| OCR Text |
Show -THE UTAH EVANGELIST.- <br><br> JOSEPH COOK ON POLYGAMY. <br> Mr. Cook in his one hundred and seventieth Monday lecture utters the following words: <br> "On Mormonism what need I say except that the American Board of Commissioners for Foresgn [sic] Missions has not as many servants sent out to the four winds as the President of the Mormon hierarchy has. There are more Mormon missionaries than missionaries of the American Board in the world. As softly as a snowflake there floated over the Rocky Mountains from Utah, not lonk [long] since, a written missive from Mrs. Paddock, an authoress of repute, to my blessed wife, detailing eertain [sic] Mormon experiences, so pathetic and characteristic that I have been unable to forget them by day or by night. "A few years ago," the letter reads, "an educated, intelligent gentleman, a journalist, came here from Europe, bringing his young wife with him. How such people came to be entangled in the meshes of Mormonism was a marvel; but both appeared to be sincere believers in the Latter-day Gospel. Soon a strong pressure was brought to bear upon the husband to induce him to contract a second marriage. The wife, finding opposition was vain, at length gave her consent, and the bride was brought home. A few months after, the first wife became a mother. The poor babe, doomed to bear the sins of others, never smiled and never cried aloud; but always, night and day, it wept silently. Even in sleep great tears forced themselves from beneath its closed eyelids and rolled down over its cheeks, while its face bore the expression, not of infantile grief, but of the terrible anguish that the mother had endured in secret. After a few weeks it began to pine away, and at length, without any visible ailment, sank into its grave. ‘My baby died of a broken heart,' said the wretched mother. ‘Every hour of its little life it shed the tears that I repressed before its birth; and the agony that I hid in my heart killed it at last.' <br> "All the face of Utah seems to me to be symbolized by that of this little child. A Territory vaster than New England; a Territory sifted with gold and precious stones; a Territory filled with a population almost wholly under subjection to the aristocracy of the harem; a Territory which you allow to be coursed by rivers of agony; a Territory into whose face you look with indifference while the bitter waters furrow it! At the next Presidential election remember the weeping face of poisoned Utah; remember the agonized moanings of those whom polygamy oppresses, and take your inspiration from the Word of God and from natural law, which provide that what God has joined together man shall not put asunder. Let there be no President who will not execute National law against the accursed atrocities of Mormonism. (Prolonged applause.)" <br> Any one who has lived in Utah long enough to become acquainted with the people, can give instances of the "beauties of polygamy" of a similar nature to that related by Mrs. Paddock. One instance, especially, occurs to us: A good Mormon brother had several wives, two of whom he had married on the same day, and that too, when both of them had hardly arrived at a marriageable age. When we first became acquainted with them they spoke very earnestly about the "saving principles of polygamy;" but after the acquaintance ripened into intimacy, their language underwent an entire change. Said one, ‘‘I have tried to live true to the principles of my religion as best I knew how, but I have not had one moment's pleasure or satisfaction in it. If the Lord will only take my life as a sacrifice, I never want my daughter (a bright girl just blooming into womanhood) to go into polygamy." Another said, "if my children had seen their own father go along the street they would not have known him, so little was he with us." She affirmed that when she married she did not have one iota of love for her husband, but she had been taught if any respectable man came along and asked her to marry him, she would be committing a great sin if she did not do it. These two women affirmed that their experience was that of all polygamic families that they knew anything about, and that if any woman said she was happy in polygamy, she was either a bad woman or else told a falsehood. <br> One hears much about the "beauties of polygamy" from our Latter-day brethren, but has only to keep his eyes open to see in what these beauties consist, viz.: jealousy, bitterness, falsehood, deception and eternal misery. <br> Said one wife in a polygamic household, considered a model of harmony in the neighborhood, "I have tried to live a good life, but I feel that I have utterly failed; polygamy has forced me into so much quarrelling and hard feeling that I feel as if I can never be saved." <br> It seems to us that if any Mormon, however prejudiced he might be in favor of the practices of his Church, would stop to think for only five minutes about this matter he would be convinced that nothing can be in accord with the will of God which brings such untold suffering upon the weaker sex, and makes her life one long period of agonized regret and attempted resignation. <br> We are convinced that there is no class of persons on earth who suffer more keenly than the better class of Mormon women. <br> Through thoughtlessness or a mistaken sense of religious obligations they plunge into an entanglement, from which they cannot be extracted without cutting themselves off from the sympathy of their fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, friends and neighbors- from all to whom they have been accustomed to look for help and consolation. Nothing but a life of misery can atone for their mistake. <br><br> The Baptists have been holding a very interesting and successful series of meetings for the last few weeks, nightly, in their handsome new church in this city, under the leadership of Dr. DeWitt, their new pastor. Numbers have been added to the church, and others are daily inquiring the way of salvation. We wish them all success in their work. <br><br> VERSES. <br> BY ARTHUR B. CORT. <br> There are many nooks and corners, <br> There are many islands fair <br> That have never had the gospel, <br> Or have seen its beauty rare; <br> Many hearts are sad and troubled, <br> Many souls by grief oppressed, <br> Needing but the blessed gospel <br> And its welcome joy and rest. <br><br> There are many wrongs unrighted, <br> There are many errors rife; <br> There are many storms and conflicts, <br> There is much un-Christian strife; <br> But the gospel balm can heal them <br> When applied by faith and prayer. <br> Jesus is the friend that's needed, <br> With his loving aid and care. <br><br> It is not by word of angel, <br> It is not by advent shout <br> That the world will hear of Jesus- <br> The millennium brought about. <br> ‘Tis by patient toil, and earnest, <br> Of God's chosen men and true, <br> Reaching down to get the lowly, <br> Seeking wide to find the few. <br> ST. GEORGE, Utah, March 28, 1884. <br><br> CLIFT HOUSE, <br> SAM. C. EWING, Proprietor. <br> Main St., Salt Lake City. <br> Rates $2.00 per day. Special rates by the week or month. <br><br> WALKER BROS., Bankers. <br> Established A. D. 1859. <br> We do a general Banking business and solicit accounts of merchants, mining companies and country dealers. Our facilities for collecting are the best, having correspondents in nearly every town in this and adjoining Territories. We draw exchange on all the leading cities of Great Britain, Ireland, Denmark, German Empire, Italy, Russia, Spain, Austria, Belgium, France, Holland, Sweden and Switzerland. <br> AMERICAN CORRESPONDENTS. <br> New York…Imp. and Traders' Nat. Bank. <br> Chicago…First National Bank. <br> St. Louis…State Savings Association. <br> Omaha…Omaha National Bank. <br> San Francisco…Bank of California. <br> Denver…German National Bank . <br><br> PENDLETON & RIDEOUT <br> BAY HORSE SHOEING SHOP. <br> 55 S. Commercial Street. <br><br> RUDOLPH ALFF, <br> Dealer in <br> French China, Crockery, Glassware, <br> Plated Ware, Cutlery and Fancy Coods [sic]. <br> Salt Lake City, Utah. <br> Established 1870. P. O. Box 276. <br><br> |
