Defense of the Faith and the Saints (Volume 2 of 2)Roberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
Religion
Defense of the Faith and the Saints (Volume 2 of 2)
Roberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
Latter Day Saint churches
Mr. Schroeder throughout his argument, intermittently seeks to add
force to his "evidence" by saying that Sidney Rigdon never denied this,
that, or the other statement though made in his life time. He notices
only Rigdon's denial published in the _Boston Journal_ in 1839, and
represents it as "absolutely the only recorded public denial ever made
by Rigdon, though from 1834 to 1876 he was almost continually under
the fire of this charge, reiterated in various forms and with varying
proofs." [154] Of course, Mr. Schroeder is allowed to speak with some
degree of authority upon the anti-Mormon side of this controversy;
but for all that there are some things he does not seem to know about
Sidney Rigdon's denials and affirmations. It may be that of the several
statements to which Mr. Schroeder attaches the remark of Rigdon's
silence, Rigdon never saw one of them; and there is one denial made by
Mr. Rigdon that Mr. Schroeder has failed to note, made in 1836; and
which, since it is general in its character, may be made to cover the
whole period in which Mr. Rigdon is said to have made no denial. In
the January number of the Latter-day Saints' _Messenger and Advocate,_
after denouncing Howe's book and those who advocate it, and referring
to Mr. Scott, Mr. Campbell and other professed ministers, he says:
[Footnote 154: _American Historical Magazine,_ Nov., 1906, p. 527.]
"In order to avoid investigation this brotherhood will condescend
to mean, low subterfuges, to which a noble-minded man would
never condescend; no, he would suffer martyrdom first. Witness
Mr. Campbell's recommendation of Howe's book, while he knows,
as well as every person who reads it, that it is a batch of
falsehoods." [155]
[Footnote 155: _Messenger and Advocate,_ Jan., 1836, p. 242.]
Inasmuch as Howe's book, published in 1834, charges Rigdon's complicity
with the whole procedure by which the Book of Mormon is alleged to
have been produced out of the Spaulding manuscript, and Rigdon above
denounces Howe's book as "a batch of falsehoods," we may say there has
been in existence ever since January, 1836, Rigdon's denial of the
whole Spaulding theory of his complicity with a scheme to deceive men
in respect of the Book of Mormon.
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