Times and Seasons, 15 June 1842

We publish the foregoing letter entire; and for the information of the citizens of the neighborhood where the circumstances transpired, take this opportunity of expressing our decided, unqualified disapprobation of the proceedings of William and Alford Young. If they have ever been united with this and are not cut off, we withdraw fellowship from them until they make satisfaction for what they have done; we commend , and Frost for the course they have taken in this affair, and would recommend that all those who have entertained this spirit and will not repent and reform, be cut off from the Church; such spirits ought at all times to be opposed and put down, for they are of the devil; the spirit of God never was, is not now, nor never will be manifested in the indecorous manner, that the spirit above referred to ma[n]ifested itself in.

It is a shame for any man, much more a woman, to participate in such outrageous, inhuman, abominable and devilish transactions; and we frequently wonder where men put the little common sense that they possess, when they suffer themselves to be influenced by such unreasonable, ungodly spirits. David once feigned himself mad, in order that he might escape from the hands of a king who held him in bondage, but these men voluntarily and unblushingly act the madman, and would fain palm their wild rantings, their braying and beastly propensities, which is the product of a frantic brain and bewildered imagination, and the offspring of satan upon God and the Mormons: by calling it the spirit of God and themselves Mormons. If this be the spirit of God we are ignorant of it, and if this be Mormonism we have it yet to learn. The plain principles of truth, the gift and blessings of the gospel as they existed in the primitive days; the pure principles of truth as taught by our Lord Jesus Christ, and taught and administered in by the Apostles, subject us to sufficient approbrium, without having fathered upon us the offspring of satan, and the ebulitions of a frantic mind and disordered brain.

We would refer our readers to an article written upon this subject in the 11th No. of this vol. headed “Try the Spirits.” As we have so lately written upon this subject, it will be unnecessary for us to enter into particulars at the present; but we would say, “try the spirits,” “prove all things, and hold fast that which is good.” Paul has said “God is not the author of confusion, but of order as in all the churches of the Saints.”—Ed.

☞ A new edition of the BOOK OF MORMON has just come out of press, and will be bound in a few days, and ready for sale.

☞ The Editor of the “Signs of the Times,”—the paper that advocates the coming of Christ next year,—proposes to publish “a pamplet in a few weeks, which will fully expose the iniquity of the Mormon delusion.” Such an announcement is amusing enough; while, at the same time, it shows most conclusively the blindness and folly of religious fanaticism. The doctrines of the Mormons are, to be sure, somewhat inconsistent and absurd, when viewed by the light of reason and common sense; but when viewed by the Bible, which is a very different sort of light and a very dubius one, they appear on the whole, quite as authentic as Christian doctrines generally. Whatever may be the absurdities of the Mormons, (we mean their doctrines, not themselves, for personally we believe they are quite as correct a people as can be found in any Christian sect in existence,)—whatever, we repeat, may be the absurdities of their doctrines, they have none so supremely ridiculous as that advocated by the signs of the Times;” and if the Editor was not clean gone in religious monomania he must certainly see it himself. What can be more foolish, if we think of it for a moment, than the doctrines of Christ’s bodily appearance in the clouds with a retinue of angels, &c., all of them sailing through the air and blowing trumpets as they pass? The idea even on Bible authority, is nonsensical in the extreme, since all these pretended personages being spiritual, it is impossible they can be seen by material beings, or perform material works. Nor does the Bible afford any more conclusive authority for the doctrine that Christ is to come next year or at any particular time, since Christ himself expressly declares in the 24th Chapter of Matthew and 36 verse, that “of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only.” But in the face of this high authority, which all Christians if consistent, ought to be governed by, the Rev. Editor of the “Signs of the Times,” does not hesitate to speak confidently of the time of Christ’s coming—thus presuming in fact, to possess the knowledge of God himself! And yet he deliberately reproaches the Mormons for being deluded! How very applicable in this case, are the words of one of his own standards,—“Physician heal thyself!”—Boston Inv. [p. 822]