Chapter XI: Introduction

In the ancient City of Rome, at the time that St. Paul went there on an appeal to Caesar's judgment seat, about the year 62 A.D., the followers of Christ were denominated, "That sect which is everywhere spoken against." And as it was with the Christians then, so it is with the "Mormons" now. Everything that is wicked or damnable was once charged upon the Christians. Even the just historian Tacitus was so far deceived by the wicked misrepresentations of their enemies, as to speak of them as "a set of people who were holden in abhorrence for their crimes, and called by the vulgar 'Christians.'" He also says--speaking of them as a body--"They were criminals, and deserving the severest punishment." The same writer calls their religion a "pernicious superstition." Indeed, we may say to the opponents of "Mormonism," however skilful they may be in the use of calumny or the distortion of facts, it would be difficult for them to charge upon the "Mormons" more heinous crimes than were charged upon primitive Christians. It was commonly reported of them that in the celebration of the Eucharist they were in the habit of slaying a male child, whose flesh they ate, and whose blood they drank in remembrance of the body and blood of the founder of their religion. In short, they were held to be the enemies of mankind, the disturbers of social customs, and a standing menace to all governments; while their religion was looked upon as the sum of villainy and absurdity. In the same light the "Mormons" are regarded to-day. But perhaps I shall be pardoned for suggesting that it is just possible that the world is as much mistaken respecting the character and religion of the "Mormons" now, as it formerly was respecting the "Christians" and their religion.

No prejudice is so cruel as that growing out of religious controversy. At any rate, we know that the most cruel wars {174} have risen through a determination to resist religious innovations, or efforts to reform religious systems. While the acts of inhuman cruelty, which most disgrace our race, have been perpetrated in vain endeavors to suppress what have been considered heresies, and silence their advocates. In short, the most unrelenting hatred, the most lasting prejudices have grown out of differences in religious opinions. The Messiah, doubtless, was guided as much by His knowledge of human nature as He was by inspiration when He exclaimed:

"Think not that I have come to bring peace upon earth; I came not
to send peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man at variance
against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the
daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes shall
be they of his own household" (Matt. x, 34-36).

It is because "Mormonism" involves a religious controversy that the prejudices against it are so deep seated, and the misrepresentation of its devotees so persistent.

Joseph Smith, in his youth, announced a new revelation from God; and as the Christian world had been, and are, taught that no more revelation is to be given, that the Bible contains all that God ever did, and all that He ever will reveal to man, the proclamation that God had again spoken aroused the ire of the religious teachers of that day, and when, in spite of their efforts to stay its progress, they saw the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints increasing in numbers and influence, these pseudo religious teachers sought to overwhelm with falsehood, misrepresentation and slander what they could not overcome with reason and fairness. And the absurd, childish stories then invented by religious opponents of "Mormonism" they still rehashed with variations to suit ever shifting conditions, the mass constantly growing as fast as new falsehoods or distorted facts can be marshalled into service.

On this point I quote the following from the _New York World_ of recent date. The _World_ is one of the leading journals of America, and, in giving an epitome of the history and faith of the "Mormons," it said:

"In matters of dogma there was little or nothing in its creed to
distinguish it from any other orthodox sect, but its possession of
an alleged addition to the Bible and the austerity and severity
of the code of morals inculcated drew to it immediately a large
following. The same spirit of intolerance which in Massachusetts
slit the ears of Quakers and banished Baptists under pain of death,
blazed forth as fiercely as in the days of Athanasius and Arius.
The pulpit rang with denunciations of the new sect, every calumny
that could be invented was {175} invented and believed, and the
Mormons were driven from place to place, robbed, beaten, imprisoned
and murdered, exactly as the founders of every other Christian sect
were persecuted."

THE CAUSE OF MISREPRESENTATION.

There are two classes of men in Utah who are interested in defaming the character of the "Mormon" people. These are the religious and political adventurers who have drifted into the Territory. The former went there professedly to convert the "Mormons" from the error of their way; but not being successful in getting sufficient converts from the "Mormon" Church to establish congregations that could pay their salaries, they have ever been dependent upon the people of the Eastern States for their support and means with which to build churches. They soon discovered that the amount of means they could raise depended upon the strength of the feeling they could incite in the minds of their supporters in the Eastern States. The more licentious and blood-thirsty the "Mormon" community was represented to be, the greater Christian heroes were these ministers considered, and therefore the more readily were "ducats" poured into their laps to carry on this spiritual war, against the supposed man of sin situated in the Rocky Mountains. Granting a few honorable exceptions, these professed ministers of Christ have invented and retailed the most abominable falsehoods respecting the Latter-day Saints, well knowing that the prejudice existing against the "Mormon" religion would so blind the eyes and close the ears of the people that it would be next to impossible for their calumnies and misrepresentations to be exposed. And if now and then their base purposes were brought for a moment to the light, and some few of their falsehoods contradicted, the effect could only be momentary, and the exploded sensational reports of "Mormon" atrocities would be supplanted by ten thousand others more horrible but equally baseless.

The political adventurers, alluded to in the above, are men who have come into the Territory principally by being appointed to the Federal offices within the gift of the President of the United States. It must be understood that a Territory in the American Government occupies much the same relationship to that government that a crown colony does to the imperial government of Great Britain; and the President appoints the Governor, Secretary, the District judges, the Marshal, Commissioners, {176} and indirectly a number of other officers in the Territory. It has been the policy of the chief executives of the nation in the past to reward their supporters, or the supporters of their political friends in the respective states with appointments to these positions; and to satisfy popular clamor raised by religious opponents, men with avowed hatred of "Mormonism" have usually been sought to fill these Federal offices. Another fact bearing on the character of these appointees must be taken into consideration; and that is, as a general thing, men who will consent to accept an appointment to positions in the Territories are fifth or sixth rate politicians, whose political prospects where they are known have dwindled to a forlorn hope. No man who has an opportunity of succeeding in political or business life in his own state will consent to abandon his prospects and life long associations for a temporary position in a Territory where, from the very nature of things, he can never hope for a hearty support of the people among whom he thrusts his unwelcome presence. Why? Because he is not of them. He is not their choice for the position; he is not responsible to the community for the manner in which he discharges his official duties--a condition of affairs that is absolutely incompatible with the existence of harmony between the administrator of the laws and the community they effect, in a country where the people are educated to the idea that "Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed."

I find these two points relative to political and ecclesiastical adventurers sustained by the testimony of James W. Barclay, a member of the British Parliament, who visited Utah in 1883, and published the results of his observations in the January No., 1884, of the _Nineteenth Century_. The _Century_ is a monthly magazine published in London. He says:

"I apprehend that the animosity of Mormonism is principally due
to the efforts of the host of hungry office-seekers who would
find lucrative posts in Utah were the Mormons disfranchised,
and by the missionaries from the Eastern States who come to
turn the Mormons from the error of their ways, and whose income
depends on the strength of the feelings they can excite in their
supporters. Utah is still a Territory, and, as such, its Governor,
Lieutenant-Governor and Marshal, and other officials of the Federal
Government, are nominated by the President of the United States,
and are of course non-Mormons; but the municipal and other local
officials are elected by the Mormons.

If the Mormons could be disfranchised in a body, 500 lucrative
posts in Utah would be open to Gentile office-seekers. According to
the legislature which might be adopted, the offices would be filled
{177} either by the President of the United States or by the small
minority of Gentiles in Utah."

MORMONS WRONGED BY A SENSATIONAL PRESS.

Unfortunately the religious and political adventurers in Utah can succeed in their designs the more readily because the agents sending out the _Associate Press_ dispatches to the entire press of the country are in sympathy with these parties or controlled by them; so that all information going out to the country at large from that source is generally distorted to the disparagement of the "Mormons."

In addition to this, it will be remembered that the American Press is nothing if not sensational. This is true in a general sense, it is doubly so in relation to the "Mormon Question." Ever ready to pander to the prejudice of the populace, and finding the "Mormon" people the victims of popular hate and without political influence, the American Press has recklessly traduced the character of as noble a community as ever graced God's earth. Every sensational rumor derogatory to their character has been seized upon with avidity and published without reserve, while the correction of the mis-statements or the vindication of their character has seldom struggled through the columns of the press to the public eye. The people of America, and other countries, too, have taken everything for granted that has been said against the "Mormon" people, no matter how absurd it is, or how unreliable the source from whence it came. Very few men have had the fairness to investigate "Mormonism" for themselves, or inquire into the character of the "Mormon" people.

Respecting the misrepresentation of the "Mormon" people and the source from whence the public has drawn its views and fed its prejudices, I introduce the testimony of Mr. Phil. Robinson, an English journalist and correspondent of note, and a traveler of world wide experience; and who is at present the editor of the _Court and Society Review_, published in London. Mr. Robinson went to Utah in 1882, where he remained for three months. He visited nearly every town and village in the Territory, and saw the people at their firesides and at work in their fields, as well as in their public meetings--in fact he saw them in all the relations of life--and on the subject of their misrepresentation, he says:

"Whence have the public derived their opinions about it [meaning
{178} Mormonism]? From anti-Mormons only. I have ransacked the
literature of the subject, yet I really could not tell any one
where to go for an impartial book about it later in date than
Burton's "City of the Saints" published in 1862. There is not,
to my knowledge, a single Gentile work before the public that
is not utterly unreliable from its distortion of facts. How can
anyone have respect for literature or the men who, without knowing
anything of the lives of Mormons, stigmatize them as profane,
adulterous and drunken? These men write of the squalid poverty of
the Mormons, of their obscene brutality, of their unceasing treason
towards the United States, of their blasphemous repudiation of the
Bible, without one particle of information on the subject, except
such as they gather from the books and writings of men whom they
ought to know are utterly unworthy of credit, or from the verbal
calumnies of apostates; and what the evidence of apostates is
worth history has long ago told us * * * I am now stating facts;
and I, who have lived among the Mormons and with them, can assure
my readers that every day of my residence increased my regret at
the misrepresentation these people have suffered" ("Sinners and
Saints," Roberts and Sons, Boston).

TESTIMONY OF NON-MORMON WITNESSES.

I here introduce the testimony of a number of non-"Mormon" witnesses to the character of the "Mormon" people and their religion.

First, I refer to the article by Mr. Barclay, M. P., published in the _Nineteenth Century_, January, 1884:

"Mormon home-steads have a tidier appearance than is usual in the
West, and the general air of comfort and prosperity which prevails
is the best evidence of the persevering, industrious habits of
the people...There is nothing peculiar in the Mormon creed to
account for the great influence which Mormonism exercises among its
followers.

"The success of Mormonism and its steady progress must therefore be
due either to the manner in which Mormons carry into practice the
religion they profess, or to its organization. In my opinion the
results are due to two influences. First, there is no religious
caste or class. From the president downwards, the office-bearers of
the Church are selected by the voice of the Mormon community; they
require no special qualification, and no one receives any salary or
other emolument; the missionaries dispatched to all parts of the
world do not receive even traveling expenses. And, in the second
place, Mormonism interests itself as much in the temporal as in the
spiritual concerns of its members: Church and State are, in short,
identical.

"The Mormon community is an enlarged family, bound together by
privileges and duties, one principal duty being to care for the
helpless and the needy. At the same time, every individual has full
freedom of action. There is no compulsion on any Mormon beyond the
public opinion of his fellows, and none is possible. Apostasy {179}
even does not appear to be attended with serious consequences to
the apostate's material interests. Some of the largest merchants
in Salt Lake City have apostatized from the Church, and although
the population of Utah is about nine-tenths Mormon, their business
seems to prosper as before....

"In morality, as far as shown by statistics, the Mormons greatly
excel the Gentiles in their midst, and the general population
of the States. In the winter of 1881, a census was taken of the
prisoners in Utah, with the following result:--In the City prison
were twenty-nine convicts, and in the County prison six convicts,
all non-Mormons. In the penitentiary, out of fifty-one prisoners
only five were Mormons, two of whom were for polygamy; and of 125
prisoners in the lock-ups, eleven were Mormons, some for polygamy.

"The arrests in Salt Lake City, from the 1st of January to the 8th
of December, 1881, were classified as follows:

Mormons: Non-Mormons:
Men and boys 163 Men and boys 657
Women 6 Women 194

Total 169 Total 851

"Of the population of Salt Lake City, about 75 per cent. is Mormon,
and 25 per cent. non-Mormon. Of the suicides in Utah, 90 per cent.,
and of the homicides and infanticides 80 per cent., are committed
by the 17 per cent. of non-Mormons. . . . .

"The Mormons, as a people, are tolerant, temperate, peaceable, and
industrious. Temperance is in some cases carried to the extreme of
abstinence from alcohol of all kinds, tobacco, and tea. Before the
Federal Government exercised so much authority as now, drinking
saloons and other establishments of vice were prohibited; and,
although a few professing Mormons keep drinking saloons, they are
held in disgrace....

"Certain it is that, whatever the causes may be, there is among the
Latter-day Saints a mutual feeling of helpfulness and trust, and
whatever the Gentiles may say, the sentiments towards the heads of
the community are respect, confidence, and I might say affection.
I had the pleasure of traveling for some days in the company of
a Mormon Elder, a gentleman of great ability, intelligence and
courtesy, and I was much struck by the evident cordiality of
his reception by his co-religionists, as well as by his genuine
kindness, without any tinge of condescension towards his humbler
brethren. There was on both sides an evident feeling of perfect
equality combined with respect and affection. It is the same with
the President. So far as I observed and could learn, President
Taylor is regarded with greater respect by the Mormons than is the
President of the United States by its citizens, and at the same
time his office is open to all, and he is prepared to hear what the
humblest Mormon has to say."

Again I turn to the testimony of Mr. Robinson:

"I have seen and spoken to and lived with Mormon men and women of
every class, and never in my life, in any Christian country, {180}
have I come in contact with more consistent piety, sobriety and
neighborly charity. I say this deliberately, without a particle of
odious sanctimony, these folks are in their words and actions as
Christian as ever I thought to see men and women . . . The Mormons
are a peasant people, with many of the faults if peasant life,
but with many of the best human virtues as well....The demeanor
of the women in Utah, as compared with Brightan or Washington, is
modesty itself; and the children are just such healthy, vigorous,
pretty children as one sees in the country or by the sea-side in
England...... Utah-born girls, the offspring of plural wives, have
figures that would make Paris envious; and they carry themselves
with almost oriental dignity. There is nothing, so far as I have
seen, in the manners of Salt Lake City to make me suspect the
existence of that licentiousness of which so much has been written,
but a great deal on the contrary to convince me of a perfectly
exceptional reserve and self-respect. It is only a blockhead that
could mistake the natural gayety of the country for any other than
it is. I know, too, from medical assurance, that Utah has the
practical argument of healthy nurseries to oppose to the theories
of those who attack its domestic relations on physiological
grounds. . .. A healthier and more stalwart community I have never
seen; while among the women I saw many refined faces, and remarked
that robust health seemed the rule....

"Mutual charity is one of the bonds of Mormon union. It is
published officially that the bishops of every ward are to see
there are no persons going hungry.' What a contrast to turn from
this text of universal charity to the infinite meanness of those
who can write of the whole community of Mormons as 'the villainous
spawn of polygamy!' . . . Instead of the Mormons being as a class
profane, they are as a class singularly sober in their language,
and indeed in this respect resemble the Quakers.

"The payment of the tithings is as nearly voluntary as the
collection of a revenue necessary for carrying on a government
can possibly be allowed to be... It is not true that the Church
interferes with the domestic relations of the people. When I
remember what classes of people their men and women are chiefly
drawn from, and the utter poverty in which most of them arrive, I
cannot in sincerity do otherwise than admire and respect the system
which has fused such unpromising material of so many nationalities
into one homogeneous whole."--Sinners and Saints."

Bishop D. S. Tuttle, for years an Episcopal clergyman in Salt Lake City, an opponent of "Mormonism," but an honorable one, in a lecture on "Mormonism," delivered in New York and published in the New York _Sun_, says:

"In Salt Lake City alone there are 17,000 Latter-day Saints. Now,
who are they? I will tell you, and I think, that after I have
concluded, you will look on them more favorably than you have been
accustomed to do. Springing from the centre of your own State
(N.Y.) in 1830, they drifted slowly westward until they finally
rested in the Basin of the Great Salt Lake. I know that the people
of the east have obtained the most unfavorable opinion of them,
and have judged them unjustly. They have many traits that are
worthy of admiration, {181} and they believe with fervent faith
that their religion is a direct revelation from God. We of the east
are accustomed to look upon the Mormons as either a licentious
arrogant or rebellious mob, bent only on defying the United States
Government and deriding the faith of the Christians. This is
not so. I know them to be honest, faithful, prayerful workers,
and earnest in their faith that heaven will bless the Church of
Latter-day Saints. Another strong and admirable feature in the
Mormon religion is the tenacious and efficient organization. They
follow with the greatest care all the forms of the old church."

I next quote from the contribution of the Rev. John C. Kimball of Hartford, Connecticut, U. S. A., to _The Index_, published in Boston, Mass., 1884. After introducing the testimony of a number of writers to the general good character of the "Mormon" people, he says:

"Still stronger is the evidence derived from official statistics
as to their intelligence and virtue. In Salt Lake City, in 1881,
the published reports show that the arrests for crime were
_fourteen times_ as many among the Gentiles, in proportion to
their number, as among the Mormons; and taking the Territory as a
whole, the Gentile population furnished _forty-six_ convicts in
the penitentiary, where the Mormon population, number for number,
furnished one! According to the United States census, Massachusetts
has four times as many convicts to the same population as Utah;
four and a half times as many idiots and insane, and nine times
as many paupers. Utah in school attendance, according to the
same authority [the United States census for 1880], is ahead of
Massachusetts; and with all that has been said about the ignorance
of its people and its immense foreign immigration, its proportion
of people that cannot read and write is put down as less than that
of New England. And still more striking, the women there instead of
being kept in ignorance and subjection, are educated in the same
studies and to the same extent as the boys and men, are equally
fitted to earn their own living out in the world and to maintain an
independent career."

Captain Burton, of the British army, published in 1862, a book on the "Mormon" people and faith called the _City of the Saints_. He says:

"Mormonism is emphatically the faith of the poor. . . I cannot
help thinking that morally and spiritually as well as physically
its proteges gain by their transfer from Europe to Utah. . . . In
point of more morality, the Mormon community is perhaps purer than
any other of equal numbers. . . . The penalties against chastity,
morality and decency are exceptionally severe. . . . I was much
pleased with their religious tolerance. The Mormons are certainly
the least fanatical of our faiths, owning like the Hindus, that
every man should walk his own way, while claiming for themselves
superiority in belief and practice."

{182} Testimony of like character and of equal respectability could be adduced without limit, but we think sufficient is here set down to convince people disposed in the least degree to be fair-minded, however prejudiced they may previously, have been, that the reckless charges of crime and immorality made against the Latter-day Saints in Utah by their enemies, are wickedly false, and have been invented to deceive. I ask you again to cast your eye over the statements presented to you, and consider the character of the men who make them. They are not the statements of the occasional tourist of a day, but the conclusions of men of thought and travel and education, who visited Utah for the express purpose of becoming acquainted with the strange faith, and, to the world, the still stranger people.

"POLYGAMY."

I shall be told, however, that the "Mormons" believe in and some of them practise a plurality of wives, and therefore they must be a bad people. But not so fast. Before such a conclusion is drawn it will be necessary to prove that a plurality of wives as practised by the Mormons is in and of itself evil. That principle is as much a part of the religious faith of the women as of the men, and is practised by and with the consent of all parties concerned. It is practised because the people believe that God has commanded it by revelation direct to the Church, for the accomplishment of His own wise purposes--the rearing of a purer and better race of people. Their faith in that revelation is considerably strengthened by reading in the Holy Scriptures how God favored and blessed with His approval that form of marriage among the worthy patriarchs of old; nay, how even God Himself gave to David, according to His own Word (2 Sam. xii., 7, 8), a plurality of wives; thus becoming a party to the evil, if evil it was. But that which God sanctions and approbates can never be said to be evil. And that God did sanction the plural wife system of marriage and approve it is evident from the lives of nearly all the patriarchs and prophets spoken of in the Bible.

I know it is said by Christians that this was in very ancient times, when people lived under the Mosaic Law, and that the law of carnal commandments was superceded by the new dispensation under Christ. Very well, then, shifting the controversy to what is known as the Christian dispensation, we challenge {183} the whole world to produce a single passage from the New Testament directly condemning the plural marriage system of the old patriarchs, or a passage which, by fair interpretation, even by implication condemns it. Such a passage cannot be found. And yet the writers of the New Testament did not hesitate to condemn in the most direct and positive manner every species of sin;--strange, is it not, that they failed to condemn plural marriage, if it was by them or their Master considered sinful? The fact becomes more strange when it is understood that they lived in a country and among a people who practised it. Furthermore, Abraham, Jacob, and the prophets were frequently the theme of conversation and discourse with the writers of the New Testament, and if the plural wife system practised by them was sinful, is it not singular that no condemnation of it should creep into the pages of the New Testament somewhere?

I apprehend that much of the prejudice existing against the marriage system of the Latter-day Saints arises from confounding it with the polygamy of the East--with the harems of Turkey, or the bigamy occasionally practiced in Christian communities; yet we hope to show, so far as may be shown in a few brief sentences, that there is not and cannot be, from the very nature of society in Utah, anything that resembles the Eastern harem, nor do the evils exist which grow out of the ordinary case of bigamy.

In the first place, women in Utah are as free to marry whom they please as they are in any part of the world. Mr. Phil. Robinson says:--

"It is a mistake to suppose there are no educated women in Utah: . . .
the young ladies appear as free and independent as in other parts
of the United States. . . . if the women of Utah are slaves, their
bonds are loving ones and dearly prized. They are today in the free
and unrestricted exercise of more political and social rights than
are the women of any other part of the United States."--"Saints and
Sinners."

To this add the testimony of Mr. Barclay, in the article from the _Nineteenth Century_, before quoted:--

"The young ladies appear as free and independent as in other parts
of the United States; and, if I might hazard an opinion, the young
men of Mormondom will find considerable difficulty in persuading
them to be content with the share of a husband."

The women of Mormondom are as free to bestow or withhold their hands in marriage as they are in England, and {184} there has not been a day since 1862--the year in which the first law of Congress was passed against polygamy--but what it has been within the power of the wife or wives of a man to send him to the penitentiary, the United States Courts being only too glad to entertain her suit, and break up the polygamous family associations. Yet, in all these years, there have not been half-a-dozen such cases. This entire freedom of women among the "Mormons" robs their plural marriage system of every feature of resemblance to the polygamy of the East; and what is here set down proves that whatever of plural marriage exists in Utah, does so by the mutual consent of all the parties concerned.

In common bigamy the first marriage is studiously concealed by the party contemplating the second marriage. A man represents himself to a lady as a bachelor, and under false pretences and fraud obtains possession of her person. Soon she discovers that she has been betrayed, deceived, degraded,--the sense of shame and sorrow following producing indescribable misery. Nor has it been less productive of evil to the first wife. Her happiness, too, has been wrecked by the perfidy of the wretch she called husband. She has been neglected, abandoned, made an outcast. Where she looked for loyalty, she found treason; where she implicitly trusted, she has been deceived, and her misery and shame is as great as the other victim's.

Now, none of these evils grow out of the plural marriage system of the Mormons. In the first place, a plurality of wives, under certain conditions and restraints, is one of the social institutions of the Society of Utah, and has been for more than a generation. As before remarked, it is practised because the "Mormon" people believe it is commanded of God; it is therefore accepted by both man and woman as part of their religious faith, and is regarded as such by the whole population,--as well by those who do not practise it as by those who do. Consequently it breeds no scandal; it brings no reproach. The position of the plural wife is just as honorable, in every sense of the word, as that of the first wife. She is, in fact, a wife, with all the holy associations growing out of that relationship, and is honored everywhere as such. The same ceremony which unites a man to his first wife is employed to unite him to his second or third, and the same authority--the authority of God--performs it.

As with the plural wife, so with the plural wife's children; {185} they are equally honorable with the children of the first wife,--society makes no distinction between them. When a man takes a plural wife no concealment is made of his first marriage, nor is his first family deserted; all is open and honest. There is no deceit, no fraud practiced, nor can there be. The sanction of the first wife, and the sanction of parents must be obtained, together with the sanction and recommendation of the Bishop who presides over the branch of the Church where the parties live, and who has to be able to state in his recommendation that the parties are members of the Church in good standing; that means that they are honest before God and man, virtuous, faithful in discharging every religious and moral duty, and temperate withal. And unless such a recommendation can be given, the relationship cannot be contracted.

Such, in brief, is an outline of the conditions hedging about the practice of this principle of plural marriage, against which Christians can find no law, either in the Old or New Testament, which even so much as bears the complexion of condemnation, but very much which will bear witness of God's approval of it, even allowing His only-begotten Son, so far as His earthly parentage is concerned, to come through such a lineage, a number of his earthly progenitors being the offspring of plural wives, and themselves practising it. Surely our Christian friends, who look forward to reclining upon Abraham's bosom as one of the highest privileges to be enjoyed in heaven, ought not to criticise too severely the system of marriage which he practised.

THE MISSION OF THE MORMON ELDERS.

Much complaint is made by the people of England because the Elders from Utah, who are traveling in this country as missionaries, do not make any particular effort to explain or urge upon people the doctrine of plural marriage. Strangers attend our meetings, and are surprised to hear nothing said upon the subject of plurality of wives, and go away disappointed; as if our Elders on every occasion should have something to say upon that subject. I assure my readers that it is not because the Elders have any disposition to conceal the fact that the Latter-day Saints believe in the rightfulness of the doctrine under the conditions herein set down; or through any fear that the Word of God can be shown to condemn it. The fact is, the Elders from Utah are servants of God sent {186} forth with a message to the nations of the earth to the effect that God has spoken from heaven, and restored the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which, in consequence of the wickedness and violence of men a few centuries after Christ, was taken from the earth, together with the authority to administer in its ordinances. But this Gospel is now restored, together with its ancient powers, gifts, blessings, and authorities, and by the faithful Elders of the Church of Jesus Christ is being preached as a witness in all the world. It is the business of the Elders from Utah to make this important proclamation to the inhabitants of the earth, and call upon them to repent of their sins, and warn them that the hour of God's judgment is here, and His glorious coming at hand. The practice of plural marriage in Utah is a very insignificant matter in comparison with the importance of the great message we are here to deliver. We are not here to urge upon people the acceptance of plural marriage, but to declare the message above alluded to; though, of course, at proper times and under proper circumstances, we shrink not from the most rigid inquiry into the various principles of our faith.