The City of the Mormons Part 2

It is also worthy of remark, that the success of Joseph Smith appears to warrant a system of emigration and settlement conducted on religious principles. The notorious Owen, as is well known, attempted the establishment of an Infidel community at New Harmony, in Indiana, and totally failed. Joseph Smith has availed himself of the religious principle natural to man, and has triumphantly succeeded. If a false faith has thus prevailed, true religion might accomplish wonders.

Whatever may be said, and much may be said with truth, respecting the superior claims of the British colonies, it is certain that a vast proportion of those who emigrate from Great Britain and Ireland, proceed to the United States. Numbers of these have been educated in the principles of the Established Church; and yet, from various causes, few of them comparatively attach themselves to the Church in America. Many connect themselves with various dissenting denominations; while still more, it is to be feared, sink into heartless apathy and irreligion. But we will suppose that a large body of members of the Church determine upon emigrating, on a system which shall secure mutual co-operation and religious fellowship. Before leaving home, the outlines of their plan are fixed: they are accompanied by a sufficient number of well-educated pastors and teachers: they purchase a district of four or five thousand acres in a healthy portion of Iowa, for example: they obtain from the legislature charters for a city, a college, and a church, respectively: they erect their own dwellings upon a handsome and tasteful design: they elect a mayor and a corporation for their rising city. A substantial Church is built, which may afterwards form one wing of a n.o.ble Gothic Cathedral. Schools and teachers are provided for the children, professors are appointed for the college, libraries are commenced, and halls are erected. Allotments of land are set aside for the perpetual maintenance of religion and Christian education. The clergy, if sufficiently numerous, elect, with the approbation of the laity, some learned and active man as their bishop, who is afterwards duly consecrated by the authorities of the American Church. The Church now appears in its fulness and dignity; and missionaries go forth from the city, in sincerity and truth, to traverse the land and to convert its inhabitants.

This is not a chimerical idea, it is a sketch of what might be realized with little difficulty. Discouragements would occasionally arise; but ultimately, with proper management, such a plan would undoubtedly succeed. A new point of attraction would thus be presented to European and American emigrants, and the power of the false prophet would be shaken to its foundation.

APPENDIX.

PAGE 2. "Amid countless forms of schism."

Bishop Kemper gives the following information on this subject, in a recent appeal to the European Churches.

"Under a canon of the Protestant Episcopal Church, pa.s.sed in the year 1835, I was consecrated a missionary Bishop for Indiana and Missouri, to which were afterwards added Wisconsin, Iowa, and the country beyond the Mississippi, extending southward to lat.i.tude 36 30', northward to the British possessions, and westward to the Pacific Ocean. This region contains a million of square miles, a million and a quarter of white and negro inhabitants, and numerous Indian tribes amounting in population to not less than three hundred thousand souls. I proceeded forthwith to my field of labour, and found many members of our Catholic and Apostolic Church straying from her fold through the want of pastors. Romanism, heresy, schism, infidelity, paganism, and a new religion--known as Mormonism, extensively pervading the land; and not more than six or seven clergymen of our church scattered at wide intervals over this prodigious surface. I also found that about thirty thousand emigrants from Europe annually settled within my jurisdiction, a large proportion of whom were members of the Reformed Churches of Great Britain, Germany, Prussia, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, in addition to a vast influx of settlers from the eastern parts of the United States, and British America."

Speaking of the Roman Catholics, the Bishop says,

"Within the bounds of my mission, where I have (1841) but twenty-three fellow-labourers, they have three bishops, and one hundred and six priests. They annually receive large funds from Vienna, Lyons, &c., by which they are enabled to erect splendid cathedrals, extensive colleges, large convents, and substantial stone churches. In St. Louis alone they have a large cathedral, which cost, it is said, eighty thousand dollars, to which, beside the bishop, there are attached four clergymen, who preach and catechise every Sunday in English, French, and German. They have also four chapels, and a splendid church, as yet unfinished, one hundred and twenty feet in length, and eighty in width. The present position of their diocese of St. Louis is as follows:--fifty-six churches, nine churches building, sixty other stations, seventy-three clergymen, two ecclesiastical seminaries, two colleges for young men, one academy for boys, ten female convents, ten academies for young ladies, four schools, and eight charitable inst.i.tutions."

PAGE 3. "A New Book."

The Book of Mormon contains five hundred and eighty-eight duodecimo pages, consisting of fifteen different books, purporting to be written at different times, and by different authors, whose names they respectively bear. The period of time covered by these spurious records is about a thousand years, commencing with the time of Zedekiah, and terminating with the year of our Lord 420. It professes to trace the history of the American aborigines, from the time of their leaving Jerusalem in the reign of Zedekiah, under one Lehi, down to their final disaster near the hill Camorah, in the state of New York, in which contest, according to "the prophet Moroni," about 230,000 were slain in a single battle, and he alone escaped to tell the tale. These records, with which various prophecies and sermons are intermingled, are declared by Smith to have been written on golden plates, in "the reformed Egyptian character," and discovered to him by an angel in the year 1823.

An English edition of the Book of Mormon, _revised and corrected_, has been published at Manchester, for the benefit of British "Saints."

PAGE 4. "a large portion of whom are natives of Christian and enlightened England."

I am permitted by a clergyman of the diocese of Chester to give the following extracts from a letter, addressed by him to me, February 4th, 1842.

"For your very kind and satisfactory information as to that arch-impostor, Joe Smith, I most cordially thank you. Mormonism is a heresy of a very dangerous and disgraceful tendency; and I am sorry to add, it has produced effects already in some parishes in England which, in this enlightened age, one could scarcely imagine possible.

They first of all laid their blasphemous scheme at Preston, in Lancashire, after taking out a licence at the quarter sessions. This occurred about the year 1836 or 37; and they soon numbered in that locality nearly 500 converts. In 1838, they extended their iniquitous operations to various villages on each side of the Ribble. At Ribchester, the famous Roman station of Ribcunium, they seduced many; and the same results followed in other places nearer c.l.i.theroe. Since that time, itinerant preachers among the Methodists and Calvinists have joined the unholy compact; and even farmers, labourers, mechanics, and others,--in short, whoever among them could supply the _needful_,--have been persuaded to sell their property, and emigrate to Nauvoo. In 1838, every Mormon in one village, and in other villages probably the same, received a certificate, or pa.s.sport, of which the following is a copy:

"We do hereby certify that A. B., the bearer of this, is a regular member, and in good standing and fellowship, in the Church of the Latter-day Saints in Waddington, and is a worthy member of the same; and as a token also of our love and good will, we give unto him this letter of commendation to the esteem and fellowship of the Saints, in any land or country to which he may be pleased to remove.

"_March 29, 1838._

"H. C. KIMBALL, "ORSON HYDE, "Presiding Elders of said Church.

"This will be called for."

Three hundred of these certificates were printed at c.l.i.theroe, by which speculation about 15 were realized.

The way in which a Mormon prophecy is given to produce effect on the converts, is artfully designing. A young man, for instance, is immersed.

After his immersion, the elders write a letter, unknown to the proselyte himself. As long as he remains faithful, all is right; the letter remains carefully sealed, and is kept by third parties. If he leaves them, a meeting of all the Mormons in the neighbourhood takes place, the letter is brought out with solemn pomp, the seal is broken, and the contents are read publicly. The following will serve for an example of these prophetic letters:

"Liverpool, _April 13, 1838_.

"DEAR BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN PRESTON,--It seemeth good unto us, and also unto the Holy Ghost, to write to you a few words, which cause pain in our hearts, and will also pain you when they are fulfilled before you; yet you shall have joy in the end. Brother Webster will not abide in the Spirit of the Lord, but will reject the truth, and become the enemy of the people of G.o.d, and expose the mysteries which have been committed to him, that a righteous judgment may be executed upon him, unless he speedily repent. When this sorrowful prediction shall be fulfilled, this letter shall be read to the church, and it shall prove a solemn warning to all to beware.

"Farewell in the Lord, "ORSON HYDE, "H. C. KIMBALL."

In England, the preachers of Mormonism generally begin by insinuating among the astonished natives of rural villages, or the weak and wavering cla.s.ses in larger towns, that our Bible has suffered by translation, and that it is deficient and incomplete in many particulars. They next declare that the Book of Mormon and the revelations bestowed on Smith and Rigdon are additional favours from the Deity, designed to explain the obscurities and supply the deficiencies of our Scriptures. It never enters into the minds of their dupes to inquire as to the _credentials_ of these preachers. They are the eye-witnesses of no miracle: they see no dead raised to life, no dumb qualified to speak, no blind enabled to see.

One night the Mormon elder commences by observing to his congregation that he does not know what to say, but that he will say whatever the Lord shall put into his mouth. On another night, he gravely announces his intention to read a portion of the old Scriptures for edification; invariably, however, taking care not to confine himself to any particular subject, but to have as extensive a field as possible, in order to weave in from time to time such portions of the "Book of Mormon" as he knows to be best adapted to effect his object. The American edition of this book had no index to guide its readers to any particular pa.s.sage or doctrine; it was not generally circulated in England, even among the converts; and hence very few were able to know precisely when the preacher's words were _Mormonic_, and when they were not. This peculiarity was remarked upon at the time, and in an English edition, printed at Manchester, an index was inserted.

For the continuance of the fraudulent scheme, they proceed to enact a mock ordination, choosing out of the whole body of converts certain individuals who are deemed most trustworthy. These a.s.sume their blasphemous calling on the pretended sanction of the Deity, immerse converts after dark, _confirm_ the parties next day, and administer, in the course of two or three days at the farthest, a mock sacrament, to individuals who in the bewildered state of their minds scarcely know their right hand from their left.

It is under the very convenient cloak of night, however, that Mormonism in England performs most of its operations. It is then in the zenith of its glory, converting ignorance into the tool of delusion, chaining it fast by iniquitous discipline, order, and system, and trying with all its energy to make the worse appear the better cause. In such beguiling hours, the secret "Church Meeting" is held, to the exclusion of every individual except the initiated. High and mighty is the business transacted on such occasions. It consists of exhortations to stand firm, instructions given, explanations offered, visions and revelations stated, gifts received for the "Bishop of Zion," confessions made, threatenings held out, converts reprimanded, apostates excommunicated, the successes of Mormonism described, and suggestions offered for removing the difficulties in its way. Enquiries are made in reference to other particulars: for example,--"What kind of people reside in this neighbourhood? What places of worship do they frequent? What opinions have you formed as to the natural bent of their respective dispositions?

Will they be disposed to join us, or will they exercise an influence against us? Are they princ.i.p.ally in the humble walks of life, or are they of some knowledge and understanding?" If the answer to these and other questions be apparently favourable, the necessary advice is given to the first converts how they may prevail upon more. Suggestions are thrown out how to persuade; and the next step is to urge in every possible way the grievous sin of baptizing infants, and the absolute necessity of _dipping_, as the very _sine qua non_, the only effectual path to everlasting salvation.

It was the opinion of many of our clerical brethren in England, at first, that the evil would upset itself. But system, order, and discipline are powerful ingredients, even in a bad cause. Smith writes to England as follows:--"The Nauvoo Legion embraces all our military power." "The University of Nauvoo will enable us to teach our children arts, sciences, and learned professions. The regents of the university will supervise all matters of education, from common schools up to the highest branches."

PAGE 3. "St. Louis, a city of thirty thousand inhabitants."

St. Louis was founded in 1764, under the auspices of the French government, by M. Laclede, who named it in honour of the reigning monarch, Louis XV. In 1770, it pa.s.sed into the possession of Spain, and as the seat of government for Upper Louisiana was occupied by a Spanish governor. In 1800, Louisiana was retroceded to France, from which government it was purchased by the United States during the presidency of Mr. Jefferson. St. Louis increased slowly until the introduction of steam navigation on the western rivers; but during the last seven years its population has increased from 8000 to 30,000. It contains fifteen places of worship, viz., two Episcopalian churches, two Roman Catholic, two Methodist meeting-houses, two Presbyterian, one a.s.sociate Reformed Presbyterian, one German Lutheran, one Baptist, one Unitarian, an African Methodist, and an African Baptist meeting-house, besides a Jewish synagogue. A third Roman Catholic church is in progress, and the number of Roman Catholics in the city is not less than 14,000. The buildings are of brick or stone, and generally present a handsome appearance.

PAGE 5. "Father of waters," &c.

When the Mississippi is at its lowest stage, the depth of water at St.

Louis is four feet; when full, the depth is twenty-nine feet. The width of the river is three-quarters of a mile; the average velocity four miles an hour; the average descent of the stream six inches in every mile.

PAGE 8. "This was the Temple."

The following are some of Joseph Smith's "Revelations" on the subject of the temple, extracted from the "Times and Seasons" for June 1, 1841.

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, let all my saints come from afar, and send ye swift messengers, yea, chosen messengers, and say unto them, Come ye with all your gold, and your silver, and your precious stones, and with all your antiquities; and all who have knowledge of antiquities that will come, may come; and bring the box-tree, and the fir-tree, and the pine-tree, together with all the precious trees of the earth; and with iron, and with copper, and with bra.s.s, and with zinc, and with all your precious things of the earth; and build a house to my name, for the Most High to dwell therein: for there is not a place found upon earth, that he may come and restore again that which was lost unto you, or which he hath taken away, even the fulness of the priesthood.

"* * * And again, verily, I say unto you, how shall your washings be acceptable unto me, except ye perform them in a house which you have built to my name? For this cause, I commanded Moses that he should build a tabernacle, that they should bear it in the wilderness, and to build a house in the land of promise, that those ordinances might be revealed which had been hid from before the world was. * * * *

"And verily I say unto you, let this house be built unto my name, that I may reveal mine ordinances therein unto my people; for I design to reveal unto my church things which have been kept hid from the foundation of the world; things that pertain to the dispensation of the fulness of times. And I will show unto my servant Joseph, all things pertaining to this house, and the priesthood thereof, and the place whereon it shall be built. * * * * And it shall come to pa.s.s, that if you build a house unto my name, and do not the things that I say, I will not perform the oath which I make unto you; neither fulfil the promises which ye expect at my hands, saith the Lord: for instead of blessings, ye by your own works, bring cursings, wrath, indignation, and judgment upon your own heads by your follies, and by all your abominations which you practise before me, saith the Lord."

PAGE 12. "In Palestine, &c."

The following is from the 'Times and Seasons' for April 1st, 1842.

"Another letter has just come to hand from Elder Hyde, dated Jaffa, Oct. He was then on his way to Jerusalem, the date being much earlier than the one inserted in another page. We have only room for the following extract, which we publish as among the most extraordinary signs of the times. 'On my pa.s.sage from Beyroot to this place (Jaffa) the night before last, at one o'clock, as I was meditating on the deck of the vessel as she was beating down against a sultry wind, a very bright glittering sword appeared in the heavens, with a beautiful hilt, as plain and complete as any cut you ever saw. And what is still more remarkable, an arm with a perfect hand, stretched itself out and took hold of the hilt of the sword.

The appearance really made my hair rise, and my flesh, as it were, crawl on my bones. The Arabs made a wonderful outcry at the sight.

Oh, Allah! Allah! was their exclamation all over the vessel. I mention this, because you know there is a commandment of G.o.d for me, which says, 'Unto you it shall be given to know the signs of the times, and the sign of the coming of the Son of man.'

Yours, in Christ, ORSON HYDE."