A Message to the Women of the World I

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MESSAGE FROM A WOMAN OF THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS TO THE WOMEN IN ALL THE WORLD. BY SUSA YOUNG GATES. I. If, in a railway carriage or on the street, or even m a cottage or drawing room, I were to be introduced to you, my stranger sister, as a "Mormon" just from Utah, your eyes would be instantly full of queries, even if your lips were too well bred to voice your thoughts. But you must know that I am very willing and pleased to answer all your questions. So now, as I have learned through experience and travel what you would ask, if you could, I shall try to answer you, and beg that you will not be satisfied with the brief information I may be able to impart about what you call "Mormonism." First, then, ''Am I ashamed of my parentage, birth, or re- ligion?" You would not word it so, but that is the thought which lies at the root of your suprised ejaculation, "From Utah?" No, I am not ashamed; far to tne contrary. Proud, indeed, am I of my birth into the home of one of the greatest men God ever sent to this earth, and of a mother who had few faults, who was ex- quisitely chaste and beautiful in mind, body and spirit; whose whole life was a prayer, and whose memory is a eonsecrated bene- diction. And I am glad and grateful that God showed me the truth in my young days, and taught me the glory of the mission of Jesus Christ, and the importance of the message which the Prophet Joseph Smith died to establish upon this earth, for the last time.

346 IMPROVEMENT ERA. I have listened in fancy to the questions asked seventeen hun- dred years ago, by cultured and haughty Roman matrons, of the lowly Christian women who chanced to cross their way. I think I hear some Roman princess exclaim in soft, sarcastic tones, "So? And are you a Christian? Aren't those Christirn people very unfortunate and degraded? No? I have heard so many dreadful things about that curious Carpenter who was a stable boy, and who was one of the most notorious criminals ever crucified. Such unchaste stories of the low people who followed him into all kinds of depravity and filth. Why, you know, a courier who came to our palace from the very heart of the city of Rome, told me just the other day that the disgraceful scenes the Christians enact in the very catacombs of our ancestors are too awful to repeat. Indeed, I myself sug- gested to the emporor last fall that these Christians were fit for nothing else but food for the hungry lions in the arena. I quite long to see the vile men and enslaved women wiped out from our great civilization. It is a blot upon the fair fame of our glorious Rome. Don't you think so?" It was so the Romans talked then. Is it not so people talk now? Yet truth is so mighty and so compelling, that those who receive of it, even if it be some- times mixed with error, will die for their convictions. Truth has erected many altars, and almost as many scaffolds. "Do you believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world?" is your first question. The answer contains the foundation stone of all my faith. We believe that he was the very Son of God, the Only Begotten, in this world, of the Father. All others had hu- man fathers as well as mothers, always excepting Adam, who was a being brought from another world. We worship God as our very eternal Father, and his Son Jesus Christ as the Mediator, the one only link between God and man. He is the author and finisher of our faith, and our elder brother. The first article of our faith, written by Joseph Smith, reads: "We believe in God the Eternal Father, and in his Sdu Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost." We worship him with all the devotion and adoration possible to hu- manity. We love him so truly that we are constantly ready to forgive our cruel enemies for his blessed sake. We pray to God in the name of Jesus, not in set, formal, written prayer, but with the loving trust which long years of nearness to him has begotten

A MESSAGE. 347 within us. He has heard our prayers in the past, and will bend down his ear to our infirmities in the future. For he bears upon his own person the marks of the same savage persecution which now follov»^3 us in our endeavor to testify anew of his life, his mis- sion, and his glory. If, then, we accept Christ, you ask, "Why do you place so much stress upon the life and mission of Joseph Smith?'' Joseph Smith was a new witness for God. He declared that he saw the Father and the Son in the grove near his home. He never repudiated that testimony. In a world which is seeking to deny the personality and the mission of that Savior, a new witness to his divine mission and person is a vital necessity. Joseph Smith saw Him, and saw his Father. It requires no moral courage to declare that Jesus is the Christ; eighteen centuries of struggle and sacrifice have made that fact universally known, if not ac- cepted, by almost every kindred, tongue and people. But it does require courage, of the highest type, to declare that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and that he saw, in a vision, the Father and the Son. All that scorn and hatred can do, has been and is now be- ing done to silence that testimony. To bear testimony that Joseph Smith was a prophet, is but a new declaration that there is a God^ and that he came with his Son once more to earth, to usher in a new dispensation, or to restore the gospel in its fulness and purity. "Are not all Christians traveling the same road to heaven?" you ask. Certainly they are, if they accept Jesus as the Christ. They will all be saved, but not all will be exalted. Christ said while upon earth, "Straight is the gate, narrow is the way." He was a de- vout believer in organization. He did not place the succession of his presidency upon several of his disciples. To Peter only did he say, "Feed my sheep." And the apostles acknowledged that choice by accepting the subsequent leadership of Peter. Paul tells us there is but one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. There is no single word of all Christ's teaching which woulJ indicate that people could choose their own road to heaven. Men's stand- ards of right and wrong vary, almost as their faces vary. There must be one recognized authority to administer law, and to interpret it. The Latter- day Saints believe that heaven is more definite, and far more exquisitely organized than is possible for

348 IMPROVEMENT ERA. mortality to conceive. Intelligences are as unequal as are bodies. There will always be need for a government, both in a family and in a public capacity, which shall furnish opportunities for the re- straint of the superior force and the full exerciee of the inferior force. If, then, the kingdom of God is to be based upon immut- able laws, who shall administer them unless there be officers? There may be many lines which approach the perpendicular, but there is only one which follows the exact upright. And, it will be noticed, none of the lines approaching this exact line, ever touch it. They may waver, now near, now far, but they never meet and mingle. When the crooked line becomes straight, it is absorbed and lost in the true perpendicular. So there can be but one way, one Church. He has said it. "Did Joseph Smith receive a revelation from God?" is your next incredulous question. ' 'Did he really see an angel, and can intelli- gent, wide-awake American women assert in sincerity that such an astounding thing be true?" Let me begin my answer by reminding you that, in a court of justice, when a man is accused of falsehood, the burden of proof lies with the accuser. Joseph Smith solemnly maintained the truth of his statement, in the face of hatred, scorn, and mob vio- lence, and finally death itself sealed his testimony with his heart's blood. Paul tells us that faith is the substance of things hoped for, ^he evidence of things not seen. If God had arranged all his earthly work with a view to convincing the children of men through the five senses, he would have defeated his own primal law, which law is the law of faith. If we saw an angel once a day, there would be no occasion for us to pray, nor to exercise faith in angels, in God, or in his manifestations. We would know that angels live, and they would no doubt give us very accurate information con- cerning heavenly things and principles. The scientist must de- velop a profound faith in the presence of an atom, for none of his senses prove its existence. Yet, where knowledge is, there is no need for faith. God lives, but we must develop faith to accept that fact. Angels come to earth, but you and , I, perhaps, have never seen one. Shall we deny all these facts because they have not reached any of our senses?

A MESSAGE. 349 Read your Bible. Do you believe that the angel appeared to Abraham on the Plains of Mamre? Did God show himself to Moses? Did he speak to John the Baptist when he was baptizing Jesus? Did Moses and Elias appear to Jesus and his three dis- ciples on the Mount? And was it the voice of God or another who said, ''Thisismy beloved Son, hear him"? If there were angels then, why not now? Did God love his children then and not now? One of the greatest external testimonies ever given to the truth of the mission and the statements of Joseph Smith is offered by the passionate devotion of the hard-headed, shrewd, New Eng- landers who followed him across a continent, and who died for the testimony they bore of his integrity. You are telling me that religious enthusiasm is the world's common property. Even so, men do not go to the death for a lie. If thpy are ready to put their lives in the breach of their state- ments, they have some measure of truth, you may depend upon it. If there is another world, and not many people question that truth, why shall not the inhabitants of that world have the power to visit this, when it is decreed? You say we do not visit other worlds; can you prove that? It is our belief that we agreed to forget our former knowledge when we came to this earth in order to grasp and accept the mighty truths of faith; and the power of faith controls the universe. Jesus told Peter that upon the rock of personal revelation to the human heart he would build his Church. In that way, and in no other, can you or I or anyone obtain the information we seek. Ask God to convince your heart whether Joseph Smith received a revelation from him, and whether he saw an angel or not. On that one proof I rest all my case, without fear or doubt. Men cannot satisfy you, I could not convince you of this; reading about Jesus' life and work, and studying the ancient and modern scrip- tures, are but helps in this direction. Go to the Mighty One who met Joseph Smith in the grove at Palmyra, in 1820, and he will surely answer your honest, sincere request. "Why was Joseph Smith of all men chosen to receive a rev- elation?" It is true that Joseph Smith was a poor, uneducated boy.

350 IMPROVEMENT ERA. There were many learned and eloquent scholars in the worli, who could have convinced other scientific men about the truth of the Book of Mormon. The ancient scriptural writers, however, de- scribe a learned man as one who is wise in his own conceit. Jesus was born in a stable, and chose unlettered fishermen for his apos- tles and successors. He himself was a carpenter. Paul, the one scholar among the Twelve, bitterly descants, in the second chap- ter of 1st Corinthians, upon the dangers of earthly learning, and the snares of worldly wisdom. In no time in the world's history, has the Lord chosen the strong to confound the weak, or the wise to betray the foolish. "How can enlightened people accept polygamy?'' We answer that question by asking another. How can Chris- tians accept the Bible as the word of God? And who will conde- scend to sit down in his kingdom by the old polygamous patiarchs? If polygamy was so abominable, why did not the Savior pronounce against it? But that principle has been with- drawn from the Church. It is neither taught nor practiced by the Latter-day Saints today. What, you ask, was it true yesterday, and not true today? Your own contention makes it true for Abra- ham and untrue for moderns. However, I do not take that stand. What is true once, is true forever. Yet, a truth may be given to- day, and withheld tomorrow. Let me quote, for the first and last time, from the Book of Mormon. Jacob, one of the ancient Nephite prophets, denounces in unmistakable language the prac- tice, which had obtained among the people, of taking many wives and concubines, after the pattern of David and Solomon. The Lord chastises the Nephites for this, as they had no authority from him to introduce the principle. He closes his reprimand with the following significant words: "For if I will, saith the Lord of hosts, raise up seed unto me, I will command my people. Otherwise, they shall hearken unto these things." That is the substance of the whole matter. When for a special purpose a plurality of wives is decreed of God, he will give command- ment therefor. Otherwise, he gives no man this permission. As to the results of this principle, the words of the Savior, "By their fruits ye shall know them," is truly applicable. It was entered into (no matter how mistakenly according to our Christian

A MESSAGE. 351 friends), entirely as a religious sacrament, and it was lived in purity by most of the men and women who thus accepted it. The fruits of these marriages are before the world. It would be diffi- cult to find a finer race of men and women, morally, mentally, and physically, than has been produced through that order of marriage. There were never more than four per cent of the people who ac- cepted the doctrine in the old days, and nearly all of these brave men and devoted women are gone beyond. But their children are here, and we are not ashamed of them in Utah. Look at them, talk with them, and judge for yourself. It is only stating a fact to say that they form the governing class in Utah, civilly, eiuca- tionally and socially. (But it would be difficult, now, to find more than a score of men, even in Salt Lake City, who are still practicing that principle.) We have suspended plural marriage, in obedience to the same power that established it. Therefore, it is neither taught nor discussed in Utah. But I have touched upon it here, lest you might think I had something to conceal. "Mormonism," so-called, or the gospel, courts the light, is glad to stand in the brightest flood of keen investigation. All that is asked is, that you uncover every principle, search out each doctrine for yourself. Your next question is an easy one to answer. "What has the gospel done for the women oi the Church?" Verily, "by their fruits ye shall know them." If so-called "Mormonism" had depraved and enslaved its women, as our enemies assert, there would be good ground for Christian efforts to redeem them from that condition. Let us see. Salt Lake City, Utah. [to be concluded in next number,]