1. O ye Pastors of the flock, who watch in the broad way and cry at the wide gate,
hearken; hear my words and understand my voice, saith the Lord your God, whose eye is upon
every sincere heart, and from whose sight no deceitful worker can be hid.
2. The God of Israel and of Jacob, in condescending kindness, now calleth unto you, in
a way of my own appointing, not yours. Will ye hear my word, and in
breathless silence let the same sink deep into your hearts? Or will ye, by reason of the
humble means that I have made choice of to convey it unto you, spurn at the same, before
my face? I will, with mine own hand, prove you, saith the Lord.
3. For what purpose do ye stand as preachers to the people, calling aloud unto them, to
enter Heaven's gate?
4. Is this to benefit the souls of your flock; or to increase your numbers to be seen
of men?
5. Have you firstly prepared your own souls, for true and faithful Pastors of the
flock, as the Son of God required?
6. Have you traveled in the narrow way of a daily cross, and entered at the gate of
true self-denial?
7. Doth your daily walk declare these fruits in open view of your flock, proving you to
be the true ambassadors of Christ?
8. Are all your secluded and secret hours, to Me your God sincerely spent in prayer and
humble supplication?
9. At what fountain were you baptized with divine and holy power, to lead the people
unto Me?
10. Was it at the literary spring, where eloquence of words are considered the greatest
[qualifications?]
11. Did you there receive the sacerdotal garment, to enable you to stand truly in the
priesthood of a pure and holy God?
12. Or was the power of framing words, to make them answer the purpose of real truth at
heart, there diffused, and the art of dissembling there to perfection brought?
13. Did you there receive my holy power, which instructed you to cleanse your souls and
purify your hearts, by subduing the vile passions of nature, which power would enable you
to bring every member of your bodies into subjection to the law of Christ, or the Son of
God, whose name ye have applauded so highly, and whose gospel is a pure, sin destroying
gospel?
14. Was the pure and undefiled religion of the Lord Jesus Christ, the first object of
your pursuit? Or were the chief seats in the synagogues, and to be called of men Rabbi,
Rabbi, and the greetings in public squares, your object?
15. Do you sincerely believe that the Holy Son of God, or the gospel he preached
requires you to make long and labored prayers to be heard of men? Or to preach studied
sermons by rule, embracing the words of my holy Son, but not the power and substance, to
save the soul from sin?
16. Do you put your hands to work, and give your souls in prayer to God, when not
immediately in discharge of duties, incumbent on what is termed your priestly office? Or
do you live in pomp and splendor, regaling and indulging yourselves in luxury and
extravagance, supported by the suffering poor?
17. Does the register of your hearts, which contains all your proceedings by night and
by day, bear upon its face that which you are willing and ready, at the shortest notice,
to appear with, before my eternal tribunal of justice? and there meet the everlasting
record of my truth, which altereth not, and upon whose pages my Almighty hand of eternal
justice hath stamped the deeds of every soul and the thoughts of every heart; and to which
place the sound of my eternal summons will shortly call you?
18. Have the leading motives of your transactions through life, been such as will
support you at the hour of death, and justify your immortal souls, before the bar of God
and his holy Angels? If not, consider well the cause, make no delay. Integrity of heart
and sincerity of soul, though in a state of blinded ignorance, will I, in my mercy,
notice, saith the Lord.
19. The sincere and honest souls, though ignorant of true gospel light, and of the way
of salvation, will I cover with the wings of my mercy, if they will hearken when once they
are warned by this, the solemn warning of their God.
20. And again; Do ye who stand as shepherds to the flock, declare unto them, by precept
and example, that you do yourselves possess the true gospel of Christ, which is a gospel
of peace, sufferings, and of long forbearance?
21. Or do you proclaim unto them, that the pure and holy gospel admits of quarrels,
contention, wars and bloodshed? Or ever give the holy church a right to compel souls
to join and acknowledge her supreme authority; or be persecuted, even unto death, as the
consequences of a refusal?
22. Who among you all, saith the God of Heaven, are willing to appear before my eternal
bar of justice, with this doctrine between your teeth, and having also palmed it upon the
holy Son of God?
23. Who among you all, think that by the traditions of men, you can make the
commandments of God of no effect?
24. Who among you all, when you are made sensible that the doctrine you hold forth to
the people, as being the doctrine of Christ and his apostles, is falsely so asserted,
still continue, for popularity's sake, to cast the veil of deception and falsehood still
longer over the multitude?
25. Will you not be met in judgment for so doing, by your Creator God, and there bewail
the loss of such souls as have been blinded by your deception, or the deception of that
doctrine which ye preached as the doctrine of Christ and his true followers, and by that
means, spent their lives in almost every kind of sinful indulgence? Surely, you shall
there be met by your Creator God, and in a path where there is no turning.
26. But for every effort you have made, and for every act of goodness you have
performed, in singleness of heart and sincerity of soul, to restrain, and bring souls to
walk in the path of true moral virtue, that has in any way saved them from committing sin,
either upon their own persons, or upon others, shall be accounted unto you for deeds of
goodness; and a reward for the same you shall receive.
27. Many among you, stand upon my record as having acted sincerely in this office and
calling, according to the best light and understanding which had been given you, for the
time being, not being enlightened into the true knowledge of that life which the gospel of
Christ, in reality, doth require souls to live, either in his first, or in his second
appearance.
28. But the word of the Lord your God is, Return unto the moral law of nature;
propagate your own species according to the law of nature, or cease to call on the name of
your God for mercy, or upon the name of Christ, for a saving gospel.
29. And all ye who stand as priests, or teachers of the people, teach ye this
commandment of your God, respecting the law of nature, which commandment has been from of
old: Indulge not in sexual intercourse, further than is necessary for the purpose of
begetting your own offspring: indulge not the sunken and sordid propensities of nature,
for self gratification.
30. Teach your congregations to prepare, in obedience, to meet Me in judgment, that in
obedience they may receive at my hand of mercy, in the day that all flesh shall become as
grass that withereth, and the kingdoms of men as a shadow before Me.
31. But [let] such as feel that they are called upon, by the light of that gospel
dispensation established on earth in this their day, obey that light, and keep the law of
grace.
32. But let not any souls seek for a refuge in the Zion of my likeness, or, in other
words, let none who do not feel [that] they are called upon by my Holy Spirit, to forsake
all for the gospel's sake, seek to enter into that completed order of my new Heavens and
new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness, now set up, no more to be overthrown.
33. Souls had better remain under the law of a carnal commandment, or in the works of
natural generation, if they will but keep that law, than after having set out in a
dispensation of greater light, and a more perfect law, to turn back again to their former
lives, in the law of nature: for by so doing, "They crucify to themselves the Son of
God afresh, and put him to an open shame," through their own weakness, by reason of
the flesh.
34. For they that have been called, and have had a privilege to taste the good word of
God, and the powers of the world to come, and have tasted of the same, if they then fall
back, they have nought to feel, but a fearful looking for of the fiery indignation and
judgments of God, to be revealed from Heaven, against sin and all unrighteousness.
35. But where the law of Christ is in truth not known, and there are many
transgressions committed through ignorance, they will be lightly passed over, saith the
Lord.
36. And how is it, O ye Shepherds, that the earth is covered with so many different
denominations and persuasions, clashing and quarreling, both priests and people, one with
another? yet all professedly maintaining the true religion of Christ!
37. Do you expect, or have you any reason to expect, that all these roads lead along
the narrow way, and enter the strait gate that leadeth unto life?
38. Was it not plainly testified by the holy Son of God, that there was but one way
that souls could enter his kingdom? And do you expect his words, which he received from my
eternal throne, are going to prove false?
39. Have you not carved out ways of your own, to find salvation?
40. And have you not, by that means, been under the necessity of always placing
salvation in the future tense, by reason that you never found it in the present?
41. [Therefore you] found nothing that could protect the soul from the temptations,
snares, and enchanting allurement's of this world.
42. And what do I, the God of Heaven, behold spread over the domains of earth, but a
religion said to have emanated from my blessed Son, whom I sent into the world to open the
way of life, yet, possessing no power, [in the present tense,] to save the soul from sin
and death. And more than this, it admits of their staining their hands in the blood of
their fellow creatures.
43. Have not many souls, in consequence of the wickedness and abominations, bloodshed
and carnage that they have seen practiced, and cloaked under the name of being sanctioned
by a religion that emanated from the Son of God, been induced in their spirits, to abhor
the very name of a religion that would admit of such awful wickedness?
44. And have they not even been induced to believe that the whole is a deception, from
beginning to end; and by that mean's, almost or quite deny the being of a God, or of any
supernatural agency operating on the earth; or that there is any existence in eternity, of
future reward's and punishments after death?
45. Call not such a pretended religion, the religion of the Son of God. Blasphemy, in
very deed, is recorded on my eternal records, against those who have light and
understanding, and do this. But let it stand for the inventions of man; disgrace not the
name of Christ with it.
46. Nothing belongeth to Christ, my blessed Son, either in his first or in his second
appearance, that is impure, unholy, cruel, wicked or unjust in any shape.
47. But all such as will live a moral life, after the order of nature, and humble
themselves at my warning, put their hands to honest employment, and give their souls in
prayer to Me, according to the best of their understanding, they shall not fail to receive
in mercy, at my hand, of that which I have provided for them.
48. And unto all of you who stand as leaders of the people, in sacred and divine
service, do I require, saith the God of Heaven, that ye should often bow yourselves low,
and call upon the assembly to do in like manner, and supplicate, while clothed in
sackcloth and mourning, the mercy of that God, whose hand is stretched out towards the
inhabitants of earth, both in judgment and in mercy.
49. Let mortals cease their pleasure vain,
And learn my name to fear;
Though I'm a God of all domain,
Yet, penitents I hear.
50. And, it is my commandment unto you, all ye who stand as Pastors of the flock, that,
as fast as ye can obtain these sacred volumes of my word, ye cause one to be kept in your
pulpits; and often look therein, and exhort the people to repentance; and, in your
obedience, I will often cause a portion of my spirit to break out in your assemblies.
51. Dwell together in peace, and let harmony pervade your meetings. The GREAT I AM
visiteth the earth with myriad's of his Angels; yet, with your natural eyes you behold
them not: but, as you feel the wind, and see it not, so shall our Almighty Power yet be
felt.
52. Say not within yourselves, "Our God delayeth his coming, and these pretended
words of warning are all false, they are of man's invention:" For upon such, will I
break forth as a thief in the night. Therefore prepare, all nations, prepare, all people,
for the God of Heaven will weigh you as the small dust of the balance; therefore, prepare,
prepare ye for his coming.