--- title: A Voice of Warning and Instruction to All People description: Ninth edition (Liverpool, 1866) of Parley P. Pratt's 1837 book setting out Mormon beliefs for the general public, with the author's prefaces to the European and American editions. authors: - Pratt, Parley Parker collections: - theology tags: - theology - doctrine - 19th-century - mormon-writings - missionary-tract published: "1866" publisher: Brigham Young, Jun. publisher_place: Liverpool edition: Ninth edition (Liverpool, 1866); first published in New York in 1837 language: en type: book reference: 'Parley P. Pratt, *A Voice of Warning and Instruction to All People*, 9th ed. (Liverpool: Brigham Young, Jun., 1866), "Preface to the Second European Edition."' source: url: https://archive.org/details/ofwarninginvoice00pratrich identifier: ofwarninginvoice00pratrich scan: University of California Libraries (Bancroft Library) copy of the 1866 Liverpool edition, Internet Archive transcription: OCR text of the 1866 scan, with line-break hyphens joined, running heads and page numbers removed and obvious scan errors corrected; printed pagination kept as page markers. The 1837 first edition (Internet Archive item per_utah-and-the-mormons_pp-pratt_1837) and the 1854 Liverpool printings exist on the Internet Archive, but their OCR is too poor to reproduce reliably. curator_note: Chapter VII sets the Doctrine of Christ and the doctrines of men in parallel columns in the original; the text here follows the scan reading order. Treated as a Mormon primary source, included for historical and doctrinal study; inclusion does not imply endorsement. rights: status: public-domain basis: 1866 publication (Liverpool; text first published in New York in 1837); published before 1931, so public domain in the United States source: https://archive.org/details/ofwarninginvoice00pratrich publication_year: 1866 note: Earliest edition with reliable OCR; the 1837 first edition scan was not usable. --- # Preface to the Second European Edition WHEN the following Work was first published in America, in 1837, it was but little known, and seemed to meet with little or no encouragement. Months passed away, and very few copies were sold or read. But, to the astonishment of the author, it worked itself into notice more and more, by the blessing of God, and by virtue of its own real merits ; till, in two years, the first edition, consisting of three thousand copies, was all sold, and many more were called for. A new edition was published in 1839, consisting of two thousand five hundred copies : these were also disposed of. Other three editions have since been published, making in all thirteen thousand copies now disposed of, and the demand is still increasing both in America and Europe. It has already found its way into most of the American States, and into the provinces of the Canadas, as well as many parts of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. It has visited the cottages of the humble, and the parlours of the great; and, from the best information we have on the subject, very few have risen from its perusal without a deep and settled conviction of the truth of its principles. The author has now in possession the testimony of hundreds of people, from different states and nations, all bearing witness that this Work has been a means, in the hands of God, of saving them from infidelity, from sectarian error and delusion, and of guiding them into the light of TRUTH. All these considerations, and an intense desire to impart the truth to mankind as widely as possible, have induced the author to send forth this new edition ; which he greatly desires may prove a blessing to thousands who are yet grovelling in darkness and superstition, and lead them to the true fold of Grod. If there be anything to admire, or anything praiseworthy, in this Work, the author has no EUEOPEAN PREFACE. v claim to the honour or the praise ; it is justly due to him who is the Source and Fountain of all TRUTH. The author was a husbandman, inured to the plough — unpolished by education, untaught in the schools of modern Sectarianism, (falsely called " Divinity") — reared in the wilds of America, with a mind independent, untrammelled and free. He drank of the pure fountain of Truth, unsullied and unmixed, as it unfolded in majesty of light and splendour from the opening heavens in all the simplicity of its nature. As such it has flowed from his pen in the following volume ; not veiled in mystery; not dressed in the pomp of high sounding names, and titles, and learned terms ; not adorned in the gay attire of eloquence flowing from the imagination and the passions ; but standing forth in the undress of its own native modesty, as if conscious of the purity and innocence of its nature. He is indebted not only to the Spirit of Truth for the principles contained in this Work, but also to several men, who have been made the instruments in the hands of God to Vlll EUROPEAN PREFACE, reveal the knowledge of God to this generation, and to be the founders and leaders of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Among the foremost of these, he would make honourable mention of President Joseph Smith, by whose instrumentality most of these glorious truths (so well known to the ancients) have been restored to the knowledge of the world — and whose zeal, labours, sufferings, and subsequent murder will stand forth as a bright memorial to all succeeding ages, and be celebrated by happy millions yet unborn. With an assurance that the principles of this Work will yet prevail over the whole earth, this new edition of the VOICE OF WARN- ING is now sent forth ; and should the author be called to sacrifice his life for the cause of truth, he will have the consolation that it will be said of him, as it was said of Abel, viz., " HE, BEING DEAD, YET SPEAKETH." PARLEY P. PRATT. Manchester, England . Dec. 4, 1846,