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Show Page 46 reporter, along with his manner, as "succinct and lucid." The Book of Mormon was then explicated, with an emphasis on its role as harbinger of the "second appearance" of Christ, "When he shall stand on the Mount of Olives...to reign on the Earth for the space of a thousand years." Closing on this millennial note, Orson invited debate, was challenged by a minister named St. John, and the two continued the discussion for three more hours. Each of the debaters was heard four times, after which "at the request of the audience, a division of the house was called for on the merits of the argument, and carried in favor of the Latter Day Saint by an overwhelming vote." Though ascribing to Orson a certain fanaticism, the reporter judged him a fluent,logical spokesman: ...we have never heard...so much harmony in the arrangement of quotations from the sacred book. No passage could be refered to that would in the least produce discord in his arguments...If a man may be called eloquent who transfers his own views and feelings into the breasts of others - if a knowledge of the subject, and to speak without fear - are a part of the more elevated rules of eloquence, we have no hesitancy in saying ORSON PRATT was eloquent; and truly verified the language of Boileau: 'what we clearly conceive, we can clearly express." 35 This laudatory judgment was reprinted in the Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate with the observation that the reporter must have been "a Republican, and a gentleman." The account is useful, however, to demonstrate the lucidity of Orson's preaching methods; though his premises were grounded in an uncritical conviction, the arguments he weaved from them impressed onlookers as organically elaborated and logical. Orson continued preaching to the Indianans, always on the theme of 36 millennial light breaking in "darkness and in the dominion of death." His autumn bout with cholera was nowpast and his single-mindedness urged him on with a different sort of fever. In Cincinnati by February, he spent the weeks preaching to "large and attentive congregations" in the city and nearby villages such as Fulton and Commingsville. A brief foray |
