The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1909-12-07
ELDER ASHTON REJECTS.

1t was visitors day at the Mormon
tabernacle services on last Sunday, and
Elder Elias C. Ashton was the speaker.
Of late there has been an apparent
desire on the part Of the church authori'
ties to put forward their young men
at meetings where the special view is
TO entertain the strangers within our
gates. This practice does not appear
to be complimentary to the older elders
in Israel. 1t may be possible that the
chief priests realize that the older men
are so set in the old ecclesiastical pro-
cesses that their presentations will not
do to set before strangers who may
be Of discriminating mind.
But, for all that, these young mon
who are now being pushed to the front
should be careful. "Llke father, like
son. and while in these young men
the likeness may not be an exact re-
Election of their fathers, features appear
which make 1t impossible for them to
deny their parentage. According to our
report, Elder Ashton said:
The doctrinal books OF Mormonism ex-
pam lne place from whence man S Spirit
came, Its object of life and whittier IL is
going. Joseph Smith was not a prophe-
sier of events. He made boder preten-
sions than that With all the Vehemence
of his nature he buildcd new dispensn-
tion and parted company with tho ortho-
doX teachings OF the last century,
Except in one particular, Mr.. Ash
ton therein "folowed in the footsteps
Of his fathers no matter how straight
or how wobbly they may have been. We
note the exception in the sentence,
" Joseph Smith was not prophesier of
events" The older generation has con-
stantly taught that Joseph was
prophesier Of events, and in evidence
proudly pointed to that alleged prophecy
concerning the coming of the Civil War.
1t appears, however. that they have
Taught the younger generation to for
idea that Joseph was a prophet on that
account. This tack has been taken, prob.
ably, because Elder Brigham Roberts or
some other church historian or histori-
cal writer took pains to look up what
The Tribune has had to say upon that
subject. This paper pointed out that
ga wayfaring man, though fool, -
could have made such prophecy
Long before Joseph Smith "prophc.
sled - the advent of the Civil War the
publications of the day had foretold
it. Pamphlets were issued, discussing
the situation and predicting war. The
country was full of it, and inasmuch rs
South Carolina was the seat of the trou-
bic, it was prognosticated by President
Andrew Jackson in the latter part of
1929, that hostilities would probably
break out there; while the Doctrine and
Covenants records Joseph Smith IS al.
legged prophetic performance in the fol
lowing words and figures, TO wit:
Revelation and Prophecy, given
through Joseph, the Seer, on War. Given
December 25th, 1892" With all the
papers and pamphlets, together with
the warning of President Andrew Jack
son, in his possession, the biggest chump
on earth could have said what we find
in this outgiving in the Doctrine and
Covenants: ''Vcrly thus saith the
Lord, concerning the wars that will
shortly come to pass, beginning at the
rebellion of South Carolina, which will
eventually terminate in the death and
misery of many souls.P But even with
all the information available at his
command, Joseph Smith had to inject
little of his own thought. He was not
content to confine himself to the mere
repetition of the uttered wisdom of 9th
ers. He says, "The days will come
that war will bo poured out upon all
nations, beginning at that place. That
is the second section of the "revelatiou
and prophecy" and follows Immediate
ly after the announcement that the
trouble would begin at South Carolina
which was imminently threatened, and
which everybody had surmised; and
some had practically known, long be-
fore. But the injection of Joseph IS
OWE dream-tbought caused Joseph TO
commit one of Joseph s characteristic
blunders. War was not "pourcd out
upon all nations, beginning at that
place "a proposition that it is use
less to discuss. But having discarded
the only evidence heretofore presented
that Joseph was Il prophet" one who
forctells us not the Investigator on
titled to the opinion that the chief
priests have abandoned tho idea that
Joseph Smith was a prophet at all And
if Joseph s other pretensions were
"bolder,'' perhaps they were also
falser
AS to the remainder Of the quotation
which we have made from the report
Of Elder Ashton s sermon, it merely
exposes the braZen assumption OF the
Mormon priesthood that they know all,
before the world, in the world. and after
the world. 1t is notable, however, that
they never seem to adopt any new prop.
osition until some one else has OK
pressed it; that they make no discov-