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Show ARE THE MORMONS SINCERE? j This is a question which tlio.se wlto , Jeriirc to .see the jxioplc composing tlm :- Mormon church, ami their iiiith, ''wiped out" of cxi-tem-'', aiimo l answer in the nalivo, ho fair as the Icaderw are concerned. They Buy the . rank ami tile are ignorant ilupc.i and ' the leadew arc designing hypocrites. Those arc ha rah terms, hut as we have j hoard them o often wc arc aectiHtomed : to them; and we propose to pjve some laclsm answer to I he qu.-ry which heads this article. lMr.it; we are of the " rank and lile" j ' oi'tho Mormon community. We never Keck to thrust our faith hefure the pub-lie, pub-lie, iL is our own, and sacred to us. 1" our " ignuranec," the puhlic way judgi!, us they would he able to judge (d thousands of our eo reliionists were opportunity offered to draw out t lie 1 knowledge which exponent'.! and travel have Kiven them. Second; for over loily years the "Mormon leaders" have taught their: faith, often traveling wilh "their lives j in their hands," in poverty and suffer-iiiK. suffer-iiiK. !s this the course taken hy men who are hypocritical and insincere? insin-cere? Does any man possessing the slightest knowledge of human nature, or who has ever studied history in even a ' remote degree, imagine that a body of 1 men could preach, (each and defend a aeries of principles for forty years, I without chango, argument or position, and not believe them? I Third; several times have these men and the wholo community been robbed of their property, and com , polled to flee from one .Stale to another' before ruthles.1 . nnd j wavago mobs, and tins because of; their religion, I'o men and women endure such cruelties and barbarous ! treatment for hypocrisy ? They were ; driven twelve hundred miles across i dreary and oouipuritavely unknown de-sorts de-sorts invested by savage ahorignes; and in the heart of tho continent built up a colony under the shadows of the ; Wasatch mountains, amid almost in credible sufferings, poverty and distress. , And foremost among the sufferers, as tho tirst lo faeo dangers and diflicul-, diflicul-, tios, were these same "leaders." is this tho course that hypocrites pursue? Hypocrisy would start back appalled from the dangers which the pioneers of the Hooky Mountains endured. Had they come hero in Pullman palace cars, ' to liud a fertile valley, with mountains yielding vast treasures in mineral j i' wealth, cities and towns ready built , tho treasuries of which they had some hopes of manipulating, there might i have been grounds (or the charge of hypocrisy. Had they even been broken-down politicians scntto this far-off ; region by the kind mercies of the i administration at Washington, and J had they found hero a prosperous community to be used for political power and prospective congressional reputation, hypocrisy might have been credited to them with some bIiow of reason, if they had cum- nionccd a "virtuous" crusade ogainst tho people and their faith, But, in-' in-' stead, they found here a forbidding sol itude onough to startle echo and drive :,' her far away. They had to mould the abobes from tho earth, haul the lim-! lim-! bor from then almost, inaccessible mountains, and fashion from old wagon r tires tho iron material necessary for ; buildings, before they had houses to reside in. They had to lace the terrors i of a severe winter in these fastnesses, i with the thin covering of a tent or wagon cover alono to shelter weak women, ieeble men aud tender children from death by exposure; and this on a I scanty ration of food scarcely enough lo keep spirit aud body together. They had to bring tho seeds of trees, i plants and vegetables from afar, break up an arid soil and direct, with iniimtc labor, streams of water upon it for fer-( fer-( tilizing purposes; and then to watt and : watch the result in the uncertainties of J (in unknown climate, many compelled ; .. to dig and use the wild roots of the benches or eat thistle tops, and many having to wade through cold rain, sleet ; aud snow barefoot and thinly clad. And I yet there are mcu with the ignorance or assurance to charge those who thus suffered and endured for their faith - with hypocrisy ! j With the correctness or absurdity of I that faith the whole world has nothing . to do. The faith is theirs, honestly f. believed in, sincerely held, and to tho great Searcher of hearts alone arc they responsible for it. An entire world 1 may hold it to bo grossly absurd, but i that does not prove it so; and were it as incorrect and as absurd as it is called, S so long us it does not infringe upon the constitutional rights of any living j ,v being it is not the right of any mortal to interfere with it. This is Mm ply tho cuuuciation of a democrat io-re-; publican principle, which decrees uu- ; . restricted religious liberty to all, so " long as religion does not, in its excr-1 excr-1 cise, press upon the rights of tliOhC ' who do not believe it. Those most active in the crusade J agaiust the Mormons, hold that the j progress of the age is against Mor- 1 : mouism. If so, let it march on and aecompIih its destiny; but no one ', outside the Utah "ring11 imagines the ' , present iueumbcuLs of federal otliccs , here arc the embodiments of the pro- '- gress of the age. That the Mormots are sincere, a. thousand tangible evidences evi-dences give proof; and the present erusad; will but strengthen them by making them more united, and erea-' erea-' ting a strong sympathy "m their Javer throughout the world. |