First Counselor Sidney Rigdon preaches his "Salt Sermon" as a warning against dissenters at Far West. Quoting the fifth chapter of Matthew ("Ye are the salt of the earth. If the salt has lost its savor, it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under the feet of men." Matt 5:13) he explains when men embrace the gospel and afterward lose their faith, it is the duty of the Saints to trample them under their feet and calls on the people to rise en masse and rid the country of such a nuisance. Rigdon explains, "when a county, or body of people have individuals among them with whom they do not wish to associate and a public expression is taken against their remaining among them and such individuals do not remove, it is the principle of republicanism itself that gives that community a right to expel them forcibly and no law will prevent it."
[Source: http://www.advent-adam.com/jakestand.html (cached, based on http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies)]
Source: Sidney Rigdon, A Portrait of Religious Excess by Richard S. Van Wagoner, Signature Books (1994), pp.217-218.
ReplyDeleteBased on: an 1839 record of Reed Peck who listened to the speech given on Sunday. This speech and SR's July 4th "war of extermination" speech had Joseph Smith's full approval.
For the very interesting incident (including a Dec.11, 1859 revelation) of how Stephen Post, representing Sidney Rigdon, was REJECTED and REBUFFED at a conference of The Church of Jesus Christ (William Bickerton organization) at West Elizabeth, PA on Sat. Oct.3, 1863, see the following:
ReplyDeleteA History of The Church of Jesus Christ, edited by William. H. Cadman (Member: Quorum of 12 Apostles, General Church President, General Church Historian) published 1945 (copyright 2004), pp.45-46.
Note: this is Volume 1 covering the period from the Restoration up thru 1940.
ReplyDelete