Unconverted friends it is the part of wisdom for you to take Christ as your Savior and your strength, and the Divine Spirit as your guide. The old year has gone and gone forever, until it passes in review at the great Judgment Day. We catch a little of its parting breath while we launch out into the future. In the light of past and present experience, then, let us wisely read the book before us, page after page, carefully and thoughtfully. And whatever the year may bring to us let it be so spent that at its close, or if the Master calls before, it shall be known that He has said of us "well done."

I came across a legend not long ago, which runs like this: "A man was wrecked at sea and borne by the waves to an unknown shore. At once he was conducted by the inhabitants to a palace and saluted with reverence. Asking an explanation, he was told that "once a year the people took some one who reached their shore in this way and made him King. They obeyed all his commands, and he reigned in majesty and splendor for the period of a year. 'But what will become of me then?' 'You will be placed in an open boat and conveyed to an island beyond the horizon, uninhabited and desolate.' 'What will then be my fate?' 'It is expected that you will there starve.' Like his predecessors the king at first gave himself up to feasting and drinking. But towards the close of the year he called his chief adviser to him and said, ‘Am I still king?' 'You are.' 'And will the people obey all my commands?' 'Every one until the last moment.' 'Then,' said he, 'I will devote the rest of the year to sending forward provisions and

all necessaries for my comfort on that island beyond the horizon.''

The Master himself has said: "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through and steal, for where your treasure is there will be your heart also."

Dormonism and the Dormons.

[This paper was written in 1882. Some of the events alluded to as recent, and dates relative thereto, will thus be explained. Fifteen years ago the true inwardness and the defiant practices of Mormonism were conspicuous, and the careful observer could read between the lines of religious pretense, its real character. The evils, the un-Christian characteristics, and the anti-American ideas of this system were then being unveiled. "Our Mormon Turks," as Schuyler Colfax then put it, "were flinging their insolent defiance into the face of the nation." The continued aggression of this system seems now to warrant and to render advisable a pen picture of its debasing and disloyal character. Though the years have gone, the facts herein noted concerning Mormonism have not become obsolete. The most ardent defender of Mormonism to-day will not claim that it has revised itself out of its own existence, or that its cardinal doctrines have been materially changed. Recent publications from the Mormon press, which have come into my possession and acknowledged to be authorative make doubly certain the fact that the characteristics, the doctrines and the spirit of Mormonism are the same to-day as when the system was practically isolated from civilization, and when our government found it necessary to interpose with the strong arm of law. Personal investigation in Utah, together with information obtained from resident citizens and those fully acquainted with the tenets and practices of the so-called church, add materially to the evidence. It will be seen that the highest and best authorities on either side have been summoned as witnesses. Various additional notes have been appended, to elucidate and to verify. Here and there the text has been carefully revised. Mormon missionaries are now at work in the different states of the Union seeking to draw into the corrupting folds of this so-called church the ignorant and the unwary. In view of these facts, well known citizens and christian workers have suggested the timeliness, and have advised the publication of this paper.-Author.]

C

URRENT events command our thoughtful attention. In the presence of these events it is a healthful sign when the excellencies of our nation 1 virtues are not suffered to blind us to our

national faults, or to hinder us in our efforts to correct them.

It seems a characteristic of American thought to center itself upon some important question, to hold it up to the searching gaze of the people, to examine it under the keen scalpel of criticism, concentrate the eye of public opinion upon it as the one thing altogether important, pass judgment upon it, and then wave it to the background to make room for another to be looked upon, examined and disposed of in like manner.

Important issues are, at present, suffered to remain in the shadowy background, while the great question with which the American people are just now concerned is Mormonism. There are other questions as great, other issues perhaps more vital to our national life than this. These will be met, grappled with in deadly conflict by the American people, and, as in the past, we shall come forth from the conflict victorious. Mormonism, too, with all its infamy, blasphemy, filthiness, fiendishness and despotism, will be put down. After forty years of unworthy trifling, the American people have begun the work in earnest. They seem thoroughly aroused to the importance of the issue and they will wipe out that foul leprous spot, even though the victory be sealed with human blood.

was born in the He was inspired,

The evil spirit of Mormonism heart and brain of Joseph Smith. no doubt, by the vivid imagination and cunning duplicity of a vain, ignorant and superstitious mother, who believed in "wizzards and familiar spirits,' which she fancied filled the earth and air about her.

The son partook of the characteristics of the mother.*

The Mormon fraud was inaugurated in the state of New York, whence it fled to the west. It left its foul, slimy trail wherever it moved, in the states of Ohio, Missouri and Illinois, thence westward with its deluded victims, fanatical adherents, band of out laws, desparadoes and law-defying leaders, across rivers, over plains and through mountain passes to the Great Salt Lake, where, shut out from civilization, it has developed into a strong organized system of imposture, lust and tyranny. Let us not forget, however, that the stain of this crime and filthiness is upon our government bs a nation. The hand that signed the Fugitive Slave Law signed also the commission of Brigham Young as first Governor of

* I glean from reliable sources the following facts: Joseph Smith was born in 1805 in the state of Vermont. Several of his near relatives were Revolutionary soldiers. While Joseph was yet a small boy his parents moved to west-central New York. He was one of nine children. His parents were exceedingly "illiterate and superstitious." They determined that one of their sons should be a prophet, and Joe was selected as the "genius." This idea was impressed upon the son. "The mother moved in the lowest walks of life." They lived in dishonest poverty. Nocturnal depredations were frequently committed in the Smith neighborhood, Clothes lines were now and then robbed, poultry yards looted and grain bins suffered in like manner; and these depredations were laid at the doorway of the Smith family. The testimony of the old neighbors of the Smith family in New York was uniform that their character was bad and that of Joseph was the worst of the lot. (P. M. C. of Mormonism Pg. 23.) Both mother and son possessed a vivid but vain imagination; and integrity, conscience and truth were subsidized to it. They were both noted for extravagant assertions, fancied stories and false statements, which were improvised for the occasion. Said one who knew them well: "You can't face them down. They'll lie and stick to it. Joe never worked save at 'chopping bees' and 'raisings' and whiskey was the impetus and the reward." His aversion to labor is seen in some of his after "revelations." He could read but could not write, or very inaccurately at best. His two standard volumes were the "Life of Stephen Burrows, the Clerical Scoundrel," and the autobiography of Cpat. Kidd the pirate. He secured what he called a "seer" or "peek stone," with which he figured as a "water witch" and with which he divined and feigned to locate buried money and treasures, 'which were always spirited away just before the sound of the thud on the priceless chest reached the ears.' By instruction of the mother he laid claim to mirraculous power. Joseph Smith unquestionably had tact and perseverence and natural talents, which, had they been directed in the right channel, might have made him a useful man. (See History of Mormonism, Women of Mormonism, H. B. of M., Madame La Tour, H. B. of R, Polygamy, Mysteries and Crimes, of Mormonism, etc.)