| Show concerning UTAH AND THE MORMONS IN the church at home and abroad for july the official organ of the general Ae assembly of the presbyterian church in the united states appears a generous article by the editor rev henry A nelson on his bis visit to salt lake city and one on the services in the tabernacle which he be attended dr nelson was one of the large corn com pany of presbyterian ministers who came here in may on their way to the assembly at portland alid oregon he gives a very fair description of this city illustrated by a good engraving of the temple block and nd its vicinity at ar d closes th the e article as follows 1 I cannot think what that whatever is wrong or evil in this city and territory will be more more easily remedied or avoided elsewhere by ign ignoring r ing what is good and desirable it I 1 looks k to me as if this remarkable people bad made some valuable contributions to sanitary and economic science by observing honoring and imitating these we shall not make them less willing to accept our help to the acquisition tion of any moral and religious truths s which they need us to teach them of the eel vices in the tabernacle the gentleman gives an accurate summary with some commentz to the spirit of which no exception can be taken referring to the remarks of one op the tee speakers on that occasion he be says the testimony that le knows is 18 not sufficient to make us know and to justify us in believing so much as here rests on his hie mere assertion and in the closing paragraph of the article he says saye meanwhile let not our fellow citizens who name themselves latter day sain saints ts ask of us acknowledgment of the book of if mormon as of equal authority with the bible until we see eee evidence of it such as a that on which we thus accept and revere the bible i it was not claimed that the testimony onyN of one man or more was wae sufficient to make other men know the facts testified of but the testimony tes timor mory y of sincere persons persona to is very powerful in creating belief in the minds of other sincere persons as to the truth of that which is testified and no one is asked to believe any in the creed of the latter day saints simply upon the statements of others yet paul thought it tart art of his bis duty in his day to testify that he knew certain things in reference to christ and his gospel and all the apostles claimed We speak the things we do know and testify of that we have seen been reason argument statements of facts and scripture quotations followed by testimony as to personal knowledge of their truth together form in an array of evidence which winking thinking people may rati rationally con sider eider and all are consistent in a doctrinal discourse As to the book of mormon the lat ter day saints do not ask any ed gement without evidence and if there is not at least as a much direct evidence that the book of mormon la Is a divine record as theres there is concerning the divinity of the bible we ask no man to accept it the difficulty in the way is thai the clergy of the age either refuse to investigate the claims of that book or examine them with minds made up against thew them and usually the investigation is superficial as well as prejudiced and the grounds alleged for its rejection would be equally applicable finist the bible which ibey accept As one swallow does not make a summer one discourse does not expound mormonism and if the reverend gent lemans liberal advice in relation to the good and desirable contributions of the latter day saints to fo sanitary and economic sc science leuce be followed in regard to their contributions to theology to inspired literature and to religious doctrine doc trite we are of the 0 pinion that many of the wise men of the tg day will greatly change their vieve vie VB as to the faith and books which are popularly clawed classed as mormonism PP in the same magazine mai azine we find under the bead of utah a communication from rev jas jag thompson of smithfield this forms forma a striking and unpleasant contrast to the frank and fair contribution of the editor mr thompson makes a vigorous effort to misrepresent the be people among whom he be lives their acts and motives and their principles to prove this we make a few extracts from his bis article it is my opinion that the political movement on national lines la Is a scheme for mormon power as far as they are concerned and that every man that has gone hand and glove with wilh them from the liberal party has done so for mean selfish purposes and ad such can no more be trusted than tife the mormons cormons themselves tiie tae mormon people have no respect for the sabbath day and in that respect there is no disagreement among them they are open advocates of intemperance holding that it is right and proper that a man should drink liquor as a beverage in this there is no split among them and they most practically demonstrate their belief and are ell staunch and faithful supporters of the rum tellers sellers As for their veracity and chastity they we are well known known and need no comment the mormon religion is a human religion and is most admirably adapted to man in his corrupt corric apt natural state 1 it takes for granted that man b by y nature is a religious animal 2 it takes for granted that he is an irreligious animal 3 that these two characteristics of the natural heart must be fully satisfied and nothing hut but an absolute rieste raft could complete the harmon emony y of such BO ch a ar religion eliglo n w k age re bawo ves alln in a c 0 lag ing among all religious ell lous flocks if the rov bev jap jae th thomson 8 ot of smithfield Is ia not one of th them the saying jig is without meaning if the father of lilea lies had set himself to the task of corn com plemely misstating and perverting th the beliefs and endeavors of the latter day saints he could not have succeeded any better than has baa this professed preacher rea cherof of the gospel what object he e could have in making statements that every well informed person knows to be utterly false I 1 to Is a question that at once presents itself here is his own explanation for writing such tuff stuff 1 I want to impress the board that the missionaries of utah have som something ething to contend with we want to impress th the board PJ with the fact that this particular missionary is unworthy of credence vand nd totally unfit to occupy any position under its 11 auspices Pile there to is not a word of truth in all his hi which WO we have quoted there Is no excuse for them except that which he has given and the rancor that springs up ap in a soured and chagrined soul soul he says 1 I have attempted special services twice but am unable to report any definite result 1 I lad hoped to secure a hearing from the loading leading mormons Mor mons but they would not enter our chapel he goes ou on to state that he has been teaching a commercial class and obtained thirty y pupils but he says saye while I 1 gained their re act an and confidence 2 I 1 did not secure the their ir atten attendance an ce at public worship they are an not unlike the indians indiana lying in ambush they will sally forth as by in magic to until they fill the house and yard and then arin again scarcely one donean an be seen anywhere the probability is that one preaching from this person was sufficient the people sized him up it they nod had discernment they perceived his insincerity and behold beheld the blackness ot of his false heart the rov bv jap jae Thom thompson peon with a p is not likely to prove a success in utah or anywhere else where truth to Is valued and slander blander is despised his proper place is described in rev bev v 16 15 we are pleased to turn from this disagreeable reference to a letter we have received from one of the reverend gentlemen who visited this city with the presbyterian delegation and who with many others have ant a spoken favorably of our services and our people he has ha since been reading the works of the church we do not know that he would like us to use his name as he is the pastor of a presbyterian church in ohio therefore we merely quote one passage in his hie letter without designating the writer am my W whole h I 1 1 0 1 1 1 idea as aa regards the latter la ater I 1 I 1 day d a y saints hd t or mormons cormons Mor mons as they are called have undergone a complete revolution I 1 had bad been led to look upon them as aa lg ignorant noran bigoted narrow selfish sensual devilish dev iliah but bat I 1 found them intelligent cultivated devout generous charitable consecrated worthy of both place and position among the other religious denominations of the world I 1 base my conclusions upon what wha I 1 saw and heard while sojourning sojo in your far famed and beautiful city such just appreciation from cultured and christian gentlemen more than compensate for the perversions of the small ill bred and disappointed who seek to spread scandal and foster prejudice among the uninformed J we hope that many more of the religious teachers of the sects will come to utah and see the cormona Mor mona nall as tiley they are and that they will look into our doctrines and find out what we believe not from our enemies but from the authorized expositions of our church who do this will find that good oa out of nazareth |
