The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1870-10-18
The Mormon Services and Habits.

Nv aMOTIuOu StTNlCtS uuU IIhDltSs
In the tabernacle, the services are SIM
pie, and utterly without pomp. A large
organ, built by Mormon, and a numer-
GUS choir, furnish music, the hymns being
from the selection of Emma Smith. If
the president breaches, he usually occu-
pies lower seat on the raised platform.
Any one may be called on to pray or ex-
hort, and the extemporaneous sermons re-
sulting from this practice are rambling,
and often Objectionable but the president
or apostles generally extinguish any po-
litical heresy that may thus be published,
by final address. Politics, fashions, ,ag-
riculture, indeed all the topics of present
interest, are discussed in their Sunday
meetings coarseness and profanity often
sully the lips of the big ghest dignitaries.
So little sacredness seems to be attached
to the place, that the president does not
hesitate to make town hall of it when
ever convenient The Bible is used in
the services and clergymen Of various
denominations, who may be in the city,
are invited to preach. Indeed, the pull
pit, if it can be so called, is open to all
shades of religious belief; and Mormons
cast it in the teeth of Christians, that
their pulpits are not so free TO the disci-
pies Of Joseph Smith.
The vast congregation Of from six to
ten thousand souls are regaled with
strange food. In one sermon, on Adams
Fall day, they were told, that, "had not
Adam yielded to Eve, he could not have
any progeny, and Gods command, in
crease and multiply, could not have been
fulfilled for Eve, had she alone sinncd
must have been eternally separated from
her husband, who would have remained
in Eden. 1t was in consequence of his
thinking of this, that he did sacrifice him.
self, in order that man might exist" II
We were to Judge Mormonism from the
sermons of the present day, such expires.
sions as that of Heber G. G. Kimball who
exhorted the missionaries to bring tc
the flock as many ewe-lambs as possible
but to be careful to keep their hands of
them until they reached the fold," mus
have their weight and it is the fact, thai
such sermons are admirably adapted to
and enjoyed by, the rude and ignoran
popuace.
The Mormon Church has sort of free
masonry, whose different stages are at
taned by limitations called endowmcnts
These mysteries will be performed in tn,
tempe when that strange building i
completed. From accounts which hav,
every appearance Of truth, the endow
ments are wise instructions in human an
atomy and physiology (which might wei
have a place in any religious system)
interspcrsed with miracle-plays and mum
merry. Both sexes are admitted to most
if not all, of these; for, in the words o
one of the apostles, "If man is to be
king or prince in heaven, his wife is to b
queen, and must he fitted for that higl
position"
The gift Of tongues among the Nor
mons is simply this: A man is inspire'
to utter inarticulate sounds quite unintel
ligible to himself and another person
inspired to interrupt this jargon ,althoug
this Interpreter cannot reproduce the orig
inal. 1t may be added that few of tn
community, except the foreign populatio
understand any language but their nativ
tongue.
The Saints work miracles and cast on
devils, the miracles being usually, if nc
exclusively, healing. Their prophecie
are frequent; and many have been alread
fulfilled, if we trust the church journal
; When person joins the church, h
must pay into the treasury tenth of a
his property, and each year give to tn
same Unsuitable receptacle tenth of h
increase. Among people like the Mo
, mons, much of this yearly tax must |
e paid in kind and, as the early settlers
q New England contributed to the need
college at Cambridge one man peck
= beans, another bushel of potatoes, so II
: inhabitants of the poorer villages of Uta
bring their wheat and fruit to the It'll
II ing-house. They have other taxes sever
e enough but they are certainly prospe
Gus, and soon own the land they till
e carefully. Every one is bound to go as
1 missionary, even to the utmost parts of Il
d earth, at the command of the president
c and it is said, that when a man become
: aistasteiul to the supreme authority, he
G sent to preach the Mormon gospel in son
i distant land.
J. Many of the French troops of Stra
a bourg, on seeing the white flag hoste