Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate/Volume 3/Number 5/To the Presidents and Counselors

February 1st, 1837.

To the Presidents and Counsellors of all the quorums of the church of Latter Day Saints.

Dear Brethren:-We are continually receiving intelligence by letter and otherwise, from the East, West, and South, of the progress of truth and correct principles concerning the religion we profess. The eastern, western and middle States have reiterated the cry, come and help us. Doors are open, say our correspondents, in various directions, and great and pressing calls are heard for preaching on all sides.-"Send some good faithful elders among us and we think good might be done." This, brethren, is a specimen of what we hear every week. We think this should excite in us greater energy and dilligence [diligence] in our Master's cause. God, you know, has designed "by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." How then shall they believe without they hear? "and how shall they hear without a preacher?"

These questions address themselves forcibly to the hearts of all the genuine lovers of truth. But we must say in behalf of the officers and elders of this church, that they are now fulfilling a peremptory command, which is nearly in these words, viz. "Seek learning by faith, by study, and by the best books." They are therefore qualifying themselves to go forth and proclaim the words of life (as we trust) with energy in demonstration of the Spirit and power. Our brethren abroad will therefore be patient, be faithful; pray much and often and "the pleasure of the Lord will prosper in their hands."-Great success has usually attended the labors of all faithful elders who went out last season. This you will have learned by the preceding numbers of our periodical: Yet we are deeply sensible that much more remains to be done, and we pray God to hasten the time and prepare the way and means for its accomplishment. Ed.

In the course of our reading we found the following remarks on the influence of knowledge in promoting enlarged conceptions of the character and perfections of the Deity. They appeared to us so just, so appropriate, and withall so instructing, we made the extract.

"All the works of God speak of their Author, in silent but emphatic language, and declare the glory of his perfections to all the inhabitants of the earth. But, although "there is no speech nor language" where the voice of Deity is not heard, how gross are the conceptions generally entertained of the character of Him "in whom we live and move," and by whose superintending providence all events are directed! Among the greater number of pagan nations, the most absurd and grovelling notions are entertained respecting the Supreme Intelligence, and the nature of that worship which his perfections demand.-They have formed the most foolish and degrading representations of this august Being, and have "changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to four-footed beasts and creeping things. Temples have been erected and filled with idols the most hideous and obscene; bulls and crocodiles, dogs and serpents, goats and lions have been exhibited to adumbrate the character of the Ruler of the universe. The most cruel and unhallowed rites have been performed to procure his favor, and human victims sacrificed to appease his indignation. All such grovelling conceptions and vile abominations have their origin in the darkness which overspreads the human understanding, and the depraved passions which ignorance has a tendency to produce. Even in those countries where Revelation sheds its influence, and the knowledge of the true God is promulgated, how mean and contracted are the conceptions which the great bulk of the population entertain of the attributes of that incomprehensible Being whose presence pervades the immensity of space, who "metes out the heavens with a span," and superintends the affairs of ten thousand worlds! The views which many have acquired of the perfections of the Deity, do not rise much higher than those which we ought to entertain of the powers of an archangel, or of one of the seraphim; and some have been known, even in our own country, whose conceptions have been so abject and grovelling, as to represent to themselves "the King eternal, immortal, and invisible," under the idea of a "venerable old man." Even the more intelligent class of the community fall far short of the ideas they ought to form of the God of heaven, owing to the limited views they have been accustomed to take of the displays of his wisdom and benevolence, and the boundless range of his operations."

The following short but comprehensive sentiments being so congenial with our feelings, and so exactly in accordance with our views of republicanism, and a good government, that notwithstanding our paper is intended to be a vehicle of religious, but not of political knowledge or instruction; yet as neither political nor religious intolerance are supportable among freemen, where freedom of thought, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press, are incorporated into the constitution of our country, and are the basis on which the fabric rests; we have, therefore, copied them, and made such remarks upon them as occurred to our mind.

"Every man has a right, in this republican government, and every one ought to have independence of mind enough, to express his religious and political opinions freely, and no one has a right to frown upon him for so doing. But it is the mark of a gentleman to treat those who differ from him in sentiment with forbearance and respect."

In a despotic government, where the will of the sovereign is the only law, and men have no right to speak or act unless their speech and their acts are in accordance with the will and good wishes of the powers that be, "the more ignorance the more peace."-Knowledge expands the mind, extends the views, and in a free government, increases the usefulness of its possessor; it enables him to speak boldly, freely, understandingly, and definitely, on all subjects pertaining to his religious or political rights, and is a source of joy to him that he knows for himself that the sentiments he has embraced are the result of research, the result of logical reasoning, the result of experience, and that it is his right, and his privilege to advance and support them with reason and argument. And further, he congratulates himself with the reflection, that this right is guaranteed to him by the constitution and government under which he lives. He knows he is amenable to no law, for the exercise of this right. Tyrants may frown, monarchs may complain, and despots in vain try to abridge the right of an enlightened freeman; still his mind is as free as the air he inhales,-and he looks with mingled emotions of pity and contempt, upon the puny efforts of frail mortality to bring him into bondage. The fawning sycophants that surround the tyrant, that come at his nod and go at his will, whether he be a religious bigot or a political despot, are truly objects of pity to him. They are allowed to speak, to think, and to act, provided they speak, think and act as their tyrant masters dictate.

We do not wish to inculcate disobedience to legal authority, far from it; but we do mean to be distinctly understood, that we believe that "all mankind are by nature free and equal, and have a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," and we also believe that that happiness of which we speak, consists in canvassing freely the sentiments of rulers and ruled, weighing all in the scale of justice, bringing them to the test of truth, reason and philosophy.

We hold this to be not only our privilege, but our unalienable right, both as regards our civil and religious rulers, and neither in a republican government have just cause of complaint. But tyrants and religious bigots will always frown upon those who are not orthodox by their standard. They are enemies to all whose principles or practices come in contact with theirs, and are always unhappy when any one calls in question the sentiments they have embraced, or "the little brief authority" with which they may be clothed. Their restless mind is never at ease, until there is a tacit submission to their will, in all that surround them.

But the man of truth, of candor, of an enlightened understanding, and correct taste, is not one of the wise man's fools who judges and condemns upon exparte evidence, but he patiently hears the whole matter, and then approbates or disapprobates as the light of truth is reflected upon his understanding. If he must differ from others, he does it modestly, yet decidedly, always leaving room by his suavity of deportment and urbanity of manners, for those who are his enemies, to become his friends, and those who differ from him in sentiment to become converts to his faith. Ed.