Scrap Book of Mormon Literature (Vol. 1 of 2): Religious Tracts
Religion
Scrap Book of Mormon Literature (Vol. 1 of 2): Religious Tracts
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- Doctrines; Latter Day Saint churches -- Doctrines; Latter Day Saints
"Christians" and their religion.
No prejudice is so cruel as that growing out of religious controversy.
At any rate, we know that the most cruel wars {174} have risen through
a determination to resist religious innovations, or efforts to reform
religious systems. While the acts of inhuman cruelty, which most
disgrace our race, have been perpetrated in vain endeavors to suppress
what have been considered heresies, and silence their advocates. In
short, the most unrelenting hatred, the most lasting prejudices have
grown out of differences in religious opinions. The Messiah, doubtless,
was guided as much by His knowledge of human nature as He was by
inspiration when He exclaimed:
"Think not that I have come to bring peace upon earth; I came not
to send peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man at variance
against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the
daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes shall
be they of his own household" (Matt. x, 34-36).
It is because "Mormonism" involves a religious controversy that the
prejudices against it are so deep seated, and the misrepresentation of
its devotees so persistent.
Joseph Smith, in his youth, announced a new revelation from God; and as
the Christian world had been, and are, taught that no more revelation
is to be given, that the Bible contains all that God ever did, and all
that He ever will reveal to man, the proclamation that God had again
spoken aroused the ire of the religious teachers of that day, and when,
in spite of their efforts to stay its progress, they saw the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints increasing in numbers and influence,
these pseudo religious teachers sought to overwhelm with falsehood,
misrepresentation and slander what they could not overcome with reason
and fairness. And the absurd, childish stories then invented by
religious opponents of "Mormonism" they still rehashed with variations
to suit ever shifting conditions, the mass constantly growing as fast
as new falsehoods or distorted facts can be marshalled into service.
On this point I quote the following from the _New York World_ of recent
date. The _World_ is one of the leading journals of America, and, in
giving an epitome of the history and faith of the "Mormons," it said:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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