It has already found its way into most of the American States, and into the provinces of the Canadas, as well as many parts of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. It has visited the cottages of the humble, and the parlors of the great; and from the best information we have on the subject, very few have risen from its perusal without a deep and settled conviction of the truth of its principles.
The author has now in his possession the testimony of hundreds of people, from different states and nations, all bearing witness that this Work has been a means, in the hands of God, of saving them from infidelity, from sectarian error and delusion, and of guiding them into the light of TRUTH.
All these considerations, and an intense desire to impart the truth to mankind as widely as possible, have induced the author to send forth this new edition; which he greatly desires may prove a blessing to thousands who are yet grovelling in darkness and superstition, and lead them to the true fold of God.
If there be anything to admire, or anything praiseworthy in this Work, the author has no claim to the honor or the praise; it is justly due to Him who is the Source and Fountain of all TRUTH. The author was a husbandman, inured to the plow—unpolished by education, untaught in the schools of modern Sectarianism, (falsely called "Divinity")— reared in the wilds of America, with a mind independent, untrammelled and free. He drank of the pure fountain of Truth, unsullied and unmixed, as it unfolded in majesty of light and splendor from the opening heavens in all the simplicity of its nature. As such it has flowed from his pen in the following volume; not veiled in mystery; not dressed in the pomp of high-sounding names, and titles, and learned terms; not adorned in the gay attire of eloquence flowing from the imagination and the passions; but standing forth in the undress of its own native modesty, as if conscious of the purity and innocence of its nature.
He is indebted not only to the Spirit of Truth for the principles contained in this Work, but also to several men, who have been made the instruments in the hands of God, to reveal the knowledge of God to this generation, and to be the founders and leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Among the foremost of these, he would make honorable mention of President Joseph Smith, by whose instrumentality most of these glorious truths (so well known to the ancients) have been restored to the knowledge of the world—and whose zeal, labors, sufferings, and subsequent murder, will stand forth as a bright memorial to all succeeding ages, and be celebrated by happy millions yet unborn.
With an assurance that the principles of this Work will yet prevail over the whole earth, this new edition of the VOICE OF WARNING is now sent forth; and should the author be called to sacrifice his life for the cause of Truth, he will have the consolation that it will be said of him, as it was said of Abel, viz: "HE, BEING DEAD, YET SPEAKETH."
PARLEY P. PRATT.
Manchester, England,
Dec. 4, 1846.