The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1859-09-02

family; he who cannot or Will not 40 the
Church's work for nothing is not wanted in
her service even our lawyers pointing to
Gen. Ferguson and another present, who are
the regulur lawyers of the Church., are paid
nothing for their services am the only
person in the Church who has not regular
calling apart from the Church's service, and
I never received one farthing from her
treasury; if 1 obtain anything from the
tithing house, am charged with and pay
for it, Just as anyone else would; the clerks
inthe tithing store are paid like other clerks,
but no one is ever paid for any service
pertaining to the ministry. We think
man who cannot make his living aside from
the Ministry of Christ unsuited to that Office.
1 am called rich, and consider myself worth
$25O,OOO; but no dollar of it was ever paid
me by the Church or for any service as a
minister of the Everlasting Gospel. I lost
nearly all had when we were broken up in
Missouri and driven from that State was
nearly stripped again when Joseph Smith
was murdered and we were driven from ILL
nois; but nothing was ever made up to me
by the Church, nor by any one. I believe I
know how to acquire property and how to
take care of it.
H. G.-Can you give me any rational
explanation OF the aversion and hatred with
which your people are generally regarded by
those among whom they have lived and with
whom they have been brought directly in
contact2
B. Y.-No other explanation than is at.
forded by the crucifxion of Christ and the
kindred treatment of Gods ministers, proph-
cts and saints in all ages.
II. CT know that new sect is always
decried and traduced-that it is hardly ever
deemed respectable to belong to one-that
the Baptists, Quakers, Methodsts, Univer-
salists, &c., have each in their turn been re-
garded in the infancy of their sect as the Off
securing of the earth yet l cannot remem-
Der that either OF them were ever generally
represented and regarded by the older sects
of their early days as thieves, robbers, MUIR
derers.
B. Y-If you will consult the co.tempor-
airy Jewish accounts of the life and acts of
Jesus Christ, you will find that he and his
disciples were accused of every abominable
deed and purpose-murder and robbery in.
cluded. Such a work is still extant, and
may be found by those who seek it.
H. G.-What do you say of the so-called
Danites, or Destroying Angels, belonging to
your Church?
B. Y,-What do you say? 1 know of
no such band, no such persons or organiza-
ton. l hear of them only in the ISLANDERS of
our enemies.
H. G.-With regard, then, to the grave
question on which your doctrines and prac-
tices are avowedy at war with those of the
Christian world-that of plurality of
wives-is the system of your Church
acceptable to the majority of its women ?
B. Y.--They could not be more averse
to it than I was when it was revealed to us
as the Divine will. 1 think they generally
accept it, as do, as the will of God.
H. Glow general is pelygamy among
you?
B. VI could not say. Some of those
present [heads of the Church have each
but one wife; others have more each deter
mines what is his individual duty.
H. G.-What is the largest number of
wives belonging to any one man?
B. VI have fifteen know no one
who has more but some of those sealed to
me are old ladies whom regard rather as
mothers than wives, but whom have taken
home to cherish and support.
H. G.-Does not the Apostle Paul say
that ! bishop 40 should be "the husband of
one wife ?"
B. $50 we hold.T We do not regard
any but married man as fitted for the
office of bishop. But the Apostle does not
forbid bishop having more wives than
one.
II. G.-Does not Christ say that he who
puts away bis wife, or marries one whom
another has put away, commits adultery?
B. Yves; and 1 hold that no man
should ever put away wife except for
adultery-not always even for that. Such
is ay individual view of the matter. do
not say wives have never been put away in
our Church, but that l do not approve of
the practice.
H. Glow do you regard what is CON-
monty termed the Christian Sabbath?
B. Y,c.As a diyinely :appbihted Gay: of
rest. We spjoin hll to rest: FROM secular
: labor: on thas day. We would have no man
ensa!ed TO- tke. Sabbath but we epjoin ad
torespect and enjoy 'it' ; .'.' - 49, /:
Such is, as nearly as can recollect, the
substance of nearly two hours conversation,
wherein much was said incidentally that
would not be worth reporting, even if l
could remember and reproduce it, and
wherein others bore part but, as Presi-
dent Young is the first minister of the Nor
mon Church, and bore the principal part in
the conversation, have reported his an
swers alone to my questions and observa-
tions. The others appeared uniformly to
defer to his views, and to acquiesce fully in
his response and explanations. lie spoke
readily, not always with grammatical accu-
racy, but with no appearance of hesitation
or reserve, and with no apparent desire to
conceal anything, nor did he repel any ofmy
questions as impertinent. He was very
plainly dressed in thin summer clothing, and
with no air of sactimony or fanaticism. In
appearance, he is a portly, frank, good-na-
tured, rather thick-set man of fifty.iVe, SEEM
ing to enjoy life, and be in no particular
hurry to get to heaven. His associates are
plain men, evidently born and reared to a
life of labor, and looking as little like crafty
hypocrites or swindlers as any body of men
1 ever met. The absence of cant or shuttle
from their manner was marked and general,
yet, think I may fairly say that their Nor
monism has not impoverished them-that
they were generally poor men when they
embraced it, and are now in very comforta-
BILE circumstances men averaging three