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Show Joseph's Other Marks of a False Prophet. <br> Besides his unworthy character and life, another mark of a false prophet is the use of his pretended gifts to enrich and aggrandize himself. Joseph Smith had been president of the church but a short time when he attempted to enrich himself by swindling the people, in and around Kirtland, through a bogus bank which he established. To escape the sheriff he fled to Missouri between two days and never returned. He was also interested in mills, tanneries and corner lots, both in Kirtland and Nauvoo. <br> Another mark of a false prophet is the concentrating in his own hands, by means of his pretended gifts, of all the power and authority he can lay hold of, secular and ecclesiastical. Joseph Smith, while living in Nauvoo, was not content to be president of the church; he was also mayor of the city, judge of the mayor's court, chief justice of the municipal court and lieutenant general of the Nauvoo legion. Not content with these various political offices, in 1844 he became a candidate for president of the United States. Like Mahomet and Dowie, he demonstrated that he was a false prophet by always seeking to aggrandize himself. God's true prophets were not men of that stamp. I have now given the abundant and conclusive evidence to show that Joseph Smith was a false prophet, and should be dropped by the Mormon people, for the Bible teaches that those who uphold a false prophet will not go unpunished. <br> (2) Another reason why the Mormon people should drop Joseph Smith as a prophet is because, during the fourteen years he pretended to act as a prophet and received "revelations" from God, he never taught the people one solitary item of moral or spiritual truth which he did not pilfer from the Bible, and then dishonestly attempted to palm it off as coming from himself as a prophet. <br><br> Evil Fruits Indicate Corrupt Tree. <br> (3) Finally, the Mormon people should at once and forever abandon Joseph Smith as a prophet because the fruits of his teachings and unworthy example have been nothing but a curse and burden to the people from 1830 until the present hour. By following Joseph Smith, a very few persons are maintained in wealth and power, but the mass of the people constantly suffer from the curse of these teachings. <br> By the false and unscriptural teachings of Joseph Smith, the people have been cursed and burdened in their social life. The bogus revelation about polygamy and the attempt to put it in practice, have brought to the women of Utah and their children more anguish of soul, more heart-breaking sorrow than all their other hardships and trials combined-and all brought upon them by persistent deception and falsehood. Any Mormon of average sense ought to know that God never gave to Joseph Smith the pretended revelation on polygamy. It was simply spun out of his own wicked mind, as Mrs. Pratt says, to cloak over his own immoral life. This false teaching bout polygamy, has been also a curse and reproach to the State, which it will require a long time to wipe out. <br><br> Joseph's Teachings a Curse in Civil Affairs. <br> The teachings and example of Joseph Smith have been a curse to the Mormon people in civil affairs. By reason of these teaching s in favor of priesthood government in civil affairs, the people have been brought into perpetual conflict with the government and laws of every State where they have lived, and into conflict with the righteous laws of the National government in every Territory which they have occupied. It was so in Ohio, so in Missouri, so in Illinois. It has been so in Utah, Idaho and Arizona. Here in Utah, even at the present time, the most solemn pledges to the National government have been trodden under foot, rather than obey the laws which all other religious bodies cheerfully obey. While all this conflict was going on between the Mormons and the State and National governments, all the other great religious denominations were living in peace and harmony under these governments. Why can't the Mormon people use their common sense long enough to see, what is so clear to everybody else, that that if they have been in a perpetual muss and conflict for seventy years with the State and National governments which thev [sic] themselves profess to honor and obey, while all the other religious denominations have lived in peace and harmony under those same laws-why can't the Mormon people open the eyes which God gave them long enough to discover that there is something inherently wrong and vicious in the system which Joseph Smith taught them, and that it is time to cut loose now and forever from the false prophet? <br> [Continues on next page.] <br><br> |
