4. Dan Jones.
Y glorian, yn yr hon y gwelir David yn pwyso Williams, a Williams yn pwyso David; neu David Williams, o Abercanaid, yn gwrthddweyd ei hun, wedi ei ddal yn ei dwyll, a'i brofi yn ddeistaidd.
(The scales, in which are seen David weighing Williams, and Williams weighing David; or David Williams, from Abercanaid, contradicting himself, caught in his deceit, and proved deistic.)
Merthyr Tydfil: Published and for sale by the author. J. Jones, Printer, Rhydybont, 1846.
16 pp. 19 cm.
The title page of Y glorian bears scriptural quotations from Job 15:6, "Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I: yea, thine own lips testify against thee," and job 11: 3, "Should thy lies make men hold their peace? and when thou mockest, shall no man make thee ashamed?" A 4-line poem also appears on the title page:
No matter the depth of the dust and muck
Which has been thrown on the Mormons' majesty;
Good is our plea, God is on our side,
Despite the ugly commotion of all the wolves.
Dan Jones's first pamphlet, Y farw wedi ei chyfodi yn fyw (The dead raised to life, item 1), caused such a stir in Wales that a group of Baptist ministers joined forces with a group of Independent ministers and commissioned David Williams, a lay preacher, to write a rebuttal. The result was a 32-page pamphlet entitled Twyll y Seintiau Diweddaf yn cael ei ddynoethi (The fraud of the Latter Saints exposed). Williams's pamphlet was first published in December of 1845, and a second edition was dated 1846 (see item 2).
In a letter to Apostle Wilford Woodruff, dated 2 January 1846, Jones stated:
I should be pleased if you would send me a letter authorizing me to collect what I can from the Welsh Saints on Ac[count] etc. to enable me to bring out another pamphlet now, in answer to one now just out by the joint stock of Priests just such another as the Mormonism Unveiled tho' in Welsh, published in this place, if it is not answered some weak Saints & sinners may stumble about it. (LDS Church Archives)
His request must have been granted, as in a letter to Reuben Hedlock, dated 7 February 1846, Jones reported:
I have also a reply ready to a pamphlet published lately; printed in Welsh, at Merthyr, against my first pamphlet, by a clan of priests, misrepresenting us, and our good Mormon creed, most foully. This I can publish within a month, if I stay here to do it. (Millennial Star, 15 February 1846, p. 63)
As indicated by the title and the scriptures quoted from the book of Job, Dan Jones takes a scornful attitude toward David Williams as he puts him on the scales--David on one side and Williams on the other--and proceeds to point out his contradictions. Throughout the entire 16 pages, full of satire and derision, Jones simply follows the standard, mid-nineteenth-century techniques of the polemic. The bulk of his defense centers around the signs that were to follow the believers, as mentioned in Mark 16:17-18. Williams had challenged Jones to prove that he was sent of God by healing all the sick of Merthyr Tydfil and by drinking something deadly without suffering any harmful effect. Jones counters with scriptural quotations concerning sign-seekers. He also counters Williams's attack on Mormon views concerning additional scripture, the necessity of baptism, and Williams's vitriolic observations about Annerchiad y Deuddeg Apostol (Proclamation of the Twelve Apostles, item 2). This segment is typical of Jones's style throughout the pamphlet:
Who says that? Williams, I think, for David in the previous two lines says the complete opposite to that in this admission .... Which one do you believe? David or Williams? I believe David now .... Well done, Williams! Although he lost before, he wins now, and is closer to the truth than David.
The first section of the pamphlet, entitled "At y darllenydd" (To the reader), bears quoting:
I appeal to the reader in this essay, for it would be a foolishness to appeal to Mr. Williams, for reason or scripture, when his work proves him devoid of the one and the other, he being chained so close to his prejudiced traditions, that one might think that he would lose his life before losing them. He resembles that poor man who had sunk down into a bog on the bank of a great river in America after great floods. When some traveler came past that way, after the surface had hardened, he saw a hat in front of him. He picked it up, and to his great surprise, beheld a head underneath it. After staring at it until he believed his own eyes, he grasped it with all his strength thinking to pull it to the bank by its hair; but with the first pull the poor man shouted out loudly, "Don't, don't take me to the bank, for I have a good horse underneath me and a pair of new boots on my feet; I would rather sink with them than lose them!!!"
Perhaps some will say that this is wasted effort--that this little man, and his pamphlet, are beneath notice. I admit from experience that that was the first thought, and quite reasonable, of every principled man; but on second thought I remembered the second advice of the wise man: "Answer the fool according to his foolishness, lest he be wise in his own sight." When I understood that this "scribe" is a "mouth-piece" for some conference of bullies, and a bell hammer for their belfry, I thought that if I did not defend myself and the truth in the face of such terrible false accusations, and show the foolishness, deceit, and idiocy of this "clique," there would be no peace for the Saints at their work, or on the streets, or in their meeting houses either, from the "nation of brawlers" upsetting them in public; and since "silent contempt" after long trial did nothing but make them worse still, one must "shut up their mouths" with the truth. Read unbiasedly, oh reader, and give fair play to Y GLORIAN to turn properly.
Instead of answering Dan Jones's Y glorian with yet another pamphlet, David Williams simply issued a second printing of Twyll y Seintiau Diweddaf yn cael ei ddynoethi and then went to Y Bedyddiwr (The Baptist), a monthly periodical of the Baptists, in an effort to scandalize the Mormons. For ammunition he used Thomas Jones, an apostate Mormon, and his series of reasons for no longer believing in Mormonism (see item 8 for more on Thomas Jones).
CSmH, UPB, USlC, WCS, WN
Flake no. 4472
