--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Clift, Frederic collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 10 number: 2 published: 1906-12 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Frederic Clift, "“Christianity”—“Mormonism”: The Conditions of the First Seventy-Six Years Compared," *Improvement Era* 10, no. 2 (December 1906): 81–88.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1002unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera1002unse start_page: 81 end_page: 88 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1906-12) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1002unse publication_year: 1906 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1906, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # “Christianity”—“Mormonism”: The Conditions of the First Seventy-Six Years Compared MPROVEMENT ERA. Vol. X. DECEMBER. 1906. No. 2 "CHRISTIANITY"— "MORMONISM." A. D. 30-1O6— A. D. 1 830-1906. THE CONDITIONS OF THE FIRST SEVENTY-SIX YEARS COMPARED. BY FREDERIC CLIFT, M. D., BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY. Some of those to whom the gospel of Jesus Christ has been revealed,throiigh the teaching of the Prophet Joseph Smith, declare — patterning after the manner of the Scribes and Pharisees of old — that no good can come out of Galilee —Utah. They point to the statements which have been made by contemporaries of the Prophet, as to his alleged ignorance, his mental incapacity, and to his general untrustworthiness and criminal character, as conclusive evidence of fraud, and the impossibility of his being a servant of God —the the Father in this day and age. living oracle of They assert that he was ignorant, poor, and wholly incapable, both mentally and physically, of carrying out such a stupendous fraud; and yet, in the same breath, they claim that he was the originator of it all. Archdeacon .Paley, one of the greatest theologians of the eigteenth century, in his Evidences of Christianity, writes: There is satisfactory evidence that many pretending to be original witnesses of the Christian miracles passed their lives in labors, dangers and sufferings, voluntarily undertaken and undergone in attestation of the accounts which they delivered, and solely in consequence of their belief of the truth of those accounts. . — 82 IMPRO VEMENT ERA * * * * Would men in such circumstances pretend to have seen what they never saw — assert facts which they had no knowledge of go about lying in order to teach virtue? * * * * and so persist as to bring upon themselves, for nothing, and with a full knowledge of the consequences, envy, hatred, danger and death. * * * * My faith would be much confirmed if a change had been wrought, at that time, in the opinion and conduct of such members, as to lay the foundation of an institution, and of a system of doctrines, which had since overspread the greatest part of the civilized world. Referring to St. Paul, Paley, in his work HorcE PauHn(B, says: We see him, in the prosecution of this purpose, traveling from country to country, enduring every species of hardship, encountering every extremity of danger, assaulted by the populace, punished by the magistrates, scourged, beat, stoned, left for dead, expecting, wherever he came, a renewal of the same treatment and the same dangers; yet, when driven from one city, preaching in the next; spending his whole time in the employment; sacrificing to it his pleasures, his ease, his safety; persisting in this course to old age; unaltered by the experience of perverseness, ingratitude, prejudice, desertion; unsubdued by anxiety, want, labor, persecutions; unwearied by long confinement, undismayed by the prospect of death. * * * * j'^g question is, tvhether falsehood was ever attested by evidence like this. Falsehoods, we know, have found their way into reports, into traditions, into books. But this is an example to be met with of a man voluntarily undertaking a life of want and pain, of incessant fatigue, of continual peril; submitting to the loss of his home and country, to stripes and stoning, to tedious imprisonments, and the constant expectation of a violent death, for the sake of carrying about a story of what, if false, he must have known it to be 80. Such arguments are accepted as conclusive by Christians, when made in support and adduced as evidence in favor of Christianity. Why should not similar evidence apply in the case of "Mormonism?" Joseph Smith and his followers assert the truth of certain miraculous facts — that he had personal interviews with God the Father and his — Son Jesus Christ that he received certain plates and translated therefrom the Book of Mormon — that he and others were visited by angels, who restored to them the divine authority which had been ^iven by Christ to his first apostles, and which had afterwards been taken from their successors in consequence of their apostasy from the true gospel. As a result of such assertions, and because of the belief of the Latter-day Saints in that which has been thus miraculously revealed to them, they endured lives of toil, poverty, persecution, danger and suffering. Many of them, including the Prophet and his brother, were, actually put to death because of "CHRISTIANITY"— "MORMONISM." 83 such belief; and today, their descendants and those who believe in the teachings of the Prophet are ostracised in every community, and are frequently assaulted and cruelly treated by so-called Christians. Further, following Paley's argument, such changes have been wrought in the opinions and conduct of their converts and members, as to lay the foundation of an institution, and of a system of doctrines, which has since overspread the greatest part of the world — "all nations, kindreds and tongues." It is not my purpose to do more than to suggest a line of thought, and to urge upon our missionaries the importance of a careful study, not only of Paley, but of other theological writers. Latter-day Saints are Christians in the fullest sense of the term. That which proves the truth of the gospel, as delivered by Christ himself, must, of necessity, prove the truth of so-called "Mormonism," for "Mormonism" is the gospel of Christ in its pristine purity, stripped of the mundane accretions of the early and middle centuries of the Christian era. The occurrences connected with the founding of Christianity and ''Mormonism'' are now matters of history. What, then, - — does history tell us about Christianity Christ the Savior? And what has it to say about **Mormonism" -Joseph the Prophet? The early followers of Christ were first called Christians at Antioch. The name was used as a term of reproach; in like manner. Latter- — day Saints are called ''Mormons" the true and faithful followers of Christ are proud of both names. The enemies of Joseph Smith claim, among other things, that he was low-born, a fraud, a criminal. The Jews, circa A. D. 30-33, said of Christ the Savior: He oaateth out devils through Beelzebub, the chief of the devils. (Luke 14 : 15.) This fellow doth not cast out devils but by Beelzebub the prince of devils. Matt. 12:34.) If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household? (Matt. 10: 25.) The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, behold a man gluttonous and a wine-bibber, a frie.id of publicans and sinners. (Matt. 11: 13.) Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? (Matt. 9: 11.) This man blasphemeth. (Matt. 9:3.) He is beside himself. (Mark 3: 21.) , 84 IMPROVEMENT ERA. He hath a devil and is mad, why hear ye him? (John 10: 20.) Why go ye about to kill me? The people answered and said, Thou hast a devil. (John 7: 19, 20.) Have the Scribes and Pharisees, the chief priests and elders, the Christian ministers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, been able to find a more opprobrious name for Joseph Smith than Beelzebub? If not, then the mere calling of Joseph bad names does not make it evidence of the falsity of his claim to be an inspired prophet of the Most High God. The prophet of the nineteenth century found but little honor in his own country. Could it be otherwise? Jesus himself testifies: A prophet hath no honor in his own country. (John 4: 44.) Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed on him? (John 7: 48.) Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses and of Jude and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honor but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house. (Mark 6: 2-4.) , For neither did his brethren believe in him. (John 7:5.) So we find with the Prophet Joseph. Not all of his family, and but few from his home state of New York, believed in him. Even after his crucifixion, some of the disciples of Jesus believed, whilst others did not. His disciples * * » * believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had said. (John 11: 22. And they went and told it unto the residue;, — (the other apostles) neither believed they them. (Mark 16: 13.) Christ, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense (I Peter 2:8.) So with Joseph, after his martyrdom, many of his followers believed not in the divinity of his work. Is it surprising, therefore, that the gospel of Jesus Christ,as taught by Joseph, has in these latter, as in former, days been a stone of stumbling and a rock oj offense to the world at large? In Palestine, it was so to Judas, and the Prophet Joseph encountered many Iscariots, both within and without the church he was appointed to preside over. Among those who apostatized or were excommunicated we find — Sidney Rigdon, 8th Sept., 1845; William Smith, a brother of the Prophet, 12th Oct., 1845; John E. Page, 27th June, 1846. William Smith, the brother, after his apostasy, took up with Strang, and later was associated with the organizers of the Re-organites, "CHRISTIA NITY"—"M()RMONISM." 85 Christ fore-knew that the faithful would have to undergo persecution, danger and suffering. Joseph Smith was told — "that his name should be had for good and evil among all nations, kindreds, and tongues." The evidence of subsequent events has proved the accuracy of this prophecy, which, given as it was, is evidence of the inspiration of Joseph, himself. The lowering clouds soon broke. Joseph was thrust into prison, or brought before judges, some fifty times, — and as many times acquitted — no guile being found in him. The first elders of the Church shared his toils, mobbings, imprisonment, poverty, danger and exile. In November, 1833, twelve hundred men, women and children, were driven from their homes, in Jackson Co., into the wilderness. A number of the Saints were killed and others died from exposure. Over two hundred houses were burned, in addition to a store and grist-mill. In November 1838, the Prophet and others were tried, by courtmartial, and condemned to be shot. The hour of execution was set, and preparations were being made for carrying it out, but Joseph, in what seemed to be the closing minutes of their lives, prophesied and told his fellow prisoners that the Lord had made it known to him that not one of them should die at that time. The mob were led to disagree among themselves, with the result that after a lengthy imprisonment, the Prophet and all his companions were saved alive and regained their liberty. Persecution and danger has been the lot of the "Mormon" missionary up to the present time, and even in later years, many, while in their fields cf labor, have suffered death by violence. They are driven from one city to preach in the next. They sacrifice ease and safety, and are undismayed by the prospect of death. The Scribes and Pharisees, of these latter days,— like the Jews of old — by lying and false witness, suggest the various crimes with which the Saints are charged, and they continue to instigate proscription and persecution, in order to stay the hand of the Lord. But the work of Christ continues to roll on. The small stone cut out of the mountain still grows, and it is filling the whole earth. The blood of the martyrs has ever been the seed of the Church, and but few of the nations and kindreds of the earth now remain to have brought to them the tidings of great joy. If they have persecuted me they will also persecute you. (John 15 : 20.) 86 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Ye shall be betrayed, both by parents and brethren and kinsfolk and friends. (Luke 21: 16.) Now the chief priests and elders and all the council sought false witness against Jesus to put him to death, but found none, yea, though many false witnesses came ******* He had spoken blasphemy, what further need have we of witnesses? He is guilty of death. (Matt. 26: 59-66.) Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace, For I come to set a man at variance against but a sword. daughter against the mother ***** his father, a man's foes shall be they of his and the own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me, and be that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. (Matt. 10:34-39.) And when he was accused of the chief priests and elders he answered nothing. Then said Pilate unto him, hearest thou not how many things they witness against thee? (Matt. 27: 12-13.) Pilate said unto them, —whom will ye that I release unto you? Barrabas or Jesus, which is called the Christ? (Matt. 27: 17.) And the governor said, —what evil hath he done? but they cried out the more, saying: Let him be crucified. (Matt. 27: 23.) The same classes are to-day clamoring for the condemnation of the Saints, in whom no guile has been found, and Barrabas sits in the judgment hall. Referring to the finding of the plates of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith writes, adding a prophecy which has been literally fulfilled: As soon as the news of this discovery was made known, false reports, mis - representations and slander flew, as on the wings of the wind, in every direction —the house was frequently beset by mobs and evil- designing persons — several times I was shot at and very narrowly escaped, and every device was made use of to get the plates away from me, but the power and blessings of God attended me, and several began to believe my testimony. Later the Prophet adds, —No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing. Persecution may rage, mobs may combine, (as in Illinois and Missouri) armies may assemble (as Johnson's army did, after Joseph's death). Calumny may defame, but the truth of God (as taught by Joseph) will go forth boldly and independently till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime. Mr. Josiah Quincy, an acknowledged authority, whose opinion in other matters carries weight, in his well known work, entitled^ Figures of the Past, refers to Joseph Smith as one of the great men of his age. He says: "CHRISTIANITY"-"MORMONISM." S7 It is by no means improbable that some future text-book, for the use of generations yet unborn, will contain a question something like this, — What historical American, of the nineteenth century, has exerted the most powerful influence upon the destinies of his countrymen? And it is by no means impossible that the answer to that interrogatory may be thus written, — Joseph Smith, the "Mormon" Prophet. Histor}'^ deals in surprises and paradoxes quite as startling as this. The man who established a religion in this age of free debate — who was, and is to-day, accepted by hundreds of thousands, as a direct emissary from the Most High. Such a rare human being is not to be disposed of by pelting his memory with unsavory epithets. The most vital questions Americans are asking each other to-day have to do with this man and what he has left us — burning questions they are, which must give a prominent place in the history of the country, to that sturdy self-asserter whom I visited at Nauvoo. Joseph Smith claiming to be an inspired teacher, men have been called to meet enjoyed a faced adversity such as few — brief season of prosperity such as few men have ever attained, and finally, fortythree days after I saw him, went cheerfully to a martyr's death. And there was much murmuring, among the people, concerning him, for some said — He is a good man others said, nay, but he deceiveth the people. (John 7:12.) Compare this with the statement made by the Angel Moroni, on his first visit to the boy prophet, 21st of Sept., 1823, which, in mouth of Joseph at that date, was a prophecy "That his the — name should be had for good and evil among all nations, kindred, and tongues; Hist. Church, — Vol. 1, page 11. Looking back to the history of Christianity and "Mormonism," is it any evidence of the falsity of either, that they were established by men of low degree or parentage? That both Christ and the prophet were reviled and accused of almost every crime in the decalogue — that after innumerable persecutions, both by the people at large and the civil authority, they were put to death — the one after trial and condemnation, under Jewish and Roman f )rm of law — the other by the m:b instigated and led by those in authority, who, as in the case of Christ, were unable to find any crime in him. They both, by their death, sealed the testimony they had given, and upon which the early Church and that of Latter Days was founded. In the case of the Prophet, — his enemies, led by the Scribes and Pharisees of his day, openly boasted that if "law can not reach this man, powder and ball must, " accordingly, on — the 27th of June, 1844, after the memorable speech in which he said: I am going like a lamb to the slaughter, but am calm as a summer's morning; — 88 IMPROVEMENT ERA. I have a conscience void of offense toward God and toward all men — shall die in" I nocent, and it shall yet be said of me, he was murdered in cold blood ; "Ponder and ball," did their work. He was shot to death in Carthage jail, while under the protection of the state government of Illinois, which had pledged itself —through its governor — to protect the Prophet from mob outrage. If ''Mormonism" is, to-day — seventy- six years after the restoration of the gospel, and the founding of the Church — a despised religion, and its followers still branded as outcasts and criminals, are they greater outcasts or more despised than were the early Christians, at the expiration of the first seventy-six years after the death of Christ, — the Savior—the Messiah? His apostles of old, such as Peter, Paul and others, carried the gospel, as we are told by some of the Fathers, to all the then known world, including the western, or British Isles. His apostles of today, in the face of persecution, have carried it to all "nations kindreds and tongues." If Paley's question was unanswerable, when asked in relation to "Christianity," it is also unanswerable in the case of "Mormonism." "Would men in such circumstances pretend to hare seen what they never saw, assert facts which they had no knowledge of, go about lying in order to teach virtue?" Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you, f j,lsely, for my sake, — for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. (Matt. 5: 11-12.) These words of the Savior and the prophecies of his servants have been fulfilled in every detail. His followers have been reviled and persecuted, and the "nations, kindreds, and tongues" have said both "good and evil" of the Prophet Joseph Smith. If it was possible for the multitude to be so deceived as to the character and attributes of the Perfect One, may they not also be mistaken in their judgment of Joseph Smith, a man, imperfect, like unto themselves? The persecutors of both Christians and ''Mormons" have passed, or are rapidly passing to that beyond where their works do follow them. Let us all prepare for that great day, when both the "good and the evil" of our own individual lives will be weighed in the balance by an all merciful Father. Provo, Utih.