in many remarkable particulars the Dead Sea in Palestine, was selected as a local signal of the intention to make it rival in audacious iniquity, those guilty cities which perished under a deluge of fire, and now lie concealed in a grave of stagnant brine. The analogical coincidence is, to say the least, of a very noticeable kind.

The above report of the learned Judges was presented rather more than a year ago; and that the morality of the "Church" has not improved since that period, is too evident from the proceedings at the Great Conference held in Salt Lake City, no farther back than August 28th, 1852.

The Millennial Star, the English weekly organ of the body, has published an extraordinary supplement, reporting the proceedings of this Conference, at which the First Presidency, the Presiding Patriarch, and seven of the twelve Apostles' took part, with about 2000 elders' around them. On Sunday, the 29th, Mr. Orson Pratt the premier of the Apostle-hood, as official oracle of the highest powers, made a long and elaborate speech, in which the doctrine of polygamy, or plurality of wives, was explained, defended, and enforced, as one of the cardinal Articles of the Mormon Creed, as it is to be. Every art of special pleading was adopted to give the dogma a speculative and theological aspect, and one wonderfully accrodant with the Old and New Testament scriptures. The impression however, will hang upon the reader, that the dogma has produced the speculation, and not the speculation the dogma. It is but too certain, at least, that the people will worship the abominable idol without

caring for the gossomer fabric in which it is enshrined. According to Mr. Pratt, all human spirits exist from the creation, and are kept waiting till their proper bodies are ready to receive them; to prove which, he gravely adduces (1.) the words of God to Job, that all the sons of God, (i.e. our non-embodied spirits) shouted for joy, when the foundations of the globe were laid;' (2.) the statement that God is the Father of our Spirits, and (3.) the words of Solomon, that at death our spirits return to God who gave them. Now these spirits enter their proper tabernacles by the law of marriage, and this marriage is designed to be an eternal institution, so that when once formed on earth it may be 'sealed' for eternity, and if so sealed, will so continue, and result hereafter in the peopling of worlds' for ever and for ever! This is "the blessing of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob," and as the amount of the blessedness plainly depends on the number of wives with whom the nuptial union is formed here, to be continued everlastingly, the greater that number the greater that blessedness must be. Here Polygamy with all its train of curses is elevated into a religious ordinance and duty, and the degree of eternal blessedness made dependent on its most comprehensive adoption. It is not said 'polygamy may be practised,' but 'ought,' and the more of it that prevails, the more obedience will be rendered to God and the more felicity secured to man. This is full-fledged Mormonism, and the sanctimonious affectation of purity with which it is attended, as in the case of Socialism, makes its voluptuous sensuality more ineffably disgusting. But as though another incentive were

required, the oracle proceeds to assure his hearers that some of the noblest spirits are now waiting to enter bodies, and that " among the saints is the most likely place for them to receive tabernacles.

The Lord has not kept them in store for five or six thousand years past, and kept them waiting for their bodies all this time to send them among the Hottentots, the African Negroes, the idolatrous Hindoos, or any other of the fallen nations that dwell upon the face of this earth,-they long to come, and they will come, among the saints of the living God-this would be their highest pleasure and joy, to learn that they could have the privilege of being born of such noble parentage* !!" The manner of getting this blessing is, (who could doubt that the upshot would be this?) by permission of the Prophet, Brigham Young, the " only man on earth" who holds the " sealing keys of power;" and hence the importance of emigration to Salt Lake City, that the Prophet may be consulted, and his permission gained! When the chief 'Apostle' had further enlarged, the sacramental emblems' were distributed, and the President of Presidents, Mr. Brigham Young, followed in the wake of Mr. Orson Pratt, and by a strong appeal to the Elders of Israel on the great virtue of not being abashed or cornered up" in the promulgation of any new doctrines, prepared the way for the reading of a revelation made to his predecessor Joseph, July 12th, 1843; (eleven months before his murder,) amply confirming all the reports which were in circulation concerning the

66

*This glowing augury is not at present in course of fulfilment, for Lieut. Gunnison declares that he never met with children so Lawless and profane" as those of the Mormons in Salt Lake City.

Prophet's domestic relations, but which were angrily and pertinaciously denied by his defenders. The pedigree of the document embodying this revelation, is thus traced." The original copy was burnt up— Wm. Clayton was the man who wrote it from the mouth of the Prophet. In the meantime it was in Bishop Whitney's possession. He wished the privilege to copy it, which brother Joseph granted. Sister Emma burnt the original [as well she might]. The reason I mention this is, because that the people who did know of the revelation, suppose it is not now in existence." Why, it may be asked, was it not published before? President Young is net diffident in making known his reason; and one can imagine the saintly,' smirking smile with which, just after the reception of the Lord's Supper, he made the declaration-"Some have cried out 'Proclaim it' but it would not do a few years ago; everything must come in its time as there is a time to all things. I am now ready to proclaim it”i.e., it would not do to proclaim Polygamy when the saints' had no separate civil government of their own, but would have been amenable to the civil tribunals of all Christian countries, if they had ventured to act upon the creed. This revelation has been in my possession many years-and who has known it? None but those who should know it. I keep a patent lock on my desk, and there does not anything leak out that should not." The vulgar effrontery of this was never surpassed.What honorable mind does not shrink with shame fom both the form and spirit of this admission 2 It is alive with that lowbred calculating cunning

6

66

which chuckles over its past achievements and its future resources. The substance of the 'Revelation' thus characteristically introduced will be found in the sequel-but the question may here fitly intervene, how it has been received by the Mormon authorities in England? At first perhaps with some hesitation as to publicity; for though printed in the Deseret News of Sept. 14th, it was not given to the British saints until the 1st of January, 1853; but all scruples, if ever entertained, were soon allayed, for in the Millennial Star of that date a long editorial appears; and to carry audacity to its maximum, it is there devoutly said-"Thanks be to God that through the Gospel of Christ there is one spot on earth where the sanctity of female virtue, freedom in agency, and womans' rights, are guarded with holy vigilance!!" Alas for them, or for any vestige of justice and purity, if they had no other security than Brigham Young's secret-protecting 'patent-lock.' To prepare the more simplehearted and free-minded saints for what was coming, the Star thought it desirable on the 25th of December, to enlighten them with the intelligence that "the voice of Brigham is now like the voice of Josephyea more; moves as it were the very powers of the earth; and when he roars, the mightiest ones of the field tremble with fear; and who shall say that God is not with him?"-And in the following Number it is plainly said,-" Satan knows that the Lord damns those only who reject a a living Prophet or

*See Appendix F

Brigham at the August Conference, meekly disclaimed this honour, but as a cry calculated to bear down opposition to this revelation, which Joseph did not publish, it is politic to raise it.