Consider that there are today 1,700 young Mormons tramping over this continent in city, town and hamlet--young men who are so circumspect in all their deportment that not even the most bitter enemies of their faith have the hardihood to raise their voices against them--young men who are steadily making the fundamental principles of their faith known to the people. There has been nothing like it in the world for hundreds of years, nothing in so-called Christian countries since the steady persistence of the Protestants on the continent and in Great Britain, and it is going to produce great results. The Mormons might be called the non-Conformists of this country and in spite of all efforts to the contrary they are going to wield an influence upon its future. One of the Utah men in Washington fighting the Mormons was honest enough to tell the truth when he said in a public meeting: "It is not polygamy but Mormonism we want to check." But it won't check or {167} warp and is growing, and I write with a growing interest in its success. In 1718 there came 900 non-Conformists from Ulster county, Ireland, to Boston. They were Scotch-Irish Protestants seeking religious freedom. They introduced the Irish potato in New England. Some of them gave to older Yankees a few potatoes with instructions for planting them. They grew, blossomed, and bore fruit, but the Yankees cooked the seed balls and said they found them anything but good. Next spring when spading up their gardens they found the potato crop. Mormonism presented to Christian sects a new theological potato, so to speak. They tried it, ate the wrong end of the growth and denounced it. But there will come a new spring in which old sectarian gardens will be plowed up and then the real fruits of Mormonism will be discovered--and will be found to be both palatable and healthful. "_Where there is no change of priesthood, there is no change of ordinances, says Paul. If God has not changed the ordinances and the priesthood, howl ye sectarians! If He has, when and where has He revealed it? Have ye turned revelators? Then why deny revelation_?" --_Joseph Smith, The Prophet_. "_All who live according to the best principles in their possession, or that they can understand, will receive peace, glory, comfort, joy, and a crown that will be far beyond what they are anticipating. They will not be lost_." --_Brigham Young_. {168} Prophets and Apostles Necessary. By the Late President, George Q. Cannon, in Millennial Star, 1866.