The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-04-14

| rather souls, by means of mother"
| goddess, name unknown; that these
! souls must become incarnate or clothed
with body through the agency OF
human father and mother before they
can become like Adam, Enoch and 9TH
ers-gods in the future world; that Je-
sus Christ the second person or the
Trinity has entered into conjugal rela,
tions with his two wives (?), Mary and
Martha and through them procreates
souls who also must be embodied IN
flesh before they can become fully dl-
vine.
Furthermore, that the members of the
Church of the Latter.day SAINTS are
the only human channels through which
these god -begotten souls can be incar-
mated us a step toward their final dem
cation Now, religion that can incul-
cate such utterly materialistic doctrines
as these can best substantiatc its claims
by physical and material proofs, In
other words, 10 substantlate these
claims, every Mormon child should,
above all other children, present TO the
world such type and example of in
tellectual vigor and physical strength
and beauty as TO be a visible and IN
controver;ible proof cf their validity:
The men and boys should be Apollos
and Adonises; the women and girls MI
ncrvas and Fenuscs.
Yet of all peoples studied during more
or less extended travels in Europe,
Asia, Africa and America, with the pos
siblc exception of certain degraded peo-
pies in the Orient, there has never come
under my observation a more anaemic.
physically dege lcrate, intellectually
sluggish and undcy eloped set Of human
beings, considering their racial descent
and present opportunities, than the rank
and file of the Mormon people, kind
henrted, thrifty and honest as they
are.
The climax of my experience in this
respect was reached on Sunday last.
when for a quarter Of an hour / stood
before tho open gates of the Tabernacle.
through which literally thousands of
Mormons were pouring, and was unable
to discern a single man who did not
exhibit signs of either physical degen-
eracy or mental deficiency, nor wo-
man who possessed claims to both ply
steal comeliness and mental alertness-
two qualities so characteristic of the
average GENTLE American woman.
The sight was truly a most pitiablc
one, and one | can never forget,
All these observations have been
made from the standpoint of modern
agnostic and visitor from another
planet, even If the writer is neither the
one nor the other. divested of the pre-
judices naturally inherent to the inhab-
itant of Earth. The attempt has been
made to consider the results OF Mormon
teaching and practice upon the physical
and intellectual nature and development
of its adherents from disinterested
and purely scientific point of view,
A religion founded on so materials
tic a conception OF the universe AS the
Mormon should, of all others, be the
first to offer and insist upon physical
and material proofs of its divine ori-
gin, Yet Of all Earth,s religions, this
proof it is the least able to give. 81 BY
their fruits We shall know them, said
One whom both Mormon and orthodox
Christian profess to revere.
BY this dictum the Mormon must, on
his own professed principles, be Judged,
and by il ne stands before the modern
world condemned.
"Mene, Meme. Tekel, Upharsin, y l. e.,
" Weighed in the balance and found
wanting" might well he his most APP
propriate epitaph, engraved, not on
marble, but upon his brain and body,
''that he may run that readeth it. -
| am. of course, we'll aware that much
has been written from theologic
standpoint to refute the claims of Nor
monism and many have been the poll
tical attacks upon it, but it is cause
of continual astonishment that more at
tention has not been called TO and
stress laid upon the physical and intel