Show yron vron fron the millennial star THE IRISH MISSION AND ANI MK BARRON there are some interesting features conne connected ted with the progress of the work of the lord in ireland since its recent revival under the presidency of apostle john henry smith for a number of years no missionary work was attempted in that country until elder george wilson was sent there last year and it was vas yas frequently said that the latter day saints would never accomplish anything in ireland however he and elder marshall who followed and assisted him in the ministry were su successful e ces ful fui binl in baptizing a number of colv converts erts and a few irish saints emigrated to utah this summer these elders were assisted and have been succeeded by a few active young missionaries who are arc continuing the work of with fair success notwithstanding some bitter opposition they occasionally meet with the conversions have mostly been made in the city of belfast an and vicinity but arrangements arrange mants are being made to enlarge the missionary meld held and extend the pre preaching achim of the gospel to as many of tee the inhabitants of ireland Ire lre lanci as possible the recent visit of president wells and party was wads attended by some incidents of a noteworthy character one of which was the large open air meeting in belfast notwithstanding the disturbance which abruptly terminated the meeting elder penrose was enabled to speak about forty minutes a period of time quite sufficient for the presentation ot of the first principles of the gospel and the bearing of a strong testimony to the restora restoration tion of the priesthood and authority to administer in the ordinances of the gospel it must not be supposed that because elder Pen roses preaching aroused the ire and noisy opposition of a few hypocrites and their turbulent followers that the sermon was distasteful to the th majority ot of the immense audience the opposite seems to have been the fact for fon when the police in stead of attending to the noisy disturb ers erlof of the meeting hustled the brethren away a great number of the people protested against the injustice and cried out to the brethren that the police lice were them of their rights and demanded that elder penrose be allowed to proceed with bis big discourse but we all know knoy with what ease case a few rum ruf flans flaus can break up a meeting es especially breir chally if it the police are derelict in their duty which was plainly the case in this instance the letter of E lder elder penrose to the editor of the belfast evening telegraph which we publish in this issue 1 ae called forth a rejoinder from one of the christian gentlemen who disturbed the meeting and in the telegraph of july he attempts to excuse himself and his pious fri friends ads for their disorderly conc conduct luct by asserting assertion that the real of the peace are the mormon priests themselves who insist on forcing forbins the people to lear hear hear their pe pernicious IS doctrine the modus ope 1 pe randa by which two or three mormon preachers compelled an auci audience lence of two or three thousand persons konsto to listen to theland the them mand and that in the 0 open p n at air g is not explained by this Christian L a n 11 street br brawler iwler the conclusive manner in which elder eider penrose proves that the bible teaches the rightfulness of some men having hav ingmore lnore inore than one wife at the same time 11 appears to be highly distasteful to awis this christian gentleman who by b y the way calls himself mr barron barren he sees that it is necessary to say something thin to counteract the strong scriptural evidences brought forwar forward ct in favor of plural marriage and he does it in true a 0 la beecher style sax by seeking to impeach the authority of the scriptures themselves which every one must acknowledge is a very suicidal idal course for a christian gentleman to take here is how he be p puts u ts it in endeavoring to counteract any auy baneful influence they may haye have al ready exerted upon the minds of my countrymen I 1 call attention to the fact that those salt lake cily city missionaries quote only from the old testa ment scriptures well knowing that they cannot find lind the least sanc sane sanction tion to their conduct in the new the thu patriarchal dispensation gave place lace to the jewish and both to the christian C gristian dispensation dl pensa tion under which we now live in these last list days hence paul in his first I 1 letter ietter e ater to the tho corinthians vil vii 2 sa says ys lut let every man roan have his own wife aud let every woman have her own husband 1 A also aso so in first timothy lil lit 2 wherein he describes the quail ficat fleat ions lons of elders or overseers thus A bishop then must be blameless tile the husband of one wife wile the rhe coolness and ease with which some of our modern C christians throw aside aalde the old testament is surprising if 11 the early earli christians had done itchey would have had no ScAp scriptures tures tunes at all jesus expounded the scriptures and taught the people to search them and continually sustained their authority by b y quoting from them and yet Y e t those scriptures were restricted to the old testament which some of his ills professed followers follower 3 now discard q what a waste of time and talent that so many years have recently been spent by learned men in revising it I 1 mr barron barren however is unfortunate even in his new testament quotations I 1 che the will examine corinthians vii vil 61 2 again and reautha read thu tha whole verse li he will vill see that it has not the reference to plural marriage but wad waa written against the tile crime of forni focal cation catlon which ly Is also very strongly denounced in the old testament rauls pauls i object was to restrict men and women to their oun own ou n wives and husbands and keep them from interfering with those ot other people anci ana this advice would not be at all out of place if eiven civen now to the inhabitants abitanta inh of these islands as tile the christian gentleman very well knows the practice of a man having more than one wife was a common one among the people with whom our savior and his apostles that form of marriage is nowhere condemned by them in the new testament the reference to the qualifications of a bishop in requiring him to be the husband of one wife does not necessarily prohibit him from having more and even if we strain the meaning and make it imply that it by no rn means ans aus follows that the prohibition extends to others but the very reverse f from rom the fact that the bi bishops S hops are arc exceptionally referred to mr barron barren also finds lault fault with the doctrine of laying in on of hands bands for the gift of the holy ghost and says As ta tp their unwarrantable ran table idea of laying claying on of hands as being essential to salvation it is for everret ever set aside by the fact that three thousand believers were added to be saved on the day of pentecost on complying with the inspired peters directions to repent and be baptized every one in the name of jesus f for or the remission of and this without laying on of hands see acts 11 38 88 is again we must ask mr barron barron barren to read the whole verse he quotes peter told them that after they were baptized they should receive the holy ghost now this ts is exactly what the laying on of hands is for peter and john laid their hands on those who had bad been t baptized in San sau iaria laria and they received the holy ghost see acts viii vili 1417 14 17 paul laid his hands on those who were baptized in ephesus and the holy ghost came on them see acts 16 1 6 paul in heb vi 2 speaks of the doctrine of the laying on of hands bands and yet this christian gentleman e calls calis al Is it an unwarrantable doctrine I 1 there is lot not the slightest proof t hat that the thie three thousand thousand who were baptized oa the day of pentecost did not have hands laid upon them but the proof ia s all the other way for they certainly received ane holy ghost according to the promise of peter and we have shown by our quotations that it was the practice of the tho apostles to confer the holy ghost by laying their hands upon believers who had been baptized paul said there was but one body and one spirit one lord one faith ana and ana one baptism so it is likely there would be but one way of imparting the holy ghost for the apostles did not have such a variety of ways of doing things as prevail in modern christendom mr barron barren presumes too much when he asserts that hands were not laid upon the three thousand who were baptized even if it is not positively thus recorded ithe iche read the millennial star he would frequently see the reports of our elders as to so many being added to the church by baptism without the slightest reference to the laying on of hands for the gift of the holy ghost tiie the latter ordinance follows the former as a matter of course the christian gentleman justifies the highhanded high handed banded proceedings of the police oy by saying I 1 1 I consider that the thou thoughtful h taul guardians of tile the peace acted very wisely in removing such objectionable unscriptural and unlawful speakers from our midst now we ye can believe that elder penrose and his party were objectionable to mr barron barren and his friends but that they were not objectionable to the majority of the audience was shown by their attempts to have elder penrose proceed with his remarks the latter also based his discourse upon the scriptures quoting freely from them hence the charge of being unscriptural s crich tu ral rai falls to the ground as does t the hec hee charge a rge of being unlawful for the elders had just as enuch right to preach there as the christian gentleman en t leman ieman 11 we are arc glad that t the e 0 opposition position of such men as mr air barron P is q aroused ile he is of that class who will wil I 1 not enter the kingdom of heaven themselves and seek to prevent others from entering we have no doubt that it is through u ve seeing others willing to receive t the gospel that his opposition has been boen aroused and we shall look for good re results ts f from r om the big hig meeting in belfast and the spirit of enquiry that it has awakened in the minds of the people ople opie 0 |