For an extract of a letter from Elder Orson Hyde, "Trieste, January 1 and 18, 1842," see Millennial Star, vol. II, pages 166-169.[[4]]
Highly Interesting from Jerusalem.
We have lately received two lengthy and highly interesting communications from Elder Orson Hyde, dated at Trieste, January 1st, and 18th, containing a sketch of his voyages and travels in the East, his visit to Jerusalem, a description of ancient Zion, the pool of Siloam, and many other places famous in holy writ, with several illustrations of the manners and customs of the East, as applicable to Scripture texts, and several conversations held between himself and some of the Jews, missionaries, etc., in Jerusalem, together with a masterly description of a terrible tempest and thunder storm at sea, with a variety of miscellaneous reflections and remarks, all written in an easy, elegant, and masterly style, partaking of the eloquent and sublime, and breathing a tone of that deep feeling, tenderness, and affection so characteristic of his mission and the spirit of his holy and sacred office.
Elder Hyde has by the grace of God been the first proclaimer of the fullness of the Gospel both on the continent of Europe and in far off Asia, among the nations of the East. In Germany, Turkey (Constantinople), Egypt, and Jerusalem. He has reared as it were the ensign of the latter-day glory, and sounded the trump of truth, calling upon the people of those regions to awake from their thousand years' slumber, and to make ready for their returning Lord.
In his travels he has suffered much, and has been exposed to toils and dangers, to hunger, pestilence and war. He has been in perils by land and sea, in perils among robbers, in perils among heathens, Turks, Arabs, and Egyptians; but out of all these things the Lord hath delivered him, and hath restored him in safety to the shores of Europe, where he is tarrying for a little season, for the purpose of publishing the Truth in the German language, having already published it in French and English in the various countries of the East, and we humbly trust that his labors will be a lasting blessing to Jew and Gentile.
We publish the following extract of his communication, and we shall soon issue the whole from the press in pamphlet form. It will, no doubt, meet with a ready sale; and we purpose devoting the profits to his benefit, to assist him in his mission.
Excerpts from Elder Hyde's Letters.
"Summoning up, therefore, what little address I had, I procured a valet d'place, or lackey, and proceeded to the house of Mr. Simons, a very respectable Jew, who with some of his family had lately been converted and joined the English Church. I entered their dwelling. They had just sat down to enjoy a dish of coffee, but immediately arose from the table to meet me. I spoke to them in German and asked them if they spoke English. They immediately replied 'Yes,' which was a very agreeable sound to my ear. They asked me in German if I spoke English; I replied, 'Ya, mein Herr.' I then introduced myself to them, and with a little apology it passed off as well as though I had been introduced by the pasha. With that glow of warmth and familiarity which is a peculiar trait in the German character, they would have me sit down and take a dish with them; and as I began to relate some things relative to my mission, the smiles of joy which sat upon their countenances bespoke hearts not altogether indifferent. There were two ministers of the Church of England there. One was confined to his bed by sickness, and the other, a German, and a Jew by birth, soon came in. After an introduction, I took the liberty to lay open to him some of our principles, and gave him a copy of the communication to the Jews in Constantinople to read. After he had it, he said that my motives were undoubtedly very good, but questioned the propriety of my undertaking from the fact that I claimed God had sent me. If, indeed, I had gone to Jerusalem under the direction of some missionary board or society, and left God out of the question altogether, I should have been received as a celestial messenger. How truly did our Savior speak, when He said, 'I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not; but if another were to come in his own name, him ye would receive.' I replied, however, that so far as I could know my own heart, my motives were most certainly good; yet, said I, no better than the cause which has brought me here. But he, like all others who worship a God 'without body or parts,' said that miracles, visions, and prophecy had ceased.
"The course which the popular clergy pursue at this time in relation to the Divine economy looks to me as though they would say, 'O Lord, we will worship Thee with all our hearts, serve Thee with all our souls, and be very pious and holy; we will even gather Israel, convert the heathen, and bring in the millennium, if Thou wilt only let us alone that we may do it in our own way, and according to our own will; but if Thou speakest from heaven to interfere with our plan, or cause any to see visions or dreams, or prophesy, whereby we are disturbed or interrupted in our worship, we will exert all our strength and skill to deny what Thou sayest, and charge it home upon the devil or some wild, fanatic spirit, as being its author.'
"That which was looked upon by the ancient saints as among the greatest favors and blessings, viz., revelation from God and communion with Him by dreams and by visions, is now looked upon by the religious world as the height of presumption and folly. The ancient saints considered their condition most deplorable when Jehovah would not speak to them; but the most orthodox religionists of this age deem it quite heterodox to even admit the probability that He ever will speak again. O my soul! language fails to paint the absurdity and abomination of such heaven-opposing and truth-excluding dogmas; and were it possible for those bright seraphs that surround the throne above, and bask in the sunbeams of immortality, to weep over the inconsistency and irrationality of mortals, the earth must be bedewed with celestial tears. My humble advice to all such is, that they repent and cast far from them these wicked traditions, and be baptized into the new and everlasting covenant, lest the Lord speak to them in His wrath, and vex them in His sore displeasure.
"After some considerable conversation upon the priesthood and the renewal of the covenant, I called upon him [i. e. the aforesaid German-Jew church of England minister] to be baptized for the remission of his sins, that he might receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. 'What' said he, 'I be baptized?' 'Yes,' said I, 'you be baptized.' 'Why,' saith he, 'I have been baptized already.' I replied something after the following: You have probably been sprinkled, but that has no more to do with baptism than any other ordinance of man's device; and even if you had been immersed, you would not have bettered your condition, for your priesthood is without power. If, indeed, the Catholic church has power to give you an ordination, and by that ordination confer the priesthood upon you, they certainly had power to nullify that act, and take the priesthood from you; and this power they exercised when you dissented from their communion, by excluding you from their church. But, if the Catholic church possessed not the priesthood, of course your claims to it are as groundless as the airy phantoms of heathen mythology. So, view the question on which side you may, there is no possible chance of admitting the validity of your claims to it. Be it known, therefore, that ordinances performed under the administration of such a priesthood, though they may even be correct in form, will be found destitute of the seal of that authority by which heaven will recognize His [own] in the day when every man's work shall be tried. Though a priesthood may be clothed with the wealth and honors of a great and powerful nation and command the respect and veneration of multitudes whose eyes are blinded by the thick veil of popular opinion, and whose powers of reflection and deep thought are confused and lost in the general cry of 'Great is Diana of the Ephesians,' yet all this does not impart to it the Divine sanction, or animate it with the spirit of life and power from the bosom of the living God; and there is a period in future time when, in the smoking ruins of Babel's pride and glory, it must fall and retire to the shades of forgetfulness, to the grief and mortification of its unfortunate votaries.'
"In consequence of his great volubility, I was under the disagreeable necessity of tuning my voice to a pretty high key, and of spacing short between words, determining that neither his greatness or learning should shield him from the shafts of a faithful testimony. But there is more hope of those Jews receiving the fullness of the gospel, whose minds have never been poisoned by the bane of modern sectarianism, which closes the mouth of Deity and shuts up in heaven all the angels, visions, and prophesyings. Mrs. Whiting told me that there had been four Jewish people in Jerusalem converted and baptized by the English minister, and four only; and that a part of the ground for an English church had been purchased there. It was by political power and influence that the Jewish nation was broken down, and her subjects dispersed abroad; and I will here hazard the opinion, that by political power and influence they will be gathered and built up; and further, that England is destined in the wisdom and economy of heaven to stretch forth the arm of political power, and advance in the front ranks of this glorious enterprise. The Lord once raised up a Cyrus to restore the Jews, but that was not evidence that He owned the religion of the Persians. This opinion I submit, however, to your superior wisdom to correct if you shall find it wrong.
"There is an increasing anxiety in Europe for the restoration of that people [the Jews]; and this anxiety is not confined to the pale of any religious community, but it has found its way to the courts of kings. Special ambassadors have been sent, and consuls and consular agents have been appointed. The rigorous policy which has hitherto characterized the course of other nations towards them now begins to be softened by the oil of friendship, and modified by the balm of humanity. The sufferings and privations under which they have groaned for so many centuries have at length touched the main-springs of Gentile power and sympathy; and may the God of their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, fan the flame by celestial breezes, until Israel's banner, sanctified by a Savior's blood, shall float on the walls of old Jerusalem, and the mountains and valleys of Judea reverberate with their songs of praise and thanksgiving to the Lamb that was slain.
"The imperial consul of Austria, at Galatz, near the mouth of the Danube, to whom I had a letter of introduction from his cousin in Vienna, told me that in consequence of so many of their Jewish subjects being inclined, of late, to remove to Syria and Palestine, his government had established a general consul at Beyroot for their protection. There are many Jews who care nothing about Jerusalem, and have no regard for God. Their money is the god they worship, yet there are many of the most pious and devout among them who look towards Jerusalem as the tender and affectionate mother looks upon the home where she left her lovely little babe."
Wednesday, 19.—I wrote Dr. Galland as follows:
The Prophet's Letter to Isaac Galland—On Settlement of Accounts.
Dear Sir:—By your reply of the 18th instant to my note of the 17th, I am led to conclude that you received my communication in a manner altogether unintended by me, and that there may be no misunderstanding between us, and that you may be satisfied that I did not intend, and that I do not now intend anything, only upon the principles of the strictest integrity and uprightness before God, and to do as I would be done unto, I will state I have become embarrassed in my operations to a certain extent, and partly from a presentation of notes, which you, as my agent, had given for lands purchased in the eastern states, they having been sent to me. I have been obliged to cash them, and having no returns from you to meet those demands, or even the trifling expenses of your outfit, it has placed me in rather an unpleasant situation, and having a considerable amount of your scrip on hand, enough, as I suppose, to counterbalance the debts due you, and leave a balance in my favor, to some extent, even if it were small; and as I was pressed for funds, from the causes above mentioned, as well as others, I had hoped it would be convenient for you to lend me some assistance at the present time, and this was the reason why I sent a messenger to you as I did.
And now, sir, that we may have no misunderstanding in this matter, I think we had better have a settlement, and if I am owing you, I will pay you as soon as I can, and if you owe me, I shall only expect the same in return, for it is an old and trite maxim, that short reckonings make long friends. With this view of the matter, I would request you to call as soon as you possibly can make it convenient, and compare accounts, so that all things may be understood most perfectly between us in future time, and that all occasion for unpleasant feelings, if any such there be, may be entirely obliterated.
I remain, sir, most respectfully yours, &c.,
Joseph Smith.
Read in the Book of Mormon, and in the evening visited Bishop Miller's wife, who was very sick, and the Bishop absent, collecting the funds for building the Temple and Nauvoo House.
Isaac Galland Affair.
Thursday, 20.—I attended a special conference of the Church at 10 o'clock a. m., concerning Dr. Galland. The conference voted to sanction the revocation of Dr. Galland's agency, dated the 18th of January, as published in the Times and Seasons, and also instructed the trustee-in-trust to proceed with Dr. Galland's affairs in relation to the Church, as he shall judge most expedient.
Six o'clock evening, attended a special council in the upper room of the new store.
George Washington Gee died today.[[5]]
Friday, 21.—I read the Book of Mormon, transacted a variety of business in the store and city, and spent the evening in the office with Elders Taylor and Richards, interpreting dreams, &c.