LABORS CONTINUED IN LIVERPOOL—MANNER OF MEETING OPPOSITION—INTRODUCTION OF THE GOSPEL INTO IRELAND—A PROPHECY—FIRST BAPTISM—VISIT TO SCOTLAND—LOVE OF THE SAINTS.
Elder Taylor continued calling upon ministers and other gentlemen in Liverpool, bearing testimony to them of the restoration of the gospel. For this purpose he called upon an aged Methodist minister who accompanied Doctor Coke in some of his missionary tours, and who was with him when he died.
The conversation with him was very pleasant, but he did not receive the message of the gospel. He inquired if his visitor intended calling upon all the ministers in the city, to which the Elder replied that it was his determination to deliver the message he had been commissioned with; he had called upon some ministers and intended to see others; and if there was liberality enough among the Methodists or other denominations to open their chapels, he would preach. To this the minister replied that he thought the doctrines Elder Taylor had to advocate would not agree with theirs, and that he would have to do as the venerable founder of Methodism had done—go into the highways and the fields.
"But when Paul, the despised Christian, went into the synagogues of the Jews, bigoted and fallen as they were," replied the Elder, "they said to him and his companions, 'Brethren, if ye have any word of exhortation for the people, say on."
"That is what I say," answered the Methodist, "say on."
"Yes," replied Elder Taylor, "but this is not in your synagogue, sir."
To this gentle hint he could only say that he thought the trustees would not consent to it. In parting, he shook the Elder by the hand and wished him God-speed.
Elder Taylor also called upon Mr. Radcliff, agent for the Bible Society and superintendent of the School of Arts. In a conversation lasting over of three hours, that gentleman made many admissions relative to the condition of the religious world, which, when his visitor began to make use of them to show the necessity of a re-opening of the heavens and a restoration of the ancient gospel, he stopped alarmed, and observed that "Mormonism led to tremendous conclusions!"
"I am aware that it does," quietly replied his visitor, "but the words I have used are not mine, but the words of God."
There was present at this interview a Miss Brannan, from the Isle of Man, who expressed a fear of Elder Taylor's religion; and who, as the conversation drew to a close, ventured to censure him because he condemned others.