The Elders of the Church in , to their brethren abroad.

(Continued from our last.)

Dear brethren in Christ, and companions in tribulation.

Most assuredly it is, however, that the ancients, though persecuted and afflicted by men, obtain from God promises of such weight and glory, that our hearts are often filled with gratitude, that we are even permitted to look upon them while we contemplate that there is no respect of persons in his sight, and that in every nation, he that feareth him and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him. But from the few items previously quoted, we can draw a conclusion, that there is to be a day when all will be judged of their works, and rewarded according to the same; that those who have kept the faith will be crowned with a crown of righteousness; be clothed in white raiment; be admitted to the marriage-feast; be free from every affliction, and reign with Christ on the earth, where, according to the ancient promise, they will partake of the fruit of the vine new in the glorious kingdom with him: at least we find that such promises were made to the ancient saints. And though we cannot claim these promises which were made to the ancients, or that they are not our property merely because they were made to them, yet if we are the children of the most High, and are called with the same calling with which they were called, and embrace the same that they embraced, and are faithful to the testimony of our Lord as they were, we can approach the Father in the name of Christ as they approached him. and for ourselves obtain the same promises. These promises, when obtained, if ever by us, will not be because Peter, John, and the other apostles, with the churches at Sardis, Purgamos, Philadelphia, and elsewhere, walked in the fear of God and had power and faith to prevail and obtain them; but it will be because we, ourselves, have faith and approach him in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, even as they did; and when these promises are obtained, they will be promises directly to us, or they will do us no good: communicated for our benefit; being our own property, (through the gift of God,) earned by our own dilligence in keeping his commandments, and walking uprightly before him. If not, to what end serves the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and why was it ever communicated to us?

Previous to commencing this letter we designed giving you some instruction upon the regulation of the church; but that will be given hereafter.

In our own country, surrounded with blessings innumerable, to which thousands of our fellow men are strangers, enjoying unspeakable benefits, and inexpressible comforts, when once our situation is compared with the ancient saints, as followers of the Lamb of God who has taken away our sins by his own blood, we are bound to rejoice and give thanks to him always. Since the organization of the church of Christ, or the church of the Latter Day Saints, which was on the 6th of April, 1830, we have had the satisfaction of witnessing the spread of the truth into various parts of our land, notwithstanding its enemies have exerted their unceasing diligence to stop its course and prevent its progress.— Though evil and designing men have been combined to destroy the innocent, because their own craft was in danger, and have been assisted in raising mobs and circulating falsehoods by a miserable set of apostates, who have, for wicked and unbecoming conduct, been expelled from the body of which they were once members, yet the glorious g[o]spel in its fullness is spreading and daily gaining converts, and our prayer to God is, that it may continue, and numbers be added of such as shall be saved.

The Messiah’s kingdom on earth is of that kind of government, that there has always been numerous apostates, for this very fact that it admits of no sins unrepented of without excluding the individual from its fellowship. Our Lord said, Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. And again, many are called, but few chosen. Paul said to the elders of the church at Ephesus after he had labored three years with them, that he knew, that some of their own number would turn away from the faith, and seek to lead away disciples after them. None, we pre [p. 302]