In speaking thus some of our brethren may thing we are offended at those characters, if we are, it is not for a word, neither because they reproved in the gate; but because they have been the means of sheding innocent blood.—Are they not murderers then at the heart? are not their consciences seared as with a hot Iron? We confess that we are offended. The Savior said “that offences must come; but woe unto them by whom they come?[”] And again, “Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and speak all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake, rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”

Now dear brethren, if any men ever had reason to claim this promise we are the men, for we know that the world not only hates us, but “speak all manner of eveil against us falsely,” for no other reason, but because we have been endeavoring to teach the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. After we were bartered away by and were taken unto the camp of the millitia, we had all the evidence we could have wished, that the world hated us and that most cordially too. The priests of the different sects hated us. The Generals hated us, the colonels hated us; the officers and soldiers hated us; and the most profane blasphemers, drunkards, and horemongers hated us. And why? Because of the testimony of Jesus Christ. Was it because we were liars? Was it because we had committed treason against the government, or burglary, or larcany, or arson or any other unlawful act; we know that such things have been reported by certain priests, lawyers and judges who are the instigators and abettors of a certain gang of murderers and robbers, who have been carrying on a scheme of mobocracy to uphold their against the saints of the last days; and have tried by a well contemplated and premeditated scheme to put down by physical power, a system of religion that all the world, (by fair means,) and all their intelligence, were not able to resist. Hence mobbers were encouraged by priests and levites, by pharisees and saducees, by essenees and herodions, and by the most abandoned and wicked characters that are suffered to live upon the earth, indeed a parallel cannot be found any where of such characters who gathered together to steal, to plunder, to starve and to exterminate the saints: these are the characters, who by their treasonable acts, have desolated and laid waste . These are the characters that would fain make all the world believe that we are guilty of the above named acts; but they represent us falsly; we say that we have not committed treason, nor any other unlawful act in .

Was it for the murder in , that we were thus treated? We an-swer no. We were not present when the mobs came forth in that direction, who after dragging our brethren from their homes, and burning their habita-tions and killing several of our beloved friends, but not without the expense of some of their own lives; retreated and after getting clothed with the authority of militia, raised the cry of murder! treason! &c. and appeared as innocent as a sheep. This suited their purpose, but if their borrowed garb had been torn off; instead of the peaceble sheep we should have found all the characteristics of the prowling wolf guilty of the murder of innocent and harmless men; therefore, on the heads of that mob with at their head be the crime and upon them rests the curse.

Was it for committing adultery? We are aware that false and slanderous reports have gone abroad, which have reached our ears, respecting this thing, which have been started by renaga-does, and spread by the dissenters, who are extremely active in spreading foul and libilous reports concerning us; thinking thereby to gain the fellowship of the world, knowing that we are not of the world; and that the world hates us. But by so doing they only show themselves to be vile traitors and syco- [p. 84]