BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY Pratt, Parley Parker? An epistle of Demetrius, Junior; the silversmith, to the workmen of like occupation, and all others whom it may concern,—greeting: showing the best way to preserve our pure religion, & to put down the Latter Day Saints. (Printed for Elder E. P. Maginn.) [Peterborough, New Hampshire? 1842?]
Broadside 36.5 x 24 cm
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Traditionally An Epistle of Demetrius has been attributed to Parley P. Pratt. And this seems clear from the work itself, for it bears his distinctive style. The first edition of this work was published in Manchester, probably in 1840.
The context of An Epistle of Demetrius comes from Acts 19:21–41, which tells of the opposition generated by Demetrius, an Ephesian silversmith, to the teachings of Paul which posed a threat to the silversmiths who earned their livings making religious objects. The broadside makes a nineteenth–century Demetrius speak for the sectarian clergy in opposition to the Latter-day Saints, and it is hardly subtle in suggesting that the clergy attack the Saints only out of self–interest.
Two features of this edition of An Epistle of Demetrius allow a guess at the place and date of printing: Manchester has been replaced by America in the first paragraph, and the reference to the age of the Church has been changed from about 10 to about 12 years—suggesting, of course, that it is an 1842 American imprint.
Eli P. Maginn gained some notoriety in the early 1840s because of his skill as a preacher. An Englishman, born about 1819, he seems to have joined the Church in Canada in 1837 and thereafter worked in Canada and the eastern United States as a missionary. He labored in the vicinity of Peterborough, New Hampshire, from 1841 to 1843, and succeeded in raising up seven branches of the church. By May 18, 1842, he was a member of the quorums of seventy, and on July 29, 1843, was sustained as the presiding elder in Boston, Lowell, and Peterborough. Six weeks later he participated in a conference in Boston with Brigham Young and some of the Twelve, and then he dropped from sight. No mention of him occurs in the records of the LDS Church after November 1843.
On March 22, 1842, from Salem, Massachusetts, Maginn wrote of his activities to Joseph Smith and remarked: “I feel to rejoice in the prosperity of the work of the God of the Saints, which is truly prosperous in New England, the engine of eternal truth has been called into successful opposition against the crafts, and systems of “the like occupation,” and notwithstanding the contest has been exceeding fierce, the enemy being active in the usual way with falsehood, and misrepresentation, the victory is the Lord’s.”
The references to crafts and like occupation suggest Maginn had An Epistle of Demetrius in mind when he wrote this letter, so it seems likely he published the broadside about the same time. This edition was reprinted from the Manchester edition, with the two textually the same—including an obvious typographical error—except for three trifling changes in addition to those mentioned above.
Excerpted and edited from Peter Crawley, A Descriptive Bibliography of the Mormon Church. Volume One, 1830-1847. (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University, Religious Studies Center, [1997]). Item 143 p.186–87.
Used by permission of the author and the Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University