secondly, with respect to the sabbath we allmost universally Regard
the first day of the week as the sabbath, but when God appeared
to Moses on the mount he commanded him to keep the seventh
day as the sabbath & not to labour on that day, so it appears that
if their has not been a change of the sabbath we as a bobdy are not
keeping the day that we were commanded to keep, still ist is held up
to view at this day that the sabbath has been changed, but is it not
allowed that there has not been no change in any of these commands
that were given to Moses at the time that the command of the Sabbath was
given & why has the sabbath been changed while the other commands
remain good & sacred & while we are under them & ought to obey them [Exodus 20:8-11]
it is maintained ^by some^ that Christ rose on the first day of the week & that
the work of Redemption was greater than the work of creation & this they
appear to consider as the change of the sabbath, but when we carefully
peruse the writings of the four Evangelist respecting the resurection of
Christ does it not appear as reasonable to suppose that Christ rose on
the seventh day as first, & even did Christ really rise on the first
day of the week, does that prove that it was a change of the sabbath
& if the sabbath was changed by the resurrection of Christ would their
not have been sumthing said respecting that change so that the
evidence would have been clear that the change of the sabbath was
then perfected. Sir this is a subject that has some length of time
ocipied a seat in my mind & I lay it before you considering you
have far deeper understanding of the word of God than myself & would
wish to know your views uppon this subject as I have not understood
the scriptures to be varry plain respecting the change of the Sabbath.
the third & last is the subject of
babtism & ist is a subject to that has long lain with wait [weight] on
my mind I think it not ownly our duty but our highest privledge
to take the word of God & make it the man of our council & form
our principles theirby still we may benifit by the instruction of
those that are more experienced than ourselves I for one fconsider
myself transacting business for Eternity & I believe that Jesus Christ
set the example for the pilgraim to follow & I believe that the christian
ought to strive to imitate his example as near as possible (allthough
I for one come far short of it) I at times have been allmost
overwhelmed in as^s^tonishment while meditating uppon the differences
of opinion & principle that exist in our land uppon religious subjects
when we have all the same bible to read the same spirit to direct
but more especially uppon the subject of babtism, my mind has
long been [illegible] with regard to this subject still I have remained
silent uppon the subject as I am of the opinion that every person ought to
be fully established uppon ^in^ principles uppon which much depends
I had the ordanence of infant babtism administered to me but it does
not answer my mind for I have not found any scripture to support
it from Genesis to revelation
secondly, with respect to the sabbath we allmost universally Regard
the first day of the week as the sabbath, but when God appeared
to Moses on the mount he commanded him to keep the seventh
day as the sabbath & not to labour on that day, so it appears that
if their has not been a change of the sabbath we as a body are not
keeping the Day that we were commanded to keep, still it is held up
to view at this day that the sabbath has been changed, but is it not
allowed that their has not been no change in any of these commands
that were given to Moses at the time that the command of the Sabbath was
given & why has the sabbath been changed while the other commands
remain good & sacred & while we are under them & ought to obey them
it is maintained by some that Christ rose on the first day of the week & that
the work of Redemption was greater than the work of creation & this they
appear to consider as the change of the sabbath, but when we carefully
peruse the writings of the four Evangelist respecting the resurrection of
Christ does it not appear as reasonable to suppose that Christ rose on
the seventh day as first, & even did Christ really rise on the first
day of the week does that prove that it was a change of the sabbath
& if the sabbath was changed by the resurrection of Christ would their
not have been sumthing said respecting that change so that the
evidence would have been clear. that the change of the sabbath was
then perfected. Sir this is a subject that has some length of time
ocipied a seat in my mind & I lay it before you considering you
have far deeper understanding of the word of God than myself & would
wish to know your views uppon this subject as I have not understood
the scriptures to be verry plain respecting the change of the Sabbath.
the third & last is the subject of
babtism & it is a subject to that has long lain with wait weight on
my mind I think it not ownly our duty but our highest privledge
to take the word of God & make it the man of our council & form
our principles theirby still we may benefit by the instruction of
those that are more experienced than ourselves I for oneconsider
myself transacting business for Eternity & I believe that Jesus Christ
set the example for the pilgraim to follow & I believe that the christian
ought to strive to imitate his example as near as possible (allthough
I for one come far short of it) I at times have been allmost
overwhelmed in asstonishment while meditating uppon the differences
of opinion & principle that exist in our land uppon religious subjects
when we have all the same bible to read the same spirit to direct
but more especially uppon the subject of babtism my mind has
long been [illegible] with regard to this subject still I have remained
silent uppon the subject as I am of the opinion that every person ought to
be fully established in principles uppon which much depends
I had the ordinence of infant babtism administered to me but it does
not answer my mind for I have not found any scripture to support
it from Genesis to revelation
"Letter to George Phippen, circa January 1831," p. 2, The Wilford Woodruff Papers, accessed April 18, 2024, https://www.wilfordwoodruffpapers.org/p/APJP