The Red Cloud chief., 1888-05-11

49, Ss WI
phase of life. In q discourse, delivered i
the great Tabernacle at the center of thi
~theocracy, the Prophet Young, but littl
prior to the period with which this chronicl
has to do. averred as follows:
1.-THE Priesthood of the Son Of God is fror
everlasting to everlasting; it is without he
ginning of days or end of years. 1t is virl
ually the power by which worlds are an
were created, and the power by which the,
ara now held in existence, and by which al
that are to come will be organized, gov
erned, controlled and sustained. Thi
Priesthood must come to he children o
men, in order for them to understand tn
nsodus operaNdi of establishing the Kingdom
| of God upon earth. This Priesthood mus
govern and control the people who under
take to build up this Kingdom; and the rul'
tend to every avenue, and will control every
department Of the labor Of those who arr
engaged in this great work. This Priest
hood must govern and control, or else thu
people will not become perfect"
So the people toiled forward under the
yoke; the Priesthood was the State and
every soul q slave. That many decent PEG
pie among them, and even men who well
nigh balanced life with liberty, should bow
to such insufferable assumptions seems as.
tonishing. But the student who run his
eye over this craze and lets the fact that in
large degree this people believed them
selves bettered by it escape him has missed
the key to ITS solution. They were in the
main sincere, else they could not have been
troddcn under foot; they wore the yoke
looking for the soon coming Of Christ and
the ushering in of the millennium: they
bent their backs for the lash of incessant
outrage, believing they were suffering that
Gods kingdom might arise on earth. The
elements they fed upon were irrational and
dementing, n had another fourth of a
century passed without civilization having
reached and forced q touch of relieving
light upon them, doubtless their isolation
and fanaticism would have ended in general
madness.
As it was, when the iron highway and the
locomotive reached them, through the doc
trine Of blood atonement, no life was safe,
murder was prevalent, insanity rife, and 4
thousand Outrages had been committed that
shall be namelcss here. Men were married
to their half-sisters, their grand-daughters,
welded often to a mother and her two or
three daughters. the Old were mated to the
very young, and such dementia and de-
bauchery prevailed as sends a chill of horror
through Il gentle heart.
Man may not. even in so large a body as
this. be long cut off from the large reason
ableness of general humanity with safety,
or. so separated, be long fed upon sophistry
and fanaticism without endangeriny men
and life; this is the great lesson of
Mormonism.
Orson Beam did not come to his mothers
door until the lamps were lighted that night.
All day he had been lying in the under
growth across the valley. striving and
doubling and duplicating, ashamed to face
his fellows. and ever more and more feeling
the slavery of his faith Cypress and stile
him. When his mother saw him standing
in h door she called out his name, with
lifted and a look of unspeakablc dis
may. so much bad hunger, weakness and
changed him.
d had he done! she implored. For
answer he fell down before her with his
head in her lap and cried like a child. He
had done the Prophets bidding. he scbbed.
and his heart was broken! He had lost his
innocence! o. he had lost his innocence!
God had turned away His face from him,
he was in darkness. in bitter. bitter
darkness!
The woman's lips frightened, then she be-
san to moan over him. This crushed con-
iitiOn of her son was indeed incxplicable
md appalling. Suddenly he leapcd up and
'ricd out In strong feeling against the sys-
under which they suffered.
are involved as in the meshes of a
let: we have no freedom he cried. s.Oh,
mother, this is not religion. this is ~villainy!
We are not made free and pure by the
gospel, but enslaved and polluted! Yes,
'nslaved and polluted! God in Heaven, for |
1--WE us our blindncss!" and he stretched
lis hands up im~plOringly as he paced to and
no in his agitation. The woman sat and
at him like one struck dumb.
II tried to kill a fellOw-man!' he broke
'ut again. 81 was hidden to do it by one who |
.laims to be SO pure that God speaks directly |
through him to US! Oh, mother, think Of |
he villainy of this! the deception practiced
,pon US, and the injury done US! 1t has de-
me! It has taken away my inno-
l shall never be clean againr'
1t was q narrowing thing to witness his |
mental suffering. The mother in her con-
'ternation did not notice the torn place in
lis clothing at the shoulder. and he, for the
being, had forgotten his hurt in the
resh agony of his inner-wound when look
ng upon her face.
Mother" he went on. beseechingly, '.you
10 not know how much of infamy there is |
n this. We, of the lower Priesthood, have
'een compelled to subscribe to such oaths |
n the secret chamber of the Endowment
louise as would make your gentle blood run
old. l have vowed. under penalty of death,
lot to reveal them. But to-day, lying
'onder among the bushes a culprit, instead
Il minister of the Gospel, the h~ideousness
I it all rose up before me like a mountain
horrors. These men who are at the front
re using us; from the incipiency OF our
ause have made us slaves and criminals
or their own unhOly end! l have done
them, mother. Today they came
efOre ME with every selfish purpose laid
are; their greed and moral deformities as
lear to me as their physical parts would
e were the walls of their bodies made of
ice. The whole system, too,
rom end to end, became illumincd in my
nguish Of heart; became revolving! I am
one with it!
Look at me, mother! What has it done
or me! Strive as l would after purity of
cart and u%prightness of spirit, it has left
ne defiled and miserable a thing of ioath- |