The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1879-05-23
FEATURES OF MoRMoNIsM.

FEATURES OE MOKMONlSMs
A Vigorous Sermon Upon Joe smiths
Peculiar People.
Now York World.]
The congregation ofthe Spring Street
Presbyterian Church was treated Sun
day morning to u very forcible expo
sition of Mormonism by the Rev. Geo.
Gallagher who has come East from
Utah to stir up interest among the
Eastern presbyteries OH the question of
the Western Mission stations. Mr..
Gallagher is young man. but has
lived long enough on the frontier to
get something of the free Western look,
and he spoke of Mormonisna in very
strong language. tsTwo thousand three
hundred miles from New York." he
said, sis country $50 by $50 miles, or
in all 81 900 square miles, 5000 miles
larger than all the New England
States put together, and with pres
emf population Of 135, 600 men, women
and children, 100000 of whom are
Mormons, 5000 apostate Mormons and
10000 Gentiles. In fertility and pro-
ductiveness the State surpasses any
State, except California. Its mineral
wealth is beyond computation. The
richest silver mine in the United States
is in Utah and has recently, believe,
passed into the hands of Jay Cooke.
And to-day all this plentitude of ma
ture is in the keeping of barbaric Nor
mons. They preach that man is the
savior of woman. A woman is never
sure of salvation until she is Scaled to
some man. The first wife is the queen
and the other wives are lesser queens,
q md fhn m ho
more he is exalted and they with him.
Sin is of two kinds, the pardonable and
the unpardonable; the former may be
washed away by baptism. The I'M
pardonable sins are apostasy, the MUIR
der of a Mormon, adultery on the part
of q woman and the revealment of the
secrets of the Endowment House. In
this house there are three degrees and
the Oaths administered there are so
strong that they Overshadow all civil
and judicial oaths, and because of them
Mormons will unblushingly perjure
themselves on the witness-stand. The
objectionable sins arc followed, if prac-
ticable, by the death of the offender.
Even to-day this monstrous doctrine of
murder is publicly preached in the
a way of baptism for the dead, so that
one who never was Mormon and who
is dead may be received into the
Church by proxy through one who is
yet alive and a believer. In this way
one man was baptized for all the kings
of England, while one Of his wives
went through the ceremony for all the
queens of England, including Victoria,
so that now Westminster Abbey is in
reality a vast Mormon mausoleum by
this tUnifying process of the baptism
of the dead, as they style it. Strange
as it may seem the strongest supporters
OF Mormonism are the women, and this
is easily explained. They come from
| the ignorant classes of Sweden and
Norway, from the mines of Wales and
| from the factories of Scotland and Eng
land. There are good reasons, too, why
n woman once in the Mormon fold
should defend it. If she is a polyga-
mist she must defend it in self-defense.
For years this system has grown and
fattcned on its grossness. 1t is an I'M
holy theocracy opposed to the laws of
the United States, and opposed to
everything moral and beyond its pale.
Mormonism is barbarism in two es-
sentials, in its polygamy and in its
blood atonemcnt. 1t degrades woman
and disgraces the name of Christ. by
it man may marry his own mother
or his daughter. In 1868 Brigham
Young married a young Scotchman to
his half sister, and there is now living
at Mount Pleasant man living as
husband OF q woman as his first wife
who has since married his wife's moth
er and daughter-giving him the range
of three generations. The great advo-
cate of polygamy now on the floor OF
Congress-a man with four wives-in
1868 made a most violent attack on the
st. Marks Episcopal Institute in Salt
Lake City, saying that it was an insti-
tuition of the devil and should not be
permitted to stand. Yet he sits array
ed in fine clothes, with jewels, and asks
amnesty in Congress. There he pours
out his Mormon gold to checl>mate
| representation and coerce legislation.
He is there instead Of in his place be-
| hind prison bars as a criminal offender
against the laws of the United States