The story of Mormonism and the Philosophy of Mormonism ..

mam

Division

Section

The
Story of "Mormonism"

AND

The Philosophy of
"Mormonism"

BY

JAMES E. TALMAGE

D. 3c, F. R. S. E.

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY

THE DESERET NEWS

SALT LAKE CITY

1914

Copyright 1914

by

JOSEPH F. SMITH

Trustee-in-Trust for

the Church of Jesus Christ

of Latter-day Saints

PREFACE

The Story of "Mormonism" as presented
in the following pages is a revised and recon-
structed version of lectures delivered by Dr.
James E. Talmage at the University of Mich-
igan, Cornell University, and elsewhere. The
" Story" first appeared in print as a lecture re-
port in the Improvement Era, and was after-
ward issued as a booklet from the office of the
Millennial Star, Liverpool. In 1910 it was
issued in a revised form by the Bureau of In-
formation at Salt Lake City, in which edition
the lecture style of direct address was changed
to the ordinary form of essay. The present or
third American edition has been revised and
amplified by the author.

The "Story" has been translated and
published abroad. Already versions have
appeared in Swedish, modern Greek, and
Russian.

Preface.

The subject matter of The Philosophy of
"Mormonism" was first presented as a lecture
delivered by Dr. Talmage before the Philo-
sophical Society of Denver. It appeared later
in the columns of the Improvement Era, and
translations have been published in pamphlet
form in the Danish and German languages.

The present publication of these two produc-
tions is made in response to a steady demand.

The Publishers.
Salt Lake City, Utah,
March, 1914.

The Story of "Mormonism,

I.

IN the minds of many, perhaps of the major-
ity of people, the scene of the "Mormon"
drama is laid almost entirely in Utah; indeed,
the terms "Mormon question" and "Utah
question" have been often used interchangeably.
True it is, that the development of "Mormon-
ism" is closely associated with the history of
the long-time Territory and present State of
Utah; but the origin of the system must be
sought in regions far distant from the present
gathering-place of the Latter-day Saints, and
at a period antedating the acquisition of Utah
as a part of our national domain.

The term "origin" is here used in its com-
monest application — that of the first stages
apparent to ordinary observation — the visible
birth of the system. But a long, long period
of preparation had led to this physical com-
ing forth of the "Mormon" religion, a period
marked by a multitude of historical events,

6 The Story of "Mormonism."

some of them preceding by centuries the earthly
beginning of this modern system of prophetic
trust. The "Mormon" people regard the estab-
lishment of their Church as the culmination of
a great series of notable events. To them it is
the result of causes unnumbered that have op-
erated through ages of human history, and
they see in it the cause of many developments
yet to appear. This to them establishes an inti-
mate relationship between the events of their
own history and the prophecies of ancient
times.

In reading the earliest pages of "Mormon"
history, we are introduced to a man whose
name will ever be prominent in the story of
the Church — the founder of the organization
by common usage of the term, the head of the
system as an earthly establishment — one who
is accepted by the Church as an ambassador
specially commissioned of God to be the first
revelator of the latter-day dispensation. This
man is Joseph Smith, commonly known as
the "Mormon" prophet. Rarely indeed does
history present an organization, religious, so-
cial, or political, in which an individual holds
as conspicuous and in all ways as important

Joseph Smith, the Prophet. 7

a place as does this man in the development
of "Mormonism." The earnest investigator,
the sincere truth-seeker, can ignore neither the
man nor his work; for the Church under con-
sideration has risen from the testimony sol-
emnly set forth and the startling declarations
made by this person, who, at the time of his
earliest announcements, was a farmer's boy in
the first half of his teens. If his claims to or-
dination under the hands of divinely com-
missioned messengers be fallacious, forming
as they form the foundation of the Church
organization, the superstructure cannot stand;
if, on the other hand, such declarations be true,
there is little cause to wonder at the phenom-
enally rapid rise and the "surprising stability of
the edifice so begun.

Joseph Smith was born at Sharon, Vermont,
in December, 1805. He was the son of in-
dustrious parents, who possessed strong re-
ligious tendencies and tolerant natures. For
generations his ancestors had been laborers,
by occupation tillers of the soil; and thoueh
comfortable circumstances had generally been
their lot, reverses and losses in the father's
house had brought the family to poverty; so

8 The Story of "Mormonism."

that from his earliest days the lad Joseph was
made acquainted with the pleasures and pains
of hard work. He is described as having been
more than ordinarily studious for his years;
and when that powerful wave of religious agi-
tation and sectarian revival which character-
ized the first quarter of the last century,
reached the home of the Smiths, Joseph with
others of the family was profoundly affected.
The household became somewhat divided on
the subject of religion, and some of the mem-
bers identified themselves with the more pop-
ular sects; but Joseph, while favorably im-
pressed by the Methodists in comparison with
others, confesses that his mind was sorely
troubled over the contemplation of the strife
and tumult existing among the religious bodies ;
and he hesitated. He tried in vain to solve
the mystery presented to him in the warring
factions of what professed to be the Church of
Christ. Surely, thought he, these several
churches, opposed as they are to one another
on what appear to be the vital points of re-
ligion, cannot all be right. While puzzling
over this anomaly he chanced upon this verse
in the epistle of St. James:

Joseph Smith, the Prophet. 9

"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of
God, that giveth to all men liberally, and up-
braideth not; and it shall be given him."

In common with so many others, the earnest
youth found here within the scriptures, admo-
nition and counsel as directly applicable to his
case and circumstances as if the lines had been
addressed to him by name. A brief period of
hesitation, in which he shrank from the thought
that a mortal like himself, weak, youthful, and
unlearned, should approach the Creator with a
personal request, was followed by a humble and
contrite resolution to act upon the counsel of
the ancient apostle. The result, to which he
bore solemn record (testifying at first with
the simplicity and enthusiasm of youth, after-
ward confirming the declaration with man-
hood's increasing powers, and at last volun-
tarily sealing the testimony with his life's
blood,) proved most startling to the sectarian
world — a world in which according to popular
belief no new revelation of truth was possible.
It is a surprising fact that while growth, pro-
gress, advancement, development of known
truths and the acquisition of new ones, charac-
terize every living science, the sectarian world

10 The Story of "Mormonism."

has declared that nothing new must be expected
as direct revelation from God.

The testimony of this lad is, that in response
to his supplication, drawn forth by the admoni-
tion of an inspired apostle, he received a divine
ministration; heavenly beings manifested them-
selves to him — two, clothed in purity, and alike
in form and feature. Pointing to the other,
one said, "This is my beloved Son, hear Him."
In answer to the lad's prayer, the heavenly per-
sonage so designated informed Joseph that the
Spirit of God dwelt not with warring sects,
which, while professing a form of godliness,
denied the power thereof, and that he should
join none of them. Overjoyed at the glorious
manifestation thus granted unto him, the boy
prophet could not withhold from relatives and
acquaintances tidings of the heavenly vision.
From the ministers, who had been so energetic
in their efforts to convert the boy, he received,
to his surprise, abuse and ridicule. "Visions
and manifestations from God," said they, "are
of the past, and all such things ceased with the
apostles of old ; the canon of scripture is full ;
religion has reached its perfection in plan, and,
unlike all other systems contrived or accepted

Early Opposition. 11

by human kind, is incapable of development or
growth. It is true God lives, but He cares not
for His children of modern times as He did for
those of ancient days; He has shut Himself
away from the people, closed the windows of
heaven, and has suspended all direct communi-
cation with the people of earth."

The persecution thus originating with those
who called themselves ministers of the gospel
of Christ spread throughout the community;
and the sects that before could not agree to-
gether nor abide in peace, became as one in
their efforts to oppose the youth who thus tes-
tified of facts, which though vehemently de-
nounced, produced an effect that alarmed them
the more. And such a spectacle has ofttimes
presented itself before the world — men who
cannot tolerate one another in peace swear fidel-
ity and mutual support in strife with a common
opponent. The importance of this alleged rev-
elation from the heavens to the earth is such as
to demand attentive consideration. If a fact,
it is a full contradiction of the vague theories
that had been increasing and accumulating for
centuries, denying personality and parts to
Deity.

12 The Story of "Mormonism."

In 1820, there lived one person who knew
that the word of the Creator, "Let us make man
in our own image, after our likeness," had a
meaning more than in metaphor. Joseph Smith,
the youthful prophet and revelator of the nine-
teenth century, knew -that the Eternal Father
and the well-beloved Son, Jesus Christ, were in
form and stature like unto perfect men; and
that the human family was in very truth of
divine origin. But this wonderful vision was
not the only manifestation of heavenly power
and personality made to the young man, nor the
only incident of the kind destined to bring upon
him the fury of persecution. Sometime after
this visitation, which constituted him a living
witness of God unto men, and which demon-
strated the great fact that humanity is the child
of Deity, he was visited by an immortal per-
sonage who announced himself as Moroni, a
messenger sent from the presence of God. The
celestial visitor stated that through Joseph as
the earthly agent the Lord would accomplish a
great work, and that the boy would come to be
known by good and evil repute amongst all na-
tions. The angel then announced that an an-
cient record, engraven on plates of gold, lay

The Message of Moroni. 13

hidden in a hill near by, which record gave a
history of the nations that had of old inhabited
the American continent, and an account of the
Savior's ministrations among them. He further
explained that with the plates were two sacred
stones, known as Urim and Thummim, by the
use of which the Lord would bring forth a
translation of the ancient record. Joseph
further testifies that he was told that if he re-
mained faithful to his trust and the confidence
reposed in him, he would some day receive the
record into his keeping, and be commissioned
and empowered to translate it. In due time
these promises were literally fulfilled, and the
modern version of these ancient writings was
given to the world.

The record proved to be an account of certain
colonies of immigrants to this hemisphere from
the east, who came several centuries before the
Christian era. The principal company was led
by one Lehi, described as a personage of some
importance and wealth, who had formerly lived
at Jerusalem in the reign of Zedekiah, and who
left his eastern home about 600 B. C. The book
tells of the journeyings across the water in ves-
sels constructed according to revealed plan, of

14 The Story of "Mormonism."

the peoples' landing on the western shores of
South America probably somewhere in Chile, of
their prosperity and rapid growth amid the
bounteous elements of the new world, of the in-
crease of pride and consequent dissension ac-
companying the accumulation of material
wealth, and of the division of the people into
factions which became later two great nations
at enmity with one another. One part follow-
ing Nephi, the youngest and most gifted son of
Lehi, designated themselves Nephites; the other
faction, led by Laman, the elder and wicked
brother of Nephi, were known as Lamanites.

The Nephites lived in cities, some of which
attained great size and were distinguished by
great architectural beauty. Continually ad-
vancing northward, these people in time occu-
pied the greater part of the valleys of the Orin-
oco, the Amazon, and the Magdalena. During
the thousand years covered by the Nephite rec-
ord, the people crossed the Isthmus of Panama,
which is graphically described as a neck of land
but a day's journey from sea to sea, and suc-
cessively occupied extensive tracts in what is
now Mexico, the valley of the Mississippi, and
the Eastern States. It is not to be supposed

The American Aborigines. 15

that these vast regions were all populated at any
one time by the Nephites ; the people were con-
tinually moving to escape the depredations of
their hereditary foes, the Lamanites ; and they
abandoned in turn all their cities established
along the course of migration. The unpreju-
diced student sees in the discoveries of the an-
cient and now forest-covered cities of Mexico,
Central America, Yucatan, and the northern
regions of South America, collateral testimony
having a bearing upon this history.

Before their more powerful foes, the Ne-
phites dwindled and fled; until about the year
400 A. D. they were entirely annihilated after
a series of decisive battles, the last of which was
fought near the very hill, called Cumorah, in
the State of New York,, where the hidden rec-
ord was subsequently revealed to Joseph Smith.

The Lamanites led a roving, aggressive life ;
kept few or no records, and soon lost the art of
history writing. They lived on the results of
the chase and by plunder, degenerating in habit
until they became typical progenitors of the
dark-skinned race, afterward discovered by
Columbus and named American Indians.

The last writer in the ancient record, and the

16 The Story of "Mormonism."

one who hid away the plates in the hill Cu-
morah, was Moroni — the same personage who
appeared as a resurrected being in the nine-
teenth century, a divinely appointed messenger
sent to reveal the depository of the sacred docu-
ments ; but the greater part of the plates since
translated had been engraved by the father of
Moroni, the Nephite prophet Mormon. This
man, at once warrior, prophet and historian,
had made a transcript and compilation of the
heterogeneous records that had accumulated
during the troubled history of the Nephite na-
tion ; this compilation was named on the plates
'The Book of Mormon," which name has been
given to the modern translation — a work that
has already made its way over most of the civil-
ized world. The translation and publication of
the Book of Mormon were marked by many
scenes of trouble and contention, but success
attended the undertaking, and the first edition
of the work appeared in print in 1830.

The question, "What is the Book of Mor-
mon?"— a very pertinent one on the part of
every earnest student and investigator of this
phase of American history — has been partly an-
swered already. The work has been derisively

The Book of Mormon. 17

called the "Mormon Bible," a name that carries
with it the misrepresentation that in the faith
of this people the book takes the place of the
scriptural volume which is universally accepted
by Christian sects. No designation could be
more misleading, and in every way more
untruthful. The Latter-day Saints have
but one "Bible" and that the Holy Bible of
Christendom. They place it foremost amongst
the standard works of the Church ; they accept
its admonitions and its doctrines, and accord
thereto a literal significance; it is to them, and
ever has been, the word of God, a compilation
made by human agency of works by various in-
spired writers ; they accept its teachings in ful-
ness, modifying the meaning in no wise, except
in the rare cas^s of undoubted mistranslation,
concerning which Biblical scholars of all faiths
differ and criticize ; and even in such cases their
reverence for the sacred letter renders them
even more conservative than the majority of
Bible commentators and critics in placing free
construction upon the text. The historical
part of the Jewish scriptures tells of the divine
dealings with the people of the eastern hemi-
sphere ; the Book of Mormon recounts the mer-

18 The Story of "Mormonism."

cies and judgments of God, the inspired teach-
ings of His prophets, the rise and fall of His
people as organized communities on the western
continent.

The Latter-day Saints believe the coming
forth of the Book of Mormon to have been fore-
told in the Bible, as its destiny is prophesied of
within its own lids ; it is to the people the true
"stick of Ephraim" which Ezekiel declared
should become one with the "stick of Judah" —
or the Bible. The people challenge the most
critical comparison between this record of the
west and the Holy Scriptures of the east, feeling
confident that no discrepancy exists in letter or
spirit. As to the original characters in which
the record was engraved, copies were shown to
learned linguists of the day and pronounced
by them as closely resembling the Reformed
Egyptian writing.

Let us revert, however, to the facts of his-
tory concerning this new scripture, and the re-
ception accorded the printed volume.

The Book of Mormon was before the world ;
the Church circulated the work as freely as
possible. The true account of its origin was
rejected by the general public, who thus, as-

The Spaulding Romance. 19

sumed the responsibility of explaining in some
plausible way the source of the record. Among
the many false theories propounded, perhaps
the most famous is the so-called Spaulding
story. Solomon Spaulding, a clergyman of
Amity, Pennsylvania, died in 1816. He wrote
a romance to which no name other than "Manu-
script Story" was given, and which, but for the
unauthorized use of the writer's name and the
misrepresentation of his motives, would never
have been published. Twenty years after the
author's death, one Hurlburt, an apostate
"Mormon," announced that he had recognized
a resemblance between the "Manuscript Story"
and the Book of Mormon, and expressed a be-
lief that the work brought forward by Joseph
Smith was nothing but the Spaulding romance
revised and amplified. The apparent credibil-
ity of the statement was increased by various
signed declarations to the effect that the two
were alike, though no extracts for comparison
were presented. But the "Manuscript Story"
was lost for a time, and in the absence of proof
to the contrary, reports of the parallelism be-
tween the two works multiplied. By a fortu-
nate circumstance, in 1884, President James H.

20 The Story of "Mormonism."

Fairchild, of Oberlin College, and a literary
friend of his — a Mr. Rice — while examining a
heterogeneous collection of old papers which
had been purchased by the gentleman last
named, found the original manuscript of the
"Story."

After a careful perusal and comparison with
the Book of Mormon, President Fairchild de-
clared in an article published in the New York
Observer, February 5, 1885 :

The theory of the origin of the Book of Mor-
mon in the traditional manuscript of Solomon
Spaulding will probably have to be relinquished.
* * * Mr. Rice, myself, and others com-
pared it [the Spaulding manuscript] with the
Book of Mormon and could detect no resem-
blance between the two, in general or in detail.
There seems to be no name nor incident com-
mon to the two. The solemn style of the Book
of Mormon in imitation of the English scrip-
tures does not appear in the manuscript. * * *
Some other explanation of the origin of the
Book of Mormon must be found if any explana-
tion is required.

The manuscript was deposited in the library
of Oberlin College where it now reposes. Still,

The Spaulding Story Refuted. 21

the theory of the "Manuscript Found," as
Spaulding's story has come to be known, is oc-
casionally pressed into service in the cause of
anti-"Mormon" zeal, by some whom we will
charitably believe to be ignorant of the facts set
forth by President Fairchild. A letter of more
recent date, written by that honorable gentle-
man in reply to an inquiring correspondent, was
published in the Millennial Star, Liverpool, No-
vember 3, 1898, and is as follows :

Oberlin College, Ohio,

October 17, 1895.
J. R. Hindley, Esq.,

Dear Sir: We have in our college library
an original manuscript of Solomon Spaulding
— unquestionably genuine.

I found it in 1884 in the hands of Hon. L. L.
Rice, of Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands. He was
formerly state printer at Columbus, Ohio, and
before that, publisher of a paper in Painesville,
whose preceding publisher had visited Mrs.
Spaulding and obtained the manuscript from
her. It had lain among his old papers forty
years or more, and was brought out by my ask-
ing him to look up anti-slavery documents
among his papers.

The manuscript has upon it the signatures of
several men of Conneaught, Ohio, who had

22 The Story of "Morrnonism."

heard Spaulding read it and knew it to be his.
No one can see it and question its genuineness.
The manuscript has been printed twice, at least ;
— once by the Mormons of Salt Lake City, and
once by the Josephite Mormons of Iowa. The
Utah Mormons obtained the copy of Mr. Rice,
at Honolulu, and the Josephites got it of me
after it came into my possession.

This manuscript is not the original of the
Book of Mormon.

Yours very truly,

James H. Fairchild.

The "Manuscript Story" has been published
in full, and comparisons between the same and
the Book of Mormon may be made by anyone
who has a mind to investigate the subject.*

*For a fuller account of the Book of Mormon, see
the author's "Articles of Faith," Lectures 14 and 15 ;
published at Salt Lake City, Utah, 1913.

II.

BUT we have anticipated the current of
events. With the publication of the Book
of Mormon, opposition grew more intense to-
ward the people who professed a belief in the
testimony of Joseph Smith. On the 6th of
April, 1830, the Church of Jesus Christ of Lat-
ter-day Saints was formally organized and thus
took on a legal existence. The scene of this
organization was Fayette, New York, and but
six persons were directly concerned as partici-
pants. At that time there may have been and
probably were many times that number who
had professed adherence to the newly restored
faith; but as the requirements of the law gov-
erning the formation of religious societies were
satisfied by the application of six, only the spec-
ified number formally took part. Such was the
beginning of the Church, soon to be so uni-
versally maligned. Its origin was small — a
germ, an insignificant seed, hardly to be thought
of as likely to arouse opposition. What was
there to fear in the voluntary association of six

24 The Story of "Mormonism."

men, avowedly devoted to peaceful pursuits and
benevolent purposes ? Yet a storm of persecu-
tion was threatened from the earliest day. At
first but a family affair, opposition to the work
has involved successively the town, the county,
the state, the country, and today the "Mormon"
question has been accorded extended considera-
tion at the hands of the national government,
and indeed most civilized nations have taken
cognizance of the same.

Let us observe the contrast between the be-
ginning and the present proportions of the
Church. Instead of but six regularly affiliated
members, and at most two score of adherents,
the organization numbers today many hundred
thousand souls. In place of a single hamlet, in
the smallest corner of which the members could
have congregated, there now are about seventy
stakes of Zion and about seven hundred organ-
ized wards, each ward and stake with its full
complement of officers and priesthood organiza-
tions. The practise of gathering its proselytes
into one place prevents the building up and
strengthening of foreign branches ; and inas-
much as extensive and strong organizations are
seldom met with abroad, very erroneous ideas

Work among the Lamanites. 25

exist concerning the strength of the Church.
Nevertheless, the mustard seed, among the
smallest of all seeds, has attained the propor-
tions of a tree, and the birds of the air are nest-
ing in its branches; the acorn is now an oak
offering protection and the sweets of satisfac-
tion to every earnest pilgrim journeying its way
for truth.

From the organization of the Church, the
spirit of emigration rested upon the people.
Their eyes were from the first turned in antici-
pation toward the evening sun — not merely that
the work of proselyting should be carried on in
the west, but that the headquarters of the
Church should be there established. The Book
of Mormon had taught the people the true ori-
gin and destiny of the American Indians ; and
toward this dark-skinned remnant of a once
mighty people, the missionaries of "Mormon-
ism" early turned their eyes, and with their
eyes went their hearts and their hopes.

Within three months from the beginning, the
Church had missionaries among the Lamanites.
It is notable that the Indian tribes have gener-
ally regarded the religion of the Latter-day
Saints with favor, seeing in the Book of Mor-

26 The Story of "Mormonism.'

mon striking agreement with their own tradi-
tions.

The first well-established seat of the Church
was in the pretty little town of Kirtland, Ohio,
almost within sight of Lake Erie ; and here soon
rose the first temple of modern times. Among
their many other peculiarities, the Latter-day
Saints are characterized as a temple-building
people, as history proves the Israel of ancient
times to have been. In the days of their in-
fancy as a Church, while in the thrall of pov-
erty, and amidst the persecution and direful
threats of lawless hordes, they laid the corner-
stone, and in less than three years thereafter
they celebrated the dedication of the Kirtland
Temple, a structure at once beautiful and im-
posing. Even before this time, however, popu-
lous settlements of Latter-day Saints had been
made in Jackson County, Missouri ; and in the
town of Independence a site for a great temple
had been selected and purchased; but though
the ground has been dedicated with solemn
ceremony, the people have not as yet built
thereon.

Within two years of its dedication, the tem-
ple in Kirtland was abandoned by the people,

Modern Temples. 27

who were compelled to flee for their lives before
the onslaughts of mobocrats ; but a second tem-
ple, larger and more beautiful than the first,
soon reared its spires in the city of Nauvoo,
Illinois. This structure was destroyed by fire,
but the temple-building spirit was not to be
quenched, and in the vales of Utah today are
four magnificent temple edifices. The last com-
pleted, which was the first begun, is situated in
Salt Lake City, and is one of the wonders and
beauties of that city by the great salt sea.*

To the fervent Latter-day Saint, a temple is
not simply a church building, a house for relig-
ious assembly. Indeed the "Mormon" temples
are rarely used as places of general gatherings.
They are in one sense educational institutions,
regular courses of lectures and instruction be-
ing maintained in some of them; but they are
specifically for baptisms and ordinations, for
sanctifying prayer, and for the most sacred
ceremonies and rites of the Church, particularly
in the vicarious work for the dead which is a
characteristic of "Mormon" faith. And who

*For a detailed account of modern temples, with
numerous pictorial views, see "The House of the Lord,"
by the present author ; Salt Lake City, Utah, 1912.

28 The Story of "Mormonism."

that has gazed upon these splendid shrines will
say that the people who can do so much in pov-
erty and tribulation are insincere? Bigoted
they may seem to those who believe not as they
do ; fanatics they may be to multitudes who like
the proud Pharisee of old thank God they are
not as these ; but insincere they cannot be, even
in the judgment of their bitterest opponent, if
he be a creature of reason.

The clouds of persecution thickened in Ohio
as the intolerant zeal of mobs found frequent
expression; numerous charges, trivial and seri-
ous, were made against the leaders of the
Church, and they were repeatedly brought be-
fore the courts, only to be liberated on the usual
finding of no cause for action. Meanwhile the
march to the west was maintained. Soon
thousands of converts had rented or purchased
homes in Missouri — Independence, Jackson
County, being their center; but from the first,
they were unpopular among the Missourians.
Their system of equal rights with their marked
disapproval of every species of aristocratic sep-
aration and self-aggrandizement was declared
to be a species of communism, dangerous to the
state. An inoffensive journalistic organ, The

Persecution in Missouri. 29

Star, published for the purpose of properly pre-
senting the religious tenets of the people, was
made the particular object of the mob's rage;
the house of its publisher was razed to the
ground, the press and type were confiscated,
and the editor and his family maltreated. An
absurd story was circulated and took firm hold
of the masses that the Book of Mormon prom-
ised the western lands to the people of the
Church, and that they intended to take posses-
sion of these lands by force. Throughout the
book of revelations regarded by the people as
law specially directed to them, they are told to
save their riches that they may purchase the in-
heritance promised them of God. Everywhere
are they told to maintain peace; the sword is
never offered as their symbol of conquest.
Their gathering is to be like that of the Jews at
Jerusalem — a pacific one, and in their taking
possession of what they regard as a land of
promise, no one previously located there shall
be denied his rights.

A spirit of fierce persecution raged in Jackson
and surrounding counties of Missouri. An ap-
peal was made to the executive of the state, but
little encouragement was returned. The lieu-

30 The Story of "Mormonism."

tenant-governor, Lilburn W. Boggs, afterward
governor, was a pronounced "Mormon"-hater,
and throughout the period of the troubles, he
manifested sympathy with the persecutors.

One of the circuit judges who was asked to
issue a peace warrant refused to do so, but ad-
vised the "Mormons" to arm themselves and
meet the force of the outlaws with organized
resistance. This advice was not pleasing to the
Latter-day Saints, whose religion enjoined tol-
erance and peace; but they so far heeded it as
to arm a small force ; and when the outlaws next
came upon them, the people were not entirely
unprepared. A "Mormon" rebellion was now
proclaimed. The people had been goaded to
desperation. The militia was ordered out, and
the "Mormons" were disarmed. The mob was
unrestrained in its eagerness for revenge. The
"Mormons" engaged able lawyers to institute
and maintain legal proceedings against their
foes, and this step, the right to which one would
think could be denied no American citizen,
called forth such an uproar of popular wrath as
to affect almost the entire state.

It was winter ; but the inclemency of the year
only suited the better the purpose of the op-

Expulsion from Jackson County. 3 1

pressor. Homes were destroyed, men torn from
their families were brutally beaten, tarred and
feathered ; women with babes in their arms were
forced to flee half-clad into the solitude of the
prairie to escape from mobocratic violence.
Their sufferings have never yet been fitly chron-
icled by human scribe. Making their way across
the river, most of the refugees found shelter
among the more hospitable people of Clay
County, and afterward established themselves
in Caldwell County, therein founding the city
of Far West. County and state judges, the
governor, and even the President of the United
States, were appealed to in turn for redress.
The national executive, Andrew Jackson, while
expressing sympathy for the persecuted people,
deplored his lack of power to interfere with the
administration or non-administration of state
laws ; the national officials could do nothing ; the
state officials would do naught.

But the expulsion from Jackson County was
but a prelude to the tragedy soon to follow. A
single scene of the bloody drama is known as
the Haun's Mill massacre. A small settlement
had been founded by "Mormon" families on
Shoal Creek, and here on the 30th of October,

32 The Story of "Mormonism."

1838, a company of two hundred and forty fell
upon the hapless settlers and butchered a score.
No respect was paid to age or sex ; grey heads,
and infant lips that scarcely had learned to lisp
a word, vigorous manhood and immature
youth, mother and maiden, fared alike in the
scene of carnage, and their bodies were thrown
into an old well.

In October, 1838, the Governor of Missouri,
the same Lilburn W. Boggs, issued his in-
famous exterminating order, and called upon
the militia of the state to execute it. The lan-
guage of this document, signed by the executive
of a sovereign state of the Union, declared that
the "Mormons" must be driven from the state
or exterminated. Be it said to the honor of
some of the officers entrusted with the terrible
commission, that when they learned its true sig-
nificance they resigned their authority rather
than have anything to do with what they desig-
nated a cold-blooded butchery. But tools were
not wanting, as indeed they never have been,
for murder' and its kindred outrages. What
the heart of man can conceive, the hand of man
will find a way to execute. The awful work
was carried out with dread dispatch. Oh, what

Expulsion from Missouri. 33

a record to read ; what a picture to gaze upon ;
how awful the fact! An official edict offering
expatriation or death to a peaceable community
with no crime proved against them, and guilty
of no offense other than that of choosing to
differ in opinion from the masses! American
school boys read with emotions of horror of the
Albigenses, driven, beaten and killed, with a
papal legate directing the butchery ; and of the
Vaudois, hunted and hounded like beasts as the
effect of a royal decree ; and they yet shall read
in the history of their own country of scenes as
terrible as these in the exhibition of injustice
and inhuman hate.

In the dread alternative offered them, the
people determined again to abandon their
homes; but whither should they go? Already
they had fled before the lawless oppressor over
well nigh half a continent ; already were they
on the frontiers of the country that they had
regarded as the land of promised liberty. Thus
far every move had carried them westward, but
farther west they could not go unless they went
entirely beyond the country of their birth, and
gave up their hope of protection under the Con-
stitution, which to them had ever been an in-

34 The Story of "Mormonism."

spired instrument, the majesty of which, as they
had never doubted, would be some day vindi-
cated, even to securing for them the rights of
American citizens. This time their faces were
turned toward the east; and a host numbering
from ten to twelve thousand, including many
women and children, abandoned their homes
and fled before their murderous pursuers, red-
dening the snow with bloody footprints as they
journeyed. They crossed the Mississippi and
sought protection on the soil of Illinois. There
their sad condition evoked for a time general
commiseration.

The press of the state denounced the treat-
ment of the people by the Missourians and vin-
dicated the character of the "Mormons" as
peaceable and law-abiding citizens. College
professors published expressions of their horror
over the cruel crusade ; state officials, includ-
ing even the governor, gave substantial evi-
dence of their sympathy and good feeling. This
lull in the storm of outrage that had so long
raged about them offered a strange contrast to
their usual treatment. Let it not be thought
that all the people of Illinois were their friends ;
from the first, opposition was manifest, but

Persecutors Denounced. 35

their condition was so greatly bettered that they
might have thought the advent of their Zion to
be near at hand.

I stated that professional men, and even col-
lege professors raised their voices in commiser-
ation of the "Mormon" situation and in de-
nouncing the "Mormon" oppressors. Prof.
Turner of Illinois College wrote :

Who began the quarrel? Was it the "Mor-
mons?" Is it not notorious on the contrary
that they were hunted like wild beasts from
county to county before they made any resist-
ance ? Did they ever, as a body, refuse obedi-
ence to the laws, when called upon to do so,
until driven to desperation by repeated threats
and assaults by the mob? Did the state ever
make one decent effort to defend them as fel-
low-citizens in their rights or to redress their
wrongs ? Let the conduct of its governors and
attorneys and the fate of their final petitions
answer ! Have any who plundered and openly
insulted the "Mormons" ever been brought to
the punishment due to their crimes ? Let boast-
ing murderers of begging and helpless infancy
answer ! Has the state ever remunerated even
those known to be innocent for the loss of either
their property or their arms? Did either the
pulpit or the press through the state raise a note

36 The Story of "Mormonism."

of remonstrance or alarm? Let the clergymen
who abetted and the editors who encouraged
the mob answer!

As a sample of the press comments against
the brutality of the Missourians I quote a para-
graph from the Quincy Argus, March 16, 1839 :

We have no language sufficiently strong for
the expression of our indignation and shame at
the recent transaction in a sister state, and that
state, Missouri, a state of which we had long
been proud, alike for her men and history, but
now so fallen that we could wish her star strick-
en from the bright constellation of the Union.
We say we know of no language sufficiently
strong for the expression of our shame and ab-
horrence of her recent conduct. She has writ-
ten her own character in letters of blood, and
stained it by acts of merciless cruelty and bru-
tality that the waters of ages cannot efface. It
will be observed that an organized mob, aided
by many of the civil and military officers of
Missouri, with Gov. Boggs at their head, have
been the prominent actors in this business, in-
cited too, it appears, against the "Mormons" by
political hatred, and by the additional motives
of plunder and revenge. They have but too
well put in execution their threats of extermina-
tion and expulsion, and fully wreaked their ven-

Favorable Press Comment. 37

geance on a body of industrious and enterpris-
ing men, who had never wronged nor wished to
wrong them, but on the contrary had ever com-
ported themselves as good and honest citizens,
living under the same laws, and having the
same right with themselves to the sacred im-
munities of life, liberty and property.

III.

SETTLING in and about the obscure village
of Commerce, the "Mormon" refugees
soon demonstrated anew the marvelous recuper-
ative power with which they were endowed, and
a city seemed to spring from the earth. Nau-
voo — the City Beautiful — was the name given
to this new abiding place. It was situated but
a few miles from Quincy, in a bend of the ma-
jestic river, giving the town three water fronts.
It seemed to nestle there as if the Father of
Waters was encircling it with his mighty arm.
Soon a glorious temple crowned the hill up
which the city had run in its rapid growth.
Their settlements extended into Iowa, then a
territory. The governors of both Iowa and
Ohio testified to the worthiness of the Latter-
day Saints as citizens, and pledged them the
protection of the commonwealth. The city of
Nauvoo was chartered by the state of Illinois,
and the rights of local self-government were
assured to its citizens.

A military organization, the "Nauvoo Le-

Difficulties in Illinois. 39

gion," was authorized, and the establishment of
a university was provided for; both these or-
ganizations were successfully effected. It was
here that a memorial was prepared and sent to
the national government, reciting the outrages
of Missouri, and asking reparation. Joseph
Smith himself, the head of the delegation, had
a personal interview with President Van Buren,
in which the grievances of the Latter-day Saints
were presented. Van Buren replied in words
that will not be forgotten, "Your cause is just,
but I can do nothing for you/'

The peaceful conditions at first characteristic
of their Illinois settlement were not to continue.
The element of political influence asserted itself
and the "Mormons" bade fair to soon hold the
balance of power in local affairs. The charac-
teristic unity, so marked in connection with
every phase of the people's existence, promised
loo much; immigration into Hancock county
was continuous, and the growing power of the
Latter-day Saints was viewed with apprehen-
sion. With this as the true motive, many pre-
texts for annoyance were found; and arrests,
trials, and acquittals were common experiences
of the Church officers.

40 The Story of ''Mormonism."

A charge, which promised to prove as devoid
of foundation as had the excuses for the fifty
arrests preceding it, led Joseph Smith, president
of the Church, and Hyrum Smith, the patriarch,
to again surrender themselves to the officers of
the law. They were taken to Carthage, Joseph
having declared to friends his belief that he was
going to the slaughter. Governor Ford gave
to the prisoners his personal guarantee for their
safety; but mob violence was supreme, more
mighty than the power of the state militia
placed there to guard the prison ; and these men
were shot to death, even while under the gov-
ernor's plighted pledge of protection. Hyrum
fell first; and Joseph, appearing at one of the
windows in the second story, received the leaden
missiles of the besieging mob, which was led
by a recreant though professed minister of the
gospel. But the brutish passion of the mob was
not yet sated ; propping the body against a well-
curb in the jail-yard, the murderers poured a
volley of bullets into the corpse, and fled. Thus
was the unholy vow of the mob fulfilled, that as
law could not touch the "Mormon" leaders,
powder and ball should. John Taylor, who be-

The Prophet Slain. 41

came years afterward president of the Church,
was in the jail at the same time; he received
four bullets, and was left supposedly dead.

Joseph Smith had been more than the eccles-
iastical leader ; his presence and personality had
been ever powerful as a stimulus to the hearts
of the people; none knew his personal power
better than the members of his own flock, unless
indeed it were the wolves who were ever seek-
ing to harry the fold. It had been the boast of
anti-"Mormons" that with Joseph Smith re-
moved, the Church would crumble to pieces of
itself. In the personality of their leader, it was
thought, lay the secret of the people's strength ;
and like the Philistines, the enemy struck at the
supposed bond of power. Terrible as was the
blow of the fearful fatality, the Church soon
emerged from its despairing state of poignant
grief, and rose mightier than before. It is the
faith of this people that while the work of God
on earth is carried on by men, yet mortals are
but instruments in the Creator's hands for the
accomplishment of divine purposes. The death
of the president disorganized the First Presi-
dency of the Church ; but the official body next

42 The Story of "Mormonism."

in authority, the Council of the Twelve, stepped
to the front, and the progress of the Church was
unhindered. The work of the ministry was not
arrested ; the people paused but long enough to
bury their dead and clear their eyes from the
blinding tears that fell.

Let us take a retrospective glance at this
unusual man. Though his opponents deny him
the divine commission with which his friends
believe he was charged, they all, friends and
foes alike, admit that he was a great man.
Through the testimony of his life's work and
the sanctifying seal of his martyrdom, thou-
sands have come to acknowledge him all that he
professed to be — a messenger from God to the
people. He is not without admirers among
men who deny the truth of his principles and
the faith of his people.

A historical writer of the time, Josiah Quin-
cy, a few weeks after the martyrdom, wrote :

It is by no means improbable that some fu-
ture text book for the use of generations yet un-
born, will contain a question something like
this : "What historical American of the nine-
teenth century has exerted the most powerful
influence upon the destinies of his countrymen ?"

Josiah Quincy's Tribute. 43

And it is by no means impossible that the answer
to that interrogatory may be thus written—
"Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet." And
the reply, absurd as it doubtless seems to most
men now living, may be an obvious common-
place to their descendants. History deals in
surprises and paradoxes quite as startling as
this. A man who established a religion in this
age of free debate, who was and is today ac-
cepted by hundreds of thousands as a direct
emissary from the Most High— such a rare hu-
man being is not to be disposed of by pelting his
memory with unsavory epithets. * * * The
most vital questions Americans are asking each
other today, have to deal with this man and .
what he has left us. * * * Joseph Smith,
claiming to be an inspired teacher, faced ad-
versity such as few men have been called to
meet, enjoyed a brief season of prosperity such
as few men have ever attained, and finally
* * * went cheerfully to a martyr's death.
When he surrendered his person to Governor
Ford, in order to prevent the shedding of blood,
the Prophet had a presentiment of what was
before him. "I am going like a lamb to the
slaughter," he is reported to have said, "but I
am as calm as a summer's morning. I have a
conscience void of offense, and shall die inno-
cent."

The "Mormon" people regarded it as a duty

44 The Story of "Mormonism."

to make every proper effort to bring the perpe-
trators of the foul assassination of their leaders
to justice; sixty names were presented to the
local grand jury, and of the persons so desig-
nated, nine were indicted. After a farcical
semblance of a trial, these were acquitted, and
thus was notice, sanctioned by the constituted
authority of the law, served upon all anti-"Mor-
mons" of Illinois, that they were safe in any
assault they might choose to make on the sub-
jects of their hate. The mob was composed of
apt pupils in the learning of this lesson. Per-
sonal outrages were of every-day occurrence;
husbandmen were captured in their fields,
beaten, tortured, until they barely had strength
left to promise compliance with the demands of
their assailants, — that they would leave the
state. Houses were fired while the tenants
were wrapped in uneasy slumber within; in-
deed, one entire town, that of Morley, was by
such incendiarism reduced to ashes. Women
and children were aroused in the night, and
compelled to flee unclad or perish in their burn-
ing dwellings.

But what of the internal work of the Church
during these trying periods ? As the winds of

Brigham Young, the Leader. 45

winter, the storms of the year's deepest night,
do but harden and strengthen the mountain
pine, whose roots strike the deeper, whose
branches thicken, whose twigs multiply by the
inclemency that would be fatal to the exotic
palm, raised by man with hot-house nursing,
so the new sect continued its growth, partly
in spite of, partly because of, the storms to
which it was subjected. It was no green-house
growth, struggling for existence in a foreign
clime, but a fit plant for the soil of a free land ;
and there existed in the minds of unprejudiced
observers not a doubt as to its vitality. The
Church soon found its equilibrium again after
the shock of its cruel experience. Brigham
Young, who for a decade had been identified
with the cause, who had received his full share
of persecution at mobocratic hands, now stood
at the head of the presiding body in the priest-
hood of the Church. The effect of this man's
wonderful personality, his surprising natural
ability, and to the people, the proofs of his
divine acceptance, were apparent from the first.
Migration from other states and from for-
eign shores continued to swell the "Mormon"
band, and this but angered the oppressors the

46 The Story of "Mormonism."

more. The members of the Church, recogniz-
ing the inevitable long before predicted by their
murdered prophet, that the march of the Church
would be westward, redoubled their efforts to
complete the grand temple upon which they had
not ceased to work through all the storms of
persecution. This structure, solemnly dedi-
cated to their God, they entered, and there re-
ceived their anointings and their blessings ; then
they abandoned it to the desecration and self-
condemning outrages of their foes. For the
mob's decree had gone forth, that the "Mor-
mons" must leave Illinois. After a few san-
guinary encounters, the leaders of the people
acceded to the demands of their assailants, and
agreed to leave early in the following spring;
but the departure was not speedy enough to
suit, and the lawless persecution was waged the
more ruthlessly.

Soon the soil of Illinois was free from "Mor-
mon" tread ; Nauvoo was deserted, her 20,000
inhabitants expatriated. Colonel Thomas L.
Kane, a conspicuous figure at this stage of our
country's history, was traveling eastward at the
time, and reached Nauvoo shortly after its evac-
uation. In a lecture before the Historical So-

Colonel Kane's Experience. 47

ciety of Pennsylvania, he related his experience
in this sometime abode of the Saints. I para-
phrase a portion of his eloquent address.

Sighting the city from the western shore of
the mighty Mississippi, as it nestled in the riv-
er's encircling embrace, he crossed to its prin-
cipal wharf, and, there to his surprise, found no
soul to meet him. The stillness that everywhere
prevailed was painful, broken only by an oc-
casional faint echo of boisterous shout or ribald
song from a distance. The town was in a
dream, and the warrior trod lightly lest he
wake it in affright, for he plainly saw that it
had not slumbered long. No grass grew in the
pavement joints; recent footprints were still
distinct in the dusty thoroughfares. The visitor
made his way unmolested into work-shops and
smithies; tools lay as last used; on the carpen-
ter's bench was the unfinished frame, on the
floor were the shavings fresh and odorous ; the
wood was piled in readiness before the baker's
oven; the blacksmith's forge was cold, but the
shop looked as though the occupant had just
gone off for a holiday. The gallant soldier
entered gardens unchallenged by owner, human
guard, or watchful dog; he might have sup-

48 The Story of "Mormonism."

posed the people hidden or dead in their houses ;
but the doors were not fastened, and he entered
to explore, there were fresh ashes on the
hearth; no great accumulation of the dust of
time was on floors or furniture ; the awful quiet
compelled him to tread a-tip-toe as if thread-
ing the aisles of an unoccupied cathedral. He
hastened to the graveyard, though surely the
city had not been depopulated by pestilence.
No ; there were a few stones newly set, some
sods freshly turned in this sacred acre of God,
but where can you find a cemetery of a living
town with no such evidence of recent inter-
ment? There were fields of heavy grain, the
bounteous harvest rotting on the ground ; there
were orchards dropping their rich and rosy
fruit to spoil beneath; not a hand to gather
or save.

But in a suburban corner, he came across
the smoldering embers of a barbecue fire, with
fragments of flesh and other remnants of a
feast. Hereabout houses had been demolished ;
and there beyond, around the great temple
that had first attracted his attention from the
Iowa shore, armed men were bivouacked. This
worthy representative of our country's service

Mobocratic Outrages. 49

was challenged by the drunken crowd, and
made to give an account of himself, and to an-
swer for having crossed the river without a
permit from the head of the band. Finding
that he was a stranger, they related to him in
fiendish glee their recent exploits of pillage,
rapine, and murder. They conducted him
through the temple ; everywhere were marks of
their brutish acts; its altars of prayer were
broken; the baptismal font had been so "dili-
gently desecrated as to render the apartment in
which it was contained too noisome to abide
in." There in the steeple close by the "scar of
divine wrath" left by a recent thunderbolt, were
broken covers of liquor and drinking vessels.

Sickened with the sight, disgusted with this
spectacle of outrage, the colonel recrossed the
river at nightfall, beating upward, for the wind
had freshened. Attracted by a faint light near
the bank, he approached the spot, there to find
a few haggard faces surrounding one who
seemed to be in the last stages of fever. The
sufferer was partially protected by something
like a tent made from a couple of bed sheets;
and amid such environment, the spirit was
pluming itself for flight. Making his way

50 The Story of "Mormonism."

through this camp of misery, he heard the sob-
bings of children hungry and sick; there were
men and women dying from wounds or dis-
ease, without a semblance of shelter or other
physical comfort; wives in the pangs of ma-
ternity, ushering into the world innocent babes
doomed to be motherless from their birth. And
at intervals, to the ears of those outcasts, the
sick and the dying, the wind brought the soul-
piercing sounds of the reveling mob in the dis-
tant city, the scrap of vulgar song, the shock-
ing oath, shrieked from the temple tower in the
madness of drunken orgies.

This, however, was but the rear remnant of
the expatriated Christian band. The van was
already far on its way toward the inviting wil-
derness of the all but unknown west. But the
wanderers were not wholly without friends;
certain Indian tribes, the Omahas and the Pot-
awatomis, welcomed them to their lands, in-
viting them to camp within their territory dur-
ing the coming winter. "Welcome/' .said these
children of the forest, "we too have been driven
from our pleasant homes east of the great river,
to these damp and unhealthful bottoms; you
now, white men, have been driven forth to the

The Camp of Israel. 51

prairies ; we are fellow-sufferers. Welcome,
brothers."

In return much assistance was rendered by
the white refugees to their, shall I say savage
friends? If it was civilization the wanderers
had left, then indeed might the red men of the
forest have felt proud of their distinction. But
the Indian agent, a Christian gentleman, or-
dered the "Mormons" to move on and leave
the reservation which a kind government had
provided for its red children. An order from
President Polk, who had been appealed to by
Colonel Kane, gave the people permission to
remain for a short season. The government
of Iowa had courteously assured them protec-
tion while passing through that territory. As
soon as the people were well under way, a
thorough organization was effected. Remem-
bering the toilsome desert march from Egypt
to Canaan, the people assumed the name,
"Camp of Israel." The camp consisted of two
main divisions, and each was sub-divided into
companies of hundreds, fifties, and tens, with
captains to direct. An officer with one hundred
volunteers went ahead of the main body to se-
lect a route and prepare a road. At this time,

52 The Story of "Mormonism."

there were over one thousand wagons of the
"Mormons" rolling westward, and the line of
march soon reached from the Mississippi to
Council Bluffs. There were in the company
not half enough draft animals for the arduous
march, and but an insufficient number of able-
bodied men to tend the camps. The women
had to assist in driving teams and stock, and
in other labors of the journey. Yet with their
characteristic cheerfulness the people made the
best, and that proved to be a great deal, out
of their lot. When the camp halted, a city
seemed to spring as if by magic from the prairie
soil. Concerts and social gatherings were
usual features of the evening rests.

But another great event disturbed the equa-
nimity of the camp. War had broken out
between Mexico and the United States. Gen-
eral Taylor's victories in the early stages of
the strife had been all but decisive, but the
Republic was on march to the western ocean
and the provinces of New Mexico and Cali-
fornia were in her path. These two provinces
comprised in addition to the territory now
designated by those names, Utah, Nevada, por-
tions of Wyoming and Colorado, as also Ari-

The Mormon Battalion. 53

zona; while Oregon, then claimed by Great
Britain, included Washington, Idaho, and por-
tions of Montana and Wyoming. It was the
plan of the national administration to occupy
these provinces at the earliest moment possible ;
and a call was made upon the "Mormon" refu-
gees to contribute to the general force by fur-
nishing a battalion of five hundred men to take
part in the war with Mexico. The surprise
which the message of the government officer
produced in the camp amounted almost to dis-
may. Five hundred men fit to bear arms to
be drafted from that camp! What would be-
come of the rest? Already women and boys
had been pressed into service to do the work of
men; already the sick and the halt had been
neglected; and many graves marked the path
they had traversed, whose tenants had passed
to their last sleep through lack of care.

But how long did they hesitate? Scarcely
an hour; it was the call of their country. True,
they were even then leaving the national soil,
but not of their own will. To them their
country was and is the promised land, the
Lord's chosen place, the land of Zion. "You
shall have your battalion," said Brigham Young

54 The Story of "Mormonism."

to Captain Allen, the muster officer, "and if
there are not young men enough, we will take
the old men, and if they are not enough, we
will take the women." Within a week from
the time President Polk's message was re-
ceived, the entire force, in all five hundred and
forty-nine souls, was on the march to Fort
Leavenworth. Their path from the Missouri
to the Pacific led them over two thousand
miles, much of this distance being measured
through deserts, which prior to that time had
not been trodden by civilized foot.

Colonel Cooke, the commander of the "Mor-
mon" Battalion, declared, "History may be
searched in vain for an equal inarch of in-
fantry." Many were disabled through the se-
verity of the march, and numerous cases of
sickness and death were chronicled. General
Kearney and his successor, Governor R. B.
Mason, as military commandants of California,
spoke in high praise of this organization, and in
their official reports declared that they had made
efforts to prolong the battalion's term of ser-
vice; but most of the men chose to rejoin their
families as soon as they could secure their hon-
orable discharge.

Providential Help. 55

But to return to the Camp of Israel : A pio-
neer party, consisting of a hundred and forty
and four, preceded the main body; and the
line of the migrating hosts soon stretched from
the Missouri to the valley of the Great Salt
Lake. Wagons there were, as also some horses
and men, but all too few for the journey; and
a great part of the company walked the full
thousand miles across the great plains and the
forbidding deserts of the west. In the Black
Hills region, the pioneers were delayed a week
at the Platte, a stream, which, though usually
fordable at this point was now so swollen as to
make fording impossible. Here, too, their pro-
visions were well nigh exhausted. Game had
not been plentiful, and the "Mormon" pioneers
were threatened with the direst privations. In
their slow march they had been passed by a
number of well-equipped parties, some of them
from Missouri bound for the Pacific; but most
of these were overtaken on the easterly side of
the river. Amongst the effects of the "Mor-
mon" party was a leathern boat, which on water
served the legitimate purpose of its maker and
on land was made to do service as a wagon
box. This, together with rafts specially con-

56 The Story of "Mormonism."

structed, was now put to good use in ferrying
across the river not alone themselves and their
little property, but the other companies and
their loads. For this service they were well
paid in camp provisions.

Thus, the expatriated pioneers found them-
selves relieved from want with their meal
sacks replenished in the heart of the wilder-
ness. Many may call it superstition, but some
will regard it as did the thankful travelers —
an interposition of Providence, and an answer
to their prayers — an event to be compared,
they said, to the feeding of Israel with manna
in the wilderness of old.

After over three months' journeying, the
pioneer company reached the valley of the
Great Salt Lake; and at the first sight of it,
Brigham Young declared it to be the halting
place — the gathering center for the Saints. But
what was there inviting in this wilderness
spread out like a scroll — barren of inviting
message, and empty but for the picture it pre-
sented of wondrous scenic grandeur? Look-
ing from the Wasatch barrier, the colonists
gazed upon a scene of entrancing though for-
bidding beauty. A barren, arid plain, rimmed

View of the Promised Land. 57

by mountains like a literal basin, still occupied
in its lowest parts by the dregs of what had
once filled it to the brim; no green meadows,
not a tree worthy the name, scarce a patch of
green-sward to entice the adventurous wan-
derers into the valley. The slopes were covered
with sage-brush, relieved by patches of chap-
paral oak and squaw-bush; the wild sunflower
lent its golden hue to intensify the sharp con-
trasts. Off to the westward lay the lake, mak-
ing an impressive, uninviting picture in its
severe, unliving beauty; from its blue wastes
somber peaks rose as precipitous islands, and
about the shores of this dead sea were saline
flats that told of the scorching heat and thirsty
atmosphere of this parched region. A turbid
river ran from south to north athwart the val-
ley, "dividing it in twain," as a historian of
the day has written, "as if the vast bowl in the
intense heat of the Master Potter's fires, in
process of formation had cracked asunder."
Small streams of water started in rippling haste
from the snow-caps of the mountains toward
the lake, but most of them were devoured by
the thirsty sands of the valley before their jour-
ney was half completed.

58 The Story of "Mormonism."

Such was the scene of desolation that greet-
ed the pioneer band. A more forsaken spot
they had not passed in all their wanderings.
And is this the promised land? This is the
very place of which Bridger spake when he
proffered a thousand dollars in gold for the
first bushel of grain that could be raised here.
With such a Canaan spread out before them,
was it not wholly pardonable if some did sigh
with longing for the leeks and flesh-pots of the
Egypt they had left, or wished to pass by this
land and seek a fairer home ? Two of the three
women who belonged to the party were utterly
disappointed. "Weak, worn, and weary as I
am," said one of these heroines, "I would rather
push on another thousand miles than stay here."

But the voice of their leader was heard. "The
very place," said Brigham Young, and in his
prophetic mind there rose a vision of what was
to come. Not for a moment did he doubt the
future. He saw a multitude of towns and
cities, hamlets and villas filling this and neigh-
boring valleys, with the fairest of all, a city
whose beauty of situation, whose wealth of re-
source should become known throughout the
world, rising from the most arid site of the

Irrigation in the West. 59

burning desert before him, hard by the barren
salt shores of the watery waste. There in the
very heart of the parched wilderness should
stand the House of the Lord, with other temples
in valleys beyond the horizon of his gaze.

Within a few hours after the arrival of the
vanguard upon the banks of what is now known
as City Creek — the mountain stream which to-
day furnishes Salt Lake City part of her water
supply — plows were put to work ; but the hard-
baked soil, never before disturbed by the efforts
of man to till, refused to yield to the share. A
dam was thrown across the stream and the soft-
ening liquid was spread upon the flat that had
been chosen for the first fields. The planting
season had already well nigh passed, and not
a day could be lost. Potatoes and other seed
were put in, and the land was again flooded.
Such was the beginning of the irrigation sys-
tem, which soon became co-extensive with the
area occupied by the "Mormon" settlers, a
system which under the blessing of Providence,
has proved to be the veritable magic touch by
which the desert has been made a field of rich-
ness and a garden of beauty; a system which
now after many decades of successful trial is

60 The Story of "Mormonism."

held up by the nation's wise and great ones to
be the one practicable method of reclaiming our
country's vast domains of arid lands. It was
on the 24th of July, 1847, that the main part
of the pioneer band entered the valley of the
Great Salt Lake, and that day of the year is
observed as a legal holiday in Utah. From
that time to the present, the stream of immigra-
tion to these valleys has never ceased.

IV.

THE dangers of the first company's migra-
tion were surpassed by those of parties
who subsequently braved the terrors of the
plains. In their enthusiasm to reach the gath-
ering place of their people, many of the Lat-
ter-day Saints set out from Iowa, where rail-
way facilities had their termination, with hand-
carts only as a means of conveyance. To-
day there are living in the smiling vales of
Utah, men and women who then as boys and
girls trudged wearily across the prairies, drag-
ging the lumbering carts that contained their
entire provision against starvation and freez-
ing. Such handcart companies were organ-
ized with care ; a limited amount of freight was
allowed to each division; milch cattle and a
very few draft-animals, with wagons for con-
veying the heavier baggage and to carry the
sick, were assigned. The tale of those dreary
marches has never yet been told; the song
of the heroism and sacrifice displayed by these
pilgrims for conscience sake is awaiting a sing-

62 The Story of "Mormonism."

er worthy the theme. Wading the streams with
carts in tow, or in cases of unfordable streams,
stopping to construct rafts; at times living on
reduced rations of but a few ounces of meal
per day; lying down at night with a prayer
in the heart that they wake no more on earth,
a prayer which had its fulfilment in hundreds
of cases ; the dying heaving their parting sighs
in the arms of loved ones who were soon to
follow, they journeyed on.

The inevitable catastrophes and accidents
of travel robbed them of their substance. Hos-
tile savages stampeded their cattle, or openly
attacked and plundered the trains. But on they
went, never swerving from the course. These
later companies needed no chart nor compass
to guide them over the desert; the road was
plain from the marks of former camps, and
yet more so from the graves of friends and
loved ones who had started before on the road
to the earthly Zion and found that it led them
to the martyr's entrance to heaven, graves that
were marked perhaps but by a rude inscrip-
tion cut on a pole or a board. And even these
narrow lodgings had not been left inviolate ; the
wolves of the plains had too often succeeded in

Sufferings of the Immigrants. 63

unearthing and rending the bodies. Every
company thus made the course the plainer ; each
of them added to the silent population of the
desert; sometimes half a score were interred
at one camp, and of one company over a fourth
were thus left beside the prairie road. Now
we traverse the self-same track in a day and a
night, reclining on luxurious cushions of ease,
covering fifty miles while dining in luxury ; and
we avert the ennui of the journey by berating
the railway company for lack of speed.

Relief trains were continually on the way
between the valley of the Salt Lake and the
Missouri ; and the remnants of many a company
were saved from what appeared to be certain
destruction by the opportune arrival of these
rescuing parties. Such relief came from those
who were themselves destitute and almost starv-
ing. Brigham Young with a few of the chief
officials of the Church, and aids, returned east-
ward on such an errand of rescue within a few
weeks after first reaching the valley. The re-
gion to which the early settlers came was in
no wise a typical land of promise; it did not
flow spontaneously with milk and honey.

Drought and unseasonable frosts made the

64 The Story of "Mormonism."

first year's farming experiments but doubtful
successes, and in the succeeding spring the land
was visited by the devastating plague of the
Rocky Mountain crickets. They swarmed down
in innumerable hordes upon the fields, destroy-
ing the growing crops as they advanced, de-
vouring all before them, leaving the land a
desert in their track. The people scarcely knew
how to withstand the assault of this new foe;
they drove the marauders into trenches there
to be drowned or burned; men, women and
every child that could swing a stick, were called
to the ranks in this insect war; and with all
their fighting, the people forgot not to pray for
deliverance, and they fasted, too, for the best
of reasons.

And as they watched, and prayed, and
worked, they saw approaching from the north
and west a veritable host of winged creatures
of more formidable proportions still ; and these
bore down upon the fields as though coming
to complete the devastation. But see ! these are
of the color that betokens peace; they are the
gulls, white and beautiful, advancing upon the
hosts of the black destroyers. Falling upon the
people's foes, they devoured them by the thou-

The Crickets and the Gulls. 65

sand, and when filled to repletion, disgorged
and feasted again. And they did not stop till
the crickets were destroyed. Again the skeptic
will say this was but chance; but the people
accepted that chance as a providential ruling in
their behalf, and reverently did they give
thanks.

To-day the wanton killing of a gull in Utah
is an offense in law; but stronger than legal
proscription, more powerful than fear of judi-
cial penalties, is the popular sentiment in fa-
vor of these white-winged deliverers. Every
year come these graceful creatures to spend the
springtime in the fields and upon the lakes of
Utah ; and right well do they feel their welcome,
for they are habitually so tame and fearless that
they may almost be touched by the hand before
they take flight.

By the autumn of 1848, five thousand people
had already reached the valley, and the food
problem was a most difficult one. The winter
was severe; and famine, stark and inexorable,
threw its dread shadow over the people. There
seemed to be an entry in the book of fate that
every possible test of human endurance and in-
tegrity should be applied to this pilgrim band.

66 The Story of "Mormonism."

Without distinction as to former station, they
went out and dug the roots of weeds, gathered
the tenderest of the coarse grass, thistles, and
wild berries, and thus did they subsist; upon
such did they feast with thanksgiving, until a
less scanty harvest relieved their wants.

It was at this time that the gold fever was
at its height, a consequence of the discovery
of the precious metal in California, in which
discovery, indeed, certain members of the dis-
banded "Mormon" Battalion, working their
way eastward, were most prominent. Some of
the "Mormon" settlers, becoming infected with
the malady, hastened westward, but the counsel
of the Church authorities prevailed to keep all
but a few at home. These people had not left
the country of their birth or adoption to seek
gold; nor bright jewels of the mine; nor the
wealth of seas; nor the spoils of war; they
sought and believed they had found, a faith's
pure shrine. But the gold-seekers hastening
westward, and the successful miners returning
eastward, halted at the "Mormon" settlements
and there replenished their supplies, leaving
their gold to enrich the people of the desert.

But of what use is gold in the wilderness!

Establishment of Schools. 67

In the old legend a famishing Arab, finding a
well filled bag upon the sand was thrilled with
joy at the thought of dates — his bread; and
then was cast into the depths of despair when he
realized that he had found nothing but a bag
of costly pearls. The settlers by the lake needed
horses and wagons, tools, implements of hus-
bandry and building; and gold was valuable
only as it represented a means of obtaining
these. Gold became so plentiful and was withal
so worthless in the desert colony that men re-
fused to take it for their labor. The yellow
metal was collected in buckets and exported
to the States in exchange for the goods so much
desired. Merchandise brought in by caravans
of "prairie schooners," was sold as fast as it
could be put out ; and strict rules were enforced
allowing but a proportionate amount to each
purchaser.

Within a few months after the first settle-
ment of Utah, public schools were established ;
and one of the early acts of the provisional gov-
ernment was to grant a charter to the Deseret
University, now known as the University of
Utah.

Up to 1849, Utah had no political history.

68 The Story of "Mormonism."

Settling in a Mexican province, the contest to
determine its future ownership by the United
States then in progress, the people in com-
mon with most pioneer communities established
their own form of government. But in Febru-
ary, 1848, the treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo
gave California to the United States; months
passed, however, before the news of the change
reached the west. Early in 1849, a call had
been issued to "all the citizens of that portion
of Upper California lying to the east of the
Sierra Nevada mountains" to meet in conven-
tion at Great Salt Lake City; and there a peti-
tion was prepared asking of Congress the rights
of self-government ; and pending action, a tem-
porary regime was established, under the name
of the Provisional Government of the State
of Deseret.

"Utah" was not the choice of the people as
the name of their state; that word served but
to recall the degraded tribes who had contested
the settlement of the valleys. Deseret, a Book
of Mormon name for the honey bee, was more
appropriate. The petition of the people was
denied in part, and, in 1850 was established the
territorial form of government in Utah. Con-

Federal Appointees to Office. 69

cerning the period of the provisional govern-
ment, such men as Gunnison, Stansbury, and
other federal officials on duty in the west, have
recorded their praises of the "Mormon" colo-
nists in official reports. But with the un-Ameri-
can system of territorial government came trou-
bles.

At first, many of the territorial officials were
appointed from among the settlers themselves ;
thus, Brigham Young was the first governor;
but strangers, who knew not the people nor
their ways, filled with prejudice from the false
reports they had heard, came from the east to
govern the colonists in the desert. Of the fed-
eral appointees thus forced upon the people of
Utah, many made for themselves most unenvia-
ble records.

Some of them were broken politicians, pro-
fessional office-seekers, with no desire but to
secure the greatest possible gain out of their ap-
pointment. With efTrontery that would shock
the modesty of a savage, the non-"Mormon"
party adopted and flagrantly displayed the car-
pet-bag as the badge of their profession. But
not all the officials sent to Utah from afar were
of this type; some of them were honorable and

70 The Story of "Mormonism."

upright men, and amongst this class the
"Mormon" people reckon a number who, while
opposed to their religious tenets, were neverthe-
less sincere and honest in the opposition they
evinced.

In the early part of 1857, the published libels
upon the people received many serious ad-
ditions, the principal of which was promulgated
in connection with the resignation of Judge
Drummond of the Utah federal court. In his
last letter to the United States attorney-gen-
eral, he declared that his life was no longer safe
in Utah, and that he had been compelled to flee
from his bench ; but the most serious charge
of all was that the people had destroyed the
records of the court, and that they had resented,
with hostile demonstration, his protests; in
short, that justice was dethroned in Utah, and
that the people were in a state of open rebellion.

With mails three months apart, news traveled
slowly; but as soon as word of this infamous
charge reached Salt Lake City, the clerk of the
court, Judge Drummond's clerk, sent a letter
by express to the attorney-general, denying un-
der oath the judge's statements, and attesting
the declaration with official seal. The records,

An Army Sent to Utah. 71

he declared, had been untouched except by of-
ficial hands, and from the time of the court's
establishment the files had been safe and were
then in his personal keeping. But, before the
clerk's communication had reached its des-
tination, so difficult is it for stately truth to
overtake flitting falsehood, the mischief had
been done. Upon the most prejudiced reports
utterly unfounded in fact, with a carelessness
which even his personal and political friends
found no ample means of explaining away,
President Buchanan allowed himself to be per-
suaded that a "Mormon" rebellion existed, and
ordered an army of over two thousand men to
proceed straightway to Utah to subdue the
rebels. Successors to the governor and other
territorial officials were appointed, among
whom there was not a single resident of Utah ;
and the military force was charged with the
duty of installing the foreign appointees.

With great dispatch and under cover of se-
crecy, so that the Utah rebels might be taken
by surprise, the army set out on the march.
Before the troops reached the Rocky Moun-
tains, the sworn statement from the clerk of
the supreme court of Utah denying the charges

72 The Story of "Mormonism."

made by Judge Drummond became public
property; and about the same time men who
had come from Utah to New York direct,
published over their own signatures a declara-
tion that all was peaceful in and about the set-
tlements of Utah. The public eye began to
twitch, and soon to open wide; the conviction
was growing that someone had blundered. But
to retract would be a plain confession of er-
ror ; blunders must be covered up.

Let us leave the soldiers on their westward
march, and ascertain how the news of the pro-
jected invasion reached the people of Utah,
and what effect the tidings produced. Certain
"Mormon" business agents, operating in Mis-
souri, heard of the hostile movement. At first
they were incredulous, but when the overland
mail carrier from the west delivered his pouch
and obtained his receipt, but was refused the
bag of Utah mail with the postmaster's state-
ment that he had been ordered to hold all mail
for Utah, there seemed no room for doubt. Two
of the Utahns immediately hastened westward.

On the 24th of July, 1857, the people had
assembled in celebration of Pioneer Day. Sil-
ver Lake, a mountain gem set amidst the snows

News of the Approaching Troops, 73

and forests and towering peaks of the Cotton-
woods, had been selected as a fitting site for the
festivities. The Stars and Stripes streamed
above the camp; bands played; choirs sang;
there were speeches, and picnics, and prayers.
Experiences were compared as to the journey-
ings on the plains; stories were told of the
shifts to which the people had been put by
the vicissitudes of famine; but these dread
experiences seemed to them now like a dream
of the night ; on this day all were happy. Were
they not safe from savage foes both red and
white? There had been peace for a season;
and their desert homes were already smiling
in wealth of flower and tree; the wilderness
was blossoming under their feet; their con-
sciences were void of offense toward their fel-
lows. Yet at that very hour, all unbeknown
to themselves, and without the opportunity of
speaking a word in defense, these people had
been convicted of insurrection and treason.

It was mid-day and the festivities were at
their height, when a party of men rode into
camp and sought an interview with Governor
Young. Three of them had plainly ridden
hard and far; they gave their report; — an

74 The Story of "Mormonism."

armed force of thousands was at that hour ap-
proaching the territory; the boasts of officers
and men as to what they would do when they
found themselves in "Mormon" towns were re-
ported ; and these stories called up, in the minds
of those who heard, the dread scenes of Far
West and Nauvoo. Had these colonists of the
wilderness not gone far enough to satisfy the
hatred of their fellow-citizens in this republic
of liberty? They had halted between the civ-
lization of the east and that of the west, they
had fled from the country that refused them a
home, and now the nation would eject them
from their desert lodgings.

A council was called and the situation was
freely discussed. Had they not seen, lo, these
many times, organized battalions and com-
panies surpassing fiendish mobs in villainy ? The
evidence warranted their conclusion that in-
vasion meant massacre. With tense calmness
the plan of action was decided upon. It was
the general conviction that war was inevitable,
and it was decided to resist to the last. Then,
if the army forced its way into the valleys of
Utah on hostile purpose bent, it should find
the land as truly a desert as it was when the

Preparations for Defense. 75

pioneers first took possession. To this effect
was the decision: — We have built cities in
the east for our foes to occupy; our very tem-
ples have been desecrated and destroyed by
them; but, with the help of Israel's God, we
will prevent them enriching themselves with
the spoils of our labors in these mountain re-
treats.

There seemed to be no room for doubt that
war was about to break upon them; and with
such a prospect, men may be expected to take
every advantage of their situation. Brigham
Young was still governor of Utah, and the
militia was subject to his order. Promptly
he proclaimed the territory under martial law,
and forbade any armed body to cross its boun-
daries. Echo Canyon, the one promising
route of ingress, was fortified. In those de-
files an army might easily be stopped by a few ;
ammunition stations were established; provi-
sions were cached ; boulders were collected upon
the cliffs beneath which the invaders must pass
if they held to their purpose of forcing an
entrance. The people had been roused to des-
peration, and force was to be met with force.
In the settlements, combustibles were placed in

76 The Story of "Mormonism."

readiness, and if the worst came, every "Mor-
mon" house would be reduced to ashes, every
tree would be hewn down.

With an experience of suffering that would
have well served a better cause, this picked de-
tachment of the United States army made its
way to the Green River country; and there,
counting well the cost of proceeding farther,
went into camp at Fort Bridger. Many of the
troops had almost perished in the storms, for
it was late in November, and the winter had
closed in early. Colonel Cooke reported to
the commandant that half his horses had per-
ished through cold and lack of food ; hundreds
of beef cattle had died; yet the region was so
wild and forbidding that scarcely a wolf ven-
tured there to glut itself upon the carcasses. In
Cooke's own words we read that for thirty
miles the road was blocked with carcasses —
and "with abandoned and shattered property,
they mark, perhaps beyond example in history,
the steps of an advancing army with the hor-
rors of a disastrous retreat."

With the army traveled the new federal ap-
pointees to offices in the territory. Cumming,
the governor-to-be, issued a proclamation

The Army in Winter. 77

from his dug-out lodgings, and sent it to Salt
Lake City by courier ; he signed it as "Governor
of Utah Territory." This but belittled him,
for by the very terms of the Organic Act, to
uphold which was the professed purpose of his
coming, he was not governor until the oath of
office had been duly administered and sub-
scribed. A few days later he went before his
fellow-sufferer Eckles, the appointee for chief
justice of Utah, and took an oath ; but why did
he swear so recklessly when the one before
whom he swore was no more an official than
himself?

The army wintered at a satisfactory distance
from Salt Lake City, and such a winter, ac-
cording to official reports, the soldiers of our
nation have rarely had to brave. It was soon ap-
parent that they need fear no "Mormon" attack ;
orders had been issued to the territorial militia
to take no life except in cases of absolute neces-
sity; but General Johnston and his staff had
more than their match in battling with the ele-
ments. Communications between Governor
Young and the commandant were frequent;
safe conduct was assured any and all officers
who chose to enter the city; and if necessary

78 The Story of "Mormonism."

hostages were to be given; but the governor
was inexorable in his ultimatum that, as an
organized body with hostile purpose, the sol-
diers should not pass the .mountain gateway.
In the meantime, a full account of the situation
was reported by Governor Young to the Presi-
dent of the United States, and the truth slowly
made its way into the eastern press. President
Buchanan tacitly admitted his mistake; but to
recall the troops at that juncture would be to
confess humiliating failure.

A peace commissioner, in the person of
Colonel Kane, was dispatched to Salt Lake
City ; his coming being made known to Gover-
nor Young, an escort was sent to meet him and
conduct him through the "Mormon" lines. The
result of the conference was that the "Mor-
mon" leaders but reiterated their statement that
the President's appointees would be given safe
entry to the city, and be duly installed in their
offices, provided they would enter without the
army. This ultimatum was carried to the fed-
eral camp ; and to the open chagrin of the com-
mandant, Governor Cumming and his fel-
low appointees moved to Salt Lake City under

The New Officials Installed. 79

"Mormon" escort, after a five months' halt in
the wilderness.

I believe that strategy is usually allowed in
war, and I am free to say the "Mormons"
availed themselves of this license. At short
intervals in the course of the night-passage
through the canyon, the party was challenged,
and the password demanded; bon-fires were
blazing down in the gorges, and the impression
was made that the mountains were full of
armed men; whereas the sentries were mem-
bers of the escort, who, preceding by short cuts
the main party, continued to challenge and to
pass. On their arrival, the gentlemen were
met by the retiring officials, and were peace-
ably installed. The new governor called upon
the clerk of the court, and ascertained the truth
of the statement that the records were entirely
safe. He promptly reported his conclusions
to General Johnston that there was no further
need for the army. It was decided, however,
that the soldiers should be permitted to march
through the city, and straightway the "Mor-
mons" began their exodus to the south.

Governor Cumming tried in vain to induce
the people to remain, assuring them that the

80 The Story of "Mormonism."

troops would commit no depredations. "Not
so," said Brigham Young, "we have had ex-
perience with troops in the past, Governor Cum-
ming; we have seen our leaders shot down by
the demoralized soldiery ; we have seen mothers
with babes at their breasts sent to their last
home by the same bullet; we have witnessed
outrages beyond description. You are now
Governor of Utah ; we can no longer command
the militia for our own defense. We do not
wish to fight, therefore we depart." Leaving
a few men to apply the brand to the combusti-
bles stored in every house, at the first sign
of plunder by the soldiers, the people again
deserted their homes and moved into the desert
anew.

But the officers of the army kept their word ;
the troops were put into camp forty miles from
the settlements, and the settlers returned. The
President's commissioners brought the official
pardon, unsolicited, for all acts committed by
the "Mormons" in opposing the entrance of the
army. The people asked what they had done
that needed pardon ; they had not robbed, they
had not killed. But a critical analysis of these
troublous events revealed at least one overt

Amnesty Granted. 81

act — some "Mormon" scouts had challenged a
supply train ; and, being opposed, they had des-
troyed some of the wagons and provisions ; and
for this they accepted the President's most gra-
cious pardon.

V.

AFTER all, the "Mormon" people regard
the advent of the Buchanan army as one
of the greatest material blessings ever brought
to them.

The troops, once in Utah, had to be pro-
visioned; and everything the settlers could
spare was eagerly bought at an unusual price.
The gold changed hands. Then, in their hasty
departure, the soldiers disposed of everything
outside of actual necessities in the way of accou-
terment and camp equipage. The army
found the people in poverty, and left them in
comparative wealth.

And what was the cause of this hurried de-
parture of the military? For many months,
ominous rumblings had been heard, — indica-
tions of the gathering storm which was soon
to break in the awful fury of civil strife. It
could not be doubted that war was imminent;
already the conflict had begun, and a picked
part of the army was away in the western wilds,

Underlying Causes. 83

doing nothing for any phase of the public
good. But a word further concerning the ex-
pedition in general. The sending of troops
to Utah was part of a foul scheme to weaken
the government in its impending struggle with
the secessionists. The movement has been
called not inaptly "Buchanan's blunder," but
the best and wisest men may make blunders,
and whatever may be said of President Bu-
chanan's short-sightedness in taking this step,
even his enemies do not question his integrity
in the matter. He was unjustly charged with
favoring secession; but the charge was soon
disproved.

However, it was known that certain of his
cabinet were in league with the seceding states ;
and prominent among them was John Floyd,
secretary of war. The successful efforts of
this officer to disarm the North, while accum-
ulating the munitions of war in the South; to
scatter the forces by locating them in widely
separated and remote stations; and in other
ways to dispose of the regular army in the man-
ner best calculated to favor the anticipated re-
bellion, are matters of history. It is also told
how, at the commencement of the rebellion,

84 The Story of "Mormonism."

he allied himself with the confederate forces,
accepting the rank of brigadier-general. It
was through Floyd's advice that Buchanan
ordered the military expedition to Utah, os-
tensibly to install certain federal officials and
to repress an alleged infantile rebellion which
in fact had never come into existence, but in
reality to further the interests of the seces-
sionists. When the history of that great strug-
gle with its antecedent and its consequent cir-
cumstances is written with a pen that shall in-
dite naught but truth, when prejudice and
partisanship are lived down, it may appear that
Jefferson Davis rather than James Buchanan
was the prime cause of the great mistake.

And General Johnston who commanded the
army in the west; he who was so vehement in
his denunciation of the rebel "Mormons," and
who rejoiced in being selected to chastise them
into submission; who, because of his vindic-
tiveness incurred the ill-favor of the governor,
whose posse comitatus the army was; what
became of him, at one time so popular that he
was spoken of as a likely successor to Win-
field Scott in the office of general-in-chief of the
United States army? He left Utah in the

No Secession in Utah. 85

early stages of the rebellion, turned his arms
against the flag he had sworn to defend, doffed
the blue, donned the grey, and fell a rebel on
the field of Shiloh.

Changes many and great followed in bewil-
dering succession in Utah. The people were
besought to takes sides with the South in the
awful scenes of cruel strife; it was openly
stated in the east that Utah had allied her-
self with the cause of secession ; and by others
that the design was to make Salt Lake City
the capital of an independent government. And
surely such conjectures were pardonable on the
part of all whose ignorance and prejudice still
nursed the delusion of "Mormon" disloyalty.
Moreover, had the people been inclined to re-
bellion what greater opportunity could they
have wished? Already a North and a South
were talked of — why not set up also a West?
A supreme opportunity had come and how was
it used? It was at this very time that the
Overland Telegraph line, which had been ap-
proaching from the Atlantic and the Pacific,
was completed, and the first tremor felt in that
nerve of steel carried these words from Brig-
ham Young:

86 The Story of "Mormonism."

Utah has not seceded, but is firm for the con-
stitution and laws of our country.

The "Mormon" people saw in their terrible
experiences and in the outrages to which they
had been subjected, only the mal-administra-
tion of laws and the subversion of justice
through human incapacity and hatred. Never
even for a moment did they question the su-
preme authority and the inspired origin of the
constitution of their land. They knew no
North, no South, no East, no West ; they stood
positively by the constitution, and would have
nothing to do in the bloody strife between
brothers, unless indeed they were summoned
by the authority to which they had already once
loyally responded, to furnish men and arms
for their country's need.

Following the advent of the telegraph came
the railway; and the land of "Mormondom"
was no longer isolated. Her resources were
developed, her wealth became a topic of the
world's wonder; the tide of immigration
swelled her population, contributing much of
the best from all the civilized nations of the
earth. Every reader of recent and current

Utah Becomes a State. 87

history has learned of her rapid growth; of
her repeated appeals for the recognition to
which she had so long been entitled in the sis-
terhood of states; of the prompt refusals with
which her pleas were persistently met, though
other territories with smaller and more illit-
erate populations, more restricted resources,
and in every way weaker claims, were allowed
to assume the habiliments of maturity, while
Utah, lusty, large and strong, was kept in
swaddling clothes. But the cries of the vigor-
ous infant were at length heeded, and in an-
swer to the seventh appeal of the kind, Utah's
star was added to the nation's galaxy.

But let us turn more particularly to the his-
tory of the Church itself. For a second time
and thrice thereafter, the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints has been deprived of
its president, and on each occasion were reiter-
ated the prophecies of disruption uttered at the
time of Joseph Smith's assassination. Calm
observers declared that as the shepherd had
gone, the flock would soon be dispersed; while
others, comparable only to wolves, thinking
the fold unguarded, sought to harry and scat-
ter the sheep. But "Mormonism" died not;

88 The Story of "Mormonism."

every added pang of grief served but to unite .
the people.

When Brigham Young passed from earth,
he was mourned of the people as deeply as was
Moses of Israel. And had he not proved him-
self a Moses, aye and a Joshua, too? He had
led the people into the land of holy promise,
and had divided unto them their inheritances.
He was a man with clear title as one of the
small brotherhood we call great. As carpenter,
farmer, pioneer, capitalist, financier, preacher,
apostle, prophet — in everything he was a lead-
er among men. Even those who opposed him
in politics and in religion respected him for
his talents, his magnanimity, his liberality, and
his manliness ; and years after his demise, men
who had refused him honor while alive
brought their mites and their gold to erect a
monument of stone and bronze to the memory
of this man who needs it not. With his death
closed another epoch in the history of his peo-
ple, and a successor arose, one who was capa-
ble of leading and judging under the changed
conditions.

But perhaps I am suspected of having for-

Celestial Marriage. 89

gotten or of having intentionally omitted ref-
erence to what popular belief once considered
the chief feature of "Mormonism," the corner-
stone of the structure, the secret of its influence
over its members, and of its attractiveness to
its proselytes, viz., the peculiarity of the "Mor-
mon" institution of marriage. The Latter-day
Saints were long regarded as a polygamous
people. That plural marriage has been prac-
tised by a limited proportion of the people,
under sanction of Church ordinance, has never
since the introduction of the system been de-
nied. But that plural marriage is a vital tenet
of the Church is not true. What the Latter-
day Saints call celestial marriage is character-
istic of the Church, and is in very general prac-
tise; but of celestial marriage, plurality of
wives was an incident, never an essential. Yet
the two have often been confused in the pop-
ular mind.

We believe in a literal resurrection and an
actual hereafter, in which future state shall be
recognized every sanctified and authorized re-
lationship existing here on earth — of parent
and child, brother and sister, husband and wife.
We believe, further that contracts as of mar-

90 The Story of "Mormonism."

riage, to be valid beyond the veil of mortality
must be sanctioned by a power greater than that
of earth. With the seal of the holy Priesthood
upon their wedded state, these people believe
implicitly in the perpetuity of that relationship
on the far side of the grave. They marry not
with the saddening limitation "Until death do
you part," but "For time and for all eternity."*
This constitutes celestial marriage. The thought
that plural marriage has ever been the head
and front of "Mormon" offending, that to it
is traceable as the true cause the hatred of other
sects and the unpopularity of the Church, is
not tenable to the earnest thinker. Sad as
have been the experiences of the people in con-
sequence of this practise, deep and anguish-
laden as have been the sighs and groans, hot
and bitter as have been the tears so caused, the
heaviest persecution, the crudest treatment of
their history began before plural marriage was
known in the Church.

There is no sect nor people that sets a higher
value on virtue and chastity than do the Latter-

*For treatment of Celestial Marriage and other Tem-
ple ordinances, see "The House of the Lord," by the
present author, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1912.

Inception of Plural Marriage. 91

day Saints, nor a people that visits surer retri-
bution upon the heads of offenders against the
laws of sexual purity. To them marriage is
not, can never be, a civil compact alone ; its sig-
nificance reaches beyond the grave; its obliga-
tions are eternal; and the Latter-day Saints
are notable for the sanctity with which they
invest the marital state. It has been my priv-
ilege to tread the soil of many lands, to observe
the customs and study the habits of more na-
tions than one ; and I have yet to find the place
and meet the people, where and with whom the
purity of man and woman is held more precious
than among the maligned "Mormons" in the
mountain valleys of the west. There I find this
measure of just equality of the sexes — that the
sins of man shall not be visited upon the head of
zvoman.

At the inception of plural marriage among
the Latter-day Saints, there was no law, na-
tional or state, against its practise. This state-
ment assumes, as granted, a distinction between
bigamy and the "Mormon" institution of plural
marriage. In 1862, a law was enacted with
the purpose of suppressing plural marriage, and,
as had been predicted in the national Senate

92 The Story of "Mormonism."

prior to its passage, it lay for many years a dead
letter. Federal judges and United States at-
torneys in Utah, who were not "Mormons" nor
lovers of "Mormonism," refused to entertain
complaints or prosecute cases under the law, be-
cause of its manifest injustice and inadequacy.
But other laws followed, most of which, as
the Latter-day Saints believe, were aimed di-
rectly at their religious conception of the mar-
riage contract, and not at social impropriety nor
sexual offense.

At last the Edmunds-Tucker act took effect,
making not the marriage alone but the subse-
quent acknowledging of the contract an offense
punishable by fine or imprisonment or both.
Under the spell of unrighteous zeal, the federal
judiciary of Utah announced and practised that
most infamous doctrine of segregation of of-
fenses with accumulating penalties.

I who write have listened to judges instruct-
ing grand juries in such terms as these: that
although the law of Congress designated as an
offense the acknowledging of more living wives
than one by any man, and prescribed a penalty
therefor, as Congress had not specified the
length of time during which this unlawful ac-

Infamous Segregation Doctrine. 93

knowledging must continue to constitute the
offense, grand juries might indict separately for
every day of the period during which the for-
bidden relationship existed. This meant that
for an alleged misdemeanor — for which Con-
gress prescribed a maximum penalty of six
months' imprisonment and a fine of three hun-
dred dollars — a man might be imprisoned for
life, aye, for many terms of a man's natural life
did the court's power to enforce its sentences
extend so far, and might be fined millions of
dollars. Before this travesty on the adminis-
tration of law could be brought before the court
of last resort, and there meet with the reversal
and rebuke it deserved, men were imprisoned
under sentences of many years' duration.

The people contested these measures one by
one in the courts; presenting in case after case
the different phases of the subject, and urging
the unconstitutionality of the measure. Then
the Church was disincorporated, and its prop-
erty both real and personal confiscated and
escheated to the government of the United
States ; and although the personal property was
soon restored, real estate of great value long
lay in the hands of the court's receiver, and the

94 The Story of "Mormonism."

"Mormon" Church had to pay the national gov-
ernment high rental on its own property. But
the people have suspended the practise of plural
marriage; and the testimony of the governors,
judges, and district attorneys of the territory,
and later that of the officers of the state, have
declared the sincerity of the renunciation.

As the people had adopted the practise under
what was believed to be divine approval, they
suspended it when they were justified in so do-
ing. In whatever light this practise has been
regarded in the past, it is today a dead issue,
forbidden by ecclesiastical rule as it is prohib-
ited by legal statute. And the world is learn-
ing, to its manifest surprise, that plural mar-
riage and "Mormonism" are not synonymous
terms.

And so the story of "Mormonism" runs on;
its finale has not yet been written; the current
press presents continuously new stages of its
progress, new developments of its plan. Today
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
is stronger than ever before ; and the people are
confident that it is at its weakest stage for all

"Mormonism" Destined to Live. 95

time to come. It lives and thrives because with-
in it are the elements of thrift and the forces
of life. It embraces a boundless liberality of
belief and practise; true toleration is one of its
essential features; it makes love for mankind
second only to love for Deity. Its creed pro-
vides for the protection of all men in their rights
of worship according to the dictates of con-
science. It contemplates a millennium of peace,
when every man shall love his neighbor and re-
spect his neighbor's opinion as he regards him-
self and his own — a day when the voice of the
people shall be in unison with the voice of God.

The Philosophy of "Mormonism"

The Philosophy of "Mormonism."

I.

IN this attempt to treat the philosophy of
"Mormonism" it is assumed that no discus-
sion of Christianity in general nor of the philos-
ophy of Christianity is required. The "Mor-
mon" creed, so far as there is a creed professed
by the Latter-day Saints, is pre-eminently Chris-
tian in theory, precept, and practise. In what
respect, then, may be properly asked, does
"Mormonism" differ from the faith and prac-
tise of other professedly Christian systems — in
short, what is "Mormonism?"

First, let it be remembered that the term
"Mormon," with its derivatives, is not the offi-
cial designation of the Church with which it is
usually associated. The name was originally
applied in a spirit of derision, as a nick-name
in fact, by the opponents of the Church; and
was doubtless suggested by the title of a promi-
nent, publication given to the world through
Joseph Smith in an early period of the Church's

100 The Philosophy of "Mormonism."

history. This, of course, is the Book of Mor-
mon. Nevertheless, the people have accepted
the name thus thrust upon them, and answer
readily to its call. The proper title of the or-
ganization is "The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints." The philosophy of "Mor-
monism" is declared in the name. The people
claim this name as having been bestowed by
revelation and therefore that, like other names
given of God as attested by scriptural instances,
it is at once name and title combined.

The Church declines to sail under any flag
of man-made design ; it repudiates the name of
mortals as a part of its title, and thus differs
from Lutherans and Wesleyans, Calvinists,
Mennonites, and many others, all of whom,
worthy though their organizations may be, ele-
vating as may be their precepts, good as may
be their practises, declare themselves the fol-
lowers of men. This is not the church of
Moses nor the prophets, of Paul nor of Cephas,
of Apollos nor of John ; neither of Joseph Smith
nor of Brigham Young. It asserts its proud
claim as the Church of Jesus Christ.

It refuses to wear a name indicative of dis-
tinctive or peculiar doctrines; and in this par-

The Articles of Faith. 101

ticular, it differs from churches Catholic and
Protestant, Presbyterian, Congregationalist,
Unitarian, Methodist and Baptist; its sole dis-
tinguishing features are those of the Church of
Christ.

In an effort to present in concise form the
cardinal doctrines of this organization, I can-
not do better than quote the so-called "Articles
of Faith of the Church of Jesus Christ of Lat-
ter-day Saints," which have been in published
form before the world for over half a century.*

1. We believe in God, the Eternal Father,
and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy
Ghost.

2. We believe that men will be punished for
their own sins, and not for Adam's transgres-
sion.

3. We believe that, through the atonement
of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obe-
dience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel.

4. We believe that the first principles and
ordinances of the gospel are : First, Faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ ; second, Repentance ;

*For extended treatment of "Mormon" doctrine
see "The Articles of Faith; a Series of Lectures on
the Principal Doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints," by James E. Talmage. Pub-
lished by the Church: Salt Lake City, Utah; 485 pp.

8

102 The Philosophy of "Mormonism.

third, Baptism by immersion for the remission
of sins ; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift
of the Holy Ghost.

5. We believe that a man must be called of
God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of
hands, by those who are in authority, to preach
the gospel and administer in the ordinances
thereof.

6. We believe in the same organization that
existed in the primitive church, namely, apos-
tles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, etc.

7. We believe in the gift of tongues, proph-
ecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation
of tongues, etc.

8. We believe the Bible to be the word of
God, as far as it is translated correctly ; we also
believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of
God.

9. We believe all that God has revealed, all
that he does now reveal, and we believe that he
will yet reveal many great and important things
pertaining to the Kingdom of God.

10. We believe in the literal gathering of
Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes ;
that Zion will be built upon this [the American]
continent ; that Christ will reign personally upon
the earth, and that the earth will be renewed and
receive its paradisiacal glory.

11. We claim the privilege of worshiping
Almighty God according to the dictates of our

Brief Summary of Doctrine. 103

own conscience, and allow all men the same
privilege, let them worship how, where, or what
they may.

12. We believe in being subject to kings,
presidents, rulers and magistrates, in obeying,
honoring and sustaining the law.

13. We believe in being honest, true, chaste,
benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all
men ; indeed we may say that we follow the ad-
monition of Paul, We believe all things, we
hope all things, we have endured many things,
and hope to be able to endure all things. If
there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good
report or praiseworthy, we seek after these
things. — Joseph Smith.

This brief summary of "Mormon" doctrine
appears over the signature of Joseph Smith — the
man whom the Latter-day Saints accept as the
instrument in divine hands of re-establishing
the Church of Christ on earth, in this the Dis-
pensation of the Fulness of Times. Let it not
be supposed, however, that these Articles of
Faith are, or profess to be, a complete code of
the doctrines of the Church, for, as declared in
one of the "Articles," belief in continuous reve-
lation from Heaven is a characteristic feature
of "Mormonism." Yet it is to be noted that no

104 The Philosophy of "M or monism."

doctrine has been promulgated, which by even
strained interpretation could be construed as
antagonistic to this early declaration of faith.
Nor has any revelation to the Church yet ap-
peared in opposition to earlier revelation of this
or of by-gone dispensations.

To most of the declarations in the Articles of
Faith, many sects professing Christianity could
confidently pledge allegiance ; to many of them,
all Christian organizations could and profess-
edly do subscribe. Belief in the existence and
powers of the Supreme Trinity ; in Jesus Christ
as the Savior and Redeemer of mankind; in
man's individual accountability for his doings;
in the acceptance of sacred writ as the Word of
God ; in the rights of worship according to the
dictates of conscience ; in all the moral virtues ;
— these professions and beliefs are as a common
creed in the realm of Christendom. There is
no peculiarly "Mormon" interpretation, in the
light of which these principles of faith and prac-
tise are viewed by the Latter-day Saints, except
in a certain simplicity and literalness of accept-
ance— gross literalness, unrefined materialism,
it has been called by some critical opponents.

The gospel plan as accepted and taught by

Simplicity of Doctrine. 105

the Latter-day Saints is strikingly simple ; dis-
appointing in its simplicity, indeed, to the mind
that can find satisfaction in mysteries alone, and
to him whose love for metaphor, symbolism,
and imagery are stronger than his devotion to
truth itself, which may or may not be thus em-
bellished. The Church asserts that the wisdom
of human learning, while ranking among the
choicest of earthly possessions, is not essential
to an understanding of the gospel ; and that the
preacher of the Word must be otherwise en-
dowed than by the learning of the schoolmen.
"Mormonism" is for the wayfaring man, not
less than for the scholar, and it possesses a sim-
plicity adapting it to the one as to the other. A
few of the characteristically "Mormon" tenets
may perhaps be profitably considered.

"Mormonism" affirms its unqualified belief in
the Godhead as the Holy Trinity, comprising
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ; each of the three
a separate and individual personage ; the Father
and the Son each a personage of spirit and of
immortalized body; the Holy Ghost a person-
age of spirit.

The unity of the Godhead is accepted in the
literal fulness of scriptural declaration — that

106 The Philosophy of "Mormonism."

the three are one in purpose, plan and method ,
alike in all their Godly attributes ; one in their
divine omniscience and omnipotence ; yet as sep-
arate and distinct in their personality as are any
three inhabitants of earth. "Mormonism"
claims that scriptures declaring the oneness of
the Trinity admit of this interpretation; that
such indeed is the natural interpretation; and
that the conception is in accord with reason.

We hold that mankind are literally the spir-
itual children of God; that even as the Christ
had an existence with the Father before coming
to earth to take upon himself a tabernacle of
flesh, to live and to die as a man in accordance
with the fore-ordained plan of redemption, so,
too, every child of earth had an existence in the
spirit-state before entering upon this mortal
probation. We hold the doctrine to be reason-
able, scriptural and true, that mortal birth is no
more the beginning of the soul's existence than
is death its end.

The time-span of mortal life is but one stage
in the soul's career, separating the eternity that
has preceded from the eternity that is to follow.
And this mortal existence is one of the Father's
great gifts to his spiritual children, affording

Free Agency of Man. 107

them the opportunity of an untrammeled ex-
ercise of their free agency, the privilege of
meeting temptation and of resisting it if they
will, the chance to win exaltation and eternal
life.

We claim that all men are equal as to earthly
rights and human privileges ; but that each has
individual capacity and capabilities ; that in the
primeval world there were spirits noble and
great, as there were others of lesser power and
inferior purpose. There is no chance in the
number or nature of spirits that are born to
earth; all who are entitled to the privileges of
mortality and have been assigned to this sphere
shall come at the time appointed, and shall re-
turn to inherit each the glory or the degradation
to which he has shown himself adapted. The
gospel as understood by the Latter-day Saints
affirms the unconditional free-agency of man —
his right to accept good or evil, to choose the
means of eternal progression or the opposite, to
worship as he elects, or to refuse to worship at
all — and then to take the consequences of his
choice.

"Mormonism" rejects what it regards as a
heresy, the false doctrine of pre-destination as

108 The Philosophy of "Mormonism."

an absolute compulsion or even as an irresistible
tendency forced upon the individual toward
right or wrong — as a pre-appointment to event-
ual exaltation or condemnation; yet it affirms
that the infinite wisdom and fore-knowledge of
God makes plain to him the end from the begin-
ning; and that he can read in the natures and
dispositions of his children, their destiny.

"Mormonism" claims an actual and literal re-
lationship of parent and child between the Crea-
tor and man — not in the figurative sense in
which the engine may be called the child of its
builder ; not the relationship of a thing mechan-
ically made to the maker thereof; but the kin-
ship of father and offspring. In short it is bold
enough to declare that man's spirit being the
offspring of Deity, and man's body though of
earthy components yet being in the very image
and likeness of God, man even in his present de-
graded— aye, fallen condition — still possesses,
if only in a latent state, inherited traits, tenden-
cies and powers that tell of his more than royal
descent ; and that these may be developed so as
to make him, even while mortal, in a measure
Godlike.

But "Mormonism" is bolder yet. It asserts

Eternal Progression of Man. 109

that in accordance with the inviolable law of or-
ganic nature — that like shall beget like, and that
multiplication of numbers and perpetuation of
species shall be in compliance with the condi-
tion "each after his kind," the child may achieve
the former status of the parent, and that in his
mortal condition man is a God in embryo. How-
ever far in the future it may be, what ages may
elapse, what eternities may pass before any in-
dividual now a mortal being may attain the rank
and sanctity of godship, man nevertheless car-
ries in his soul the possibilities of such achieve-
ment; even as the crawling caterpillar or the
corpse-like chrysalis holds the latent possibility,
nay, barring destruction, the certainty indeed,
of the winged imago in all the glory of ma-
turity.

"Mormonism" claims that all nature, both on
earth and in heaven, operates on a plan of ad-
vancement; that the very Eternal Father is a
progressive Being ; that his perfection, while so
complete as to be incomprehensible by man, pos-
sesses this essential quality of true perfection —
the capacity of eternal increase. That there-
fore, in the far future, beyond the horizon of
eternities perchance, man may attain the status

1 10 The Philosophy of "Mormonism."

of a God. Yet this does not mean that he shall
be then the equal of the Deity he now worships
nor that he shall ever overtake those intelli-
gences that are already beyond him in advance-
ment ; for to assert such would be to argue that
there is no progression beyond a certain stage
of attainment, and that advancement is a char-
acteristic of low organization and inferior pur-
pose alone. We believe that there was more
than the sounding of brass or the tinkling of
wordy cymbals in the fervent admonition of the
Christ to his followers — "Be ye therefore per-
fect, even as your Father which is in heaven is
perfect." (Matt. 5:48.)

But it is beyond dispute that in his present
state, man is far from the condition of even a
relatively perfect being. He is born heir to the
weaknesses as well as to the excellencies of gen-
erations of ancestors ; he inherits potent tenden-
cies for both good and evil ; and verily, it seems
that in the flesh he has to suffer for the sins of
his progenitors. But divine blessings are not to
be reckoned in terms of earthly possessions or
bodily excellencies alone; the child born under
conditions of adversity may after all be richly
endowed with opportunity, opportunity which,

The Fall of Man. Ill

perhaps, had been less of service amid the sur-
roundings of luxury. We hold that the Father
has an individual interest in his children; and
that surely in the rendering of divine judgment,
the conditions under which each soul has lived
in mortality shall be considered.

"Mormonism" accepts the doctrine of the
Fall, and the account of the transgression in
Eden, as set forth in Genesis; but it affirms that
none but Adam is or shall be answerable for
Adam's disobedience; that mankind in general
are absolutely absolved from responsibility
for that ''original sin," and that each shall ac-
count for his own transgressions alone ; that the
Fall was foreknown of God — that it was turned
to good effect by which the necessary condition
of mortality should be inaugurated ; and that a
Redeemer was provided, before the world was ;
that general salvation, in the sense of redemp-
tion from the effects of the Fall, comes to all
without their seeking it ; but that individual sal-
vation or rescue from the effects of personal sins
is to be acquired by each for himself by faith
and good works through the redemption
wrought by Jesus Christ. The Church holds
that children are born to earth in a sinless state,

1 12 The Philosophy of "Mormonism."

that they need no individual redemption; that
should they die before reaching years of ac-
countability, they return without taint of earth-
ly sin; but as they attain youth or maturity in
the flesh, their responsibility increases with their
development.

According to the teachings of "Mormonism,"
Christ's instructions to the people to pray "Thy
Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it
is in heaven" was not a petition for the impossi-
ble, but a fore-shadowing of what shall event-
ually be. We believe that the day shall yet
come when the Kingdom of God on earth shall
be one with the Kingdom in heaven; and one
King shall rule in both. The Church is re-
garded as the beginning of this Kingdom on
earth; though until the coming of the King,
there is no authority in the Church exercising
or claiming temporal rule or dominion among
the governments of earth. Yet the Church is
none the less the beginning of the Kingdom, the
germ from which the Kingdom shall develop.

And the Church must be in direct communi-
cation with the heavenly Kingdom of which the
earthly Kingdom when established shall be a
part. Of such a nature was the Church in so

Revelation to the Prophets. 113

far as it existed before the time of Christ's
earthly ministry; for the biblical record is re-
plete with instances of direct communication be-
tween the prophets and their God. The scrip-
tures are silent as to a single dispensation in
which the spiritual leaders of the people de-
pended upon the records of earlier times and
by-gone ages for their guidance ; but on the con-
trary, the evidence is complete that in every
stage of the Church's history the God of heaven
communicated his mind and will unto his earth-
ly representatives. Israel of old were led and
governed in all matters spiritual and to a great
extent in their temporal affairs by the direct
word of revelation. Noah did not depend upon
the record of God's dealings with Adam or
Enoch, but was directed by the very word and
voice of the God whom he represented. Moses
was no mere theologian trained for his author-
ity or acts on what God had said to Abraham,
to Isaac, or to Jacob; he acted in accordance
with instructions given unto him from time to
time, as the circumstances of his ministry re-
quired. And so on through all the line of
prophets, major and minor, down to the priest
of the course of Abia unto whom the angel an-

1 14 The Philosophy of "Mormonism."

nounced the birth of John who was to be the
direct fore-runner of the Messiah.

When the Christ came in the flesh he de-
clared that he acted not of himself but accord-
ing to instructions given him of the Father.
Thus the Messiah was a revelator, receiving
while in the flesh communication direct and fre-
quent from the heavens. By such revelation
he was guided in his earthly ministry ; by such
he instructed his disciples ; unto such he taught
his apostles to look for safe guidance when he
would have left theni.

During his earthly ministry Christ called and
ordained men to offices in the Church. We
have a record of apostles particularly, number-
ing twelve, and beside these, seventy others who
were commissioned to preach, teach, baptize and
perform other ordinances of the Church. After
our Lord's departure, we read of the apostles
continuing their labors in the light of continued
revelation. By this sure guide they selected
and set apart those who were to officiate in the
Church. By revelation, Peter was directed to
carry the gospel to the Gentiles; which expan-
sion of the work was inaugurated by the con-
version of the devout Cornelius and his house-

Revelation Necessary Today. 115

hold. By revelation, Saul of Tarsus became
Paul the Apostle, a valiant defender of the
faith. Holy men of old spake and wrote as
they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost and
depended not upon the precedents of ancient
history nor entirely upon the law then already
written. They operated under the conviction
that the living Church must be in communica-
tion with its living Head ; and that the work of
God, while it was to be wrought out through
the instrumentality of man, was to be directed
by him whose work it was, and is.

"Mormonism" claims the same necessity to
exist today. It holds that it is no more nearly
possible now than it was in the days of the an-
cient prophets or in the apostolic age for the
Church of Christ to exist without direct and
continuous revelation from God. This necessi-
tates the existence and authorized ministrations
of prophets, apostles, high priests, seventies,
elders, bishops, priests, teachers and deacons,
now as anciently — not men selected by men
without authority, clothed by human ceremonial
alone, nor men with the empty names of office,
but men who bear the title because they possess
the authority, having been called of God.

1 16 The Philosophy of "Mormonism."

Is it unreasonable, is it unphilosophical, thus
to look for additional light and knowledge?
Shall religion be the one department of human
thought and effort in which progression is im-
possible? What would we say of the chemist,
the astronomer, the physicist, or the geologist,
who would proclaim that no further discovery
or revelation of scientific truth is possible, or
who would declare that the only occupation
open to students of science is to con the books
of by-gone times and to apply the principles
long ago made known, since none others shall
ever be discovered ?

The chief motive impelling to research and
investigation is the conviction that to knowledge
and wisdom there is no end. "Mormonism"
affirms that all wisdom is of God, that the halo
of his glory is intelligence, and that man has not
yet learned all there is to learn of him and his
ways. We hold that the doctrine of continuous
revelation from God is not less philosophical
and scientific than scriptural.

II.

THE Latter-day Saints affirm that the au-
thority to act in the name of God — the
Holy Priesthood — has been restored to earth in
this dispensation and age, in accordance with
the inspired predictions of earlier times. But,
it may be asked, what necessity was there for a
restoration if the Priesthood had been once es-
tablished upon earth? None indeed, had it
never been taken away. A general apostasy
from the primitive Church is conceded in effect
by some authorities in ecclesiastical history;
though few admit the entire discontinuance of
priestly power, or the full suspension of author-
ity to operate in the ordinances of the Church.
This great apostasy was foretold. Paul warned
the Saints of Thessalonica against those who
claimed that the second coming of Christ was
then near at hand : "For/5 said he, "that day shall
not come except there come a falling away
first." (II Thess. 2:3.) "Mormonism" contends
that there has been a general falling away from
the Church of Christ, dating from the time im-
mediately following the apostolic period. We

1 18 The Philosophy of "Mormonism.'

believe that the proper interpretation of history
will confirm this view ; and, moreover, that the
inspired scriptures foretold just such a condi-
tion.*

If the Priesthood had been once taken from
the earth no human power could re-establish it ;
the restoration of this authority from heaven
would be necessary. The Church claims that
in the present age this restoration has been
effected by the personal ministrations of those
who exercised the authority in earlier dispensa-
tions. Thus, in 1829, Joseph Smith and Oliver
Cowdery received the Lesser or Aaronic Priest-
hood under the hands of John the Baptist, who
visited them as a resurrected being — the same
Baptist who by special and divine commission
held the authority of that Priesthood in the dis-
pensation of the "Meridian of Time." Later,
the Higher or Melchizedek Priesthood was con-
ferred upon them through the personal minis-
trations of Peter, James, and John — the same
three who constituted the presidency of the
apostolic body in the primitive Church, after

*See "The Great Apostasy; Considered in the

Light of Scriptural and Secular History," by James

E. Talmage. Published by the Deseret Nezvs, Salt
Lak« City, Utah; 176 pp.

Holy Priesthood Restored. 119

the departure of the Lord Jesus Christ by whom
it was founded.

That the claim is a bold one is conceded with-
out argument. The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints professes to have the Priest-
hood of old restored in its fulness ; and, more-
over, while acknowledging the right of every
individual as of every sect or other organiza-
tion of individuals to believe and practise ac-
cording to choice in matters religious, it affirms
that it is the only Church on the face of the
earth possessing this authority and Priesthood ;
and that therefore it is The Church and the only
Church of Christ upon the earth today. It
holds as absolutely indispensable to proper
Church organization, the presence of the living
oracles of God who shall be directed from the
heavens in their earthly ministry; and these,
"Mormonism" asserts, are to be found with the
Church of Jesus Christ.

"Mormonism" emphasizes the doctrine that
that which is Caesar's be given unto Caesar,
while that which is God's be rendered unto him.
Therefore, it teaches that all things pertaining
unto earth, and unto man's earthly affairs, may
with propriety be regulated by earthly author-

120 The Philosophy of "Mormonism."

ity, but that in the performance of any ordi-
nance, rite, or ceremony, claimed to be of effect
beyond the grave, a power greater than that of
man is requisite or the performance is void.
Therefore, membership in the Church, which,
if of any value and significance at all, is of more
than temporal meaning, must be governed by
laws which are prescribed by the powers of
heaven. "Mormonism" recognizes Jesus Christ
as the head of the Church, as the literal Savior
and Redeemer of mankind, as the King of kings
and Lord of lords, as the One whose right it is
to reign on earth, who shall yet subdue all
worldly kingdoms under his feet, who shall
present the earth in its final state of redemption
to the Father. It is his right to prescribe the
conditions under which mankind may be made
partakers of his bounty and of the privileges of
the victory won by him over death and the
grave.

The Church claims that faith in God is essen-
tial to intelligent service of him; and that faith,
trust, confidence in God as the Father of man-
kind, as the Supreme Being to whom all shall
render account of their deeds and misdeeds,
must lead to a desire to serve him and thus pro-

Faith, Repentance, Baptism. 121

duce repentance. Faith in God and genuine re-
pentance of sin, of necessity, therefore consti-
tute the fundamental principles of the gospel.
It is reasonable to expect that after man has de-
veloped faith in God, and has repented of his
sins, he will be eager to find a means of demon-
strating his sincerity; and this means is found
in the requirement concerning baptism as essen-
tial to entrance into the Church, and as a means
whereby remission of sins may be obtained. As
to the mode of baptism, the Church affirms that
immersion alone is the one method sanctioned
by scripture, and that this mode has been ex-
pressly prescribed by revelation in the present
dispensation.

Water baptism, then, becomes a basic prin-
ciple and the first essential ordinance of the gos-
pel. It is to be administered by one having au-
thority; and that authority rests in the Priest-
hood given of God. Following baptism by
water, comes the ordinance of the bestowal of
the Holy Ghost by the authorized imposition of
hands, which constitutes the true baptism of the
Spirit. These requirements, designated spe-
cifically the "first principles and ordinances of
the gospel," "Mormonism" claims to be abso-

122 The Philosophy of "Mormonism."

lutely essential to membership in the Church of
Christ, and this without modification or qualifi-
cation as to the time at which the individual
lived in mortality.

Then with propriety it may be asked : — What
shall become of those who lived and died while
the Priesthood was not operative upon the
earth ? — those who have worked out their mor-
tal probation during the ages of the great apos-
tasy? Furthermore, what shall be the destiny
of those who, though living in a time of spir-
itual light, perhaps had not the opportunity of
learning and obeying the gospel requirements?
Here again the inherent justice of "Mormon"
philosophy shows itself in the doctrine of salva-
tion for the dead. No distinction is made be-
tween the living and the dead in the solemn
declaration of the Savior to Nicodemus, which
appears to have been given the widest possible
application, — that except a man be born of
water and of the spirit he cannot enter into the
Kingdom of God. (John 3:1-5.)

"Mormonism" proclaims something more
than a heaven and a hell, to one or the other of
which all spirits of men shall be assigned, per-
haps on the basis of a very narrow margin of

Progression After Death. 123

merit or demerit. As it affirms the existence
of an infinite range of graded intelligences, so
it claims the widest and fullest gradation of con-
ditions of future existence. It holds that the
honest, though, perchance, mistaken soul who
lived or tried to live according to the light he
had received, shall be counted among the hon-
orable of the earth, and shall find opportunity,
if not here then in the hereafter, for compliance
with the requirements essential for salvation. It
teaches that repentance with all its attendant
blessings shall be possible beyond the grave ; but
that inasmuch as the change we call death does
not transform the character of the soul, repent-
ance there will be difficult for him who has ruth-
lessly and wilfully rejected the manifold oppor-
tunities afforded him for repentance here. It
asserts that even the heathen devotee who may
have bowed down to stocks and stones, if in so
doing he was obeying the highest law of wor-
ship which to his benighted soul had come, shall
have part in the first resurrection, and shall be
afforded the opportunity, which on earth he
had not found, of doing that which is required
of God's children for salvation. And for all
the dead who have been without the privileges,

124 The Philosophy of "Mormonism."

perhaps indeed without the knowledge, of com-
pliance with Christ's law, there shall be given
opportunity in the hereafter.

Nevertheless, this life of ours is no trifle, no
insignificant incident in the soul's eternal course,
having but small and temporal importance, the
omissions of which can be rectified with ease by
the individual beyond the veil. If compliance
with the divine law as exemplified by the re-
quirements of faith, repentance, baptism, and
the bestowal of the right to the ministrations of
the Holy Ghost, are essential to the salvation of
those few who just now are counted among the
living, such is not less necessary for those who
once were living but now are dead. Who are
the living of today but those who shortly shall
be added to the uncounted dead ? Who are the
dead but those who at some time have lived in
mortality ?

Christ has been ordained to be judge of both
quick and dead ; he is Lord of living and dead
as man uses these terms, for all live unto him.
How then shall the dead receive the blessings
and ordinances denied to them or by them neg-
lected while in the flesh? "Mormonism" an-
swers : By the vicarious work of the living in

Vicarious Labor for the Dead. 125

their behalf! It was this great and privileged
labor to which the prophet Malachi referred in
his solemn declaration, that before the great and
dreadful day of the Lord, Elijah should be sent
with the commission to turn the hearts of the
fathers to the children and the hearts of the
children to the fathers. Elijah's visitation to
earth has been realized. On the 3rd of April,
in the year 1836, there appeared unto Joseph
Smith and Oliver Cowdery, in the temple erect-
ed by the Latter-day Saints at Kirtland, Ohio,
Elijah the prophet, who announced that the time
spoken of by Malachi had fully come ; then and
there he bestowed the authority, for this dispen-
sation, to inaugurate and carry on this labor in
behalf of the departed.

As to the fidelity with which the Latter-day
Saints have sought to discharge the duties thus
divinely required at their hands, let the temples
erected in poverty as in relative prosperity — by
the blood and tears of the people — testify. Two
of these great edifices were constructed by the
Latter-day Saints in the days of their tribula-
tion, in times of their direst persecution, — one
at Kirtland, Ohio, the other at Nauvoo, Illinois.
The first is still standing, though no longer pos-

126 The Philosophy of "Mormonism."

sessed by the people who built it ; and no longer
employed for the furtherance of the purposes of
its erection ; the second fell a prey to flames en-
kindled by mobocratic hate. Four others have
been constructed in the vales of Utah, and are
today in service, dedicated to the blessing of the
living, and particularly to the vicarious labor of
the living in behalf of the dead. In them the
ordinances of baptism, and the laying on of
hands for the bestowal of the Holy Ghost, are
performed upon the living representatives of
the dead.*

But this labor for the dead is two-fold; it
comprises the proper performance of the re-
quired ordinances on earth, and the preaching
of the gospel to the departed. Shall we sup-
pose that all of God's good gifts to his children
are restricted to the narrow limits of mortal ex-
istence? We are told of the inauguration of
this great missionary labor in the spirit world,

*For a detailed treatment of Temples and Temple
labor among the Latter-day Saints, including a study
of the doctrine of vicarious labor for the dead, see
"The House of the Lord, a Study of Holy Sanctu-
aries Ancient and Modern," including forty-six plates
illustrative of modern Temples; by James E. Tal-
mage. Published bv the Church: Salt Lake City,
Utah; 336 pp.

Christ's Preaching Among the Dead. 127

as effected by the Christ himself. After his
resurrection, and immediately following the
period during which his body had lain in the
tomb guarded by the soldiery, he declared to the
sorrowing Magdalene that he had not at that
time ascended to his Father ; and, in the light of
his dying promise to the penitent malefactor
who suffered on a cross by his side, we learn
that he had been in paradise. Peter also tells us
of his labors— that he was preaching to the
spirits in prison, to those who had been disobe-
dient in the clays of Noah when the long-suffer-
ine of God waited while the ark was preparing.
If it was deemed necessary or just that the gos-
pel be carried to spirits that were disobedient or
neglectful in the days of Noah, are we justified
in concluding that others who have rejected or
neglected the word of God shall be left in a state
of perpetual condemnation ?

"Mormonism" claims that not only shall the
gospel be carried to the living, and be preached
to every creature, but that the great missionary
labor, the burden of which has been placed on
the Church, must of necessity be extended to the
realm of the dead. It declares unequivocally
that without compliance with the requirements

"fcs
W

128 The Philosophy of "Mormonism."

established by Jesus Christ, no soul can be saved
from the fate of the condemned ; but that oppor-
tunity shall be given to every one in the season
of his fitness to receive it, be he heathen or civ-
ilized, living or dead.

The whole duty of man is to live and work
according to the highest laws of right made
known to him, to walk according to the best
ight that has been shed about his path; and

hile Justice shall deny to every soul that has
not rendered obedience to the law, entrance into
the kingdom of the blessed, Mercy shall claim
opportunity for all who have shown themselves
willing to receive the truth and obey its behests.

It will be seen, then, that "Mormonism" offers
no modified or conditional claims as to the ne-
cessity of compliance with the laws and ordi-
nances of the gospel by every responsible inhab-
itant of earth unto whom salvation shall come.
It distinguishes not between enlightened and
heathen nations, nor between men of high and
low intelligence ; nor even between the living
and the dead. No human being who has at-
tained years of accountability in the flesh, may
hope for salvation in the kingdom of God until

Toleration and Acceptance. 129

he has rendered obedience to the requirements
of Christ, the Redeemer of the world.

But while thus decisive, "Mormonism" is not
exclusive. It does not claim that all who have
failed to accept and obey the gospel of eternal
life shall be eternally and forever damned.
While boldly asserting that the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints is the sole reposi-
tory of the Holy Priesthood as now restored to
earth, it teaches and demands the fullest tolera-
tion for all individuals, and organizations of in-
dividuals, professing righteousness; and holds
that each shall be rewarded for the measure of
good he has wrought, to be adjudged in accord-
ance with the spiritual knowledge he has
gained. For such high claims combined with
such professions of tolerance, the Church has
been accused of inconsistency. Let it not be for-
gotten, however, that toleration is not accept-
ance. I may believe with the utmost fulness
of my soul's powers that I am right and my
neighbor is wrong concerning any proposition
or principle; but such conviction gives me no
semblance of right for interfering with his ex-
ercise of freedom. The only bounds to the lib-
erty of an individual are such as mark the lib-

130 The Philosophy of "Mormonism."

erty of another, or the rights of the community.
God himself treats as sacred, and therefore as
inviolable, the freedom of the human soul.

"Know this, that every soul is free
To choose his life and what he'll be ;
For this eternal truth is given,
That God will force no man to heaven.

"He'll call, persuade, direct aright,
Bless him with wisdom, love, and light ;
In nameless ways be good and kind,
But never force the human mind."

"Mormonism" contends that no man or na-
tion possesses the right to forcibly deprive even
the heathen of his right to worship his deity.
Though idolatry has been marked from the ear-
liest ages with the seal of divine disfavor, it
may represent in the unenlightened soul the sin-
cerest reverence of which the person is capable.
He should be taught better, but not compelled
to render worship which to him is false because
in violation of his conscience.

In further defense of the Latter-day Saints
against the charge of inconsistency for this their
tolerance toward others whom they verily be-

Graded Conditions. 131

lieve to be wrong, let me again urge the car-
dinal principle that every man is accountable
for his acts, and shall be judged in the light of
the law as made known to him.

There is no claim of universal forgiveness;
no unwarranted glorification of Mercy to the
degrading or neglect of Justice ; no thought that
a single sin of omission or of commission shall
fail to leave its wound or scar. In the great
future there shall be found a place for every
soul, whatever his grade of spiritual intelligence
may be. "In my Father's house are many man-
sions," (John 14:2), declared the Savior to
his apostles; and Paul adds, "There are also
celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial ; but the
glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of
the terrestrial is another. There is one glory
of the sun and another glory of the moon and
another glory of the stars ; for one star differeth
from another star in glory. So also is the res-
urrection of the dead," (I Cor. 15 :40-42). The
Latter-day Saints claim a revelation of the pres-
ent dispensation as supplementing the scripture
just quoted. From this later scripture, (see
Doctrine and Covenants, Sec. 76), we learn
that there are three well-defined degrees in the

132 The Philosophy of "Mormonism."

future state, with numerous, perhaps number-
less, gradations.

There is the celestial state provided for those
who have lived the whole law, who have accept-
ed the testimony of the Christ, who have com-
plied with the required ordinances of the gospel,
who have been valiant in the cause of virtue and
truth. Then there is the terrestrial state, com-
parable to the first as is the moon to the sun.
This shall be given to the less valiant, to many
who are nevertheless among the worthy men of
the earth, but who perchance have been de-
ceived as to the gospel and its requirements.
The telestial state is for those who have failed
to live according to the light given them ; those
who have had to suffer the results of their sins ;
those who have been of Moses, of Paul, of
Apollos, and of any one of a multitude of
others, but not of the Christ.

We hold that there is a wide difference be-
tween salvation and exaltation; that there are
infinite gradations beyond the grave as there
are here, and as there were in the state preced-
ing this.

"Mormonism" is frequently spoken of as a
new religion, and the Church as a new church,

The Gospel of Old. 133

a mere addition of one to the many sects that
have so long striven for recognition and ascend-
ency among men. It is new only as the spring-
time following the darkness and the cold of the
year's night is new. The Church is a new one
only as the ripening fruit is a new development
in the course of the tree's growth. In a gen-
eral and true sense, "Mormonism" is not new
to the world. It is founded on the gospel of
Christ which antedates this earth. The estab-
lishment of the Church in the present age was
but a restoration. True, the Church is pro-
gressive as it ever has been ; it is therefore pro-
ductive of more and greater things as the years
link themselves into the centuries ; but the living
seed contains within its husk all the possibilities
of the mature plant.

This so-called new, modern gospel is in fact
the old one, the first one, come again. It de-
mands the organization and the authority char-
acteristic of the Church in former days, when
there was a Church of God upon the earth; it
expects no more consideration, and scarcely
hopes for greater popularity, than were accord-
ed the primitive Church. Opposition, persecu-
tion, and martyrdom have been its portion, but

134 The Philosophy of "Mormonism."

these tribulations it accepts, knowing well that
to bear such has been the lot of the true Church
in every age.

"Mormonism" is more than a code of morals ;
it claims a higher rank than that of an organi-
zation of men planned and instituted by the
wisdom and philosophy of men, however
worthy. It draws a distinction between moral-
ity and religion; and affirms that human duty
is not comprised in a mere avoidance of sin.
It regards the strictest morality as an indispen-
sable feature of every religious system claiming
in any degree divine recognition; and yet it
looks upon morality as but the alphabet from
which the words and sentences of a truly relig-
ious life may be framed. However euphonious
the words, however eloquent the periods, to
make the writing of highest worth there must
be present the divine thought ; and this, man of
himself cannot conceive.

It affirms that there was a yesterday as there
is a today, and shall be a tomorrow, in the deal-
ings of God with men ; that

Through the ages one increasing purpose runs ;

and that purpose, — the working out of a divine

Christ to Return to Earth. 135

plan, the ultimate object of which is the salva-
tion and exaltation of the human family.

The central feature of that plan was the
earthly ministry and redeeming sacrifice of the
Christ in the meridian of time ; the consumma-
tion shall be ushered in by the return of that
same Christ to earth as the Rewarder of right-
eousness, the Avenger of iniquity, and as the
world's Judge.

The Church holds that in the light of revela-
tion, ancient and modern, and by a fair inter-
pretation of the signs of the times, the second
coming of the Redeemer is near at hand. The
present is the final dispensation of the earth in
its present state ; these are the last days of which
the prophets in all ages have sung.

But of what use are theories and philosophies
of religion without practical application? Of
what avail is belief as a mere mental assent or
denial ? Let it develop into virile faith ; vitalize
it; animate it; then it becomes a moving power.
The Latter-day Saints point with some confi-
dence to what they have attempted and begun,
and to the little they have already done in the
line of their convictions, as proof of their sin-
cerity.

136 The Philosophy of "M or monism."

For the second coming of the Redeemer,
preparation is demanded of men ; and today,
instead of the single priest crying in the wilder-
ness of Judaea, there are thousands going forth
among the nations with a message as definite
and as important as that of the Baptist; and
their proclamation is a reiteration of the voice
in the desert — "Repent Repent ! for the King-
dom of Heaven is at hand."

The philosophy of CCM or monism" rests on
the literal acceptance of a living, personal God,
and on the unreserved compliance with his lazv
as from time to time revealed.

DATE DUE

MAfcft.Mmnj^

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The story of Mormonism and the

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