Defense of the Faith and the Saints (Volume 1 of 2)
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Title: Defense of the Faith and the Saints (Volume 1 of 2)
Author: B. H. Roberts
Release date: December 21, 2014 [eBook #47730]
Most recently updated: October 24, 2024
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DEFENSE OF THE FAITH AND THE SAINTS (VOLUME 1 OF 2) ***
DEFENSE OF THE FAITH
AND THE SAINTS
BY
B. H. ROBERTS
AUTHOR OF
The Gospel
Outlines of Ecclesiastical History
New Witness for God
Mormon Doctrine of Deity
Etc., Etc.
VOLUME I.
Salt Lake City
1907
GENERAL FOREWORD.
Fifteen years ago, in announcing what was then a list of prospective
books, the writer declared his intention to publish a "Scrap Book,"
promising that it should be a choice selection of his miscellaneous
writings, and mentioned as among the probable articles, Corianton, a
Book of Mormon story; Mariam, a story of Zarahemla; Spirit Promptings,
etc., etc., all which are here recalled as foreshadowing the author's
intention at that time. About then, however, the writer's energies
began to be devoted more exclusively to doctrinal and historical
themes, and one circumstance after another arose which called him to
the defense of the Mormon faith and the Mormon people, so that the
character of his literary efforts were turned away from the line of
purpose fiction work he had proposed to himself. But the scrap-book,
nevertheless, became a possibility through the multiplication of the
defensive articles, though its character would be changed, owing the
change in the writer's line of work. Through the years have elapsed
since the "Scrap Book" idea was first entertained as a depository of
the author's miscellaneous writings, a great mass of material in the
form of discourses and papers, contributed to magazines and newspapers
has accumulated and it is from this mass of materials that following
collection of articles has been chosen; and as there is still much
material on hand, and the end of the writer's work is not yet in
sight, he has ventured to call this Volume I, indicating by that the
probability that other volumes in time will follow, if the writer is
not mistaken in his judgment as to the demand for such publications.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
GENERAL FOREWORD
PART I
POSITION AND DEFENSE
I.
MORMONISM.
A paper submitted to the Parliament of Religions at the World's
Columbian Exposition, at Chicago, 1903
II.
THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE CHURCH TO THE CHRISTIAN SECTS: THE DOCTRINE OF
TWO CHURCHES ONLY.
An Address delivered at the Seventy-sixth Annual Conference of the
Church in April, 1906
III.
SOME RECENT LITERATURE ON MORMONISM
I. "The Founder of Mormonism" (Riley)
II. "The Mormon Prophet" (Dougal)
III. "The Lions of the Lord" (Wilson)
IV.
A BRIEF DEFENSE OF THE MORMON PEOPLE
I. Eastern Eulogy of Mormon's System ("M")
II. Defense of the Mormon People against "M's" Attack
V.
WHICH OF THE SECTS HAS PERSECUTED MORMONISM MOST?
I. A Letter to D. A. Holcomb, Esq
II. Views of a Jewish Rabbi (Reynolds)
III. Bishop Scanlan's Attitude
VI.
HOW!
A Discourse delivered in the Salt Lake Tabernacle, 1903, replying to
certain strictures by the Presbyterian General Assembly, convened in
Los Angeles, 1903
VII.
RELATION OF CHURCH AND STATE. RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN AMERICA.
I. The Relations of the Church to the State
II. Jefferson's Contribution to Religious Liberty in America
VIII.
CONDITIONS IN UTAH--1905.
I. Speech of Hon. Thomas Kearns in the Senate of the United States
II. Answer to Senator Kearns
PART II.
BOOK OF MORMON CONTROVERSIAL QUESTIONS.
I.
THE MANNER OF TRANSLATING THE BOOK OF MORMON.
I. The Manner of Translation
II. Accounting for Evident Transcriptions of Bible Passages in the
Translation of the Nephite Record
III. Answer to Questions Respecting the "Manual Theory" of Translating
the Book of Mormon
IV. Correspondence on the Subject of the "Manual Theory" of Translation
II.
A BRIEF DEBATE ON THE BOOK OF MORMON.
I. The Objector's First Paper
II. The First Reply
III. The Objector's Second Paper
IV. The Second Reply
III.
"THE FIFTH GOSPEL"
A Reply to Rev. Wm. M. Paden's Criticism of Third Nephi,--the "Fifth
Gospel"
IV.
MORMON VIEWS OF AMERICA.
I. A Prophetic Incident
II. America the Land of Zion and of Joseph
PART III.
HISTORICAL AND DOCTRINAL PAPERS.
I.
THE LORD'S DAY.
A justification for Regarding the First Day of the Week as the
Christian Sabbath, or "The Lord's Day"
II.
ANGLICAN ORDERS--DECISION OF LEO XIII CONSIDERED--THE PROTESTANT
DILEMMA.
A Consideration of the Question of Divine Authority
III.
REFORMATION OR REVOLUTION?
A Study of the Great Sixteenth Century Movement Led by Martin Luther,
and Others
IV.
REVELATION AND INSPIRATION.
A correction of some misapprehensions that arose concerning Mormon
views on the subjects of Revelation and Inspiration during the hearings
had in the "Smoot Case" before the United States Senate Committee on
Privileges and Elections, 1903-1907
Part I.
Position and Defense.
I.
MORMONISM.
FOREWORD.
The following paper was prepared by the writer for presentation at the
Parliament of Religions, held at the World's Columbian Exposition,
Chicago, 1893. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was not
invited to participate in the proceedings of that Parliament, although
Mormonism is the most distinctively American religious movement yet
developed in our country; and as such the position and doctrine of
the Church should have been of special interest in such a gathering
as the Parliament purported to be. Learning that the Church would not
be invited to the Parliament, under a sense of duty to make known
the faith and message to the world, her presiding authorities sought
opportunity for a hearing from the Parliament platform. After much
solicitation and persistent urging as to the right of the Church to
a hearing in such a gathering, a reluctant consent was finally given
for a presentation of the following paper. But after this consent was
given, a very unworthy effort was made by the President and chairman
of the Parliament to side-track the paper by asking the representative
of the Church to read it in one of the auxiliary departments of the
Parliament,--namely, the Scientific Department, which meetings were
held in a room capable of accommodating about fifty hearers, and
presided over by Mr. Mervin Marie Snell. In response to that suggestion
the writer, who had the honor to the representative of the Church to
the Parliament, replied that such a hearing as could be had in Hall
III (Scientific Department of the Parliament) was not the kind of
hearing the Mormon Church had asked for or could accept. She had asked
to speak from the same platform from which the great religious faiths
had spoken--Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism--from the platform
of Columbus Hall, where her position and principles could be compared
and contrasted with the viewpoint and doctrines of other religions,
by the enlightened thought of the age. The officers in charge of the
Parliament, however, refused to change the terms on which a hearing
could be obtained for Mormonism, and the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints had the distinction of being refused a hearing in the
World's Parliament of Religions.
I.
"MORMONISM."
One of the most instructive as well as the most important religious
movements of the nineteenth century is the rise of what the world
has learned to call "Mormonism." In an age which believed that
God's voice would no more be heard giving revelation; that said the
volume of scripture was completed and forever closed; that declared
angels would no more visit the earth to communicate the divine will;
and that sedulously taught that all miracles had ceased--the world
beholds a religion arising based upon these forces that men had been
taught to believe had forever become inactive. True, it has met with
many obstacles in consequence of making these rejected stones of
ancient Christianity the chief corner stones of its structure; but
notwithstanding the fierceness of the opposition it has aroused, it is
now so firmly established that it claims the respectful attention of
the world.
New religions, when struggling for existence in the face of adversity,
with few followers and no influence, may expect to be treated with
silent contempt by the supposedly orthodox; but when a religion has
fought its way through all opposition to a position of influence, and
counts within its pale hundreds of thousands of sincere and intelligent
followers, it gives proof that its doctrines contain some measure
of truth at least, and by reason of that fact, has a claim upon the
respect and thoughtful consideration of mankind.
Such is the position of "Mormonism." Sixty-three years ago [A] the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized with but
six members, in the State of New York. That organization was effected
in a log room not more than fourteen feet square, by men who made no
pretensions to ecclesiastical scholarship, but claimed to be directed
by divine revelation. It could but be expected that the great Christian
sects, by which the new church was surrounded, and that considered
themselves strongly entrenched behind a fullness of religious
truth--would scoff at the pretensions of these men. But when, after
a lapse of sixty-three years, the work having so humble an origin is
still in existence with a membership of over three hundred thousand,
it is time the scoffing ceased and earnest attention be given to its
pretensions, especially when account is taken of its history between
the two points indicated--its origin and present standing.
[Footnote A: This was written in 1893.]
Within that period it has fallen to the lot of the "Mormon" Church
to make more history than any other religious denomination of modern
times. Ridicule has laughed at it; Satire has mocked it; Bigotry has
refused to hear its defense; Hatred has slandered it; Intolerance has
armed the red, right hind of persecution against it; the Government
of the United States has seized upon and escheated its property; Mob
Violence has opposed its promulgation by murdering its missionaries
and driving its devotees from city to city, from county to county,
from state to state; and the Civil Authorities refusing the protection
guaranteed alike in state and national constitutions, at last permitted
those who accepted its faith to be exiled from their native country.
"Mormonism," however, has survived not only the violence which murdered
its prophets, burned the houses of the Saints, laid waste their fields
and destroyed their temples, but also an exodus which, for the distance
covered and the dangers encountered, has not a parallel in ancient or
modern history. Its followers settling in a desert land a thousand
miles from the frontiers of civilization, like drilled cohorts made
war upon the sterile elements of the inter-Rocky Mountain region, and
like magic there sprang into existence, as the result of their untiring
efforts and divine blessing, cities, towns, hamlets; temples, churches,
schoolhouses; peaceful homes surrounded by fruitful fields and
gardens and orchards, which, with the peace and good order everywhere
prevailing, challenge the admiration of all who become acquainted with
the Saints and the land they inhabit.
Meantime, the Elders of the Church, full of sublime faith and trust in
God, without purse or scrip, have visited nearly all the nations of the
earth and have preached the gospel to them. Not, perhaps, with that
nice skill and polish which refined education in renowned institutions
of learning may give, but in the power and demonstration of God's Holy
Spirit; and nearly every nation under the whole heaven has given to the
new faith some of its sons and daughters. By reason of this missionary
work "Mormonism" is becoming recognized in the earth as one of the
potent religious forces of the age, and as such claims the right to
be heard in this Parliament, in giving expression to its faith and
distinguishing characteristics.
"Mormonism," like all religions which have any hold either upon the
intelligence or affections of men, has, as its foundation principle,
faith in God, the Creator of heaven and earth and the Power by
which they are sustained. But "Mormonism" not only believes in this
fundamental truth of all religions, but it has another belief equal
unto it, viz., that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and who through the
atonement made by him on Calvary, is the Savior of the world. These two
personages and the Holy Ghost, that divine Spirit which bears, record
of God and operates throughout the universe as his witness and agent,
constitute the God-head--the Holy Trinity, the Grand Presidency of
heaven and earth. In attributes, in purpose, in will, these three are
one; perfectly united in mind and action.
To this great Presidency, "Mormonism" teaches that man owes praise,
adoration, and as best of all worship--obedience; for submission of
the mind and the will to God, is alone true worship. Such a result
as this can only be obtained through faith, for he who cometh thus
to God must believe that he is. But the evidences of God's existence
are so overwhelming that none shall be able to find an excuse for
unbelief. Such evidences are to be found in the works of God as seen
in the works of nature. The orderly procession of the seasons proclaim
it; and when man uplifts his eyes from earth to the dome of heaven
stretched above him, he beholds, like the Psalmist, the evidences of
God's existence and of his majesty and glory. The unbroken line of
testimony of prophets and righteous men as recorded in the Jewish
Scriptures, both in the old and New Testament, bear witness of it.
But to this testimony, the common inheritance of all Christendom,
"Mormonism" adds special evidences of its own. It has prophets, who,
through righteousness and faith, coupled with the grace of God, have
stood in his presence, heard his voice, and beheld in part, his glory.
They bear record that God lives, and that Jesus is the Christ; and that
testimony, like the ancient prophets, they have sealed with their blood.
To the volume of Jewish scripture "Mormonism" adds a volume equal in
bulk and equal in importance to the New Testament--the Book of Mormon.
This book is an abridgement of more extensive records kept by the
ancient inhabitants of the western hemisphere, the existence of which
was revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith by the ministry of an angel
and translated by him into the English language by means of the Urim
and Thummim hidden with the golden plates upon which the record was
engraven.
From this new volume of scripture we learn that the mercies and favors
of God are not confined to the inhabitants of the eastern hemisphere;
but he of whom it is said that he is "no respecter of persons," had
regard for the races of men who inhabited the western half of the
world. He raised up wise men and prophets among them to whom he
revealed his will, made known his purposes concerning the creation of
man, and taught him the way of life. Previous to the coming of the
Son of God in the flesh, their prophets taught this ancient people as
Isaiah, Jeremiah and others taught the Jews, to look forward to the
coming of Messiah, to make an atonement for the sins of the world.
And when Jesus had completed his mission to the Jews in Palestine, in
fulfilment of his own prophecy which says, "I lay down my life for
the sheep; and other sheep I have which are not of this fold: them
also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be
one fold and one shepherd,"--in fulfilment of this, I say, he visited
the land of America, revealed himself to the people, taught the same
divine truths which warmed the hearts and purified the lives of men of
good will in Palestine; gave them the same ordinances of salvation;
and organized the church in their midst for their instruction in
righteousness.
Of these things their poets sang, their prophets wrote; and when,
through wickedness, anarchy overthrew their civilization, righteous men
hid away their records that in the last days they might come forth and
be united with the testimony of prophets and men of God who had lived
in other lands; to the end that the evidences of God's existence, the
Messiahship of Jesus Christ, and the truth of the gospel might be so
increased that unbelief would have no excuse for its infidelity; and
that they who scoff at faith might be reproved and learn to believe.
One thing has occurred to me while in attendance at this Parliament
which has raised in importance the humble part allotted to me in it;
and that is, while we have heard from this platform voices from all
nations and races of men--voices from Asia, from Europe, from Africa
and the islands of the sea; we have had voices from the dead religions
and the living religions, and they have united in saying that in all
these lands and in all ages God has not left himself without witnesses
among them, but has raised up prophets among them who taught them at
least some measure of the truth--perhaps all they could accept and
incorporate in their lives. But where is the voice to tell us that God
remembered the races and nations which flourished for ages throughout
this whole western hemisphere before Europeans discovered it? Races
that had attained a high state of civilization, too, as proclaimed by
the ruins of their temples and cities. Are we to suppose that they
were without God while all the rest of mankind found him? Perish the
thought. If no other voice is to be heard proclaiming that God was just
and merciful to these races, and that he revealed himself to them--then
let the pleasing task be mine, and here in this august presence I
proclaim the revelation of their record which bears witness of God's
goodness to them; and that record is the Book of Mormon.
A word further in regard to that book. Men have usually satisfied
themselves as to its origin by accepting that flimsiest of all theories
that it was the production of one Rev. Solomon Spaulding, who wrote it
as a romance. This theory of its origin, without any investigation, has
generally satisfied those who have heard it. In 1886, however, the long
lost manuscript of the Rev. Mr. Spaulding unexpectedly came to light,
has been identified beyond the peradventure of a doubt, and is now in
the possession of President James H. Fairchild of Oberlin College,
Ohio, or rather is in the museum of that institution for the inspection
of all. It has been published by the Church, every word of it, with
even the erasures made by its author so far as they can be deciphered,
and lo there is not an incident, not a circumstance, not a proper
name either of place or person, nor any similarity of construction or
purpose common to the Book of Mormon and Mr. Spaulding's production.
President Fairchild himself says that whatever theory shall be put
forth for the origin of the Book of Mormon, the Spaulding theory must
be abandoned.
By accepting the records of the ancient peoples of America the
"Mormons" have double the amount of evidence for the existence of God
and the truth of the gospel that other people possess; and since faith
must ever have its foundation in evidence, the enlarged evidences
accepted by "Mormons" must account for that mightier faith which both
their sufferings and their works proclaim they possess.
In "Mormon" theology the atonement of Jesus Christ redeems all mankind
from the consequences of Adam's transgression, irrespective of their
belief or unbelief, their obedience or their disobedience, their
righteousness or their unrighteousness. It is manifestly evident that
the "Fall of Adam" was essential to the accomplishment of the divine
purposes of God in the earth-life of man; which earth-life was designed
for man's progress in that eternal existence which unquestionably is
his. But being a necessity from the nature of things, an essential to
the production of those conditions which would place man in a state of
probation, in which he might gain those experiences, demonstrate that
fidelity, and acquire the strength that shall make him both worthy of,
and able to bear, that eternal weight of glory designed of God for
those able to overcome the evils of earth-life--its temptations and
sins--the "Fall of Adam," I say, being necessary to bring to pass the
conditions of this earth probation for man, it is but just that there
should be some means of free and universal redemption from the effects
of it. For while man, may be held accountable for his personal conduct
under given conditions that do not take from him his freedom, nor the
power to will and to do what is required, he may not in justice be held
accountable for the existence of necessary conditions that establish
the state of probation under which he consents to work. Free and
universal redemption, therefore, is provided for man from those effects
that result from necessity; and hence the Church teaches that "men will
be punished for their own Sins and not for Adam's transgressions." [A]
[Footnote A: A slight alteration has been made in this paragraph since
the publication of this article in the _Improvement Era_.]
But quite apart from the transgression of Adam is man's individual
violations of the laws of righteousness--violations of the laws of
God in which man's agency is exercised; for he sins at times wilfully
and wantonly; knowing the right, he dares to do wrong. Here justice
has a claim upon him and may demand the payment of the penalty to the
uttermost. But the mercy of God as well as his justice is active, and
offers redemption from the consequences of individual transgressions on
the condition of obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.
These laws are not intricate, baffling the understanding. The
ordinances are neither numerous nor difficult of performance; but in
the plan of man's salvation, as in all other works of Deity, simplicity
marks its outlines and efficiency justifies its adoption. The laws and
ordinances referred to have not for their chief object the propitiation
of the anger of God as the old Pagan ordinances of religion had;
but on the contrary, by their nature and operation, they affect the
character of man, and are calculated to so purify and exalt his nature
as to prepare him to dwell in endless felicity in the presence and
companionship of his Maker.
Of necessity Faith in God and in this plan of salvation is of first
importance, and must be an active principle in the mind, for without it
men would consider themselves under no obligation to yield obedience
to any ordinance whatsoever. The reason the infidel does not repent,
or perform any other act of obedience, is because he has or pretends
to have no faith in the existence of God. As from the rising sun there
beams those rays of light which streak the heavens with glory, so from
faith spring those acts of obedience required in the gospel of Jesus
Christ. First among these acts is repentance, which consists not alone
in deep and heartfelt sorrow for sin, but coupled with it must be a
firm determination of amendment of conduct. It must be a godly sorrow
working a reformation of life. Following repentance comes baptism in
water by which men take on them the name of Christ, through which
ordinance also they receive, when it is preceded by faith and true
repentance, forgiveness of sins. But even after a remission of sins,
such is the weakness of human nature that man is not able to stand by
his own strength, he needs divine aid: hence, God has ordained that
through the ordinance of confirmation by the laying on of hands, the
Holy Ghost shall be imparted unto man as a comforter and guide, and by
giving heed to his voice man shall overcome the old inclinations to
evil, and at last so purify and sanctify himself that he will be worthy
to dwell in the presence of his God.
As a further means of grace, the Church of Jesus Christ recognizes
the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, by which men may frequently renew
their covenant with God and witness to each other that they are willing
to take upon them the name of Jesus Christ, gratefully remember the
atonement he has made for them, express a willingness to keep his
commandments, and by doing so draw to themselves a constant renewal of
the Spirit of God.
Few and simple as these ordinances are, the Church teaches that in
order to be of effect they must be administered by divine authority. No
man can take the honor upon himself to administer in things pertaining
to God. He must be called by direct revelation from God, or be
commissioned by a divinely authorized power. Here is where "Mormonism"
comes in conflict with all Christendom. Men even in the early centuries
of the Christian era having transgressed the laws, changed the
ordinances, broke the covenant, and lost divine authority to administer
the of Jesus Christ--though the letter of the Gospel remained in part
with the world in the writings of the ancient Apostles--there arose a
necessity for the re-opening of the heavens and a restoration of that
priesthood which alone can administer the ordinances of salvation.
That is the significance of the revelations of God and the visitation
of angels to Joseph Smith. To him was revealed anew the gospel, to
him was committed a new dispensation of it, and angels bestowed upon
him the apostleship, the fullness of all priesthood which God gives
to man in the earth, and by its power Joseph Smith and those to whom
he transmitted authority preached the gospel. By the power of that
priesthood they organized the Church of Christ never more to be
destroyed; sustained and upheld by that power the Church has outlived
all the opposition arrayed against it, and stands today planted
impregnably upon the eternal foundations of truth.
But notwithstanding the absence of the gospel and the authority to
administer its ordinances, the children of God living through those
dark ages will not be deprived of its saving powers. That must be a
very contracted view of the great plan of human redemption which would
confine its operations to the brief span of man's existence in this
life. "Mormonism" holds no such view. On the contrary, it teaches
that the gospel is everlasting; that it walks beside man throughout
eternity; and means for its application to him have been provided by
the mercy of God. It may be that "Mormonism" does not stand alone in
this broad conception of the application of the gospel to our race;
but while others are speculating as to whether it is possible or not
for man to attain unto repentance and forgiveness of sins in his
future existence, "Mormonism" is erecting temples to the name of the
Most High, and within their sacred walls the Saints are vicariously
performing the ordinances of salvation for those who have passed from
the earth when the gospel and authority to administer it were not among
the children of men. Such is the conception that Mormonism holds and
teaches of the gospel of Jesus Christ and its application to mankind;
and surely one may see in this conception the fullness of that glorious
scripture which says: God, our Savior, would have all men to be saved,
and come unto the knowledge of the truth. (I Timothy 2:3, 4.)
If asked what the distinguishing characteristics of "Mormonism" are, I
should answer:
The acceptance of Jesus Christ as the full and complete revelation of
God to man, in person and in attributes; that as Jesus was and is,--for
to us he still lives, a resurrected, glorified man--so is God, the
Father--a perfected man. This is only saying that as "the Son is, so
also is the Father."
The belief that the spirit of man is in very deed the child of God--his
offspring; that men in reality are brothers to Jesus Christ, and to
each other.
A more pronounced faith than is possessed by other people in the
imminence of God in the world and in men, through the medium of the
divine spirit.
A positive belief in present and continuous revelation.
A broader conception of God's treatment of men in the matter of
revealing himself and his purposes to them.
Acknowledging an inspired priesthood, authorized to direct the affairs
of, and instruct the Church.
The possession of a living faith which lays hold of all the promises
made in the gospel of Jesus Christ; personal communion with God through
the Holy Spirit, and enjoyment of all the spiritual gifts and graces
granted to the saints in any age of the world.
If asked what special benefits "Mormonism" has conferred upon mankind,
my answer would be: 1st. That it presents to the world the fullness
of the gospel, with the authority to administer its ordinances; that
through obedience to it men may attain unto all those gifts, graces and
powers known to the ancient saints. It assures them that God in his
relationship to men, is the same today as he was nineteen centuries
ago, that the gospel is the same now as it ever was, and all spiritual
graces and powers that man ever attained to he may possess today. 2nd.
That in the testimony of modern prophets and saints the evidences of
God's existence and the truth of the gospel are so enlarged that the
unbelief which today distresses the religious world and limits the
extension of Christianity would be swept away. 3rd. That in the Book
of Mormon there is evidence of the authorship of the Jewish scripture
of which Christendom in the face of modern criticism--commonly called
the "Higher Criticism"--stands much in need. That criticism, as is
well known, is not directed so much to textual errors which may have
found their way into the great collection of sacred books, as it is to
utterly destroy the authorship and all idea of the divine inspiration
of them. This modern criticism has decided that Moses is not the
author of the Pentateuch, and indeed, the authorship not only of the
Pentateuch but of nearly all the prophets and even the books of the New
Testament is unsettled in the minds of many. The Book of Mormon gives
an account of a colony of Israelites that left Palestine six hundred
years before Christ, which colony carried with it a copy of the law of
Moses and the writings of the Prophets down to the days of Jeremiah.
These scriptures they preserved with great care, handing them down from
generation to generation, and from them both they and their descendants
learned of the hand dealings of God with his children in ancient times.
When the civilization of these people on the Western Hemisphere was
overthrown, and their records in order to preserve them were hidden by
righteous men, the truths which their fathers had learned from them
were preserved--though somewhat distorted--in their traditions. Thus is
accounted for the knowledge of the creation, the flood, the coming of
the Messiah, which Europeans found among the races inhabiting America
at the time of its discovery. Portions of the ancient Jewish Scriptures
which these colonists brought with them to America were transcribed
into the Book of Mormon, and there they stand in the translations
that have been made of it to testify not only to the existence of the
writings of Moses and the other prophets at least six hundred years
before Christ, but to testify also that the records which have come
down to us from the Jews are substantially correct. More important as
confirming the accuracy and inspiration of the Jewish Scriptures, more
potent to silence the new forms of unbelief which have arisen in modern
times, more powerful to confirm the faith of believers in God's word is
this new volume of scripture--the voice of nations of people who sought
and found God--than all the newly deciphered hieroglyphics of Egypt, or
the still more recent evidences that come from the ancient cities of
Assyria: and for this reason we make bold to invite the attention of
our Christian brethren to the consideration of this New Witness for God.
Besides preaching the Gospel for the salvation of men, "Mormonism" has
an especial mission, viz: to prepare the earth for the coming and reign
of Messiah. This mission authorizes the servants of God to warn mankind
of the judgments which shall precede that appearing, and to call upon
all men to repent of their sins, that they may escape the threatened
calamities. This preparatory work includes the gathering together of
the dispersed tribes of Israel and placing them in possession of the
lands which God, by covenant, gave to their fathers. It contemplates
the erection of a great city upon this continent of America to be
called "Zion," the abode of the pure in heart, from whence the law of
God shall go forth to all the world. It contemplates the restoration of
the Jews to the city of their forefathers, the rebuilding of Jerusalem,
from whence shall go forth the word of the Lord.
Then shall the earth rest from its wickedness, as all the prophets have
predicted; then shall peace and truth and righteousness spread over
all the world, and all the tribes and kindreds of men shall know how
pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.
Splendid as this consummation is, "Mormonism," instructed by divine
wisdom, looks even beyond it, and contemplates the time when this earth
shall receive even a fuller redemption, and become a celestial sphere,
the abode of resurrected, celestial beings forever, who shall dwell
always in the presence of God.
In conclusion, let me say that "Mormonism" accepts and includes within
its boundary-lines all truth. It is progressive and is destined
to become the religion of the age. Within it is scope for all the
intelligence that shall flow unto it. "Within its atmosphere is room
for every intellectual wing." It does not, as some have supposed,
thrive best where ignorance is most profound, nor does it depend
upon superstition and ignorance for its existence and perpetuity. It
possesses within itself principles of native strength that will enable
it to weather every storm, outlive all hatred born of ignorance and
prejudice; and it will yet prove itself to be what indeed it is, the
gospel of Jesus Christ, the power of God unto Salvation to all those
who believe and obey it, the Church of Jesus Christ.
II.
THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE CHURCH TO THE CHRISTIAN SECTS: THE DOCTRINE OF
TWO CHURCHES ONLY.
FOREWORD.
The following is an address delivered at the seventy-sixth Annual
Conference of the Church, held at Salt Lake City, in April, 1906. The
remarks consider two very important statements in our authoritative
books. The first one is found in the Pearl of Great Price, where the
prophet Joseph states what the answer to his question was, when asking
the Lord which of the sects was the true Church, and which he should
join. Of that incident he said:
"I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all
wrong; and the personage who addressed me said that all their
creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were
all corrupt:"
The second statement is in the Book of Mormon, where the declaration is
made that,
"There are, save two churches only; the one is the church of the
Lamb of God, and the other is the church of the devil; wherefore,
whoso belongeth not to the church of the Lamb of God, belongeth to
that great church, which is the mother of abominations; and she is
the whore of all the earth."
The first of these statements, it is claimed, not only "unchurches
all Christians," but proclaims the universal corruption of individual
Christians. The second statement is generally supposed to stigmatize
the Church of Rome as the church of the devil. Both these questions are
considered in the article which follows.
II.
THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE CHURCH TO THE CHRISTIAN SECTS: THE DOCTRINE OF
TWO CHURCHES ONLY.
Among the things important for the Saints of God to understand, among
the things important for the world to understand respecting the
Latter-day Saints, is the relationship that we sustain to the religious
world; and I do not know that there is anything to which I could devote
the few minutes at my disposal to better advantage than in pointing out
that relationship, if I can obtain, through your faith and mine, the
liberty that comes from the possession of the Spirit of the Lord.
The first revelation that the Lord gave to the Prophet Joseph Smith
had a bearing upon this subject. You remember that the Prophet went
to the Lord to ascertain which of all the sects of religion was his
church, desiring, of course, to unite himself with that church which
the Lord would designate as his. In reply to that question the Lord,
in substance, said that all the sects were wrong; that he did not
acknowledge them as his church; "their creeds were an abomination in
his sight; those professors were all corrupt;" [A] and the Prophet was
told that he must join none of them, but was promised that in due time
he would be used as God's instrument in the establishment of the Church
of Christ in the earth.
[Footnote A: The assertion, "those professors were all corrupt," must
not be taken as referring to the whole body of Christians; but rather
as referring to the teachers of their creeds--the "professors;" that
term not being used in the sense of "confessors" of the creeds, who
merely accept their doctrine from the teachings of the "professors."
This interpretation is justified from the immediate context of the
passage: "They (the professors) draw near to me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me; they (the "professors") teach for
doctrine the commandments of men." This context clearly proves that
the charge of "corruption" is limited at least to the teachers, to
the "professors," not to the whole body of Christians. Moreover, I
am convinced myself that the declaration is still further limited
to the "professors" who founded and by that act taught to the world
the creeds that are an abomination in the sight of God--a fact not
at all difficult of belief, or proof, upon an analysis of the creeds
themselves. And those who originally could form such conceptions of
God and man and the purposes of human existence, as the creeds teach,
were certainly men of warped understandings, men of perverted or
corrupted minds. But as to the whole body of Christians, we know that
there were at the time of the opening of this new dispensation of the
Gospel, and now, many who were not only not corrupt, except for the
ordinary weaknesses or "corruption" of our human nature,--but virtuous,
hungering and thirsting after righteousness, seeking after God, and
hindered from finding him only by the abominable creeds formulated by
the "professors" of the passage here considered.]
Because of this great revelation, by which the errors of ages were
swept aside and the ground cleared for the re-establishment of the
Church of Christ among men, it has placed us, in a way, in an attitude
of antagonism to the religious world. We have been resisted to some
extent because of this attitude of antagonism; and it is quite possible
that we ourselves have not understood the true relationship in which
we stand to the religious world, by more or less of misapprehension
respecting this great revelation. I rejoice in the plainness and
emphasis of this revelation, because from it I am made to realize
that there is a very important reason for the existence of the work
with which we are identified. I am glad to know that "Mormonism" did
not come into existence because its founders chanced to disagree with
prevailing notions about the form or object of baptism; that it did not
come into existence through a disagreement as to the character of the
government of the Church. From the revelation referred to I learn that
"Mormonism" came into existence because there was an absolute necessity
for a new dispensation of the gospel, a re-establishment of the Church
of Christ among men. The gospel had been corrupted; its ordinances
had been changed; its laws transgressed its truths so far lost to the
children of men that it rendered this new dispensation of the gospel
of Christ--miscalled "Mormonism"--necessary. I say that I rejoice in
the fact that "Mormonism" came into the world, and exists in the world
today, because the world stood and stands in sore need of it. But does
this re-establishment of the Church of Christ, this new dispensation
of the gospel, which we have received, make our relationship to the
children of men one of unfriendliness? I answer, No. On the contrary
our relationship to men is one of absolute friendliness, and we are
anxious to do the world good. We ought to understand that. We do
understand it. And it is important that the world should understand
it, that they may come to regard us in our true light, as friends of
humanity, and not enemies.
If you will look through some of the revelations given in the early
history of the church, you will find that from time to time the Lord
was under the necessity of correcting the ideas of the brethren
respecting their attitude towards religious world. The Lord said to
Martin Harris, by of correction:
"Thou shalt declare glad tidings, yea, publish it upon the
mountains, and upon every high place, and among people that thou
shalt be permitted to see. And thou do it with all humility,
trusting in me, reviling not against revilers. And of tenets thou
shall not talk, but thou shall declare repentance and faith on the
Savior, and remission of sin by baptism and by fire, yea, even the
Holy Ghost."
The Prophet also from time to time found it necessary to correct the
Elders of the Church in respect of their attacks upon other churches.
At Kirtland, in 1836, when many of the Elders were upon the eve of
taking their departure for their fields of labor, he instructed them as
follows:
"While waiting [for the Sacrament] I made the following remarks:
The time that we were required to tarry in Kirtland to be endowed
would be fulfilled in a few days, and then the Elders would go
forth, and each stand for himself . . . . to go in all meekness, in
sobriety, and preach Christ and him crucified; not to contend with
others on account of their faith or systems of religion, but pursue
a steady course. This I delivered by way of commandment; and all
who observe it not, will pull down persecution upon their heads,
while those who do, shall always be filled with the Holy Ghost;
this I pronounced as a prophesy." [A]
[Footnote A: History of the Church, vol. II, p. 431.]
In other words, because the Lord has opened the heavens and has given
a new dispensation of the gospel, it does not follow that his servants
or his people are to be contentious; that they are to make war upon
other people for holding different views respecting religion. Hence
this caution to the Elders of the Church that they should not contend
against other churches, make war upon their tenets, or revile even the
revilers.
At an earlier date still, the Lord had said to Oliver Cowdery and David
Whitmer:
"If you have not faith, hope and charity, you can do nothing.
Contend against no church, save it be the church of the devil. Take
upon you the name of Christ, and speak the truth in soberness." [A]
[Footnote A: Doc. & Cov. Sec. 18, 19-21.]
"The church of the devil" here alluded to, I understand to mean
not any particular church among men, or any one sect of religion,
but something larger than that--something that includes within its
boundaries all evil wherever it may be found; as well in schools of
philosophy as in Christian sects; as well in systems of ethics as
in systems of religion--something that includes the whole empire of
Satan--what I shall call "The Kingdom of Evil."
This descriptive phrase, "the church of the devil," is also used in
the Book of Mormon; and while in attendance at a conference in one of
the border stakes of Zion, a question was propounded to me in relation
to its meaning. The passage occurs in the writings of the first Nephi.
An angel of the Lord is represented as saying to Nephi, "Behold, there
are save two churches only: the one is the church of the Lamb of God,
and the other is the church of the devil." The question submitted to me
was, "Is the Catholic church the church here referred to--the church of
the devil?" "Well," said I, in answer, "I would not like to take that
position, because it would leave me with a lot of churches on my hands
that I might not then be able to classify." So far as the Catholic
church is concerned, I believe that there is just as much truth,
nay, personally I believe it has retained even more truth than other
divisions of so-called Christendom; and there is just as much virtue in
the Roman Catholic church as there is in Protestant Christendom; and I
am sure there is more strength.
I would not like; therefore, to designate the Catholic church as the
church of the devil. Neither would I like to designate any one or all
of the various divisions and subdivisions of Protestant Christendom
combined as such church; nor the Greek Catholic church; nor the
Buddhist sects; nor the followers of Confucius; nor the followers of
Mohammed; nor would I like to designate even the societies formed by
deists and atheists as constituting the church of the devil. The Book
of Mormon text ought to be read in connection with its context--with
the chapter that precedes it and the remaining portions of the chapter
in which the expression is found--then, I think, those who study it in
that manner will be forced to the conclusion that the prophet here has
in mind no particular church, no particular division of Christendom,
but he has in mind, as just stated, the whole empire of Satan; and
perhaps the thought of the passage would be more nearly expressed if we
use the term "the Kingdom of Evil" as Constituting the church of the
devil, in proof of which I submit the following passage from the Book
of Mormon---covering both the text and the context on the subject:
1. And it shall come to pass, that if the Gentiles shall hearken
unto the Lamb of God in that day that he shall manifest himself
unto them in word, and also in power, in very deed, unto the taking
away of their stumbling blocks;
2. And if they harden not their hearts against the Lamb of God,
they shall be numbered among the seed of thy father [Lehi; an
Israelite]; yea, they shall be numbered among the house of Israel;
and they shall be a blessed people upon the promised land for ever;
they shall be no more brought down into captivity; and the house of
Israel shall no more be confounded;
3. And that great pit which hath been digged for them, by that
great and abominable church, which was founded by the devil and his
children, that he might lead away the souls of men down to hell;
yea, that great pit which hath been digged for the destruction
of men, shall be filled by those who digged it, unto their utter
destruction, saith the Lamb of God; not the destruction of the
soul, save it be the casting of it into that hell which hath no end;
4. For behold, this is according to the captivity of the devil, and
also according to the justice of God, upon all those who will work
wickedness and abomination before him.
5. And it came to pass that the angel spake unto me, Nephi, saying,
Thou hast beheld that if the Gentiles repent, it shall be well with
them; and thou also knowest concerning the covenants of the Lord
unto the house of Israel; and thou also hast heard, that whoso
repenteth not, must perish;
6. Therefore, wo, be unto the Gentiles, if it so be that they
harden their hearts against the Lamb of God;
7. For the time cometh, saith the Lamb of God, that I will work
a great and a marvellous work among the children of men; a work
which shall be everlasting, either on the one hand or on the other;
either to the convincing of them unto peace and life eternal,
or unto the deliverance of them to the hardness of their hearts
and the blindness of their minds, unto their being brought down
into captivity, and also into destruction, both temporally and
spiritually, according to the captivity of the devil, of which I
have spoken.
8. And it came to pass that when the angel had spoken these words,
he said unto me, Rememberest thou the covenants of the Father unto
the house of Israel? I said unto him, Yea. And it came to pass that
he said unto me, look, and behold that great and abominable church,
which is the mother of abominations, whose foundation is the devil.
And he said unto me, behold there are, save two churches only; the
one is the church of the Lamb of God, and the other is the church
of the devil; wherefore, whoso belongeth not to the church of the
Lamb of God, belongeth to that great church, which is the mother of
abominations; and she is the whore of all the earth.
47. And it came to pass that I looked and beheld the whore of all
the earth, and she sat upon many waters; and she had dominion over
all the earth, among all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people.
48. And it came to pass that I beheld the church of the Lamb of
God, and its numbers were few, because of the wickedness and
abominations of the whore who sat upon many waters; nevertheless,
I beheld that the church of the Lamb, who were the saints of God,
were also upon all the face of the earth; and their dominions upon
the face of the earth were small, because of the wickedness of the
great whore whom I saw.
49. And it came to pass that I beheld that the great mother of
abominations did gather together multitudes upon the face of all
the earth, among all the nations of the Gentiles, to fight against
the Lamb of God.
50. And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld the power of the
Lamb of God, that it descended upon the saints of the church of
the Lamb, and upon the covenant people of the Lord, who Were
scattered upon all the face of the earth; and they were armed with
righteousness and with the power of God in great glory.
51. And it came to pass that I beheld that the wrath of God was
poured out upon the great and abominable church, insomuch that
there were wars and rumors of wars among all the nations and
kindreds of the earth, and as there began to be wars and rumors
of wars among all the nations which belonged to the mother of
abominations, the angel spake unto me, saying, Behold, the wrath of
God is upon the mother of harlots; and behold, thou seest all these
things:
17. And when the day cometh that the wrath of God is poured out
upon the mother of harlots, which is the great and abominable
church of all the earth, whose foundation is the devil, then, at
that day, the work of the Father shall commence, in preparing the
way for the fulfilling of his covenants, which he hath made to his
people, who are of the house of Israel.
I understand the injunction to Oliver Cowdery to "contend against no
church, save it be the church of the devil," to mean that he should
contend against evil, against untruth, against all combinations of
wicked men. They constitute the church of the devil, the kingdom
of evil, a federation of unrighteousness; and the servants of God
have a right to contend against that which is evil, let it appear
where it will, in Catholic or in Protestant Christendom, among the
philosophical societies of deists and atheists, and even within
the Church of Christ, if, unhappily, it should make its appearance
there. But, let it be understood, we are not brought necessarily into
antagonism with the various sects of Christianity as such. So far as
they have retained fragments of Christian truth--and each of them has
some measure of truth--that far they are acceptable unto the Lord;
and it would be poor policy for us to contend against them without
discrimination. Wherever we find truth, whether it exists in complete
form or only in fragments, we recognize that truth as part of that
sacred whole of which the Church of Jesus Christ is the custodian;
and I repeat that our relationship to the religious world is not one
that calls for the denunciation of sectarian churches as composing the
church of the devil. All that makes for untruth, for unrighteousness
constitutes the kingdom of evil--the church of the devil. All that
makes for truth, for righteousness, is of God; it constitutes the
kingdom of righteousness--the empire of Jehovah; and, in a certain
sense at least, constitutes the Church of Christ. With the latter--the
kingdom of righteousness--we have no warfare. On the contrary both the
spirit of the Lord's commandments to his servants and the dictates
of right reason would suggest that we seek to enlarge this kingdom
of righteousness both by recognizing such truths as it possesses and
seeking the friendship and co-operation of the righteous men and women
who constitute its membership.
Running parallel with these thoughts, I may be pardoned if I call your
attention to a remark I made in one of these general conferences some
time ago, to the effect that when misrepresentations are made of us,
or of our faith, or when persecution arises against us, it must not
embitter our minds, or make us feel hateful toward our fellowmen, or
lead us to regard the whole world as our enemies. We must keep the
sweetness of our own disposition. The language of the Savior wherein he
says, "Marvel not if the world hate you: it hated me before it hated
you, if you were of the world, the world would love its own," etc., I
contended then and believe now that the truth of that declaration will
be more plainly seen if we read it in this way: "Marvel not if the
worldly hate you." If the ungodly, if those who make and love a lie--if
such classes as these hate you, marvel not; for they were the classes
that hated the Christ and the light and truth that he brought into the
world, because their deeds were evil, and his light and truth were a
reproof to their evil ways. And as we say concerning the "Kingdom of
Evil," so we say with reference to those who hate the truth and make
war upon the righteous, they are not of any one cult, or confined to
any one sect or division of the religious world, but, unhappily, are
found here and there among all classes of people, among all Christian
sects, among all religions and sects of philosophy. We ought to rightly
divide, not only the word of truth, but the wicked and the ungodly from
those who in common with us are seeking to know God and to keep his
commandments. And there are millions who are hungering and thirsting
for that knowledge; and we from time to time shall find them and lead
them into God's temple of truth, where they shall be satisfied at the
feast that the Lord is preparing for all those who hunger and thirst
after righteousness.
The purpose of the Lord in instituting his Church in the earth is very
beautifully set forth in one of the revelations in the D&C, as follows:
"If this generation harden not their hearts, I will establish my
Church among them. Now I do not say this to destroy my Church, but
I say this to build up my Church. Therefore, whosoever belongeth
to my Church need not fear for such shall inherit the kingdom
of heaven. But it is they who do not fear me, neither keep my
commandments, but build up churches unto themselves to get gain,
yea, all those that do wickedly and build up the kingdom of devil;
yea, verily, verily, I say unto you, that it is they that I will
disturb, and cause to tremble and shake to the center."
From this it very clearly appears that the purpose of God in the
introduction of the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times was not to
destroy any truth that existed in the world, but to add to that truth,
to increase it, and to draw together all truth and develop it into a
beautiful system which men may rest contented, knowing God and their
relationship to him, knowing of the future and their relation to that
future.
We should present our message to the world in spirit of peace, charity
and longsuffering; and avoid contention; for as our Book of Mormon
tells us, he that hath the spirit of contention is not of God. I
would the world could understand the unselfishness of our motives in
presenting the gospel of Jesus Christ to them; if they could only know
that our only desire was that they should come to a knowledge of the
great principles of truth that are so comforting to us; that we desire
their repentance and acceptance of the fullness of the truth, only that
they might find favor with God, and share in our hopes of that eternal
life which God, who cannot lie, promised before the world began--if our
fellowmen could be made to understand that this is our only purpose,
it seems to me that many of the barriers that now separate us from
our fellowmen would be broken down, and we would be able to reach the
hearts of the people. I believe that as time passes and we become
wiser in the methods of work we adopt, we will do that more and more,
causing not only hundreds of thousands but millions of our Father's
children to partake of those great blessings that the Gospel has
brought to us. To make known these truths and cause the children of
men to participate in the blessings that we ourselves enjoy, we yearly
send hundreds of our Elders to the various nations of the earth. They
sacrifice the pleasant associations of home, the society of wives and
children, parents and friends; they sacrifice professional advantages
and business opportunities; and sometimes sacrifice health and even
life itself to proclaim to the world the truth which God has made known
to us--enduring the world's reproach and contumely, because the world
does not understand them nor their message; and there is still need,
of the prayer on our part, "Father, forgive them, they know not what
they do." For the benefit of those who have passed away from the earth
without a knowledge of the great truths and saving power of the gospel
of Christ, we rear costly temples, whose spires pierce the skies of our
beloved Utah; and within them at great sacrifice of time and means, the
saints of God assemble to apply the principles and ordinances of the
everlasting gospel to those who have passed away without the privilege
of accepting them while upon the earth. A more completely unselfish
work than this does not exist among men. On every hand the work of God
bears the stamp of unselfishness upon it. Our Book of Mormon says:
"The laborers in Zion shall labor for Zion; for if they labor for
money, they shall perish." So through all the communications of God to
his people shines the glorious principle of absolute unselfishness.
Not only is it to be found in the words of our books, but a like
testimony is written in the works of the Latter-day Saints--in their
actions. Everywhere unselfishness abounds in the Church of Christ,
both in theory and practice. Now, if we can only get the people of the
world to understand this fact of unselfishness--this very genius of
Mormonism--if they could be made to know that Mormonism is here to do
good, to raise mankind from the low levels on which men are content
to walk to the higher planes where God would have them walk, that
they might have sweet fellowship with God, much of our difficulty in
preaching the gospel would disappear. May the Lord hasten the day when
the world shall know the Saints and the work of God better.
III.
SOME RECENT LITERATURE ON MORMONISM.
FOREWORD.
The following brief discussion of Mr. I. Woodbridge Riley's work, is
an address delivered at the Seventy-fourth Semi-Annual Conference of
the Church, held in Salt Lake City, Oct. 5, 1903. Mr. Riley's book of
446 pages is a well written thesis on the "Founder of Mormonism," and
was published in 1902. It is a psychological study of Joseph Smith the
Prophet. The purpose of the work is set forth in the author's preface,
as follows:
"The aim of this work is to examine Joseph Smith's character and
achievements from the standpoint of recent psychology. Sectarians
and phrenologists, spiritualists and mesmerists have variously
interpreted his more or less abnormal performances,--it remains for
the psychologist to have a try at them."
The work also has an introductory preface by Professor George Trumbull
Ladd, of Yale University, in which Mr. Riley's essay is very highly
praised. Indeed, the work was offered to the Philosophical Faculty of
Yale University as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, and
before this the matter of the essay had been utilized in 1898 for a
Master of Arts thesis, under the title of "Metaphysics of Mormonism,"
so that from these circumstances we may venture the remark that Mr.
Riley's book is of a highly scientific character, at least in its
literary structure, and has already attracted some considerable notice
in the world.
I.
"THE FOUNDER OF MORMONISM."
Some of you perhaps are aware of the fact that I have been giving some
attention of late to the literature on Mormonism; not only that which
we ourselves publish, but that also which is Published by others. The
publications on Mormonism during the last five years, I believe, are
more numerous than in any twenty years previous to that time. The last
five years have witnessed an awakening of thought upon our religion.
More, and ever more attention is being given to it. More newspaper
articles, more magazine articles, more volumes--some of them quite
pretentious--have been written on Mormonism than ever before, and
indicate the universal interest taken in the subject. The books and
magazine articles have been written from various standpoints, some of
them in the old spirit of bitterness, and some of them are intended
to be written in a spirit of fairness. Yet I marvel at their author's
ideas of fairness. One work, written by a noted professor, pretending
to be an impartial history, and issued by one of the first publishing
houses in the United States, with the view, evidently, of establishing
a standard history of Mormonism, gives full credence to everything
that has been said against us, but the author frequently cautions his
readers against quotations he makes from our own works--and yet that
book is put forth as an impartial history of Mormonism! Some have
attempted to write from a philosophical standpoint, but with the result
that they plainly manifest that they have not yet reached foundation
principles upon which they can satisfactorily account for Joseph
Smith, the Prophet, and the great work he accomplished. When I see
men shifting their grounds, and advancing first one theory and then,
another to account for Mormonism, and there is confusion among them,
uncertainty, indecision--I know that the citadel of our mighty faith
is secure from harm from their attacks; that Mormonism cannot fall a
victim to their philosophies or their arguments.
Let me, for a little while, draw your attention to at least one of
the so-called philosophical solutions of Mormonism, a scientific
accounting for Joseph Smith. The work I allude to was offered to Yale
University as a thesis upon which the author hoped to secure, and I
think he did secure, the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy. He candidly
confesses that it is an effort to account for Joseph Smith upon some
other hypothesis than that he was a conscious fraud, bent on deceiving
mankind. When an intelligent man makes such an announcement as that, I
know, and you know, that the theories heretofore advanced to account
for Joseph Smith, are unsatisfactory; that they are efforts which
have failed. The theory that Joseph Smith was a conscious fraud, an
imposter, has fallen to the ground. The charges frequently made and
persistently urged that Mormonism had its origin in deception and
conscious fraud have failed of their purpose. The floods of falsehood
with which some men have sought to overwhelm Mormonism have not
accomplished the end proposed. The Latter-day Saints, after more than
three-quarters of a century of existence, stand above all the floods
of falsehood that have been belched out against them. The work of God
has not broken down, it has survived; and the Saints smilingly pity
those who would make use of such contemptible means with which to
combat the truth of Almighty God. Now, however, we are to be treated
philosophically. And the philosophy that is advanced is, unconscious
hallucination in the mind of Joseph Smith; partly unconscious and
partly conscious possession of hypnotic power, by which the minds of
those around him were dominated and made to see things which in reality
had no existence; and while the Witnesses to the Book of Mormon, and
others testify of visions and voices from God honestly enough, still as
a matter of fact those revelations had really no objective existence,
but were mental hallucinations. And as for Joseph Smith, he was
deceived by epileptic conditions.
The author I am considering is at great pains to trace the ancestry
of the Prophet, pointing out their mental peculiarities and supposed
defects, leading up to the conclusion that these defects of mind in
his ancestors culminated in epilepsy in Joseph Smith. And hence, we
have as the explanation of Mormonism, epileptic fits in its Prophet,
whose hallucinations are honestly mistaken for inspired visions, with
partly conscious and partly unconscious hypnotic power over others! And
this theory is presented seriously to one of the first institutions of
learning in America as a rational explanation of how Mormonism came
into existence!
Ernest Renan, the French philosopher, when considering a similar
hypothesis to account for the Lord Jesus Christ, overthrew all that
kind of sophistry with this simple statement:
"It has never been given to the mere aberrations of the human mind
to result in the establishment of permanent institutions that
influence any considerable number of people."
In other words, the dreams and hallucinations of the epileptic end
in mere dreams and hallucinations; they never crystallize into great
systems of philosophy or into rational religious institutions. They
never crystallize into great organizations capable of perpetuating that
philosophy and that religion in the world. No matter how nearly genius
may be allied to madness, it must remain genius and not degenerate to
madness if it exercises any permanent influence over the minds of men.
It is a pleasure to find one's conclusions sustained by men of
recognized ability in any line of work on which they have specialized,
and in respect of which they are regarded as authorities. In such
manner I find the views, above set forth sustained by one eminent in
the domain of nervous diseases and psychiatry, Charles L. Dana, the
writer of text books on the foregoing subject, text books used in all
the great colleges and universities of our country, that give attention
to the subject. Following is his definition of paranoia, a disease
closely allied to that to which Mr. Riley assumes Joseph Smith was
subject. [A]
[Footnote A: This paragraph and the two quotations following have been
added since the above remarks were published as part of the proceedings
of the conference.]
"Paranoia is a chronic psychosis characterized by the development
gradually and soon after maturity of systematized delusions
without other serious disturbances of the mind, and without much
tendency to dementia. * * * With some the systematized idea takes a
religious turn, and the patient thinks he has some divine mission
or has received some inspiration from God; or the idea may take
a devotional turn and the patient become an acetic. It is not,
however, to be assumed that all promoters of new religions and
novel social ideas are paranoiacs. Many of these are simply the
natural developments, ignorance and a somewhat emotional and
unbalanced temperament. The characteristic of the paranoiac is that
his work is ineffective, his influence brief and trivial, his
ideas really too absurd and impractical for even ignorant men to
receive. I do not class successful prophets and organizers like
Joseph Smith, or great apostles of social reforms like Rousseau as
paranoiacs. Insane minds are not creative, but are weak, and lack
persistence in purpose or powers of execution." [A]
[Footnote A: Chas. Loomis Dana, Text Book of Nervous Diseases and
Psychiatry, 6th Edition, pp. 649-50.]
"A certain rather small percentage of epileptics become either
demented or insane. True epilepsy is not compatible with
extraordinary intellectual endowments. Caesar, Napoleon, Peter the
Great, and other geniuses may have had some symptomatic fits, but
not idiopathic epilepsy." [B]
[Footnote B: Chas. L. Dana, A. M. M. D., Text Book of Nervous Diseases,
3rd edition, p. 408.]
There is much glamor of sophistry, which may be taken for profound
reason and argument, in the work to which I am calling your attention.
But one word answers this "philosophical" accounting for our Prophet.
The work accomplished by him, the institutions he founded, destroy
the whole fabric of premises and argument on which this theory is
based. Great as was the Prophet Joseph Smith--and he was great; to him
more than to any other man of modern times was it given to look deep
into the things that are; to comprehend the heavens and the laws that
obtain there; to understand the earth, its history, and its mission. He
looked into the deep things of God--always, be it remembered, by the
inspiration of God--and out of the rich treasure of divine knowledge he
brought forth things both new and old for the instruction of our race,
the like of which, in some respects, had not been known in previous
dispensations. Hence I repeat that Joseph Smith was great; but great
as he was, rising up and towering far above him is the work that he
accomplished through divine guidance; that work is infinitely greater
than the prophet--greater than all the prophets connected with it. Its
consistency, its permanency, its power, its institutions, contradict
the hallucination theory advanced to account for its origin.
Let us look at this work for a moment. If one could but draw it clearly
in outline, and present it in its originality and greatness, it would
be its own witness of its divinity, for in all things it transcends the
mere wit of man. Take the Church organization for illustration; and
look at it with reference to its being an assemblage of means to the
accomplishment of an end. As I understand the Church of Christ, its
mission is two-fold; first, it is to proclaim the truth; second, it is
to perfect those who receive the truth. I think these two things cover,
in a general way, the entire mission of the Church. Is its organization
competent to attain those two mighty ends? Let us see; and first as to
the proclamation of the truth--the work really of the foreign ministry.
What provision has God made for that? He has in his Church, first of
all Twelve Special Witnesses, the Twelve Apostles, who were chosen
in the first instance, by the Three Special Witnesses to the Book of
Mormon. I remark in passing that there is a peculiar fitness in the
Twelve Apostles--the Twelve Special Witnesses being chosen by those
who had been made Witnesses for God by the great vision and revelation
he had given them concerning the absolute truth and correctness of the
Book of Mormon. Upon these Twelve Apostles rests the responsibility
of being witnesses for the Lord Jesus Christ in all the world. That
is their special, peculiar calling. You can see, however, if you take
into account the extent of their field of labor--for it encompasses
the whole round world--that twelve men would not be adequate to meet
all the requirements of the foreign ministry. God knew this, and hence
he called into existence other special witnesses, to labor under the
direction of these Twelve, they holding the keys to open the door of
the gospel to all the nations of the earth; for all must hear it, from
the greatest to the least. The Twelve, I say, hold the keys of this
foreign ministry; and hence whenever there has been an opening of
the door of the gospel to a foreign nation, one or more of these men
holding the keys have been sent to do it. It was for this reason that
Heber C. Kimball, one of the Twelve Apostles, was sent to Great Britain
in 1837, to open the door of the gospel in that land; why Elder John
Taylor was sent to France and Germany; why Elder Lorenzo Snow was sent
to Italy and Switzerland; why Erastus Snow was sent to the Scandinavian
countries; why Parley P. Pratt went to Chili and opened the door of the
gospel to the South American republics; why, more recently, Elder Heber
J. Grant was sent to Japan to open a mission. The Twelve, then, hold
the keys of this ministry, and upon them devolves this responsibility
of opening the door of salvation to the nations. But after them, other
witnesses are chosen. These are the seventy apostles, or special
witnesses, the assistants of the Twelve; under whose directions they
labor. At first, two quorums of Seventy only were organized; but
with the promise of the Prophet that as the work should expand other
quorums would be organized, not only till seven times seven quorums
should be brought into existence, but until seventy times seven; "aye,"
said he, "until there shall be a hundred and forty and four thousand
seventies chosen, if the work of the ministry shall require it." So we
have continued organizing quorums of Seventy, to labor in the foreign
ministry, until now we have one hundred and forty-three quorums in the
Church--a body of nearly ten thousand men. They are special witnesses
of the name of Christ in all the world, and when their numbers are
considered, together with the privilege we have of increasing them, you
can see that ample provision is made, in this respect, for the work of
the foreign ministry.
But now let us consider their organization for a moment. Sixty-three
members with seven presidents, when the quorum is complete, constitute
a quorum. Suppose you were to send an entire quorum of Seventy bodily
into the world--I hope that will be done some day--you could break
that quorum into groups of ten. You could send with each group a
president. It should be remembered here that these presidents are
equal in authority. The council of a quorum of Seventy is made up
of seven presidents, not one president and six counsellors--but
seven presidents, equal in authority. For the sake of order in
administration, however, the right of initiative and presidency in
the council is recognized as being vested in the senior member by
ordination, not of age. And this principle is observed not only in
the case of the first or senior president, but all down the line in
the First Council, and in all quorum councils of the Seventies. By
this simple arrangement all confusion as to the right of presidency
is obviated; for no sooner does the council of a quorum, or any part
thereof, meet, in any part of the world than each president knows at
once upon whom the responsibility of initiative rests. But to return
to the groups of ten into which the quorum can be divided, with a
president for each group. You could break each group of ten into
five pairs, and scatter them out among the people, to bear effectual
witness of the truth of the gospel under the provision of the law of
the gospel; for it is the law of the gospel, one may say, for the
Elders to travel two and two, mainly for the reason, I suppose, that
God has declared that he would establish, his word in the mouth of two
or three witnesses; and it is good when bearing testimony to the world
that there should be the legal number of witnesses provided for in the
law of God. Moreover, there is a very much needed companionship and
sympathy provided for when the Elders travel two and two; and they are
a protection one to the other. You could scatter these groups of ten
in one or more states or countries; and they could occasionally meet
in group conferences, exchange experiences, give advice and counsel;
after which refreshing they could again divide into pairs, scatter
and so continue their ministry. Occasionally the seven groups of the
quorum could be brought together in general quorum conference, to take
counsel for making their ministry more and ever more effectual: to
readjust methods; to plan new campaigns; to strengthen each other by a
mutual exchange of experiences and sympathy; and do whatever else their
combined wisdom, helped by the inspiration of the Lord, would suggest
as right and proper to do in the furtherance of their high aim in
bringing to pass the salvation of men. Such are the possibilities of a
quorum of Seventy. It may become a veritable flying column of witnesses
for God, sweeping the earth with the testimony of Jesus, and calling
the inhabitants of the earth unto repentance! Can you think of this
beautiful arrangement for the foreign ministry as having its origin in
the alleged epileptic hallucinations of a man? Such a conception is
palpably absurd, and utterly revolting to reason.
Turn now for a moment to the home ministry of the Church, and what have
you? You have your stake organization, with its Presidency of three
presiding High Priests, aided in their counsels and labors by the High
Council of the stake, consisting of twelve High Priests. This council
also constitutes a judicial body for the settlement of difficulties
that may not be satisfactorily adjusted in the Bishop's courts. It is,
however, an ecclesiastical court of original as well as of appellate
jurisdiction. You have a Bishopric in the respective wards of the
Church, constituting the local presidency of the Aaronic Priesthood,
with quorums of Priests, Teachers and Deacons to aid them in the work
of their ministry. The Deacons take care of the house of the Lord,
and are to be assistants to the Teachers when occasion requires. The
Teachers are the watchmen upon the towers of Zion, and it is their
business to see that there is no iniquity in the Church--no backbiting,
no faultfinding, and that the members attend to their religious duties.
The Priests' duty is to visit the homes of the people and instruct
them in the gospel. Where they have sons or daughters who will not be
amenable to the instructions of parents, the priests with very great
propriety could be invited to meet with and teach them the sublime
truths of the gospel. In addition to these officers of the wards and
the stakes, there is in each stake a quorum of High Priests, and one
or more quorums of Elders. These constitute the standing ministry in
the stakes of Zion, and are authorized to teach the gospel, to warn
all men against evil, and to invite and persuade all men to come
unto Christ. These are the provisions made for the home ministry, in
the Church organization proper. Time will not admit reference to the
auxiliary organizations--the Sabbath schools, Improvement associations,
Relief societies, Primary societies, and Religion classes. But from
the fireside of the people to the public assembly of worship; from the
cradle to the grave, every provision is made for carrying on the work
of the ministry, at home, instructing the Saints in the things of God,
inviting all to come unto Christ; the object of the Church being to
lift to higher, and ever higher levels the lives of the Saints of God,
until they shall become perfect men and women in Christ Jesus the Lord.
Such are the arrangements, in brief, for the home ministry.
Notwithstanding the clear distinction between the foreign ministry
and the home ministry, the lines that separate them may be crossed
on occasion. You remember how Paul compares the Church of Christ to
the body of a man, and insists that every member and every organ is
necessary to the perfect working of that organism; that the head cannot
say to the feet, I have no need of thee; neither can the feet say to
the head, I have no need of thee; nor the hand to the eye, I have no
need of thee; all the members of the body, he argues, are necessary.
Now, what would you think of a body that possessed a right hand and
left hand, yet the right hand would not at need come to the help of
the left hand; or the left hand refuse to come to the aid of the right
hand? You expect the two hands and arms of a man's body to help each
other, under the direction of the intelligence of the mind. And so in
the Church of Christ: the home ministry and the foreign ministry cross
the line of separation as occasion requires, and come to the assistance
of one another in accomplishing the purposes of God. Sometimes the
officers who are particularly charged with the foreign ministry help at
home; the home ministry sometimes help in the foreign ministry; but all
work harmoniously together.
Rising above both these great divisions of the Priesthood, the home
ministry and the foreign ministry, stands, as the keystone in the arch,
the Presidency of the Church, having control over both departments,
and directing the work of God in all the world. No branch of the
Church, however remote, is beyond their oversight. No Elder, let him be
travelling where he will, is outside the pale of their authority. Talk
of catholicity being one of the marks of the true Church of Christ, as
our Catholic friends sometimes do, they shall find here in the Church
of Christ a catholicity equal at least to their own claims. The Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the church universal; and the
President of the Church holds universal jurisdiction. Moreover, as
Prophet, Seer and Revelator of the Church he is the source through
which God speaks, not only to this people, not only to the Church of
Christ, but to all the inhabitants of the earth, and God will hold them
accountable for the use they make of the words he shall speak through
his appointed mouthpiece. Do not think that this man's authority is
limited to this Church alone. All the inhabitants of the earth are
children of God, and he will deliver his word unto them through his
prophet. I rather like the idea that all the inhabitants of the earth
belong to us--they are God's children, though some of them are in
rebellion and will not heed the commandments of their Father just
now. But here in the Church of Christ is the center of ecclesiastical
government. Here shine forth those rays of light that will grow
brighter and brighter until all the inhabitants of the earth are
enlightened by them.
Now, what do you think of this effort of philosophy, as set forth by
Mr. Riley, to account for Mormonism? How insipid, how foolish, how
inadequate are the theories of men to account for the organization of
this Church! The Church is its own witness! As the stars, "singing
ever as they shine, proclaim the hand that made them is divine,"
so, too, this work,--the restored latter-day gospel--the Church of
Christ--proclaims that it has a divine origin, and that there is in it
a divine power working out the purposes of God. Then let the imitators
go on. Let them choose "apostles," if they want to--and some of them
have them; let them have "seventies," if they want to, and some of them
have them; let them accept this doctrine and that doctrine until they
shall have the complete organization and the complete doctrine in form,
if they want to; but there is one thing they never can get, worlds
without end, and that is the spirit of this work, which gives it life
and power. This work will always be distinguished from the works of
men, in that there will be imminent in it the Spirit of God working his
sovereign will. And that is something they cannot imitate.
My brethren and sisters, I rejoice in the truth. I rejoice in the
gospel of Jesus Christ. It satisfies me completely. It responds to the
hungering of my spirit. It meets the demands also of my intellectual
nature. And as I see the growth of intelligence among men, an increase
of scientific knowledge, a broader understanding of the universe, a
comprehension of the extent and grandeur of the works of God, I see in
Mormonism that which rises up to meet this enlarged knowledge of men.
Mormonism teaches man that he is a child of God; it tells him that he
has in him divine elements that partake of the nature of God; that
after the resurrection he will live forever; and that he may go on
from one degree of excellence unto another until he shall attain unto
something that is truly great, worthy of a God to give, and worthy of a
son of God to receive.
I rejoice in these truths. They cannot be accounted for by any theory
that refers their origin to hallucinations of an epileptic's mind: They
are too substantial, too grand, too rational, too sublime, too soul
inspiring, to have any such contemptible origin. Their own intrinsic
value--their own self evident truth--the institution to which they are
committed as to a sacred depository for the benefit of mankind--The
Church--all this proclaims their divine origin.
NOTE. At the close of the above remarks, President Joseph F. Smith
arose and said:
"While I realize, as you all do, doubtless, that it may be wholly
unnecessary for me to say what I am going to say, yet I feel prompted
to say it, and let it go for what it is worth. I have been delighted
with the most excellent discourse that we have listened to; but I
desire to say that it is a wonderful revelation to the Latter-day
Saints, and especially to those who were familiar with the Prophet
Joseph Smith, to learn in these latter days that he was an epileptic! I
will simply remark, God be praised, that there are so many still living
who knew the Prophet Joseph well, and who are in a position to bear
testimony, to the truth that no such condition [as that suggested in
Mr. Riley's hypothesis] ever existed in the man. He was never troubled
with epilepsy. Of course, this may be unnecessary to say, after this
fallacious, foolish, nonsensical theory--this "fried froth"--gotten
up by vain philosophers to account for something they would like to
destroy from off the face of the earth, but are impotent to do it."
FOREWORD.
"The Mormon Prophet," is by Lily Dougall, author of "The Mermaid," "The
Zeitgeist," "The Madonna of a Day," "Beggars All," etc. The review
of the book which follows was written at the request of the editor
of the "New York Times Saturday Review," and appeared in that paper,
impression of September 23, 1899.
II.
"THE MORMON PROPHET."
It was expected that sooner or later some attempt would be made to
explain Joseph Smith, the "Mormon Prophet." Such was his character,
such the importance of the religion he founded, so remarkable and
thrilling the history of his people, that he could not be ignored.
Already of biographies there have been many, some written from the
side of sympathy and belief in his prophetic calling; more from the
standpoint of the polemic contemner. Even fiction before now has found
incidents in his career and elements in his character that promised
material for its purpose. But the fiction in the main has been "sorry
stuff," utterly contemptible from its distortion of facts and sickening
in its childish efforts to deny the Mormon leader or his people any
honesty of purpose, uprightness of intention, or praise for what they
have achieved. The latest work of Miss Lily Dougall, "The Mormon
Prophet," however, does not belong to that class of fiction. Here,
at least, we have a strong, clear-cut, purpose story, lofty in tone;
its incidents easily within the lines of probability, and singularly
free from the vulgarity of nearly all the writers of fiction who have
made their work at any point touch Mormonism. It is an honest effort
to account for Joseph Smith and his work; and, I may add, without
depreciating any one worthy of consideration, that it enjoys the
distinction of being about the first honest effort in the department of
fiction to account for the Mormon Prophet. This, it must be explained,
is not said in approval of the entire book or its purpose, but is said
of the story as unobjectionable fiction and the honesty of effort upon
the part of the authoress to solve what must have been to her, and what
is to the world, a difficult problem.
That Miss Dougall writes from intimate acquaintance with the early
history of the Mormons is apparent on every page; that she has followed
the order of events, all acquainted with the history of our people well
know; and if, as she explains in her preface, she has taken "necessary
liberty with incidents," those that she has used have not been
violently wrested, and those invented have not been much out of harmony
with the facts of history.
The point at which her work is vulnerable is the point of view
from which she treats her subject. In studying the character and
achievements of Joseph Smith, she was evidently not ready to accept him
as a prophet truly inspired of God, nor could she accept the theory
of "conscious invention" as a reasonable explanation of his life's
work; for, had that been the source of his efforts in rounding a
religion, "it would not have left sufficient power to carry him through
persecution, in which his life hung in the balance and his cause
appeared to be lost;" nor could she believe "that the class of earnest
men who constituted the rank and file of his early following would
have been so long deceived by a deliberate hypocrite." "It appears to
me," she explains "more likely that Smith was genuinely deluded by
the automatic freaks of a vigorous but undisciplined brain, and that
yielding to these, he became confirmed in the hysterical temperament
which always adds to delusion self-deception, and to self-deception,
half-conscious fraud." She calls to aid of her theory--and with marked
skill, be it said--the inclination of the times toward superstition.
"In his day," she remarks, "it was necessary to reject a marvel or
admit its spiritual significance; granting the honest delusion as to
his vision and his book, his only choice lay between counting himself
the sport of devils or the agent of heaven; an optimistic temperament
cast the die."
This is Miss Dougall's point of view in the treatment of her subject,
and it is utterly untenable. The facts in which Mormonism had its
origin are of such a character that they cannot be resolved into
delusion or mistake. Either they were truth or conscious, Simon-pure
invention. It is not possible to place the matter on middle ground.
Joseph Smith was either a true prophet or a conscious fraud or villain.
Had his religion found its origin in the visions of his own mind,
without any connection with material objects, as was the case with
Emanuel Sweedenborg, then there would have been room for Miss Dougall's
theory; but the facts in which Mormonism had its origin had to do with
quite a different order of things. The ancient record of America,
revealed to Joseph Smith by an angel, and which was finally given into
his keeping to translate, was no visionary book--no mere creation of an
overwrought brain but actual substance, sensible to touch as to sight,
consisting of golden plates, with length, breadth, and thickness.
Each plate was about seven by eight inches in dimension, and somewhat
thinner than common tin; the whole bound together by rings made a
volume some six inches in thickness. These plates Joseph Smith claimed
to have handled, and during the time they were in his possession--some
two years--he frequently removed them from place to place in the most
matter-of-fact way. Others saw and handled them, also, not only the
three men to whom the angel Moroni exhibited them, and whose testimony
accompanies every Book of Mormon published, but eight other men, whose
testimony is also published in every Book of Mormon, testify that
Joseph Smith showed the plates to them; that they saw and handled
them, and examined the characters engraven thereon. It cannot be said
that Joseph Smith and these men were self-deceived in such things; not
even the "automatic freaks of a vigorous but undisciplined brain,"
could delude itself in such matters. The Book of Mormon plates had an
existence, and Joseph Smith and others who testified to the fact saw
and handled them, or they were conscious frauds and lied and conspired
to deceive.
So with many other manifestations which the claims to have received.
Many of them consisted of and conversations with resurrected
personages--men of flesh and bone--who laid their hands upon the head
of Joseph Smith and others who were with him. There was no chance for
self-delusion or mistake to enter into such transactions, and no theory
based upon the idea of Joseph Smith being "confirmed in the hysterical
temperament" can explain away these stubborn facts, however well
intentioned or skilfully worked out.
It is to be regretted that Miss Dougall has not extended her studies
of Mormonism beyond the Nauvoo period; had she done so she would have
escaped some errors that now appear in her work, such as treating
seriously the story of the Danite organization, which never had any
existence by reason of any sanction given it by Church authorities. Nor
would she have assumed so largely the ignorance of early converts of
Mormonism, upon which she depends strongly for the working out of her
theory Joseph Smith's character. Here in Utah, in the past, we have had
with us very many of those early converts to Mormonism; some of them
are still with us, and could Miss Dougall have met them she would have
found them people of rather superior intelligence and character, and
not at all the ignorant and superstitious persons they are generally
supposed to have been. Nor would she have committed the blunder of
saying that Mormons revered but one prophet. While it is doubtless true
that Joseph Smith will always hold a pre-eminence among the prophets in
the Church, yet the Mormons believe that all the men who have succeeded
him in the Presidency of the Church have held the same keys of
authority, possessed the same rights, and exercised the same prophetic
powers that were exercised by him.
In conclusion, let me say, it has been suggested that certain "claims
made for the early followers of Joseph Smith were later repudiated
by members of the sect." That is not true, so far as the Church
is concerned. What individual members scattered over the country
formerly occupied by the Saints, but over whom the Church has no
jurisdiction--what they may have repudiated of Joseph Smith's early or
even later teachings we cannot, of course, say; but for the Church,
it can be said that not one of the early claims or teachings of the
Prophet Joseph Smith has ever been repudiated, nor is there any
institution or doctrine of the Church, which did not arise from his
teachings; for all of which he is morally responsible. Such changes
as have taken place are but the natural developments of that which he
founded.
FOREWORD.
This review of Mr. Harry Leon Wilson's book was submitted to several
eastern papers for publication, but was not accepted by any of them.
The refusal of the article by the several eastern publications to
which it was submitted illustrates in a way the difficulties which
the Mormon people have now for a long time met with in correcting the
misrepresentations made of them, and from which they have suffered
so much. Here was a book of no small pretentious the work of a
popular author, pretending to deal with the historical facts and
character of a great people much in the public eye, and very much
maligned and seriously misrepresented by the writer of "The Lions."
Yet no correction of this misrepresentation would be allowed by the
publications to which this review was submitted. Mr. Wilson's book had
a wide circulation, and every consideration of fairness demanded that
the people suffering from its falsehoods should be heard if they asked
for that hearing and presented their case in a proper spirit, and in a
literary style suitable for such a controversy. Of the suitableness of
the article I shall leave the reader to judge. After being rejected by
eastern papers, it was finally published in the Deseret Evening News of
October 5th, 1903.
III.
"THE LIONS OF THE LORD."
I have just read the "Lions of the Lord," by Harry Leon Wilson. An
extended friendly review of it in a leading Utah paper volunteers the
statement that "Mr. Wilson gained his principal information during a
few weeks' visit in Salt Lake last fall, and some time spent over the
Schroeder Mormon library, now in Iowa." No one can doubt the accuracy
of the statement; the treatment of the theme bears every evidence of
the author's hasty and shallow thought upon the subject with which he
attempts to deal. But he "spent some time over the Schroeder Mormon
library;" yes, and what is more, he was undoubtedly "coached" by Mr.
Schroeder while at work in the library; for the salacious fiction which
that "gentleman" of unsavory reputation in Utah used to serve up to the
delectation of the readers of his "Lucifer's Lantern" is altogether too
evident in Mr. Wilson's book, and justly entitled him to recognition as
collaborator with Mr. Wilson in its production.
Since inadvertently the source of the author's inspiration and
information is disclosed, a word respecting Mr. Schroeder, the
should-be-recognized collaborator of Mr. Wilson, becomes necessary
in this review. Mr. Schroeder is known to fame in Utah first as a
lawyer who stands under the recorded public censure of the Supreme
Court of the state of Utah for unprofessional conduct, as is witnessed
in the tenth volume of the Utah Reports of the Supreme Court of the
state. Secondly he is known locally as the collector of a library on
Mormonism, in which prominence and preference is given to anti-Mormon
works redolent of that putridity so delectable to men of debased
natures and perverted tastes. Thirdly, and perhaps most prominently,
he is known as the author, proprietor, and publisher of "Lucifer's
Lantern," that may be described as an intermittent periodical-now some
time since happily defunct--most worthy of its title and its author. It
is into such hands Mr. Wilson unfortunately fell, and by such a person
he was evidently "coached," in his study of Mormonism.
The evidence of all this, apart from the inadvertent admission of
the friendly Utah reviewer, is to be found in the identity of the
sewer-stench that attaches to the work of both; in the use of the
same materials; and the adoption of similar methods. As for instance:
A somewhat eccentric writer in the early days of the Mormon Church
characterized a number of the prominent Church leaders under what
was to him descriptive titles, such as Brigham Young, "Lion of
the Lord;" Wilford Woodruff, "Banner of the Gospel;" John Taylor,
"Champion of Liberty." This evidently appealed to the erratic and
fantastical intellect of Mr. Schroeder, and led him to adopt as the
title of his intermittent, and now defunct anti-Mormon periodical,
"Lucifer's Lantern;" and on the title page of the last number of the
"Lantern" he gratuitously invents for Lorenzo Snow, then President of
the Mormon Church, the descriptive title--as he supposes--"Boss of
Jehovah's Buckler." Now, Mr. Wilson having his attention directed to
the descriptive title of early leading Mormon Elders invented by the
aforesaid eccentric, though friendly writer, conceived the idea of
making the chief character of his story of the number of those who had
received such titles, and hence confers upon "Joel Rae," the character
in his book about whom he centers all the horrors of his gruesome
tale, the blasphemous title--"Lute of the Holy Ghost!" Or was it Mr.
Schroeder; for one dreads to think that a man of the order of talents
of Mr. Wilson could stoop to the low blasphemy of such a performance;
while it is altogether in accordance both with the principles and
practice of his should-be-acknowledged collaborator, Mr. Shroeder;
for blatant atheism was and is the latter's pride and boast; and he
was wont, as we have seen by his use of it in "Lucifer's Lantern," to
ascribe fanciful titles to leading Mormons.
A word, in headlines, as to the story itself; that it is possessed of
dramatic force, and literary merit will go without saying when it is
known that its author is also the author of "The Spenders." That it
deals with elements capable of being so combined as to produce the most
intense human interest will be conceded when I say that it treats of
religious fanaticism--the faith--"fanatic faith," that
"Once wedded fast
To some dear idol,
Hugs it to the last;"
of love--the theme of the ages, the one theme ever old and ever
new--the theme perennial; with human passions and ambitions, the desire
for that most deceitful end of all human ambitions--the desire for
sanctity while living, and a reputation for holiness when dead. These
the elements of the story; and now the incidents:
Joel Rae, "bred in the word and the truth" of Mormonism, if not born
in it, returns to Nauvoo from a mission just upon the time that the
last remnant of the Saints have departed from that ill-fated city. He
finds that the home of his parents in the outskirts of Nauvoo has been
destroyed by mobs; and that his aged father and mother were driven into
Nauvoo, where they are for the time under the protection of an apostate
family; that his fiancee, with her family, has turned from the faith,
and she is only awaiting his arrival to ascertain if he will join her
in her apostasy. This he refuses to do, and with his parents prepares
to follow his expatriated people in their great westward movement.
While being ferried over the Mississippi, the aged father of young
Rae--the son not being present--is pitched into the river by ruffian
hands and is drowned; his aged mother dies from the shock of the
horrible murder; and young Rae, made desperate by those events, becomes
a "Son of Dan," a supposed secret society of the blood and thunder
order, oath-bound to "support the First Presidency of the Church of,
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in all things, right or wrong!"
He forms one of the band of pioneers which Brigham Young led to the
Salt Lake valley in 1847, and gives numerous evidences of increasing
fanaticism, much to the delight of the Mormon leaders, which delight
is here and there expressed in silly, blasphemous sentences of which
the following is a fair sample: "When that young man [Rae] gets all het
up with the Holy Ghost, the Angel of the Lord just has to give down!"
In the new home of the Saints young Rae does his full share of both
manual and spiritual labor. In the latter he succeeded too well since
he preached better, worked more seeming miracles, and prophesied more
than the other "Lions of the Lord." Brigham declares him "soul proud,"
and sends him to the Missouri river in 1857 to bring in the handcart
companies, in which expedition he witnesses enough distress and misery
to humble the most "soul proud" man alive, since the sufferings of
the handcart companies from cold, famine and over toil is the result
of his own bad judgement in starting late in the season. Arriving in
Salt Lake, however, his fanatical preaching starts a "reformation,"
i. e., an outburst of wild fanaticism attended upon by murders, and
voluntary submissions to secret executions, to atone for the commission
of the more heinous sins. Rae's fanaticism makes him a participant in
the Mountain Meadows massacre in which it falls to his lot to kill the
young militia captain--Grimway--who had assisted Rae to leave Nauvoo,
and who subsequently married the woman to whom Rae was betrothed.
She, too, was with the emigrants attacked at Mountain Meadows, and
Rae, after killing her husband, saw her murdered and scalped by an
Indian. From the number of emigrants doomed to death Rae rescued a
white-haired boy and the little daughter of his one-time betrothed
wife, Prudence Corson. The boy he leaves at Hamblin's ranch, whence he
escapes, swearing vengeance against Rae, whom he saw kill the father
of the little girl--Prudence Grimway. The girl Prudence--named after
her mother--Rae leaves at a neighboring ranch, claiming her as his own
child, for whom he will later return. Haunted by the memories of the
awful slaughter of the gentile emigrants at Mountain Meadows, he goes
north, actively participates in the resistance to the United States'
army under Albert Sidney Johnston, then entering Utah, but is disgusted
with the final submission of Brigham Young to United States authority,
and takes up his abode in a new settlement far to the south of Salt
Lake City, and not far from the Mountain Meadows. Here his life of
penance begins. In a spirit of self-sacrifice he marries a woman with
but one hand, and a disfigured face. The hand she lost by having it
frozen while pushing a hand cart in the belated company Rae had led to
Utah years before. He also married another woman--a poor half-starved,
cast off wife of a prominent Mormon Bishop; and later still, another
wife, a shallow-witted, talkative creature who is a cross indeed to
the "man of many sorrows." He takes under his protection also a poor
imbecile man, the victim of a horrible, and unnameable mutilation;
and a woman who had gone insane because her husband married another
wife. The wives, to his honor be it said, were such in name only. This
collection of the woebegone, with the child Prudence added, make up the
Rae household. The girl Prudence becomes beautiful, of course, and is
much sought by men of middle life already possessed of many wives, no
less a personage than Brigham Young being among the number; and it is
represented that the latter "suitor" had but to send word in advance
to the foster father of his intention to marry the girl on his next
journey south, in order to close the matrimonial incident, except the
formal word-ceremony, and taking away the bride! But Miss Prudence had
visited Salt Lake, and while there witnessed the performance at the
theater of "Romeo and Juliet," which is sufficient to give her ideas of
love and matrimony all her own. The balcony scene much impressed her;
and ever afterwards became her ideal of expressed love. A few years of
dreaming on the part of the maiden, and a few years of silent suffering
on the part of Joel Rae, now the "little man of sorrows," then the
lad of the Meadows, Ruel Follett, who escaped from Hamblin's ranch
swearing vengeance on Rae and two other participants in the massacre,
returns, seeking his revenge. He is now a young man, handsome, brave,
strong, aggressive. But he is baffled in his mission of retribution.
Two of the murderers he seeks are already dead some time since, and
Rae is so pitifully weak and distraught by the haunting memories of
that awful butchery that young Follett cannot find the heart to kill
him; besides there is Prudence, who loves the "little man of sorrows"
with true filial affection. The upshot of it all is that young Follett
leaves to time the duty of taking off Rae--an event that cannot be long
deferred, since the little man is fast hastening to the end of his
earthly career; and meantime Follett insidiously woos Prudence, and
wins her love; while she makes an unsuccessful effort to convert him to
Mormonism. In all their readings, and conversations upon the Book of
Mormon and other subjects connected with the Mormon religion, Follett
is given an easy victory over the poor girl by the employment of covert
sneers, slightly concealed sarcasms and tender ridicule. Meantime
Joel Rae has lost his faith in Mormonism; he discovers that polygamy
is wrong; the Saints abandoned of God; and on the occasion of Brigham
Young paying his annual visit to the settlement where Rae lives, he
tells the prophet and the people his discoveries. Anticipating the
vengeance of the "Sons of Dan," Rae flies to the cross and cairn of
stones erected on the site of the Mountain Meadows massacre, that he
may die--according to orthodox dramatic canons--at the place where
his awful crime was committed. He is followed by Prudence and young
Follett, who come up to him at the cross erected by Gentile hands on
the site of the massacre, where, in company with two Indians, they
watched him peacefully pass away in a rather protracted death scene,
to the accompaniment of an Indian tom-tom drum, and notwithstanding
one of the redmen waves before his eyes the yellow scalp-lock which
years before he had seen reeking with blood snatched from the head
of the woman he loved. Young Follett and Prudence, as soon as the
"little man of sorrows" is buried, leave for the east with a passing
wagon train, and having been married by Rae a few minutes before his
death, the reader is left to infer that they "lived happily ever
after," in some eastern city, far, far away from fanatical Mormons,
and their wickedness, where only monogamous marriages obtain, and
conjugal happiness is never disturbed by the haunting fears of marital
infidelities, or polygamy, simultaneous or consecutive.
I have been at the pains to give this rather full synopsis of the
story, that my readers may be witnesses of the fact that Mr. Wilson has
certainly massed enough of gruesome materials to furnish to repletion
several chambers of horrors. Far be it from me to suggest that so
prominent an author has stooped to the methods of yellow-backed,
ten-cent novelists of a quarter of a century ago, in the matter at
least of the quality and mass of incidents to be woven into story.
This glance at the incidents of the story also reveals the opportunity
they will afford the author for gathering into one view the bigotry,
ignorance, weakness, fanaticism, and wickedness of individual Mormons,
all to be interwoven with the mockery, sarcasm, ridicule, ribaldry,
innuendo and insults of their enemies.
And now, as to the treatment of the theme. The author of the "Lions of
the Lord" in his opening chapter--the prettiest piece of descriptive
writing in the book--has drawn heavily upon, if he has not actually
plagiarized from, the lecture of the late General Thomas L. Kane, of
Philadelphia, delivered before the Historical Society of Pennsylvania,
on March 26, 1850. Mr. Wilson heads his first chapter "The Dead City,"
meaning Nauvoo after the departure of the last of the Mormons. Mr.
Kane opens his Lecture under the caption "The Deserted City," meaning
Nauvoo after the departure of the last of the Mormons. Mr. Wilson makes
his hero, Joel Rae, enter the "dead city" in "September." Mr. Kane
enters "the deserted city" late in the "autumn." Mr. Wilson's hero
"from a skiff in mid-river" views the temple on the hill top; presently
"landing at the wharf, he was stunned by the hush of the streets." Mr.
Kane "procured a skiff," and rowing across the river, "landed at the
chief wharf of the city. No one met me there. I looked and saw no one.
I could hear no one move, though the quiet everywhere was such that I
could hear the flies buzz."
The closeness with which Mr. Wilson follows Mr. Kane's beautifully
descriptive passages, however, will best be seen and appreciated when
placed in parallel paragraphs, as follows:
[Left column:] Mr. Wilson. "The Dead City."
[Right column:] Mr. Kane. "The Deserted City."
[Wilson] "The city without life lay handsomely along a river in the
early sunlight of a September morning.....From the half-circle around
which the broad river bent its moody current, the neat houses, set in
cool green gardens, were terraced up the high hill, and from the summit
of this a stately marble temple, glittering of newness, towered far
above them in placid benediction."
[Kane] "Half encircled by the bend of the river, a beautiful city lay
glittering in the fresh [autumn] morning sun; its bright new dwellings,
set in cool green gardens, ranging up around a stately dome shaped hill
which was crowned by a noble marble edifice, whose high tapering spire
was radiant with white and gold."
[Wilson] "Mile after mile the streets lay silent, along the river
front, up to the hilltop, and beyond into the level....And when they
had run their length, and the outlying fields were reached, there, too,
the same brooding spell-and the land stretched away in the hush and
haze."
[Kane] "The city appeared to cover several miles; and beyond it, in the
background, there rolled off a fair country, checquered by the careful
lines of fruitful husbandry."
[Wilson] "The yellow grain, heavy-headed with richness, lay beaten down
and rotting, for there were no reapers. The city, it seemed, had died
calmly, painlessly, drowsily, as if overcome by sleep."
[Kane] "Fields upon fields of heavy headed yellow grain lay rotting
ungathered upon the ground. No one was at hand to take in their rich
harvest. As far as the eye could reach, they stretched away, they
sleeping, too, in the hazy air of autumn."
[Wilson]: "He started wonderingly up a street that led from the i
waterside. . . . He was now passing empty workshops, hesitating door
after door with ever mounting alarm. . . . . Growing bolder, he tried
some of the doors and found them to yield. . . . . He passed an
empty rode walk, the hemp strewn about, as if the workers had left
hurriedly. He peered curiously at idle looms and deserted spinning
wheels--deserted apparently but the instant before he came. . . He
entered a carpenter's shop. On the bench was an unfinished door, a
plane where it had been shoved half the length of its edge, the fresh
pine shaving still curling over the side. . . . . He turned into a
baker's shop and saw freshly chopped kindling piled against the oven,
and dough actually on the kneading tray. In a tanner's vat he found
fresh bark. In a blacksmith's shod he entered next the fire was out,
but there was coal headed beside the forge, with the ladling pool and
the crooked water horn, and on the anvil was a horseshoe that had
cooled before it was finished."
[Kane] "I walked through the solitary streets. . . . I went about
unchecked. I went into empty workshops, ropewalks and smithies.
[Kane] The spinner's wheel was idle; the carpenter had gone from his
work bench and shavings, his unfinished sash and casing.
[Kane] Fresh bark was in the tanner's vat, and the fresh chopped
lightwood stood piled against the baker's oven.
[Kane] The blacksmith shop was cold, but his coal heap, and lading
pool, and crooked water horn were all there as if he had just gone off
for a holiday."
[Wilson] "He entered one of the gardens, clinking the gate-latch loudly
after him, but no one challenged. He drew a drink from the Well with
its loud rattling chain and clumsy water-bucket, but no one called.
At the door of the house he pounded, and at last flung it open with
all the noise he could make. Still his hungry ears fed on nothing but
sinister echoes, and barren husks of his clamour. There was no curt
voice of a man, no quick questioning tread of a woman. There were dead
white ashes on the hearth, and the silence was grimly kept by the dumb
household gods."
[Kane] "If I went into the gardens, linking the wicket latch after me,
to pull the marigolds, heart's ease and lady slippers and draw a drink
with the water-sodden bucket and its noisy chain, or knocked off with
my stick the tall headed dahlias and sunflowers, hunting over the beds
for cucumbers and love-apples; no one called out to me from any open
window, or dog sprang forward to bark alarm. I could have supposed
the people hidden in their houses, but the doors were unfastened; and
when at last I timidly entered them, I found dead ashes white upon the
hearth, and had to tread a-tip-toe as if walking down the aisles of a
country church."
Mr. Wilson certainly has a remarkably similar taste to that of
Colonel Kane for flowers and gardens. Young Rae meets Prudence in the
gardens--now observe:
[Left column:] Mr. Wilson.
[Right column:] Mr. Kane.
[Wilson] "He ran to her--over beds of marigolds, heart's ease and lady
slippers, through a row of drowsy looking heavy headed dahlias, and
passed other withering flowers, all but choked out by the rank garden
growths of late summer."
[Kane] "If I went into the gardens. . . to pull the marigolds, heart's
ease and lady slippers, . . . or knock off the tall, heavy headed
dahlias and the sunflowers, hunting over the beds for cucumbers and
love-apples--no one called out to me."
After Mr. Wilson had followed General Kane in the matter of flowers
so closely, one marvels that he did not go with him as far as the
"sunflowers and love-apples;" but General Kane was hunting "over beds
of cucumbers," and perhaps the author of the "Lions of the Lord" found
that his taste for vegetables did not run so closely with the General's
in the vegetable line as in the matter of flowers. But seriously, does
not the code of ethics in literature require that our rising young
author should either have the grace to put these descriptive passages
in quotation marks, or else frankly give the source whence he draws
the prettiest bits of description in his much-vaunted book? In the
event of the work reaching a second edition, I suggest that he adopt
the whole of General Kane's description of "The Deserted City," for
his opening chapter; for beautiful as his own is, it but shines with
a borrowed light, and when compared with the General's it appears to
great disadvantage.
A word as to the purpose of the "Lions of the Lord;" for Mr. Wilson's
performance must be classified with the "purpose novel." Undoubtedly
there is such a thing as instructive fiction, and the "purpose
novel" has its place as one of the agencies which contribute to the
enlightenment of humanity. But if it takes hold of our respect it must
be, in harmony with the truth--though fiction, it must speak truly; and
keep within the probabilities of the subject in hand. Or, to slightly
paraphrase an utterance in Mr. Wilson's preface, if the writer now
and again has to divine certain things that do not show--yet must
be--surely this must not be less than truth. For a writer of "purpose
fiction" to do other than this is to make himself as much liable to
censure as the historian who would pervert the truth which he is in
honor bound to state whether it fits in with his personal theories or
not. In his preface, Mr. Wilson informs us that he designed to make
a tale from his observations of western life in Salt Lake and Utah;
but in his search for things on which to found his fiction he was so
dismayed by facts so much more thrilling than any fiction he might have
imagined, that he turned from his first purpose in order "to try to
tell what had really been." "In this story then," says he, "the things
that are strangest have most truth. The make-believe is hardly more
than a cement to join the queerly wrought stones of fact that were
found ready." Hence we are to be turned from considering his work as
fiction in order to regard it as truth.
It is exactly at this point that I arraign Mr. Wilson before the bar of
public opinion, and tell him that what he represents as true I denounce
as false; and this quite apart from any books from which he has
paraphrased much of the matter he weaves into his story. The trouble
is that the sources whence he makes his deductions are as untrue in
their statements as his paraphrases of them are. Mr. Wilson is as one
who walks through some splendid orchard and gathers here and there
the worm-eaten, frost-bitten, wind-blasted, growth-stunted and rotten
fruit, which in spite of the best of care is to be found in every
orchard; bringing this to us he says: "This is the fruit of yonder
orchard; you see how worthless it is; an orchard growing such fruit is
ready for the burning." Whereas, the fact may be that there are tons
and tons of beautiful, luscious fruit, as pleasing to the eye as it
would be agreeable to the palate, remaining in the orchard to which he
does not call our attention at all. Would not such a representation of
the orchard be an untruth, notwithstanding his blighted specimens were
gathered from its trees? If he presents to us the blighted specimens
of fruit from the orchard, is he not in truth and in honor bound also
to call our attention to the rich harvest of splendid fruit that
still remains ungathered before he asks us to pass judgement on the
orchard? I am not so blind in my admiration of the Mormon people, or
so bigoted in my devotion to the Mormon faith as to think that there
are no individuals in that Church chargeable with fanaticism, folly,
intemperate speech and wickedness; nor am I blind to the fact that
some in their over-zeal have lacked judgement; and that in times of
excitement, under stress of special provocation, even Mormon leaders
have given utterance to ideas that are indefensible. But I have yet to
learn that it is just in a writer of history or of "purpose fiction,"
that "must speak truly," to make a collection of these things and
represent them as of the essence of that faith against which said
writer draws an indictment.
"No one would measure the belief of Christians," says a truly great
writer, "by certain statements in the Fathers, nor judge the moral
principles of Roman Catholics by prurient quotations from the casuists;
nor yet estimate Lutherans by the utterances and deeds of the early
successors of Luther, nor Calvanists by the burning of Servitus. In
such cases the general standpoint of the times has to taken into
account." (Edeshiem's Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, preface,
page 8.)
A long time ago the great Edmund Burke, in his defense of the rashness
expressed in both speech and action some of our patriots of the
American Revolution period, said: "It is not fair to judge of the
temper or the disposition of any man or set of men when they are
composed and at rest from their conduct or their expressions in a
state of disturbance and irritation." The justice of Burke's assertion
has never been questioned, and without any wresting whatsoever it may
be applied to Mormon leaders who sometimes spoke and acted under the
recollection of rank injustice perpetrated against themselves and their
people; or rebuke rising evils against which their souls revolted.
Mr. Wilson's book is a false indictment against Mormonism, and
against the leading characters of the Mormon Church. The speeches he
represents as falling from their lips, could never be recognized in
the utterances of Mormons, either among the leaders, or the rank and
file. The blasphemous phraseology was never heard in Mormon camps or
pulpits. Such expressions as "When that young man gets all het up with
the Holy Ghost, the angel of the Lord just has to give down;" or "Lord,
what won't Brother Brigham do when the Holy Ghost gets a strangle-holt
on him?" are blasphemies utterly impossible to the Mormon mind. Such
expressions as the following, represented as coming from Brigham Young:
"The Lute of the Holy Ghost will now say a word of farewell from our
pioneers to those who must stay behind," is equally impossible; and
so are many other speeches which he puts into the mouths of leading
characters of the Mormon Church. Even this blasphemous phrase-name
given to Joel Rae--"Lute of the Holy Ghost"--is not original with Mr.
Wilson. It was a cognomen given to Ephraem Syrus, "the greatest man,"
says Andrew D. White, author of "A History of the Warfare of Science
with Theology in Christendom,"--"the greatest man of the old Syrian
Church, widely known as the 'Lute of the Holy Ghost.'" [A]
[Footnote A: Vol. I, p. 92 of work named in text.]
The most serious injustice Mr. Wilson does the Mormon people, however,
the thing in which he most departs from the facts established, not
only by history but by the decisions of the United States courts in
Utah, is in that he makes the awful crime of the massacre of emigrants
at Mountain Meadows, in 1857, the crime of the Mormon Church. Over
and over again in fact he makes that charge, and represents his chief
character, "Joel Rae," as seeking to take upon himself the sins of the
"Church" for committing that crime; and in one place represents him as
saying: "For fifteen years I have lain in hell for the work this Church
did at Mountain Meadows." To bear false witness against one's neighbor
even in matters that may be trivial, is a contemptible crime; but
when in bearing false witness the charge is that of murder, wholesale
murder, and that under circumstances the most revolting and horrible,
the crime then of bearing false witness rises above the merely
contemptible, and to be seen in its true enormity, must be regarded as
bearing a due proportion to the crime charged. That is, next to being
guilty of the crime itself must be the crime of falsely charging it
to the innocent. I care nothing for the fact that the predecessors of
Mr. Wilson, in works of fiction on the West have made similar charges.
He will not be justified in following their evil example. A man of
his standing in the world of letters, starting out to "try to tell
what had really been," to write fiction that must speak "no less than
truth"--he was under obligations both to himself and the people to whom
his message should go, to investigate all the facts, and speak truly in
harmony with them in every case.
It is not necessary here to enter into any argument or even produce
the evidence that the Mormon Church was in no wise responsible, in
no wise connected with the awful butchery at Mountain Meadows. The
evidence of these things appear upon the very surface of our history
in Utah, and also in decisions of United States judges who would only
have been too happy to have implicated the Mormon Church officials
in that awful crime if it had been possible. In fact they tried to
so fix the responsibility, and failed. But it is enough here to tell
Mr. Wilson, that he has Committed an act of injustice for which I
would not like to stand responsible at the judgement bar of God; I am
confident that he will be driven to the necessity of choosing between
these alternatives: either that he has consciously spoken contrary to
truth in the matter; or else he has given merely surface consideration
to one side of the subject only which he represents himself as having
considered profoundly; in either event Mr. Wilson has assumed a most
serious responsibility.
IV.
A BRIEF DEFENSE OF THE MORMON PEOPLE.
FOREWORD.
In the year 1903, Mr. L. C. Bateman, one of the editors of the
"Lewiston (Maine) Journal" visited Salt Lake City and other parts
of Utah. He formed a favorable impression of the Mormon people, and
their progress in all that makes for civilization. The result of his
observations while in Utah Mr. Bateman published in his paper, the
"Lewiston (Maine) Journal." This article attracted the attention of
the _Deseret News_, which made some favorable comment upon its general
fairness. Observing this, a non-Mormon resident of Salt Lake City wrote
the "Journal," protesting against the letter published by its editorial
staff correspondent, saying that such treatment of the "Mormon
question" was harmful in that it gave encouragement to Mormonism. The
communication of "M" was sent to this writer--who met Mr. Bateman,
during his visit to Utah--with the request that he make answer to it,
which he did under the title "A Brief Defense of the Mormon People,"
which was published in the "Journal." Of the success of this answer Mr.
Bateman, the editor of the "Journal," wrote as follows:
LEWISTON, MAINE, Oct. 4, 1903.
_My Dear Mr. Roberts:_
Permit me to congratulate you on the magnificent and overwhelming reply
that you made to my critic "M." from Salt Lake. It is one of the finest
and most crushing things that we have printed for years. I could easily
have replied to "M" myself, and made him an object of ridicule, but I
thought it would be better to have the reply come from a Mormon. My
original article neither endorsed nor condemned. I merely told facts
and the truth as I saw them. And I personally am an agnostic. It is
only from that class that you can get justice.
This article of yours will create a profound impression all over New
England. It is so complete and conclusive that I anticipate nothing
more from the "jaundiced" "M." I send you copy of Journal.
Yours cordially,
L. C. BATEMAN.
I.
Eastern Eulogy of Mormons' System.
_To Editors of the Lewiston Journal:_
The _Deseret News_ of Salt Lake City, which is the official organ of
the Mormon priesthood, in its issue of Aug. 6th, contains an editorial
expressing its great satisfaction over the recent eulogistic article in
the _Journal,_ on the merits of the Mormons and their peculiar system,
by the Journal's representative, Mr. L. C. Bateman.
Having lived in Utah for over twenty-five years, striving with other
law-abiding citizens to establish here the same American ideas which
are accepted as fundamental in the other states of the Union, I have
had ample opportunity to study the Mormon system and its fruits. And I
am prepared to say that, while I have never had anything but the utmost
good will for the masses of the Mormon people, I am forced to join with
other careful students in declaring that from a social, civil, and
moral standpoint, no language is strong enough to set forth the evil
fruits of the Mormon system.
Based on polygamy, how could the system be otherwise than rotten? Its
central idea of government being that of priesthood rule, how could
it be otherwise than anti-American? Having been founded and organized
by a man as corrupt and immoral as the multiplied testimony of Joseph
Smith's acquaintances and neighbors proves that he was, how could it be
otherwise than mischievous and immoral in its tendencies and results?
On the part of loyal Americans who have studied the Mormon system here
on the ground for years, there is no difference of opinion about the
inherent badness of the system and of its fruits, although many, unduly
influenced by what they consider business policy, are reluctant to say
much about it.
Some fifteen years ago, Mr. James Barclay, a member of the English
Parliament, spent three days in Salt Lake City studying Mormonism.
He surrendered himself to the control of the Mormon leaders. He was
dined at the Amelia Palace, at that time the residence of the Mormon
president, and attended other receptions in his honor at prominent
Mormon residences. He saw everything through Mormon spectacles.
When he went back to London, he published in the popular Nineteenth
Century Magazine, a most glowing eulogy of the Mormon system. The
Mormon leaders had been so successful with their hospitality scheme,
that the Hon. Mr. Barclay had nothing but praise for those who were
pushing forward their law-defying system of polygamy and nothing but
condemnation for those who were trying to enforce the righteous laws of
the land against it.
The Journal's representative seems to have seen things much as the Hon.
Mr. Barclay. However, that may be, the Mormons have palmed off upon
him, as they did on Mr. Barclay, those old yarns about their changing
the barren desert of this valley into a blooming garden, and about
"the persecutions" from which they have suffered in Utah. The first of
these old chestnuts was laid on the shelf years ago here in the west,
because there is no truth in it. There never was any barren desert
in this valley, for it has always been one of the best-watered, most
easily cultivated and productive valleys west of the Mississippi. The
Mormons raised bountiful crops of grain the very first year of their
arrival. The difficulty of securing a crop here in this fertile valley
with its mild and equable climate, was very small in comparison with
the difficulties encountered by the first settlers of New England along
the bleak Atlantic shore. Furthermore, what a mercy it would have
been to our whole country if Utah had remained unsettled for another
twenty-five years, if then it could have been occupied by law-abiding
Americans in sympathy with American civilization, such men as have
built up the noble states of Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas.
The Journal's representative says: "But even here they were not safe
from the persecutions of their enemies." That fictitious yarn has been
worked off on many a foreigner. But we did not suppose it possible
to catch an American newspaperman with such a bare hook as that. The
Mormons had this territory almost exclusively to themselves for about
twenty-five years, and did practically as they pleased from 1847 until
1882, when the first Edmunds Law called them to a halt. The terrible
"persecutions" complained of consist simply in this and nothing more,
namely, that the Mormons were asked, and after some thirty-five years
were required, to obey just the same laws which all other people and
other religious bodies have always obeyed in this country. But the
Mormon leaders have left nothing undone to make the people under
them believe, and all outsiders whom they could influence, that the
enforcement of these righteous laws which are obeyed by the American
people generally, was "persecution."
But here is another paragraph from the article under discussion, which
shows that the Journal's correspondent was as completely imposed upon
as was the Hon. Mr. Barclay. He says, as quoted by the _Deseret News:_
"The only charge that can be laid at their doors today is that they
refuse to desert their wives that they married in good faith (!)
And they are right. To turn these women out of doors to subsist at
the hands of charity would be a vastly worse crime in the eyes of
God and decent-minded men than to make the provision for them that
they are now doing."
The law-breaking polygamists could not have stated their case more
satisfactorily to themselves. But what is the matter with the Journal's
representative? Of course, he knows that polygamy is an atrocious crime
in this country, and has been so considered since our government was
founded. Why, then, does he talk about committing the crime of polygamy
"in good faith?" As well talk about committing the crime of bank
robbing "in good faith." Indeed, it would not be difficult to show that
bank-robbery, bad as it is, does less harm to society than polygamy.
Furthermore none of the opponents of polygamy have ever asked that
plural wives should be "turned out of doors." Nobody has objected
to having plural wives and their children kindly provided for
by the men who placed them in their unlawful position. But the
law-abiding citizens of Utah and the Federal Government also make
a wide distinction between providing for these plural wives and
their children, and providing these same plural wives with children.
The whole difficulty grows out of the fact that the men who were
living with plural wives before Utah became a State still persist in
maintaining the old polygamous relations with these women, and that,
too, in the face of the solemn pledges to the United States government
that if granted amnesty and statehood they would forthwith abandon
all polygamous relations of every kind. Over ten years have passed
since amnesty was granted by the government on the above condition,
and yet all over the State men are living in polygamy the same as
before statehood. The president of the Mormon Church, with his five
wives, encourages these law-breakers by his example, and then tries
to belittle the offense by claiming that the number of men living in
polygamy is quite small, not over 756. The _Deseret News_ at first
denied that there are any such cases, but was forced to admit that
it was mistaken. It then tried to belittle the matter by claiming
that there were only 1,543 such cases! Suppose someone should argue
that Maine is a good moral State because it contains only 1,543 bank
robbers! Of course the _News_ naturally underestimates the number.
In the closing paragraph of the article in the Journal occurs the
following statement: "Common justice and common honesty, however,
require him (the writer) to say that aside from the one peculiar
feature of polygamy, he fails to see wherein the Mormon religion, is
not just as pure as the different forms to which we are accustomed in
the East."
No one who is acquainted with the fundamental doctrines of Mormonism
and with the fundamental doctrines of the Christian religion would make
any such sweeping and misleading statement as that.
Mormonism holds and teaches the heathen doctrine of polytheism, the
doctrine of many gods. (Pratt's Key to Theology, Chap. vi.) It teaches
that Adam is God "and the only God with whom we have to do." (Brigham
Young in Journal of Discourses, Vol. I, page 50.) It makes belief in
the alleged divine mission and authority of that most immoral and
wicked man, Joseph Smith, a fundamental doctrine of its religious
system. (Brigham Young in Millennial Star Vol. v, page 118.)
It teaches that the coarse and vulgar men who make up the Mormon
priesthood must be obeyed by the people because they possess divine
authority, and that those who reject the commands of this bogus
priesthood reject God. (Elder Roberts' New Witness for God, page 187.)
It teaches that Jesus Christ, the Divine Savior of the world, was
a polygamist, and many other horrible doctrines which are utterly
repugnant to the pure and lofty morality of the Christian religion.
The Mormons have lived in five different states, namely, Ohio,
Missouri, Illinois, Iowa and Utah. If their system is as pure morally
and as patriotic as it is claimed to be, how does it happen that
their sojourn in each of those states was characterized by continued
and increasing conflict with the established government and laws of
those states and of the United States, while the great Christian
denominations lived in peace and harmony under those same laws? The
Mormon Church will enjoy similar peace and harmony whenever its
priesthood ceases to interfere with civil affairs, and sets the example
of obeying the laws of the land as loyally as they have always been
obeyed by the great Christian denominations generally.
M.
Salt Lake City, Aug. 19, 1903.
II.
A Brief Defense of the Mormon People.
_To Editors of Lewiston, Maine, Journal:--_
An old Spanish proverb has it that "A lie will travel a league, while
Truth is getting on his boots." Truth, however, has this advantage over
his nimble-footed opponent, viz., his boots once on he runs and is not
weary, he walks and faints not; and at the last he wins. The progress
of Truth, in other words, is irresistible and overwhelming, and his
triumph over falsehood is as inevitable as the decrees of fate.
In no instance in human experience are the above truths more clearly
demonstrated than in the history of Mormonism. From the beginning of
its existence falsehood in the form of misrepresentation and malicious
slander has been in the field against it. Early and late and viciously
the liars of this world have sought to overwhelm it as with a flood.
Meantime, however, Truth has not been idle. Steadily and gloriously
Mormonism and the people who have accepted it have lived down the
misrepresentations of their traducers, and today stand proudly erect,
unmoved by the efforts which falsehood has made to destroy them. This
failure of falsehood to destroy the object at which it has levelled its
heaviest ordnance is naturally aggravating to those who have employed
it; and very naturally they show that annoyance. As an instance of this
fact I refer to your Salt Lake correspondent "M," whose communication
under the title "Eastern Eulogy of Mormons' System," appeared in your
issue of September 6th. "M" is somewhat grieved, not to say indignant,
that the _Journal's_ representative, Mr. L. C. Bateman, should have
spoken a word of praise for the Mormons and for what they have achieved
by their faith, industry and frugality, and informs the _Journal_
that what he calls Mr. Bateman's eulogistic article called forth
an editorial in the Deseret News, the official organ of the Mormon
priesthood, expressing great satisfaction on the appearance of the
aforesaid article. But what's to be done? Men of intelligence come to
Utah; they are cosmopolitan, they understand human affairs and human
nature; and many of them--among them evidently your representative,
whose article is the cause of "M's" displeasure--are men accustomed
to collecting evidence, sifting it on the spot, and forming their own
conclusions. They find that the facts they see and investigate do not
warrant the misrepresentations they have heard concerning Mormonism and
the Mormons. They say that in their communications to the press, in
magazine articles, and sometimes in books. They are honest enough to
tell the truth as they find it; and refuse to look at facts--the things
which are--through the jaundiced eyes of a bigoted sectarian priest, or
through the eyes of a disappointed, and very likely disgruntled, scurvy
politician. Then they are abused by those to whose interests it is to
keep up a false impression concerning Mormonism and the Mormons, or
whose malice is gratified by misrepresenting them. Then it is charged
that they have been imposed upon by representations of "the wily Mormon
leaders;" or they have been "wined and dined," and hoodwinked; or else
they have sold their talents to the Mormon "priesthood for money."
Only let a man, whatever his intelligence or character, or national
standing, from President Eliot of Harvard to your representative--only
let him pursue his investigations of Mormonism and Mormons beyond
the lurid tales of hack drivers, bent on gratifying the morbid love
in human nature for the unusual and the horrible; or let him push
his inquiry beyond sectarian interpretation of the Mormon faith, and
sectarian misrepresentation of the Mormon people, and he is doomed to
be catalogued as a weak dupe, or a paid agent of the Mormon Church.
But however annoying it may be to Mormon traducers, the day is gone
by when their fulminations can be accepted as sober truth. Mormonism
is no longer isolated from the world. It is in daily contact with the
great stream of travel which crosses the continent, in which stream
is to be found some of the first and greatest characters of our own
country and of the world; not merely the seekers of pleasure, or the
restless curious; but educators, literati, public lecturers, editors,
scientists, and statesmen. Attracted by the wonderful things they have
heard of Utah and the Mormons, they stop to inquire, they meet with
unexpected conditions, with facts undreamed of, they investigate, are
convinced that the world has been misled in the impressions it has
formed concerning the Mormon faith and the Mormon people; and thus they
become witnesses against the traducers of that maligned people. Our
traducers may not like this, but it is true. They have made lies their
refuge, and under falsehood have they hid themselves; but their bed is
shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it, and the covering
narrower than that he can wrap himself in it. This much in general. Now
to be more specific; and especially to cover in the evidence I quote
the silly attempt of your Salt Lake correspondent "M" to deny credit
to the Mormons for having redeemed a desert and given a wilderness to
civilization.
Your correspondent refers to the credit accorded the Mormons for this
as "an old chestnut" which has been laid on the shelf years ago here in
the West, because there is no truth in it! "There never was any barren
desert," he says, "in this valley, for it has always been one of the
best watered, most easily cultivated and productive valleys west of the
Mississippi!" It is rather an unfortunate circumstance that a man who
claims to have been a careful student of Mormonism and who has lived
for over twenty-five years in Utah, should include in his criticism
of the Journal's representative's article an untruth so palpable, a
falsehood so easy of refutation, a statement which so bluntly comes
in contact with the common knowledge of all the people of the United
States. How the Salt Lake Valley was regarded by the pioneers who came
into it in 1847 may be learned from the following quotation from their
utterances:
"My mother was heart-broken because there were no trees to be seen.
I do not remember a tree that could be called a tree." Statement of
Clara Decker Young, one of the women of the first pioneer company.
(Bancroft's History of Utah, page 261.)
"The ground was so dry that they found it necessary to irrigate it
before plowing, some plows having been broken." (_Ibid._)
Their first impressions of the valley, Lorenzo Young says, were most
disheartening. But for the two or three cottonwood trees, not a green
thing was in sight. And Brigham speaks almost pathetically of the
destruction of the willows and wild roses growing on the banks of City
Creek, destroyed because the channels must be changed, and leaving
nothing to vary the scenery but rugged mountains, the sage brush and
the sunflower. The ground was covered with millions of black crickets
which the Indians were harvesting for their winter food. (_Ibid, page
262._)
"When we arrived in this valley we found it a barren desert, and
a barren desert it was. We saw no mark of the white man. We found
a few naked Indians who would eat a pint of roasted crickets for
their dinner." (Statement of Wilford Woodruff, "Utah Pioneers,"
page 24.)
The late Apostle Erastus Snow, who, with Orson Pratt, was the first
man of the pioneers to enter the valley, in a discourse during the
celebration of the thirty-third anniversary of the entrance of the
pioneers into the Salt Lake valley, says:
"And when the Pioneers found it [this valley], it was well nigh
purified by the lapse of time and the desolation of ages, and the
wickedness of its ancient inhabitants was well nigh obliterated,
though the curse of barrenness and desolation still existed. I
remarked yesterday, on looking at the decorations of this building,
that to make the work complete that part which so truthfully
represents this desert land in 1847, the sagebrush and the other
growth of the desert should be sprinkled with black crickets,
and, perched in some prominent position, some gulls looking down
eagerly upon them; which would remind us of those early days when
the Pioneers and early settlers grappled with the difficulties of
the desert land; when the untamed savage was scarcely an enemy or
a hindrance in our pathway compared with the destructive winged
insects, the crickets and grasshoppers which would come in myriads
to devour the tender crops. For the first two seasons it seemed
as though the crickets and grasshoppers would consume every green
thing, and after they had commenced their depredations to such
an extent that to all human appearance the last vestige of the
products of the field and garden would be eaten up, large flocks
of gulls came to the relief of the farmer, lighting down upon the
fields and covering them as with a white sheet, and they fell
to devouring the insects. When they had filled and gorged their
stomachs, they would vomit them up and then fill themselves again,
and again vomit, and thus they ate and devoured until the fields
were cleared of those destructive insects, and the crops saved. *
* * * Many doubted, as to whether we could subsist our colonies in
this country at all, and whether grain would mature. James Bridger,
the well-known mountaineer, who had inter-married with the Snakes
[Indians], and had a trading post which still bears his name,
Fort Bridger, when he met President Brigham Young at the Pioneer
camp on the Big Sandy, about the last of June, and learned our
destination to be the valley of the Great Salt Lake, he gave us a
general outline and description of this country over which he had
roamed with the Indians in his hunting and trapping excursions,
and expressed grave doubts whether corn could be produced at all
in these mountains, he having made experiments in many places with
a few seeds, which had failed to mature. So sanguine was he that
it could not be done that he proffered to give a thousand dollars
for the first ear of corn raised in the valley of the Great Salt
Lake, or the valley of the Utah outlet, as he termed it, meaning
the valley between Utah lake and Salt Lake. President Young replied
to him, 'Wait a little and we will show you.'" (The Utah Pioneers,
pages 41-43.)
Nor is the fact of Salt Lake valley's desolation witnessed by the
testimony of Mormons alone. Howard Stansbury, Captain of the Corps of
Topographical Engineers, U.S. Army, in 1852, says:
"One of the most unpleasant characteristics of the whole country,
is the entire absence of trees from the landscape. The weary
traveller plods along, exposed to the full blaze of one eternal
sunshine, day after day, and week after week, his eye resting upon
naught but interminable plains, bold and naked hills, or bold and
rugged mountains; the shady grove, the babbling brook, the dense
and solemn forest are things unknown here; and should he by chance
light upon some solitary cotton-wood, or pitch his tent amid some
stunted willows, the opportunity is hailed with joy, as one of
unusual good fortune. The studding, therefore, of this beautiful
city [referring to Salt Lake City] with noble trees, will render
it, by contrast with the surrounding regions, a second 'Diamond of
the Desert.'" (Stansbury's Report, page 129.)
Again, Lieutenant J. W. Gunnison of the Topographical Engineers,
writing in 1853, said:
"It [the Salt Lake Valley] is isolated from habitable grounds;
having inhospitable tracts to the North and South, and the
untimbered slope of the Rocky Mountains, nearly a thousand miles
wide, on the east, and nearly a thousand miles of arid salt deserts
on the west, broken up by frequent ridges of sterile mountains.
The Great Basin is * * * over four thousand feet above the ocean.
* * * It is a desert in character. * * * In the interior, fresh
water becomes scarce, for these hills do not collect sufficient
snow in winter * * * * to water the plains; and the consequence
follows that these tracts are parched and arid, and frequently so
impregnated with alkali as to make them unfit for vegetable life.
* * * The land around Salt Lake is flat, and rises imperceptibly
on the south and west, * * * and is a soft and sandy barren,
irreclaimable for agricultural purposes. On the north the tract
is narrow, and the springs bursting out near the surface of the
water, the grounds cannot be irrigated." ("The Mormons," by J. W.
Gunnison, pages 14, 15, 16.)
These descriptions of Utah. Valley warrant Utah's Historian, Bishop
Orson F. Whitney, in giving the splendid pen picture he writes of the
valley on the arrival of the Pioneers, in saying:
"It was no Garden of Hesperides upon which the Pioneers gazed
that memorable morning of July 24, 1847. Aside from its scenic
splendor, which was indeed glorious, magnificent, there was little
to invite and much to repel in the prospect presented to their
view. A broad and barren plain, hemmed in by mountains, blistering
in the rays of the midsummer sun. No waving fields, no swaying
forests, no verdant meadows to rest and refresh the weary eye,
but on all sides a seemingly interminable waste of sagebrush,
bespangled with sunflowers--the paradise of the lizard, the
cricket and the rattle snake. Less than half way across the baked
and burning valley, dividing it in twain--as if the vast bowl,
in the intense heat of the Master Potter's fires, in process of
formation had cracked asunder--a narrow river, turbid and shallow,
from south to north in many a serpentine curve, sweeps on its
sinuous way. Beyond, a broad lake, the river's goal, dotted with
mountain islands; its briny waters shimmering in the sunlight
like a silver shield. From the mountains, snow-capped, seamy and
craggy, lifting their kingly heads to be crowned by the golden sun,
flow limpid, laughing streams, cold and crystal clear, leaping,
dashing, foaming, flashing, from rock to glen, from peak to plain.
But the fresh canyon streams are far and few, and the arid waste
they water, glistening with beds of salt and soda pools of deadly
alkali, scarcely allowing them to reach the river, but midway well
nigh swallows and absorbs them in the thirsty sands. These, the
oak-brush, the squaw-berry, and other scant growths, with here
and there a tree casting its lone shadow on hill or in valley; a
wire-grass swamp, a few acres of withered bunch-grass, and the
lazily waving willows and wild-rose bushes, fringing the distant
streams, the only green thing visible. Silence and desolation
reign. A silence unbroken, save by the cricket's ceaseless chirp,
the roar of the mountain torrent or the whir and twitter of
the passing bird. A desolation of centuries, where earth seems
heaven-forsaken, where Hermit Nature, watching, waiting, weeps and
worships God amid eternal solitudes." (History of Utah, Vol. I.,
pages 325-6.)
The Mormons whom your Salt Lake Correspondent admits had the territory
of Utah almost exclusively to themselves for about twenty-five years,
converted the desert wilderness described in the foregoing quotations
into a fruitful land, and redeemed it from savagery to civilization. By
the creation of an irrigation system they demonstrated that the desert
lands of the intermountain region could be converted into fruitful
fields, and thus became Pioneers, not alone of Utah, but of the entire
intermountain region, and became founders of modern irrigation farming,
which now is developing into a great national movement, that looks to
the reclamation of an extent of country beside which the extent of
ancient empires becomes insignificant; and happy millions will yet
partake of the blessings first disclosed as possible by the example
in irrigation set by the Mormon people. And all such silly falsehoods
and misrepresentations as those uttered by your jaundice-minded
correspondent, can never rob them of the high honor accorded them by
the nation for the part they have performed in so great and notable and
far reaching enterprises.
Your correspondent represents himself as having lived in Utah for over
twenty-five years; and also as having had ample opportunity to study
the "Mormon system" and its fruits, and then says:
"I am forced to join with other careful students in declaring that
from a social, civil and moral standpoint, no language is strong
enough to set forth the evil fruits of the "Mormon system." Based
on polygamy, how could the system be otherwise than rotten? Its
central idea of government being that of priesthood rule, how
could it be otherwise than anti-American? Having been founded
and organized by a man as corrupt and immoral as the multiplied
statements of Joseph Smith's acquaintances and neighbors prove that
he was, how could it be otherwise than mischievous and immoral in
its tendencies and results?"
Really, after thinking of a man living in Utah for twenty-five years
with exceptional opportunities to study the "Mormon system," one
becomes quite disheartened when he witnesses such an exhibition of
stupidity in apprehending, or a willingness to misrepresent as is
exhibited in the foregoing quotation. First, if your correspondent had
intelligence to understand the most simple proposition, he never would
have made the statement that Mormonism is based on polygamy. Mormonism
existed ten years and had spread through nearly all the states of the
American Union, into Canada and Great Britain, before plural marriage
was ever introduced into the Church. And notwithstanding that under
the requirements of the laws of the land, the Church has discontinued
the authorization of plural marriages, Mormonism still survives--much
to the chagrin of such characters as your correspondent, and the
Mormon Church was never more alive or prosperous than it is today.
The doctrine of the rightfulness of plural marriage is in every sense
but an incident in the "Mormon system" rather than a basic principle.
Salvation in the Mormon religion is not made to depend upon a plurality
of wives. On the contrary it teaches that either man or woman can
be saved without marriage at all. That those in monogamous marriage
relations may be saved, but it also is a fact that it has taught that
men with a plurality of wives, if they have taken them under the
sanction of God's law--a law which existed in the days of the Bible
patriarchs as well as in these last days by special dispensation
through Joseph Smith--may also be saved. Mormonism does teach, however,
that marriage is essential to man's exaltation and progress in his
saved condition, and that special blessings doubtless attended those
who entered into plural marriage relations within the conditions and
limitations referred to a moment since, but to regard plural marriages
as the basis of Mormonism is not only ridiculous but an absolute
misrepresentation of our faith.
Equally absurd and untrue is your correspondent's second implied
charge, viz., that the central idea of Mormon government is priesthood
rule, therefore "how could it be otherwise than anti-American?"
The gentleman leaves us in the mists here. What does he mean? Is
it anti-American to have priesthood rule in an ecclesiastical
institution--in a Church? What kind of rule would he have but that of a
priesthood rule in such organizations? If it is anti-American to have
priesthood rule in a church organization, then every church in the land
is anti-American. But if the gentleman protests that this is not what
he meant, but that he meant priesthood rule in civil government, then
I must say to him that there is no ecclesiastical institution in all
our land that in its doctrines more clearly recognizes the separation
of the Church from the State than does the Mormon Church. In proof of
which I quote on that head the following from an authoritative work on
the doctrine of the Mormon Church:
"We believe that religion is instituted of God, and that men are
amenable to him, and to him only, for the exercise of it, unless
their religious opinions prompt them to infringe upon the rights
and liberties of others; but we do not believe that human law
has a right to interfere in prescribing rules of worship to bind
the consciences of men, nor dictate forms for public or private
devotion; that the civil magistrate should restrain crime, but
never control conscience; should punish guilt, but never suppress
the freedom of the soul. * * * * We do not believe it just to
mingle religious influence with civil government, whereby one
religious society is fostered, and another proscribed in its
spiritual privileges, and the individual rights of its members as
citizens, denied." (Doctrine and Covenants, Section 134.)
Again, in a revelation given as early as 1831, the Lord said to the
Church:
"Behold, the laws which ye have received from my hand are the laws
of the Church, and in this light ye shall hold them forth."
That is, the revelations received were given for the government of
the Church, not for the laws of the state; to instruct the saints in
their religious duties and privileges, not to interfere with them in
the exercise of their civil rights, nor to dictate to them in their
political actions. This doctrine has been affirmed over and over again
by the present officials of the Mormon Church. And as for the exercise
of "priesthood rule" in practice in political affairs, in all good
conscience and form both observation and experience: I can say that
there is less of it chargeable to the Mormon Church officials than to
ministers of any other denominations whatsoever in our land. And no
other people of our land have suffered so much from mingling religious
influence in political affairs, as have the Mormon people. Nearly
every Legislative enactment, either state or national, has been the
direct result of the exercise of sectarian ministerial influence upon
legislators, state and national, as also have been nearly all the acts
of mob violence perpetrated against the same people which resulted in
their expulsion from Missouri and Illinois.
Your correspondent says that the multiplied statements of Joseph
Smith's acquaintances and neighbors prove that he was was immoral
and corrupt, and that since Mormonism has such an origin he wants
to know "how it could be otherwise than mischievous and immoral in
its tendencies and results." Your correspondent here assumes that
Joseph Smith was immoral and corrupt, and hence his system can be
none other than mischievous and evil in its tendencies. "But," it
will be said, "his premise rests upon the alleged testimony of
Joseph Smith's acquaintances and neighbors." What acquaintances and
neighbors? Of course if you eliminate from this list all those who
knew Joseph Smith best, his friends and followers, who so far believed
in him and his honor and integrity as a man and prophet of God that
they sacrificed their own good name, together with property and all
earthly prospects in accepting the doctrine he taught, and then rely
alone for a description of his character upon the testimony of his
persecutors and revilers led on by bigoted priests who hounded him
through fourteen years of his troubled life, until they succeeded in
bringing about his murder in cold blood at Carthage, Illinois, why,
of course; I suppose that such testimony could be said to prove that
he was immoral and corrupt. But under such methods of proving things
how would the immaculate life and character of the Son of God himself
stand before the world? Jesus would be proved to be a wine-bibber, an
associate of sinners and publicans, one who went about the country in
the companionship of women of questionable character, an imposter who
was so in league with Satan that he cast out devils by the power of
Beelzebub, an agitator disturbing the peace, a leader of seditions,
a perverter of laws and customs, and who at the last was fittingly
crucified between two thieves after being condemned under due forms
of law, and who attracted to him a following that could be regarded
as the off-scourings of despised Galilee, and who were so vile as to
steal his dead body from the tomb by night, and then put in circulation
the story that he had risen bodily from the dead! From such a basis as
this, all of which can be established "by the multiplied testimony"
of the Savior's "acquaintances and neighbors," we could, with your
correspondent exclaim, "how could the system" emanating from such a
founder "be otherwise than mischievous and immoral in its tendencies
and results?"
It would be easy to prove that from the beginning of Mormonism until
now there are many men of wide reputation, men of national repute
and high character, who have testified of the purity of life and
honorable conduct of Joseph Smith and the general honesty and high
moral character of his following. But it is impossible to quote such
testimony because of the necessary limits of this communication, and
it is not necessary because the premise from which your correspondent
starts is utterly untenable and foolish.
Your correspondent scoffs at the idea that Mormons married their
plural wives in good faith, and that it would now be a crime to
abandon them, and declares that your representative could as well have
talked about "committing the crime of bank robbing in good faith." The
gentleman rushes a little too quickly to his conclusion. Things he
puts in comparison are altogether unlike. It is a truth to begin with
that the Mormon people accepted the doctrine of plural marriage as a
revelation and commandment from God; and they did marry their wives
under what they considered divine sanction, in good faith, believing
that they were protected in the practice of a religious principle
by the constitution of their country, which specifically prohibited
the passage of laws "respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Furthermore, this doctrine was
sanctioned by the practice of the Bible patriarchs, whom the Son of
God himself upheld in his teaching as the very favorites of heaven,
whom God had made his own especial witnesses of the truths he would
teach mankind. It was well on to half a century before the Supreme
Court of the United States had finally decided at all points the
constitutionality of the several acts of Congress against the exercise
of this religious doctrine of the Latter-day Saints, during which
time a whole generation had lived in the practice of it, believing
absolutely in its righteousness, in its divinity in fact, and it is not
difficult to understand how men under such circumstances married their
wives in good faith.
Moreover, when this matter was finally settled by the adoption of our
State Constitution, the enabling act passed by Congress only demanded
on this subject of polygamy that the constitutional convention should
provide by ordinance "irrevocably without the consent of the United
States and the people of said state, * * * * that no inhabitant of
said state should be molested in person or property on account of his
or her mode of religious worship: _provided that polygamous or plural
marriages are forever prohibited."_ It will be observed that there is
no demand made in this for the abandonment of plural marriage relations
already established under the Mormon doctrine of plural marriage.
Nothing is required on that head, but that for the future there
shall be a prohibition of "polygamous marriages." The action of the
constitutional convention was in harmony with this demand of the people
of the United States, and the ordinance in our state constitution
was adopted in such form and spirit that while future polygamous or
plural marriages, were forever prohibited, it contemplated leaving
undisturbed the already existing plural marriage relations. Under
these circumstances I do not hesitate to say that for Mormon men to
abandon the wives they had taken in good faith, who had been induced
to accept that relationship under religious persuasion and conviction,
would be both cowardly and criminal in the eyes of God and all good and
respectable men.
Your correspondent undertakes to make much of the fact that
"The Mormons have lived in five different states. * * * * If their
system is as pure morally and as patriotic as it is claimed to
be, how does it happen that their sojourn in each of these states
was characterized by continued and increased conflict with the
established government and laws of these states and of the United
States while the great Christian denominations live in peace and
harmony under those same laws?"
The gentleman would have shown better judgement than to have propounded
such a question as that. The Latter-day Saints suffered persecution
in both New York and Ohio, they were driven several times from their
homes in Missouri, and finally driven in a body--some twelve thousand
in number--from that state into Illinois, and later between twenty and
thirty thousand of them were driven from the state of Illinois. The
gentleman should remember that this all happened before plural marriage
was practiced in the Church [except in Nauvoo, where, in the last
years of his life, it was introduced by the prophet, but it was known
but by a few, and was neither the cause of his martyrdom nor of the
subsequent expulsion of his people]; and Mormons may defy not only your
correspondent but the whole world to instance any case where they were
persecuted or driven from their homes or murdered (as scores of them
were) for violation of the laws of the land in those states. And there
is yet to arise within these states or in the United States, however
much he may despise the Mormons and their faith, an apologist who is
bold enough to undertake the justification of those states in their
treatment of the Mormons, save only, perhaps, your correspondent, and
he only by cowardly imputation and innuendo.
_Salt Lake City, Utah, Sept. 26, 1903._
V.
WHICH OF THE SECTS HAS OPPOSED MORMONISM MOST?
FOREWORD.
This is a question frequently asked, but I do not remember that an
answer has been ever before put in print. It would be easy to record
the names of the ministers and the Christian sects to which they
belonged who began the agitation in Missouri which resulted in such
disgraceful scenes of mob-violence, robbery and murder, and the final
expulsion of from twelve to fifteen thousand people from their homes
and the state. It would only be a matter of time and space to set
down the names of the ministers and the sects they represented, who
began and continued that abominable campaign of slander and falsehood
which terminated in the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, and the
expulsion of more than twenty thousand Latter-day Saints from the
confines of the United States. But is it worth while? Is it not enough
to say that so-called ministers of the gospel quite generally took the
leading part in this opposition. They headed bands of men who burned
the homes of our people; they sat on drumhead militia court-martials
to try Joseph Smith, and condemned him to be shot in the public square
at Far West; it was a sectarian minister who led the mob that murdered
Joseph and Hyrum Smith at Carthage prison; it was a somewhat noted
preacher who led the mob forces against Nauvoo and expelled the aged,
the weak and helpless from that city after the great bulk of the
Mormon people had departed into the western wilderness in search of
new homes. So we might continue all down the line of our experience.
The mobbings in the southern states have quite generally been led by
so-called ministers of the gospel; as also all the unfriendly agitation
in Utah and elsewhere. But it isn't worth while to dwell too long in
our thought on these matters, or to take them too seriously. God has a
reward that will be ample for all those who have suffered martyrdom in
his cause, and those who have assailed it he doubtless will remember
in his own time and way, and we need not wish them any harm, and we
do not. If we could affect them in any way it would be to mitigate
their difficulties. For a man to carry with him through eternity the
recollection of an injustice he has inflicted upon the innocent; to
be compelled always to remember a murder committed, must of itself be
a terrible punishment. So I say if we could affect the persecutors of
the Saints in any way it would be to mitigate their sufferings, not
to increase them. We will try not to remember the wrongs of Missouri;
and will try to forget the fate of Nauvoo. We will remember only that
in those troublous days there were noble men, and women too, who
befriended our people and who did what they could to make light their
burdens and ease their sorrows--God bless them!
Which of the Sects Have Opposed Mormonism Most.
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, Aug. 8, 1903.
_D. A. Holcomb, Esq., Dunlap, Iowa._
DEAR SIR:--Your letter of the 21st ult., addressed to President Joseph
F. Smith and Counselors, asking "which one of the religious societies
has opposed the faith and doctrine of the Church the most," etc., has
been handed to me by President Smith, with a request that I answer your
questions.
In the first place I call your attention to the fact that it is not
a matter of astonishment or of any great amount of anxiety to us
that the churches of this world oppose the Church of Christ. It has
become a matter of course from our point of view, and really under the
circumstances we do not see how it could be otherwise, for the first
word of the Lord to Joseph Smith was to the effect that the churches of
the world were all wrong, that is, in error; that their professors of
religion drew near to the Lord with their lips while their hearts were
far from him; that they taught for doctrine the commandments of men,
and Joseph Smith was commanded to join none of them, for God did not
acknowledge them as his Church or kingdom. After such a declaration the
good will of sectarian Christendom was naturally out of the question,
yet, of course, the truth had to be told. The theological rubbish that
had accumulated for ages had to be swept away that the rocks of truth
might be made bare for the erection of that structure, the Temple of
God--the Church of Christ.
As to which of the several churches has been most opposed to the faith
and doctrines of the Church it would be difficult to say definitely,
except to say that up to the present time the Catholic Church has
not manifested any hostility' in any way as an organization. A few
individual Catholic prelates have had their fling at us, but I think
they have not passed resolutions against our organization, chiefly
for the reason, as I think, that we have done but little work as yet
in Catholic countries; and then, too, it is quite possible that the
Catholic clergy count us as one among the many protestant sects, and
think us no worse than the rest of what they consider the "separated
brethren." As for the Protestant brood, you may take the Methodists,
Presbyterians, Baptists, Campbellites, and Josephites as the most
active of our opponents, judging from the fulminations they reel off
against us in the form of resolutions and petitions to Congress asking
that we be "suppressed" or "crushed." It would be difficult to say
which of these is the most opposed. I think I am safe in saying they
are all about equally bitter, but thank the Lord there is no proportion
between their bitterness and their power to do us injury. The rest of
the Protestant sects give us but little trouble, at least in any formal
way, and the opposition expressed in frantic resolutions by those I
have named merely serve to make matters interesting and keep Mormonism
well to the fore in public attention; and as for "annoyance"--well,
it is hardly worth while being annoyed. Have you not read the golden
words, "We can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth?" and
that other saying, equally comforting to those who are called upon
to face the wrath of men for the kingdom of heaven's sake, "Surely
the wrath of men shall praise thee; the remainder of wrath shalt thou
restrain?" So we are very comfortable, thank you, and not worried and
not "annoyed" and not hurt by the opposition of men. We have the truth
and rejoice in it, and intend to make it known just as far as it is
possible for us to proclaim it. In our view those who oppose it, pass
resolutions against our faith and ourselves, are but God's advertising
agents, to present to the attention of the world the thing which he has
planted in the earth; and we amuse ourselves sometimes by thinking what
a surprised lot of fellows those sanctimonious divines who "resolute"
against us with such vigor will be when they wake up and discover that
they have helped instead of hindered God's work; but as for being
"annoyed"--pshaw!
Very truly yours.
B. H. ROBERTS.
* * * * * * * * * *
Looking through an old scrap book the other day, I found in it a
clipping from the "Newark (New Jersey) News," containing a letter
from Salt Lake City, by J. Martin Miller, which describes in a very
admirable way the attitude of a Jewish Rabbi and a Catholic Bishop
toward the Mormon people, and as their attitude is one of fairness I
take pleasure in recording the evidence of it here. Mr. Miller's letter
to the "Newark News" was written about two months before my letter to
Mr. Holcomb--in June, 1903:
VIEWS OF RABBI REYNOLDS.
"I found a very prominent former Newarker, in the person of Rabbi
Louis G. Reynolds, of the Synagogue B'nai Israel here [in Salt Lake
City]. He was rabbi of the Oheb Shalom Synagogue, Newark, from 1892
to 1896."
"There is a Jewish population of about 500 in Salt Lake City," said
Rabbi Reynolds? "Aside from that particular feature of their creed,
polygamy, I think the Mormons are a very good people. Everything
indicates that polygamy is dying out and that the Church means to
obey the law. Aside from polygamy, I am of the opinion that in
morals the Mormons will average higher than the Gentiles who live
here. The records show that the Mormons furnish a very small quota
of the vice of the city. As a rule, they are a temperate people.
'If Senator Smoot is unseated, would the influence of the Mormons
in the state and the nation be diminished?' I inquired. 'Not in the
least; it would make them feel their persecution more than now and
cause them to have less faith in the fairness of the government.
They know the government cannot be fooled to any great extent and
that polygamy must go. Now that the tendency on the part of the
Mormons is to abandon polygamy, the purposes of the government in
making better Americans of the Mormon people than they are now
will be better subserved by allowing the influential men among
the Mormons to help the government bring about the desired end. I
say this with Senator Smoot in mind, and in view of the believed
fact among every class in Utah that he is not a polygamist. He
is one of the most level-headed business men in Utah, and is
exceedingly popular with all classes. Polygamy was deeply rooted.
The people for the most part were born in it. Why humiliate these
innocent victims by persecuting them unnecessarily when they show
an inclination to rid themselves and the county of the blot? The
United States is a conciliatory and humane government. I was born
in Russia and can appreciate this government. It is the kind of a
government that begets loyalty in its subjects. Will these erring
Children of Utah, who in all probability are not now contracting
any new polygamous marriages, be better citizens if they are
hounded and misrepresented by agitators, or if they are fairly
but firmly dealt with by the government and given a reasonable
chance to prove their good intentions and their good citizenship?
There is a very strong element throughout the county that takes
absolutely no stock in this ecclesiastical warfare that is being
made from Salt Lake City against the Mormons. It has been plainly
demonstrated very recently in the case of one minister here who
carried on a bitter crusade, that was worse than a waste of energy,
that such methods are re-active in the extreme."
BISHOP SCANLAN'S ATTITUDE.
"That veteran old priest, Bishop Scanlan, who has charge of all of
Utah and the eastern half of Nevada for the Catholic church, has
visited every remote corner of Utah during the 30 years he has been
here. 'I have found the Mormon people a gentle and kindly disposed
people. I have never been insulted once. I have been obliged to
visit places where there are no hotels and wherever I have stopped
at private houses the people have always felt offended if I offered
to pay them for the keep of myself and my horse.' 'Have you ever
felt the need of a revolver?' I asked. 'I never owned one in my
life.' Pointing up to the crucifix, the bishop said: 'That is the
only weapon I have ever carried. The Catholic church has 10,000
communicants in Utah at the present time.' I do not see your name,
bishop, on protests and other papers that some of the ministers
here are active in circulating. 'No, I never join in anything of
that kind. My mission here is not to make war among the Mormon
people, or any other people, but rather to be the bearer of the
message of peace and good will toward all men. If there is any law
to be enforced, I leave that for my government to do."
VI.
"HOW."
FOREWORD.
The subject treated under this title, "How," is an address delivered
in the Salt Lake City Tabernacle on Sunday, May 31, 1903, in
one of the sessions of the Young Men's and Young Ladies' Mutual
Improvement Associations Annual Conferences. The associations are
auxiliary organizations in the Church of the Latter-day Saints for
the improvement of the youth. In May of the above year, the General
Assembly of the Presbyterian Church was appointed to convene in Los
Angeles. A large number of ministers of this persuasion from eastern
states made it a point to pass through Salt Lake City _en route_ for
Los Angeles, and the Ministerial Association of Utah, an organization
comprised of Protestant ministers of all the Evangelical Churches
in the State, made it their business to call the attention of such
visiting ministers to the "Mormon Question," and invited their
co-operation against the Mormon Church. As preliminary to this action
on their part they published two pamphlets, one under the title,
"Claims of Mormons to be Considered Seriously." This pamphlet pretended
to give a brief history of the origin of the Mormon Church, and
declared that the Prophet Joseph Smith was considered by his neighbors
to be a character who was "low, unworthy, of bad repute in general, and
that he was especially unworthy of confidence." It was a re-hash of the
silly stories that sprang up in western New York and that are utterly
unreliable, and which, while the Prophet lived in New York, could never
be established against him, though every possible effort to do so was
made.
The second pamphlet was entitled "Temple Mormonism." The chief
purpose of this pamphlet was evidently to prove that Mormonism was an
oath-bound secret organization, "for the encouragement and protection
of polygamous living." These pamphlets were distributed to the one
thousand Presbyterian ministers who are said to have passed through
Salt Lake at that time. It was the intention also to have them
presented to the Presbyterian Assembly in Los Angeles, and I believe
they were so presented. Later they were to be presented to the Baptist
Convention to be held that year in Buffalo, New York; also to the
Congregational Conference at Portland, Oregon, and then to the W. C.
T. U., to the Y. M. C. A. and W. C. A. conventions of that year; and
finally to the Inter-Denominational Association of Women. Whatever
became of the presentation of these pamphlets to the respective
organizations other than the Presbyterian Assembly, I do not know;
but their presentation to the gathered Presbyterian ministers at Los
Angels doubtless had the desired effect, for it resulted in some very
heated speeches upon the subject of Mormonism, more especially in one
delivered by Dr. Charles L. Thompson of New York, secretary of the
Assembly, who, in the course of a speech widely heralded through the
secular press of the country, said--and this was the report of the
speech according to the dispatches--of Mormonism:
"It is not to be educated, not to be civilized, not to be
reformed--it must be crushed. No other organization is so perfect
as the Mormon Church except the German Army. This describes
Mormonism. Its empty promises deceive. Relentlessly it fastens its
victims in its loathsome glue. It has one vulnerable point. It is
not to be reformed. It is to be crushed. Dr. Richard L. Ely has
declared that there is nothing comparable to its system except the
German Army. * * * * Beware the Octopus. There is one moment in
which to seize it, says Victor Hugo. It is when it thrusts forth
its head. It has done it. Its high priest claims a senator's chair
in Washington. Now is the time to strike. Perhaps to miss it now is
to be lost."
Commenting on this speech, the dispatches said:
"No speaker who has thus far appeared before the Presbyterian
General Assembly has aroused so much enthusiasm as Dr. Chas. L.
Thompson. His references to Mormonism were especially bitter, and
brought out great applause from his audience."
It is this speech that is commented upon in the remarks which follow.
HOW.
My Brethren and Sisters--I arise this afternoon to announce a great
disappointment. By reference to your printed programs you will see that
President Joseph F. Smith was chosen to make an address this afternoon,
but he insists upon my taking his place. I tried to dissuade him from
making the change, but he insisted upon it, and as he has the final
word in such matters, I respond cheerfully to his request, and ask you,
as soon as possible, to banish the remembrance of your disappointment
and assist me by your faith and prayers, that what I may say may be
fitting to this occasion, and prompted by the Spirit of the Lord.
I think I shall venture to take a text, but not from the Bible. My text
will be one that I have made "out of my own head." Perhaps that will
account for its being so brief. It consists of one word only, and that
one word is, "How?"
Away back in 1832, on the occasion of a number of elders being
assembled in Kirtland, desiring to know the will of the Lord concerning
themselves, and in what manner they should spend their time pending
the commencement of a conference which had been called, the Lord said
through his Prophet:
"I give unto you a commandment, that you shall teach one another
the doctrine of the kingdom; teach ye diligently, and my grace
shall attend you, that ye may be instructed more perfectly in
theory, in principle, in doctrine, in the law of the gospel, in all
things that pertain unto the kingdom of God, that are expedient for
you to understand; of things both in heaven and in the earth, and
under the earth; things which have been, things which are, things
which must shortly come to pass; things which are at home, things
which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations,
and the judgments which are on the land, and a knowledge also of
countries and kingdoms, that ye may be prepared in all things when
I shall send you again to magnify the calling whereunto I have
called you, and the mission with which I have commissioned you."[A]
[Footnote A: Doctrine and Covenants, sec. 88: 77-81.]
From this you will observe that the elders of the Church were commanded
to enter a very extensive field in search of knowledge. Indeed, I
cannot think of anything pertaining to things that lie within the
scope or power of man's investigation that is not included within this
commandment to search for knowledge. Among other things, you will
observe that the elders are to make themselves acquainted with "things
which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to
pass; with things which are at home, and things which are abroad." I
see in that a commandment to keep informed as to current events; and,
in my opinion, this commandment can be made to apply not only to the
elders in Ohio, to whom it was directly given, but to all those who may
be called upon to perform a similar labor, that of representing the
work of God to the inhabitants of the earth. That responsibility rests
upon the young men who hold the priesthood in the Church today, and
hence, this commandment applies to them. It applies to the members of
the Mutual Improvement Associations; for one of the chief objects in
view, when the organization of Improvement Associations was effected,
was the preparation of our young men to become exponents of the gospel
of Jesus Christ, especially as revealed in the dispensation of that
gospel through the Prophet Joseph Smith. No knowledge can be of more
importance to the young man who expects to engage in this work than
the knowledge of current events, and prevailing ideas in the world on
religion; especially those current events which have a more or less
direct relation to the great work of the last days--to Mormonism, in
other words.
Of late, there have been a number of important things taking place that
have a direct relation to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, among which is the passing of resolutions antagonistic to
Mormonism, by the Presbyterian General Assembly, convened during the
past week in Los Angeles, California. The ministers of the Presbyterian
Church met in solemn conclave to consider the interests of their
own church, and, incidentally, I suppose, to look a little after
the welfare of ours. One proposition before those assembled divines
was very extraordinary. So extraordinary, in fact, that it may be
considered astonishing. It was nothing more nor less than a plan to
"crush Mormonism." I think we are interested in a proposition of that
kind. Intensely interested; and hence my text of one word, "How?" That
is, how is the "Crushing of Mormonism" to be effected? What means are
to be invoked? What process followed? Fortunately for us, who naturally
have so much anxiety respecting the matter, one of the speakers before
the Presbyterian assembly brought forward a plan through which the
"crushing" is to be accomplished. This was Doctor-that is, Doctor
of Divinity, you will understand--Charles L. Thompson, of New York.
We are informed by the dispatches which reported in part "his great
discourse," that he was the speaker who aroused the most enthusiasm in
the assembly, and that his references to Mormonism were "especially
bitter," and brought out great applause from his audience. He is
reported to have said that "Mormonism is not to be educated, not to be
civilized, not to be reformed. It must be crushed." This the climax of
what is called his "great discourse;" surely it must have been a great
discourse to have such a climax as that, and to receive such applause
from such a body of divines!
But how do you suppose the crushing is to be accomplished? Now listen!
The Revelation Mr. Thompson compares the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints to a great octopus. The octopus, as you know, is an
animal very difficult to kill; but the gentleman remembered that Victor
Hugo, in his "Toilers of the Sea," had said that even the octopus had
a vulnerable point. "There is one moment in which to seize it--it
is when it thrusts forth its head. Then is the time to strike." The
reverend gentleman then concludes that the Mormon octopus has thrust
forth its head. "Its high priest," said he, "claims a senator's chair
in Washington. Now is the time to strike. Perhaps to miss it now, is to
be lost."
Wonderful wisdom! worthy of a great divine! a mighty climax to a great
sermon! Seriously, however, a most perfect example of an anti-climax;
"a most lame and impotent conclusion," more ridiculous than the
fable of the mountain laboring, to bring forth a mouse! If my voice
could reach the reverend gentleman, I would inform him that there
is not even the charm of novelty in what he recommended. We have
heard something like this before. Why, within my own recollection,
I can remember something like that having been proposed as a means
of crushing Mormonism. Way down deep in the innermost recesses of my
sub-consciousness, I have a recollection of suggestions made in like
spirit, about the year 1898. This Doctor of Divinity's thundering
fulmination against Mormonism, when I hear him pronounce it, has
something familiar about it. In fact it has all the monotony of the
refrain of some old familiar song. Much was said about an octopus,
too, and about it thrusting forth its head, at the time to which I
refer, 1898. Then its "High Priest," it was said, claimed a seat in
the lower house of Congress, when a certain gentleman by the name of
Roberts was elected to Congress from the State of Utah. They said,
then, that the octopus was putting forth its head; then was the time
to strike; to fail then would be to be lost; so they induced the House
of Representatives to strike, by excluding the gentleman from the seat
to which he had been legally elected, and for which he possessed, as
was admitted, every constitutional qualification. But I have never
heard that the achievement, which was accomplished at the cost of an
outrageous violation of the constitution of our country, affected the
Mormon Church. What effect did that illegal act of Congress have on
Mormonism? About as much effect as a mosquito alighting on the moon
would have on that sphere. The "Mormon" octopus survived that awful
blow! And even the gentleman who was denied his seat, I am informed,
survived also; and I have not heard that his shadow has grown less
because of that experience. And should the agitation against Senator
Reed Smoot result in his expulsion from the Senate of the United
States--a thing which is as unlikely as it is unjust--I verily believe
that Mormonism would survive even that blow. The trouble with our
reverend friends is, that they persist in mistaking always the head of
the octopus, and hence never strike it.
It is not my purpose to discuss the issues raised between the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and this Los Angeles Presbyterian
Assembly, in a spirit of retaliation. I do not intend to answer railing
with railing, nor do I wish to revile those by whom we are reviled. I
understand the law of the gospel of Christ to be that we should not
be overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. Besides, patience
is one of Mormonism's chief virtues. But all this does not mean that
we shall not have an appreciation of our own rights and liberties
under the constitution and institutions of our country; nor does it
prevent us from pointing out the unjust conduct of our assailants; nor
debar us from making protest, in proper spirit, against their proposed
invasions of our rights; nor blind us to the absurdity of their plans
for our destruction. But we will not abuse our traducers, nor revile
them because they revile us. Thank God, the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints occupies a position so exalted that it may smile at
the efforts of men who propose to "crush" it. Especially by such means
as those proposed by the Reverend Doctor Thompson. The resolutions of
the Presbyterian Assembly, at Los Angeles, its fulminations against
the Church of Christ, are all shafts that fall broken and harmless at
the feet of the people of God. There is one passage of Byron's "Childe
Harold" with which I have always been deeply impressed, as setting
forth the dignity and exaltation of God in his relation to those who
doubt the reality of his revelations, seek to prove them myths, and
blaspheme his name. It is where the poet refers to the character and
works of Voltaire and Gibbon. Concluding his reflections upon these two
really great men, he says:
They were gigantic minds, and their steep aim
Was, Titan-like, on daring doubts to pile
Thoughts which should call down thunder, and the flame
Of heaven, again assailed, if heaven the while
On man and man's research could deign do more than smile.
In like exalted station stands the Church of Christ today. The Bride,
the Lamb's Wife, has no fear of her enemies. She stands too near the
Bridegroom, too near his glorious coming, too near the holy, visible
union with him, which is to be eternal, to fear the vain ravings of
modern priests of Baal.
Let us examine more thoroughly, however, the proposition of this
Reverend Doctor Thompson, and find out, if we can, how the Christian
gentleman really proposes to proceed with his crushing process. Be
it remembered he lays down the doctrine that "Mormonism is not to be
educated, not to be civilized, not to be reformed!" Then how will
he proceed? He decides to eliminate educational methods, civilizing
methods, and reform methods. After eliminating these, what method has
he left for crushing Mormonism? None but force--brute force; and force
in the last analysis means either mobs or armies. Can it be that a body
of "divines," "ministers of Jesus Christ," living in the twentieth
century of the Christian era, are ready to recommend the throwing aside
of all legitimate methods of dealing with a body of people supposed to
be in error on matters of religion, and leave it to be justly inferred
that they favor the employment of force to accomplish that which only
love and goodwill toward men should undertake? Have we been correctly
informed by the dispatches which say that the man who recommended such
procedure is the one who was most applauded by the assembled ministers
of Jesus Christ? Can it be that we are living in an age that boasts of
its Christian civilization? Or, "by some devilish cantrip slight," have
we been carried back to the dark ages, when the rack, and thumbscrews,
and gibbets, were the agencies through which men's theological opinions
and religious principles were corrected? The ages when reluctant
victims were dragged to the foot of the altar, and made to burn incense
at orthodox shrines, though the heart abhorred and disclaimed the
sacrilegious act of the hand?
For the instruction of those who would favor the abandonment of what
are recognized as Christian and civilized methods of dealing with
those supposed to entertain erroneous religious principles, let us see
what effect physical force and persecution has had upon Mormonism in
the past. From the commencement, those who have been engaged in God's
work in these last days have suffered violence, and it will be well to
ascertain the results of these methods. From the first announcement
Joseph Smith made of a revelation from God, until now, there has not
been lacking those who have favored the crushing of Mormonism. They
attempted to beat down the testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith by
force of ridicule, at first, and slander and misrepresentation. When
the Nephite record, the Book of Mormon, was placed in his hands for
translation, mobs frequently attempted to wrest that sacred record
from his custody. Failing in that, they tried to prevent it from being
printed, and even so far succeeded in frightening Mr. Grandin, of
Palmyra, who had engaged to publish it, that he at one time suspended
work upon it. When that difficulty was overcome, and the book was
finally printed, then mass meetings were held and resolutions passed in
the vicinity, urging the people not to purchase the Book of Mormon or
to read it; but, in spite of these efforts, the first edition of the
Book of Mormon was disposed of and read by the people. When the Church
was organized, the rage of its opponents increased, and persecution
after persecution followed each other in rapid succession in New York,
Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois, and hundreds perished in the unholy
warfare waged against the Church of Christ. Finally, the opposition
concentrated its hatred upon the earthly head of the Church--the
Prophet Joseph Smith. Time and time again was he hailed befo
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