A Prophecy.
Liverpool, Good Friday, April 13, 1838.
Dear Brothers And Sisters In Preston:—It seemeth good unto us, and also to the Holy Spirit, to write you a few words which cause pain in our hearts, and will also pain you when they are fulfilled before you, yet you shall have joy in the end. Brother Thomas Webster will not abide in the Spirit of the Lord, but will reject the truth, and become the enemy of the people of God, and expose the mysteries that have been committed to him, that a righteous judgment may be executed upon him, unless he speedily repent. When this sorrowful prediction shall be fulfilled, this letter shall be read to the Church, and it shall prove a solemn warning to all to beware.
Farewell in the Lord,
Heber C. Kimball,
Orson Hyde.
The foregoing letter was written and sealed in the presence of Presidents Joseph Fielding and Willard Richards, who had gone to Liverpool to witness the brethren sail, and, by the writers, committed to their special charge, that no one should know the contents until the fulfillment thereof.
American Slanders Reach England.
Previous to this period, very few of the foolish and wicked stories which filled the weekly journals and pamphlets in America concerning the "Mormons," as the Saints were termed, had found their way into the English prints; but immediately after Elders Kimball and Hyde left Preston, on or about the 15th of April, one Livesey (a Methodist Priest who had previously spent some years in America, and said he heard nothing about the Saints in America) came out with a pamphlet, made up of forged letters, apostate lies, and "walk on the water" stories, he found in old American papers, which he had picked up while in America. But he stopped the circulation of his own pamphlet by stating to a public congregation, that he had accidentally found the contents of his pamphlet in old papers in his trunk, which was quite providential, to stop such abominable work as the Saints were engaged in; and in the same lecture said he "wished the people to purchase his pamphlet, as he had been at a great expense to procure the materials for writing it!" His hearers retired.
On the 20th of April Elders Kimball and Hyde sailed from Liverpool on the ship Garrick.
Footnotes.
[1]. The charges were drawn up and dated the 7th of April, and handed to Bishop Partridge.
[2]. The following letter from Oliver Cowdery respecting his difficulties at this time in the Church, is copied from the Far West Record of the High Council, and is an interesting document for several reasons: First, it shows the spirit of Oliver Cowdery at that time, also his misapprehensions of the policy of the authorities in the government of the Church, for it is to be noted that the two principal points covered in this letter, numbers four and five of Elder Brunson's charges, were rejected by the Council as not being proper to be considered, and the sixth charge also is withdrawn, so that Oliver Cowdery was not disfellowshiped from the Church on the points raised in his letter at all, but on the first, second, third, seventh, eighth and ninth charges in Elder Brunson's formal accusation, and since these charges were sustained upon testimony of witnesses, as the minutes of the High Council proceedings in the Far West Record clearly show, it is to be believed that the Church had sufficient cause for rejecting him.
Elder Cowdery's Letter.
Far West, Missouri, April 12, 1838.