The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1857-10-03
From the London Times.
MOrmonlsm in England.

1t is said that MIR. buchanan IS resolved t
put down Mormonism-at any rate to breal
up the community at Utah. There will b.
great difficulties owing to the weakness o
the Federal government, half of whose forct
is reported to have deserted already Bu
the new President is . resolute man wher
he has undertaken thing, and We hope the
days Of this abomination are now counted
We certainly wish for this, for it must be
fessed that we are good deal concerned in
the growth of Mormonism. 1t is a fact tina,
majority of the community-Mr.C Carvalbo
| says nine-tenths-are English, Scotch and
| for this? What have our orthodox parish
priests been doing, and what have our Or
thodox Dissenting ministers been doing that
their own congregations have been the feed
ers of such an enormity as this?
II is very poor consolation, but perhaps
it is some little consolation to find that with
respect to our people fanaticism has had more
to do with the current to this wretched de-
lusion than vice. 1t would indeed be dread
ful TO think that so many thousands of our
men, and especially our women, had design
edly, and with their eyes open, joined sys-
tenn Of the grossest polygamy. But it is
only just to say that to great extent this
indeed itself a sensaity, but it is not joined
by the great mass under that idea. The
prophets had the wickedness to disguise its
grossness till their miserable victims had got
SO deeply imbedded in the system that they
could not extricate themselves. 1t is fact
that in order to be beforehand with report,
they actually forged service book, profess
ing to be the service book Of their religion,
and containing among other offices, a marri-
age office, framed on the ordinary principle
of monogamv.
What, then, was the inducement to this
deluded crowd to join the new religion: 1t
seems to have been mainly the extraordna-
~ prophetic show and pretence of the Nor
monte imposture. The subject OF prophecy
has ever since the Reformation had an ex-
traordinary hold over the minds of religious
people in this country. The Puritans were
mad upon it. They dreamt Of the battle Of
Armageddon, Of Cog and Magog, Of the
seven seals and the seven trumpets, Of the
star which was called WormwOod, and the
angel whose name was Abaddon. till wound
up at last to frenzy, they thought the world
was coming TO an end, and that all these
mysterious events were close at hand, every
military officer Of any distinction imagining
that he was the person who was to have the
especial honor OF capturing the great dragon
and delivering the saints. These specuia-
tions have never lost their charm among US,
and, though we do not make such warlihe
prophets as our Puritan ancestors, prophecy
is still the fashion. The religions world
throws itself into the future. and fixes the
era Of the millennium with untiring ingenuj-
ty. No two commentators agree on their
date, but this very diversity gives Zest to
spec IIation. IL is really extraordinary " hat
stuff comes oct yearly in the shape Of com
ment on those parts Of Scripture; what Gu
rious and wild contortionS and erimaces pro-
phecy performs under the guidance Of its
interpreters. All this is seriously written
and seriously read Men Of education, scho-
lars, acadernicians please themselves with
lavlng out the mysterious future with as
much exactness as If they were laying out
a Dutch garden, or drawing a figure in ge-
ometry. They are as famila- with the
heavenly Jerusalem as they are with the !
ground plan Of their own houses The plea /
sure is that Of Chinese puzzle. There is T.
endless room for ingenuity in different jux- /
tapositions Of the various pieces-the pieces 1
here being the different figures, types. num- .
bers and personages Of this mystical depart
nent. They shake their kaleidoscope, and .
cok through il TO see what they have got.
and they shake it again and look through it .
again, till they have got some figure sym
netrical enough. Every remarkable event
IF the day is sure TO be followed by a gene
raj shaking of the prophetic kaleidoscope, be-
cause it must be brought into the figure. If
. King falls King rises there are three
or four books in the course of as many weeks
% prove his connection with one of the horns
IF the beast, and the coup Tetat of Louis
Napoleon produced a general excitement in
he prophetic world.
Such being the prophetic bias of many in
iustrIous writers, imagine this influence at
work in a low and uneducated class lima
zine these rude and uncultivated minds in
ent, so far as they think of religion at all
lpon the prophetic aspect of it, full of ideas
# millennium and sort of earthly para
lise, which they have caught up from the
lowing pages of Old Testament prophecy,
md which literally interpreted, does bear
hat meaning, however a more refined and
truer Interpretation may spiritualize it.
They read in the Old Testament prophecy of
religion where men shall no more hurt or
lestroy, where there shall be no more vio-
ence and no want, and they give to all this
material Interpretation. Under such in
they will be very -lkely to be
ell them about a land beyond the seas where
ii is peace and plenty-no oppression, no
xtortion. If this was the picture of the
dormonite paradise which was given them,
is gross features being kept back, their faith
n it was, of course, gross credulity; but it
S a credulity which our learned and edu-
ated Zealots, who run mad on this very Sub
ect of prophecy themselves, have no par
,crlo 10 Thox- caf ha
xample When educated men, and even
lever men, run into such extraordinary fol-
les and dreams on this subject, it is not very
uprising if a coarse, illterate class, has
.one step further, and not only INDUCED
he dream, but acted upon it. 1t is very
.ood ma kim that no one class in society errs
Without the rest being in some degree i'm
licated. The prophetic mania in our re!i
ous world is more or less responsible for
he Mennonite emigration from these islands.
his extravagant adventure is only a coarse
ELECTION of that wild prophetic speculation
n which SO large part of the religions pub
c has INDUCED The Mennonite emigrant
rent in quest of sort of earthly paradise;
e thought the millennium had come, and
hat he would take the earliest advantage Of
t. We are speaking, of course, of the dupes
f Mormonism, not of its prophets, and of
he fanaticism of the system, not of its gross
ess and sensuaiity. These wretched dupes
ave been prepared for their delusions by
be extravaganza of their betters. The RI
culous brochures that sell by thousands if
hey only hazard a new prediction, the nom
ense which is read with avidity on any sub
ect connected with prophecy, is the upper
lass shape of Mormonism. We rush into
visionary future as relief either from the
of the present scene, or its diff
ulties, or its dullness. This has made the
and it has made the Mormonite.
he Mennonite is the English form of Social
st. Beth aim at utopias, only one in con-
Iection with prophecy, the other in connec-
ion with social progress and the political
egeneration of the world.