"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 no where 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 no more. At another time he was at Mr. Russell's with us, and, in presence of Mr. R. 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, and so affected and confounded 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. But after this, he again hardened his heart, and finding his opposition all in vain, he wrote a letter to the Rev. Mr. Peck, of Rock Spring, some sixty miles distant, informing him that the "Mormons" were about to take Green County, and requesting his immediate attendance. This Mr. Peck was a man of note, as one of the early settlers of Illinois, and one of its first missionaries. He had labored for many years in that new country and in Missouri, and was now Editor of a paper devoted to Baptist principles. This gentleman, was soon forthcoming, and commenced his public addresses among the people, to try to convince them of the great errors we had taught. He said there were no antiquities in America; no ruined cities, buildings, monuments, inscriptions, mounds, or fortifications, to show the existence of such a people as the Book of Mormon described. He also said, that there were no domestic animals such as the cow the ox, or the horse, found here when Europeans first discovered the country. He then inquired how these animals became extinct since the destruction of the Nephites. He said further, that the fortifications and mounds of this country were nothing more than the works of Nature. He then warned the people against the study of the prophetic parts of the Old and New Testaments, observing that these mysterious prophecies were directly calculated to lead them into delusion and bewilderment; that the best way to read and understand prophecy was, to read it backwards--that is to say, after it is fulfilled; that it was never designed to be understood before it came to pass.