Mormon Publications: 19th Century - [Eight pamphlets on the first principles of the gospel]
PRATT, Orson. [
Eight pamphlets on the first principles of the gospel. Liverpool: 1856-7]. 8 pts. (128p.) 24 cm.
View Document
Orson Pratt assumed the presidency of the European/British Mission in July 1856, having previously served as president of the British Mission from 1848-1850. During his earlier presidency Pratt wrote sixteen missionary tracts under the title
A Series of Pamphlets. [These pamphlets are included as one of the titles in
19th Century Mormon Publications]. With his usual energy, Pratt began another series of pamphlets less than a month after assuming his European Mission.
Written in the form of chapters of a larger book, these pamphlets were issued separately so they could be circulated as missionary tracts. But it was clearly Orson Pratt’s intention to ultimately gather them together as chapters of the definitive exposition of Mormon doctrine. This was never done; and it is not known if Orson Pratt had other chapters in mind in addition to those which were published.
In all, eight pamphlets were printed in this series:
Chapter I. The true faith [August 25, 1856];
Chapter II. True repentance [September 8, 1856];
Chapter III. Water baptism [September 22, 1856];
Chapter IV. The Holy Spirit [November 15, 1856];
Chapter V. Spiritual Gifts [December 15, 1856];
Chapter VI. Necessity for miracles [January 15, 1857];
Chapter VII. Universal apostasy, or the seventeen centuries of darkness [February 15, 1857]; and
Chapter VIII. Latter-day kingdom, or the preparation for the second advent [March 15, 1857]. Each contained 16 pages, the whole continuously paged. The chapter heading and title were printed as a caption title; Orson Pratt’s name as author and the place and date of publication were printed along the spine of each signature. The pamphlets were issued without wrappers; but in some instances an area conference printed a set of wrappers for those tracts to be distributed in the conference.
Excerpted and edited from Peter Crawley and Chad J. Flake,
A Mormon Fifty: an exhibition in the Harold B. Lee Library in conjunction with the annual conference of the Mormon History Association. (Provo, Utah, Friends of the Brigham Young University Library, 1984). Item 48, p. [34-35].
Used by permission of the authors.
BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY