{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_5630/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_5630","id":"gutenberg_5630","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5630","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - American","Category: History - Religious","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christianity","Latter Day Saint churches","Latter Day Saints"],"text":"Ben Crowder <crowderb@blankslate.net>\nhttp://www.blankslate.net/lang/etexts.php\n\n\nThis etext was originally transcribed into Palm format by Rick\nOwen <rickowen@yahoo.com>.\n\nReformatted for Project Gutenberg by Ben Crowder\n<crowderb@blankslate.net>\n\n\n\nTHE STORY OF \"MORMONISM\"\n\nAnd\n\nTHE PHILOSOPHY OF \"MORMONISM\"\n\nBy James E. Talmage, D. Sc., F. R. S. E.\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\n_The Story of \"Mormonism\"_ as presented in the following pages\nis a revised and reconstructed version of lectures delivered by Dr.\nJames E. Talmage at the University of Michigan, Cornell\nUniversity, and elsewhere.  The \"Story\" first appeared in print\nas a lecture report in the _Improvement Era_, and was afterward\nissued as a booklet from the office of the _Millennial Star_,\nLiverpool.  In 1910 it was issued in a revised form by the Bureau\nof Information at Salt Lake City, in which edition the lecture\nstyle of direct address was changed to the ordinary form of\nessay.  The present or third American edition has been revised\nand amplified by the author.\n\nThe \"Story\" has been translated and published abroad.  Already\nversions have appeared in Swedish, modern Greek, and Russian.\n\nThe subject matter of _The Philosophy of \"Mormonism\"_ was first\npresented as a lecture delivered by Dr. Talmage before the\nPhilosophical Society of Denver.  It appeared later in the\ncolumns of the _Improvement Era_, and translations have been\npublished in pamphlet form in the Danish and German languages.\n\nThe present publication of these two productions is made in\nresponse to a steady demand.\n\n                                                 THE PUBLISHERS.\n\nSalt Lake City, Utah,\nMarch, 1914.\n\n\n\nTHE STORY OF \"MORMONISM\"\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nIn the minds of many, perhaps of the majority of people, the\nscene of the \"Mormon\" drama is laid almost entirely in Utah;\nindeed, the terms \"Mormon question\" and \"Utah question\" have been\noften used interchangeably.  True it is, that the development of\n\"Mormonism\" is closely associated with the history of the\nlong-time Territory and present State of Utah; but the origin of\nthe system must be sought in regions far distant from the present\ngathering-place of the Latter-day Saints, and at a period\nantedating the acquisition of Utah as a part of our national\ndomain.\n\nThe term \"origin\" is here used in its commonest application--that\nof the first stages apparent to ordinary observation--the visible\nbirth of the system.  But a long, long period of preparation had\nled to this physical coming forth of the \"Mormon\" religion, a\nperiod marked by a multitude of historical events, some of them\npreceding by centuries the earthly beginning of this modern\nsystem of prophetic trust.  The \"Mormon\" people regard the\nestablishment of their Church as the culmination of a great\nseries of notable events.  To them it is the result of causes\nunnumbered that have operated through ages of human history, and\nthey see in it the cause of many developments yet to appear.\nThis to them establishes an intimate relationship between the\nevents of their own history and the prophecies of ancient times.\n\nIn reading the earliest pages of \"Mormon\" history, we are\nintroduced to a man whose name will ever be prominent in the\nstory of the Church--the founder of the organization by common\nusage of the term, the head of the system as an earthly\nestablishment--one who is accepted by the Church as an ambassador\nspecially commissioned of God to be the first revelator of the\nlatter-day dispensation.  This man is Joseph Smith, commonly\nknown as the \"Mormon\" prophet.  Rarely indeed does history\npresent an organization, religious, social, or political, in\nwhich an individual holds as conspicuous and in all ways as\nimportant a place as does this man in the development of\n\"Mormonism.\" The earnest investigator, the sincere truth-seeker,\ncan ignore neither the man nor his work; for the Church under\nconsideration has risen from the testimony solemnly set forth and\nthe startling declarations made by this person, who, at the time\nof his earliest announcements, was a farmer's boy in the first\nhalf of his teens.  If his claims to ordination under the hands\nof divinely commissioned messengers be fallacious, forming as\nthey form the foundation of the Church organization, the\nsuperstructure cannot stand; if, on the other hand, such\ndeclarations be true, there is little cause to wonder at the\nphenomenally rapid rise and the surprising stability of the\nedifice so begun.\n\nJoseph Smith was born at Sharon, Vermont, in December, 1805.  He\nwas the son of industrious parents, who possessed strong\nreligious tendencies and tolerant natures.  For generations his\nancestors had been laborers, by occupation tillers of the soil;\nand though comfortable circumstances had generally been their\nlot, reverses and losses in the father's house had brought the\nfamily to poverty; so that from his earliest days the lad Joseph\nwas made acquainted with the pleasures and pains of hard work.\nHe is described as having been more than ordinarily studious for\nhis years; and when that powerful wave of religious agitation and\nsectarian revival which characterized the first quarter of the\nlast century, reached the home of the Smiths, Joseph with others\nof the family was profoundly affected.  The household became\nsomewhat divided on the subject of religion, and some of the\nmembers identified themselves with the more popular sects; but\nJoseph, while favorably impressed by the Methodists in comparison\nwith others, confesses that his mind was sorely troubled over the\ncontemplation of the strife and tumult existing among the\nreligious bodies; and he hesitated.  He tried in vain to solve\nthe mystery presented to him in the warring factions of what\nprofessed to be the Church of Christ.  Surely, thought he, these\nseveral churches, opposed as they are to one another on what\nappear to be the vital points of religion, cannot all be right.\nWhile puzzling over this anomaly he chanced upon this verse in\nthe epistle of St. James:\n\n    \"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that\n    giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and\n    it shall be given him.\"\n\nIn common with so many others, the earnest youth found here\nwithin the scriptures, admonition and counsel as directly\napplicable to his case and circumstances as if the lines had been\naddressed to him by name.  A brief period of hesitation, in which\nhe shrank from the thought that a mortal like himself, weak,\nyouthful, and unlearned, should approach the Creator with a\npersonal request, was followed by a humble and contrite\nresolution to act upon the counsel of the ancient apostle.  The\nresult, to which he bore solemn record (testifying at first with\nthe simplicity and enthusiasm of youth, afterward confirming the\ndeclaration with manhood's increasing powers, and at last\nvoluntarily sealing the testimony with his life's blood,) proved\nmost startling to the sectarian world--a world in which according\nto popular belief no new revelation of truth was possible.  It is\na surprising fact that while growth, progress, advancement,\ndevelopment of known truths and the acquisition of new ones,\ncharacterize every living science, the sectarian world has\ndeclared that nothing new must be expected as direct revelation\nfrom God.\n\nThe testimony of this lad is, that in response to his\nsupplication, drawn forth by the admonition of an inspired\napostle, he received a divine ministration; heavenly beings\nmanifested themselves to him--two, clothed in purity, and alike\nin form and feature.  Pointing to the other, one said, \"This is\nmy beloved Son, hear Him.\"  In answer to the lad's prayer, the\nheavenly personage so designated informed Joseph that the Spirit\nof God dwelt not with warring sects, which, while professing a\nform of godliness, denied the power thereof, and that he should\njoin none of them.  Overjoyed at the glorious manifestation thus\ngranted unto him, the boy prophet could not withhold from\nrelatives and acquaintances tidings of the heavenly vision.  From\nthe ministers, who had been so energetic in their efforts to\nconvert the boy, he received, to his surprise, abuse and\nridicule.  \"Visions and manifestations from God,\" said they, \"are\nof the past, and all such things ceased with the apostles of old;\nthe canon of scripture is full; religion has reached its\nperfection in plan, and, unlike all other systems contrived or\naccepted by human kind, is incapable of development or growth.\nIt is true God lives, but He cares not for His children of modern\ntimes as He did for those of ancient days; He has shut Himself\naway from the people, closed the windows of heaven, and has\nsuspended all direct communication with the people of earth.\"\n\nThe persecution thus originating with those who called themselves\nministers of the gospel of Christ spread throughout the\ncommunity; and the sects that before could not agree together nor\nabide in peace, became as one in their efforts to oppose the\nyouth who thus testified of facts, which though vehemently\ndenounced, produced an effect that alarmed them the more.  And\nsuch a spectacle has ofttimes presented itself before the\nworld--men who cannot tolerate one another in peace swear\nfidelity and mutual support in strife with a common opponent.\nThe importance of this alleged revelation from the heavens to the\nearth is such as to demand attentive consideration.  If a fact,\nit is a full contradiction of the vague theories that had been\nincreasing and accumulating for centuries, denying personality\nand parts to Deity.\n\nIn 1820, there lived one person who knew that the word of the\nCreator, \"Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness,\"\nhad a meaning more than in metaphor.  Joseph Smith, the youthful\nprophet and revelator of the nineteenth century, knew that the\nEternal Father and the well-beloved Son, Jesus Christ, were in\nform and stature like unto perfect men; and that the human family\nwas in very truth of divine origin.  But this wonderful vision\nwas not the only manifestation of heavenly power and personality\nmade to the young man, nor the only incident of the kind destined\nto bring upon him the fury of persecution.  Sometime after this\nvisitation, which constituted him a living witness of God unto\nmen, and which demonstrated the great fact that humanity is the\nchild of Deity, he was visited by an immortal personage who\nannounced himself as Moroni, a messenger sent from the presence\nof God.  The celestial visitor stated that through Joseph as the\nearthly agent the Lord would accomplish a great work, and that\nthe boy would come to be known by good and evil repute amongst\nall nations.  The angel then announced that an ancient record,\nengraven on plates of gold, lay hidden in a hill near by, which\nrecord gave a history of the nations that had of old inhabited\nthe American continent, and an account of the Savior's\nministrations among them.  He further explained that with the\nplates were two sacred stones, known as Urim and Thummim, by the\nuse of which the Lord would bring forth a translation of the\nancient record.  Joseph further testifies that he was told that\nif he remained faithful to his trust and the confidence reposed\nin him, he would some day receive the record into his keeping,\nand be commissioned and empowered to translate it.  In due time\nthese promises were literally fulfilled, and the modern version\nof these ancient writings was given to the world.\n\nThe record proved to be an account of certain colonies of\nimmigrants to this hemisphere from the east, who came several\ncenturies before the Christian era.  The principal company was\nled by one Lehi, described as a personage of some importance and\nwealth, who had formerly lived at Jerusalem in the reign of\nZedekiah, and who left his eastern home about 600 B.C.  The book\ntells of the journeyings across the water in vessels constructed\naccording to revealed plan, of the peoples' landing on the\nwestern shores of South America probably somewhere in Chile, of\ntheir prosperity and rapid growth amid the bounteous elements of\nthe new world, of the increase of pride and consequent dissension\naccompanying the accumulation of material wealth, and of the\ndivision of the people into factions which became later two great\nnations at enmity with one another.  One part following Nephi,\nthe youngest and most gifted son of Lehi, designated themselves\n_Nephites_; the other faction, led by Laman, the elder and wicked\nbrother of Nephi, were known as _Lamanites_.\n\nThe Nephites lived in cities, some of which attained great size\nand were distinguished by great architectural beauty.\nContinually advancing northward, these people in time occupied\nthe greater part of the valleys of the Orinoco, the Amazon, and\nthe Magdalena.  During the thousand years covered by the Nephite\nrecord, the people crossed the Isthmus of Panama, which is\ngraphically described as a neck of land but a day's journey from\nsea to sea, and successively occupied extensive tracts in what is\nnow Mexico, the valley of the Mississippi, and the Eastern\nStates.  It is not to be supposed that these vast regions were\nall populated at any one time by the Nephites; the people were\ncontinually moving to escape the depredations of their hereditary\nfoes, the Lamanites; and they abandoned in turn all their cities\nestablished along the course of migration.  The unprejudiced\nstudent sees in the discoveries of the ancient and now\nforest-covered cities of Mexico, Central America, Yucatan, and\nthe northern regions of South America, collateral testimony\nhaving a bearing upon this history.\n\nBefore their more powerful foes, the Nephites dwindled and fled;\nuntil about the year 400 A.D. they were entirely annihilated\nafter a series of decisive battles, the last of which was fought\nnear the very hill, called Cumorah, in the State of New York,\nwhere the hidden record was subsequently revealed to Joseph\nSmith.\n\nThe Lamanites led a roving, aggressive life; kept few or no\nrecords, and soon lost the art of history writing.  They lived on\nthe results of the chase and by plunder, degenerating in habit\nuntil they became typical progenitors of the dark-skinned race,\nafterward discovered by Columbus and named American Indians.\n\nThe last writer in the ancient record, and the one who hid away\nthe plates in the hill Cumorah, was Moroni--the same personage\nwho appeared as a resurrected being in the nineteenth century, a\ndivinely appointed messenger sent to reveal the depository of the\nsacred documents; but the greater part of the plates since\ntranslated had been engraved by the father of Moroni, the Nephite\nprophet Mormon.  This man, at once warrior, prophet and\nhistorian, had made a transcript and compilation of the\nheterogeneous records that had accumulated during the troubled\nhistory of the Nephite nation; this compilation was named on the\nplates \"The Book of Mormon,\" which name has been given to the\nmodern translation--a work that has already made its way over\nmost of the civilized world.  The translation and publication of\nthe Book of Mormon were marked by many scenes of trouble and\ncontention, but success attended the undertaking, and the first\nedition of the work appeared in print in 1830.\n\nThe question, \"What is the Book of Mormon?\"--a very pertinent one\non the part of every earnest student and investigator of this\nphase of American history--has been partly answered already.  The\nwork has been derisively called the \"Mormon Bible,\" a name that\ncarries with it the misrepresentation that in the faith of this\npeople the book takes the place of the scriptural volume which is\nuniversally accepted by Christian sects.  No designation could be\nmore misleading, and in every way more untruthful.  The\nLatter-day Saints have but one \"Bible\" and that the Holy Bible of\nChristendom.  They place it foremost amongst the standard works\nof the Church; they accept its admonitions and its doctrines, and\naccord thereto a literal significance; it is to them, and ever\nhas been, the word of God, a compilation made by human agency of\nworks by various inspired writers; they accept its teachings in\nfulness, modifying the meaning in no wise, except in the rare\ncases of undoubted mistranslation, concerning which Biblical\nscholars of all faiths differ and criticize; and even in such\ncases their reverence for the sacred letter renders them even\nmore conservative than the majority of Bible commentators and\ncritics in placing free construction upon the text.  The\nhistorical part of the Jewish scriptures tells of the divine\ndealings with the people of the eastern hemisphere; the Book of\nMormon recounts the mercies and judgments of God, the inspired\nteachings of His prophets, the rise and fall of His people as\norganized communities on the western continent.\n\nThe Latter-day Saints believe the coming forth of the Book of\nMormon to have been foretold in the Bible, as its destiny is\nprophesied of within its own lids; it is to the people the true\n\"stick of Ephraim\" which Ezekiel declared should become one with\nthe \"stick of Judah\"--or the Bible.  The people challenge the most\ncritical comparison between this record of the west and the Holy\nScriptures of the east, feeling confident that no discrepancy\nexists in letter or spirit.  As to the original characters in\nwhich the record was engraved, copies were shown to learned\nlinguists of the day and pronounced by them as closely resembling\nthe Reformed Egyptian writing.\n\nLet us revert, however, to the facts of history concerning this\nnew scripture, and the reception accorded the printed volume.\n\nThe Book of Mormon was before the world; the Church circulated\nthe work as freely as possible.  The true account of its origin\nwas rejected by the general public, who thus, assumed the\nresponsibility of explaining in some plausible way the source of\nthe record.  Among the many false theories propounded, perhaps\nthe most famous is the so-called Spaulding story.  Solomon\nSpaulding, a clergyman of Amity, Pennsylvania, died in 1816.  He\nwrote a romance to which no name other than \"Manuscript Story\"\nwas given, and which, but for the unauthorized use of the\nwriter's name and the misrepresentation of his motives, would\nnever have been published.  Twenty years after the author's\ndeath, one Hurlburt, an apostate \"Mormon,\" announced that he had\nrecognized a resemblance between the \"Manuscript Story\" and the\nBook of Mormon, and expressed a belief that the work brought\nforward by Joseph Smith was nothing but the Spaulding romance\nrevised and amplified.  The apparent credibility of the statement\nwas increased by various signed declarations to the effect that\nthe two were alike, though no extracts for comparison were\npresented.  But the \"Manuscript Story\" was lost for a time, and\nin the absence of proof to the contrary, reports of the\nparallelism between the two works multiplied.  By a fortunate\ncircumstance, in 1884, President James H. Fairchild, of Oberlin\nCollege, and a literary friend of his--a Mr. Rice--while\nexamining a heterogeneous collection of old papers which had been\npurchased by the gentleman last named, found the original\nmanuscript of the \"Story.\"\n\nAfter a careful perusal and comparison with the Book of Mormon,\nPresident Fairchild declared in an article published in the New\nYork _Observer_, February 5, 1885:\n\n    The theory of the origin of the Book of Mormon in the\n    traditional manuscript of Solomon Spaulding will\n    probably have to be relinquished.  * * *  Mr. Rice,\n    myself, and others compared it [the Spaulding\n    manuscript] with the Book of Mormon and could detect\n    no resemblance between the two, in general or in\n    detail.  There seems to be no name nor incident common\n    to the two.  The solemn style of the Book of Mormon in\n    imitation of the English scriptures does not appear in\n    the manuscript.  * * *  Some other explanation of the\n    origin of the Book of Mormon must be found if any\n    explanation is required.\n\nThe manuscript was deposited in the library of Oberlin College\nwhere it now reposes.  Still, the theory of the \"Manuscript\nFound,\" as Spaulding's story has come to be known, is\noccasionally pressed into service in the cause of anti-\"Mormon\"\nzeal, by some whom we will charitably believe to be ignorant of\nthe facts set forth by President Fairchild.  A letter of more\nrecent date, written by that honorable gentleman in reply to an\ninquiring correspondent, was published in the _Millennial Star_,\nLiverpool, November 3, 1898, and is as follows:\n\n                                 OBERLIN COLLEGE, OHIO,\n                                      October 17, 1895.\n\n    J. R. HINDLEY, ESQ.,\n\n    Dear Sir: We have in our college library an original\n    manuscript of Solomon Spaulding--unquestionably\n    genuine.\n\n    I found it in 1884 in the hands of Hon. L. L. Rice,\n    of Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands.  He was formerly state\n    printer at Columbus, Ohio, and before that, publisher\n    of a paper in Painesville, whose preceding publisher\n    had visited Mrs. Spaulding and obtained the manuscript\n    from her.  It had lain among his old papers forty\n    years or more, and was brought out by my asking him to\n    look up anti-slavery documents among his papers.\n\n    The manuscript has upon it the signatures of several\n    men of Conneaught, Ohio, who had heard Spaulding read\n    it and knew it to be his.  No one can see it and\n    question its genuineness.  The manuscript has been\n    printed twice, at least;--once by the Mormons of Salt\n    Lake City, and once by the Josephite Mormons of Iowa.\n    The Utah Mormons obtained the copy of Mr. Rice, at\n    Honolulu, and the Josephites got it of me after it\n    came into my possession.\n\n    This manuscript is not the original of the Book of\n    Mormon.\n\n            Yours very truly,\n                    JAMES H. FAIRCHILD.\n\nThe \"Manuscript Story\" has been published in full, and\ncomparisons between the same and the Book of Mormon may be made\nby anyone who has a mind to investigate the subject.[1]\n\n[Footnote 1: For a fuller account of the Book of Mormon, see the\nauthor's \"Articles of Faith,\" Lectures 14 and 15; published at\nSalt Lake City, Utah, 1913.]\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nBut we have anticipated the current of events.  With the\npublication of the Book of Mormon, opposition grew more intense\ntoward the people who professed a belief in the testimony of\nJoseph Smith.  On the 6th of April, 1830, the Church of Jesus\nChrist of Latter-day Saints was formally organized and thus took\non a legal existence.  The scene of this organization was\nFayette, New York, and but six persons were directly concerned as\nparticipants.  At that time there may have been and probably were\nmany times that number who had professed adherence to the newly\nrestored faith; but as the requirements of the law governing the\nformation of religious societies were satisfied by the\napplication of six, only the specified number formally took part.\nSuch was the beginning of the Church, soon to be so universally\nmaligned.  Its origin was small--a germ, an insignificant seed,\nhardly to be thought of as likely to arouse opposition.  What was\nthere to fear in the voluntary association of six men, avowedly\ndevoted to peaceful pursuits and benevolent purposes?  Yet a\nstorm of persecution was threatened from the earliest day.  At\nfirst but a family affair, opposition to the work has involved\nsuccessively the town, the county, the state, the country, and\ntoday the \"Mormon\" question has been accorded extended\nconsideration at the hands of the national government, and indeed\nmost civilized nations have taken cognizance of the same.\n\nLet us observe the contrast between the beginning and the present\nproportions of the Church.  Instead of but six regularly\naffiliated members, and at most two score of adherents, the\norganization numbers today many hundred thousand souls.  In place\nof a single hamlet, in the smallest corner of which the members\ncould have congregated, there now are about seventy stakes of\nZion and about seven hundred organized wards, each ward and stake\nwith its full complement of officers and priesthood\norganizations.  The practise of gathering its proselytes into one\nplace prevents the building up and strengthening of foreign\nbranches; and inasmuch as extensive and strong organizations are\nseldom met with abroad, very erroneous ideas exist concerning the\nstrength of the Church.  Nevertheless, the mustard seed, among\nthe smallest of all seeds, has attained the proportions of a\ntree, and the birds of the air are nesting in its branches; the\nacorn is now an oak offering protection and the sweets of\nsatisfaction to every earnest pilgrim journeying its way for\ntruth.\n\nFrom the organization of the Church, the spirit of emigration\nrested upon the people.  Their eyes were from the first turned in\nanticipation toward the evening sun--not merely that the work of\nproselyting should be carried on in the west, but that the\nheadquarters of the Church should be there established.  The Book\nof Mormon had taught the people the true origin and destiny of\nthe American Indians; and toward this dark-skinned remnant of a\nonce mighty people, the missionaries of \"Mormonism\" early turned\ntheir eyes, and with their eyes went their hearts and their\nhopes.\n\nWithin three months from the beginning, the Church had\nmissionaries among the Lamanites.  It is notable that the Indian\ntribes have generally regarded the religion of the Latter-day\nSaints with favor, seeing in the Book of Mormon striking\nagreement with their own traditions.\n\nThe first well-established seat of the Church was in the pretty\nlittle town of Kirtland, Ohio, almost within sight of Lake Erie;\nand here soon rose the first temple of modern times.  Among their\nmany other peculiarities, the Latter-day Saints are characterized\nas a temple-building people, as history proves the Israel of\nancient times to have been.  In the days of their infancy as a\nChurch, while in the thrall of poverty, and amidst the\npersecution and direful threats of lawless hordes, they laid the\ncornerstone, and in less than three years thereafter they\ncelebrated the dedication of the Kirtland Temple, a structure at\nonce beautiful and imposing.  Even before this time, however,\npopulous settlements of Latter-day Saints had been made in\nJackson County, Missouri; and in the town of Independence a site\nfor a great temple had been selected and purchased; but though\nthe ground has been dedicated with solemn ceremony, the people\nhave not as yet built thereon.\n\nWithin two years of its dedication, the temple in Kirtland was\nabandoned by the people, who were compelled to flee for their\nlives before the onslaughts of mobocrats; but a second temple,\nlarger and more beautiful than the first, soon reared its spires\nin the city of Nauvoo, Illinois.  This structure was destroyed by\nfire, but the temple-building spirit was not to be quenched, and\nin the vales of Utah today are four magnificent temple edifices.\nThe last completed, which was the first begun, is situated in\nSalt Lake City, and is one of the wonders and beauties of that\ncity by the great salt sea.[2]\n\n[Footnote 2: For a detailed account of modern temples, with\nnumerous pictorial views, see \"The House of the Lord,\" by the\npresent author; Salt Lake City, Utah, 1912.]\n\nTo the fervent Latter-day Saint, a temple is not simply a church\nbuilding, a house for religious assembly.  Indeed the \"Mormon\"\ntemples are rarely used as places of general gatherings.  They\nare in one sense educational institutions, regular courses of\nlectures and instruction being maintained in some of them; but\nthey are specifically for baptisms and ordinations, for\nsanctifying prayer, and for the most sacred ceremonies and rites\nof the Church, particularly in the vicarious work for the dead\nwhich is a characteristic of \"Mormon\" faith.  And who that has\ngazed upon these splendid shrines will say that the people who\ncan do so much in poverty and tribulation are insincere?  Bigoted\nthey may seem to those who believe not as they do; fanatics they\nmay be to multitudes who like the proud Pharisee of old thank God\nthey are not as these; but insincere they cannot be, even in the\njudgment of their bitterest opponent, if he be a creature of\nreason.\n\nThe clouds of persecution thickened in Ohio as the intolerant\nzeal of mobs found frequent expression; numerous charges, trivial\nand serious, were made against the leaders of the Church, and\nthey were repeatedly brought before the courts, only to be\nliberated on the usual finding of no cause for action.  Meanwhile\nthe march to the west was maintained.  Soon thousands of converts\nhad rented or purchased homes in Missouri--Independence, Jackson\nCounty, being their center; but from the first, they were\nunpopular among the Missourians.  Their system of equal rights\nwith their marked disapproval of every species of aristocratic\nseparation and self-aggrandizement was declared to be a species\nof communism, dangerous to the state.  An inoffensive\njournalistic organ, _The Star_, published for the purpose of\nproperly presenting the religious tenets of the people, was made\nthe particular object of the mob's rage; the house of its\npublisher was razed to the ground, the press and type were\nconfiscated, and the editor and his family maltreated.  An absurd\nstory was circulated and took firm hold of the masses that the\nBook of Mormon promised the western lands to the people of the\nChurch, and that they intended to take possession of these lands\nby force.  Throughout the book of revelations regarded by the\npeople as law specially directed to them, they are told to save\ntheir riches that they may purchase the inheritance promised them\nof God.  Everywhere are they told to maintain peace; the sword is\nnever offered as their symbol of conquest.  Their gathering is to\nbe like that of the Jews at Jerusalem--a pacific one, and in\ntheir taking possession of what they regard as a land of promise,\nno one previously located there shall be denied his rights.\n\nA spirit of fierce persecution raged in Jackson and surrounding\ncounties of Missouri.  An appeal was made to the executive of the\nstate, but little encouragement was returned.  The lieutenant-\ngovernor, Lilburn W. Boggs, afterward governor, was a pronounced\n\"Mormon\"-hater, and throughout the period of the troubles, he\nmanifested sympathy with the persecutors.\n\nOne of the circuit judges who was asked to issue a peace warrant\nrefused to do so, but advised the \"Mormons\" to arm themselves and\nmeet the force of the outlaws with organized resistance.  This\nadvice was not pleasing to the Latter-day Saints, whose religion\nenjoined tolerance and peace; but they so far heeded it as to arm\na small force; and when the outlaws next came upon them, the\npeople were not entirely unprepared.  A \"Mormon\" rebellion was\nnow proclaimed.  The people had been goaded to desperation.  The\nmilitia was ordered out, and the \"Mormons\" were disarmed.  The\nmob was unrestrained in its eagerness for revenge.  The \"Mormons\"\nengaged able lawyers to institute and maintain legal proceedings\nagainst their foes, and this step, the right to which one would\nthink could be denied no American citizen, called forth such an\nuproar of popular wrath as to affect almost the entire state.\n\nIt was winter; but the inclemency of the year only suited the\nbetter the purpose of the oppressor.  Homes were destroyed, men\ntorn from their families were brutally beaten, tarred and\nfeathered; women with babes in their arms were forced to flee\nhalf-clad into the solitude of the prairie to escape from\nmobocratic violence.  Their sufferings have never yet been fitly\nchronicled by human scribe.  Making their way across the river,\nmost of the refugees found shelter among the more hospitable\npeople of Clay County, and afterward established themselves in\nCaldwell County, therein founding the city of Far West.  County\nand state judges, the governor, and even the President of the\nUnited States, were appealed to in turn for redress.  The\nnational executive, Andrew Jackson, while expressing sympathy for\nthe persecuted people, deplored his lack of power to interfere\nwith the administration or non-administration of state laws; the\nnational officials could do nothing; the state officials would do\nnaught.\n\nBut the expulsion from Jackson County was but a prelude to the\ntragedy soon to follow.  A single scene of the bloody drama is\nknown as the Haun's Mill massacre.  A small settlement had been\nfounded by \"Mormon\" families on Shoal Creek, and here on the 30th\nof October, 1838, a company of two hundred and forty fell upon\nthe hapless settlers and butchered a score.  No respect was paid\nto age or sex; grey heads, and infant lips that scarcely had\nlearned to lisp a word, vigorous manhood and immature youth,\nmother and maiden, fared alike in the scene of carnage, and their\nbodies were thrown into an old well.\n\nIn October, 1838, the Governor of Missouri, the same Lilburn W.\nBoggs, issued his infamous exterminating order, and called upon\nthe militia of the state to execute it.  The language of this\ndocument, signed by the executive of a sovereign state of the\nUnion, declared that the \"Mormons\" must be driven from the state\nor exterminated.  Be it said to the honor of some of the officers\nentrusted with the terrible commission, that when they learned\nits true significance they resigned their authority rather than\nhave anything to do with what they designated a cold-blooded\nbutchery.  But tools were not wanting, as indeed they never have\nbeen, for murder and its kindred outrages.  What the heart of man\ncan conceive, the hand of man will find a way to execute.  The\nawful work was carried out with dread dispatch.  Oh, what a\nrecord to read; what a picture to gaze upon; how awful the fact!\nAn official edict offering expatriation or death to a peaceable\ncommunity with no crime proved against them, and guilty of no\noffense other than that of choosing to differ in opinion from the\nmasses!  American school boys read with emotions of horror of the\nAlbigenses, driven, beaten and killed, with a papal legate\ndirecting the butchery; and of the Vaudois, hunted and hounded\nlike beasts as the effect of a royal decree; and they yet shall\nread in the history of their own country of scenes as terrible as\nthese in the exhibition of injustice and inhuman hate.\n\nIn the dread alternative offered them, the people determined\nagain to abandon their homes; but whither should they go?\nAlready they had fled before the lawless oppressor over well nigh\nhalf a continent; already were they on the frontiers of the\ncountry that they had regarded as the land of promised liberty.\nThus far every move had carried them westward, but farther west\nthey could not go unless they went entirely beyond the country of\ntheir birth, and gave up their hope of protection under the\nConstitution, which to them had ever been an inspired instrument,\nthe majesty of which, as they had never doubted, would be some\nday vindicated, even to securing for them the rights of American\ncitizens.  This time their faces were turned toward the east; and\na host numbering from ten to twelve thousand, including many\nwomen and children, abandoned their homes and fled before their\nmurderous pursuers, reddening the snow with bloody footprints as\nthey journeyed.  They crossed the Mississippi and sought\nprotection on the soil of Illinois.  There their sad condition\nevoked for a time general commiseration.\n\nThe press of the state denounced the treatment of the people by\nthe Missourians and vindicated the character of the \"Mormons\" as\npeaceable and law-abiding citizens.  College professors published\nexpressions of their horror over the cruel crusade; state\nofficials, including even the governor, gave substantial evidence\nof their sympathy and good feeling.  This lull in the storm of\noutrage that had so long raged about them offered a strange\ncontrast to their usual treatment.  Let it not be thought that\nall the people of Illinois were their friends; from the first,\nopposition was manifest, but their condition was so greatly\nbettered that they might have thought the advent of their Zion to\nbe near at hand.\n\nI stated that professional men, and even college professors\nraised their voices in commiseration of the \"Mormon\" situation\nand in denouncing the \"Mormon\" oppressors.  Prof. Turner of\nIllinois College wrote:\n\n    Who began the quarrel?  Was it the \"Mormons?\"  Is it\n    not notorious on the contrary that they were hunted\n    like wild beasts from county to county before they\n    made any resistance?  Did they ever, as a body,\n    refuse obedience to the laws, when called upon to do\n    so, until driven to desperation by repeated threats\n    and assaults by the mob?  Did the state ever make\n    one decent effort to defend them as fellow-citizens\n    in their rights or to redress their wrongs?  Let the\n    conduct of its governors and attorneys and the fate\n    of their final petitions answer!  Have any who\n    plundered and openly insulted the \"Mormons\" ever\n    been brought to the punishment due to their crimes?\n    Let boasting murderers of begging and helpless\n    infancy answer!  Has the state ever remunerated even\n    those known to be innocent for the loss of either\n    their property or their arms?  Did either the pulpit\n    or the press through the state raise a note of\n    remonstrance or alarm?  Let the clergymen who\n    abetted and the editors who encouraged the mob\n    answer!\n\nAs a sample of the press comments against the brutality of the\nMissourians I quote a paragraph from the Quincy _Argus_, March\n16, 1839:\n\n    We have no language sufficiently strong for the\n    expression of our indignation and shame at the recent\n    transaction in a sister state, and that state,\n    Missouri, a state of which we had long been proud,\n    alike for her men and history, but now so fallen that\n    we could wish her star stricken from the bright\n    constellation of the Union.  We say we know of no\n    language sufficiently strong for the expression of\n    our shame and abhorrence of her recent conduct.  She\n    has written her own character in letters of blood,\n    and stained it by acts of merciless cruelty and\n    brutality that the waters of ages cannot efface.  It\n    will be observed that an organized mob, aided by\n    many of the civil and military officers of Missouri,\n    with Gov. Boggs at their head, have been the\n    prominent actors in this business, incited too, it\n    appears, against the \"Mormons\" by political hatred,\n    and by the additional motives of plunder and revenge.\n    They have but too well put in execution their threats\n    of extermination and expulsion, and fully wreaked\n    their vengeance on a body of industrious and\n    enterprising men, who had never wronged nor wished to\n    wrong them, but on the contrary had ever comported\n    themselves as good and honest citizens, living under\n    the same laws, and having the same right with\n    themselves to the sacred immunities of life, liberty\n    and property.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nSettling in and about the obscure village of Commerce, the\n\"Mormon\" refugees soon demonstrated anew the marvelous\nrecuperative power with which they were endowed, and a city\nseemed to spring from the earth.  Nauvoo--the City Beautiful--was\nthe name given to this new abiding place.  It was situated but a\nfew miles from Quincy, in a bend of the majestic river, giving\nthe town three water fronts.  It seemed to nestle there as if the\nFather of Waters was encircling it with his mighty arm.  Soon a\nglorious temple crowned the hill up which the city had run in its\nrapid growth.  Their settlements extended into Iowa, then a\nterritory.  The governors of both Iowa and Ohio testified to the\nworthiness of the Latter-day Saints as citizens, and pledged them\nthe protection of the commonwealth.  The city of Nauvoo was\nchartered by the state of Illinois, and the rights of local\nself-government were assured to its citizens.\n\nA military organization, the \"Nauvoo Legion,\" was authorized, and\nthe establishment of a university was provided for; both these\norganizations were successfully effected.  It was here that a\nmemorial was prepared and sent to the national government,\nreciting the outrages of Missouri, and asking reparation.  Joseph\nSmith himself, the head of the delegation, had a personal\ninterview with President Van Buren, in which the grievances of\nthe Latter-day Saints were presented.  Van Buren replied in words\nthat will not be forgotten, \"Your cause is just, but I can do\nnothing for you.\"\n\nThe peaceful conditions at first characteristic of their Illinois\nsettlement were not to continue.  The element of political\ninfluence asserted itself and the \"Mormons\" bade fair to soon\nhold the balance of power in local affairs.  The characteristic\nunity, so marked in connection with every phase of the people's\nexistence, promised too much; immigration into Hancock county was\ncontinuous, and the growing power of the Latter-day Saints was\nviewed with apprehension.  With this as the true motive, many\npretexts for annoyance were found; and arrests, trials, and\nacquittals were common experiences of the Church officers.\n\nA charge, which promised to prove as devoid of foundation as had\nthe excuses for the fifty arrests preceding it, led Joseph Smith,\npresident of the Church, and Hyrum Smith, the patriarch, to again\nsurrender themselves to the officers of the law.  They were taken\nto Carthage, Joseph having declared to friends his belief that he\nwas going to the slaughter.  Governor Ford gave to the prisoners\nhis personal guarantee for their safety; but mob violence was\nsupreme, more mighty than the power of the state militia placed\nthere to guard the prison; and these men were shot to death, even\nwhile under the governor's plighted pledge of protection.  Hyrum\nfell first; and Joseph, appearing at one of the windows in the\nsecond story, received the leaden missiles of the besieging mob,\nwhich was led by a recreant though professed minister of the\ngospel.  But the brutish passion of the mob was not yet sated;\npropping the body against a well-curb in the jail-yard, the\nmurderers poured a volley of bullets into the corpse, and fled.\nThus was the unholy vow of the mob fulfilled, that as law could\nnot touch the \"Mormon\" leaders, powder and ball should.  John\nTaylor, who became years afterward president of the Church, was\nin the jail at the same time; he received four bullets, and was\nleft supposedly dead.\n\nJoseph Smith had been more than the ecclesiastical leader; his\npresence and personality had been ever powerful as a stimulus to\nthe hearts of the people; none knew his personal power better\nthan the members of his own flock, unless indeed it were the\nwolves who were ever seeking to harry the fold.  It had been the\nboast of anti-\"Mormons\" that with Joseph Smith removed, the\nChurch would crumble to pieces of itself.  In the personality of\ntheir leader, it was thought, lay the secret of the people's\nstrength; and like the Philistines, the enemy struck at the\nsupposed bond of power.  Terrible as was the blow of the fearful\nfatality, the Church soon emerged from its despairing state of\npoignant grief, and rose mightier than before.  It is the faith\nof this people that while the work of God on earth is carried on\nby men, yet mortals are but instruments in the Creator's hands\nfor the accomplishment of divine purposes.  The death of the\npresident disorganized the First Presidency of the Church; but\nthe official body next in authority, the Council of the Twelve,\nstepped to the front, and the progress of the Church was\nunhindered.  The work of the ministry was not arrested; the\npeople paused but long enough to bury their dead and clear their\neyes from the blinding tears that fell.\n\nLet us take a retrospective glance at this unusual man.  Though\nhis opponents deny him the divine commission with which his\nfriends believe he was charged, they all, friends and foes alike,\nadmit that he was a great man.  Through the testimony of his\nlife's work and the sanctifying seal of his martyrdom, thousands\nhave come to acknowledge him all that he professed to be--a\nmessenger from God to the people.  He is not without admirers\namong men who deny the truth of his principles and the faith of\nhis people.\n\nA historical writer of the time, Josiah Quincy, a few weeks after\nthe martyrdom, wrote:\n\n    It is by no means improbable that some future text book\n    for the use of generations yet unborn, will contain a\n    question something like this: \"What historical American\n    of the nineteenth century has exerted the most powerful\n    influence upon the destinies of his countrymen?\"  And it\n    is by no means impossible that the answer to that\n    interrogatory may be thus written--\"Joseph Smith, the\n    Mormon Prophet.\"  And the reply, absurd as it doubtless\n    seems to most men now living, may be an obvious\n    commonplace to their descendants.  History deals in\n    surprises and paradoxes quite as startling as this.  A\n    man who established a religion in this age of free\n    debate, who was and is today accepted by hundreds of\n    thousands as a direct emissary from the Most High--such\n    a rare human being is not to be disposed of by pelting\n    his memory with unsavory epithets.  * * *  The most\n    vital questions Americans are asking each other today,\n    have to deal with this man and what he has left us.\n    * * *  Joseph Smith, claiming to be an inspired teacher,\n    faced adversity such as few men have been called to\n    meet, enjoyed a brief season of prosperity such as few\n    men have ever attained, and finally * * * went\n    cheerfully to a martyr's death.  When he surrendered\n    his person to Governor Ford, in order to prevent the\n    shedding of blood, the Prophet had a presentiment of\n    what was before him.  \"I am going like a lamb to the\n    slaughter,\" he is reported to have said, \"but I am as\n    calm as a summer's morning.  I have a conscience void of\n    offense, and shall die innocent.\"\n\nThe \"Mormon\" people regarded it as a duty to make every proper\neffort to bring the perpetrators of the foul assassination of\ntheir leaders to justice; sixty names were presented to the local\ngrand jury, and of the persons so designated, nine were indicted.\nAfter a farcical semblance of a trial, these were acquitted, and\nthus was notice, sanctioned by the constituted authority of the\nlaw, served upon all anti-\"Mormons\" of Illinois, that they were\nsafe in any assault they might choose to make on the subjects of\ntheir hate.  The mob was composed of apt pupils in the learning\nof this lesson.  Personal outrages were of every-day occurrence;\nhusbandmen were captured in their fields, beaten, tortured, until\nthey barely had strength left to promise compliance with the\ndemands of their assailants,--that they would leave the state.\nHouses were fired while the tenants were wrapped in uneasy\nslumber within; indeed, one entire town, that of Morley, was by\nsuch incendiarism reduced to ashes.  Women and children were\naroused in the night, and compelled to flee unclad or perish in\ntheir burning dwellings.\n\nBut what of the internal work of the Church during these trying\nperiods?  As the winds of winter, the storms of the year's\ndeepest night, do but harden and strengthen the mountain pine,\nwhose roots strike the deeper, whose branches thicken, whose\ntwigs multiply by the inclemency that would be fatal to the\nexotic palm, raised by man with hot-house nursing, so the new\nsect continued its growth, partly in spite of, partly because of,\nthe storms to which it was subjected.  It was no green-house\ngrowth, struggling for existence in a foreign clime, but a fit\nplant for the soil of a free land; and there existed in the minds\nof unprejudiced observers not a doubt as to its vitality.  The\nChurch soon found its equilibrium again after the shock of its\ncruel experience.  Brigham Young, who for a decade had been\nidentified with the cause, who had received his full share of\npersecution at mobocratic hands, now stood at the head of the\npresiding body in the priesthood of the Church.  The effect of\nthis man's wonderful personality, his surprising natural ability,\nand to the people, the proofs of his divine acceptance, were\napparent from the first.\n\nMigration from other states and from foreign shores continued to\nswell the \"Mormon\" band, and this but angered the oppressors the\nmore.  The members of the Church, recognizing the inevitable long\nbefore predicted by their murdered prophet, that the march of the\nChurch would be westward, redoubled their efforts to complete the\ngrand temple upon which they had not ceased to work through all\nthe storms of persecution.  This structure, solemnly dedicated to\ntheir God, they entered, and there received their anointings and\ntheir blessings; then they abandoned it to the desecration and\nself-condemning outrages of their foes.  For the mob's decree had\ngone forth, that the \"Mormons\" must leave Illinois.  After a few\nsanguinary encounters, the leaders of the people acceded to the\ndemands of their assailants, and agreed to leave early in the\nfollowing spring; but the departure was not speedy enough to\nsuit, and the lawless persecution was waged the more ruthlessly.\n\nSoon the soil of Illinois was free from \"Mormon\" tread; Nauvoo\nwas deserted, her 20,000 inhabitants expatriated.  Colonel Thomas\nL. Kane, a conspicuous figure at this stage of our country's\nhistory, was traveling eastward at the time, and reached Nauvoo\nshortly after its evacuation.  In a lecture before the Historical\nSociety of Pennsylvania, he related his experience in this\nsometime abode of the Saints.  I paraphrase a portion of his\neloquent address.\n\nSighting the city from the western shore of the mighty\nMississippi, as it nestled in the river's encircling embrace, he\ncrossed to its principal wharf, and, there to his surprise, found\nno soul to meet him.  The stillness that everywhere prevailed was\npainful, broken only by an occasional faint echo of boisterous\nshout or ribald song from a distance.  The town was in a dream,\nand the warrior trod lightly lest he wake it in affright, for he\nplainly saw that it had not slumbered long.  No grass grew in the\npavement joints; recent footprints were still distinct in the\ndusty thoroughfares.  The visitor made his way unmolested into\nwork-shops and smithies; tools lay as last used; on the\ncarpenter's bench was the unfinished frame, on the floor were the\nshavings fresh and odorous; the wood was piled in readiness\nbefore the baker's oven; the blacksmith's forge was cold, but the\nshop looked as though the occupant had just gone off for a\nholiday.  The gallant soldier entered gardens unchallenged by\nowner, human guard, or watchful dog; he might have supposed the\npeople hidden or dead in their houses; but the doors were not\nfastened, and he entered to explore, there were fresh ashes on\nthe hearth; no great accumulation of the dust of time was on\nfloors or furniture; the awful quiet compelled him to tread\na-tip-toe as if threading the aisles of an unoccupied cathedral.\nHe hastened to the graveyard, though surely the city had not been\ndepopulated by pestilence.  No; there were a few stones newly\nset, some sods freshly turned in this sacred acre of God, but\nwhere can you find a cemetery of a living town with no such\nevidence of recent interment?  There were fields of heavy grain,\nthe bounteous harvest rotting on the ground; there were orchards\ndropping their rich and rosy fruit to spoil beneath; not a hand\nto gather or save.\n\nBut in a suburban corner, he came across the smoldering embers of\na barbecue fire, with fragments of flesh and other remnants of a\nfeast.  Hereabout houses had been demolished; and there beyond,\naround the great temple that had first attracted his attention\nfrom the Iowa shore, armed men were bivouacked.  This worthy\nrepresentative of our country's service was challenged by the\ndrunken crowd, and made to give an account of himself, and to\nanswer for having crossed the river without a permit from the\nhead of the band.  Finding that he was a stranger, they related\nto him in fiendish glee their recent exploits of pillage, rapine,\nand murder.  They conducted him through the temple; everywhere\nwere marks of their brutish acts; its altars of prayer were\nbroken; the baptismal font had been so \"diligently desecrated as\nto render the apartment in which it was contained too noisome to\nabide in.\"  There in the steeple close by the \"scar of divine\nwrath\" left by a recent thunderbolt, were broken covers of liquor\nand drinking vessels.\n\nSickened with the sight, disgusted with this spectacle of\noutrage, the colonel recrossed the river at nightfall, beating\nupward, for the wind had freshened.  Attracted by a faint light\nnear the bank, he approached the spot, there to find a few\nhaggard faces surrounding one who seemed to be in the last stages\nof fever.  The sufferer was partially protected by something like\na tent made from a couple of bed sheets; and amid such\nenvironment, the spirit was pluming itself for flight.  Making\nhis way through this camp of misery, he heard the sobbings of\nchildren hungry and sick; there were men and women dying from\nwounds or disease, without a semblance of shelter or other\nphysical comfort; wives in the pangs of maternity, ushering into\nthe world innocent babes doomed to be motherless from their\nbirth.  And at intervals, to the ears of those outcasts, the sick\nand the dying, the wind brought the soul-piercing sounds of the\nreveling mob in the distant city, the scrap of vulgar song, the\nshocking oath, shrieked from the temple tower in the madness of\ndrunken orgies.\n\nThis, however, was but the rear remnant of the' expatriated\nChristian band.  The van was already far on its way toward the\ninviting wilderness of the all but unknown west.  But the\nwanderers were not wholly without friends; certain Indian tribes,\nthe Omahas and the Potawatomis, welcomed them to their lands,\ninviting them to camp within their territory during the coming\nwinter.  \"Welcome,\" said these children of the forest, \"we too\nhave been driven from our pleasant homes east of the great river,\nto these damp and unhealthful bottoms; you now, white men, have\nbeen driven forth to the prairies; we are fellow-sufferers.\nWelcome, brothers.\"\n\nIn return much assistance was rendered by the white refugees to\ntheir, shall I say savage friends?  If it was civilization the\nwanderers had left, then indeed might the red men of the forest\nhave felt proud of their distinction.  But the Indian agent, a\nChristian gentleman, ordered the \"Mormons\" to move on and leave\nthe reservation which a kind government had provided for its red\nchildren.  An order from President Polk, who had been appealed to\nby Colonel Kane, gave the people permission to remain for a short\nseason.  The government of Iowa had courteously assured them\nprotection while passing through that territory.  As soon as the\npeople were well under way, a thorough organization was effected.\nRemembering the toilsome desert march from Egypt to Canaan, the\npeople assumed the name, \"Camp of Israel.\"  The camp consisted of\ntwo main divisions, and each was sub-divided into companies of\nhundreds, fifties, and tens, with captains to direct.  An officer\nwith one hundred volunteers went ahead of the main body to select\na route and prepare a road.  At this time, there were over one\nthousand wagons of the \"Mormons\" rolling westward, and the line\nof march soon reached from the Mississippi to Council Bluffs.\nThere were in the company not half enough draft animals for the\narduous march, and but an insufficient number of able-bodied men\nto tend the camps.  The women had to assist in driving teams and\nstock, and in other labors of the journey.  Yet with their\ncharacteristic cheerfulness the people made the best, and that\nproved to be a great deal, out of their lot.  When the camp\nhalted, a city seemed to spring as if by magic from the prairie\nsoil.  Concerts and social gatherings were usual features of the\nevening rests.\n\nBut another great event disturbed the equanimity of the camp.\nWar had broken out between Mexico and the United States.  General\nTaylor's victories in the early stages of the strife had been all\nbut decisive, but the Republic was on march to the western ocean\nand the provinces of New Mexico and California were in her path.\nThese two provinces comprised in addition to the territory now\ndesignated by those names, Utah, Nevada, portions of Wyoming and\nColorado, as also Arizona; while Oregon, then claimed by Great\nBritain, included Washington, Idaho, and portions of Montana and\nWyoming.  It was the plan of the national administration to\noccupy these provinces at the earliest moment possible; and a\ncall was made upon the \"Mormon\" refugees to contribute to the\ngeneral force by furnishing a battalion of five hundred men to\ntake part in the war with Mexico.  The surprise which the message\nof the government officer produced in the camp amounted almost to\ndismay.  Five hundred men fit to bear arms to be drafted from\nthat camp!  What would become of the rest?  Already women and\nboys had been pressed into service to do the work of men; already\nthe sick and the halt had been neglected; and many graves marked\nthe path they had traversed, whose tenants had passed to their\nlast sleep through lack of care.\n\nBut how long did they hesitate?  Scarcely an hour; it was the\ncall of their country.  True, they were even then leaving the\nnational soil, but not of their own will.  To them their country\nwas and is the promised land, the Lord's chosen place, the land\nof Zion.  \"You shall have your battalion,\" said Brigham Young to\nCaptain Allen, the muster officer, \"and if there are not young\nmen enough, we will take the old men, and if they are not enough,\nwe will take the women.\"  Within a week from the time President\nPolk's message was received, the entire force, in all five\nhundred and forty-nine souls, was on the march to Fort\nLeavenworth.  Their path from the Missouri to the Pacific led\nthem over two thousand miles, much of this distance being\nmeasured through deserts, which prior to that time had not been\ntrodden by civilized foot.\n\nColonel Cooke, the commander of the \"Mormon\" Battalion, declared,\n\"History may be searched in vain for an equal march of infantry.\"\nMany were disabled through the severity of the march, and\nnumerous cases of sickness and death were chronicled.  General\nKearney and his successor, Governor R. B. Mason, as military\ncommandants of California, spoke in high praise of this\norganization, and in their official reports declared that they\nhad made efforts to prolong the battalion's term of service; but\nmost of the men chose to rejoin their families as soon as they\ncould secure their honorable discharge.\n\nBut to return to the Camp of Israel: A pioneer party, consisting\nof a hundred and forty and four, preceded the main body; and the\nline of the migrating hosts soon stretched from the Missouri to\nthe valley of the Great Salt Lake.  Wagons there were, as also\nsome horses and men, but all too few for the journey; and a great\npart of the company walked the full thousand miles across the\ngreat plains and the forbidding deserts of the west.  In the\nBlack Hills region, the pioneers were delayed a week at the\nPlatte, a stream, which, though usually fordable at this point\nwas now so swollen as to make fording impossible.  Here, too,\ntheir provisions were well nigh exhausted.  Game had not been\nplentiful, and the \"Mormon\" pioneers were threatened with the\ndirest privations.  In their slow march they had been passed by a\nnumber of well-equipped parties, some of them from Missouri bound\nfor the Pacific; but most of these were overtaken on the easterly\nside of the river.  Amongst the effects of the \"Mormon\" party was\na leathern boat, which on water served the legitimate purpose of\nits maker and on land was made to do service as a wagon box.\nThis, together with rafts specially constructed, was now put to\ngood use in ferrying across the river not alone themselves and\ntheir little property, but the other companies and their loads.\nFor this service they were well paid in camp provisions.\n\nThus, the expatriated pioneers found themselves relieved from\nwant with their meal sacks replenished in the heart of the\nwilderness.  Many may call it superstition, but some will regard\nit as did the thankful travelers--an interposition of Providence,\nand an answer to their prayers--an event to be compared, they\nsaid, to the feeding of Israel with manna in the wilderness of\nold.\n\nAfter over three months' journeying, the pioneer company reached\nthe valley of the Great Salt Lake; and at the first sight of it,\nBrigham Young declared it to be the halting place--the gathering\ncenter for the Saints.  But what was there inviting in this\nwilderness spread out like a scroll barren of inviting message,\nand empty but for the picture it presented of wondrous scenic\ngrandeur?  Looking from the Wasatch barrier, the colonists gazed\nupon a scene of entrancing though forbidding beauty.  A barren,\narid plain, rimmed by mountains like a literal basin, still\noccupied in its lowest parts by the dregs of what had once filled\nit to the brim; no green meadows, not a tree worthy the name,\nscarce a patch of greensward to entice the adventurous wanderers\ninto the valley.  The slopes were covered with sagebrush,\nrelieved by patches of chaparral oak and squaw-bush; the wild\nsunflower lent its golden hue to intensify the sharp contrasts.\nOff to the westward lay the lake, making an impressive,\nuninviting picture in its severe, unliving beauty; from its blue\nwastes somber peaks rose as precipitous islands, and about the\nshores of this dead sea were saline flats that told of the\nscorching heat and thirsty atmosphere of this parched region.  A\nturbid river ran from south to north athwart the valley,\n\"dividing it in twain,\" as a historian of the day has written,\n\"as if the vast bowl in the intense heat of the Master Potter's\nfires, in process of formation had cracked asunder.\"  Small\nstreams of water started in rippling haste from the snow-caps of\nthe mountains toward the lake, but most of them were devoured by\nthe thirsty sands of the valley before their journey was half\ncompleted.\n\nSuch was the scene of desolation that greeted the pioneer band.\nA more forsaken spot they had not passed in all their wanderings.\nAnd is this the promised land?  This is the very place of which\nBridger spake when he proffered a thousand dollars in gold for\nthe first bushel of grain that could be raised here.  With such a\nCanaan spread out before them, was it not wholly pardonable if\nsome did sigh with longing for the leeks and flesh-pots of the\nEgypt they had left, or wished to pass by this land and seek a\nfairer home?  Two of the three women who belonged to the party\nwere utterly disappointed.  \"Weak, worn, and weary as I am,\" said\none of these heroines, \"I would rather push on another thousand\nmiles than stay here.\"\n\nBut the voice of their leader was heard.  \"The very place,\" said\nBrigham Young, and in his prophetic mind there rose a vision of\nwhat was to come.  Not for a moment did he doubt the future.  He\nsaw a multitude of towns and cities, hamlets and villas filling\nthis and neighboring valleys, with the fairest of all, a city\nwhose beauty of situation, whose wealth of resource should become\nknown throughout the world, rising from the most arid site of the\nburning desert before him, hard by the barren salt shores of the\nwatery waste.  There in the very heart of the parched wilderness\nshould stand the House of the Lord, with other temples in valleys\nbeyond the horizon of his gaze.\n\nWithin a few hours after the arrival of the vanguard upon the\nbanks of what is now known as City Creek--the mountain stream\nwhich today furnishes Salt Lake City part of her water\nsupply--plows were put to work; but the hard-baked soil, never\nbefore disturbed by the efforts of man to till, refused to yield\nto the share.  A dam was thrown across the stream and the\nsoftening liquid was spread upon the flat that had been chosen\nfor the first fields.  The planting season had already well nigh\npassed, and not a day could be lost.  Potatoes and other seed\nwere put in, and the land was again flooded.  Such was the\nbeginning of the irrigation system, which soon became\nco-extensive with the area occupied by the \"Mormon\" settlers, a\nsystem which under the blessing of Providence, has proved to be\nthe veritable magic touch by which the desert has been made a\nfield of richness and a garden of beauty; a system which now\nafter many decades of successful trial is held up by the nation's\nwise and great ones to be the one practicable method of\nreclaiming our country's vast domains of arid lands.  It was on\nthe 24th of July, 1847, that the main part of the pioneer band\nentered the valley of the Great Salt Lake, and that day of the\nyear is observed as a legal holiday in Utah.  From that time to\nthe present, the stream of immigration to these valleys has never\nceased.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nThe dangers of the first company's migration were surpassed by\nthose of parties who subsequently braved the terrors of the\nplains.  In their enthusiasm to reach the gathering place of\ntheir people, many of the Latter-day Saints set out from Iowa,\nwhere railway facilities had their termination, with hand-carts\nonly as a means of conveyance.  Today there are living in the\nsmiling vales of Utah, men and women who then as boys and girls\ntrudged wearily across the prairies, dragging the lumbering carts\nthat contained their entire provision against starvation and\nfreezing.  Such handcart companies were organized with care; a\nlimited amount of freight was allowed to each division; milch\ncattle and a very few draft-animals, with wagons for conveying\nthe heavier baggage and to carry the sick, were assigned.  The\ntale of those dreary marches has never yet been told; the song of\nthe heroism and sacrifice displayed by these pilgrims for\nconscience sake is awaiting a singer worthy the theme.  Wading\nthe streams with carts in tow, or in cases of unfordable streams,\nstopping to construct rafts; at times living on reduced rations\nof but a few ounces of meal per day; lying down at night with a\nprayer in the heart that they wake no more on earth, a prayer\nwhich had its fulfilment in hundreds of cases; the dying heaving\ntheir parting sighs in the arms of loved ones who were soon to\nfollow, they journeyed on.\n\nThe inevitable catastrophes and accidents of travel robbed them\nof their substance.  Hostile savages stampeded their cattle, or\nopenly attacked and plundered the trains.  But on they went,\nnever swerving from the course.  These later companies needed no\nchart nor compass to guide them over the desert; the road was\nplain from the marks of former camps, and yet more so from the\ngraves of friends and loved ones who had started before on the\nroad to the earthly Zion and found that it led them to the\nmartyr's entrance to heaven, graves that were marked perhaps but\nby a rude inscription cut on a pole or a board.  And even these\nnarrow lodgings had not been left inviolate; the wolves of the\nplains had too often succeeded in unearthing and rending the\nbodies.  Every company thus made the course the plainer; each of\nthem added to the silent population of the desert; sometimes half\na score were interred at one camp, and of one company over a\nfourth were thus left beside the prairie road.  Now we traverse\nthe self-same track in a day and a night, reclining on luxurious\ncushions of ease, covering fifty miles while dining in luxury;\nand we avert the ennui of the journey by berating the railway\ncompany for lack of speed.\n\nRelief trains were continually on the way between the valley of\nthe Salt Lake and the Missouri; and the remnants of many a\ncompany were saved from what appeared to be certain destruction\nby the opportune arrival of these rescuing parties.  Such relief\ncame from those who were themselves destitute and almost\nstarving.  Brigham Young with a few of the chief officials of the\nChurch, and aids, returned eastward on such an errand of rescue\nwithin a few weeks after first reaching the valley.  The region\nto which the early settlers came was in no wise a typical land of\npromise; it did not flow spontaneously with milk and honey.\n\nDrought and unseasonable frosts made the first year's farming\nexperiments but doubtful successes, and in the succeeding spring\nthe land was visited by the devastating plague of the Rocky\nMountain crickets.  They swarmed down in innumerable hordes upon\nthe fields, destroying the growing crops as they advanced,\ndevouring all before them, leaving the land a desert in their\ntrack.  The people scarcely knew how to withstand the assault of\nthis new foe; they drove the marauders into trenches there to be\ndrowned or burned; men, women and every child that could swing a\nstick, were called to the ranks in this insect war; and with all\ntheir fighting, the people forgot not to pray for deliverance,\nand they fasted, too, for the best of reasons.\n\nAnd as they watched, and prayed, and worked, they saw approaching\nfrom the north and west a veritable host of winged creatures of\nmore formidable proportions still; and these bore down upon the\nfields as though coming to complete the devastation.  But see!\nthese are of the color that betokens peace; they are the gulls,\nwhite and beautiful, advancing upon the hosts of the black\ndestroyers.  Falling upon the people's foes, they devoured them\nby the thousand, and when filled to repletion, disgorged and\nfeasted again.  And they did not stop till the crickets were\ndestroyed.  Again the skeptic will say this was but chance; but\nthe people accepted that chance as a providential ruling in their\nbehalf, and reverently did they give thanks.\n\nToday the wanton killing of a gull in Utah is an offense in law;\nbut stronger than legal proscription, more powerful than fear of\njudicial penalties, is the popular sentiment in favor of these\nwhite-winged deliverers.  Every year come these graceful\ncreatures to spend the springtime in the fields and upon the\nlakes of Utah; and right well do they feel their welcome, for\nthey are habitually so tame and fearless that they may almost be\ntouched by the hand before they take flight.\n\nBy the autumn of 1848, five thousand people had already reached\nthe valley, and the food problem was a most difficult one.  The\nwinter was severe; and famine, stark and inexorable, threw its\ndread shadow over the people.  There seemed to be an entry in the\nbook of fate that every possible test of human endurance and\nintegrity should be applied to this pilgrim band.  Without\ndistinction as to former station, they went out and dug the roots\nof weeds, gathered the tenderest of the coarse grass, thistles,\nand wild berries, and thus did they subsist; upon such did they\nfeast with thanksgiving, until a less scanty harvest relieved\ntheir wants.\n\nIt was at this time that the gold fever was at its height, a\nconsequence of the discovery of the precious metal in California,\nin which discovery, indeed, certain members of the disbanded\n\"Mormon\" Battalion, working their way eastward, were most\nprominent.  Some of the \"Mormon\" settlers, becoming infected with\nthe malady, hastened westward, but the counsel of the Church\nauthorities prevailed to keep all but a few at home.  These\npeople had not left the country of their birth or adoption to\nseek gold; nor bright jewels of the mine; nor the wealth of seas;\nnor the spoils of war; they sought and believed they had found, a\nfaith's pure shrine.  But the gold-seekers hastening westward,\nand the successful miners returning eastward, halted at the\n\"Mormon\" settlements and there replenished their supplies,\nleaving their gold to enrich the people of the desert.\n\nBut of what use is gold in the wilderness!  In the old legend a\nfamishing Arab, finding a well filled bag upon the sand was\nthrilled with joy at the thought of dates--his bread; and then\nwas cast into the depths of despair when he realized that he had\nfound nothing but a bag of costly pearls.  The settlers by the\nlake needed horses and wagons, tools, implements of husbandry and\nbuilding; and gold was valuable only as it represented a means of\nobtaining these.  Gold became so plentiful and was withal so\nworthless in the desert colony that men refused to take it for\ntheir labor.  The yellow metal was collected in buckets and\nexported to the States in exchange for the goods so much desired.\nMerchandise brought in by caravans of \"prairie schooners,\" was\nsold as fast as it could be put out; and strict rules were\nenforced allowing but a proportionate amount to each purchaser.\n\nWithin a few months after the first settlement of Utah, public\nschools were established; and one of the early acts of the\nprovisional government was to grant a charter to the Deseret\nUniversity, now known as the University of Utah.\n\nUp to 1849, Utah had no political history.  Settling in a Mexican\nprovince, the contest to determine its future ownership by the\nUnited States then in progress, the people in common with most\npioneer communities established their own form of government.\nBut in February, 1848, the treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo gave\nCalifornia to the United States; months passed, however, before\nthe news of the change reached the west.  Early in 1849, a call\nhad been issued to \"all the citizens of that portion of Upper\nCalifornia lying to the east of the Sierra Nevada mountains\" to\nmeet in convention at Great Salt Lake City; and there a petition\nwas prepared asking of Congress the rights of self-government;\nand pending action, a temporary regime was established, under the\nname of the Provisional Government of the State of Deseret.\n\n\"Utah\" was not the choice of the people as the name of their\nstate; that word served but to recall the degraded tribes who had\ncontested the settlement of the valleys.  Deseret, a Book of\nMormon name for the honey bee, was more appropriate.  The\npetition of the people was denied in part, and, in 1850 was\nestablished the territorial form of government in Utah.\nConcerning the period of the provisional government, such men as\nGunnison, Stansbury, and other federal officials on duty in the\nwest, have recorded their praises of the \"Mormon\" colonists in\nofficial reports.  But with the un-American system of territorial\ngovernment came troubles.\n\nAt first, many of the territorial officials were appointed from\namong the settlers themselves; thus, Brigham Young was the first\ngovernor; but strangers, who knew not the people nor their ways,\nfilled with prejudice from the false reports they had heard, came\nfrom the east to govern the colonists in the desert.  Of the\nfederal appointees thus forced upon the people of Utah, many made\nfor themselves most unenviable records.\n\nSome of them were broken politicians, professional\noffice-seekers, with no desire but to secure the greatest\npossible gain out of their appointment.  With effrontery that\nwould shock the modesty of a savage, the non-\"Mormon\" party\nadopted and flagrantly displayed the carpet-bag as the badge of\ntheir profession.  But not all the officials sent to Utah from\nafar were of this type; some of them were honorable and upright\nmen, and amongst this class the \"Mormon\" people reckon a number\nwho, while opposed to their religious tenets, were nevertheless\nsincere and honest in the opposition they evinced.\n\nIn the early part of 1857, the published libels upon the people\nreceived many serious additions, the principal of which was\npromulgated in connection with the resignation of Judge Drummond\nof the Utah federal court.  In his last letter to the United\nStates attorney-general, he declared that his life was no longer\nsafe in Utah, and that he had been compelled to flee from his\nbench; but the most serious charge of all was that the people had\ndestroyed the records of the court, and that they had resented,\nwith hostile demonstration, his protests; in short, that justice\nwas dethroned in Utah, and that the people were in a state of\nopen rebellion.\n\nWith mails three months apart, news traveled slowly; but as soon\nas word of this infamous charge reached Salt Lake City, the clerk\nof the court, Judge Drummond's clerk, sent a letter by express to\nthe attorney-general, denying under oath the judge's statements,\nand attesting the declaration with official seal.  The records,\nhe declared, had been untouched except by official hands, and\nfrom the time of the court's establishment the files had been\nsafe and were then in his personal keeping.  But, before the\nclerk's communication had reached its destination, so difficult\nis it for stately truth to overtake flitting falsehood, the\nmischief had been done.  Upon the most prejudiced reports utterly\nunfounded in fact, with a carelessness which even his personal\nand political friends found no ample means of explaining away,\nPresident Buchanan allowed himself to be persuaded that a\n\"Mormon\" rebellion existed, and ordered an army of over two\nthousand men to proceed straightway to Utah to subdue the rebels.\nSuccessors to the governor and other territorial officials were\nappointed, among whom there was not a single resident of Utah;\nand the military force was charged with the duty of installing\nthe foreign appointees.\n\nWith great dispatch and under cover of secrecy, so that the Utah\nrebels might be taken by surprise, the army set out on the march.\nBefore the troops reached the Rocky Mountains, the sworn\nstatement from the clerk of the supreme court of Utah denying the\ncharges made by Judge Drummond became public property; and about\nthe same time men who had come from Utah to New York direct,\npublished over their own signatures a declaration that all was\npeaceful in and about the settlements of Utah.  The public eye\nbegan to twitch, and soon to open wide; the conviction was\ngrowing that someone had blundered.  But to retract would be a\nplain confession of error; blunders must be covered up.\n\nLet us leave the soldiers on their westward march, and ascertain\nhow the news of the projected invasion reached the people of\nUtah, and what effect the tidings produced.  Certain \"Mormon\"\nbusiness agents, operating in Missouri, heard of the hostile\nmovement.  At first they were incredulous, but when the overland\nmail carrier from the west delivered his pouch and obtained his\nreceipt, but was refused the bag of Utah mail with the\npostmaster's statement that he had been ordered to hold all mail\nfor Utah, there seemed no room for doubt.  Two of the Utahns\nimmediately hastened westward.\n\nOn the 24th of July, 1857, the people had assembled in\ncelebration of Pioneer Day.  Silver Lake, a mountain gem set\namidst the snows and forests and towering peaks of the\nCottonwoods, had been selected as a fitting site for the\nfestivities.  The Stars and Stripes streamed above the camp;\nbands played; choirs sang; there were speeches, and picnics, and\nprayers.  Experiences were compared as to the journeyings on the\nplains; stories were told of the shifts to which the people had\nbeen put by the vicissitudes of famine; but these dread\nexperiences seemed to them now like a dream of the night; on this\nday all were happy.  Were they not safe from savage foes both red\nand white?  There had been peace for a season; and their desert\nhomes were already smiling in wealth of flower and tree; the\nwilderness was blossoming under their feet; their consciences\nwere void of offense toward their fellows.  Yet at that very\nhour, all unbeknown to themselves, and without the opportunity of\nspeaking a word in defense, these people had been convicted of\ninsurrection and treason.\n\nIt was midday and the festivities were at their height, when a\nparty of men rode into camp and sought an interview with Governor\nYoung.  Three of them had plainly ridden hard and far; they gave\ntheir report;--an armed force of thousands was at that hour\napproaching the territory; the boasts of officers and men as to\nwhat they would do when they found themselves in \"Mormon\" towns\nwere reported; and these stories called up, in the minds of those\nwho heard, the dread scenes of Far West and Nauvoo.  Had these\ncolonists of the wilderness not gone far enough to satisfy the\nhatred of their fellow-citizens in this republic of liberty?\nThey had halted between the civilization of the east and that of\nthe west, they had fled from the country that refused them a\nhome, and now the nation would eject them from their desert\nlodgings.\n\nA council was called and the situation was freely discussed.  Had\nthey not seen, lo, these many times, organized battalions and\ncompanies surpassing fiendish mobs in villainy?  The evidence\nwarranted their conclusion that invasion meant massacre.  With\ntense calmness the plan of action was decided upon.  It was the\ngeneral conviction that war was inevitable, and it was decided to\nresist to the last.  Then, if the army forced its way into the\nvalleys of Utah on hostile purpose bent, it should find the land\nas truly a desert as it was when the pioneers first took\npossession.  To this effect was the decision:--We have built\ncities in the east for our foes to occupy; our very temples have\nbeen desecrated and destroyed by them; but, with the help of\nIsrael's God, we will prevent them enriching themselves with the\nspoils of our labors in these mountain retreats.\n\nThere seemed to be no room for doubt that war was about to break\nupon them; and with such a prospect, men may be expected to take\nevery advantage of their situation.  Brigham Young was still\ngovernor of Utah, and the militia was subject to his order.\nPromptly he proclaimed the territory under martial law, and\nforbade any armed body to cross its boundaries.  Echo Canyon, the\none promising route of ingress, was fortified.  In those defiles\nan army might easily be stopped by a few; ammunition stations\nwere established; provisions were cached; boulders were collected\nupon the cliffs beneath which the invaders must pass if they held\nto their purpose of forcing an entrance.  The people had been\nroused to desperation, and force was to be met with force.  In\nthe settlements, combustibles were placed in readiness, and if\nthe worst came, every \"Mormon\" house would be reduced to ashes,\nevery tree would be hewn down.\n\nWith an experience of suffering that would have well served a\nbetter cause, this picked detachment of the United States army\nmade its way to the Green River country; and there, counting well\nthe cost of proceeding farther, went into camp at Fort Bridger.\nMany of the troops had almost perished in the storms, for it was\nlate in November, and the winter had closed in early.  Colonel\nCooke reported to the commandant that half his horses had\nperished through cold and lack of food; hundreds of beef cattle\nhad died; yet the region was so wild and forbidding that scarcely\na wolf ventured there to glut itself upon the carcasses.  In\nCooke's own words we read that for thirty miles the road was\nblocked with carcasses--and \"with abandoned and shattered\nproperty, they mark, perhaps beyond example in history, the steps\nof an advancing army with the horrors of a disastrous retreat.\"\n\nWith the army traveled the new federal appointees to offices in\nthe territory.  Cumming, the governor-to-be, issued a\nproclamation from his dug-out lodgings, and sent it to Salt Lake\nCity by courier; he signed it as \"Governor of Utah Territory.\"\nThis but belittled him, for by the very terms of the Organic Act,\nto uphold which was the professed purpose of his coming, he was\nnot governor until the oath of office had been duly administered\nand subscribed.  A few days later he went before his\nfellow-sufferer Eckles, the appointee for chief justice of Utah,\nand took an oath; but why did he swear so recklessly when the one\nbefore whom he swore was no more an official than himself?\n\nThe army wintered at a satisfactory distance from Salt Lake City,\nand such a winter, according to official reports, the soldiers of\nour nation have rarely had to brave.  It was soon apparent that\nthey need fear no \"Mormon\" attack; orders had been issued to the\nterritorial militia to take no life except in cases of absolute\nnecessity; but General Johnston and his staff had more than their\nmatch in battling with the elements.  Communications between\nGovernor Young and the commandant were frequent; safe conduct was\nassured any and all officers who chose to enter the city; and if\nnecessary hostages were to be given; but the governor was\ninexorable in his ultimatum that, as an organized body with\nhostile purpose, the soldiers should not pass the mountain\ngateway.  In the meantime, a full account of the situation was\nreported by Governor Young to the President of the United States,\nand the truth slowly made its way into the eastern press.\nPresident Buchanan tacitly admitted his mistake; but to recall\nthe troops at that juncture would be to confess humiliating\nfailure.\n\nA peace commissioner, in the person of Colonel Kane, was\ndispatched to Salt Lake City; his coming being made known to\nGovernor Young, an escort was sent to meet him and conduct him\nthrough the \"Mormon\" lines.  The result of the conference was\nthat the \"Mormon\" leaders but reiterated their statement that the\nPresident's appointees would be given safe entry to the city, and\nbe duly installed in their offices, provided they would enter\nwithout the army.  This ultimatum was carried to the federal\ncamp; and to the open chagrin of the commandant, Governor Cumming\nand his fellow appointees moved to Salt Lake City under \"Mormon\"\nescort, after a five months' halt in the wilderness.\n\nI believe that strategy is usually allowed in war, and I am free\nto say the \"Mormons\" availed themselves of this license.  At\nshort intervals in the course of the night-passage through the\ncanyon, the party was challenged, and the password demanded;\nbon-fires were blazing down in the gorges, and the impression was\nmade that the mountains were full of armed men; whereas the\nsentries were members of the escort, who, preceding by short cuts\nthe main party, continued to challenge and to pass.  On their\narrival, the gentlemen were met by the retiring officials, and\nwere peaceably installed.  The new governor called upon the clerk\nof the court, and ascertained the truth of the statement that the\nrecords were entirely safe.  He promptly reported his conclusions\nto General Johnston that there was no further need for the army.\nIt was decided, however, that the soldiers should be permitted to\nmarch through the city, and straightway the \"Mormons\" began their\nexodus to the south.\n\nGovernor Cumming tried in vain to induce the people to remain,\nassuring them that the troops would commit no depredations.  \"Not\nso,\" said Brigham Young, \"we have had experience with troops in\nthe past, Governor Cumming; we have seen our leaders shot down by\nthe demoralized soldiery; we have seen mothers with babes at\ntheir breasts sent to their last home by the same bullet; we have\nwitnessed outrages beyond description.  You are now Governor of\nUtah; we can no longer command the militia for our own defense.\nWe do not wish to fight, therefore we depart.\"  Leaving a few men\nto apply the brand to the combustibles stored in every house, at\nthe first sign of plunder by the soldiers, the people again\ndeserted their homes and moved into the desert anew.\n\nBut the officers of the army kept their word; the troops were put\ninto camp forty miles from the settlements, and the settlers\nreturned.  The President's commissioners brought the official\npardon, unsolicited, for all acts committed by the \"Mormons\" in\nopposing the entrance of the army.  The people asked what they\nhad done that needed pardon; they had not robbed, they had not\nkilled.  But a critical analysis of these troublous events\nrevealed at least one overt act--some \"Mormon\" scouts had\nchallenged a supply train; and, being opposed, they had destroyed\nsome of the wagons and provisions; and for this they accepted the\nPresident's most gracious pardon.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nAfter all, the \"Mormon\" people regard the advent of the Buchanan\narmy as one of the greatest material blessings ever brought to\nthem.\n\nThe troops, once in Utah, had to be provisioned; and everything\nthe settlers could spare was eagerly bought at an unusual price.\nThe gold changed hands.  Then, in their hasty departure, the\nsoldiers disposed of everything outside of actual necessities in\nthe way of accouterment and camp equipage.  The army found the\npeople in poverty, and left them in comparative wealth.\n\nAnd what was the cause of this hurried departure of the military?\nFor many months, ominous rumblings had been heard,--indications\nof the gathering storm which was soon to break in the awful fury\nof civil strife.  It could not be doubted that war was imminent;\nalready the conflict had begun, and a picked part of the army was\naway in the western wilds, doing nothing for any phase of the\npublic good.  But a word further concerning the expedition in\ngeneral.  The sending of troops to Utah was part of a foul scheme\nto weaken the government in its impending struggle with the\nsecessionists.  The movement has been called not inaptly\n\"Buchanan's blunder,\" but the best and wisest men may make\nblunders, and whatever may be said of President Buchanan's\nshort-sightedness in taking this step, even his enemies do not\nquestion his integrity in the matter.  He was unjustly charged\nwith favoring secession; but the charge was soon disproved.\n\nHowever, it was known that certain of his cabinet were in league\nwith the seceding states; and prominent among them was John\nFloyd, secretary of war.  The successful efforts of this officer\nto disarm the North, while accumulating the munitions of war in\nthe South; to scatter the forces by locating them in widely\nseparated and remote stations; and in other ways to dispose of\nthe regular army in the manner best calculated to favor the\nanticipated rebellion, are matters of history.  It is also told\nhow, at the commencement of the rebellion, he allied himself with\nthe confederate forces, accepting the rank of brigadier-general.\nIt was through Floyd's advice that Buchanan ordered the military\nexpedition to Utah, ostensibly to install certain federal\nofficials and to repress an alleged infantile rebellion which in\nfact had never come into existence, but in reality to further the\ninterests of the secessionists.  When the history of that great\nstruggle with its antecedent and its consequent circumstances is\nwritten with a pen that shall indite naught but truth, when\nprejudice and partisanship are lived down, it may appear that\nJefferson Davis rather than James Buchanan was the prime cause of\nthe great mistake.\n\nAnd General Johnston who commanded the army in the west; he who\nwas so vehement in his denunciation of the rebel \"Mormons,\" and\nwho rejoiced in being selected to chastise them into submission;\nwho, because of his vindictiveness incurred the ill-favor of the\ngovernor, whose _posse comitatus_ the army was; what became of\nhim, at one time so popular that he was spoken of as a likely\nsuccessor to Winfield Scott in the office of general-in-chief of\nthe United States army?  He left Utah in the early stages of the\nrebellion, turned his arms against the flag he had sworn to\ndefend, doffed the blue, donned the grey, and fell a rebel on the\nfield of Shiloh.\n\nChanges many and great followed in bewildering succession in\nUtah.  The people were besought to take sides with the South in\nthe awful scenes of cruel strife; it was openly stated in the\neast that Utah had allied herself with the cause of secession;\nand by others that the design was to make Salt Lake City the\ncapital of an independent government.  And surely such\nconjectures were pardonable on the part of all whose ignorance\nand prejudice still nursed the delusion of \"Mormon\" disloyalty.\nMoreover, had the people been inclined to rebellion what greater\nopportunity could they have wished?  Already a North and a South\nwere talked of--why not set up also a West?  A supreme\nopportunity had come and how was it used?  It was at this very\ntime that the Overland Telegraph line, which had been approaching\nfrom the Atlantic and the Pacific, was completed, and the first\ntremor felt in that nerve of steel carried these words from\nBrigham Young:\n\n    Utah has not seceded, but is firm for the constitution\n    and laws of our country.\n\nThe \"Mormon\" people saw in their terrible experiences and in the\noutrages to which they had been subjected, only the\nmal-administration of laws and the subversion of justice through\nhuman incapacity and hatred.  Never even for a moment did they\nquestion the supreme authority and the inspired origin of the\nconstitution of their land.  They knew no North, no South, no\nEast, no West; they stood positively by the constitution, and\nwould have nothing to do in the bloody strife between brothers,\nunless indeed they were summoned by the authority to which they\nhad already once loyally responded, to furnish men and arms for\ntheir country's need.\n\nFollowing the advent of the telegraph came the railway; and the\nland of \"Mormondom\" was no longer isolated.  Her resources were\ndeveloped, her wealth became a topic of the world's wonder; the\ntide of immigration swelled her population, contributing much of\nthe best from all the civilized nations of the earth.  Every\nreader of recent and current history has learned of her rapid\ngrowth; of her repeated appeals for the recognition to which she\nhad so long been entitled in the sisterhood of states; of the\nprompt refusals with which her pleas were persistently met,\nthough other territories with smaller and more illiterate\npopulations, more restricted resources, and in every way weaker\nclaims, were allowed to assume the habiliments of maturity, while\nUtah, lusty, large and strong, was kept in swaddling clothes.\nBut the cries of the vigorous infant were at length heeded, and\nin answer to the seventh appeal of the kind, Utah's star was\nadded to the nation's galaxy.\n\nBut let us turn more particularly to the history of the Church\nitself.  For a second time and thrice thereafter, the Church of\nJesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been deprived of its\npresident, and on each occasion were reiterated the prophecies of\ndisruption uttered at the time of Joseph Smith's assassination.\nCalm observers declared that as the shepherd had gone, the flock\nwould soon be dispersed; while others, comparable only to wolves,\nthinking the fold unguarded, sought to harry and scatter the\nsheep.  But \"Mormonism\" died not; every added pang of grief\nserved but to unite the people.\n\nWhen Brigham Young passed from earth, he was mourned of the\npeople as deeply as was Moses of Israel.  And had he not proved\nhimself a Moses, aye and a Joshua, too?  He had led the people\ninto the land of holy promise, and had divided unto them their\ninheritances.  He was a man with clear title as one of the small\nbrotherhood we call great.  As carpenter, farmer, pioneer,\ncapitalist, financier, preacher, apostle, prophet--in everything\nhe was a leader among men.  Even those who opposed him in\npolitics and in religion respected him for his talents, his\nmagnanimity, his liberality, and his manliness; and years after\nhis demise, men who had refused him honor while alive brought\ntheir mites and their gold to erect a monument of stone and\nbronze to the memory of this man who needs it not.  With his\ndeath closed another epoch in the history of his people, and a\nsuccessor arose, one who was capable of leading and judging under\nthe changed conditions.\n\n                          -----------\n\nBut perhaps I am suspected of having forgotten or of having\nintentionally omitted reference to what popular belief once\nconsidered the chief feature of \"Mormonism,\" the cornerstone of\nthe structure, the secret of its influence over its members, and\nof its attractiveness to its proselytes, viz., the peculiarity of\nthe \"Mormon\" institution of marriage.  The Latter-day Saints were\nlong regarded as a polygamous people.  That plural marriage has\nbeen practised by a limited proportion of the people, under\nsanction of Church ordinance, has never since the introduction of\nthe system been denied.  But that plural marriage is a vital\ntenet of the Church is not true.  What the Latter-day Saints call\ncelestial marriage is characteristic of the Church, and is in\nvery general practise; but of celestial marriage, plurality of\nwives was an incident, never an essential.  Yet the two have\noften been confused in the popular mind.\n\nWe believe in a literal resurrection and an actual hereafter, in\nwhich future state shall be recognized every sanctified and\nauthorized relationship existing here on earth--of parent and\nchild, brother and sister, husband and wife.  We believe, further\nthat contracts as of marriage, to be valid beyond the veil of\nmortality must be sanctioned by a power greater than that of\nearth.  With the seal of the holy Priesthood upon their wedded\nstate, these people believe implicitly in the perpetuity of that\nrelationship on the far side of the grave.  They marry not with\nthe saddening limitation \"Until death do you part,\" but \"For time\nand for all eternity.\"[3]  This constitutes celestial marriage.\nThe thought that plural marriage has ever been the head and front\nof \"Mormon\" offending, that to it is traceable as the true cause\nthe hatred of other sects and the unpopularity of the Church, is\nnot tenable to the earnest thinker.  Sad as have been the\nexperiences of the people in consequence of this practise, deep\nand anguish-laden as have been the sighs and groans, hot and\nbitter as have been the tears so caused, the heaviest\npersecution, the cruelest treatment of their history began before\nplural marriage was known in the Church.\n\n[Footnote 3: For treatment of Celestial Marraige and other Temple\nordinances, see \"The House of the Lord,\" by the present author,\nSalt Lake City, Utah, 1912.]\n\nThere is no sect nor people that sets a higher value on virtue\nand chastity than do the Latter-day Saints, nor a people that\nvisits surer retribution upon the heads of offenders against the\nlaws of sexual purity.  To them marriage is not, can never be, a\ncivil compact alone; its significance reaches beyond the grave;\nits obligations are eternal; and the Latter-day Saints are\nnotable for the sanctity with which they invest the marital\nstate.  It has been my privilege to tread the soil of many lands,\nto observe the customs and study the habits of more nations than\none; and I have yet to find the place and meet the people, where\nand with whom the purity of man and woman is held more precious\nthan among the maligned \"Mormons\" in the mountain valleys of the\nwest.  There I find this measure of just equality of the sexes--\n_that the sins of man shall not be visited upon the head of\nwoman_.\n\nAt the inception of plural marriage among the Latter-day Saints,\nthere was no law, national or state, against its practise.  This\nstatement assumes, as granted, a distinction between bigamy and\nthe \"Mormon\" institution of plural marriage.  In 1862, a law was\nenacted with the purpose of suppressing plural marriage, and, as\nhad been predicted in the national Senate prior to its passage,\nit lay for many years a dead letter.  Federal judges and United\nStates attorneys in Utah, who were not \"Mormons\" nor lovers of\n\"Mormonism,\" refused to entertain complaints or prosecute cases\nunder the law, because of its manifest injustice and inadequacy.\nBut other laws followed, most of which, as the Latter-day Saints\nbelieve, were aimed directly at their religious conception of the\nmarriage contract, and not at social impropriety nor sexual\noffense.\n\nAt last the Edmunds-Tucker act took effect, making not the\nmarriage alone but the subsequent acknowledging of the contract\nan offense punishable by fine or imprisonment or both.  Under the\nspell of unrighteous zeal, the federal judiciary of Utah\nannounced and practised that most infamous doctrine of\nsegregation of offenses with accumulating penalties.\n\nI who write have listened to judges instructing grand juries in\nsuch terms as these: that although the law of Congress designated\nas an offense the acknowledging of more living wives than one by\nany man, and prescribed a penalty therefor, as Congress had not\nspecified the length of time during which this unlawful\nacknowledging must continue to constitute the offense, grand\njuries might indict separately for every day of the period during\nwhich the forbidden relationship existed.  This meant that for an\nalleged misdemeanor--for which Congress prescribed a maximum\npenalty of six months' imprisonment and a fine of three hundred\ndollars--a man might be imprisoned for life, aye, for many terms\nof a man's natural life did the court's power to enforce its\nsentences extend so far, and might be fined millions of dollars.\nBefore this travesty on the administration of law could be\nbrought before the court of last resort, and there meet with the\nreversal and rebuke it deserved, men were imprisoned under\nsentences of many years' duration.\n\nThe people contested these measures one by one in the courts;\npresenting in case after case the different phases of the\nsubject, and urging the unconstitutionality of the measure.  Then\nthe Church was disincorporated, and its property both real and\npersonal confiscated and escheated to the government of the\nUnited States; and although the personal property was soon\nrestored, real estate of great value long lay in the hands of the\ncourt's receiver, and the \"Mormon\" Church had to pay the national\ngovernment high rental on its own property.  But the people have\nsuspended the practise of plural marriage; and the testimony of\nthe governors, judges, and district attorneys of the territory,\nand later that of the officers of the state, have declared the\nsincerity of the renunciation.\n\nAs the people had adopted the practise under what was believed to\nbe divine approval, they suspended it when they were justified in\nso doing.  In whatever light this practise has been regarded in\nthe past, it is today a dead issue, forbidden by ecclesiastical\nrule as it is prohibited by legal statute.  And the world is\nlearning, to its manifest surprise, that plural marriage and\n\"Mormonism\" are not synonymous terms.\n\n                          -----------\n\nAnd so the story of \"Mormonism\" runs on; its finale has not yet\nbeen written; the current press presents continuously new stages\nof its progress, new developments of its plan.  Today the Church\nof Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is stronger than ever\nbefore; and the people are confident that it is at its weakest\nstage for all time to come.  It lives and thrives because within\nit are the elements of thrift and the forces of life.  It\nembraces a boundless liberality of belief and practise; true\ntoleration is one of its essential features; it makes love for\nmankind second only to love for Deity.  Its creed provides for\nthe protection of all men in their rights of worship according to\nthe dictates of conscience.  It contemplates a millennium of\npeace, when every man shall love his neighbor and respect his\nneighbor's opinion as he regards himself and his own--a day when\nthe voice of the people shall be in unison with the voice of God.\n\n\n\nTHE PHILOSOPHY OF \"MORMONISM\"\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nIn this attempt to treat the philosophy of \"Mormonism\" it is\nassumed that no discussion of Christianity in general nor of the\nphilosophy of Christianity is required.  The \"Mormon\" creed, so\nfar as there is a creed professed by the Latter-day Saints, is\npre-eminently Christian in theory, precept, and practise.  In\nwhat respect, then, may be properly asked, does \"Mormonism\"\ndiffer from the faith and practise of other professedly Christian\nsystems--in short, what is \"Mormonism?\"\n\nFirst, let it be remembered that the term \"Mormon,\" with its\nderivatives, is not the official designation of the Church with\nwhich it is usually associated.  The name was originally applied\nin a spirit of derision, as a nick-name in fact, by the opponents\nof the Church; and was doubtless suggested by the title of a\nprominent publication given to the world through Joseph Smith in\nan early period of the Church's history.  This, of course, is the\nBook of Mormon.  Nevertheless, the people have accepted the name\nthus thrust upon them, and answer readily to its call.  The\nproper title of the organization is \"The Church of Jesus Christ\nof Latter-day Saints.\"  The philosophy of \"Mormonism\" is declared\nin the name.  The people claim this name as having been bestowed\nby revelation and therefore that, like other names given of God\nas attested by scriptural instances, it is at once name and title\ncombined.\n\nThe Church declines to sail under any flag of man-made design; it\nrepudiates the name of mortals as a part of its title, and thus\ndiffers from Lutherans and Wesleyans, Calvinists, Mennonites, and\nmany others, all of whom, worthy though their organizations may\nbe, elevating as may be their precepts, good as may be their\npractises, declare themselves the followers of men.  This is not\nthe church of Moses nor the prophets, of Paul nor of Cephas, of\nApollos nor of John; neither of Joseph Smith nor of Brigham\nYoung.  It asserts its proud claim as the Church of Jesus Christ.\n\nIt refuses to wear a name indicative of distinctive or peculiar\ndoctrines; and in this particular, it differs from churches\nCatholic and Protestant, Presbyterian, Congregationalist,\nUnitarian, Methodist and Baptist; its sole distinguishing\nfeatures are those of the Church of Christ.\n\nIn an effort to present in concise form the cardinal doctrines of\nthis organization, I cannot do better than quote the so-called\n_Articles of Faith of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day\nSaints_, which have been in published form before the world for\nover half a century.[4]\n\n[Footnote 4: For extended treatment of \"Mormon\" doctrine see \"The\nArticles of Faith: a Series of Lectures on the Principal\nDoctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,\" by\nJames E. Talmage.  Published by the Church: Salt Lake City, Utah;\n485 pp.]\n\n    1. We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son,\n    Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.\n\n    2. We believe that men will be punished for their own\n    sins, and not for Adam's transgression.\n\n    3. We believe that, through the atonement of Christ, all\n    mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and\n    ordinances of the gospel.\n\n    4. We believe that the first principles and ordinances\n    of the gospel are: First, Faith in the Lord Jesus\n    Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion\n    for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands\n    for the gift of the Holy Ghost.\n\n    5. We believe that a man must be called of God, by\n    prophecy, and by the laying on of hands, by those who\n    are in authority, to preach the gospel and administer in\n    the ordinances thereof.\n\n    6. We believe in the same organization that existed in\n    the primitive church, namely, apostles, prophets,\n    pastors, teachers, evangelists, etc.\n\n    7. We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy,\n    revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues,\n    etc.\n\n    8. We believe the Bible to be the word of God, as far as\n    it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of\n    Mormon to be the word of God.\n\n    9. We believe all that God has revealed, all that he\n    does now reveal, and we believe that he will yet reveal\n    many great and important things pertaining to the\n    Kingdom of God.\n\n    10. We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in\n    the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion will be\n    built upon this [the American] continent; that Christ\n    will reign personally upon the earth, and that the earth\n    will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory.\n\n    11. We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God\n    according to the dictates of our own conscience, and\n    allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how,\n    where, or what they may.\n\n    12. We believe in being subject to kings, presidents,\n    rulers and magistrates, in obeying, honoring and\n    sustaining the law.\n\n    13. We believe in being honest, true, chaste,\n    benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men;\n    indeed we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul,\n    We believe all things, we hope all things, we have\n    endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all\n    things.  If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of\n    good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these\n    things.--JOSEPH SMITH.\n\nThis brief summary of \"Mormon\" doctrine appears over the\nsignature of Joseph Smith--the man whom the Latter-day Saints\naccept as the instrument in divine hands of re-establishing the\nChurch of Christ on earth, in this the Dispensation of the\nFulness of Times.  Let it not be supposed, however, that these\nArticles of Faith are, or profess to be, a complete code of the\ndoctrines of the Church, for, as declared in one of the\n\"Articles,\" belief in continuous revelation from Heaven is a\ncharacteristic feature of \"Mormonism.\"  Yet it is to be noted\nthat no doctrine has been promulgated, which by even strained\ninterpretation could be construed as antagonistic to this early\ndeclaration of faith.  Nor has any revelation to the Church yet\nappeared in opposition to earlier revelation of this or of\nby-gone dispensations.\n\nTo most of the declarations in the Articles of Faith, many sects\nprofessing Christianity could confidently pledge allegiance; to\nmany of them, all Christian organizations could and professedly\ndo subscribe.  Belief in the existence and powers of the Supreme\nTrinity; in Jesus Christ as the Savior and Redeemer of mankind;\nin man's individual accountability for his doings; in the\nacceptance of sacred writ as the Word of God; in the rights of\nWorship according to the dictates of conscience; in all the moral\nvirtues;--these professions and beliefs are as a common creed in\nthe realm of Christendom.  There is no peculiarly \"Mormon\"\ninterpretation, in the light of which these principles of faith\nand practise are viewed by the Latter-day Saints, except in a\ncertain simplicity and literalness of acceptance--gross\nliteralness, unrefined materialism, it has been called by some\ncritical opponents.\n\nThe gospel plan as accepted and taught by the Latter-day Saints\nis strikingly simple; disappointing in its simplicity, indeed, to\nthe mind that can find satisfaction in mysteries alone, and to\nhim whose love for metaphor, symbolism, and imagery are stronger\nthan his devotion to truth itself, which may or may not be thus\nembellished.  The Church asserts that the wisdom of human\nlearning, while ranking among the choicest of earthly\npossessions, is not essential to an understanding of the gospel;\nand that the preacher of the Word must be otherwise endowed than\nby the learning of the schoolmen.  \"Mormonism\" is for the\nwayfaring man, not less than for the scholar, and it possesses a\nsimplicity adapting it to the one as to the other.  A few of the\ncharacteristically \"Mormon\" tenets may perhaps be profitably\nconsidered.\n\n\"Mormonism\" affirms its unqualified belief in the Godhead as the\nHoly Trinity, comprising Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; each of the\nthree a separate and individual personage; the Father and the Son\neach a personage of spirit and of immortalized body; the Holy\nGhost a personage of spirit.\n\nThe unity of the Godhead is accepted in the literal fulness of\nscriptural declaration--that the three are one in purpose, plan\nand method, alike in all their Godly attributes; one in their\ndivine omniscience and omnipotence; yet as separate and distinct\nin their personality as are any three inhabitants of earth.\n\"Mormonism\" claims that scriptures declaring the oneness of the\nTrinity admit of this interpretation; that such indeed is the\nnatural interpretation; and that the conception is in accord with\nreason.\n\nWe hold that mankind are literally the spiritual children of God;\nthat even as the Christ had an existence with the Father before\ncoming to earth to take upon himself a tabernacle of flesh, to\nlive and to die as a man in accordance with the fore-ordained\nplan of redemption, so, too, every child of earth had an\nexistence in the spirit-state before entering upon this mortal\nprobation.  We hold the doctrine to be reasonable, scriptural and\ntrue, that mortal birth is no more the beginning of the soul's\nexistence than is death its end.\n\nThe time-span of mortal life is but one stage in the soul's\ncareer, separating the eternity that has preceded from the\neternity that is to follow.  And this mortal existence is one of\nthe Father's great gifts to his spiritual children, affording\nthem the opportunity of an untrammeled exercise of their free\nagency, the privilege of meeting temptation and of resisting it\nif they will, the chance to win exaltation and eternal life.\n\nWe claim that all men are equal as to earthly rights and human\nprivileges; but that each has individual capacity and\ncapabilities; that in the primeval world there were spirits noble\nand great, as there were others of lesser power and inferior\npurpose.  There is no chance in the number or nature of spirits\nthat are born to earth; all who are entitled to the privileges of\nmortality and have been assigned to this sphere shall come at the\ntime appointed, and shall return to inherit each the glory or the\ndegradation to which he has shown himself adapted.  The gospel as\nunderstood by the Latter-day Saints affirms the unconditional\nfree-agency of man--his right to accept good or evil, to choose\nthe means of eternal progression or the opposite, to worship as\nhe elects, or to refuse to worship at all--and then to take the\nconsequences of his choice.\n\n\"Mormonism\" rejects what it regards as a heresy, the false\ndoctrine of pre-destination as an absolute compulsion or even as\nan irresistible tendency forced upon the individual toward right\nor wrong--as a pre-appointment to eventual exaltation or\ncondemnation; yet it affirms that the infinite wisdom and\nfore-knowledge of God makes plain to him the end from the\nbeginning; and that he can read in the natures and dispositions\nof his children, their destiny.\n\n\"Mormonism\" claims an actual and literal relationship of parent\nand child between the Creator and man--not in the figurative\nsense in which the engine may be called the child of its builder;\nnot the relationship of a thing mechanically made to the maker\nthereof; but the kinship of father and offspring.  In short it is\nbold enough to declare that man's spirit being the offspring of\nDeity, and man's body though of earthy components yet being in\nthe very image and likeness of God, man even in his present\ndegraded--aye, fallen condition--still possesses, if only in a\nlatent state, inherited traits, tendencies and powers that tell\nof his more than royal descent; and that these may be developed\nso as to make him, even while mortal, in a measure Godlike.\n\nBut \"Mormonism\" is bolder yet.  It asserts that in accordance\nwith the inviolable law of organic nature--that like shall beget\nlike, and that multiplication of numbers and perpetuation of\nspecies shall be in compliance with the condition \"each after his\nkind,\" the child may achieve the former status of the parent, and\nthat in his mortal condition man is a God in embryo.  However far\nin the future it may be, what ages may elapse, what eternities\nmay pass before any individual now a mortal being may attain the\nrank and sanctity of godship, man nevertheless carries in his\nsoul the possibilities of such achievement; even as the crawling\ncaterpillar or the corpse-like chrysalis holds the latent\npossibility, nay, barring destruction, the certainty indeed, of\nthe winged imago in all the glory of maturity.\n\n\"Mormonism\" claims that all nature, both on earth and in heaven,\noperates on a plan of advancement; that the very Eternal Father\nis a progressive Being; that his perfection, while so complete as\nto be incomprehensible by man, possesses this essential quality\nof true perfection--the capacity of eternal increase.  That\ntherefore, in the far future, beyond the horizon of eternities\nperchance, man may attain the status of a God.  Yet this does not\nmean that he shall be then the equal of the Deity he now worships\nnor that he shall ever overtake those intelligences that are\nalready beyond him in advancement; for to assert such would be to\nargue that there is no progression beyond a certain stage of\nattainment, and that advancement is a characteristic of low\norganization and inferior purpose alone.  We believe that there\nwas more than the sounding of brass or the tinkling of wordy\ncymbals in the fervent admonition of the Christ to his\nfollowers--\"Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is\nin heaven is perfect.\"  (Matt. 5:48.)\n\nBut it is beyond dispute that in his present state, man is far\nfrom the condition of even a relatively perfect being.  He is\nborn heir to the weaknesses as well as to the excellencies of\ngenerations of ancestors; he inherits potent tendencies for both\ngood and evil; and verily, it seems that in the flesh he has to\nsuffer for the sins of his progenitors.  But divine blessings are\nnot to be reckoned in terms of earthly possessions or bodily\nexcellencies alone; the child born under conditions of adversity\nmay after all be richly endowed with opportunity, opportunity\nwhich, perhaps, had been less of service amid the surroundings of\nluxury.  We hold that the Father has an individual interest in\nhis children; and that surely in the rendering of divine\njudgment, the conditions under which each soul has lived in\nmortality shall be considered.\n\n\"Mormonism\" accepts the doctrine of the Fall, and the account of\nthe transgression in Eden, as set forth in Genesis; but it\naffirms that none but Adam is or shall be answerable for Adam's\ndisobedience; that mankind in general are absolutely absolved\nfrom responsibility for that \"original sin,\" and that each shall\naccount for his own transgressions alone; that the Fall was\nforeknown of God--that it was turned to good effect by which the\nnecessary condition of mortality should be inaugurated; and that\na Redeemer was provided, before the world was; that general\nsalvation, in the sense of redemption from the effects of the\nFall, comes to all without their seeking it; but that individual\nsalvation or rescue from the effects of personal sins is to be\nacquired by each for himself by faith and good works through the\nredemption wrought by Jesus Christ.  The Church holds that\nchildren are born to earth in a sinless state, that they need no\nindividual redemption; that should they die before reaching years\nof accountability, they return without taint of earthly sin; but\nas they attain youth or maturity in the flesh, their\nresponsibility increases with their development.\n\nAccording to the teachings of \"Mormonism,\" Christ's instructions\nto the people to pray \"Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on\nearth as it is in heaven\" was not a petition for the impossible,\nbut a fore-shadowing of what shall eventually be.  We believe\nthat the day shall yet come when the Kingdom of God on earth\nshall be one with the Kingdom in heaven; and one King shall rule\nin both.  The Church is regarded as the beginning of this Kingdom\non earth; though until the coming of the King, there is no\nauthority in the Church exercising or claiming temporal rule or\ndominion among the governments of earth.  Yet the Church is none\nthe less the beginning of the Kingdom, the germ from which the\nKingdom shall develop.\n\nAnd the Church must be in direct communication with the heavenly\nKingdom of which the earthly Kingdom when established shall be a\npart.  Of such a nature was the Church in so far as it existed\nbefore the time of Christ's earthly ministry; for the biblical\nrecord is replete with instances of direct communication between\nthe prophets and their God.  The scriptures are silent as to a\nsingle dispensation in which the spiritual leaders of the people\ndepended upon the records of earlier times and by-gone ages for\ntheir guidance; but on the contrary, the evidence is complete\nthat in every stage of the Church's history the God of heaven\ncommunicated his mind and will unto his earthly representatives.\nIsrael of old were led and governed in all matters spiritual and\nto a great extent in their temporal affairs by the direct word of\nrevelation.  Noah did not depend upon the record of God's\ndealings with Adam or Enoch, but was directed by the very word\nand voice of the God whom he represented.  Moses was no mere\ntheologian trained for his authority or acts on what God had said\nto Abraham, to Isaac, or to Jacob; he acted in accordance with\ninstructions given unto him from time to time, as the\ncircumstances of his ministry required.  And so on through all\nthe line of prophets, major and minor, down to the priest of the\ncourse of Abia unto whom the angel announced the birth of John\nwho was to be the direct fore-runner of the Messiah.\n\nWhen the Christ came in the flesh he declared that he acted not\nof himself but according to instructions given him of the Father.\nThus the Messiah was a revelator, receiving while in the flesh\ncommunication direct and frequent from the heavens.  By such\nrevelation he was guided in his earthly ministry; by such he\ninstructed his disciples; unto such he taught his apostles to\nlook for safe guidance when he would have left them.\n\nDuring his earthly ministry Christ called and ordained men to\noffices in the Church.  We have a record of apostles\nparticularly, numbering twelve, and beside these, seventy others\nwho were commissioned to preach, teach, baptize and perform other\nordinances of the Church.  After our Lord's departure, we read of\nthe apostles continuing their labors in the light of continued\nrevelation.  By this sure guide they selected and set apart those\nwho were to officiate in the Church.  By revelation, Peter was\ndirected to carry the gospel to the Gentiles; which expansion of\nthe work was inaugurated by the conversion of the devout\nCornelius and his household.  By revelation, Saul of Tarsus\nbecame Paul the Apostle, a valiant defender of the faith.  Holy\nmen of old spake and wrote as they were moved upon by the Holy\nGhost and depended not upon the precedents of ancient history nor\nentirely upon the law then already written.  They operated under\nthe conviction that the living Church must be in communication\nwith its living Head; and that the work of God, while it was to\nbe wrought out through the instrumentality of man, was to be\ndirected by him whose work it was, and is.\n\n\"Mormonism\" claims the same necessity to exist today.  It holds\nthat it is no more nearly possible now than it was in the days of\nthe ancient prophets or in the apostolic age for the Church of\nChrist to exist without direct and continuous revelation from\nGod.  This necessitates the existence and authorized\nministrations of prophets, apostles, high priests, seventies,\nelders, bishops, priests, teachers and deacons, now as\nanciently--not men selected by men without authority, clothed by\nhuman ceremonial alone, nor men with the empty names of office,\nbut men who bear the title because they possess the authority,\nhaving been called of God.\n\nIs it unreasonable, is it unphilosophical, thus to look for\nadditional light and knowledge?  Shall religion be the one\ndepartment of human thought and effort in which progression is\nimpossible?  What would we say of the chemist, the astronomer,\nthe physicist, or the geologist, who would proclaim that no\nfurther discovery or revelation of scientific truth is possible,\nor who would declare that the only occupation open to students of\nscience is to con the books of by-gone times and to apply the\nprinciples long ago made known, since none others shall ever be\ndiscovered?\n\nThe chief motive impelling to research and investigation is the\nconviction that to knowledge and wisdom there is no end.\n\"Mormonism\" affirms that all wisdom is of God, that the halo of\nhis glory is intelligence, and that man has not yet learned all\nthere is to learn of him and his ways.  We hold that the doctrine\nof continuous revelation from God is not less philosophical and\nscientific than scriptural.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nThe Latter-day Saints affirm that the authority to act in the\nname of God--the Holy Priesthood--has been restored to earth in\nthis dispensation and age, in accordance with the inspired\npredictions of earlier times.  But, it may be asked, what\nnecessity was there for a restoration if the Priesthood had been\nonce established upon earth?  None indeed, had it never been\ntaken away.  A general apostasy from the primitive Church is\nconceded in effect by some authorities in ecclesiastical history;\nthough few admit the entire discontinuance of priestly power, or\nthe full suspension of authority to operate in the ordinances of\nthe Church.  This great apostasy was foretold.  Paul warned the\nSaints of Thessalonica against those who claimed that the second\ncoming of Christ was then near at hand: \"For,\" said he, \"that day\nshall not come except there come a falling away first.\"  (II\nThess. 2:3.)  \"Mormonism\" contends that there has been a general\nfalling away from the Church of Christ, dating from the time\nimmediately following the apostolic period.  We believe that the\nproper interpretation of history will confirm this view; and,\nmoreover, that the inspired scriptures foretold just such a\ncondition.[5]\n\n[Footnote 5: See \"The Great Apostasy: Considered in the Light of\nScriptural and Secular History,\" by James E. Talmage.  Published\nby the _Deseret News_, Salt Lake City, Utah; 176 pp.]\n\nIf the Priesthood had been once taken from the earth no human\npower could re-establish it; the restoration of this authority\nfrom heaven would be necessary.  The Church claims that in the\npresent age this restoration has been effected by the personal\nministrations of those who exercised the authority in earlier\ndispensations.  Thus, in 1829, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery\nreceived the Lesser or Aaronic Priesthood under the hands of John\nthe Baptist, who visited them as a resurrected being--the same\nBaptist who by special and divine commission held the authority\nof that Priesthood in the dispensation of the \"Meridian of Time.\"\nLater, the Higher or Melchizedek Priesthood was conferred upon\nthem through the personal ministrations of Peter, James, and\nJohn--the same three who constituted the presidency of the\napostolic body in the primitive Church, after the departure of\nthe Lord Jesus Christ by whom it was founded.\n\nThat the claim is a bold one is conceded without argument.  The\nChurch of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints professes to have the\nPriesthood of old restored in its fulness; and, moreover, while\nacknowledging the right of every individual as of every sect or\nother organization of individuals to believe and practise\naccording to choice in matters religious, it affirms that it is\nthe only Church on the face of the earth possessing this\nauthority and Priesthood; and that therefore it is _The Church_\nand the only Church of Christ upon the earth today.  It holds as\nabsolutely indispensable to proper Church organization, the\npresence of the living oracles of God who shall be directed from\nthe heavens in their earthly ministry; and these, \"Mormonism\"\nasserts, are to be found with the Church of Jesus Christ.\n\n\"Mormonism\" emphasizes the doctrine that that which is Caesar's\nbe given unto Caesar, while that which is God's be rendered unto\nhim.  Therefore, it teaches that all things pertaining unto\nearth, and unto man's earthly affairs, may with propriety be\nregulated by earthly authority, but that in the performance of\nany ordinance, rite, or ceremony, claimed to be of effect beyond,\nthe grave, a power greater than that of man is requisite or the\nperformance is void.  Therefore, membership in the Church, which,\nif of any value and significance at all, is of more than temporal\nmeaning, must be governed by laws which are prescribed by the\npowers of heaven.  \"Mormonism\" recognizes Jesus Christ as the\nhead of the Church, as the literal Savior and Redeemer of\nmankind, as the King of kings and Lord of lords, as the One whose\nright it is to reign on earth, who shall yet subdue all worldly\nkingdoms under his feet, who shall present the earth in its final\nstate of redemption to the Father.  It is his right to prescribe\nthe conditions under which mankind may be made partakers of his\nbounty and of the privileges of the victory won by him over death\nand the grave.\n\nThe Church claims that faith in God is essential to intelligent\nservice of him; and that faith, trust, confidence in God as the\nFather of mankind, as the Supreme Being to whom all shall render\naccount of their deeds and misdeeds, must lead to a desire to\nserve him and thus produce repentance.  Faith in God and genuine\nrepentance of sin, of necessity, therefore constitute the\nfundamental principles of the gospel.  It is reasonable to expect\nthat after man has developed faith in God, and has repented of\nhis sins, he will be eager to find a means of demonstrating his\nsincerity; and this means is found in the requirement concerning\nbaptism as essential to entrance into the Church, and as a means\nwhereby remission of sins may be obtained.  As to the mode of\nbaptism, the Church affirms that immersion alone is the one\nmethod sanctioned by scripture, and that this mode has been\nexpressly prescribed by revelation in the present dispensation.\n\nWater baptism, then, becomes a basic principle and the first\nessential ordinance of the gospel.  It is to be administered by\none having authority; and that authority rests in the Priesthood\ngiven of God.  Following baptism by water, comes the ordinance of\nthe bestowal of the Holy Ghost by the authorized imposition of\nhands, which constitutes the true baptism of the Spirit.  These\nrequirements, designated specifically the \"first principles and\nordinances of the gospel,\" \"Mormonism\" claims to be absolutely\nessential to membership in the Church of Christ, and this without\nmodification or qualification as to the time at which the\nindividual lived in mortality.\n\nThen with propriety it may be asked:--What shall become of those\nwho lived and died while the Priesthood was not operative upon\nthe earth?--those who have worked out their mortal probation\nduring the ages of the great apostasy?  Furthermore, what shall\nbe the destiny of those who, though living in a time of spiritual\nlight, perhaps had not the opportunity of learning and obeying\nthe gospel requirements? Here again the inherent justice of\n\"Mormon\" philosophy shows itself in the doctrine of salvation for\nthe dead. No distinction is made between the living and the dead\nin the solemn declaration of the Savior to Nicodemus, which\nappears to have been given the widest possible application,--that\nexcept a man be born of water and of the spirit he cannot enter\ninto the Kingdom of God.  (John 3:1-5.)\n\n\"Mormonism\" proclaims something more than a heaven and a hell, to\none or the other of which all spirits of men shall be assigned,\nperhaps on the basis of a very narrow margin of merit or demerit.\nAs it affirms the existence of an infinite range of graded\nintelligences, so it claims the widest and fullest gradation of\nconditions of future existence.  It holds that the honest,\nthough, perchance, mistaken soul who lived or tried to live\naccording to the light he had received, shall be counted among\nthe honorable of the earth, and shall find opportunity, if not\nhere then in the hereafter, for compliance with the requirements\nessential for salvation.  It teaches that repentance with all its\nattendant blessings shall be possible beyond the grave; but that\ninasmuch as the change we call death does not transform the\ncharacter of the soul, repentance there will be difficult for him\nwho has ruthlessly and willfully rejected the manifold\nopportunities afforded him for repentance here.  It asserts that\neven the heathen devotee who may have bowed down to stocks and\nstones, if in so doing he was obeying the highest law of worship\nwhich to his benighted soul had come, shall have part in the\nfirst resurrection, and shall be afforded the opportunity, which\non earth he had not found, of doing that which is required of\nGod's children for salvation.  And for all the dead who have been\nwithout the privileges, perhaps indeed without the knowledge, of\ncompliance with Christ's law, there shall be given opportunity in\nthe hereafter.\n\nNevertheless, this life of ours is no trifle, no insignificant\nincident in the soul's eternal course, having but small and\ntemporal importance, the omissions of which can be rectified with\nease by the individual beyond the veil.  If compliance with the\ndivine law as exemplified by the requirements of faith,\nrepentance, baptism, and the bestowal of the right to the\nministrations of the Holy Ghost, are essential to the salvation\nof those few who just now are counted among the living, such is\nnot less necessary for those who once were living but now are\ndead.  Who are the living of today but those who shortly shall be\nadded to the uncounted dead?  Who are the dead but those who at\nsome time have lived in mortality?\n\nChrist has been ordained to be judge of both quick and dead; he\nis Lord of living and dead as man uses these terms, for all live\nunto him.  How then shall the dead receive the blessings and\nordinances denied to them or by them neglected while in the\nflesh?  \"Mormonism\" answers: By the vicarious work of the living\nin their behalf!  It was this great and privileged labor to which\nthe prophet Malachi referred in his solemn declaration, that\nbefore the great and dreadful day of the Lord, Elijah should be\nsent with the commission to turn the hearts of the fathers to the\nchildren and the hearts of the children to the fathers.  Elijah's\nvisitation to earth has been realized.  On the 3rd of April, in\nthe year 1836, there appeared unto Joseph Smith and Oliver\nCowdery, in the temple erected by the.  Latter-day Saints at\nKirtland, Ohio, Elijah the prophet, who announced that the time\nspoken of by Malachi had fully come; then and there he bestowed\nthe authority, for this dispensation, to inaugurate and carry on\nthis labor in behalf of the departed.\n\nAs to the fidelity with which the Latter-day Saints have sought\nto discharge the duties thus divinely required at their hands,\nlet the temples erected in poverty as in relative prosperity--by\nthe blood and tears of the people--testify.  Two of these great\nedifices were constructed by the Latter-day Saints in the days of\ntheir tribulation, in times of their direst persecution,--one at\nKirtland, Ohio, the other at Nauvoo, Illinois.  The first is\nstill standing, though no longer possessed by the people who\nbuilt it; and no longer employed for the furtherance of the\npurposes of its erection; the second fell a prey to flames\nenkindled by mobocratic hate.  Four others have been constructed\nin the vales of Utah, and are today in service, dedicated to the\nblessing of the living, and particularly to the vicarious labor\nof the living in behalf of the dead.  In them the ordinances of\nbaptism, and the laying on of hands for the bestowal of the Holy\nGhost, are performed upon the living representatives of the\ndead.[6]\n\n[Footnote 6: For a detailed treatment of Temples and Temple labor\namong the Latter-day Saints, including a study of the doctrine of\nvicarious labor for the dead, see \"The House of the Lord, a Study\nof Holy Sanctuaries Ancient and Modern,\" including forty-six\nplates illustrative of modern Temples; by James E. Talmage.\nPublished by the Church: Salt Lake City, Utah; 336 pp.]\n\nBut this labor for the dead is two-fold; it comprises the proper\nperformance of the required ordinances on earth, and the\npreaching of the gospel to the departed.  Shall we suppose that\nall of God's good gifts to his children are restricted to the\nnarrow limits of mortal existence?  We are told of the\ninauguration of this great missionary labor in the spirit world,\nas effected by the Christ himself.  After his resurrection, and\nimmediately following the period during which his body had lain\nin the tomb guarded by the soldiery, he declared to the sorrowing\nMagdalene that he had not at that time ascended to his Father;\nand, in the light of his dying promise to the penitent malefactor\nwho suffered on a cross by his side, we learn that he had been in\nparadise.  Peter also tells us of his labors--that he was\npreaching to the spirits in prison, to those who had been\ndisobedient in the days of Noah when the long-suffering of God\nwaited while the ark was preparing.  If it was deemed necessary\nor just that the gospel be carried to spirits that were\ndisobedient or neglectful in the days of Noah, are we justified\nin concluding that others who have rejected or neglected the word\nof God shall be left in a state of perpetual condemnation?\n\n\"Mormonism\" claims that not only shall the gospel be carried to\nthe living, and be preached to every creature, but that the great\nmissionary labor, the burden of which has been placed on the\nChurch, must of necessity be extended to the realm of the dead.\nIt declares unequivocally that without compliance with the\nrequirements established by Jesus Christ, no soul can be saved\nfrom the fate of the condemned; but that opportunity shall be\ngiven to every one in the season of his fitness to receive it, be\nhe heathen or civilized, living or dead.\n\nThe whole duty of man is to live and work according to the\nhighest laws of right made known to him, to walk according to the\nbest light that has been shed about his path; and while Justice\nshall deny to every soul that has not rendered obedience to the\nlaw, entrance into the kingdom of the blessed, Mercy shall claim\nopportunity for all who, have shown themselves willing to receive\nthe truth and obey its behests.\n\nIt will be seen, then, that \"Mormonism\" offers no modified or\nconditional claims as to the necessity of compliance with the\nlaws and ordinances of the gospel by every responsible inhabitant\nof earth unto whom salvation shall come.  It distinguishes not\nbetween enlightened and heathen nations, nor between men of high\nand low intelligence; nor even between the living and the dead.\nNo human being who has attained years of accountability in the\nflesh, may hope for salvation in the kingdom of God until he has\nrendered obedience to the requirements of Christ, the Redeemer of\nthe world.\n\nBut while thus decisive, \"Mormonism\" is not exclusive.  It does\nnot claim that all who have failed to accept and obey the gospel\nof eternal life shall be eternally and forever damned.  While\nboldly asserting that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day\nSaints is the sole repository of the Holy Priesthood as now\nrestored to earth, it teaches and demands the fullest toleration\nfor all individuals, and organizations of individuals, professing\nrighteousness; and holds that each shall be rewarded for the\nmeasure of good he has wrought, to be adjudged in accordance with\nthe spiritual knowledge he has gained.  For such high claims\ncombined with such professions of tolerance, the Church has been\naccused of inconsistency.  Let it not be forgotten, however, that\ntoleration is not acceptance.  I may believe with the utmost\nfulness of my soul's powers that I am right and my neighbor is\nwrong concerning any proposition or principle; but such\nconviction gives me no semblance of right for interfering with\nhis exercise of freedom.  The only bounds to the liberty of an\nindividual are such as mark the liberty of another, or the rights\nof the community.  God himself treats as sacred, and therefore as\ninviolable, the freedom of the human soul.\n\n   \"Know this, that every soul is free\n    To choose his life and what he'll be;\n    For this eternal truth is given,\n    That God will force no man to heaven.\n\n   \"He'll call, persuade, direct aright,\n    Bless him with wisdom, love, and light;\n    In nameless ways be good and kind,\n    But never force the human mind.\"\n\n\"Mormonism\" contends that no man or nation possesses the right to\nforcibly deprive even the heathen of his right to worship his\ndeity.  Though idolatry has been marked from the earliest ages\nwith the seal of divine disfavor, it may represent in the\nunenlightened soul the sincerest reverence of which the person is\ncapable.  He should be taught better, but not compelled to render\nworship which to him is false because in violation of his\nconscience.\n\nIn further defense of the Latter-day Saints against the charge of\ninconsistency for this their tolerance toward others whom they\nverily believe to be wrong, let me again urge the cardinal\nprinciple that every man is accountable for his acts, and shall\nbe judged in the light of the law as made known to him.\n\nThere is no claim of universal forgiveness; no unwarranted\nglorification of Mercy to the degrading or neglect of Justice; no\nthought that a single sin of omission or of commission shall fail\nto leave its wound or scar.  In the great future there shall be\nfound a place for every soul, whatever his grade of spiritual\nintelligence may be.  \"In my Father's house are many mansions,\"\n(John 14:2), declared the Savior to his apostles; and Paul adds,\n\"There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial; but the\nglory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial\nis another.  There is one glory of the sun and another glory of\nthe moon and another glory of the stars; for one star differeth\nfrom another star in glory.  So also is the resurrection of the\ndead,\" (I Cor. 15:40-42).  The Latter-day Saints claim a\nrevelation of the present dispensation as supplementing the\nscripture just quoted.  From this later scripture (see D&C, Sec.\n76), we learn that there are three well-defined degrees in the\nfuture state, with numerous, perhaps numberless, gradations.\n\nThere is the _celestial state_ provided for those who have lived\nthe whole law, who have accepted the testimony of the Christ, who\nhave complied with the required ordinances of the gospel, who\nhave been valiant in the cause of virtue and truth.  Then there\nis the _terrestrial state_, comparable to the first as is the\nmoon to the sun.  This shall be given to the less valiant, to\nmany who are nevertheless among the worthy men of the earth, but\nwho perchance have been deceived as to the gospel and its\nrequirements.  The _telestial state_ is for those who have failed\nto live according to the light given them; those who have had to\nsuffer the results of their sins; those who have been of Moses,\nof Paul, of Apollos, and of any one of a multitude of others, but\nnot of the Christ.\n\nWe hold that there is a wide difference between salvation and\nexaltation; that there are infinite gradations beyond the grave\nas there are here, and as there were in the state preceding this.\n\n\"Mormonism\" is frequently spoken of as a new religion, and the\nChurch as a new church, a mere addition of one to the many sects\nthat have so long striven for recognition and ascendency among\nmen.  It is new only as the springtime following the darkness and\nthe cold of the year's night is new.  The Church is a new one\nonly as the ripening fruit is a new development in the course of\nthe tree's growth.  In a general and true sense, \"Mormonism\" is\nnot new to the world.  It is founded on the gospel of Christ\nwhich antedates this earth.  The establishment of the Church in\nthe present age was but a restoration.  True, the Church is\nprogressive as it ever has been; it is therefore productive of\nmore and greater things as the years link themselves into the\ncenturies; but the living seed contains within its husk all the\npossibilities of the mature plant.\n\nThis so-called new, modern gospel is in fact the old one, the\nfirst one, come again.  It demands the organization and the\nauthority characteristic of the Church in former days, when there\nwas a Church of God upon the earth; it expects no more\nconsideration, and scarcely hopes for greater popularity, than\nwere accorded the primitive Church.  Opposition, persecution, and\nmartyrdom have been its portion, but these tribulations it\naccepts, knowing well that to bear such has been the lot of the\ntrue Church in every age.\n\n\"Mormonism\" is more than a code of morals; it claims a higher\nrank than that of an organization of men planned and instituted\nby the wisdom and philosophy of men, however worthy.  It draws a\ndistinction between morality and religion; and affirms that human\nduty is not comprised in a mere avoidance of sin.  It regards the\nstrictest morality as an indispensable feature of every religious\nsystem claiming in any degree divine recognition; and yet it\nlooks upon morality as but the alphabet from which the words and\nsentences of a truly religious life may be framed.  However\neuphonious the words, however eloquent the periods, to make the\nwriting of highest worth there must be present the divine\nthought; and this, man of himself cannot conceive.\n\nIt affirms that there was a yesterday as there is a today, and\nshall be a tomorrow, in the dealings of God with men; that\n\n    Through the ages one increasing purpose runs;\n\nand that purpose,--the working out of a divine plan, the ultimate\nobject of which is the salvation and exaltation of the human\nfamily.\n\nThe central feature of that plan was the earthly ministry and\nredeeming sacrifice of the Christ in the meridian of time; the\nconsummation shall be ushered in by the return of that same\nChrist to earth as the Rewarder of righteousness, the Avenger of\niniquity, and as the world's Judge.\n\nThe Church holds that in the light of revelation, ancient and\nmodern, and by a fair interpretation of the signs of the times,\nthe second coming of the Redeemer is near at hand.  The present\nis the final dispensation of the earth in its present state;\nthese are the last days of which the prophets in all ages have\nsung.\n\nBut of what use are theories and philosophies of religion without\npractical application?  Of what avail is belief as a mere mental\nassent or denial?  Let it develop into virile faith; vitalize it;\nanimate it; then it becomes a moving power.  The Latter-day\nSaints point with some confidence to what they have attempted and\nbegun, and to the little they have already done in the line of\ntheir convictions, as proof of their sincerity.\n\nFor the second coming of the Redeemer, preparation is demanded of\nmen; and today, instead of the single priest crying in the\nwilderness of Judaea, there are thousands going forth among the\nnations with a message as definite and as important as that of\nthe Baptist; and their proclamation is a reiteration of the voice\nin the desert--\"Repent Repent! for the Kingdom of Heaven is at\nhand.\"\n\n\nThe philosophy of \"Mormonism\" rests on the literal acceptance of\na living, personal God, and on the unreserved compliance with his\nlaw as from time to time revealed.","title":"The Story of \"Mormonism\" and The Philosophy of \"Mormonism\"","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":24675}