Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 2, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 November 1858 — A New Religious Seet in Iowa. [ARTICLE]

A New Religious Seet in Iowa.

[Erorn the lowa State Democrat

Some -sixty or seventy .miljs north of! Council B.lu't's, in the ebuntv Of Monona,! about filteen miles from the Missouri, riverH there is a town, containing six o|r eight hun- I fdred inhabitants, gen-erally known as Prep-! aration. This town is the Zion of a hew body oft religious enthusiasts, who call' themselves “Conjepnjzites,” and their system of relig-■ ion or religious organization “the Cdniepre-' zion,!’ the meaning of which term remains to lite Gentile world a profoundijnystery. At the head of the organization is a man by name Charles I>. Thompson, who is besides the editor of- a weekly newspaper called The Newspaper. This paper is.large ; -w .-11 printed, and, upon political and general subjects is edited with much ability. <)j this sheet one or two page.*are usually devoted to the publication <|.f what are called “open lett ws” upoji religious subjects, ' addressed by Cha les B. Thompson, as fellows: '■The Chief Apostolic Pastor and Evangelical Bishop; To all the Ciders of Israel, i F.vahgelical and Traveling Presbyters of| the Ecclesiastical Kingdom, and! to Bishops, Presbyters,. Heaeuns and members of the ■Gotijeprezion, scattered abroad! throughout .all the vuorlid, sj-mleth greeting.y These letters are all dated at “the tower of the flock,” and are most curious specimens of imiomprehensible cant, being made up oi . passages from tii_• Bible, extracts from “th? Ih.mk (if the Law ami C-.ivjuant.of Isr i--',’.' am! remarks by tin- “Ctii-if Apostoli,.cal P.i-t .’r.’ 5 ittdiscpmi--lately njixed up to-’ get her. From .what we are si.io to learn from those’ ie.ftei-s,.tills c'U'i-ms sect.'believes in th<- Bild.! as the 'ward <>f God; hilt tils > holds th -i it is id-a measure .done away with by. m-w re'.’ t ?!aiions made sine - tfielyear 1848', by “tire voice i>f Baneemy” through the medium olj the “Chief Apostoiietil Bishop.”, T!i-'.e t,'!'W revelations uro sty led " the Law and t'-L'i n ints ol Israel.’’ The .property id' tlm organization is held in < - n. ,;ml th? mi >gs of all are tiiro vn into tin.- common stock; s um-what a 11, r the m .i-it- r ih • S.h :kers. The people ar - .- o : to i> • qui"t ’and orderly in their 1-p >?■ -i oL m-r .l i.i their eiptoms, anft" m >.'*. d -v.-(-■(! ly and lilimilv attached to their relig! '.i or ,-yst- in i>i' boi-ief. However strange it m v appear, this or-g.-inizat ion bus (luring th.- I i.-t year rapidly inc:-.-.,- j fitofn fifty 1 < iglit hufiffred members,, and is still,, receiving largo accessions , to its members.