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Show B Che Reverend Knockers must 60 1 I Some people affect to boHovo that Truth doesn't like churches, and that it has a deep-rooted antipathy to preachers. Nothing could be further from the facts. Truth bollevos in churches, believes that ministers do a vast amount of good, that a people or a country without churches would ' bo an exceedingly undesirable people " to havo anything to do with and an exceedingly ex-ceedingly undesirable country to live in, but unfortunately and perhaps unavoidably, un-avoidably, sometimes, wo might almost al-most say frequently men got into the ministry who are a disgrace to their cloth and to their churches. In Utah that is notably the case. Half a dozen or maybe a dozen preachers havo wrought more Injury to this state materially, ma-terially, morally and intellectually than any other equal number of men within its borders. Some of them have been notoriously morally corrupt and all of the black dozen we will call I them havo mado a business of slandering, slander-ing, misrepresenting and absolutely and unqualiiledly and maliciously lying ly-ing about Utah and her people. The good people, instead of sitting down on these wolves in sheep's clothing havo winked at and in somo caso even encouraged en-couraged them In their nefarious actions. ac-tions. None havo had the courage to expose them. Their cloth has been a clonk for their villainy and protected 1 by the mantle of mistaken charity they havo been allowed to go over tho k , country vlllifying Utah, tolling lurid and absolutely untrue, sensational and horrifying storlos about tho pcoplo I1 who llvo In Utah. They work upon tho gullability of tho people in the east ' for tho solo and only purpose of ' reaching their pocket-books. Tho col lection box is never omitted and the moro lurid and horrifying tho stories told by the Lellichs, tho Iliffs, etc., the larger tho collections. Tho money is supposed by those who give it to bo for tho conversion of the Mormons, but these preachers didn't convert any Mormons. Tho very best of them, tho well meaning, honest, God-fearing 'preachers in Utali havo scarcoly evor mado a convert from tho Mormon church. The sensational scandal-mongers who go out on collection tours simply get money under falso pre tenses. The unsuspecting pcoplo of the east have given at tho lowest calculation cal-culation a quarter of a million dollars to convert the Mormons, but wo doubt If a dozen Mormons In tho entire stato have been converted during the pnst dozen years. Tho money is gono and there is nothing to show for it. Tho reverend hypocrites have contributed more largely than any other causo or all causes combined to keep desirable settlers from coming (o this stale, to keep capital away, to prevent the material ma-terial development of its limitless Ve-sources Ve-sources and to hinder its Intcllectu'i! advancement. They combine with tho worst elements in tho community to Injuro the stato in every way. It is timo they wero exposed. It. Is timo their nefarious practices wero stopped and they are going to bo stopped. Tho knockers must go, whether they pose as ministers of tho gospol or anything else. n |