Report of Labor in Missouri.
By R. J. Lawrence
My last report was dated Aug. 10. On the eleventh, Bro. Pierce Hackett brought me on my way to this place, Prairie City. We stopped at Butler, the county-seat of Bates Co., to inquire. The sheriff, a Baptist, learning our business, was anxious that I should stop there a while. I consented, provided a place could be obtained in which to hold meetings, and a boarding place for me. A hall was secured, and I stopped with the sheriff and commenced lectures that evening. Stayed until the 24th, and gave eleven lectures. But few attended. The people evidently were not interested in the second coming of Christ, and doctrines connected therewith. So Bro. Hackett brought me to this place, to Bro. Clostermyer's. I commenced meetings the 26th, in a country school-house, occupied two Sabbaths and first-days in each month by Disciples and Baptists. I was told that I could have the house the remainder of the time, but they have managed so that I have had it but one Sabbath, and that was the first. I continued, evenings, as I had opportunity. There was a growing interest, and some half dozen commenced to keep the Sabbath, when some of the leading spirits began to see the tendency of the truth, and engaged a Disciple preacher to contest the points. He is said to be the smartest in the country. So I heard a note read from the preacher, Eld. Landen, that he would commence to review my lectures on Thursday evening, Sept. 15, and occupy alternate evenings with me. I accepted. Accordingly he started on the kingdom of the second chapter of Daniel; had the image smitten by the stone at the first advent, and the kingdom set up there. I replied on Friday evening. Monday evening he replied very boastfully. On Tuesday evening I presented a connected chain of prophecy, commencing with the second of Daniel, showing that the four divisions of the image were four universal kingdoms, and that the fifth was to be universal and eternal. Also that the beast of the seventh of Daniel symbolized the same as the four parts of the image; and that the horns of the beast of the seventh chapter symbolized the same as the toes, which he acknowledged. He had tried to establish, and said he had done it, that no part of the image existed this side of A. D. 606. Then I showed that the dragon of Rev. 12 symbolized the same as the beast of Daniel 7, and the legs of the image and the horns of the dragon symbolized the same as the horns on the beast and the toes of the image, consequently were transferred from symbol to symbol. The horns did not come up on the dragon until A. D. 483; so, then, Christ, who was symbolized by the stone, did not smite the image at his first advent, for he could not smite the feet before they existed. In Rev. 13, John sees a beast having all of the characteristics of the four beasts of Daniel 7, having also ten horns like the nondescript beast, evidently symbolizing the same power. And the dragon gave his power, and seat, and great authority, to the beast. In Rev 17, John sees the beast carrying a woman (Catholic church). The beast is said to have ten horns, which are ten kings. They shall make war with the Lamb, but the Lamb shall overcome them. Then the image certainly was not smitten in the days of the papacy. In Rev. 19, John saw Heaven opened, and beheld a white horse together with his rider and the army which followed him. In verse 19, he saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies making war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. Here unquestionably, is the smiting of the image. When? at the coming of Christ. Now please read Ps. 2: 8, 9: “Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.” This must be after the Judgment, described in Dan. 7: 9, 10, for in verse 14 of this chapter, after the Judgment has set, the Son of Man takes “dominion, and glory, and a kingdom,” which is said to be “everlasting.” Question: Will he smite the image before he gets possession of it? Certainly not. Then it is to be smitten, as we have before shown, at the coming of Christ, and not as Eld. Landen would have it, more than eighteen hundred years before, and then come to an end at the second advent, or be submerged into the Father's kingdom, and Christ cease any longer to be king. After I got through, then the Elder arose and said that he would review it the next evening, and gave out an appointment for a protracted meeting, to commence next Saturday, and to continue indefinitely. The next evening he came on with an array of assertions from Rollin's History, applying the little horn to Antiochus, and waxed very boastful. At the close he gave an appointment to speak on the covenants on Friday evening and on the Sabbath, and would give me no chance to reply. So I am crowded out of the house. I took notes, and shall review in a private house. There are eleven here keeping the Sabbath, and others interested. There is a school-house two miles away, open for me. I may go there. Pray for me.