1844-11-16-The Prophet-What Does It Mean
What Does it Mean?
The Prophet
16 November 1844
What Does it Mean?
On last Wednesday evening we attended a conference (as it was called) held by B. Winchester and S. Rigdon in this city, and I should conclude from the hands that was raised when they voted, there was about twenty of their followers present with some fifteen or eighteen unbelievers and some half a dozen or more of saints. We can truly say that the spirit there manifested, and the language made use of, was sufficient to make saint or sinner disgusted. In speaking of the calling of Elder Adams to the Ministry and of his being anointed, the following language was made use of" "Adams might have been anointed, but if he had been it was for the itch no doubt," which drew from Mr. Rigdon a very sweet smile of approbation, and from Winchester a grin of gratitude, that apparently flattered the vanity of the speaker as much as the boy was, when he spelt baker the first time trying, while the disaffected swallowed it without chewing, they no doubt looking upon it as a choice bit of carrion and from the effect it produced it must have been very palatable.
Query: from whom did Elder Adams receive his anointing? was it not from the same one that Mr. Rigdon received his from? Yes! Then what are we to understand from this ridicule and sport made of the ordinances of God's house? is not the anointing of Elder Adams as valid as that of Mr. Rigdon? or does Mr. Rigdon consider it all a farce? If he does he is one of the most arrant knaves that ever graced the footstool of God. If this anointing is nothing more than what we should naturally conclude it to be from the manner they treat it (a dumb show) where does the claims and pretensions of Mr. Rigdon as prophet, seer, and revelator expect to meet approbation? -- certainly not from any honest man. The following was the language of a looker on, that belonged to neither party: "That man never believed Joseph Smith to be a prophet of God, neither does he believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God!" and well might he drawn such a conclusion as this, after witnessing the bombastical proceedings of that evening.
Mr. Rigdon informed us that there was a revelation given to Joseph Smith "that he should live till his hair should become white, if he was faithful," and another one saying. "that if he was faithful he should live till the coming of Christ," says he, "they are in the Book of Covenants," but was careful enough to give neither page, section, or paragraph, but we had the word of a man, that while in Missouri, he stood up and cursed God to his face and pronounced Mormonism to be a delusion. Mr. Rigdon may attempt to deny the two first statements of this paragraph, when he gets to Boston, but let him remember that he leaves many witnesses of his folly in New York.
