making, in the 144 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK whole, three prophetic years and a half; or reckoning thirty days to a month, twelve hundred and sixty days, equal to the same number of years in prophetic language.": Ibid. Scott: "Thus matters would be left in his hands a 'time, and times, and the dividing of time'; that is, for three years and a half, or forty-two months, which, reckoning thirty days to a month (and that was the general computation), make just twelve hundred and sixty days, and those prophetical days signify twelve hundred and sixty years, a number which we shall repeatedly meet with in the Revelation of Saint John." Ibid., pp. 40, 41. Sir Isaac Newton: "The sanctuary and host were trampled under foot twenty-three hundred days (verse 14), and in Daniel's prophecies days are put for years." Ibid., p. 48. Bagster: "Two thousand and three hundred days (see margin) , that is two thousand and three hundred years." Ibid. Bishop Newton :"Two thousand three hundred years . . . may properly enough be said to be for many days." Ibid. Scott: "It is universally allowed that the seventy weeks here mentioned mean 'seventy weeks' of years.; that is four hundred and ninety years." Ibid. Rev. Joseph S. C. F. Frey (a Jew) : "That the seventy weeks mentioned are weeks of years, i. e., every week seven years, making in the whole four hundred and ninety years, is agreed both by Jewish and Christian commentators." Ibid., pp. 49, 50. THE PROPER METHOD OF INTERPRETING GOD'S WORD. "Whoso readeth, let him understand." Jesus. "No prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpreta- tion." Peter. "Words which admit of different senses should be taken in their most common and obvious meaning, unless such a construction leads to absurd consequences, or be inconsistent with the known intention of the writer." -Hedge's Logic (Quoted from Facts for the Times, pp. 10, 11). PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 145 Bishop Jeremy Taylor: "In all the interpretations of scrip- ture, the literal sense is to be presumed and chosen, unless there be evident cause to the contrary." Ibid., p. 11. Prof. J. A. Ernesti: "There is in fact but one and the same method of interpretation common to all books, whatever be their subject." Ibid. Vitringa: "We must never" depart from the literal mean- ing of the subject mentioned in its own appropriate name." Ibid., p. 12. Dr. John Pye Smith: "The common rule of all rational interpretation; viz, the sense afforded by a cautious and criti- cal examination of the terms of the passage, and an impartial construction of the whole sentence according to the known usage of the language and the writer." Ibid. "Language is used literally and figuratively, but it can not therefore be said that language has a literal and a figura- tive meaning. The figurative use must conform to the literal signification, otherwise we could no more judge of the cor- rectness of the figure than if the terms used had no meaning." Ibid. Dr. Clarke: "Without all controversy, the literal meaning is that which God would have first understood. . . . Remember you are called not only to explain the things of God, but also the words of God. The meaning of the thing is found in the word." Ibid., p. 12. Bridges, on "Christian ministry," says: "Inferences from scripture that appear to be strictly legitimate must be received with the greatest caution, or, rather, decidedly rejected, except as they are supported by explicit scripture declaration. "- Ibid., p. 13. Martin Luther: "Let the Christian reader's first object always be to find out the literal meaning of the word of God; for this, and this alone, is the whoia foundation of faith and of Christian theology. It is the very substance of -Chris- tianity." Milner's History, vol. 5, p. 460. William Tyndale: "No man dare abide the literal sense of the text but under a protestation, if it please the pope. Thou shalt understand, therefore, that the scripture hath but 146 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK one sense, and that is the literal sense. . . . The greatest cause of which captivity and decay of faith, and this blindness wherein we are now, sprang from allegories; for Origen, and the doctors of his time, drew all the scriptures into alle- gory, insomuch as that twenty doctors expounded one text twenty different ways. . . . Yea, they are come into such blindness that they not only say the literal sense profiteth not, but also that it is hurtful, and killeth the soul."- Works, vol. 1, p. 307. Ibid., p. 11. PROPHECY AND WHEN FULFILLED. "A prophecy is demonstrated to be fulfilled when we can prove from unimpeachable authority that the event has actu- ally taken place precisely according to the manner in which it was foretold." Home's Introduction, Compendium, p. 147. (Quoted from Facts of the Times, p. 28.) PREJUDICE. J. A. Woods: "The verdict of an English jury, was, we find and present Charles Wesley, to be a person of ill-fame, a vaga- bond, and a common disturber of his Majesty's peace; and we pray he may be transported." Book Perfect Love, p. 249. Lardner says of the early Christians: "That besides atheist, or impiety to the established duties, they the ancient Christians were charged with having their wives in common with promiscuous ludeness. With incest and cannibalism. That they were generally hated for their wickedness." Vol. 1, p. 240. "Jesus," he says, "was born of a poor woman who subsisted by the labor of her hands. Condemned of adultery, cast off by her husband, wandering about in a shameful manner, and giving birth to Jesus in an obscure place. And he (the child) being in want served in Egypt for a livelihood; becoming familiar with some Egyptian charms he returned and set himself up for a God. Then taking ten or eleven vile publi- cans and sailors he went about getting his living in a bad and shameful manner." Vol. 8, p. 19. PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 147 ORIGIN OF THE BAPTIST CHURCH. Doctor Cramp says: "There has been much dispute re- specting the manner in which they proceeded, some maintain- ing that Smyth baptized himself and then baptized the others. It is a thing of small consequence. Baptists do not believe in apostolic succession as it is commonly held, but the probabil- ity is that one of the brethren baptized Mr. Smyth, and that he then baptized the others. ... A church was formed, by Mr. Smyth and he was chosen pastor. At his death, which took place in 1611, Mr. Thomas Helwys was appointed in his place." Baptist History, by Dr. J. M. Cramp, D. D., p. 287. Rev. D. C. Haynes says: "The two oldest Baptist churches in the United States, namely, first Providence and first New- port, Rhode Island, who still dispute the honor of being the older, bear date, the former, A. D. 1639, and the latter, A. D. 1644. The chain of Baptist history thus crosses the Atlantic Ocean connecting the two countries. . . . Roger Williams flies from Salem, persecuted by the Pilgrim Fathers, and after a short sojourn with the Indians in their native forest, founds the State of Rhode Island and the city of Providence, A. D. 1636. He was accused, before leaving Salem, of preaching doctrines tending to ana-baptistry. He was then a Presby- terian and pastor of a Presbyterian church. In March, 1638- 1639, he was baptized and was honored with being the apostle of the Baptist in America. . . . Roger Williams did not leave England until he was about thirty-two years old. . . . He arrived at Nantucket, near Boston, in 1630, in the prime of life, with an excellent reputation. Governor Winthrop, speak- ing of the arrival of the ship, says: 'She brought Mr. Wil- liams, a goodly minister, and his wife.' He immediately be- gins to develop the principles which resulted in his becoming a Baptist and champion of soul liberty, and a sufferer for conscience sake. Though it was eight years later before he was baptized and formed the first baptist church in America at Providence." Baptist Denomination, pp. 51, 52, 300. Rev. D. C. Haynes says: "Rev. J. Newton Brown, D. D., and . . . author of the Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, who 148 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK has given much attention to church history says: 'The Baptists have no difficulty whatever in tracing up their principals and churches to the apostolic age. It has often been said by our enemies that we originated in the German city of Munster, in 1534. Lamentable must be the weakness and ignorance of such an assertion, come from whom it may. It were easy to recite eminent Pedo-Baptist historians to refute this cal- umny especially Limbrach and Mosheim, of the last cen- tury.' " Baptist Denomination, p. 24. Dr. Thomas Armitage says: "But the first sign of a church is found some time previous to March, 1639, when Williams and eleven others were baptized and a Baptist church was formed under his lead. Hubbard tells us that he was baptized by one Holliman, then Mr. Williams baptized him and some ten more. ... In the baptism of these twelve we find a case of peculiar necessity, such as that in which the validity of 'lay-baptism' has never been denied. ... So far as appears, there was not a baptist minister in the colony at the time. Williams was an ordained minister in the English Episcopal Church, and had been reordained at Salem, May, 1635, after the congregational order." History of the Baptist, pp. 658, 659. Doctor Benedict says: "This church, which is the oldest of the Baptist denomination in America, was formed March, 1639. Its first members were twelve in number, namely, Roger Williams, Ezekiel Holliman, Stuckley Wescott, John Green, Richard Waterman, Thomas James, Robert Cole, William Carpenter, Francis Weston, and Thomas Olney. ... As the whole company, in their own estimation, were unbaptized and they knew of no administrator in any of the infant settlements to whom they could apply, they with much propriety hit upon the following expedient; Ezekiel Holliman, a man of gifts and piety, by the suffrage of the little company, was appointed to baptize Mr. Williams, who in return baptized Holliman and the other ten." Baptist History, p. 450. Doctor Cramp says: "The result was, however, that twelve men declared themselves Baptist in principle. Then the question arose, How were they to be baptized since .they had PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 149 no minister? They might have been sent to England for one, but the application might not have been successful, and it would have involved an expense which they were ill prepared to meet, besides which, a long delay would have occurred. In this dilemma they adopted the only expedient that seemed to meet the case. One of their number, Ezekiel Holli- man, was chosen to baptize Mr. Williams, who then baptized the others. This was in March, 1639." Baptist History, p. 461. Doctor Armitage says: "On arriving at Amsterdam, Smyth at first united with the ancient English Separatists church there, in charge of Johnson, with Ainsworth as teacher. At that time the Separatists of Amsterdam were in warm con- troversy on the true nature of a visible church. Smyth pub- lished a work on the fallen church, entitled The Character of the Beast, and a tractate of seventy-one pages against infant baptism, and in favor of believer's baptism. For this he was disfellowshipped by the first church. . . . This led Smyth, Helwys, Morton, and thirty-six others to form a new church, which should practice believer's baptism and reject infant baptism. Finding themselves unbaptized they were in a strait. They were on good terms with the Dutch Baptist, but would not receive their baptism lest this should recognize them as a true church; for they believed that the true church of Christ had perished. . . . He believed the apostolic church model was lost, and determined on its recovery. With the design of restoring this pattern he baptized himself on his faith in Christ, in 1608, then baptized Thomas Helwys with about forty others and so formed a new church in Amster- dam." Pages 453, 454. Doctor Cramp says: "The Second Baptist Church in Rhode Island was formed at Newport, in 1644, by Dr. John Clark and eleven others. Doctor Clark became the pastor, which office he resigned in 1651, when he accompanied Roger Wil- liams to England on business connected with the charter of the colony. He was succeeded by Obadiah Holmes." Page 462. Doctor Armitage says: "Clark, who was born in Suffolk, 150 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK England, in 1609, was liberally educated and practiced as a physician in London for a long time; . . . His religious and political principles led him to cast in his lot with the New World and he arrived in Boston, November, 1637. There is no evidence that he was a Baptist at this time, but rather he seems to have been a Puritan, much like Roger Williams, when he landed there. These settlers numbered eighteen, most of them being Congregationalists, and members of Cotton's church in Boston, but some of them were under its censure for imbibing peculiar views of Christian doctrine. . . . As far as appears none of them were Baptist. , , . It is not clear whether Clark was at this time a Congregational! st. But they formed a church to which he was the preacher, whether or not he was the pastor. These things taken to- gether lead to the highly probable conclusion that Clark became a Baptist somewhere between 1640 and 1644." Pages 669-671. Again he says: "True, Williams had ceased to be a Bap- tist, when the Baptist church of which Clark became pastor, was formed, ... he could not have baptized Clark. But other elders had taken the church that Williams had left and Clark could have received baptism of one of them at Provi- dence. . . . Morgan Edwards writes of the Newport church: 'It is said to have been a daughter of Providence church, which was constituted about six years before, and it is not at all unlikely that they might be enlightened in the affair of believ- er's baptism by Roger Williams and his company for whom they had the greatest kindness. . . . Clark, its first minister, 1644, remained pastor till 1676, when he died. . . . Tradition says that he was a preacher before he left Boston, but that he became a Baptist after his settlement in Rhode Island, by means of Roger Williams.' " Ibid., pages 671, 672. Rev. W. B. Boggs, D. D., a Baptist, says: "That these two officers, bishop and deacon, were the only ones recognized in the primitive churches seems evident from Paul's directions both to Timothy and Titus." The Baptist, p. 33. Rev. Edward T. Hiscox, D. D., says: "The history of American Baptists goes back somewhat more than two hun- PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 151 dred years. At what time they first came to the country it is impossible to say. The first church was organized at Providence, Rhode Island, under the care of Roger Williams, 1639. ... As there was no Baptist minister in the colony, now accessible, Mr. Williams was immersed by one of his associates, a layman, when he in turn baptized his associates, and organized a church 1639." Baptist Church Directory, pp. 251, 252. Again he says: "The next church formed was in Newport, in 1644." Ibid., p. 252. ORIGIN OF THE ADVENTIST CHURCH. Mr. W. N. Glenn says: "William Miller was a member of the Baptist Church, . . . and was licensed to preach in 1833. I believe he was not an ordained minister. Elder James White was a member of the Disciple Church, and Mrs. White (then Ellen G. Harmon) was a member of the Methodist Church. They were both interested in the movement conducted by Mr. Miller." From Bishop C. J. Hunt's work on The Origin of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, pp. 2, 3. "But how did the observance of the seventh day become a cardinal feature of their faith and practice? The primary causes of this change were the following: Late in the autumn of 1844, the time of which we have been speaking, Mrs. Rachel D. Preston, a Seventh Day Baptist, removed from the State of New York to Washington, New Hampshire, where there was a flourishing company of Adventists. All parties were zealous to give and receive new light, and a mutual exchange of views took place, she adopting their views of the soon coming of the Savior; and they, by faith seeing the ark con- taining the ten commandments in the temple in heaven, as a part of their views of prophecy, were all ready to accept her views of the binding obligation of the Sabbath of the Decalogue, and to begin its observance. Thus the doctrine of the observance of the seventh day, and the doctrine of the soon coming of Christ, came together; and those in whom these views were united, thus became Seventh Day Adventists. The first church of Seventh Day Adventists was thus de- 152 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK veloped in Washington, New Hampshire, in the last three months of 1844. "These views of the sanctuary modified and enlarged their views of prophecy to a great extent, but their doctrines did not become sufficiently formulated to begin to constitute a settled system of belief till the following year, or 1845, which may therefore be set down as the year in which the Seventh Day Adventist denomination began." Camp Meeting Journal, Sparta, Wisconsin, June, 1898. (Quoted in Bishop Hunt's work above cited, pp. 4, 5.) Elder J. N. Loughborough, acting church historian, Oak- land, California, May 12, 1904, says: "Some of our earliest ministers were those who had been ordained to the gospel ministry in other denominations, and went forward under that ordination. . . . The first one ordained as a Seventh Day Ad- ventist minister by Seventh Day Adventists was myself. This ordination was at Grand Rapids, Michigan, in the month of June, 1854." J. W. Watt, president of the Vermont conference of Ad- ventists, who wrote from North Walcott, December 30, 1904, said: "It would not be consistent for ministers of another denomination to ordain a man to eldership in a Seventh Day Adventist church. I think such a thing would be entirely out of place." (The above are clippings furnished by Bish- op C. J. Hunt, and certified to as being correct.) Editorial in Our Hope, published at Mendota, Illinois, May 2, 1906, which gives us the history from an Advent Christian standpoint: "The denominational organization of our people into churches and conferences was a matter of gradual adop- tion, as circumstances forced its necessity upon them. The preaching of William Miller and his cowo*kers was among the churches of all the Protestant denominations reckoned evan- gelical. A great many preachers and devout Christians of all faiths accepted the Advent message and retained for some time their connection with their churches, and it was not sup- posed at first that it would be necessary to organize separately. A call for a general conference of Adventual believers, "of PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 153 the United States and elsewhere," to meet at Boston, Massa- chusetts, October 14, 1840, at 10 o'clock a. m., brought to- gether the first gathering of this faith. The call stated that 'The object of the conference will not be to form a new organi- zation in the faith of Christ, nor to assail others of our brethren who may differ from us in regard to the period and manner of the advent, but to discuss the whole subject faithfully and fairly in the exercise of that spirit of Christ in which it will be safe immediately to meet him at the judg- ment seat; etc.' An Episcopal clergyman was president of that conference, a Baptist clergyman made the opening prayer, and a Methodist minister delivered one of the leading ad- dresses. William Miller was prevented from attending by illness. A circular address of considerable length was adopted at this conference and published, with a full report, and was widely scattered, and may be found in I. C. Wellcome's History of the Second Advent Message, chapter 8, pages 176- 197. Other general conferences followed, of the same unde- nominational character. The first Adventist camp meeting was held in Hadley, Lower Canada, commencing June 21, 1842, and was followed June 29, by a camp meeting at East Kingston, New Hampshire. "Though but twenty-six tents were erected, the attendance was from seven to ten thousand people from all parts of New England, and the contributions offered amounted to one thou- sand dollars. In these early meetings no denominational lines were drawn or th/ought of. In 1843 a movement began among various denominations to expel believers in the soon coming of Christ. . . .When the date that had been given (1844) for the second advent went by, and the Lord did not appear, this opposition grew very strong against all who had been interested in Adventist views. . . . Great confusion fol- lowed, and many opinions, and conflicting views were held by self-appointed leaders and teachers, until what is called a 'Mutual Conference' was called at Albany, New York, for April 29, 1845. At this conference William Miller was tem- porary chairman and Elder J. V. Himes secretary. Its object was stated to be 'To consult together respecting the condition 154 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK and wants of brethren in the several sections of the country, that we may be better enabled to act in concert, and with more efficiency in the promulgation of gospel truths.' After per- fecting its organization by electing Rev. Elon Galusha, of Lockport, New. York, president; and Sylvester Bliss and O. R. Fassett, secretaries; the conference adopted a report con- taining a statement of important truths, and a recommenda- tion for associated action. " 'The New Testament rules for the government of the church' were declared 'binding upon the whole brotherhood of Christ.' And any congregation of believers habitually assem- bling for the worship of God and due observance of gospel ordinances was declared to be a church of Christ. A plan of operations was suggested embracing Sunday schools and Bible class instruction, and the circulation of good books and reli- gious literature, and the brethren were recommended to accept as ministers and teachers only those who had scriptural quali- fications as to outward life and behavior, and who taught the unadulterated word of God. This report was signed by Wil- liam Miller as chairman of the committee appointed to draft it, and was the beginning of the denominational organization of the Advent-Christian people. . . . We wish here to say that in proclaiming the coming of Christ to the world, nothing was further from our thoughts than to form a separate, dis- tinct body of Christians; it never came into our hearts. . . . It is the writer's conviction that the Providence of God, in view of the opposition of the recognized denominations to Ad- ventual truth, called out the Advent-Christian people to bear witness to this truth and proclaim the great message of com- ing judgment and the kingdom of God." The following, was gathered by Bishop C. J. Hunt: "The Adventists were of all churches, and they had no idea of forming another church. After 'the time' (1844) passed, there was great confusion, and the majority were strongly opposed to any organization, holding that it was inconsistent with the perfect liberty of the gospel ! Mrs. White was always opposed to every form of fanaticism, and early announced that some form of organization was necessary to prevent and correct PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 155 confusion. Few at the present time can appreciate the firm- ness which was then required to maintain her position against the prevailing anarchy. All the union which has existed among Seventh Day Adventists is due to her timely warnings and instructions." Publisher's footnotes in Experiences and Views, published 1891. Mrs. White said of William Miller, as found in same book: "As John the Baptist heralded the first advent of Jesus, and prepared the way for his coming, so William Miller and those who joined with him, proclaimed the second advent of the Son of God." Mrs. White, the prophetess of Adventism, relates: "I was struck dumb, and for a few moments was lost to everything around. ... A card was held up before me, on which were written in gold letters the chapter and verse of fifty texts of scripture. After I came out of (the) vision, ... I took the Bible and readily turned to all the texts that I had seen upon the card. I was unable to speak all day." Christian Experiences, p. 18. In answer to a question asked by Bishop C. J. Hunt, Mr.. J. 0. Johnston, president of North and South Carolina con- ference of Seventh Day Adventists, replied, May 10, 1904, as follows: "Seventh Day Adventists regard Mrs. White as a prophetess or 'mouthpiece for God,' just as truly as the church in the wilderness regarded Moses, but she is not in any sense .a leader of the church as was Moses. Her work corre- sponds more to the work of John the Baptist than it does to Moses, though we do not claim that she is that 'Elijah that was to come' or anything of that kind. We believe that God has given a work to our denomination that corresponds exactly to the work of John the Baptist. . . . Mrs. White is recognized among us, and has been for fifty years, as one to whom God has given divine revelations for the guidance of his work here upon earth." Mrs. E. G. White's view of the "gathering time," as found in volume 1, of Experiences and Views, and Spiritual Gifts (furnished by Elder F. G. Pitt) : "September 23, the Lord 156 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK showed me that he had stretched out his hand the second time to recover the remnant of his people, and that efforts must be redoubled in this gathering. . . . Then I was pointed to some who are in the great error of believing that it is their duty to go to old Jerusalem, and think they have a work to do there before the Lord comes. Such a view is calculated to take the mind and interest from the present work of the Lord, under the message of the Third angel; for those who think they are yet to go to Jerusalem, will have their minds there, and their means will "be withheld from the cause of present truth. I saw that such a mission would accomplish no real good, and it would take a long time to make a very few Jews believe even in the first advent of Christ, much more to believe in his second advent. I saw that Satan had greatly deceived some in this thing, and that souls all around them in this land could be helped by them, and led to keep the command- ments of God, but they were leaving them to perish. ... I also saw that old Jerusalem never would be built up; and that Satan was doing his utmost to lead the minds of the children of the Lord into these things now, in the gathering time, to .keep them from throwing their whole interest into the present work of the Lord, and to cause them to neglect the necessary preparation for the day of the Lord." Pages 63-65. GENERATION DEFINED. "Question corner" of a leading Adventist paper, Signs of the Times, published at Oakland, California, issue of December 22, 1898: "Please explain Matthew 24: 34. What generation is this? How long is this generation? When does it be- gin? "A. T." "It means the generation which sees the fulfillment of the signs mentioned by our Lord. It began between the falling of the stars in 1833 and 1844, when the last part of the message of Revelation 14:6-14 began, and ends when the Lord comes. A generation is not a definite time. It means generally the people living upon earth at the time. "DELOIT, IOWA. "C. J. HUNT." PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 157 SUCCESSION CLAIMED. Editor Prescott, in answering Bishop C. J. Hunt's inquiry, said, September 11, 1904: "We regard the Seventh Day Ad- ventist Church as in the direct line of apostolic succession, inasmuch as they teach the pure gospel as taught by the apostles. Further than this we have not been accustomed to make comparisons between our rights, powers, and privi- leges, and those of other denominations." (Mr. W. W. Pres- cott is editor of the Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, published at Washington, D. C.) The Advent leader put himself on record in the following statement: "I hereby acknowledge that I have long believed it my duty ... to leave for the instruction of my brethren, friends and children a brief statement of my faith (and which ought to be my practice) ; and I pray God to forgive me where I go astray. I made it a subject of prayer and meditation, and therefore have the following as my faith, reserving the privilege of correction." William Miller, p. 77, of his Mem- oirs. One of the articles adopted by Mr. Miller, article 15, reads: "I believe that the second coming of Jesus Christ is near, even at the door, even within twenty-one years, on, or before, 1843." DOCTRINAL FEATURES OF THE ADVENTISTS. Mr. M. C. Wilcox, editor of the Signs of the Times, answered Bishop C. J. Hunt, from Mountain View, California, January 29, 1905, as follows, as to who has the right to baptize: "I would say, 'Yes,' only those ordained according to the gospel have the right to administer baptism" (Hebrews 5:4). BAPTISM IN WATER IS NOT FOR THE REMISSION OF SINS; ACCORD- ING TO ADVENTIST TEACHINGS. W. J. Stone, president of the Indiana conference, wrote January 23, 1905, to Bishop Hunt, as follows: "I do not under- stand that a person's sins are washed away by baptism. The sacrifice of Christ atones for our sins. *If we confess our 158 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.' 1 John 1 : 9. Then we are cleansed before we ever go into the water. And unless one has been baptized into Christ's death, and cleansed from sin, he is not a fit subject for water baptism. Water bap- tism is simply following the command of Christ, and the answering of a good conscience." 1 Peter 3: 21. Editor W. W. Prescott made the following reply to Bishop Hunt, January 30, 1905: "Water baptism has no efficacy in itself, and is not, as the Roman Catholic Church teaches, a sacrament by means of which a person is cleansed from sin. It is, however, the outward profession and sign of an inward work. When, therefore, a truly repentant sinner is baptized, it ought to be true that he is baptized for the remission of sins, but the remission comes through his faith and not through the efficacy of the rite of baptism. Christ is the door and not baptism. And yet it is true that every member of the church ought to be baptized. You will see that the out- ward form and the inward experience ought not to be sepa- rated." Again he says, September 11, 1904: "1. A believer who has been baptized by immersion, by any evangelical minister, is usually received in full fellowship into the Seventh Day Adventist Church without being rebaptized, unless he, himself, desires rebaptism. The usual method would be to receive him on profession of faith and previous baptism." ORIGIN OF THE ADVENT CHRISTIAN CHURCH. "The Advent Christian Association was organized in 1857, and during all those years its annual sessions were held in connection with the Wilbraham meeting." Prophetic and Mission Record, Boston, Massachusetts, U. S. A., December, 1905. "Have we a creed?" "However, Second Adventists, in gen- eral, and we suppose without exception among all branches of the Adventist family, have no authoritative creed but the Bible. That is, every statement of faith or belief is valueless as authority unless in Bible terms. The Bible, and the Bible PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 159 alone is our rule of faith." Our Hope, Mendota, Illinois', March 28, 1906. THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK THE REST DAY FOR THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. THEIR SABBATH. Encyclopedia Britannica: "The first day of the week was everywhere set apart for this purpose. Thus Acts 20 : 7 shows that the disciples in Troas met weekly on the first day of the week for exhortation and the breaking of bread ; 1 Corinthians 16: 2 implies at least some observance of the day; and the solemn commemorative character it had very early acquired is strikingly indicated by an incidental expression of the writer of the Apocalypse (1: 10) who for the first time gives it that name ('the Lord's day') by which it is almost invariably re- ferred to by all writers of the century immediately succeeding apostolic times. Amon-g the indications of the nature and uni- versality of its observance during this period may be men- tioned the precept in the (recently discovered) teaching of the apostles (c. 14) : 'And on the Lord's day of the Lord . . . come together and break bread and give thanks after confessing your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure.' Ignatius (Ad. Magn., c. 9) speaks of those whom he addresses as 'no longer Sabbatizing, but living in the observ- ance of the Lord's day ... on which also our life sprang up again.' Eusebius (H. E., 4.23) has preserved a letter of Dionyius of Corinth (175 A. D.) to Soter, bishop of Rome, in which he says: 'To-day we have passed the Lord's holy day, in which we have read your epistle'; and the same historian (H. E., 4.26) mentions that Melito of Sardis (170 A. D.) had written a treatise on the Lord's day. . . . The first writer who mentions the name of Sunday as applicable to the Lord's day is Justin Martyr; this designation of the first day of the week, which is of heathen origin (see Sabbath, vol. 21, p. 126), had come into general use in the Roman world shortly before Justin wrote. The passage is too well known to need quotation (Apol. 1, 67) in which he describes how 'on the 160 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK day called Sunday' town and country Christians alike gath- ered together in one place for instruction and prayer and charitable offerings and the distribution of bread and wine; they thus meet together on that day, he says., because it is the first day in which God made the world, and because Jesus Christ on the same day rose from the dead. As long as the Jewish Christian element continued to have any prominence or influence in the church, a tendency more or less strong to observe Sabbath as well as Sunday would of course per- sist." Vol. 22, pp. 653, 654. FIRST ENACTMENT OF LAW IN REGARD TO SUNDAY. "The earliest recognition of the observance of Sunday as a legal duty is a constitution of Constantine in 321 A. D."- Ibid., p. 654. "Sunday was emphatically the weekly feast of the resur- rection of Christ, as the Jewish Sabbath was of the feast of Creation. It was called the Lord's day, and upon it the primi- tive church assembled to break bread." Schaff-Herzog En- cyclopedia, p. 2259. "The Sabbath was now reinstituted with peculiar solemnity, and its observance was placed in the moral code, among the ten commandments. But it is probable that the day of its observance was changed. For the day first marked out for the Jewish Sabbath by the manna's not falling upon it, was the twenty-second of the second month, and counting backward seven days, we find the people performing, by divine direction, a long and wearisome march. The original Sabbath, conse- crated by the heathen to the Sun, may have been set aside, and that day made holy on which the Jews came out of Egypt. Of that event, the Sabbath now became a special memorial. He who is Lord of the Sabbath has a right to alter the day of its observance. He did alter it at a subse- quent period, to commemorate his own resurrection. And if the Sabbath was then put back one day, as has been com- puted by some learned men, we have now the original Sab- bath, and do commemorate both the creation and redemption of man." Rev. John Marsh, Ecclesiastical History, p. 59. PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 161 "The Christians of this century, assembled for the worship of God and for their advancement in piety, on the first day of the week, the day on which Christ reassumed his life; for that this day was set apart for religious worship by the apostles themselves, and that, after the example of the Church of Jerusalem, it was generally observed, we have unexceptionable testimony." Mosheim, Ecclesiastical History, vol. 1. chap. 4:4, p. 85. ORIGIN OF THE MOURNERS' BENCH. "The Six Months' Probation, and Mourners' Bench Theories of Methodism. "Rev. James M. Buckley, LL. D., editor of the Christian Advocate, New York City, wrote November 2, 1905: 'In the early days of Methodism in this country the probation was three months. It was afterwards made six months. It was adopted by the conferences. "The mourners' bench was first introduced by Aaron Hunt, in the year 1809, though a brother by the name of Valentine Cook introduced it elsewhere about the same time.' "The above item of history can, I believe, be relied upon, as Doctor Buckley is a prominent educator in the Methodist Ji-piscopal Church." C. J. Hunt, in Zion's Ensign, November 23, 1905. ORIGIN OF THE DUNKARD CHURCH. A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE BRETHREN OR DUNKARDS. Ever since the decline of primitive Christianity in the early age of the church, God has had a people who protested against the departures from the usages of the apostolic church. The Brethren come in this line of succession, and the movement which resulted in their closer organization grew out of the great religious awakening which occurred in Germany during the closing years of the seventeenth cen- tury, when large numbers, becoming dissatisfied with the lack of spirituality in the state church, withdrew from its com- munion and met together for the worship of God. They were 162 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK called Separatists, or Pietists, and among them were to be found such men as Jacob Philip Spenner, Herman Franke, the founder of the Orphans' Home and School at Halle, Ernest Christian Hochman, Alexander Mack, and many other earnest, pious men whose names have become historical. The Pietists were bitterly persecuted by the Reformed and Catho- lic churches, and were driven from place to place until finally Count Cassimir, of Witgenstein, opened a place of refuge for the persecuted brethren in his province. Here, in the village of Schwartzenau, Alexander Mack, and others, similarly minded, met together to read and study God's word. They mutually agreed to lay aside all existing creeds, confessions of faith, and catechisms, and search for the truth of God's Book, and, having found it, to follow it wherever it might lead them. They were led to adopt the New Testament as their creed and to declare in favor of a literal observance of all the commandments of the Son of God. In 1708, a small company, that is to say eight souls, repaired to the river Eder and were buried with Christ in baptism, triune immersion being the mode used. The church was organ- ized, and Alexander Mack was chosen as its first minister, but he has never been regarded as the founder of the church. The Brethren claim to follow only Christ, and, as they accept his word as their rule of faith and practice, the claim is well founded. The infant church increased in numbers rapidly, but even in Witgenstein their peace was soon disturbed, and, although they lived peaceful and harmless lives, the hand of persecution was laid heavily upon them. Mack, in company with Hochman, preached -the word of truth in many parts of Germany, visiting Holland also. Here they met and formed the acquaintance of William Penn, who was at that time much interested in his colony in the New World. The Brethren were invited to settle in Pennsylvania, and, as they were sorely per- secuted, the invitation was accepted. In 1719 they commenced emigrating to America, and in less than ten years the entire church found itself quietly settled down in the vicinity of Germantown and Philadelphia. From this nucleus, formed in the New World, the church spread PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 163 southward and westward, and flourishing congregations are now to be found in many of the States. They are, however, most numerous in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, and Kansas. At the annual conference, held at Warrensburg, Missouri, 1890, twenty-two States and two foreign countries, Sweden and Denmark, were represented by delegates on the standing com- mittee. DOCTRINE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, FROM THEIR OWN BOOKS. SOME INTERESTING ROMAN CATHOLIC DOCTRINE AND HISTORY FOUND IN THEIR NEW BOOK, THE QUESTION BOX. "It is ever a law of scripture interpretation that an obscure text should always be explained in the light of clear and explicit passages." Catholics claim succession : "Christ was the answer of the world's longing for a divine, infallible teacher of God's truth. His church is the con- tinuation of that divine, infallible teaching until the second coming of the Christ." Page 17. "A Catholic knows there is no danger of deception, be- cause he believes in the authority of God, voiced to him by the living, infallible witness of Christ's mouthpiece, the Church of God." Page 19. "You can not do away with Christ's divinity and pretend to follow out his teaching. If he be only man, his power to com- mand is subject to the caprice of every individual. If he is God, then it follows naturally that his doctrines must be believed under penalty of damnation (Mark 16: 16), and his commandments obeyed under penalty of hell. Logically, also, there must be in the world to-day a teacher of his gospel, divine as he was divine, infallible as he was infallible, voic- ing his gospel to all men unto the end (Matthew 28: 20; Acts 1:8); an authority of which he said : 'He that heareth you heareth me'" (Luke 10: 16). Page 58. "The church teaches by divine authority; in submitting to 164 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK her we submit to God, and are freed from all human au- thority." Page 119. "Christ was not merely a teacher of doctrine, but an organ- izer of a society. He chooses twelve men under the leader- ship of Simon Peter." Page 104. "The true apostolic succession demands more than mere natural love of the brethren. An apostolic church must have apostolic doctrine, orders, and authority. The Bible gives us unmistakable evidence of a church built on the apostles, and continuing one and the same for ever without even the pos- sibility of failure." Page 188. "All the apostles were commissioned in common to establish the church, to preach the gospel, . . . but Peter alone was made the rock, the key-bearer, the confirmer of the brethren, and the shepherd of the flock. This has ever been the witness of Catholic tradition." Page 280. "The church is indeed built upon all the apostles and proph- ets, but not in the same manner, for surely the prophets were not teachers of Christ in the same sense as the apostles." Page 286. "Conditions were vastly different in apostolic times, for the Catholic Church teaches that each apostle was infallible with and under the pope, while to-day the plenitude of apostolic power of teaching and ruling resides only in the bishop of Rome." Page 289. "A visible church needs a local government upon earth according to the divine plan." Page 284. "If Saint Peter or his successor, speaking authoritatively to the church, could teach false doctrine, then he would instantly cease to be the firm rock foundation on which Christ built his church, the gates of hell would prevail, . . . and the whole flock of Christ would be deprived of the true food of divine faith (John 21: 15-17)." Page 303. A challenge: "Catholics are glad to challenge any comparison when it comes to morality and religion." Page 158. The trinity: PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 165 "There is one divine nature, and in that divine nature there are three persons." Page 37. The Bible: "The real question is: Is the Bible and the Bible alone the way to find out the gospel of Christ? The Catholics answer this question in a decided negative." Page 64. "Deny the church's infallible witness, and lo! the Bible is reduced to the level of mere oriental literature, full of errors and utterly devoid of divine inspiration. . . . The Bible does not pretend to be a formulary of belief, as is a creed or catechism. There is nowhere in the New Testament a clear, methodical statement of the teachings of Christ." Page 66. "The Bible was never intended to take the place of the living, infallible teacher, the [Catholic] church, but was writ- ten to explain or to insist upon a doctrine already preached. "How indeed could a dead and speechless book, that can not be cross-questioned to settle doubts or decide controversies, be the exclusive and all-sufficient teacher of God's revelation?" Page 67. "The Apocalypse [the revelation of Saint John] is ' re of the most obscure portions of Holy Writ, and no one pretends to be able to interpret it with any certainty." Page 562. "Catholics are infallibly certain that all the books of their Bible are inspired, because of the divine, infallible witness of the Church of Jesus Christ, voiced by the Councils of Trent (1545-1565) and the Vatican (1869-1870). Protestants, lack- ing this divine, infallible teacher, can never be certain what books form the canon of Holy Scripture." Page 76. "Christ, therefore, either established a church that could not err, or he never established any teaching authority at all." Page 132. "The Catholic's loss of faith is ever traceable to the break- ing of the ten commandments. The church felt this keenly herself, and reformed many abuses at the Council of Trent, 1545-1563." Page IBo. "The ceremony performed by John was not a sacrament at all, but aroused feelings of sorrow, which prepared the hearts 166 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK of his hearers for the true sacrament of Christ, as we learn from Acts 19: 3-5." Page 353. Infant baptism. Here is something well worth preserving on that question: "It is probable that there were children in the households baptized by Saint Paul (1 Corinthians 1: 16; Acts 16: 15, 33), although there is no conclusive proof in the New Testament of the practice of infant baptism. In this matter many Protes- tants inconsistently violate their principle of the Bible only as a rule of faith, and follow the divine tradition of the Cath- olic Church." Page 368. Baptizing church bells. "Bells are not baptized, for only rational creatures are fit subjects for Christ's baptism. They are merely blessed, as are many other inanimate objects, with a special prayer pre- scribed by the liturgy." Pages 272, 273. Water baptism: "Catholics are fully aware that the early practice of the church . . . was to immerse, and that this custom prevailed in both the East and West in the solemn administration of the sacrament till the end of the thirteenth century. But, on the other hand, there is abundant evidence to prove that immersion was not the only mode, and that pouring on of water was con- sidered equally valid. It is doubtful, to say the very least, whether the three thousand converts of Saint Peter on Pente- cost day (Acts 2: 41) were immersed, because of the scarcity of water in the city of Jerusalem . . . "If, again, immersion be the only valid mode, none are really baptized save those who have been immersed. It would follow then that over a hundred years after the Reformation unbaptized men (A. D. 1638) restored th. church, which had been entirely lost in the world, by giving to one another that which they did not possess themselves. If baptism had entirely perished, whence the right of any man to restore it on his own authority? "The Catholic Church, therefore, as the infallible interpreter of the gospel of Jesus Christ, declares that all three ways of baptizing are equally valid, by immersion, by pouring, or by PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 167 sprinkling. The present mode of pouring arose from the many inconveniences connected with immersion, frequent mention of which is made in the writings of the early Christian Fathers. But, as a necessary safeguard, Catholics are not permitted to use the form of sprinkling." Pages 364-366. "Three things are necessary for a sacrament: First, the sensible sign, as in Baptism the outward washing of the body with the invocation of the Blessed Trinity." Page 345. "We do not believe that sacraments act like magic to cleanse a soul from sin independently of the interior disposition of the one receiving them. The Catholic Church demands: First. That a person be qualified to receive them." Page 348. "Pope Saint Stephen (A. D. 255-257) decided against Saint Cyprian that the baptism conferred by heretics was valid, and that rebaptism was unlawful. . . . Thus, infidel and Jewish physicians in the hospitals of New York, who do not believe in the Catholic Church, know what a sacrament is, and believe that it is something sacred, have in cases of necessity validly baptized dying children, because they out of courtesy and re- spect to the wishes of Catholic priests have had the intention of performing an act held sacred by the Catholic Church." Pages 350, 351. "If a Protestant is uncertain about his former baptism a frequent case in our day of lax Christian views and practice he is baptized conditionally, with the form: 7/ thou art not baptized, I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.' "Page 98. Baptism for the dead (1 Corinthians 15: 29) : "No one knows with certainty what is meant by this obscure text of Saint Paul. Many interpretations have been suggested, viz, that it refers to baptism administered over the tombs of the martyrs, or at the point of death, or some symbolic cere- mony performed by the relations of a deceased catechumen." Page 369. Who are Catholic? "No one is a Catholic who is not a Roman Catholic." Page 183. "The Church of Christ has been called Catholic as early as 168 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK the beginning of the second century or the end of the first." Page 181. The Great Catholic Church: "In points of doctrine the Greek Church denies the primacy and infallibility of the Pope, . . . Until the middle of the ninth century the Greek Church was in communion with the Roman Pontiff." Page 184. The thief on the cross: "As for the thief on the cross, it is not evident that he went instantly to heaven; for Catholics, believing that Christ's soul immediately after his death went down to Limbo, to announce to the souls there detained the glad tidings of the redemption (1 Peter 3: 19), declare that paradise in this passage does not mean heaven at all." Page 402. "Limbo is the place where the souls of the just, who died before the death of Jesus Christ, were detained." Page 560. Resurrection of the body: "The Catholic Church teaches . . . that all men 'will rise again with their own bodies which they now bear about with them.'" Page 560. The Millennium: "The church has defined nothing whatsoever on this subject. The reign of Christ for one thousand years (Apocrapha 20: 1-10), with the two resurrections of the just and the wicked, held in the early church by some few writers, is contrary to the Scriptures." Pages 561, 562. Purgatory : "The word purgatory is not found in the Bible; . . . The strongest argument for the existence of purgatory and the practice of praying for the dead is the universal and constant witness of divine tradition as voiced in the writings of the fathers." Pages 562, 563. The mass: "We do not pretend to know how far God applies the infinite merits of the sacrifice of the mass to either the living or the dead." Page 454. The sacrament bread and wine: "The Council of Trent says . . . 'that by the consecration of PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 169 the bread and wine a change is wrought of the bread's whole substance into the substance of Christ our Lord's body, and of the wine's whole substance into the substance of his blood.' " Pages 416, 417. "The Catholic Church teaches that the reception of commun- ion under the form of wine is not absolutely necessary, for she has ever believed that as much is contained under either spe- cies [bread or wine] as under both." Page 443. "The words drink ye all of it (Matthew 26:27) were addressed, not to the faithful in general but to the Apostles who alone were present." Page 445. Men holding priesthood not to marry: "Celibacy originated by Christ's appointment, and flows naturally out of the Christian sense of the dignity of the priesthood; and voluntarily entered upon in apostolic times, it became the law for the Western Church [Roman Catholic] in the beginning of the fourth century." Page 491. "Until the fourth century . . . there was no strict law enforcing celibacy, and therefore many married men received orders." Page 494. "Celibacy is a question of discipline, not of dogma, so that the Eastern churches that are united to Rome for instance, the Maronites are still permitted a married clergy." Page 497. Was the Apostle Peter married? "He undoubtedly was, yet tradition declares that he did not live with his wife after the divine call . . . ; the words of Saint Peter to Christ are plain: 'Behold we have left all things and have followed thee.' " [Douay Bible.] Pages 492, 493. Miracles Mark 16 : 17, 18 : "The age of miracles will last until the end of time." Page 545. "We grant that they are not so numerous to-day as in the first days of the church, when they were specially meant to aid the spread of Christianity." Page 546. This work was done for the Roman Catholic Church by Reverend B. L. Conway of the Paulist Fathers, in a book 170 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK called The Question Box, of six hundred pages, containing "answers to over one thousand questions" received from non- Catholics. The preface to the book is by Reverend James Cardinal Gibbons, archbishop of Baltimore, America. We quote from the one hundred and eighty-fifth thou- sandth edition of 1904. THE PAPACY. "Bro. E. J. Haworth, of Wallsend, hands us a copy of the celebrated speech delivered by Bishop Strossmayer before the Vatican Council of 1870, when the dogma of papal infallibil- ity was being discussed. We would like to reproduce the whole of it, but space forbids. Among other things he said: 'But, my venerable friends, we have a dictator, before whom we must prostrate ourselves and be silent, even as his Holi- ness Pius IX, and bow our heads. The dictator is history. This is not like a legend, which can be made as the potter makes his clay; but is like a diamond, which cuts on the glass what can not be canceled. Till now I have only leant on her, and if I have found no trace of the papacy in the apostolic days, the fault is hers, not mine. ... I have sought for a pope in the first four centuries, and I have not found him.' " C. J. Hunt, in Gospel Standard, Australia, August 15, 1904, and in Saints' Herald, February 14, 1906. ORIGIN OF THE CHRISTIAN, OR CAMPBELLITE CHURCH. "This modern sect was originated by Alexander Campbell, in Bethany, Virginia, in 1827." Tri-Lemma, p. 190. "After his failure in this [to reform the Presbyterian church] attempt at reformation, he [Campbell] decided to unite with the Baptists. . . . Accordingly in 1812 he was im- mersed by Elder Luce, a Baptist minister." Ibid., p. 191. "1827 the Baptists expelled him and all who embraced his unscriptural views." Ibid., p. 193. "Mr. Campbell's baptism, then, according to his own theory, was a blasted nut, for first, Mr. Luce never immersed him for any such purpose. No Baptist church or Baptist minister PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 171 ever baptized to bring the blood of Christ in contact with conscience of his subject or to produce for him the remission of sins or regeneration of his heart. Mr. Campbell himself at this time, 1812, did not know or believe any such doctrine. He had never thought of it in his wildest imaginations. It was years after his baptism before his preaching or writings were tainted by these heretical conceptions." Ibid., pp. 195, 196. "If Baptist churches are false, as Mr. Campbell declares, ... a false church can not administer valid baptisms or or- dinations, and Mr. Campbell and his ministers received theirs from the Baptist, whose churches and baptisms they deny to be scriptural! Will not Campbellites ask themselves this question, when they re-immerse our excluded members, Who baptized Mr. Campbell?" Ibid., pp. 196, 197. Editorial answer: "It is understood by those familiar with our history that Mr. Campbell was baptized by Elder Luce, a minister of the Baptist Church, and that Disciples are therefore in the true line of Baptist succession, but as to the ecclesiastical ancestry of Mr. Luce we know nothing and care as much. He was a Baptist in good standing and in full fellowship and that suffices." Christian Evangelist, May 16, 1895, p. 308. "It is a child [the Campbellite sect] of the present cen- tury." Dr. M. Burnham, Nineteenth Century, p. 5. "Campbell, Alexander, founder of the religious sect calling themselves Disciples of Christ, but commonly known as Camp- bellites. Born in County Antrim, Ireland, in June, 1786, died in Bethany, West Virginia, March 4, 1866." American Cyclo- pedia, vol. 3, p. 662. Rev. Campbell says: "He tried the Pharisaic plan, and the monastic, I was once so straight, that like the Indian's tree, I leaned a little the other way. ... I was once so strict a separatist that I would neither pray, nor sing praises with anyone who was not as perfect as I supposed myself." Christian Baptist, p. 238. "It was the first ecclesiastical body in. modern times, which transcending the limits of its own constitutional prerogatives, 172 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK initiated a movement exactly conformed to the word of God, and utterly disentangled from all sectarian restraints. "- Hayden History, p. 59. "Assumed the position of a gospel church." Ibid., p. 113. "These people were themselves reformers, seeking in the measure of their light to return to New Testament usages, but like most of the efforts to return from spiritual Babylon to Jerusalem, they crystallized around a few items which they capitalized into undue prominence. The ancient gospel and ancient order of the church were veiled in obscurity. . . . But who would have thought it remained for any so late as 1827 to restore to the world the manner primitive manner of administering to mankind the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. . . . The ancient gospel and ancient order of the church must prevail to the certain abolishing of all those contumacious sects which now so woefully afflict mankind." Ibid., pp. 112, 173. "Persons of good standing in other evangelical denomina- tions, who desire to unite with us, on presenting satisfactory letters, we receive, not as disciples of Christ (that would be impossible without immersion) but simply as Christians. "- The Christian Evangelist, February 17, 1898, p. 103. "The Roman Catholic Church was born about 1054; Epis- copalian Church was born about 1521; Presbyterian, about 1537; Scotch Presbyterian, about 1538; English Presbyterian, about 1572; Baptist Church was born about 1611; Quaker Church, about 1655; Methodist Episcopal Church was hatched out about 1729, in England, by John and Charles Wesley; but the foul bird grew up mainly in this country." Primitive Christian, April 20, 1897, p. 6. "I have obeyed the gospel after having been misled for over thirty years and if possible the church was dead during the dark ages, God has brought it to life again." Ibid., p. 16. W. B. Halliday, a Campbellite of Cumberland City, Tennes- see, says : "The attendance would doubtless have been larger, only for the sectarian prejudice of the people of the town, who are nearly all Methodists and who are as completely under the control of their preachers as a loyal Catholic is PARSONS' TEXT BOOK ' 173 under the control of the Pope of Rome. There is no one who knows better than the Methodist preacher that they have a ghostly skeleton in their closet; that they do not want their lay members to know anything about. He knows that the door would be thrown open and his 'Sheep' would see the unscriptural things that he teaches. May God help the poor, deluded preacher, and the priestridden people who obey the commands of men, rather than the commandments of the Lord." Gospel Advocate, June 18, 1903, p. 396. Frank Ansley says: "I renounced the traditions of the fathers (Methodist) and united with the restored primitive church" (Campbellite). Reasons for Leaving the Methodist Church, p. 5. "I will build my church, . . . not the Catholic, or the Episcopal, or the Presbyterian, or the Baptist, or the Metho- dist." Ibid., pp. 13, 14. Hayden says: "This association assumed a new power and with this high prerogative entered upon the discharge of far higher and wider responsibilities." Page 60. A. Campbell says: "If Christians were and may be the happiest people that ever lived, it is because they live under the most gracious institution ever bestowed on men. The meaning of this institution has been buried under the rubbish of human traditions for hundreds of years. It was lost in the dark ages and has never been, till recently, disinterred. Various efforts have been made, and considerable progress attended them; but since the grand apostasy was completed, till the present generation, the gospel of Jesus Christ has not been laid open to mankind in its original plainness, simplicity and majesty. A veil in reading the New Institution has been on the hearts of Christians as Paul declares it was upon the hearts of the Jews in reading the Old Institution toward the close of that century." Christian System, pp. 192, 193. Mr. Campbell says: "From these intimations we learn the Apostles Paul and Peter foresaw the rise of sectaries and sects; and both of them, it is worthy of remark, dis- tinctly connected the sects with sectarian teachers; for all 174 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK sects have been originated by false teachers or by corrupt men." Ibid., p. 109. Elder W. T. Moore, a Campbellite, says: "It can not be denied that Campbell was the man who conceived, organized and made successful the present reformation." Discipleism, p. 10. Elder Dungan, a Campbellite, says: "The word reforma- tion means "restoration." Ibid. Elder B. B. Tyler, a Campbellite, says: "I am compelled to say that I do not know whether the Christian Church, as a church, claims to be successors, reformers, or restorers." Ibid., p. 8. "This plea of reformation did not begin nor end in bap- tism. It saw as its end, and sought nothing less, than the de-organization of sect, and the reorganization of the saints on the new covenant, in the express terms and conditions divinely set forth in the Holy Scriptures. This was clear as a sunbeam in the preaching and writings of Scott and the Campbells, and all who were enlisted in the defense."- Hayden History, p. 158. "It was this profound conviction that caused the pioneers in this movement to go back beyond the Lutheran reforma- tion, and beyond the shadow of the great apostasy to the New Testament times." Our Movement, p. 21. "Alexander Campbell, soon became chiefly and prominently known as the reorganized head of a new religious movement, the purpose of which was to restore Primitive Christianity in all its simplicity and beauty." Life of A. Campbell, p. 25. "Doctor Campbell is among the eminent citizens of the United States, . . . the head and founder of one of the most important and respectable religious communities." Professor Richardson, vol. 2, p. 548. "OUR RELATION TO OTHER RELIGIOUS BODIES." "That the religious world had so far apostatized from the New Testament idea of the church as to have been utterly rejected and disowned by Christ, so that he had no church in the world at the time the current reformation was inau- gurated, and that with the organization of congregations PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 175 under the teachings of the leaders of this movement, he made a new beginning in church building." The Christian Evan- gelist, March 21, 1895, p. 178. "The chain is now complete. Not another name will be added, for the reason that the work has been accomplished. The church of the apostles has been restored. ... If Wycliff was the 'morning star of the Reformation' (restoration) Campbell was the morning sun of it." The Christian Evan- gelist, May 6, 1897, p. 279. "Do the Baptists have a perfect organization? They have no elders. They say they are not needed; that the deacons can do the work the elders were to do. If that be true, then Christ's church was not a perfect organization. Would a Baptist brother admit that Christ's church was not perfect in organization? Of course he would not. Then the Bap- tist church is not a perfect organization, for it is not on the apostolic plan." Primitive Christian, October 19, 1897. "We choose to speak of Bible things by Bible words." Ibid., p. 125. "The Christian discipline." Christian System, p. 85. Charles V. Segar, a Campbellite, says: "The argument and details of these views are to be found in a work called the Christian System, the fundamental work, so to speak, of the Disciples as a religious people." Life of A. Campbell, p. 26. "As to Brother Campbell, he was a great and good man, but he was not inspired, and he made some mistakes, and none worse than failing to adopt the true worship a thing he plainly taught and establishing instead thereof this hire- ling priesthood, which has grown to be the most intolerant, impious, and prescriptive religious corporation on earth, not excepting the Roman hierarchy." Christian Leader, June 1, 1897. (A Campbellite paper.) "They were accordingly immersed, on a confession of faith in the Son of God, and united with the regular Baptists. . . . The prejudice and passion of some excitable and intolerant men who then held a leading influence in the Redstone Asso- ciation, rendered it prudent for Mr. Campbell to withdraw, 176 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK after a few years, from that connection. Against his own wishes, he was compelled by the force of ecclesiastical oppo- sition to act separately from the Baptist." Hayden History, p. 46. Editorial in the Christian Leader: "Alexander Campbell spent fifty years of life trying to uproot an army of clergy- men, but lo and behold, since the time of his death, which occurred in 1866, we have an army of clergymen in our midst as large and menacing as the one he fought against. The world is about to absorb our distinctive plea." (August 26, 1897.) "The great reformation which never was PERFECT, and lacking in power commensurate with its imperfections, is now practically divided and subdivided. We have the 'Progres- sives' and the 'Loyal' and in each of these parties there are MINOR PARTIES." Gospel Echo, August 13, 1896. John F. Rowe, a Campbellite, says: "The effort of the Campbells was not simply to reform the church, as was the case with Luther, Calvin and Wesley, but to restore the primitive order of things, as left by the accredited ambas- sadors of Jesus Christ." The Disciples of Christ, p. 44. Pub- lished in Saint Louis, Missouri, 1888. ANCIENT TRADITION IS NOT NECESSARILY TRUE. Alexander Campbell: "The plea of ancient tradition is the strength of popery and the weakness of Protestantism. We advocate, not ancient, but original Christianity. The plea of high antiquity or tradition has long been the bulwark of error. It cleaves to its beloved Mother, tradition, hoary tra- dition, with an affection that increases as she becomes old and feeble. Errorists of all schools are exceedingly devout and dutiful so far as the precept, 'Honor thy father and thy mother,' is concerned." Christian Baptism, book 2, chap. 2, p. 233. (Quoted from Facts for the Times, p. 17.) LOVE THY NEIGHBOR AS THYSELF. George F. Whitley, a Campbellite, says: "Brethren, I want to say in all firmness that I believe the Methodist denomina- PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 177 tion to be the dirtiest and meanest denomination now extant, Catholics not excepted. The Methodist Church is a daughter of Rome and to-day is blinding more eyes in ignorance than all of Satan's host combined. . . . Now, brethren, come; I am into it now. I will never give down. I will wield the sword and I pray for power to behead the Methodist fraternity v "- Primitive Christian, Wellington, Kansas, May 3, 1894. Rev. T. H. Popplewell, a noted Campbellite, says: "The question was asked in our meeting here (Panama, Nebraska) : Do you believe that all other denominations will go to hell? To this we [Reverend Popplewell] made the following pointed reply: They will if they do not comply with the one law of pardon which was obligatory upon the people of Pentecost at the house of Cornelius and all other examples found in Acts of Apostles. Sure this hurt, but is it not the truth?" Primi- tive Christian, November 23, 1897. W. P. Flippon, a Campbellite, says: "They may join the Baptist Church or Methodist Church, but not the church of Christ of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. The Lord added to the church of Christ on the day of Pentecost by the people believing Peter's testimony concerning Christ, repenting and being baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. That put them into Christ's church, which is his body. Primitive Christian, April 4, 1895, Reverend Popplewell editor. Rev. Alexander Campbell says: "In truth, there can be no discipline in any congregation unless it be an organized body; and no body can be organized unless it is known who are members of it." Christian System, p. 91. Published in Saint Louis, Missouri. Again he says: "Finally, while endeavoring to abolish the old sects, let us be cautious that we form not a new one. This may be done by either adding to, or subtracting from, the apos- tolic constitution a single item. Our platform must be as long and as broad as the New Testament. . . . Every party in Christendom, without respect to any of its tenets, opinions, or practices, is a heresy, a schism unless there be such a party as stands exactly upon the apostles' ground. . . . Whose 178 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK party we are, provided we hold fast all, and only all the apostolic traditions, and build upon the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible." Ibid., pp. 110, 111. November 20, 1900, on the jubilee anniversary of the intro- duction of the Reformation in the State. In this address he said of Alexander Campbell: "Venerable patriarch of the clean heart and the silver tongue! Faithful servant of God, and apostle of Jesus Christ!" (Quoted from The Truth De- fended, p. 75.) "Here I should speak more particularly of Father Ryder's relations to the church. ... He was first the eldest brother, then the father, finally the patriarch." A. S. Hayden, p. 253. (Ibid.) Rev. Mr. Campbell, said: "Some new revelation, or some new development of the revelation of God must be made, before the hopes and expectations >of all true Christians can be real- ized, or Christianity save and reform the nations of this world. We want the old gospel back and sustained by the ancient order of things, and this alone by the blessing of the divine Spirit is all that we do want, or can expect to reform and save the world. And if this gospel, as proclaimed and enforced on Pentecost, can not do this, vain are the hopes and disappointed must be the expectations of the so-called Christian world." Christian System, p. 250. SOMETIMES IT IS WELL TO KNOW WHAT OUR NEIGHBORS THINK OF US. In a tract by Jerome A. Scott, entitled V< A brief sketch of Alexander Campbell," it is stated: "Scotch Anti-Slavery So- ciety . . . posted in public places placards, bearing the follow- ing inscription: 'Citizens of Edinburgh, Beware! Beware! The Rev. Alexander Campbell, of Virginia, United States of America, has been a slaveholder himself, and is still a de- fender of man-stealers.' " Page 37. Thomas W. Grafton's History of the Campbellites, quoting from an extract from a journal in Scotland, says: "We beg to warn our readers against countenancing a Rev. or Mr. A. Campbell of Virginia, U. S., who has announced a PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 179 course of lectures in the Baptist chapel here. He is the apologist of man-stealing in its worst form the advocate of all that is monstrous in that most monstrous of all systems American slavery! Let liberty-loving, slave-despising people of Paisley repel from their precincts with the scowl of their worst displeasure, the apologist of American murderers, and let them show that they despise the advocate of man-stealing, all the more because he comes clothed in the garb of sanctity" Page 196. Austin Burns Smith says: "The Christian Church as it is called as a whole is not what it was in the times of Mr. Campbell." An Expose of False Religion, p. 3. DOCTRINAL FEATURES OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. "All the extraordinary gifts vouchsafed to Moses, and the apostles and prophets of the gospel institution, ceased when these institutions were fully developed and established. Still a regular and constant ministry was needed among the Jews, and is yet needed among the Christians; and both of these by divine authority" Christian System, p. 82, second edi- tion. Published at Saint Louis, Missouri. "The whole community chooses the seniors ordain. -This is the apostolic tradition. ... So the Christian system in its elections and ordinations began. It is immutable. . . . Are we asked for authority? We produce it with pleasure: 1 Corinthians 16: 3 is just to the point. 'And', says Paul to the Saints in Corinth, 'when I come whomsoever you shall approve by letter them will I send to bring your liberality to Jerusalem.' " Ibid., pp. 88, 90. "There is no other confession of faith on which the church can be built, on which it can possibly stand one and undivided, but on this one." Ibid., p. 63. "The only apostolic and divine confession of faith which God the Father of all has laid for the church and that on which Jesus himself said he would build it, is the sublime and supreme proposition : That Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, 180 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK the Son of the living God. This is the peculiarity of the Christian System, its specific attribute." Ibid., p. 62. "Let the Bible be substituted for all human creeds. . . . The positive commandments of God for human legislation and tradition." Ibid., p. 117. Elder Neal, a Campbellite, says: "That a great message was to come forth, and Alexander Campbell got it from God and delivered it to the people." Christian Standard, June 30, 1000. SUCCESSOR. Rev. Alexander Campbell said: "Successors must be suc- cessors in full, or they are not successors at all. To illustrate this does not the existing President of the United States inherit all the power and authority of George Washington, by virtue of constitutional succession? Does he not possess the same power, in all its length and breadth, its height and depth, as did his predecessors, from the first to last? This is true of every constitutional office in the civilized world. All the power which any predecessor can have, belongs to every incumbent: so in the church if it. have constitution at all." Campbell and Purcell debate, p. 51. ORIGIN OF "DISCIPLES OF CHRIST." Rand McNally and Company's Encyclopedia and Gazetteer, page 238, says: "Campbell, Alexander, founder of the sect known as the 'Disciples of Christ,' or more commonly the 'Campbellites,' was born in 1788. At first a Presbyterian, in 1812 he formed a connection with the Baptists and for sometime he labored as an itinerant preacher. In 1826 he published a translation of the New Testament in which the words baptism and baptist gave place to immersion and im- merser. Campbell gradually formed a large party of fol- lowers, who began about 1827 to form themselves into a sect under the designation of "The Disciples of Christ," which in 1881 had in the United States as many as 5,100 churches and 591,821 members. The late President Garfield was in early life a Campbellite preacher." (The above paragraph was cop- ied by F. M, Slover.) PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 181 NAME "CHRISTIAN." "The disciples . . . were first called Christians at Antioch . . . contemptuously . . . imposed upon them by the Gentile world about A. D. 43." William Smith, Dictionary, p. 152. Rev. Alexander Campbell said: "If the Lord had given this name, why have withholden it till the year 45? Why have given it in Antioch, and not in Jerusalem? Why did not Luke adopt it in the sequel of his history? Why not adopted by the apostles in their epistles? Why never used but by enemies like Agrippa, or in reference to persecutions, as in the case of Peter's allusion? These, and other such dictates of reason, show how frail are the arguments of those who assume for it a divine origin, and would thence enjoin it upon us by a divine authority. We have no particular objection to being called Christians, but we object to having the name imposed upon us as of divine authority." Millennial Harbinger, vol. 4, pp. 52, 53. A. Campbell, replying to Mr. Stone's defense of the name Christian, as a denominational name, says: "I am bold to affirm, in the face of all criticism, that there is not the least authority in the word chrunatizo here used (Acts 21, 26) for concluding that the name Christian came from God. ... If it had been given by the authority 6f the Lord it would not have been delayed ten years after the day of Pentecost, nor reserved for the city of Antioch to be the place of its origin." Millennial Harbinger, 5, 2, pp. 395, 396. Alexander Campbell says: "They were all coelders, co- bishops, coapostles, as respected each other; and as respected all other officers, the apostles were first." Campbell and Pur- cell Debate, p. 14. "We have emphatically stated that the first point is. to estab- lish the office. If there is no office, there can be no officer." Ibid., pp. 98, 99. "Within the past few months the American Institute of Sacred Literature has been reorganized. While the old name has been retained, the control has been vested in a body called 182 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK the Council of the Seventy." The Christian Evangelist, April 16 1896, p. 249 PRESIDENCY. "The decision of James, which by unanimous consent be- came the decision of the council." Christian Evangelist, December 1, 1892, p. 764- CAMPBELLITES RECOGNIZE AUTHORITY TO BAP- TIZE IN OTHER CHURCHES. Elder J. H. Garrison says: "I would receive all who have been baptized, whether once or thrice, who are in good stand- ing as Christians. The extra immersions in the case of Dun- kards do not nullify their obedience. Persons are not bap- tized into religious parties, whatever they may think, but into Christ, if so be that they believe in Christ." Christian Evangelist, Saint Louis, Missouri, February 1, 1895. Elder B. J. Pinkerton says : "As far as my experience and observation extend, it is the universal custom of our preachers to receive such persons (that have been baptized by minis- ters of other churches) without rebaptism, unless they demand it." Elder D. R. Dungan^chancellor of Cotner University, Ne- braska, wrote February 8, 1895 : "Persons who have believed in the Christ, repented of sin, and confessed the Savior, and obeyed the Lord in baptism, being buried with Christ, whether by Methodist or Baptist, have been scripturally baptized; such is my view." Elder W. W. Hopkins, of the Christian Evangelist, Saint Louis, Missouri, February 1, 1895, said in answering a ques- tion put by Bishop Hunt: "1. We baptize into Christ and not the church. 2. The validity of baptism depends on the faith of the candidate and not the office of the administrator. For the sake of order it would be better for the preacher or elder to baptize; but a baptism is not invalid because done by a lay member." Elder J. H. Garrison, editor of the Christian Evangelist, wrote in answering a question asked by Bishop Hunt: "It is not the custom of our ministers to require believers PARSONS' TEXT BOOK iba uniting from other churches who have been baptized, whether they understood that when they were baptized, it was for the remission of sins. That would be an utter perversion of our position as to what is the creed or confession of faith on which the church rests. There may be a few schismatics in Texas who have made that sort of a creed, but they do not represent the churches of this reformation." Compare this statement of Alexander Campbell, the founder of their church: "Now if our baptism is for any other end or purpose than was that to which Paul submitted, it is another baptism as much as bathing for health is differ- ent from a Jewish ablution for legal uncleanness or impurity. The action has a meaning and a design; and it must be received in that meaning and for that design, else it is another baptism." Campbell and Rice Debate, p. 439. TWO BOYS BAPTIZED ONE ANOTHER. "I was attending a meeting held in Coffeyville, Kansas, in 1890,' if I remember right, and there I may have been con- victed as I have since found out. But at the time another boy named Cooper, and I thought ourselves converted, and so we went to a pond and proceeded to baptize each other in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. I was re- ceived into the Christian ( Campbell! te) Church at Pawnee, Oklahoma, by Elder Dunkliberger, on the aforesaid baptism at the organization of the Pawnee Christian church in the early part of 1895, if I remember the date right. I give this merely as a statement of facts, and do not regard it as expressing any opinion of mine on any line." Signed by Arthur L. Suthard. Subscribed and sworn to before me this 23d day of October, 1899, Freeman E. Miller, notary public, Stillwater, Payne County, Oklahoma. Editorial: "The 'Christian Church' of to-day represents the church of Christ plead for by Brother Campbell very much as the 'sects' and Rome did in the days of Campbell, and I see no reason why they should not join the 'federation.' If ever there was a sect or an apostate church, the 'Christian Church' of to-day is one, and among all the churches, the 184 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK church of Christ has not a more bitter enemy to-day. It is so here in the town where I am writing these words, and in many other places, as thousands can testify." Primitive Christian, December 16, 1902. SIGNS OF THE LAST DAYS. "Sea and the waves roaring." Luke 21:25. "The tidal disturbances are the most remarkable and exten- sive of which there is any record. It is said their velocity was about a thousand miles an hour. Atlantic and Pacific have been agitated in their whole extent. We mention in particular the tidal waves at Saint Thomas, and all the neigh- boring islands, which were full fifty feet in height. . . . Those who witnessed these waves say that the ocean's roar was ex- ceedingly frightful." New York Tribune, November 12, 1868. "That most horrible phenomena, the tidal wave, how many struggling mortals has it swept back into the deep? What countless ships has it crushed against the shores? * What mighty cities has it plundered of life and wealth, strewing their streets with the ocean sand, and peopling their palaces with sea monsters! I saw the whole surface of the sea rise as if a mountain side actually standing up. Another shock with a fearful roar now took place. I called to my companions to run for their lives on to the pampa. Too late, with a horrible crush the sea was on us, and at one sweep dashed what was Iquique on the pampa. I lost my companions, and in an instant was fighting with the dark waters. The mighty waves surged and roared and leaped. The cries of human beings and animals were frightful." Harper's Magazine, 1869. "These portentous phenomena are seriously engaging the attention of the scientific world. The remark that they only seem to us more frequent because our means of communi- cation are more complete and rapid, and that we now hear from all parts of the globe simultaneously, will not explain the matter, since the late commotions have been attended by disturbances of both land and sea in parts of the earth which have been constantly accessible for centuries, that were totally PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 185 unparalleled in previous history. The change of the gulf stream from its course and the alteration of climates have been some of these increased marvels." New York Mercantile Journal, November, 1868. THE GREAT HURRICANE'S JOURNEY FROM FLORIDA TO EASTERN MAINE. "NEW YORK, August 29. New York was visited by the extreme eastern portion of the storm, which struck the city about 1 o'clock last night with a wind velocity of fifty-four miles per hour. "Never within the memory of the oldest Battery lounger was such a tide seen. The waves carried in by the heavy wind, aided by the strong flood tide, dashed against the sea wall with terrific force. The spray, which would leap twenty feet upward, would be carried by the wind fully 300 feet inshore. "SAVANNAH, GEORGIA, August 29. This city was struck on Sunday evening by one of the worst hurricanes it has ever known. "The hurricane struck the city almost on the anniversary of the great hurricane of 1881. The storm, which has been predicted by the Weather Bureau for several days, began early in the afternoon and increased from then until it reached the climax between 11 and 12 o'clock last night, having blown for eight hours in a terrific hurricane. "All the wharves along the river front and the Ocean Steamship Company, and Savannah, Florida & Western Railroad wharves were under water, and the tide was still rising rapidly. A view of the city at daylight the next morn- ing revealed a scene of wreck and ruin that surpassed that of the great hurricane of 1881. "The wharves are gone, the new fumigation plant which has cost the city so much money is in the bottom of the sea, and nine vessels which were waiting for release to come to the city are high and dry in the marsh and no doubt will be totally wrecked. 186 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK "RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, August 29. Passenger train No. 78, of the Atlantic Coast Line, with Pullman sleepers attached, reached here this evening at 6.50, from Charleston, South Carolina, having been delayed twenty-four hours by the de- structive storm which swept over the South Atlantic coast Sunday and Monday. "J. B. Beddingfield, express messenger, who was in Charles- ton during the storm, says that the battle of wind and rain commenced with terrific force at 1 o'clock Sunday afternoon, and continued without cessation until Monday morning at 7 o'clock. "There was not fifty yards space in the streets that did not contain debris, such as roofs of houses, signs, awnings, tele- graph poles, etc., which were scattered in all directions. The roof of the Saint Charles Hotel was blown off and the streets were flooded with water almost to the doors. "He saw fourteen box cars that had been blown from the railroad track and turned over. All the phosphate works in the city were blown down or badly damaged. There was a schooner lying high in the streets, having been driven from its anchorage." Philadelphia Press, August 30, 1893, THE GULF CALAMITY. "NEW ORLEANS, October 4, 1893. The loss of life caused by the storm will probably reach one thousand. . . . Cheniere Island only five houses left standing out of three hundred, while the land was covered with corpses. Damages estimated at a million dollars. . . . Details almost rival those of the Atlantic hurricane." Philadelphia Ledger, October 5, 1893. EARTHQUAKES. "Earthquakes in divers places." Matthew 24: 7. Mr. D. T. Taylor, in his "Coming Earthquake," quotes from Messrs. Pontors and Mallett, who prepared and arranged chronologically, and distinguished the registered earthquakes into five periods, as follows: PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 187 NO. NO. OF YEARS. AVERAGE. Those recorded before A D 1 58 1700 Thence to the end of the 9th century . . . Thence to the end of the 15th century . . Thence to the end of the 18th century . . Thence to 1850 . 197 532 2804 3240 900 600 300 50 1 in 4 years. 1 in 1 year. 9 in 1 year. Thence to 1868 .' 5000 18 277 in 1 year Saints' Herald, vol. 36, no. 1, pp. 10, 11, January 5, 1890. Burnett, in his Theory of the Earth, remarks: "Let us then proceed in our explication of this sign, the roaring sea and waves, applying it to the end of the world. I do not look upon this ominous noise of the sea as the effect of a tempest; for then it would not strike such terror into the inhabitants of the earth, nor make them apprehensive of some great evil coming upon the world, as this will do. What proceeds from visible causes, and such as may happen in a common course of nature, does not so much amaze or affright us ... And such a troubled state of the waters as does not only make the sea unmanageable, but also strikes terror into all the mari- time inhabitants that live within the view or sound of it."- Truth Defended, -p. 229. "PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, September 16, 1878. To His Excellency, the President of the United States : The con- viction grows deeper with thoughtful men that 'the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land.' On the very threshold, as we had flattered ourselves, of returning pros- perity, we find the whole country plunged into mourning, and the wished for revival of business seriously delayed by the alarming pestilence which ravages our southern borders. This is but the last in a long series of calamities which reaches back to the very beginning of our civil war. That these facts attest the displeasure of the Supreme Ruler of the world against this nation we are profoundly convinced, and also that our only hope of escape from still sorer retributions lies in a diligent inquiry into the causes of God's anger, and in speedy and heartfelt repentance and reformation. That the mind of the people may be turned to these momentous con- 188 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK siderations, and that united prayer for the grace of repentance and for the removal of his heavy judgments may ascend to the Father of Mercies through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we, citizens of Philadelphia and vicinity, respectfully ask you to appoint, in your wisdom, an early and convenient day to be observed by the whole nation as a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer. John Y. Dobbins, president M*. E. Preachers' Meeting; Nathan B. Durell, secretary of the Preachers' Meet- ing; R. Johns, moderator Presbyterian Ministerial Associa- tion ; Charles Brown, secretary Presbyterian Ministerial Asso- ciation ; R. G. Moses, president Baptist Ministerial conference ; J. Newton Ritner, secretary Baptist Ministerial conference; John Alexander, chairman executive committee Sabbath Alli- ance; James Pollock, superintendent U. S. Mint; 0. C. Bos- byshell, coiner U. S. Mint; J. C. Booth, melter and refiner U. S. Mint; Wm. E. DuBois, assayer U. S. Mint; George H. Stuart, Joshua L. Baily, Amos R. Little, and many others." Saints' Herald, vol. 25, p. 3^5; Truth Defended, pp. 226, 227. "The Chicago Tribune, for November 15, 1871, contained the following summary of the calamities for the year: 'The year 1871 will hardly be considered in history a year of grace. In point of fatality to human life, and destruction to material values by extraordinary natural causes, no year in the history of the world can equal it. Overwhelmed as we are by our own disaster, we have given little attention to what has been trans- piring abroad, and have almost come to consider ourselves the only sufferers. The retrospect, however, is a terrible one. War, famine, pestilence, fire, wind and water, and ice have been let loose and done their worst, and with such appalling results, and with such remarkable phenomena accompanying them, that it is not to be wondered at, men have sometimes thought the end of the world had come." Ibid., pp. 230, 231. "EARTHQUAKE IN ITALY. "ROME, April 21, 1.45 p. m. Thirteen earth shocks were felt in succession this morning in the province of Siena, Tus- cany. Several buildings were damaged, including the city hall at Poggibonsi, nineteen miles south of Florence. The PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 189 inhabitants of Poggibonsi were panic stricken." Kansas City Journal, April 22, 1906. "EARTHQUAKE IN SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA. "Summary of Greatest Catastrophe Known in World for Many Years. "OAKLAND, April 18. Two terrific earthquake shocks shook San Francisco this morning, the first one coming at 5 o'clock, the second three hours later. Hundreds of .buildings, mostly in the tenement district, were toppled over. Others were weakened. "Fires immediately broke out in many parts of the busi- ness district and, the fire fighting force being crippled by lack of water, the flames spread rapidly throughout the heart of the city. "At 10 o'clock to-night eight square miles had been burned and the fire was still raging. "The number of dead was estimated from 200 to 500, the injured at 1,000 and the homeless at 20,000. "The property loss, it is believed, already exceeds $100,- 000,000. "Three thousand troops patrol the streets, protecting the banks and the property piled up out of doors. "Most of the principal buildings in the city have been de- stroyed. "The city is cut off from the world by wire, ferry and rail- road. No one was allowed to enter or leave the city, and the only messages sent over the one or two wires working from Oakland were transmitted across the bay by special messenger service." "MANY COAST TOWNS SUFFER HEAVY DAMAGE FROM SHOCK AND FIRE. "Insane asylum at Agnews demolished and inmates buried in ruins; all but one of Leland Stanford University buildings destroyed; Santa Rosa and Salinas each suffer $1,000,000 loss; 190 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK Sacramento, Berkeley and Oakland shaken." The Saint Louis Republic, April 19, 1906. "ONE THOUSAND KILLED. "Jamaica Earthquake Disaster Grows in Horror. "City of Kingston in Ashes. "Every House Within a Ten-Mile Radius Damaged. "90,000 Persons Homeless. "Bodies of Dead Burn in Their Ruined Homes. "Negroes loot rum shops amid ghastly scenes; with money useless, rich and poor face hunger; United States battle ships hurry food to famishing refugees. "SAINT THOMAS, D. W. I., January 16. Reports received here from Jamaica say it is estimated that 1,000 persons have been killed by the earthquake and fire, and that 90,000 per- sons are homeless. The damage to Kingston alone is placed at fully $10,000,000. "Advices received from Jamaica declare that all people have been warned to keep away from Kingston. The stench is described as awful. Money is useless. The banks have been burned, but the vaults are supposed to be safe. The misery on ail sides is indescribable. Rich and poor alike are home- less. Provisions of all kinds are urgently needed. "Sir James Fergusson, vice-chairman of the Royal Mail Steamship Company, is among the killed. The dead are being buried under smoldering ruins. The mercantile community suffered most severely, warehouses falling on them. Many professional men a*re dead or injured. "The negroes are looting. Ghastly scenes are being wit- nessed. All the shops have been destroyed and all the build- ings in and around Kingston are in ruins. "The governor and his party are safe. "It is reported that an extinct volcano in the parish of Portland is showing signs of activity. No news has yet been received from other parts of the island of Jamaica." Kansas City Journal, January 17, 1907. PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 191 "TWO THOUSAND WERE KILLED. "Awful Loss of Life by the Valparaiso Earthquake. "Property Loss Two Hundred and Fifty Million. "Many Large Adjacent Towns are Destroyed. "Eighty-two shocks were felt Thursday night; fire is con- suming what is left of the stricken city; railroads are all destroyed; food is scarce and meat impossible to obtain; nights are cold and people are sleeping in the open ; the catas- trophe is worse than the San Francisco horror; many are killed at Santiago." Kansas City Journal, August 20, 1906. "THE COSTA RICAN EARTHQUAKE THE WORST IN THAT COUNTRY'S HISTORY. "SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA, May 7. As order is partly re- stored and the district stricken by the earthquake of Wednes- day heard from in a direct manner, it is recognized that the country has suffered the greatest catastrophe of its history. While it was first believed that not over one thousand per- sons were killed when the ancient capital, Cartago, was de- stroyed, it is now apparent' that this number will not near cover the casualties. "Aside from the one thousand dead and two thousand in- jured in Cartago news from Paraiso to-night says that one thousand persons were killed there. It is now believed that the entire death roll will amount to at least 2,500. The prop- erty loss may reach thirty million dollars. "Many smaller towns in the mountain districts have not been heard from, but it is feared many of them suffered. The entire country is still near a panic. Pestilence has added to the suffering at Cartago. Of the five hundred bodies re- covered yesterday only a small percentage were buried to-day. "The quake has had a demoralizing effect on the ignorant classes of the people, so that many have turned back toward pagan practices and are erecting altars and offering sac- rifices." The Kansas City Star, Sunday, May 8, 1910. 192 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK FREQUENCY OF EARTHQUAKES ARE INDICATIVE OF LAST DAYS. "THREE DESTRUCTIVE ONES OCCUR WITHIN A YEAR. "That within a single year three earthquakes of sufficient violence to throw down houses and destroy life should have occurred in such close proximity to large cities as to cause the appalling disasters at San Francisco, Valparaiso, and Kingston is certainly remarkable. It is not to be wondered at that this coincidence, for such it must be considered, has given rise to a widespread popular belief that the earth is in a state of unusual instability. It is to be noted, however, that there are thousands of earthquakes each year, and that of these from fifty to seventy-five annually are of sufficient violence to be classed as world-shaking that is to say, of such vigor as to make pronounced records on the seismographs in all parts of the world, and to endanger life and property near the center of the disturbance. There have been no more such shocks than usual during the past year; but three of them have happened to occur near centers of population in the Western Hemisphere. "Most of the violent earthqu'akes pass with little or no public notice, because they produce no noteworthy effect on human beings. For example, the earthquake off the coast of Colombia, January 31, 1906, one of the most violent of the year, attracted almost no attention; yet had it occurred near a city there would inevitably have been terrible destruction. Of all the earthquakes recorded, whether vigorous or moder- ate, the vast majority occur in the two well defined earth- quake belts. Up to 1903 approximately 160,000 earthquakes had been recorded, 94 per cent of which occurred in these two belts. One of the earthquake belts, which nearly encircles the Pacific, and in which lie both San Francisco and Santiago, has been the seat of 53 per cent of all recorded earthquakes. The other belt, in which Jamaica lies, extends nearly east and west, including the East and West Indies, the Mediterranean, and the Caucasus and Himalayan regions. It is a noteworthy and significant fact that the Panama canal zone lies in this PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 193 belt. In it 41 per cent of all recorded earthquakes have oc- curred." Leslie's Weekly. "TOWN WIPED OUT. "Bellevue, a Texas Village, Destroyed by Tornado. "At Least Eleven Killed. "Fire Followed the Tornado and Consumed the Ruins. "Only three houses out of two hundred remain standing; town of Stoneburg struck also and several persons said to have been killed there." Kansas City Journal, April .27, 1906. "TORNADOES KILL FOURTEEN. "Deal Death and Destruction in Northern Texas. "Partly Wreck Five Towns. "One Hundred People Injured, Some Fatally. "FORT WORTH, TEXAS, May 25. Town residences, farm buildings and crops destroyed and live stock killed; sweep swath two hundred yards wide through villages." Kansas City Journal, May 26, 1907. "A SMALL TWISTER IN KANSAS. "No One Injured, but Some Damage in Jefferson County. "PERRY, KANSAS, April 28. A tornado swept a tract three miles long and one half mile wide last night between Oska- loosa and Perry, in Jefferson County. "Fences, trees, and sheds on the farms of A. Hart, Frank Hebbe, and William Patterson were lowered, and the resi- dence of Charles Young was damaged. It is not known that anyone was injured." Kansas City Star, April 29, 1906. PAST DISASTERS AT SEA. "THE FRENCH LINER 'LA BOURGOYNE' WENT DOWN SIX YEARS AGO TO-DAY. "The loss of the Norge comes on the eve of the anniversary of the sinking of the French liner La Bourgoyne, July 4, 1898, which had stood out as the most appalling sea tragedy 194 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK of modern times. The Bourgoyne was in collision with the British ship Cromarty shire, sixty miles south of Sable Island. The accident happened at 5 o'clock in the morning, a time when practically all the passengers were asleep in their berths. Of the 734 on board the Bourgoyne, 535 were drowned or killed. Of the 217 first and second cabin passengers 206 were lost. "The next previous great shipping disaster occurred March 7, 1897, when the French line steamship Ville de Saint Na- zaere, bound from New York to Port Au Prince and carrying a crew of seventy men and ten passengers, ran into a terrific storm off Cape Hatteras, took fire and went down. Only twenty-nine hands got away from the vessel. "In June, 1897, the steamer Aden, bound from Yokohama to London, was lost off the island of Gocotia, east of Africa, and seventy-eight hands were lost. Another great tragedy was the loss of the North German Lloyd steamer Elbe, on the morning of January 30, 1895. Of the 350 passengers and crew on the Elbe only twenty were saved in one of the boats, which was picked up by a fishing smack the following evening. "The Hamburg-American Packet Company's steamship Pomerania, from New York for Hamburg, was sunk in the English channel, off Dover, at midnight November 25, 1878, by a collision with a British bark. Every member of the crew got safely away, but the forty-seven passengers were drowned. April 2, 1873, the White Star steamer Atlantic, from Liverpool to New York, was wrecked on Mars Heads, Cape Prospect, near Halifax. Five hundred and forty-six persons perished. The steamship Hungarian of the Montreal Steamship Company foundered in a storm February 20, 1860, on Cape Ledge, near Halifax. Two hundred and five persons, including all the officers, were drowned. "Thrilling is the story of the sinking of the Arctic, in colli- sion with the Vesta, in mid-ocean in September,. 1854. The Arctic was the crack ship of the Collins line. It was a paddle wheel steamer, the Vesta a screw steamer. Of the 400 passen- PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 195 gers on the Arctic 323 were lost." Kansas City Times, July 4, 1904. "Tidal wave sweeps an island off Florida and kills 325 persons. Hurricane at Havana, cost twenty lives and does $2,000,000 damage on the Island of Cuba. The United States cruiser Brooklyn grounded. Two thousand American soldiers suffered and two are seriously hurt. Central America is ravaged by storms lasting ten days." Saint Louis, Missouri, Republic, October 22, 1906. "Hundreds plunge to death. Rock Island train goes into Cimarron River, in Oklahoma. The loss of life has been frightful according to reports. Only six passengers saved. Estimated that two hundred and twenty-five were drowned. Engine and all the cars are submerged in swollen waters. No names can now be given. All is confusion at scene of the frightful disaster." The Topeka State Journal, September 18, 1906. RAILROAD WRECKS. YEAR. KILLED. INJURED. 1895 - 6,136 33,748 1896 5,845 38,687 1897 6,437 36,731 1898 6,859 40,882 1899 7,123 44,620 1900 7,865 50,320 1901 8,455 53,339 1902 8,588 64,662 1903 9,840 76,553 1904 10,000 76,000 New York Herald, 1904, quoted from the Autumn Leaves. "IS CHRISTIAN SCIENCE THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST? "We answer no; but find that some of the most prominent representatives of that faith do claim that Christian Science is the second coming of Christ to earth. "In a letter to the writer dated Boston, Massachusetts, 196 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK June 13, 1898, Rev. S. J. Hanna said in answer to the ques- tion: 'Christian Scientists have no doubt this is the Second Coming.' This Reverend Hanna was, for many years, editor of the Christian Science Journal and First Reader of the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston. "A similar question had been sent to Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Christian Science Church, and in reply she directed her secretary, Calvin A. Frye, to write from Concord, New Hampshire, April 21, 1895, as follows: 'I am requested to say in the words of scripture, "Go and tell John the things ye see and hear; the sick are healed, the deaf hear, the lame walk, etc., and blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me." ' "Kind reader, take your Bible and turn to Matthew 11: 1-6 and Luke 7: 19-23, and you will have no doubt but what Mrs. Eddy would have every reader of those texts, and her letter referred to above, to know that she is positive that Christian Science is the second coming of Christ. "Mr. Ezra W. Reid, a prominent writer and defender of Mrs. Eddy's claims as a restorer or discoverer, is the author of a leading article on the Second Coming of Christ in the October, (1897) Christian Science Journal of Boston. Mr. Reid refers to several religious societies as having taught the second coming of Christ, but having all failed in their expecta- tions, it was left to Mrs. Eddy to present to the world the glorious coming of the Lord in what she proudly advocates as Christian Science. "Reverend Reid says: 'We can not, within the limits of this article, enter into the discussion of the various beliefs of these people, their differences, and the mathematical, chrono- logical, and historical arguments which prove the time of the second advent; suffice it to say, that from 1843 to 1873 there was quite a widespread expectation that it would occur within that period. In fact, many eminent English standard writers and commentators fixed upon the year 1866 as the year which would bring the Lord and his kingdom. This date is one which especially interests Christian Scientists. . . . Was it co-incidental that Christian Science should have been dis- PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 197 covered in the year 1866? As indicated in the above quotation, there is no reason for expecting that the beginning of the new dispensation should be so very different from the years preceding it, that is from the standpoint of mortal man. Are not all of God's works performed through the still small voice? It was in this manner, and in this year of 1866, that Rev. Mary Baker Eddy discovered Christian Science, which, from the testimony of Jesus and the apostles, we feel sure is the second coming of Christ. . . . The kingdom has come, and as the light which is all diffused, is the presence of the Christ.' "Mr. Reid also said: 'It was the Christ of whom Jesus was the "highest human corporeal concept" . . . who was to come again after the gospel parenthesis; but when Jesus ascended from the Mount of Olives, he laid aside for ever the flesh body and "henceforth know we him no more after the flesh." ' "It seems strange that anyone capable of reading the Bible would believe and support a religious theory so wholly adverse to the true mission of the blessed Lord as that advocated by so-called Christian Scientists. We must conclude that the wisdom of that church is no wiser than its founder, Mrs. Eddy. "A very instructive account of Christian (?) Science (?) will be found in the Saints' Herald of December 20, 1899. It is well worth rereading. "C. J. HUNT." Zion's Ensign, December 29, 1904. This statement indicates that we have reached our golden mean theologically, and are on the decline: "DECLINE IN NUMBER OF DIVINITY STUDENTS. "The decline in the number of divinity students is by no means confined to the English speaking race. For the past twenty years, in Germany there has been a steady decrease in the number of those who enter the divinity schools of the universities. Statistics recently published go to show that the total number of students of all faculties has during the past 198 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK twenty years risen from 27,245 to 42,390, and shows a rela- tively larger increase than the population. Law, medicine and philosophy have all flourished as the population has increased, but theology has steadily declined. Twenty years ago, there were 2,610 divinity students. Ten years ago the number had dropped to 1,627, while five years ago it had further fallen to 1,042. To-day the number is only 993, or a little over a third of what it was twenty years ago. This decrease is not peculiar to any one school, but affects all the divinity schools, from Berlin to Erlangen and Griefswald. To account for this is not a very difficult matter. Many may say that the falling off is due to the openings for brilliant careers constantly occurring in other directions. For ourselves, we believe it is entirely due to the decay of faith in the German universi- ties. The teacher's rostrum may be occupied by a man of brilliant gifts and profound learning, but if he have no faith, his class room is robbed of both light and heat. When skep- ticism masquerades as advanced Christian thought, we are not surprised if the class rooms are empty." Episcopal Re- corder. . (Quoted from Our Hope, Mendota, Illinois, May 23, 1906.) "THE CHURCH LOSING POWER. "Opinion of Bishop William Lawrence at Boston. "Doubtful if It Is Keeping Pace with the Population, He Says; the Commercial and Material Life's Strong Hold on the People. "BOSTON, May 13. At the 118th annual convention of the Episcopal Church in the diocese of Massachusetts here to-day, Bishop William Lawrence in his address said: " 'So far as statistics can show, it is doubtful if the church is more than keeping pace with the population. The ministry is not apparently increasing in numbers or power. A great proportion of the intelligent men and leaders of our communi- ties have no interest in the church. There is a great mass of fine character and of Christian temper outside the church. Infidelity, sincere and insincere, is all about us. " 'More than that, the interest in commercial, material, "PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 199 social, and intellectual life is gaining a stronger hold on the people. The tests of life among many are in social and finan- cial success. Sport and amusement have made great inroads on our Sunday congregations. " 'Below all these influences are the lower standards of taste and the grosser immoralities. The power of strong drink has its clutch upon our cities, their people and govern- ment; lust is firmly intrenched; gambling is unsettling habits of industry; many forms of temptation are undermining the characters of hosts of youth. All these influences are potent enemies of the Christian faith.' "In view of such conditions, the bishop deprecated the dis- cussion now going on in diocesan conventions of the question whether the name of the church should be changed, and con- cluded thus: " The truth is, my brethren, that there is one thing that we all in this church do need bishops, clergy and laity and that is a more personal revision of our responsibility to God and a closer abiding in his presence.' " Kansas City Times, May 14, 1903. INSPIRATION WANTING. "New York Arena, pages 190, 191: So long as they appeal to the inspiration of the past for all authority, disclaim any right of their own to speak in the name of Jehovah, teach that revelation is finished and sealed up, so long they will go halting and their words be well nigh powerless. While they need not assume a boastful spirit, yet they should have wrought within their souls a conviction of the truths they utter, should feel that these truths are from God and that in expressing them they speak for God. They should, moreover, teach the possibility of present-day prophets and prepare the people to receive them. Let this be done, and then, when a new prophet arises, he will be quickly understood. . . . To-day the cry comes to the clergy of America as never before, Prepare ye the way of the Lord" Saints' Herald, September 3, 1902. 200 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK BABIES OUT OF HELL. Rev. Dr. George L. McNutt said: "The Presbysterian Church let the babies out of hell a few years ago; or rather, they confessed that the babies had never been there." Farm- ington, Iowa, Chautauqua, July 23, 1905. (Supplied by Elder Elbert A. Smith.) "BABIES RELEASED FROM HADES, SAYS BISHOP. "SYRACUSE, NEW YORK, May 21. Bishop P. A. Ludden, of the Roman Catholic Church, made the following comment yesterday upon the revised Presbyterian confession before the general assembly in New York: " 'On behalf of all the infants who have been in hell for two hundred and fifty years I wish to express gratification that they are to be let out. All those who are to come will be grateful to their friends that they are not to meet the same awful fate. These poor people are coming back to the mother church which they left years ago. " 'As to the Pope: Well, I don't see that they have changed his position any. They called him an anti-Christ. It was exceedingly kind of them, exceedingly kind.' " Farmers' Trib- une, May 20, 1902. "THEOLOGICAL CEMETERIES." Dr. Austin K. Deblois said: "Our theological seminaries should be called, theological cemeteries. They are places where young men go to be buried." Farmington, Iowa, Chau- tauqua, July 23, 1905. (Supplied by Elder Elbert A. Smith.) SULTAN OPENS TURKEY TO JEWISH COLONISTS. "CONSTANTINOPLE, March 3, 1906. The Sultan has opened the gates of Palestine to the wandering children of Israel, by signing an edict permitting them to establish themselves in any part of the Ottoman Empire. "As a sign of protest against the cruel treatment of Rus- sia toward the Jews, the Sultan ordered the officers at the different boundaries of the empire to allow the Jew entrance with or without passports. The Russian Zionists sent a PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 201 delegation to Turkey and Egypt to prepare everything for a systematic emigration from the Czar's empire into the new land of promise." Saint Louis, Missouri, Post-Dispatch, Sun- day, March 4, 1906. "CONSTANTINOPLE, August 1, 1906. The influx of Jews into Palestine during the last few months has been remarkable. "Some weeks ago about 5,000 Jewish immigrants from Russia and the Balkan States landed at Jaffa. They are settling in the plain of Sharon, round the towns of Ramleh and Lydda and in other Jewish colonies along the seacoast. ... It is a noteworthy fact that some of the most fertile districts of Palestine are possessed by Jewish colonists. The Jews are repossessing the land by degrees, and should this quick rate of possession continue, the whole country will in a few years belong entirely to them. Post-Dispatch, Saint Louis, Missouri. RETURN OF THE JEWS. "Rev. R. H. Hershall, by birth and honor a Jew, having extensively visited his brethren in Europe and Asia, and heard in their synagogues, their confessions of sin and their earnest cries unto the Lord in the land of their dispersion, says : "I found a mighty change in their minds and feelings in regard to the nearness of the time of their deliverance. Some assigned one reason, some another, but all agreed in thinking the time is at hand." Page 360. Hand of God in History, by Rev. Hollis Read, A. M., pub- lished in 1870, p. 348: "There is much at present in their civil condition that indicates the returning favor of heaven. Nothing decisive or permanent was done to remove the dis- abilities of the Jews till the beginning of the present century. ... In England, a single ray of light darted above the horizon, but was soon extinguished. An act passed in Parliament (1753) , in favor of the Jewish emancipation, but was repealed the next year; and not until the year 1830 was the question renewed, and then only to be lost. Yet in the same year a bill in their favor was carried in France." On page 352, he says: "Fifty years ago every Jew in the 202 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK Turkish Empire might have been slaughtered, and no great sensation produced anywhere. But now, so changed is public feelings towards the Jews that let the foot of oppression attempt to crush them, or the bloody mouth of persecution to devour them, and ten thousand voices are raised in one general remonstrance." "The 'pillar of cloud and of fire' has long turned its dark side towards them, and God has treated them as aliens and enemies; and now that the light side is beginning to shine on them, we may indulge the delightful hope that God's former love is about to return. . . . Recent religious and intellectual movements among them indicate that the day of their redemp- tion is near. The Jewish mind is everywhere awake. Never was there among them such a spirit of inquiry. A few facts will illustrate. . . . Some are anxiously looking for the speedy restoration of their nation to their beloved Palestine; others expect the immediate advent of the Messiah; others doubt whether he be already come." Page 353. From Jewish Chronicle, (London, England,) of 1854, we select as follows: "Why should not the springs and brooks flow from the hills of Judea as freely as from the hills of Ephraim and Samaria? In form and composition they are the same; and, what is in their favor in this respect, they are larger and more in number. But they do not. Water is their greatest want. Much more artificial irrigation is needed here than further north. It is this dryness and heat of the soil that makes this part of the country so much more adapted to vines and figs than farther north. These thrive best in a hot and dry soil. "The Israelites were often threatened by Moses and the prophets, that in case of disobedience, 'the rain should be withheld.' If they were withheld, they must, of course be shortened in duration. Now the rains that fell in the latter part of the rainy season, and especially those that fell after the usual period for them to cease, were called 'the latter rains.' These occasional showers, if continued through the time of the ripening fruit and grain, would add greatly PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 203 to their abundance and perfection. The withholding of them would have the contrary effect. The withholding of the 'latter rains,' and the promise of their return, are things often spoken of in scripture. These latter rains have been withheld century after century, till the land has been brought to the state that we now [1854 C. S.] find it; and there can be but little doubt that the return of these rains again will be the means that God will employ to restore the land to its ancient fruitfulness. "If we had no scripture to bear us out in this opinion, we should be well assured of it, from the well-known scientific fact that all soils require a certain amount of rain to carry on the decomposition of mineral matter in sufficient quantities for the annual supply of the crops. This is especially necessary in such a geological formation as the land of Palestine. So we see there is no physical obstacle in the way, for God has the means close at hand, whenever the time for him to do it comes. For this event we can all adopt one of the expressions in a Jewish prayer 'The Lord hasten it even in our day.' And one fact there is, that I will mention, that looks somewhat as though this prayer might be answered "even in our day.' For since the efforts that are now making for the improvement and settlement of the Jews in Palestine commenced, the rains have fallen more than they have for many an age before. No question is more often asked respecting this land than, What can be done to reclaim it from its barrenness? I know not that a better answer can be given than this cultivate it, and trust the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob for the 'former and latter rains.' " Jewish Chronicle, October 13, 1854; also Millennial Star, vol. 16, October 23, 1854. "The late Russian embassador at the court of Rome, de- clared that 'throughout the vast dominion of Germany and Poland, there is a general movement of inquiry, and a longing expectation abroad, that something will take place to restore them to the land of their fathers.' Rev. T. Grimshawe says: 'A vast number of Jews are preparing to emigrate from Germany and Poland to settle in Palestine; while throughout the whole of Europe and Asia a general expectation is raised 204 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK among them that the ^me of their deliverance is drawing near. Throughout Italy the same uneasiness and expectation may be observed/ This movement of the Jews towards Palestine, whatever may be thought of it as an evidence of a literal restoration, is at least indicative of a state of mind not to be overlooked in our present discussion." Page 356. "Rev. Mr. Bellson, a converted Jew and missionary in Posen, and late candidate for the bishopric in Jerusalem: 'I am more than ever,' says he, 'impressed that the Jews are hastening to a great crisis. It must be evident to any common observer that there is a great movement among them. This wonderful people, who for eighteen hundred years remained unaltered, have undergone a marvelous revolution within the last forty years, especially within the last twenty.'" Page 357. (Quoted from Saints' Herald, March 7, 1898, p. 158.) "The first act in the modern emancipation of the Jews was the enfranchisement of the Jews in England in 1753." Kellog, p. 160. "In the year 1755 Moses Mendelssohn, a student of great culture and almost boundless influence over his people, pub- lished the first of his writings, which prepared his people for the great change that was about to dawn upon them. In 1874 Louis XVI of France abolished the 'body tax,' which re- duced the Jews as far as possible to the level of beasts. In 1787 Frederick William of Prussia repealed many of the oppressive laws against the Jews. In 1788 Louis XVI ap- pointed a royal commission to remodel, on principles of justice, all laws concerning the Jews. When the French revolution arose the emancipation of the Jews in France became complete, and as it spread over Europe there went with it everywhere the proclamation of liberty to the Jews." Kellog, p. 198. "Eighteen centuries of war, ruin and neglect, have passed over it. Its valleys have been cropped for ages without the least attempt at fertilization. Its terraced walls have been allowed to crumble, and its soil has washed down its ravines, leaving the hillsides rocky and sterile. Its trees have been cut down and never replaced. Its fields have been desolate. PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 205 Its structures pillaged and all its improvements ruthlessly destroyed. A land of ruins without man or beast. Every- where, on plain or mountain, in rock desert, or on beetling cliff, the spoiler's hand has rested." McClintock and Strong's Encyclopedia, Article, "Palestine." "The beauty and fertility of the Holy Land, so much cele- brated in ancient times both by sacred and profane writers, are scarcely discernible in its present 'desolate and neglected condition. The culture of its finest plains has long ceased. Its springs are buried beneath heaps of rubbish. The soil of the mountains, formerly kept up by terraces and covered with vines, is washed down into the valleys. And its emi- nences, once covered with woods, have been stripped bare, and parched into barrenness. This melancholy change is not owing to any deterioration of the soil or of the climate, but to the degeneracy of the inhabitants, who groan under the most intolerable oppression, and are exposed to every kind of pillage." Edinburgh Encyclopedia, David Brewster, edition of 1830, volume 16, page 274, article "Palestine." "I know not whether you are aware of the fact, but it is one that is fully authenticated, that the 'latter rain' returned last year to Mount Zion a rain, that had been withheld, so far as our information goes, ever since the dispersion of the people; and he who has brought back the 'latter rain' in its season, will also give the 'former rain' in its season ; and these returning showers of earthly blessings are the harbingers of returning showers of spiritual benedictions from on high." Rev. Hugh Stowel, in Scottish Presbyterian Magazine, 1853. "I arrived in Indiana a few days since, from the Eastern Continent; I stopped at Joppa nearly the whole winter. For my part I was well' pleased with the country. It is certainly a land of most wonderful fruitfulness with a delightsome climate, producing everything if properly cultivated, and from two to three crops in a year. They have grain, fruit and vegetables all the year round; in fact, I never was in such a country before; I have seen much 206 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK good country in Europe and America, but none to com- pare with Palestine; its fruitfulness is uncommon, and the climate the most delightsome, even in winter. I did not see the least sort of frost, and vegetables of every sort were growing to perfection in gardens. It is a fact that the rain and dew are restored; recently (in 1853), the former and latter rain were restored, to the astonishment of the natives." Louis Van Buren, sr., November 14, A. D. -1867. "At present the Jews are coming here by the hundreds. . . . A half a century ago there were only thirty-two Jewish families in all Jerusalem, and the number in Palestine was only three thousand; now there are nearly fifty thousand in the Holy Land, and three fourths of the population is made up of them." F. G. Carpenter, writing from Jerusalem, June 15, 1889, in National Tribune. "Everywhere, from Dan to Bersheba, I saw evidences of Jewish return and the renewed energy and activity of the Jewish race. As a people the Jews are flocking back to the land of their forefathers in great numbers and from all parts of Europe. In Jerusalem and its neighborhood particularly, every plot of ground for sale is eagerly bought by them. Correspondent of the London Times, 1875. The products of the soil range from peas, beans, wheat and barley to grapes, figs, olives and apricots. Lemons, oranges, dates and melons are abundant. Average annual rainfall at Jerusalem is sixty inches. (Our own Atlantic seaboard is only forty-five inches. Pacific, same climate as Palestine, only twenty-five.) Herzog's Encyclopedia, Article, "Palestine." "They have grain, fruit, and vegetables all the year round; in ... Palestine; its fruitfulness is uncommon, and the cli- mate the most delightsome; ... It is a fact that the rain and dew are restored; recently, in 1853, the former and the latter rain were restored, to the astonishment of the natives." Presidency and Priesthood, pp. 216, 217. * CHRISTIANS ARE NOT ALL PRIESTS. Webster says of the priesthood: "The order of men set apart for sacred offices." PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 207 WATERFALL IN PALESTINE. On pages 22 and 23, Mr. Glaisher says: "The average annual fall of rain, which is shown at the foot of the last column, is 25.87 inches, being very nearly the same as the fall in London, though the annual fluctuations are very much greater. "By taking the annual falls and laying them down as a diagram the results can be seen at a glance. The first thing noticeable is the evident increase in the fall of rain in the later years of the series. Up to the year 1878 no fall of rain had reached 30 inches, the nearest approach being 29.75 inches in 1874; but in the diagram in the years from 1878 to 1897 the points in twelve years, viz: 1878, 1880, 1883, 1886, 1888, 1890, 1891, 1892, 1893, 1894, 1896, and 1897, were all well above 30 inches. . . . "By taking the means of the annual falls in four parts, viz: the ten years from 1861 to 1870, ten years from 1871 to 1880, ten years, 1881 to 1890, and eleven years from 1891 to 1901, the means of the four periods were found to be: "In the 10 years, 1861 to 1870 21.84 inches. "In the 10 yea.rs, 1871 to 1880 24.61 inches. "In the 10 years, 1881 to 1890 27.69 inches. "In the 11 years, 1891 to 1901 29.03 inches. "Therefore the mean fall in the second period was 2.77 inches larger than the first, in the third 3.08 inches larger than in the second, and in the fourth period 1.34 inches larger than in the third. This is very remarkable, for it shows that the yearly fall of rain, though not distributed over a greater number of days than was the case at the be- ginning of the series, becomes larger with each succeeding period. "PAUL M. HANSON." Saints' Herald, April 4, 1906. (Letter was dated at Jeru- salem, Palestine, February 27, 1906.) Prof. J. Leslie Porter, M. A., who visited those regions forty years ago: "On emerging from Bashan and the olive groves of Gaza, the desert was before us bare, white, and 208 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK monotonous, without a solitary tree, or 'the shadow of a great rock/ or a single patch of verdure. As we rode on we had overhead the bright sky and blazing sun; and beneath, the flinty soil, reflecting burning rays that scorched the weeds and stunted camel-thorn, and made them crackle like charred sticks under our horses' feet. As the day advanced, the sirocco came upon us, blowing across the great 'Wilderness of Wandering.' At first it was but a faint breath, hot and parching, as if coming from a furnace. It increased slowly and steadily. Then a thick haze of a dull yellow or brass color, spreading along the southern horizon, and advanced, rising and expanding, until it covered the whole face of the sky, leaving the sun, a red globe of fire, in the midst. In a few minutes, fine impalpable sand began to drift in our faces, entering every pore. Nothing could exclude it. It blew in our eyes, mouths, and nostrils, and penetrated our very clothes, causing the skin to contract, the lips to crack, and the eyes to burn. Respiration became difficult. We sometimes gasped for breath; and then the hot wind and hotter sand rushed into our mouths like a stream of liquid fire. We tried to urge on our horses, but though chafing against curb and rein only an hour before, they were now almost insensible to whip and spur. We looked and longed for shelter from that pitiless storm, and for water to slake our burning thirst; but there was none. No friendly house was there; no rock or bank; no murmuring stream or solitary well. It seemed to us as if the prophetic curse pronounced by the Almighty on a sinful and apostate nation was now being fulfilled." Giant Cities- of Bashan, p. 210. Dr. Alexander Keith says: "By the concurring testi- mony of all travelers, Judea is called a field of ruins. Columns, the memorials of ancient magnificence, covered with rubbish, and buried under ruins, may be found in all Syria. . . . How marvelously are the predictions of desolation verified, when in general nothing but ruined ruins form the most distinguished remnants of the cities of Israel, and when the multitude of its towns are almost all left, with many a vestige PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 209 to testify of their number, but without a mark to tell their name." Evidences from Prophecy, p. 93. COLONIES IN PALESTINE. Jewish Encyclopedia, volume 1, page 246, 1904 A. D., say that in Palestine there are twenty-seven colonies, distributed as follows: 1. In the land of Judah 9 colonies occupy 9,254 acres. 2. In Samaria 8 colonies occupy 16,129 acres. 3. Upper Galilee 8 colonies occupy 19,047 acres. 4. Trans Jordan, Damascus different societies own and control 16,507. Prophetic conference, held at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, July 15, 1895, in charge of the Presbyterian, United Presbyterian, Baptist, and Methodist denominations, said: "Another sign is the return of the Jews to Palestine. There are more of them there now than there were after the return from the Babylonian captivity. ... A sign which is undeniably miracu- lous, too, is that Palestine is again becoming fruitful, after years of desolation, during which scarcely anything would grow. It was under a curse and the curse is now being lifted." Chicago Inter-Ocean, -August 17, 1895. Christian Evangelist: "We have noted the completion of the railway from Joppa to Jerusalem. This is apparently only the beginning of a new era for Palestine. The land that has been buried in slumber for eighteen hundred years is awaken- ing. ... Is Palestine to enter upon a new era of prosperity? That now seems probable." January 19, 1893. M. A. Beck says: "Of late years, there has been a very remarkable confluence of the Jews towards Palestine. . . . But ever since 1832, when Mehemet AH took possession of Assyria, there has been a remarkable flocking of the Jews to Palestine. The precise number of them at present (1842) in the Holy Land is estimated to amount to about forty thou- sand." History of the Jews, published 1843, pp. 285-288. 210 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK New York Evening Post, May 22, 1901: "In Jerusalem there are now electric lights, telephones, phonographs, sani- tary plumbing, modern stores, houses built with 'a. m. i.,' and in short, most of the comforts of civilized life." Christian Herald of September 8, 1897: "The restoration of the Jews to their own land was one of the signs by which we were to recognize the days of the closing dispensation." MRS. E. G. WHITE'S VIEW ON THE JEWS GATHERING BACK TO THE HOLY LAND. Mrs. E. G. White said: "September 23 the Lord showed me that he had stretched out his hand the second time to recover the remnant of his people, and that efforts must be redoubled in this gathering. . . . Then I was pointed to some who are in the great error of believing that it is their duty to go to Old Jerusalem, and think they have a work to do there before the Lord comes. Such a view is calculated to take the mind and interest from the present work of the Lord, under the message of the third angel; for those who think they are yet to go to Jerusalem, will have their minds there, and their means will be withheld from the cause of present truth. I saw that such a mission would accomplish no real good, and it would take a long time to make a very few Jews believe even in the first advent of Christ, much more to believe in his second advent. I saw that Satan had greatly deceived some in this thing, and that souls all around them in this land could be helped by them, and led to keep the commandments of God, but they were leaving them to perish. ... I also saw that Old Jerusalem never would be built up; and that Satan was doing his utmost to lead the minds of the children of the Lord into these things now, in the gathering time to keep them from throwing their whole interest into the present work of the Lord, and to cause them to neglect the necessary prepa- ration for the day of the Lord." Experiences and Views, and Spiritual Gifts, vol. 1, pp. 63-65. (The foregoing was fur- nished by Elder F. G. Pitt.) PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 211 PRIESTHOOD. Buck, in his Theological Dictionary, says: "A person set apart for the performance of sacrifice, and other offices and ceremonies of religion." Page 369. "Smith, in his Bible Dictionary, says: "The idea of a priesthood connects itself, in all its forms, pure or corrupted, with the consciousness, more 'or less distinct, of sin. Men feel that they have broken a law. The power above them is holier than they are and they dare not approach it. They crave for the intervention of some one of whom they can think as likely to be more acceptable than themselves. He must offer up their prayers, thanksgivings, sacrifices. He becomes their representative 'in things pertaining unto God.' He may become also (though this does not always follow) the representative of God to man. The functions of priest and prophet may exist in the same person." Page 763. Bingham says: "When his (God's) ministers are to be distinguished from the rest of his people in the church, then the name clerici, or clergy, was their appropriate title, and the name of the other, laymen. And this observation will help to set another sort of persons right, who confound not only the names, but the offices of laity and clergy together; and plead that originally there was no distinction between them. The name of priesthood indeed is sometimes given in common to the whole body of Christian people (1 Peter 2:9; Revela- tion 1:6), but so it was to the Jewish people (Exodus 19: 6) : 'Ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation'; yet everyone knows that the offices of priests and Levites among the Jews were very distinct from those of the com- mon people, not by usurpation, but by God's appointment. And so it was among the Christians, from the first founda- tion of the church." Ant. Chris. Church, vol. 1, p. 13. Edi- tion of 1875, book 1, chap. 5. Again: "Tertullian says it was customary among heretics to confound the offices of the clergy and laity together." Ibid., p. 14. Again: "Saint Jerome observes, 'They (the early Chris- 212 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK tians) reckoned that to be no church which had no priests" Ibid., p. 14. Again: "Saint Jerome, who will be allowed to speak the sense of the ancients, . . . says, that both in the Old and New Testament the high priests are an order, the priests another, and the Levites another." Ibid., p. 17, book 2, chap. 1. Again: "These allegations' are sufficient evidences as to matter of fact, and the practice of the church in the first three ages, that there was then an order of chief priests, or bishops, superior to the presbyters, settled and allowed in the Christian church." Ibid., p. 18. Eusebius, on priesthood in the primitive Christian church, says: "Polycrates, (who was bishop) of the Church of Ephesus, says: 'John who rested upon the bosom of our Lord, who also was a priest and bore the sacerdotal (priestly) plate.' "Pages 194-196. Of Origen he says: "He had not yet obtained the priest- hood by the laying on of hands." Page 226. "At this time, Origen, being compelled by some necessary affairs of the church, went to Greece by way of Palestine, where he received the ordination to the priesthood at Cesa- rea, from the bishops of that country." Ibid., p. 229. High priest: "Melchisedec . . . was not the solitary occu- pant of that dignity, but one in succession." Marvelous Dis- coveries in Bible Lands, p. 40. "John the Baptist was of the priestly race by both parents. . . . John was ordained to be a Nazarite from his birth." Smith Dictionary, p. 422. "Officers there must be while there are offices, or services to be performed. ... So long also as the Christian body is an organized body having many services to perform, it must have organs or officers by which to enjoy itself and operate on society." Christian System, p. 78, Cincinnati, Ohio, edition; Saint Louis edition, p. 83. PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 213 PROPHETS AND MIRACLES. "Justin Martyr," says Mr. Wesley, "who wrote about fifty years after apostles, says: 'There are prophetic gifts among us until now.' You may see with us both women and men having gifts from the Spirit of God. He particularly insists on that of casting out devils, as whatever one might see with his own eyes. Ireanaeus who wrote somewhat later, affirms: 'that all who were truly disciples of Jesus wrought miracles in his name; some cast out devils; others had visions of the knowledge of future events.' " Church History, page 143, says: "Though the miraculous dispensations attendant on Christianity form no part of the plan of this history, I can not but observe on this occasion, how stiongly their continuance in the third century is here attested. Pinions affirms that devils were first ejected by Christians in the name of Christ, and he does this in the face of enemies, who would have been glad of the shadow of an argument to justify their bitterness, resentment and perfidy." American Baptist, January 6, 1892: "The Hebrew root which is translated prophet in our Bible, signifies the act of pouring forth or uttering and is applied to one who speaks for God, not only in his name and by his authority, but under his influence and by divine inspiration. A prophet, therefore, was one who spake for God, foretelling future events, de- claring God's will or expounding what had already been revealed." American Baptist, of January 14, 1892, says, quoting from Doctor Schaff: "In the second and third centuries . . . the apostles, prophets and evangelists disappeared." Then they were continued longer than John the Revelator. Why did they not last longer than the second and third centuries? Let Mosheim and Milner answer. John Wesley says: "For the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets but what enthusiast considers this? The impulses of the Holy Spirit, even in men really inspired, so suit themselves to their rational faculties, as not to divest them of the government of themselves, like the heathen priests 214 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK under their diabolical possessions. Evil spirits threw their prophets into such ungovernable ecstacies, as forced them to speak and act like madmen. But the Spirit of God left his prophets the clear use of their judgment, when and how long it was fit for them to speak, and never hurried them into any improprieties, either as to the matter, manner, or time of speaking." Notes on 1 Corinthians 14: 39; p. 440. DEGREES OF INSPIRATION. Doctor Buck says, that inspiration is "the conveying of cer- tain extraordinary and supernatural notions or motives into the soul, or it denotes any supernatural influence of God upon the mind of a rational creature, whereby he is formed to any degree of intellectual improvement, to which he could not or would not, in fact have attained in his present circumstances in a natural way. And thus the prophets are said to have spoken by divine inspiration. "1. An inspiration of superintendency, in which God does so influence and direct the mind of any person, as to keep him more secure from error in some various and complex dis- course, than he would have been merely by the use of his natural faculties. "2. Plenary superintendency inspiration, which excludes any mixture of error at all from the performance so superintended. "3. Inspiration of elevation, where the faculties act in a regular, and, as it seems, a common manner, yet are raised to an extraordinary degree, so that composure shall, upon the whole, have more of the true sublime, or pathetic, than natural genius could have given. 4. Inspiration of suggestion, where the use of the faculties is superseded, and God does, as it were, speak directly to the mind, making such discoveries to it as it could not otherwise have obtained, and dictating the very words in which such discoveries are to be communicated, if they are designed as a message to others." Page 196. PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 215 URIM AND THUMMIM. Smith, in his Dictionary of the Bible, says: "In what way the Urim and Thummim were consulted is quite uncertain. Josephus and the Rabbins supposed that the stones gave out the oracular answer by prenatural illumination. But it seems to be far simpler, and more in agreement with the different account of inquiries made by Urim and Thummim (1 Samuel 14: 3, 18, 19; 2: 4, 9, 11, 12; 28: 6; Judges 20: 28; 2 Samuel 5: 23, etc.), to suppose that the answer was given simply by the word of the Lord to the high priest (compare John 11: 51) , when he had inquired of the Lord, clothed with the Ephod and Breastplate." Page 723. Comment by Whitson on Josephus, says: "The answers by the oracle of Urim and Thummim, which words signify light and perfection, or as the Septuagint renders them, reve- lations and truth, and denote nothing further that I see but the shining stones themselves which were used, in this method of illumination, in revealing the will of God, after a perfect and true manner to his people Israel." Antiquities of the Jews, p. 94, book 3, chap. 8. Josephus says of this stone: "Now this breastplate and this sardonyx left off shining two hundred years before I composed this book." Ibid., p. 95. David Whitmer says: "But a stone had been found with the plates [of the Book of Mormon] shaped like a pair of ordinary spectacles, though much larger, and at least half an inch in thickness, and perfectly opaque (not transparent) save to the prophetic vision of Joseph Smith." Chicago Times, August, 1875. "There were two stones in silver bows, and these stones fastened to a breastplate constituted what is called the Urim and Thummim." History of the Church, vol. 1, p. 13. PRESIDENT OF THE CHURCH IN NEW TESTAMENT TIMES. Milner's Church History, page 145: "Towards the end of the first century, all the churches followed the model of the mother church at Jerusalem, where one of the apostles was 216 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK the first bishop. A settled presidency obtained, and the name of angel was first given to the supreme ruler, though that of bishop soon succeeded. That this was the case in seven churches of Asia is certain. The address of the charges to him in the book of Revelation demonstrate his superiority. The deacon it is well known, was chosen to administer in sacred employments of an inferior kind. These three ranks appear to have been general throughout the Christian world in the former part of this century." Page 250. PETER'S SUPREMACY. As seen through Catholic specks: "Peter, it is true, besides the -prerogatives inherent in his office, (president or pope,) possessed also the gift of inspiration and the power of work- ing miracles. . . . These two latter gifts are not claimed by the pope, as they were personal to Peter and by no means essential to the government of the church." Faith of Our Fathers, pp. 132, 133. Mosheim says: "It became necessary, that the council of presbyters should have a president, a man of distinguished gravity and prudence, who should distribute among his col- leagues their several tasks, and be as it were the central point of the whole society. He was, at first, denominated the angel (Apocalypse 2 and 3: 13) ; but afterward the bishop; a title of Grecian derivation, and indicative of his principal busi- ness. It would seem that the church of Jerusalem when grown very numerous, after the dispersion of the apostles among foreign nations, was the first to elect such a president; and that other churches, in process of time, followed the example." Vol. 1, cent. 1, part 2, chap. 2, par. 11, p. 71. Published 1841. "James the president and head of the church. Here we find James superior to the very chief est apostles. For by this time he had been appointed to preside over the infant church, in its most important center." Dr. William Smith, Dictionary of the Bible, p. 270. "We find there were there in the church of Jerusalem offi- cials named presbyters, who were the assistants of James, PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 217 the chief administrator of the church. James, the brother of the Lord, remained unmolested during the persecution of Herod Agrippa, in the year 44, and from this time he is the acknowledged head of the church of Jerusalem." Ibid., p. 112. Mosheim says: "The bishops were at first innocently called high priests." Vol. 1, cent. 2, part 2, chap. 4, par. 4, p. 133. HIGH PRIESTS. "The high priest was at the head of all religious affairs, . . . The high priest wore nearly the same dress with the priests, and four articles in addition."- 5 Bible Dictionary, p. 353. Josephus says: "I think it necessary to set down the names of the high priests." Antiquities of the Jews, book 10, chap. 9, par. 6, p. 280. "Ananus, the ancientest of the high priests." Ibid., "Wars of the Jews," book 4, chap. 3, par. 7, p. 682. "This Matthias was the son of Boethus, and was one of the high priests." Ibid., book 5, chap. 13, par. 1, p. 735. "Some also there were who, watching for a proper oppor- tunity when they might quietly get away, fled to the Romans, of whom were the high priests Joseph and Jesus." Ibid., book 6, chap. 2, par. 2, p. 744. Fleetwood's Life of Christ: "The office of high priest was bestowed upon Aaron, the brother of Moses, and his descend- ants in perpetuity. . . . The high priest was the means of communication between God and the people; he alone could enter the recess of the sanctuary." History of the Jews, p. 725. "Melchisedec, king of Salem and priest of the most high God, who is taken as a type of Christ in his united kingly and priestly offices, was not the solitary occupant of that dignity, but one in a succession of priest-kings." Marvelous Discoveries in Bible Lands, p. 41. "The number of high priests from Aaron to Phannias, was according to Josephus, . . . eighty-three; . . . The last high priest Phannias, . . . With him the Old Testament, high priest- 218 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK hood ignominiously ended." Schaff's Religious Encyclopaedia, vol. E to L, p. 991. PATRIARCH. Mosheim says: "The custom of holding these councils had extended over the Christian world, and the universal church had acquired the form of a vast republic composed of many lesser ones, certain head men were to be placed over it in different parts of the world, as central points in their respective countries. Hence came the patriarchs; and ulti- mately a prince of patriarchs." Vol. 1, book 1, cent. 2, part 2, chap. 2, p. 117. Edition of 1841. "The princes among the bishops, were those who had before held a preeminent rank, namely, the bishops of Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria; with whom the bishop of Constantinople was joined, after the imperial residence was transferred to that city. These four prelates answered to the four praetorian prefects created by Constantine, and perhaps even in this century bore the Jewish title of patriarchs." Ibid., cent. 4, p. 232. "In this manner there were five principal bishops over the Christian world, created in this century, and distinguished from others by the title of patriarchs." Ibid., cent. 5, p. 324. J. H. Merle D'Aubigne says: "In later times they bore the more ecclesiastical name of patriarch." Published 1843, p. 3. Webster's Unabridged Dictionary: "Patriarch, father and ruler of a family; one who governs by paternal right, . . . usu- ally applied to the progenitors of the Israelites, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the sons of Jacob, or to the heads of families before the flood; as, the antediluvian Patriarchs. Second A learned and distinguished character among the Jews." Encyclopedia Britannica, 9th edition: "Patriarch (lit., the head or ruler of a tribe, family, or clan), occurs four times in the New Testament, being applied to Abraham, the twelve sons of Jacob collectively, and David, and several times in the 70, where the word is used to denote the officials called by the chronicler 'prince of the tribes of Israel,' 'princes of PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 219 hundreds/ 'chiefs of the fathers.' . . . The title at an early date passed over into the Christian church." Vol. 18, p. 410. Mr. A. Campbell says: "Family worship was, therefore, the first religious institution. At the head of this institution naturally stood the father of every family. . . . Hence the first religious and political institution is properly called 'the patri- archal.' . . . And thus we find Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Job, and other patriarchs. . . . To him the patriarch Abraham paid tithes or gave the tenth of the spoils. . . . Melchisedec blessed Abraham, Isaac blessed Jacob, and Jacob blessed the twelve patriarchs." Christian System, pp. 137, 140-141. Published at Saint Louis, Missouri. Campbellites, who believe in the Bible and nothing but'the Bible, through the Christian Evangelist for December 6, 1900, by one of their leading ministers, make this statement touch- ing Alexander Campbell, their leader: "Venerable patriarch of the clean heart and the silver tongue! Faithful servant of God, and apostle of Jesus Christ." A. S. Hayden: "Here I should speak more particularly of Father Ryder's relations to the church. . . . He was first the eldest brother, then the father, finally the patriarch." History of the Disciples, p. 253. Fleetwood: "The western Jews, who were scattered all over the Roman Empire, had their spiritual head in the patriarch." History of the Jews, p. 738. "During this period of peace, Rabbi Jehuda, one of the patriarchs of Tiberias." Ibid. ANOINTING WITH OIL. Rev. John Wesley said: "Having anointed him with oil this single, conspicuous gift, which Christ committed to his apostles, Mark 6: 13, remained in the church long after the other miraculous gifts were withdrawn. Indeed it seems to have been designed to remain always, and Saint James directs the elders, who were the most, if not the only gifted men to administer it. This was the whole process of physic in the Christian church, till it was lost through unbelief." Notes on Saint James 5: 14, p. 606. 220 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK "The Grecian Christian, when dangerously sick, sent for the elders of the church, agreeably to James 5: 14, and after the sick man had confessed his sins, the elders commended him to God in devout supplication, and anointed him with oil." Mosheim, book 1, cent. 1, part 2, chap. 4, p. 87. INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE. The necessity for the Inspired Translation of the Bible is made apparent from the following: In the Baptist-Catholic debate in the American Baptist, 12th negative, Doctor Ray says: "The collection of books called the Bible by Catholics and Protestants is of course the same book, but in the hands of Roman Catholics, its text has become corrupted and perverted." Here's Baptist authority, will that do? There are about one hundred and eighty translations. "Saint Jerome, in his commentary upon the 40th chapter of Ezekiel, says: 'When we translate the Hebrew words into Latin, we are sometimes guided by conjecture.' " Again he says: "Saint Jerome makes frequent mention of the additions, corrections and subtractions made in the ver- sions of the Septuagint, by Origen." He continues: "Saint Jerome says with reason, that in his time the version of the Septuagint was nowhere to be found in its purity. It is mere assumption to assert, as some authors do, that the Hebrew text which we have at present is not corrupted in any place, and that there is no fault, nor anything left out, and that we must indisputably follow it at all times." This Complete History of Canon, etc., says: "There are differences in punctuation about the consonant and whole words and verses, which shows that, let them be ever so dili- gent, it is impossible but some faults will slip in, either in the copying or printing of a work. . . . Nor can it be said for certain that all these books which are cited in the Holy Scriptures were of divine inspiration. ... It can not be said that no fault has crept into the scriptures by the negligence or inadvertency of the transcribers, or even by the boldness of those who have ventured to strike out, add. or change some PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 221 words which they thought necessary to be admitted, added or changed. This is the common fate of all books, from which God has not seen fit to exempt even the sacred writings." Change to suit their doctrine. If they didn't believe in "bap- tism for the remission of sins" and they found such in the text, out it would go with "boldness." Dupin: "The critics have sometimes reformed the text, because they looked upon it as faulty; they have met with a sense that shocked them in the text, and which might be reformed by taking away one single word; they have deter- mined that the text ought to read so and so, and have boldly corrected the text upon a mere conjecture." Complete History of the Canon. March's Introduction, volume 2, page 846, and Penn's An- notatioris says, in reference to our King James' translation: "The common version of the Bible was printed in A. D. 1611. The only printed editions of the Greek Testament at that time were Cardinal Ximime's, printed A. D. 1514; Erasmus', in 1546, and Beza's, in 1562, with some editions taken from these; substantially the same may be said of the Old Testament. King James' translation was made from no uniform edition whatever. Although there is, by authority, a standard English edition of the Bible, there is no standard Hebrew or Greek text manuscript for the original of that version." The Companion of the Revised Version of the English New Testament, by Alexander Roberts, D. D., one of the committee who revised "our latest or national translations," pages 39, 40, 41, says: "Such is the parentage of the Authorized Ver- sion Beza, Stephens, Erasmus. What manuscript authority, let us ask, is thus represented? . . . Erasmus, indeed, said his was rather 'tumbled headlong into the world than edited.' " Again, Roberts says, speaking of Erasmus: "For the Apocalypse, he had only one mutilated manuscript. He had thus, no documentary materials for publishing a complete edition of the Greek Testament. The consequence would have been that some verses must have been left wanting had not Erasmus taken the vulgate and conjecturally retranslated the Latin into Greek. Hence has arisen the remarkable fact PARSONS' TEXT BOOK that in the text from which our Authorized Version was formed, and in the ordinary uncritical editions of the Greek current at the present day, there were, and are, words in the professed originals, for which no divine authority can be pleaded, but which are entirely due to the learning and imag- ination of Erasmus." In volume 1, page 90, of Home's Introduction, you will find this principle laid down. Home explicitly declares, that when the Holy Spirit spoke through Paul, Jesus, Peter, etc., it came not in classic Greek, but in the vernacular of the times. See also volume 2, pages 22, 23. Home in his Introduction, on "the critical study and knowl- edge of the Holy Scriptures," says: "Inspiration in the highest sense, is the immediate communication of knowledge to the human mind by the Spirit of God; but, as we have already observed, it is commonly used by divines, in a less strict and proper sense, to denote such a degree of divine influence, assistance, or guidance, as enabled the authors of the Scriptures to communicate religious knowledge to others, without error or mistake, whether the subjects of such com- munication were things then immediately revealed to those who declared them, or things with which they were before acquainted. "When it is said that Scripture is divinely inspired, we are not to understand that God suggested every word, or dictated every expression. From the different styles in which the books are written, and from the different manner in which the same events are related and predicted by different authors, it appears that the sacred penmen were permitted to write as their several tempers, understandings, and habits of life, directed: and that the knowledge communicated to them by inspiration on the subject of their writings, was applied in the same manner as any knowledge acquired by ordinary means. Nor is it to be supposed that they were even thus inspired in every fact which they related, or in every precept which they delivered. They were left to the common use of their faculties, and did not, upon every occasion, stand in need of supernatural communication; but whenever, and as far PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 223 as divine assistance was necessary, it was always afforded. In different parts of Scripture we perceive, that there were different sorts and degrees of inspiration. God enabled Moses to give an account of the creation of the world; Joshua to record with exactness the settlement of the Israelites in the land of Canaan; David to mingle prophetic information with the varied effusions of gratitude, contrition and piety; Solo- mon to deliver wise instructions for the regulation of human life; Isaiah to deliver predictions concerning the future Savior of mankind; and Ezra to collect the sacred Scriptures into one authentic volume; 'But all these worketh that one and the selfsame spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will' (1 Corinthians 12: 11). In some cases, inspiration only produced occurrences and accuracy in relating past cor- rectness, or in reciting the words of others; in other cases, it communicated ideas not only new and unknown before, but infinitely beyond the reach of unassisted human intellect." Biblia for June, 1890. The New Testament was written in Greek, which had, since the Macedonian conquest of Alexander the Great, supplanted Hebrew in common use among the Jews who dwelt in the Roman provinces, and was the medium of communication be- tween all parts of the civilized world. The Greek of the New Testament differs in many respects from the language as it was written by Herodotus or Thucy- dides. The Greek language was the one most widely spread over the civilized world. When our Lord appeared in the flesh, the Greek tongue was current in Palestine, and was the book language of the Egyptian Jews. Hence the apostles were under the necessity of using it in their preaching and writing, when they went forth from Palestine to promulgate that new religion with whose propagation they were interested. The classical Greek, spreading over the Asiatic kingdoms which arose from the Macedonian conquest, and accordingly over Syria, naturally became somewhat modified by the local and dialectical peculiarities in which it was spoken. The Greek compound varying in some respects in the various provinces in Asia and Africa subjected to the Macedonian rule, consti- 224 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK tutes the special foundation of the diction of the New Testa- ment, as it does also of the Septuagint and Apocrypha. The diction of the New Testament partakes of a Hebrew coloring, arising from the fact that the writers were Hebrews accustomed to speak the Aramaean or later Hebrew, and in some instances acquainted with the ancient language of the Scriptures. Lexical Hebraisms are more numerous than gram- matical, and consist partly in the extension of the signification of words, partly in the imitation of entire phrases, and partly also in the analogous formation of new words to express corresponding Hebrew terms. The language of the several books of the New Testament, however, vary according as every individual writer has his peculiar modes of expression. In particular the historical books differ from the epistolary inconsequence of their differing aim and contents; inasmuch as the historic, especially the gospels of Matthew, Mark and John, approximate more to the language of the people; the epistles, on the other hand, particularly those written by Paul to Greek speaking churches and persons in Europe and Asia, are connected, as respects language with the literary Greek then in use, with certain modifications, such as some adoption or imitation of Semitic idioms or at least a choice of such Greek idioms as resembled the Semitic most; while the writ- ings of Luke, especially the Acts, are full of genuine Greek turns and constructions, although instances of the opposite are not wanting in them. The language of the Apocalypse is distinguished from all the rest by great and sometimes very anomalous peculiarities in word and structure. One great characteristic of the New Testament Greek is that it is an eminently translatable language. There is very little grammar compared with other Greek. But it is very interesting to note the conciseness, the exactitude with which the most subtle shades and gradations of thought are ex- pressed in this rich and flexible language. And the more the language is investigated, the more apparent becomes the wis- dom of God in having selected so clear and so admirable a medium for making known to man the new covenant in PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 225 Christ Jesus. The language is at once vigorous and flexible, profound and clear, remarkably well suited to express every variety of thought. It is equally adapted to the concise, the critical and the commonplace. In short, every order of mind can use it appropriately. Smith, article "gospels," in these words: "It is probable that none of the gospels was written until many years after the day of Pentecost, on which the Holy Spirit descended on the assembled disciples. From that day commenced at Jeru- salem the work of preaching the gospel and converting the world. Prayer and preaching were the business of the apostles' lives. Now, their preaching must have been, from the nature of the case, in great part historical; it must have been based upon an account of the life and acts of Jesus of Nazareth. There was no written record to which the hearers might be referred for historical details, and therefore the preachers must furnish not only inferences from the life of our Lord, but the facts of the life itself. The preaching then, must have been of such a kind as to be to the hearers what the reading of lessons from the gospel is to us. There is no impossibility in supposing that in the course of twenty or thirty years' assiduous teaching without a written gospel, the matter of the apostolic preaching should have taken a settled form. Not only might the apostles think it well that their own accounts should agree, as in substance so in form; but the teachers whom they sent forth or left behind in the churches they visited, would have to be prepared for their mission; and so long as there was no written gospel to put into their hands, it might be desirable that the oral instruction should be so far as possible one and the same to all. The guidance of the Holy Spirit supplied for a time such aid as made a written gospel unnecessary; but the apostles saw the dangers and errors which a traditional gospel would be ex- posed to in the course of time, and whilst they were still preaching the oral gospel in the strength of the Holy Ghost, they were admonished by the same divine Person to prepare those written records which were hereafter to be the daily 226 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK spiritual food of all the church of Christ. Nor is there any- thing unnatural in the supposition that the apostles uninten- tionally uttered their witness in the same order, and even, for the most part, in the same form of words. The language of their first preaching was the Syro-Chaldaic, which was a poor and scanty language and though Greek was now widely spread, and was the language even of several places in Palestine, though it prevailed in Antioch, whence the first missions to Greeks and Hellenists, or Jews who spoke Greek, proceeded (Acts Hi 20; 13: 1-3), the Greek tongue, as used by Jews partook of the poverty of the speech which it replaced; as, indeed it is impossible to borrow a whole language without borrowing the habits of thought upon which it has built itself." Dictionary of the Bible, pp. 298, 299. Prof. C. E. Stowe, in his History of the Bible, has this to say on the point: "The Bible is not a specimen of God's skill as a writer, showing us God's mode of thought, giving us God's logic, and God's rhetoric, and God's style of historic narration. How often do we see men seeking out isolated passages of Scripture, and triumphantly saying that such ex- pressions are unworthy of God, and could not have proceeded from him. They are unskillful, the mode of thought is faulty, they are illogical, in bad taste, the reasoning is not conclusive, the narrative is liable to exception. God has not put himself on trial before us in that way in the Bible, any more than he has in the creation any more than he has promised that the Bible shall always be printed for us on the best of paper, with the best of type and perfect freedom from typographical errors, and that after it is printed, it shall never be torn, nor soiled, nor any leaf lost; or that apostles and preachers shall be regularly handsome, men of fine forms and beautiful faces, and faultless elocution. It is always to be remembered that the writers of the Bible were 'God's penmen, and not God's pens.' . . . "It is not the words of the Bible that were inspired, it is not the thoughts of the Bible that were inspired; it is the men who wrote the Bible that were inspired. Inspiration acts PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 227 not on the man's words, not on the man's thoughts, but on the man himself; so that he, by his own spontaneity, under the impulse of the Holy Ghost, conceives certain thoughts and gives utterance to them in certain words, both the words and the thoughts receiving the peculiar impress of the mind which conceived and uttered them, and being in fact just as really his own, as it could have been if there had been no inspiration at all in the case." Pages 18, 19. W. T. Moore furnishes a paper on "the turbulent period" of their movement and it is published in the Reformation of the Nineteenth Century. On page 220 he says: "From .the beginning of their movement the Disciples had always taken a deep interest in translations of the New Testament. This feeling was strictly logical in view of their religious position. They magnified the word of God as no other people did. It was therefore all important that they should possess, as far as possible, the exact mind of the Holy Spirit in any trans- lation that might be used. They felt that the Authorized Ver- sion, though incomparable in many respects, was, nevertheless, in some important particulars, far from what it ought to be. Mr. Campbell had himself taught them to discredit King James' Version, as he had published a version made by George Campbell, Philip Doddridge arid others. Consequently when it was proposed by the American Bible Union to publish a re- vised edition of the New Testament, the Disciples at once threw themselves into the proposal with a heartiness which did much to assure success; and as Mr. Campbell had been selected to translate the Acts of the Apostles, this fact gave additional interest to what they already felt in the forthcom- ing work. "The first edition of this translation was published in 1864. Upon the whole it was not very favorably received by scholars, and especially by those of the brotherhood. Its merits were many, and these were at once distinctly recognized. But it was a disappointment with respect to some important points where better things had been expected." 228 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK SPIRIT AND BODY THE SPIRIT IMMORTAL. MAN A DUAL CREATURE. Wilson's Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon, says of the Spirit: "The animal life, or that principle by which every animal according to his kind lives; hence life, vital principle."- Quoted from Miles Grant's work, p. 7. Imperial Lexicon: "The spiritual, rational, and immortal substance in man, which distinguishes him from the brute." Ibid., p. 8. Philo Judeas, a learned Jew contemporary with Claudius Caesar, says: "When Moses uses the expression, he breathed into, etc., he means nothing else than the divine Spirit, pro- ceeding from that happy and blessed nature, sent to take its habitation here on earth, for the advantage of our race, in order that even if man is mortal according to that portion of him which is visible, he may at all events be immortal accord- ing to that portion of him which is invisible; and for this reason, one may properly say that man is on the boundaries of a better and an immortal nature, partaking of each as far as it is necessary for him; and that he was born at the time, both mortal and immortal ; mortal as to his body, but immortal as to his intellect." Ibid., p. 60. Josephus says: "Moses, after the seventh day, began to talk philosophically and concerning the formation of man says thus, that God took dust from the ground and formed man, and inserted in him a spirit and a soul." Antiquities of the Jews, book 1, chap. 1, par. 2, p. 29. Again he says: "The bodies of all men are indeed not found mortal, are created out of corruptible matter; but the soul is immortal, and is a portion of the divinity that inhabits our bodies." Quoted from Miles Grant's work, p. 61. Again he says: "When souls have to leave the body, they speak with the sincerest freedom." Ant., book 4, chap. 8, par. 2. Translated by William Whiston, A. M., p. 116. Cruden says: "Spirit signifies the reasonable soul which continues in being, even after the death of the body. That spiritual, reasoning, choosing substance, capable of eternal PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 229 happiness." Page 676, par. 12. Quoted from The Instructor, p. 6. Matthew Henry, the great commentator, says: "That the soul or spirit exists and acts in a state of separation from the body, and is therefore immortal; that death does not ex- tinguish this 'candle of the Lord,' but takes it out of a dark lantern. It is not, as Grotius well observes, the krasis, or temperament of the body, or anything that dies with it; but it is the anthuposaton, something that subsists by itself, which, after death, is somewhere else than where the body is." Ibid., vol. 3, p. 383. Ibid., p. 6. John Brown's Dictionary of the Bible says: "Soul signifies that spiritual, reasonable, and immortal substance in man, which distinguishes him from the beasts, and is the source of our thoughts and reasoning." Ibid., p. 7. Dr. S. Drew says: "The soul can not perish, either from choice or necessity; nor from any material cause; nor from the presence or absence of any natural power. It is invariably independent, inaccessible to all violence, and necessarily im- mortal." Sec. 4, p. 331. Ibid. Sir Kenelm Digby says: "That man's soul is a substance: That man is a compound of some other substance besides his body. That the soul doth subsist of itself independently of the body." Chaps. 9 and 10, pp. 79-87. Ibid. Ecclesiastes 12: 7: "'And the spirit shall return to God who gave it.' From whom it is, by whom it is created, who puts it into the bodies of men, as a depositum they are in- trusted with and are accountable for, and should be con- cerned for the safety and salvation of it; this was originally breathed into man at his first creation, and is now formed within him by the Lord; hence he is called the 'God of the spirits of all flesh.' (See Genesis 2:4; Zechariah 12:1; Numbers 16: 22.)" Gill's Commentary, vol. 3, p. 668. "That when the body, which is here its prison, rather than its mansion, falls to the earth, 'tis not oppressed by its ruins, but set free and enjoys the truest liberty. This made Hera- clitus say that the soul goes out -of the body like lightning 230 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK from a cloud, because it is never more clear in its conceptions than when freed from matter. "And what Lucretius excellently expresses in his verses, is true in another sense than he intended: " 'Credit item retrode terra, quod fuit ante, In terram; sed quod missum est ex Athens oris, Id rursus cceli fulgentia templa receptant.' 1 'What sprang from earth falls to its native place, What heav'n inspired, released from the weak tie Of flesh, ascends beyond the shining sky.' " Dr. William Bates, chap. 10, p. 182. Ibid., p. 8. "There can be no doubt, then, that Paul really expected to be immediately with Christ when he died; that in proportion as his labors were protracted before death would the time be put off when he should be with Christ, and that if his period of labor was cut short by death would the period be shortened which intervened between him and Christ; and yet this could not have been the case had he believed that the soul died with the body." Immortality of the Soul, by Rev. Luther Lee, p. 123. Ibid., p. 9. "Ecclesiastes 12:7: Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.' Putrefaction and solution take place; the whole mass becomes decomposed, and in process of time is reduced to dust, from which it was originally made; while the spirit (harnach) , that spirit which God at first breathed into the nostrils of man, when he in consequence became a living soul, an intel- ligent, rational, discoursing animal, returns to God who gave it. "Here the wise man makes a most evident distinction be- tween the body and the spirit; they are not the same; they are not both matter. The body, which is matter, returns to its original dust; but the spirit which is immortal returns to God. It is impossible that two natures can be more distinct, or more distinguished. The author of this book (Ecclesiastes) PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 231 was evidently not "a materialist." Dr. Adam Clark's Com- mentary, vol. 3, p. 2,560. Professor Drummond says: "In short, this is a correspond- ence which at once satisfies the demands of science and reli- gion. In mere quantity it is different from every other cor- respondence known. Setting aside everything else in religion, everything adventitious, local and provisional; dissecting into the bone and marrow we find this a correspondence which can never break with an environment which can never change, Here is a relation established with eternity. The passing years lay no limiting band on it. Corruption injures it not. It survives death. It, and it only, will stretch beyond the grave and be found inviolate. "When the moon is old, and the stars are cold, And the books of the Judgment day unfold." Natural Law in the Spiritual World, p. 167. Quoted from What is Man, p. 39. Liddell and Scott define psuche, the Greek for soul, as fol- lows: "1. Breath, life, spirit. 2. The soul or immortal part of man as opposed to the body or perishable part." Nephesh, according to Fuerst, "means the soul or spirit; in other cases, an individual, a person, man." Gesenius defines it to mean, "spirit, soul, mind; also a man, person." Liddell and Scott, in their Greek Lexicon, define pneuma, the Greek for spirit, as follows: "Wind, air, the air we breathe, 'breath of life,' spirit, that is feeling. The spirit, a living being, a spirit, spiritual being." Ibid., p. 54. SPIRIT OF MAN INTELLIGENT BETWEEN DEATH AND THE RESURRECTION. THE PRISON HOUSE THE ABODE OF THE WICKED. Prof. Taylor Lewis says: "We are taught that there was a work of Christ in Hades. He descended into Hades; he makes proclamation, ekeruxen, in Hades to those who are there." Hailey, Discrepancies of the Bible, p. 192. Quoted from Joseph the Seer, p. 114. 232 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK Alford says: "I understand these words (1 Peter 3: 18, 20) to say that our Lord, in his disembodied state, did go to the place of detention of departed spirits, and did there an- nounce his work of redemption, preach salvation in fact, to the disembodied spirits of those who refused to obey the voice of God when the judgment of the flood was hanging over them." Ibid. Professor Hindekoper says: "In the second and third cen- turies every branch and division of the Christian church, so far as their records enabled us to judge, believed that Christ preached to the departed." Ibid. "Souls being immaterial and incorporeal are invisible to the bodily eye; these, therefore, were either clothed with cor- poreal forms, as angels are, or as John saw them on the Isle of Patmos in a visionary way; and these were the souls of such as had been slain ; their bodies were dead, but they were alive; which shows the immortality of souls, and that they die not with their bodies; and that they live after them in a separate state of existence." Gill's Commentary, vol. 2, p. 971. Instructor, p. 18. "Hell, the place and state of the damned. The wicked shall be turned into hell. . . . The wicked in hell not only undergo the punishment of sense, but also that of loss." Cruden's Concordance, vol. 1, p. 327. Ibid., p. 23. Matthew Henry's comment on Matthew 17, says: "He will come, at last, with ten thousand of his saints; as a specimen of that there now appeared unto them Moses and Elias talk- ing with him; observe (1) : There were glorified saints attend- ing him, that when there were three to bear record on earth, Peter, James, and John, there might be some to bear record from heaven too. Thus here was a lively resemblance of Christ's kingdom, which is made up of saints in heaven and saints on earth, and to which belong the spirits of just men made perfect. We see here, that they who are fallen asleep in Christ are not perished, but exist in a separate state, and shall be forthcoming when there is occasion. (2) These two were Moses and Elias, men very eminent in their day." Vol. 3, p. 139. Ibid., p. 13.. PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 233 "Upon John 17: 24 (3) : The request itself: That all the elect might come to be with him in heaven at last, to see his glory, and to share it. It is' where Christ is, where I am, in the paradise where Christ's soul went at death; in the third heavens, where his soul and body went at his ascension: Where I am, am to be shortly, am to be." Vol. 3, p. 675. Ibid., pp. 14, 15. Again he says: "The beggar died, and was carried by angels into Abraham's bosom. (1) His soul existed in its state of separation from its body. It did not die or fall asleep with the body, his candle was not put out with him, but lived, and acted, and knew what it did, and what was done to it. (2) His soul removed to another world, to the world of spirits; it returned to God who gave it, to its native country; this is implied in its being carried. ... (5) The next news that we hear of the rich man, after the account of his death and burial is, that 'in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torment.' His estate is very miserable. He is in hell, in Hades, in the state of separate souls, and there he is in the uttermost misery and anguish possible." Vol t 3, p. 438. Ibid., p. 15. Sir Kenelm Digby writes that a "separate soul knoweth all that it knew while it was in the body." Par. 6, p. 693. Ibid., p. 16. "That the thinking principle in man is of an immortal nature, was believed by the ancient Egyptians, the Persians, the Phoenicians, the Scythians, the Celts, the Druids, the Assyrians, by the wisest and most celebrated characters among the Greeks and Romans, and by almost every other ancient nation and tribe whose records have reached our time. . . . They all embraced the idea, that death is not the destruc- tion of the rational soul, but only its introduction to a new and unknown state of existence. . . . Immortality of the soul did not originate with the Egyptians, but being attributed by Josephus to the Greeks. Plato himseif, the greac Greek philosopher, distinctly shows that he derived it from the Jewish writers of antiquity. Dick's works, vol. 1, pp. 9-11. Ibid., pp. 16, 17. 234 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK Abbott's Dictionary of Religious Knowledge, article "Im- mortality"; . . . "Belief in the immortality of the soul is almost universal." Ibid., p. 17.' "Therefore with Alford, Trench, Wordsworth, and the best commentators, we take the passages relative to the rich man and Lazarus as teaching, at all events, two things: first, that the soul of man is conscious after death ; and secondly, that, according to its moral character, it goes either into a place of happiness and repose, or into one of disquiet and misery. These two thoughts not only lie upon the surface of the nar- rative, but they also constitute its very life and essence."- Discrepancies of the Bible, pp. 190, 191. Ibid. "Theologians have endeavored to get rid of this obvious reference (1 Peter 3:19, 20) by explaining it of Christ preaching in the person of Noah; or by making 'He preached' mean 'He announced condemnation.' . . . These attempts arise from that spirit or system which would fain be more orthodox than Scripture itself." Early Days of Christianity, pp. 91, 92. Ibid., p. 24. "In Murdock's Syriac, which is a translation of the Teshito Syriac New Testament,' we have the following rendering of the same passage (1 Peter 3: 19) : 'And he preached to those souls which were detained in Hades.'" What is Man, p. 69. PARADISE THE ABODE OF THE GOOD SPIRITS BETWEEN DEATH AND THE RESURRECTION. Josephus says: "The countenance of the fathers, and of the just, which they see, always smiles upon them, while they wait for that rest and eternal new life in heaven which is to succeed this region. This place we call the bosom of Abra- ham." Page 744, Whitson edition. Saint Clement in his first epistle to the Corinthians, says: "Peter . . . suffered martyrdom, by the command of the gov- ernors, and departed out of the world, and went unto his holy place." Apostolic Fathers, Wake's Translation, p. 60. Jo- seph the Seer, p. 116. Of the martyrdoms of Saint Ignatius it is said in an epistle from the church at Smyrna, where he suffered: "Being sud- PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 235 denly taken by the beasts from the world, he might appear before the face of Christ." Apostolic Fathers, p. 179. Ibid. Eusebius, in giving an account of the martyrdom of Lucius, represents him as saying to his judge: "For now I ani liber- ated from wicked masters, and am going to the good Father and King, even God." Ecclesiastical History, chap. 17, pp. 141, 142. Again he says: "About this time (A. D. 244), also, other men sprung up in Arabia as the propagators of false opinions. They asserted that the human soul, as long as the present state of the world existed, perished at death, and died with the body, but that it would be raised again with the body at the time of the resurrection." Chap. 37, p. 239. Tertullian says: "There is a sister amongst us who pos- sesses the faculty of revelation. . . . She informed us that she had seen a soul in a bodily shape; ... It was tender (delicate) , shining, of the color of the air, but in everything resembling the human form." History Supernatural, vol. 1, p. 443. Joseph the Seer, p. 117. Matthew Henry says: " 'This day shalt thou be with me'; to-night ; before to-morrow. The souls of the righteous, after they are delivered from the burden of the flesh, are imme- diately in joy and felicity." Vol. 3, p. 478. Quoted from The Instructor, p. 19. "Our Savior must have used this word (paradise) in the sense in which the Jews understood it; the place of happiness, into which pious souls, when separated from the body, are immediately received." Doctor Whitby, from New Testament (Doctor Mant and Doctor D'Oyley, D. D.). Ibid., p. 20. "Second Corinthians 12:4: 'How that he was caught up into paradise,' and had a foretaste of the blessed state of the faithful souls between death and the resurrection. For such is the sense of the word paradise in the New Testament- Doctor Parkhurst. Ibid. "Abraham's Bosom." This phrase, used in Luke 16: 22, as a description of heaven, takes its significance from the practice customary in the Orient, at the time of Christ, of reclining on couches at meals in such a way that each guest rested upon 236 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK the bosom of his left hand neighbor. This position with respect to the master of the house was one of especial honor, and only occupied by dear friends. To lie in Abraham's bosom, thus became a metaphor expressive of the highest spiritual condition and felicity, and, as such, was employed by Christ in contrasting the condition of Lazarus in the other world with that of the rich man who had his good things in his lifetime. Dictionary of Religious Knowledge, by Lyman Abbott. Quoted from What is Man, p. 140. HELL OR HADES, THE ABODE OF SPIRITS. -THE PRISON HOUSE. Plato, the learned Greek, tells us that hell Hades (Greek words) is "the world of spirits." Plato, by Pond, p. 125. Joseph the Seer, p. 121. William Smith, in his Bible Dictionary, says: "The word sheol (Hebrew) is never used of the grave proper, or place of burial of the body. It is always the abode of spirits, like the Greek Hades." Note on "hell." Ibid. In revisers' preface of the Revised Version of the Bible, 1885, we have this: "Hebrew sheol, which signifies the abode of the departed spirits, and corresponds to the Greek hades. Irenaeus, who lived between the years 120 A D. and 202 A. D., among other things, says: "And to as many as continue in their love toward God, does he grant communion with him. But communion with God is life and light and the enjoyments of all the benefits which he has in store. But on as many as according to their own . choice depart from God, he inflicts that separation from himself which they have chosen of their own accord. But separation from God is death, and separa- tion from light is darkness; and separation from God consists in the loss of all the benefits which he has in store. . . . God however does not punish them immediately of himself, but that punishment falls upon them because they are destitute of all that is good. Now good things are eternal and without end with God, and therefore the loss of these is also eternal and never ending. It is in this matter just as occurs in the PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 237 case of a flood of light; those who have blinded themselves or have been blinded by others, are for ever deprived of the enj'oyment of light. It is not, however, that the light has inflicted upon them the penalty of blindness, but it is that the blindness itself has brought calamity upon them." Adv. Hasr., vol 27, p. 2. Tertullian, A. D., circ., 150-216: "In short, inasmuch as we understand the prison pointed out in the gospel to be Hades and we also interpret the uttermost farthing to mean the very smallest offense which has to be atoned for there before the resurrection (Matthew 5: 25, 26), no one will hesitate to believe that the soul undergoes in Hades some compensatory discipline without prejudice to the full process of the resur- rection when the recompense will be administered through the flesh besides." De Anima, 58. Lactantius, d. A. D. circ. 312: "If the soul which has its origin from God, gains the mastery, it is immortal and lives in perpetual light; if, on the other hand, the body shall over- power the soul and subject it to its dominion, it is everlasting darkness and death, and the force of this is not that it alto- gether annihilates the souls of the unrighteous, but subjects them to everlasting punishment. We term that punishment the second death which is itself also perpetual, as also is immortality. . . . We thus define the second death: Death is the suffering of eternal pain; or thus: Death is the condem- nation of souls for their deserts to eternal punishments." Institutes, 2 : 3. Clement of Alexandria, circ. A. D. 200, (Punishment aims at the sinner's own good) : "The general of an army by in- flicting fines and corporal punishments with chains and the extremest disgrace on offenders, and sometimes even punishing individuals with death, aims at good, doing so for the admoni- tion of the officers under him." Oratio Catechism, chap. 8. Diodore of Tarsus, d. A. D. 394, says: "A perpetual reward is prepared for the good on account of their labors and the right, justice, and equity of the rewarder; but the punishment of the unjust is nevertheless not perpetual, nor shall the immortality prepared for them be made useless to 238 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK them, but they may be tortured for a short time according to the measure and merit of their sin and impiety, and according to the amount of malice in their works. They shall then suffer pain and torment for a short time, but the happiness of immortality which shall have no end shall remain for them. Indeed, if the rewards of good works are so surpassing, how much could the length of eternity prepared for them exceed the length of time of the limited strifes in the career of the present age; the punishments indeed which are to be inflicted for the many and weighty crimes shall be far exceeded fey the greatness of compassion. It is not then for tfre good, so far as this is concerned, that the grace of the resurrection is reckoned, but even for the wicked. For the grace of God honors the good indeed munificently and freely; but pitifully and mercifully does he determine the torments of the wicked." In Asseman Biblical Oriental, vol. 3, p. 322. Theodore of Mopsuestia, circ. A. D. 350-428, says: "In the world to come those who have chosen good things shall with praise receive the fruit of their good works; but the wicked who have done wrong throughout their life, after great and fearful punishments, shall come to their senses, and choosing the good, not among the good, but among the wicked, since they have sinned, shall learn to hold themselves steadfast and in this way shall obtain a knowledge of the blessed doctrine of the fear of God, having learned to believe in it with a good will. Then at last they shall merit the enjoyment of the divine liberality. For he would never have said, 'Until thou shalt return the last farthing,' unless it had been possible that it should be done; that removing the punishment of sin we should be set free from them. Neither would he have said, 'He shall be beaten with many stripes, and he shall be beaten with few stripes,' if there was no end to the infliction when men had suffered a punishment commensurate with their sin." In Asseman Biblical Oriental, vol. 3, p. 323. Augustine, A. D. 353-450, says: "For our part we recognize that even in this life some punishments are purgatorial. . . . But temporary punishments are suffered by some in this life only, by others after death, by others both now and then; but PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 239 all of them before that last and strictest judgment. But of those who suffer temporary punishment after death, all are not doomed to those everlasting pains which are to follow that judgment; for to some as we have already said, what is not remitted in this world, is remitted in the next, that is they are not punished with the eternal punishment of the world to come." Civit Dei, 12, 13. 'Ambrose, A. D. 340-397, says: "No one ascends into the kingdom of heaven, except by means of the sacrament of baptism. . . . For unless a man has been born again of water and the Spirit, he can not enter the kingdom of God." De Abrah, 2, 11. Caesarius of Aries, circ. A. D. 480-543, says: "All the good who serve God faithfully, who seek to apply themselves to reading and prayer, and to persevere in good works, build- ing up (cf. 1 Corinthians 3: 12) neither capital crimes nor small sins but good works, shall pass through that fire of which the apostle speaks. But those who are apt to commit small sins, and are negligent to make amends, shall come unto eternal life, because they believed in Christ and committed no capital crimes, but before that, they shall be purified either in this age by the justice of God by means of the bitterest tribulation, or by their own acts; by many charities, and especially when they are mercifully kind to their enemies, and shall be freed by the mercy of God; or else certainly they shall be tortured for a long time by that fire of which the apostle speaks; that they may attain to the future life, with- out spot or wrinkle." Homil 8, 8. Pope Gregory the Great, A. D. 540-604, says: "Some faults may be forgiven in this age and some in the age to come, for since it is denied concerning one thing, the logical conse- quence is evident that it is conceded of certain others."- Dial. 4, 39. Master Eckhart, A. D. 1260-1329, says: "The question has been raised, What is it that burns in hell? The masters generally say it is self-will. But I say in truth it is not having, which constitutes the burning of hell. Learn this from a parable: If you were to take a burning coal and 240 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK put it on my hand, and I were to assert that the coal is burning my hand, I should be wrong. But if I be asked, what is it that burns me, I say it is the not having, that is the coal has something which my hand has not. . You per- ceive then that it is the not having which burns me. But if my hand had all that which the coal has, it would possess the nature of fire. In that case you might take all the fire that burns and put it on my hand without tormenting me. In the same manner I say, if God and those who stand before his face enjoy that perfect happiness which those who are separated from him possess not, it is the not having which torments the soul in hell, more than self-will or fire." Predigt auf denersten Sonnt nach Trin. Stud. u. Krit, 1839. Thomas Erskine, of Linlathen, A. D. 1788-1870, says: "I have a hope which I would not willingly think contrary to the revelation of mercy, of the ultimate salvation of all. I trust that he who came to bruise the serpent's head will not cease his work of compassion until he has expelled the fatal poison from every individual of our race. I humbly think the promise bears this wide interpretation. You believe not, I know. Well the judge of all the earth will do right. . . . I hope for the departed. I hope in that unmeasured love which gave the Savior; in fact my soul refuses to believe in final ruin, when it contemplates the blood of Christ. . . . I hope that he who came to bruise the serpent's head, and to destroy the works of the Devil, will not cease his labors of love till every particle of evil introduced into this world has been converted into good." Letters, pp. 92-105. Charles Chauncy, A. D. 1705-1787, says: "Upon the whole, therefore, what I mean to prove, in the following essay, is that the scheme of revelation has the happiness of all man- kind lying at bottom, as its great and ultimate end; that it gradually tends to this end and will not fail of its accomplish- ment when fully completed, . . . [Those] who have proved incurable under the means which have been used with them in this state, instead of being happy in the next will be awfully miserable; not to continue so finally, but that they may be convinced of their folly, and recover to a virtuous frame of PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 241 mind. . . . And there may be yet other states before the scheme of God may be perfected, and mankind universally cured of their moral disorders, and in this way qualified for, and finally instated in, eternal happiness." Sensible Thoughts on the State of Religion in New England, preface. SPIRITUALISM' EXPOSED THE DEVIL'S WORK THE COUNTERFEIT. HOW TO BECOME A MEDIUM. Professor Cadwell, a mesmerist, medium, and spiritual lec- turer, in a pamphlet entitled "Spiritualism versus the Bible," says: "Your best and quickest way is to be mesmerized by any mesmerist that you may have confidence in, requesting that, as soon as you become unconscious, he ask some spirit to come and take control of your physical system. . . . One great hindrance to mediumship, with those who sit, is the fear of being made to say or do something they may be ashamed of ... If you sit for spirits to control you, let them do it the best way they can, and not interfere too much. ... If you wish to know whether you are a medium for a partial -or full form materialization, sit with a few intimate friends, place a number of articles on the tab.le before sitting around it, and make the room perfectly dark during the first few sit- tings. There may be a guitar or violin on the table, a small tea bell, a glass partially filled with water, and one contain- ing a teaspoon. Sit with hands joined a part of the time, and engage in light, but not frivolous or excitable, conversa- tion, and in singing some well known song, in which the majority or all should join. About one hour is long enough to sit, unless the manifestations commence. Do not expect too much at first. Let the same company sit, and in the same room at regular intervals once or twice a week, for not less than eight or ten weeks. Let no others join, unless known to be in perfect sympathy and very mediumistic. The proba- bilities are, judging from my past experience, that five out of ten of such circles will get manifestations within a month." Spiritual Gifts and Spiritual Manifestations, pp. 95, 96. 242 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK TESTIMONY AS TO THEIR METHOD OF WORKING WONDERS FROM VARIOUS SPIRITUALISTIC SOURCES. Mrs. Cora Hatch, lecturing in Boston, Massachusetts, while in a trance state, was asked to explain why it was necessary to have the room darkened when those wonderful phenomena are performed. She replied that "the spirit said": "The action of light agitates, dissipates, or in some way so dis- turbs the fluid, gas, magnetism, or whatever the instrumen- tality be called, which is employed by spirits in acting upon grosser matter, that they are unable to control and employ it." The Spiritualist, of August 15, 1857. Quoted from Spirit- ualism Unveiled, p. 14. "There is a distinction between mesmerism and spiritual- ism." The following answers the question: "Mesmerism is something which a man does while he has his clothes on; spiritualism is a similar act of his after his clothes have been put off. Suppose I magnetize you to-day; and that I, the mesmerizer, speak, write, act, through you, you being uncon- scious this is mesmerism. Suppose, further, that I die to- night, and that to-morrow, I, a spirit, come and magnetize you, and then speak, write, act, through you this is spir- itualism." Spiritual Age, April 3, 1858. Ibid., p. 15. In the Banner of Light, July 30, 1857, we find the follow- ing: "The correctness of communications from spirits, through trance mediums, depends upon the more or less per- fect mesmeric control the spirit has over the medium or sub- ject." Ibid. Again, in August 22, 1863, we read the following account of questions put to a spirit and the answers returned: "Q. How do we* understand that spirits control an or- ganism? "A. We have just informed you that they do so by means of the magnetic aura, or animal magnetism. "Q. Do spirits concentrate their power upon the brain and nerves? "A. Sometimes on the nervous system. In cases of me- chanical writing, power is concentrated upon the ganglion of PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 243 the arm, ancT is not at all connected with the brain. In cases of entire physical control, then it pervades the entire physical body." Ibid., p. 16. "At a spiritualist circle held at the office of the Banner of Light, in Boston, May 2, 1864, the communicating spirit was asked, 'What is the modus operandi of controlling a medium?' The spirit answered: 'As a free intelligence, or spirit, who by nature has no right to the medium's body, my first step is to come and hold communion with the spirit who owns the body. The result of that communion is not transmitted to the external senses of the medium, but to the internal; there- fore it is quite as tangible, as real, to the spirit, as it could be to the external. I ask that spirit, 'Will you yield me up the control of your mortal form for a short time?' The answer is generally 'I will.' The spirit is subjected to the entire control of the predominating spirit. It is, in a word magnetized by the spirit; held in perfect subjection. And it seems to sleep; and it does sleep, so far as external life is concerned." Ibid. In the Banner of Light, February 4, 1865, we find the fol- lowing record of a conversation with a spirit: "Q. What is the process of introduction of a subject by a developing medium? "A. Well, the process is a changing of the magnetic and electric condition of the subject under a course of treatment. For instance, there may be a superabundance of magnetism. The developing spirit endeavors to equalize the forces, or to bring about an electrical and magnetic condition that shall be adapted to the return of the disembodied spirits, and the making of various manifestations. "Q. Are these changes effected by the brain? "A. No; the nervous system is generally affected, then the system entire not simply the center, but the system entire. "Q. Has the spirit any other way of manifesting itself ex- cept through the brain or nervous instruments?. "A. Yes. "Q. Where a spirit controls the hand of a medium to write, is the impression always made through the brain? 244 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK "A. Sometimes the control is what is termed mechanical control; then the connection between arm and brain is entirely severed, and yet the manifestation is made through what is called the nervous fluids, a certain portion of which is retained in the arm for the purpose of action. But when the mani- festation is what is called an impressional manifestation, then the brain and entire nervous system is used." Ibid., p. 17. Mr. A. E. Newton, a noted spiritualist, and formerly editor of the Spiritual Age, has this to say: "First. It is alleged to be possible and common for spirits of a certain class to assume the appearance and characteristics of other spirits, or of other persons still in the body, so completely that the disguise can not be detected by ordinary spirit seers. This may be so, and hence the common evidences of the identity of spirits are little to be relied on. Second. When two persons are closely in sympathetic or magnetic rapport with each other, the images that are in one mind may be perceived as objective realities by the other. This seems to be the case with the magnetizer and his subject, in the once common phenomenon of mesmerism. The operator forms an image, as of a person, a serpent, a fire, or any other object, in his own mind, when the subject, if well under control, instantly sees the same thing as an objective reality. So, positive minds in a circle, or positive spirits who are around, may present the image of any person with whom they are familiar, and it may appear as a reality to the impressible medium." Ibid., pp. 22, 23. Andrew Jackson Davis, formerly editor of the Herald of Progress, October 27, 1860, has this to say: "It is known that a wise and strong-minded person in the spirit world has the power to make visible to the eyes of mortals the exact appearance or semblance of the body it wore before death. This representation is elaborated sometimes to the minutest particular, even to the reproduction of the appearance of the habiliments, etc., by which the person was characterized and identified while a resident of the earth." Ibid., p. 24. Again he says in the Herald of Progress, February 1, 1862: "All intelligent spirits are great artists. They can vsycholo- PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 245 gize- a medium to see them, and to describe them in the style which would produce the deepest impression on the receiver. . . . They can easily represent themselves as being old or young, as in worldly dress or flowing robes, as is deemed best suited to accomplish the ends of the visitation." Ibid. ITS MORAL INFLUENCE. Their Doctrinal Claims Set Forth. "The spiritualism of the present day is that which was preached eighteen centuries ago." "Christianism should then be synonymous with spiritualism." The doctrines of Christ are to be reestablished in their purity. This is to be done by spiritualism,, which embraces all that tends to elevate man, and will be to the New Testament what that was to the Old a light thrown on its obscurities." Ibid., p. 19. Again, a spirit which professes to be that of John Adams, says: "I was happy ... in the religion of Christ which he taught eighteen hundred years ago in spiritualism as it is now called." Ibid. Mr. Partridge, editor of the Spiritual Telegraph, speaking of the permanency of spiritualism, says: "It is likely to pervade and absorb all denominations of Christians, exert a moral and reformatory power among the nations, and inaugu- rate the millennial era." "We feel that our advance will be irresistible, and our conquests speedy and sure. To spiritual- ists is committed the gospel of the present age." Ibid., pp. 29, 30. In Spiritual Age, of July 4, 1857, we read: "Christianity and spiritualism stand upon the same foundation. . . . Spir- itualism has given it (Christianity) a vitality which it had not possessed before since the time of the apostles." Ibid., p. 30. "Mrs. Laura McAlpine Cuppy, after her lecture in the Dodsworth Hall of New York, Sunday evening, November 22, 1863, was asked this question: " 'In what does the new gospel consist?' "Answer: The new gospel, as we understand it ... is the philosophy of spiritualism, so called, and the philosophy of 246 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK spiritualism embraces all the virtues, and strikes at the root of all evils, social, political, and religious. . . . There is one thing we know, viz, that we are by nature divine. . . . We have always asserted that there is not a single argument that can be brought against spiritualism that is not competent as an argument against the Christianity of the past not one. "Q. I understand the word gospel to mean 'good news.' "A. It does; and spiritualism is good news the best that ever came to earth." Ibid. THE OTHER SIDE, BY THOSE WHO KNOW. Dr. B. F. Hatch, formerly husband of Mrs. Cora V. Hatch, the noted trance speaking medium, says: "The extensive opportunity which I have had, and that too among the first class of spiritualists, of learning its nature and results, I think will enable me to lay just claims to being a competent witness in the matter. "I am aware that what I have to say will offend many who are less acquainted with the whole phenomena than myself, and such as may feel themselves involved, and will please others; but it is for neither purpose, that I write, but that the inexperienced may more fully comprehend the dangers attending it. I am frequently asked if I still believe in the phenomena of spiritualism. I answer, Yes. I should deem it more than a waste of time to write about what does not exist. . . . But through it all, I believe that there is a powerful influx of an infernal error into nearly all medium- istic minds which greatly corrupts the moral sensibility and proves almost universally most disastrous to its victims. "I have heard much of the improvement in individuals in consequence of a belief in spiritualism. With such I have had no acquaintance. But I have known many whose integ- rity of character and uprightness of purpose rendered them worthy examples to all around, but who, on becoming mediums and giving up their individuality, also gave up every sense of honor and decency. A degree of severity in this remark will apply to a large class of both mediums and believers. There are thousands of high-minded and intelligent spiritualists who will agree with me that it is no slander in saying that the PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 247 inculcation of no doctrines in this country has ever shown such disastrous moral and social results as the spiritual theo- ries. . . . Iniquities which have justly received the condemna- tion of centuries are openly upheld; vices which would destroy every wholesome regulation of society are crowned as virtues; prostitution is believed to be fidelity to self; marriage an out- rage on freedom; love evanescent, and like the bee, should sip the sweets wherever found; bastards are claimed to be spiritually begotten. All change, of whatever nature, is be- lieved to be an improvement, as there is no retrogression. Iniquity is only the effervescence of the outworkings of a heavenly destiny. God is shorn of his personality and be- comes simply a permeating principle; the Bible a libel on common sense and Christ a mere medium, hardly equal to the spiritual babies of 'this more progressive age.' "With such doctrines before us, what have we to hope? That they are rapidly increasing, no one can deny. The end is not yet. "The most damning iniquities are everywhere perpetrated in spiritual circles, a very small percentage of which ever comes to public attention. I care not whether it be spiritual or mundane, the facts exist, and should demand the attention and just condemnation of an intelligent community. Look at the iniquities which have been committed within the past two weeks in this city, and that, too, by spiritual mediums who claim to be controlled by angels. It is worse than useless to talk to the spiritualists against this condition of things, for those who occupy the highest position among them, are aiding and abetting in all classes of iniquities which prevail amongst them. The abrogation of marriage, bigamy, accompanied by robbery, theft, rapes, are all chargeable to spiritualism. I most solemnly affirm that I do not believe that there has, during the past five hundred years, arisen any class of peo- ple who were guilty of so great a variety of crimes and in- decencies as the spiritualists of America. "For a long time I was swallowed up in its whirlpool of excitement, and comparatively paid but little attention to its evils, believing that much good might result from the open- 248 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK ings of the avenues of spiritual intercourse. But during the past eight months I have devoted my attention to a critical investigation of its moral, social, and religious bear- ing, and I stand appalled before the revelations of its awful and damning realities, and would flee from its influence as I would from the miasma which would destroy both soul and body. Spiritualism and prostitution with a rejection of Chris- tianity, are twin sisters, which everywhere go hand in hand. With but little inquiry, I have been able to count up over seventy mediums, most of whom have wholly abandoned their conjugal relations, others living with their paramours called 'affinities,' others in promiscuous adultery, and still others exchanged partners. Old men and women, who have passed the meridian of life, are not unfrequently the victims of this hallucination. Many of the mediums lose all sense of moral obligations, and yield to whatever influence may for the time be brought to bear upon them. Their pledges, the integrity of their oaths, are no more reliable than the shifting breezes of the whirlwind, for they are made to yield to the powers which for the time control them." Ibid., pp. 31-33. Dr. F. L. Nichols, a distinguished spiritualist, speaking of the mission of spiritualism, says: "Spiritualism meets, neu- tralizes, and destroys Christianity. A spiritualist is no longer a Christian in any popular sense of the term. Advanced spirits do not teach . . . the atonement of Christ nothing of the kind." Nichols' Monthly Magazine of Social Science and Progressive Literature, November, 1854, p. 66. Ibid., p. 33. Dr. P. B. Randolph, a noted lecturer on spiritualism, who says he has been in a trance state about two thousand five hundred times, says: "Spiritualism is all eye and head, no soul and heart; all intellect, no emotions; all philosophy, no religion; all spirit, no God! And even the social reformatory movement has dwindled down into prostitutional nurseries! "I enter the arena as the champion of common sense, against what in my soul I believe to be the most tremendous enemy of God, morals and religion that ever found foothold on PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 249 the earth the most seductive, hence most dangerous, form of sensualism that ever cursed a nation, age or people. "I was a medium about eight years, during which time I made three thousand speeches, and traveled over several dif- ferent countries, proclaiming the new gospel. I now regret that so much excellent breath was wasted, and that my health of mind and body was well-nigh ruined. I have only begun to regain both since I totally abandoned it, and to-day had rather see the cholera in my house than be a spiritual medium. . . The anti-Bible, anti-God, anti-Christian spiritualism, I had perfectly demonstrated to be subversive, unrighteous, destruc- tive, disorderly, and irreligious; consequently to be shunned by every true follower of God and holiness. "For seven years I held daily intercourse with what pur- ported to be my mother's spirit. I am now firmly persuaded that it was nothing but an evil spirit and infernal demon, who in that guise gained my soul's confidence and led me to the very brink of ruin. . . . Five of my friends destroyed them- selves, and I attempted it by direct spiritual influences. Every crime in the calendar has been committed by mortals moved by viewless beings! Adultery, fornications, suicides, desertions, unjust divorces, prostitution, abortion, insanity, are not evil, I suppose! I charge all these to this scientific spiritualism. ... It has banished peace from happy families, separated husbands and wives, and shattered the intellect of thousands." New York Tribune, November 21, 1858. Ibid., pp. 34, 35. Again he speaks, as found in the Banner of Light, a leading spiritualist paper: "I have a volume of sixty closely written pages, of names of those who have been drawn down from respectability, morality, wealth and intelligence, to the filth of free love, poverty, and to insanity itself. "Spiritualism is a synonym of all falsities and lies; a cloak for all kinds of crimes adultery, murder and lust; it weakens man's intellect and individuality; changes his worship of God to a worship of ghosts." Ibid., p. 36. Mr. Joel Tiifany, a man who has been a champion in spir- itualism, says: "After all of our investigations for seven or eight years, we must say, that we have as much evidence, that 250 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK they are lying spirits as we have that they are any spirits at all. . . . The doctrines they teach . . . are mostly contradictory and absurd." Ibid. Mr. T. L. Harris, a Swedenborgian minister, who became a spiritualist, and lectured in Europe, said, as reported in the London Advertiser: "The marriage vow imposes no obliga- tions in the views of spiritualists. Husbands who had for years been so devotedly attached to their wives that they have said nothing in the world but death itself could part them, have abandoned their wives, and formed criminal connections with other females, because the spirits have told them that there was a greater spiritualist affinity between these hus- bands and certain other women, than between them and their lawful wives. Wives, too, the most devoted and loving, and true to their husbands, that had ever contracted the marriage obligation, had left their husbands and children, and lived in open immorality with other men, because the spirits had told them that they ought to do so, on the ground of there being a greater spiritualist sympathy between them and these men than between them and their husbands." Ibid., pp. 36, 37. Mr. J. F. Whitney, editor of the New York Pathfinder, says : "Now, after a long and constant watchfulness, seeing for months and years its progress and its practical workings upon its devotees, its believers and its mediums, we are compelled to speak our honest conviction, which is, that the manifesta- tion coming through the acknowledged mediums, who are designated as rapping, tipping, writing, and entranced medi- ums, have a baneful influence upon believers, and create dis- cord and confusion; that the generality of these teachings inculcate false ideas, approve of selfish, individual acts, when carried out, debase and make them little better than the brute." Again he says: "Seeing as we have the gradual progress it makes with its believers, particularly its mediums, from lives of morality to those of sensuality and immorality, gradu- ally and cautiously undermining the foundations of good prin- ciples, we look back with amazement to the radical change which a few months will bring about in individuals." Again: "We desire to send forth our warning voice; and PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 251 if our humble position as the head of a public journal, our known advocacy of spiritualism, our experience, and the con- spicuous part we have played among its believers; the honesty and the fearlessness with which we have defended the subject, will weigh anything in our favor, we desire that our opinions may be received, and those who are moving passively down the rushing rapids to destruction, should pause, ere it be too late, and save themselves from the blasting influence which those manifestations are causing." Ibid., pp. 38, 39. "FORBIDDING TO MARRY." "At the Reform Spiritualist Convention, held at Rutland, Vermont, June, 1858, the following resolution was presented and defended: 'Resolved, That the only true and natural marriage is an exclusive conjugal love between one man and one woman; and the only true home is the isolated home based upon this exclusive love.' " Mrs. Julia Branch, of New York, speaking upon said reso- lution, said: "I am aware that I have chosen almost a for- bidden subject; forbidden from the fact that anyone who can or dare look the marriage question in the face, candidly and openly denouncing the institution as the sole cause of woman's degradation and misery, are objects of suspicion, of scorn, and opprobrious epithets." Again she said: "She must demand her freedom; her right to receive the equal wages of man in payment for her labor; her right to have children when she will, and by whom." Ibid., pp. 39-41. Mrs. Lewis said at the Spiritual Convention at Ravenna, Ohio, July 4, 1857: "To confine her to love one man was an abridgment of her rights. . . . Although she had one husband in Cleveland, she considered herself married to the whole hu- man race (males). All men were her husbands, and she had an undying love for them. What business is it to the world whether one man is the father of my children, or ten men are! I have a right to say who shall be the father of my offspring." Ibid., p. 43. William B. Potter says: "We have through our own medi- 252 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK umship and that of others, had 'spirit manifestations/ which the most careful and rigidly scientific investigations have shown, beyond all doubt or possibility of mistake, to be of spirit origin. Fifteen years of critical study of spiritual litera- ture, an extensive acquaintance with the leading spiritualists, and a patient, systematic, and thorough investigation of the manifestations, for many years, enable us to speak from actual knowledge, definitely and positively of spiritualism as it is. Spiritual literature is full of the most insidious and seductive doctrines calculated to undermine the very foundations of morality and virtue, and lead to the most unbridled licentious- ness. . . . Hundreds of families have been broken up, and many affectionate wives deserted by 'affinity-seeking' husbands. Many once devoted wives have been seduced, and left their husbands and tender, helpless children, to follow some 'higher attraction.' " Ibid., pp. 44, 45. THE SPIRITS' CREED. THE BIBLE IS NOT A RELIABLE BOOK. In the testimony of a spirit given in the Banner of Light, November 23, 1861, it is said: "Many times before we have said that we can not place implicit confidence in that which we find between the lids of the Bible." A spirit, claiming to be Rev. John Moore, says: "My friend asks, 'Do you believe the Bible?' I answer, No, I do not. I can not believe one word of it as the word of God." Ibid., p. 50. THERE IS NO SIN. "We say, as we have said a thousand times before, there is no such thing as sin; no such thing as evil. . . . Now, then, if there is sin anywhere, God made that sin he is the author of it." "The foundation of your religion is fast fading away. Soon we shall find you shaking hands with these new things. This must be s ; o. . . . Jesus of Nazareth, if he were here to-day, would tell you as we tell you." "Spiritually and divinely considered, there is no sin. Full well we know the book you call the Bible teaches of sin. Full well we know the whole PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 253 Christian world recognizes such a condition; but, to us, there is no sin." "Everything that ever has been or ever will be is an immutable decree of God. ... It is vain for man to talk about disobeying the law of God; he can at no time disobey it. ... Every grain of sand you tread upon to-day shall in time become an immortal soul, endowed with wisdom. . . . You may curse the Author of your being. Do you sin? No; you are but casting off the gross in your nature obeying your God. . . . We believe our God to be the author of sin, as of good. If we give him his due, we give him this." Ibid., pp. 50, 51. THERE IS NO DEVIL. "There is no devil either. . . . Seems to me as though man must be devoid of good sense to believe anything of the kind." Ibid., p. 52. CHRIST IS NOT RAISED. "But the question arises, What became of the body of Jesus? We answer, the friends of Jesus stole away the body. ... So then we will say the natural body of Jesus Christ was never reanimated after the crucifixion. All nature, our God (self) tells us so." Ibid. MAN IS HIS OWN JUDGE. "Within the bosom of every man and woman there is a judgment seat, a throne of God; and before that, and that alone, should men bow down and worship. By that alone they are to be guided. He is to be judged by himself as a spirit; he is to come before no other tribunal. If by the law of self he is condemned, he must suffer according to the con- demnation ; if acquitted by self, he is indeed acquitted." Ibid. NO RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD. "We presume our good brothers will ask if Jesus did not raise the dead? He never did, and never could." "The grave is the resting place of the form we no more require." Ibid., p. 53. 254 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK MAN IS HIS OWN SAVIOR. "The only true religion is a natural religion. . . . You are your own Saviors." "In answer to the question, 'Did not Christ die, that through his death we might inherit eternal life?' a spirit answers, 'No I.Christ did not die, that through his death we might live. . . . His death has no more to do with the remission of sins than the death of any of your martyrs.' " "No man should rely upon any Savior outside of himself. . . . Each and everyone is a savior, as he is a judge, a god." MAN IS GOD. "God is man, and man is God. . . . Tell us of God, . . . they might as well say, Tell us of ourselves." "The being: called God exists, organically, in the form of the being called man." Educator, p. 303. Ibid., p. 57. Another spirit says: "When man became a living soul, he became a god." "Look within yourself, and behold yourself a god, responsible for every act. Read the inscriptions there, and thou shalt learn that thou art a god in thyself, and thine own judge." THERE IS NO GOD. "There is no God anywhere to forgive sin." Ibid. "The idea of a God of illimitable capacity is so incompre- hensible, that, in our judgment, it borders on the absurd. God, in the abstract, is a nonentity, an ideality of man's brains." Spiritual Telegraph, January 24, 1857. Ibid., p. 58. Another spirit says: "We must regard him (God) as a central principle, but not as a being. ... A principle existing in matter, in all conditions, and in all relations, a part of everything." "The divine is of necessity, ... a vast ocean of magnetism." Educator, p. 526; Ibid. Dr. R. T. Hallock said: "Now we may cheerfully sympa- thize with his mirthful explosion of the popular divinity; no merciful man will object even to his expunging from his PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 255 vocabulary the three hateful little letters (G-o-d) which ex- press it." Spiritual Telegraph. Ibid., p. 59. Dr. William B. Potter, in his work, Spiritualism as It Is, says: "The teachings and theories given through the different manifestations, are as various as it is possible to conceive. Indeed, few of the most devoted 'seekers after truth under difficulties' are aware of the endless contradictions and ab- surdities that are mixed up with the most exalted truths and the* most profound philosophies. We have room for only a tithe of them, for we have not yet found the first question or subject about which they do not contradict each other." Ibid., p. 62. LATTER DAY APOSTASY. As foretold by prophets, apostles, and Joseph Smith, the Seer: "Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord: for he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited." Jeremiah 17: 5, 6. (I emphasize two words salt land to attract your attention.) "But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities: having eyes full of adultery, and that can not cease from sin." 2 Peter 2: 10, 14. (This was made apparent in the late investigation before the senatorial committee.) "But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of." 2 Peter 2: 1,2. "Notwithstanding her children are scattered, they that 256 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK remain and are pure in heart shall return and come to their inheritances." Doctrine and Covenants 98: 4. "And ye shall be scourged from city to city, and from synagogue to synagogue, and but few shall stand to receive an inheritance." Doctrine and Covenants 63 : 8. "I have decreed that your brethren, which have been scat- tered, shall return to the land of their inheritances and build up the waste places of Zion ; for after much tribulation, . . their restoration to the land of Zion, ... ye must needs be led out of bondage by power, and with a stretched out arm." Doctrine and Covenants 100: 3. (These are only a tithe.) "JOURNAL OF DISCOURSES." The elders of the Utah church frequently deny statements from the Journal of Discourses, as not being authentic; and charging the elders of the Reorganized church with misrep- resenting facts. The following ought to be of interest to them, and lead them to a better consideration of those who would be their friends if they would permit it : "GREAT SALT LAKE, UTAH TERRITORY, June 1, 1853. "Elder Samuel W. Richards, and the Saints Abroad. Dear Brethren: It is well known to many of you, that Elder George D. Watt, by our counsel, spent much time in the midst of poverty and hardships to acquire the art of report- ing, in phonography, which he has faithfully and fully ac- complished; and he has been reporting the public sermons, discourses, lectures, delivered by the Presidency, the Twelve, and others in this city, for nearly two years, almost without fee or reward. Elder Watt now proposes to publish a journal of these reports, in England, for the benefit of the Saints at large, and to obtain means to enable him to sustain his highly useful position of reporter. You will perceive at once that this will be a work of mutual benefit, and we cheerfully and warmly request your cooperation in the purchase and sale of the above named Journal, and wish all the profits arising therefrom to be under the control of Elder Watt." PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 257 (Signed by the) "First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. "BRIGHAM YOUNG. "HEBER C. KIMBALL. "WILLARD RICHARDS." Journal of Discourses, vol, 1, (introduction of the book.) Also Millennial Star, vol. 15, pp. 730, 781. REORGANIZED AT KANESVILLE BY BRIGHAM YOUNG. Millennial Star: "Since the murder of Pres. Joseph Smith, many false prophets and false teachers have arisen, and tried to deceive many, during which time we have mostly tarried with the body of the church, or been seeking a new location, leaving those prophets and teachers to run their race undisturbed, who have died natural deaths, or committed suicides; and we now, having it in contemplation soon to reorganize the church according to the original pattern, with a First Presidency and Patriarch, feel that it will be the privilege of the Twelve, ere long, to spread abroad among the nations, not to hinder the gathering, but to preach the gospel, and push the people, the honest in heart, together from the four quarters of the earth." Epistle of the Twelve, Winter Quarters, December 23, 1847, vol. 10, p. 86. Millennial Star: "At this conference we suggested to the brethren the propriety of organizing the church with a First Presidency and a Patriarch, as hinted at in our General Epistle, and the expediency of such a move at this time was so clearly seen by the brethren, that they hailed it as an action which the state of the work at present demanded, and as a means to liberate the hands of the quorum of the Twelve, who now feel at liberty to go abroad and herald the truth to the ends of the earth and build up the kingdom in all the world. Accordingly Brigham Young was nominated to be the First President of the church, and he nominated Heber C. Kimball and Willard Richards to be his counselors, which nominations were seconded and carried without a dissenting voice." Winter Quarters, Jan. 23, 1848, vol. 10, pp. 114, 115. 258 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK WHO ORDAINED BRIGHAM? Brigham Young said: "Who ordained me to be First President of this church on earth? I answer, it is the choice of this people, and that is sufficient." Journal of Discourses, vol. 6, p. 320. F. D. Richards said: "In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, no one has ever been ordained to be presi- dent of the church. In the beginning the Lord sent Peter, James and John, and they ordained Joseph Smith an apostle and he was instructed how to organize and build up the church in this dispensation. "When the Prophet and Apostle Joseph Smith was taken from us, Brigham Young, being president of the Twelve Apostles it devolved upon him to preside over the church, as the apostle is the highest office known in the church of Christ. So also, when the Prophet and Apostle Brigham Young died, John Taylor, being president of the Twelve Apostles, it de- volved upon him. In the same manner, when he departed, Wilford Woodruff, being president of the Twelve Apostles, the Presidency devolved upon him. Neither Joseph Smith, Brig- ham Young, John Taylor, nor Wilford Woodruff were ordained presidents of the church. It is not according to the order of the church to ordain presidents of the church, for there is no such order of the priesthood known in the church. "- True Succession in Church Presidency, p. 154. Brigham Young said: "No man need judge me. You know nothing about it, whether I am sent or not; furthermore, it is none of your business, only to listen with open ears to what is taught you, and serve God with an undivided heart. "- Journal of Discourses, vol. 1, p. 341- History of Utah by Whitney, vol. 1, pages 348, 349: "On the 6th of August the President and the apostles who were with him, namely: Heber C. Kimball, Orson Pratt, Willard Richards, Wilford Woodruff, George A. Smith and Amasa M. Lyman, 'renewed their covenants' by baptism, President Young, entering the water City Creek immersed each of the others according to the usual mode, after which he laid PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 259 hands upon and confirmed them, resealing upon each his apostleship. Heber C. Kimball next to Brigham Young the senior of the Twelve then baptized and confirmed the Presi- dent in like manner." FIRST PUBLIC INTRODUCTION OF POLYGAMY WAS MADE IN SALT LAKE CITY. At a conference in Salt Lake City, August 29, 1852, Orson Pratt said : "It is quite unexpected to me brethren and sisters to be called upon to address you this forenoon ; and still more so, to address you upon the principle which has been named, namely, a plurality of wives. It is rather new ground for me; that is, I have not been in the habit of publicly speaking upon this subject; and it is rather new ground to the inhabi- tants of the United States, and not only to them, but to a portion of the inhabitants of Europe; a portion of them have not been in the habit of preaching a doctrine of this descrip- tion; consequently we shall have to break up new ground. It is well known, however, to the congregation before me, that the Latter Day Saints have embraced the doctrine of a plural- ity of wives, as a part of their religious faith. It is not, as many have supposed, a doctrine embraced by them to gratify the carnal lusts and feelings of man; that is not the object of the doctrine. We shall endeavor to set forth before this enlightened assembly some of the causes why the Almighty- has revealed such a doctrine, and why it is considered a part and portion of our religious faith. And I believe that they will not, under our present form of Government, (I mean the Government of the United States) try us for treason for believing and practicing our religious notions and ideas. I think, if I am not mistaken, that the Constitution gives the privilege to all the inhabitants of this country, of the free exercise of their religious notions, and the freedom of their faith, and the practice of it. Then, if it can be proven to a demonstration, that the Latter Day Saints have actually em- braced, as a part and portion of their religion, the doctrine of a plurality of wives, it is constitutional. And should there ever be laws enacted by this Government to restrict them 260 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK from the free exercise of this part of their religion, such laws must be unconstitutional." Journal of Discourses, vol. 1, pp. 53, 54. Brigham Young said the same day, "You heard Brother Pratt state, this morning, that a revelation would be read this afternoon, which was given previous to Joseph's death. It contains a doctrine, a small portion of the world is opposed to; but I can deliver a prophecy upon it. Though that doctrine has not been practiced by the elders, this people have believed in it for years. . . . The principle spoken upon by Brother Pratt, this morning, we believe in. And I tell you for I know it, it will sail over, and ride triumphantly above all the prejudice and priestcraft of the day; it will be fostered and believed in by the more intelligent portions of the world, as one of the best doctrines every proclaimed to any people. Your hearts need not beat; you need not think that a mob is coming here to tread upon the sacred liberty which the constitution of our country guarantees unto us, for it will not be. . . . This revelation has been in my possession many years, and who has known it? None but those who should know it. I keep a patent lock on my desk, and there does not anything leak out that should not." Supplement to vol. 15 of Millennial Star, p. 31. "The elders of Israel frequently called upon me 'Brother Brigham, a word in private, if you please.' Bless me, this is no secret to me, I know what you want, it is to get a wife! 'Yes, Brother Brigham, if you are willing.' I tell you here now, in the presence of the almighty God, it is not the privi : lege of any elder to have even ONE wife, before he has honored his priesthood, before he has magnified his calling. If you obtain one, it is by mere permission, to see what you will do, how you will act, whether you will conduct yourself in right- eousness in that holy estate. TAKE CARE ! Elders of Israel be cautious, or you will lose you-r wives and your children. "- Journal of Discourses, vol. 1, p. 119. "Think not, O ye elders of Israel! that your eternal heir- ship is won, and immutably secured, because you have at- tained to a portion of the holy priesthood, and a few of its PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 261 initiating: ordinances, while as yet your life and the security of all your great and glorious blessings in hope and prospect, are as a vapor before the sun; as yet depending wholly on your meekness, faithfulness, and perseverance to the end, in everything good. Think not that you are legally entitled to even one wife, while yo'u live on this earth, unless you are sealed up to everlasting lives, by the will and decree of the eternal Father, and a knowledge of the fact has been com- municated to you, through the proper source, and not direct to you, in person. And consider that the blessings you have hitherto received, through the mercies of him who loveth you, even your Father in heaven, will all be wrested from you, like Davitfs of old, should you err like him. To the sisters in Israel, we say, be patient. If your husband has died in the faith, and you wish to be sealed to him for eternity, you must come to Zion to receive that sealing ordinance. And if a high priest or an elder, should tell you that you can not be saved if you are not sealed to him, either as proxy for time, or for eternity to the exclusion of your dead, thrust him from your presence, as Lucifer was thrust from heaven, for that high priest or elder, will be damned (unless he speedily repent) , as sure as Lucifer was, and he can neither save you, nor you him. But come to Zion, be patient till you can get here, and the temple is completed, and your oldest son, by the husband to whom you wish to be sealed, may stand as his father's legal representative by your side, and by him you may be sealed to your dead husband ; for it is the legal right, in God's kingdom, for the oldest son to minister, and obtain blessings for his father, and act for his father when he is gone into the eternal world." Ninth General Epistle of the Presidency, Salt Lake City, April 13, 1853; Millennial Star, vol. 15, p. 440. Mrs. Emily D. P. Young, of lawful age, being produced, sworn, and examined, testified- as follows: "I was born in 1824; was baptized into the church when I was eight years old, in Independence, Missouri. . . . My father's name was Edward Partridge. I was married to Brigham Young in November, I think, 1844. ... At the time I married Brigham 262 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK Young, in November, 1844, I was at the same time sealed to Joseph Smith, sealed to him for eternity; I was sealed to Brigham Young for time, and to Joseph Smith for eternity. The manner that I was married to Brigham Young is known as marriage by proxy." Plaintiff's Abstract, pp. 363, 364. One of the text-books of the faith of the Mormon church is a book known as a Compendium of the Doctrines of the Gospel, compiled by Franklin D. Richards, one of the Twelve Apostles of the Mormon church, and by Elder James A. Little, and now issued by the Deseret News Publishing Company, the official publishing house of the Mormon church. In the latest edition of this Compendium, which bears the date of 1898, on page 125, there occurs this startling statement, which can not be read by any Christian or loyal American without feeling his blood boil: "If plural marriage be unlawful, then is the whole plan of salvation, through the house of Israel, a failure, and the entire fabric of Christianity without founda- tion." (Quoted from Saints' Herald, May 9, 1906, p. 434.) TOWERING PHILOSOPHY. "I prefer to remark upon subjects as they present them- selves to my mind; though I might prepare a course of lec- tures, and confine myself to given subjects, as I have often done; but when I am in this stand I hoist the gate and let the flood run, not caring which way it goes, or how. . . . Come on with your knives, your swords, and fagots of fire, and destroy the whole of us, rather than we will forsake our religion. Whether it is true or false is none of your business; whether the doctrine of plurality of wives is true or false is none of your business." Journal of Discourses, vol. 2, p. 187, February 18, 1855, Brigham Young. THE COMFORT OF POLYGAMY. Brigham Young said, September 21, 1856: "Men will say, 'My wife, though an excellent woman, has not seen a happy day since I took my second wife.' 'No, not a happy day for a year,' says one; and another has not seen a happy day for five years. ... I -am going to give you from this time to the PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 263 6th of October next for reflection, that you may determine whether you wish to stay with your husbands or not, and then I am going to set every woman at liberty, and say to them, now go your way. And my wives have got to do one of two things; either round up their shoulders to endure the afflictions of this world and live their religion, or they may leave, for I will not have them about me. I will go into heaven alone, rather than have them scratching and fighting around me. . . . Prepare yourselves for two weeks from to- morrow; and I will tell you now, that if you tarry with your husbands after I have set you free, you must bow down to it, and submit yourselves to the celestial law. You may go where you please after two weeks from to-morrow, but re- member that I will not hear any more of this whining. "- Journal of Discourses, vol. 4, pp* 55-57. Brigham Young said: "The teasers who come all the time after women, and soon get tired of them and want to divorce them, I make pay ten dollars for each divorce, and that is my individual bank." Journal of Discourses, vol. 8, p. 202. JESUS A POLYGAMIST. Orson Hyde said : "It will be borne in mind that once on a time, there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and on a careful reading of that transaction, it will be discovered that no less a person than Jesus Christ was married on that occasion. If he was never married, his intimacy with Mary and Martha, and the other Mary also whom Jesus loved, must have been highly unbecoming and improper to say the best of it." Journal of Discourses, vol. 4, p. 259. Brigham Young said: "Now hear it, oh inhabitants of the earth, Jew and Gentile, saint and sinner! When our father Adam came into the garden of Eden, he came into it a celestial body, and brought Eve, one of his wives, with him. He helped to make and organize this world. . . . He is our father and our God, and the only God with whom we have to do." Journal of Discourses, vol. 1, p. 50. Brigham Young said: "Now recollect that two weeks 264 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK from to-morrow I am going to set you at liberty. But the first (wife) will say, 'It is hard for I have lived with my husband twenty years, and have raised a family of children for him, and it is a great trial for me, for him to have more women'; then I say it is time that you gave him up to other women who will bear children. If my wife had borne all the children that she ever would bear; the celestial law would teach me to take young women that would have children." Journal of Discourses, vol. 4, P- 56. Joseph F. Smith said, July 7, 1878: "Some people have supposed that the doctrine of plural marriage was a sort of superfluity, or nonessential to the salvation or exaltation of mankind. In other words, some of the Saints have said, and believe, that a man with one wife, sealed to him by the authority of the priesthood for time and eternity, will re- ceive an exaltation as great and glorious, if he is faithful, as he possibly could with more than one. I want here to enter my solemn protest against this idea, for I know it is false. There is no blessing promised except upon conditions, and no blessing can be obtained by mankind except by faithful com- pliance with the conditions, or law, upon which the same is promised. The marriage of one woman to a man for time and eternity by the sealing power, according to the law of God, is a fulfillment of the celestial law of marriage in part and is good so far as it goes, and so far as a man abides these conditions of the law, he will receive his reward there- for, and this reward, or blessing, he could not obtain on any other grounds or conditions. But this is only the beginning of the law, not the whole of it. Therefore, whoever has imagined that he could obtain the fullness of the blessings pertaining to this celestial law, by complying with only a portion of its conditions, has deceived himself. He can not do it. ... If, then, this principle was of such great importance that the Prophet himself was threatened with destruction, and the best men in the church with being excluded from the favor of the Almighty, if they did not enter into and establish the practice of it upon the earth, it is useless to tell me that there PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 265 is no blessing attached to obedience to the law, or that a man with only one wife can obtain as great a reward, glory or kingdom as he can with more than one, being equally faithful. "It is a glorious privilege to be permitted to go into a temple of God to be united as man and wife in the bonds of holy wedlock for time and all eternity by the authority of the holy priesthood, which is the power of God, for they who are thus joined together 'no man can put asunder/ for God hath joined them. It is an additional privilege for that same man and wife to reenter the temple of God to receive another wife in like manner if they are worthy. But if he remain faithful with only the one wife, observing the conditions of so much of the law, as pertains to the eternity of the marriage cove- nant, he will receive his reward, but the benefits, blessings, and power appertaining to the second or more faithful and fuller observance of the law, he never will receive, for he can not. As before stated no man can obtain the benefits of one law by the observance of another. . . . "I understand the law of celestial marriage to mean that every man in this church, who has the ability to obey and practice it in righteousness and will not shall be damned. I say I understand it to mean this and nothing less, and I testify in the name of Jesus that it does mean that. 'But what will become of him that can not abide it?' Says the Lord, 'Whoso having knowledge have I not commanded to repent, and he that hath not understanding it remains with me to do according as it is written.' In other words he that is without understanding is not under the law, and it remains for God to deal with him according to his own wisdom. If a man acknowledges that he is incapable, or disqualified by a lack of knowledge, wisdom, or understanding to obey this law, then it remains with God to deal with him according to those principles of justice which are written or are yet to be revealed. It is not likely, however, that he will take his seat with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, or share in their prom- ised blessings." Journal of Discourses, vol. 20, pp. 28-31. 266 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK POLYGAMY NOT A TENET OF THE CHURCH. Brigham Young said June 21, 1874: "While we were in England (in 1839 and 1840,) I think, the Lord manifested to me by vision and his Spirit things that I did not then under- stand. I never opened my mouth to anyone concerning them until I returned to Nauvoo. Joseph had never mentioned this polygamy. There had never been a thought of it in the church that I ever knew anything about at the time; but I had this for myself and I kept it to myself." Messenger, vol. 1, p. 29; also Deseret News, July 1, 1874. Elder H. A. Stebbins says: "In this city Salt Lake in 1865, Brigham Young told Vice-president Colfax, Governor Bross and Editor Bowles, of the Springfield (Massachusetts) Republican, that polygamy was not a doctrine of the church originally, but that it was afterwards added." Notes from California, No. 13, Zion's Ensign, September 10, 1892. Brigham Young said: "This revelation (on celestial mar- riage or polygamy) has been in my possession many years; and who has known it? I keep a patent lock on my desk, and there does not anything leak out that should not." Tullidge and Crandel, p. 566. Joseph Smith the Prophet said: "Dr. J. C. Bennett's 'se- cret wife system' is a matter of his own manufacture; and further to disabuse the public ear, and show that the said Bennett and his misanthropic friend Origen Bachelor, are perpetrating a foul and infamous slander upon an innocent people, and need but be known to be hated and despised. "- Times and Seasons, vol. 3, p. 939, October 1, 1842. February, 1844 : "As we have lately been credibly informed that . . . Hyrum Brown has been preaching polygamy and other false and corrupt doctrines, in the County of Lapeer, State of Michigan: This is to notify him and the church in general, that he has been cut off from the church, for his iniquity." "(Signed) "JOSEPH SMITH. "HYRUM SMITH." Ibid., vol. 5, p. 423. PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 267 "W.e the undersigned members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and residents of the city of Nauvoo, persons of families do hereby certify and declare that we know of no other rule or system of marriage than the one published from the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and we give this certificate to show that Dr. J. C. Bennett's 'secret wife system' is a creature of his own make, as we know of no such society in this place, nor never did. "(Signed) "S. Bennett, George Miller, Alpheus Cutler, Reynolds Ca- hoon, Wilson Law, Wilford Woodruff, N. K. Whitney, Albert Petty, Elias Higbee, John Taylor, E. Robinson, Aaron John- son." "We the undersigned members of the Ladies' Relief Society, and married females do certify and declare that we know of no system of marriage being practiced in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints save the one contained in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and we give this certifi- cate to the public to show that J. C. Bennett's secret wife system is a disclosure of his own make. Emma Smith, president. Elizabeth Ann Whitney, counselor. Sarah M. Cleveland, counselor. Eliza R. Snow, secretary. Mary C. Miller, Lois Cutler, Thirza Cahoon, Ann Hunter, Jane Law, Sophia R*. Marks, Poily Z. Johnson, Abigal Works, Catharine Petty, Sarah Higbee, Phebe Woodruff, Lenora Taylor, Sarah Hillman, Rosanna Marks, Angeline Robinson. Times and Seasons, vol. 3, pp. 939, 940. Testimony of Mrs. Emma Smith-Bidamon : "He [Joseph Smith] had no other wife but me; nor did he to my knowledge ever have. . . . He did not have any improper relation with any woman that ever came to my knowledge. ... I know that he had no other wife, or wives, than myself, in any sense, either spiritual or otherwise." Tullidge and Crandel, p. 793. George Q. Cannon, in a sermon June 11, 1871, Journal of Discourses, vol. 14, pp. 165, 166, says: "A prevalent idea has been that this prejudice against us owes its origin and con- 268 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK tinuation to our belief in a plurality of wives; . . . Joseph and Hyrum Smith were slain in Carthage jail, and hundreds of persons were persecuted to death previous to the church having any knowledge of this doctrine." Elder John Taylor said in a discussion in Boulogne-sur-mer, France, in 1850, as follows: "We are accused here of polygamy, and actions the most indelicate, obscene, and dis- gusting, such that none but a corrupt and depraved heart could have contrived. These things are too outrageous to admit of belief; ... I shall content myself by reading our views of chastity and marriage. . . . You both mutually agVee to be each other's companion, husband and wife, observ- ing the legal rights belonging to this condition; that is, keep- ing yourselves wholly for each other, and from all others during your lives." Orson Pratt's Works, p. 8 of discussion. Elder John Taylor says: "The Latter Day Saints are charged by their enemies with the blackest crimes. Treason, murder, theft, polygamy, and adultery, are among the many crimes laid to their charge. . . . Most of these stories against the Mormons have been propagated by apostates and traitors, (who have generally been cut off from the church for their crimes). They publish their lies and straightway they are believed, and hawked about as awful disclosures* and re- ceived by community with trembling and holy horror. Sidney Rigdon, I see by the papers, has made an exposition of Mormonism, charging Joseph Smith and the Mormons with polygamy, etc. It does not require a very sagacious mind to fathom Mr. Rigdon's motive for so doing. . . . Mr. Rigdon's spiritual wife system was never known till it was hatched by John C. Bennett who was cut off from the church for seduc- tion. As to the charge of polygamy I will quote from the Book of Doctrine and Covenants which is the subscribed faith of the church and is strictly enforced, article on mar- riage, section 91, paragraph 4." (This can be read from the book.) Quoted from the Times and Seasons, vol. 6, p. 893, May 1, 1845. (Certified to by Bro. L. G. Holloway.) PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 269 SWORN TESTIMONY OF JOHN C. BENNETT. "May 19, 1842, State of Illinois, City of Nauvoo, personally appeared before me, Daniel H.. Wells, an alderman of said city of Nauvoo; John C. Bennett, being duly sworn according to law, deposed and said: That he never was taught anything in the least contrary to the strictest principles of the gospel, or of virtue, or of the laws of God or man, under any cir- cumstances, or upon any occasion, either directly or indi- rectly in word or deed by Joseph Smith; and that he never knew the said Smith to countenance any improper conduct whatever, either in public or private; and that he never did teach to me in private that an illicit intercourse with females was, under any circumstances, justifiable; and that I never knew him so to teach others. "(Signed) "JOHN C. BENNETT. "Sworn to and subscribed before me, this 17th day of May, 1842." Times and Seasons, vol. 3, pp. 839-842; also appendix of O. Pratt's Works. John H. Carter, sr., being sworn, testified: "Some of these doctrines that were taught by Brigham Young were never taught in the original church prior to 1844, and if any man had taught them he would have been disfellowshiped from the church very quick. That is, up to 1844, at the time that Joseph and Hyrum Smith were killed, the polygamy doctrine was never taught in the church." Plaintiff's Abstract, p. 180. John Taylor, being sworn, testified: "I performed the duties of teacher from the time I went to Nauvoo (1840) until 1844. . . . Joseph Smith and Hyrum Smith never taught polygamy, and there was no revelations on polygamy or celestial marriage or anything of the kind. The church was governed entirely as a monogamy church from 1832, at the time I became connected with it, up to the time of Joseph Smith's death." Ibid., pp. 190-192. DEFENDANT'S EVIDENCE. Wilford Woodruff, president of the Utah church, being sworn, testified: "There was no other rule of marriage 270 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK acknowledged by the church except what is found in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, the 1835 edition." Abstract, p. 303. Lorenzo Snow, president of the twelve apostles of the Utah church, being sworn, testified: "Well, it is a fact, that the order of marriage was changed, but whether that was the purpose of the substitution or not, I do not know. "Q. The order of marriage was changed, and the old order eliminated; is not that the fact? "A. Well, it was changed or extended. It was changed from the one to the other/' Ibid., pp. 320, 321. Lyman 0. Littlefield, president of the seventies in the Utah churc-h, being sworn, testified: "Q. Well, were you not taught it (polygamy) previous to 1840? "A.' I can not say; I have told you all I knew about it with reference to dates, and there is no sense in your asking me these questions. I never heard Joseph Smith teach it or preach it. I never heard him say anything about it person- ally or mention it." Ibid., p. 328. Joseph C. Kingsbury was sworn by affirmation, testified: "I became a member of the church (1832). ... No one had the privilege under the laws of the church up to 1844, nor under the laws of the United States, or in any State up to 1844, to take more wives than one. ... I do not remember hearing any minister in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, prior to 1844, in Nauvoo or any other place, preach or teach the doctrine of polygamy." Ibid., p. 338. Bathsheba Smith, being sworn, testified: "I never heard Joseph Smith teach polygamy, nor did I ever hear him say anything about it, either publicly or privately." Ibid., p. 361. Cyrus H. Whelock, being sworn, testified: "I never heard Joseph Smith teach the practice of polygamy from the stand; never heard any elder of the church preach it publicly from the stand in Nauvoo, until after the death of Joseph Smith. After Joseph Smith was dead I heard polygamy preached from the pulpit publicly in Nauvoo, by William Smith. He started a great many things; undertook to prove that po- PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 271 lygamy was right, and that that order of marriage would be restored, and he preached so many strange things there to the people that Elder John Taylor got up and corrected him. . . . Yes, sir, it was forbidden, and William Smith was cut off from the church because he preached that. That was in the winter of 1844. . . . The law of the church when I be- came a member (1839) did not teach polygamy. It was that one man should have but one wife, and one woman but one husband. . . . Anybody was liable to be excommunicated or disfellowshiped from the church who attempted to teach the doctrine of plural marriage at that time, up to the death of Joseph Smith." Ibid., pp. 384-386. Samuel W. Richards, being sworn, testified: "I do not know anything about the principles of plural marriage, or what is commonly called polygamy, before the death of Joseph Smith, only what was reported to me by other persons. . . . Yes, sir, I knew all the time I was there in Nauvoo, from 1842 down to the death of Joseph Smith in 1844, that there was no other system of marriage taught or practiced by the church than that of monogamy." Ibid., 390-392. Jason W. Briggs, being sworn, testified: "The doctrine of the original church from the time it was established up to 1844, when Joseph Smith was killed, was that one man should have one wife, and one woman one husband. It was the one wife doctrine at that time." Ibid., p. 400. John Taylor, editor of the Times and Seasons, November 15, 1844, says: "For the communication of an 'Old Man of Israel,' and the letter of Elder Addison Pratt from the islands of the Pacific Ocean, we bespeak a hearty welcome. They are genuine." Times and Seasons, vol. 5, p. 711. "AN OLD MAN OF ISRAEL. "The Saints of the last days have witnessed the outgoings of so many apostates that nothing but truth has any effect upon them. In the present instance, after the sham quota- tions of Sidney and his clique, from the Bible, Book of Mor- mon, and Doctrine and Covenants, to skulk off, under the 'dreadful splendor' of 'spiritual wifery,' which is brought into 272 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK the account as graciously as if the law of the land allowed a man a plurality of wives, is fiendish, and like the rest of Sidney's revelation, just because he wanted 'to go to Pitts- burg and live.' Woe to the man or men who will thus will- fully lie to injure an innocent people!" Times and Seasons, vol. 5, p. 715. Hyrum Smith said March 15, 1844: "// any man write to you, or preaches to you, doctrines contrary to the Bible, the Book of Mormon, or the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, set him down as an impostor. You need not all write to us to know what you are to do with such men; you have the au- thority with you, try them by the principles contained in the acknowledged word of God. If 1 they preach, or teach, or prac- tice contrary to that, dis fellow ship them; cut them off from among you as useless and dangerous branches" Times and Seasons, vol. 5, p. 490. POLYGAMY NOT PERMISSIBLE UNDER THE STATE LAW OF ILLINOIS. G. V. Waite says the following enactment was passed by the legislature February 12, 1833: "Section 121. Bigamy consists in the having of two wives or two husbands at one and the same time, knowing that the former husband or wife is still alive. If any person or per- sons within this State (Illinois), being married, or who shall hereafter marry, do at any time marry any person or per- sons, the former husband or wife being alive, the person so offending, shall, on conviction thereof, be punished by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, and imprisoment in the penitentiary not exceeding two years. "Section 122. If any man or woman, being unmarried, shall knowingly marry the husband or wife of another, such man or woman shall, on conviction, be fined not more than five hundred dollars or imprisoned not more than one year." The Mormon Prophet, pp. 231, 232. Campbellites' confession of the faith of the early Saints in Ohio: "Let us not fail to remember, however, that Mor- monism in northern Ohio, in 1831, was a very different thing PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 273 from Mormonism in Utah, in 1870." Hayden's History, p. 252. Elder P. P. Pratt said: "But for the information of those who may be assailed by those foolish tales about the two wives, we would say that no such principle ever existed among the Latter Day Saints, and never will; this is well known to all who are acquainted with our books and actions, the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants; and also all our periodicals are very strict and explicit on that subject, indeed far more so than the Bible." Millennial Star, vol. 3, p. 74. Question: When was the truth told? Read the testimonies of these earnest workers in the day of their fidelity; and then later, and there is but one conclusion apostasy. SPEECH OF SENATOR J. C. BURROWS. 'The regular and legitimate Mormon Church had its origin in and grew out of an alleged discovery of some metallic plates, said to have been found near Palmyra, New York, by one Joseph Smith, bearing certain inscriptions which were said to have been translated by him and embodied in what is known and accepted as the 'Book of Mormon,' belief in which formed, in 1830, the basis of an organization styling itself 'The Church of Latter Day Saints,' which for fifteen years increased in membership and extended its influence, until in 1844 it numbered about fifty thousand adherents. On the 27th day of June, 1844, Joseph Smith, the founder of this cult, while confined in jail at Carthage, Illinois, was set upon by a mob and killed. "With the details of the early history of this people, from 1830 to 1844, and their tenets we have nothing to do. It is sufficient for the purpose of this discussion to state that previous to the death of the prophet there were no dissen- sions in the organization so far as known, all subscribing to a common creed and holding a common faith. Judge Phillips, in the Circuit Court of the United States for the Western Dis- trict of Missouri, in delivering the opinion of that court in 1894 in what is known as the 'Temple Lot Cases' involving the title to certain real estate, said : " 'Beyond all cavil, if human testimony is to place any mat- 274 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK ter at rest, this church was one in doctrine, government, and purpose from 1830 to June, 1844, when Joseph Smith, its founder, was killed. It had the same federal head, governing bodies, and faith. During this period there was no schism, no dissensions, no parting of the ways in any matter funda- mental or affecting its oneness.' "The death of Joseph Smith in 1844, however, carried dis- may and demoralization throughout the entire membership of the Mormon church, scattering its adherents in divers directions and for the time being seemed to presage the com- plete overthrow and dissolution of the organization. Recov- ering, however, from the shock, the scattered bands soon re- appeared in various parts of the country and promulgated their doctrines with increased zeal, and set to work to reas- semble and reorganize their scattered forces, resulting finally in the formation of what is now known and recognized as the 'Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints,' with headquarters at Lamoni, Iowa, and presided over by Joseph Smith, a son of the prophet. The courts have re- peatedly declared this organization to be the legitimate suc- cessor of the original Mormon church, and its adherents, numbering some fifty thousand peaceable, patriotic, and law- abiding citizens scattered throughout the United States in small church societies, conforming to the laws of their coun- try wherever they may be and adhering to the faith of the founder of their creed, repudiating and denouncing the doc- trine of polygamy and its attendant crimes, without temple, endowment house, or secret order, worship in the open like other church organizations, unquestioned and unmolested. "During this period of disintegration one Brigham Young, who had identified himself with the Mormon organization as early as 1832, a man of indomitable will and undaunted courage, bold and unscrupulous, seized upon the occasion of the demoralization incident to the death of the prophet to place himself at the head of some five thousand Mormons, rnd marching over desert and mountain, established himself with his adherents in the valley of Salt Lake, July 24, 1847, then Mexican territory, where he undoubtedly indulged the PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 275 hope that the new doctrine of polygamy about to be publicly proclaimed by him might be promulgated with impunity and practiced and maintained without interference by the United States. These hopes, however, were destined to be blasted, for by the treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo of February 2, 1848, this territory passed from the jurisdiction of Mexico to the sovereignty of the United States, and its inhabitants there- upon became amenable to its laws. "Upon this transfer of sovereignty, and in 1849, Brigham Young and his followers, without authority from any source whatever, proceeded to set up a government of their own, embracing a territory of imperial dimensions, christening it the "State of Deseret," electing Brigham Young, the head of the church, governor; Heber C. Kimball, an apostle, lieu- tenant-governor, and filling all other official positions in the proposed state with their trusted adherents. At the same time a general assembly was chosen, which in 1849 petitioned Congress to admit the State of Deseret into the Union, and commissioned a delegate to the lower House of Congress, who subsequently presented his credentials and the memorial pray- ing for statehood. "Shortly previous to this time it began to be bruited that the leaders of this organization and founders of the new state were fugitives from justice and apostates from the true Mormon faith and were living in polygamy; and it is an historic fact that when Brigham Young arrived in Salt Lake, in 1847, he had seventeen wives, and all the so-called apostles, twelve in number, except possibly one, from two to twenty wives each. This rumor gained credence and confirmation by a protest against the admission of the State of Deseret sent to the Congress of the United States December 31, 1849, and now on file in its archives, from which I make the fol- lowing extracts: " 'Your petitioners respectfully represent that whereas ef- forts are now being made by the Salt Lake Miormons to obtain, by false representations and fallacious presentations, from the Government of the United States a state organiza- tion to be called the State of Deseret ; and whereas we believe 276 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK that it would be highly detrimental to the best interests of our country to comply with their request, we do therefore respect- fully petition your honorable body to provide some other way for the government of the Salt Lake settlement. Your peti- tioners know most assuredly that Salt Lake Mormonism is diametrically in opposition to the pure principles of virtue, liberty, and equality, and that the rulers of the Salt Lake church are bitter and inveterate enemies of our Government. They entertain treasonable designs against the liberties of American freeborn sons and daughters. . . . They have elected Brigham Young, who is the president of their church, to be the governor of the proposed State of Deseret. Their intention is to unite church and state. . . . We have authentic informa- tion that more than fifteen hundred Salt Lake Mormons took the following oath in the Temple of God at Nauvoo: "You do solemnly swear, in the presence of almighty God, his holy angels, and these witnesses, that you will avenge the blood of Joseph Smith on this nation, and teach your children, and that you will from this time henceforth and for ever begin and carry out hostilities against this nation, and to keep the same intent a profound secret now and for ever. So help me God." " 'The rulers of the Salt Lake church hypocritically pretend to venerate the name and character of the Prophet Joseph Smith, that they may retain their popularity among that people who believe that he was a true prophet. These rulers are apostates from the true Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which church Joseph Smith was president of. They teach and practice polygamy. . . . Surely your honorable body will not lend your aid to legalize adultery and all man- ner of wickedness. These men have left their country for their country's good. They have left it that they might escape the punishment which their crimes have invoked. . . . They have been guilty of murders, treason, robbery, counter- feiting, swindling, blasphemy, and usurpation of power, both political and ecclesiastical. This is the character of the man who is the political and ecclesiastical governor of the Salt Lake colony. The Salt Lake settlement is like Sodom and Gomorrah. Save the rising generation of that land from PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 277 being trained up in such a sink of corruption, blasphemy, and treason.' "The practice of polygamy by this band of apostate Mor- mons received further confirmation in the official report of the Indian agent for the Territory of Utah, dated March 29, 1852, in which it was stated: " 'Among these men (speaking of the Mormons) was Wil- lard Richards, who kept a harem of some dozen or fifteen women, to all of whom he is wedded. He is acting secretary of state and postmaster of the city.' "Upon the presentation of the remonstrance referred to, the National House of Representatives declined to consider the petition for the admission of the 'State of Deseret' into the Union, or receive its representative, but in lieu thereof and on the 7th day of September, 1850, Congress passed an act providing for the organization and government of the Territory of Utah. In 1850 President Fillmore appointed Brigham Young governor of the Territory for the term of four years, who entered upon the duties of the office in Feb- ruary, 1851, and thus the chief polygamous saint and head of the church became the chief executive of the Territory. These public and official declarations confirmatory of the rumors of the practice of polygamy by Brigham Young and his apos- tles, made further concealment of their crime impossible, and it becam.e necessary in some way to excuse or justify so fla- grant an assault upon public decency and the civilization of the age. "To that end a special conference of the sect was called to convene at Salt Lake City on the 28th day of August, 1852, over which Brigham Young presided, attended by the so-called apostles and high officials of the church to the number of over two thousand, at which conference, for the first time, the doctrine of polygamy was publicly proclaimed and d^- clared to be an accepted tenet of the Utah Mormon faith. Preliminary to its formal promulgation, and to promote its reception by the followers of Brigham Young, it was deemed expedient that some of the high dignitaries who were associ- ated with him should bear testimony to the saintly character 278 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK of their master and the divine origin of the nefarious doctrine. To this end Heber C. Kimball, one of the First Presidency and a polygamist, in calling the meeting to order, took occa- sion to say: " 'Brother Brigham Young is the successor of Joseph Smith and a better man never lived upon the earth, nor ever sought the interest of this people more fervently.' "Elder Benson, another polygamist, joined in -the laudation by saying: " 'I know that the principles that have been taught by the prophet Joseph and Brothers Brigham, Heber, and Willard' "Composing the First Presidency " 'and by every other good man in this church are correct principles, and that these men have been borne on trium- phantly over every trial and difficulty they have been called to pass through. The elders, therefore, can go to the nations with their consciences as clean as drifting snow, and with the satisfaction that all is right in Zion and we are led by the best men upon the face of the earth. I am glad in my heart, and I say, God bless Brigham, Heber, and Willard. They are the counsel of heaven to this people, and I mean to honor them in the earth wherever I go, and I would preach down in the bowels of hell the same as I do here and not be ashamed of it.' "Pandemonium would be a fit place for its promulgation. " 'My story all the time is, Hurrah for Mormonism. ... I only throw out these few hints that you may be prepared to act when you receive the proper instructions from your presi- dent.' "Then came Orson Pratt, one of the oldest and most famous of the apostles and the husband of three wives, who publicly declared : " 'It is quite unexpected to me to be called upon to address you on the subject of the plurality of wives. It is rather new ground to the inhabitants of the United States, and not only to them, but a portion of the inhabitants of Europe. A portion of them have not been in the habit of preaching a doctrine of this description: consequently we will have to break up new PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 279 ground. It is well known, however, to the congregation before me that the Latter Day Saints have embraced the doctrine of the plurality of wives as a part of their religious faith.' "In order to induce his followers more readily to accept this infamous doctrine, Brigham Young himself invoked the name of Joseph Smith, the Martyr, whom many sincerely be- lieved to be a true prophet, and ascribed to him the reception of a revelation from the Almighty in 1843, commanding the saints to take unto themselves a multiplicity of wives, limited in number only by the measures of their desires. Why and how this revelation had been kept a secret for nine years Brigham Young explained as follows: " 'You heard Brother Pratt state this morning that a reve- lation would be read this afternoon which was given previous to Joseph's death. It contains a doctrine which a small por- tion of the world is opposed to. Though that doctrine has not been preached by the elders, this people have believed in it for many years. " 'The original copy of this revelation was burnt up ; Wil- liam Clayton was the man who wrote it from the mouth of the prophet. In the meantime it was in Bishop Whitney's possession. He wished the privilege to copy it, which Brother Joseph granted. Sister Emma burnt the original. " 'The revelation will be read to you. The principle we believe in. And I tell you for I know it it will sail over and ride triumphantly above all the prejudice and priestcraft of the day; it will be fostered and believed in by the more intelligent portions of the world as one of the best doctrines ever proclaimed to any people. I am now ready to proclaim it. This revelation has been in my possession many years and who has known it? None but those who should know it. I keep a patent lock on my desk, and there does not anything leak out that should not.' "Such the mythical story palmed off on a deluded people. Let me now quote the material part of the pretended revela- tion of polygamy as given out by authority of Brigham Young in 1852. " 'Verily, thus saith the Lord unto his servant Joseph: . . . 280 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK behold and lo, I am the Lord thy God . . . therefore prepare thy heart to receive and obey the instructions which I am about to give unto you, for all those who have this law re- vealed unto them must obey the same, for behold, I reveal unto you a new and everlasting covenant, and if ye abide not that covenant, then are ye damned; for no one can reject this covenant and be permitted to enter into my glory; . . . and as pertaining to the new and everlasting covenant, it was instituted for the fullness of my glory, and he that receiveth a fullness thereof must and shall abide the law or he shall be damned, saith the Lord God. And again, as pertaining to the law of the priesthood, if any man espouse a virgin and desire to espouse another, and the first give her consent, and if he espouse the second, and they are virgins and have vowed to no other man, then is he justified. He can not commit adultery, for they are given unto him, for he can not commit adultery with that that belongs to him and to none else; and if he have ten virgins given unto him by this law he can not commit adultery, for they belong unto him and are given unto him; therefore is he justified.' "Thus did Brigham Young and his associates attempt to explain and justify a practice revolting to every sense of public decency, subversive of the home, and destructive of the very foundations of society. Thus were laid with unholy hands what Brigham Young was pleased to call the foundations of 'Zion,' upon which it was proposed to erect 'the kingdom of God on earth.' But a doctrine so monstrous needed something more than the unsupported testimony of Brigham Young to in- sure its reception and give it credence, in view of the fact that it had no warrant in the Book of Mormon and was specially condemned in the book of 'Doctrine and Covenants,' wherein it is declared 'One man should have one wife, and one woman but one husband.' To give this creed the semblance of author- ity and insure its permanency as an article of this Utah Mor- mon faith the doctrine of monogamy was torn from the book of 'Doctrines and Covenants,' and the doctrine of polygamy inserted in its stead, where it is still retained as a cardinal principle of the Utah Mormon faith. In this way was the PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 281 practice of polygamy inaugurated in the Territory of Utah and fostered and encouraged by the leaders of this sect." Congressional Record for December 13, 1906. SPEECH OF HONORABLE FRED T. DUBOIS. (Senator Dubois was also a member of the Committee on Privileges and Elections, and this speech was delivered De- cember 13, 1906, in the United States Senate, and published in the Congressional Record for December 17, 1906.) "It is only fair, I think, for me to say and I am glad the distinguished Senator from Michigan [Mr. Burrows] treated upon it the other day that there is a branch of the Mormons, called the 'Josephites/ who ought to be separated clearly in the minds of all the Senators from the Brighamite Mormons. The Josephites claim that they are the custodians of the church as it was founded. They claim that^Brigham Young has interjected doctrines into the church which the Mormons did not accept in the beginning. At any rate, however that may be, the Josephite Mormons, with their headquarters at Lamoni, in the State of Iowa, and wherever they are, no mat- ter in what part of the country, are among the best of our citizens in all respects. They do not believe in polygamy; they never practiced polygamy. They discountenanced it. They do not believe in church dictation in political affairs. They are the same as other church organizations, and to their religion no one has any objection. I am glad to call the atten- tion of Senators to it, so that in the future we may not con- fuse the Josephite with the Brighamite Mormons." ADAM, OUR FATHER AND GOD. Brigham Young said: "One thing has remained a mystery in this kingdom up to this day. It is in regard to the char- acter of the well-beloved Son of God. Now hear it, inhabi- tants of the earth, Jew and Gentile, Saint and sinner! When our father Adam came into the garden of Eden, he came into it with a celestial body, and brought Eve, one of his wives, with him. ... HE is our FATHER and our GOD, and the 232 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK only God with whom WE have to do. Every man upon the earth, professing Christians or non-professing, must hear it, and will know it sooner or later. . . . When the Virgin Mary conceived the child Jesus, the Father had begotten him in his own likeness. He was not begotten by the Holy Ghost. And who is the Father? He is the first of the human family (Adam) ; and when he took a tabernacle, it was begotten by his Father in heaven, after the same manner as the tabernacles of Cain, Abel, and the rest of the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve; from the fruits of the earth, the first earthly tabernacles were originated by the Father, and so on in succession. . . . Now, remember from this time forth, and for ever, that Jesus Christ was not begotten by the Holy Ghost. I will repeat a little anecdote. I was in conversation with a certain learned professor upon the subject, when I replied, to this idea 'if the Son was begotten by the Holy Ghost, it would be very dangerous to baptize and confirm females, and give the Holy Ghost to them, lest he should beget children, to be palmed upon the elders by the people, bringing the elders into great difficulties." Journal of Discourses, vol. 1, pp. 50, 51. 0. Pratt says: "If one God can propagate his species, and raise up spirits after his own image and likeness, and call them his sons and daughters, so can all other gods that become like him, do the same thing; consequently, there will be many fathers, and there will be many families, and many sons and daughters; and they will be children of those glorified, celestial beings that are counted worthy to be gods." Journal of Discourses, vol. 1, p. 57. "The fleshly body of Jesus required a mother as well as a father. Therefore, the father and mother of Jesus, according to the flesh, must have been associated together in the capacity of husband and wife; hence the Virgin Mary must have been for the time being the lawful wife of God the Father. We use the term lawful wife, because it would be blasphemous in the highest degree to say that he overshadowed her or begat the Savior unlawfully." Seer, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 158, 159. PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 283 THREE SHORT TALKS ON FINANCE. President Young said, December 5, 1853: "If an elder has borrowed from you, and you find that he is going to aposta- tize, then you may tighten the screws upon him; but if he is willing to preach the gospel without purse or scrip, it is none of your business what he does with the money he has borrowed from you." Journal of Discourses, vol. 1, p. 340. President Young said, November 9, 1856: ''Some of the elders seem to be tripped up in a moment if the wicked man finds fault with the members of this church; but bless your souls, I would not yet have this people faultless, for the day of separation has not yet arrived. I have many a time in this stand dared the world to produce as mean devils as we can, we can beat them at anything. We have the greatest and smoothest liars in the world, the cunningest and most adroit thieves, and any other shade of characters that you can mention. "We can pick out elders in Israel right here who can beat the world at gambling; who can handle the cards; can cut and shuffle them with the smartest rogue on the face of God's footstool. I can produce elders here who can shave their smartest shavers, and take their money from them. We can beat the world at any game. "We can beat them because we have men here who live in the light of the Lord; that have the holy priesthood and hold the keys of the kingdom of God. But you may go through all the sectarian world and you can not find a man capable of opening the door of the kingdom of God to admit others in. We can do that. We can pray the best, preach the best and sing the best. We are the best looking and finest set of people on the face of the earth; and they may begin any game they please, and we are on hand and can beat them at anything they have a mind to begin. They may make sharp their two-edged swords, and I will turn out the elders of Israel with greased feathers, and whip them to death. We are not to be beat. We expect to be a stumbling-block 284 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK to the whole world, and a rock of offense to them." Journal of Discourses, vol. 4. p. 77. President Heber C. Kimball said, July 19, 1854: "It is believed in the world that our females are all common women. Well, in one sense they are common that is, they are like all other women, I suppose, but they are not unclean, for we wipe all unclean ones from our midst; we not only wipe them from our streets, but we wipe them out of existence. And if the world want to practice uncleanness, and bring their prostitutes here, if they do not repent, and forsake such sins, we will wipe the evil out. We will not have them in this valley, unless they repent; for so help me God, while I live I will lend my hand to wipe such persons out, and I know this people will." Deseret News, August 17, 1854, and Millennial Star, vol. 16, p. 739. BLOOD ATONEMENT. Brigham Young said, October 9, 1852: "What shall be done with sheep that stink the flock so?- We will take them, I was going to say, and cut off their tails two inches behind their ears; however I will use a milder term, and say, cut off their ears." Journal of Discourses, vol. 1, p. 213. Brigham said again, March 27, 1853: "I say, rather than that apostates should flourish here, I will unsheath my bowie knife, and conquer or die. [Great commotion in the congrega- tion, and a simultaneous burst of feeling, assenting to the declaration.] Now, you nasty apostates, clear out, or judg- ment will be put to the line, and righteousness to the plummet. [Voices, generally, "Go it, go it."] If you say it is right, raise your hands [all hands up]. Let us call upon the Lord to assist us in this, and every good work." Journal of Dis- courses, vol. 1, p. 83. Brigham Young said: "Will you love your brothers or sisters likewise when they have committed a sin that can not be atoned for without the shedding of their blood? Will you love that man or woman well enough to shed their blood? I have seen scores and hundreds of people for whom there PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 285 would have been a chance (in the last resurrection there will be) if their lives had been taken and their blood spilled on the ground as a smoking incense to the Almighty. I have known a great many men who have left this church, for whom there is no chance whatever for exaltation : but if their blood had been spilled it would have been better for them. The wickedness and ignorance of the nations forbid this principle's being in full force, but the time will come when the law of God will be in full force. This is loving our neighbors as our- selves: if he needs help, help him: and if he wants salvation and it is necessary to spill his blood on the earth in order that he may be saved, spill it." Journal of Discourses, vol. 4, p. 220. Elder J. M. Grant says: "I say there are men and women here that I would advise to go to the president immediately, and ask him to appoint a committee to attend to their case: and let a place be selected, and let that committee shed their blood." Deseret News, vol. 6, p. 335, September 21, 1856. SALVATION DEPENDS UPON OBEDIENCE TO THE PRIESTHOOD, RIGHT OR WRONG. Heber C. Kimball, then of the Presidency, November 8, 1857, said: "In regard to our situation and circumstances in these valleys, brethren, WAKE UP: WAKE UP; YE ELDERS OF ISRAEL AND LIVE TO GOD and none else; and learn to do as you are told, both old and young; learn to do as you are told for the future. And when you are taking a position, if you do not know that you are right, do not take it I mean independently." But if you are told by your leaders to do a thing, do it, None of your business whether it is right or wrong. Well, now, if you will do just as you are told, you will increase in knowl- edge ten thousand times faster than you will to pray six hours, and if you follow that course, you will not advance in your religion one hundredth part so much as that man that will do just as he is told no matter what. Brother Brigham is my leader; he is my prophet, my seer and my revelator; and 286 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK whatever he says, that is for me to do; and it is not for me to question him one word, nor to question God a minute. Do you not see? You and I want to live our religion and do as we are told, not questioning a word for a moment. You have got to stop that. It is enough for others to do that, without our meddling with those things." Journal of Discourses, vol. 6, pp. 32-34. Again he said in the Salt Lake City Tabernacle, March 1, 1857: "How can you become impregnated with the Spirit and power of God, except you become impregnated through us? There is no true path except to do as you are told by those whom the Lord has called and chosen, and placed to direct you." Journal of Discourses, vol. 4, p. 250. June 10, 1855, he said: "When a servant of God counsels you, it is your duty to hear and obey his words. I am f^ly aware that the world do not like the idea of one man ruling this entire people with his word, but I would not give one farthing for this community if they could not be governed by one man, beloved and chosen of the Lord. You have no sal- vation only what you get through that source, and every true-hearted Latter Day Saint believed so. Our crops are almost entirely destroyed and what good will that do? It will bring us into position where we can appreciate the bless- ings of providence. Brother Brigham says that he does not fear hell, nor the Devil if this people will do as they are told and listen to counsel. Do you suppose that the world could ever come through our bulwarks, if this people were to obey counsel? No, they could not!" Journal of Discourses, vol. 5, pp. 262, 263. On August 30, 1857, he said: "I will ask you this question, gentlemen and ladies, Can you live your religion except you do as you are told? I have said again and again, that if we live our religion and do as we are told those men (Johnson's army) will never come over those mountains: for we shall slay the poor devils before they get there. I do not know of any religion except doing as I am told: and if you do, you have learned something that I have never learned. You PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 287 have a governor here to dictate to you and to tell you what to do, and if we will live our religion we are always safe, are we not?" Journal of Discourses, vol. 5, pp. 162, 163. Ezra T. Benson said, July 13, 1855: "I think you are pretty well satisfied in Provo with those who are placed over you, for you know that they are appointed by the authority of heaven, and it is the right of those who appointed them to dictate you and all others; it is therefore your duty to give heed to those placed over you in authority, and if you do, you will enjoy the Spirit of God to a great extent, even to your heart's satisfaction. We are called upon to uphold, by our faith, works and our prayers, those who are over us : we have raised our hands to sustain and uphold them, and we will turn round and find fault with that which we have sanc- tioned. Can you enjoy the Spirit of God if you do this? No, in order to enjoy that Spirit you must reverence all the mem- bers of the priesthood, no matter who may be in possession of it." Journal of Discourses, vol. 3, p. 63. "I will give you the pith of the last orders issued: 'That man or family who will not do as they are told in the orders, are to be treated as strangers, yea, even as enemies, and not as friends.' And if there should be a contest, if we should be called upon to defend our lives, our liberty, and our pos- sessions, we would cut such off the first, and walk over their bodies to conquer the foe outside." BrJgham Young, Journal of Discourses, vol. 1, p. 167, July 31, 1853. "There are sins that can be atoned for by an offering upon an altar, as in ancient days; and there are sins that the blood of a lamb, of a calf, or of a turtle dove can not remit; but they must be atoned for by the blood of the man. That is the reason why men talk to you as they do from this stand; they understand the doctrine and through a few words about it, you have been taught that doctrine, but you do not under- stand it." Journal of Discourses, vol 4, P- 54. "I do know that there are sins committed, of such a nature that if the people did understand of salvation, they would tremble, because of their situation; and furthermore, I know 288 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK that there are transgressors, who if they knew themselves, and the only condition upon which they can obtain forgiveness, would beg of their brethren to shed their blood, that the smoke thereof might ascend to God as an offering to appease the wrath that is kindled against them, and that the law might have its course. I will say further; I have had men come to me and offer their lives to atone for their sins." Journal of Discourses, vol. 4, p. 53. J. M. Grant said: "We have those among us that are full of all manner of abominations, those who need to have their blood shed, for water will not do, their sins are of too deep a dye." Journal of Discourses, vol. 4, p. 49. Pres. Joseph F. Smith said: "The fact of the matter is, when a man says you can direct me spiritually, but not temporally, he lies in the presence of God that is, if he has got intelligence enough to know what he is talking about." Deseret News for April 25, 1896. On October 26, 1905, he said: "In a nutshell, the philoso- phy of the Mormon religion consists in obeying the command- ments and living up to the revelations of God as revealed to his chosen servants on earth in this the last dispensation of the fullness of times." "The talk was purely doctrinal," says the Utah State Jour- nal of the 27th of October, in speaking of the effort of the Editor News, "advising all to lead the life laid down by the authorities of the church and their teachings." Brigham Young said, September 2, 1857: "You and I may be ready to fight; we may be ready to plant seed, and if called upon to cache grain in the mountains and to do what- ever the Lord may require at our hands. [This sentence is as it is written, and is copied correctly: 'To cache grain in the mountains.' Webster: 'Cache a hole in the ground or a hiding place for concealing and preserving provision which it is inconvenient to carry.' At the time this speech was delivered, the people were in great distress; the army was about to come upon them, hence the saying, 'Be ready to fight, to burn.' The people were on hand to burn all that PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 289 they could not use rather than let it fall to the army. To cache grain in the mountains, means that they would store away provisions in the mountains that they may not starve.] Let us do whatever may be required. If we are called upon to take our women and children into the mountains, let us do that; if to burn, let us be on hand to burn; if to build more, let us do that, and whatever we are required to do let us do. We called up a bishop the other night, to go on an express; and when he came to my office I said to him, 'Brother Thomas, are you ready?' He replied, 'Yes.' Though he did not know what was wanted of him, yet he was ready. He asked, 'When do you want me?' I replied, 'Early to-morrow morning,' (now yesterday morning,) and he was there at the time which is the way that men should feel and act." Journal of Dis- courses, vol. 5, pp. 257, 258. John Taylor said, September 20, 1857 : "The Presbyterians used to say that people ought to thank God for the privilege of being damned. But I would not thank anyone for being damned, but I think, however, that such men as would not submit to his authority and rule ought to be damned, whether they like it or not. Nothing but obedience to his law, obedi- ence in families, obedience to bishops and to the priesthood in all its ramifications, and especially to Pres. Brigham Young as the head, to carry out his law to the whole people, can accomplish the purposes of God or our salvation as a people. . . . What does that obedience imply? Obedience in all things that the Twelve should be obedient to the Presi- dency, the seventy to the Twelve and so on through all the ramifications of the priesthood; obedience of wives to hus- bands, children to parents and that a general order of this kind should be established in every neighborhood, in every house, and in every heart." Journal of Discourses, vol. 5, pp. 264, 265. Wilford Woodruff said, April 9, 1857: "Now, whatever I might have obtained in the shape of learning, by searching and study respecting the arts and sciences of men whatever principles I may have imbibed during my scientific researches, 290 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK yet if the prophet of God should tell me that a certain prin- ciple or theory which I might have learned was not true, I do not care what my ideas might have been, I should con- sider it my duty, at the suggestion of my file leader, to aban- don that principle or theory. Supposing he were to say the principles by which you are governed are not right, that they were incorrect, what would be my duty? I answer that it would be my duty to lay those principles aside and to take up those that might be laid down by the servants of God." Jour- nal of Discourses, vol. 5, p. 83. Again, September 27, 1857: "You need not fear, all we have to do is to be passive in the hands of the Lord and fol- low the counsel of our leaders, and not be particularly anxious that the Lord should reveal to you or to me his mind and will, and intentions concerning our present difficulties: but pray earnestly that the Spirit of the Lord may be upon those men who stand at the head. All we have to do is to live our religion, and when the Presidency say, 'Come here,' or 'Go there,' let us be on hand to obey and all will be right."- Journal of Discourses, vol. 5, p. 268. Lorenzo Snow said: "When the enemy is near, and when the storm clouds arise, and the war clouds approach, even then we can feel free and quiet, and be satisfied that all is right in Israel. It is only for us to be ready to do our duty, to serve our president with all our heart, with all our might, with all our feelings, with all our property and energies, and with all things that the Lord has put into our hands. Let the power that God has put into our hands be used; for herein lies a continued advancement in dominion, in power and in knowl- edge. We should be ready at all times to exercise all the power, means and influence we possess in the service of our God, and resignedly follow out the directions of our presi- dent and those that are appointed over us. Let us be like little children, ready and willing to do as we are commanded by the powers that we should obey." Journal of Discourses, vol. 5, p. 314. Heber C. Kimball said, September 6, 1856: "The church PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 291 and kingdom to which we belong will become the kingdom of our God and his Christ, and Bro. Brigham Young will become President of the United States. (Voices responded, Amen.) And I tell you he will be something more: but we do not now want to give him the name: but he is called and ordained to a far greater station than that, and he is foreordained to take that station, and he has got it; and I am vice-president, and Brother Wells is the Secretary of the Interior, yes, and of all the armies in the flesh. You don't believe that, but I can tell you it is one of the smallest things that I can think of. You may think that I am joking, but I am perfectly willing that Brother Long should write every word of it; for I can see it just as naturally as I see the earth and the productions thereof." Journal of Discourses, vol. 5, p. 219. Brigham Young, Salt Lake City, Utah, July 26, 1857: "May the Almighty bless you! May the peace of God be with you and upon your children and your children's children for ever and ever. And may God Almighty curse our enemies (Voices: 'Amen'). I feel to curse my enemies; and when God won't bless them, I do not think he will ask me to bless them. If I did, it would be to put the poor cusses to death who have brought death and destruction on me and my brethren upon my wives and my children that I buried on the road between the States and this place. Did I ever wrong them, a man or woman of them, out of a dime? No; but I have fed thou- sands where I never received a dime. Poor, rotten cusses! And the President of the United States, inasmuch as he has turned against us and will take a course to persist in pleas- ing the ungodly cusses that are howling around him for the destruction of this people, he shall be cursed, in the name of Israel's God, and he shall not rule over this nation, because they are my brethren; but they have cast me out and cast you out; and I curse him and all his coadjutors in his cursed deeds in the name of Jesus Christ and by the authority of the Holy Priesthood; and all Israel shall say amen. Send twenty-five hundred troops here, our brethren, to make a desolation of this people! God Almighty helping me, I will fight until there 292 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK is not a drop of blood in my veins. Good God! I have wives enough to whip out the United States; for they will whip themselves. Amen." Journal of Discourses, vol. 5, p. 95. Again, in April, 1852: "I am the controller and master of affairs here, under heaven's direction; though there are those who do not believe this." Journal of Discourses, vol. 1, p. 48. We, Elder E. C. Briggs and Joseph B. Smith, certify that the above quotations are a correct copy and are as they are written in the respective books, and all the quotations except 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 12, (which were copied by Elder Alvin Knisley and Elder J. D. Stead,) were copied and proof read by us and we testify that they are a true verbatim copy. (Signed) JOSEPH B. SMITH. E. C. BRIGGS. Subscribed and sworn to before me this 31st day of October, 1907. JUNIUS B. SMITH, Notary Public. My commission expires October 3, 1908. [SEAL] JOSEPH SMITH SUCCESSOR OF HIS FATHER BY DIVINE APPOINTMENT. Joseph Smith being sworn testified : "I remember my father laying his hands on my head, and saying to the people that this was his successor, or was to be his successor. I remem- ber some of the parties that were on the stand, ... I do not remember all of them. William Marks, George J. Adams, and I think Willard Richards were on the stand at the time." Plaintiff's Abstract, p. 41. James Whitehead, being sworn, testified: "I took the posi- tion of private secretary to Joseph Smith on the llth day of June, 1842. . . . My duties were to keep his correspondence, letters, books, and everything of that nature belonging to the office, as his secretary. . . . Held that position until he was killed, the 27th day of June, 1844. ... I recollect a meeting PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 293 that was held in the winter of 1843, at Nauvoo, Illinois, prior to Joseph Smith's death, at which the appointment was made by him, Joseph Smith, of his successor. His son Joseph was selected as his successor. Joseph Smith did the talking. There were present Joseph and Hyrum Smith, John Taylor, and some others who also spoke on the subject; there were twenty-five I suppose at the meeting. ... He was ordained and appointed at that meeting. Hyrum Smith, the patriarch, anointed him, and Joseph his father blessed him and ordained him, and Newel K. Whitney poured the oil on his head, and he was set apart to be his father's successor in office, holding all the powers that his father held. I can not tell all the persons that were present, there was a good many there. John Taylor and Willard Richards, they were two of the 'twelve,' Ebenezer Robinson was present, and George J. Adams, Alpheus Cutler, and Reynolds Cahoon. . . . The church did take action as a body on the question of the ordination of young Joseph as his father's successor; the church consented to it. ... There was a vote taken, the congregation voted and agreed to the ap- pointment. . . . The authority for selection and ordination of Joseph Smith to be his father's successor in office was by revelation." Ibid., pp. 28, 30, 31, 33, 36. John H. Thomas, being sworn, testified: "The spring con- ference was held on the 6th of April (1847, at Florence, Ne- braska) . At that conference the main question at issue was, that none of Joseph Smith's family were along. At that time we understood and believed, as we do to-day, that Joseph's family, or the head of his posterity rather, young Joseph, should be the successor of his father. We understood that would be the case, and all attempts by Brigham Young to get any of his family to accompany him were failures. Brigham had offered inducements, all that could be offered; but they would not go." Ibid., p. 255. W. W. Blair, being sworn, testified: "That ordination was based, first, upon the laiv of lineage; and second, on the prophecy to which I have alluded. I mean the prophecy in the Book of Covenants in regard to the 'seed of Joseph,' or 294 PARSONS' TEX' BOOK the 'head of his posterity' ; and based furthermore upon the inspired utterances that were delivered by members of the church in northern Illinois and in the State of Wisconsin as early as 1851; or I should say, prophecies that were delivered in Illinois and Wisconsin as early as 1851, and also that were delivered from that time along down until 1860, all pointing to the fact that Joseph Smith would come to the church and become its president." Ibid., p. 142. John H. Carter, sr., being sworn, testified: "I was present at a meeting in the city of Nauvoo. . . . It was held in the Bowery, right north of the Temple. . . . Joseph Smith came on the stand leading his son, young Joseph, and they sat him down on a bench at the Prophet's right hand and Joseph got up and began to preach and talk to the people, and the question he said was asked by somebody, 'If Joseph Smith should be killed or die, who would be his successor?' And he turned around and said, pointing to his son, There is the successor,' and he went on and said, 'My work is pretty nearly done.' "Ibid., pp. 180, 181. James Whitehead, being sworn: "Brigham Young said to me at different times, 'I am not the leader of the church, nor a prophet of the church; we know who that is, it is Joseph, the son of Joseph the Martyr.' " Plaintiff's Abstract, p. 36. Brigham Young said: "For it is the legal right, in God's kingdom, for the oldest son to minister, and obtain blessings for his father, and act for his father when he is gone into the eternal world." Ninth General Epistle of the Twelve, Salt Lake City, April 13, 1853. Millennial Star, vol. 15, p. 440. Brigham Young said: "Right of heirship in the priest- hood. . . . This right did belong, still belongs, and for ever will belong, to the firstborn son in every family of Adam's race. . . . This I wish the Latter Day Saints to understand a little better than they have heretofore." Millennial Star, vol. 15, p. 493. TEMPLE NOT FINISHED. At the dedication of the Saint George Temple, January 1, 1877, Brigham Young said: "We built one in Nauvoo. I PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 295 could pick out several men before me now, that were there when it was built, and know just how much was finished, and what was done. It is true we left brethren there with instruc- tions to finish it, and they got it nearly completed before it was burned, but the Saints did not enjoy it." Millennial Star, vol. 39, p. 118. He said in August 31, 1856: "Have you ever seen a temple finished since this church commenced? You have not." Man- ual of the Priesthood, p. 118. Brigham Young said in Salt Lake City, February 14, 1853: "Suffice it to say, to this congregation, that we shall attempt to build a temple to the name of our God. This has been* attempted several times, but we have never yet had the privilege of completing and enjoying one." Journal of Dis- courses, vol. 1, p. 277. BRIGHAM YOUNG ADMITS THERE WAS NO COM- MANDMENT. Millennial Star, volume 15, page 391, says: "Some might query whether a revelation had been given to build a house to the Lord, but he is a wicked and slothful servant who doeth nothing but what his Lord commandeth, when he knoweth his Master's will. I know a temple is needed, and so do you; and when we know a thing, why do we need a revelation to compel us to do that thing? If the Lord and all the people want a revelation, I can give one concerning this temple." Saints' Herald, August 14, 1907. JOSEPH F. SMITH PAVES THE WAY FOR SUCCESSION. The following quotation from the Salt Lake Tribune for March 15 throws some light on movements going on within the Utah church. To us it seems a very late afterthought to seek "the mind of the Spirit of God" upon the subject. The Reorganization years ago sought and learned the "mind of the Spirit." "The Smiths are evidently aroused to a sense of danger 296 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK to their dynasty. Smith, senior prophet, seer and revelator of the polygamous cult not being in good form to answer opponents of his right to the presidential succession in his church, has put up one of the Smithlets; and for the same reason that doubtful plays are tried in provincial towns before being trusted in Broadway houses, the initial argument was opened at Ogden in the local tabernacle there. "During forty years it was the practice of the Utah Mor- mon church to ignore the Reorganized Church, refusing debates to its elders and assuming an air of superiority and conclusiveness in the matter of the succession. Evidently the carrying of the war into Africa by the Reorganized elders has set the Joseph F. Smith family all atremble for their crown; and silence is no longer deemed to be sufficiently effective. "The argument of the Reorganized Church is that the Utah church has never had the right of succession to the presi- dential office; that it was bestowed by revelation to the original Joseph upon a son of that Joseph. A peculiar confirmation of this idea was put forth by Joseph F. Smith himself in the special conference which was convened in the big tabernacle in Salt Lake City on November 10, 1901. As reported in the Deseret News, the following is a part of Joseph F. Smith's address on that occasion: " 'I desire to read a little from the revelation in relation to the order of the holy priesthood, that you may understand our views concerning adhering as nearly as we can to the holy order of government that has been established by reve- lation through the Prophet Joseph Smith in the dispensation of the fullness of times. We can not deny the fact that the Lord has effected one of the most perfect organizations in this church that ever existed upon the earth. T do not know of any more perfect organization than exists in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to-day. We have not always carried out strictly the order of the priesthood; we have varied from it to some extent; but we hope in due time that by the promptings of the Holy Spirit we will be led up PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 297 into the exact channel and course that the Lord has marked out for us to pursue, and adhere strictly to the order that he has established. I will read from a revelation that was given to the Prophet Joseph Smith, at Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois, January 19, 1841; which stands as the law of the church in relation to the presentation of the authorities of the holy priesthood as they are established in the church, and from which I feel that we have no right to depart. The Lord says: " ' "First, I give unto you Hyrum Smith, to be a patriarch unto you, to hold the sealing blessings of my church, even the Holy Spirit of promise, whereby ye are sealed up unto the day of redemption, that ye may not fall, notwithstanding the hour of temptation that may come upon you." " 'It may be considered strange that the Lord should give first of all the patriarch; yet I do not know of any law, any revelation or any commandment from God to the contrary, that has ever been given through any of the prophets or presidents of the church. At the same time we well know that this order has not been strictly followed from the day we came into these valleys until now and we will not make any change at present. But we will first take it into con- sideration; we will pray over it; we will get the mind of the Spirit of God upon it, as upon other subjects, and be united before we take any action different to that which has been done.' "Significant in itself, the utterance acquires additional emphasis from the well-known fact that the Smiths had been jealous of the Youngs and all other successors to the presi- dency, from the time of the death of the Prophet Joseph, the founder of the faith until the day when Joseph F. came to the throne and when Hyrum, his own son, as prince im- perial, was seated on the steps of the throne, ready to seize the scepter when it should fall from the hand of his venerable sire. That jealous feeling and the long and sullen rage with which Joseph F. waited for his day, are well known to old timers in Utah. The remarks of Joseph F. at the special 298 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK conference must be read with the understanding that he felt that the crown had been placed upon his own brow after years of usurpation by unauthorized kings and prophets. If the right order had not been followed, as he claimed, then the wrong order must have been followed; and as he inti- mated, the presidents intervening between Joseph and Joseph F. had been usurpers. So far then, Joseph F., the prophet, sustains the case of the Reorganized Church against what the Reorganized element called the Brighamite church. Joseph F. Smith was willing to discredit the reign of Brigham Young and his successors, but was not willing to impeach his own title; and therefore, he harked back to an old and almost forgotten pretended revelation in which his own father was set at the head of things in this dispensation by the pretended voice of the Almighty. "Joseph F. came to the presidency as a successor to Brig- ham's successors; and, with Brigham's title overthrown, Joseph F.'s title would go with the overthrow but for his discovery of another and antedating legitimacy of title. Hav- ing fixed the right within his family to rule, he clumsily left the question, with the intimation that he would proceed no further with the restoration of the proper order until such time as divine enlightenment should come. The manner indeed was clumsy, but the purpose was cunning. If the right to rule is in the Hyrum Smith branch of the Smith family, then Hy rum's eldest s'on, who is John Smith, the patriarch, is the chief figure of the Mormon church and king- dom; and Joseph F., claiming the title of legitimacy over the usurpation of Brigham Young, becomes himself a usurper over his brother John. It was well, therefore, that he paused immediately at the point of establishing himself firmly upon the throne or the kingdom and fixing his own legitimacy as ruler by his descent from Hyrum, the patriarch, without going into further particulars, the exposure of which would have clearly designated his brother John as the first in the kingdom. "The Reorganized Church has now a better opportunity PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 299 than ever before to attack succession in the Utah Mormon church; for Joseph F. Smith, the present head, has practically admitted that the rule of Brigham and his successors was one of usurpation. They have still added opportunity from the fact that, by Joseph F.'s own theory, he himself is in an additional sense a usurper. "Also, it is now clear why the young Smithlets are put on guard at various points to defend the title. One Gerard J. S. Abels, of Ogden, a former missionary of the Utah church to Holland, a man who has been twice trusted by his church in that important field, has renounced the Utah Mormon church on the ground that, as admitted by Joseph F., the church is a usurper of succession to the presidency and prophetship. This was one of the momentous events which created the present crucial issue. "It would be a satire worthy of the whole scheme if Joseph F., after overthrowing the Brighamite usurpation in order to defend himself against the charges of the Reorganized Church and to vindicate his own family pride and vanity, should make such a strong case that his brother John would find, established for him, a clear title to the throne and the treasury." Salt Lake Tribune, March 15, 1907. The Saints' Herald, March 27, 1907. TESTIMONY IN COURT AS TO THE SUCCESSOR. W. W. Blair, being sworn, testified: "That is the para- graph. It says: 'This anointing have I put upon his head, that his blessing shall also be put upon the head of his poster- ity after him.' That we understand to mean the ministerial blessings, and to comprehend the presidency of the church. The prophetic office is confirmed in this, 'That his blessing shall also be put upon the head of his posterity after him.' According to the construction we put upon this, and we believe it to be correct, 'the head of his posterity' is his eldest son. In case the eldest son dies, the next son in point of lineage would then be the eldest son. That follows as a natural consequence. That is not simply my conclusion. I understand the head of 300 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK a man's posterity, if he has half a dozen sons, may be John to-day, and if John dies to-day, to-morrow it may be Thomas, who is the next son in point of succession. In case John was the eldest and he dies, the next oldest son is the head of his posterity. I understand that to be the law as laid down in the section I have read, and it is the law of common sense too. And it is a fact that if the eldest son dies, having a son himself, the right goes to that son that is true; but in this case, we have been speaking of direct succession from father to son, and that is the subject that my answers have been limited to. By direct succession, after this right passes from the eldest son from the father, then the authority develops in that son, as a matter of course; and if that eldest son dies having a son, and all other conditions are favorable accord- ing to the law, that son inherits from his father in the same manner as his father inherited before him. . . . Yes, sir, I have said it is laid down in our standard books, beyond question, that the office descends from father to son, and it descends to the eldest. It goes to him because the eldest son holds the birthright." Plaintiff's Abstract, pp. 116, 117. Stenhouse says: "From the death of the founder of Mormonism, the Saints had their attention riveted on 'the seed' of the Prophet, and expected that some day the young man, Joseph, would be the head of the church. Brigham had fostered this faith in the Saints for some years, but when in 1860 young Joseph was chosen president of the Reorganized church, and publicly denounced Brigham, '. , . David H. was to be the man." Stenhouse's work, p. 628. Joseph Smith, to Hon. J. C. Calhoun, said: "While I have powers of body and mind; while water runs and grass grows; while virtue is lovely, and vice hateful; and while a stone points out a sacred spot where a fragment of American liberty once was; I, or my posterity will plead the cause of injured innocence, until Missouri makes atonement for all her sins." Times and Seasons, vol. 5, p. 395. The foregoing statements are confirmed by court decisions as follows: PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 301 COURT FINDINGS. "In court of common pleas, Lake County, Ohio, Febru- ary 23, 1880. The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, plaintiff, vs. Lucien Williams, Joseph Smith, Sarah F. Videon, M. H. Forscutt, the church in Utah, of which John Taylor is president, and commonly known as the 'Mormon church,' defendants. . . . Whereof the court do find as matters of fact: "Notice was given to the defendants ... as required by the statutes of the State of Ohio. . . . *That there was organ- ized on the 6th day of April, 1830, at Palmyra, in the State of New York, by Joseph Smith, a religious society, under the name of "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints," . . . and was founded upon certain well-defined doc- trines which were set forth in the Bible, Book of Mormon, and Book of Doctrine and Covenants. . , . That the said plain- tiff, the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is a religious society founded and organized upon the same doctrines and tenets and having the same church organ- ization as the original church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints organized in 1830 by Joseph Smith, and was organized pursuant to the constitution, laws and usages of said original church. . . . That the church in Utah, the defendant, . . . has materially and largely departed from the faith, doctrines, laws, ordinances and usages of said original church, . . . and has incorporated into its system of faith the doctrines of celestial marriage and a plurality of wives, and the doctrine of Adam-god worship, conrary to the laws and constitution of said original church. And the court do further find that the plaintiff, Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is the true and lawful continuation of, and suc- cessor to the said original Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, organized in 1830, and is entitled in law to all its rights and property.' ' "In the circuit court of the United States, for the western division of the western district of Missouri, the Reorganized 302 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints vs. the Church of Christ, et al. "Statement of case. "The courts will adjudge the property 'to the members, however few in numbers they may be,' who adhere to -the form of church government, or acknowledge the church con- nection, for which the property was acquired." (Judge Strong's lecture on Relation of Civil Law to Church Property, pages 49-59.) "Justice Caton in Ferraria et al. vs. Vanconcellos et al., 31 111., 54, 55, aptly states the rule to be, 'That, where a church is erected for the use of a particular denomination or religious persuasion, a majority of the members can not aban- don the tenets and doctrines of the denomination and retain the right to the use of the property; but such secessionists forfeit all right to the property, even if but a single member adheres to the original faith and doctrine of the church. This rule is founded in reason and justice. . . . Those who adhere to the original tenets and doctrines, for the promulgation of which a church has been erected, are the sole beneficiaries de- signed by the donors; and those who depart from and abandon those tenets and doctrines cease to be beneficiaries, and forfeit all claim to the title and use of such property.' "No matter, therefore, if the church at Nauvoo became a prey to schisms, after the death of Joseph Smith, and pre- sented 'as many frightful heads as did the dragon which the Apostle John saw in his vision on the Isle of Patmos, if there was one righteous left in Sodom, the promise of the covenant of the law of the land is to him. It is neither good law nor Bible history to say that because the Saints became scattered and without an organism, the faithful lost the benefit of the church property. Forsooth the children of Israel were carried captive to Babylon, 'the mother of harlots and abom- inations of the earth,' they did not cease to be children of the covenant, nor lose their interest in Jerusalem. "A considerable number of the officers and members of the church at Nauvoo did not ally themselves with any of the PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 303 factions, and wherever they were they held onto the faith, refused to follow Brigham Young to Utah, and ever repudi- ated the doctrine of polygamy, which was the great rock of offense on which the church split after the death of Joseph Smith. "In 1852 the scattered fragments of the church, the rem- nants of those who held to the fortunes of the present Joseph Smith, son of the so-called 'Martyr,' gathered together suffi- ciently for a nucleus of organization. They took the name of 'The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints,' and avowed their allegiance to the teachings of the ancient church; and their epitome of faith adopted, while containing differences in phraseology, in its essentials is but a reproduction of that of the church as it existed from 1830 to 1844. To-day they are twenty-five thousand strong. "It is charged by the respondents, as an echo of the Utah church, that Joseph Smith, 'the Martyr,' secretly taught and practiced polygamy; and the Utah contingent furnishes the evidence, and two of the women, to prove this fact. It perhaps would be uncharitable to say of these women that they have borne false testimony as to their connection with Joseph Smith; but, in view of all the evidence and circumstances surrounding the alleged intercourse, it is difficult to escape the conclusion that at most they were but sports in 'nest hiding.' In view of the contention of the Salt Lake party, that polygamy obtained at Nauvoo as early as 1841, it must be a little embarrassing to President Woodruff, of that organ- ization, when he is confronted, as he was in the evidence in this case, with a published card in the church organ at Nauvoo in October, 1843, certifying that he knew of no other rule or system of marriage than the one published in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and that the 'secret wife system,' charged against the church, was a creature of inven- tion by one Doctor Bennett, and that they knew of no such society. That certificate was signed by the leading members of the church, including John Taylor, the former president of the Utah church. And a similar certificate was published 304 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK by the Ladies' Relief Society of the same place, signed by Emma Smith, the wife of Joseph Smith, and Phoebe Wood- ruff, wife of the present President Woodruff. No such mar- riage ever occurred under the rules of the church, and no off- spring came from the imputed illicit intercourse, although Joseph Smith was in the full vigor of young manhood, and his wife, Emma, was giving birth to healthy children in regular order, and was enciente at the time of Joseph's death. "But if it were conceded that Joseph Smith, and Hyrum, his brother, did secretly practice concubinage, is the church to be charged with those liaisons, and the doctrine of polyg- amy to be predicated thereon of the church? If so, I suspect the doctrine of polygamy might be imputed to many of the Gentile churches. Certainly it was never promulgated, taught, nor recognized, as a doctrine of the church prior to the assumption of Brigham Young. "It is next charged against complainant church that it has added to the articles of faith other revelations of the divine will, alleged to have been made to Joseph Smith, the present head of complainant church. If so, how can this be held to be heretical, or a departure, when in the epitome of faith of the ancient church, is this article, 'We believe all that God has revealed, all that he does now reveal, and we believe that he will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the kingdom of God?' And in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, paragraph 2, section 14, it is taught that such revelations might come through him whom the prophet might ordain. "In the very nature of the doctrine of the church, that God in the fullness of time makes known his will to the church by revelation, additional revelations were to be expected. No specification is made by learned counsel as to wherein the alleged new revelations declare any doctrine at variance with that taught in antecedent revelations. "It is next charged that the complainants have a new Bible. The basis for this is that Joseph Smith, the founder of the church, was as early as 1830 engaged in a translation PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 305 of the Bible, which he is alleged to have completed about 1833 or 1834. This work seems to have been recognized also in a revelation in section 13, paragraph 15, and in section 58. The evidence shows that this manuscript was kept by his wife and delivered to the present Joseph Smith, her son, and was published by a committee of the church. It is not claimed by Joseph Smith that this translation is a substitute for the King James' translation, nor has it been made to appear that it inculcates any new religious tenet different from that of the ancient church. In this day of multifarious and free translations of the Bible it should hardly be imputed a heresy in this church to take some liberties with the virgin Greek and Hebrew. It is also charged that the complainant church has only eleven representing the Quorum of Twelve. I be- lieve the New Testament records it as a historical fact that 'Peter stood up with the eleven,' after the apostasy of Judas Iscariot. There is nothing in the code of the present church to prevent the filling out of the 'Twelve.' "There are some other minor objections to the present organization, the answer to which is so obvious that it scarcely need be made. "Who are the respondents and in what do they believe? Looking at their answer in this case, and their evidence, the idea occurs that in theory they are ecclesiastical nondescripts, and in practice 'squatter sovereigns.' They repudiate po- lygamy while looking to Salt Lake City for succor. They deny in their answer that this property was ever bought for the church, or impressed with a trust therefor, and yet, when their head men were on the witness stand they swore they are a part and parcel of the original church, founded and inspired by Joseph Smith, 'the Martyr,' and that to-day they hold the property in question in trust for that church. "They are commonly called 'Hedrickites' because their head is Granville Hedrick, who himself was a member of complainant organization as minister, and participated ac- tively in its General Conference as late as 1857, receiving the 'right hand of fellowship,' and moving the conference to work? 306 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK of evangelization in his region of the country. It is inferable from the testimony in this case that they reject measurably the standard Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and according to the testimony of respondent Hill they 'repudiate the doc- trine taught by the church in general after 1833, 1834, and 1835.' And also the law relating to 'tithes and offerings,' and the doctrine of baptism for the dead, which were taught by the mother church. They also seem to reject the law relating to the Presidency, and of 'the Twelve Traveling High Council/' and also 'the quorum of Seventy Evangelists.' "They are but a small band, and their seizure of the Temple Lot, and attempt thus to divert the trust, invoke the interposition of a court of equity to establish the trust and prevent its perversion. "Laches. "It is urged by respondents that the claim of complainant is stale, and that a court of equity will not afford relief where party complaining has been guilty of laches. There are several answers to this objection. In the first place, this is an express trust in favor of complainant, arising on the Partridge deed of 1839. The statute of limitation does not run against an express trust. There was no repudiation of the trust by the trustees. Laches is a question determined by the circumstances of the particular case. "The delay in bringing this action is not inexcusable. The beneficiaries of the trust were driven from the State in 1838-39 by military force, and were not permitted to return to the State. A public hostile feeling and sentiment were excited against them, which would have blazed up from the slum- bering fires at any time thereafter prior to the civil war, had they returned here and attempted to occupy this property. No one better knew this than the respondents when they laid hands to this property. The complainants were not here 'to stand by' while parties were giving and receiving deeds to this property. No improvements were made on, and no visible possession taken of, the Temple Lot, until 1882, within ten years of the institution of this suit, and when the trust deed PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 307 had been of record twelve years. Up to this hostile action of respondents the complainant had a right to assume that the trust character of this property was intact, and that the lot was open for their entry at any time when the auspicious hour came to build on it. "In the language of Chief Justice Fuller in Simmons Creek Coal Company vs. Doran, 142 U. S. 444, 'There was no delay, therefore, in the assertion of its rights after they were in- vaded.' See also Burke vs. Bachus (Minnesota), 53 N. W. Rep. 458. "A court of equity has jurisdiction in this case. It belongs to it to remove clouds from title, ''the relief being granted on the principle of quia timet.' It is peculiarly its province in a case like this to vindicate the trust, to determine the real beneficiaries of the trust estate, and to prevent its diversion. "Decree will go in favor of complainant, establishing the trust in its favor against respondents, removing the cloud from the title, enjoining respondents from asserting title to the property, and awarding the possession to the complainant. "I, John F. Philips, Judge of the Circuit Court of the United States for the Western Division of the Western Dis- trict of Missouri, do hereby certify that the foregoing is a copy of the opinion handed down by me in the above entitled cause. "Witness my hand this 16th day of March, A. D. 1894. "JOHN F. PHILIPS, Judge" REORGANIZED CHURCH IN CANADIAN COURTS. The Decision. "Reg. v. Dickhout. J. C. Cartwright, Q. C., and Dymond for the Crown. W. M. German (Welland) for the defendant. Case stated by the police magistrate for the town of Niagara Falls, before whom the defendant was charged for that he did on the 19th of May, 1893, at that town, unlawfully and without lawful authority, solemnize a marriage between Abraham H. Taylor and Alice E. Vance. The question raised by the case was whether the defendant as a priest of The, 308 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints,' was entitled as a minister of 'a church or denomination' within the meaning of R. S. O., ch. 131, sec. 1, (to solemnize a marriage). Counsel for the crown contended as Chris- tianity was part of the law of the province, the words of the statute must be read as meaning 'Christian church or denomi- nation,' and that the body in question was not a Christian body. At the conclusion of the argument the judgment of the court was delivered by C. J. Armour, as follows: 'We think it quite clear that this conviction can not be maintained. The defendant was clearly a duly ordained minister of this reli- gious body, and there is no doubt that it is a religious denomi- nation within the words of the statute. Assuming that Chris- tianity is the law of the land in a sense, there is nothing contrary to Christianity in the tenets of this body. It is true they have something supplemental to the Bible, but that is the case with every church or denomination. The Church of England has its creeds and the Presbyterian Church its confession. That does not make the church an anti-Christian one. The statute does not say "Christian," but "religious." If it said "Christian" it would exclude Jews. The fundamental law of the country makes no distinction between churches or denominations. Every person is at liberty to worship his Maker in the way he pleases. We have, or ought to have, in this country perfect freedom of speech and perfect freedom of worship. Conviction quashed.' "Chief Justice Armour, and other judges concurring, said: " '/ have read the evidence over, and find nothing contrary to the doctrine of Christ in the teaching of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.' 'The great trouble is, the Latter Day Saints' doctrine is Christian in the highest sense, and the rest of the religious world is opposed to them because they (the Saints) cling so closely to the Bible.' 'It seems as though it is jealousy not justice, that moves the action in this case/ 'But these people teach that one man should have one wife only, and they stand by that.' 'The doctrine of this church is surely according to the Bible.' PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 309 'God has a body.' 'Yes, they teach that God has body, parts, and passions.' 'I think that doctrine very elementary.' 'Does not the Bible say that God made man in his own image? Now, I am a man; I have a body. This point appears to be in their favor.' 'I am surprised to see this trial, it seems as if some of the Christians are wanting to go back to the dark ages; they would have us try heresy here.' 'This is not prose- cution but persecution.' "Referring to the R. S. 0., ch,. 131, sec. 1, which says, 'The ministers or clergymen of every church, or religious denomination, and resident in Ontario, duly ordained or ap- pointed, may solemnize the ceremony of marriage'; etc., the learned Chief Justice said: " 'This clause of the statute is very plain, and was not written for the benefit of any one denomination, but for the protection of all.' "After hearing the argument for the crown he said that it was not necessary to hear the counsel for the defense, as the case was clear to the court, that defendant in this case had the right to solemnize marriage." Herald, pp. 806, 807. The foregoing statement as clipped from Saints' Herald was certified to by Elder R. C. Evans as being correct in main, as he took it at the time as per statement and findings of the court, which was ratified by Elder H. C. Smith in letter in Herald. Bro. R. C. Evans' letter to me above referred to was writ- ten October 24, 1906. POLYGAMY PERMISSIBLE. Made so by the act of the Congress of the Presbyterian, the London Church Missionary, and the Baptist Missionary so- cieties, at Calcutta in 1834, to-wit: "If a convert before be- coming a Christian had married more wives than one, he shall be permitted to keep them all, though he shall not be eligible to any office in the church. In no other case is polygamy to be tolerated among Christians." Brown's History of Missions, vol. 3, pp. 365, 366. (Quoted from Saints' Herald, vol. 51, August 10, 1904. 310 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, May 27, 1899: "The last day's session of the Presbyterian General Assembly opened this morning with a crowded docket. An overture from the Synod of India, asking for a reply to the memorial upon the subject of baptizing polygamous converts, was considered. The Mo- hammedan was admitted to the church and he was allowed to retain both wives and houses. . . . Doctor Morrison, repre- senting the synod trial cases and special legislation, held that the recognition of polygamous marriages by the church in India was an absolute necessity. 'Any other rule,' said he, 'would rule David out of the church.' " Kansas City Mail. (Quoted from Faulty Creeds, pp. 52, 53.) POLYGAMY AND FOREIGN MISSIONS. "Under the above heading the Literary Digest dated June 16, 1906, discusses one of the peculiarities of the marriage question that has been met in foreign lands by one of the religious bodies, and especially it gives account of the way one of the missionaries of that sect views the situation. His view of the matter shows how men hold that they are com- pelled by circumstances, in the prosecution of their proselyting work, to advocate certain allowances and to tolerate the cus- toms and practices of people which they would look upon with great horror under other circumstances. And perhaps they would make no allowance if the same conditions were met by other proselyting bodies rather than by themselves. "Rev. H. H. White, a Presbyterian missionary in China, who boldly advocates such allowance in the following words: " 'Inasmuch as when one in ignorance of the law of God has the responsibilities of a husband to more than one wife or concubine, to retract his course would be more sinful than to remain in it; therefore, in the oase of apparently genuine repentance on the part of such a one, he should be received into the church with due instruction as to the heinousness of his sin, warning as to the future, and being reckoned as in- eligible to hold office in the church.' " 'In taking these women as wives or concubines the man . PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 311 assumes responsibility for their welfare which he can not evade without sin, and sin made more grievous by the awful consequences thereof. What can he do with her? Send her back home? He will have all he can do to escape the vengeance of her family for disgracing her, without expecting them to assume the burden of her support and the odium of her dis- grace. . . . Can he not set her aside on an alimony, some American will say. And then what is she? Not a wife, not a widow, not a maid; what but a helpless, defenseless, tempted, degraded, embittered woman, a bit of humanity at the mercy of the unprincipled.' " 'Nor is there any practical danger of its setting a prece- dent or lowering the standard of the church in China. The cases are few, and even when they are admitted, so stringently is the sinfulness of the relation impressed that the isolated cases are a warning rather than an encouragement.' " Saints' Herald of September 12, 1906, from an article by Elder H. A. Stebbins. POLYGAMY PERMISSIBLE IN THE CHRISTIAN OR CAMPBELLITE CHURCH. Rev. B. W. Johnson, in answer to question on the marriage problem, said: "The gospel took men as it found them, and told them to go and sin no more. We not only find traces of these things in the epistles, but even of a man having more than one wife. It seems to have been the inspired policy to exercise the greatest possible toleration. When a man with two wives was converted he was not required to wrong one by putting her away, but at the same time the disapproval of the church was placed on his marriage relations by making him ineligible to office in the church." Christian Evangelist, March 30, 1893. This is confirmed as his statement and his ability and qualification to speak intelligently upon such matters by Rev. J. H. Garrison, editor of the aforesaid periodical, in a letter to D. A. Holcomb, of Dunlap, Iowa, as furnished me by J. F. Mintun, through C. J. Hunt: "Replying to your inquiry of 312 . PARSONS' TEXT BOOK the 24th inst., as to the author of the answer to the query in the Christian Evangelist of March 30, 1893, signed 'J,' would say that beyond doubt Bro. B. W. Johnson, then one of the editors of the paper, was the author of the comment. This is evident (1) from the fact that the question is ad- dressed to Brother Johnson; (2) that it is signed by his initial, j, and (3) it is written in his style and expresses what I am sure would have been his views of the case." In the catalogue of the Christian Publishing Company I find this in confirmation of his ability: "Probably no one could be named in the Christian Church so well fitted for the task of preparation, in all respects, as B. W. Johnson. His reputation as a Bible scholar is too well known to require a word. His life has been devoted to Bible study, and his work for years has been the preparation of Bible notes. Scholarly, studious, full of reverence for the Bible, devout, with eminent power of clear, strong expression in the fewest possible words, conspicuous for his knowledge of the history, geography and customs of Bible times, and also for his insight into the deep, spiritual meaning of the sacred text, he presents a rare combination of qualities for this work." Page 35. (This last statement was furnished by Bishop C. J. Hunt.) JOSEPH SMITH THE SEER'S VIEWS OF SECRECIES. Joseph Smith the Seer said: "We further caution our brethren against the impropriety of the organization of bands or companies by covenants, oaths, penalties, or secrecies; but let the time past of our experience and sufferings by the wickedness of Doctor Avard suffice, and let our covenants be that of the everlasting covenant, as it is contained in the Holy Writ; and the things which God has revealed unto us; pure friendship always becomes weakened the very moment you undertake to make it stronger by penal oaths and secrecy. Your humble servants intend from henceforth to disapprobate everything that is not in accordance with the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and which is not of a bold, frank, and upright nature; they will not hold their peace as in times PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 313 past when they see iniquity beginning to rear its head, for fear of traitors, or the consequences that shall follow, from reproving those who creep in unawares that they may get something to destroy the flock." Signed by Joseph Smith, jr., Hyrum Smith, Lyman Wight, Caleb Baldwin, Alexander McRae. Church History, vol. 2, p. 324. This is said to have been written while they were incarcerated in Liberty jail, March 20, 1839. Times and Seasons, vol. 1, pp. 183, 134 HISTORICAL EVENTS CONCERNING THE RISE AND REORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH. Joseph Smith was born December 23, 1805. In March, 1820, during a religious revival at Palmyra, New York, he prayed to God for wisdom, and then saw his first vision. 1823, September 21, Joseph was visited by the angel Moroni, who told him of the plates. The next day he was permitted to see them. 1827, September 22, he received the plates of the Book of Mormon. 1828, in February, Martin Harris took to Professor Anthon and Doctor Mitchill, or New York, a transcript of the char- acters. 1829, May 15, the Aaronic priesthood was conferred upon Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery by John the Baptist, and they baptized each other, and also Samuel H. Smith, and in June, Hyrum Smith, and David and Peter Whitmer. After that others were baptized. In July the plates were shown to three and then to eight witnesses. 1830, April 6, the church was organized with six members present as follows: Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Samuel H. Smith, Hyrum Smith, David and Peter Whitmer, at Fay- ette, Seneca County, New York. Joseph Smith, sr., and Martin Harris, baptized the same day. June 1, a conference was held at the same place, thirty members present. 1844, June 27, Joseph and Hyrum Smith were killed in Carthage jail. 1851, November 18, revelation to J. W. Briggs that the 314 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK seed of Joseph Smith should yet lead the church. During the same fall one to Z. H. Gurley, sr., to the same effect. 1852, June 12, a preparatory council or conference held near Beloit, Wisconsin, (Newark Township). The claims of all leaders cast off and the right of Joseph's seed sustained. April 6, 1860, was the long anticipated day for the better equipment of the Reorganization for the work committed to its trust, by the presence of Joseph Smith the son of the martyred Seer. Who when introduced to the congregation over which Bro. Z. H. Gurley, sr., and William Marks pre- sided by selection, said: "I would say to you, brethren, as I hope you may be, and in faith I trust you are, as a people that God has promised his blessings upon, I came not here of myself, but by the influence of the Spirit. For some time past I have received manifestations pointing to the position which I am about to assume. I wish to say that I have come here not to be dictated by any men or set of men. I have come in obedience to a power not my own, and shall be dictated by the power that sent me." Quoted from the Church His- tory, vol. 3, p. 247. (I only quote a part of his address; what I think will be handy and brief to meet that oft- repeated statement that he was not called of God.) RETURNING TO THE LAND OF ZION. The Saints began returning to the County of Jackson and State of Missouri, in the year of 1867. The above statement of facts I gathered when writing up the history of the Inde- pendence District, a few years ago. STAKES ORGANIZED. Stakes were organized by the command of God, by revela- tion, at Independence, Missouri, and Lamoni, Iowa, April 15, 1901. Wednesday, April 24, 1901, the Saints of the Independence District were convened at the Stone Church in Independence, Missouri, for the purpose of effecting the organization of a stake as per revelation. President Joseph Smith presided, PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 315 and presented the name of George H. Hulmes as the one designated by those to whom the matter had been referred for the consideration and vote of the people for or against. By motion he was elected and sustained as the president of the Independence Stake. He selected counselors, and with the selection of twelve high priests as the stake high council and the bishop and his counselors, the organization was completed. The Lamoni Stake was organized a few days afterward in the same manner. LETTER FROM UTAH ON THE INSPIRED TRANSLA- TION. "OFFICE OF THE FIRST PRESIDENCY, SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, June 28, 1898. "MR. C. J. HUNT, DELOIT, IOWA. "Dear Sir: I am directed by President Woodruff to acknowl- edge the receipt of your favor of June 18 and to say, that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints does not use the revision of the Scriptures made by the Prophet Joseph Smith, for the reason that he never completed the work. It was his intention to have gone all through the Bible again and make further corrections, but he did not have the oppor- tunity of doing so. Consequently it is deemed an injustice both to the dead prophet and to the reader to place this unfinished work in the hands of the public. Though we may rest assured that the changes that he has made are correct, we have no assurance that he would not have made many other corrections in his second revision. "Yours respectfully, "GEORGE REYNOLDS, Secretary" (The italics are mine, to call attention to the main point. A. H. P.) Note the difference in the reading of King James' translation and the Inspired: "Thou shalt not walk in unrighteousness, as did thy father David." 1 Kings 3: 14, Inspired Version. Again: "Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, as David his father." Ibid. 11: 6; also verse 38, "as David, my servant did in the day that I blessed him." 316 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK Ibid., 15: 11 says: "Asa did right in the eyes of the Lord, as he [God] commanded David his father." Compare these texts with the common version and you will see at once why the leaders in the valleys of the mountains think the prophet would have made some other changes in the second revision. Many other citations can be made as applicable as these. THE LAST TESTIMONY OF THE THREE WITNESSES TO THE BOOK OF MORMON. "It is recorded in the American Cyclopaedia and the En- cyclopaedia Britannica, that I, David Whitmer, have denied my testimony as one of the three witnesses to the divinity of the Book of Mormon, and that the other two witnesses, Oliver Cowdery and Martin Harris, denied their testimony to the Book. I will say once more to all mankind, that I have never at any time denied that testimony or any part thereof. I also testify to the world, that neither Oliver Cowdery or Martin Harris ever at any time denied their testimony. They both died reaffirming the truth of the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon. I was present at the deathbed of Oliver Cowdery, and his last words were, 'Brother David, be true to your testimony to the Book of Mormon.' He died here in Richmond, Missouri, on March 3d, 1850. "A PROCLAMATION. "Unto all Nations, Kindred Tongues and People, unto whom these presents shall come : It having been represented by one John Murphy, of Polo, Caldwell County, Missouri, that I, in a conversation with him last summer, denied my testimony as one of the three witnesses to the 'Book of Mormon.' "To the end, therefore, that he may understand me now, if he did not then; that the world may know the truth, I wish now, standing as it were, in the very sunset of life, and in the fear of God, once for all to make this public statement: 'That I have never at any time denied that testimony or any part thereof, which has so long been published with that Book, as one of the three witnesses. Those who know me best, well PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 317 know that I have always adhered to that testimony. And that no man may be misled or doubt my present views in regard to the same, I do again affirm the truth of all my statements, as then made and published.' " "An address to all believers in Christ," published at Richmond, Missouri, 1887, pp. 8, 9. "At a special conference at Council Bluffs, Iowa, held on the 21st of October, in the year 1848, Bro. Oliver Cowdery, one of the three important witnesses to the truth of the Book of Mormon, . . . made the remarks here annexed. . . . 'Friends and brethren, my name is Cowdery Oliver Cowdery. In the early history of this church I stood identified with her, and one in her councils. True it is that the gifts and callings of God are without repentance. Not because I was better than the rest of mankind Was I called; but, to fulfill the purposes of God, he called me to a high and holy calling. I wrote, with my own pen, the entire Book of Mormon (save a few pages), as it fell .from the lips of the Prophet Joseph Smith, as he translated it by the gift and power of God, by the means of the Urim and Thummin, or, as it is called by that book, 'holy interpreters.' / beheld with my eyes and handled with my hands the gold plates from which it was translated. I also saw with my eyes and handled with my hands the 'holy interpreters.' That book is true. Sidney Rigdon did not write it. Mr. Spalding did not write it. I wrote it myself as it fell from the lips of the Prophet." George Reynolds in his Myth of the Manuscript Found," pp. 79, 80. (Quoted from Church History, vol. 1, p. 50.) David B. Dille, of Ogden City, Weber County, Salt Lake, Utah, September 15, 1853, asked Martin Harris this question: "What do you think of the Book of Mormon? Is it a divine record?" (Answer:) "I was the right hand man of Joseph Smith, and I know that he was a prophet of God. I know the Book of Mormon is true and you know that I know that it is true. I know that the plates have been translated by the gift and power of God, for his voice declared it unto us; therefore I know of a surety that the work is true." Milieu- 318 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK nial Star. (Quoted from the Church History, vol. 1, pp. 51, 52.) JOSEPH SMITH, INTRODUCTION TO THE FACTS CON- CERNING THE RELIGION OF THE AGE. "Sometime in the second year after our removal to Man- chester, there was in the place where we lived an unusual excitement on the subject of religion. ... I was at this time in my fifteenth year. . . . During this time of great excitement my mind was called up to serious reflection and great uneasi- ness; but though my feelings were deep and often pungent, still I kept myself aloof from all those parties, though I attended their several meetings as often as occasion would permit; ... In the midst of this war of words and tumult of opinions, I often said to myself, What is to be done? . Who of all these parties are right? Or, Are they all wrong to- gether? If any one of them be right, which is it, and how shall I know it? While I was laboring under the extreme difficulties caused by the contests of these parties of religion- ists, I was one day reading the epistle of James, first chapter and fifth verse, which reads: 'If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given unto him.'' Never did any passage of scripture come with more power to the heart of man than this did at this time to mine. It seemed to enter with great force into every feeling of my heart. I reflected on it again and again, knowing that if any person needed wisdom from God I did, for how to act I did not know, and unless I could get more wisdom than I then had would never know, for the teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same passage so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible. At length I came to the conclusion that I must either remain in darkness and confusion, or else I must do as James directs; that is, ask of God. I at length came to the determination to 'ask of God,' concluding that if he gave wisdom to them that lacked wisdom and would give liberally, and not upbraid, PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 319 I might venture. So in accordance with this my determina- tion, to ask of God, I retired to the woods to make the attempt. It was on the morning of a beautiful clear day, early in the spring of eighteen hundred and twenty. . . . After I had retired into the place where I had previously designed to go, having looked around me and finding myself alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. ... I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun; which descended gradually until it fell upon me. . . . When the light rested upon me I saw two personages (whose brightness and glory defy all description) standing above me in the air. One of them spake-unto me, calling me by name, and said, (pointing to the other,) 'This is my beloved Son, hear him.' My object in going to inquire of the Lord was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join. No sooner therefore did I get possession of myself, so as to be able to speak, than 1 asked the personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right, (for at this time it had never entered into my heart that all were wrong,) and which I should join. I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong, and the personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; 'they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; they teach for doctrine the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.' He again forbade me to join with any of them; and many other things did he say unto me which I can not write at this time." Church History, vol. 1, pp. 7, 8, 9, 10. HIS FIRST INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF THE AMERICANS AND GOD'S WORD TO THEM, OR THE "STICK OF JOSEPH." "During the space of time which intervened between the time I had the vision, and the year 1823, having been for- bidden to join any of the religious sects of the day, and being of very tender years, and persecuted by those who ought 320 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK to have been my friends, and to have treated me kindly, and if they supposed me to be deluded to have endeavored in a proper and affectionate manner to have reclaimed me, . . . 21st of September, . . . while I was thus in the act of calling upon God I discovered a light appearing in the room, which continued to increase until the room was lighter than at noonday, when immediately a personage appeared at my bedside standing in the air, for his feet did not touch the floor. ... He called me by name, and said unto me that he was a messenger sent from the presence of God to me, and that his name was Nephi. (Moroni.) That God had a work for me to do, and that my name should be had for good and evil, among all nations, kindreds, and tongues; or that it should be both good and evil spoken of among all people. He said there was a book deposited written upon gold plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants of this continent, and the source from whence they sprang. He also said that the fullness of the everlasting gospel was contained in it, as delivered by the Savior to the ancient inhabitants. Also that there were two stones in silver bows, and these stones fastened to a breastplate constituted what is called the Urim and Thummim, deposited with the plates, and the possession and use of these stones was what constituted seers in ancient or former times, and that God had prepared them for the purpose of translating the book. ... Owing to the distinct- ness of the vision which I had concerning it, I knew the place the instant that I arrived there. Convenient to the village of Manchester, Ontario County, New York, stands a hill of considerable size, and the most elevated of any in the neighborhood. On the west side of this hill, not far from the top, under a stone of considerable size, lay the plates deposited in a stone box. This stone was thick and rounding in the middle on the upper side, and thinner towards the edges, so that the middle part of it was visible above the ground, but the edge all around was covered with earth. Having removed the earth and obtained a lever which I got fixed under the edge of the stone and with a little exertion raised it up, I PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 321 looked in and there indeed did I behold the plates, the Urim and Thummim, and the Breastplate, as stated by the mes- senger. ... At length the time arrived for obtaining the plates, the Urim and Thummim, and the Breastplate. On the 22d day of September, 1827, having went as usual at the end of another year to the place where they were deposited, the same heavenly messenger delivered them up to me, with this charge that I should be responsible for them; that if I phould let them go carelessly or through any neglect of mine, I should be cut off; but that if I would use all my endeavors to preserve them, until he the messenger shouM call for them, they should be protected. . . . Some time in this month of February the aforementioned Mr. Martin Harris came to our place, got the characters which I had drawn off the plates, and started with them to the city of New York." Church History, vol. 1, pp. 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18. RESTORATION OF THE HOLY PRIESTHOOD TO JOSEPH SMITH. "While we were thus employed, praying, and calling upon the Lord, a messenger from heaven descended in a cloud of light, and having laid his hands upon us, he ordained us, say- ing unto us, 'Upon you, my fellow-servants, in the name of Messiah, I confer the priesthood of Aaron, which holds the keys of the ministering of angels, and of the gospel of re- pentance, and of baptism by immersion, for the remission of sins; . . . and he commanded us to go and be baptized, and gave us directions that I should baptize Oliver Cowdery, and afterwards that he should baptize me. Accordingly we went and were baptized, I baptized him first, and afterwards he baptized me, after which I laid my hands upon his head and ordained him to the Aaronic priesthood, and afterwards he laid his hands on me and ordained me to the same priesthood, for so we were commanded. The messenger who visited us on this occasion, and conferred this priesthood upon us, said that his name was John, the same that is called John the Baptist, in the New Testament, and that he acted under the 322 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK direction of Peter, James, and John, who held the keys of the priesthood of Melchisedec, which priesthood he said should in due time be conferred on us and that I should be called the first elder, and he the second. It was on the 15th day of May, 1829, that we were baptized and ordained under the hand of the messenger. . . . For we had not long been en- gaged in solemn and fervent prayer when the word of the Lord came unto us in the chamber, (Father Whitmer's house,) commanding us that I should ordain Oliver Cowdery to be an elder in the Church of Jesus Christ, and that he also should ordain me to the same office, and then to ordain others as it should be made known unto us, from time to time; we were, however, commanded to defer this our ordination until such time as it should be practicable to have our brethren, who had been and should be baptized, assembled together, when we must have their sanction to our thus proceeding to ordain each other, and have them decide by vote whether they were willing to accept us as spiritual teachers, or not, when also we were commanded to bless bread and break it with them, and to take wine, bless it, and drink it with them, afterward proceed to ordain each other according to commandment, then call out such men as the Spirit should dictate, and ordain them, and then attend to the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost upon all those whom we had previously baptized, doing all things in the name of the Lord." Church History, vol. 1, pp. 34, 35, 36, 60, 61. THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST RESTORED IN APRIL, 1830, BY THE COMMAND OF GOD. "In this manner did the Lord continue to give us instruc- tions from time to time, concerning the duties which now devolved upon us, and among many other things of the kind, we obtained of him the following, by the Spirit of prophecy and revelation; which not only gave us much information, but also pointed out to us the precise day upon which, accord- ing to his will and commandment, we should proceed to organize his church once again here upon the earth: The rise PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 323 of the Church of Christ in these last days, being one thou- sand eight hundred and thirty years since the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the flesh, it being regularly organized and established agreeably to the laws of our coun- try, by the will and commandments of God in the fourth month, and on the sixth day of the month which is called April, which commandments were given to Joseph Smith, jr., who was called of God and ordained an apostle of Jesus Christ, to be the first elder of this church; and to Oliver Cowdery, who was also called of God an apostle of Jesus Christ, to be the second elder of this church, and ordained under his hands: and this according to the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to whom be all the glory both now and for ever. Amen. . . . Accordingly we met together for that purpose, at the house of the above mentioned Mr. Whitmer (being six in number) on Tuesday, the 6th day of April, A. D. 1830. Having opened the meeting by solemn prayer to our heavenly Father we proceeded (according to previous commandment) to call on our brethren to know whether they accepted us as their teachers in the things of the kingdom of God, and whether they were satisfied that we should proceed and be organized as a church according to said commandment which we had received. To these they consented by a unanimous vote. I then laid my hands upon Oliver Cowdery and ordained him an elder of the 'Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints,' after which he ordained me also to the office of an elder of said church. We then took bread, blessed it and brake it with them, also wine, blessed it, and drank it with them. We then laid our hands on each individual member of the church present that they might receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, and be confirmed members of the Church of Christ. The Holy Ghost was poured out upon us to a very great degree. Some prophesied, whilst we all praised the Lord and rejoiced exceedingly," Church His- tory, vol. 1, pp. 67, 68, 76, 77. 324 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK JAREDITE BOATS. We now quote from Popular Mechanics for June, 1907, page 626 : "The boat can not sink, for there are eight water-tight compartments in it, any of which is sufficient to hold the boat on the surface full of men and women. And in these eight compartments are eighty-two copper air cases, so that the boat can be smashed into small pieces, cut in two, in ten, in a hundred parts, and still there will be enough floating for those in the boat at the time of the accident to hold on to." National Magazine, November, 1906, page 163, says: "In order to procure the self-righting quality, each is furnished with a heavy iron keel, and well provided with ballast. If overturned it is impossible for the boat to remain so on account of the elevated air chambers in the bow and stern, and as it rolls upon one side, the ballast and the iron keel, which by its own weight must naturally seek the water, quickly force it back into position." Popular Mechanics, June, 1906, page 625 says: "The boat can not stay upset, and turns over with difficulty; on the bottom is a heavy keel of metal gun metal. . . . This eight- een hundred pounds of keel flops a boat right side up as fast and as often as a wave upsets the boat and it must be a mighty wave indeed which accomplishes the feat. ... The photographs show the difficulty which is experienced in trying to upset one of the boats. A number of men with block and tackle, had to pull and haul a long time, until, inch by inch, the boat finally keeled over, took water, and at last turned bottom up. Released, and in a second the heavy keel flopped back the boat and in no uncertain manner witness the splash." National Magazine, November, 1906, says: "The excited spectators held their breath, but presently had leisure to notice certain peculiarities of constructure, namely three round openings in the bottom of the boat, by means of which the self-bailing is accomplished. In the boat's floor, which is so placed as to be on a level with the water when it is manned, . . . are several openings, each connecting by a PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 325 metal with one in the bottom. As water can not rise above its own level, and as each tube is closed, at the floor level, by a valve which opens downward, no water can pass up into the boat, while any dashing in from above is at once shipped through the tubes. So quickly is this accomplished that a full boat can empty itself in about half a minute." Popular Mechanics, June, 1907, says: "The boat can not be sunk. They have a false bottom through which run eight inch tubes; closed with valves, which keep the water out. But let a wave fill the boat and in less than half a minute the water all runs out of the tubes back into the sea." Saints' Herald, October 16, 1907, written by J. W. Bums. CHRISTIAN SCIENCE, THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. In a letter dated Boston, Massachusetts, June 13, 1898, Rev. S. J. Hanna, in answer to the question: "Is Christian Science the second coming of Christ," said: "Christian Scien- tists have no doubt this is the second coming." Reverend Hanna was, for many years, editor of the Chris- tian Science Journal and First Reader of the First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston. A similar question had been sent to Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Christian Science Church, and in reply she directed her secretary, Calvin A. Frye, to write from Concord, New Hampsnire, April 21, 1895, as follows: "I am requested to say in the words of scripture, 'Go and tell John the things ye see and hear; the sick are healed, the deaf hear, the lame walk, etc., and blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me.' " Please take your Bible and read Matthew 11: 1-6, and Luke 7: 19-23, and you will have no doubt but what Mrs. Eddy would have every reader of those texts and of her letter re- ferred to above, to know that she is positive in her own mind that Christian Science is the second coming of Christ to earth. Mr. Ezra W. Reid, a prominent writer and defender of Mrs. Eddy's claims as a restorer or discoverer, is the author of a leading article on the second coming of Christ in the Octoper, 1897, Christian Science Journal of Boston. Mr. Reid 326 PARSONS' TEXT BOOK refers to several religious societies as having taught the sec- ond coming of Christ; but, having all failed in their expecta- tions, it was left to Mrs. Eddy to present to the world the glorious coming of the Lord in what she proudly advocates as Christian Science. Reverend Reid says: "We can not, within the limits of this article, enter into the discussion of the various beliefs of these people, their differ- ences, and the mathematical, chronological, and historical arguments which prove the time of the second advent; suffice it to say, that from 1843 to 1873 there was quite a wide- spread expectation that it would occur within that period. In fact, many eminent English standard writers and commen- tators fixed upon the year 1866 as the year which would bring the Lord and his kingdom. This date is one which especially interests Christian Scientists. . . . Was it coinci- dental that Christian Science should have been discovered in the year 1866? As indicated in the above quotation, there is no reason for expecting that the beginning of the new dis- pensation should be so very different from the years pre- ceding it, that is from the standpoint of mortal man. Are not all of God's works performed through the still small voice? It was in this manner, and in this year of 1866, that Rev. Mary Baker Eddy discovered Christian Science, which, from the testimony of Jesus and the apostles, we feel sure is the second coming of Christ. . . . The kingdom has come, and as the light which is all diffused, is the presence of the Christ." He also says: "It was the Christ of whom Jesus was the 'highest human corporeal concept' . . . who was to come again after the gospel parenthesis; but when Jesus ascended from the Mount of Olives, he laid aside for ever the flesh body and 'henceforth know we him no more after the flesh.' " Rev. S. J. Hanna, in the Christian Science Journal, June, 1907, gives the following historical account of the coming into organic (?) form (?) of the Christian Science Church. He says: "The early records of this church contain the follow- ing interesting and significant item: 'At a meeting of the PARSONS' TEXT BOOK 327 Christian Science Association, April 19, 1879, on motion of Mrs. Eddy, it was voted, To organize a church designed to commemorate the word and works of our Master, which should reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of heal- ing/ We point to the twenty-eight years of intervening his- tory in witness of the correctness of that early declaration. . . . We do not hesitate to say, therefore, as a matter of current history, that to a most wonderful and gratifying extent primitive Christianity has been reinstated and its lost element of healing established." Saints' Herald, Octo- ber 2, 1907, article by Bishop C. J. Hunt. JOSEPH F. SMITH ADMITS A DEPARTURE FROM THE LAW, WITHOUT A RIGHT TO DO SO. "We have not always carried out strictly the order of the priesthood. We have varied from it to some extent, but we hope in due time that by the promptings of the Holy Spirit we will be led up into the exact channel and course that the Lord has marked out for us to pursue, and adhere strictly to the order that he has established." Remarks at a special conference held at Salt Lake City, November 10, 1901, as reported in the Deseret News. CONTENTS Aborigines of America came in vessels 47 Aborigines of America, What some of the, believe, .... 59 Aborigines of America, Israelites, 25 Aborigines of America had sacred writings 52 Aborigines of America were warriors, 41 Aborigines of America were metal workers, 33 Adam, our father and God 281 Advent Christian Church, Origin of the, 158 Adventist Church, Origin of, 151 Adventists, Doctrinal features of, 157 America's progeny, 8,12 Ancient traditions not necessarily true 176 Ancient Americans built houses of worship, 55 Ancient Americans worshiped God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son, 49 Ancient Americans were farmers and manufacturers, ... 44 Anointing with oil 219 Americans wrote historical book 54 America, Led to, by four brothers, 30 Apostasy from the primitive order, 127 "Ariel" signifies Jerusalem, 71 Babies released from Hades, says Bishop, 200 Babies out of hell, 200 Baptism by immersion in water, history, 114, 119 Baptism by immersion in water for the remission of sins, 118 Baptist Church, Origin of, 147 Baptize one another, Two boys, 183 Blood atonement, 284 Book of Mormon, Some objections to, 98 Burrows, Senator J. C., Speech of, 273 Calendar, Mexican, 30 Came in vessels, 47 Campbellite Church, Origin of the, 170 Campbellites recognize the authority to baptize in other churches, 182 Catholic Church, Doctrine of the, from their own books, 163 Character of early Saints, 79 Changes in climate, at some period of the past 137 Changes made in the Book of Mormon, 78 Christians are not all priests, 206 Christian Church, Doctrinal features of the, 179 'Christian," Name, 181 Christian Science, the second coming of Christ, 325 Christian Science, Is it the second coming of Christ, . . . .195 Church of Jesus Christ restored in April, 1830, by the command of God, 322 330 PARSONS TEXT BOOK Comfort of polygamy, 262 Compass used by Aborigines, 46 Construction of boats, 49 Cross, The, known long before the Christian era, 140 Currents in the ocean, 48 Darkness so thick that it can be felt, 137 "Days," as used in the Bible 143 Defendants' evidence, 269 Degrees of inspiration, 214 Disasters at sea, Past, 193 "Disciples of Christ," Origin of 180 Drake, Ex-Governor, Interview with, 88 Dubois, Hon. Fred T., Speech of, 281 Dunkard Church, Origin of the, 161 Earliest printed works on the Antiquities of America ... 7 Earthquakes, 186 Earthquakes, An indication of the frequency of, 192 Elephants used in America, 44 Example of the apostles as good as a command, 120 Facts gathered by Brethren Miller and Thomas, of Pitts- burg, Pennsylvania, 109 Facts gathered by Elder J. F. Mintun, as found in a tract on the Book of Mormon, 102 Facts gathered in confirmation of the Book of Mormon being true, 107 First day the Christian Sabbath, 159 First settlement from Tower of Babel, 17 Great hurricane's journey from Florida to Eastern Maine 185 Gulf calamity, 186 Hell or hades the abode of spirits, 236 High priests, 217 Historical events concerning the rise and reorganization of the church, 313 Hunt, Bishop C. J., Answers to questions asked by; on meaning of the word stick 63 Inspiration of the Bible, 220 Inspiration wanting, 199 Inspired Translation, Letter from Utah on the 315 Is it another gospel, 62 Jaredite boats 324 Jesus a polygamist, 263 Journal of Discourses, 256 Latter day apostasy, 255 Laying on of hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost, 121 Love thy neighbor as thyself, 176 Man a dual creature, 228 PARSONS TEXT BOOK 331 Message of the Governor of the State of Illinois in rela- tion to the disturbance in Hancock County, December 23, 1844, 86 Miracle, Modern, 142 Miscellaneous testimony concerning the Book of Mormon and veracity of the witnesses to the said book, 77 "Mormon," The word, and its origin, 62 Opinions of sixty prominent ministers, journalists, and historians on prehistoric civilization in America The Book of Mormon needed, 90 Palestine, Colonies in 209 Palestine, Waterfall in, 207 Paradise the abode of the good spirits between death and the resurrection, 234 Parallels as found in the Bible and Book of Mormon. .. .112 Patriarch, 218 Peruvian roads, Great, 37 Polygamy and foreign missions, 310 Polygamy, First public introduction of, was made in Salt Lake City, 259 Polygamy not a tenet of the church, 266 Polygamy not permissable under the state law of Illinois 272 Polygamy permissible, 309 Polygamy permissible in the Christian or Campbellite Church, 311 Prejudice, 146 President of the church in New Testament times 215 Priesthood, 211 Proper method of interpreting God's word, 144 Prophecy and when fulfilled, 146 Prophets and miracles, 213 Punctuation, 138 Quadrupeds, 42 ailroad wrecks, 195 Records, Evidencing a knowledge of buried, 99 Relics of two civilized nations, 10, 15 Reorganized Church in Canadian courts, 307 Restoration looked for, 134 Restoration of the holy priesthood to Joseph Smith, 321 Resurrection, 57 Retribution, 85 Return of the Jews, 201 Rigdon's, Sidney, whereabouts designated, 99 Rods, 70 Rolls, 69 Salvation depends upon obedience to the priesthood, right or wrong, 285 332 PARSONS TEXT BOOK Second colony from Jerusalem 22 Signs of the last days, 184 Smith, Joseph F., admits a departure from the law, with- out a right to do so, 327 Smith, Joseph F., paves the way for succession 295 Smith, Joseph, jr., His first introduction to the history of the Americans and God's words to them, or the ''stick of Joseph," 319 Smith, Joseph, jr., introduction to the facts concerning the religions of the age, 318 Smith, Joseph, the Seer's views on secrecies, 312 Smith, Joseph, successor of his father, 292 Sometimes it is well to know what our neighbors think of us, 178 Spaulding Romance found, 105 Spirit of man intelligent between death and the resur- rection, 231 Spiritualism exposed, 241 Sticks, rolls, and rods 67 Successor, 180 Temple not finished, 294 Testimony as to the characters on the plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated 74 Testimony in court as to the successor 299 Testimony of eight witnesses, 76 Testimony of John C. Bennett, 269 Testimony of the three witnesses, 76 Testimony of twenty-one persons as to veracity of Mr. Whitmer, 78 Theological cemeteries 200 Three short talks on finance, 283 Three witnesses to the Book of Mormon, 'Last testimony of, 316 Towering philosophy, 262 Tower of Babel, How the, was built, 21 Trepanning in ancient America, 138 Trinity, Ancient religion of, 139 Usurpation and reorganization by Brigham Young and colleagues, 257 Urim and Thummim 215 Was it truth, 132 White's, Mrs. E. G., view on the Jews gathering back to the Holy Land, 210 Who ordained Brigham, 258 Woe to the land shadowing with wings, 106 Words, Various, used on both continents, 113 Young, Brigham, admits there was no commandment, ...295