OCR Text |
Show Page 248 reach personally, he published the following notice in the Deseret News: "...doctrines which have extensively published and widely received as the standard and authoritative doctrines of the Church, but which are unsound...have been published by Elder Orson Pratt. We had expressed our disapproval of some of these doctrines through the columns of the Millennial Star,...there are others, however, of a kindred character, which have not been alluded to in public print, that also require comment..." There foil}owed a paragraph-by-paragraph denunciation of parts of The Seer and the other tracts "as most prominently objectionable and self-confounding," along with advice to the Saints to cut up the essays wherever found; also, that all copies of Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet be destroyed: "(These writings) would convey the idea that the physical and spiritual organization of a human being conferred no additional powers or benefits on the creature thus organized, but that any single atom of the 'spiritual fluid,' however minute, possessed every attribute that an organized being could possess...the expounder of these points of doctrine acknowledges that he has not had any revelation...in relation to them. The last half of the tract entitled 'Holy Spirit' contains excellent and conclusive arguments... the first half...contains doctrines which we cannot sanction...Where these works are bound in volumes, they should be cut out and destroyed; with proper care this can be done without much, if any, injury to the volumes." 25 Brigham's objections to Biographical Sketches are harder to explain - the book is certainly not dissident in tone; however, some events seem to have been stretched, and, naturally enough, William Smith gets very sympathetic treatment from his mother, the author. Brigham's aversion to the Prophet's recreant brother was well-known. At any rate, he advised all the copies in the territory be rounded up and disposed of. In England, Orson soon learned of the suppression of his works through the columns of the Star. By now accustomed to these spasmodic attacks , Orson wrote resignedly home to his Prophet the news of a chest cold, and, almost incidentally, of his total acquiescence in the sacred holocaust of his works: |