The Story of Mormonism and The Philosophy of Mormonism | Page 6

storm of persecution was threatened from
the earliest day. At first but a family affair, opposition to the work has
involved successively the town, the county, the state, the country, and

today the "Mormon" question has been accorded extended
consideration at the hands of the national government, and indeed most
civilized nations have taken cognizance of the same.
Let us observe the contrast between the beginning and the present
proportions of the Church. Instead of but six regularly affiliated
members, and at most two score of adherents, the organization numbers
today many hundred thousand souls. In place of a single hamlet, in the
smallest corner of which the members could have congregated, there
now are about seventy stakes of Zion and about seven hundred
organized wards, each ward and stake with its full complement of
officers and priesthood organizations. The practise of gathering its
proselytes into one place prevents the building up and strengthening of
foreign branches; and inasmuch as extensive and strong organizations
are seldom met with abroad, very erroneous ideas exist concerning the
strength of the Church. Nevertheless, the mustard seed, among the
smallest of all seeds, has attained the proportions of a tree, and the
birds of the air are nesting in its branches; the acorn is now an oak
offering protection and the sweets of satisfaction to every earnest
pilgrim journeying its way for truth.
From the organization of the Church, the spirit of emigration rested
upon the people. Their eyes were from the first turned in anticipation
toward the evening sun--not merely that the work of proselyting should
be carried on in the west, but that the headquarters of the Church
should be there established. The Book of Mormon had taught the
people the true origin and destiny of the American Indians; and toward
this dark-skinned remnant of a once mighty people, the missionaries of
"Mormonism" early turned their eyes, and with their eyes went their
hearts and their hopes.
Within three months from the beginning, the Church had missionaries
among the Lamanites. It is notable that the Indian tribes have generally
regarded the religion of the Latter-day Saints with favor, seeing in the
Book of Mormon striking agreement with their own traditions.
The first well-established seat of the Church was in the pretty little
town of Kirtland, Ohio, almost within sight of Lake Erie; and here soon

rose the first temple of modern times. Among their many other
peculiarities, the Latter-day Saints are characterized as a
temple-building people, as history proves the Israel of ancient times to
have been. In the days of their infancy as a Church, while in the thrall
of poverty, and amidst the persecution and direful threats of lawless
hordes, they laid the cornerstone, and in less than three years thereafter
they celebrated the dedication of the Kirtland Temple, a structure at
once beautiful and imposing. Even before this time, however, populous
settlements of Latter-day Saints had been made in Jackson County,
Missouri; and in the town of Independence a site for a great temple had
been selected and purchased; but though the ground has been dedicated
with solemn ceremony, the people have not as yet built thereon.
Within two years of its dedication, the temple in Kirtland was
abandoned by the people, who were compelled to flee for their lives
before the onslaughts of mobocrats; but a second temple, larger and
more beautiful than the first, soon reared its spires in the city of
Nauvoo, Illinois. This structure was destroyed by fire, but the
temple-building spirit was not to be quenched, and in the vales of Utah
today are four magnificent temple edifices. The last completed, which
was the first begun, is situated in Salt Lake City, and is one of the
wonders and beauties of that city by the great salt sea.[2]
[Footnote 2: For a detailed account of modern temples, with numerous
pictorial views, see "The House of the Lord," by the present author;
Salt Lake City, Utah, 1912.]
To the fervent Latter-day Saint, a temple is not simply a church
building, a house for religious assembly. Indeed the "Mormon" temples
are rarely used as places of general gatherings. They are in one sense
educational institutions, regular courses of lectures and instruction
being maintained in some of them; but they are specifically for
baptisms and ordinations, for sanctifying prayer, and for the most
sacred ceremonies and rites of the Church, particularly in the vicarious
work for the dead which is a characteristic of "Mormon" faith. And
who that has gazed upon these splendid shrines will say that the people
who can do so much in poverty and tribulation are insincere? Bigoted

they may seem to those who believe not as they do; fanatics they may
be to multitudes who like the proud Pharisee of old thank God they are
not