The Literal Gathering of Israel, Chapter Seven

This entry is part 7 of 16 in the series Literal Gathering

Chapter Seven

The Strength of Zion

Isaiah speaks frequently of the period of the gathering. One of the most interesting which is also quoted several times in the Book of Mormon is Isaiah 52:

“Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come unto thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.”

A revelation explains part of this verse. Joseph was asked what “Put on thy strength, O Zion” had reference to and the answer was: “He had reference to those whom God should call in the last days, who should hold the power of the priesthood TO BRING AGAIN ZION, and the redemption of Israel; and to put on her strength is to put on the authority of the priesthood, which she, Zion, has a right to by lineage; also to return to the power which she had lost.” D&C 113:8

Obviously this prophecy is referring to our day since they did not “bring again Zion” in the days of Joseph Smith.

Verse 2 reads: “Shake thyself from the dust; arise and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O Captive daughter of Zion.” Scripture also explains here what is meant by “loose thyself from the bands of thy neck O captive daughter of Zion.” We are told the following: “We are to understand that the scattered remnants are exhorted to return to the Lord from whence they have fallen; which if they do, the promise of the Lord is that ‘he will speak to them, or give them revelation. See the 6th, 7th, and 8th verses. The bands of her neck are the curses of God upon her, or the remnants of Israel in their scattered condition among the gentiles.” D&C 113:10

Isaiah continues: “For thus saith the Lord, Ye have sold your­ selves for naught; and ye shall be redeemed without money. For thus saith the Lord God, My people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there; and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause. Now therefore, what have I here, saith the Lord, that my people is taken away for naught? They that rule over them make them to howl, saith the Lord; and my name continually every day is blasphemed.” Verses 3-5

The remnants of Israel referred to here would be not only the Lamanite who is called a “remnant of the Jew.” At also the Ephriamites and possibly descendants of other tribes who live among the nations, but more especially America. We see that Isaiah tells us that Israel today is the “captive daughter of Zion.” She sold herself “for naught.” Not only is Israel oppressed with unjust laws which are taking away the freedom of the righteous as they did in Egypt, but their spiritual freedom is also taken away. They do not know the truth so they are not free, but the cloud of darkness in Lehi’s dream hangs over them. They do not cling to the iron rod so they are not able to taste the fruit of the tree of life.

“Therefore, my people shall know my name: therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak: behold, it is I.” Verse 6.

What does he mean by “in that day” We are told that it is in the days when the Lord “shall bring again Zion.” (Verse 8) Thus this scripture would refer to our day when the Lord is about to do this rather than the days of Joseph Smith. We are told that an interesting thing will happen in this our day and that is “my people shall know my name.” Has anyone stopped to ask what the name of God the Father is? Many Mormons believe it is Elohiym, but that is not a name, but a title. It is the Hebrew word from which the word “God” is translated from in the Old Testament. Elohiym is no more God’s name than “God” is. Yet we know that the Father has a name which can be revealed for Jesus said: “I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world… And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it.” John 17:6 & 26. Here we see that Jesus did reveal the name of the Father to the inner circle and this will be elaborated on in future writings.

“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth.” Verse 7 Abinadi said that those who publish peace are the prophets. That is those who have the testimony of Jesus or the Spirit of prophesy and the gift of the Holy Ghost. The Priests of King Noah brought up this scripture to Abinadi and it is more than likely that they thought that they were the ones who were bringing glad tidings and publishing peace, for in their opinion Abinadi was a trouble maker and certainly not a bringer of peace. However, Abinadi explained to them that they misunderstood the scriptures for there must first come the inner peace through the Holy Ghost and then the true and lasting outer peace will come.

This is quite an interesting verse to examine more deeply: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings…”  Although prophets are sometimes on physical mountains, the mountains referred to here are spiritual mountains. Often in the scriptures the Lord takes a prophet to “a high mountain.” The mountain is symbolic of the raising of a man’s mind above the things of the world. It is also symbolic of’ the gathering of the saints which forms a mountain of spiritual force or a kingdom.

We are told that the ones on the mountains will have beautiful “feet.” That seems strange symbology, yet it makes sense when one realizes that feet represents spiritual preparation as evidenced by Paul: “And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.” 11 Eph 6:15

“… that publisheth peace…” The word for publisheth comes from the Hebrew SHAMA which word is translated in a variety of different ways but the basic meaning is to “cause to understand or hear intelligently.” It is interesting that when Solomon asked for wisdom he asked the Lord: “Give therefore thy servant an understanding (From the Hebrew word SHAMA) heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad.” Then the Lord said back to him: Thou “hast asked for thyself understanding to discern (SHAMA) judgment.” I Kings 3:9-11 These verses reveal to us that SHAMA is a very important quality to have, for the Lord was pleased that Solomon requested it. In other words, the ability to cause yourself and others to hear and understand intelligently, which is the meaning of SHAMA, was the key to Solomon’s great wisdom. When we then apply the full meaning of the word to Isaiah we have in place of publishing peace the following: “that understands and causes others to understand the way to peace and safety.”

“… that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation…” The true prophets will bring good news of things which are good in the eyes of God and not men, and here again we see that they “publisheth.” This word again comes from the Hebrew SHAMA. The word salvation here comes from the Hebrew YeSHUWAH which literally means to “cause to be delivered or brought to safety.” Thus if we clarify in the Hebrew instead of “publisheth salvation” it could read: He “causes himself and others to understand that which truly brings deliverance and safety.” And what really brings safety and deliverance? Nothing more than the literal gathering of Israel for without it the earth will be “utterly wasted at his coming.”

“That saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!” The true prophet, can see that God reigns even when the church is in the wilderness and even if the nation should go into physical captivity and all others around him curse God and die because they feel that God has let them down.

We at this time who believe and publish the literal gathering of Israel do proclaim that the God of Zion does reign even though Zion sleepeth, the Lord of Israel never sleeps but is preparing to fulfill the covenant he made to the fathers.

Now if we were to translate verse seven according to the intent of the Hebrew we could render it thus: “How beautiful among the gatherings of my people is the spirituality of him that bringeth good tidings, that understands and causes others to understand the way of peace and safety, that bringeth good tidings of things that are truly good, who causes himself and others to understand that which really brings deliverance and safety; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!”

The next three verses were quoted by Jesus in III Nephi 16. He said that they would be fulfilled after the day “when the Gentiles shall sin against my gospel” and that he would “bring the fullness of My gospel from among them.” III Nephi 16:10 In the day when the Lord begins to fulfill his covenants to his people “then the words of the prophet Isaiah shall be fulfilled which say;..” Then Jesus quotes Isa 52:8-10

“Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion.” Verse 8

The word watchman comes from the Hebrew TSAPHAH which signifies one who is able to perceive and be prepared for coming events and in this case indicates one who waits upon the Lord and is as one of the wise virgins with his lamp full of oil. These men will lift up their voices and tell the people how they may prepare for coming events.

“… with the voice together shall they sing…” Again “sing” is from the Hebrew RANAN which literally means “to cry aloud for joy” or “to shout for joy.” This shouting for joy was restored through the prophet Joseph in the form of the Hosanna Shout where the whole congregation shouted: ‘”Hosanna, ‘Hosanna, Hosanna, to God and the Lamb.” This principle was given up with many others near the turn of the century. Then too when Zion is redeemed there will be a natural instinct through the spirit to cry out loud for joy.

“..for they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion.” When has a people ever seen eye to eye? Not since the days of Enoch, or the righteous Nephites. Even in the days of the Prophet Joseph the saints were badly divided, but the wise virgins will truly see eye to eye in the last days because they will have their lamps full of the Holy Ghost and if we are one with God we will see eye to eye.

 “Break forth into joy, sing (RANAN) together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for-the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem.” Verse 9 This could be referring to either the New or Old Jerusalem for they both shall be redeemed, but the New Jerusalem shall be made clean first and this is mainly what it is referring to. The waste places of Jerusalem will be the desolate areas of this country as prophesied by Jesus: “Yea, wo be unto the Gentiles except they repent; for it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Father, that I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee, and I will destroy thy chariots; (in other words we will have no transportation) And I will cut off the cities of thy land, and throw down all thy strongholds… And I will pluck up thy groves (houses of prostitution) out of the midst of thee; so I will destroy thy cities… For it shall come to pass, saith the Father, that at that day whosoever will not repent and come unto my Beloved Son, them will I cut off from among my people, O house of Israel; AND I WILL EXECUTE VENGEANCE AND FURY UPON THEM, (His own people) EVEN AS UPON THE HEATHEN, such as they have not heard.” III Nephi 21: 14-15, 18, 20-21.

Continuing with Isaiah verse 10 reads: “The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.”

First the Lord will gather the righteous from among the Latter-Day Saints as well as non members and American Indians and then finally, the Lord will make bare his holy arm and “rebuke nations from afar” and deliver his people from destruction for all the world to see. It will be on a much grander scale than Moses passing though the Red Sea. All the freedom loving people in the world will have a chance to come to Zion.

“Depart yet depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out from the midst of her; be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord.” Verse 11

Here again we have the cry to go out of Babylon for there will “be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.” Isa 6:12. The great forsaking will come after the righteous are gathered out of the Mormon Church and the call sent forth for the lovers of freedom to support the constitution. “Touch no unclean thing” indicates that we must avoid substances which will harm our bodies as well as our spirits. Only the clean vessel can withstand the great day. “Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord” refers to those who are vessels of the Holy Spirit and have a responsibility to be literal Saviors on Mount Zion as will be discussed later.

“For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the Lord will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rereward. Behold, my servant shall deal (prosper) prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled., and be very high. As many were astonished at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men.” Verses 12-14.

Apparently these verses speak of the same man spoken of in the Doctrine and Covenants: “Behold, I say unto you, the redemption of Zion must needs come by power; Therefore, I will raise up unto my people a man, who shall lead them like as Moses led the children of Israel.” D&C 103:15-16 This would undoubtedly be the same as the One Mighty and Strong; however, there will undoubtedly be several individuals strong in the Spirit involved in a major way in the great work here.

Some Bible scholars think that this man was Christ because “His visage was so marred MORE THAN ANY MAN.” But when one considers it even the body of Jesus was not marred more than ANY man. He was marred it is true, but there was not even a bone broken in his body. There have been other individuals who have been nearly cut in two or had their body badly burned or in explosions that have been physically marred much more than Jesus was. But as final proof that It was not Jesus we have Jesus himself quoting this verse in III Nephi 20:44 as a future event. Does this then mean that this man who is to come will be more crippled and marred than any other man like it says? How then will he lead the people?

A more thorough examination of the words will reveal the answer.

We are told that his visage was marred. What is meant here by visage? It comes from the Hebrew MAREH and literally means “the appearance that is seen,” and the word can be used in a number of ways. Numerous times it is translated as “favored.” For instance: “Joseph was a goodly person and well favoured.” (MAREH) Gen 39:6 “Rachel was beautiful and well favoured.” (Mareh) is another example. The word is trans­lated “fair” in Ester 2:2: “Let there be fair young virgins sought for the king.”

The most interesting use of the word is found in Isaiah itself where he talks about the man symbolized as the Branch; Here the word is translated “sight”: “And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord: and he shall not judge after the sight (MAREH) of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears.” Isa 11:3. The other key word here, that is the Hebrew for “marred” is MISHCHATH. The word “‘marred” is a fairly correct translation for the word indicates disfigurement and can also imply corruption.

If we put all of this together what do we get? Instead of the idea that his physical image would be marred more than any other man we see here that the Hebrew tells us that it will be his appearance or his character which is displayed before men is that which “was so marred more than any man.” Is not this what happened to Joseph Smith? He was a great soul, yet his character was marred more than any man of his day. The whole world thought for sure that he was in league with the devil.

It is good reasoning then that the man like Moses will have to go through the same ordeal. He will be the most misunderstood man of the age. Jesus elaborates on this somewhat in the Book of Mormon: “But behold, the life of my servant shall be in my hand; therefore, THEY SHALL NOT HURT HIM, (Physically) although he shall be marred because of them. (That is his character will be defamed) Yet I will heal him, for I will show unto them that my wisdom is greater than the cunning of the devil.” III NEPHI 21:10 If his enemies “shall not hurt him” then obviously he will not be marred physically by them, but he will be spoken good and evil of as Joseph Smith was. The Lord says that he will heal him and that such a healing will show forth his wisdom. A physical healing would not show forth the wisdom of the Lord nearly as much as the healing of a man’s character for after Zion is redeemed then the servant will no longer be defamed and they who have laughed will see their folly and the servant “shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.” It is also very probably that part of the fulfillment will be correcting the many illusions that members and non members have about Joseph Smith.

The verse continues and tells us that the “form” of the servant will be marred “more than the sons of men.” ISA 52:14. The word “form” comes from the Hebrew TOAR which literally means outline or figure and implies the physical body more than does MAREH. Thus the scripture indicates that the servant’s physical body will be marred “more than the sons of men.” but fortunately not more than any man. For instance, Joseph Smith had a leg injury which marred his body.

The last verse continues: “So shall he sprinkle many nations.” This verse is directly quoted in the Book of Mormon and the Hebrew indicates that to sprinkle means “to purify.” This is very fitting, but the inspired version says: “So shall he GATHER many nations.” Now how would one go about gathering nations? Isaiah gives us the answer: “And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; TO IT SHALL THE GENTILES SEEK… And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.” Isa 11:10 & 12.

What is the Ensign to which the Gentiles will seek? It will be the basic principles of freedom in the original Constitution of the United States which the Lord said he “suffered to be established, and should be maintained for the rights and protection of ALL FLESH, according to just and holy principles… And FOR THIS PURPOSE have I established the Constitution of this land.” D&C 101:77 & 80 In other words, the design the Lord had in mind for the Constitution was to protect “all flesh.” It would eventually protect all nations just as it was designed to protect all states and that will happen by other nations subjecting themselves to the Constitution or in other words “to it shall the Gentiles seek.”

Joseph Smith Prophesied of this day: “The White Horse (the saints of God) will raise up an ensign on the tops of the mountains of peace and safety… many hundreds and thousands of the honest in heart will gather there; not because they would be saints but for safety and because they would not take up the sword against their neighbor… The great White Horse will have gathered strength sending out Elders to gather the honest in heart among the Pale Horse, or the people of the United States, TO STAND BY THE CONSTITUTION, as it was given by the inspiration of God. In these days God will set up a kingdom, never to be thrown down, FOR OTHER KINGDOMS TO COME UNTO… Power will be given the White Horse to rebuke nations afar off, AND THEY WILL BE ONE WITH THE WHITE HORSE, but when the law goes forth they will obey; for the law will go forth from Zion.” Taken from the White Horse Prophecy as told to Edwin Rushton and Theodore Turley by Joseph Smith. The ensign prophesied of here has never been lifted up, but we are dangerously approaching the day when this must be done, for the fact that the honest in heart will be called to stand by the Constitution indicates a time when the survival of the document or its content will be in grave danger.

Brigham Young quoted Joseph Smith as saying: “the time will come when the destiny of this nation will hang upon a single thread. At that critical juncture, this people will step forth and save it from the threatened destruction.” JD 7:15

He also said: “When the constitution of the United States hangs, as it were, upon a single thread, they will have to call for the Mormon Elders to save it from utter destruction; and they will step forth and do it.”  JD 2:182

Orson Hyde also quoted Joseph Smith, as saying: “The time would come when the Constitution and the country would be in danger of an overthrow; and said he: If the Constitution be saved at all, it will be by the Elders of this church.” JD 6:152

John Taylor also spoke in harmony with the White Horse Prophecy: “When the people have torn to shreds the Constitution of the United States the Elders of Israel will be found HOLDING IT UP TO THE NATIONS OF THE EARTH and proclaiming liberty and equal rights to all men, and extending the hand of fellowship to the oppressed of ALL NATIONS.” JD 21:8.

Joseph Smith is recorded as speaking boldly concerning future problems our government will have: “I prophesy in the name 0 of the Lord God of Israel, unless the United States redress the wrongs committed upon the saints in the state of Missouri and punish the crimes committed by her officers that in a few years the government will be utterly overthrown and wasted, and there will not be so much as a potsherd left.” DHC 5:394 He also said “that if Congress will not hear our petition and grant us. protection, THEY SHALL BE BROKEN UP AS A GOVERNMENT.” DHC 6:116

Also Wilford Woodruff said: “The American Nation will be broken in pieces like a potters vessel…” Wilford Woodruff, History of His Life a Labors, by Matthias F. Cowley; Page 500.

Taking all of these things into consideration we see that a gathering will be necessary to salvage the country and the Constitution itself, for if the nation is broken up and left without a government, then how can anything be set up as an ensign by the people of God if they are in a scattered condition? We see here that a gathering of two types of people will be necessary and there will be three steps to the process.

First Heber C. Kimball’s prophecy will be fulfilled that “the time will come when the Lord will choose A PEOPLE OUT OF THIS PEOPLE, upon whom he will bestow his choicest blessings.” Deseret News; Nov 9, 1865.

After a people are then gathered out of this people the Constitution will hang as if were by a single thread. (It’s only hanging by several now). At this point these righteous individuals will lift up the inspired Constitution as an ensign and many righteous non Mormons will gather together with them to support the principles of freedom.

This is the second step and the third step will begin after the desolations when a third group will be gathered out of all those who accept the fullness of the Gospel to go East to Missouri and build the New Jerusalem. Then from that point the Law will go forth out of Zion and she will be given power to rebuke nations from afar, “and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David.” Zech 12:8. At the time of these gatherings the words of Isaiah will be fulfilled: “Fear not; for I am with thee; I will bring thy seed from the East, and gather thee from the West; I will say unto the North, Give up; and to the South, Keep not back; bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth… Let the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled; who among them can declare this, and show us former things? Let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified; or let them hear, and say, It is truth.” Isa 43:5-6, 9

In other words, the power of the example of the Ensign will be so strong that the nations will be embarrassed to even witness against it and they will have to admit “It is truth.”

Then the Lord commands them: “Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing.” Isa 43:18-19

All the governments of men in ages past will seem so primitive in comparison to the Lord’s “new thing” that they will not even want to remember the “former things.”

Also we will have a fulfillment of the words of Jeremiah: “Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be said, The Lord liveth, that brought up the Children of Israel out of the Land of Egypt; But the Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the Land of the North, and from ALL THE LANDS whither He ‘had driven them.” Jer 16:14-15

 

Copyright 1979 by J J Dewey

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Hell on Earth, Part 14

This entry is part 46 of 50 in the series 2011A

I was now given over to the tender mercies of Porter Rockwell, one of the great chiefs of these “Angels.” I was unacquainted with this worthy until I ‘began to notice him wherever I went. One day in the street I stopped to talk with my Cockney friend. Noticing this fellow watching me, I asked my friend who he was, told him I found him always following me.

He replied, “That’s old Port.”

I said “he looks more like old Rye Whisky.”

The Cockney gave his name and said “if he’s following you he has his orders to kill you, and he’ll do it dead sure. He has slain many a good man. There’s only one way to get the blind side of him. He’s mighty fond of whisky. If you can stuff him with that you’re all right.”

I said “You leave me now, I’ll fix him.”

My friend went one way and I started as if to pass “Port” and – cross the street. Coming directly abreast of “ Port “ I stopped short and addressing him said “Excuse me sir, but can you tell me where the Patriarch John Smith lives?”

“Oh yes! he said, down by Jordon Bridge.” (The Patriarch lived within a stone’s throw of where we stood.) “But,” he continned “he ain’t home, he won’t be home till nine to-night.”

I thanked him -very politely, and said “Well my friend, you’ve saved me a good jaunt, I feel it’s my treat, do you ever indulge? won’t you take something?”

“Wal yes,” said Port, “You’re the best man I’ve seen today.” And although the Scripture says “Woe unto him hat giveth his neighbour drink” “a drowning man will catch at a straw.” I took him to a saloon, asked the landlord to show us to a private room as we had business to talk over. We were – shown to a small room.

“Friend what will you take,” I asked?

He replied “My old stand-by, whisky, I suppose we can punish a pint can’t we?”

I said “I’ll take Soda-water.” Port ordered a pint of whisky. We sat down. Here was the victim and his would-be murderer cozily seated in a snug little room. How to handle him properly, secure his friendship, and draw him out was the question. Our potations came and Port began to make himself at home and as the whisky got in his wits got out. Presently Port emptied the pint, which was refilled. He became very talkative. I said “Excuse me sir, what is your name?” He answered, “Port Rockwell, they call me Old Port.”

I made it a point to be very sociable, for I meant to get from him an account of some of the many murders he had committed, and his intentions toward myself. Finally I was successful; he said in answer to my question. “I’ve had my orders to use you up, but you’re a bully good fellow, don’t you fear old Port, I’ll not hurt a hair of your head. You know how to treat a man decent; you’re all right.”

I saw that by a judicious use of whisky I had secured a friend, instead of becoming my “Destroying Angel,” “Port,” through a good supply of “ Spirit “ would be my “ Guardian Angel.”

He became quite confidential. In one of his moods he said “You got in a hell of a hurry that night when you fetched out yer shooting irons and got huffy.”

I asked him if he could explain that affair. “I guess I can,” he answered “Between you and I, you’re a lucky cuss; we attended to another poor devil that night who couldn’t keep his mouth shut, like yourself. You’re awful foolish let me tell you; howsoever, we didn’t catch on to him till midnight, and by the time we’d a fixed his wind-pipe so as he won’t squeal again, kivered him up, and got to where we thought you was, you’d a got yer back up and gone.” Port said this when the whisky had taken the place of his wits. I further drew from him that the “Saint” was to keep me there that night till the “Destroying Angels” came, that my grave was dug in the “ Saint’s “ garden, and they intended to make “short work of it.”

From that time I and Port were friends; and being in his charge I was perfectly safe. Port reported that I was a slippery customer, and difficult to catch. This much, past experience had proven. It cost me something to supply Port with whisky, but I trust my life may yet prove worth the outlay.

Things jogged along all right so long as I had money for whisky, but my second wife got a divorce and I was turned out in the streets homeless and penniless.

I sold my pistols to keep the whisky mill agoing. Port frequently posted me in regard to the various devices planned for my capture; though we were never seen together after the time mentioned, we had a way of communicating.

One night on my going as usual to our “Telegraph Office,” as we called it, there was the cipher message “Meet Port midnight by old City wall, by Arsenal.”

I met him and never shall forget his anxiety: I know that this man, guilty of “hundreds of murders” according to his own confessions to me, was true in his sympathy toward me and wished to aid me all in his power. He had then brought me a bundle of provisions, which he quickly handed me and, hurriedly said “Here take that, fly to the mountains and hide at once, I have to leave this city by daylight. A far worse than I am is now on your track.” He told me which way to go to escape him; for Port had given him instruction where to find me or rather where not to find me, and had sent him off in another direction. Then giving me a gentle push said “Now be off and may God bless you.”

It is really astonishing how these murderers can mix up the Divine Name in everything they do. I have seen men that I know are guilty of blood take the bread and break it at the Sacrament, and offer a prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. It seems to me that all the blasphemy under the sun is centered in this so called “Zion “-this Hell upon Earth.

I am sorry space will not permit me to give more of my sufferings in this Hell upon Earth. I will briefly tell how I got away, and trust to my lectures for an opportunity to detail all I am prevented from giving here.

Though 500 American troops and gatling guns are now stationed at Camp Douglas, overlooking the City; a railway connecting it with the outside world; Gentiles there transacting business; and United States Courts in operation-yet the Mormons hold civil, ecclesiastical, and judicial power in Utah, and have things pretty much their own way.

General Garfield came to Salt Lake City, and through a friend of his” obtained an interview with him, which finally resulted in my escape. The reader may ask, why talk of an “ escape “ from Salt Lake, new that Railways, Troops, Gentiles, and U. S. Courts are there? I answer what good is either to one in the condition I was? The Railway is a ready money institution; no trust there. At cheapest rates it costs 15 pounds to get back, and the generality of us not able to muster ‘scents., or is pence. The first forty miles of railroad is built, controlled, and worked by Mormons. The journey from Salt Lake to New York at cheap rates takes about ten days, and food costs something when traveling. I ask how can the poor duped English girls, now living a life of sin and slavery in Utah, who scarcely ever get any money, raise the cash to go back? The Gentiles have enough to do to look after themselves. The troops are all very well in their place to Overawe the Mormons, but they have nothing to do with the Civil Government. As to the United States Courts,,. a more complete farce does not exist; for with Mormon Juries it is impossible to obtain a just verdict.

Look for a moment at the fact. The whole Territory, is governed by the Mormon Power. There is the Mormon Parliament. The Lower and Upper House and its Cabinet. Then all the Officers of State are Church Officers. Mormon Mayors, Aldermen and Town Councilors in their various Cities-Mormon Police-in fact Mormon everything, with the exception of one Governor, and two or three judges who are like a figure 9 with the tail off.

Had the Mormons known that I was going away to expose their wickedness, think you for one moment they would have allowed me to escape? No, never! Suppose they knew it the night before I left; on going through the street a crowd of Mormons would be there through which I must pass. Superintending matters would be a policeman, who would grab me, while the “ Saints “ flock around, and one put, say a gold watch in my pocket, the owner of which would there and then charge me with highway robbery, and every Mormon priest swear to it. I am walked off to the City Hall, searched, the watch found on me, and locked up. In the morning papers would appear as follows:-” Last night Wm. Jarman was arrested for stealing a gold watch from Mr. – On being searched the watch was found on him, and he was held for examination. During the night he attempted to escape and was shot by his keeper. He died instantly, the bullet piercing the heart,”

The keeper, – coroner, and everyone who had to deal with the case being “Good Mormons” would be perfectly satisfied, and thus would end the career of Wm. Jarman. That’s about how the business is managed now-a-days. But they did not know – for after Brigham’s death arrangements were being made for my going back into the Church, though I constantly put it off. I did business with Mormons, some very prominent ones. I had “an axe to grind “-(in English a game to play). There were matters I should never have found out had I not done so; yea, so late as 11 p.m. the night before I left, I had important business with the second man in the Kingdom, and everything considered O. K.

A good Brother holding the same “ Priesthood “ I had, helped me away; my luggage was shipped, and ticket bought by others, not me. My valuable books and papers were taken to New York by a gentleman and delivered to me there, and not till the morning after my first lecture in Brooklyn, where the associated press telegraphed it over the country, did the Mormons know where I was.

When they saw the account in their papers they asked, “How did he get away?” I hope I have answered in a way to satisfy my readers. I know the “ Saints “ will not be satisfied until they know who assisted in spiriting away my books, papers; and myself, so that they could “Blood atone” them for their sins. But they will never know from me. “Port” died before I left Salt Lake, or I would not have said what I have. I could tell a hundred times as much as I have of such matters were it not that my friends who helped me are still living in “Zion,” and for their sakes I keep it back feeling I have said quite enough to convince the world of the perfect honors of this vile Mormonism, if not am sure they would not believe the balance though an angel from Heaven proclaimed it.

To my confidential friends now in Zion I say “Fear not! so far as I am concerned you are perfectly safe. When the Governments of America and England are ready for the question, I have ample proofs and evidence without breaking faith with you, and you are most of you old enough to die before these slow-coach Governments take any active steps. in the matter.” “Uncle Sam” has brought ONE out of the MANY human butchers to justice, and seems perfectly satisfied to let the others R. I. P.. and the murderers of wives, mothers, daughters, sisters, brothers, and fathers are allowed to occupy the best positions in the Territory. So much for the Great Boasted, “ Free “ Republic; and so much for “Christian” England in allowing her citizens to be thus deceived, enslaved, and slaughtered “for Christ’s sake.”

Editors Note: Jarman ends his treatise with several accounts of how terrible the Mormons are and that something must be done about them before they take over the world. It is indeed obvious from the many testimonies that many of the Mormons in early Utah, from Brigham on down, abused their power but then when we read the solutions to this abuse it appears that the solution proposed is worse than the problem. Jarman and the people he quotes wanted the U.S. government to wage outright war on the Mormons, even if it means a mass slaughter would be the result. These critics see this as the only solution. If Jarman is telling the truth then you can’t blame him for wanting to expose the abuses of Mormonism but then he wants to abuse the Mormons with more ferocity than they dished out.

In reality what did happen was much more harmless than many critics wanted and the charge was led by none other than the prophet’s son, Joseph Smith III who worked with Congress to create laws to force change without causing the shedding of blood.

From Jarman’s book I finish with a quoted sermon and a few words from Jarman himself. He gave quite a few other references but many repeat accusations already covered. JJ

A SERMON preached by the Rev. T. De WITT TALMAGE, D. D. in The Tabernacle, Brooklyn, U.S., on the 26th of September, 1880.

Then the Lord rained upon Sodom brimstone and fire from the Lord’ out of heaven.’-GENESIS xix.

SODOM and Salt Lake City are synonymous. You can hardly think of the one without thinking of the other. Both in fertile valleys-valley of Siddim, valley of Utah. Both near a salt, offensive, fishless dead sea; for Dr.. Robinson says there must have been a lake near by while yet ancient Sodom stood. Both the famous capitals of most accursed impurity. Both doomed.

In 1857, a company of emigrants started from Arkansas and Missouri for California. They were good, respectable, well-to-do people; but they had an idea that they might have larger comforts for their families on the other side of the mountains; so they undertook what always seems to be a terrible thing, traveling in the Wagon emigrant train. They suffered everything on the way. By night the fires kept off the wolves, and by day there was fatigue and hunger, and heat, and gentle womanhood fainting with the long journey, and children crying for rest. There were one hundred and seventy in that company.

They must needs cross Utah Territory, and in Utah nearly all the emigrant trains were accustomed to take in new supplies of provisions; but Brigham Young heard that this emigrant train was coming, and he forbade, under pain of death, any Mormon in Utah giving any clothing, or food, or medicine, or kindness of any sort, to these emigrants. It was a revenge for the fact that a man in Arkansas had slain Elder Pratt, of the Mormon Church, because he (Elder Pratt) had stolen the wife of the man in Arkansas, and taken her to Utah and into Mormonism.

On and on went this emigrant train, suffering all indignity, until they came to a plain called Mountain Meadow. The Indians dashed down upon the emigrants, but the emigrants threw up a barricade, and in this temporary fortress drove back the red men most successfully. Then the Mormon militia dashed down upon these emigrants; but you know how men will fight when they fight for their wives and children, and so the Mormon militia were driven back.

Still it was only with great peril that any one could leave the temporary fortress even to get water from the spring near by. There was great suffering from thirst, so one day they dispatched two little girls clad in white to bring water from the spring. They said, Most certainly the Mormon militia will not disturb them;’ but no sooner had they appeared outside the barricade than they were shot dead by the stream.

Petitions for relief were signed by all the emigrants, and by Oddfellows and Freemasons, who made appeals to members of their particular order. Three brave men volunteered to carry that petition for relief to California. An aged Methodist minister of the group, in prayer, commended these men to God, and the emigrants all knelt in supplication; but hardly had these three brave men started on their journey than they were butchered.

Time passed on, and one day wagons were seen coming. ‘Now,’ thought the poor emigrants, we shall have relief,’ and they could not restrain their glee at the thought of liberation. The wagons came up, and from them came a flag of truce, saying, If you emigrants will surrender, and put down your arms, you may walk out into perfect liberty, and you shall not be harmed.’ Thinking the proposition a fair proposition, it was accepted, and they put down their arms, according to the arrangement, and then the men marched out first, then came the women, and then came the children. After they were outside the barricade, the Mormon militia, with guns and hems and daggers, massacred all save a few little children, whom they thought to be too young to tell the story. Aged and young husbands and wives, parents and children, left dead on the plain! Women belonging to the emigrant train, who were sick and unable to walk, were then taken out by the Mormons into the presence of their murdered families, stripped of their clothing, shot dead, and hurled upon the heap of corpses.

The wagons, the stock of the train, the dresses of the women and their jewelry amounting in all to a property of 300,000 dollars, taken possession of by the Mormon Government. Years after, a Mormon woman, showing a silk dress that had been captured from the train-showing one of these silk dresses in Salt Lake City-one of the little girls that had been saved from the massacre recognized it. She said, ‘Oh! that’s my mother’s. Where’s mamma? Why don’t mamma come? Mamma used to wear that! ‘ and she burst into tears.

John D. Lee, the Merman Bishop, was the presiding spirit in person of the massacre, and when, fifteen or eighteen years after, in the court-room, he gave testimony, he said he had orders to do that from head-quarters; and it appeared on the evidence that Brigham Young had given orders as to the disposition of the property of these murdered people, and had told the witnesses to hush up, and all Christendom today holds that man responsible for the tragedy. No wonder, when years after he visited the scene and found that the bones of the emigrants had been decently buried by the officers of the United States Government, and General Carlton had put up a head-board by the grave, with the epitaph, the inscription’ Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord ‘-no wonder that Brigham Young, seeing that inscription, ordered it to be torn down.

It is the presiding spirit of the Mountain Meadow massacre that I arraign today for trial before you, the jury of Americans. It still lives. It has its throne in Salt Lake City, and its foot on the heart of dishonored women, and its breath is the pestilence of the nation. Gory, ghastly, hideous, infernal Mormonism, stand up and look into the faces of the American jury that is to try you.

This summer, as well as on a previous occasion, I had the opportunity of inspecting this iniquity, and of asking many questions, and having them answered by Mormons and anti-Mormons. Many of the Gentiles of Salt Lake City called on me and asked me that when I got home I should present the case before the people on this coast. I solemnly promised them, and this morning I fulfill my promise. In regard to the alleged subsidence of Mormonism, I have to tell you that 750 Mormons had arrived in Salt Lake City or Utah, just before we went to Utah, and that there was another company still larger approaching the city, and that there were 10,000 added last year, and that there will be more than that added this year.

Three hundred missionaries, sent out to gather up victims, travel all over this land, and in Sweden, and Norway, and Russia, and Germany, and England, and Wales, and Scotland. (Germany has now prohibited Mormons from Proselyting in that country.) Many Scotch Presbyterians were recently brought there: These missionaries are compelled to go out, although their families may suffer the greatest penury, for this whole system is cruel and Herodic. These missionaries go to those who are in the struggle of life, and they hide all the hideous deformities of Mormonism, and tell these people, ‘Now, if you will cross the ocean and go to Utah, you will have your expenses paid.; and when you get there you will have gardens and farms of your own, and your hardships will be ended for ever,’ No wonder some of these incautious people ‘ accept the invitation, and then fly from poverty to get into a most stupendous swindle. Oh! you ought to see the poor creatures carrying the tenth of their small income and the tenth of the small product of their farm or garden to the tithing-house of this insatiate institution. They are taxed until the blood comes. No escape but the grave. The co-operative societies and the co-operative stores of Utah are so many mills to grind out more money from the poor people to support a depraved priesthood.

I charge Mormonism with being one great and prolonged cruelty. Nobody denies the work of the destroying. angels called Danites, whose chief business it was to hunt up antagonism to the Mormon Government and put it to death. It was for’ the land of assassination and the field of blood.

No one doubts the Hickman butcheries under Brigham Young. I saw a cellar where a mother and two sons had been put to death, the mother slain in the presence of the two sons, and the two sons butchered, because they had revealed the secrets of the Mormon Government. The whole world has heard the story of the destruction of the Aiken party. And these Mormons have a delicious vernacular by which they describe this putting to death. They say all these things with a smile and a jeer. ‘Oh, they were put out of the way; or, ‘they met with a bad accident; ‘ or, they were used up; ‘ or, ‘ they were cut off just under their ears! ‘

Why have these atrocities stopped? Because a regiment of United States soldiers are on the hill overlooking the city, and with iron rake of destruction may rake that city if it attempts to repeat such atrocity. It is not because Mormonism is more merciful, but because it has not the courage.

I charge Mormonism with being a great blasphemy. Brigham Young in one of his sermons, declared that Christ himself was a practical polygamist; that Mary and Martha were his plural wives; that Mary Magdalene was another; and he said in the same sermon that the bridal feast in Cana of Galilee, where Christ turned water into wine, was the occasion of one of His own marriages! The whole tendency of the system is towards blasphemy. I was told over and over again that Brigham Young, with slight provocation, would swear like a fishwoman at Billingsgate.

I charge upon Mormonism that it is a disloyalty to the United States

Government. There is an oath taken in the endowment house at Salt Lake City, which subverts all other oaths. Perjury is no crime when enacted in behalf of Mormonism. Mormonism hates the Government of the United States with a perfect hatred. Fourth of July occasions and all patriotic demonstrations are an utter abhorrence to the Mormons, and the Gentile celebrators of the Fourth of July suffer every indignity. Mormonism would like to have the United States Government to perish today.

I charge upon Mormonism that it is an organized filth built on polygamy. There is a man in Salt Lake City who has three wives, and they are the mother, the grandmother, and the grand-daughter! I observed that there were additions built on the houses, and it was explained to me that, when a new wife is taken, then the house is enlarged, forgetting the fact that no house was ever large enough to hold two women married to the same man!

Think of a system which applauds a man for such things. Think of a system which teaches that the more wives a man lives with at the same time on the earth, the higher his honour in heaven. Think of a system which commends a man for living in marriage at the same time with three sisters. Think of a system which wrecks the happiness of every woman that touches it, for, I do not care what they say, God never made a woman who can cheerfully divide a husband’s love with another.

Every honest wife knows she has a right to the entire throne of her husband’s affection. They may smile to keep up appearances, but they have an agony of death, and the most pitiable thing in all the earth is an aged woman in Mormonism. The aged woman in other parts of the land we bow before; we take off our hat to her, we do her reverence. The softest chair in the house is grandmother’s chair. She is the queen on Christmas and Thanksgiving days. The older she gets, and the more wrinkles on her face, and the more stooped her shoulder, the more we think of her; and when God takes her away to the eternal rest, it seems as if three-fourths of the house were torn down. But a woman getting aged in Mormonism, she is shoved back, and is paid less and less attention, and is of less and less account. Why? Another has taken the throne, and, after awhile, she will be dethroned, and another will come up, and another.

I tell you Mormonism is one great surge of licentiousness; it is the seraglio of the Republic, it is the concentrated corruption of this land, it is the brothel of the nation, it is hell enthroned.

This miserable corpse of Mormonism has been rotting in the sun, and rotting and rotting and rotting for forty years, and the United States Government has not had the courage to bury it. Moreover, it is all the time gaining in influence. Mormonism once meant Utah; now to a certain extent it means Idaho, Arizona, Nevada, Wyoming, New Mexico. Wider and wider and wider, and greater and greater and greater. It is going forth to debauch this nation. You have no idea of the influence it is having in American politics, or what it has already done at Washington. Mormonism receives 1,000,000 dollars every year through the tithing system, and has plenty of money with which to effect national legislation. The subject was brought before Congress and the matter referred to a Committee, and one of the members of the Committee said in derision, What do you make all this fuss about polygamy for? Those Mormons out there make a religion of having four or five wives, while some of us members of Congress practice the same iniquity without any religion! ‘ A stout effort is being made to introduce Utah as a State of the Union, and if it be accomplished the United States govemment puts its broad seal of approbation upon this stupendous indecency

Now,’ you say, ‘what is best to be done? ‘ Execute the law against polygamy. What right has the law to punish a man for bigamy, if one foot this side of Utah he have two wives, when one foot the other side the law lets him have twenty? What right has the law to smite libertinism in other parts of this country when there it licenses it? Are these Mormons the pets and the darlings of the nation, that they should have especial regulations? Do you believe that filthy pool of iniquity can stand in the midst of this continent and not have the whole air poisoned with the malaria? Mormonism is an insult to every home, to every church, to every father, every mother, every sister, and the curse of Almighty God will come down on this nation unless we extirpate it.

What! ‘ say you, would you interfere with a man’s religion? ‘ Oh! no. If these Mormons want to believe that Joseph Smith was God, or that Brigham Young is the second person of the Trinity, the law has no right to interfere with them. But Mormonism not only antagonizes Christianity; it antagonizes good morals, and the infidel and the Christian stand side by side in denouncing Mormonism as a foe to free institutions. Then, I say, away with it! Moral persuasion first, if possible; but moral persuasion will not accomplish it. They have declared, over and over again, that they will let their city go down under the bombshell before they will surrender polygamy, and I tell you that Mormonism will never be destroyed until it is destroyed by the guns of the United States Government.

It would not be war. I hate war. It would be national police duly executing the law against polygamy. Why did they not let General Johnson in 1857, with his 2,500 troops sent out under the order of President Buchanan, march right on until they did their work? President Buchanan never was charged with excessive courage, and he sent out Governor Powell, of Kentucky, and Major McCullough, of Tennessee, to offer pardon to all the Mormons who would put down their arms, and there has not been a President of the United States with enough moral courage since to clean out that national stable.

We all go to look at it. President Grant went to look at it. Secretary Schurz went to look at it. Secretary Thompson went to look at it. President Hayes went to look at it. Everybody goes to look at it. We cross the continent, and it is one of the arts of Mormonism to be very gracious to public men. The Mormons struggle as to who shall have the privilege of entertainment. I never addressed a more genial audience in my life than last August in the Mormon opera-house, a great many Mormons present. They bow you into the city, and they bow you out of the city, and none of us dare touch them. We all want to be Congressmen, or President of the United States, or Minister to England, and if we oppose Mormonism it will oppose our political interests. And so, if I were an aspirant for any political office, this sermon might perhaps be very impolitic.

If there be any truth in the transmigration of souls, I hope that the soul of Andrew Jackson will get into the body of some of our Presidents, and make proclamation that within thirty days all these Mormons must decide upon one wife, or go to jail, or quit the country. Then have Congress make provisions for the carrying out of this order. If the Mormons submit to the law, all right. If not, then send out troops of the United States Government, and let them make the Mormon Tabernacle their head-quarters, and with cannon of the biggest bore thunder into them the seventh commandment. Arbitration by all means; but if that will not do, then peaceful proclamation. If that will not do, then howitzer, and bombshell, and bullets, and cannon-ball.

If a gang of thieves should squat on a territory and make thievery a religion, how long would the United States Government stand that? Yet a community founded on theft would not be so bad as a community founded on the grave of desolated, destroyed, imbruted womanhood.

I call the attention of the American Congress to this evil. The hour has come. Let some Senator of the United States at the next meeting of Congress, or some member of the House of Representatives, with eloquent tongue and persistent purpose, and good morals of his own, lift the anti-Mormon standard, and then unroll the tragedy and outrages of that appalling system before the Government and before the people, and that man will gather around him all the sympathies of all the families, and all the Churches, and all the reformers, and all the high-toned men and women of America. The thing has got to be done. It is only a question of when. Let this man of whom I speak in the name of God go forth and do his duty, and he will at the same time make his political fortune. Come, now, instead of exhuming the wrapped-up and entombed mummy of negro slavery, and tossing it about in these Presidential elections, have one live question-Mormonism, the white slavery of today, and have it decided at the ballot-box whether that institution shall go forth with its pestiferous influence, or whether, under the law of our civilization and the stroke of the law, it shall perish.

But,’ says some one, that would be a very expensive crusade.’ It would not cost the United States Government one farthing. Confiscate so much of the Mormon domain as is necessary to pay for the extermination and take some of those vast sums of money that are being poured into the lap of that old mother of harlots, and pay it out as honest taxes to support the United States Government. Utah is rich enough to pay for all the costly and expensive surgery of taking out this dripping cancer of Mormonism. Let the pulpits and the platforms and the printing-press agitate and agitate, and agitate until Congress and the White House shall hear rumbling all around the sky the storm of popular indignation against this gigantic, organized, and national crime.

I make no war against Mormonism as a religion. I war against Mormonism as an immorality, as a defiance of civil law, as an institution anti-American. When Brigham Young’s men, with bowie-knives, broke up Judge Drummond’s court in 1856, and compelled him to adjourn it sine die, and when Mormonism poised loose rocks on the top of cliffs where you may see them to this day, expecting to throw them over on the United States troops as they passed under, Mormonism showed what she thought of our Government.

Now as I have empanelled you as a jury to sit in trial of this giant of lust and disloyalty, and the evidence has been presented before you, are you ready for the verdict before you leave the jury-box? Guilty or not guilty? Guilty,’ says one. Guilty,’ say all.

Then what shall the sentence be? It must not be a small incarceration; it must not be a slight censure. While we have only pity for the victims of this abomination, and we pray God He will speedily deliver them, for this institution of Mormonism, as such, only extinction and death. But where shall be the execution, and when shall the execution take place? What scaffolding will be strong enough to hold such a monster of iniquity? One end of the scaffolding must be planted on the Rocky Mountains and the other on the Sierra Nevadas. But what Friday of what gloomy week, of what gloomy month, of what gloomy year would be gloomy enough for the execution of this beastly outlaw? What grave deep enough for this stout, thousand-armed, thousand-footed, thousand-headed, thousand-horned, thousand-fanged corpse? What epitaph for that grave unless it be this:-

Here lies Mormonism, the outlaw, the libertine, and the murderer, the hero of Mountain Meadow massacre. Born February 22, 1827. Died 1882 at the hand of the law and under the instruction of the Almighty. Then the Lord rained upon Sodom brimstone and fire from the Lord out of Heaven.’

Oh! good people of the United States, whether I address you face to face or through the printing-press, which every Monday morning in most of our cities gives me an audience-for which I am very thankful-whatever way I reach your ear or your eye I have to tell you that, unless we destroy Mormonism, Mormonism will destroy us. If God be good and pure and just He will not let this nation go unwhipped much longer if we allow that iniquity to go unchallenged. Every day as a nation we consent to Mormonism we are defying the hail, and the lightning, and the trumpet, and the drought, and the mildew, and the epidemic, and the plague, and the hurricane, and the earthquake of an incensed God.

My plea this morning is in behalf of fifteen thousand Gentiles, who in Utah are suffering persecution for their principles, or speechless because they do not want their commercial interests sacrificed.

I plead for thousands of foreigners who, deceived and betrayed from their own country, have been introduced into Mormonism, and, thousands of miles away from their native country, can make no resistance, but must live and die in dumb despair.

I plead for womanhood in Utah-,womanhood under foot, womanhood in the sewer, womanhood crushed until it cannot weep, womanhood looking out of the barred windows of a perdition of anguish towards what seems an unpitying heaven, crying, O Lord! how long, O Lord! ‘-womanhood in the pandemonium of a polygamous home-womanhood with the garlands of hope and affection and honour torn with the swine’s snout of incestuous abomination-womanhood that, if it had a chance, or had had a chance in the past, would have been as pure and good as that which presides at your table today, or which long ago bent in benediction over your peaceful cradle before you began the struggle with the world.

Oh men with wives and daughters and mothers; Oh brothers with sisters, do not your ears tingle, and does not your blood run cold at this story of Mormonism? And are you not determined at the ballot-box, and with pen and tongue, and in every possible way, to war against it? Oh you wives, who will to-night kneel before God, thanking Him for the home in which you are the undisputed queen-Oh mothers with daughters coming up honoured and defended, no rough hand to touch them from cradle to grave, will you not in your prayers today sympathize with your sisters who are dying the slow death of Mormonism?

Oh ye aged couples, who have been in each other’s company for thirty, or forty, or fifty years, climbing the hill of life together, and now going down on the other side the hill in the light of the setting sun; but all the way up and all the way down supreme in each other’s affections; united in holy marriage so long ago that all the witnesses but God are dead; your sympathies strengthened by the birth-hour, when one life was spared and another added, and by the grave over which both your hearts broke at once her face, with all the wrinkles more attractive now to you than when rosy with youth, because it is written all over with precious memories side by side, so long, so long, so long, that when God takes one of you He will soon take the other-Oh ye aged couple, remember this day, in prayer before God, those to whom old age brings neglect and dethronement of affection. And may the God who setteth the solitary in families bless all our homes. The best cornerstone for the republic is the hearthstone. May God keep it inviolate! (Amen.’)

As I hope to meet John Henry Smith when I lecture in Liverpool shortly I prefer to say more then. He certainly will come to my lectures, for I always state in my circulars the following:

Sir, I challenge those Mormon Missionaries who are now in England to refute my Accusations.

Not one of them has come forward to meet me as yet, I sincerely wish they would. What are they afraid of? I am not a “Danite.” The fact is they cannot, dare not meet me, so they have taken their usual course, Defamation of character. They wish the public to believe that I am a “vile fellow” not worthy of credence, so that I may not get audiences. Why vilify? If my statements in regard to them are false, they could easily prove – it. But they well know that what I say is true and that I dare not tell it all, for it is too indecent.

THE REMEDY.

As with slavery, the American Government will seek to remedy the Mormon evil by Pacific measures and dally with the question until compelled to settle it by force of arms. The sooner an army is sent to Utah to compel obedience to the law the better. For during the delay the Mormon power is increasing. They have already made fast friends of the Indians, and well armed them. They are busy in the Southern States making converts to Mormonism, for whipped on the slave question, the South have little or no love for the U. S. Government, and the Mormons are successfully winning the disaffected Southerners and firing their hearts with the hope that the South, Mormons and Indians combined will sever the union of States, firmly establish the Southern Confederacy, and concentrate a great Mormon and Indian power in the West. I know this to be the Mormon programme, and all they ask is to be let alone till they have time to perfect their plans.

If the American Government wish to avert a bloody struggle they must at once stop Mormon intrigue in the South; place the Indians under complete control, and imprison every Mormon convert that arrives at Castle Garden or any other part of the United States. For foreigners are brought to Utah on purpose to build up the Mormon power and to fight against the Government and people of the United States, and for immoral purposes.

Let Congress pass a law disfranchising all who wear the “Endowment Garment” and have taken the Endowment House Oaths; by those oaths they have virtually disfranchised themselves: All who remain faithful to these-oaths must be disloyal to every other Government but that of the Mormon Church.

Then let the Government send plenty of troops to preserve order, and aid in establishing proper schools, free from Mormon dictation. Discharge all Mormon Postmasters and Postmistress so that the people can communicate with their friends without fear of their letters being over-hauled or stopped, and let all the offices of the Territory be held by Non-Mormons.

I would also advise the Government to aid the “ Josephites “ or true law-abiding Mormons all in its power, to disseminate their principles of law and order among the Utah Fanatics, for there are thousands that will never be satisfied with anything but Mormonism, hence they should be supplied with the best there is. This is the best Remedy I can suggest short of a war of extermination.

A fund should also be raised to assist those who wish to leave the Territory. .

No Mormon should be allowed a seat in Congress, for he is there only in the interest of Mormonism.

Take from the Mormon Church the power to perform the marriage ceremony, and have all marriages solemnized by Non-Mormon Judges, or ministers of other denominations. For though I use the words “Mormon Church,” I do not consider Mormonism a Religion. I have seen enough of it to convince me that it is an infernal despotism which seeks only political power and aggrandizement under the cloak of religion. I challenge the whole of the so-called “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” to produce one Christian man or woman among the lot. Among the dupes there are sincere Mormons, but no Christians. A Christian could not remain among them, and thousands who were devout Christians when they joined the Mormons, are to day thorough infidels. We may as well try to find Christians among Mohammedans as among Mormons.

Hell on Earth, Part 13

This entry is part 43 of 50 in the series 2011A

WHAT I SUFFERED-THROWN INTO DUNGEONS-MY GRAVE DUG-
HOW I ESCAPED AND GOT OUT OF HELL.

After quoting so much I deem it right to give a little of my own experience. Space prevents my giving in full the three “Patriarchal Blessings” I received so I give extracts as follows:-

“ Salt Lake City, Utah, April, 13th, 1869.

“A blessing given by John Smith, Patriarch, upon the head of William Jarman, son of John and Ann Jarman, born in London, Middlesex, England, April 1st, 1837.

“Brother William, I lay my hands upon thy head in the name of Jesus of Nazereth, to pronounce and seal a blessing upon thee. Therefore be at rest in thy mind and look forward to the future, that you may comprehend the blessings which are in store for the faithful. For thou art of the blood of Joseph and a descendant of Ephraim, and have a great work to perform in thy day. The Lord bath had his eye upon thee for years, and thou art numbered among the One Hundred and forty-four thousand saviours of men * * *

Thou shalt confound the wisdom of the wicked, and set at naught the counsel of the unjust. Thou shalt converse with the noblemen of the earth and they shall wonder at thy wisdom; for thou shalt be filled with the spirit of he Lord above many of thy fellows. * * * Thou shalt also be blessed in thy outgoings and in thy incomings, Spiritually and Temporarily, and also be prospered in the labor of thy hands, and thy name shall be perpetuated upon the earth, and handed down with thy posterity in honorable remembrance, and written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, and Registered in the Chronicles of thy Fathers with thy Brethren. This blessing I seal upon thy head, and I call thee up unto Eternal Life to come forth in the morning of the First Resurrection-Even so Amen. Recorded in Book A. page 903.”

The Patriarch, John Young, Brigham’s brother, gave me a blessing for two dollars, which is dirt cheap. It covers four pages of “ Foolscap “ closely written, in which I am confirmed “An Heir to the Holy Priesthood” as well as being “one of the 144,000 virgins without guile.” I am also a Jew though born of Gentile parents, “Being a literal descendent of Ephraim,” I am to “obtain a fullness of the Holy Priesthood in the own due time of the Lord. Also, “Wives and children and a numerous posterity on the earth, even upon Mount Zion.”

Then comes a sentence which makes me a good catch for Insurance Company or Sick Benefit Society, it says: I seal upon your head the blessings of life and of health and prosperity and say you shall live on the earth till your hair becomes as white as the pure wool.” I am to become “ Saviour upon Mount Zion; and clothed upon with Priestly Garments and have power to officiate in the holy ordinances; be numbered among the great and the good, and receive an inheritance in the New Heavens and New Earth.’, After pronouncing blessings innumerable, this Patriarch winds up with “These blessings I seal upon you according to the holy order committed to the servants of the Lord to bind on earth and bind for heaven, and I do it by the power of the priesthood in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Even so, Amen.”

The Patriarch C. W. Hyde “ blessed “ me real nice, one of his wives wrote it down and gave me a copy. He began with, “William, I place my hands upon thy head and seal upon you a Patriarchal Blessing, for the eye of the Lord has been upon thee from Everlasting to do a great and a mighty work in this Kingdom, and no weapon formed against thee shall prosper for the Lord has given his Angels charge over you that you may live long upon the earth to promote the glory and interest of the Kingdom of God on this Earth and thou shalt stand before Kings and rulers to proclaim this Gospel * * * Thou shalt have power to do any miracle that was ever done * * * Have power to open prisons. * * * Thou art of the house of Ephraim and a right to the fullness of the Priesthood with wives and a great Kingdom upon the Earth * * * you shall stand on the earth at the coming of the Messiah * * * Thou shalt lead many to Zion with the rich treasures to help rear the Temple * “ You shall redeem your father’s household. These blessings I seal upon your head with Eternal lives with your father’s household, forever and ever, Amen. Recorded in Book E. page 792,”

The price of these Patriarchal Blessings is Two Dollars per “ Bless.”

Notwithstanding the great and manifold “blessings,” the Endowment House had so shaken my faith in Mormonism that I cared very little for my “ High and Holy Calling.” I became acquainted with a “ Cockney “ who felt about as I did, we both wished ourselves back in London. One day when calling on my Cockney friend, he introduced me to two of the “ brethren “ who had participated in the Mountain Meadow Massacre. I had heard of the affair as “an Indian Massacre,” and was surprised to find that the Mormons were the principal actors in that fearful tragedy. When I learnt from these men the facts, I felt that to be associated with such a band of murderers would make me equally guilty. How could I uphold such deeds? I could never call these men “my brothers.” I went at once to Brigham Young and demanded to have my name erased from their books, for I could no longer remain a Mormon, and told him the reason. On leaving Brigham he said to me “Oh ta, ta if you are going; You’ve got it bad, I see; your case shall be attended to.”

Up to this time my life was burdensome, but now having asserted my rights and dared to be free, and having left the abominable Church, I felt more easier, I was indeed a converted man. I prepared to battle with the inevitable, for I knew the awful fate that awaits “Apostates.” They do not always kill them. Off times they are declared insane, and confined in a wretched Asylum. I am sorry I have not space to give the abundance of proof I have on this point.

Even since I commenced writing this book, an American Lady has sent me a copy of her new book, entitled “Elder Northfield’s Home, or Sacrificed on the Mormon Altar, a story of the blighted curse of Polygamy.” A New York paper says of it:-” It tells the story of an English girl who, becoming infatuated with a Mormon elder accompanies him to Utah. It will open the eyes of the mothers and fathers of the land to a curse which is darker than the shackles of slavery, more deadly than the plagues of Egypt.” I have read the book with much interest. It tells how the girl was trapped, her life in Utah Slavery, her attempted escape and captured; then placed in a lunatic asylum. It is a thrilling story; those of my readers who can afford one dollar should send to Mrs. Jennie Bartlett, Monson, Mass. U.S.A., the Authoress, for a copy. It beats all the novels in the world, and dearly shows the Mormon Insanity dodge.

I naturally thought that as they knew of my asylum episode I should be pronounced insane, and speedily “die a raving maniac.” Fearing they might place their “ Danites” or “Destroying Angels” on my track, I made a friend of a “Chief Danite,” who lived near me. I bought him. The price was high, but my readers will soon see that it was a good investment, for not long after my interview with Brigham, the Bishop waited on me, and gave me to understand that my blood must be shed to atone for my sins. I preferred to remain in my sins rather than have my throat cut, and told him so. I was not ready to acquiesce as he wished, and he went away “ disgusted “ with me.

A few days after my “ Danite friend” came to me on the Q. T. He said, For God’s sake be careful; never show out after dark; when the chickens go to roost you go too.” I told him that in London we seldom retired so early, I was afraid that going to bed so soon would prevent my sleeping, and make an awful long night of it. He smiled, promised to do me a good turn if he could, and we parted.

I kept a good look out, and so did the Mormon leaders, for one evening having met an old friend in the City, it was dark when I left him to go home. My house was in the suburbs, and I had some distance to go. When I got near home my Danite friend met me, pushed me back hurriedly and whispered, “Go back, your grave is dug in your garden; two men are waiting at your gate, and we have to kill you. Don’t go home to-night; swear you ain’t seen me, or you and I are both dead men.”

Had I gone home the reader’s eyes would not now be resting on these pages. Thousands that wished to inform the world, as I am now doing, are in their graves; as the Mormons say, “Dead men tell no tales.”

The next morning I went to my “Hell upon Earth.” Before going in, I found my NEW DUG GRAVE in the garden. I looked down into my grave, a sight seldom witnessed by mortal eyes. The reader may have looked into the grave of a relative or friend, but into his own, never. I cannot describe my thoughts as I stood there by the side of my grave, which, but for the timely warning would now contain my body. There and then I swore that if spared to escape from that awful Sodom, I would spend the balance of my days in exposing the abominable evils of Mormonism.

“The spirit of the times can be gathered from the following beautiful expressions of President Young, his apostle son Brigham, and General D. H. Wells, then Mayor of the city, in a meeting of 1,500 men. Brigham Young, Jr.,, said That fellow Sherman said the other night coming down the street that he felt rather timid about coming out after dark. I know the reason why he felt timid; he knows that he should be killed. That’s what’s the matter. Any man who violates his covenant should be killed! ‘ President Young assented to this beautiful speech of his apostle by the nodding of his head, and when young Brigham had sat down the old man said: That man is an unprofitable servant that his master has to tell him to do everything. Brethren whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might. Then Gen: D. H. Wells stood on his feet and said: ‘The best thing that we can do for these men is to kill them.” Extract from Salt Lake Tribune.

The usual plan of breaking up the Apostates’ home was resorted to. The doctrine that no woman is saved but through her husband means that if the husband leaves the church the wife must leave him or she also is lost. My wife was, and still is a Mormon fanatic. The Probate Judge and Great High, Priest gave her a bill of divorce and most of my real estate. The second wife then wished to be legally married. This was done as I afterwards found to secure the balance of my property, as she could also get a divorce and property with it when married. Prior to the first wife’s divorce, I had been commanded to put my stock of drapery into the Mormon Co-operative Store, just then started. This I refused to do; I had paid the tenth of it into the church, as tithing. If a man or woman has but 10 shillings on arriving in “Zion,” they must give one to the church, and ever after the tenth of all their earnings. I give one verse from their “ Sacred “ Hymns in the Mountain Warbler, p. 67:-

“ TUNE= King Of the Cannibal Islands.”

“Now, male and female, rich and poor, who wish to keep your standing sure,
That you salvation may secure. Come forward and pay up your tithing.
A tenth that is and nothing less, of all you do or may possess:
In flocks and herds, and their increase; in pigs and poultry, ducks and geese;
A tenth, indeed of all your toil, likewise the products of the soil;
And if you’ve any wine or oil, come forward, and pay up your tithing!”

CHORUS-
Then, if to prosper you desire, and wish to keep out of the fire,
Nay, if you to be Saints aspire, come forward and pay up your tithing.

I had “come forward,” paid my tithing, and now they wanted the other nine-tenths. I failed to see the point. The first day I arrived in “Zion,” the Bishop overhauled my fourteen boxes and bales of silks, velvets, linen, broadcloth, &c., and said, “The Church will open a store shortly, you can put these. goods in and receive stock in the concern and a situation when we start. You see Brother Jennings, obtain a situation in his store so as to learn how business is done here.” I got the situation and went to work. This was a trap as you will see. Mormons are so tricky, and suspecting everybody, they fix matters, so that if a man dares assert his rights, or fails to “obey counsel” they have him, as in my case.

I showed Jennings my goods and tried to sell them to him, but he refused to purchase. The Church Store was duly opened, and as stated, I was – “ counseled “ to put my stock into the concern; but I had been through the-Endowment House, and wished to turn my goods into money and “Hook it.” While planning a disposal of my goods, a policeman came with a warrant, arrested me on a charge of stealing these goods from Jennings and Co.. Teasdale and Sadler, the partners of Jennings were there to swear to the goods and seize them. I was dragged off to a dungeon, while Teasdale and Sadler hauled my goods in wagons to their private office.

When brought into the Mormon court for examination, I sent for my – attorney and the proceedings commenced. “ Brothers “ Jennings, Teasdale – and Sadler swore to the goods, “BECAUSE THERE IS OUR PRIVATE MARK UPON THEM.” When I saw the marks I felt overcome. There were the goods. I had purchased in England with their private mark thereon. My attorney reserved his defense and asked for bail. This was put so high it was impossible – for me to obtain it, and I was thrust back into the dungeon, here with a poor wretch who had not changed his linen for seven months.

The Mormon Grand Jury brought in a Bill of Indictment against me consisting of THIRTEEN different counts or charges, covering FORTY-TWO-pages of Legal Cap. Lawyers think of it for a moment! I have the copy of that Indictment now before me, but its length precludes its insertion here.

Any lawyer can see it at my lectures, I hope to have copies printed and placed in the hands of every lawyer in England and America. It’s a legal curiosity which charges me with stealing 15,767 dollars worth of my own goods. It is so framed that if I cleared one charge there were 12 charges more to clear, and if I managed to clear the first 12 charges, the thirteenth was fixed so as to make it impossible for me to clear it. Then I should have at least two years in Jail, and my property confiscated to the Mormon Church.

A few days before the trial, my attorney, who came to see me, was afraid I should be a corpse before the time set for my trial if I remained in that dungeon. He induced the prosecuting attorney to prevail upon the High Priest Judge to lower the bail. This was done, and I was liberated on bail.

To describe my trial which occupied two weeks, is impossible. I secured an extra attorney and did the best I could. We successfully proved that the goods were not marked when taken to the private office of Jennings and Co., that they remained in that office three days and nights, and when first seen after that they were marked. Besides on my way to Utah, when arriving at the Railway Terminus, my boxes were shunted on a plank from the car to the wagons, one of the boxes fell off and was smashed and its contents scattered. Those who gathered the things and helped pack them, swore that I had those very goods 500 miles back, and a month before I reached Salt Lake City.

I cleared 12 charges, but the 13th charged that on the last day their Store was open prior to turning over the concern to the big Church Store, I stole from “ Brothers “ Jennings, Teasdale and Sadler 300 dollars in money These “Brothers” swore to it. Their Cashier and Bookkeeper corroborated and produced the firms’ books to show that on that day when every salesman was equally busy and returned over 300 dollars each to the Cashier, I who had been just as busy all day had only returned five dollars according to their books and oaths; consequently I must have pocketed at least 300 dollars on that particular day.

When the Court adjourned for the night, I went to my attorneys’ office, where I met Mr. Durkee the “ Gentile “ Governor of Utah. After stating the case to him I asked, “Can you do anything for me? “ He replied, “I do not see that I can. I am the Governor of the Territory, but Brigham Young is the Governor of the People. A Gentile Governor in Utah is the biggest farce on Earth.” Mr. Durkee sent for other lawyers, who consulted with my attorneys in reference to the matter.

These gentlemen said “though you have ‘cleared the 12 charges, that 13th is a clincher put there on purpose to secure your conviction and your goods. You cannot go behind their books and I prove them false; look at the vast array of testimony on that point from the three members of the firm, their Bookkeeper and also their Cashier. That is a thing we never attempt to do; its useless and your conviction is sure.”

Governor Durkee wrote out a free Pardon. I was now to become “A Pardoned Convict.” Crushed, weary and heavy laden, I left to go home being still on bail. Pen cannot describe my feelings as I wended my way home in the dark. Suddenly I heard distinctly “Can’t you see?” Thinking it was someone in the garden I was passing. I took but little notice of it. I had not proceeded far when it seemed to be uttered immediately behind me this time–” Can’t you see? “ I turned but saw no one, it was very dark. Thinking someone was near I called out “See what! “ the answer came “the date! the date! 20th of February-The Last Day! “ All at once it came to my I mind that I could remember a few who had dealt with me on that day, for every one who could, made purchases then, as the shops were all to be closed for one week. I thought of a man and his wife who had made extensive purchases that day. I went at once to their house. I asked “Do you remember buying some goods of me in Jennings’ Store the last day it was opened?” “Oh yes,” replied the wife, “I bought that 18 dollar shawl and-”

“Excuse me” I said “Do you remember how much your bill was?”

The husband replied, “Yes, I have the account,” producing which he said” 44 dollars and 50 cents.”

I asked “Do you know if the goods were paid for and how?”

He replied “You gave me this bill,” producing it, “and after I examined and found it correct you sent it with a 50 dollar bill to the Cashier, and five dollars and 50 cents change came back.”

I asked, “Do you know who the Cashier was and the cash-boy who took the money?”

The man and his wife both declared they could swear that the Cashier was N. H. Felt, and the cash-boy his son, and they both saw the boy give the 50 dollar bill to his father and receive from him the change, which the boy brought to me.

I thanked them and said that what they had told me must be sworn to in Court and that subpoenas would be presented them next morning. Here then I had evidence to prove those books wrong or the Cashier a thief. His books returned only five dollars as my total sales for the day, here was one sale of 44 and a half dollars, and the money seen to go into the Cashier’s hands by two witnesses. I then went to others I thought of. The next man and wife could swear tot over 70 dollars they saw the Cashier receive from me in about the same manner, and before the Court opened next morning I had many witnesses who could swear they saw me send to the Cashier that day over 300 dollars.

That “busted up” the 13th charge, and as nothing more remained, against me. I saw Brigham’s private reporter who had been present through the trial, rush out, and shortly return and hand a note to the Judge. When this High Priest Judge delivered his charge to the Jury of Priests, Elders and Teachers, he told them to acquit, and to pay no attention to the opinions he had hitherto expressed. He had considered me guilty and had so stated, but now at the close of the trial he had reason to change his mind. I was acquitted amid the hurrahs of the crowded court.

Though I had 13 witnesses whose testimony unrebutted was now on file and they were ready again to offer the same evidence which must convict that Cashier, yet “Brother Jennings” never brought “Brother Felt” to trial. How’s that? Echo answers in true Yankee style “ How? “ Then answers by asking “Was their books fixed for the occasion? “ and then replies “ They-were; “ the same infernal agency that prompted the marking of my goods, fixed the books also.

This “ Brother “ Jennings is the “Hon.” William Jennings, a member of the Legislature, a commander in the “Navoo Legion of cut throats” and Director of the “Deseret Bank,” run by “Apostles and Priests, by inspiration and revelation,” like the “Kirtland Bank” which “busted.” Yet over the-door of this “Revelation Bank” may be seen in large letters “U. S. (Uncle Sam’s) Repository.” This I fail to understand. When U. S. Grant visited: Salt Lake City, he wined and dined with this “Hon.” Wm. Jennings.

The Mormon Sheriff, R. T. Burton, the chief actor in the Morrisite Massacre, where women were murdered “for Christ’s sake,” seized my goods ere they left the Court, to pay bills I never contracted.

“The Utah Daily Reporter,” August 5th, 1869, says:-” The great larceny case against William Jarman, in the Probate Court, ended Saturday night at twelve o’clock in a verdict of NOT GUILTY.’ This case has excited a great deal of comment throughout the City. It is the greatest case of larceny that has ever been tried in this Territory, involving property to a large amount, and many nice points of law. Mr. Jarman, it appears from the testimony in the case, arrived here last fall, bringing with him an assortment of merchandize and a large amount of money earned by him in England.

“He obtained a clerkship with William Jennings and Co., where he remained six months, when Jennings and Co. sold out to the Co-operative Association; Mr. Jarman became involved in a difficulty with the Church authorities and withdrew from fellowship.

“From this time the hand of persecution followed him with relentless -energy, and finally culminated in a charge of grand larceny, preferred by Jennings and Co. The principal witnesses for the prosecution were Mr. Teasdale and Mr. Sadler, of the firm of Jennings and Co.; but their testimony was exceedingly contradictory, and the defense introduced witnesses to impeach and contradict their testimony. The defense introduced overwhelming testimony to disprove the charge and an acquittal was the result.

From fifty to Sixty witnesses were examined during the trial, which occupied twelve days, and the attorneys for the accused consumed eleven hours in summing up the testimony before the jury. Z. Snow, Esq., appeared for the prosecution’ and R. H. Robertson and H. W. Isaacson, Esqs., for the accused. The result is received with universal satisfaction by the people, who believed the charge unfounded from the beginning.”

One night soon after the trial I was sent for to see a “ Saint “ on urgent “business. It was 10 p.m. when we sat down to talk business. He touched upon all sorts of topics; when I broached business he said, “Don’t hurry! won’t you take something?” and fetching in whisky said, “Do take some, ‘ it’ll do you good! “ I steadfastly declined; had I been a drinker and taken some then, it would have been my death, for stupified with drink, and that drugged, they could quietly put me with the others who tell no tales; but by keeping my brain clear I was always conscious, knew my danger, and kept on the look out. Who can blame me for abstaining from alcoholic drink?

The “ Saint “ kept discoursing upon all sorts of topics quite foreign to that I had come to talk about. I sat till 12 o’clock, then arose, said, “It’s midnight, I’ll see you to-morrow.”

He replied “I go off early, to be gone sometime; we will settle this matter now, sit down.”

I felt forced by an irrepressible power to hurry off. I got into the hall, found the door locked and key gone. I shouted “Open the door! “ He asked “Are you armed” seeing me place my hands to my pistol pockets. I at once presented a pair of -revolvers to his astonished gaze. The door was opened instantly. I got into ‘the middle of the road, and fearing Danites might come up behind me I kept whirling around and presenting my pistols ready to fire, and thus I got home. (The sequel of this follows shortly.)

Hell on Earth, Part 11

This entry is part 28 of 50 in the series 2011A

From page 302, The Rocky Mountain Saints

I was at a Sunday meeting in Provo, when the news of the San Pete castration was referred to by the presiding bishop-Blackburn. Some men in Provo had rebelled against authority, and Blackburn shouted in his Sunday meeting-a mixed congregation of all ages and both sexes I want the people of Provo to understand that the boys in Provo can use the knife as well as the boys in San Pete. Boys, get your knives ready, there is work for you! We must not be behind San Pete in good works.’

“This man, Blackburn, was continued in office at least a year after this, and was afterwards taken from his bishopric and sent on a mission to England.

“Many young women were forced to break off engagements with young men whom they loved, to gratify a bishop’s preference, a missionary’s feelings or a great elder’s desires.”

– From Apostle Kimball’s Sermon:-

“ I would not be afraid to promise a man who is 60 years of age, if he -will take the counsel of Brother Brigham and his brethren, he will renew his age. I have noticed that a man who has but one wife, and is inclined to that doctrine, soon begins to wither and dry up, while a man who goes into plurality looks fresh, young and sprightly. Why is this? Because God loves that man, and because he honors his work and word. Some of you may not believe this; but I not only believe it, but I also know it. For a man of God to be confined to one woman is small business, for it is as much as we can do to keep under the burdens we have to carry, and do not know what we should do if we only had one woman apiece.”

From a “Sermon” delivered by Dr. Clinton, Justice of the Peace. Speaking of some men and women that he was not exactly pleased with and after using language unfit for publication, the Doctor said:-

“ They ought to be shot with a double-barreled shot gun. That is my doctrine; take a double-barrelled shot gun and follow them, and when you catch them, shoot them to pieces. I am the Justice of the Peace, I an the-Coroner of the County, but I will never ‘find’ you, I will guarantee that.”

Bishop E. Wooley followed the J. P., and said:- “I would do as the Doctor says, KILL THEM * * * Tear down their houses. THERE IS NO HELP FOR THEM * * * we will do as the Doctor said, and have a clean record.” Salt Lake Daily Review, extra.

One of the “Apostles was to be privileged with the honour of pulling the nose of little Vic.! ‘ (Queen Victoria).” Rocky Mountain Saints, p. 206.

27 years ago the American Government sent an Army to Utah to whip the Mormons into obedience of law and order. But the Mormons were victorious. There was a “high old time” in Utah. The Priest Journalist on page 372 Rocky Mountain Saints says:-” It was the gayest time ever known in Utah, dancing and theatrical amusements everywhere, while the songs of the Mormon camps, adapted to the popular negro melodies were heard in all their assemblies. The Sunday worship was enlivened with the jovial chorus of Dudah.’ After partaking of the Lord’s supper the following was sung,

‘There’s seven hundred wagons on the way, Du dah!

And their cattle are numerous, so they say, Du dah! du dah day!

Now, to let them perish would be a sin, Du dah!

So we’ll take all they’ve got for bringing them in, Du dah! Du dah day!

CHORUS.-Then let us be on hand, by Brigham Young to stand,

And if our enemies do appear, we’ll sweep them off the land.. ‘Old Sam has sent, I understand, Du dah!

A Missouri ass to rule our land, Du dah! Du dah day!

But if he comes, we’ll have some fun, Du Dab!

To see him and his juries run, Du dah! Du dah day.

CHORUS.-Then let us be on hand, &c.

Old Squaw-killer Harney is on the way, Du dab!

The Mormon people for to slay, Du dab! Du dab day

Now if he comes the truth tell, Du dah!

Our boys will drive him down to hell, Du dab! Du dah day!”

CHORUS.-Then let us be on hand, &c.

“It is too lengthy to give entire-about 16 verses.-From such lyrical effusions as these, sung during divine worship’ in the Tabernacle, the elevated tone of the sermons can be imagined.”

“During this Mormon War,’ the Saints,’ who were ‘spoiling for a fight,’ burned two provision trains, one of 31 and the other of 23 wagons, and drove off their animals, causing great want in the Army. The American officer in command, having no use for 80 of the teamsters after the wagons were burnt, discharged them. They concluded to go to California. In passing through Salt Lake City, a Mormon armed guard was furnished to see-them safe through. The following is a copy of the “ orders “ in regard to these teamsters:-Life in Utah, p. 194.

SALT LAKE CITY, April 9th, 1858.

“The (Mormon) officer in command of escort is hereby ordered to see that every man is well prepared with ammunition and have it ready at the-time you see those teamsters a hundred miles from the settlements. President Young advises that they should be all killed. Every precaution should betaken, and see that not one escapes. Secrecy is required.

“By order of General Daniel. H. Wells.

“JAMES FERGUSON, Assistant Adjutant General.”

Brigham had a Revelation how to emigrate the “Saints,” in which the-Saints were shown how to haul their baggage and food over the plains and ‘mountains in hand carts. This went forth with the stamp of Divinity. “God had revealed it; “ this was the “Divine Plan” of emigration. Think of it, Ladies, fancy pulling a cart with 200 lbs. of baggage over mountains and dales, 1,500 miles. On they trudge pulling the carts. When in the midst of the Rocky Mountains, tremendous snow storms came on. In the heavy snow its hard to pull the carts.

The Revelation promised fine weather. Now their faith fails them; weary and hungry their souls faint within them. Their food, scant at best, nearly gone; they wade rivers and no dry clothing, no rest. What a Divine Plan! Several leading Mormons camped with them one night, made them kill their last calf and ate hearty of their scant provisions; ‘in the morning these kind Mormon gentlemen drove their carriages through the river and waited on the opposite bank to see the women drag their carts through, then bade them good morning and sped on their way, leaving these poor dupes to get to Zion as best they could, finally reduced to starvation, and in the heavy drifting snow 250 souls perished. The reader can get full particulars of this horrid affair in The Rocky Mountain Saints, or at my lectures, where they will also see the pictures of the incidents related in my book besides several others, which space precludes my giving here.

The following is from Mrs. Smith’s “Fifteen Years among the Mormons,” pp. 309:-

“The widow of Hartley, 22 years old, is the most heart broken human being I ever saw. Dressed n deep black, the unrelieved picture of woe she presented, excited our curiosity and sympathy. Accompanied by my sister, went to her, and after some delay and the assurance, that although we were Mormons, we were yet women, she told us her brief story, without a tear; yet with an expression of hopeless sorrow which I shall never forget. Oh! Mormonism is too hard-too cruel upon women. Will it be permitted for ever?

“It was not until I had suggested to her, that perhaps I had also a woe to unburden, as the result of my Mormon life, which might have some comparison to her own, that she commenced by saying:-

“ You may have suffered; and if you have been a Mormon wife, you must have known sorrow. But the cruelty of my own fate, I am sure, is without a parallel, even in this land of. cruelty.

“I married Jesse Hartly, knowing he was a Gentile,’ but that made no difference with me, although I was a Mormon, because he was a noble man, and sought only the right. By being my husband, he was brought into closer contact with the members of the Church, and was thus soon enabled to learn many things about the Heads of the Church, that he did not approve, and of which I was ignorant, although I had been brought up among the Saints; and which, if known among the Gentiles’ would have greatly damaged us. I do not understand all he discovered, or all he did; but they found he had written against the Church, and the Prophet required as an atonement for his sins that he should lay down his life.

That he should be sacrificed in the Endowment House, where human sacrifices are made. They kill those there who have committed sins too great to be atoned for in any other way. The Prophet says, if they submit to this he can save them; otherwise they are lost. Oh! that is horrible. But my husband refused to be sacrificed, and so set out alone for the United States. I told him when he left me, and left his child, that he would be killed, and so he was. William Hickman and another Danite, shot him in the canyons. My child soon followed after its father, and I hope to die also for why should I live? Here the murderers of my husband curse the earth, and roll in affluence unpunished.

“She had finished her sad story, and we were choking down our sobs of pity in silence, when she rose saying, I trust you will excuse me,’ and went away, still wearing the same stony expression of agony, as when we first saw her. But this is but one case among a thousand others, that have never seen the light, and never will, until the dark history of the Danites,’ or Destroying Angels,’ is unveiled.”

In a work by Mrs. A. G. Paddock, “The Fate of Madame La Tour,’ page 296, is the following:-

“ During 1870 and 1871 the juries empanelled by the United States. Marshall were composed altogether of Gentiles and seceders from the Mormon Church.

“During these years one hundred and twenty nine persons were indicted for the commission of murders, unspeakable mutilations, and other atrocious crimes.

These Juries not having been empannelled according to the laws of Utah – everyone of these indictments were set aside and the accused all set free.

“More polygamous marriages were contracted during 1880 than during any year since the settlement of the Territory.”-]bid, p. 324.

“An Englishwoman, who a few years ago abandoned her husband and children for the purpose of gathering with the Saints to Zion, has been divorced and re-married five times since she came to Utah. Another, after being divorced from five husbands, is now living in Polygamy with the sixth. A district judge reports the case of a Saintess, living near the place in which he holds court, who has been divorced fourteen times.-Ibid, p. 342.

I now extract from “The Prophets, or Mormonism Unveiled,” by a lady who had a fearful experience in Zion. It is published by Wm. White Smith,. 195, Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, U. S. On page 255, she says:-” This modern pandemonium, in which vice unchecked ran riot, would have rivaled Hades in its motley crew. It was a safe retreat for the forger and bogus. coiner, house thief, and murderer. I should not dare to chronicle it had not others done so, as well as the passing papers of the day, and they have never been disproved.”

This lady tells a fearful tale of a wife who killed the other wife of her husband. The story is too long to give entire, but from it I glean as follows:-

“A wife, who refused to consent to the plural marriage, cautioned her husband not to trifle with her feelings: that if the unnatural knot was tied death should speedily sever it. Notwithstanding this, one evening at suppertime, the husband returned from the Endowment House with his new bride; the wife sternly commanded the intruder to leave the house at once, or submit to the consequence. This was all she said. The husband escorted his bride to her room and bade her prepare for supper.

The bride, of course, must obey her husband and not his wife; and having arrayed herself gorgeously for the occasion, the husband conducted her to the table to partake of the evening repast with the family. The wife, always a woman of few words, seated herself at the table also, and remained silent. But still waters run deep,’ and away down in the depths of that woman’s heart were feelings unutterable. And while the husband and bride were exchanging loving glances and affectionate words, the wife and mother was deciding in her mind how best to end this fearful torture.

A serious mental struggle ensued; finally the predominating thoughts were, ‘Why should I make my children motherless? How can, I destroy myself and leave my dear children to the care of this hated intruder? No, never! I cannot; I will not. But to live on in this state is impossible; to be constantly worried in mind over this will either dethrone reason or hurry me to a premature grave. This must not, shall not happen.’

The idea now uppermost in her mind was slay the rival,’ and thus put an end to all this vexation. This decided the matter. ‘Death shall end what folly and crime began.’ The supper ended, the husband and his bride retire. The husband partly turned and said, ‘Good night! ‘ to his wife. Imagine the feelings of that wife as she witnessed the disgusting and revolting scene. Her husband who swore at the marriage altar in England ‘to forsake all others,’ had now forsaken her to revel in the unlawful embraces of another; and in her own house and before her very eyes, this wrong was being perpetrated.

This was more than human nature could endure. She had already decided, now she felt an irresistible force urging her on to slay the guilty pair. But she reasoned, is he not the father of my children. She gave a deep sigh, then softly the words escaped her lips, with all his faults I love him still.’ Then she hesitated for a moment, and concluded to spare him, but she would teach him that night that two wives could not live in that house. She thought of the dagger her husband had given her to protect herself in his absence. Now she would protect herself from this intruder in his presence with that very weapon. Grasping the dagger she silently approached the door of the bride-chamber and listened. Then peeping through the key hole she saw in that bright moonlight what she should never have seen.

“Her brain reeled, and sinking to the floor, she remained a long time in a dreamy, half-conscious state. The moon’s bright beams had ascended still higher, and every object stood revealed in silvery light when she once more peeped into that room, and now they slept, and the sight of the peaceful slumber of her rival, reposing on that breast which should have been all her own, again aroused the demon in her heart; she tried the door: it was locked. She thought of the window, which was on the ground floor, and having no fastening, she could easily reach it from the garden. Proceeding thither she raised the sash, quietly crept in, bent over her rival, marked the smooth, beautiful brow, the finely chiseled features, and full voluptuous form, and contrasted them with her own faded beauty, once as lovely as that before her, but now with the roseate hues faded-faded in his service, and now trampled upon as valueless.

She gloated over the sleeping victim, then the steel glittered once in the air, descended, and was raised reeking with the victim’s life’s blood! Again it descended, when the temporarily insane wife leaped through the window, fled to her room and caressed her sleeping babes!

The terrible sequence of this horrible affair is too lengthy to give here, for I could go back to that bride chamber and detail the death of the bride who expired accusing her husband; how she was quietly buried in the garden with her mother who had silently yielded up her troubled soul on her murdered child’s bosom. It was indeed a blessing for that broken hearted and widowed mother to die, within a few hours after her only child had ceased to live. And when afterward the husband found out the truth of the matter-it was as he had supposed-and now that the affair was hushed up, the husband and wife passed on in their career as if nothing had occurred, although her’s was not the first blood that cried aloud to heaven for vengeance on betrayed and murdered innocence.”

I could enumerate cases of this kind, and of others who have committed suicide. While I write this, scores of instances crowd into my mind. But I have made a mistake in contracting for a book of 200 pages. I should have had at least 800 pages more.

“A married woman, Mrs. L–, young, beautiful, and hitherto of unblemished reputation, fell a victim to the arts of the Prophet, and was to him as his plural wife. Her husband, a Gentile, knew nothing of it, and within a few months after he died; as it happened, many men died whose presence was not desired by the saints.”-Madam La Tour, pp. 331.

In the same work chap. 18, Mrs. Paddock tells of two women brutally murdered, and adds:-” Julia H-, plural wife of a man who fills important offices in this city, was allowed the alternative of death by poison; but in the two cases named in this chapter, they were sacrificed with attendant barbarities which could not be paralleled outside the darkest abode of paganism.”

I now quote from a petition from the women of Utah. “To the Senate and Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled.”

“During all the years that their will has been law in Utah, no man’s life no woman’s honor has been safe, if either stood in the way of the despotic rulers of this people. Never in this world will the history of their dark and bloody deeds be fully written, for the victim and witnesses of many a tragedy are hidden in the grave.

“We adjure you in the name of the mothers who bore you, of the wives you love, of the sisters whose honor is dear to you, not to turn a deaf ear to the cry of those who ask protection from the tyranny of a system that, throughout its whole existence, has sought only to crush and degrade womanhood. Thousands of women in the Territory of Utah are today in a condition of abject slavery. Many of them would proclaim their wrongs to the world if they dared.”

This petition is signed by 474 of the women of Utah. Mrs. Paddock in her book says;-” Many women to whom the memorial was presented said Every word in it is true, and we want to sign it, but we dare not.”-Page 337. “Fate of Madam La Tour.”

Did Congress Listen to this appeal? Yes! It “went in at one ear aid out at the other,” and though shortly afterward it did seem that justice in Utah was at last possible, Brigham Young was imprisoned by Judge McKean for the alarming space of 24 hours. Yet almost immediately afterward President Grant deposed the incorruptible Judge, whose only fault was the faithful and fearless performance of duty. Perhaps U. S. Grant will let me know why he did so, and I shall be pleased to insert his reason for so doing in future editions. At present I, and all those acquainted with the circumstances, are at a loss to understand why Judge McKean was removed from office.

From the Rocky Mountain Saints, page 462:-” In the controversy between Rigdon and the Twelve Apostles, at Smith’s death, for the ruling supremacy of the Church, one Parrish said, he would follow the Twelve if they led him to hell.’ Ten years later his zeal cooled, and he resolved to leave Utah.

“On the evening of the departure of the Parrish family, Potter and Durfee, two Danites, professed to aid them in leaving without observation while in reality they were leading them to the place where they were to be killed. In the dark, Potter, who decoyed the elder Parrish, was accidentally shot and killed; old man Parrish was stabbed to death; his eldest son fell dead upon the road, and the younger son, though severely wounded, escaped ‘ and got back to town.” [The Bishop, in command of this affair, still lives in Utah, the husband of numerous wives, six of whom are sisters; none of these guilty wretches were punished.]

“A month after the Parrish murders, Henry Jones and his mother were both killed. The mother was killed in the house, and the son, who tried to escape was pursued and killed. They are to come forth in the first resurrection, for they paid the atoning penalty, and are, therefore, entitled to the honours of the immortalized Saints.-/bid, p. 469.

“A young man named Skeen was suspected of a disposition to apostatize. Thereupon he was arrested on a trumped up charge by Sheriff Ricks, who was also a Mormon High Priest. After Skeen lay down to sleep Ricks said to the guard, named Chambers, Whatever you see to night, your business is to keep still.’ When the sleeper’s breathing showed his slumber to be sound, Ricks placed his gun to the young man’s breast and fired. The victim sprang up, ran to the door, fell, and in a few minutes expired. It was given out that he was killed in attempting to escape, but the testimony of Chambers, who saw the affair, was corroborated by several other men who swore that the gun had been held so close to Skeen’s breast as to set his clothing on fire. Yet a Mormon jury pronounced Ricks, Not Guilty,’ and his fellow-saints escorted him home with a band of music, flags flying, &c. I saw the procession and everybody understood the meaning.” Fate of Madam La Tour, p. 347.

[I also “saw and understood.” I have myself talked with Skeen’s mother, and with Chambers about the affair. The burnt clothing shows that if young Skeen was “attempting to escape,” he was running toward and not from the Sheriff who shot him. This is but one of the many cases where men have been so arrested and foully murdered.]

The murder of Yates, extracted from Bill Hickman’s Book, p. 524 Yates had a fine gold watch and 900 dollars in gold. Joseph A Young, a son of Brigham’s, said his father wanted that man Yates killed. Col. Jones, Hosea Stout, and another, whose name I do not recollect, came to my camp fire and asked if Yates was asleep. I told them he was, upon which his brains were knocked out with an axe, a grave three feet deep was dug, the body put in and the dirt well packed on it, after which our camp fire was moved on to the grave.

We were off before day light, and arrived at Salt Lake that day. My comrade and I went to Brigham’s office. He asked what had become of Yates? I told him. He said that was right and a good thing. I pulled out the sack containing the money; the money was counted and we left.”

From The Rocky Mountain Saints, p. 736, I extract from the speech of Governor J. B. Weller, of Utah, on the murder of Dr. Robinson:-” Dr. Robinson, aged 31 years, was an amiable, quiet Christian, universally loved and respected. Six months ago he married a young lady of one of your most estimable families. An armed force of the police, sent by the City authorities, destroyed his building and ejected him from his premises. Afterward, between 11 and 12 p.m. a man goes to the doctor’s house, wakes him up, tells him that a brother of his (Jones) had broken his leg. The doctor hastily dressed and proceeds with this man upon what he regarded a mission of mercy. About 175 steps from his dwelling he was struck over the head with a sharp instrument, and then shot through the brain.”

“ Apostle “ Snow, in a sermon distinguished by its profanity and brutal ferocity, which was not reported and can only be stated from memory:-” He plainly told the audience that whoever should be the executioner of divine justice and slay the apostate, their wives and children, would receive a bright crown of glory, and, what is more to be lamented, it was approvingly responded to by the audience. It was a sphere of murder, plain, palpable, frightful and sickening. The picture can never be effaced from the mind-a preacher in the pulpit ferociously enjoining the murder of men, women, and children for a difference of opinion, and thousands of faces intently gazing upon him with fanatical approbation. The regions of the damned could scarcely present a scene more truly diabolical.-Secretary Ferris, p. 332, Utah and the Mormons.

Utah is a rich mineral country, and many Gentiles came to “ Zion “ to open the mines and get rich. Apostle Woodruff preached for their benefit the following:-” Men that come here to seek for our gold and silver find that it is now too hot for them. The day has now come that they cannot bear the burning heat of Zion, and I am glad of it.” Journal of Discourses, vol. 6, 13- 141.

Brigham talked a little plainer and said, “If any miserable scoundrels come here, cut their throats,” and all the people said Amen! ‘ Ibid, p. 253.

Hell on Earth, Part 2

This entry is part 18 of 50 in the series 2011A

We arrived in the Mormon capital, Salt Lake City, August, 1868, having traveled the last 560 miles over arid plains and rocky mountains by wagon. Here I was in “Zion, the perfection of beauty,” beautiful for situation on the sides of the north. I certainly must say I found Salt Lake City a beautiful place “where every prospect pleases and only man is vile.”

I had thought to have found these so-called saints approaching something near perfection, but alas, found that human nature is human nature even in Zion. The first thing that attracted my attention on arrival was two “saints” drunk-the one trying to help the other home, and both swearing outrageously. On going up to them to ascertain if they were really saints, the answer I got was “Why, certainly.” I also found on enquiry that the Church manufactured a villainous sort of whisky, which the saints called “Valley Tan,” a little of which will go a long way toward making a man drunk; this whisky is sold in stores over which is a sign, having thereon the “All seeing eye” and the words, “Holiness unto the Lord.”

On going further up the street I found a crowd of men discussing the suicide of a saint, which had that day taken place. I was as much surprised to find that a saint had committed suicide as that saints could get drunk. I asked what had caused him to commit this rash act, and was informed that he had married two sisters in addition to the wife he already had, and that notwithstanding, as sisters they had got along all right, yet as wives to the same man they were not a success. They used to fight as Polygamic wives will, and pull each other’s hair, and made things generally very uncomfortable for the affectionate husband, which preyed upon his mind, and finally led him to commit suicide. Poor fellow! In sympathizing with another I always put myself in his place. I thought if I had married three wives who fought and cut up as they did, I should be tempted to commit suicide also.

I was introduced to the Prophet, Brigham Young, a man about 70 years of age, a tolerably fine-looking thick set man, possessing an indomitable will, very austere, and well calculated to govern the dupes that surrounded him. Brigham Young was married. He looked every inch a married man; in fact I found him muchly married, the most married man I ever saw.

That Brigham Young was married, no one can dispute; that he was a father is clear to most minds. He, more than any man, could sing ” Tis’ nice to be a Father.” If asked how many children Brigham had, I treat it as a conundrum, and give it up; who can count the “chips off the old block,” which lay scattered all over the territory of Utah.

The illustrious parent himself seems to have forgotten (if he ever knew) the vastness of his progeny. One time when some boys were fighting in the street, Brigham undertook to chastise them. One young urchin bawled out, “say old man my dad will fix you for hitting me.” Brigham demanded to know who his father was. The boy replied “Brigham Young’s my dad, and ee’d go for you.” The boy ran off and reported the circumstances to his mother, describing the old villain,, and urged his mother to persuade dad to have his revenge out of the old cuss.

When relating this circumstance to a Mormon Elder, I asked if it were possible that there should be men in Utah that did not know their own children? The Elder assured me that he himself had children he should not know were he to meet them. At this juncture, a little girl, whose hoop had trundled into the stream from which she could not recover it, stood crying. The Elder took no notice of the little one, being, as I supposed, too much used to children’s screams. Having secured her hoop and wiped away the tears, I asked the child its name. To our surprise she gave the name of the Elder I was with, and in reply to a question from the Elder said her mother’s name was “Liz, you Bet,” and pointed to the house where she resided, thus the father and child were made known to each other.

It is a wise father in Utah that knows his own child. Brigham’s children are mostly girls, and now that they have grown into womanhood and married, Brigham declares the Devil owed him a grudge, and paid him off in son-in-law’s. In regard to Brigham’s children they are in a very tangled condition, and to cut a long story short, I will merely say they are too numerous to mention. But what is home without a family. Some have asserted that the wives of Brigham Young were more numerous than his children. One thing is certain the name of his wife is Legion. In this Brigham has loved not wisely but to many well.

The bosom of his family is somewhat extended, and one would fancy that with so many gentle loving wives to minister to his comforts and soothe his oft distracted mind, his life would be a heaven below; but with the heart-burnings, hair-pullings, and jealousies of polygamy, such is not the case; for instance, when he has a few unpleasant words with Amelia, and that fair creature sends the sewing machine crashing over the stairs after him, the feelings engendered are anything but lovely; and again when Ann Eliza sues for a divorce and alimony and shows the old man up in his true color and loosens his purse strings, it is anything but pleasant.

His wives are expensive; they always want something. In one of his sermons Brigham said “I have not a wife but would see me in hell rather than she should not have what she wanted,” and in the same sermon he threatens them all with a divorce, and says, “I will go into heaven alone, rather than have them scratching and fighting around me.”

His wives fight and scratch so among themselves, that when they get into a row he allows them to fight it out according to Hoyle, or any other style that suits them, and after the melee one may gather enough hair to stuff a mattress. The cares of married life weighed heavily on the Prophet, and hee offtimes wished he had remained single. It has been estimated that if Brigham were to undertake to kiss his wives the operation would take just six weeks to perform. I once ventured to ask the Prophet if he considered he had secured all his lost ribs, or was he yet a rib short? “Well,” said Young, “my heart is like a crowded omnibus, there is still room for another.”

I saw his mother-in-law while I was there, I can’t exactly tell how many there is of her, but it is a good deal. It strikes me that one mother-in-law is enough in one family, unless a man is over fond of excitement. One is often unbearable; imagine vast numbers afflicting one poor unfortunate man. I was once introduced to a Bishop who had married six sisters; when I asked his reason for doing so, he replied “don’t you see by marrying these six sisters there is only one mother-in-law to the batch, whereas had I married six from different families, I should have had half a dozen mother-in-laws, by this transaction I escape five rascally mother-in-laws.” [More anon on this..]

No trouble can arise on the deceased wife’s sister question. In Utah; they simply marry all the wife’s sisters at once and have done with it. Said one Mormon “What ridiculous nonsense to make the gals wait for their dead sisters’ shoes, I’ll marry the whole lot of any mother’s daughters; they are dragged up together under one parental roof, I’ll take the batch and let ’em jog along together under my roof. One dad is enough for the lot and so is one hubby. I think any gal who wants a whole man all to herself is almighty selfish and ought to go to hell.” If the mother happens to be a widow, the Mormon will marry mother and daughters, and thus become “Husband to the Widow and to the fatherless” and keep the family together, as it were_ In England a man is prohibited from marrying his wife’s sister whether the wife is living or dead: he is actually prevented from marrying his grandmother; yet we call this a land of Liberty, nice Liberty that: for no matter how badly a man wants to marry his grandmother, he is not allowed to do it. There are no such “ungodly” restrictions in Utah

I never ventured into the sleeping apartments of the Harem, but I have seen a blanket that would cover the inmates of a good sized female reformatory; this was said to be Brigham’s blanket. I have also seen a picture of a bedstead about 500 feet long, described as the bed of the Prophet, but latterly Brigham took to sleeping alone in a little chamber behind his office for quiet and safety.

I don’t blame him, poor man, he must have been bewildered. We sometimes sympathise with Poor Caudle, but then there was but one Mrs. Caudle; imagine hundreds of Mrs. C’s lecturing one poor fellow, and you will readily perceive the wisdom of the master mind of Brigham in preferring to sleep alone; it is a wonder that with such a confused state of affairs he could sleep anywhere. Brigham Young has departed; I don’t blame him; I think if I were in the position he was, I should want to depart. But his widow survives.

When I think of the Widow Young and compare her with the Young ‘Widow surely “Comparisons are odious.” She who manifested such selfishness as to become the sole and only partner of his joys and sorrows, finds-herself solitary and alone at the grave with no one to share her grief. Whereas the one who could share her husband’s affections with scores of other women, as in a sort of Joint Stock Company, finds herself only a shareholder in the grief of the concern, according to the stock held by her in this limited liability association.

It was remarked at Brigham’s funeral that no tears were shed; how could that be? Take for instance the tears of the average lone widow, and divide them among the widows of this arch polygamist, it would not amount to a tear each, and in the dry climate of Utah, should a tear have struggled to come to the front it would have evaporated ere it crossed the eyelid.

I have stood at the grave of many Mormon Polygamists when the numerous widows paid their last respects to THEIR dear departed ONE, and judging from the expression of their countenances, their feelings, if uttered would be “Our husband is gone; he is taken from a world of care and excitement, happy release, what he suffered at our hands, and tongues cannot be described. Let him RIP. (Rest In Peace.) Peace to his ashes,” and after taking a last look they move off in search of another victim.

Weller had no idea of the widows of Utah or his loathing of ” vidders ” would have been greatly intensified, The Utah widow emboldened by the doctrines of the Church becomes brazen and seldom “lets up” until she is united to some old polygamist. The faithful elders are admonished to take these widows and perform the kinsman’s part to their dead brother, thus-A, takes the widows of B. to wife, while the issue resulting from the Union belongs to and is called by the name of B. The Great Fundamental Principle of Mormonism being to “Increase and Multiply” widows past a certain period of life are “turned out to grass,’. and not allowed the happy privilege of “roping in” another “Saint.”

The Prophet was interred in the private grounds of his estate, but his grave is sadly neglected, no monument or headstone marks his last resting place. This results from leaving too many afflicted widows-what is everybody’s business is nobody’s business. When the condition of her late husband’s grave is mentioned to Mrs. Young No. 10, she replies, “well if he wants a tombstone let that proud, stuck up Susannah Young get him one, its, -as much her business as it is mine,” and when the subject is brought to the .attention of the said Susannah who is Widow Young No. 48, she retorts, ” Let Margaret Ann Young attend to it; she has known him longer than I.” And it looks as if he would never get a tombstone.

I am often asked how the practice of Polygamy works among the” Latter-day Saints.” Briefly I reply that Polygamy is about the same today as when Sarah cried, “Cast out the Bondwoman and her Son.” All first wives feel like casting out the Hagars and their offspring. To assert that a true woman can share her husband with another is a gross libel upon her nature.

I visited their Polygamic harems, but failed to find a happy one. At one place I found a little girl gathering up hair that had been made to fly during a recent fight among the affectionate wives of the harem. I asked the child what she was gathering the hair for? She replied, “to make my doll a mattress.”

I invariably found that when Polygamy came in at the door, joy and peace flew out at the window. If my readers imagine they know anything about jealousy, let me remind them that none but Solomon with his 700 wives and 300 concubines could inform the world that “Jealousy is cruel as the grave.” Outside of Polygamy Jealousy is a mere phantom. You, dear readers, are ignorant of Jealousy, and “Where ignorance is bliss ’tis folly to be wise.”

To find jealousy in its zenith go into the Mormon harems where every word and action, every crevice and key hole are avenues of that most vehement flame spoken of by the said Solomon. Polygamy is Slavery. Men barter, sell, or exchange wives with impunity. I witnessed a mule trade where a man threw in a wife and five dollars to boot, and got the mule. I find most men inquisitive to know how so many wives are supported: that they have enough to do to support one. Why not ask how slaveholders support so many slaves? The fact is, the wives are slaves; these work in the fields, the very affectionate husband sits on the fence with a whip-if they lag, he whips them like a refractory mule, in fact, he holds a mule in higher estimation than a woman for if he beats his mule to death it costs money to replace it, whereas he can get another wife without money or price at anytime, or so soon as a new batch of emigrants arrive from Europe.

One man I know well, who has twelve loving wives-fancy thirteen souls with but a single thought, thirteen hearts that beat as one. He takes contracts for sheep shearing, and loading up his dozen wives in a waggon, each armed with a pair of sheep shears, he drives them to the field of operation-there, like a nigger driver, he sees that they perform their work faithfully. When sheep shearing is over the haying time has come, then follows the grain harvest, and when out-door labour is over, the spinning jenny and loom are kept busy by the same wives.

One man has a ranch and dairy, which the wives attend to while he sits in the shade in summer, and toasts his shins by the fire in winter-the wives, of course, hauling in the wood-and woe to the wife who dares sell a pound of butter, a chicken, or egg. His first wife, a poor old cripple, fancied a cup of tea-a luxury denied the women of Utah. It would never do to have all these women tea-drinking. It would ruin any man, it costs too much: water is cheaper. This poor old wife, when her lord was absent, exchanged a few eggs for the wherewith to make the coveted beverage. Her hubby found it out; by the way they find out everything. The reigning favourite wife watches the other wives, and is a perfect tell tale. When he found that his first wife had committed the enormous crime of drinking tea, he dragged her to the stream, plunged her under water, and kept ducking her till she promised never to repeat the offence. I could enumerate scenes of this kind, but there are other features of Polygamy.,

A Bishop married a young girl while his first wife was on her deathbed. One blunt old lady remarked, “it is rather out of place.” The kind-hearted husband replied, “It’s _rather rough on Jane that she can’t join us, but we could not have a spree right after a funeral, so we thought we’d have the wedding before Jane died.” What a festive occasion: one wife dying, another being duly installed. The poor first wife died in agony, crying “As eternity of happiness cannot recompense me for this torture, but the husband of her youth and father of her children was not present either at the death or burial – he was off with his young bride.

One grief-stricken wife, finding her husband determined to take another wife, implored him not to, saying:  we have been so happy together; I shall die if you take another.” Hear the response of the affectionate husband: “Die then! Hundreds of better women than you are in their graves, who died from the same cause.” Accursed Polygamy, when the sorrows of a woman become too great to bear, she is roughly told to join hundreds of others who have died from its blighting and withering effects.

I will now give another feature of Polygamy. One woman had several sons before her husband took another wife; these are all good young men, but the one born after his father took a second wife was a desperado whose hands were fearfully stained with blood, and was finally lynched for a most diabolical murder. When the poor mother heard the fate of her son, she exclaimed “Poor boy, it’s not his fault, its the accursed Polygamy; for months before that boy was born I wanted to kill his father’s second wife. Murder, and nothing but murder was in my heart all the time; that poor boy has paid the penalty of his father’s crime and mother’s sorrow.” Then raising her withered and trembling hand she cursed Polygamy as only an injured wife and bereft mother could. The anathemas, as I have heard them in Utah’s harem’s, make one shudder; not only do the women curse it, but the offspring, as they verge into maturity, curse the system which made them what they really are, illegitimates; and yet the system continues.

In 1876, while Americans celebrated the glorious achievements of one hundred years of liberty and progress, one thousand polygamic marriages took place in Utah. America should at once put a stop to this degrading evil of Polygamy, or cease boasting of her advancement and civilization.

Hell on Earth, Part 1

This entry is part 17 of 50 in the series 2011A

Mormon history is quite obscure between 1850-1900.  It is true that quite a few journals exist but members were encouraged to write about faith promoting positive things.  Most of the negative writings or observations during that period came from people who did not live among the Saints.

I’ve been researching that period and have indeed discovered that all was not well in Zion.  By some accounts Mormonism had turned into a tyranny and plural; marriage was used as a means to enslave much of the female population.

It appears to me that dark forces gained a foothold among the gathered Saints and they were headed toward becoming more like the Taliban than Zion.  I was saddened by my discoveries because many of the founding teachings of Mormonism are indeed enlightening and the gathering principle itself is essential to fulfill divine purpose.

I used to think it a sad thing that the government stepped in and forced the church into compliance and essentially put a stop to the literal gathering.  And indeed it would have been sad if the church was on the path of love and light.  But it appears that if the church had succeeded in establishing a physical kingdom a tyranny would have resulted rather than an enlightened free state.

I am posting an edited version of William Jarman’s book about his experiences living among the LDS for 12 years during the height of the polygamous period.

Yes, the guy sounds like a bitter anti Mormon who may exaggerate at times, but if you or I went through what he did then we would also have a chip on our shoulders.

While I am sure Jarman’s work has bias in it I believe the eyewitness accounts he gives to be essentially true.  I have read everything I can find about this period and much of his story is backed up by other sources.

That said, here is the first installment of my edited version of his book which is now in public domain.  I’ve eliminated some of his rambling and discourses on doctrine and am concentrating on giving out his actual story.  As far as I know this is the first time the digital text has been made available online – though Google does have a non digital scanned version.

Part One

U.S.A. Uncle Sam’s Abscess,

Or Hell Upon Earth

For

U.S. (Uncle Sam)

By William Jarman

Knight of the Grand Legion of North America,

WHO SUFFERED TWELVE YEARS IN

THE MORMON HELL ON EARTH;

AS ONE OF THE

“VIRGINS WITHOUT GUILE

AND

A PRIEST AFTER THE ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK:

WHERE POLYGAMY, INCEST, AND MURDER ARE TAUGHT AND PRACTISED AS RELIGION UNDER THE “ALL SEEING EYE,” AND THE SIGN ?HOLINESS UNTO TH.E LORD.”

Copyright secured in both Hemispheres.

Exeter: England, 1884.

Printed At H. Leduc’s Steam Printing Works, Exeter, England.

ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1884,

BY Wm. JARMAN,

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington and at Stationer’s Hall, London.

PREFACE.

This history of American Polygamy and Crime reviews Mormon Doctrine and Practice from the time Joseph Smith died and Brigham Young became its Notorious Leader, up to date. I deal with “Uncle Sam’s Abscess” as it exists in the present age: for its inception, rise and progress years ago,. has been amply dealt with by others, and did it but trouble Uncle Sam, this, child of care would never impose this book upon long-suffering Britishers. But knowing it takes British blood, bone, and sinew to nourish it, and increase its. growth: and having myself been drawn into the vortex of this filthy corruption-this Hell upon Earth, and narrowly escaped, it becomes my duty to. warn my fellow citizens, and try to prevent them being allured into the Great Basin of crime, misery and woe. For after all that has been said and written about this AMERICAN HELL, the half has’ never been told. Today the world knows but little of the goings on in THE YANKEE SODOM. I know it all, and so far as. these pages allow, tell what I know of the Utah Latter-day Devils; who preach and practice as religion all the crime of the Decalogue. Their Missionaries, come here with an open Bible, and seduce Good Christian People by tens of thousands, and drag them to a far worse Sodom than existed anciently. These Devilish Wolves come in the very best Sheep’s Clothing, and appear as. the Devil himself often does, “As an Angel of Light.”

When the Devil’s abroad the Devil a Saint will be,

When the Devil’s at home, the Devil a Saint is he.

(Hudibras slightly altered.)

They come prepared “to deceive the very Elect,” and are quite successful. The Sacred Garb, they assume cover their nefarious schemes, and hellish aims, and not until we arrive in America’s “Sodom,” are we aware of their filthy and awfully wicked practices. There the Bible is cast aside to give place to other books, and even newspapers. Christ is Blasphemed; they say “He was a jolly good fellow, had lots of wives, and squalling brats.”

It shocks one trained a. Christian to hear them Blaspheme Jehovah, Christ, and all sacred subjects. In Great Britain, Mormon Missionaries, to seduce Christians, preach Christianity far better than its own Ministers can. For Mormons belong to the Devil, serve him, and get his aid: Mormons and Devils know Scripture well, can quote it to suit exactly, and beat any Christian D. D. who is in opposition to the Devil. Marvel not then, that I a Church member was entrapped. I wonder they do not catch every Christian by their glib talk. They nab scarce any but Christians, quite nine-tenths of their converts are from the Churches of Christendom. My object in giving this to the world is to arouse Pastor and People, and warn them against those shrewd Yankee tricksters, who know how to use “soft soap.”

I am ashamed to think the Government allows her people to be ” religiously ” swindled under false pretences, and not pass laws to prevent it. I am also pained to find so much spent on the Clergy and Ministers of all denominations, while they allow their flocks to be taken by these Mormon Wolves, without even a word of caution. I would give anything to have been cautioned by my Minister and spared this curse of my life.

It’s no use crying over spilt milk; having been drawn into the evil, good may result by my telling what I know of it. In this work I give the true character of Utah’s Abominations, whose Missionaries compass Sea and Land to make one proselyte. I aim to guard the innocent, and show the licentious and wicked their Paradise-where a life of Sin and Shame is Sanctified and Relished. All determined to lead a vicious life should leave their country for their country’s good, and Emigrate at once to Utah. There they honor you, and you get the best positions for what you’d get put in jail for here! So don’t stay here, pack up your duds, take the first steamer and be off to this Hell upon Earth. We can well spare you, and much rather have your room than your company. In Utah you will be a “Hail fellow well met,” and have a jolly time. If you have a craving for Drink, Lust, or Murder, go to Utah! Your keenest appetite will there be fully satisfied, and your valuable services command a premium. A word to the wise is sufficient-to . Christians I say, Beware! Beware! Beware!

I give a brief account of my chequered life in the first chapter, which may interest some readers. Then I portray “Uncle Sam’s Abscess,” and I have no doubt by the time the reader gets through, he will say with me, “It is a perfect “Hell upon Earth.” I have only to add just this

There is on Earth a Hell, I know, for I’ve been there,

But I got out, the tale to tell, and warn you of the snare.

Wolves in sheeps’ clothes, cry “Heaven Below! “

List not to these your foes, or else, too late, you’ll sure to know

Sorrow, and crime, and woes.

 

It’s in America, this Hell on Earth is found,

The situation’s quite O. K., but Liberty is bound,

Its Bosses prate, “Break every law!

“Take more than one dear mate! ” This brings a vast amount

More than I can relate.

 

Suffice to say, just here, ’tis Hell on Earth to all,

Who for more wives than one doth care, or list to Mormon call”

Lo Christ is there! ” What downright lying!

It’s but a fearful snare. For Lust and Murder there they’re plying,

Beware! Beware! Beware!

Done at Ye Ancient and Ye Honourable Citie of Exeter on this Ye First Day of April, Anno Domini, 1884, and between Ye 47th and Ye 48th Year or Ye Reign on this sad vale of tears of Ye trulie unfortunate,

WILLIAM JARMAN..

58, Parr Street, Exeter, Devon, England.

How BRITISH CHRISTIANS ARE “SUCKED IN “-LED INTO SODOM I GOT “ROPED IN “-WHAT I SAW AND HEARD IN HELL.

Mormon Missionaries sneak around Great Britain like Three Card tricksters and gamblers do, seeking to entrap unwary Christians, and all whom they may devour. Trained by the Devil ere they land at Liverpool, they are up to every trick and know all the moves on the board. Their Yankee Tricks nab the English, Scotch, and Welsh Christians by thousands upon thousands. Mormon Baptisms attract the Baptists and make them easy prey. Universal Salvation and “The final perseverance of the Saints” as preached by Mormons, catch the Methodists; Calvinists get in ecstasy over the beautiful gathering of the “Mormon Elect; ” while Scotch and English Presbyterians, Established Church members, Congregationalists, Brethren, Quakers. Bible Christians, and all classes of Christians, but Catholics lay hold on the hope set before them in the “Mormon Gospel: ” simply because forsooth the Devil trains the Missionary how to set the bait to suit any particular creed or dogma.

He becomes “All things to all men,” especially to Girls from 10 to 15, and young women between 15 and 35 years old; the younger, the more tender the sympathy. “The Mormons” have a particular fondness for the fair sex provided they are not old: “The younger widows refuse,” is not in the Mormon Bible. They regard old maids as lacking in spiritual efficiency, ladies over the age of 35 and unmarried, seldom embrace Mormonism in any shape or form. If married they are considered as being “up to snuff;” and the Mormon Priest has a peculiar way of reaching them: they “creep into houses” when the husband is not at home and “lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, for of this sort are they.”

Each has concubines 7000 miles away, but too far for fellow sympathy here, and though their brothels are “crowded like an omnibus there’s room for more,” and they come here for the very purpose of securing prostitutes for their hellish dens of infamy in Utah. So they creep in as aforesaid, do their “level best” to seduce other men’s wives and daughters, lead them away to their Seraglios, or swop them off for others with some Apostle or Bishop who prefers a change.

These Libertines, and habitual Lechers, are thrown upon the British public for three years, and we are expected to believe that during that time they live a life of’ Celibacy. You can believe it if you like; I don’t; nor shall I, until fish live without water. Mormon fish are not long out of water in England, if at all: there is so much water around our little Island.

A “Good Saint “- that is a man who can marry ‘and whip a lot of wives – being ordered on a Mission to England, I knowing his proclivities so well, said to him, “You will take a few of your wives along won’t you, as you cannot well get on without them? He replied, “I’m no such d-fool as to carry coal to Newcastle I can get all I want in England: there’s plenty there!” Knowing his extra-ordinary wants in that direction I pitied the poor victims he might happen to come across. As I have a special chapter dealing with Missionaries and their nice goings on, I say no more here on that point.

The Mormon Elder is equal to every emergency. If a girl’s parents object to her going to Utah, she is quietly put on board ship and sent off to Utah’s Brothels to become a Prostitute. Does the kind Husband and Father object to have his wife made a ” Saintess “? He comes home some night, finds that his bosom’s partner has ransacked the house, stolen the valuables, gone off with the children together with the old lecherous Priest to Utah, there to become his fifth tenth, or fiftieth wife While at the same time ‘ the Stepfather also becomes the husband of all her daughters over twelve years, and of the others when they attain that age. Should the “Dear Husband ” embrace Mormonism, and the wife refuse to embrace it, or him, unless he renounces the vile thing, the Mormon Devil to encourage the deluded victim quotes this Scripture to him, “Every one that forsaketh father, or mother, OR WIFE, or children, for the Gospel’s sake, shall receive AN HUNDRED-FOLD now in this time, and shall inherit everlasting life.”

Now says the Mormon Priest, “If you believe the Bible you must leave wife and children for the Gospel’s sake: no wife should hinder a man’s salvation; sell out, leave wife and children (males) on the Parish, and go to Zion: and I promise you in the name of Israel’s God, an hundred-fold of wives and children in this life, and in the world to come, life everlasting. You shall enjoy the blessings of Abraham, Isaac, David and Solomon, for God who changeth not hath given Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, and some Teachers the right to enter Polygamy as anciently; to raise up a righteous seed, for the work of the ministry and the perfecting of the saints.

If thou art faithful in a few things’ and will forsake thy wife and little ones as God commands, he will make thee ruler over many things (many wives), if He sees thee worthy, as was David and Solomon, his son. Take up thy Cross, follow Christ, and all will be well with thee for time and in Eternity.”

A decent man who scruples to become prostituted is tenderly informed that God is faithful, and He will not suffer him to be tempted above what he is able to bear. Polygamy is very rarely practiced; it’s only occasionally, when the Lord finds a worthy Solomon that the thing is permitted at all.” In short, God is at the helm, and, according to Mormon teaching, steering all the Utah filthy business.

I have seen hundreds of thousands who have thus left the various Churches of Christendom, and gone to Utah’s Hell; the Catholic Church only being exempt. Catholics are perfectly satisfied with their Priests; view Mormonism as an Opposition Priesthood, and resist its (Mormon) Priests. Hence Mormon Missionaries fail to convert the Irish. [” True ’tis a pity, pity, ’tis, ’tis true; “] I must tell the truth, and in my bungling way put it in the best shape I can.

I traveled over a thousand miles of Mormon Territory; spent twelve years in their Cities, Towns, and Settlements, and found but three Irish; two from Australia, the other a renegade Jesuit, who, had he remained in his Native Country, would have kept as many mistresses as he now does concubines in Utah. He likes it, has a jolly time, does the thing “quite up to Dick,” says, “the work in which he is engaged is true, and the Kingdom is the O. K. thing.” But oh! I saw thousands of Christians from English, Scotch, and Welsh Churches, bitterly lamenting the sorrow and crime of that Hell upon Earth; but before relating it I must tell further how Mormon Missionaries work, and how I got into the trap.

Though they single out victims and depend much on fireside chat, yet their unholy zeal fires ’em up at times to come out boldly, and try to take a town by storm. London is even now being flooded with hand bills in which these devils “cheek it out,” and call themselves “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints:”

Here is a verbatim et literatim copy, but recently sent me:-

WHICH IS RIGHT?

There is ONE Body (Church), ONE Spirit, ONE Lord, ONE Faith, ONE Baptism.”-Eph. iv.., 4-6

THEREFORE OF THE 666 DIFFERENT RELIGIONS OF THE DAY 665 ARE WRONG AND BUT ONE IS RIGHT.

WHICH IS RIGHT?

That Church which corresponds in all respects to the Church established by Christ and His Apostles, teaching FAITH, REPENTANCE, BAPTISM by immersion for the remission of sins, THE LAYING ON OF HANDS for the gift of the HOLY GHOST with signs following the believer; and which has for its officers, APOSTLES, PROPHETS, EVANGELISTS, PASTORS, TEACHERS, aids, governments, &c., all of whom are CALLED and AUTHORIZED of God; as were these officers in the early primitive Church.

THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS is the only Church which corresponds to this perfect pattern, and consequently is the only ONE by which mankind can BE SAVED IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD.

Jesus says-John v. 39-” Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life. Therefore we earnestly request all lovers of truth to examine the following passages:-
>
FAITH-Heb. xi. 6 and I; James ii. 14 to 26.

REPENTANCE-Luke xiii., 3 and 5; Eze. xviii., 30; Acts xvit., 30.

BAPTISM BY IMMERSION-Matt iii.; Mark xvi., beg. 15; Acts ii., 37 to 41; John iii. 5 and 23; Rom. vi., beg. 3.

HOLY GHOST, HOW CONFERRED, &C.-Acts viii., 17; 1 Cor. xii.; Acts xix.; Matt. iii., ii; i Cor. xvi., 26; Acts ii., 3, 4, and 17.

OFFICERS-Eph. iii., 5; ii., 20; iv., II, 12, and 13; Luke vi., beg. 13.

AUTHORITY-Rom. x’, 14 and 15; John xiii., zo; John xvii., 18; Heb. v., 4; Ex. iv., beg. 15; i Sam. xiv., beg. 8; 2 Chron. xxvi., beg. 16; Acts xiii, beg. 2; yohn vii., 17; Gal, 1., 8.

OUR MEETINGS ARE HELD AS FOLLOWS:-

NORTH LONDON BRANCH.-42, Penton Street, Pentomille, on Sunday at 2.30 and 6.30 p.m., and on Thursday at 8 p.m.

WHITECHAPEL BRANCH at Orson’s Assembly Rooms, 23, New Road, Commercial Road, on Sunday at 2.30 and 6.30 p.m.

LAMBETH BRANCH at Kennington Hall, Upper Kennington Lane (near Licensed Victuallers’ School), on Sunday at 2.30 and 6.30 p.m.

Also at 59, Berthon Street, Church Street, Deptford, at 8 p.m., every Tuesday.

THE PUBLIC ARE CORDIALLY INVITED. ALL SEATS FREE.

JOSEPH A. WEST,

[Thanks for the cordial invite, I shall attend when I visit my native city.)

This is followed with another showing but a few of their very many doctrines. You will notice that Polygamy, their great fundamental doctrine is left out in the cold in both. I give the hand bill as it is:-

” ARTICLES OF FAITH, OF THE

CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS.

(Lists LDS articles of Faith and scriptural references)

[The beforegoing handbill was being circulated in Plymouth also, before my recent visit there, and mark-there is nothing said about Polygamy! the pivot upon which the whole thing turns].

They sell a dwarf pamphlet for one penny, the size of circulars usually given away by travelling shows. On the front is printed in type exactly like this:-

” THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS’ MILLENNIAL STAR’

BUT WE DESIRE TO HEAR OF THEE WHAT THOU THINKEST: FOR AS CONCERNING THIS SECT, WE KNOW THAT IT IS EVERYWHERE SPOKEN

AGAINST.-Acts xxviii., 22.

How beautiful Upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace: that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, ” Thy God reigneth

LIVERPOOL:

EDITED & PUBLISHED BY JOHN HENRY SMITH,

FOR SALE AT THE LATTER-BAY SAINTS’ BOOK DEPOT, 19, SOUTHERLAND STREET, PIMLICO, S.W.”

This “Bright and Morning Star,” given me recently by a Devonport Mormon, thus devotes its “valuable space. “We have heard a number of times lately of a vile fellow by the name of William Jarman, who, has been about the South of England lecturing against the Mormons, and visiting the Saints wherever he could learn of any living in that region for the purpose of poisoning their minds against THE PRINCIPLES they had EMBRACED. Then follows a perfect tirade of abuse to which I shall devote my valuable space, and VERY KIND REGARDS in a special chapter, when I have more fully shown “THE PRINCIPLES EMBRACED.” Though I must not picture all that a Mormon Embraces, I will do justice to it so far as the law allows. I just notice the scurrilous article to prove by Mormon Authority that what I say in the preface is true. I’ve hurt ’em, “let the galled jade wince.” So long as they remain. here, and the breath of life remains in me, they will hear still more and more of this “vile fellow.”

The Mormons would feel indebted to me for freely advertising this small fraction of their creed, did I but stop at that. But having sworn to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, I must tell it all. Why do they not preach it all in England as they do in Utah? Echo answers why? There they proclaim that a man must have from two up to 500 wives according to his several abilities and his several-well call it ” Etcetras,” or he cannot be saved, and exalted among the gods; that any one who leaves the Mormon Church- MUST HAVE HIS THROAT CUT or he will be everlastingly damned; that Christ is one of their class-a full fledged Polygamist; that he married Mary Magdalen, Martha and Mary, and a host of women over around Judea when he was there, and begat a crowd of children that eclipse many of the big Utah families-as an old Mormon Priest once, when speaking of Jesus, said:-“

He was on it you bet, he was as fond of the women as any       son of a ____here, and lor’ didn’t he have a ____ lot of squalling, ragged _____ brats calling him Dad! Of course he did, or how by _____ could he’ See his Seed,’ and prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord prosper in his hands?”

I heard preached in Utah Tabernacle that Jehovah keeps a far bigger Harem than Solomon did: he had only 1000 wives and concubines, whereas Jehovah has Millions. Adam, they preach, is the God of this Planet, and the reigning Mormon Prophet is the God of this generation. To disobey him, or fail to carry out his edict, is punishable by death. These and similar doctrines, I heard preached in Utah. Now if Mormon Elders would preach like that in Great Britain, I could trust the British Christian Public, for I know they would gain but few converts, if any, from among us. But here they do I not so preach. In England, Scotland, and Wales, they preach what they call “The sincere milk of the word-first principles,” and it certainly is cooked up to suit the palate of the most fastidious Christian.

When the ” Elder ” first came to my house at Exeter, he quietly closed the door, raised both his hands, then with an expression of countenance such as we expect to see only on the Saviour himself, with Angelic voice exclaimed, “Peace be to this house!” This astonished me, my wife, and another Christian then present. (This was shortly after my asylum episode, when I had determined, as far as I could, to lead a godly, sober, and religious life.)

When we expressed our astonishment, he said, “I presume you are Christians, and understand this book,” taking from his pocket a nicely bound Bible. Replying in the affirmative, he at once said, “Then I will read the words of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. ‘Behold I send you forth as lambs among wolves.’ (He should have transposed the last three words, and read, wolves among lambs.) Carry neither purse nor scrip, and into whatsoever house Ye enter, first say Peace be ‘to this house.’ If the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it, if not, it shall turn to you again. And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give; for the labourer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house. Luke, 10th chapter, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th verses.”

He closed the Book, sat down, and seemed to feel at home. Dinner was ready, and fancying he rather emphasised the words, “If the son of peace be there, in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give; ” and being anxious to know if the son of peace was in my house, for if not this chap was not going to stop, I rang the bell for dinner, and said “My Friend, you will stay and take dinner with us.”

But how can I describe my feelings when this man of God (the Devil) replied, “I have meat to eat the world knows not of; my meat is to do the will of him that sent me.” Oh! how I had inwardly to chide myself for being so wicked as to fancy that emphasis was “put on.’ I knew it was my duty “to entertain strangers; for thereby some have entertained angels unawares,” and thought, am I in an angel’s presence? does my house now shelter an angel and I not know it? I looked at the man-he had on good Sheep’s wool, dyed in the wool, real West of England Wool dyed Black Broadcloth, like that made formerly in Devonshire.

I could not penetrate his sheep’s clothing or I should have seen that inwardly he was double dyed in sin, as I afterwards found his sins were not only ” scarlet and crimson,” but as black as a blind Ethiopian in a dark cellar at midnight, just before new moon, looking for a coal-black colour-blind torn cat. If any one can give a better definition of real blackness, and will forward it to W. Jarman, 58, Parr Street, Exeter, Devon, England, he will gladly pay for it to insert in future editions. Please send the bill with it. Draw it mild, don’t stick it on; remember I give a lot for a little money.

In brief, things went on all right, for the ” Elder ” did nothing but quote Scripture, till in answer to my question he said, “He (the Elder) was a Latter-Day Saint: ” my wife, who knew a little of the Mormons, charged him with believing in and practising Polygamy as part of their religion. Seeing she knew something about it he did not deny it, but said “Polygamy is very rarely followed; the Prophet Brigham, and one or two others practise it because God I revealed to them that they must do so. But Mrs. Jarman it is not essential to salvation, as you seem to think, that men must become Polygamists. It is very different. Even supposing the Lord revealed to the Prophet that Bro. Jarman should take another wife. Before he can do so, you must be consulted and give your consent. If you refuse to consent that ends the matter, and your husband cannot become a Polygamist. It could not be otherwise, dear sister, or else see what sorrow and trouble would result.”

This settled the affair with my wife, as she said “I should never be such a fool as to consent to my husband marrying another wife so long as I live, so there will never be any Polygamy in our family.” “That’s so, of course there won’t, if you object Sister Jarman,” replied the Mormon Missionary. “And I certainly should object, said Mrs. J. “And you certainly can,’ answered the Mormon wolf,. and added, “It’s no use talking upon that point for that’s settled.”

Polygamy, the only objection then known, having been thus disposed of, – the way was clear. This Mormon Missionary baptized us into the Mormon Church, and in two weeks thereafter we were on board the steamer on our way to Zion, only just in time to save our bacon; for “God was about to pour out his judgments on Great Britain, and was gathering out his Elect.” They spin the same yarn to-day: God is always just about to do it, but somehow He fails. to verify the Mormon Missionaries’ predictions.

Again, the Mormon Missionary pictured the beauties of Zion where God was gathering His people. There everyone we met was a brother (or a sister) and a friend. There only “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all” prevailed. All worshipped together in One big Tabernacle. Said the “Elder,” ” Only fancy, suppose all the people of Exeter were Christians, and all of one faith, and every man you met here was a brother and a friend? “

Dear Reader, please suppose the same of your own City, Town, or Village, and you will think as I did-it must be like a Heaven below. Besides, silks which I was. foolishly selling here at 2s. per yard would fetch 12s. 6d. a yard in Salt Lake City, and all my drapery goods would be similarly enhanced in value if transported to Utah. Again I could have 160 acres of land for nothing, and another 160 acres at 5s. per acre, and have three years in which to pay for it; thus my 320 acres of land would only cost on the average 2s. 6d. per acre, and that not to be paid for until the expiration of three years, so as to give me time to raise-enough off my farm to pay for the land.

With such inducements, coupled with the religious part of this programme, is it any wonder that Mormon Missionaries entrap the unwary? Is it any wonder that so many, especially of the poorer classes of British people are caught, and begin to sing-

“To the West, to the west, to the land of the free,

Where the mighty Missouri rolls down to the sea,

Where a man is a man if he’s willing to toil,

And the poorest may reap of the fruits of the soil.”

And are not satisfied until they get there. Thousands are being thus caught today.

We sailed from England in the summer of 1866. Arriving in New York we found the Indians were causing great trouble out West; it was unsafe to cross the plains. We accordingly had to stop over until the next summer. Large companies of ” saints ” were then expected to gather to “Zion.” I accepted a situation in Whitney and Myers’ Dry Good Store (Drapery Establishment), Albany, New York. The Indians were so troublesome the following summer there was no emigration of British Saints to Utah; consequently I remained with the same firm until July, 1868, when the first company from England crossed the plains. It was then I left my good situation, and with my family and the British saints set out on the weary pilgrimage to Zion.

To describe that journey is impossible here; but, in passing, I must say, the Missionaries, who had been three years in England, seemed to have special regard for the Female Lambs of the flock, and were I to tell what I saw during that six weeks’ journey over the plains, camping out as we had to, night after night, and sleeping in wagons, under wagons, under trees, bushes, or any shelter we could find: I say, were I to tell all I then saw and heard this book could not be sent by mail, while I myself would be sent to jail. If I protested in any way I was kindly informed that I had better mind my own business, or I should be put where the dogs could not bite me. Afterwards at a Bishop’s meeting one of the Missionaries publicly said, “I should have been murdered on the plains but for him, that I found fault with everything, and the ” Saints ” wanted to kill me there and then. I told them the reason I found fault with everything was because everything demanded it. But I must not dwell on this.

Copyright by J J Dewey

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Reincarnation and Mormonism, Part 2

This entry is part 2 of 6 in the series Reincarnation & Mormonism

DOCTRINE OF THE DEVIL?

The belief that reincarnation is the doctrine of the devil can be traced to a statement the Prophet Joseph recorded in church history.   In November 1835 a man who went by the name of Joshua paid a visit to the Prophet.  The man evidently had some truth for Joseph said he made some “excellent remarks”.   However, he was suspicious of him and discovered that he was Robert Matthias of New York who had endured trials for “murder, manslaughter, contempt of court, whipping his daughter, etc”  Despite this Joseph entertained him for a few days and finally asked him to enlighten him “on his views respecting the resurrection.”

Matthias made four statements:   (1)  He was a literal descendant of Matthias, the apostle of Jesus.  (2)  The spirit of Matthias was resurrected in him.  (3)  The scheme of eternal life was the transmigration of the spirit from father to son.  (4)  He was the Spirit of Truth itself and possessed the soul of Christ.

To this Joseph Smith said: “I told him that his doctrine was of the devil, that he was in reality in possession of a wicked and depraved spirit.”   Joseph pressed him to leave and upon his departing he said:  “And so I, for once, cast out the devil in bodily shape, and I believe a murderer.”  DHC 2:304-307

Let’s examine the four statements of Matthias and see if Joseph Smith was correct about him.  The first statement is the only one that may be true.  It is remotely possible that he was a descendant of the apostle.  Presumedly he merely assumed such because that was his last name.

On point two it’s very unlikely that he possessed the spirit of Matthias, or was Matthias reincarnated because the apostle Matthias was a just and holy man; whereas Robert Matthias was a suspected murderer and wife beater.  People generally make progress from life to life, not go backward.

Number three is also false doctrine since the scheme of things is not to have one’s spirit passed down from father to son.  One is often reincarnated in a body unrelated to a previous life.  Eventually we will incarnate on other worlds.

Number four is also false; he certainly did not possess the soul of Christ.

Interestingly, we who believe the true doctrine of reincarnation can say along with the Prophet Joseph that the teaching of Robert Matthias is the doctrine of the devil, or from a deceptive source.

A second major objection to reincarnation comes from a misunderstanding of the doctrine.  Many think that anyone who believes in the teaching fear they will come back as a cow, a dog, or even a rock.  This is simply not so.  We use a series of embodiments to gain the experience and knowledge necessary to take us from the man to the God kingdom.  Thus we are in a constant state of eternal progression.

An exception would be a wicked person who  refuses learn from his mistakes.  Concerning this man  Brigham Young said that  “They will be THROWN BACK TO THEIR NATIVE ELEMENT from which they originated, TO BE WORKED OVER AGAIN.”  Journal of Discourses 2:12

“When the elements in an organized form do not fill the end of their creation, THEY ARE THROWN BACK AGAIN, like brother Kimball’s old pottery ware, to be ground up, AND MADE OVER AGAIN.”  Journal of Discourses Vol 1; Page 275.

The sons of perdition, according to Brigham Young, will have to begin their progression all over again and to get back to where we are now will take  “Myriads of years.”

This conforms to the  doctrine of reincarnation which is this:  That we reincarnate again and again on the earth until we manifest God.  On the other hand, those who are very selfish and evil cut themselves completely off from the Spirit of God and are broken down to their native element and eventually begin their progression over again on another physical world ages and ages hence.

The third major objection to multiple lives comes from the Bible.  In Hebrews 9:27 we read: “And as it is appointed unto man once to die, but after this the judgement.”

The “once to die” sounds like an absolute statement not open to debate until we realize that it is boldly contradicted by the scriptures themselves: “Broad is the gate, and wide the way that leadeth to THE DEATHS…”  D&C 132:25

“They (the dead) were judged every man according to their works.  And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.  THIS IS THE SECOND DEATH.   And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast (to suffer a second death) into the lake of fire.”  Rev 20:12-15

Modern day revelation sheds further light on exactly what the second death is: “Wherefore, I the Lord God, caused that he should be cast out from the Garden of Eden, from my presence, because of his transgression, wherein he became spiritually dead, which is the FIRST DEATH EVEN THE SAME DEATH WHICH IS THE LAST DEATH, which is spiritual, which shall be pronounced on the wicked when I  shall say:  Depart ye cursed.”  D&C 29:41

What was the first death???  It was being cut off from the presence of God and being placed in a state of probation in a MORTAL STATE subject to death and disease.  We are told here with startling clarity that the last or second death is the same as the first.  Therefore, those who suffer the second death will be (1)  Cut off from the presence of God and (2) Suffer disease and PHYSICAL DEATH all over again. If that is not reincarnation we do not know what is.

After we are told that man only dies once the scripture says “BUT after this the judgement.”  The word “but” comes from the Greek ALLA which literally means contrariwise. In other words, it indicates that the information that is forthcoming may contradict that which has just been said.

That would  mean that “after this the judgement” may have an opposite meaning to “it is appointed unto men once to die”.  It would indicate an exception as in the sentence:  “I rise every morning at 8:00 A.M., except when the alarm does not go off.”

We shall see that when we examine the Greek word for “judgement” that the second half of the sentence does indeed contradict the first.

The word  “judgement”  here comes from the Greek word KRISIS. This is one of the most misunderstood words in the entire Bible.  Translators don’t quite seem to know how to handle it and have rendered it according to their bias rather than the actual meaning.  In the King James version it is translated as: accusation, condemnation, damnation, and judgement, but none of these portrays the word accurately.

The modern English word “crisis” (which is derived from the Greek word KRISIS) is a more accurate rendering than the Bible translations.  The actual Greek word implies a decision that brings correction. It is hard to give the meaning of this word with one English word, but the word “correction”  would probably be the closest.

The best scripture to help us understand the KRISIS is from John  5:28-29:   “The hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation (KRISIS).”

Here Jesus divides all resurrections into two categories.  The first he calls the “resurrection of life” and the second “the resurrection of  damnation”.  “Damnation” is a mistranslation.  The Greek KRISIS is more correctly rendered “correction” or “judgement that forces  correction” and generally refers to the second resurrection.

Taking this into consideration let us retranslate Hebrews 9:27: “And as it is appointed  unto mankind  once to be dying, but on the other hand, after this comes (the resurrection of) correction.”

Paul also said that God “will have ALL MEN to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”  I Tim 2:4  Is God’s will not all powerful?  Does he not have power to fulfill it?  Therefore, will not all men eventually  be saved and return to his presence?  If not then God is powerless, which thing can never be.

The resurrection of  life, or “endless lives” as Joseph called it,  is not as easy to attain as people think.  We are told that in  the days of Paul “only” Jesus had attained immortality. (See I Tim 6:15-16) Paul also tells us that he had not attained it because he was not yet perfect: “If by any means I might ATTAIN unto the resurrection of the dead.  Not as though I had already attained, either were already PERFECT:  but I follow after.”  Phil 3:11-128

The writings of Joseph Smith are in perfect harmony with Paul.  In fact, he makes the resurrection of life sound even more difficult to attain.  Most Latter-Day Saints assume that when they are exalted they will automatically receive the resurrection, but obviously they have not read the teachings of their founder:  “You have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, the same as all Gods have done before you, namely by going from one small degree to another, and from a small  capacity to a great one; from grace to grace, FROM EXALTATION TO EXALTATION, UNTIL YOU ATTAIN TO THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD.”  DHC 6:306

We  not only have to be exalted once, but a number of times before we overcome death.  After all Paul said: “The LAST enemy that shall be destroyed is death.”  I Cor 15: Concerning those  who receive an exaltation it is written  “And they SHALL (not have) overcome all things.” D&C 76:60 Thus even after one receives an exaltation he has to overcome many things, and the LAST thing to overcome is death,  and this only occurs after passing through numerous exaltations.

All those who have not passed through numerous exaltations will therefore attain another type of resurrection called the resurrection of KRISIS or correction.  These are the inhabitants of the telestial, terrestial, and some of the celestial kingdom, but    not the sons of perdition.  These sons of perdition will attain no resurrection in this sphere of activity, but will be sent back to  their native element to start all over again.

The scriptures tell us that the celestial inhabitants can choose whether or not to be subjected to death or endless life:  :”Wherefore, all things are theirs, whether LIFE OR DEATH, or things present, or things to come, all are theirs and they are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.”  D&C 76:59

This is a very subtle scripture but there is no escaping the fact that the choice of either “life or death” belongs to celestial inhabitants.  After all, that is what it says in black and white.

If a celestial inhabitant can choose death again then obviously he would have to be reincarnated at some time or another.

Brigham Young clearly tells us that Adam was one of those members of the celestial kingdom who chose death instead of life:  “When Father Adam came into the garden of Eden, he came into it with a CELESTIAL BODY…He helped make and organize this world.”  JD 1:50

He further quoted Adam as saying: “I once dwelt on an earth something like this IN A MORTAL STATE, I was faithful, I received my crown and exaltation.  I have the privilege of extending my work, and to its increase there shall be no end.”  Deseret News; June 18, 1873; Page 308.

We are clearly told that the celestial inhabitants have the are the only ones with any type of immortality: “For man is spirit.  The elements are eternal, and spirit and element INSEPARABLY CONNECTED, receive a fulness of joy.”  D&C 93:3

Who receives a fulness of joy?  We know the son of perdition does not and of the telestial inhabitants it is written: “These are they who are thrust down to hell.  These are they who receive NOT of his fulness…”  D&C 76:84&86

The terrestial inhabitants also miss this fulness: “These (those in the terrestial world) are they who receive of his glory, BUT NOT OF HIS FULNESS.”

Immortality in either of these two lower worlds is impossible according to D&C 93:33 because they do not have fulness of joy; therefore, their spirits and bodies are NOT inseparably connected.

Where does one receive a fulness of joy? “In thy presence is fulness of joy.”  Psalms 16:11  “They shall inherit the kingdom of God…and their joy shall be full forever.”  II Nephi 9:18

These scriptures indicate that a fulness of joy only takes place in the presence of God or the celestial kingdom.  Therefore, the celestial  is the only one of the three revealed  kingdoms where the spirit and body is “inseparably connected”.  Thus, of the three kingdoms, only the celestial has any degree of immortality and even there immortality is by choice.  They can choose “life or death”.  In other words, they can live in an immortal state until they feel they need some new challenge.  Then they choose mortality or “death” as did Adam.

The church has taught from the beginning that the earth is a part of the telestial kingdom.  During the temple ceremony in the telestial room the speaker reveals: “Brethren and sisters, this room represents the telestial kingdom, OR THE WORLD IN WHICH WE NOW LIVE.”

The description of the telestial world given in the Doctrine and Covenants  correlates with the information given in the temple  revealing that  planet earth (and possibly other physical planets) is the real telestial kingdom.

The highest inhabitants of the telestial world “shall be servants of the Most High.”  D&C 76:112 and the lowest “are they who suffer the wrath of God ON EARTH.”  D&C 76:104

We are further told that the telestial inhabitants receives “the administering of angels (as did Joseph Smith) who are appointed to minister for them, or who are to be ministering spirits for them; for they (us here on the earth now, the telestial inhabitants) shall be heirs of salvation.”  D&C 76:88

The original temples were built with three rooms representing the three kingdoms.  The saints progressed from one room or kingdom to another thus demonstrating with profound clarity that we pass from one life to another until we leave the telestial and go to a higher world, the terrestial, and finally, the celestial.

But that is not all.  The celestial is NOT the highest.  The scriptures tell us there are realms higher than this:   In the celestial kingdom “the white stone mentioned in Revelation 2:17 will become a Urim and Thummim to each individual who receives one, whereby things pertaining to A HIGHER ORDER OF KINGDOMS will be made known.  D&C 130:10

Higher orders of kingdoms than the celestial???  That’s something we were not taught in Sunday School, but there it is in the scriptures.  No revelation has elaborated on these higher kingdoms, and why should they?  The telestial kingdom that we are presently in  “surpasses all understanding”.  A description of any kingdom above the celestial would have no meaning to us in our present state of consciousness.

Those who fall short of the highest resurrection (the resurrection of life) and yet do not become sons of perdition go to the resurrection of KRISIS or correction and generally come back in another life to this telestial world.  When we fall short of the perfection of Christ the scriptures tell us that our defiled bodies will be destroyed and there will be a continuing separation of body and spirit until we overcome all things.   The word of God decrees:  “And when separated (spirit and body), man cannot receive a fulness of joy.  The elements are the tabernacle of God; yea, man is the tabernacle of God, even temples; (referring to our bodies)  and whatsoever temple (body) is defiled, GOD SHALL DESTROY THAT TEMPLE.”  D&C 93:34-35

Now we understand why it is written that “the wages of sin is death.”  Rom 6:23 When we sin and our bodies are defiled we are clearly told they will be destroyed.  This is why we are told that “the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” I Cor 15:26  We live life after life in the telestial kingdom each time sinning and falling short of the glory of God, leaving our bodies behind to be destroyed until we finally “come to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Eph 4:13) and manifest the glory of God through a life of sinlessness.  At that time we “put on immortality” as did Jesus.

The Bible agrees with modern day revelation on this subject:  “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?  If any man defile the temple of God (sin), HIM SHALL GOD DESTROY; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.”  I Cor 3:16-17

Paul talks about the two resurrections and informs us that one will bring “corruption” and the other “life everlasting”: “For every man shall bear his own burden…Be not deceived; God is not mocked:  for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.  For he that soweth to his flesh shall OF THE FLESH REAP CORRUPTION; (the resurrection of KRISIS or rebirth in mortality) but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting (or the resurrection of life).” Gal 6:5-8

The word “corruption” here comes from the Greek PHTHORA which is derived from PHTHEIRO the same word that is used when Paul said that God shall “destroy” the defiled temples.  PHTHORA indicates a state of “decay”.

Thus Paul is simply telling us over and over that if our mind is centered on carnal things we will not put on immortality but reap corruption, decay, and eventually have our bodies destroyed.  How else can this scripture be fulfilled unless we are born again and put  on mortality instead of immortality?  How can we “of the flesh  reap corruption” in the telestial kingdom if the inhabitants are all immortal and there is no corruption or decay?

How do we escape the resurrection of KRISIS? “He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life (the resurrection of life), AND SHALL NOT COME INTO CONDEMNATION (“Condemnation” comes from KRISIS and means the resurrection of correction):  but is passed from death to life.” John 5:24

CONCLUSION:  The scriptures plainly tell us that there are two resurrections.  In the resurrection of life we put on immortality, but still have the free will to choose death.  In the resurrection of KRISIS we  will continue to live in a mortal state where our bodies are subjected to decay and destruction.

Copyright by J J Dewey

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Strange Doctrine

This entry is part 1 of 62 in the series 2010

Posted June 16, 2010
Duke asks:
And what do you make of the alleged revelation that initiated all of this? It’s an interesting document. For a while I thought Brigham had manufactured it because the tone is so different, but far as I can tell the historical evidence doesn’t support that hypothesis.

JJ
The story is that Emma was so enraged with the revelation of plural marriage that she burned the written revelation. Interestingly there are conflicting accounts on this. One says that Joseph asked her to burn it. Another says they burned it together and still another says that Joseph burned it himself because he thought the principle would be misused and destroy the church.

It is said the Joseph’s scribe William Clayton preserved a copy of the revelation, but others say there was no copy and it was reconstructed from memory.

It didn’t surface again until Brigham Young published it in Salt Lake City in 1852, 8 years after Joseph’s death.

Unfortunately we do not have access to the original copy of the revelation. The chances are very high that it was worded somewhat different than the published text we have today.

There is a lot of evidence that Joseph was conflicted over the principle. Here is what I think happened.

Shortly after he started the church with a goal to “restore all things” he read about the numerous polygamists in the Old Testament – those men considered great prophets such as Abraham, Isaac Jacob, Moses, David Solomon and others.

He wondered if there was some type of principle around this that needed to be restored. He sought a revelation and seemed to get a few things around it but wasn’t satisfied with what he received. Something seemed to be missing.

Then within a short time he found that there were many attractive females who adored him and as he became friends and eventually close to a number of them the idea of plural marriage became much more attractive and he began to ask himself where the boundaries were. Did the old prophets get the wife’s permission? Could they take any woman they considered attractive? Was anything permissible if all were in agreement and there was no betrayal?

I’m sure Joseph considered this statement by Jesus:
“And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.” Matt 8:11

If polygamists such as Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, were in the kingdom of heaven then why couldn’t he, a prophet in his own age, also take extra wives and yet also enter the kingdom?

This thought lowered his normally high defenses and the more he became attracted to certain females the more he felt obligated to create a doctrine in his mind to make plural relationships acceptable to his conscience.

He finally concluded that he would be innocent of sin if he merely followed in the footsteps of the ancient prophets. He then had several women sealed to him and had sex with them.

This caused a euphoria on one hand and a consternation on the other that he had betrayed his wife. He felt at first that he would not need his wife’s permission but then concluded it was wrong to do it without it. This realization causes him later on to attempt to get Emma’s cooperation. He had sex wit some females but nothing like is imagined by his enemies for he was very conflicted about where the line of right and wrong was in the matter. This is why DNA tests have not found a child fathered by him outside of Emma.

This whole thing opened a Pandora’s box that he did not anticipate. Word of his activities leaked out to church leaders and they wanted an explanation.

He couldn’t just tell then that he was experimenting, trying to find the principle behind the whole thing so he had to formulate a doctrine around it and explain it as part of a “new and everlasting covenant”.

Immediate almost everyone wanted in on the deal.

Now Joseph was planning on keeping the whole idea private until he had clearly formulated what was right and wrong but now he was forced to present it to his inner circle as one of those mysteries for which the world was not ready.

As time passed and he saw how his brethren were misusing the principle – using it for gratification and unjust authority – he tried to refine the principle. Any revisions did not seem to have a positive effect. In addition he and his brethren were forced to lie to save the church from possible destruction. This gnawed at his soul. Finally, shortly before his death he concluded that there was something inspired about multiple relationships but multiple sex partners overall was destructive to the spirit of the church and needed to be stopped.

He then made the statement that after the Nauvoo temple was completed that he was going to set the church in order.

Unfortunately, he was killed before the temple was finished.

It is thought in some circles that some church leaders who wanted polygamy to continue without restrictions were in on a plot to kill Joseph because they knew he planned to virtually eliminate or drastically curtail the practice.

It is interesting as to how much mystery there is behind the life of Joseph Smith when compared to other famous men in his time.
Copyright 2010 by J J Dewey