Sinners and Saints: A Tour Across the States and Round Them, with Three Months Among the MormonsRobinson, Phil
General
Sinners and Saints: A Tour Across the States and Round Them, with Three Months Among the Mormons
Robinson, Phil
Latter Day Saint churches; Utah -- Description and travel; West (U.S.) -- Description and travel
But the Mormons, as I have already shown, do not admit this simplicity
in the solution at all. From the point of view of the law-makers,
they allow that the option before them is very commonplace. But the
law-makers, they say, have omitted to take into consideration certain
facts which complicate the solution. For though, as I have said,
the majority may be expected to accept such qualified martyrdom as
is offered, and "await the Lord's time", yet there can be no doubt
whatever that strict Mormons will not acquiesce in the suppression of
their doctrines, and among so many who are strict is it reasonable to
expect that there will be no violent advisers? Their teachers have
perpetually taught them, and their leaders assured them that prophecy
had found its fulfilment in the establishment of the Church in Utah.
Here, and nowhere else, the Saints are to await "the fulness of time"
when the whole world shall yield obedience to their government, and
reverence to their religion. The Rocky Mountains, and no other, are
"the mountains" of Holy Writ where "Zion" was to be built; and they,
the Mormons, are the remnant of Ephraim that are to welcome and pass
on the returning Jews. How, then, can the Saints reconcile themselves
to another exodus? Mexico, they say, would welcome them; but if the
richest lands in the world, and all the privileges they ask for were
offered them, they could not stultify revelation and prophecy by
accepting the offer. Moreover, they have been assured times without
number that they should never be "driven" again, and times without
number that their enemies "shall not prevail against them." To many,
to most, this, of course, now points to some interposition of Divine
Providence in their favour. The crisis may seem dangerous, and the
opposition to them overwhelming. But they are convinced--it is no
mere matter of opinion with them--that if they are only patient under
persecution and keep on living their religion, the persecution will
cease, and the triumph of their faith be fulfilled. Europe and America,
they believe, are about to be involved in terrific disasters. Wars of
unprecedented magnitude are to be waged, and natural catastrophes,
unparalleled in history, are to occur. But, in the midst of all
this shock of thrones, this convulsion of the elements, Zion on the
Mountains is to be at peace and in prosperity. It will be the one still
harbour in all the ocean of troubles, and to it, as to their final
haven, all the elect of all the nations are to gather. The prudent,
therefore, looking forward to this apocalypse of general ruin, counsel
submission to the passing storm, endurance under legal penalties, and
fidelity to their doctrine.
But all are not prudent. Every Gethsemane has its Peter. And from that
memorable garden they draw a lesson. The Saviour, they say, meant
fighting, but when he saw that resistance to such odds as came against
him could have only ended in the massacre of his disciples, he went to
prison.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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