star of the saints. - religious studies center 29... · 278 zion s trumpet. contemptuous that the...

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TO THE REVERENDS OF THE BAPTISTS AGAIN.

Their accusations against Dewi elFed Jones and his congregation, clarified.

Esteemed brother daVis,—Inasmuch as I several times humbly invited the Reverends, and their having refused after all, from shame, to publish the accusations because of which I severed my connection with the Baptists, at this point I shall do that myself, and they can stare and snarl, for their anger has still not abated, although I have been fair, even very fair with them also, in private and in public, with words and by letters, all with every good wish; for I pity them in their wretched condition. I grieve for some of them who have already believed, but the profit and the salary keep them from joining with the Saints; others are hindered by worldly honors and bloated egos. It is a shame that men like these are such cowards, that they fear to stand on the side of the truth. Good heavens, brethren and Welshmen, overcome the obstacles, and come to the Church of Jesus Christ, trusting in the God of the Saints, and you shall have freedom and strength, that you may rejoice and be glad under every circumstance; I know that, and my wish is that you may come to possess eternal life. Others of them oppose the truth, stubbornly resisting in clumsy obstinance, as if they insisted, despite everything, on twisting judgment and justice, and trampling the truth underfoot as rubbish, completely

no. 18.] OCTOBER 29, 1853. [Vol. Vi.

ZION’S TRUMPET,or

Star of the Saints.

18

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ZION’S TRUMPET.278

contemptuous that the God of the Saints is determined to “take vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.” That, alas, is the condition of hundreds of them nowadays. O, if only they would mend their ways, and return to the Lord.

Why will man not work justice with man? Why do men, and also their preachers, trample the innocent underfoot? Why do they love to conspire to afflict and destroy whoever loves to work justice at the gate, and defend truth on the streets? Why were the transactions of the Aberdare Quarterly Meeting not made public earlier? Did they want to blindfold the eyes of those who did not know otherwise? Did they want to blind men as does their father, lest the truth shine for them, and they turn and come back, and live? Was it because they feared that by so doing the hope for their profit would cease? that their merchandising would end? and their glory would dwindle in shame and disgrace? I know of some of them who were too polite to deny that, and that others were too full of the swelling of conceited false pride, to understand the meaning of the word shallow, and it may appropriately be said of many of them in the words of the English poet,—

“Thy shallow centre to thy utmost skin.”

That is how things are, whatever may be said; it is true, as the White Poet says,—

“Whoever denies that, let him take it further,And let him deny that the sun rises.”

Henceforth, Zion’s trumpet may give the cry all over Wales, of the account as short as I can make it, of the incidental circumstances of the invention of the Quarterly Attack, or in other words, the Madness Conference of the Baptist Reverends of Glamorgan.

About the beginning of the year 1850, I was hurrying along with the construction of our chapel, the Gwawr Chapel, Aberamman, near Aberdare, encountering many obstacles, even from my fellow reverends. The doctrine I was teaching upset them continually. Yet in connection with the congregation, I went forward through it all, and we believed that God was on our side, so that no obstacle stood in our way, any more than sweepings or



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279ZION’S TRUMPET.

chaff stand in the way of a whirlwind. I traveled night and day, through Monmouth and Glamorgan, and I took up a general collection, from the believers, as well as the unbelievers, and every denomination without distinction, through village and town, and district and province, toward paying the debt. I strove with others of the assistant preachers, and the members (some of which are now Saints), with all my energy, until at times I was nearly too worn out to stand, sit, lie, or sleep, even on a feather bed. My diary provides further details about this. In about eight months, or fewer, we paid, of the building expenses, £340, apart from paying for the deeds. All the figures are available today. I received some letters from different places in the South and the North, promising assistance to me, if I would pay them a visit and preach to them. I was often sent for then, by various churches, far and near, to baptize and lay on hands, for they believed that they would not be received properly into the church without that: that is the belief and practice of hundreds of the Baptists to this day. The two Colleges are opposed to it and many of the Reverends practice it out of necessity, just for the pay!! I know them very well; others hiss them away with contempt. Some of their members joined with us in the Gwawr Chapel, in order to receive the laying on of hands; they could not sleep well until they received that. That enraged the Reverends fiercely. Sometimes, I saw from fifteen to twenty at once, coming for the purpose of having me lay hands on them, and they often testified that their consciences were more free afterwards. Because of that, the Reverends became infuriated, and frantic, and rushed together after dark, and that is where they, and the deacons, and others, planned the best way to put a stop to such a thing; the cock often crowed before they dispersed; it is vile to relate the things that were done by them in secret. Small Committees were held here and there in secret; the Reverends were completely consumed, and his reverence from Aberdare was as unstable as a powder keg, and half mad. And for their part the Saints smiled under their hats as they observed this, saying, “Poor fellows, what a pity, the poor things are in the dark, and perhaps this will be an opportunity for the honest-in-heart to come out of their midst with dispatch.”



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Delegates or spies were sent then in secret, to listen and scrutinize what I said and what I preached; traps were set up for me, trying to make me an “offender for a word.” It was frequently entertaining to see them listening; they gazed out of the corner of their eyes, their heads half-turned, with the lower lip pursed over the upper, and sometimes like the cock with one side of its head uppermost observing the movement of the kite, and their guilt made them obvious to all. Countless times I saw this. These men cannot look a man in the eye, but rather focus on the area of the heart, and that, perhaps, because of their tendency to spill blood. These are cruel men; let every good man be saved from them. Brother David Rees sometimes used to say to me, “Brother Jones, what if you were to give those spies (Sunday evening) a tidbit, to give the boys over there something to do.” “Very well,” I said, “I’ve had my eye on them for quite a while; they shall have a tidbit which will be beneficial, whatever use they make of it; I shall give them a taste of the hired hands and the flock, respecting persons for gain, and preacherly inconsistencies,” &c. Then when they had had a good mouthful, they would be gulping, stooping, and looking towards the door; and when I had scarcely finished preaching, they would run out half strangled, as fast as their legs could carry them to their reverends, and would spit it out to them, shouting, “Heresy, heresy, of the worst kind.” And I would be lambasted and abused worse than the “negro,”—letters going hither and thither, and everyone forming his own plan to silence me. And some say, “Make haste, dear brothers, to do something about that little Aberamman man,—he is leading the whole country astray,—he is doing us great harm,—men dote on his every move; you can bet your life, that the end of this man and his congregation will be to become Saints; many of the old Saints listen to him every Sunday, and goodness knows what the results will be in the long run; and take hold if you can of his Meeting House, it will be a pity if he takes that and everything to the Saints.”

At this time also, many of my own congregation, as well as several in the community churches, quietly encouraged me to baptize them a second time, because they did not believe in the one who had baptized them previously, because he was against “baptism for the forgiveness of sins, and the laying on of hands,” as practiced by me. Some people also have dismounted from their horses, while traveling



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on the road, and desired me to lay hands on them, lest if they saw them, their ministers might excommunicate them.

Many from the churches at this time, were inclined to obey the truth, and be baptized a second time for the forgiveness of sins. No different doctrine would satisfy them. When the Reverends saw this, they became very angry; writing volumes would be inadequate to indicate their horrible enmity, their anger, and their treachery, their shocking deceits, their malicious lies, together with the great ills they did me in every manner of means. O! how I was smeared at that time; I can barely look at and read, in my diary, what I suffered, even though I was at that time not in the church of God of the Saints. Thanks be for a state in which I receive strength under all persecution. They have now devised a plan to put a stop to the influence, and get rid of me from the place to some distant spot. And the path they took towards this was, to call a Three-monthly Meeting in Aberdare; this they did, and the majority of the ministers and preachers of Glamorgan, and some of the Reverends of Monmouth also, came to the meeting. They regarded this as one of the most interesting meetings, insofar as they (so they said) were coming out for, and in the name of their God against the errors of the country, along with the poisonous heresies of Jones Aberamman and his Congregation. They sent a messenger to us the other evening, to request our attendance at the Conference of the Reverends and Church Missions, the next day at ten o’clock. The messenger informed us too, that there were quarrels in their midst because of the doctrine that I preached, and that certain things needed to be decided between the two Congregations. I wrote them a note immediately, announcing that we would be in the Conference, and they received the letter about half an hour after I wrote it. The Sanhedrin of Reverends sat, and cast an eye over the letter, and the old Theological Reverend from Hengoed, in their midst, set the standard of faith. The little note touched them deeply, because it included that what they wanted was not to have any effect on the rights of our church.”* They were also critical because I wrote too much like some apostle. Here follows the content of the letter, a copy of which is before me.

* Every church has the inherent right to judge for itself about its circumstances and its discipline, in line with the rule of the Baptists’ Profession of Faith, and no minister has the right to sit in judgment on the doctrine of another.



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t h e c h u r c h o f j e s u s c h r i s t i n a b e r a m m a n , t o t h e b a p t i s t c h u r c h . i n a b e r d a r e .

Aberamman, Aberdare, November 5, 1850.

Respected Brethren,—We are sorry to hear that anyone in your midst is causing you distress, as was indicated to us about you, by what you sent us to report on your trouble, namely that there was contention in your midst. We thank God that we know nothing of the sort, amongst us in this church which is in Gwawr Chapel, Aberamman. And may the God of peace keep us in the unity of the Spirit, and the bond of peace, until the day of Christ. May you therefore be assured, that there is nothing in this church, at present, which calls upon us to seek the help of any church, minister, or ministers, to organize or decide on our behalf anything which we cannot easily achieve ourselves, and we hope it will remain so. And our prayer to our Father for you, is for your release from all contention, and that you will avoid the stubborn arguments of men with corrupt minds, and discussion about words, which is of no avail, except to bring the listeners low, and breed disputes. Whatever help we can offer you, in order to remove your present tribulation, in a Conference, or any other opportunity, we are always prepared to help you. And our advice to you at this time is to clear out the old yeast, so that you may be new dough. And the Lord spare you from every evil deed, and keep you for his heavenly kingdom: to whom be the glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Signed for the Church, in Gwawr Chapel, Aberamman, by my own hand.

Dewi elFed Jones.

After expressing their opinion on the letter, they decided, before they closed their eyes in sleep, that they should write what they called my heresies, and they called the spies in secret, as witnesses to them; and so, after they had set everything down neatly, on a sheet of paper, to be set forth the next day, as accusations against me; and if I was to admit to any of the accusatory statements, that I and my Congregation were to be excommunicated, without even permission for me to speak one word to defend my principles! because my doctrine destroyed like a cancer. Also, that nothing was to be published in the public domain, but only that the association between us was to be broken, which was done in the “Baptist” for October, 1850.



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It was on Wednesday, October 6th, 1850, that this unforgettable meeting was held. I and several members went to the meeting; and soon after we got there, I realized that a treacherous, and deceitful, plan had been formulated against us, and written on a piece of paper in front of the chairman, about twenty or more things (thirteen, they said), as accusations against me. I was refused the paper to copy, although I ardently desired to have it. So now, here follows a list of the accusations in the face of “the sun and the light of truth.” Saying and preaching the following:—

1. Denying the Bible.2. Going against five items of the Letter of the Assembly, and

saying it should be burned.3. Baptizing for the forgiveness of sins.4. Setting store by the laying on of hands.5. Preaching that the Holy Spirit cannot be received without baptism.6. Through baptism being born of water.7. Preaching on overly complicated matters, and teaching them

to others by chatting to them about them, in secret fellowships.8. The doctrine of the millennium, and the restoration of all to

its primal state.9. Christ’s personal reign on earth.10. Calling myself an apostle.11. Judging the Ministers sermons to be heretical.12. A tendency in my sermons to steal, and turn the churches

into Saints.13. That three Persons in the Divinity cannot be one Person.14. That receiving the Holy Spirit is by the laying on of hands.15. That where the Spirit of God is, there is the ability to

perform miracles.16. That the New Testament is not enough to save a man for

eternal life.17. That God pours out blessings, and gives revelations from

heaven as in the old days.18. That the Ministers had filthy lucre in mind when preaching,

and that they were completely devoid of the Spirit and power of God.



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The above, along with many other things, which I do not recall at present, were the accusations they brought against me. I sat quietly in their midst while many of them were read and spoken. Then I rose and asked for the paper, in order to make a copy of it, and they refused fearfully, hiding it carefully on the table, under the hat of one of the Reverends, by the hand of the Reverend from Hirwaen. All right, I said; I have heard many of them before, and no doubt I shall soon come to know what was on the paper; but I remember most of them. They asked me if I admitted some of them. I replied that I admitted most of them, but not all of them. “That is enough,” said one of them, “just admitting one is enough to condemn you.” Things had got quite rowdy by now, and I asked permission to defend my principles. And then the chairman, D. Jones, Cardiff, sat, with his hands stretched out above the table, and his little face as white as the wall, and in his childish voice said, “Prevent the man from speaking, prevent the man from saying a word!!!!” I told him very kindly, that that was beneficial for him, and them, because I knew they were all incapable of disproving my principles. Then and there, a sort of fearful shiver went through them all. The chairman knew well enough that he had neither strength nor understanding to withstand them. The Reverend from Aberdare, a little while before this, had told me personally that he would rather be under the devil’s claws than mine; that indicates that he must have great respect for his father, for him to entrust so much to the mercy of his paws. Well done. When they saw I was capable of defending myself, willy-nilly, they shouted with one indignant cry, “Out with him, out with him,” reaching hands towards my face, in order to push me out. In this uproar, I asked for an hour to speak to the Reverend from Hengoed, since he was the eldest there; and they refused that to me, and to all the elders who were with me in the meeting!! yes, they refused me one half-hour, even though I had every right to that, like any other Reverend. And, said B. E., Hirwaen, “A full day is insufficient for you to speak, once you start.” And again he said, with a hostile smile, “He has been blaming Jones, Cardiff, as the Secretary of the Glamorgan Assembly, for his awkwardness in the register of Assistant Baptists, on the Assembly Letter. He has also been critical of one of the best sermons I ever gave, at least I consider



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it a very tidy little sermon: I preached it in Merthyr, in a big meeting in the Tabernacle; also in Aberdare, when setting apart deacons, and in the Llwyni Assembly: you know the text, ‘Turn your faces,’ &c. He insisted that I said where to turn the face, how, and to whom, and a lot of nonsense like that.” “That’s how he is,” said the Reverend from Aberdare, “he has seduced the boys I have, so that they insist on my splitting hairs, before I can satisfy them; and it is to Jones Aberamman’s service that they want to go all the time: this is making light of weighty matters.” “Yes,” said the Reverend from Dowlais, “he incorporated a Church at Troedyrhiw, near us in Merthyr, when there were ministers nearer to them, who could have done it as well as you, Jones, apart from the laying on of hands, and the like.” The fist of his right arm was at that time stretched towards my left eye. “Yes, certainly, you see,” said the Reverend from Zion, Merthyr, “I am ashamed to think about the laying on of hands;” while at the same time having to practice it in his own church. “There it is,” said the Rev. from Aberdare again, “he has split a church in Cwmbach in two, with his doctrine and his laying on of hands.” “Well, brethren,” said the Reverend from Trefforest, “since brother Richards of Pontypridd is very ill in bed, he wished me to announce to you, that he begs you to do something in relation to the man from Aberamman and his congregation, didn’t he, Mister Jenkins?”* “Yes of course,” he said. “Dear brethren,” said Jenkins, the Theologian from Hengoed, “I am pleased to see so much zeal in you for the doctrine which is according to divinity; and I am thankful that there are such brave boys, and young men in the field today, battling against the heresies of the age; remain brave in the cause of truth, and do not let any heresies, and unhealthy doctrines, slide in secret into your churches. It is a delight for me to see such good men rising up, in place of us the old ministers, who are almost dropping into the great beyond.” At that, the place erupted in one thunderous voice among the Reverends (the others were all as silent as the grave), shouting “Out with him, and let him and his congregation be expelled; we must be rid of the heretics,” &c. D. Richards, Josuah Evans, John Johns, and others begged to be allowed to defend, and they were ordered to be silent

*A merchant from Pontytypridd.



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at once, or to go out!! And contrary to the rules of the Assembly, they proposed excommunicating me, making a definite injunction against voting by raising the right hand on my side!!! All this time I was standing, gazing at the jealous, cruel look of the Reverends: I believed they would suck my blood if they could; my mind turned to the high priest’s court. I put my trust in God; I considered calmly that they were angry with me, because I preached the truth: I felt myself swell with the desire to speak for it. I looked at them all with pity, and my heart wishing their happiness. But, their cruelty towards me was great; in the middle of them I raised my hand as testimony that I was leaving them; and I said, O evil and perverse men, let my soul never ever come into your fellowship. What I have preached, will stay with you, so that you will not be free of it while you live; and I shall preach even in front of the doors of your houses, and I shall not cease to preach the truth even if I had to die because of it. With these words, I felt my spirit was huge, my mind at rest, my heart joyful, and a tear or two of pity about to spring from my eyes. Within a second, there was great shouting, “Throw him out, go to fetch the police to throw him out;” “out with him,” “out with them;” and some sound of moans and groans spilling out of the bellies of the others, saying, “O yes, out with him.” And when I had grabbed my hat, which was on the table under the pulpit, I said, Well, behold this, I never thought before that truth from my lips was so strong, and that I had caused so much alarm to such a great number of the Reverends of the sluggish and pompous bellies. “Out with him, out with him,” they replied; and as I was leaving, I said, Is there “crucify him, crucify him” too? It is just as well for me that it is not the time of Bloody Mary, nor of bloody Elizabeth either, at present. My betters suffered a hundred times worse treatment a thousand times. I am well pleased. And after my other brothers and I went out, we cheered each other up, and went joyfully out of sight of the council, as we were considered worthy of being persecuted for the truth. Hundreds looked at us, some for us, and some against us.—There it is for you, brother Davis, and all who read the Trumpet, a small taste of the story of my troubles with the Baptists, among whom I ministered for years, and of whose union I was a member for twenty-eight years, and that continuously from my



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boyhood. I felt more freedom on the day in question, than I had felt before in my whole life. It faintly resembled the glorious freedom I felt later, on the happy, blessed day I joined the Latter-day Saints.

The night of the Three-monthly Struggle in Aberdare, I preached in Gwawr Chapel, Aberamman, from Isaiah xxix, 13—16. I composed the following hymn, and we sang it triumphantly.

“ ’Neath the enemy’s great oppression,I run on tiresome journey;

A battling army follows me,In carnage—most ugly work:

The horrid cry of evil’s children,Is loud for treason and betrayal,

O my God, be a help to me,Be my shield, O Father.

“Through thy strength, at the edge of the swordI’ll laugh with no more worries;

I’ll go through flames if I have Thee,I’ll challenge arrow, sword, and wound;

Invincible strength and mightAre the powers of God’s Spirit,

Protected by Him, I’ll stand firmFor the truth while I shall live.”

Llanelli. Dewi elFed.

P. S. The account of the Cruelties which were visited upon me, from this time until many months after I joined the Saints, shall appear in a future issue, if you can spare the room for it.

THE SAINTS AND THE INDIANS.

Mr. Editor,—I understand that the news received through the “Star” lately, with respect to the attacks of the neighboring Indians on the Saints in the Territory of Utah, tends to frighten people away from imagined consequences, and other publications do not lessen the horror of the mental image. For my part, I shall say, that I do not perceive any particular reason for the Saints, here or there, to fear some great storm from there; for it cannot be anything but a “splash in a wash hand basin,” in comparison with a storm on the Atlantic Ocean.

The Saints in the Valley are far more numerous than the Indians



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that are troubling them, far more prepared for war, more capable and braver, and in nearly every settlement they have strong forts constructed, where their enemies cannot reach until a host of soldiers from the City could be obtained.

Some imagine that the Utahs will succeed in getting help from some neighboring tribes, and thus they will exile the Saints from the country. In answer to that, I shall say, that all the signs I saw while in their midst were quite the contrary; and there is one neighboring tribe, the closest of all, by the name of “Shoshonees,” who are far more numerous than the Utahs, and who, because of an old animosity, are more eager to destroy them than to help them. I know, by experience, that it is President Young who has been keeping the “staff of peace” between the two factions; and no doubt, if he were to allow it, the former would in but a short time, annihilate the troublemakers from the face of this earth. But the Utahs understand that, and they feel that way themselves. I had a huge task one time, when I was sent to request that Walker and his braves face the others to bury the hatchet, to remove those fears. Under these circumstances, then, the “Saints in Utah are not defenseless in the hands of savages;” but God, and plenty of good men are on their side, despite the ugly cry of all the wolves.

D. Jones.

PRE-EXISTENCE OF MAN.

[Continued from page 275.]

75. As the children of Adam were conceived in sin, and born into the world by the fall, they became subject to the same penalty, inflicted upon Adam, that is, they became subject to death, as saith the Apostle Paul, “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin” (Rom. V, 12). Also, in another passage, he says, “For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Cor. xv, 22). These passages clearly prove that the sin of Adam brought death upon all his posterity. Was it just that



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all of Adam’s children should suffer death because of his sin? Or did death come upon the children, not because justice required it, but as a natural result following Adam’s sin, which could not be avoided? Misery and woe are frequently entailed upon posterity by the wickedness of parents. Diseases, contracted by the licentious conduct of parents, become hereditary, and are transferred to the children for many generations. Now, the parents who, by their sins, brought upon themselves misery and wretchedness, suffer the penalty of their own doings as a matter of justice; they have been unvirtuous and have sinned, justice punishes them with loathsome, painful diseases: these diseases are inherited by the children; they suffer in body equally with the parents. No one will pretend to say, that justice requires the children to suffer; that these aggravating complaints are justly inherited; no one would, for one moment, suppose that justice could not be magnified nor exercise its claims, unless the children were afflicted for their parents’ sin. All would, at once, say that the sufferings of the children were unjustly inflicted, as a consequence of the sin of the parents; a consequence too, which could not well be avoided. So likewise, death came into our world by the transgression of our parents; they justly suffered that calamity; but death became hereditary. Adam transferred death to his posterity, not for any sin that they had committed, but as a consequence of his own sin. Adam was the means of their suffering death unjustly, as the legitimate consequence of his own sin. Justice, therefore, does not demand that any of the posterity of Adam should die, because of his sin. Justice demanded that Adam only should die. But the posterity of Adam do suffer death, not because justice requires it, but because death is hereditary, and follows as a natural result of the fall, in the same manner as certain diseases are unjustly inherited by children; as a natural result of the licentiousness of their parents.

76. Adam not only was to receive a temporal death, or a dissolution of body and spirit, but he became dead spiritually; he was banished from the garden of Eden, and from the presence of the Lord: he became subject to the will of the Devil, by whom he had been overcome; he was dead as to everything pertaining



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to righteousness or happiness; no act of his could ever atone for his sin; no plan that he could devise would ever enable him to recover himself from his lost and fallen state; no scheme that he could form would reorganize his body from the dust, and bring it up from the grave. To dust his body must return, there, for aught he knew, to sleep the eternal sleep of death. No sound of redemption was at first sounded in his ear; no tidings to kindle a ray of hope within his breast: the darkness of despair sat coldly on his brow, while a never ending future opened its horrible gates to his hopeless vision. Death sat enthroned in his mortal tabernacle—and the spirit must be torn from its earthly covering, and bound in everlasting chains of darkness under the dominion of the fallen angels. The death passed upon Adam, then, was an endless death of both body and spirit—the body to molder in dust to rise no more—the spirit to dwell in endless darkness and misery. This was the penalty, when considered separate and apart from the atonement.

But this is not all. Both a temporal and spiritual death was inherited by all his descendants. And if God had not provided a plan of redemption, all mankind would have been miserable forever, because of the consequences entailed upon them by the sin of their first parents; their misery and wretchedness would have been as great as though they themselves had committed the sin. Their spirits, though pure and innocent, before they entered the body, would become contaminated by entering a fallen tabernacle; not contaminated by their own sins, but by their connection with a body brought into the world by the fall, earthly, fallen, imperfect, and corrupt in its nature. A spirit, having entered such a tabernacle, though it may commit no personal sins, is unfit to return again into the presence of a holy Being, unless there is an atonement made; hence, without an atonement, all infants would have been endlessly lost, because of the natural consequences of Adam’s sin. It is true, justice would not demand that any spirit should suffer because of the sins of its parents, but the first parents brought this endless death of body and spirit upon their offspring unjustly, as a natural evil resulting



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One month in the school of affliction will teach more than all the educational systems of Aristotle in seven years; for no one can form a correct opinion of human cases, unless he has suffered blows and perceived the deceit of the world.

MISCELLANEOUS, & c .

from the fall, that could not be otherwise. They suffer it, not as a penalty for Adam’s sin, but as an infant suffers disease inherited through the unvirtuous conduct of its progenitors. If it should be supposed, however, that the spirits, being innocent, were forbidden to leave their habitation, and come down and enter into fallen tabernacles, under the penalty of spiritual death; and if it should also be supposed, that these spirits, being agents, came in violation of the law, then the nature of the foregoing reasonings would be, in some measure, changed, and each one would suffer, if it were not for the atonement, an endless spiritual death as a result of his own disobedience to the commandment not to enter a fallen tabernacle. But as there is no account of any such law being enacted, intended as a warning to spirits not to defile themselves by entering a fallen body; it therefore must be concluded, that the sufferings and death of both spirit and body are hereditary evils, entailed unjustly upon us by our first parents. These hereditary sufferings give us a knowledge of evil, the same as partaking of the forbidden fruit gave Adam a knowledge of the same principle. These hereditary sufferings also give us a knowledge of justice, in the same manner as Adam learned the nature of justice, by suffering for his own transgressions. Adam caused his offspring to partake of the bitter unjustly, and without their consent or agency, and they thus learn the nature of misery; while he, himself, learned the nature of bitter or misery justly as a penalty for his own sin.

(To be continued.)Llanelli. Trans. D. E. Jones.



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Pray frequently, for your sin constantly; repent soon, lest you die suddenly; he who repents out of an inability to act, is not repenting of sin until he refuses it; and he who loses his ability to commit his sin, is not leaving sin, rather sin is leaving him.

Contentment is the most genuine wealth; and covetousness is the greatest poverty. He who is the owner of much is not rich, rather he who has sufficient. He who covets more is poor; for he has no heart to enjoy that which he has in his possession.

The good and generous man is blessed in and of himself, not depending on destiny; he is kind to his friend, restrained by his enemy, religiously just, tireless in his labor, and he fulfills all his duties conscientiously and with perseverance.

WHAT IS HOPE?

What is hope? This much I know,That life without it would be a burden:To support me above the world’s waves.It is ever my safe vesselThis is the expectation I haveOf many pleasures to enjoy;And the man who does not thus expect,Will find his life a heavy load. (1842.)

Payments From oCtober 21 to oCtober 27.—Monmouthshire, 1s 8¼c; Llanelli, £5; Anglesey, 2s 6c (from W. S.), and 10s (from J. W.); Pontfaen, 2s 2c; Cardiff, 17s; Aberamman, 5s; Hirwaun, 2s 1c; Georgetown, 5s 1c; Troedyrhiw, 4s.—Total, £7 9s 6¼c.

ConFerenCes oF the north.—The Flintshire Conference will be held, on the 13th of November; Denbighshire, on the 20th; Conway Valley, on the 27th; Anglesey, on the 4th of December; Merionethshire, on the 11th.

Send all letters, containing orders and payments, to John Davis, Printer, Georgetown, Merthyr Tydfil.

MERTHYR TYDFIL:PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY J. DAVIS, GEORGETOWN.

Contents. page.To the Reverends of the Baptists again .................................................... 277The Saints and the Indians ..................................................................... 287Pre-existence of Man ............................................................................. 288Miscellaneous, &c................................................................................... 291



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