| Show MORMONISM IN ENGLAND THE re religion ligin of the latter day saints sainto to being most moat shamefully misrepresented in england by two persons one to is named ward who deals out wholesale falsehood in the form of lectures the other is the rov rev 8 who Is presenting a collection of olda old stale and long since exploded fables through the columns of the press these slanderous concoctions concoct ions have caused the production of the following correspond correspondence once which appeared in a prominent derbyshire journal on the of february SEB I 1 learn by the newspapers that a mr J ward is lecturing on the subject of mormonism at south nor manton some of the papers of JS otting bingham bam ham either through bigotry or fear refuse to publish the truth about the mormons cormons Mor mons PI and reject every communication muni cation which does not malign that people learning that the journal is willing to allow both sides a fair hearing I 1 venture a few suggestions for the consideration of your readers it te stated in the papers that at mr wards lecture the audience voted in favor of resolution condemning mormonism and pledging themselves to do their utmost to clear the village of those professing and preaching that belief one of solomons proverbs reads reade he that answer eth a matter before he bearett it it to is a folly and a shame unto him 4 to condemn a people and enter into a crusade against them without giving them a hearing not a challenge from an enemy to reply hut but an actual listening to the response certainly appears to be a folly and a reproach roach to an englishman ls sense of f justice am when we reason with our addes we cannot but conclude that a public speaker who would after arousing the enthusiasm of his audience by a nery fiery harangue ask them to decide upon the fate of a follow fellow being without giving the accused a fair and impartial hearing has it in his heart to mislead and is pit for treason strat stratagem egem and spoils mr ward accused the people of utah of being the vilest set of men on the earth we have the testimony of representative englishmen upon this point and it certainly is entitled to weight for these gentlemen have been among the mormons cormons and know whereof they speak captain burton of the british army says of them pinpoint in point of more mere morality the mormon community is perhaps purer than any other of equal numbers iwas I 1 was much pleased with their religious tolerance the mormons cormons are certainly the least fanatical of our faiths owning like the hindus that every man should walk his own way while claiming for themselves the superiority in belief and practice 4 mr phil robinson the well known london journalist and correspondent writes how can anyone have respect for literature or the men who without knowing anything 9 of the lives of mor mons stigmatize them ahem as profane adulterous and drunken these men write of the squalid poverty of the mormons cormons Mor mons obscene brutality of their unceasing treason toward the united states of their blasphemous repudiation of the bible without one particle of information inform tion on the subject except such as they chey gather from the books and writings of men whom they ought to know are utterly unworthy of credit or from the verbal calumnies calum nies of apostates and what the evidence of apostates is worth history has long ago told us I 1 am now stating facts and 1 I who have lived among the mormons cormons and with them can assure my readers that every day of my residence increased my regret at the misrepresentation these people have suffered I 1 have seen and spoken to and lived with mormon men and women of every class and never in my life in any christian country have I 1 come in contact with more consistent piety sobriety and neighborly ob charity arity I 1 say this deliberately without a particle of odious sanctimony these folks are in their words and actions as christian as I 1 ever thought to see men and women the mormon cormons are a peasant people p eop le with many of the faults of peasant life but with many ot of the best human virtues as well the demeanor of tiie the wom women n in in utah as compared with brighton or washington is modesty itself and the children are just such healthy vigorous pretty children as one sees in the country or by the seaside in england amr mr james W barclay MP of leeds also traveled in utah and in an article published in the nw nineteenth Gen century guty he says the mormons cormons Mor mons as a people are tolerant temperate peaceable and industrious temperance is in some oases 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 cormons keep drinking saloons they are held in disgrace 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 iu individual has full freedom of action chore is no compulsion on any mormon beyond belond the public opinion of his fellows lo 10 and none is possible apostasy Apo stacy even does not appear to be attended with serious consequences to the apostates material interests some of the largest merchants in salt lake city have apostatized from the church and although the population in utah is about nine tenths mormon their business seems to prosper as before in morality as far as shown by statistics the mormons cormons greatly excel the gentiles in their midst and the general population of the states th there ore is no religious caste or class prom from the president downwards the office bearers of the church are selected by the voice of the mormon community they require no special qua qualification and no one receives any salary or other emolument 1 the missionaries to all par parts s of the world do not receive even traveling expenses bishop D S tuttle who for years was an episcopal clergyman in salt take lake city delivered a lecture in new york city on the mormons cormons Mor mons f in which he made this statement in salt lake city alone there are over latter day saints now who are am they I 1 will tell you and I 1 think that after I 1 have concluded you will look on them more favorably than you have been accustomed to do springing from the center of your own state NY in 1830 they drifted slowly westward until they finally rested in the basin of the great salt lake I 1 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 and they believe with a fervent faith that their religion is a direct revelation from god we of the east are accustomed to look upon the mormons cormons 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 1 know them to be honest faithful prayerful workers and earnest in their faith that heaven will bless the church of lat ter day saints another strong and admirable feature in the mormon religion to is the tenacious and efficient organization they follow with the greatest tre care all the forms of the old church the rev john C kimball of hartford connecticut U 8 A gives in the boston index this testimony of the mormon people still stronger str onster 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 ere fourteen times as many among the gentiles in proportion to their number as among the mormons cormons Mor mons and taking the territory as a whole the gentile population copulation furnished forty siz six convicts in the penitentiary where the mormon PO population pu lation number for number furnished onel one Ae according cording 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 haupers pau pers utah in school attendance according to the same authority the united states census for 1880 1980 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 clown as less aaa 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 boys and men are equally fitted to earn their own living out in the world and aad MAD maintain maddatu tAtU an independent career evidence coming from such sources as these is surely worthy of credence mr ward charges the mormon church with being murderers I 1 was in salt lake city in november and december dec ember 1889 and attended the sessions of the united states courts there the case in progress was one of peculiar interest for it was an official attempt to prove this same charge out of all the allegations of murder only one man could be named a mr wm win green who it was said was murdered in 1862 because he had apostatized from the church A great deal of hearsay testimony was introduced but the climax was reached when william green himself subsequently declared on oath that he be had not been murdered nor had any attempt been made upon him he bad left the church but was never molested in any way thus nus failed the only charge of murder against the church that has bas ever been brought to issue upon the evidence the mormons cormons obey strictly the laws here and under such circumstances it is grow gross wickedness to demand that they either have t to give up their religion or leave england the struggle for religious liberty was too severe and the freedom it gained too precious for englishmen to now raise the banner ner of religious intolerance mr ward is very far from the truth in his statements about the mormons cormons Mor mons and must be as am far removed from honor bonor for hon notable men will not resort to falsehood it to is only foes to british freedom that would compel a mn to renounce his religious belief we claim the privilege of worshiping almighty god according to the dictates of our conscience and allow all men the same privilege let them worship how bow where or what they may yours truly I 1 JAMM JAMES k H ANDERSON 1142 42 ISLINGTON liverpool feb 1891 BIB J just a few lines if you please in your last issue I 1 saw a few lines from mr he says either mr beard or mr powell is untruthful I 1 say the same as my brother mr beard that there was not a member of the mormon church present at mr ward wards Is lecture for we believe in treating all such persons with silent contempt mr wants to know the reason mr powell has been expelled from our church well I 1 will tell him the first lesson we learn on entering the mormon church is to mind our own business he also says if he were mr powell and the would not acknowledge him as one of them he would let them fight their own battles very good mr powell is at liberty to fight for or against us as he thinks proper he also says let us be honest and na not seek to evade we wish he would remember that when he is writing the history of mormons cormons Mor mons I 1 can judge for myself where he gets his information it is 10 from anti mormon literature of the basest kind intermingled with his own erroneous ideas some honest hearted person may ask the question why do christian ministers attack the mormons cormons in the manner they do I 1 will tell him the reason it is because they cant do it in any other way we defy mr or any other minister in christendom to come and prove the principles unscriptural scriptural that the mor mons believe in they know they cant it do it letar let mr come to Normanton and brin ghis Bib leand we will find a man to meet him let it be primitive methodism vs mormonism let us see am wah is most scriptural lie he will get such a licking he never had in his life with the very book he professes to believe in would it not be more christian to attack us in that way instead of slandering misrepresenting and abusing us we are quite willing for anyone to examine our doctrines and compare them with the bible in conclusion let me say that mormonism as the world cal calls Is it is the true gospel and aad it will grow and increase until it nils fills the whole earth and shines as the noonday sun when all mormon haters baters and their systems have sunk bunk in oblivion a shade yours respectfully HANNAH SOUTH feb 1 |
