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Show DEAR PEOPLE OF GOD:-I offer you a "Defence" which I am grieved to make, but my opposers have put me to the necessity, and so far as my memory serves, I pledge my veracity for the correctness of the account. This Defence is not protected by a copy tight, as I wish no man to be confined alone to my permission in printing what is meant for the eyes and knowledge of the nations of the earth. "God doth not walk in crooked paths; Neither doth he turn to the right hand, N or the left; neither dosh he vary From that which he hath said." I deny that I have ever conspired with any, or ever exerted any influence to destroy the reputation of the First Elder, although evidence which is to be credited as sures me that he has done everything he could to injure my standing, and his influence has been considerably exerted to destroy my reputation and, I fear, my life. You will remember in the meantime, that those who seek to villify my character have been constantly en couraged by him. There was a time when I thought my self able to prove to the satisfaction of every man that the translator of the Book of Mormon, was worthy of the appellation of a Seer and a Prophet of the Lord, and in which he held over me a mysterious power which even now I foll to fathom; but I fear I may have been deceived, and especially so fear since knowing that Satan has led his mind astray. 1. When the Church of Christ was set up by revela tion, he was called to be First Elder, and I was called to be the Second Elder, and whatever he had of Priest hood (about which I am beginning to doubt) also had 1. Pressley's Job Office Norton, Ohio, 1839. I 2. But I certainly followed him too far when accept ing, and reiterating, that none had authority from God to administer the ordinances of the Gospel, as I had then forgotten that John, the beloved disciple, was tarrying on earth and exempt from death. I am well aware that a rehearsal of these things at this day will be unpleasant reading to the First Elder; yet so it is, and it is wisdom that it should be so. With out rehearsing too many things that have caused me to lose my faith in Bro. Joseph's seership, I regard his frequent predictions that he himself shall tarry on the earth till Christ shall come in glory, and that neither the |
