The Gospel Reflector, in which the doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is set forth, and scripture evidence adduced to establish it. A brief treatise upon the most important prophecies recorded in the Old and New Testaments, which relate to the great work of God of the latter-days. In short, the subjects of the gospel of Christ, apostasy of the Jews and Gentiles, reorganization of the Kingdom of God and renewal of the gospel dispensation, the appearing of the Book of Mormon, the restoration of the House of Israel, second coming of Christ and destruction of the wicked, millennium, &c., &c., are treated upon. Edited by B. Winchester, presiding elder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in Philadelphia. Philadelphia, Brown, Bicking & Guilbert, Printers, No. 56 North Third Street, 1841.
2 p.l., [1]–316 p. 23 cm.
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The idea of publishing an independent magazine in support of the Church was in Benjamin Winchester’s mind as early as the spring of 1840. This idea must have been reinforced by the success of the Millennial Star which he observed during a trip to England in the fall of 1840, and by Parley Pratt’s ambitious publishing ventures which helped finance Parley’s mission. Between January 1 and June 15, 1841, Winchester published an issue of the Gospel Reflector every two weeks, making twelve numbers in all, the whole continuously paged. Each bears the caption title: The Gospel Reflector. Published by B. Winchester, Pastor of the Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Philadelphia. The individual numbers were issued with paper wrappers, but no copy in wrappers has survived. With the close of the volume in June 1841, the twelve numbers were bound with a title page and table of contents; and it is in this form that the Gosepl Reflector is invariably found.
Like other Mormon periodicals, it borrowed heavily from other sources. But the bulk of the articles were written by Winchester, and the influence of Parley Pratt’s Voice of Warning—explicitly acknowledged in the first number—is pervasive. Winchester moved beyond the Voice of Warning, however, by marshaling in support of his arguments a large collection of biblical proof-texts, many appearing in a Mormon publication for the first time. Here the Gospel Reflector marked a shift away from the polemics of the preceding four years and toward the more apologetic form of writing which would characterize the productions of Orson Spencer and Orson Pratt in the latter part of the decade.
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 20, p. [17–18].
Used by permission of the authors.
BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY