NORTHERN ISLANDER
VOL. 4.] Voree, W. T., Thursday, Aug. 16, 1855. [No. 75.
CORRESPONDENCE.
G.S.L. City, U. T., May 25, ’55.
DEAR SON AND DAUGHTER:--I received your letter, dated March 15, from Canada. I was glad to hear of your health and that of your family. We had not heard from you for some three years, not knowing how to account for it, for we had written frequently to you, but when we received your letter the mystery was solved. Stephen and Horace also received letters from you.
But let me assure you we were no little astonished at the strange course you have taken. I should not have given credit to the report had it come in some other way.—But, strange to say, how it is that the different spirits operate on individuals. One is induced to believe Strang, another Baneemy, another Gladden Bishop, another Rigdon, and another Brewster.—These all have their votaries, all firm in the different faiths, all zealous in their own way, all serving God according to their different faiths, views and opinions.
Now here comes the question—are all right, let us travel on, and make the best of life we can, with as little persecution as possible, and get into a good country where the good things of this world abound in rich abundance. But reflections pass through my mind something like these: Shall I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease, whilst others fought to win the prize, and sailed the cloudy seas?
If I am not much mistaken the saints have got to pass through narrow places, where the priests will have to stand between the porch and the altar, and say, Lord, spare thy people, and give not thy heritage to the heathen.—What the views of Mr. Strang are in regard to this matter I have not been informed, neither am I acquainted with the general views of doctrine advanced by the Strangites.
You stated that you was just as willing that brother James should be a prophet as brother Young.—For my own part I am willing to receive him whom the Lord has set apart to lead this people. The question would now arise who that person is, among all the prophets. For my part, as I am a follower of Brigham, I shall advocate his authority to the Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
The first evidence I received that Brigham was the true successor of Joseph, was on the day when Sidney set up his claim for the Presidency. Brigham’s countenance, his voice, gestures and everything truly represented the martyred prophet in such a striking manner I shall never forget.—I was convinced by the spirit of the Lord that the mantle of Joseph had fallen on Brigham.
From that day to this I have all the time seen undisputable evidence of the course that church has taken is pleasing in the sight of the Lord. I have had every opportunity to see the course President Young has taken to promote the interest of this people. He is kind, merciful and forbearing, when there is any hopes of reformation. His course has ever been steadfast. The confidential friend of Joseph, and the man Joseph did place in charge to guide the church, and to carry out the measures and designs contemplated by Joseph.
I have the testimony of mother Smith, while in private converse with Joseph and the Twelve.—Now, said he, I am going to take my rest for a while, and I now place upon your shoulders the responsibility of bearing off the kingdom. Little did I think, said she, he was going to be martyred. She closed her remarks by bursting into tears.
I have no doubt but you feel honest in your opinion, but honesty may not always prove a man right. Many of the sectarians are honest as we are in their religion, but their sincerity will not save them.
Do not be offended when I show you the rock on which you ran aground. You recollect the word went out by Benson and Grant for the saints to gather to the Valley, en mass. This you did not comply with, which you might have done. Remember that the disobedience of one commandment will pave the way for a false spirit to enter. When once entered it will lead to every wrong imagination, and it is not easy to discern the difference. Satan is ingenious. He will come with many truths.—Where it not so, no one would believe him. Paul said: Many spirits are gone out into the world, therefore try them. Now if they were easily discerned there would be no need to try them, for it would be visible to every one.
You cited us to the Book of Doctrine and Covenants. All who have come out since the beginning have dealt largely on the Book of Covenants, the Book of Mormon, Bible, &c. All these are good, but the spirit of God is ahead of all of them; it is continual progression, hence the stream is never as high as the fountain.
The valley of the mountains is the place for the people of God to gather to, where the house of the Lord is to be raised in the tops of the mountains, where all nations are to gather to. This is truly the chambers where the people are to be hid in when the overflowing scourge shall pass. Our strength is the mountain of rocks.
According to the signs of the times the calamities have commenced. War, famine and pestilence have begun to make their appearance in various parts of the world. Remember that the day is not far distant when war will be poured out upon all nations, and our own beloved land will be deluged in blood, and he that will not take up his sword against his neighbor must needs flee to Zion. Therefore I would advise and exhort you to tarry not in all the plain, lest sudden destruction await you.
I would like to write many things to you, but I cannot do it in one letter. I would like to give you a description of the country, &c. The valleys are rich and very productive. It is far superior to Illinois or Missouri for wheat, and corn grows well. Potatoes are raised in any quantity. There is also abundance of fish. The public work is rapidly progressing.—Every one seems willing to pay their tithing. The work is rolling on with rapidity. The elders are in almost all parts of the earth, gathering out the honest in heart. Truly the fig tree begins to show forth the signs of our redemption. When you see these things, lift up your heads and rejoice.
Sarah, my second wife, has two daughters. One is 27 months old, the other 3 months. Mother knows no difference between Sarah’s children and her own.
I want you to write to us as soon as you receive this. Speak freely. You are speaking to your friends; those who feel for your present and eternal welfare. Look well to who you follow, lest sorrow should overtake you when you think not. We were in great expectation of seeing you and family this fall, but how uncertain are all earthly expectations. My prayer to God is that you may return.
Mother wishes to hear what Jane’s testimony was to convince her of the truth of Strangism.—Please write. Send me something on doctrine, and everything else you can think of that will be interesting to us. I should like to get one of your papers now and then. My family all send their love to you.
Yours in the gospel,
WM. HICKENLOOPER.
REPLY.
St. James, Mich., July 25, ’55.
DEAR FATHER AND MOTHER:--I take my pen in hand after so much delay, to answer your letter, dated May 25th, which came to hand the 10th inst. It found us all well, and enjoying a glorious Conference meeting. I received letters from Belinda, Horace and Stephen.
I shall, in answering you, endeavor to take up each question by itself, and look at it carefully, as far as doctrinal points are concerned. One is induced to believe in Strang, another Baneemy, another Gladden Bishop, another Rigdon, another Brewster. These are all zealous in their own way.
Now the question is, say you, are all right, or are some wrong? I answer, no; there can be only one right way; there can be a legion wrong ways. How then shall we try them? By the written word, is the reasonable conclusion. This is the only means by which we can solve these questions.
We all may say we are possessed with the holy spirit. So the professor of any religion, no matter how erroneous, will not in any wise admit he is devoid of the holy spirit. So we see that if it is better than the Bible, Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants, as you have related, nevertheless it must be in accordance with the written word of God, as is found in any of those books.
Now let us carefully examine the word of God, as it is recorded, not anybody’s assertion, and see if any of the above individuals have come in by the door. And while we are going through with the examination, we will class Brigham Young with the rest, and try him also by the word, and see who it is that is weighed in the balance and found wanting.
“And this ye shall know assuredly, that there is none other appointed unto you to receive commandments and revelations, until he be taken, if he abide in me.”—D. & C. sec. 14, par. 1. As much as to say that when or at the time he was taken there is another appointed.
Now we will see how many pretended to receive revelations before Joseph’s death. Baneemy claims to have been appointed ten years before. Gladden Bishop claimed to have received revelations eight or ten years before, and was tried and cut off from the church, as was well known.—Brewster claimed to have received revelations some few years before his death, and his father took him to show his revelations to Joseph, and god reproved. Sidney ceased to go in accordance to the word of the Lord through Joseph in the time of his life, and for several years before the prophet was martyred, as was well known to the church; for Joseph was heard repeatedly to say he had carried him on his back as long as he would. Yet he stood as Joseph’s counselor at his death—stood the highest in authority—yet he did not claim to have been appointed, but rather wished to be chosen guardian for the church. Consequently we will set them all down as usurpers.
Now the question at issue is, which of the two, Mr. Young or Mr. Strang, or whether either.—Mr. Young stated at the August Conference that Joseph stood in his own place, and always will.—He also said the Twelve stand in their own place, and always will. Then, I ask, why was brother David Patten’s place filled by another? And if the High Priests and Seventies stand in their place, and always will, where, I ask, will the priesthood be then when this generation is dead? We draw the inference that it will be where it was when or after the Apostles fell asleep—gone to heaven, and the church into the wilderness, to be consigned to Popery.
He also stated or made this broad assertion: Let no one presume for a moment that the place of Joseph will be filled by another. When God has said, expressly, (if Joseph be true,) that if he (Joseph) be taken, I (the Lord) will plant another in his stead.—Sec. 11, p. 4. Now another is not twelve. Which told the truth, Mr. Young or the Lord through Mr. Smith? I shall leave that for you to infer.
I will drop this part at this time, as I treated quite lengthy in my former letter. And as Mr. Young does not nor never did claim to have been appointed by Joseph, neither received the ordination from the hands of angel, but after about four years, in which time he stood with the Twelve to lead, and then was appointed by the minority of the people assembled together at Council Bluffs, I shall show beyond successful contradiction by your own arguments that he is an usurper, and has acted as such ever since Joseph’s death.
In the Deseret News, extra, in a revelation purporting to have come from God through Joseph in 1843, it is stated that there can but one stand on the earth at one time holding the sealing power; which is, of course, the highest authority of the priesthood on earth, that whatsoever power it has to bind on earth it has to bind in heaven, &c. Now admitting your argument to be true for a moment, for argument’s sake, that Joseph did say to the Twelve in private council, a few months prior to his death, that he was going to rest for a while, and I now place upon your shoulders the responsibility of bearing off the kingdom to the nations of the earth, what does it imply? That he conferred that high power upon them equally, of which there can but one stand upon the earth at a time holding it, as is stated in the Deseret News, extra?
And if they equally held it, which they did if the declaration conferred it upon one it did upon them all equally, one as much as the other, why in the name of truth, I ask, did Brigham Young, after standing with the Twelve holding that authority for four years after Joseph’s martyrdom, take the authority to himself, thereby usurping the power to lead the church? Or, in other words, if you claim that Mr. Young held it all the time from the time Joseph was with them in that council unto the present, I ask again which of the two, Mr. Smith or Mr. Young, held it from the time of that council until his (Mr. Smith’s) death?
I wish, if you please, you will answer these questions according to the book. That he placed no more authority upon them than they had before is evident, for from the declaration you say was given to them, it is nothing more than is conferred upon an Apostle, and the responsibility of bearing off the kingdom to the nations of the earth.
So you see he was rather reproving them for not doing their duty. Instead of conferring additional power upon them, they got a reproof for not carrying out that great responsibility that was upon their shoulders of bearing the kingdom to the nations. He had it resting upon him, and gave them to understand he should do their duty no longer. They had it to do themselves; therefore throwing if off from his shoulders. In saying they should bear off the kingdom did not confer power to lead the church.
Because Mr. Young had tried to mimic Joseph for several years before his death, and on his return from Boston after his (Joseph’s) martyrdom even went and got a dentist to take out a tooth on the same side that Joseph lost one, to make himself appear as much like him as possible, that even his voice, gestures and likeness would seem like Joseph, and did, at the August Conference, as you related, which was evidence to you that he was the man Joseph appointed, yet it is no evidence without he had come in at the gate, and been ordained, as the Lord had told Joseph before; which was by angel. Sec. 50, p. 2, 3. Given Sept., 1832.
No person does or ever did set up any claim to have been called by revelation of God, and ordained by the hands of angels as the successor of Joseph in the prophetic office, except James J. Strang.—That he is thus called and sent, he presents strong evidence. And as that is the only mode pointed out in the scriptures and the revelations to come into that office, unless he is the rightful prophet, there is none, and consequently the Mormon institution must fall to the ground.
Mr. Strang’s views in regard to the saints being drawn into narrow places is somewhat like yours, and more especially of that people (if saints they can be called) being in such straitened circumstances that if they are delivered at all it will be by the power and influence of that priest and prophet that God has called by his own voice, and anointed and sent under the hand of his angels, and said to him that he should bring salvation when there was no arm to deliver, and that he should break the yoke [Page 213] of the unjust ruler; that they should flee away, but the way of peace they should not find.
I hope you will not be offended when I show you the rock upon which we both run aground. You no doubt remember at the August Conference, of 1844, that the question was asked by Brigham Young, after many remarks were made preparatory to the question, whether we would have a prophet, or the Twelve to lead us, or Sidney Rigdon.
You and I there raised our hands in favor of the Twelve, thereby rejecting God’s prophet, whom he had called and sent by the ministering of angels. And God was just, for he is a God of truth, and cannot lie. He was just I say in fulfillment of his sacred and divine word by his servant Joseph, to remove us together with that people out of their place; or, in other words, he promised that if they would adhere to the words of those men whom he appointed to lead them they should not be moved out of their place. D. & C. sec. 103, p. 13. Evidence sufficient to show that even if they did adhere to Joseph’s teachings unto his death, and were not moved out of their place, that after his death they rejected God’s prophet and were moved out of their place.
Heber C. Kimball and others of the Twelve, at the April Conference, 1845, and at other times, said they were the most obedient people that ever existed. Why were they removed out of their place? Was it because the arm of God is shortened, that he cannot save? Or was it because they obeyed the voice of men, whom God did not appoint to be their leaders?
The promise is express that if they will obey they shall not be removed, and if they will not obey they shall be cursed. We were removed, and bitterly have we been cursed. Yes, we had to flee from fire and from the sword; and finally from the cannon’s mouth. I think you remember well the night that we fled before them, in which you carried your sick daughter helpless, yes, in the jaws of death, as it were, on a one horse wagon, wrapped in blankets, who is now my affectionate wife, and is the mother of four lovely and promising children.
We went with the loss of our property, and have wandered in darkness. But thanks be to the Lord, I have beheld the true light upon the Islands, that have waited for his law. Yes, without inhabitant, as the prophet declared of old, for God’s law, and finally is now settling up with the saints, who have the law of the Lord recorded in a book, that they may read it all their days, and that it may be written upon their hearts, that they may not forget it.
I must say something upon that rock, as you represented, upon which I run aground. About eight months before Benson and Grant came back to the Bluffs, Orson Hyde gave council for all that were in rather poor circumstances to remove north, and take up claims, and assured them they should be blessed with a plenty of means by so doing to go west with by the time they were required to go, intimating at the time they would stay there several years.
The Bishops also went, in pursuance of his council, to settle the poor on who should come from the old country. Those claims were to be held as church property. In the fall and winter following here came Benson and Grant, hurrah for the Valley, en mass.—For thus saith the spirit, said Orson Hyde eight or ten months before, go north and settle, and you shall be blessed.
Why all this change in opposition? Who don’t know that a man in inferior circumstances can’t go on to a new place and better [?????] tell you how it was. The U. S. officers went there, and Brigham was so harsh with them that on their return to Washington they made unfavorable report, as Brigham well knew it would be. So he sent Benson, Grant and others to gather up en mass, for they feared trouble. Why did they not know by the spirit that they would not have trouble at that time, so as to carry out the former measures? I will tell you. They were led by the spirit, but it happened to be the spirit of man that they were directed by. It is nothing miraculous either that a people who have a man made prophet, should be led by the spirit of man.
Say Jane, “Mother wants to know what evidence I have of the truth of Strangism.” She says the testimony she received under their preaching, and the strong evidence they brought from the scriptures and revelations was one evidence. Another was, she prayed that if it was right the Lord would send a man to buy our place and property, and in a few days a man came would not give it up until he bought it, and first we knew we were ready to start. It was not as it had been formerly, when we tried to fix to go there, all unfavorable, when we were as fervent in prayer as at this time, desiring to do what God would have us to do. This is another evidence.
She says she has another evidence. It was impressed upon her mind that if we did not go to Beaver Island that she would die in a short time. And upon the morning of the day we started, after we got partly loaded up, the devil told us we had better go and make a claim and settle down. Bro. Hickey came to our house, he being the Apostle that was sent to preach with us that winter.—He was impressed by the spirit, and spoke out and said that if we did not go she would die, and he should never see her again. She then said this had been the impression of her mind for some months, but she had told no one of it, not even me; but that she then was confident it would be so if we did not obey the voice of the good shepherd, which was to go. We accordingly hitched up and started.
I have mailed you a paper, and shall forward one from time to time. I wish you would send one of the Deseret News occasionally. I shall answer Belinda’s letter. I cannot write all I want to in one letter. Write to us when you receive this. I remain as ever yours affectionately.
S. S. THORNTON.
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