S. J. Wild, Letter, , Adams Co., IL, to JS, , Hancock Co., IL, 30 Apr. 1843; handwriting of S. J. Wild; notations in handwriting of and ; docket in handwriting of ; three pages; JS Collection, CHL.
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& to purify the Body continually thus Invigorating & Healthyfying it & that God commanded this to his church by Moses & that Jesus & the Apostles having belonged to this Church must have practiced it <as a means or way to the peculiar excellense they attained to> it [is?] likely that washing was abolished when the very first act of Obedienice in the new Church was to Baptize or Wash for I understand it so to mean— & is not this the only means by which the present selfish rough Unchristian unpolished ungentlemanly manners of the people can be altered— & is it not the way by making a mans person thorougly clean & with prayer to give him a taste for clean<liness> <&> desire for the highest improvement of his faculties & is it not the Means by which Glory & honour are to be attained in this World if universally practiced
In Leviticus Chap. 15— V. 16–17, 18 is are commands. are they not as needful now <to> be in force to prevent diseases as then— Gods people at that time had prayer houses near the Water that They Might wash preparatory to that exercise the Priests washed their feet before the altar & has our Climates now become so cool & Invigorating as to make all this unnecesary now— Josephus in his Antiquities Book XVIII. C. V Sec 2 says that Jno the Baptist exhorted the Virtuous & the pious to come to his Baptism for the purification of the flesh all of Which our present religionists deem unessential now by that means excluding all commands of Cleanliness from their code of Morals— H◊◊◊ thus leaving the people in a great degree filthy intemporate or lazy & a long train of other vices in the rear the leaders of the Blind being in a great degree blind themselves or I once spoke to Mr on this subject he acknowledged that the use of Water had saved his life but that at that time he could not bear it— here I think he must have been in an error for it appears to Me that at [p. [2]]