1855 January or February notice concerning a Lucy Smith publication and the 'Seer'

Title

1855 January or February notice concerning a Lucy Smith publication and the 'Seer'

Description

Notice to the public that a recent work published in Liverpool written by Lucy Smith about her son Joseph Smith contains discrepancies and needs to be corrected. The periodical published in Washington called the 'Seer' also contains erroneous doctrine and the Saints should read it with the spirit of discernment.

Type

Correspondence

Sender

Brigham Young

Recipient

The Public

Date

1855 January or February

Number of Pages

2

Subject

Publications

Item sets

NEW PUBLICATIONS.

There are many mistakes in the work entitled "Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet, and of his progenitors for many generations, by Lucy Smith, mother of the Prophet," and "published at Liverpool for Orson Pratt by S. W. Richards, 15 Wilton Street." I have had a written copy of those sketches in my possession for several years, and it contains much of the history of the Prophet Joseph. Should it ever be deemed best to publish these sketches, it will not be done until after they are carefully corrected. I take this seasonable opportunity to inform the public mind, in order that readers may not be surprized, or disappointed at finding discrepancies, and may know which is the most reliable, in case a corrected edition is ever published.
_______________________
A monthly periodical called the 'Seer,' published by Elder Orson Pratt at Washington City. D. C. contains beautifully written articles; but notwithstanding the general beauty of the style, and the apparent candor and minuteness of the reasoning, the 'Seer' has many items of erroneous doctrine. As it would be a lengthy and laborious operation to enter minutely into their disproval, I prefer for the present, to let the Saints have opportunity to exercise their faith and discernment in discriminating between the true and erroneous; and simply request them while reading the seer to ask themselves what spirit they are of, and whether the Holy Ghost bears testimony to the truth of all the doctrines therein advocated.

Brigham Young