RLDS Church History Search

Chapter Context

RLDS History Context Results

Source: Church History Vol. 4 Chapter 18 Page: 318 (~1881)

Read Previous Page / Next Page

318 council of fifty was instituted, and the men appointed thereto; to which council all revelations were to be submitted to be tested; and if they passed the test it could be proclaimed as the word of the Lord; if it did not, there was a necessity for an inquiry. We know of no law permitting the reorganization of this council of fifty; and hence, conclude that until a privilege or command authorizes it, the church may safely rely on the rule of law governing and the integrity of the men whose prerogative it is to determine.

About this time a periodical called the Gospel Monitor was started at Hannibal, Missouri, J. J. Crammer publisher. It opposed the work of the Reorganization and advocated the right of David Whitmer to lead the church. Whether the Monitor received the indorsement [endorsement] of Elder Whitmer or not we do not know.

August 2, G. H. Graves, the colored missionary to the South, wrote as follows from Butler County, Alabama:

I began preaching the next evening after I arrived, and I have traveled two hundred ten miles on foot and fifty miles by wagon, and have baptized one person at Garland and five at Butler Springs. The prospects look good here. I have had much trouble, but the Lord has given me power to overcome.

Subsequently he wrote of the baptism of five more and the organization of a branch of ten members. Later he wrote as follows:

I have had much opposition since I last wrote you, but in the midst of it the Lord has blessed me. I have also baptized two more, making six with those I baptized the 4th. I organized a branch consisting of these and five received by letter from the Lone Star Branch, eleven in all. We named it the St. Joseph Branch, at Kempville, Monroe County, Alabama. . . .

There is a great call here for preachers, both white and colored ones. I have been preaching every night for three weeks in this place. I debated with a Methodist minister the 16th and the people decided in my favor, as having the best of the argument. One woman gave her name for baptism.

About this time a circular was published in England signed by Joseph Dewsnup, C. D. Norton, C. H. Hassall, George Greenwood, Thomas Bradshaw, J. H. Newstead, and H. C. Crum, a committee appointed by the European Mission conference, asking for financial aid to publish a paper to be known as the Saints' Guardian in the

(page 318)

Read Previous Page / Next Page