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Show -THE UTAH EVANGELIST.- <br><br> THE PRIESTHOOD. <br> BY R. G. MCNIECE, D. D., <br> (Continued.) <br> This priesthood deceives the people in countless ways religiously*. A large proportion of the people are first induced to come to Utah through religious deception. Here's the way it is done: The representatives of the priesthood go to England, Scotland, Norway, Denmark and Sweden. They take this Bible of ours, this Christian religion of ours, this Divine Savior of ours, and present them to the people. They laud this Bible, they commend this religion, they pretend to honor this Savior. They hold these up to the people, and say: <br> "This is Mormonism. Let us gather to Utah-that desert which we have made to blossom like the rose, where the Lord's people have separated from ungodly Babylon, and where the Christian religion is found in its purity." The deluded people "gather," and when they are here, with no prospect of escape, what does the priesthood do? They fling this Bible into a corner, and put the Book of Mormon in its place. They push this Divine Savior into the background, and put Joseph Smith in the foreground. With bolts and bars they close the simple wicket-gate of the Gospel, which Christ left within reach of the simplest child that inquires the heavenly way, and then compel the people to enter heaven by wading up to their necks in the moral filth and blasphemies and "damnable heresies" of the Endowment House. What proportion of the Mormon people do you suppose could ever have been enticed from their homes, and the religion of their fathers, into Utah, if they could have known before coming, just the kind of religion that has held sway here for thirty years? I do not suppose a twentieth part. <br> 3. We are opposed to the Mormon priesthood because it is a most vindictive* priesthood. It exercises and inculcates a spirit of vengeance and malignity toward all who do not bow to its wicked decrees. It is continually calling down vengeance upon all outsiders, whom it lumps together as "Babylonians." It seems to he disappointed that "ungodly Gentiles" like us can assemble in God's house withont [sic] getting caught in a furious rain of "snares, fire and brimstone, and a horrible tempest. <br> This vindictive spirit was illustrated frequently by the pretended head of the Melchizedek priesthood when he used to stand up as a preacher (?) and talk of "unsheathing his bowie-knife and sending men to hell cross lots." <br> This spirit was illustrated by one of the twelve apostles who, after referring to the fact that Christ taught us to pray for our enemies, said, "I do pray for our enemies. I pray that God will damn them and send them down to hell." Now, standing here as the representative of Protestant Christianity, I say "I pray that God will bless all our enemies, by causing the light of His Gospel to shine upon them, so that they may see the errors of their ways, repent of them, embrace the truth and win heaven." <br> This vindictive* spirit was well illustrated, only a little more than a year ago, when one of the twelve apostles stood up in a public meeting and said: "If I had my way, I would say to every Gentile in this Territory, get right out of here or take the consequences." Now, standing here as the representative of Protestant Christianity, I say: If I had my way I would drive no class of men from the Territory. It is large enough for us all. Let us obey the laws of the land, convince each other by good-natured argument, and labor together to develop the great resources of this grand Territory. <br> 4. We are opposed to the Mormon priesthood because it is a most tyrannical* priesthood. It pretends to have control of the "seals" and "keys" by which the gates of both heaven and hell can be opened and shut. It takes the keys by which it pretends to open the gates of vengeance, and rattles them above the heads of the uneducated until they are frightened into believing that if they should disobey any edict of this priesthood, however unrighteous, they would be consigned to the flames of eternal fire. In the most tyrannical way, this priesthood dictates about all the affairs of the people, telling them what store they must trade at, what newspaper they must read, what school they must patronize, and just how much every man must contribute in order that the priesthood may wax fat. This over-bearing tyranny of the priesthood was well illustrated when one of the apostles, on one occasion, while speaking in one of the ward meeting-houses about the solemn duty of obeying the priesthood, happened to look through the window and see a load of wood passing by. "Now I want you," said he, "to obey the priesthood so implicitly, and have so much confidence in everything they tell you, that if Brigham Young or any of the twelve apostles should tell you that load of wood is a load of hay, you would all say: ‘Amen, that's a load of hay.'" <br> Within the past ten days, the official newspaper organ of this priesthood has published an official utterance from the present head of the priesthood, by which he is trying to rivet the chains still tighter upon the people. Here are his words: "What did we do when President Young was among us, urging these things upon us? Did we not enter into covenant by re-baptism to be subject to the priesthood in temporal as well as spiritual things? * * Let me ask you, what do we mean by this? Is it a mere form, a farce, or do we intend to carry out the covenants we made? I tell you in the name of Israel's God they will be carried out, and no man can plow around these things. God has decreed that they shall be accomplished; and any man who sets himself in opposition to these principles which God has established, He will root him out." <br> Of course, nobody wants to set himself in ‘‘opposition to principles which God has established." But the claim that what the Mormon priesthood does, God does; and that the people of Utah are under solemn obligations to be subject to the priesthood in temporal and in spiritual things-these are "principles" which I consider it both a duty and privilege to oppose and "plow around." And just as the four-horse plow in the springtime rips through the sod, and turns it up to the sun, so let the plow-share of Bible truth plow through the awful conceit, blasphemous presumption, haughty tyranny, and moral rottenness of this Utah priesthood and turn them up to nineteenth century light. <br> 5. We are opposed to the Mormon priesthood because it is a criminal* priesthood. They are like the ungodly priests spoken of by the prophet Micah who "build up Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity." The walls of these temples and tithing-houses are built up by extortion, and cemented by the blood of men, women, and children, whose only offence was that they were not in sympathy with the unrighteous decrees of this usurping priesthood. All manner of social abominations and domestic horrors, and mutilations, and blood atonings, and assassinations, and massacres have been perpetrated in the name and by the authority of this priesthood. And then, like the mercenary and criminal priests, and sham prophets in the days of Micah, this bloodstained priesthood in Utah "lean upon the Lord, and say, ‘Is not the Lord among us? none evil can come upon us." <br> Whatever be said of individuals, such is the character, and such is the record of this priesthood in Utah, as a class, from which it may be clearly seen that polygamy is only one of minor evils of the system. And yet this is the record which men here claiming to be Americans want pulpits and newspapers to smooth over and hush up-even though a repetition of these dark deeds is thereby encouraged-so that they may be allowed to increase their gains by such silence! <br> Now this priesthood is so firmly intrenched [sic] behind financial, political, and ecclesiastical bulwarks, that some good people despair of soon breaking their power. But I am not of that number, for I know something about the strength of the moral forces here on the other side. And before referring to that, let me say that one of the encouraging signs of the times is the recent attitude of the Government toward this law-defying hierarchy. At any time during the last twenty-five years, it has been very difficult for any patriotic citizen, living within or near the borders of Utah, to entertain much respect for the American Government, when he has seen the awful negligence with which it has allowed its wholesome laws to be trodden under foot, and the vain appeal of its citizens for protection against robbery and murder. But the earnest change which has recently come over the Government, and the kind of officers it has begun to send here during the past few weeks go to show that it is going to do its duty at last. If the Government will only put into execution righteous law, there are moral forces here sufficient not only to give powerful support to all faithful representatives of the Government, but to secure the moral transformation of this Territory within a very few years. <br><br><br> * words are italicized <br><br> |