name her."
The voice of the whip-poor-will complained over the tops of the woodland
in near and far cadence through the warm moonlit air. Beside this and
the throb of insect voices there was no sound. "I came out this
evening," said Finney, "to tell you that last March in Ohio I saw
_her_." His voice fell at the pronoun in sympathetic sorrow.
"Yes?"
"When I was about to return from Cincinnati I was advised to go
northward to the Erie Canal, in order that I might pass through that
part of the State which has been sorely infected by the cancer of that
hypocrite's teaching."
There was no need in the district of Manchester for Finney to explain
what hypocrite he meant. In his own country Smith was commonly held to
be the arch-hypocrite.
"The devil has surely espoused that cause in earnest, for the number of
deluded souls in that part of Ohio and in southern Missouri, and
scattered as missionaries up and down the country, is, I hear, between
three and four thousand."
"And always among those who worship the letter of the Scripture,"
remarked Ephraim, "for their missionaries give chapter and verse for all
they teach."
"I was told that their customs were peculiarly evil. Even among
themselves they lie and steal and are violent and licentious; and they
teach openly that it is a merit to steal from the Gentiles, as they call
those not of themselves; and, furthermore, they aim at nothing less
than setting up a government of their own in the west."
"Who told you all this?"
"I am sorry to say that I had it on good authority. Some of the western
brethren had it from a poor fellow who had been deluded into entering
the Mormon community, and had barely escaped with his life when he
desired to withdraw."
"Would you consider a pervert from your own sect the best witness of its
tenets? But you say that you saw my cousin?"
Finney told what had led him to the village of Hiram, and said, "When I
spoke of the sins of the Mormons, a young woman seated near the front of
the congregation rose up. It was your cousin. I saw at once by the
pallor of her face that the Lord was having direct dealing with her
soul. The 'power' was indeed very great; a strong man fell as dead near
her, who before the night was over gave testimony of sound conversion.
After he and your cousin had been led out, many others in different
parts of the building cried to God for mercy. When the sermon was over I
sought for your cousin, but when I to
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