MORMONS
633
MORMONS
lieve; and when the origin of some of the great religions of the world is considered, there is not much cause for wontler that those persons who have accepted Mormcm- ism, with all its crudities, should have honestly believed it. Milli(nis have accepted Mohammed and his visions; many millions more have lived and died in the faith of Buddha; Confucius has swayed a spiritual empire from a^'es long before the Christian sera; and by these and other founders of religions systems, and by many of their disciples, visions and revelations, gifts and miraculous powers, have all been claimed" (Rocky Mountain Saints, p. 546-555).
To this solution of the question we are disposed sub- stantially to accede, with this exception, that we would refer the mental impression of visions, revelations, etc., to the hallucinations of an excited imagination rather than to clairvoyance or any other so-called spiritual in- fluence or communication.
It may not be out of place here to add that Joseph Smith, while discredited among his own townsmen, elicited the testimony that from an early period he was regarded as a visionary and a fanatic. This fact is of the utmost importance as affording a clew to his real character, and an explanation of that otherwise unac- countable tenacity of purpose and moral heroism dis- played in the midst of flerce persecution. A mere im- postor— i. e. a person who did not, in some sense or other, partly believe in his own mission, but who, on the contrary, felt that he was simply the liar and cheat that pecjple called him — would have broken down under such a tempest of opposition and hate as Smith's course excited.
("2.) The chief authority on Mormon doctrine is The Book of Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, selected from the Revelations of God, by Joseph Smith, president. "This work is to the Mormon Bible," says Burton (p. 447 sq.), " what the Yedanta is to the Vedas, the Talmud to the O. T., the Traditions to the Gospel, and the Ahadis to the Koran — a necessary supplement of amplifications and explana- tions." The first edition, published in 1833, differs much from the later ones, and was subsequently suppressed. The work consists of two distinct parts: p, l-6i contain seven lectures on faith, originally delivered before a class of elders at Kirtland, and it seems probable that they Avere written b} Kigdon, who was really the theo- logical founder, though he is only recognised as the lit- erary assistant {Docti. and Cor. sec lO In them are some \ery curious statcmr • t ' i 1 ' 'i it
Interior of the Mormon Tabernacle.- [From Stenhouse.]
whatever there is in it of materialism was introduced by Rigdou, and with it many other strange departures from the theology of the Book of Mormon. Thus, e. g., it is inferred in the Doctr. and Gov., from Heb. xi, 3, that faith is '• the principle of power existing in the bosom of God by which the worlds were framed, and that if this principle or attribute were taken from the Deity, he would cease to exist" (Lect. i, 13-17, p. 3). Again : " When a man works by faith, he works by mental ex- ertion instead of physical force. It is by words, instead of exerting his physical powers, with which every be- ing works by faith" (Lect. vii, 3, p, 55). Many other pe- culiar doctrines are here set forth. The second part, entitled Covenants and Commandments, consists of the revelations given to Smith at various times, and is ev- idently by a different hand from the Lectures. The style and grammar betray the editor of the English ver- sion of the Book of Mormon. The Covenants and Com- mandments resemble in form the Koran: both works contain divine revelations; much in both is only of temporary interest, and both afford undesigned mate- rials for the life of their authors. But all the merits of the Koran are absent and all its defects present in the work of Joseph Smith. The revelations were given to a great number of persons, but always through the medium of Joseph Smith. They refer to various sub- jects : the organization, worship, and hierarchy of the Church; instructions in faith and morals, prophecies, visions, parables, interpretations of Scripture, directions to individuals about their acts, preachings, journeyings, for the promotion of the faith, and concerning the affairs and needs, spiritual and temporal, of the Church. There are also two addresses of the Prophet to the Saints in Nauvoo, delivered in writing only ; minutes of the High Council (February 17, 1834), declarations of the Church on marriage and governments, and an account of the martyrdom of Joseph Smith and his brother. Those sections relating to the organization of the Church and the duties of the ministrj' are placed first, then the por- tions chiefly treating of faith and practice ; lastly, those that relate mainly to individuals and to temporarj' cir- cumstances.
(3.) JMany other revelations, translations, prophecies, addresses, etc., of Smith were published in the periodi- cals of the sect, all of which are regarded as of author- \X.\ Some of these ha\e been collected into a pam- phlet, entitled The Pearl of Great Price, being a choice Selection from the G> eat Revelations, Trans- lutioni, and Narrations of Joseph Smith (Liver- pool, 1851). In this book Is set forth the theory tliit Mormon ism is the r \i\al of the primitive r li^ion revealed to Adam ( -te also Doctr. and Cov. L(ct. 11, p. 8 sq. ; Cove- nantb and Comm. iii, 18- 20 p. 78). A similar the- 01 \ IS found in the Ko- ran. There also appears a translation, with fac- similes, of some Egyptian ]np} riis rolls, procured rom a travelling show- nnn. Smith declared these rolls to be written b\ \ bra ham, narrating stav in Egypt. An eminent French Eg^-pt- ologist, M. Deveria, of the Museum of the Louvre at PariSjbefore whom the fac- similes were laid, showed that they represent the