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Show -THE UTAH EVANGELIST.- <br><br> mony as to time with all parts of our Territory and also with what is now termed the Standard Time of the United States. <br> Your brethren in the Gospel, <br> JOHN TAYLOR, <br> GEO. Q. CANNON, <br> Jos. F. SMITH, <br> First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. <br> WILFORD WOODRUFF, <br> In behalf of the Council of the Apostles." SALT LAKE CITY, May 12th, 1884. <br> All this this is exquisitely queer. John Taylor as the head of a church would be supposed to have nothing to do with such matters as this, any more than any other private citizen. Yet we find him sending telegrams all over the country, ordering operations to be stopped until he had time to consider matters; then making it the subject of a discourse on Sunday, and expressing anything but pleasure at the course pursued by two of the largest cities in the Territory. <br> Then to crown all, there appears a proclamation from the First Presidency of the church, ordering the people in all the different towns to do so and so with regard to the time. What in the name of common sense, have these men, as officers in a church, to do with it? Think of the ministers of the Presbyterian, or any other church, sending forth such a proclamation! <br> Truly if this Territory is not run by an ecclesiastical hierarchy, then a good deal of first-class idiocy has broken out among the First Presidency, to send out orders, to which they know that no attention will be paid. <br><br> NOTES ON THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. <br> BY PROF. COYNER. <br> The Assembly of the Presbyterian Church for 1884 was a Home Mission Assembly. And while this is true, it does not militate against any other of the grand agencies of the Church. Indeed, the reports of all the Boards were encouraging, and met with a hearty response from the Assembly. Yet the fact was markedly prominent that the foundation of all the work is the Home Work; and that the surest way to success in any department, is by making this foundation strong. <br> The growing West was at the Assembly in force; and what a West! From the far northwest the delegates pressed in, from Minnesota and Dakota, where Presbyterianism is growing so rapidly that strong, vigorous Presbyteries are formed so fast that the fathers in the East cannot keep up with the record. From the far west of the North Pacific they came; from the shore of the Golden Coast the clans were marshalled [sic]. The tribes of the great Southwest were there in force. And from the Rocky Mountains' interior continent the delegations mingled with the boys of the great Presbyterian States of Kansas and Nebraska, and moving on with their united forces, captured Saratoga under the leadership of Denver's tall chieftain. What a contrast when compared with the first General Assembly we ever attended, at Lexington, Ky., 1857. The great West as a Presbyterian force was then an unknown factor. Let the pioneers of this great West lay solid foundations. For the temple that must thus be builded along the ages, is best in its proportions and wonderful in its magnificence. <br> Many of the Western delegates were in a quandery [sic] how to vote on the question of Moderator when the names of both Dr. G. P. Hays and Dr. W. C. Roberts were presented, but the majority went for ‘‘the tall pine of the Rockies." Not that they loved Dr. Roberts less, but because he already occupied a position as secretary of the Home Board, that was an honor above that of any temporary Moderatorship. <br> The Board of Home Missions' financial report made a grand showing, out of debt and a small balance on hand, which shows the hold Home Missions have on the lay members of the Church; but "onward!" is the battle cry. The work is enlarging on every hand, and demands an increase of receipts for the coming year. <br> Copies of THE UTAH EVANGELIST were eagerly sought for at the Assembly. The interest in the Utah Problem is seen in the anxiety to gather information on the subject. <br> The women were strong in their attendance upon their branch of the Assembly, some 600 being present. Let the fathers look out, or the Ladies' General Assembly will overshadow that of the sterner sex. <br> The General Assembly gave the Women's Executive Committee authority to work for the freedmen in connection with the Freedmen's Board. <br> We were gratified to meet at the Assembly, James Reuben, a noble specimen of a full blooded Nes Perces Indian, who, since the Nes Perces war, has, as a Christian teacher, been laboring with his countrymen in the Indian Territory. James was Gen. Howard's scout during the war, and was severely wounded by those whom he has been teaching. He was our pupil while we were at Lapwai, Idaho, in 1874. He is East, pleading that his countrymen may be restored to their former homes. God grant that his pleadings may be effective. <br> The General Assembly is a grand commonizer [sic] and equalizer of Christian thought and action. Every one comes from his own field of interested action, feeling that his* is the one important center of interest, and as he listens to the pleadings of others in behalf of their* work, he goes home the more deeply impressed with the importance of building well the wall before his own door, but exercising more sympathy towards his co-laborers as they build on other parts of Zion's wall. <br> Let every Christian worker in Utah take courage. The great heart of Christ's Church is beating in full sympathy with them, and the National heart is beginning to respond to their Christian pulsations. <br><br> BOX ELDER NEWS. <br> Our school closed on the sixth, city fashion. Heretofore we have had twelve weeks from the first Monday in April, as our spring term. The public schools of the town do not close until the second week in July, and they do not begin until after the fall Conference. It is hard to change the customs of a people, and I think where it is, and has been, a very hard work to secure a school at all, it is folly to throw away a month's opportunity. The school closed with twenty-three in attendance. <br> Decoration Day, as usual, was made an occasion for turning all that is patriotic into arrant treason by the authorities in Brigham City. A grand parade of the children and a May-day picnic was made, in which our National airs were sung and flags waved, and, according to our venerable Utah Commission, "the Mormons vied with the Gentiles in their demonstrations of loyalty." Bah! Decoration Day is sacred to the memory of our dead heroes, who gave their lives for their country. It is celebrated all over our land by strewing their graves on this day with flowers, which is generally done by the children, and in recalling their heroic deeds. Now see what the leaders of this people do. They have no graves of their dead to honor; Utah was a safe refuge for all deserters-as much so as any foreign nation. And, not content to let this non-participation in the war pass, they meet on this day and sing songs in praise of Joseph Smith and the Priesthood, and that to our National airs. So that the children will associate such ideas with the day, and such sentiments with our National airs as the following, to "Hail, Columbia, Happy Land." They sing: <br> "The Seer, the Seer! Joseph the Seer! <br> I'll sing of the Prophet, ever dear." <br> [Mormon Hymn Book, p.337.] <br> To "Marching through Georgia," they sing: <br> "We hear it hath been prophecied [sic] the Priesthood yet shall hold, <br> As ‘twas ordained before the stars together sang of old, <br> The rule of right and truth impart, more precious, far, than gold, <br> As the Saints march on, victorious. <br> Hurrah, Hurrah! for this, our jubilee! <br> Hurrah, Hurrah! the truth hath made us free! <br> We'll make this chorus ring again, from East to Western sea, <br> As we march through the earth, victorious." <br> [Hymn 341.] <br> This is the patriotism, and this the kind of loyalty taught the youth of Utah on our National holidays with our National music and under our dear old flag! <br> S. L. GILLESPIE. <br><br> We commend Mr. Cort's article on Temples* to all. It will be followed by another on the present* Temple, and has special reference to the costly Temple building of the Mormons. <br><br><br> * words are italicized <br><br> |
