, 1890-08-28

mental dogmas are pure material
ism, the eternity of matter, pre-.
existence and transmission Of souls,
a plurality Of gods, and a plurality
of wives. The basis of Mormonlsm
10 the pretended revelation said to
have been discovered by Joseph
Smith in hill In Manchester,
Ontario county, New York, nearly
sixty years ago. From plates which
he claimed were shown him by an
angel he translated the Book of
Mormon by means of the urlm and
thummim, stone which, being
held over the undecipherable le hero.
glyphics of the plates, revealed the
meaning In plnin English on Its
uppersid The translation Of these
plates Ia the Book of Mormon. 1t
Is composed of fifteen books, and
purporfs to have been written by
different authors through n period
of | 900 years, beginning 900 years
before Christ and closing 400 years
after Christ.
Thomas Carlyle said of the Koran
that nothing but n sense of duty
would ever prompt any one to read
1t through" 1t would require an
ovcrnastering sense of duty to cause
man OF Intelligence to read the
Book of Mormon through. 1t Is n
bundle of Inconsistencies through
out. 1t is an easy task for even an
ordinary critic to show from inter-
nal evidence alone that the book Is
fraud. 1t taxes our credulity to
believe that any sensible person can
seriously think that such II mixture
of absurdities and contradictions Is
the special revelation of God. The
book records the history of q small
colony, embracing two families who
left the citv of Jerusalem during the
reign of Zedekiak, King of Judah,
600 years before Christ, finally land
ing In Central America, where, to
quote from the record, i've found
upon the land of promise that there
were beasts of every kind, the OK
and the cow. and the horse and the
ass;" all this 800 years before Christ.
Now history shows that the horse
was not known in America by
Indians till they were brought over
by the Spanirds centuries after the
Book Of Mormon was closed up and
sealed lwhile the letters of Washing
ton show that he was the first to
import the ass to this country. The
frequent use of modern words found
In 1t betrays its modern origin. The
name of Lehi's third son was
"Sam," a clear proof that the
Yankees pushed out into the wilds
Of Central America centuries before
the landing OF the Mayfiower on
the "stcrn and rock-bound coasth Of
New England. Faculties" from
the Latin, utterly unknown to the
Hebrew or Egyptian, popular" J"
another word from the same Ian
guage, "priestcraft," show that the
book is decidedly modern.
BLOOD AToNEMENT.
Among the revolving doctrines of
this church Is hat of blood atone
ment. 1t roughly amounts to this;
If man disobeys the church au-
thority, or becomes hostile to 1T, 1t Is
the duty of the church members to
kill Linn at any time the church
commands them to do 80. Take
this delectable bit from a sermon
preached at Salt Lake: "There are
uitl shuu NoIith
advise to go to the president imme-
diately and ask him to appoint a
committee to attend to their case I;
let that committee shed their
blood" Put this doctrine among II
set OF religious fanatics and you pre-
pare the way for unspeakable atroci-
ties. In many instances has this
Il IN haas. In, tsux,
On II single page of Mormon history
l have noted the murder of thirty
six persons In the most horrible
manner--done with the knowledge
and by the orders of the church au-
thorities. Could the death roll be
called / have no doubt that from
many deep canyon in Utah and
Idaho would come the skeletons of
thousands slain by the destroying
angel TO answer, with hollow voice,
"Heren'
PoLYGAMY.
Then there is the doctrine of
polygamy, or plural or celestial mar
riage. This is leading tenet of the
Mormon faith.
The original Book of Mormon
had a special revelation against
polygamy, and the first man who
attempted to practice 1t was ex-
PEELED from the church. Later on
Joseph Smith received another rev.
elation commanding him and his
followers to practice polygamy.
And that which distinguishes Nor
mon polygamy from that OF Jews,
Turks and Hindoos is the gross
forms of incest 1t allows, the inter-
marriage of near relations. To
marry mother and her daughter
to one man Is thought to be mer-
itorious, while the authorities rec
ommend n man to marry sisters on
the ground that they will agree bet
ter. A leading merchant of Salt
Lake married three sisters In slic-
cession. In one household In Salt
Lake City might have been seen n
few years ago the spectacle of three
women standing In the relation of
child, mother and grandmother, liv-
ing In one mans harem as his
wives!
The annals of Moslemism ut its
worst may safely he challenged to
produce parallel. And this abom-
ination has been going on for years
in open defiance of the laws OF the
land. 1t may be matter of sur.
prise to many of our readers that
women in any numbers can be per-
suaded to embrace such a system, at
war with every womanly instinct,
and revolving to her entire being.
Many of them are ignorant, and
lack intelligence. Some are practi-