1847, Aug 22 - Jones, Dan - Letter to Orson Spencer

Letter to Orson Spencer, dated Aug. 22, 1847, at Merthyr Tydfil. (Vol 9: 300, 301)

Merthyr, August 22nd, 1847.

Dear Brother Spencer,-- With heartfelt gratitude to our Heavenly Father, I congratulate you on your recovery, hoping that ere this, you enjoy your usual health and strength. All the Welsh Saints manifest as great a wish for you to visit us, as they have for your recovery. Dear brother, would a ride thus far not be as pleasant and recreative to you and your lady, as it would be pleasing and edifying to us? You can come by sea or land. If you can come, I should be pleased to inform the Saints, and call a conference.
By these handbills, you will perceive the state of affairs with us somewhat. These regions are like a boiling pot; the priests mad with rage, and their flocks leaving them and embracing the gospel continually. Some of the Welsh brethren will translate this, and show how I met the broadside! The priests of the various sects hereabouts hold secret committees, purposely to devise plans to oppose the Saints; and the last plan concocted was to bribe 30, in Dowlais, of their most daring and shameless, belonging to the various schools and chapels, to interrupt, harass, and opposed our officers when preaching! This they do faithfully, by crying out in their faces while preaching, "You are a liar," &c. some of their preachers are burning with such zeal for their holy goddess and her family, that they cannot keep out of the fuss. But our brave boys are dountless as lions, preaching out in the streets, squares, and houses, every evening nearly, for all; by this means crowds come to hear that otherwise would not.
I commenced my lectures, on this affair, in Dowlais, yesterday, on the Book of Mormon. I am to be there this evening, and will continue until I forestall my short-sighted antagonist, and will have refuted his charges before his lecture comes on; and I intend to correct his mistakes afterwards, and follow up the rear until this affair proves to be the greatest. Mormon manufactory ever here, under the blessing of its author.
I delight in the trophies of war. I came here to fight for the spiritual freedom of my brethren, and I thank heaven, and the God of this warfare, that He is knocking off their shackles by hundreds! Who that has tasted of the sweets of liberty would say, "Hold!" Most of the stories that were told on poor Brother Joseph, in America, are here fathered on Captain Jones, and I often hear those who don't know that little man, unhesitatingly denounce him as "a curse upon this nation for kicking up such a fuss, and leading so many headlong to hell! Poor Parrotts!

Yours, in the gospel,

D. JONES.

None

Immigrants:

Jones, Dan

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