THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN SAINTS.
CHAPTER I.
The faith of the Latter-Day Saints was in the beginning strictly confined to Biblical doctrines, and the preaching of the first elders was something like a resuscitation of the dispensation committed to the apostolic fishermen of Galilee. With the acceptance of what they deemed the new revelation of Christ, there was no sacrifice too great to make, and no self-abnegation with which they would not strive to adorn their lives. Primitive Mormonism was to the youthful disciples the fulness of the everlasting gospel, with all the blessings, gifts and powers enjoyed by the early Christian Church, and all the promises of glory and honour in the world to come that inspired the first disciples of Christ.
The first elders were peculiarly adapted for the singular work which they had to perform. They were earnest, fiercely enthusiastic, and believers in everything that had ever been written about "visions," "dreams," "the ministering of angels," "gifts of the spirit, tongues, and interpretation of tongues," "healings," and "miracles." They wandered "without purse or scrip" from village to village and from city to city, preaching in the public highways, at the firesides or in the pulpits—wherever they had opportunity—testifying and singing:
