ORSON SPENCER.
LETTER X.
ON GATHERING.
Liverpool, October 13, 1847.
Reverend and Dear Sir,—You have doubtless been ready to ask, time and again, why this GATHERING together of such large bodies of Saints? Why can they not stay in their former residences, like other christians? And may they not do more good to their fellow-men by scattering about amongst the people promiscuously? Why, go away off to some distant part of the earth? is not the Almighty God to be found as much in one place as another? Furthermore, says one, it is exceedingly dangerous to community at large to allow any large body of people, of the same faith and doctrine, to assemble themselves in any one place, their influence being rendered formidable by reason of concentration and union.
My dear sir, have not cogitations like these passed through your mind, and been reiterated in your hearing more than once, concerning Latter-day Saints? Delusion! delusion! is reiterated on many sides. What can these Latter-day Saints mean—selling out their possessions at so great a sacrifice, and leaving a comfortable and pleasant home for a far distant land, even crossing the wide Atlantic! Has there been the like fanaticism since the time of the crusades? On the land, hundreds of wagons, yea thousands in all, are seen rolling their whitened canvas over the wide prairies, accompanied by their flocks and herds; and on the ocean a multitude of ships are wafting the inhabitants of distant islands and continents to the same destination!
Now, I propose to meet these inquiries and reflections promptly and fairly. In the first place, if the church is guided by the spirit of revelation, God, the author of all true revelation, knows what is good for his people, and He will not require them to gather without good and sufficient reasons. For the church that is not guided by the spirit of sacred inspiration, is guided by mammon or the devil; for every church will serve God or mammon. Well, says one, I don't believe that God ever did, or ever will, require people to gather together and leave their country and kindred. Aye, indeed; but you believe the Bible, I trust, which informs you not only how God has gathered his people in different periods of the world, but also, that He will gather them together in the dispensation of the fulness of times.
Do I need to remind you, sir, that God required Abraham to rise up and leave his country and kindred, and go in search of a country that he should afterwards show him. He was obedient, and went from one country to another, the Lord being his counsellor and guide. The ancient saints and prophets generally were "strangers" in consequence of being called to leave their home and country. Their obedience to such a call, through faith, constituted them heirs of an inheritance. Abraham became an heir of the country which he was not permitted to possess in time, but he will hold the same in eternity, with a city built upon it according to the counsel of God.
In the dispensation given to Moses, he was required to gather the people out of all the land of Egypt, and take them to the land of Canaan; and what was very remarkable, he was required to slay and destroy the inhabitants, in order to make room for the great gathering of the Hebrews. The children of God and the people of this world cannot dwell together; they are always contrary one to the other.