| Show TRAVELS IN WEST VIRGINIA AUCK buckhannon HANNON upshur co W va january 1896 we thought a few lines from this part of the vineyard would be of interest to you and the many readers of your valuable paper we are laboring in the states mission and pennsylvania dWer inference ence our last conference was bod on september and 2nd and 1895 at pratt kiatt alleghany allegheny Alleg hany co md I 1 was appointed to labor in upshur and lewis counties west virginia with elder J Y barlow jarlow i of bountiful utah as my companion at our conference we had a time of rejoicing long to be remembered by the and saints present the spirit lik the lord was poured out upon us wd 4 brother joshua R dark clark president of the northern states mission vouched couched i a prophecy that the elders would re 1 keive better treatment irom from the people from that time on he said that the people alc plc would open their houses to us aich we can testify to as being true in ow case the people in our field have treated us remarkably well with some ft exceptions awe we arrived at our field of labor on icae sixth of september and visited some friends and one family of saints N 4 and held two meetings in that month then we started to labor in kupsh r county our principal field of labor we commenced a house to house bouse canvass giving tracts and conversing with the people on the principles of the gospel as restored through the prophet joseph in these days and preaching wherever we could obtain a house we can say we have been very successful having had some of the best church houses opened to us which is a very rare thing in this part of the country we have traveled seven hundred and seventy one miles visited lour four hundred and seventy eight families and distributed tour four hundred and six tracts held thirty nine meetings and had one hundred and thirty three gospel conversations were refused houses to preach in twenty three times limes refused entertainments seventeen times but were only one night without a bed we have had bad the glorious privilege of baptizing even honest souls into the church of christ with many more investigating we feel to thank our father in heaven for his blessings upon our labors in in giving us health and strength and his spirit to lead us to the honest in heart we eyed on our way as the spirit led us trusting as only humble elders can who are sent out to preach the gospel without purse or scrip we obtained a house in a town called salem and held two meetings the house was crowded both nights the second night we spoke on church organization with its gifts and blessings the con gre gation listened very attentively at ter meeting a young lawyer came up and introduced himself to us he s said a id there was a blind man over the hill and added if you are the true servants of god as you have claimed to tji be you will come over and heal him and I 1 will give you we told him that guts gifts of god could not be purchased with money we asked him if he wanted it for a t ign he said yes we told him that jesus said it was a wicked and adulterous generation that after a sign after we were out of the house a young man shouted my wife has a felon on her finger come and heal her others said we will rock them preach preachers erg or die those who were determined to 11 rock us jumped over the fence and ran around us while we in con company ivany with G now brother williams who had kindly invited us home with him were going along the road they began by throwing burs at us our friends warned them to suit quit or they would get into trouble this only seemed to anger them the more and they commenced to throw stones it seemed to rain stones for a little while we feel to acknowledge the hand of god in shie ding us his servants from harm we stayed all nig t with mr williams and proceeded on our journey next day feeling as we expressed to each other thit that there was some good to be done here we received a letter from a friend in lewis county asking us to come down there and hold some meetings we went and held two meetings then we wrote cornelius Ric bison president of the pennsylvania conference that we expected to go over to queens mills near his field ot of labor and perhaps would call on him but the spirit led us offin off in an opposite direction we attended a dunkard meeting at indian camp the reverend gentleman took for his text from the to the aith verses of the seventh chapter of st matthew where the savior spoke of the wise man building his house upon the rock then he talked of some men going about over the country preaching new revelation holding up the new testament he said this wa all the revelation we needed and there would be no more prophets till christ comes after meeting we had the privilege of being invited to 0 o the same house with the reverend gentleman after we had goi gat to our hosts host Is I 1 told the preacher he be had bad made an assertion that there would be no more revelation which he be could abt support by the scriptures he asked for proof that there would be and we quoted several of the old prophets 71 1 hen he denied the old bible and required proof from the new testament we then quoted from matthew chapter showing that christ said he would send his angels to gather his elect from the four quarters of the earth then he required us to go to st loans johns revelation we cited him to the two jewish prophets that should be raised u up 1 to prophecy in jerusalem and also johnda johns prophesy of the angel that should come to bring the gospel he said 1 I sup pose you think that old joe smith was the man who the angel delivered that gospel to we gave him to understand that he was not old joe smith being only thirty eight when he be was slam slain also that we knew that joseph smith was raised up a prophet of god in bo these last days to receive the gospel from the hands of the angel the reverend gentleman then teeing we had him in in a corner denied the whole sc scriptures or in other words said he couf could prove anything from them we asked how long he had bad been in the ministry he said he had been preaching for af fifteen years we then told him that one year ago we had never preached a sermon and it he had the holy gaoa which he claimed to have it would toach teach him better than to deny revelation next morning we expected to continue our journey over to queens mills but the spirit led us to salem where we had bad been stoned as mentioned before there we found out the reason why we had bad been been thus led there were six anxious inquiring souls who had been dreaming of us we led them into the water of baptism baptis rn and confirmed them members of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints we went from there to visit brother who has been baptized in the southern states mission and found one more soul awaiting baptism which ordinance we attended to and confirmed him a member of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints we feel h W acknowledge the hand band of god in thus gua guiding i ling us to the honest in in heart the elders are all enjoying good health so far as we have heard in this mission JAMES JAMBS C JOHN Y BAit BARLOW Low |
