Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate/Volume 1/Number 3/Letter from Warren A. Cowdery to Oliver Cowdery (Nov. 28 1834)

The library of the late Earl Spencer alone, exclusive of his pictures, is estimated at 200,000 lbs. This may give a notion of the state of literature in England in private life.

Admiral Napier has retired from the Portuguese service and returned to England, having received as his reward 40,000 lbs. N. Y. Mercury.

Freedom, Nov. 28 1834.

DEAR BROTHER OLIVER,—

I have been blessed at all times when my judgment dictated that I ought to write to you, with a willing mind to do it, but I have not always been equally happy in communicating that which will either please or instruct, still I venture to write believing I may be instrumental in stirring up your mind by way of remembrance. It is no matter of despondency to me that I am not able to instruct you in the great things of the kingdom, but, rather, of rejoicing, that I have a brother who can instruct me, nevertheless all you have, and all I have, is of God, and neither of us have any thing whereof to boast. Christ, the lovely, compassionate Savior is the happy medium, through whom all blessings are received. To him we owe gratitude and praise continually.—And I believe I hazard nothing that is contrary to truth, when I say that a proper contemplation of this idea will serve to keep the saints of God humble. Christ being the medium through whom all blessings flow, can the consideration of this subject do any thing else than debase the creature in his own eyes and exalt the character of God? While we were yet sinners, (says the apostle,) "Christ died for the ungodly." He has broken down the middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile, and reconciled both in one body by his cross, and of twain making one new man and so making peace. So it evidently appears according to the scriptures, that there is no other name given under heaven among men whereby we can be saved. Hence we may safely infer that that system of salvation which discards the idea of the all atoning sacrifice of Christ must be erroneous. The very idea of atonement or reconciliation, where there is so much guilt as there is attached to the family of man, involves the idea of expiation in propria persona or vicariously: For says the apostle, without shedding of blood is no remission. There is one God and one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. We who were once far off by reason of sin and rebellion, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. So that in every point of light in which we can view the plan of God in the salvation of the sinner, we are led to admire, to wonder at, and adore, its benevolent Author. Another idea corroborative of what I have advanced, is that salvation implies that we were lost. If we were not lost, we needed no Savior, and if he did not offer himself without spot to God for us, to make atonement for our sins, and bring in everlasting righteousness, then he must have suffered and died in vain, for he had no sins of his own for which to suffer, and the idea of his suffering as a mere example of patience, meekness or forbearance, appears unscriptural and unsound. Such is not that system of religion that is calculated to produce humility, and humility is that grace without which we have no scriptural claim to the appellation of saints of the Most High God; or to the promises addressed to the humble followers of the meek and lowly Savior. Says the prophet, he was wounded for our transgressions: he was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. The great apostle of the Gentiles when he was about to take his leave of his brethren at Miletus sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church and said unto them, take heed unto yourselves, and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers, to feed the church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood—With these scriptures before me I know not how I can persuade myself to believe the sufferings of the Savior are not vicarious. On the principle that they are not vicarious I ask what scriptural argument can be urged why he should suffer at all.—It may be said by some that he suffered as a pattern of patience and long suffering, thereby teaching the children of men a lesson of forbearance which they ought to follow, and by which they ought at all times to be exercised. Very well, still this question recurs with equal force to my mind, how does that save us? and what becomes of the very idea of A Savior? Such expressions as I have quoted, and the following, he bear our sins in his own body on the tree, must if his sufferings are not vicarious, be senseless jargon.

W. A. Cowdery.