Other Sects
Times and Seasons, vol. 6, pp. 793 to 794
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
Protestant Episcopalians, 70,000
Evangelical Lutherans 146,300
Morayians, 6,600
Evangelical Association, 15,000
Mennonites, 58,000
Reformed Mennonites,
Unitarian Congregationalists, 30,000
New Jerusalem Church, 5,000
Restorationists,
Universalists,
Catholics,
330,000
Total 3,481,292
If we set down the Catholics at 500,000
Universalists and all others at 200,000 in all 700,000
We have 4,181,292
As the grand total of church members in the United States, which is not quite one half the adult population, over 21.'
We take occasion to review the above statement, because of its partiality, injustice and hypocrisy. We cliped [clipped] it from Niles' Register; and our humble opinion is, that the American Almanac and National Register are equally guilty of concealing the truth to blind the eyes of the world.
At the first glance over this table, the common inquirer, among all nations, will ask, 'where is the Latter-Day Saints?' They possess a city of 12 or 15,000 inhabitants; their members amount to thousands in Great Britain, Ireland and Scotland they have missionaries on every Continent of the Globe; upon the Islands of the sea; and, as I have been informed, have power enough in the United States, to turn the Presidential election; yet, these 'popular' publications are as silent on the subject as the grave.
There has long been a manifest design in the sectarian circles, and other infidel channels, to keep the truth of Mormonism from the people. For several years, this same 'American Almanac,' summed up the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, in mass: 'Mormonites, 12,000.' All this, too, in a land of liberty; of newspapers; of Post Offices; of steam-boats; of rail-roads; and of religious toleration! And what of it, enquires [inquires] the stranger? We will answer: The Latter-Day Saints number more than 75,000 in America, and about 20,000 in Europe! And so, if the christian world can reap any real benefit from such gross injustice, let the clergy, gentry, and nobility of the realm of freedom; the defenders of the faith, in the 'asylum of the oppressed' stalk along on the full tide of popularity; and occupy their chief seats in the synagogue; the uppermost rooms at feast; pray like the Pharisee; and thank God that they are not like other men, especially-the Mormons! and hire the newspapers, to call them Rabbi.-and God and them for it;-if they do not find out that whatever is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God, then the bible is a libel, and the devil the prince of brotherly love.
The Quakers, the most peaceable and orderly people, except the Latter-Day Saints, are considered a blank too; and all we shall say is:
'The world was not made for Caesar alone, but Titus too.'
It is a little singular that a church and people, occupying influence on two hemispheres; and whose leading men have been martyred in a more severe manner than were the Savior and his apostles, should slip the memory of our modern chronicles, for good; while, at the same time, every foolish tale, and every mean insinuation, that malice, revenge, and vulgarity can invent, is trumpeted round the world as if the Mormons were cannibals, or, as one old
Presbyterian priest said, 'the common enemies of mankind.' Now all this means something. The Savior said: 'Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake.'
One thing is certain. Mormonism troubles this generation as much as Israel troubled Egypt, and about in the same way. Pharaoh and his tax gatherers, (Pharaoh means tax gatherer,) wants the Latter day Saints to make brick without straw; but mark the saying, the saints will see the State Governments crumble to fragments; the Union crack to pieces like heated glass, and the people vanish like frost before a June sun, and then they will not do it. In the last days Israel is the head and not the tail.
Congress may give Mormon petitions a genteel 'good by;' Legislatures may enact and 'repeal' laws to frustrate the 'union' of Mormons; and periodicals may give the Latter-Day Saints a 'popular silence;' but remember there is a God in heaven, who notes all these things;-and when his wrath begins to smoke, then if the 'popularity' of this nation does not get singed, and the hypocrites of Babylon burned up, there is no truth in prophecy, or safety in religion, that's all.
The whole amount of Christians, mixed together, affords but a faint assurance that religion, as practiced by the sects, does much towards bringing in the millinium [millennium]: only about four million , of all sorts, out of twenty: (one in five)-is cold comfort. Now there are, about one thousand, or at least nine hundred millions of inhabitants on the Globe, and none more Christianized, than America, and does any rational man believe that an hundred million are fit for paradise? No! alas, No!