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 ^A^^^O PREFACE.
— —
The author's name is withheld not for fear for the
love of God casteth out all fear; nor for shame, for there
is nothing to be ashamed of; but that attention might not
be diverted from the booklet to the author. Never mind
the author; he is nothing; the truth is everything. And
in the language of Moroni, I would "exhojt^ you that you
would ask God the eternal Father, in the^iame of Christ,
if these things are not true, and if ye shall ask with a

sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, He

will manifest the truth of it unto you by the power of the
Holy Ghost." (Moroni 10:4.)
Note this promise "And blessed are they who shall
:

seek to bring forth My Zion at that day, for they shall

have the gift and power of the Holy Ghost." (I. Nephi
13:37.) "Zion is the pure in heart," "no poor among
them." The Lord never said "Follow Peter," but He
said, "I will send you the Comforter, which shall guide
you into all truth, and it will show you things to come." It
is the only sure guide. The Lord says, "Satan goeth forth
to deceive the nations." But speaking of the ten virgins He
says "they that are wise, and have received the truth,
:

and have taken the Holy Spirit for their guide, and have
not been deceived; verily I say unto you, they shall not
be hewn down and cast into the fire, but shall abide the
day. (Doctrine and Covenants, Section 45:57.)
The author is not writing for money, nor the honors
of men, but with a sincere desire to establish faith in the
—
hearts of the Saints not faith in Germany nor France,
nor Paris, nor Wall Street, nor Babylon but faith in God,
;

— — —
and His word His Zion the Pure in Heart the Order
of Enoch — —
the love of each other in Christ Jesus to the
salvation of souls, to which may we all be dedicated.
An apology for the disilatory and disconnected na-
ture of these writings may be offered with the statement
that in the beginning there was no thought of publish-
ing, but the writer had formed a habit of committing his
reflections on the signs of the times to writing, while
others slumbered and slept. This booklet is a compila-
tion of these thoughts on various subjects at various
times and circumstances, interrupted by the toils of the
day, and we trust will account for many imperfections.

THE AUTHOR

218914
B«:r»»*^'"
PROVO. UTAH
 Yes, say what is truth, 'tis the highest prize to
which Mortals or Gods can aspire.

THOUGHTS ON THE GODHEAD.

Opponents to Mormonism say that the first articles
of faith proves Joseph Smith to be a false prophet. They
say that fatherhood is the result of a cause, and therefore,
—
cannot be eternal that fatherhood is based upon con-
ception, and must have a beginning.
We believe in God, the eternal Father, is therefore,
an absurdity. They reason thus: "No prophet ever
taught an absurdity. Joseph Smith taught this absurd-
ity; therefore he was not a Prophet." On the surface
this appears to be good logic but let us dig a little
;

deeper. Jesus spoke of eternal mansions in the heavens

prepared for those who love Him and keep His command-
ments. These mansions are the result of a cause, predi-
cated upon their creation and therefore must have a be-
ginning, and cannot be eternal. He also spoke of eternal
salvation and eternal damnation, which in individual
cases must have a beginning. Therefore, if Joseph Smith
was a false prophet for the expression of eternal Father,
then Jesus Christ must necessarily be a false prophet
for using the same expression. But it is evident that
Jesus meant the idea, or principle, was eternal and not
each individual case. The Latter-day Saints believe and
teach that as God now is, man may become, and that as
man now is God once was. That is, that God and man are
of the same race and species in different degrees of devel-
opment. Being sons of God, we expect, on natural prin-
ciples, to become like Him some time by the observance
of the laws of life. If God our Heavenly Father was once
a man as we now are, it is but reasonable to suppose that
He believed as we do, that His father was once a man
like Himself. This doctrine is as eternal as time and
space, otherwise God must have created Himself, which
would have been a bigger absurdity.
God says there is *'no space where there is no king-
doms," and they are so numerous "they cannot be num-
bered;" if they could be numbered there would be a limit
to the Gods and their control. It is self-evident there is
no limit to time and space. It is hard to conceive, but
4 GOSPEL PROBLEMS
it is impossible to imagine otherwise. It is the basic
foundation of all truth and reason. To dispute it is in-
sanity. We cannot conceive of anything having but one
end. If it has a beginning it must have an end; two
—
ends self creator, is an absurdity; therefore, the prin-
ciple of eternal fatherhood is eternal and tends to prove
that Joseph Smith was a true prophet.
In Church History, Volume 6, Page 476, we
read: 'T want to reason a little on this sub-
ject. I learned it by translating the papyrus
which is now in my house. I learned a testi-
mony concerning Abraham, and he reasoned concern-
ing the God of Heaven." "In order to do that," said he,
"suppose we have two facts, that supposes another fact
—
may exist two men on the earth, one wiser than the
other would logically show that another who is wiser
than the wisest may exist. Intelligence exist one above
another, so that there is no end to them." If Abraham
reasoned thus, if Jesus Christ was the son of God and
John discovered that God the father of Jesus Christ HAD
A FATHER, YOU MAY SUPPOSE THAT HE HAD
A FATHER ALSO. Where was there ever a son with-
out a father; and where was there ever a father without
first being a son. Wherever did a tree or anything spring
into existence without a progenitor? and everything
comes this way. Paul says that which is earthly is in
the likeness of that which is heavenly. Hence if Jesus
had a Father, can we not believe that He had a father
also? I despise the idea of being scared to death at such
a doctrine, for the Bible is full of it."
This shows that Jesus Christ had not only a father,
but grandfather, and a great grandfather. Common sense
would show us that He has as many grandfathers as we
have. This idea is in perfect harmony with the scripture,
and reason, that there are many Gods, but to us there is
but one God. That is, while there are many Gods there
is but one to whom we look to for guidance, the one hav-
ing charge of the earth or planet on which we live. There
are many Presidents and Bishops, but to us there is but
—
one Bishop the one presiding over our ward. The
many Bishops in the church do not signify any confu-
sion or conflict of authority. It matters not how many
Presidents of stakes and Bishops are in the Church.
 ;

PROBLEMS OF THE AGE 5

They tend to their own business, in harmony with the

presiding President of the church. And even the presid-
ing President is subject to the voice of the people earthly
;

and Church governments are but a type of heavenly

things.

The Prophet Daniel says, in Chapter 12:1. "And

at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince
which standeth for the children of thy people and there
;

shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there

was a nation even to that same time and at that same
;

time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall

be found written in the book. Also Chapter 10:21.^ *'But
I will show thee that which is noted in the scripture of
truth; and there is none that holdeth with me in these
things, but Michael your prince." Also Chapter 7:9, 10:
"I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the
Ancient of days did sit, whose garments were white as
snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool His ;

throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burn-
ing fire. 10. Afiery stream issued and came forth from
before him thousand thousands ministered unto him,
;

and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him

the judgment was set, and the books were opened."
We read in Book of Doctrine and Covenant 7S, Sec-
tion 5, 16: "Who hath appointed Michael your prince,
and established his feet, and set him upon high, and
given unto him the keys of salvation under the counsel
and direction of the Holy One, who is without beginning
of days or end of life."
This indicates that Adam is our God, holding the
keys of our salvation under the council and direction of
the Holy One, just as a Bishop governs in his ward under
the council and direction of his president.
Brigham Young taught this doctrine and said Adam
was the only God with whom we have anything to do,
just as our Bishop is the only one with whom we have
direct dealings. He was once what man now is.
If Adam is not the God of this world, what is he the
God of? If this is not his kingdom, which and what is
his kingdom? If God is an exalted man and once was
what we now are, what is the objection to Adam being
6 GOSPEL PROBLEMS/'^
—
our God our Father in Heaven, or Mislfather being our
Grandfather in Heaven, and His Grarfofather being our
Great Grandfather in Heaven, and etc. v\^ith no end to
intelligence one above the other." This was the doctrine
of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young and why should it
not be the doctrine of the church now?
Through faithfulness we may become wTiar ne now
is. We understand that this doctrine has been repudiated
by the present living oracles as merely the doctrine of
Brigham Young. We are told that the living oracles
take precedence over all other authority, living or dead.
We agree that the living oracles take precedence, pro-
vided they do not conflict with the dead oracles, "To the
law and the testimony if they speak not according to this
word it is because there is no light in them" (Isaiah 8).
If it is true that the living oracles take precedence over
all others regardless of their disagreements with the
dead prophets, then the saints must necessarily change
their faith every time there is a change in the presidency
to conform to the views of the new president. Wemust
believe in Adam-God so long as Brigham Young lives,
but so soon as a President arises differing with Brigham,
we must disbelieve in this doctrine and adopt the views
of the new oracles. The mention of such an attitude is
so absurd as to border upon the ridiculous.
It is evident that former living oracles believed the
one "Mighty and Strong to set the church in order and
allot the inheritance to the Saints was yet future, as evi-
denced by foot notes to the 85 Section of Doctrine and
Covenants. Also Journal of Discourses, Volume 21, Page
150-4. Indeed before we can go back to inherit the land
in all its fullness and perfection, God has promised that
He would raise up a man like unto Moses. * * * Yes
God will assuredly raise up a man like unto Moses, and
redeem His people with an outstretched arm, as the
fathers were redeemed at the first." * * * This you
will find recorded in the Doctrine and Covenant and in
the same book it is predicted there is to be one Mighty
and Strong, as well as to be an immortal personage. One
that is clothed upon with light as with a fountain, one
whose bowels are a fountain of truth, His mission to al-
lot their inheritance acceding to their faithfulness."
;

son Pratt. But the present living oracles repudiate this

—
Or-
 PROBLEMS OF THE AGE 7

idea, and affirm ''authoritatively" that this revelltion

never was and never will be fulfilled, but is obsolete. The
next set of oracles may take a still different view. Must
the Saints change with them? If the living oracles were
guaranteed to be infallible the Saints would be sa|g*-ifr
following their lead without question. No man -^-tt^tever
lived on the earth from Adam to Joseph Smith has been
so guaranteed against sin and error. For this reason God
has given His saints their free agency and said that all
things should be done by common consent, by the voice
and vote of the people. (Section 26.) The people would
be safe in following the Lord's annointed, Saul and David
and Solomon, as long as they kept right, but when they
went wrong the people who followed them went wrong.
King Noah was duly appointed and anointed king by a
godly father, but he went wrong, and most of the people
went wrong with him. Abinadi stood out against him
and was burned to death. Alma would have suffered a
like fate, but he escaped. By hiding, and secret teach-
ing, he obtained a few followers, and after establishing
a church, instructed them ''to trust no one to be their
teacher,nor their minister, expect he be a man of God,
walking in his ways, and keeping his commandrtients."
Mosiah 23, 14.
It may
be objected that we are told to pray to the
Father in the name of Jesus, and that this is incompat-
able with the doctrine of Adam-God. Not so. We may
petition our Government in the name of the United States
or the President, and if we have a perfect mailing sys-
tem, the petition will find its proper place. The letters
will be sifted and sorted, and sent to the department hav-
ing jurisdiction of the subject matter, whether it be the
city or town, county, state or United States department.
The President cannot see to all the business of the na-
tion, any more than the President of the Church can
see to all Church matters, or our God to all the afifairs
of the Universe.
Our complaints and petitions are usually presented
to our teachers and they take them to our Bishop, and
if too much for him he counsels with the Stake President,

and he in turn to the President of the Church, if neces-

sary, and the President of the Church may submit it to
his counsellors.
8 GOSPEL PROBLEMS
Our guardian
angels are our teachers and custodians
of our prayers petitions, and through the medium of
and
the Holy Ghost, or by person, will doubtless see that
those petitions go to the proper department, whether
it be the Adam-Michael, the God of this world or Adam's

Father, the God of many worlds, or Adam's Grandfather,

or the God of the Universe, or the Council of the Gods,
according to the import and magnitude of the petition.
As Adam holds the keys of our salvation under the
—
council and direction of a still higher one intelligence
one above another without end. And any and all of
these Gods have once been as man now is, and conse-
quently "know the weakness of man, and how to succor
them who are tempted." Doctrine and Covenants, Section
62:1.

"We believe the Bible to be the word of God as

far as it translated correctly.
is We
also believe the
Book of Mormon to be the word of God." And we
believe it to be translated correctly.

BOOK OF MORMON.
David Whitmer and Oliver Cowdery both testified
that Joseph Smith read the words of the Book of Mor-
mon to them from a parchment, while they wrote them
down and that the words would not give way for other
words to appear until they were correctly written. While
Joseph Smith is not known to have corroborated this
statement he was never known to have denied or cor-
rected it, as doubtless he would have done had it been
false. Who would be more likely to know about the man-
ner of translating the Book of Mormon than the scribes
who wrote it? and if their testimony in this matter is
false what dependence can we put in the testimony of
these same witnesses as recorded with Martin Harris on
the fly leaf of the Book of Mormon. If they would testify
falsely in the one case why not in the other?
Joseph Smith the translator wrote in our Articles
of Faith, "We believe the Bible to be the world of God
as far as it is translated correctly, and we also believe
the Book of Mormon to be the word of God." If the
translator only got the ideas, and had to think it out,
 PROBLEMS OF THE ACxE 9

and supply the words out of his own languageaccord-

ing to his education, then it maynot be translated cor-
rectly, and is no more reliable than the Bible. The whole
church has always believed and accepted the perfect
translation of the Book of Mormon until of late years
the leaders, the living oracles, have endeavored to satisfy
the unbelievers by laying the imperfections of the Book
of Mormon to the ignorance of the translator, that the
Book would have read differently if translated by an edu-
cated man, and this imputation upon this sacred book is
sanctioned and put forth as a fact to the Saints and taught
to their children. If we are at liberty to change the
grammar and rhetoric of the Book on account of the illit-
eracy of the translator, where will it end? If the gram-
mar is defective for lack of inspiration why is not the
rhetoric, and the logic, and the facts, and figures subject
to the same imputation? In fact the whole book?
Some will criticise this, and want it changed, and
others will criticise that, and insist that it read differ-
ently, to conform to their particular notions and pretty
;

soon there is as many doctrines and notions picked out

of this sacred volume as is picked out of the Bible. Ac-
cording to this idea the Lord might have done better to
have had the translation done by Prof. Charles Anthon
of New York. But the learned linguist said he could
not read a sealed book, and Joseph said, "I am not
learned" So the L^rd said, 'T am able to do my own
work," and no douK He was able to do it just right;
just as He wanted it to be done, and it is
dangerous for
us weak mortals to take the responsibility of changing
it, or even apologizing for it. The Lord would no doubt
say, *T have written what I have written." When Moroni
expressed a fear that the Gentiles would mock at the
words of the book, the Lord answered, "Fools mock,
but they shall mourn, but my grace shall be sufficient
for the meek that they shall not take advantage of your
weakness." But according to this modern idea of the
translation the Lord might better have answered, "Never
fear, Moroni, for I will have an educated translator to
put your imperfect language into classic English, or ex-
plain to the mocking Gentiles that the responsibility of
the imperfections rest upon the ignorance of the trans-
lator, thus relieving Moroni of any responsibility.
10 GOSPEL PROBLEMS
If Joseph Smith was thinking it out and using his
own language why does the language of the Book of
Mormon differ from the language of anything else he
ever wrote ? It does not even resemble the Book of Doc-
trine and Covenants. Again, if he was at liberty to use
his own language, and was actually doing so, of what
I
consequence would the loss, or theft of the 116 pages of
manuscript amount to? If he was not translating liter-
ally it would be no trap to insnare the translator, as the

Lord indicated in Sections 3 and 10, Doctrine and Cov-

enants. If he was not pretending to translate verbatim
the loss would be of little or no consequence.
Again, if he was not making a literal translation
what sense was there in sending Martin Harris with a
sample translation to Prof. Anthon of New York for a
learned opinion. Would the joke be on Martin Harris,
Prof. Anthon, or Joseph Smith?
How can the supplying of the names of men, cities,
rivers, valleys, mountains and plains be accounted for
under this new theory of the translation of the Book of
Mormon? Did the translator think out these names?
How did he think out the number of the armies? The
numbers slain on each side, the names of their coins
and measures and weights? By what powers of mental
efforts could he do this? Let anyone try it, and though
he sweat blood he cannot do it. Are we to suppose that
he conjured all these names and numbers, just as the
novelists do, and allow the Bood' of Mormon is a work
of fiction as its enemies say it is? If the translation was
influenced by the language of western New York, as
Mr. Roberts indicates in his ''New Witness for God,"
would he make such profuse use of the expression, "And
it came to pass" —was that an expression of western New
York? In Second Nephi, 5:21, we read that the Lord
caused a "skin of blackness" to come upon them (the La-
manites). Would the translator have used the word
"blackness" when the Lamanites are everywhere spoken
of as the Red Men? Did he think out the chapters of
Isaiah that are in the Book of Mormon or did he copy
them from the Bible as unbelievers say he did.
David Whitmer relates an incident when in conse-
quence of some family troubles Joseph was unable to pro-
ceed with the translation until after he had spent some
 PROBLEMS OF THE AGE 11

time in secret prayer and asked his wife's forgiveness,

and Mr. Roberts refers to this as evidence of the correct-
ness of his theory of the translation. But is it not rather
against his theory than for it? If in consequence of
wrongdoing he was unable to think out the translation,
was it that his mind was so stupified that he could not
think at all, or only indifferently? Evidently he could
think to pray, and ask his wife's forgiveness, so he could
surely think to translate to some degree only imper-
fectly. But the fact that he could not translate at all is
conformatory of Cowdery's and Whitmer's story of the
translation— reading from the parchment. This theory
is also confirmed by the story of Martin Harris substi-
tuting a bogus stone for the true sear stone. Joseph
said: ''What is the matter, Martin? All is dark." That
is, the translation in English did not appear, and he was

unable to read while Martin wrote. This brings up the

question, why should a scribe be so necessary, especially
an unskilled long hand writer, if the translator was just
thinking out the language? He could just as well do his
own writing, as we all do 'in long hand. Yet it appears
he could not proceed without a scribe, though ever so un-
skilled, as his wife, Martin Harris and David Whitmer.
This is strong proof of the testimony of these witnesses
as to the manner of translating.
If Joseph was to translate in the manner indicated
to Oliver Cowdery in the ninth section ofDoctrine and
Covenants, as intimated by the author of "New Witness
for God," then he would write a paragraph or chapter,
giving names, dates, and numbers, and then ask the Lord
if it was right and determine its correctness by the burn-

ing in his bosom. Excuse us if we seem to ridicule, but

what other conclusion can we glean from such a theory?
If Joseph got the ideas only from the Lord, and used
his own language, he should write in the second or third
person instead of the first person. Why should he start
out with 'T, Nephi, being born of goodly parents," and
by what authority does he put these words into the
Lord's mouth? "Behold, I am Jesus Christ, whom the
Prophets testified should come into the world." (3 Ne-
phi, 11:10.) Is it not presumptuous to say the least?
The more we look into this question the more confident
are we that the Book of Mormon is the word of God,
12 GOSPEL PROBLEMS
without qualification or reservation. We
believe it is
translated correctly, imperfections and all, as in the or-
iginal. Let us examine a few -quotations. Mormon,
chapter 9, "Behold, I speak unto you as though I spake
from the dead for I know that ye shall hear my voice."
;

Verse 31 : "Condemn me not because of mine imperfec-

tions; neither my father, because of his imperfection,
neither them who have written before him, but rather
give thanks unto God that he hath made manifest unto
you our imperfections, that ye may learn to be more
wise than we have been." Also Moroni 8:12: "And whoso
receiveth this record, and shall not condemn it because
of the imperfections which are in it, the same shall know
of greater thaings than these. Behold, I am Moroni,
and were it possible I would make all things known unto
you." II Nephi, 27, 20, 22, 24 verses: "Then shall the
Lord God say unto him, the learned shall not read them,
for they have rejected them, and I am able to do mine
own work wherefore thou shalt read the words which I
;

shall give unto them. Wherefor when thou hast read the
words which I have commanded thee, and obtained the
witnesses which I have promised thee, then shalt thou
seal up the book again and hide it up unto me, that I
may preserve the words which thou hast not read, until
I shall see fi tin mine own wisdom to reveal all things
unto the children of men. And again it shall come to
pass that the Lord shall say unto him that shall read
the words that shall be delivered him." II Nephi, Chap-
ter 3 : 19, 20, 21 "And the words which he shall write
:

shall be the words which are expedient in my wisdom

should go forth unto the fruit of thy loins. And it shall
be as if the fruit of thy loins had cried unto them from
the dust for I know their faith. * * * j^ shall come to
pass that their cry shall go even according to the simplic-
ity of their word. * * * The weakness of their words will
I make strong in my faith."
Ether, 12: 25, 26: "Thou hast also made our words
powerful and great even that we cannot write them ;

wherefore, when we write we behold our weakness and

stumble because of the placing of our words; and fear
lest the Gentiles shall mock at our words."
"And when I had said this, the Lord spake unto me,
saying, fools mock, but they shall mourn; and my grace
 PROBLEMS OF THE AGE 13

is sufficient for the meek, and they shall take no advan-

tage of thy weakness."
If the weaknesses of these original writers were not
to be transmitted in the translation into English there
would be no grounds for Moroni's fears, nor point to the
Lord's reply. A true translation will carry the merits
and demerits of the original. Otherwise there would be
no propriety in translating the great authors from one
language to another that is, a good and true translation
;

will certainly show the difference between a classical

construction of literature and an awkward construction.
To attribute the imperfections of these original writers
of the Book of Mormon to the illiteracy of the translators
is but one step towards apostacy. It means, we also be-
lieve the Book of Mormon to be the word of God as far
as it is translated correctly.
The greatest objection the opponents to the literal
translation of the Book of Mormon is that it makes a
"mere machine" out of the translator but let any of these
;

objectors attempt to translate anything if he knows but

one language and he will at once see the necessity of be-
ing some kind of a machine, and that, too, in the hands of
a more expert manipulator than any mortal machinist
we have any knowledge of. If such a linguist is in doubt
let —
him try it, and he will soon be convinced convinced
that any person with no language but his native tongue
has no foundation upon which to begin to think into, or
out of, another language. Is it such a terrible handicap,
or disgrace, or calamity, to be a "mere machine," "fear-
fully and wonderfully made," in the hands of the Lord?
If so, it must be a calamity to be "clay in the hands of
the potter." If the history and teachings of the Nephites
were not to have a literal translation, why worry about
ore to make plates, and the awkwardness of writing on
these plates, and why their anxiety and prayers that they
might be preserved and handed down from generation
to generation together with the interpreters for the pur-
pose of translating if the translator was not to translate
at all, but a panoramic A'iew. or moving picture, incanta-
tion or pantomime, and then think it out in his own
language ?
 14 GOSPEL PROBLEMS
Some years ago a theory was published in the Y. M.
M. L A. Manual that previous to the erruptions at the
time of the crucifixion, North and South America were
two long islands corresponding to the Andes and Rockies,
the great river valleys submerged and unconnected by
the "narrow neck of land ;" but later acknowledged to be
an error, and recinded. But such an error is infinitesimal
compared with any theory that mitigates against the full
literal translation and Divine Authenticity of the Book
of Mormon.
2 Nephi, 27 :20. "Then shall the Lord God say unto
him, the learned shall not read them, for they have re-
jected them, and I am able to do mine own work; there-
fore thou shalt read the words which thou shalt give
unto thee." Also 24th verse. Here the Lord says posi-
tively that Joseph shall read the words that shall be given
to him to read; and Oliver and David both testify that
he did read the words to them and they wrote them
down as they appear in the Book of Mormon, and their
testimony was never questioned until recently.. Roberts
with an overweaning anxiety to pacify those that mock
at the words of the Book of Mormon invents this new
theory of its translation by the Prophet thinking out the
words, and making a bad job of it for the want of edu-
cation. Now how does this explanation or apology cor-
respond with the Lord's answer, "Fools shall mock but
they shall mourn." Can we hope to convert these scof-
fing, mocking Gentiles by such flimsy apologies? The
Lord says, My grace shall be sufficient to the meek that
they shall not take advantage of your weakness." Not
Joseph Smith's weakness, either, but their own weakness,
transmitted into English by a literal truthful transla-
tion word for word as nearly as any translation can be
made to read. Would to God we could all be machines
in the hands of the Lord, or clay instead of glass or cast
iron.
If Joseph Smith was just thinking out the language
of the Book of Mormon, how is it that he thought out
the number of slain in some battles, and in others said
they were so numerous they were not numbered? Is
the omission of the number owing to ignorance, indolence
or indifference? Did Joseph just think the former in-
 PROBLEMS OF THE AGE 15

habitants had horses on this continent; if so, how did he

come to think so?
How could he think they had cureloms and
cumoms. How could he think out these strange animals
and these strange names.

Who's on the Lord's side, who,? Now is the time

to show. We ask it fearlessly, who's on the Lord's side,
who?

BOOK OF MORMON PROPHESIES.

Of late years our leading brethren are frequently
quoting the passages in the Book of Mormon that are
favorable to this Gentile nation, which is proper as far
as it goes. But why not quote it all, for and against?
Are we so anxious to please and obtain the honors of
men that we cannot give them the whole truth? We
are watchmen upon the towers, and are commanded to
warn the wicked of their wickedness and call them to
repentance, and the Lord warns us in Ezekiel, 33 Chapter
that if we fail to give the warning they shall die in their
sins, but their blood shall be upon our hands. Think
of the responsibility.
It is gratifying to read in Nephi I, 13th Chapter, 12th
V^erse of Columbus being wrought upon by the spirit of
God to discover America, and to read its confirmation in
history as recorded by the gifted author Washington
Irving in his life of Columbus.
*Tn the latter part of his life, when, impressed with
the sublime events brought about through his agency,
Columbus looked back upon his career with a solemn
and superstitutious feeling, he attributed his early and
irresistible inclination to the sea, and his passion for geo-
graphical studies, from an impulse from the Diety, pre-
paring him for the high decrees he was chosen to ac-
complish.
''He never spoke in doubt or hesitation, but with as
much certainty as if his eyes had beheld the promised
land. No trial or disappointment could divert him from
the steady pursuit of his object. A deep religious sen-
timent mingled with his meditations, and gave them at
times a tinge of superstition, but it was of a sublime and
16 GOSPEL PROBLEMS
lofty kind ; he looked upon himself as standing in the hand
of heaven, chosen from among man for the accomplish-
ment of its high purpose he read as he supposed, his con-
;

templated discovery foretold in Holy Writ, and shadow^ed

forth darkly in the mystic revelations of the prophets.
*'The ends of the earth v^ere to be brought together, and
allnations and tongues and languages united under the
banner of the Redeemer. The enthusiastic nature of his
conceptions gave an elevation to his spirit, and a dignity
and loftiness to his whole demeanor. He conferred with
sovereigns almost with the feeling of equality. His views
were princely and unbounded." * * *
And on the return voyage "In this hour
of darkness and peril, the crew again called upon
the aid of heaven. A lot was cast for the per-
formance of a barefooted pilgrimage to the shrine of
Santa Maria de la Ceuva in Huelva, and, as usual, the
lot fell upon Columbus. There was something singular
in the recurrence of this circumstance. Las Casas de-
voutly considered it as an intimation from the Deity to
the Admiral that these storms were all on his account, to
humble his pride, and prevent his arrogating to himself
the glory of a discovery which was the work of God, and
for which he had merely been chosen as an instrument."
It is inspiring to be assured this constant response
to his mutinous sailors, "Sail On, Sail On, Sail On" was
inspired of the Lord.
good to read in II Nephi, 10th Chapter that the
It is
Lord will bless the Gentiles upon this land. Verse IL
"And this land shall be a land of liberty unto the Gentiles,
and there shall be no kings upon the land, who shall raise
;"
up unto the Gentiles
"And I will fortify this land against all other na-
tions."
But why not go on and quote further:
14. For he that raiseth up a king against me shall
perish, for I, the Lord the king of heaven, will be their
king, and I will be a light unto them forever, that hear
my words.
15. Wherefore, for this cause, that my covenants be
fulfilled which I have made unto the children of men,
that I will do unto them while they are in the flesh, I
 PROBLEMS OF THE AGE 17

must needs destroy the secret works of darkness, and of

murders, and of abominations ;

16. Wherefore, he that fighteth against Zion, both

Jew and Gentile, both bond and free, both male and fe-
male, shall perish; for they are they who are the whore
of all the earth; for they who are not for me are against
me, saith our God.
Jesus gives a perfect description of this nation in 3rd
Nephi 16, 10.
*'And thus commandeth the Father that I should say
unto you at that day when the Gentiles shall sin against
my gospel, and shall be lifted up in the pride of their
hearts above all nations, and above all the peoples of the
whole earth, and shall be filled with all manner of lyings,
and of deceits, and of mischiefs, and all manner of hypoc-
risy, and murders, and prtestcrafts, and whoredoms, and
of secret abominations; and if they shall do all those
things, and shall reject the fulness of my
gospel, behold,
saith the Father, I will bring the fulness of my gospel
from among them ;"

The results of this war has lifted this nation to the

very topmost pinnacle of pride, even above all the nations
of the whole earth. Some insist that the Gentiles have
repented because they have quit persecuting us, but why
have they quit? Is it not that we have surrendered the
objectionable principles, and joined with them heart and
soul in their financial policies, in their politics and social
life? What grounds have they for persecuting us after
unconditional surrender? Have they rendered the repent-
ance that is required and commanded in 3rd Xephi, 30
Chapter?
''Hearken, O ye Gentiles, and hear the words of Jesus
Christ, the Son of the living God, which he hath com-
manded me that I should speak concerning you, for, be-
hold he commandeth me that I should write saying.
Turn, all ye Gentiles from your wncked ways and
repent of your evil doings, of your lyings and deceivings,
and of your whoredoms, and of your secret abominations,
and your idolatries, and of your murders, and your priest-
crafts, and your envyings, and your strifes, and from all
your wickedness and abominations, and come unto me,
and be baptized in my name, that ye may receive a remis-
sion of your sins, and be filled with the Holy Ghost,
 ;

18 GOSPEL PROBLEMS
that ye may be numbered with my people, who are of the
house of Israel."
We
all know they are not disposed to render obedi-
ence to this commandment, but ridicule the very idea of
being baptized into the Mormon Church. They gladly
join us in finance, politics and social pleasures, so long as
we keep quiet on our_ religion. They have no use for
the Book of Mormon, or Joseph Smith, and yet it is the
only repentance acceptable to the Lord. The status of
this nation before the Lord is graphically portrayed in
Mormon, 8th Chapter, commencing at the 34th verse.
"Behold the Lord hath shown unto me great and
marvelous things, concerning that which must shortly
come at that day when these things shall come forth
among you.
Behold, I speak unto you as if ye were present, and
yet ye are not. But behold, Jesus Christ hath shown you
unto me, and I know your doing;
And I know that ye do walk in the pride of your
hearts and there are none, save a few only, who do not
;

lift themselves up in the pride of their hearts, unto the

wearing of very fine apparel, unto envying, and strifes,
and malice, and persecutions, and all manner of iniqui-
ties ;and your churches, yea, even every one, have be-
come polluted because of the pride of your hearts.
For behold, ye do love money, and your substances,
and your fine apparel, and the adorning of your churches,
more than ye love the poor and the needy, the sick and
the afflicted.
O, ye pollutions, ye hypocrites, ye teachers, who sell
yourselves for that which will canker, why have ye pol-
luted the holy church of God? Why are ye ashamed to
take upon you the name of Christ? Why do you not
think that greater is the value of an endless happiness
than that misery which never dies, because of the praise
of the world?
Whydo ye adorn yourselves witk that which hath
no life, and yet suffer the hungry, and the needy, and
the naked, and the sick, and the afflicted to pass by you,
and notice them not?
Yea, why do you build up your secret abominations
to get gain, and cause that widows should mourn before
the Lord, and also orphans to mourn before the Lord
 ; ; ;

PROBLEMS OF THE AGE 19

and also the blood of their fathers and their husbands to

cry unto the Lord from the ground, for vengeance upon
your heads?
Behold, the sword of vengeance hangeth over you;
and the time soon cometh that he avengeth the blood of
the saints upon you, for he will not suffer their cries any
longer."
Is this a true or false indictment? Are we doing
justice to this nation and duty to ourselves when we
fail to proclaim these truths? Would it not be more fit-
ting to publish these scriptures, than to be so diligent in
publishing and circulating our attitude (?) on plural
marriage? Are we consistent in these things? Why not
publish this? Doctrine and Covenant, Section 45-26:
''And in that day shall be heard of wars and rumors
of wars, and the whole earth shall be in commotion, and
men's hearts shall fail them, and they shall say that
Christ delayeth his coming until the end of the earth.
And the love of men shall wax cold, and iniquity
shall abound
And when the times of the Gentiles is come in, a
light shall break forth among them that sit in darkness,
and it shall be the fullness of gospel. my
But they receive it not, for they perceive not the
light and they turn their hearts from me because of the
precepts of men
And generation shall the times of the Gentiles
in that
be fulfilled
And there shall be men standing in that generation,
that shall not pass, until they shall see an over-flowing
scourge for a desolating sickness shall cover the land
;
;

But my disciples shall stand in holy places, and shall

not be moved but among the wicked, men shall lift up
;

their voices, and curse God and die.

And there shall be earthquake also in divers places,
and many desolations yet men will harden their hearts
;

against me, and they will take up the sword one against
another, and they will kill one another."
How can we expect to escape this "scourge" and
"desolating sickness," when we open our theatres, pic-
ture shows and vaudevilles, and close our temples and
churches against Sacrament meetings, fast meetings, and
solemn assembly? Do we imagine the Lord is not look-
 :

20 GOSPEL PROBLEMS
ing on? Let us not think to deceive ourselves. The
Lord says, Revelation, 18th Chapter, 4th Verse, **Come
out of her my
people, that ye be not partakers of her sins,
and that ye receive not of her plagues." He further says
"Reward her even as she rewards you, and double unto
her double according to her works in the cup which she
hath filled to her double" She rewarded you with mob
law, and this retribution is coming just as fast as labor
and capital can mobolize their forces. But if our capital-
istic brethren continue to array themselves on the side
of the trusts and corporations, and our laboring brethren
on the side of the unions, how are we to escape. Let us
read on
"7. How
much she hath glorified herself and lived
deliciously so much torment and sorrow give her, for
she saith in her heart, I sit a queen and am no widow,
and shall see no sorrow.
8. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day,
death and mourning and famine, and she shall be utterly
burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges
her.
9. And the kings of the earth who have committed
fornication and lived deliciously with her. shall bewail
her, and lament for her when they shall see the smoke of
her burning.
10. Standing afar off for the fear of her torment,
saying alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty
city, for in one hour is thy judgment come.
IL And the merchants of the earth shall weep and
mourn over them for no man buyeth their merchandise
any more."
These scriptures are just as sure of fulfillment as the
one foretelling desolating sickness, and the one in 1st
Nephi, 22:13 foretelling the recent world war.
13. "And the blood of that great and abominable
church, which is the whore of all the earth, shall turn
upon their own heads; for they shall war among them-
selves, and the sword of their own hands shall fall upon
their own heads, and they shall be drunken with their
own blood."
 PROBLEMS OF THE AGE 1\

The fact that the central powers were the aggressors

and wicked and cruel, does not prove that the Lord was
wholly against them and on the side of the
allies. If it does the same reason would prove
that God was on the side of the Jews as against the
Babylonians under Nebuchazzer. The Babylonians were
just as aggresive and cruel as Germany. They slew all
the sons of King Zedekiah but one, and burned out his
eyes and yet God was not on the side of the Jews. The
Romans under Titus were equally aggresive and cruel in
the siege and destruction of Jerusalem. 70 A. D. And
yet God was not with the Jews. The Lamanites were
almost invariably the aggressors against the Nephites,
and yet the Lord was using them as a scourge to punish
the Nephites even though they fought for their liberty,
their homes and democracy. Even so the Lord seems
to be bumping the heads of the nations together as a
judgment for their wickedness. See II Nephi, 27-1.
"But behold, in the last days, or in the days of the
Gentiles, yea, behold all the nations of the Gentiles, and
also the Jews, both those who shall come upon this land,
and those who shall be upon other lands; yea, even upon
all the lands of the earth; behold, they will be drunken
with iniquity, and all manner of abominations."
If France and Italy and Belgium and Russia are
righteous and fighting on the side of Michael and his
angels against Satan and his angels how is it that the
gospel has met with more success in Germany than in
all these other nations combined?
Take one glance at the history of France in the St.
Bartholomews massacre, 10,000 lives in one night. Think
of the carnagfe and blood of the French Revolution and
the aggressive wars of Napoleon and her impurity and
ungodliness and how can we maintain that this great war
is not a judgment upon France and Belgium as well as
upon Germany?
The Lord said beginning with the rebellion of South
Carolina the nations should call upon eath other to defend
themselves against other nations until war should be
poured out upon all nations and the inhabitants of the
earth be made to feel the wrath and indignation and
chastening hand of an Almighty God until the consum-
mation decreed hath made a full end of all nations, agree-
 :

22 GOSPEL PROBLEMS
ing with Daniel II that the kingdoms of this world should
become as the chaff of the summer thrashing floor and no
l)lace found for them.

"O let not vain ambition, nor worldly glory stain

your minds so pure and holy; acquit yourselves like
men. * * * * Then cease from all light speeches,
lightmindedness and pride. Pray always without ceas-
ing and in the truth abide."

BRIGHAM YOUNG'S DISCOURSE AT LOGAN,

JUNE 27, 1873.
—
Let the old stock those who have lived in Babylon
and who have had their trials in this wicked world pass
away, let them be taken out of the midst of the Latter-
—
day Saints, and the young growth that know nothing of
the world be left to themselves, to follow the promptings
of their own wills, and what would be their condition?
VV(nild we not have all that the wicked world could de-
sire in our midst, and we delighting therein? Think of
this and draw your own conclusions. * * *
What will be the history of he nations now existing?
Just as fast as time and circumstances will permit they
will be blotted out of existence and will be forgotten and
known no more on the face of the earth. This would be
the fate of the Latter-day Saints if they were to persist
in following the inclinations of their own hearts: for ac-
cording to that which they now make manifest, pride,
arrogance and covetousness are increasing in their midst
and any people or nation that gives way to these evils
curtails the measure of its existence and will soon be
blotted out and will be known no^more for ever. Brigham
Young, Logan, June 27, 1873."
Brigham Young doubtless had the martyrdom of
Joseph and Hyrum in mind on that day, but there is no
evidence of bitterness. His observations show no partial-
ity as between Saints and Sinners. He warns Latter-day
Saints as well as Gentiles against the consequences of
wrong doing. He seemed to be inspired of the Lord, and
sensed the dangers ahead of the Saints. Almost half a
century has passed, and nearly all of those who passed
through the trials of Missouri and Illinois and the
troubles of emigration and colonizing of our mountain
 —

PROBLEMS OF THE AGE 23

home, have passed away apd the work of the Lord has
revolved upon a new generation, who know Httle or noth-
—
ing of these fiery ordeals, and what is the result? the
"condition." Have we not all that this "wicked world
desires in our midst, and we delighting therein? Think
of it, and form your own conclusions." Have we not all
the fashions of Paris here, and we delighting therein?
Have we not the principles and policies of Wall Street
trusts and corporations, and secret combinations, and we
delighting therein?
In the face of this overflowijig scourge, and desolat-
ing sickness that covers the land, were we not the first
to close our churches and temples, and open our theatres,
and vaudevilles, and movies? and the last to open our
churches? In the 44 years of intervening prosperity has
not "pride and arrogance and covetousness" continued to
increase with the tide of riches and dearth of persecu-
tion? And if we continue to give way to these evils,
what will be the results? The Lord says except He cut
His work short in righteousness there would be no flesh
saved. With our temples and churches closed and our
theatres and vaudevilles open, and our Elders and teach-
ers advised to keep out of the Flu stricken homes, is there
any wonder that the Savior with a prophetic eye on these
conditions should wonder if the Son of Man should find
faith in the earth at His coming?
Yes, but some pleasure lovers will say, Brigham
Young built the Salt Lake Theatre, and encouraged danc-
ing. True, but he only encouraged these things at the
right time, and the right conditions. Let us read from
Wilford Woodruff's Journal while crossing the plains in
search of new homes for God's people in the mountains
of Ephraim. * * *
President Woodruff's Journal, as recorded in his his-
tory, shows that President Young reproved the brethren
for playing cards, dominoes, quoits, checquers, and danc-
ing and singing while enroute on a sacred mission to lo-
cate a home for the Saints. Said he would not travel with
them or lead them if they did not repent and desist from
such conduct.
When the Lehi colony was being driven before the
wind on a voyage to the promised land Nophi reproved
his brethren for dancing, and singing, and frivolity on
such an occasion, and the Lord sustained him in that
24 GOSI'EL PROBLEMS
rebuke. And the Lord is the same yesterday, today and
forever.
We are living in perilous times. The Lord has said
come out of her my people that ye partake not of her sins,
nor receive of her plagues. Ye are the salt of the earth,
but if the salt hath lost its savor, of what use is it but to
be cast out and trodden under foot of men? If we put
ourselves on the same level with Babylon we will suffer
with Babylon. A body of water that sinks to the same
level with the ocean has neither potential nor kenetir
energy, but is subject to the same winds and waves and
tides, and has no inherent power. The Lord says in
Isaiah 26:20, 21, "Come my people, enter thou into thy
chambers and shut thy doors about thee hide thyself as
;

it were for a little moment until the indignation be over

past. 21 — For behold, the Lord cometh out of His place

to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity;
the earth also shall disclose its blood and no more cover
its slain." So far the world has covered its slain, though
it has run into many millions, but the time is coming
when there will be such slaughter that they will no more
cover their slain. So far it has been nation against nation,
but the time is coming when it will be every man's hand
against his neighbor.

The war of nations came like a bolt of lightning from

a clear sky, but the industrial war of the classes is coming
like a whirlwind. *'For behold and lo ,vengeance cometh
speedily upon the ungodly as the whirlwind ,and who
shall escape it. The Lord's scourge shall pass over by
night and by day, and the report shall vex all people, yet
it shall not be stayed until the Lord come. For the in-
dignation of the Lord is kindled against their abomina-
tions, and all their wicked works. Doctrine and Coven-
ant, Section 97 :22, 23, 24. The Lord says "I will destroy
:

their -chariots (railroads) and cut off the cities of the

land, and throw down all their strong holds * *
and I will execute vengeance and fury upon them, even as
upon the heathen such as they have not heard." 3 Nephi,
21 Chapter.
Terrible as the late war has been it has not destroyed
the big wicked cities, it has hardly touched them. But
when he destroyed their chariots (railroads) the big cities
 —
PROBLEMS OF THE AGE 25

will be the first to suffer with starving mob-law. This

nation is stdcken with blindness or they would listen to
Secretary McAdoo's recommendation to leave the "char-
iots" in the hands of the government for five years,
their only safety. They would have been destroyed be-
fore now, but for the government. Private owners can-
not dip into a public treasury to make up the deficiencies
of running expenses. The Lord says *T will turn them
to the hardness of their hearts, and the blindness of their
minds, even unto bringing them down into captivity, and
into destruction both temporal and spiritual, according
to the captivity of the devil." I Nephi 14:7.
At the time the Book of Mormon was translated, the
word ''railroad" was not in existence. It could only be
translated chariots. But there are no horse chariots now,
and if there were their destruction would not result in the
destruction of cities, as the destruction of railroads would.
They are the key to the arch, or the heart and ven-
nous system by which the body is fed ;
—
destroy the cir-
culating medium and you destroy the body. Destroy
these chariots and what will be our condition? Chicago
and New York will go into anarchy in ten days, and with
our mines and smelters shut down we will have tens of
thousands of starving people to be cared for. The only
organization on earth prepared to cope with such a
situation is the Church of Jesus Christ or Latter-day
Saints. The other churches have no organization except
a Parson and a Deacon. No helpers outside of the walls
of these churches. The state and federal government are
only made to consume, and not to feed, and are power-
less without the railroads even to enforce order. But the
Church is so completely organized as one homogeneous
bo'dy from head to foot, that the food could be mobilized
under the United Order and starving mob law averted.
Then will be fulfilled the prediction of the Prophet
Joseph Smith, that we would be the only people on the
earth not at war with each other and ready to save the
constitution when it shall hang as by a thread.
When their big wicked cities are being destroyed
as a result of the destruction of their chariots, the Gov-
ernment will be unable to ship the monthly allowances to
the Lamanites, and armed to the teeth as they are they
will become as "a lion among a flock of sheep that goeth
 ;

26 GOSPEL PROBLEMS
through and treadeth down and none can deliver." The
government will be unable to guard the Mexican line
against Lamanite invasion. But a mighty prophet is to
be raised up among them, and they are to be converted as
it were in a day, and when the big cities of the east are

destroyed they are to be ready with the assistance of the

Saints —
Ephraim, to build up the new Jerusalem, under
the celestial law or order of Enoch. With the Turks
driven out of Europe, and the old Jerusalem under the
liberal and friendly government of England, the way is
prepared for the re-establishment of God's government
centrally located on the eastern hemisphere, as the New
Jerusalem will be on the Western Hemisphere. Then
"shall the law go forth from Zion, and the word of the
Lord from Jerusalem."
But some will question how these things can be while
we move seemingly in such perfect unison with Babylon.
"God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to per-
form." We came willingly to the mountains of Ephraim
to dwell just because we had to, and we will go into the
United Order willingly just because we will have to.
Everything will come about in such a natural way that
the ungodly will not discern the hand of the Lord in it
but the wise will understand. Though all the nations
engaged war are drunken in iniquity and all
in the late
manner (Sec. 2, Nephi 27:1) yet the
of abominations
Lord has His "bright designs and works His Sovereign
will," even if it results in their destruction. Enlarged
freedom will come, both to the world at large, and to
His own people. Yes, even God's own people are in more
or less bondage, patterned more or less after the German
—
government, a strong central government. True., we are
supposed to do everything by common consent by the
vote and voice of the people. And there is full freedom
to vote in the affirmative, but a vote in the negative is
construed as rebellion and the ban of the Church is th«
penalty. This is not liberty but bondage.
To illustrate We were told during the late war that
:

anyone failing tosupport the Allied cause were not in

full standing. And yet Nephi says they are all "drunken
in iniquity and all manner of abominations. 2 Nephi
27:1 and Jesus says the sword of His justice shall fall on
all of the nations of the Gentiles, 3 Nephi 20 :20.
 ;

PROBLEMS OF THE AGE 27

In the Doctrine and Covenant, Section 87, the Lord

says the nations shall ''suffer the wrath and indignation
of Almighty God until the consumation decreed hath
made a full end of all nations."
The Prophet Daniel says the storm shall strike the
image upon its feet and toes and break it to pieces, and
they shall become as the chaff of the summer threshing
floor, and no place found for them." He says nothing
about destroying the central toe and saving the outside
—
one big and little are all to be destroyed. Of course he
does not say they are all equally wicked, or that wicked-
ness equally manifest externally. The toes of a diabetus
are not usually all likewise effected externally nor is the
life of the patient saved by amputating the affected toes,
for all the toes are infected, if not externally, internally
and to require members of the Church of Jesus Christ
to pledge loyalty to these wicked nations in the face of
all this scripture or forfeit their standing in the Church
is not liberty, but bondage. The Prophet Ether was
neutral because he believed both sides of the Jaredites
were wicked. Mormon laid down his sword and refused
to take sides because both sides were wicked, and when
he resumed his sword it was without faith or hope. Lehi
denounced his own people as wicked and deserving the
destruction that would come upon them by as wicked
and cruel a nation as the Germans. Jesus also denounced
his own people, the Jews, and foretold their destruction
by a still more wicked and cruel nation that would not
leave one stone on the other of their beautiful and sacred
temple. Would to God we could all have a Lincoln mind
and heart to see in this great war a judgment upon both
Allies and Central Powers, as he saw in the Civil War a
judgment upon both North and South instead of extol-
ing ourselves and making a scapegoat of the Kaiser.

To contrast the policies of the present financial in-

stitutions of Zion with the Lord's policies and purposes
as recorded in the revelations of Joseph Smith, we quote
the following:
"Nevertheless in your temporal things you shall be
equal, and this not grudgingly, otherwise the abundance
of the manifestations of the spirit shall be withheld,"
(Doctrine and Covenants, Section 70:14.)
 28 GOSPEL PROBLEMS
"But it is not given that one man should possess that
which is above another, wherefore the world lieth in sin."
(Doctrine and Covenant, Section 49:20.)
"For if ye are not equal in earthly things, ye cannot
be equal in obtaining heavenly things." (Doctrine and
Covenants, Section 78:6.)
"Woe unto you rich men, that will not give your
substance to the poor, for your riches will canker your
souls; and this shall be your lamentation in the day of
visitation, and of judgment, and of indignation —
the har-
vest is past, the summer is ended, and my soul is not
saved.
Woe unto you poor men, whose hearts are not
broken, whose spirits are not contrite, and whose bellies
are not satisfied, and whose hands are not stayed from
laying hold upon other man's goods, whose eyes are full
of greediness, who will not labor with your own hands.
But blessed are the poor who are pure in heart,
whose hearts are broken, and whose spirits are contrite,
for they shall see the kingdom of God coming in power
and great glory unto their deliverance for the fatness of
;

the earth shal be theirs." (Doctrine and Covenant, Sec-

tion 56:16, 17, 18.)
"For it shall come to pass that which I spake by the
mouth of my prophets shall be fulfilled, for I will con-
secrate of the riches of those who embrace my
gospel
among the Gentiles unto the poor of mv who are
people
of the house of Israel." (Sec. 42 :39.)
And the Bishop Newel K. Whitney also should travel
around among all the churches, searching after the poor
to administer to their wants, by humbling the rich and
the proud. (Section 84:112.)
How can we reconcile these scriptures with the
present policies of Zion's institutions? Whither are we
drifting? Towards the United Order, or directly away
from it. Can God's purposes ever be fulfilled under the
present regime?
—
How can we read these scriptures the Lord's views
and policies, and still be satisfied with the conditions in
Zion today? And say "Zion prospers, All is well?"
In consequence of our rejection of the law of con-
secration and the United Order the Lord gave us the
law of tithing, as a schoolmaster to bring us to the higher
 —

PROBLEMS OF THE AGE 29

law— the celestial law. This imperfect law of tithing ex-

acts the necessities of the poor alike with the
abundance
of the rich. The poor deny themselves the comforts and
necessities of life to comply with this law—
(blessed are
the poor)— but the rich make no such sacrifice,
but pay
tithes out of the "superfluity of things they don't need"
(Lincoln's definition of wealth.) And yet Saints (?)
will
themselves behind this law of tithing against
barricade
the United Order, as the jews did behind the
law of
Moses to fight Christ and the Gospel. Brigham Young,
failing to establish the Order of Enoch among
the Saints,
co-operation, and established Zion's
tried the next best
Co-operative Mercantile Institution. It is probably the
the
best working institution in Zion and yet look at
;

fruits of the thing today. The late Supermtendent—

an honest and capable man, retires and the Board of
Directors make him a present of $10,000. This money
was exacted (we were about to say extorted) from the
poor to give to this rich man, who is already cumbered
with a ''superfluity of things" he don't need." Is this in
accordance with the designs of the Lord to administer to
the wants of the poor by humbling the rich and the
proud, or is it just the reverse? If they can spare this
well
$10,000 profit, to give to the rich, they could just as
left it in the pockets of the poor customers
by a lower
price on their goods. It may be feebly protested that it
mostly came out of the well-to-do customers, but the rich
customers get wholesale prices or some other rake off,
while the poor pay the highest retail price.
The next thing in order will be for the Manager of
the Beneficial Life to retire with a bonus of $10,000
mostly extracted from the pockets of the poor unfortu-
nates who have been over-persuaded through official
prestige to take out policies they could not keep up, and
forfeited them into the coffers of this institution; or
probably worse still lost it gambling on the lives of their
children. Why not donate a bonus to the late President
of these institutions, Joseph F. Smith? He has about a^
much need of such a gift as these rich managers. Truly,
''the shepherds eat the fat, and clothe themselves with the *-^ J
wool, but they feed not the flock." Ezekiel 34. This
scripture is just as applicable to modern Israel as it was
to ancient Israel. If not, why not?
30 GOSPEL PROBLEMS
If under the prevailing financial systems of Babylon
the rich accumulated their vast fortunes by dint of hard
manual labor and strict economy, it would not be so
objectionable. But it is the reverse. As a rule the poor
are the hard workers, and the rich the idlers. The big
fortunes are made by sharp practice, or the increment of
values in land, that naturally belong to the public who
make it, or they are made through graft and wire pulling,
or the exigencies or misfortunes of war and famine and
other calamities. Other peoples necessities are made their
opportunities. They are beneficiaries of others calam-
ities. Is this right and pleasing to the Lord? We try
to treat our wives and children alike, and seek to per-
petuate that equality, by bequeathing our property
equally among them in our wills. If from a view from
the other side we could look back and see some of our
children by accident or sharp practices, disturbing that
equilibrium and consigning some of their less designing
brother and sister to the cellar or the garret, while they
feasted and revelled in the parlor, and the dining room,
would we feel good about it? Or would we desire to put
forth our hand, readjust matters, and put them back again
on just equality? Could we as parents with natural af-
fection look with complacency upon this disparity of con-
dition between our children? Never! Then how much
more so with our Father in Heaven ! Can we wonder
that He has determined to upset the tables of money
changers, sweep away the prevailing financial entangle-
ments as cobwebs in a house-cleaning and establish the
United Order, wherein every man will seek the interests
of his brother? The spirit of the times is to work the
brother, instead of himself; anything to get out of hard
work. It is evident the Lord is against both the greedy
rich, and the lazy poor, in fact against all idlers, rich and
poor. But it seems useless for the Lord to talk and plead
with His children to live differently. Judgments are the
only persuaders. He is turning them to the hardness of
their hearts and the blindness of their minds, even unto
captivity and destruction, both temporally and spiritually,
according to the captivity of the devil. (I Nephi 14:7.)
"Satan goeth forth to deceive the nations." The indus-
trial troubles that are brewing will humble the nations
until they will be glad to accept His law of the United
 Problems of the age: ^i

Order as the only remedy for this existing inequalities,

and injustices; ''and it must yet be acknowledged as it
was three thousand years ago that His judgments are
just and righteous altogether." (Lincoln's second In-
augural.) . .

When the Lord gave Bishop Whitney his mission

to search out the poor, and administer to their wants by
humbling the rich and the proud, he also gave him a mis-
sion to the cities of New York and Albany and
Boston
and decreed that if they did not repent their cities should
three
be desolated. He did not mean to single out these
cities alone for destruction. All the big cities
are equally
wicked, and doomed to the same fate if they do not re-
pent. He refers to the same thing when He says "I ;

will destroy thy chariots (railroads) and cut off the

cities
* *
of thy land, and throw down thy strongholds
all ;

pluck up thy groves (financial God) so will I destroy thy

cities." (3 Nephi, 2L)
This seems almost unbelievable, but it is just as sure
as the great war, (I Nephi, 22:13) and the /'desolating
sickness" (Doctrine and Covenant, Section 45:3L)
Babylon says, "Today I sit a queen and am no widow,
and shall see no sorrow therefore, shall her plagues come
;

in one day; death and mourning and famine,

and she
shall be buried with fire for strong
; is the Lord God who
judgeth her." Revelation 18, 16.
Instead of publishing this $10,000 present to the rich,
the left hand should not know what the right hand doeth,
not on scriptural grounds alone but good horse sense
would realize that pubHshing of such things but tends
tofoment the deadly strife that is brewing between labor
and capital.
Our people are confidently calculating to go back to
the old system of finance at the close of this war; that
is, everybody for himself and the
devil for all, but they
are counting without their Host, the living God for He
;

has said "it is not given that one man should possess that
;

which is' above another; therefore the world lieth in sin;"

and again "except ye are equal in earthly things, ye can-
:

not be equal in heavenly things." He wills that His

people should live in common, and there shall be no rich
and no poor among them. They are too proud and sel-
fish to accept this principle now% but He will chasten
and
 —
32 GOSPEL PROBLEMS
humble them until they will be glad to accept and adopt
it. When men come to understand they will not find it so
objectionable as they imagine. Why
do men now struggle
for so much more than they need except to exceed
in show? To be looked up to as smart financiers. In the
United Order men will have the same desire to be looked
up to and honored, but it will be founded on actual worth
to the community and not predicated on sharp practice,
or shrewd financial ability. The esteem of our fellows
will be upon a substantial foundation of merit. Love and
humility will be the ruling factor instead of pride and
—
hate the desire to serve instead of served. Then will
Satan be bound and Christ will reign as Lord of Lords
and King of Kings.

In reading the article in the Saturday News by

Apostle Whitney, we are impressed with the truths he
elucidates but also with the truths he comes so breath-
lessly near ennunciating. One of those truths he cuts
so near to is the crying need of repentance, not only in
the world at large, but right here in Zion; yea, much
more than the cry, "All is well in Zion, yea Zion prospers,
all is well." So confident are most people of our standing
and self-righteousness that they will at once inquire,
"Why what have we to repent of, what is wrong in
Zion. Does not Zion prosper, all is well?" So have God's
people always thought in their times of great peace and
prosperity. Read it in the Bible, the Book of Mormon,
and Doctrine and Covenant. And yet that very peace and
prosperity has always been their greatest danger, their —
stumbling block. The Saints on the consecrated grounds
of Jackson County, Mo., in the last century, nearly a gen-
eration since, were just as confident as we are now,
were as little conscious of the crying need of repentance
as we are today. At nearly ninety years distance we can
see and write of their unworthiness to build up the Cen-
ter Stake of Zion much better than we can see our own
unworthiness. Are we getting old, that we can see better
at a distance than near at hand? Is it time we were
getting glasses? Do we need a Urim and Thummim to
discern our own faults? It is very difficult for us to see
—
our own unworthiness, our own "pride and avarice, and
arrogance." But there is surely a crying need of some
 PROBLEMS OF THE AGE 33

bold servant of God thundering it in our ears. When were

the people of God prouder of their fine houses, costly
autos, broad acres, flocks and herds, and big bank ac-
counts? Are we free from the pride and vanity of the
world? Can we face God and answer honor bright in the
affirmative? Can we not see that we are fast sinking to
the level of Babylon and that except the Lord cut His
work short in righteousness no flesh could be saved?
Cannot we see and feel that heavy judgments hang over
our hcdds, and that the only way to redeem ourselves and
Zion is repentance, repentance, repentance, rather than
Zion prospers, all is well?
Are there any Bishop Whitneys now, going among
the Stakes or branches of the Church searching out the
poor, and administering to their wants by humbling the
rich and the proud? See Doctrine and Covenants, Sec-
tion 84:112. Are we warning this proud wicked nation
and its big cities, such as New York and Albany and
Boston of "the desolation and utter abolishment that
awaits them if they do reject these things?" (Section 84:
114, 115 verses.) Or are we patting them on the back and
saying all kinds of nice things about each other, congrat-
ulating each other on representing Michel and Llis angels
fighting Satan and his angels? When the plain scriptural
truth is the line of battle is not between Central and
Allied powers, but between the kingdoms of the world
and the Kingdom of God, between the great image,
Babylon and the stone cut out of the mountain without
hands. Can there be any true affinity between the King-
dom of God and the kingdoms of this world, between
God and Mammon? Can we as His Saints serve both of
these masters? Can we pattern after Paris and Wall
Street and still build up Zion and establish the United
Order? Are our present tendencies, private, and public,
in that direction, or the very opposite? Do the financial
institutions of Zion as at present managed tend Zion-
ward. to help the poor and unfortunate by humbling the
rich and the proud, or are their tendencies the verv op-
posite? Does Zion Savings Bank extend the glad hand
to the poor and unfortunate? Is the $10,000 gift to the
late Superintendent of Z. C. M. I. in that direction, or the
very opposite ?
• " The Lord savs in JJ'.H-Lrijvt; arjd Co\''enantSi Sec. 52:11
34 GOSPEL PROBLEMS
"I will send forth judgment unto victory." What can
this mean but that the coming industrial upheavals will
carry judgments that will sweep away these unjust fin-
ancial entanglements as cobwebs in a house-cleaning, and
carry victory for His program of the love of God and each
other, as embodied in the law of consecration and the
United Order. The victorious triumph of the latter can-
not be consummated without the judgment on the former.

We often hear expressions averse to meddling with

the mysteries, and told to leave them alone. True, time
may be wasted fruitlessly discussing things we can know
nothing of, and sometimes mysteries that are of no con-
sequence to us if unraveled. But still we cannot forget
that the world of knowledge advances through this un-
raveling of mysteries. It is knowledge, and we are saved
and exalted according to our knowledge. Many of the
mysteries of heat, light, and sound have been unraveled
to the blessing of mankind. Electricity was once a great
mystery confined to lightning in the sky, and if Franklin
had not meddled with it, it might have remained a mys-
tery still. It seemed sacriligious to some superstitious
souls, for mortal man to meddle with God's thunder-
bolt invented and reserved expressly for the destruction
of sinful man. Galileo was threatened with death for
meddling with the mysteries of the planetary system, and
proclaiming the spots on the sun and Columbus took
;

great chances and was accounted a lunatic for advocat-

ing the rotundity of the earth, for the form and motion
of the earth was a great mystery.
True, in religious mysteries, we cannot advance by
our own unaided researches as we can in temporal or
physical things. But the mysteries of spiritual things are
not unfolded and dispelled without effort. We cannot
expect to advance without study or thought. The Lord
helps those who help themselves, and He has promised
the unfolding of the mysteries of the Kingdom
to those who love Him and keep His command-
ments. But how can the Lord be expected to unfold
these mysteries of the Kingdom to us if we refuse or ne-
glect to study them? How can we advance in spiritual
knowledge and power without unfolding the iiiysteries?
Does it not mark the line between ignorance ajid know!-
 ; ;

PROBLEMS OF THE AGE 35

edge? And did not the Prophet Joseph say that it is

impossible to be saved in ignorance, and that a man is
saved no faster than he gains knowledge? And is not
the dissipation of the mysteries the substitution of knowl-
edge for ignorance? True, we may seem to be wasting
time if we are not successful, br.t if at first you don't suc-
ceed try, try again. And above all, seek for inspiration,
the help of the Lord in al lour researches. Seek knowledge
by thought, and study by reading good books the scrip- —
tures a perpetual feast of fat things prepared expressly
for those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
''Ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be
opened unto you."
"But unto him that keepeth my commandments, I
will give the mysteries of my kingdom, and the same shall
be in him a well of living water, springing up unto ever-
lasting life." (Doctrine and Covenants, Section 63:23.)
"Seek not for riches but for wisdom, and behold,
the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto you, and
then shall you be made rich. Behold, he that hath eternal
life is rich." (Doctrine and Covenants, Section 6:7.)
"For thus saith the Lord, I, the Lord, am merciful
and gracious unto those who fear me, and delight to
honor those who serve me in righteousness and in truth
unto the end
Great shall be their reward and eternal shall be their
glory
And to them will I reveal all mysteries, yea, all the
hidden mysteries of my kingdom from days of old, and
for ages to come will I make known unto them the good
pleasure of my will concerning all things pertaining to
my kingdom." (Doctrine and Covenants, Section 76:5,
6. and 7.)

Another class of people who have been unfairly dealt

with by the authorities are those interested in what they
call dream mines. Why should these people be ostra-
cised and deprived of participating in Church activities?
What proof is there that these people are deluded or
reprobate. That the mines as yet have not proven to be
a bonanza does not militate against them,, inasmuch as
-they have apt claimed they were for the amassing of
36 GOSPEL PROBLEMS
private fortunes, but for the redemption of Zion in the
Lord's own due time.
The experiences of the authorities in some of their
own ventures ought to mellow them in charity for others.
For instance, the Oregon Gold Mining Company, now de-
funct. Many of the authorities lost money in this mining
venture, and would have lost much more if a large block
of the stock had not been adroitly unloaded on some
of our unsuspecting Gentile friends. Then what about
the Sterling mine in Nevada in which the authorities
were involved? Was not that a dismal failure, the history
of which is anything but to be proud of.
It may be protested, but these were not dream mines,
for the redemption of Zion. Well if they were not night
dream mines, they were day dream mines, and if not for
the redemption of Zion the worse for them.
And anyway, are the failures of dream mines any
worse than the failure of Mexican Rubber Companies,
or the Utah Loan & Trust Company, of Ogden, in the
banks failure of which so many of the Church authorities
were involved, necessitating the people coming to their
rescue to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Did not the people come to the rescue of the Consolidated
Wagon & Machine Co.? Why not come to the rescue of
the dream mines, or at least give them a fair show by
them alone?
letting:
But they will point with pride to our Zion's Saving;*
Bank, Beneficial Life Insurance Co., Utah-Idaho Sugar
Co., etc. And they are certainly a success from a fin-
ancial point of view. But are big dividends and big sal-
aries all that is to be considered? They are undoubtedly
a good thing for the well-to-do stockholders in the way
of building up large private fortunes. But their tendency
is to make the rich, richer, and the poor, poorer, and that
is not Zionward, but the reverse ; it is backward. Zion's
Savings Bank pays 4 per cent to the poor depositors, and
30 to 40 per cent to the Avell-to-do stockholders, and have
run the stock up to six and seven hundred per cent. The
Beneficial Life uses the name of the President of the
Church as a prestige to induce poor people to take insur-
ance that they are not able to maintain and then forfeit
their hard earnings into the pockets of the rich and
;

further still, persuade poor parents to gamble on the

 PROBLEMS OF THE AGE yi

lives of their children. Wesay gamble, because if the

children die the parents need the rrioney less than if they
live so there is nothing but the element of gamble in the
;

business. But it will be defended all insurance com-

panies do it. But does that justify Saints. Are we to
pattern after Babylon that is to fall?
Our Sugar Company has made millions by pinching
the beet growers on the one hand, and the sugar con-
sumers on the other, making sugar the highest price in
the world in a sugar center, where it ought to be the
cheapest. Instead of the price increasing the farther it
is shipped away, it diminishes. The freight is subtracted
instead of added. If farmers and livestock people should
combine and do the same thing with their products it
would be called a wicked combine, and why not?
The functions of the Deseret banks, both the Sav-
ings and the Commercial is not true to the name, Deseret,
the honey bee, for the bee lives in common and there is
no rich and no poor among them, they live the United
Order. These banks function more like the hog than
the honey bee.
When Joseph Smith asked the Lord which of all the
Churches w^as right, He answered, none of them that ;

they were all wrong and an abomination in his sight. No

doubt He would have given the same answer regarding
the financial systems of the world. He said, "It is not
given that one man should possess that which is above
another; therefore the world lieth in sin." And again.
"For if ye are not equal in earthly things ye cannot be
equal in obtaining Heavenly things." Accordingly He
gave us the "United Order" for our temporal and spirit-
ual salvation." But these institutions of Zion, so called,
tend directly away from that Order, widening the gap
between the rich and the poor. The Lord called His
people Zion; because "they were of one heart and one
mind, and dwelt in righteousness and there was no poor
among them." Pearl of Great Price, page 7:18.
These financial systems that are in direct opposi-
tion to His Order will be upset as He upset the tables of
the money changers in the temple. In the Industrial
War that is coming they will be swept away as garbage.
When Babylon falls "the merchants of the earth will
weep and mourn for her, saying no man b'uyfeth our
38 GOSPEL PROBLEMS
merchandise any more." Revelation 18 Chapter. There
will be no buying nor selling and consequently no use
for money. In the United Order people's recommends
will not only indicate their spiritual but their temporal
standing also. Their card of standing will show that
they are entitled to food, clothing, lodgings, travel, etc.,
so that there will be need of money. Gold and silver will
be used for ornament, and that not in the vain pompous
ways of the proud world of today. There will be no
temptations to make displays of the distinctions of wealth
for there will be no rich and no poor —
neither thefts nor
robberies. The devil will be powerless.

There is vast difference between being passively

good and actively good. We are all good when we are
asleep — innocent as babes, but of what value is such
virtue.
Just to the extent thatwe lull and soothe our sensi-
bilities of right to sleep, to that degree do we
and wrong
neutralize and destroy the active God given principles of
the virtue within us. To stand listlessly by and tolerate
wrongs to others without protest because those wrongs
do not immediately affect our personal welfare is almost
equal to approval and makes us accessory to that wrong.
Lmcoln said that slavery was based upon the idea that
one man had a right to enslave another man, and a third
man had no right to interfere. If this is true then no
one has a right to interfere with a wrong so long as that
—
wrong is not to himself personally he may be awake to
his own wrongs, but must be asleep to others' wrongs,
and just to that extent is the active principle of virtue
abrogated proportionately to nocturnal slumbers.
The doctrine of abject obedience to authority tends
in this direction. If it does not mean submission to
leaders right or wrong, what does it mean? Is it not this
very principle of unqualified obedience that has involved
the German people in so much trouble, and incidentally
involved the world in misery and crime? Was it not
through the violation of this principle of strict obedience
that enlarged religious freedom came through Martin
Luther and^other reformers? Do we not owe much of our
civil and politicai liberty to such rebels as Cromwell and
Waahing^ton? If ihey had been obedient to authority,
 PROBLEMS OF THE AGE 39

and asleep to the wrongs of others, how much different

would it have made the world's history?
The only obedience worth talking about is
obedience to God and truth and justice. If Abraham had
been obedient to his earthly father, he never could have
become Father of the Faithful. It is our most imperative
duty to keep every sense of right and. wrong fully awke
and in attune with divinity. Blind obedience to mortal
man has the opposite tendency. It operates like an anes-
thetic, to put the conscious sensibilities to sleep. The
tendency toward the dumb brute to be led by the
is
halter. No rational being can take comfort in a salvation
predicated upon such obedience. To rejoice in a crown
of victory, we must feel that we have won it by the ex-
ercise of our own intelligence and will power in con-
junction with the help of our Divine Maker.

Nevertheless,I do not write anything upon these

plates save be that I think it be sacred. And now if I
it
do err, even did they err of old; not that I would excuse
myself because of other men, but because of the weak-
ness which is in me, according to the flesh, I would ex-
—
cuse myself. I Nephi 19:6.
And now Nephi, write more of the
I, words of Isaiah,
for my soul delighteth in his words. — IINephi 11:2.

ISAIAH CHAPTER 28.

This chapter is a photograph or moving picture of

Ephraim, in the tops of the mountains of Ephraim today.
We have closed our Temples and Churches and opened
our theatres and movies, so let's take in this movie.
Ephraim has blossomed as the rose in these fat valleys
of Ephraim, but her flower is to be a fading flower and
the drunken of Ephraim are to be "trodden under foot."
What does this mean Evidently there is trouble
:

ahead. The chastening hand of the Lord upon the pride

of Ephraim; the pride and avarice and arrogance"
spoken of by Brigham Young at Logan, June 27th, 1873,
has continued to increase to the tide of prosperity in the
intervening half century until we are now ''delighting"
in the ways of Babylon. In our great anxiety to avoid
persecution and harmonize with the world, we coven-
anted with the governmc.n*" that we would abandon
40 GOSPEL PROBLEMS
plural marriage, not only future marriages, but the man-
ifesto should be as broad as the law, and include the past,
or old plural marriages also. This covenant was clenched
in the court of chancery before Judge Loofbourow in the
case of the escheated church property. But the Lord dis-
claims having anything to do with this covenant ,and
further that it will not stand, but "be annulled." He
called it a ''covenant with death and hell" a covenant to
break solemn and sacred covenant with plural wives.
If anyone should deign to wean themselves from the
breasts, the milk of first principles, and preach or teach
advanced principles, strong meat or anything contrary to
this covenant, the bed it is too short that a man cannot
stretch himself, so that his standing, or feet must be am-
putated, or his head cut off to fit the short bed. He must
not defend himself against the "covenants with death and
hell," nor preach, nor teach plural marriage, nor the
gathering, nor the United Order, nor Adam God, nor the
redemption of Zion. The covering is too narrow, that he
cannot wrap his convictions either in theory or practice.
But there is a terrible storm coming that "shall
sweep away the refuge of lies" and the drunken of
Ephraim are to be "trodden under foot." "They have
erred in vision, they stumbled in judgment." "They are
drunken, but not with wine, they stagger, but not with
strong drink," but with pride and worldliness. They are
determined at any cost of principle to have the love and
approbation of the world. The pride of Ephraim is in
perfect harmony with the pride of Paris and Wall Street.
Now that the great war is over, we are felicitating,
and holding mutual admiration parties, and peace con-
ferences, and throwing bouquets at each other, and plan-
ning for great fortunes —
"a superfluity of things we don't
need," in the same old way. But the Lord has
said that Zion cannot be built except "upon the princi-
ples of the celestial law" —
the law of United Order, and
Zion is to be built in this generation, the one hundred
years of gospel dispensation. This new building cannot
go forward until the old one is destroyed. Babylon must
fall, the late war is only the beginning of troubles. It
will be overshadowed by the industrial war to follow. The
clash between the classes and the masses will put the fir-
ing line on every street and alley, "every man's hand
 PROBLEMS OF THE AGE 41

against his neighbor," and "he who will not take up his
sword and fight his neighbor, must need flee to Zion
for safety. The whole of America is the land of Zion,"
but not Zion until it is cleansed and purified, for Zion is
the pure in heart. The portending industrial trouble
will doubtless culminate in a destruction of our char-
iots (railroads) and "cut off the cities of thy land and
throw all thy strongholds and execute vengeance and
fury upon them even as upon the heathen such as they
have not heard. 3 Nephi 21 :14, 15, 21.
The chastening hand of the Lord will be upon the
pride of Ephraim as well as upon the Gentiles, except we
humble ourselves without the chastening rod. These
railroads (chariots) must be destroyed in fulfillment of
the predictions of the prophets, both ancient and modern,
and we will suffer starving mob law with Babylon, ex-
cept we adopt the United Order, which was given for our
"temporal and spiritual salvation." We have the only
organization and system in the world equal to the oc-
casion, and if the machinery of our church organization
is not put in running gear to work the united order we
will suffer mob law with the rest of the world. In the
meantime we all slumber and sleep but when the crucial
time comes, and the cry goes out "The Bridegroom
cometh," will five of every ten of us have oil in our lamps?
Let us watch and pray that there be at least one people
on the earth that will not be at war with each other, but
be a light to the world, and ready to save the consti-
tution of our government.

For because the words of Isaiah are not plain unto

you, nevertheless they are plain unto all those that are
—
filled with the spirit of prophecy. II Nephi 25:4.

Since writing the above we learn that some persons

have been cut off the Church for believing and applying
the Manifesto to this 28th Chapter of Isaiah. It is almost
unbelievable. Neither of the two men so cut off are, or
ever were polygamists. Both- still adhere tenaciously "to
the faith once delivered to the Saints." Why not cut
Isaiah off for making the prophecy, or dig up his bones,
burn them and throw the ashes into the Rhine, as the
Catholics used to do with reformers and heretics?
42 GOSPEL PROBLEMS
The Manifesto is either a good covenant or bad cov-
enant. good covenant, why did not the leaders
If it w^as a
of Ephraim observe the covenant and keep it inviolate?
The President of the Church and the President of the
Twelve, both testified under oath before the Smoot inves-
tigating committee, that they broke this covenant, and
lived in violaion of both the laws of the land and of God.
Now without irreverence or irrelevance it might be sug-
gested that if anybody is to be cut off the Church it is
the men who make a covenant and then deliberately
'

break it. They pleaded they could not keep this cov-
enant with the government without breaking their most
solemn and sacred covenants with their wives, and as
both covenants could not be kept they preferred to keep
their covenants with their Avives and break the coven-
ant with the government.
As these two covenants conflict both could not be of
God, so one must be of the devil or "death and hell" as
Isaiah says. (See also 2 Nephi, 10. "that awful monster
death and hell."
But the leaders of Ephraim will affirm that these
agitators are discrediting and betraying their brethren,
—
the heads of the Church in fact repudiating them as
prophets, seers and revelators. But this is not necess-
arily true. God told Abraham to deceive Alimalech in
regard to his relationship with his wife. When Alima-
lech discovered the deception he did not denounce Abra-
ham very severely, and neither did God seem to be dis-
pleased with either of them. They were all three better
friends than before.
Rebecca and Jacob deceived Isaac to obtain the bless-
ing that God had designed to bestow upon Jacob. They
were obliged to do so, to fulfill the purposes of the Lord.
But when the deception was discovered they were not
—
angry with each other neither was the Lord angry.
Esau was angry, but he was in the wrong, and unworthy
of the blessing.
Martin Harris' wife and friends kept begging him to
persuade Joseph Smith to let, or loan him the first 116
pages of manuscript of the Book of Mormon. Twice the
Lord had told Joseph not to do it; but as they persisted
in opportuning, the Lord finally consented, and you all
know the consequences. The manuscript was lost, or
 PROBLEMS OF THE AGE 43

stolen. Joseph was condemned and reproved for listen-

ing to the persuasions of men, and told that he ''should
have feared God more than man." Martin Harris was
denounced as a wicked man for breaking his most solemn
covenants, and for a time there was a general estrange-
ment, the plates surrendered and the work of the Lord
came to a standstill.
But this was all to fulfill prophecy. The Lord 2000
years previously had inspired Nephi to anticipate this
—
seeming catastrophe, a plot of the devil by preparing
the small plates of Nephi, containing the choicest of
writings, and thus thwart the cunning of Satan with bet-
ter scripture than that stolen. Mormon was also in-
spired in the same way. (See Words of Mormon, Verse
7-)
Now, we can see by these scriptures that Joseph and
Martin and his wife were almost predestined to fulfill
this little episode—at least God foresaw that they would
so act, and in His wisdom prepared to defeat
the cunning of the devil. But the estrangement
did not last long. Joseph was forgiven and reinstated in
the favor of the Lord to go on with the work of trans-
lating, and later Martin Harris was forgiven and became
one of the witnesses to the Divinity of the Book of
—
Mormon. They did not cut each other off neither did
the Lord cut them off.
Just as Martin begged Joseph to importune the Lord
for the manuscript, just so did the Pride of Ephraim beg
President Woodruff to importune the Lord for the Man-
ifesto. The Saints were tired of the persecutions, and
many were ashamed of the scorn of the world. Pride and
the desire for financial prosperity predominated, and
finally the Lord gave in, and permitted the Manifesto, as
He permitted Martin to have the manuscript, and the
prophesy of Isiah regarding the "covenant with death and
hell"was fulfilled.
The serpent tempted Eve, and got her to tempt
—
Adam, and Adam fell that man might be and that he
might have joy and the purposes of the Lord fulfilled.
And while both came under divine disfavor for a time
they were soon reinstated, and Michel, the Ancient of
Days, was "given the keys of our salvation" and is des-
tined to become the God of this world "under the counsel
44 GOSPEL PROBLEMS
and direction of the Holy One." (See Doctrine and Cov-
enants, Section 78:16. Adam's Father, or God was once
a man in the flesh, and passed through the same strug-
gle with sin that Adam did —
and consequently "knows
how to succor those that are tempted."
We have not only broken our covenant with the gov-
ernment in regard to the old plural marriages, but we
have broken our covenant in regard to new marriages.
Many of us have entered this principle since the Man-
ifesto, and many of the leaders, living openly in this prin-
ciple, are being sustained in high positions of responsi-
bility in the Church, and we hear of no protest, except
from the leaders themselves. Surely we must all be
drunken. Isaiah covers us with the mantle of charity
when he designates us as the drunkards of Ephraim.
"When a culprit cannot extricate himself otherwise, he
will plead "Drunkenness; and if substantiated, not in
vain.
When Lincoln was asked if he would keep his
promises, he answered, "Yes" to all his good promises;
but "No" to all his bad promises that is, if he saw the
;

interests of the country would be better served by break-

ing promises, he would break them, and the people ap-
proved of his position and re-elected him. It is only
good horse sense to rectify a mistake when discovered.
The Lord says: "Therefore be not afraid of your
enemies, for I have decreed in my heart, sayeth the Lord,
that I will prove you in all things, whether you will abide
in my covenant even unto death, that you may be found
worthy. (Doctrine and Covenants, Sec. 98:14.) Ephraim
seems to have forgotten that God has said "Know ye
not that the love of the world is enmity to God? and that
all who will live Godly in Christ shall suffer persecution."
They are drunken with worldliness, and determined at
any sacrifice of principle to live in perfect harmony with
Babylon.

Nevertheless in the days that the prophecies of

Isaiah shall be fulfilled, men shall know of a surety,
at the times when they shall come to pass. —
II Nephi
25:7.

It is a coincidence that the 28th and 29th chapters

 PROBLEMS OF THE AGE 45

of Isaiah and 2 Nephi should so closely correspond in

number and subject matter. Both of the 28th chapters
of these two great favorite prophets, pertain to the Lat-
ter-day Saints, or Ephraim. Nephi after scoring the un-
godly Gentiles who are stirred up, of the devil, to anger
against that which is good, says: "And others will he
pacify and lull them away into carnal security, that they
will say, All is well in Zion; yea Zion prospereth, all is
well." Nephi says, therefore woe be unto him that is at
ease in Zion. Woe unto him that crieth, all is well."
Isaiah says : "Woe to the Crown of Pride, the Drunk-
ards of Ephraim." Have the Latter-day Saints forgotten
that pride is a great sin, and has incufred more dis-
pleasure and chastening from the Lord than any other
sin, because the most susceptible?- Our pride is so much
in the things of the world, and aspire to the honors of
men, that we do not learn this one lesson, that the rights
of the Priesthood are inseparately connected with the
powers of heaven, and that the powers of heaven can-
not be controlled nor handled only upon the principles
of righteousness. That they may be conferred upon us
it is true, but when we undertake to cover our sins, or to

gratify our pride, or vain ambition, or to exercise con-

trol or dominion or compel them upon the souls of the
children of men in any degree of unrighteouness, behold,
the heavens withdraw themselves, the spirit of the Lord
is grieved, and when it is withdrawn. Amen to the Priest-
hood or authority of that man." Doctrine and Covenants,
Sections 21, 36, Z7 Verse 39.
\ We have learned by sad
experiences, that it is the nature and disposition of almost
all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they
suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unright-
eous dorninion." Joseph Smith wrote this revelation in
Liberty jail, after months of weary suffering and there-
fore in prime condition to receive revelation.
When men are cut off the Church for wickedness,
they become reprobate and go from bad to worse, but
when cut off without good cause, the Lord will not for-
sake them. Nothing but our own sins can cut us off, or
come between us and the Lord. The Priesthood has no
power in unrighteousness.
Therefore, cutting people off the Church for believ-
ing that President Woodruff fulfilled the prediction of
46 GOSPEL PROBLEMS
Isaiah regarding the covenant "with death and hell,"
with the Manifesto, is equal to cutting people off the
Church for believing that Joseph Smith fulfilled pro-
phecy, and sinned, by letting Martin Harris have the 116
pages of manuscript of the Book of Mormon. As well cut
people off for believing Adam sinned in listening to the
pleadings of his wife. The cases are parallel. As Martin
persuaded Joseph to do wrong, and Eve persuaded Adam
to do wrong, so drunken Ephraim persuaded President
Woodruff to sign that document.
In the days of Samuel the Prophet, the Children of
Israel got dissatisfied with their government of God by
Judges, and clamored for a king. They wanted to be
like the surrounding nations; pattern after Babylon and
have a king to lead them to battle, etc. They bothered
Samuel about it and Samuel went to the Lord about it,
and the Lord told him to warn them of all the evils of
having a king; but if they still insisted and persisted in
their worldly desires to give them what they wanted and
not feel too badly about it, for He says, "they have not
rejected you, but they have rejected me." So it was
with plural marriage. The Saints wanted to be rid of
this law of God and the persecutions and unpopularity
of it and be in harmony with the world and God permit-
ted them to go according to their desires. He is too
charitable and liberal to force anything upon his children
and permits them to have what they want, even though
it may be wrong and contrary to His holy will.

The Lord permitted them to have a king according to

their desires, even to their destruction. (I Samuel 8,
Chapter So the Lord permitted the manifesto ac-
cording to their desires to be popular and in harmony
with Babylon.
Our unmistable proof of this position is evidenced in
the revelation of President John Taylor, given October,
1882, seven months after the passage of the Edmunds
Tucker Act, against plural marriage appointing Heber J.
Grant and George Teasdale to the apostleship, and Sey-
mour B. Young to the Presidency of the Seventy "pro-
—
vided he obey my law," plural marriage. But the oppo-
sition will argue the anti-polygamy law was not fully
established until passed upon by the Supreme Court. But
they surely will not argue that God did not know whether
 PROBLEMS OF THE AGE 47

it constitutional or not until the court passed upon

was
it,or that He did not know what action the court would
take. Will the defenders of the Manifesto argue that
when God gave Joseph Smith the revelation He did not
know if plural marriage was right or wrong, and that if
right any laws prohibiting it would be unconstitutional,
or that God did not know this when He gave this revela-
tio nto John Taylor? Now this revelation is either true
or false. If the requirement to obey my law, plural mar-
riage —
is false, then the appointment to office must be
false, and these brethren are not entitled to their office,
nor Seymour B. Young to his plural wife.
How can we dodge this conclusion? The decision of
the Supreme Court on this anti-polygamy law did not
settle this matter any more than the decision in the Dred
Scott case settled slavery. Neither is polygamy slavery,
any more than is monogamy. There is more liberty and
free agency in polygamy than in monogamy — in fact the
definition, but one wife, signifies a curtailment of liberty
and free agency, that unjustly interferes with the in-
alienable rights of mankind, and is therefore unconstitu-
tional. And to cut men off the Church for taking this
view is an unrighteous exercise of the Priesthood and
will not be ratified by the powers of heaven, which can-
not be handled except upon the principles of righteous-
ness. Doctrine and Covenants, Section 21 :36.
The unbounded liberality of the United States of
America towards all nations and peoples is proudly
pointed out as an indisputable proof that he is one of the
very elect, symbolical of the angels fighting with Michel
and his angels against Satan and his angels, etc. But we
believe they have got their lines crossed. Satan was
equally liberal. He was determined to save everybody,
even the Sons of Perdition. Neither the 10 Command-
ments nor the principles of Faith. Repentance nor Bap-
tism cut any figure with him. The only liberty he denied
them was the liberty to go to Hell.
Uncle Sam proposes to save Cuba and the Philip-
pines and Spain and France and Russia and Germany and
the Indians and the Negroes, and even the Mormons, if
they will surrender every principle that God has given
them, and if they are not willing he will make them 4o
it and save them anyway.
 —;

48 GOSPEL PROBLEMS
The people were wicked when Enoch was "but a lad"
and hated him and were "offended because of his preach-
ing. They did not love the Lord nor each other, but
were selfish, avaricious and licentious. The devil laughed
and his angels rejoiced. But the Lord wept. Enoch per-
severed until he converted multitudes and built a city
— —
the City of Enoch called Zion the pure in heart, and
there was no poor among them. (Pearl of Great Price,
Section 7.)
The world is same state of wickedness today,
in this
and the Lord is —
trying to establish another Zion the
—
pure in heart under the United Order or Order of
Enoch, so there will be neither poor nor rich. What is
the United States of America doing towards the estab-
lishment of this order of things, or any of the nations?
And for that matter, what are the Saints doing in that
line? Just joining with them heart and hand, in their
combinations of trust and corporations of greed to make
the rich richer, and the poor poorer, patterning after
Paris and Wall Street, opening their theatres and vaude-
villes, and closing their temples and churches, crying All
is Well in Zion, Yea, Zion prospers, all is well. Repudi-
ating Adam-God and yet representing these wicked na-
tions as fighting with Michel and His angels against
Satan and His angels, and their Angels calling the Kaiser
a "second Joshua." A better comparison would be Sodom
and Gomorah. The Lord says, I will turn them to the
blindness pf their minds, and hardness of their hearts,
even to bringing them into captivity and into destruc-
tion, both temporally and spiritually, according to the
captivity of the devil. 1 Nephi 14:7. They are termed as
blind as the wicked men of Sodom, or blind Samson
otherwise they would lave the railroads (chariots) in the
—
hands of the government their only safety, and instead
of worrying so much over the peace of the world through
the League of Nations, they would see that it must come
—
through a league of capital and labor a union of the
rich and poor. (Doctrine and Covenants, Section 104,
16:3. Also Section 58:16, 17, 18.)
Berlin and Rome and Paris and London and New
York and Chicago are all of Babylon "drunken in in-
iquity and all manner of abominations." 2 Nephi 27, 1)
and must fall. They represent the scarlet woman, the
 PROBLEMS OF THE AGE 49

whore of all the earth, and her daughters, the Church of

the devil, the beast, and the image of the beast. The
blood of the ancient saints are upon the hands of the
beast, and the blood of the Latter-day Saints on the hands
of the image of the beast. And except we warn them their
blood will be upon our hands. (Ezekiel 33:8.)
If we cannot see the wickedness of these nations and
pities, it is because we are tarred with the same stick,
and turned to the same blindness. Nephi told Laman and
Lemuel they could not see the wickedness of the Jews at
Jerusalem because they were of the same spirit as the
Jews. The Jews thought they must be right and fight-
ing with Michel and his Angels against Satan and his
Angels, because they were fighting a wicked cruel na-
tion, for their homes, and liberty and democracy. And
they thought the same thing when they fought the Ro-
mans under Titus in A. D. 70. The Jaredites fought for
their liberty and free agency, and democracy, as did the
Nephites after them. And this Gentile nation is warned
to repent lest they bring down the "wrath of God upon
you as the inhabitants of the land hath heretofore done.
Ether 2:11.
The late war is truthfully described in 1 Nephi 22:13,
and this nation in 3 Nephi 16:10 and command, and ac-
cept the Order of Enoch they will be destroyed by mob-
law. Anarchy.

And now behold I say unto you ye ought to search

these things. Yea, a commandment I give unto you that
ye search these things diligently, for great are the words
—
of Isaiah. Jesus Christ, III Nephi 23 :L

Then you do not believe the Manifesto was inspired,

nor the law against plural marriage constitutional?
We believe that President Woodruff was inspired to
issue the Manifesto just as Joseph Smith was inspired to
deliver 116 pages of the translation of the Book of
Mormon to Martin Harris; and just as Adam was in-
spired to partake of the forbidden fruit. And we believe
the law of the land against polygamy is from the same
source as was the law of Ancient Babylon that threw
Daniel into the lion's den, and threw his three Hebrew
brethren into the fiery furnace. We
believe the Supreme
so GOSPEL PROBLEMS
Court's decision upholding this law just as binding as
was the Supreme Court's decision in the Dred Scott case,
extending the spread of slavery.
We believe the present financial institutions of Zion
tend not to the building up of Zion, but the amassing of
private fortunes. They do not help the unfortunate but
—
only the rich and prosperous those that don't need help.
The poor man can get no benefit from The Beneficial
Life unless he lays down and dies, and he must not linger
long, for with doctor bills and hospital bills he will fail
to meet his life insurance dues, and thus forfeit all his
hard-earned payments into the pockets of the well-to-do
stockholders. Zion's Savings Bank will not help the un-
fortunate and indigent they will loan only to the prosper-
;

ous, those that don't need help but for speculation. The
Deseret Banks work on the same principle. Deseret
means the honey-bee, but the honey-bee lives in common,
and there is no poor nor rich among them. The func-
tions of these two banks are more like the dog or the hog,
than the honey-bee. But, it will be protested, they work
on the same principles that all financial institutions work
and is necessary to their financial success. Certainly,
but they are all of Babylon, and must fall. The whole
system is wrong, and contains the elements of their own
—
destruction selfishness. They are the false gods, or
idols of gold and silver, that will be thrown to the moles
and the bats. They are the groves where we burn in-
cense to false gods, and will be plucked up in "the de-
struction of thy cities." See 3 Nephi, 21 Chapter, 18
Verse.

'Hold to the rod, the ifon rod, the word of God,"

PLURAL CELESTIAL MARRIAGE.

Now, for a moment, let us turn to the principle of
Plural Marriage; are you shocked at the idea? Theo-
dore Roosevelt has lately declined to discuss "Prepared-
ness" with William Jennings Bryan, on the grounds that
it would be as foolish and futile as discussing the prin-
ciple of "Monogamy versus Polygamy," or "Freedom
versus Slavery."
But the most advanced philosophers say that Truth
 —
PROBLEMS OF THE AGE 51

need never fear or decline to brush up against error

that TRUTH will NOT be smeared but FURBISHED,
brightened up and by contrast made to shine as a LIGHT
in a dark place —
further, "an active virulent TRUTH
may become passive and dormant from dearth of oppo-
sition."
"There must needs be opposition in all things" (Book
of Mormon) so light and darkness; bitter and sweet;
good and evil; must ever be contrasted in the school of
experience, and the Good will be all the more evident by
comparison with error.
I make bold to claim sufficient merit for the prin-
ciple under discussion to justify its careful consideration,
from the fact that such world renowned philosophers as
Harbert Spencer, and John Stuart Mill, champion polyg-
amy as a principle worthy of religious freedom and civil
liberty —
a practice which interferes with no one's rights,
but those participating of their OWN
FREE will and —
consequently no one elses business. In direct contrast
pared with polygamy which interferes with the free
agency of NO ONE. In fact it is the laws passed against
it that really interfere with Free Agency and so are in
;

direct opposition to civil and religious liberty. Then

why should the Christian world oppose it, and especially
the Latter-day Saints?
Three-fourths of the population of the world believe
in and practice it. But, says Christendom, our advanced
civilization proves we are right in condemning the prin-
ciple." But in reply, may not your advanced civilization
be accounted for by other causes, and be in spite of mon-
slavery interferes with free-agency, and is not to be com-
ogamy, rather than because of it? Besides, your wars
and pride, drunkenness ana profanity, your foulness and
gross unchastity, do not glea mas a shining star to the
polygamous nations?
From their standpoint your very crimes, and evils,
might be to them the surest evidence, your monogomus
system was incorrect.
But some will say, "the very sight and sound of
polygamy is an offense to our eyes and ears, and so we
have a right to prohibit and banish it out of sound and
sight." Well, if so exceedingly repugnant to you,
it is
why do you tolerate, even force it upon your domestic
 —
52 GOSPEL PROBLEMS
animals? You will no doubt say we cannot be successful
financially unless our domestic animals act upon this
principle; and ''besides they are only brutes, and have
not the feelings and sentiments of human beings." Then
your love of money and success over-shadow your re-
pugnance of polygamy in the case of your domestic an-
imals, and still you are interfering with free agency in
both cases —by forcing polygamy upon the one and
monogamy upon the other.
And as to human beings, whom you presumptusously
judge, are they not HUMANS, fellow children of the self-
same God — neighbors perhaps, just as capable of judging
their own feelings, desires, and of understanding truth
and principle, as you can possibly be, perhaps better
who knows? Are you prepared to say, you can judge
better than they, of the inmost desires, feelings and senti-
of their hearts?
Oh! presumptuous man! will you say that mon-
ogamy is a more pure, chaste life than polygamy, consid-
ered both from physical and spiritual law, and God's pur-
poses for the race?
How shall you judge polygamists, or say they are
unclean, or that your monogamy is more pure or chaste,
how can you know these things, until the day when the
secret lives and thoughts of ALL MENare revealed and
proclaimed from the housetops, in God's ALL
searching
gaze?
Is it not a fact that many of those opposed to
polygamy or plurality of wives, are also opposed to a
plurality of children?
Does not the mother of a large family of ten or
twelve children also shock their delicate ideals of modesty
and morality? Is it not a fact that they often class such a
mother as being on the level of a cow, or some other do-
mestic brute? Do not such people love fine houses, filled
with servants rather than children? Do they not desire
costly autos with dogs riding with them rather than in-
nocent children, than sweet babes? Verily they shall
have their desire, they shall earn their reward, as they
sow, so shall they reap. But is it right or seemly that our
standards of morality should be forced upon us by such
people?
How will these idealists feel when they go to dwell
 ! —
PROBLEMS OF THE AGE 33

with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? Will the Lord force

them to Hve eternally in such uncongenial company?
Does the Father delight in the endless misery of his
children? NO! Verily NO
It is written *'In my Father's house are many man-
sions," doubtless also hath the Father cottages, huts, yea
even "hovels" prepared for those worthy to dwell therein,
for "judgment will be rendered according to their works,
and in the last analysis, each will find their proper sphere,
whether it be high or low, elevated or degraded.
If some of His children would be happier in hell than
in heaven, He will put them there, or rather give them
their free-agency to go there. For our Heavenly Father
is too kind and just to ever interfere in the silghtest de-
gree with the free agency of his children.
In hell there will be no children to bother or annoy
Lucifer and his partners have neither wives nor children,
nor power of increase. "God is just is all we say."
The world through adverse legislation has forced us
to abandon the practice of this principle they are there-
;

fore responsible and accountable to God, for their oppo-

sition to this His law, and we are free from responsibility.
But they cannot control our belief, or faith. God w^ill not
force us, but will hold us responsible for our attitude to
His law. Can we as Latter-day Saints afford to cater to
the world and follow them in both practice and faith?
Or shall they rather stand firmly upon God's revealed
law, and although forbidden by man to practice it, yet
in their hearts, esteem the beauty, chastity, and purity of
God's exalted standard, and sincerely pray for the happy
time, when all the Father's laws may be honored nad
obeyed, that the race may be uplifted and glorified, and
our Father honored in the obedience and love of His
children.

ISAIAH 4.

1. And in that day, seven women shall take hold of

one man, saying, we will eat our own bread, and wear
our own apparel only let us be called by thy name to
;

take away our reproach.

2. In that day shall the branch of the Lord he
54 GOSPEL PROBLEMS
beautiful and glorious the fruit of the earth excellent
;

and comely to them that are escaped of Israel.

3. And it shall come to pass, them that are left in
Zion, and remain in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, every
one that is written among the living in Jerusalem.
4. When the Lord shall have washed away the filth
of the daughters of Zion and shall have purged the blood
of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judg-
ment and by the spirit of burning.
Under present conditions it would not take away the
reproach, but bring reproach upon them. Evidently
times and sentiments must change. There are great
destructions coming as evidenced by ''them that are es-
caped of Israel," and ''them that are left in Zion," after
which they are to be called holy," and "shall have washed
away the filth of the daughters of Zion." Evidently the
Lord takes a different view of this principle than the
world does today.
Opponents when driven from the right to interfere
on the ground of indecency to onlookers, will claim that it
is demoralizing and brutalizing to the participants them-
selves.
We ask in what respect? Does it play the
call into
selfish propensities, of their opposite? The greed
spirit of
or the spirit of sacrifice? We
know that in every com-
munity, whether males or females predominate, there are
numbers of females left on the shelf, or against the wall.
Many men do not care to assume the responsibility of a
family. Their home is under their hat, or wherever night
—
overtakes them a boarding house or club house is good
enough for them. But not so with the woman who should
have been mated with a good man. She is not satisfied
nor adapted to that kind of a life. Her goal is a HOME
and LOVED ONES. The class of girls left over, are not
usually, as some might suppose, the scum, but rather the
CREAM.
They are frequently those of intellect and character,
who by their energy and independence have an occupa-
tion, a competency, and consequently, do not feel to jump
at the first, or even the second offer of marriage unless it
is exactly suitable. They are a little independent until
they find themselves waning and so are obliged to "go it
 a

PROBLEMS OF THE AGE 55

alone" or take up with someone inferior to themselves —

companion to look down upon rather than up to. If
plural marriages were permissible many of these superior
women would prefer a FRACTIONAL share in an
EQUAL or SUPERIOR husband, than the WHOLE of
—
an INFERIOR one both for the personal association
and the superior children and grandchildren. All things
being equal, she would no doubt prefer this husband for
herself, but if all three are agreed, whose business is it?
W^hose rights are interferred with? Who is debased?
Does it not give that freedom and elasticity to mar-
riage for which the great philosopher Herbert Spencer
contends? Does not the first wife respond to a generous
impulse to share her husband and fortunes with another?
And if they all continue to live in that self-sacrificing
spirit, are they not the better for it? Children and all?
another claim superiority with the one that does?
G
How can the wife that refuses to share her husband with
We find many monogamous families averse to
—
polygamy also averse to a plurality of brothers and
sisters. They claim to have a much better time when
—
there are but a few, in a family more pleasure, more
wealth, more ease, more love of self. But we ask, is
a noble or exalting spirit? Either in parents or children?
Is it not the very reverse?
Then where is the debasing, brutalizing, degrading
degeneracy of plural marriage? Wives sharing their
husband in Holy Wedlock, sacrificing for each other's
welfare, children welcoming the brothers and sisters,
whether half or whole, with no thought of the division of
parental love or fortune.
But some will say this is ideal and not true in all
cases. But is not the tendency in that direction? Is it
not conducive of such results? A criterion is not to be
liad from extreme cases, in either monogamy or
polygamy. The true level is not attained from measure-
ments from the topmost crest of the tidal wave, nor yet
from the trough between the waves of the storm tossed
sea. The truth is found half way between the two ex-
trmes or the level o fa calm sea. Does it not occur to
;

the opponents of plural marriage that they are heart and

han dwith the lecherous and profligate? This may not
be positive proof that they are mistaken, but is it not
 —

56 GOSPEL PROBLEMS
significant? Or at least accumulative and supplementary
evidence ?
Is not this element a fly in their moral ointment?
Well may moralists look askance at birds of this feather,
as allies in their championship of decency. Are the
devils divided against their own kingdom? If so, how
can it stand? Does not every objection to plural mar-
riage appeal rather to the selfish side of our nature,
rather than to the better side? Is the argument not a
close kin to the objection, of the son or daughter's
objection to large monogamous families more respon- —
sibilities, more trials and sacrifices, and less of this
world's goods, less of the pleasures of this world? Is
trial and trouble an invinicble argument against polyg-
amy? If so, then the ease and freedom of bachelor life
must be fatal to married life. Then Malthus must be
rightwhen he says that the moral standard of any age or
community is measured by the number of children in- —
versely, the higher the birth rate, the lower the morals
the lower the birth rate, the higher the morals. By this
standard of measurement, Paris would be first and fore-
most in morals in this world, and Satan would stand for
—
highest morality in the next? the red light district the
ideal.

I some objection to any comparison of the

find
human family relations with the brute creation as being
unfair, and in fact incomparable, and of course now ;

while we must agree that there is a difference, that tliere

is love and jealousy, hate and envy, in the human family,
which must of course enter into our calculations, yet this
does not exclude the possibility of a reasonable analogy.
If there is no comparison possible here, then opponents
to prize fighting among men might still maintainthat
cock fighting and dog fighting as a sport was all right
that there could be no comparison of men fighting and
—
brutes fighting that there could be no comparison of
cruelty to animals and cruelty to humans, etc.
Now we maintain the only difference is in degree.
If it is bad a little worse in humans
in brutes it is if it is —
good in the brute creation, it is a little better in the
human family. The Lord makes a beautiful comparison
of the lost sheep with the lost child of our Heavenly
 PROBLEMS OF THE AGE 57

Father. He compares very appropriately, the Saints and

Sinners with Sheep and Goats, gathered on Hi sright and
left hand. Comparisons, at times may be odious, es-
—
pecially when opposed to our prejudices but right is
right, whether found on Christian or heathen ground.
—
Among brutes or humans all under the same law.
It may be argued that the principle of slavery is
tolerant and proper as between humans and the brute
creation, but decidedly intolerant and improper as be-
tween human beings. But the element of slavery be-
tween human and brute is beneficial to the brute for it —
is better cared for by its master than it can possibly care
for itself in a wild state. The excuse fo arbitrary power
over the brute is decidedly favorable to its condition, be-
cause its master knows better what is for its good than
it knows itself.
But not so in the relationship of human beings to
each other.
Parents may rightly exercise such power over
children, ordemented persons, but any such exercise over
—
our equals is presumptuous it interferes with free
agency it is slavery. Now polygamy is sometimes com-
;

—
pared with slavery the twdn relic of barbarism. But
this is unfair, because the element of slavery does not
enter into polygamy, but rather into enforced monogamy.
Lincoln says that slavery is predicated upon the
proposition that one man has a right to enslave another,
and a third party has no right to interfere. Now if
polygamy is the twin relic of slavery, as some people
claim, then it must be predicated upon the proposition
that two women may enslave one man, and a fourth
party has no right to interfere.
Many men refuse to marry, and when they insist that
the women who should have been their wives shall not
marry a man who already has a wife, they interfere arbi-
trarily and unjustly with the free agency of their equals.
They so consign their natural partners to a long fruit-
less life of spinsterhood.
m.ay be argued that the love, jealousy and envy
It
of the human
race justifies the difference of attitude in
the sexual relations of the human versus the animal.
But is envy and jealousy a virtue to be fostered and en-
couraged, or is it to be battled with and overcome? But
58 GOSPEL PROBLEMS
still the objector will affirm that polygamy encourages
and occasions jealousy; but will the objector Claim that
there is no such thing as jealousy under monogamy? In
that order of marriage are there no divorces ,no murders,
—
no suicides, no infanticides is all love and peace and
harmony? We believe the facts will show that these
evils are more prevalent in monogamy than in polygamy,
and more common in monogamous than in polygamous
communities. In strictly monogamous life the wife never
knows — not indeed supposed to know of her husband's
is
inclinations towards other women. If he has any, they
are sure to be clandestine, carefully hidden from her.
If she discovers it, it must be by accident or secret
espionage. She can never feel quite sure of her ground.
It is not so in a polygamous community, especially when
founded on a religious belief. The wife knows she is
safe — that if her husband has any inclinations to another,
he will let her know. There is no necessity for hiding it.
The occasion for jealousy is reduced to a minimum.
Neither need opponents fear that everybody would
rush into polygamy, should its practice be legal. For all
things being equal, women will prefer a whole husband
to a half or third. If she accepts a "fraction" depends
upon it, there are some mitigating circumstances.
Neither will a husband assume additional responsi-
bilities and further division of his time and means without
good cause. Legalized polygamy would afford that free-
dom and elasticity to the marriage relation to meet the
ebb and flow of the emmigrating tide that disturbs the
sectional equilibrium of the sexes, as well as the exigen-
cies of war.
Objectors to polygamy presume to know best what
is good
for their equals —
that is, if they can believe that
they have any equals.
Weconcede their right to decline marriage them-
selves, but we do not concede their right to say to the
women who should have been their wives, 'Thou shalt
not marry; because it is a gross violation of the principle
of free agency, which interferes injuriously with the
rights of others. With enforced monogamy, should go
compulsory marriage.
We allow that monogamy makes for ease and com-
—
fort, and a selfish worldly life and that polygamy makes
 PROBLEMS OF THE AGE 59

for increased responsibility, industry —

and economy the
crucifixion of self. But a very good and great man has
said, "Blessed be trouble," and a still greater one has
said, ''Blessed are those that mourn, for they shall be
comforted"
The best of ''books" says "The house of mournmg
:

is better than the house of feasting." The great writer

Victor Hugo says :"Happy even in the midst of anguish
is he to whom God has given a soul worthy of
love and
unhappiness. The soul that loves and suffers is in a
state of sublimity."
The wicked are incapable of such an attitude; with
their sufferings goes hate, with their troubles, "Curs-
ings." Not so with the righteous. "When through the
deep waters I call thee to go, the rivers of sorrow shall
not thee o'erflow. For I will be with thee, thy troubles
to bless, and sanctify to thee thy deepest distress."
The Lord Himself is known as "The Man of Sor-
rows," and suffered agony until He sweat blood. There
can be no victory without a battle— no crown without a
cross.

We often hear people bear testimony that they have

always been happy, and the returned missionaries so
universally bear testimony that their missionary experi-
ence has been the happiest part of their lives until it
has become almost automatum, or parrot like. They seem
to think that anything short of this would indicate failure
or weaknejfs. But how men can be so supremely happy
in the midst of a dying world, refusing to heed the mes-
sage of life and salvation is a puzzle.
The writer will say that he has been on several mis-
sions, and while he has experienced spells of joy and
gladness, and never been without faith and hope, yet
they have been the most solemn and sorrowful periods
of his life. How missionaries after unsuccessful attempts
to hold street meetings can go off to theatres, is a rnys-
tery to the writer. It has always seemed more appropriate
to go to our rooms to weep and pray.
True, Lehi says in the Book of Mormon, that man is,
that he might have joy. Yet this same man speaks of his
great sorrow. He said to his son Joseph, his last born in
the wilderness, that he was in the depth of his greatest
 ;

60 GOSPEL PROBLEMS
sorrow when his mother bore him. His son Nephi says
his pillow is wet at night and he *'is left to mourn because
of the unblief and the wickedness of men." (2 Nephi,
32:7.) Jacob says we live after a manner of happiness,
but we are a lonesome and solemn people, and thus we
mourn out our days. Jesus Christ was and is known to
this day as 'The Man of Sorrows."
Lincoln was a man of sorrows with a melancholy
countenance, but he said, *'It is difficult to make a man
miserable who feels worthy of himself, and has faith in
the kinship of the God who made him." There is a dif-
ference between sorrow and misery. A man may properly
be sorrowful and unhappy and yet not miserable. The
wicked and ungodly are usually hilarious and happy to
all outward appearances, and seem to enjoy life to the
full; and every man's way is right in his own eyes, but
God pondereth the heart; and He says, "The house of
mourning is better than the house of feasting, for by the
sadness of the countenance the heart is made better."
Continual sunshine breeds drouth and famine and
continual storm winter and death. The ideal weather
that is productive of life and peace is a mixture of sun-
shine and rain either one without the other is a curse
;

famine or flood. Then let us not think for one moment

that a successful life is necessarily predicated upon unal-
loyed joy and happiness, for God Himself is full of sor-
rows, and commands His Saints to refrain from all light-
mindedness and loud laughter.

We are in the midst of perilous times. Heavy judg-

ments hang over us. no time for dancing and sing-
It is
ing, (except the songs of Zion) and feasting and frivolity.
They lead to light-mindedness and away from the things
of God. They are as much out of our harmony with the
solemnity of the time, as the dancing and singing of
Laman and Lemuel and their wives on the ship during
its perilous voyage to the promised land just as much
;

out of attune as the dancing, card-playing and chequers,

and dominoes in the camp of the Pioneers, under the
leadership of Brigham Young in search of a mountain
home for modern Israel. The Lord says, "Let your every
thought be unto me." Doctrine and Covenant,
"und let the solem^ilties of eternity rest upon yoti."
 PROBLEMS OF THE AGE 61

Seventy years of our bondage is completed, and the

half hour of silence in Heaven almost completed. We
are looking for a second Daniel, or, like Moses to lead us
out of bondage, set the church in order (the order of
Enoch) and allot the inheritances of the Saints. One
Mighty and Strong, like unto Moses. Drunken with the
wine of the wrath of her fornication she called for the
vessels of Honor (Church leaders) of God's Holy House,
in the Court of Chancery, and the Smoot case, and pol-
luted and prostituted these vessels to their unholy pur-
poses in their mad endeavor to destroy the work of
God in the earth. Our leaders were seduced in testifying
that the Manifesto was as broad as this law of the land,
and meant that sacred covenants with plural wives would
be broken. Presidents Smith and Lyman were both be-
guiled into testifying they were living in violation of
both the laws of the land and of God. Apostle Smoot
excused himself for taking the endowment on the grounds
of youth, and persuasions of his father, and had never
taken them a second time. J. E. Talmage gave it as his
opinion that any woman entering plural marriage since
the manifesto was impure and living in adultry.
But the handwriting is on the wall. Babylon is to
fall and her kingdom superceded by another — even the
Kingdom of God. The "time of trouble such as never
was since there was a nation" is at hand. There is but
one sure remedy for the industrial troubles that are brew
ing, and that is the Order of Enoch. The next best is
— —
Conservative Socialism the Belling System then Bol-
shevism and Anarchy. If the world will not accept the
first, God's Order, nor the second, Man's Order, they
— —
must take the last Satan's Order anarchy death there
;

is no alternative. The Lord will not suffer the world to

go on in its mad revelry. The fashions of Paris and the
policies of Wall Street are an abomination to him, and
must come to an end. If the Latter-day Saints will not
voluntarily come to this Order they will come willingly,
as they came to these mountains of Ephraim, because
they had to. Truly "the Lord moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform.
Let us read of God's purposes and cures for these
industrial disorders as recorded in the Holy Scriptures,
and if they are too dry, let us take the next best as
 :

62 GOSPEL PROBLEMS
recorded in such books as "Looking Backward, or
—
Equality," by Edward Belleny. But it is no time for
light literature that leads away from the things of God.
Let us attend our Fast meetings, and solemn assemblies,
and let theatres and vaudevilles alone for they tend to
;

alienate our thoughts from God, and the solemnities of

—
the times, even the fullness of times. Even the best
of our theatres usually tend to evil. They display the
worst of Paris dress, or lack of dress. The heroes of the
stage clink their glasses and drink to each others health
in the most approved fashion they light their cigars with
;

a sportive flourish, and puff their smoke appealingly

scientific. Their adroit use of "dam" and "hell" is ap-
provingly commended by the ripple of merriment over
the audience as a fine strain of humor. What effect
must these things have upon the youth of Zion? And
even upon the older generation, who are admonished
"Be ye Holy that bear the bessels of the Lord?" Con-
sidering the signs of the times, portending the mighty
and solemn purposes of the Lord, what manner of men
ought we to be? Truly our every thought should be
unto the Lord, and the solemnities of eternity should
rest upon us.

Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver and
the gold broken to pieces together, and became like the
chaff of the summer threshing floors, and the wind car-
ried them away, and no place was found for them; and
the stone that smote the image became a great mountain
and filled the whole earth.
And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay,
they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men, but
they shall not cleave one to another even as iron is not
mixed with clay.

The solicitations of the Doctors of political science

over this great image of the kingdoms of the world, re-
minds me of Mark Twain's story of the Kardiff Giant.
The ghost of this old giant had been haunting Mark
Twain's sleeping apartments with clamoring chains and
hideous incantations night after night, until Twain in-
quired of the object of these nocturnal raids, upon which
the huge ghost pathetically related his solicitations and
concern over the decent burial of his dead body, then on
 ;

PROBLEMS OF THE AGE 63

exhibition in a near dime museum. Imagine his chagrin

and humiliating mortification to learn that the object of
his mental agony was not his body at all, but only a
Paris plaster cast. But the ghost had the honor and
honesty to acknowledge his mistake, beg pardon for
his nocturnal intrusions, and beg Twain not to let this
story get out on him.
Now if these Doctors of political science in Paris,
—
fussing over this old plaster Paris image, or rather
hetrogeneous conglomeration of gold and silver, brass,
iron and clay, would be equally honest as this old guile-
less ghost, they would acknowledge they w^ere on the
wrong track and immediately adjourn, sine die, or make
arrangements for a decent burial, or at least re-
move it from the operating table to the disecting room
for the benefit of the doctors of civil government and
<livinity. If they would just give their bibles a cursory
glance, they would see the futility of any operations for
a permanent cure that all opiates, narcotics and stim-
;

ulants are but so much quack nostrums for temporary

relief. According to the Prophet Daniel, this old worn
out image of the kingdoms of this world is to become as
the chaff of the summer threshing floor, and no place
found for them. But they are not as honest as this ghost
of the Kardiff Giant. They will not acknowledge a mis-
take when it is pointed out to them in the bible they
pretend to believe, but go on fulfilling these dire predic-
tions upon their own heads. The Kingdom of God, cut
out of the mountain without hands is the only thing to
survive the coming industrial storm.

When the United Order is suggested as a remedy

for the industrial troubles threatening, many, if not a
majority of the Saints will respond that this has been
tried time and again and in every case proven a failure
that it offers no incentive to financial activity, etc. Now
let us investigate and enquire into the matter. Is God
mistaken and His plan a dismal failure? It seems to
have worked in the days of Enoch. It worked very suc-
cessfully for 200 years among the Nephites on this con-
tinent after Christ's visit to them following His res-
surrection. If it can be made to work 200 years it can
be made to work 2,000 years; and it must work for 1,000
 —!

64 GOSPEL PROBLEMS
years, for the Lord has so decreed and woe be unto the
;

man or set of men, who seek to thwart the purposes of

the Almighty.
What actuates men to effort in the accumulation of
wealth under the present order of finance. It is the
love of self. But the Lord has commanded us to love our
neighbor as ourselves, and when we comply with that
commandment, we will labor for our neighbor just as we
do now for ourselves there will be the same incentive as
;

there is now under this selfish order. We work for our

families just as we work for ourselves, because we love
them as we love ourselves, and we will do the same thing
whe we come to love our neighbor as ourselves. We can-
not get away from this logic. It is so plain and simple
that a fool cannot ere therein. When we claim to love
God with all our mind, might and strength, and do not
love our neighbor we make ourselves liars, for God has
said so through His beloved disciple St. John. When we
say we love God, and yet do not love our neighbor suf-
ficent to seek his welfare in the United Order, we pass
—
a verdict on ourselves we become our own accusers
our own judges. Zion can never be built up except under
the Celestial order of this law, worlds without end, and
God will never come to live and rule among us until we
learn to live it. If we will not come to it willingly we
must then learn obedience by the things we suffer. "And
blessed are they who shall seek to bring about my Zion
at that day for they shall have the gift and power of
the Holy Ghost." I Nephi, 13 :37.
Under the present system of finance men will go on
accumulating means when they already have ten times
more than they need or can use judiciously; and for why?
Because they imagine it is smart, an evidence of super-
iority and that by so doing they obtain the honors of
men and are loked up to as smart financiers. But all is
vanity and vexation of heart, for but few will give them
sincere respect and honor. Many will regard them as
greedy. Selfish and even dishonest. Under the United
Order men putting forth the same effort will receive
full credit in love and honor from their fellow man with-
out suspicion of greed or selfishness. How much more
satisfactory will be such esteem than the doubtful honors
that come from the present man made scheme of finance
 —
PROBLEMS OF THE AGE 65

Under present conditions these honors are sought after

through the useless methods of buying cheap and selHng
dear; or speculating in some way that is not productive
or real wealth, but shrewd practices by which wealth is
diverted from the real producers into their own coffers
worse than a waste of energy for it is conducive of con-
gestion of wealth that is harmful to the whole com-
munity.
Men isolated, like Robinson Crusoe would be ac-
counted as crazy if they undertook to accumulate so
much more than they needed even though they obtained
it by honest work —
the labor of their own hands. Can-
did and sensible reflection can lead to but one conclu-
sion that the United Order
; —
God's Order is the only
way to obtain the love of God and man in a genuine sub-
stantial way; that our present methods are vanity and
vexation of heart and must come to an end.

The Lord says : I, the Lord, am angry with the

wicked; I amholding my spirit from the inhabitants of
the earth." Doctrine and Covenants, Section 63 :32. Not
the Germans only, or the Central Powers, but the in-
habitants of the earth generally. In Section 52:14, He
says: "And again I give unto you a pattern in all things,
that ye may not be deceived, for Satan is abroad in the
land, and he goeth forth deceiving the nations." Now if
these passages of scripture are true, what propriety or
safety is there for Latter-day Saints in moving along in
perfect harmony, with the inhabitants of the earth, de-
void of the spirit of God, or these wicked nations deceived
by Satan? He further says, I have sworn in my wrath,
and decreed wars upon the face of the earth, and the
wicked shall slay the wicked, and fear shall come upon
every man, and the Saints shall hardly escape." In fact
they would not escape, but sink to the same level and
suffer the same fate as other Churches, except He "cut
His work short in righteousness." In Section 52 :11, "For
thus sayeth the Lord, I will cut my work short in right-
eousness, for the days cometh that I will send forth
—
judgments unto victory" judgments of mob-law and
—
anarchy, to the victory of His Order, the United Order,
or the Order of Enoch. His Saints "must learn obedience
if it must needs be by the things they suffer." When the
66 GOSPEL PROBLEMS
fullness of the Gentiles comes in, and their cup of iniquity-
is full,He will turn them to the hardness of their hearts
and blindness of their minds, even unto bringing them
down unto destruction, both temporally and spiritually."
I Nephi 14:7. Both labor and capital will be so hard of
heart and blind of mind that like blind Samson they
will pull the pillars, people and all down on their own
heads. The destruction of their chariots (railroads) will
destroy their cities and strongholds, and the United
Order will be the only salvation for the Saints.
The very vitals of civiliation are jeopardied today by
the industrial troubles that issue through the inequality
and injustices that exist between capital and labor; and
yet when we talk about the United Order as a remedy,
many, if not most of the Saints will say it never was a
success and never will be we prefer to take chances
;

with Bolshivism and anarchy and mob-law than to live

in the Order of Enoch. Even the faithful (?) will say,
*Tt will never come in my day, nor in your day." And
yet the brethren will say all is well in Zion, yea, Zion
prospers, all is well.
Statistics show that before this great war that from
one-fourth to one-third of the children of Europe were
born illigitimate. Since the war the condition is inten-
sified by the addition of millions of widows and mateless
maidens. The world is apprehensive and solicitious of
results. The Salt Lake Telegram invited correspond-
ence with a view of elucidating the question as to the
advisability of adopting polygamy as a remedy. One
Latter-day Saint (?) woman said: "Better let the race
die out than revert to polygamy." And 100,000 of pro-
fessed Latter-day Saints pretending to believe in Joseph
Smith the Prophet will endorse this attitude without res-
ervation. And yet the brethren will cray "All is well in
Zion, yea, Zion prospers, all is well, (2 Nephi 28:24, 25.

EXTRACT FROM "MARTYRDOM OF JOSEPH

STANDING."
By John Nicholson.
On being asked whether he had anything to say why
sentence should not be passed, upon him, Brother Snow
read the following:
 PROBLEMS OF THE AGE dl

"Your honor, I wish to address this court kindly,

respectfully, and especially without giving offense. Dur-
ing my trials, under three indictments, the court has man-
ifested courtesy and patience, and I trust your honor has
still a liberal supply, from which your prisoner at the
bar indulges the hope that further exercise of those happy
qualities may be anticipated. In the first place the court
will please allow me to express mythanks and gratitude
to mylearned attorneys for their able and zealous efforts
in conducting my defense.
"In reference to the prosecuting attorney, Mr. Bier-
bower, I pardon him for his ungenerous expressions, his
apparent false coloring, and seeming abuse. The entire
lack of evidence in the case against me on which to argue,
made that line of speech the only alternative in which
to display his eloquence yet, in all his endeavors, he
;

failed to cast more obloquy on me than was heaped upon

our Savior.
"I stand in the presence of this court a loyal, free-
born American citizen now, as ever, a true advocate of
;

justice and liberty. 'The land of the free, and the home
of the brave,' has been the pride of my youth and the
boast of my riper years. When abroad in foreign lands,
laboring in the interest of humanity, I have pointed
proudly to the land of my birth as an asylum for the
oppressed.
"I have ever felt tohonor the laws and institutions
of my country, and during the progress of my trials,
whatever evidence has been introduced, has shown my
innocence. But, like ancient Apostles when arraigned
in Pagan courts, and in the presence of apostate Hebrew
judges, though innocent, they were pronounced guilty.
So myself, an Apostle who bears witness by virtue of his
calling and the revelations of God, that Jesus lives—that
He is the Son of God though guiltless of crime, here
;

in a Christian court I have been convicted through the

prejudice and popular sentiment of a so-called Christian
nation.
"In ancient times the Jewish nation and the Roman
empire stood versus the Apostles. Now, under an apos-
tate Christianity, the United States of America stands
versus Apostle Lorenzo Snow.
68 GOSPEL PROBLEMS
"Inasmuch as frequent reference has been made to
my Apostleship, by the prosecution, it becomes proper
for me to explain some essential qualifications of an
Apostle.
"First, an Apostle must possess a Divine knowledge,
—
by revelation from God, that Jesus lives that He is the
Son of the living God.
"Secondly, he must be divinely authorized to promise
the Holy Ghost; a divine principle that reveals the things
of God, making known His will and purposes, leading in-
to all truth, and showing things to come, as declared by
the Savior.
"Thirdly, he is commissioned by the power of God
to administer the sacred ordinances of the Gospel, which
are confirmed to each individual by a divine testimony.
Thousands of people now dwelling in these mountain
vales, who received these ordinances through my admin-
istrations, are living witnesses of the truth of this state-
ment.
"As an Apostle, I have visited many nations and
kingdoms, bearing this testimony to all classes of people
—to men in the highest official stations, among whom
may be mentioned a President of the French republic. I
have also presented works embracing our faith and doc-
trine to Queen Victoria and the late Prince Albert, of
England.
"Respecting the doctrine of plural or celestial mar-
riage, to which the prosecution so often referred, it was
revealed to me, and afterwards, in 1843, fully explained to
me by Joseph Smith, the Prophet.
"I married my wives because God commanded it.
The. ceremony, which united us for time and eternity, was
performed by a servant of God having authority. God
being my helper, I would prefer to die a thousand deaths
than renounce my wives and violate these sacred obli-
gations.
"The prosecuting attorney was quite mistaken in
saying 'the defendant, Mr. Snow, was the most scholarly
and brightest light of the Apostles;' and equally wrong
when pleading with the jury to assist him and the 'United
States of America,' in convicting Apostle Snow, and he
'would predict that a new revelation would soon follow,
changing the Divine law of celestial marriage." What-
 PROBLEMS OF THE AGE 69

ever fame Mr. Bierbower may have secured as a lawyer,

he certainly will fail as a prophet. The severest prose-
cutions have never been followed by revelations changing
a divine law, obedience to which brought imprisonment
or martyrdom.
'Though I go to prison, God will not change his law
of celestial marriage. But the man, the people, the
nation, that oppose and fight against this doctrine and
the Church of God will be overthrown.
"Though the Presidency of the Church and the
Twelve Apostles should suffer martyrdom, there will
remain over four thousand Seventies, all Apostles of the
Son of God, and were these to be slain there still would
remain many thousands of High Priests, and as many
or more Elders, all possessing the same authority to ad-
minister Gospel ordinances.
"In conclusion, I solemnly testify, in the name of
Jesus, the so-called 'Mormon Church' is the Church of
the living God; established on the rock of revelation,
against which 'the gates of hell cannot prevail.'
"Thanking your honor for your indulgence, I am
now ready to receive my sentence."

REVELATION GIVEN THROUGH PRESIDENT

JOHN TAYLOR.
At Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, Oct. 13, 1882.
Thus saith the Lord to the Twelve, and to the Priest-
hood and people of my Church Let my servants George
:

Teasdale and Heber J. Grant be appointed to fill the

vacancies in the Twelve that you may be fully organized
and prepared for the labors devolving upon you, for you
have a great work to perform and then proceed to fill up
;

the presiding quorum of Seventies and assist in organ-

izing that body of my priesthood who are your co-labor-
ers in the ministry. You may appoint Seymour B. Young
to fill up the vacancy ii ^he presiding quorum of Seven-
ties if he will conform to my law for it is not meet
; that
men who will not abide my
law shall preside over my
Priesthood and then proceed forthwith and call to your
;

aid any assistance that you may require from among the
Seventies to assist in your labors in introducing and
70 GOSPEL PROBLEMS
maintaining the Gospel among the Lamanites throughout
the land. And then let High Priests be selected, under
the direction of the First Presidency, to preside over the
various organizations that shall exist among this people,
that those who receive the Gospel may be taught in the
doctrine of my church and in the ordinances and laws
thereof, and also in things pertaining to my Zion and my
Kingdom, saith the Lord, that they may be one with
you in my Church and my Kingdom. Let the Presidency
of my Church be one in all things and let the Twelve be
;

one also in all things and let them all be one with me as
;

I am one with the Father.

And let the High Priests organize themselves, and

purify themselves, and prepare themselves for this labor,
and for all other labors that they may be called upon to
fulfill.

Andlet the Presidents of Stakes also purify them-

and the Priesthood and people of the Stakes over
selves,
which they preside, and organize the Priesthood in their
various stakes according to my law, in all of the various
departments thereof, in the High Councils, in the Elder'
Quorums, and in the Bishops and their Councils, and in
the quorums of the priests, teachers, and deacons, that
every quorum may be fully organized according to the
order of my church, and then let them inquire into the
standing and fellowship of all that hold my holy Priest-
hood in their several stakes and if they find those that
;

are unworthy, let them remove them, except they repent,

for my priests whom I have called and whom I have
sustained and honored shall honor me and obey the laws
of my holy priesthood, or they shall not be considered
worthy to hold my priesthood, saith the Lord. And let
my priesthood humble themselves before me, and seek
not their own will but my will; for if my priesthood
whom I have chosen and called and endowed with the
spirit and gifts of their several callings and with the
powers thereof do not acknowledge me, I will not ac-
knowledge them saith the Lord, for I will be honored and
obeyed by my priesthood.
And then, I call upon my
priesthood and upon all
of my people, to repent of their sins and shortcomings, of
their coveteousness and pride, and self-will and of all
 PROBLEMS OF THE AGE 71

their iniquities wherein they sin against me and seek

;

with allhumility to fulfill my law, as my priesthood, my

saints and my people and I call upon the heads of fam-
;

ilies to put their houses in order according to the law of

God, and attend to the various duties and responsibilities
associated therewith, and to purify themselves before me,
and to purge out inquiity from their households, and I
will bless and be with you, saith the Lord, and ye shall
gather together in your holy places, wherein ye assemble
to call upon me, and ye shall ask for such things as are
right and I will hear your prayers, and my spirit and
power shall be with you, and my blessings shall rest upon
you, your families, your dwellings, and your households,
upon your flocks and herds, and fields, your orchards
and vineyards, and upon all that pertains to you; and you
shall be my people and I will be your God ;and your
enemies shall not have dominion over you, for I will pre-
serve you and confound them, saith the Lord, and they
shall not have j^ower or dominion over you, for my word
shall go forth, and my work shal be accomplished, and
my Zion shall be established and my rule and my power
and my dominion shall prevail among my people, and all
nations shall yet acknowledge me. Even so, Amen.

THE MANIFESTO.
—
To whom it may concern Press dispatches having
:

been sent for political purposes, from Salt Lake City,

which have been widely published, to the effect that the
Utah Commission, in their recent report to the Secretary
of the Interior, allege that plural marriages are still being
solemnized, and that forty or more such marriages have
been contracted since last June, or during the last year;
Church
also that in public discourses, the leaders of the
have taught and encouraged and urged the continuance
of the practice of polygamy; I therefore, as President of
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, do here-
by, in the most solemn manner, declare that these charges
are false. We are not teaching polygamy or plural mar-
riage, nor permitting any person to enter into its practice,
and I deny that either forty or any other number of
plural marriages have, during that period, been solem-
72 GOSPEL PROBLEMS
nized in our Temples, or in any other place in the Ter-
ritory.
One case has been reported in which the party al-
leged that the marriage was performed in the endow-
ment house, in Salt Lake City, in the spring of 1889, but I
have not been able to learn who performed the ceremony-,
whatever was done in this matter was without my knowl-
edge. In consequence of this alleged occurrence the en-
dowment house was, by my instructions, taken down
without delay.
Inasmuch as laws have been enacted by Congress
forbidding plural marriages, which laws have been pro-
nounced constitutional by the court of last resort, I here-
by declare my intentions to submit to those laws, and to
use my influence with the members of the Church over
which I preside, to have them to do likewise.
There is nothing in my teachings to the Church, or
in those of my associates, during the period specified,
which can reasonably be construed to inculcate or en-
courage polygamy, and when any Elder of the Church
has used language which appeared to convey such teach-
ing, he has been promptly reproved. And I now publicly
declare that my advise to the Latter-day Saints is to re-
frain from contracting any marriage forbidden by the
law of the land.
WILFORD WOODRUFF,
President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints.