# Utah and the Mormons/Chapter 12

CHAPTER XII.
DOCTRINES.
* Idea of "Last Day."
* Inspiration of Mormon Apostles.
* Doctrines as contained in Book of "Doctrines and Covenants."
* Faith the controlling Principle.
* Rebellion of Lucifer.
* Great Efficacy of Baptism.
* Syllabus of Doctrines.
* Damnation and Salvation.
The Mormon creed is a curious piece of checkered and incongruous patchwork. Joseph Smith, the founder, claimed to be the divinely authorized discoverer and translator of the sacred writings of an ancient people on this continent—alleged to have been written on golden plates, and reserved until these last days for the use of "the Church of Latter-day Saints"—called the Book of Mormon.
The cardinal starting-point of Mormonism is, that the last days are at hand, and that the Mormons are Latter-day Saints. The controlling idea is, that the general judgment is to come soon; by which is not meant an indefinite series of ages, but within the lifetime of the present generation. As early as January, 1833, the prophet announced as follows:
"And now I am prepared to say, by the authority of Jesus Christ, that not many years shall pass away before the United States shall present such a scene of bloodshed as has not a parallel in the history of our nation; pestilence, hail, famine, and earthquakes will sweep the wicked of this generation from off the face of the land, to open and prepare the way for the return of the lost tribes of Israel from the north country. The ​Page:Utah-and-the-Mormons.djvu/210 ​Page:Utah-and-the-Mormons.djvu/211 ​Page:Utah-and-the-Mormons.djvu/212 ​Page:Utah-and-the-Mormons.djvu/213 ​Page:Utah-and-the-Mormons.djvu/214 ​Page:Utah-and-the-Mormons.djvu/215 ​Page:Utah-and-the-Mormons.djvu/216 ​Page:Utah-and-the-Mormons.djvu/217 ​from the pot-house or the brothel—the gambler, the horse-thief, and the counterfeiter—can have their sins made as wool by this all-powerful ablution. Woman, too, comes within this generous and comprehensive pale of salvation. She can be picked up from the gutter of pollution—selected out from the third tier and Five Points—and laved into respectability and purity. The oddity mentioned by Hudibras, which was
scarcely furnishes a parallel to its wondrous transformations.
This efficacy, too, has a continuando—a species of perpetuity perfectly marvelous. A man or woman may slide away into former licenses—the horse-thief may, in a fit of forgetfulness, take a valuable nag from some careless emigrant—the fair Cyprian be a little too lavish of her favors—when lo! these stray lambs return again and again to the ever-open fold, and are washed into a new regeneration—their sins forgotten and forgiven, and ready to be forgotten and forgiven, for the seventy and seventh time, which I believe is the canonical number of times in which they may safely transgress. Even the sin of apostacy, which, in Mormon estimation, is the blackest of all, may be whitened by this process; and it is related of Gladden Bishop, who claimed to stand in the same relation to Joseph Smith that our Lord did to John the Baptist, that he was excommunicated and rebaptized nine times, but was finally cut off and given over to the buffetings of Satan for one thousand years.
The sacrament of the Lord's Supper is recommend​Page:Utah-and-the-Mormons.djvu/219 ​Page:Utah-and-the-Mormons.djvu/220 ​Page:Utah-and-the-Mormons.djvu/221 ​Love is nothing—wisdom is every thing. God and his creatures have understandings, but no will—thoughts, but no affections. The cold, harsh, icy inductions of reason, create, govern, and control all things; nothing moves in heaven, earth, or hell from the impulses of affection. The only impulses in Mormon faith or practice are those which regard worldly grandeur, and the appetites and lusts of the flesh. God created all things because he had faith in his power to do it, not because he was actuated by the love of producing happiness: it was a question of power, not of love. Man acts only because he believes he can produce results; if he did not so believe, he would make no effort. All that is said in common parlance and in preaching about the love and tender mercies of God, are mere cant and unmeaning phrases by the side of the freezing dogma of faith so distinctly set forth. We may as soon expect the snow-capped mountains which surround the seat of Mormon power to be clothed with the verdure of spring, as look for the vegetation and growth of a single spiritual principle from such a creed.
At first, their notions of hell were not very well defined. They scouted the idea of "fire and brimstone," notwithstanding their literalism, on the ground that the bodies of the damned, being material, must necessarily be consumed in such a furnace. In reference to the duration of punishment, some curious ideas have been evolved. The question was once put to Joseph, by a Universalist, upon this point, and was answered by a quibbling revelation in the following formula:
| "Eternal punishment is God's punishment. | Endless punishment is God's punishment." |
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