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PROGRESS AND APOSTASY.
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five years. The store kept by Newel K. Whitney and Sidney Gilbert should likewise be continued. A system of tithes should be established. Ezra Booth apostatized, and wrote letters against the church.[1]Orson Hyde, clerk in Gilbert and Whitney's store, was baptized, and later make an elder. Phelps was told to buy at Cincinnati a printing-press and type, and start a monthly paper at Independence, to be called the Evening and Morning Star, which was done. Oliver Cowdery was instructed in November to return to Missouri, and with him John Whitmer, the latter to visit the several stations, and gather further materials for church history. Newel K. Whitney
- ↑ "Booth's letters were first printed at Ravenna, in the Ohio Star, and afterward by E. D. Howe in his book, Mormonism Unveiled, 175-221. They are nine in number, and are full of general denunciation and sorrow over his past blindness, and an account of the hardships and disappointments attending his journey to and from Missouri. I quote the more pertinent points. 'When I embraced Mormonism I conscientiously believed it to be of God.' 'The relation in which Smith stands to the church is that of a prophet, seer, revealer, and translator; and when he speaks by the spii'it, or says he knows a thing by the communication of the spirit, it is received as coming directly from the mouth of the Lord.' 'This system, to some, carries the force of plausibility, and appears under an imposing form. It claims the bible for its patron, and proifers the restoration of the apostolic church, with all the gifts and graces with which the primitive saints were endowed.' 'Many of them have been ordained to the high priesthood, or the order of Melchisedec, and profess to be endowed with the same power as the ancient apostles were. But they have been hitherto unsuccessful in finding the lame, the halt, and the blind who had the faith sufficient to become the subjects of their miracles, and it is now concluded that this work must be postponed until they get to Missouri; for the Lord will not show those signs to this wicked and adulterous generation. In the commandment given to the churches in the state of New York to remove to the state of Ohio, they were assured that these miracles should be wrought in the state of Ohio; but now they must be deferred until they are settled in Missouri.' 'Everything in the church is done by commandment; and yet it is said to be done by the voice of the church. For instance, Smith gets a commandment that he shall be the head of the church, or that he shall rule the conference, or that the church shall build him an elegant house and give him 1,000 dollars. For this the members of the church must vote, or they will be cast off for rebelling against the commandments of the Lord.' 'Smith describes an angel as having the appearance of a tall, slim, well built, handsome man, with a bright pillar upon his head.' The bishop's 'business is to superintend the secular concerns of the church. He holds a deed of the lands; and the members receive a writing from him signifying that they are to possess the land as their own so long as they are obedient to Smith's commandments.' 'The Lord's storehouse is to be furnished with goods suited to the Indian trade, and persons are to obtain license from the government to dispose of them to the Indians in their own territory; at the same time they are to disseminate the principles of Mormonism among them.'
