Читать книгу Essentials in Church History - Joseph Fielding Smith - Страница 179

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A few days later Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery returned to Colesville to confirm those whom they had been forced to leave, at the time of Joseph’s arrest. Their presence was the signal for the mobbers to again assemble. So sinister were their movements that Joseph and Oliver departed from the town without waiting for refreshments. Their enemies pursued them but through extreme diligence they were able to make their escape. All night they traveled, except for a short period when they sought some rest in sleep, each taking turn in watching. The next day they arrived home, footsore and weary.

The spirit of opposition which took such decided form, was the result of agitation on the part of professors of religion. The Rev. Shearer, Cyrus McMaster, Dr. Boyington and a Mr. Benton, pillars in the Presbyterian Church, incited the mobbers to do their work. Benton was the man who signed the first warrant for Joseph Smith’s arrest as a “disorderly person” for preaching the Book of Mormon. In this manner Satan stirred up the hearts of the people to try and overthrow the work.