The tenth article, though it affirms the literal gather- ing of Israel, tlie restoration of the Ten Tribes (the American Indians, who are in consequence treated with considerable humanity by the Saints), and the personal reign of Christ for one thousand years, does not, as has always been supposed, make the in-gather- ing at the Zion of the East, but at that New Zion on the Western continent which has been appointed muler this new dispensation nsliered in by Joseph Smith. And as the Jews were bidden to separate themselves from the Gentiles, and the early Chris- tians (the ancient Saints) from the heathen, so the Lat- ter-day Saints are now called forth from a wicked world, doomed to almost immediate destruction (before the close of this century), which is indeed already be- ginning, to the Zion of this continent. When the Gos- pel has been preached to all the world, and the elect have been assembled at Zion, then all unbelievers will be destroj'ed; the kingdom of heaven will be set up on the earth, and tlie formal reigii of Christ commence in the Western Zion. Surely no one need wonder that Joseph Smith, when he first promulgated his new faith, maintained that " one of the grand funda- mental priuci]iles of Mormonism is to receive truth, come whence it may" {Sermon preached July 9, 1813) Indeed their faith, if we have but distantly reached their true position, consists of a spontaneous agglomer- ation of tenets which, were its disciples of a more learned and philosophical body, would suggest extensive eclec- ticism. And j\Ir. Burton has well said that " the Mor- mons are like the Pythagoreans in their procreation, transmigration, and exaltation of souls; like the follow- ers of Leucippus and Democritus in their atomic mate- rialism; like the Epicureans in their pure atomic the- ories, their summum bonum, and their sensuous specu- lations; and like the Platonists and Gnostics in their belief of the /Eon, of ideas, and of moving principles in element. They are Fetichists in their ghostly fancies, their Avestra, which became souls and spirits. They are Jews in their theocracy, their ideas of angels, their hatred for Gentiles, and their utter segregation from the great brotherhood of mankind. They are Christians, inasmuch as they base their faith upon the Bible, and hold to the divinity of Christ, the fall of man, the atone- ment, and the regeneration. They arc Arians, inasmuch as they hold Christ to be ' the first of God's creatures; a perfect creature, but still a creature.' They are Mos- lems in their views of the inferior status of womankind, in their polygamy, and in their resurrection of the ma- terial body; like the followers of the Arabian Prophet, they hardly fear death, because they have elaborated 'continuation.' They take no leap in the dark — thej' spring from this sublunary stage into a known, not into an unknown world ; hence also their worship is eminent- ly secular, their sermons are political or commercial, and — religion being with them not a thing apart but a por- tion and parcel of every-day life— the intervention of the Lord in their material affairs becomes natural and oidy to be expected. Their visions, prophecies, and miracles are those of tlie lHuminati, their mysticism that of the Druses, and their l)elief in the millennium is a completion of the dreams of the Apocalyptic sects. Masonry has entered into their .scheme, the Demiurgus whom they worship is 'as good at mechanical inven- tions as at any other business.' With their later theo- ries, Methodism, Swodenborgiauism — especially in its! view of ibe future state — ancl Transcendentalism are cu- riously intermingled. Finally, we can easily discern in 1 their doctrine of affinity of minds and sympathy of souls the leaven of that faith which, beginnin;^ with Mesmer and progressing through the Kochestcr Uappors and the Poughkeepsie Seer, threatens to extend wherever the
susceptible ner^'ous temperament becomes the character- istic of the race."
The ethical teachings of ^Mormonism are not distin- guished by any other remarkable peculiarities than we have already had occasion to point out. The chief duty impressed upon the Saints is the prompt pnyment of tilhinr/s. Their official pulilications are strenuous in their exhortation to the fullilment of that indispensable obligation (see Stenhouse, j). o78). Next to this cardi- nal virtue seems to be rated the merit of abst hence from fermenled liqums and tobacco. This, liowever, is not absolutely insisted upon, but is onh- urged as a " precept of wisdom." It was enforced by Joseph, l)ut under the present head of the Church it is asserted that intemper- ance is rapidly invading the Saints' liouseholds. The virtue i)f patriot ism is also a frequent theme of Jlormon eulogy. The national colors are exhibited on every public occasion, and there seems to be every endeavor to refute the charges that Mormonism seeks secular power, and is antagonistic to the United States govern- ment, and that if statehood is ever secured to Utah, " Brigham Young's theocracy will be triumpliant over the republic and the national laws." The practice of dancing must also be included in the ethical system of Mormonism. Indeed, wlien the Temple is com[)leted, public dances are to form a part of the regular worship. In saltatorial as in military movements the priesthood occupy the foremost place. The president leads off, and bishops, patriarchs, and elders are to be seen figuring enthusiastically — "not," says colonel Kane, "in your minuets or other mortuary processions of Gentiles, but in jigs and reels."