I. The Objector's First Paper.
III. The Objector's Second Paper Against the Book of Mormon.
II. America the Land of Zion and of Joseph.[1]
PART III. HISTORICAL AND DOCTRINAL PAPERS. I. The Lord's Day.
II. Anglican Orders.—Decision of Leo XIII Considered.—The Protestant Dilemma.[1]
A Consideration of the Question of Divine Authority.
Pope Leo's Decision on Anglican Orders.
III. Reformation or Revolution? [1]
A study of the great sixteenth century movement led by Martin Luther and others.
IV. Revelation and Inspiration.[1]
PART I.
POSITION AND DEFENSE.
I.
MORMONISM.
FOREWORD.
The following paper was prepared by the writer for presentation at the Parliament of Religions, held at the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was not invited to participate in the proceedings of that Parliament, although Mormonism is the most distinctively American religious movement yet developed in our country; and as such the position and doctrine of the Church should have been of special interest in such a gathering as the Parliament purported to be. Learning that the Church would not be invited to the Parliament, under a sense of duty to make known the faith and message to the world, her presiding authorities sought opportunity for a hearing from the Parliament platform. After much solicitation and persistent urging as to the right of the Church to a hearing in such a gathering, a reluctant consent was finally given for a presentation of the following paper. But after this consent was given, a very unworthy effort was made by the President and chairman of the Parliament to side-track the paper by asking the representative of the Church to read it in one of the auxiliary departments of the Parliament—namely, the Scientific Department, which meetings were held in a room capable of accommodating about fifty hearers, and presided over by Mr. Mervin Marie Snell. In response to that suggestion the writer, who had the honor to the representative of the Church to the Parliament, replied that such a hearing as could be had in Hall III (Scientific Department of the Parliament) was not the kind of hearing the Mormon Church had asked for or could accept. She had asked to speak from the same platform from which the great religious faiths had spoken—Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism—from the platform of Columbus Hall, where her position and principles could be compared and contrasted with the viewpoint and doctrines of other religions, by the enlightened thought of the age. The officers in charge of the Parliament, however, refused to change the terms on which a hearing could be obtained for Mormonism, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had the distinction of being refused a hearing in the World's Parliament of Religions.
I.
"MORMONISM."
One of the most instructive as well as the most important religious movements of the nineteenth century is the rise of what the world has learned to call "Mormonism." In an age which believed that God's voice would no more be heard giving revelation; that said the volume of scripture was completed and forever closed; that declared angels would no more visit the earth to communicate the divine will; and that sedulously taught that all miracles had ceased—the world beholds a religion arising based upon these forces that men had been taught to believe had forever become inactive. True, it has met with many obstacles in consequence of making these rejected stones of ancient Christianity the chief corner stones of its structure; but notwithstanding the fierceness of the opposition it has aroused, it is now so firmly established that it claims the respectful attention of the world.
New religions, when struggling for existence in the face of adversity, with few followers and no influence, may expect to be treated with silent contempt by the supposedly orthodox; but when a religion has fought its way through all opposition to a position of influence, and counts within its pale hundreds of thousands of sincere and intelligent followers, it gives proof that its doctrines contain some measure of truth at least, and by reason of that fact, has a claim upon the respect and thoughtful consideration of mankind.
Such is the position of "Mormonism." Sixty-three years ago [1] the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized with but six members, in the State of New York. That organization was effected in a log room not more than fourteen feet square, by men who made no pretensions to ecclesiastical scholarship, but claimed to be directed by divine revelation. It could but be expected that the great Christian sects, by which the new church was surrounded, and that considered themselves strongly entrenched behind a fullness of religious truth—would