The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-07-21

dIInOSpuSTt VI lpuOrducSs SuPcIStlCionD
and religious hysteria that enveloped
the minds of the people who occupied
the backwoods sections of the New
England states during the early part
OF the last century, AS a rule, the
were honest, devotional and patriotic,
But, owing to the lack of schools, and
the dearth of all literature, except that
of an ultra religious character, the peo-
pie were densely ignorant of natural
law and of the real relation of man to
his Maker. Theirs was the heritage
Of the dissentions that tortured the re-
ligious world during the era called the
Reformation. Religious mountebanks,
too lazy to work, went from town to
town and from village to village and
held revival, protracted and camp
meetings, and each one had his peculiar
ideas of the plan Of salvation. Within
fusion the "founder" of Mormonism
was born and reared.
In the effort of the Protestants to
| get as far away as possible from the
alleged materia1ism and errors of the
church of Rome they swung to the
other extreme. In the transition, and
under the mental strain of those early
days, the Godhead became so imma'
| terialistic and attenuated that the SUI
preme Being emerged from the conflict
Of opinions without body, parts, or
passions
About the only tangible part of the
early faith that remained after the
sitting by the "Reformers was an
impossible and hideous hell for those
who, In reality, were too hopelessly
ignorant to be damned even by the
vengeful God of the Israeites The
awful condition of endless torment for
those whose ignorance should have
been a guarantee Of salvation was con.
tinually held before those sinless sin
ners of Prophet" Joseph Smith g
chaotic time until it was hideous
mare by night. There is little wonder
that men and women fed to the
"anxious seats' for deliverance from
the endless torture of the awful hell
whose wide.open nav was hungrily
gaping for the credulous victims of
dreams and "peekstones There is
no surprise that the OCCUPANTS Of
mourners' BENCH threw themselves
to the floor. had convulsions, frothed
at the mouth, had fits, cataleptic and
other varieties, in the agony Of their
terror at the measureless and bottom
less hell whose existence was confined
to their own distorted imaginations.
If contemporaneous evidence is tc
be received, the father of JOSEPH
Smith, "the prophet" was too llstless
for anything more strenuous thar
dreaming. According to Mormon his
tory the old gentleman had seven
dreams which were of sufficient i'm
portance to be every carefully pre-
served for the enlightenment of oul
generation. But he had the unfortu
} nate habit of awakening at the criti
, cal point, when, had the dream con
tinued, we might be able to make al
intelligent and useful application OF
those nocturnal manifestations Of al
! evidently diseased Imagination. 10
! seph IS mother, an honest, credulous ant
hard working old soul. also had many
dreams and manifestations of the trutl
. of heredity
Such were the people from whom th
prophet gathered his adherents, ant
such was the family that became th'
founders of Mormonism. And from
Just such mental organisms have beer
evolved the Dowies, "Holy Rollers
and the Adam-God" Sharps and th
resultant murders, debauchery AM
misery because Of their having lived.
+ With the exception of such abnor
, malities as Mormonism the transition
[ of religious faiths. obedient to the uni
versal law of evolution. have been SLOW
never yielding except when compelled
by the inexorable march of ever. in
y creasing intelligence. Yet, each widel,
accepted religion was admirabl,
y adapted to the time, place and intelli
gence of the people, and performed ;
= noble work in its civihzing and restrain
r ing Influence upon its devotees,
il On the fundamental doctrines o
Christianity, Joseph Smith engrafted
pure materjallsm. For the attenuate'
God of his ncighbors he substitutes
d Adam-F'our Father and our God. an'
: the only God with whom we have u
! do as Brigham Young tersely pu
. . the dogma invented by the mother O
a the Mormon prophet. For the monoga
j. nous relations of modern civilization
y the Mormon prophet substituted polyg
I amy. For the Mahometan pleasures o
paradise Joseph Smith substituted 6 ce
lestial marriage or plurality Of wive
in heaven. For the untrammeled eXer
else Of reason, upon which all menta
: and moral advancement is predlcated
! the modern prophet substituted unGues
n tioning obedience to the Mormon priest
a hood-that the priesthood, representa-!
the divine intelligence, as 1t is alleged
has n close monopoly on religious am
e secular knowledge In fact, aside from
the "first principles of the gospel,
: theoretical and practical MormonIsm l
movement backward to Mahometan
ism and TO the dark ages from whicl
our lOGVldbntiS tUl'iSCo ph'phSH ~ N'
h of blood and oceans of tears.
Il OF course. the Mormon prophets. thel
n servile dupes and professional liars, hk
!, the editor of the Deseret News, vii
deny the above assertions. But tb
n alleged revelatio of their first proph
u ct, and the sermons of his successor
from Brigham Young to the presen
blatant deficr OF human and divin
law, prove that their denials are bare
faced lies.
Just as the doctrines of the Dowies
Y he Holy, Rollers and AdamGod Sharp
found intellccts sufficiently perverte.
to receive them, the long since discred
itcd doctrines of Joseph Smith foun'
Judgement in brains that were wnrpe'
ard twisted by the religious hysteri
of century ago. And that the. Smit
religion has bcen perpetuated by az
;eals tc credulitv AMI :gnoranre
proved bv the fact that since Brigham
: Young, orsou and PAEleT y. Pratt
Amasa Lyman, John Taylor, Orso
HYDE and few other brainv fanatic
we're converted to MormonisIi the prose