Show MOR moe MONISM IN manchester from from a special the aho latter iatter day saints a are goodat good at evangelising evange lising and do notie notre not confine their theli efforts to mere talking but work with a kind of fanatical earnestness nest ness in conveying converts to zion U S they locate preachers wherever there appears tile the slightest chance of gaining a sand in manchester they tiley have obtained a footing and worship in our midst regardless leg ardless of the opinion of other and less eccentric sects theman the manchester cl district which includes many of the large largo manufacturing towns in south lancashire has members exclusive of teachers elders priests and deacons who number the place of worship in manchester is the grosvenor street streett temperance hall and the congregation is over yesterday the annual confer conference ence enca was held and in the afternoon elder J F smith own nephew to tile the prophet joseph and pre president dent of the european mission be held heid d forth on attending evening ervice service fc I 1 found ab omm commenced ommen encee ced eed punctually at six och uk ac just justas as the bells were tolling from the various churches in the 1 neighborhood of all saints the r ran rin bare and comfortless elou t li lor the strictest puritan contained some persons and during the evening the number was increased to about the greatest decorum reigned and curious inspection showed that the greater majority were I 1 isain saints tayl tall who were earnest enough in their worship and attentive to what was going on they belonged in every instance as far as appearance appearances could speak to the well to do working class and their faces displayed enough intelligence and thought to stock many a larger congregation there were strangers present also and these were scattered indiscriminately in the assembly As a rule they were wera somewhat higher in the social scale than the followers of ofa J smith mith and it was palpable that curiosity or a wish to kill time had brought them there at the far end of the half hail was a platform on which were assembled a dozen men of the usual mormon elder stamp something of a cross between a local preacher and a new world colonist a combination the result insult of which is not to be despised the service was inaugurated by tl the bin sin singing ing of a hymn in which all joined A violin was the instrument ment used for the accompaniment and the sin singing ing was as near perfect as perfection goes in in congregational gregat ional vocalism the women and children the young men and maidens all sang heartily and spontaneously and the voices were well balanced it must not bo be imagined that the tile audience was composed mainly of men for the feirl feiri female aio alc element was in force and the 11 sisters were wore good specimens of working mens wives and daughters several had pretensions to beauty and many others would pass muster 1 in I a crowd of average good looking women their dress WAS with some exceptions quiet acx and subdued the exceptions wely were 1 mostly on the part of the mid dle aged who wilo indulged in finery to a considerable extent some of tha the headgear head gear especially being loud to recur to the hymn it was selected 11 from a neatly got up volume on en titled Sacred hymns and spiritual songs for the tile church of jesus christ of latter day saints which it has run through fifteen editions since 1810 the tile selection is not at all a bad one and tile tiie mormon writers occupy nearly the whole of the book one hymn craving a blessing for tile the far western land is set to the tho tuno tune of agod god save the queen and other well known tunes may also aiso be found in tho the other they are characteristic of the movement which has developed so much determination and endurance in those who are sneered at as the Pari parl pariahs marialis alis alls of society socie ly and when still sung with intensity of feeling are peculiarly stirring many of the rhymes aro are halting and some of the sound rather strange to english ears cars but there is a certain vein of thoroughness running through them that is very pleasant the hymn blymn ended elder J C graham stepped to the tile front of the platform and raising hiar like a scotch witness taking tuning in an oath prayed for a few minutes the first words of the prayer vore voie were veto our father who art in heaven hf eaven and I 1 imagined that the lords prayer maw about to tobe be olven oiven but such was not the case the words would have suited any any christian pace of worship with the tho exception of the beseeching a bleSSI blessing Dg for thy servant tho prophet and an appeal against those wicked narrow minded persons cuto euto thy people in the valley of the moun mountains talus the tile prayer ended e d with the formula of in the narno namo of jesus christ of nazareth amen the last word was wag repeated by the congregation with great fervor and tills this esthe is the only manner in which they responded at any time another hymn was sung sting and then elder f L J herrick of 0 ogden city utah an anad ad dress ho was a tall tail bearded men min with the face of an enthusiast but slow of speech and w with th an u n sy m pathetic bathetic Ea voice that occasionally betrayed yankee rearing hh oration was principally an exposition of the truth of the mormon doctrine and he lie stated as a result of forty years experience that tile tiie latter day saints were a good virtuous god fearing and law abiding people drifting into theology lie he quoted scripture extensively ten to prove that they were the saints that were prophesied of by our savior and his apostles apostle asa negative reason for this he instanced the existing dissensions among the tho so called christian sect sects s j and his argument summed up came to this all tile the christian sects are at variance with each each other therefore they are wrong wo we are united and at peace therefore we are right the proposition is a weak one he made a r statement tat ement which I 1 confess took me by surprise and that was that all their doctrines were taken from the literal words of the bible bibie I 1 had ilea liea heard rd of the prophet josephs book but not a syllable was said about it the bible king james jameil bible was lis ins its cry and no dissent was s expressed I 1 rather liked his doctrine until lie he boldly avowed that ho ilo had seen miracle worked and had bad himself been the subject of one of them when skepticism in the prophet and hi ili x dogma loma ioma reasserted reas toas roas reas as m arted itself following this miracle monger came elder P F al lyman also from rom utah and a better slip port of the he church militant it would be liard hard to 11 ind find he was of splendid ph physique I 1 and arld it is no wonder the united states government have had trouble with their polygamous ous subjects if the lyman family is ia a largo arge argo one ho he spoke freely and even with passion at times when alluding to the wrongs of the peole people plo pio they could not he said be led tied in england or europe if they lad had the true spirit within them all that hat held them therm in babylon was poverty practically ho he preached liberty giliberty fraternity equality alid arld the intention of the saints tu to build up zion in utah and organise org anise society he did not enter ente into the details of the organisation organization but the millennium hours of work were to be six per day the remainder devoted to the building pro gramme theoretically it is to be inferred he like his predecessor was a staunch believer in miracles and fave favo gave instances of a barren country being ing made fruitful simply because of a location of the people of god and of a lake appearing where there was none before beford mr G 4 F gibbs a young man mall of the sunday school teacher type followed and wandered off into a dissertation on spirits and t influences which would have suited a spiritualist platform admirably but fell rather flat after tho tile preceding addresses As he sat gat down a rather agather siri siti singular guiar gular scene occurred and one which shows how perfect is the control the elders have over their followers some eight or ten tell persons men and women suddenly got up in it a body and were marching 1 out when their exodus was summarily checked by elder J C graham look hook here oldham brethren aint you too early for your train trains oldham no wo we aint I 1 elder eider ider lder what time timo does it go oldham twenty to eight elder just 0 FO o anid and the next oldham no 2 el eight ight E eider elder ider just eo sit down ag again alu aln bo be dismissed at a quarter to eight oldham sat down and the strangers smiled to see the tho saints kept so well in hand all pastors could not boast of such perfect command over their flocks and the lesson is a salutary one the fourth and last speaker was elder J C graham of utah who in the course of his remarks complained bitterly of the manner in which he and his friends had been treated in the isle islo of man on the previous sunday when trying to preach their doctrine the tile manx welcome wag was a rough one aird the intolerance was the more felt as the E elders eiders iders of salt lake city had once received the rev bev hugh stowell brown a manxman with exceptional kindness giving him a hall free of charge there was certainly some somo eau cau of complaint if the statement stat emeit were vere not exaggerated and it did kotap nol not appear to be another hymn was sung lord clord dismiss us with thy blesing blessing to n a curious tune the voices rising and falling sud rud suddenly denly and unexpectedly expectedly im and then the tho audience disposed A coi cli c lection was made at the doors and antl mone money y was freely given outside the hall were three or four carts lijo lido which the brethren and sisters from pendleton anti and other towns alps were packed with striking ec eel lony lomy of space and farewells bein beld exchanged off they drove thu thi finished the annual confor conference enee ence of the man cl iester chester mormons cormons Mor i mons an chester eng cren wren evening win news nuj 1 sive eive features and anid bro burrows a young man clerking in the liverpool office was stoned having his bis head pummelled pummel led a little and a bump hump or two raised it is said there is only one policeman on the island I 1 think however that saying arose from the peculiar circumstances cum stances just related and andis L the production of imagination I 1 am going to gainsboro tomorrow to hold meeting on sunday J d ay iy and on tuesday I 1 shall go to london with george on antho tho the rist list our sunday school anniversary exercises will come ow oln and I 1 shall complete my london visit in it time to ho be here hero at I 1 remain your affectionate son soni i JUNIUS F WELLS |