A Turn About

From the Parley P. Pratt Autobiography   (Beginning on page 66)

As we approached Clarksville, we were told by several of the inhabitants near, not to attempt a meeting or any religious instruction there, for they were a hardened and irreclaimable set of blasphemers and infidels, given to gambling, drinking, cursing and so forth.

Many different orders of the clergy had attempted in vain to reclaim them, or even to get a hearing.   Before entering the town we ascended a mountain and cried mightily unto the Lord that He would open our way and move upon the hearts of the people and to receive us and hear the Word.

We then entered the town and called at a hotel.  We told the landlord that we had come in the name of Jesus Christ to preach the gospel to the people, being sent by him without purse or scrip.  “Well,” said he, “you are welcome to my house and such fare as we have; and we will meet together and hear your religion and if it proves to be better than ours we will embrace it; for we confess that our religion is to fiddle and dance and eat and drink and be merry and gamble and swear a little and we believe this is better than priestcraft.”

We replied that we would try them anyhow.  So, a meeting was convened; we preached, had good attention and much of a candid spirit of inquiry was manifest and we were treated with hospitality and friendship and even ferried over the river free; and this was more than those religious sectaries would do, who had warned us against them.

Passing over the river, the next day we came to Green County, Illinois…As we sat by the highway side to rest ourselves an old farmer rode past on horseback and halted to ask if we were travelers.  We replied that we were traveling to preach the Gospel and had an appointment that evening at the school house just ahead and invited him to come and hear.

“No,” said he.  “I have not attended a religious meeting this five years; I have been disgusted and tired of priestcraft and religious ignorance and division and have concluded to stand aloof from it all.”

“Well, we are as much opposed to these things as you can be and therefore, have come to preach the gospel and show the knowledge of God in its ancient purity, being instructed and sent of Him without purse or scrip.  So come and hear us.”

“Oh! Indeed, if that is the case, I will!”

So he came; the house was crowded with Baptists, Methodists, Universalists, Non-professors, Infidels and so forth.

We preached.  After meeting, a Baptist minister by the name of John Russell, a very learned and influential man, invited us to tarry in the neighborhood and continue to preach; he said his house should be our home and he called a vote of the people whether they wished us to preach more.  The vote was unanimous in the affirmative.

We tarried in the neighborhood some two months and preached daily in all that region to vast multitudes, both in town and country, in the grove and in school houses, barns and dwellings.

All parties were our hearers and friends and contributed liberally to our wants and the old farmer, whose name was Calvin, who  had not been to meeting before for five years, became a constant hearer and opened his house for our home.  He was very wealthy and bade us welcome to shoes, clothing or anything we needed.  Many others did the same.

In this (community) there lived a Baptist minister by the name of Dotson, who opposed us with much zeal, from time to time, both in public and in private and from house to house.

He said that the Book of Mormon was a fable; a silly, foolish mixture of matter, possessing no interest and that he could write a better book himself.  However, his principle objection was that God could give no new revelation.  The New Testament contained all the knowledge that God had in store for man and there was nothing remaining unrevealed. 

We asked him to open the New Testament and read to us the history and destiny of the American Continent and its inhabitants, the origin and lineage of the same; also, the history of the ten tribes of Israel, and where they now were.  We also asked him to read to us, from that book, his own commission and that of other ministers of this age to preach the gospel.  But he could do none of these things; but still insisted that there was no subject worthy of new revelation and that no revelation could be given. 

Said I, “Mr. Dotson, relate to me your experience and call to the ministry.”

“Well,” he replied, “I will do so, seeing that it is you, friend Pratt; for you are able to bear it and to comprehend something about it; but I have never told it to my own members and I dare not, for they would not believe me.”

“Well, Mr. Dotson, be particular on the manner and means by which you were called to the ministry.”

“Why, sir,” said he, “I was called by a vocal voice from Heaven.”

“Well, Mr. Dotson, there is one exception to your general rule.  We come to you with a new revelation and you reject it because there can be no new revelation and yet you profess to have a new revelation, God having spoken from the heavens and called you and commissioned you to preach eighteen hundred years after the New Testament was written, and all revelation finished!  How is this?”

“The New Testament nowhere calls you by name; neither makes mention of you as a minister of the gospel; but new revelation does, if we are to believe you.  And yet you would teach your hearers and us and all the world, to disbelieve all modern revelation merely because it is new.  Consequently, we are all bound by your own rule to reject your call to the ministry and to believe it is a lie.”

He could say nothing.

At another time, he was at Mr. Russell’s with us and, in presence of Mr. Russell and others was opposing the Book of Mormon with all his power.  We asked him to listen while we read a chapter in it.  He did so and was melted into tears.

It so affected and confounded him that he could not utter a word for some time.  He then, on recovering, asked us to his house and opened the door for us to preach in his neighborhood.  We did so and were kindly entertained by him.