The story of "Mormonism" and the philosophy of "Mormonism"

I

The
Story of "Mormonism"

By
JAMES E. TALMAGE

One of the Twelve Apostles of the
Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints

Se'venth Edition in English

including

Forty-sixth to Fiftieth Thousand

Printed and Published by

THE DESERET NEWS

Salt Lake City, Utah

Copyright 1920

by

HEBER J. GRANT

Trustec-in-Trust for

The Church of Jesus Christ

of Latter-day Saints

THE LIBRARY

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY

PROVO, UTAH

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
report 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.

In 1914 it was published by the Deseret
News, Salt Lake City, with The Philosophy
OF "Mormonism/" the latter being a lecture by
Dr. Talmage first delivered before the Philo-
sophical Society of Denver.

The present, or seventh edition in English

Preface.

is presented in combination with The Philo-
sophical Basis of "'Mormonism/' The last
named is Dr. Talmage's address dehvered by
invitation before the Congress of Religious
Philosophies, held in connection with the Pan-
ama-Pacific International Exposition, at San
Francisco, California, July 29th, 1915.

The Publishers.

Salt Lake City, Utah,

September, 1920.

The Story of *'Mormonism

ji

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.

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 though
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 "Momionism."

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.

"If any of you lack wisdom^ let him ask of
God, that giveth to all men liberally, and up-
hraideth not; and it shall he 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 suppHcation, 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
\he 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 cases 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 beHeve 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 A^Iormon 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 Conneaucht- Ohio, who had

22

The Story of "Mormonism/*

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.

11.

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 over eighty
stakes of Zion and about eight hundred organ-
ized wards, each ward and stake with its full
complement of officers and priesthood organiza-
tions. The practice 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,

1012.

28 The Story of "Mo -monism."

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 iournalistic ors:an. 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. 31

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
upoa 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-

J

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 l
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
too 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 in-
fluence 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 e very-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 Church 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
ihop 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
Hke 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 march 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 discharp-e.

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 wxre 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, 'T 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. \\' ading 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 inviblate ; 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. Desert^ a Book
of Mormon name for the honey hee, 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-Amer-
ican system of territorial government came
troubles.

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 unenvi-
able 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 effrontery 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 gone from Utah to New York direct,
pubHshed 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 error ;
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 thesje 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 i-eport; — 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-
ilization 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 mxt 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 mihtia
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 w^ay 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 Gumming 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 Gumming 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 Gum-
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 rebelHon, 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 take 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 — w^hy 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 Youns:

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 four times since, the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints has been deprived
of its president, and on each occasion were reit-
erated 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-
ticed 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-
tice; 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.
\Ye 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 ''f/77/f/ death doth
you part," but ''For time and for 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 sec-
taries 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 practice, 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 cruelest 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
Temple 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 men shall not he visited upon the head
of woman.

At the inception of plural marriage among
the Latter-day Saints, there was no law, na-
tional or state, against its practice. 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 "Momions" 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 practiced 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 lon^
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 practice 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 practice under
what was believed to be divine approval, they
suspended it when they were justified in so do-
ing. In whatever light this practice 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 practice ; 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
conscience. It contemplates a millennium of
peace, when every man shall love his neighbor
and respect his neighbor's opinion as he re-
gards himself and his own — a day when the
voice of the people shall be in unison with the
voice of God.

ADDENDUM.

Since the lectures, embodied in the foregoing
''Story," were delivered, great advancement
has been made by the Latter-day Saints in the
building of temples and in the sacred services
pertaining to the House of the Lord. As noted
on page 27 herein, there are four temples in
Utah, in each of which administrations are in
progress, for both the living and the dead.

In addition to the sanctuaries specified, a
temple has been completed, dedicated, and is

96 The Story of "Mormonism/'

now in service, at Laie, Hawaiian Islands. An-
other great temple has been erected at Card-
ston, Alberta, Canada; and preparatory work
for the construction of a temple at Mesa, Ari-
zona, is well advanced.

The Philosophical Basis

of

''Mormonism''

An Address delivered by invitation before the Congress of

Religious Philosophies held in connection with the

Panama-Pacific International Exposition

San Francisco, California,

July 29, 1915

BY

JAMES E. TALMAGE
D.Sc, F. R. S. E.

FOREWORD

In connection with the Panama-Pacific In-
ternational Exposition, a Congress of ReHgious
Philosophies was held in San Francisco, Cali-
fornia, July 29th to 31st, 1915.

At this Congress the philosophical claims of
the principal religious systems of the world
were presented by specialists and able expos-
itors of the several faiths.

The first day of the session was named dis-
tinctively "Christian Day," the second, ''Hindu
Day," and the third, ''Oriental Day." Of the
systems of religion based on Christianity, only
three were given place on the program of' the
Congress, vis. Catholicism, Protestantism
(treated by a representative of Episcopalian-
ism), and "Mormonism."

The presiding authorities of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints responded to
the courteous invitation to be represented at

Foreword.

the Congress by delegating Dr. James E. Tal-
mage to address the body on the philosophy of
"Mormonism."

Time limitations imposed the necessity of
brevity in treatment. Dr. Talmage's concise
address is given in full in the following pages.

The Publishers.

The Philosophical Basis

of

"Mormonism''

PERMIT me to explain that the term "Mor-
mon," with its several derivatives, is no
part of the name of the Church with which it
is usually associated. It was first applied to
the Church as a convenient nickname, and had
reference to an early publication, "The Book
of Mormon;" but the appellative is now so
generally current that Church and people an-
swer readily to its call. The proper designa-
tion of the so-called "Mormon" Church is The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The philosophy of its religious system is large-
ly expressed in its name.

The philosophical foundation of "Mormon-
ism" is constructed upon the following outline
of facts and premises :

1. The eternal existence of a living personal
God ; and the preexistence and eternal duration
of mankind as His literal offspring.

2. The placing of man upon the earth as an

102 The Philosophy of "Mormonism."

embodied spirit to undergo the experiences of
an intermediate probation.

3. The transgression and fall of the first
parents of the race, by which man became mor-
tal, or in other words was doomed to suffer a
separation of spirit and body through death.

4. The absolute need of a Redeemer, empow-
ered to overcome death, and thereby provide
for a reunion of the spirits and bodies of man-
kind through a material resurrection from
death to immortality.

5. The providing of a definite plan of sal-
vation, by obedience to which man may obtain
remission of his sins, and be enabled to advance
by effort and righteous achievement throughout
eternity.

6. The establishment of the Church of Jesus
Christ in the "meridian of time," by the per-
sonal ministry and atoning death of the fore-
ordained Redeemer and Savior of mankind,
and the proclamation of Hi-s saving Gospel
through the ministry of the Holy Priesthood
during the apostolic period and for a season
thereafter.

7. The general "falling away" from the Gos-
pel of Jesus Christ, by which the world degen-
erated into a state of apostasy, and the Holy
Priesthood ceased to be operative in the or-
ganization of sects and churches designed and
effected by the authority of man.

Man the Child of God. 103

8. The restoration of the Gospel in the cur-
rent age, the reestabhshment of the Church
of Jesus Christ by the bestowal of the Holy
Priesthood through Divine revelation.

9. The appointed mission of the restored
Church of Jesus Christ to preach the Gospel
and administer in the ordinances thereof
amongst all nations, in preparation for the near
advent of our Savior Jesus Christ, who shall
reign on earth as Lord and King.

1.

The eternal existence of a living personal God;
and the preexistence and eternal duration
of mankind as His literal offspring.

As its principal cornerstone ''Mormonism"
affirms the existence of the true and the living
God; the Supreme Being, in whose image and
likeness man has been created in the flesh.

We hold it to be reasonable, scriptural and
true, that man's period of earth-life is but one
stage in the general plan of the soul's progres-
sion; and that birth is no more the beginning
than is death the close of individual existence.
God created all things spiritually before they
were created temporally upon the earth; and

104 The Philosophy of "Mormonism."

the spirits of all men lived as intelligent beings,
endowed with the capacity of choice and the
rights of free agency, before they were born
in flesh. They were the spirit-children of
God. It was their Divine Father's purpose
to provide a means by which they could be
trained and developed, with opportunity to
meet, combat, and overcome evil, and thus gain
strength, power and skill, as means of yet fur-
ther development through the eternities of the
endless future. For this purpose was the earth
created, whereon, as on other worlds, spirits
might take upon themselves bodies, living in
probation as candidates for a higher and more
glorious future.

These unembodied spirits were of varied
qualifications, some of them noble and great,
fit for leadership and emprise of the highest
order, others suited rather to be followers, but
all capacitated to advance in righteous achieve-
ment if they would.

No one professing a belief in Christianity
can consistently accept the Holy Scriptures as
genuine and deny the preexistence of the
Christ, or doubt that before the birth of the
Holy One as Mary's Babe in Bethlehem of

Ante-Mortal Existence. 105

Judea, He had lived with the Father as an
unembodied spirit, the Firstborn of the Father's
children. So lived or live the hosts of spirits
who have taken or yet shall take bodies of
flesh and bones. Christ while a man among
men repeatedly affirmed the fact of His ante-
mortal life — that He came forth from the
Father, and would return to the Father on the
completion of His mission in mortality.

John the Revelator was shown in vision some
of the scenes that had occurred in the world
of unembodied spirits even before the beginning
of human history. He saw the spirits that re-
belled against God, under the leadership of
Lucifer, a son of the morning, later known as
Satan, the dragon ; and he witnessed the strug-
gle between those rebellious hosts and the army
of loyal and obedient spirits who fought under
the banner of Michael the archangel. We read
that there was war in heaven; Michael and
his angels fought, and the dragon and his
angels fought. The victory was with Michael
and his hosts, who by their allegiance and valor
made good their title as victors in their "first
estate,'* referred to by Jude, while Satan and
his defeated followers, who "kept not their first

106 The Philosophy of "Mormonism."

estate," were cast out upon the earth and be-
came the devil and his angels, forever denied
the privileges of mortal existence with its pos-
sibilities of eternal advancement.

The cause of the great antemortal ''war in
heaven" was the rebellion of Lucifer following
the rejection of his plan whereby it was pro-
posed that mankind be saved from the dangers
and sins of their future mortality, not through
the merit of struggle and endeavor against evil,
but by compulsion. Satan sought to destroy
the free agency of man ; and in the primeval
council of the angels and the Gods he was dis-
credited; while the offer of the Well Beloved
Son, Jehovah, afterwards Jesus the Christ, to
insure the free agency of man in the mortal
state, and to give Himself a sacrifice and pro-
pitiation for the sins of the race, was accepted,
and was made the basis of the plan of salva-
tion.

The spirits who kept their first estate were
to be advanced to the second, or mortal state,
to be further tested and proved, withal, and to
demonstrate whether they would observe and
keep the commandments which the Lord their
God should give them, with the assurance and

Spirits Embodied. 107

promise that all who fill the measure of their
second estate ''shall have glory added upon
their heads forever and ever."

2.

The placing of man upon the earth as an em-
bodied spirit to undergo the experiences of
an intermediate probation.

The advancement of the spirit-children of
God from their first to their second estate was
inaugurated by the creation of man upon the
earth, whereby the individual spirit was clothed
in a body of flesh and bones, consisting of the
elements of earth, or as stated in Genesis, made
of the dust of the earth. With the ways and
means by which this creation was wrought
we are not especially concerned at this point.
The spirit of the first man, Adam, was taber-
nacled in a body of earthly material ; and his
remembrance of an earlier existence and of his
former place amongst the unembodied was sus-
pended, so that a thick veil of forgetfulness fell
between his earth-life and his past. ^lan and
woman thus became tenants of earth, and re-

108 The Philosophy of "Mormonism."

ceived from their Creator power and dominion
over all inferior creations.

They were given commandment and law,
with freedom of action and agency of choice.
In a measure, they were left to themselves to
choose the good or the evil, to be obedient or
disobedient to the laws governing their second
estate, or embodied condition. Experiences
unknown in the preexistent state crowded upon
the first parents of the race in their changed
condition and new environment ; and they were
subjected to test and trial. Such was the pur-
pose of their existence on earth. To them as
also to their unnumbered posterity — the entire
race of mankind — this present life is a connect-
ing link, an intermediate and probationary
state, uniting the eternity of the past with that
of the future. We, the human family, literally
the sons and daughters of Divine Parents, the
spiritual progeny of God our Eternal Father,
and of our God Mother, are away from home
for a season, studying and working as pupils
duly matriculated in the University of Mortal-
ity, honorable graduation from which great
institution means an exalted and enlarged
sphere of activity and endeavor beyond.

The Fall of Man. 109

The transgression and fall of the first parents
of the race, by which man became mortal,
or in other words was doomed to suffer a
separation of spirit and body through death.

Prominent among the commandments given
to the parents of the race in Eden was that
forbidding their eating of food unsuited to their
condition. The natural and inevitable result of
disobedience in this particular was set before
them as a penalty — that, should they incorpor-
ate into their bodies the foreign substances of
earth contained in the food against which they
were solemnly cautioned, they would surely
die. True, they could not fail by violation of
this restriction to gain experience and knowl-
edge; and the forbidden food is expressively
designated as the fruit "of the tree of the know-
ledge of good and evil."

They disobeyed the commandment of God,
and thus was brought about the Fall of Man.
The bodies of both woman and man, which
when created were perfect in form and func-

no The Philosophy of "Mormonism."

tion, now became degenerate, liable to the phys-
ical ailments and weaknesses to which flesh has
ever since been heir, and subjects for eventual
dissolution or death.

The arch-tempter through whose sophistries,
half-truths, and infamous falsehoods Eve had
been beguiled, was none other than Satan, or
Lucifer, that rebellious and fallen "son of the
morning," whose proposal involving the de-
struction of man's liberty had been rejected in
the council of the heavens, and who had been
"cast out into the earth," he and all his angels
as unembodied spirits, never to be tabernacled
in bodies of their own. As an act of diabolic
reprisal following his rejection, his defeat by
Michael and the heavenly hosts, and his igno-
minious expulsion from heaven, Satan planned
to destroy the bodies in which the faithful
spirits — those who had kept their first estate —
would be born ; and his beguilement of "Eve was
but an early stage of that infernal scheme.

Death has come to be the universal heritage ;
it may claim its victim in infancy or youth,
in the period of Hfe's prime, or its summons
may be deferred until the snows of age have
gathered upon the hoary head ; it may befall as

Need of a Redeemer. 1 1 1

the result of accident or disease, by violence,
or as we say, through natural causes ; but come
it must, as Satan well knows ; and in this knowl-
edge is his present though but temporary tri-
umph. But the purposes of God, as they ever
have been and ever shall be, are infinitely su-
perior to the deepest designs of men or devils ;
and the Satanic machinations to make death
inevitable, perpetual and supreme were pro-
vided against even before the first man had
been created in the flesh. The Atonement to
be wrought by Jesus the Christ was ordained
to overcome death and to provide a means of
ransom from the power of Satan.

4.

The absolute need of a Redeemer empowered
to overcome death and thereby provide for
a reunion of the spirits and bodies of man-
kind through a material resurrection from
death to immortality.

From what has been said it is evident that
**Mormonism" accepts the scriptural account of
the creation of man and that of the Fall. We
hold that the Fall was a process of physical

112 The Philosophy of "Mormonism."

degeneracy, whereby the body of man lost its
power to withstand malady and death, and that
with sin death entered into the world. We hold
that the Fall was foreseen of God, and that it
was by Divine wisdom turned to account as the
means by which His embodied children would
be subjected to the foreappointed test and trial
through which the way to advancement, other-
wise impossible, would be opened to them.

Let it not be assumed, however, that the fact
of God's foreknowledge as to what would he
under any given conditions, is a determining
cause that such must he. Omnipotent though
He be. He permits much that is contrary to
His will. We cannot believe that vice and
crime, injustice, intolerance, and unrighteous
domination of the weak by the strong, the op-
pression of the poor by the rich, exist by the
will and determination of God. It is not His
design or wish that even one soul be lost; on
the contrary, it was and is His work and glory
"to bring to pass the immortality and eternal
life of man." So also, it is not God's purpose to
interfere with, far less to annul, the free agency
of His children, even though those children
prostitute their Divine birthright of freedom

I

Plan of Redemption. 113

to the accomplishment of evil and the condem-
nation of their souls.

Before man was created in the flesh the
Eternal Father foresaw that in the school of
life some of His children would succeed and
others fail; some would be faithful and others
false; some would elect to tread the path of
righteousness while others would follow the
road to destruction. He further foresaw that
death would enter the world, and that the pos-
session of bodies by His children would be of
but brief individual duration. He saw that His
commandments would be disobeyed and His
law violated ; and that men, shut out from His
presence and left to themselves, would sink
rather than rise, would retrograde rather than
advance, and would be lost to the heavens. It
was necessary that a means of redemption be
provided, whereby erring man might make
amends, and by compliance with established
law achieve salvation and eventual exaltation
in the eternal worlds. The power of death was
to be overcome, so that, though men would of
necessity die, they would live anew, their spirits
clothed with immortalized bodies over which
death could not again prevail.

114 The Philosophy of "Mormonism."

While recognizing the transgression of Adam
as an event by which the race has been brought
under the penalty of death, we hold that none
but Adam shall be held accountable for his
disobedience. True, the penalty incident to
that transgression is operative upon all flesh,
and upon the earth and all the elements there-
of; but in the great reckoning, which men call
the judgment, the environment and determin-
ing conditions under which each soul has lived,
the handicap in the race of mortal strife and
endeavor shall be taken into due account.
"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into
the world, and death by sin ; and so death pass-
ed upon all men, for that all have sinned : * * *
Therefore as by the offense of one, judgment
came upon all men to condemnation; even so
by the righteousness of one the free gift came
upon all men unto justification of life." (Ro-
mans 5 : 12, 18.)

We affirm that man stands in absolute need
of a Redeemer, for by self-effort alone he is
utterly incapable of lifting himself from the
lower to a higher plane. Even as lifeless min-
eral particles can be incorporated into the tis-
sues of plants only as the plant reaches down

Christ the Redeemer. 1 1 5

into the lower world and through its own life
processes raises the mineral to its own plane,
or as vegetable substance may be woven into
the body of the animal only as the animal by
the exercise of its own vital functions assim-
ilates the vegetable, so man may be lifted from
his fallen earthly state characterized by human
weaknesses, bodily frailties, and a persistent
tendency to sink into the quagmire of sin, only
as a power above that of humanity reaches
down and helps him to rise. We affirm as a
fundamental principle of Christian philosophy
the Atonement wrought by Jesus Christ; and
we accept in its literal simplicity the scriptural
doctrine thereof. Through the Atonement the
bonds of death are broken, and a way is pro-
vided for the annulment of the effects of in-
dividual sin. We hold that Jesus Christ was
the one and only Being fitted to become the
Savior and Redeemer of the world, for the
following reasons :

( 1 ) He is the only sinless Man who has ever
walked the earth.

(2) He is the Only Begotten of the Eternal
Father in the flesh, and therefore the only Be-
ing born to earth possessing in their fulness the

116 The Philosophy of "Mormonism."

attributes and powers of both Godhood and
manhood.

(3) He is the One who had been chosen in
the primeval council of the Gods and foreor-
dained to this service.

No other man has lived without sin, and
therefore wholly free from the domination of
Satan. Jesus Christ was the one Being to
whom death, the natural wage of sin, was not
due. Christ's sinlessness rendered Him eligible
as the subject of the atoning sacrifice whereby
propitiation could be made for the sins of all
men.

No other man has possessed the power to
hold death in abeyance and to die only as he
willed so to do. We accept in their literalness
and simplicity the scriptural declarations to the
effect that Jesus Christ possessed within Him-
self power over death. "For as -the Father
hath life in himself; so hath he given to the
Son to have life in himself" we read (John
5 :26) ; and again "Therefore doth my Father
love me, because I lay down my life, that I
may take it again. ,No man taketh it from me,
but I lay it down of myself. I have power

Christ's Power over Death. 117

to lay it down, and I have power to take it
again." (John 10:17, 18).

This unique condition was the natural heri-
tage of Jesus the Christ, He being in His em-
bodied state the Son of a mortal mother and of
an immortal Sire. No mortal man was His
father. From Mary He inherited the attributes
of a mortal being, including the capacity to die ;
from His immortal Father He derived the
power to live in the flesh indefinitely, immune
to death except as He submitted voluntarily
thereto.

No other being has been born to earth with
such investiture of preappointment and foreor-
dination to lay down his life as a propitiatory
atonement for the race. Prominent among the
teachings of Jesus Christ in the course of His
earthly ministry was the reiterated avowal
that He had come down from heaven not to
do His own will but the will of Him by whom
He had been sent.

The Atonement accomplished by the Savior
was a vicarious service for mankind, all of
whom had become estranged from God through
sin; and by that sacrifice of propitiation, a
way has been opened for reconciliation whereby

118 The Philosophy of **M or monism."

man may be brought again into communion
with God, and be made able to live and advance
as a resurrected being in the eternal worlds.
This fundamental conception is strikingly ex-
pressed in our English word ''atonement,"
which, as its syllables attest is *'at-one-ment,"
"denoting reconciliation, or the bringing into
agreement of those who had been estranged."
As already indicated the effect of the Atone-
ment is twofold :

( 1 ) The universal redemption of the human
race from death, which was invoked by the
transgression of our first earthly parents ; and

(2) Salvation, whereby relief is offered
from the effects of individual sin.

The victory over death was inaugurated by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who had been
crucified and slain. He was the first to rise
from death to immortality and is therefore
rightly called ''the firstfruits of them that
slept" (I Cor. 15:20) ; "the firstborn from the
dead" (Col. 1 :18) ; "the first begotten of the
dead" (Rev. 1 :5). Instances of the raising of
the dead to life are of record as antedating the
death and resurrection of Christ ; but such were
cases of restoration to mortal existence ; and

Resurrection Universal 1 19

that the subjects of such miraculous reanima-
tion had to die again is certain.

Immediately following the resurrection of
Jesus Christ, many of the righteous dead were
resurrected, and appeared in their material
bodies of tangible flesh and bones. The Holy
Bible affirms such instances on the eastern
hemisphere, and the Book of Mormon records
analogous occurrences in the western world.
The resurrection of the dead is to be universal,
extending alike to all who have tabernacled in
flesh upon the earth, irrespective of their state,
whether of righteousness or of sin ; but all shall
be called from the state of death in order, ac-
cording to their condition. So taught the Mas-
ter, when He said, following His avouchment
that the Gospel should be preached even to
those already dead : ''Marvel not at this : for
the hour is coming, in the which all that are
in the graves shall hear his voice. And shall
come forth; they that have done good, unto
the resurrection of life ; and they that have done
evil, unto the resurrection of damnation."
(John 5 :28, 29.) As part of a Divine revela-
tion given in modern times we read : "They
who have done good in the resurrection of the

120 The Philosophy of "Mormonism."

just, and they who have done evil in the res-
urrection of the unjust." (Doctrine and Cov-
enants 76:17.)

The assured resurrection of all who have
lived and died on earth is a foundation stone in
the structure of ''Mormon" philosophy. "Bless-
ed and holy is he that hath part in the first
resurrection : on such the second death hath no
power, but they shall be priests of God and of
Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand
years." (Rev. 20:6).

The providing of a definite plan of salvation,
by obedience to which man may obtain re-
mission of his sins, and be enabled to ad-
vance by effort and righteous achievement
throughout eternity.

In addition to the inestimable boon of re-
demption from death and the grave, the Atone-
ment effected by Jesus Christ is universally
operative in bringing a measure of salvation —
what may be called general salvation — to the
entire posterity of Adam, in that all men are

Individual Accountability. 121

thereby exonerated from the direct effects of
the Fall in so far as such effects have been the
cause of evil in their lives. I\Ian is individ-
ually answerable for his own transgressions
alone — the sins for which he, as a free agent,
capacitated and empowered to choose for him-
self, commits culpably and on his own account
or volition.

As an essential corollary of this fundamental
principle, it follows that all children who die
before they reach the age of accountability are
not alone redeemed from death through resur-
rection to an endless life, with spirits and bod-
ies inseparably united, but also from any pos-
sible effect of inherited tendency to sin. It
will be admitted, w'ithout disputation, I take it,
that children are born heirs to the inescapable
birthright of heredity. Tendencies either good
or evil, blessings and curses are transmitted
from generation to generation. While hered-
ity is to be regarded as tendency or capability
only, and not as assurance and absolute pre-
destination, nevertheless all children are born
subject to the algebraic sum of the traits and
tendencies of their ancestors, combined with
their own specific and personal characteristics

122 The Philosophy of "Mormonism/*

by which they were distinguished while yet
unembodied spirits. From this heritage of sin-
ward tendency all children are redeemed
through the Atonement of Christ; and justly
so, for the debt came to them as a legacy and
is paid for them. They require no baptismal
cleansing nor other ordinance of admittance
into the Kingdom of God : for being incapable
of repentance, and not having attained unto
the condition of accountability, they are inno-
cent in the sight of God, and will be counted
among the redeemed and the sanctified.

But there is a special or individual effect of
the Atonement, by which every soul that has
lived in the flesh to the age and condition of
responsibility and accountability may place
himself within the reach of Divine mercy, and
obtain absolution for personal sin by compH-
ance with the laws and ordinances of the Gos-
pel, as prescribed and decreed by the- Author of
the plan of salvation. The indispensable con-
ditions of individual salvation are: (1) Faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ ; that is, acceptance of
His Gospel and allegiance to His command-
ments, and to Him as the one and only Savior
of men. (2) Repentance, embracing genuine

Terms of Salvation. 123

contrition for the sins of the past, and a reso-
lute turning away therefrom, with a determina-
tion to avoid, by all possible effort, future sin.

(3) Baptism by immersion in water, for the
remission of sins, the ordinance to be admin-
istered by one having the authority of the
Priesthood, that is to say the right and com-
mission to thus officiate in the name of Deity.

(4) The higher baptism of the Spirit or be-
stowal of the Holy Ghost by the authorized im-
position of hands by one holding the requisite
authority — that of the Higher or Melchizedek
Priesthood. To insure the salvation to which
compliance with these fundamental principles
of the Gospel of Jesus Christ makes the repent-
ant believer eligible, a life of continued resist-
ance to sin and observance of the laws of right-
eousness is requisite.

We hold that salvation from sin is obtainable
only through obedience, and that while the
door to the Kingdom of God has been opened
by the sacrificial death and the resurrection
of our Lord the Christ, no man may enter there
except by his personal and voluntary applica-
tion expressed in terms of obedience to the
prescribed laws and ordinances of the Gospel.

124 The Philosophy of "Mormonism."

Christ ''became the author of eternal salvation
to all them that obey him" (Heb. 5:9). And
further : God "will render to every man accord-
ing to his deeds : to them who by patient con-
tinuance in well doing seek for glory and hon-
our and immortality, eternal life: But unto
them that are contentious, and do not obey the
truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation
and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every
soul of man that doeth evil, * * * For there
is no respect of persons with God." (Romans
2:6-11.)

"Mormon philosophy holds that salvation,
thus made accessible to all through faith and
works, implies no uniformity of condition as
to future happiness and glory, any more than
does condemnation of the soul mean the same
state of disappointment, remorse and misery to
all who incur that dread but natural penalty.
We reject the unscriptural dogma that for res-
urrected souls there are but two places or states
of eternal existence — heaven and hell — to the
one or the other of which each shall be assign-
ed according to the record of his deeds, whether
good or bad, and however narrow the margin
may appear on the balance sheet of his mortal

Graded Conditions Hereafter. 125

life. "In my Father's house are many man-
sions :" said the embodied Christ to His apos-
tles, and "if it were not so, I would have told
you. I go to prepare a place for you." (John
14:1,2.)

The life we are to experience hereafter will
be in righteous strictness the result of the life
we lead in this world ; and as here men exhibit
infinite gradations of faithful adherence to the
truth, and of serviHty to sin, so in the world
beyond the grave shall gradations exist. Salva-
tion grades into exaltation, and every soul shall
find place and condition as befits him. "Mor-
monism" affirms, on the basis of direct revela-
tion from God, that graded degrees of glory
are prepared for the souls of men, and that
these comprise in decreasing order the Celestial,
the Terrestrial, and the Telestial kingdoms of
glory, within each of which are orders or grades
innumerable. These several glories — Celestial,
Terrestrial, and Telestial — are comparable to
the sun, the moon and the stars, in their beauty,
worth and splendor. Such a condition was re-
vealed to an apostle of olden time : "There are
also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial ; but
the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory

126 The Philosophy of "Mormonism."

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 dif fer-
eth from another star in glory. So also is the
resurrection of the dead." (I Cor. 15:40-42.)
Thus is it provided in the economy of God, that
to progression there is no end.

As a necessary consequence, man may ad-
vance by effort and by obedience to higher and
yet higher laws as he may learn them through
the eternities to come, until he attains the rank
and status of Godship. ''Mormonism" is so
bold as to declare that such is the possible des-
tiny of the human soul. And why not ? Is this
possibility unreasonable? Would not the con-
trary be opposed to what we recognize as nat-
ural law? Man is of the lineage of the Gods.
He is the spirit-offspring of the Eternal One,
and by the inviolable law that living beings per-
petuate after their kind, the children of God
may become like unto their Parents in kind if
not in degree. The human soul is a God in
embryo; even as the crawling caterpillar or the
corpse-like chrysalis embodies the potential pos-
sibilities of the matured and glorified imago.
We assert that there was more than figurative

Eternal Progression. 127

simile, and instead thereof the assured possi-
bility of actual attainment in the Master's
words : ''Be ye therefore perfect, even as your
Father which is in heaven is perfect." (Matt.
5:48.)

The fact of man's eternal progression in no-
wise indicates a state of eventual equality on
however exalted a plane ; nor does it imply that
the progressive soul must in the eternal eons
overtake those once far ahead of him in achieve-
ment. Advancement is not a characteristic of
inferior status alone; indeed, the increment of
progress may be vastly greater in the higher
spheres of activity. This conception leads to
the inevitable deduction that God Himself, Elo-
him, the Very Eternal Father, is a progressive
Being, eternally advancing from one perfection
to another, possessed as He is of that distin-
guishing attribute, which shall be the endow-
ment of all who attain celestial exaltation — the
power of eternal increase.

6.

The establishment of the Church of Jesus
Christ in the "Ineridian of time," by the
personal ministry and atoning death of the

128 The Philosophy of "Mormonism.**

foreordained Redeemer and Savior of man-
kind, and the proclamation of His saving
Gospel through the ministry of the Holy
Priesthood during the apostolic period and
for a season thereafter,

*'Mormonism" incorporates as an essential
part of its philosophy the scriptural account of
the earthly birth, life, ministry, and death of
Jesus Christ; and affirms the fulfilment of
prophecy in all the events of the Savior's earth-
ly existence and works. The time of His birth
has been made a dividing line in the history of
the ages; it was veritably the "meridian of
time." Early in His ministry on earth He de-
clared, and throughout His subsequent years
repeatedly affirmed that He had come in pur-
suance of foreordained plan and purpose — not
to do His own will but that of the Father who
sent Him.

From the days of Moses down to the advent
of Christ the people of Israel, who constituted
the only nation professing to know and worship
the true and the living God — ** Jehovah wor-
shippers" as they were distinctively called —
had lived under the law of carnal command-

The Law and the Gospel, 129

ments comprised in the Mosaic code. To Is-
rael the law and the prophets were the scrip-
tures of life, however much the people may have
departed therefrom through traditional alter-
ations and misconstruction. Christ came not to
destroy the Law — for it was He who gave the
Law — amidst the awful glory of Sinai — ^but to
fulfil and supersede the Law by the Gospel.
Aside from the transcendent work of Atone-
ment, Jesus Christ taught the principles of the
Gospel, and laid down in plainness the laws
and ordinances essential to the salvation of
mankind. He made clear the fact that the
Law of Moses had been given as a preparation
for the Gospel which He gave to Israel.

He chose men for the work of the ministry ;
in a special sense He chose twelve, whom He
ordained and called Apostles. To them He
committed power and authority not alone to
preach and teach, to heal the sick, rebuke and
cast out demons, but to build up the Church
as a divinely established institution. These
men were assured that through the Holy Ghost
even after the Lord's ascension they would be,
kept in communion and communication with
Christ and the Father; and that upon the

130 The Philosophy of "Mormonism."

foundation of such close relationship, viz.,
direct revelation from God to man, would the
Church of Jesus Christ be reared. That the
apostles realized the actuality of their author-
ity, and that of the responsibility resting upon
them by virtue of their ordination to the Holy
Priesthood, is evidenced by their prompt action
following the Ascension, in filling the vacancy
existing in the body as a consequence of Iscar-
iot's apostasy and suicide, and in other admin-
istrative acts.

When the Holy Ghost was given unto the
Twelve, at the memorable time of Pentecost,
the gifts, graces and powers of the Holy Priest-
hood were manifested through those men as
never had been before ; and the proof of their
wondrous investiture of actual power and in-
herent authority continued throughout their
lives. The apostles carried the Gospel of
Jesus Christ to every known nation, es-
tablishing church communities or branches
of the Church wherever possible. For
each of these branches, the requisite
officers were chosen and ordained, such
as high priests, elders, bishops, priests,
teachers, and deacons ; while for more general

Offices in the Priesthood. 131

supervision evangelists and pastors were com-
missioned with the powers of priesthood. So
zealous and efficient were the apostles in their
particular ministry, that the Gospel of salva-
tion was known to Jew and Gentile. Paul,
writing approximately thirty years after the
Ascension, declared that then the Gospel had'
been preached to every creature under heaven
(Col. 1:23), which assertion we may reason-
ably construe as meaning that the Gospel mes-
sage had been proclaimed so widely that all
who desired might learn of it.

The purpose of establishing the several
graded offices of authority in the Church, and
of installing therein men duly ordained to the
requisite order of priesthood, has been impres-
sively stated as "for the perfecting of the saints,
for the work of the ministry, for the edifying
of the body of Christ" (Eph. 4:12). So
necessary were the several offices to the proper
administration of the affairs of the Church,
that they were aptly compared to the several
organs of a perfect human body (.see I Cor.
12), all essential to a fulness of efficiency, and
no one justified in saying to the other, "I have
no need of thee."

10

132 The Philosophy of ''Mormonism."

7.

The general ''falling away" from the Gospel of
Jesus Christ, by zvhich the world degener-
ated into a state of apostasy, and the Holy
Priesthood ceased to be operative in the
organizations of sects and churches design-
ed and effected by the authority of man.

The apostolic ministry continued in the
Primitive Church for about sixty years after
the death of Christ, or nearly to the end of the
first century of the Christian era. For some
time thereafter the Church existed as a unified
body, officered by men duly invested by ord-
ination in the authority of the Holy Priesthood,
though, even during the lifetime of some of the
apostles, the leaven of apostasy and disinte-
gration had been working. Indeed, hardly had
the Gospel seed been sown when the enemy of
all righteousness had started assiduously to sow
tares in the field; and so closely intimate was
the growth of the two that any forcible attempt
to extirpate the tares would have imperiled the
wheat. The evidences of spiritual decline were

A Great Apostasy. 133

observed with anguish by the apostles who,
however, recognized the fulfilment of earlier
prophecy in the declension, and added their
own inspired testimony to the effect that even
a greater falling away was impending.

The apostasy progressed rapidly, in conse-
quence of a co-operation of disrupting forces
without and within the Church. The dreadful
persecution to which the early Christians were
subjected, particularly from the reign of Nero
to that of Diocletian, both inclusive, drove great
numbers of Christians to renounce their allegi-
ance to Christianity, thus causing a widespread
apostasy from the Church. But far more de-
structive was the contagion of evil that spread
within the body, manifesting its effects mainly
in the following developments :

(1) The corrupting of the simple principles
of the Gospel of Christ by admixture with the
so-called philosophical systems of the times.

(2) Unauthorized additions to the rites of
the Church, and the introduction of vital
changes in essential ordinances.

(3) Unauthorized changes in Church or-
ganization and government.

The result of the degeneracy so produced

134 The Philosophy of "Mormonism."

was to bring about an actual apostasy of the
entire Church.

In the early part of the fourth century, Con-
stantine cast about the Church the mantle of
state recognition and governmental protection.
Though unbaptized and therefore no member
of the Church, he proclaimed himself the head
of the Church of Christ, and distributed at his
pleasure the titles of office in the Holy Priest-
hood. Churchly dignity was more sought
after than mihtary distinction or honors of
state. A bishop was more esteemed than a gen-
eral, and an archbishop than a prince. Soon
the Church laid claim to temporal power, and
in the course of the centuries became the su-
preme potentate over all earthly governments.

Revoh was inevitable, and early in the six-
teenth century the Reformation was begun.
One notable effect of this epoch-making move-
ment was the establishment of the Church of
England as an immediate result of a disagree-
ment between Henry VHI and the Pope. By
Act of Parliament the king was proclaimed
the supreme head of the Church within his
realm. The Church as an organization,
whether Papal or Protestant, had become an

I

The Apostasy Affirmed. 135

institution of men. The Holy Priesthood, to
which men were of old called of God and or-
dained thereto by those having authority
through prior ordination, no longer existed
among men. The name but not the authority
of priesthood and priestly office remained.
Bishops, priests, and deacons — so-called — were
made or unmade at the will of kings. The awful
fact of the universal apostasy, and the absence
of Divine authority from the earth was ob-
served and frankly admitted by many earnest
and conscientious theologians. The Church of
England, in her "Homily Against Peril of
Idolatry" (Homily xiv) officially affirmed the
state of general degeneracy as follows : "So
that laity and clergy, learned and unlearned,
all ages, sects, and degrees of men, women,
and children of whole Christendom — an hor-
rible and most dreadful thing to think — have
been at once drowned in abominable idolatry;
of all other vices most detested of God, and
most damnable to man; and that by the space
of eight hundred years and more." The Book
of Homilies dates from about the middle of the
sixteenth century, and in it is thus officially
set forth, that the so-called Church and in fact

136 The Philosophy of "Mormonism."

the entire religious world had been utterly
apostate for eight centuries or more prior to
the establishment of the Church of England.
The apostasy had been divinely predicted;
its actuality is attested by a reasonable inter-
pretation of history.

8.

The restoration of the Gospel in the current
age, and the re-establishment of the Church
of Jesus Christ hy the bestowal of the Holy
Priesthood through Divine revelation.

From the time of the Reformation, sects and
churches have multiplied apace. On every side
has been heard the cry "Lo, here is Christ," or,
"Lo, there." As the present speaker has writ-
ten elsewhere : There are churches named from
the circumstances of their origin— as the
Church of England; others after their famous
founders or promoters — as Lutheran, Calvin-
ist, Wesleyan; some are known by peculiar-
ities of doctrine or plan of administration — as
Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, Congrega-
tionalist; but down to the third decade of the
nineteenth century there was no church on

Priesthood is God-Given. 137

earth affirming name or title as the Church of
Jesus Christ. The only organization called a
church existing at that time and venturing to
assert claim to authority by succession was the
Catholic Church, which for centuries had been
apostate, and wholly bereft of Divine authority
or recognition. If the ^'Mother Church" be
without a valid priesthood, and devoid of spir-
itual power, how can her offspring derive from
her the right to officiate in the things of God ?
Who would dare to affirm that man can orig-
inate a priesthood which God is bound to honor
and acknowledge?

Granted that men may and do create among
themselves societies, associations, sects, and
even "churches" if they choose so to designate
their religious organizations ; granted that they
may prescribe rules, formulate laws, and devise
plans of operation, discipline, and government,
and that all such laws, rules, and schemes of
administration are binding upon those who
assume membership — granted all these rights
and powers — whence can such human institu-
tions derive the authority of the Holy Priest-
hood, without which there can be no Church
of Christ?

138 The Philosophy of "Mormonism."

But the world was not to be forever bereft
of the Church of Jesus Christ, nor of the au-
thority of the Holy Priesthood. As surely as
had been predicted the birth of the Messiah,
and the great falling away from the Church of
His founding, was the restoration of the Gospel
foretold as a characteristic feature of the last
days, the dispensation of the fulness of times.
John, the apostle and revelator, saw in vision
the foreappointed reopening of the windows of
heaven in the last days, and thus affirmed:
"And I saw another angel fly in the midst of
heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach
unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every
nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.
Saying with a loud voice. Fear God, and give
glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is
come : and worship him that made heaven, and
earth, and the sea, and the fountains of
waters." (Rev. 14:6, 7.)

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints is founded upon the literal fulfilment
of this prediction — for prophecy it was, though
worded as a record of what the prophet and
revelator saw — an event of a then future but
now past time.

J

A Glorious Theophany. 139

**Mormonism" as a religious system would
be incomplete, inconsistent, and consequently
without philosophical basis, but for its solemn
avouchment that the Gospel has been restored
to earth and that the Church of Jesus Christ
has been reestablished among men. The
Church today affirms to the world, that in
A. D. 1820 there was manifested to Joseph
Smith a theophany such as never before had
been vouchsafed to man. He was but a youth
at the time, living with his parents in the State
of New York. Being confused and puzzled
by the "war of words and tumult of opinions"
by which the many contending sects were divid-
ed, and realizing that not all could be right,
he acted upon the admonition of James : "If
any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God,
that g^veth to all men liberally, and upbraideth
not; and it shall be given him." (James 1 :5.)

In answer to the young man's earnest prayer
as to which, if any, of the discordant sects of
the day was the Church of Christ, as he solemn-
ly avows, both the Eternal Father and His Son
Jesus Christ appeared to him in visible form,
as distinct and glorified Personages; and the
One, pointing to the Other, said: ''This is my

140 The Philosophy of "Mormonism."

Beloved Son, hear Him!'' The Son of God,
Jesus Christ, directed the young man to ally
himself with none of the sects or churches of
the day, for all of them were wrong and their
creeds were an abomination in His sight, in
that they drew near to Him with their lips
while their hearts were far from Him, and be-
cause they taught for doctrines the command-
ments of men, having a form of godliness but
denying the power thereof. Thus was broken,
by the voices of Eternal Beings, the long silence
that had lain between the heavens and the
earth incident to the apostasy of mankind. In
1820 there stood upon this globe one person
who knew beyond doubt or perad venture, that
the "orthodox" conception of Deity as an in-
incorporeal essence devoid of definite shape
and tangible substance, was utterly false. Jo-
seph Smith knew that both the Eternal Father
and His glorified Son, Jesus Christ, were in
form and stature like unto perfect men; and
that in Their physical image and likeness man-
kind had been created in the flesh. He knew
further that Father and Son were individual
Personages — a fact abundantly averred by the
Lord Jesus during His life on earth, but which

The Book of Mormon. 141

had been obscured by the sophistries of men.

Somewhat more than three years after the
glorious appearing of the Father and the Son
to Joseph Smith, the young revelator was vis-
ited by a heavenly personage, who revealed to
him the place where lay the ancient record
which since has been translated through the
gift and power of God and published to the
world as the Book of Mormon. This volume
contains a history of a division of the House
of Israel, which had been led to the western
continent centuries before the time of Christ.
It is the ancient scripture of the western con-
tinent as the Holy Bible is the record of the
dealings of God with His people on the eastern
hemisphere. The Book of Mormon contains
the Gospel of Christ in its fulness as given to
the ancient inhabitants of this continent; and
in its restoration, through the personal min-
istry of an angel sent from the presence of
God, was fulfilled in part the vision-prophecy
of John the Revelator of old.

The Holy Priesthood, having been lost to
mankind through the universal apostasy, could
be made again operative and valid only by a
restoration or rebestowal from the heavens.

142 The Philosophy of "Mormonism."

We affirm that the Lesser or Aaronic Priest-
hood, including the Levitical order, was con-
ferred upon Joseph Smith and his companion
in the ministry, OHver Cowdery, through per-
sonal ordination under the hands of John,
known of old as the Baptist, who appeared to
the two men as a resurrected being, and trans-
mitted to them the authority by which he had
ministered while in mortality. That order of
Priesthood — the Aaronic — as John the Baptist
declared, holds the keys of the Gospel of re-
pentance and of baptism for the remission of
sins.

We affirm that the Higher or Melchizedek
Priesthood was conferred upon Joseph Smith
and Oliver Cowdery by ordination under the
hands of those who, in the ancient apostolic
period, held the keys of the Holy Apostleship,
vi2., Peter, James and John.

Under the authority so bestowed, the Church
of Jesus Christ has been reestablished upon the
earth. To distinguish it from the Church as
it existed in ancient apostolic days it has been
named — and this also through direct revela-
tion— The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-
day Saints.

Church of Christ Restored. 143

As an institution among men, as a body
corporate, it dates from April 6, 1830, on which
day the Church was legally organized at Fay-
ette, Seneca county, New York, under the laws
of the State. Only six persons figured as ac-
tual participants in the formal procedure of or-
ganization and incorporation, that number be-
ing the minimum required by law in such an
undertaking.

Whatever may be the opinions of individuals,
or the concensus of belief, respecting the gen-
uineness and validity of the claims set forth
by the restored Church as to the source of the
Priesthood it professes to hold, none can reas-
onably prefer the charge of incongruity or in-
consistency on scriptural grounds. It is axio-
matic to say that no man can give or transmit
an authority he does not himself possess. The
authority of the Priesthood of Aaron was re-
stored to earth by the being who held the keys
of that power in the earher dispensation — John
the Baptist. The Holy Apostleship, compris-
ing all the powers inherent in the Priesthood
after the order of Melchizedek, was restored
by those who held the presidency of that Priest-

144 The Philosophy of "Mormonism."

hood prior to the apostasy, vis., Peter, James
and John.

We further affirm, that in 1836 there ap-
peared to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in
the Temple at Kirtland, Ohio, other ancient
prophets, each of whom authoritatively be-
stowed upon the two mortal prophets, seers,
and revelators, the keys of the power by which
he had ministered in the long past dispensa-
tion in which he had officiated. Thus came
Moses and committed to the modern prophets
the keys of the gathering of Israel after their
long dispersion. Elias came, and gave the au-
thority that had been operative in the dispensa-
tion of the Gospel of Abraham. Elijah fol-
lowed, in literal fulfilment of Malachi's porten-
tous prediction, and committed the authority
of vicarious labor for the dead, by which the
hearts of the departed fathers shall be turned
toward their yet living descendants, and the
hearts of the children be turned toward the
fathers, which labor, as affirmed by Malachi,
is a necessary antecedent to the dawn of the
great and dreadful day of the Lord, as other-
wise the earth would be smitten with a curse
at His coming.

Proclamation of the Gospel. 145

9.

The appointed mission of the restored Church
of Jesus Christ to preach the Gospel and
administer in the ordinances thereof
amongst all nations, in preparation for the
near advent of our Savior Jesus Christ, who
shall reign on earth as Lord and King.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, claiming to be all that its name ex-
presses or logically implies, holds that its spec-
ial mission in the world is to officiate in the
authority of the Holy Priesthood by proclaim-
ing the Gospel and administering in the ord-
inances thereof amongst all nations, and this
in preparation for the advent of the Lord Jesus
Christ, who shall soon appear and assume His
rightful place as King of kings and Lord of
lords.

Besides its missionary labor among the liv-
ing, the Church, true to the commission laid
upon it through Elijah, is continuously engaged
in vicarious service for the dead, administering
the ordinances of salvation to the living in

146 The Philosophy of "M or monism."

behalf of their departed progenitors. Largely
for this purpose the Church constructs Tem-
ples, and maintains therein the requisite min-
istry in behalf of the dead.

In the carrying out of the work committed
to it, the Church is tolerant of all sects and
parties, claiming for itself no right or privilege
which it would deny to individuals or other
organizations. It affirms itself to be The
Church of old, established anew. Its message
to the world is that of peace and good will —
the invitation to come and partake of the bless-
ings incident to the new and everlasting cov-
enant between God and His children. Its
warning voice is heard in all lands and climes :
Repent ye! Repent! for the Kingdom of
Heaven is at hand.

Such in scant outline is the philosophical
basis of "Mormonism."

DATE DUE

WAR 2 2 13f U
APR 2 7 1990

DEMCO 38-297

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY

3 1197 204157181