The following is an excerpt from The White Pilgrim: The Life, Travels, and Gospel Labors of Elder Joseph Thomas. Here, Thomas described the opposition he faced from those who zealously defended their man-made creeds while hypocritically praying for Christian union.
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Here I bought fifty acres of land, and began to improve on it. So soon as I became located, meeting house doors were shut, and a furious opposition by the Methodists, Presbyterians, and Baptists raged against me! I had several places erected in the woods to preach at, but some of the public speakers of the sects, fearing, as they thought, I would lead the people astray, frequently met me at those places, and opposed me, to the great disturbance of the congregation. It was not an uncommon thing now, for a preacher to say (while in his pulpit) of me, that I ought to be put into prison—should be closed in a dungeon—should not be suffered to preach, and one, that I, with all my books ought to be burnt! I now had reason to believe, that if the laws of our country favored the blood-spilling spirit of Anti-Christ, the former times of strife and vengeance would soon roll on again, when one professed Christian, could triumphantly cut off the head of another, and rejoice to see a brother dissenter, expire in the flames, if he should not subscribe to his human-made creed, and receive all his unscriptural dogmas! When I would go to the meetings of those people, I could hear them pray for christian union—tell us to love one another—could hear them shout, and praise God, &c. How inconsistent! What disparity between example and precept! What hypocrisy! How degrading to the cause of Christ.