Freedom, March 10th, 1835.
DEAR SIR:—I am about to address you on a subject in which I feel most deeply interested, a subject which agitates the minds and feelings of the Christian community in which we live, more than any other now extant. I mean that of the gathering out or separating of the saints from Babylon, agreeably to a command of God, that they may escape the calamities that are now impending over the nations, and are about to be poured out upon this generation.—And here permit me to premise a few remarks by way of introduction, that we may come at our subject understandingly and feel its force commensurate with its importance. Let us in the first place, to settle the minds of the doubtful, and silence the cavils of the skeptical relative to the being of God, examine the evidences by which we can satisfactorily arrive at the conclusion that there is such a being. We shall then be able, if we take up the subject step by step and reason fairly and logically, to come to definite and correct conclusions, therefore, need not be deceived nor deceive others.
1st. There must be a great first cause to create, arrange, and set in motion the planet on which we dwell, and others belonging to this system. We believe so from the fact, that it is composed of particles of inanimate matter, which are utterly incapable of putting themselves in motion, much less of creating themselves.