Martin, Moses.  A treatise on the fulness of the everlasting gospel, setting forth its first principles, promises, and blessings.  In which some of the most prominent features that have ever characterized that system, when on the earth, are made manifest; and that it will continue to do so, so long as it can be found on the earth.  By Elder Moses Martin, minister of the gospel.  Read this little book and judge for yourselves; for the wise man has said, that he that judges a matter before hearing both sides of the question, is a fool.  Therefore read, and then judge.  New-York: J. W. Harrison, Printer; cor: Pearl and Catham-sts. 1842.
64 pp. 15.5 cm.

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Moses Martin was born in New Hampshire, June 1, 1812.  When he was a young boy he moved to Pennsylvania with his family, and there, in February 1833, was converted to Mormonism by John F. Boynton and Evan M. Greene, who also brought Benjamin Winchester and Jedediah M. Grant into the Church about the same time.  Martin marched with Zion’s Camp and distinguished himself by being court–martialed for falling asleep on sentry duty.  Despite this blot on his military record, he was picked for the First Quorum of Seventy the following year and sent out as a missionary.  During 1846–48 he labored in England, serving as president of the London and Manchester conferences, and in March 1848 he sailed for America with a company of emigrants.  At the April 1850 general conference, Brigham Young publicly excoriated him and cut him off from the Church, apparently because he had taken a plural wife in England.  Martin moved to northern California and then, in 1857, to San Bernardino, where he lived until his death, May 7, 1899.

Martin published A Treatise on the Fulness of the Everlasting Gospel while he was proselytizing in New York.  It was undoubtedly printed between July 21, 1842, when he took out a New York copyright, and October 13, 1842, when he deposited a copy with the district court.

A Treatise is an apologetic work which attempts to validate the claims of the Latter–day Saints by placing Mormonism in the context of Judeo–Christian history.  The main text begins with an argument—entirely reminiscent of the Voice of Warning (see this digital collection)—that the scriptures should be read literally. The book next infers that the gospel is the same for each generation, and that when God wishes to restore his kingdom upon the earth, he will reveal himself to some man and delegate him to organize his kingdom.  It then discuses, in order, the principal Old Testament prophets and the primitive Christian church, emphasizing those characteristics it sees as shared with Mormonism.  It concludes with the declaration that Joseph Smith was God’s instrument in restoring his church in fulfillment of these prophecies.

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 162, p. 208-09.

Used by permission of the author and the Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University.