revelation.^ Man is a free agent. The laying on of
hands for ordination, and for the healing of the sick, descends from the early to the later apostles.^ There will be a resurrection of the body and a second coming of Christ. Israel is a chosen people; there has been a scattering of Israel, and there will be a gathering. Joseph Smith was the fulfiller not only of bible proph- ecies, but of the book of Mormon prophecies, and of his own prophecies. Foreordination, election, ana dispensation of the fulness of times are held. There was an apostasy of the primitive church, and now there is a return. There was the Jerusalem of the eastern hemisphere ; on the continent of North Amer- ica is planted the new Jerusalem. Miracles obtain; also visions and dreams, signs and tokens, and angels of light and darkness. There are free spirits and spirits imprisoned; the wicked will be destroyed, and there will be a millennial reign. The saints are largely of the house of Israel, and heirs to the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The aboriginal in- habitants of America and the Pacific isles were the
^In 1S53, Benjamin Brown, high-priest, and pastor of the London, Read- ing, Kent, and Essex conferences, published at Liverpool a tract entitled. Testimonies for the Truth; a Record of Manifestations of the Power of God, Mir.aculous and Providential, witnessed by him in his travels and experiences. The author was a native of New York, and born in 1794, He was a firm be- liever in latter-day revelations from God, and that the ancient gifts of the gospel still remained, long before he joined the Mormons. He labored long and in various places. He held property in Nauvoo when the saints ■were driven out, and was obliged to take §250 for what was worth $3,000. After- ward he underwent all the sufferings and vicissitudes of the overland journey to Salt Lake. Mr Brown was an earnest and honest man; his book is the record of his life, and is simple and attractive in style and substance.
- Healing the sick. Joseph early laid it down as a rule that all diseases
and sickness among them were to be cured by the elders, and by the use of herbs alone. Phj'sicians of the world were denounced as enemies to mankind, and the use of their medicines was prohibited. Afterw "d, anointing with oil, prayer, and laying on hands were resorted to in add. 'on to the lirst men- tioned. Says Mrs Richards, ' In all sicknesses we useu no medicines, with the exception of herb teas that we ourselves prepared, trusting exclusively to the efficacy of the anointing with oil and prayer.' Reminiscences, MS., 34. Joseph said, 'All wholesome herbs God hath ordained for the constitution, nature, and use of man. Every herb in the season thereof, and every fruit in the season thereof.' The use of flesh was not forbidden, but rather re- stricted to seasons of cold and famine. All grain was pronounced good for man, but wheat was particularly recommended, with corn for the ox, oats for the horse, rye for fowls and swine, and barley for all useful animals, and for mild drinks; as also other grain. Times and Seasons, v. 736.
