Letterbook 2

  • Source Note
  • Historical Introduction
Page 59
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can truly say, we have been treated with respect by the people while on the road, have met with no insult except now and then an instance when the spies have seen our brethren away from the camp. For want of room I must stop writing, but in due time after I arrive to my place of destination will take an opportunity to write more fully. Be assured that I always remember you to my Heavenly Father and hope you will do the same for your
, Geauga County Ohio
Letter, Jesse Smith to Hyrum Smith • 17 June 1829
June 17th 1829
Mr
Once as I thot my promising , You wrote to my Father long ago, that after struggling thro various scenes of adversity, you and your family, you had at last been taught the very salutary lesson that the God that made the heavens and the earth w[o]uld at onc[e] give success to your endeavours, this if true, is very well, exactly as it should be— but— alas what is man when left to his own way, he makes his own gods, if a golden calf, he falls down and worship’s before it, and says this is my god which brought me out of the land of — if it be a gold book discovered by the necromancy of infidelity, & dug from the mines of atheism, he writes that the Angel of the Lord has revealed to him the hidden treasures of wisdom & knowledge, even divine revelation, which has lain in the bowels of the earth for thousands of years is at last made known to him, he says he has eyes to see things that are not, and then has the audacity to say they are; And this Angel of the Lord (Devil it should be) has put me in possession of great wealth, gold and silver and precious stones so that I shall have the dominion in all the land of .—
In a subsequent letter you write that you learn from your Grandfather’s letter that uncle Jesse [Smith] thinks you are carrying on a work of deception, in this he and you are right, Uncle Jesse did, and still does think the whole pretended discovery, not a very deep, but a very clear and foolish deception, a very great wickedness, unpardonable, unless you are shielded by your ignorance. Again you say, if you are decieved God is your deciever, Blasphemous wretch— how dare you utter such a sentence, how dare you harbor such a thot— aye, you never did think so, but being hardened in iniquity, you made use of the holy name of Jehovah! for what, why to cover your nefarious designs & impose on the credulity of your Grandfather, one of the oldest men on the earth,
Blackness of darkness! [p. 59]
can truly say, we have been treated with respect by the people while on the road, have met with no insult except now and then an instance when the spies have seen our brethren away from the camp. For want of room I must stop writing, but in due time after I arrive to my place of destination will take an opportunity to write more fully. Be assured that I always remember you to my Heavenly Father and hope you will do the same for your
, Geauga County Ohio
Letter, Jesse Smith to Hyrum Smith • 17 June 1829
June 17th 1829
Mr
Once as I thot my promising , You wrote to my Father long ago, that after struggling thro various scenes of adversity, you and your family, you had at last been taught the very salutary lesson that the God that made the heavens and the earth would at once give success to your endeavours, this if true, is very well, exactly as it should be— but— alas what is man when left to his own way, he makes his own gods, if a golden calf, he falls down and worship’s before it, and says this is my god which brought me out of the land of — if it be a gold book discovered by the necromancy of infidelity, & dug from the mines of atheism, he writes that the Angel of the Lord has revealed to him the hidden treasures of wisdom & knowledge, even divine revelation, which has lain in the bowels of the earth for thousands of years is at last made known to him, he says he has eyes to see things that are not, and then has the audacity to say they are; And this Angel of the Lord (Devil it should be) has put me in possession of great wealth, gold and silver and precious stones so that I shall have the dominion in all the land of .—
In a subsequent letter you write that you learn from your Grandfather’s letter that uncle Jesse Smith thinks you are carrying on a work of deception, in this he and you are right, Uncle Jesse did, and still does think the whole pretended discovery, not a very deep, but a very clear and foolish deception, a very great wickedness, unpardonable, unless you are shielded by your ignorance. Again you say, if you are decieved God is your deciever, Blasphemous wretch— how dare you utter such a sentence, how dare you harbor such a thot— aye, you never did think so, but being hardened in iniquity, you made use of the holy name of Jehovah! for what, why to cover your nefarious designs & impose on the credulity of your Grandfather, one of the oldest men on the earth,
Blackness of darkness! [p. 59]
Page 59