Show RELIGIOUS slanderers SLANDER ERS AN ARTICLE in se Be ference to the Mor mormon mons which appeared in a religious publication called church at how home and abroad has hag been copied into several more influential papers so BO we spare some space apace to a notice of it the chief idea conveyed in it is that missionary efforts by the various Chris christian daw sects may now be entered upon with a brighter prospect of success than bathe past and without those dangers which formerly beset beget them the former condition is thus described the time is not so long ago when a missionary who dared to carry the word of god into any of the darker corners of the territory took his life in his hand and braved brave dIngers dangers as real and formidable as those which confronted the latest christian adventurers adventurers adventure rr into african forests there was a grim menace benac e on the forefront of every village which the boldest evangelist could not fail to see even if he be pressed on refusing to heed it even in salt lake city itself and other places where gentile presence cresence and influence had most modified red mormon bitterness those who were marked as enemies of the church fell again and again by secret murder and no aggressive christian witness and worker was ever wholly safe all this nonsense is the result of falsehood told unblushingly by professing christian ministers who have spent a short time in utah receiving the kirk kindest dest of treatment from the mormon people but making no converts from their ranks we challenge the writer of the article from which we have made the above clipping 7 to name an authentic case cage of either secret or open murder or cw M of any danger from attack by the cormons mormons Mor mons upon a so called christian minister in any part of this territory there never has been such a came cage any statement or intimation n that there has is nothing but sheer slander utah has been pestered with some of the poorest specimens of itinerant evangelists that ever rolled up their eyes and prayed through their noses for pelf they have gone back to the east and told the most moat abominable falsehoods and sensational romances to draw money from the gullible and pious and returning here j aaa have never been molested although in some instances their wickedness and greed have been exposed in print but no preacher missionary or teacher of religion however false foolish or mercenary has ever been maltreated mal treated by the mormons cormons Mor mons there are ministers of various denominations who have lived here for years who have traveled through the territory and have been kindly received lodged fed and assisted and who have in utah testified to thew these facts but they suffer just such stories as we have copied to go the rounds of the prow press and never utter a sound or lift a pen to refute them by their silence they give conse consent to the libel and before heaven they partake of its guilt the same article says the old enmity remains as rancorous as ever though less openly bitter and demonstrative the old open and flagrant methods of withstanding the truth and baffling its messengers are no longer feasible but its haters baters are all the more bitter and they will still use against it all the weapons left them to wield tf there is any part of the united states where these theme hireling preachers have a freer field or an easier time than in utah we would like to know where itts it is they are as a rule objects of indifference to the masses of the people of small mental calibre of little attainments tain talu ments of poor presence and of low pulpit ability they are next to nothing except among their meagre flecks flacks of course there are exceptions to this and they are respected in their places and provoke no hostility unless it may be of a political character which they invite by their active fish ip and which if is simply polemical in its character from some references made in the article it bears the appearance of having been written or at least suggested by a cranky and bigoted creature who sometime some time ago sought to create by sympathy by lying about the people of brigham city and by trying to pose as a martyr his effort only provoked derision and silent contempt was the worst punishment he ever suffered buffered for it but I 1 in n the day of accounts when justice will be dealt out by the eternal judge all such persons will find their portion with them who love and make a lie and in his righteous bands we leave lea them and their evil |