Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1870-10-15
Mormon Services and Habits,

The following is from Mr.. Brigham's article
in the October number Of Old and Nee
In the tabernacle, the services are SIM
pie and utterly without pomp. a large
organ, built by Mormon, and numer-
Gus choir furnish the music, the hymns
being from the selections of Emma Smith.
If the president breaches, he usually
occupies lower seat OH the raised plat
form. Any one may be called on to
pray or exhor', and the extemporaneons
sermons resulting from this practice are
rambling, aud often Objectionable but
the president or apostles generally extin-
guish any political heresy that may thus
be published, by final address. Poll
tics, fashions, griculture-indeed all the
topics of present interest. are discussed
i'll their Sunday meetings and coarse
ness and profanity often suliy the lips of
the highest dignitaries SO little sacred
ness seems to be attacked to the place,
that the president does not hesitate to
make town-hall of it whenever conyen-
lent. The Bible is used in the services ::
and clcrgymen of various demonna-
tions, who may be III the city, are in
vited to preach. Indeed, the pulpit, ifit
can be SO called, is open to all shades OF
religious belief and Mormons cast it in
the teeth Of Christians, that their pulpils
are not SO free to the disciples of Joseph
Smith.
The vast congregation of from six tC
ten thousand souls are regalcd with
strange food. In one sermon. on Adam's
fall, they were told that ''had Adam not
yielded TO Eve, he could not have had
any progeny, and Gods command, sin
crease and multiply" could not have
been fulfilled for Eve, had she alone
sinned, must have been eternally separat-
ed from her husband, who would have
remained in Eden. 1t is in consequence
of his thinking of this, that he did sac
rltice himself, in order that man might
exist" If we are to Judge Mormonism
from the sermons Of the present dav,
such expressions as that of lIeber c.
kimball, who eXhorted the missionaries
''to bring TO the flock as manSewe-lambs
as possible, but TO be careful to keep
their hands off them until they reached
the told," must have their weight and
it is the fact, that such sermons are a =
mirably adapted to, and enjoyed by, the
rude and Ignorant pepulace.
The Mormon Church has a sort OF free
masonry, whose different stages are at
tanned by mutations called eniowments.
These mysteries will be performed in the
temple wien that strange building Is
completed. From accounts which have
every appearance of truth, the endow-
ments are wise instructions in human
anatomy and physiology (Which might
well have place in any religious Fys-
tem,) interspersed with meracle plays
and mummery. Both sexes are admitted
10 most, if not all, of these for, in the
words of one of the apostles, ''if man is
to be king or prince in heaven, his
wife is TO be queen, and must be fitted
for that high position"
The gift of tongues among the Nor
mons is simply this A man is inspired
to utter inarticulate sounds unintelligi-
bic to himself and another person is in
spired to interpret this jargon, although
this interpreter cannot reproduce the
original. 1t may be added that few of
the community, except the foreign popu-
lation, understand any language but their
native tongue.
The saints work miracles and cast out
devils, the miracles being unusually, if
not exclusively, healing, Their prophe-
cies are frequent and many have already
been fulfilled, if we trust the church jour
nails. -A ya
When person joins the church, he
must pay into the treasury tenth of all
his property, and each year give to the