Show NEW WEST SCHEME Report on the Work in Utah and New Mexico rAN ATTACK UPON MORMONISM House of Representatives Great Council EndedGeneral News Notes The New West Society CHICAGO September 28The New West Education Commission a society of the Congregational Church devoted to the education under Christian teachers of the children and youth of the Territories of Utah and New Mexico hr Id its eight annual meeting today Fifteen members of the corporate cor-porate board were present During the year 9000 had been pent in the support sup-port of thirty schools and four academies in Utah and New Mexico 2775 pupils 15CO of them of Mormon parentage were taught by I sixtyfour teachers In the central towns the schools were crowded and many children were turned away for lack of room It was decided to erect new school buildings in Salt Lake and Heber Utah and Albuquerque Albu-querque New Mexico The general gen-eral secretary Mr Bliss read an interesting PAPER ON MOBMONISM He said in part the question of fact is sometimes raised whetherMormonism is a religion or something else unworthy of that designation There has been so much of fraud and wickedness in the practice and lives of its prominent founders and leaders that we I grow impatient when men call the product of all this scheming and cunning cun-ning a religion yet the word religion is one of great breadth It is utterly impossible im-possible to explain thefacts which meet one everywhere in Utah without granting not only that Mormonism is a religion but also that the chief sources of its present vitality and power lie in the religious ideas hopes and fears of its adherents The tonor of their discourses in the tabernacle the form of deyotion which they observe the enthusiasm which attends their frequent conferences the steadfastness stead-fastness of their devotion to their church maintained by the great majority of them the constant departure depar-ture of missionaries in the face of continued con-tinued discouragement the uninterrupted uninter-rupted building of temples the constant and universal recurrence to the supposed sup-posed miraculous origin and the well known rapid early progress of their church and the unabated confidence con-fidence ot the early coming of a deliverer who will smite their enemies and carry forward for-ward their church to a position of great glory and universal influence All these things are unaccountable save upon the ground that Mormonism whatever it was at first has grown to be a religion untrenched in convictions and powerful as a source of motives hopes and courage |