This item is reproduced by permission of The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Letter to Edward Partridge and Others, 30 March 1834

  • Source Note
  • Historical Introduction
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as we did of the subject matter; as the word of God means what it says; & it is the word of God, as much as Christ was God, although he was born in a stable, & was rejected by the manner of his birth, notwithstanding he was God. What a mistake! the manner of his birth, & the source from which he sprang caused him to be rejected & cast out, & to be taken & put to death.
Whereas <​had​> he pleased the great men, the high priests, the lawyers, & the learned, he might have escaped. But supposing we should happen to make as great a mistake as the Lord did, & come under the censure of big men & fall in the same way, what would be the consequence? The fact was, there was no room in the Inn; & when man cannot do as they would, they must do as they can; for God set the example before them. For there was no room in the Inn! but there was room found “in the stable; & here was utterly a fault in the eyes of the laughing philosophers;” but it is not given to us to understand that he altered his course to please any man. And who was it that triumphed? was it the “laughing philosophers,” or him who never deviated from the will of him who sent him? Now the fact is, if we have made any mistakes in punctuation, or spelling, it has been done in consequence of , having come from in great afflictions, through much fatigue and anxiety, and being sent contrary to his expectations to , and obtain[in]g press and Types, and hauling them up in the midst of mobs, when he and I, and all the in had to lie every night for a long time upon our arms to keep off mobs, of forties, of eighties, & of hundreds to save our lives and the press, and that we might not be scattered & driven to the four winds! And all this in the midst of every kind of confusion & calamity & in the sorrowful tale of , for the sake of Zion, that the word of God might be printed & sent forth by confidential brethren to the different churches; for the churches are just like you— they will not receive anything but by [p. 32]
as we did of the subject matter; as the word of God means what it says; & it is the word of God, as much as Christ was God, although he was born in a stable, & was rejected by the manner of his birth, notwithstanding he was God. What a mistake! the manner of his birth, & the source from which he sprang caused him to be rejected & cast out, & to be taken & put to death.
Whereas had he pleased the great men, the high priests, the lawyers, & the learned, he might have escaped. But supposing we should happen to make as great a mistake as the Lord did, & come under the censure of big men & fall in the same way, what would be the consequence? The fact was, there was no room in the Inn; & when man cannot do as they would, they must do as they can; for God set the example before them. For there was no room in the Inn! but there was room found “in the stable; & here was utterly a fault in the eyes of the laughing philosophers;” but it is not given to us to understand that he altered his course to please any man. And who was it that triumphed? was it the “laughing philosophers,” or him who never deviated from the will of him who sent him? Now the fact is, if we have made any mistakes in punctuation, or spelling, it has been done in consequence of , having come from in great afflictions, through much fatigue and anxiety, and being sent contrary to his expectations to , and obtaining press and Types, and hauling them up in the midst of mobs, when he and I, and all the in had to lie every night for a long time upon our arms to keep off mobs, of forties, of eighties, & of hundreds to save our lives and the press, and that we might not be scattered & driven to the four winds! And all this in the midst of every kind of confusion & calamity & in the sorrowful tale of , for the sake of Zion, that the word of God might be printed & sent forth by confidential brethren to the different churches; for the churches are just like you— they will not receive anything but by [p. 32]
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