| Show WEST VIRGINIA NOTES about five weeks ago elder rande president reside jit f the conference el aldei d freeman and myself entered ebli philippic P barbour co W va for the pur of laying before the people our view and doctrines we found a large m majority of the people charitably disposed dispo and ready to receive us Where fow we engaged a school house and held hel meetings getting a good attendance af each gathering after the meeting hold held an the ath vi december had been pr properly overly di dig missed mr J thompson and 1 I f P ensminger of faith asked for the attention of the audience ahil while Q they boldly stoob forth an i assailed th the prophet joseph smith and the pries hood on the ath we again met in same house when elder freeman de del l livered an address on I 1 authority anda and salvation for the dead closing wit h a powerful testimony of the divinity 00 the mission of joseph smith he jaaj w aw followed by elder randall bandall in the same manner this put the above n named in na mr thompson on his mettle again and being utterly destitute of bible dool d trine to refute the elders testimony J he again villainously berated the character of the prophet and set fa forth rth i the allegation that the cormons mormons had been persecuted for their violations of law this being denied the eeLing LL adjourned on every occasion the so same gentlemen used the same attack upon ulson us and we are informed that la in the mode of their proceedings agal agai nafe lid other denominations the last attack made by them so thoroughly disgusted their hearers that they began to leave the room and refused to give them a hearing the occasion of holding protracted meetings having arrived we attended a series of meetings held by the methodists Methodist of this locality and list ened attentively to the long list oft of gospel sermons by the good paston 14 but the very presence of the elders seemed to annoy him secret meet ings inge were held to find out what twee the mormons cormons Mor mons were doing there where in they came to the conclusion thai that they exercised a disastrous influence over the meetings at the conclusion of their series of meetings they eventually came to the conclusion that it did not matter to which church in lux divi duals belonged though they 4 wished them to join the M E W at a meeting held the of decem ber remarks derogatory to the charac ter of the elders of the church wera werft made by a class leader who stated that we were introducing a new reli ion and compared it to a patent chu chiroi introduced in this country of a re recent cea date which proved to be unsuccessful UZI and was therefore abandoned juraj ju so said he we should stick to th the old time up and down religion 4 s this in no wise seared scared us but greatly lowered them in the estimation op of many of their own members A the pious members of the church mentioned above chaj chal longed to 10 aarm aw the doctrines which the latter day saints teach are divine and author laed by the lord and at the same time mr EDs eisminger minger affirmed that the chui ch of christof which he was a member was the only church authorized and established by christ IJ to this elder randall bandall re phed blied that he did riot not wish to debate having come out for the purpose of preaching the gospel but as he had a desire to lay before the people the principles of the gospel dospel he be would accept mr ensminger then read luke 24 44 etc and admitted that all scriptures were given by inspiration of god that the old testament scriptures pointed to the coming of christ that god and this world are inseparably connected that christs kingdom was setup on the day of pentecost bu but t at the same time he denied the gift of the holy ghost through the proper channel no and the necessity for authority and gifts etc elder randall bandall replied by reading the articles of faith and a number of scripture passages the discussion was continued the next day and when the case was submitted to the audience the elders received 28 votes while their opponents had 81 A A heavy fall of snow was showered down wine some time ago which after partial disappearance received strength by a renewal of the same kind then followed a rain which considerably raised the streams today it is cold A fine field for holding meetings is opened up and as we journey on we will endeavor to answer the calls your brother in the covenant ELDER H F THOMAS PHILLIPI BARBOUR co W va january ath 1891 |
