The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1899-01-19
Thursday, Jan. II, 1899.
MORMONISM.
From the Lutheran OBSERVER,

From tlt Lutheran OtScTNtT'
With Christmas and New Years
greeting to the Observer, its staff
and its friends, we turn our thought
to threatening national peril. Com
ing events cast their shadows before !;
and in the ant;-rolygamous agitation
in the prsss and ir religious circles
we have an evidence of healthy pub
lie sentiment. In our Republic, not
the rulers, but the people are the
power; and no law enacted i'll con-
hict with the sentiment of the people
can be enforced, nor can it stand.
That is true both of Church and in
State, aud therein lies the safety of
both Church and State. Ringsand
cliques and factions and parties may
get control of conventions and syn
ods; of states and of the nation it.
self; but the hope and remedy are
with the people, and the best frieuds
Of truth and Righteousness in state
and nation are the agitators. From
Elijah to John, from John to Paul,
from Pau! to Luther, and from Lu-
ther to the present, God has raised
up faithful witnesses, and will raise
them up-men who count not their
lives dear, if they may serve truth
and the God of truth.
The integrity and honor of the
Republic are in danger and there is
need of agitation; that the public
conscience maybe stirred. The Nor
mons of Utah have elected to the
Congress which comes into power
on the 4th Of March next, "a polyga-
mist, who has three wives. The
question that Congress is to decide
when it convenes, is, Shall this po-
lvgamist Mormon be seated? Con-
gress itself is to decide upon its own
constituency, and cannot refuse to
seat any man duly elected by any
party, be he jew or Gentle, who
swears allegiance to the constitution
and laws of the United States. Even
Il Mormon who has but one wife or
no wife mt all, would not be eXclud-
ed but man who has more than
one wife is subject to criminal in
dictment all over the Union, except
in Utah. When the territory of
Utah was admitted to statehood,
many of the best people of the land
feared that the new state would viO-
late law and pledge and restore po-
lygamous marriage. And now al
ready the mistake of admission into
the family of states Of this polyga-
nous constituency is manifest. But
the election to Congress of man
with three wives shows that there is
public conscience upon moral ques-
tions which needs only to be aroused
that the remedy may be applied.
Not only religious organizations and
the religious press are heard, but
the press which we write secular is
leading in the war against seating
the elected polygamist in the next
Congress. The truth is that public
sentiment upon moral questions isso
educated and stimulated that upon
most moral reforms we may largely
rely upon the great daily and weekly
papers of the country. 1t is for the
most part in control of men who
want to do right, and is supported
largely by the great army of readers
who stand for truth and purity and
sobriety and law. That the press,
secular or religious, has not yet at
tained the ideal state, is not strange;
for even the Church is still church
militant, and the truest friends of
the kingdom of Christ are the men
and women who are 40 far selffor-
q a ~ Y u Z. e. -, .6l