Originally titled:
Mormonism – Practical Operations of the New Schismatic Movement – The “Church of Zion” Organized on Earth – Informal Adoption of its constitution – A Herald Correspondent Receives a “Revelation”
Note:
Even though this article was was posted after this one, this one should be read second.
Salt Lake City, Utah January 25th, 1870
Synopsis of the Constitution
The new Mormon movement has assumed a temporary organization. At a special meeting held last evening the members informally adopted a preliminary draft of its characteristic constitution. The official title of the new system is “The Church of Zion”. It is not, as some suppose, an entirely new religion. It is only a modification of original Mormonism. The new Mormons are only old ones “reconstructed”. The new system is little else than the old one “varnished”. The new is better than the old by being in many points more reasonable and liberal. Its fundamental principles are broad and beautiful. It is good wherein it savors the spiritual, but bad wherein it tampers with the temporal. In organization the new and old are almost identical. With an eye of faith the new provides a name for ecclesiastical districts corresponding in magnitude to States and nations. It establishes direct communication with the heavens, through seers and oracles; stands untrammeled in conceptions of immortal truth, and is changing the external form of its administration; confirms the rites of baptism (by immersion) and laying on of hands; allows freedom of individual opinion in minor matters which do not conflict with the initiatory ordinances and the constitution; enjoins the practice of purity and right, but deals gently with the erring; revives the ancient principle of tithing, to consist of one-tenth the annual profit which remains after deducting the absolutely necessary cost of living; divides the Church into different ecclesiastical districts, each of which is to control its internal management, all to act in harmony with the general arrangement; holds all officials responsible directly to the people; makes the law of love and not of force the fundamental principle of authority; provides for spiritual and temporal departments, each of which is separate in so far as that duties pertaining to both shall not be administered by one individual; divides the spiritual department into quorums of general and local presidencies, with their counsellors, quorums of twelve apostles, of seventies, of high priests, and of teachers, and the temporal boards of bishops, with their aids and counsellors, boards of general and local trustees, and ladies’ aid committees as assistants to the bishops, and defines their respective spiritual and temporal duties; declares that all elections may be by ballot, and that any persons who take active measures to secure their own election shall be for that occasion ineligible to office. Such is a synopsis of this new Mormon system in its principles and its form of practice. Polygamy is not mentioned in its constitution, although in the “manifesto” the principle is stated to be sanctioned and practiced by celestials. Polygamy could come in hereafter through one of the “back doors” which the constitution has avowedly left open.
Criticism upon the Constitution
If the heavens had coined their revelations to spiritual subjects or if the new Mormon mediums had omitted temporalities the Church of Zion might have been made to constitute a system in sympathy with Christian Churches; but as it is it includes the fatal faults of temporal administration, tithing, and polygamy. I do not think, however, that the practice of polygamy will be made a feature of the faith of these “reconstructed” Mormons, because the high conditions of human perfection under which it is stated to be sanctioned would render it practically prohibited. Perhaps that is the reason why the constitution does not mention it. Touching temporalities, it is singular to see a system which assumes immortal authorship, superior spiritual insights, and the most consistent and advanced ideas thus blending spiritual and temporal concerns, when nearly all of Christendom concedes that such a union is inimical to the best interests of the people. While in all creeds and countries the sun of civilization is melting the icy bonds which have been binding the temporal to the spiritual, while in our own day and generation every one can see the liberal tendencies of Germany, Spain, and Italy, the impending separation of Church and State in Britain, and the critical condition of Pope Pius’ Syllabus, and the Mormons have the ever present and illustrious example of the United States around them it is singular as well as suicidal in any of them to attempt to materialize religion by including their creed provisions for temporal administration which are opposed to the genius of the American institutions and the spirit of its territorial jurisdiction. And mammon jingles through this new Mormon constitution, Tithing is a strain that is oft resounding. “Tithing is one thing” told them, “that will condemn your system in the eyes of Christendom”. Had they left all contributions to the voluntary liberality of the people it would have been more in accordance with the genius of the Gospel. “Evangelical Churches”, I said, “flourish and sustain extensive missions, and all by voluntary contribution.” “Tithing”, they answer, “is essential until humanity shall have learned the law of love in its most beautiful development.” But tithing, I retort, is just the thing that will tend to [impede] the advent of that happy period. Tithing takes you back to the earlier ages. Christianity has outgrown it. Christianity is love, love is charity, charity is benevolence, and benevolence in the Church and out of it is everywhere the prolific parent of magnificent voluntary contributions for ecclesiastical and humanitarian purposes. “The great truth that the law of force is unknown in the heavens”, this constitution says, “is hereby declared the principle that shall forever influence and control the existence of authority in the Church of Zion”, and afterwards “it will be the duty of the bishops to collect the tithing.” Refusal to contribute would manifestly render any member who had the means an unacceptable associate in Zion; for, after the assertion that “no members of this Church shall be expelled for difference of opinion” comes the qualifying clause “so long as they accept the initiatory ordinances of the Gospel and this constitution,” and in that constitution one of the wheels within the wheels is the whirligig of tithing.
At the organization meeting last evening Mr. Camp, a plain but sensible old gentleman, rose and offered a suggestion as to tithing. Jesus Christ, he said, had taught the principle that we should love our neighbor as ourselves. He had not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it, and hence He had taught that precious principle. “I believe myself”, continued Camp, “that tithing is not essential. In another place Jesus told us that we should not lay up treasures for ourselves on earth, where moths corrupt and thieves break through and steal. If we cultivate the spirit of the living God, and live as Christians should, we will look after our neighbors and so abolish many impositions in respect of tithing”. “I tell the people”, he said in his simple style, “that I am as good a cooper as there is in the world. I go into a shop where there is lots of coopers and I say, ‘I do not come to destroy the law of this shop, but if any of you cannot make a tub as well as me I will show you how and you can soon be just as good a cooper as myself. Now, if we practice the principles which out Lord and Master taught we will want no law of tithing. If I have things which my neighbor needs I will give them to him. I thought that I should mention this, and I beg to be excused if I have transgressed.” Mr. Kelsey first replied to Camp, and said consolingly that until the time should come when we would do unto our neighbors as we would wish to be done by them there would be need for a law of tithing; to which Camp responded with a melancholy murmur that if they really could not do without one he supposed the law of tithing contained in the constitution was a good enough one. Mr. Godbe, who is always so timely and so happy in his statements, confirmed in theory the correctness of Camp’s conclusions. “When that beautiful sentiment of Jesus”, he said, “will live in our hearts so as to influence all our actions, we will not need a law of tithing; neither will we need many other laws which have now to be observed. This law of tithing is necessary for us in our weakness, and it will be some time before we become so strongly grounded in the vital principles of Christianity as to dispense with it. But I trust that the doctrine will be taught, and that the people will respond to it in a proper spirit. I can assure the people that their means will be used most faithfully. All disbursements can be scrutinized by them, and every care will be taken to prevent imposition. I believe that the spirit and genius of the movement will be infused into the people’s hearts, that there will be no disposition on the part of any one to do wrong in money matters, but that the prevailing disposition will be rather to disburse than to receive.” Mr. Harrison wound up the subject by remarking that both Godbe and himself had bound their own hands by the constitution. “We have tied the bag”, he said, “and we never can get near it.
What Might Have Been
Appreciating as I do the beauty of many of the spiritual principles enunciated by these awakening Mormons, recognizing as I do in most of them an apparently sincere desire to come up to the highest civilization of the age and live in harmony with the laws of the United States, and having a common sympathy with them as fellow beings and aspiring mortals, i cannot but think that millions share in my regret that these Mormons had not now boldly and manfully embraced the opportunity which a happy combination of favorable circumstances so timely offered them to break off altogether from the old enslaving system, with its temporalities and tithing, and inaugurate a new and strictly spiritual system, through which the whole of this peculiar people might soon be led to loose the bands of their infatuation and come into complete accord with the advanced opinions of the age, and really and truly, as, in their own language, they think they do, with “the spirit and sentiments of Jesus”.
What May Be Yet – Concerning the Chief Oracle and Prophet
But it is not yet too late. The constitution which the few have informally adopted is only a preliminary draft, subject to amendment and to ratification when all those who shall meanwhile have joined the schism will have to come up to this New Jerusalem in April next and be in conference assembled. The 6th of April, 1830, was the date on which Joseph Smith, the original Mormon Prophet, organized the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints at Manchester, New York, with half a dozen members. In order to revive and modify, but still retain the traditions of the system, the present secret idea is to have all the “reconstructed” Mormons who can come assemble here en masse to the number, it is expected, of several thousand, and then, on the traditional day and with a traditional name, and by a kind of coup, the trumpets of Zion shall sound the glad tidings of the formal founding of a regenerated system, and at the cry of “Ecce homo!” shall step forth the new leader of the Church. And all the people are to recognize him as the man the heavens have sent and to rejoice and sing and shout. Mr. Eli B. Kelsey, who is said to be one of the coming quorum of the Twelve Apostles whom the heavens have hitherto been pleased to designate, mysteriously alluded, at the meeting here last night, to the “coming man” who quietly awaits the coming day, all unconscious even yet that the heavens have already chosen him as Zion’s chief oracle and prophet. “If any persons here anticipate”, Kelsey said, “that the name of the man whom the Lord has called to lead this Church will be announced tonight, such persons will be disappointed. God, in his own due time, will bring forth and manifest his servant. Meanwhile, Godbe and Harrison have been called to initiate and lead the movement by which the people are to free themselves from human assumptions and be prepared for the full and final organization of the Church of Zion. It is not for us to seek to explain why this is so, it is sufficient that it is so.” “No one need be in haste”, said Kelsey afterwards, ” to know who is to be the president of this Church. Every man and woman who lives faithfully and prays earnestly will be satisfied when he comes, and hundreds and thousands will know him by their own inspiration when he does come, and will thus be ready to receive him. I am, as you know, a wine maker, and when I prepare a vessel in which to put the wine I am very careful that is shall not leak. If any of you know who is the man whom God has called and can conceal it He has told you, but f you are a leaky vessel you will pray to know in vain.”
The Herald Correspondent Receives a “Revelation”
Now, I would regret to question Kelsey, for he is the first appointed, of not the chief, of the new apostles. But he and his associates so seriously assume that no one outside the sacred circle of a favored few “reconstructed” Mormons knows whom the heavens (which has enjoined secrecy on them) have designated as Zion’s leader, it may not be amiss, since no such divine injunction of secrecy has been imposed on me, to hit a corner of the curtain and let the people take a peep at him. At the close of last evening’s meeting I said to one of them who does know, and with whom I am familiar, “Kelsey says that no ‘leaky vessel’ contains this sacred and mysterious secret. But I can tell you who is the ‘coming man’ who is to be the leader of your movement.” He looked incredulous, of course, considering it impossible and preposterous that a matter which the heavens willed to withhold could be known to a Herald correspondent. “I know what you think”, I said; “you think I imagine that I know, but of course you believe I don’t.” “Tell me”, he said. “Kelsey says”, I repeated, “that no ‘leaky vessel’ contains the secret.” “Then I suppose you are not a ‘leaky vessel’ if you know it.” “But you know I am the special correspondent of the Herald”, I answered, “And it was not revealed to me as a secret.” “I don’t believe you know the right man”, was the reply; For the heavens would not have let you know it, if you are going to publish it, when they wished to keep it secret.” “Then, if you don’t”, I said, “just wait till you see the Herald. How do you know”, I continued, as a piece of consolation, “how do you know what wise purpose the heavens may have to accomplish through the Herald?” “I can’t cant imagine who you know around here who would be suitable for the leadership of Zion.” “I have not looked for him here,” I said, “and you know that you need not look around here for him, for he has not yet been baptized in those waters of the Jordan; his feet have never trod the streets of this New Jerusalem, not have his eyes ever gazed on this lovely valley or those royal mountains.” The interest was not heightening. “Who told you – but who is he?” “Under all the circumstances”, I said, “he is the best man that could now be chosen as the leader of a reconstructed Mormon movement. But he does not believe in polygamy, you know; and either you will have to surrender your theory of polygamy, or he will have to be converted to it; and I believe the most sensible thing for you to do is to take that plank of polygamy out of your platform, for he cannot stand upon it; it would break down under the weight of his anti-polygamic principles.” “Well, well; but how do you know?” “Before he was quite twelve years of age”, I continued, “his sire it is said, who was, as he is himself, a seer and prophet, anointed him to be his successor and the future leader of the Mormon movement. But Brigham Young, they say, put the boy aside, and usurped the place that rightfully belonged to the young Joseph. For his family name is Smith and his Christian name is Joseph. His father was the founder of the original Mormon movement. This new “Church of Zion” now proposes to re-establish Mormonism very much as it was in the days of the primary prophet, but modified so as to be more in accordance with the liberal opinions of the present generation, and I think it is a capital joke, if Brigham did really usurp the place and steal the birthright of the boy, that Brigham and his band should have had to come out here afoot, and while the youth was growing up to manhood establish this city and the settlements, build a railroad, drive that last and fatal spike into the present system, and the undisputed sway of ‘the present priesthood’, so that in view of the certain course of Congress Joseph could come here in the spring, riding in a silver palace car, to take the place in the affections of the people for which his father had anointed him, but which has been, as some say, meanwhile usurped by Brigham. If the confidence of the people in Brigham has been for years declining, and a change is needed, Joseph is just the man whom it will strike you Mormons as the one to come in to claim your confidence and commence a new regime. His name and traditions would probably produce the enthusiasm anticipated and the effect that is intended, while his anti-polygamic principles would be more in accordance with the instincts of woman, the sentiments of Christendom, and the laws of Congress. The whole thing is very timely, and the movement may be the means of averting inconvenience or calamities that would otherwise have fallen on the Mormons here in Utah.” Sir”, he said in the language of scripture, “Sir, I perceive you are a prophet. “Joseph”, I resumed, “has evermore fondly cherished the idea that the day would dawn on which eh would come up here to assume the leadership of the saints, and vindicate the character and perpetuate the power of his father Joseph. You know it is said that Emma, the wife of the elder and mother of the younger Joseph, refused to follow Brigham Young and his associates in their flight, and that with her sons she constantly proclaimed against the practice of polygamy and other evils that have crept into the church, as well as the assumptions of the present leaders. Joseph, as you are well aware, is now in Plano, Kendell county, Illinois, and you may expect to see him in Salt Lake City here next summer.” “How in the world”, was asked of me, “did you ever know who is the man whom the heavens have called to be the leader of the movement?” “Perhaps”, I answered – somewhat facetiously I own – “perhaps I have received a revelation.” “Yes, yes; but tell me truly, how did you ever know he whom the heavens have called to be the leader of the movement? “The herald”, I answered, “would probably never know so much as it does know if it always told how it receives its information.” and thus ended this curious colloquy.