OCR Text |
Show Danites was a term made use of by some of the brethren in Far West, Mo., and grew out of an expression ex-pression Joseph Smith made use of when the brethren in the fall of 1838 were preparing to defend themselves from the Missouri mob. He referee! to the stealing of Micah's images (Judges 18th Chap.) when he said that the Danites would be after them, meaning the brethren in selfdefence. An apostate by the name of Sampson Avard tried to organize or-ganize a secert band called Danites in Far "West for wicked purposes, but tins was without the knowledge of the leaders of the Church, and the companies organized by the legal authorities for the defence of the city was in no wise connected with Avard' s movement. The repeated re-peated stories about Danites, or destroying angels, among the Saints in the Eocky Mountains no doubt has its origin in the wild fancy of wicked and corrupt men, whose object has been to slander and misrepresent the "Mormons." Historical Eecord. |