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Show V Tins mormons believe it. f Dearly Beloved Brathron Outside of tho Mor- mon Faith: Mere are a few words I have been wanting to say to you for some considerable time. ononnoooooooOOOO o Tho Mormons. Bellee It. o OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO 1 Turn that oer In your mines, They hae just had another semi-annual conference. con-ference. At such meeting they assemble their people peo-ple from the ends of the earth, and they do it every six months. Have wo any church function to which we could bring communicants that often They had all the way from eight to ten thousand people in the Tabernacle at last Sunday afternoon's meeting. Htue we any church gathering In any of our non-Mormon, denominations that could or ieer did gather that many people together? I stood on the south side of South Temple street when the afternoon audiences wore breaking, and looked at tho masses of human boings that filled the wide strtet, that filled the still wider Temple square, and still filled a good many spaces In the Tabernacle, tho Assembly hall, and tho Barrett hall, aad I asked myself If wo had any orators in any of our churches who could draw that number of people of all ages. They had sat for more than two hours in every , ij one of those meetings. And, en passong, as wo say in Tooele, they weren't deceived into assemb ling. They know what they wore going to get. I ' ' They havo been getting Its llko for over eighty f years. They were advised they would bo expected ex-pected to sit through to tho end, whenever that ' might happen to fall. They knew there wou.ld 'be ' a grood mnny babies over tho house, and that babies cry. Mormons of all ages are acquainted with the ' habit of babies. But they came, and they stayotl, and they looked as happy and as healthy as you and I do when they came -out. Can you recall any time when our young people went from our ' churcheB AFTER a "two-hour service? And they didn't have any impassioned eloquence to hold thorn, either. In '1 thd list of speakers f at all the Mormon conferences I havo attended jr "" flntl tnot ! more than most non-Mormons have experimental knowledge about there Um't a man with what you would call the gift of eloquence. Nephi L. Morris has some of the indications of 1m-pressiveness. 1m-pressiveness. I thought six years ago that he was the making of a master of pulpit oratory." But he wasn't. There speakers don't make the slightest attempt to "tickle" the hoarer. Like Marc Antony, An-tony, they are plain, blunt men, and they "speak right on." There, by tho way, is a pretty good parallel. I regard It as an Inspiration a-lco up your Shakespeare Shakes-peare again. Turn to Julijys Caesar." Read the address of Brutus, there at "the funeral of Caesar. See Jiow craftily he first wlfls ihe attention, then the confidence, then the at&ibn of his hearers. Note that passage. Follow the orator process of it. Note the stroke at the conclusion: "Who so base would be a slave! Him have I offended." It is perfect but it is an. Marc Antony is a better bet-ter debater than he gives himself credit for being. be-ing. Ho disclaims any power at the very beginning. begin-ning. That disarms hostility. It halts opposition. It wins attention. See tho process? Then he has them in temper to rouse at his lifting of the dagger-ravaged mantle. Then ho has them in tune to strike up a chorus to his ravening llmonta-tlon. llmonta-tlon. Then he sees them (urn from him to loot the house of Brutus, to crush with the power of aroused humanity the men who made an end of Caesai and craft and successful Antony, back there at the side of the corpse of his friend, flings his triumphant arms at their madh departing masses, and loses his note of triumph In the words, "Cry havoc and let loose the dogs of war!" oh, Shakespeare knew evoiythlng. He makes Brutus Ihe, and Anthony lle, and the everlasting everlast-ing human nature the same esterday, today and foreer Ihe before us. And, incidentally, it pro-ides pro-ides an illustration for the point I am trying to make. There is none of that stuff in the Mormon addresses. They call Brigham Roberts an orator. He is, of a, sort. But neither ho nor any other of them adopts the wiles of the word magician. There are no silver tongued among thorn. No audience ever sat there and thrilled at tho Impassioned passages, as I havo seen audiences thrill at the periods of Beocher, and of Talmage. Not a speaker among them melts and fuses heart and soul and body In the mass before him as Dr. Goshen can do any Sunday when he Is feeling right. There isn't a Jim Ham Lewis among them. Theie Isn't a Bryan in all their hundreds of thousands and yet every mnn of thejn.,lj a public speaker. speak-er. Do you know of any npVMormon .audience that will stand for two-hour Jtermons that haven't any fire in- them? Now, don't weary in listing to nil of this. Somo of you havo been flghln-g .Mormons all your lives. Some of you ha e made a practice for years of eating a Mormon for bra$&fast every morning. Some of you old soldiers iJfgnrd it a shame to belong to the samo Grand jArmy .that Includes Mormons. Somo of you puaachera have been de-. de-. poople to go out and ma ho- up a -pair of scrub voting the best years of your life, and the bst B strength of body and brain to the denunciation M of Mormons. And you talk to just about chough H .nines for the gteat game of baseball. May bo I better, say basket ball, for most of your congrega jH tions have been made tip of women. You couldn't H do business on the men that attend. IH Another thing. For years I lhed right across H the street from a Mormon meeting house, and H five nights of eery week that houso was filled M with people. They were different poople, uhuii1 JM It rarely was the same audience, because the put- M pose of the meeting was directed at different phage M of the work they had to do. They sat through two hours at every session. They kept order. They H listened. They didn't hurry away, as if tho f'sh- M ing had been suffering for them. They lingered M about the door, us if it wero more or loss dear to M them. They mot each other with all tho evidences M of loving delight. Our churches weio daik from H Sunday till Wednesday, and then nind out of ten M ttilttiidujits weie women and girls. And then they H were dark from Wednesday till Sunday again. B Dark, and locked with the exception of Catholic H sanctuaries. I understand they are always open, H md expressive of welcome to any member of the H faith who may want to pi ay. H How do you recount for it? M This ia my explanation ehiefb : The Mormon M boys and girls bel!eo their parents aro in earnest. H You might think tha. over. H I have heard it put on the ground that the Mor- H mens were ignorant, and didn't know any bet- M ter. But when I looked at tho Mormon crowds jH last week, when I saw them in hotels, whe.i I H listened to them in conversation, when I saw tho jH clothes they wear, when I saw them' handling their H foiks in tho restaurants, by jlng it made mo won- H der with whom of our people wo wore going to H compare them If wo get tho verdict that thoy are H ignorant. Ignorant of what? Why, about halt H these Mormon young men have spent years in H foreign countries, hao two or throe languages, H and know more about the world than nineteen out H of twenty of our boys. And when they are at home H they live as well as wo do. Ignorant? Get away fl from It. That isn't the reason. The reason must H be that they believe it. M Can we ..get our boys and girls into meetings H in like numbers with them"? Can wo get mixed congregations 4,Ho our churches? Can we make J religion so great a part of the life of our poo- H pie as they make it In theirs? Do our children M know the Bible? Do their parents know It? j 'Would our joung people flinch if tho mention of H Christ were made in their presence? Can we make H our religion the vital, living, pervading influence fl m the lives of our people that they do In theirs? H Maybe somo of you will say that it is a good, thing ourpeoplo. are not wedded-to a church. But H ' that doesn't answer the question. I myself think M we are getting away from the old style of church M ' work. Only Dr. Goshen has a really big audience M B as a regular thins; and. ha Isn't any more Con- H gregcutional than I nmv But tha main point is H' ttml tho Mormons arc grdwihgi. strongs? ovory B year, and if ther bo an increase in Interest or j attendance or effective church work among tho H non-Mormons from year to your, you will huvo to K show me. M There must bo tho solution of it They bellevo H it. Their fathers behoved iL before thorn, and H they aro taking; mighty .rood Aft.ro that tho ohil- H' dren who shall cpme after them will believe It, H I am not debating the question as to whether it H is true I simply nm putting; befoie you a condl- H' tlon, and asking how you account for it. And If Hj you happen to be a church man, of tho non-Mor- HRj mon type, you better find the corrective. It will Hj do your organization much more good than would H any amount of nmti-Mormbn vituperation you shall H have the strength to indulge in. |