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Show I WILL EXPOUND MORMONISM. B. H, ROBERTS WILL PREACH THAT SUBJECT TODAY, ON TJie Propnganclists of the Faith Meeting "\Vith Good Success All Over the Country and in Mexico-Tl:le Le"turer Will Do "\Vo1'1.:: in the City and Vicinity for the Next Week or Ten Days, The doctrines of Mormonism will be exponded to an audience at the Acedemy of Music this afternoon and evening by one of its greatest exponents. He is B. H. Roberts, one of the seven who preside over the 107 "quorums of the seventy" of the :Mormon church. The quorums of the seventies represent the great body of the Morlmon church, which, once confined exclusively to Utah, is now eudeav,.. .,. .ni'<uu:.s ters, presiding over by Elder Elias Kimball, and the, Eastern mission, in New York, fo in charge of Elder Samuel W. Richards. he idea of establfshing. these missions was rst sprung in Salt Lake City, four years go, and met with approval by "the even." The dep,a rture is· a •r adkal one from oldt~ me Morm•onism. and the fact -tha,t evan·~liz.ation is· being actively en.gaged in by t e church is itaken as an ind•i-cation of • o.dernized t,houg,ht among its li•aders. Of t'~ change M-r. Ro,perts spoke 1ntere,stingly Y srterday, when he· said: "The efforts of th lVliormon ·c hurch in promu-lgating the faHh i-s greater than· ever before. Between 1,1~0 and 1,200 elders are now traveling over all nations of the earth, •a nd even to the 1sl, nd1s of the P.a.cllfic. In •the past it was · •rat er difficul,t to make ourselves understo d, and among us we did no-t feel so str ng,l y the i,mportance of our mission but sin e attaini:r:g Statehood, by whl,ch we we-r e •bro gh t into more in ti mate comm•u n•ion with all merican people, moTe t•h an ever 1s t -he prej dice agains,t our doctrines ·g iving away and we feel a new inspiration. The present itou we are making will take us to var!,ous part of t,h e countrY'and may last a year. "T .e ·cihurch miw· num,b ers 300,000 members .in- ,d, about Utah. T'he Statehood movemen,t ·has resulted- iru a,U factions uniting. The old b!t.terness ,between Mormon and Gen>tile has passed away and the people are ,co·ming together on •the common ground of 1citizenship, and there is a changing sentiment toward? us. In Ida·ho, in :the southern part, live 35,000 Moll'm·o ns; in Arizona, 10,000, and many have settl~d· in W •estern Colorado ' ,and. Nort'he,r n New IMexi'co. Colonies have been es,tablis·hed in Old -Mexico and we are turning t,he desert p,J ateaus into fertile farm ~ands. We find no op:i;iosHion in tihat country from other creed'S. The government of Jt'he State of C'hi1huahua recently gave us d'.a vorable mention, >and• enco·ura,gement. rr.here ~s no break in our ranks, but or.ganization 'has been cont'i.n·uous since the days pf Joseph Smlth." Mr. Roberts was presiding elder of the ,S·outhern States mission in 1884 when two Mormon elders met death ·by mob vfolence sixty m •i les from Nas·hville. Four elders rwere just ,b eginning to hold· p'llblic services· lin ,a new .mis•sion, when two were shot down lbY a mob, macldened, ·he says, PY misrepresentations. The other two escaped. Two / young men, brot·h ers and recent converts, who ,w ent to t'heir assistance, .were killed. It was Elder Roberts' duty to .recover the ,bodies and he dlid, so without danger, the excitement 'ha v'ing died down :as qulckly as it had arisen. This, he says, was the 1-ast instance of violence in es,taolisMng missions 1n, ,this country. 1 1 |
