The Religious Life of LondonRitchie, J. Ewing (James Ewing)
Religion
The Religious Life of London
Ritchie, J. Ewing (James Ewing)
London (England) -- Religion; Religious thought -- England -- London
The principal place of worship of the Mormons or Latter-day Saints is in
the Commercial Road, but there are others; one of them is in George
Street, Gower Street. In that locality there is a very shabby dancing
saloon, from which the graces seem long since to have departed. At three
o’clock every Sunday afternoon the Mormons assemble there. On a raised
platform may be seen seated some seven or eight men, apparently decent
workmen. Below them is a table, around which are a few lads, who set the
tunes and take round the sacrament, which is administered every Sunday to
all, including any strangers and children who may feel disposed to
partake of it. Benches fill up the rest of the room, which are occupied
chiefly by females with their families—including, of course, the baby,
the inevitable feature in all gatherings of the lower orders. All seem
enthusiastic and very friendly, and wretchedly poor. Their idea of
Mormonism seems to be chiefly that of a successful emigration scheme,
only mixed up with a little of the religious phraseology, which is most
fluently uttered unfortunately by the unthinking masses to whom words do
not represent ideas. You might fancy as you enter that you had made a
mistake, and got amongst the Primitive Methodists. The hymns are very
much the same, and so is frequently the style of prayer. Sermon there is
none, but instead you have addresses, the burden of which is generally of
one kind. The speaker is thankful that at last he has known the Lord,
and wishes he had done more for Him, and hopes, if health and strength be
spared, to do more. There is also generally an address of a wider
character. The Lord is calling them out of this country, where the
Gentiles have the rule over them, and they are to hasten, old and young,
to the City of the Saints. They are to pay their debts, mend their old
clothes, save all they can, and then those that cannot pay for their
voyage will be helped to join the settlement in Utah. Apart from the
prayers and hymns, these meetings seem secular rather than spiritual,—to
have reference more to this world, than the next. If, as it seems to me,
the Mormonites in this country have had a Methodist training, they have
managed to eliminate pretty completely the Methodist theology; but,
perhaps, they treat it as they do the Bible. The Mormons profess to
believe in it, at the same time they omit its spiritual teaching
altogether. Their theology may be best explained in one of their own
hymns:—
“The God that others worship is not the God for me,
He has neither part nor body, and cannot hear and see;
But I’ve a God that lives above,
A God of power and love,
A God of Revelation,—Oh, that’s the God for me!
Oh! that’s the God for me; oh! that’s the God for me.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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