judgment; in fact, the attempt to exercise that right has always been hazardous. The whole duty of a Jlor- mon consists in thinking and doing as he is told, even as regards his most private and personal affairs. The president may order or forbid a man to marry ; a bishop may at any time enter any Mormon's house, and issue what orders he pleases. All Saints are compelled to deal only at the authorized shops and stores, which are managed on the co-operative principle for the benefit of the Church. By means of a constant system of espion-
]^Iormon Coin.
age any breach of rules is promptly noticed, and if it be persisted in the offender is cut off from the Church. Persons are even excommunicated without any reason assigned, and, on com])laining, are told that their crime will in due time come to light; it being held that if any man fails in obedience to the priesthood in any re- spect he must have committed some great crime, where- by he has lost the Spirit of God (Ullivant, p. 8G, 87). Indeed, all the arrangements at Utah arc admirably suited to maintain obedience. Every means are adopt- ed to prevent any but the chief men from accumulating money; so that while a man can live from hand to mouth in some comfort, he cannot save anythuig. The majority, therefore, are virtually dependants in Utah (Oilivant, p. 47, 101). If any man secedes, or is cast out, all Mormons are forbidden to have any intercourse with him, even to give him food or shelter; and some- times violence, even to death, has been used. All " Gentiles" are suspected, and every means are used to keep them away (see Kac, p. 118-120; Eraser's Jluff, June, 1871, p. G92).
VI. Propafjumiism, etc. — Missions are a great feature of Mormonism. Any member of the priesthood is liable to be sent, at the will of the president on a sudden im- pulse, at short notice to " preach the gospel to the Gen- tiles." " Joseph Smith, the prophet," says Pres. George A. Smith, "enjoined upon the twelve apostles that they should preach the gospel to all the nations of the earth, and wherever they could not go to send the same, that all nations might be faithfully warned of the restoration of the everlasting gospel in all its purity and fidncss for the salvation of mankind, and the near advent of llie Messiah, preparatory to the introduction of his reign of righteousness upon the earth" {Ans. to Qtiesfions, p. 30). The zeal and activity of these emissaries, though it has been much exaggerated, is still remarkable. The Mormon presidents are good judges of character, and it seems to be their plan to select the restless and enter- prising spirits, M-ho, perhaps, may threaten disturbance at home, and to utiUze their fanaticism, while they flat- ter their vanity, by sending them as representatives of the Church to distant fields of labor. " From the youth in his teens," says Stenhouse, "to the elder in hoary age, all the brethren are subject to be 'called on mis- sion' at any time, and iu such calls no personal con- veniences are ever considted. Should a merchant be wanted for a ' mission,' his business must be left in other hands, and his affairs be conducted by <ither brains; so with the artisan, the mechanic, the farmer, aiul the |)loughboy — they must in their w.ay <lo the best they can. Seed-time or harvest, summer or winter, pleasure or important work— nothing iu which they are engaged is allowed to stand in the way. If poor, and the family is dependent upon tlie outgoing missionary, that must be no hinderaiK-e— the mission is given, he has to go, and the family 'trusts in the Lord,' ami in the tender mercies of the bishop !" (p. f)Gs). Tlieir metliod of es- tablishing a mission in a foreign country is as follows.
MORMONS
647
MORMONS
Among their converts, taken at random from the mixed population of the Union, there are natives to be found of every nation in Europe. They select a native of the countrj' they wish to attack, and join him as interpreter to the other'einissaries whom they are about to despatch to the land of his birth. On arriving at their destina- tion, the missionaries are supported bj' the funds of the Church till they can maintain themselves out of the offerings of their proselytes. Meanwhile they employ themselves in learning the language and circulating tracts in defence of their creed, and then sit down to tlie weary task of translating the Book of Mormon. ]5y this ]irocess they have formed churches in Great Eritain, France, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Germany, Palestine, the Pacific Isles, Italy, Switzerland, Malta, Gibraltar, South Africa, Australia, and the Sand- wich Islands; and, besides these, they have also sent missionaries to Siam, Ceylon, China, Hindostan, the AVest Indies, Guiana, and Chili. The Book of Mormon has been published in French, German, Italian, Danish, Polynesian, and Welsh. Besides various tracts which are circulated by these missionaries, they have estab- lished regular periodicals in English, German, French, Welsh, and Danish. We should observe, however, that of the missions above enumerated, those to Great Brit- ain, the Icelandic countries, and the Sandwich Islands have alone been really successful. In England they preached first in the summer of 1837, and at their April Conference in ISil there was represented a total of 5184 persons baptized. Of these, 106 were ordained el- ders, 303 priests, 169 teachers, and 63 deacons. Besides these, 800 souls had emigrated to "build up Zion at Nauvoo." In Denmark, at the beginning of 1853, they possessed liOO baptized converts, and had also despatched 297 more to Utah. In the Sandwich Islands they bap- tized thousands before their mission had been estab- lished twenty months. These proselytes were all pre- viously Christians, converted from heathenism. The other foreign missions have as j'et only succeeded in making a very small number of proselytes. In Great Britain, as we have seen above, the promulgation of the doctrine of " pluralism" has seriously checked the prog- ress of Mormonism. Of the converts made from 1840 to 185-1 in the different missions, 17,195 emigrated to this country to " strengthen Zion." Up to 1860 about 30,000 Mormons had come, and from that time to the present there have probably been 25,000 more, making a contribution to America of a round 55,000 souls. And yet these figures do not even distantly convej' the spread of JMormonism in Europe. The very sons of the apostles and prophets testify, on their return to Utah from European missions, that " they never knew what Mormonism was . . . till they went abroad to preach. ... It is especially the British mission, with latterly the Scandinavian, that has built up Utah" (Stenhouse, p. 11). The IMormons, the world over, are estimated at no less than 250,000 souls, 80,000 of whom live in Utah Territory.