The Women of MormondomTullidge, Edward W. (Edward William)
History
The Women of Mormondom
Tullidge, Edward W. (Edward William)
Latter Day Saint churches -- History; Latter Day Saints -- History; Polygamy
Now comes the supplemental story of this boy-elder, that he is out in
the world preaching the gospel without purse or scrip, that he has
eaten nothing that day since breakfast, that he has journeyed miles and
is tired out, and that he has no place in which to lay his head that
night.
The mother and her daughters whisper. They have conceived an idea that
will exactly fit that poor boy's case. Father is approached. At first
he will not listen to the proposition; but at last he yields. What else
could he do? When did woman fail if her sympathies were enlisted? To
their home the boy-missionary is taken. A supper is gleaned from the
humble peasant's leavings. Water is furnished to bathe the sore and
blood-stained feet. The woman is half converted by the sight of so much
youthful heroism. Mother and daughters dream of the boy-missionary that
night.
'Tis a simple story; but from that house Mormonism is destined to
spread through all the village, until the aged clergyman, educated
at college, in his pulpit which he has occupied for a quarter of a
century, fears that boy as much as a second Goliath might have feared
the stripling David.
And thus Mormonism ran from village to town, and from town to city;
carried, of course, to the larger places by the "veterans;" but in all
cases very similar. How much the sisters--mothers and daughters--had to
do in this work may be seen at a glance.
But the most salient view to be taken of Mormonism abroad is, as the
great spiritual movement of the age. The reader may be assured that it
was the beautiful themes of a new dispensation--themes such as angels
might have accompanied with their hosannas--that charmed disciples
into the Mormon Church. Spiritual themes and the gifts of the Holy
Ghost were what converted the tens of thousands in Great Britain; not
a cold materialism, much less a sensual gospel. Even to the simplest,
who scarcely knew the meaning of idealities, the spiritual and the
ideal of Mormonism were its principal charms. Indeed, it is to the
fact that Mormonism was, in its missionary history, such a unique and
extraordinary spiritual, and yet matter-of-fact, movement, that it owes
its principal and rare successes.
In America, the splendid ambitions of empire-founding, the worldly
opportunities presented by a migrating people and a growing
commonwealth, sometimes charmed the dominating mind; but in the foreign
missions, especially in Great Britain, where it received its highest
intellectual interpretation from elders who championed it on the public
platform against the best orthodox disputants in the land, it was
Mormonism as a great spiritual work that captivated most, and above all
it was this aspect of it that most captivated the sisterhood. In this
view, and in this view only, can the explanation be found of how it
took such a deep and lasting hold upon the female portion of society.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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