1841 Preamble and Declaration of the Noxubee Association (Mississippi)

THE GENERAL CHARACTER of the disciples of Christ is that of a suffering people; and, notwithstanding some intervals of repose, the progress of the Gospel is, in general, traced in the blood of the Saints. And their successfully fighting a good fight and keeping the faith, against the most formidable opposition— not by banding together and fighting with carnal weapons, but by earnestly contending for the faith once delivered to the Saints, and submitting to all the wrongs legally heaped upon them—is a clear manifestation that the power is of God, and not of man.