When investigating the claims of a religious system it becomes
necessary also to consider the effects which such a system produces
in the lives and characters of those who embrace it, as well as its
general influence. If a tree is known by its fruits, so are also
doctrines. Those that produce good fruits cannot be evil.
It is, therefore, customary to refer to the effect of the gospel in
the first part of our era as an evidence of the truth of its claims.
These effects are well-known and worthy of consideration. Paul points
out that some of the Corinthians had been "fornicators, adulterers,
thieves, drunkards," previous to their embracing the gospel; but
now they were "washed, sanctified, and justified" (I Cor. vi, 11).
Peter speaks of some of the converts as having once been "walking in
lasciviousness, {421} lusts, excess of wine, revelings, banquetings,
and abominable idolatries" (I Peter iv, 3). But these sinners who
lived in a dissolute age and under the worst of governments, became
converted, became eminent in virtue above their fellowmen.
This eminence is acknowledged by all unprejudiced writers of the age.
Clement of Rome (A. D. 100) says: "Who did ever live among you that
did not admire your sober and moderate piety and declare the greatness
of your hospitality? You are humble and not proud, content with the
daily bread which God supplies, hearing diligently His word, and are
enlarged in charity." Justin Martyr (A. D. 165), formerly a Platonic
philosopher, says: "We who formerly delighted in adultery, now observe
the strictest chastity; we who used the charms of magic have devoted
ourselves to the true God, and we who valued money and gain above all
things now cast what we have in common, and distribute to every man
according to his necessities." It has been supposed that the United
Order of which we read, and which was founded in Jerusalem at the
commencement of the Church, very soon collapsed. But, judging from
this expression of Justin, it appears that that order still existed
more than one hundred years after Christ. Minucius Felix, to a heathen
opponent, says: "You punish wickedness when it is committed. We think
it sinful to indulge in a sinful thought. It is with your party that
the prisons are crowded, but not a single Christian is there, except it
be as a confessor or apostate."
The influence of the gospel was gradually felt among the heathen
nations who heard it. In Greece, men like Lycurgus and Solon had
encouraged impurities. At Rome they were openly practiced and approved;
and nearly all ancient nations are said to have commended self-murder.
Human sacrifices and the exposure of children were allowed. But
wherever the gospel was preached and believed all such practices
were condemned and finally destroyed. That this was not the work of
civilization, but of the gospel, may be gathered from the fact that
it was nations far above the humble Christians in refinement and
education, who committed the greatest outrages. Suppression of sin
never keeps pace with the progress of civilization, but with the
triumph of the gospel.
Another effect of the gospel was the many charitable institutions
that always followed in its track. The relief of distress and the
care of the poor are peculiar to Christianity. The gospel, if rightly
understood, would have already abolished the horrors of war, prevented
slavery, put down feudal {422} oppression, made all men brethren. For
such are its doctrines, that when once understood and practiced, they
will naturally exterminate all miseries of the human family.
These effects are truly wonderful, and may justly be appealed to as
evidences of the truth of the gospel.
But are such effects less strong evidence of the divine origin of
the message of Joseph the Prophet, when it can be proved that they
invariably follow the acceptance of this message? We think not. Here
are facts open to the inspection of everybody. We need not refer to
a bygone antiquity to ascertain the effects of this message upon the
people who have accepted it. The Latter-day Saints live to-day and
their works may be scanned by all. Every honest investigator will
find that the fruits produced to-day, as seen among the Latter-day
Saints, are precisely the same as those which were seen among the early
Christians, and to which we have above briefly referred.
We do not say that everyone who professes to be a Latter-day Saint is
an evidence of the divinity of the gospel. Nor was every individual who
professed Christianity an evidence of its truth. On the contrary, many,
even in the apostolic age, showed by their deeds that they were nothing
but professors; and it is clearly not the profession that is the main
feature. A man may profess to be what he is not.
Nor do we contend that the Latter-day Saints, considered as a religious
community, are the best people on the earth. This is not for us to
decide; nor is that our present question. The Saints may be the best
people, taken as a whole, or they may not; yet in their present stage
of development they have reached a high standard of excellence that is
most desirable. This, however, does not affect our present argument.
What we do contend, and what we urgently invite everybody to ascertain
for themselves, is this: that the message delivered through Joseph
the Prophet, when accepted and honestly carried out in practice, has
a tendency to change men for the better and produce fruits of faith,
hope and charity, thus proving its divine origin by its fruits; for no
deceptive fraud could produce these fruits. This is what we contend.
Facts speak for themselves.
We live in an age when social questions threaten to blast society to
its very foundations. Where in the whole world have these questions
found their only possible solution to the satisfaction of all parties
concerned? Not among the various religious bodies of the world;
not among the capitalists, nor among the anarchists, communists,
socialists, or nihilists, but {423} among the Saints. Over the
thresholds of their peaceful homes these troublesome questions--ghosts
at the appearance of which the world trembles--cannot enter. In the
valleys of the mountains they are unknown, and must remain so as long
as the Gospel is being carried out in practice.
Again, who has solved the question of the true relation between the
sexes, at once assigning to marriage its divinity of origin and eternal
importance, thereby checking the waves of sin which inundate the world,
and securing happiness to all? We answer: The Latter-day Saints. One
of the first fruits seen as the result of their doctrines is absolute
purity.
Further, who fills the prisons as criminals? Not the Latter-day Saints,
but outsiders, those who habitually speak of the degradation of the
"Mormons;" those Christian associates give the stuff that contributes
to the filling up of the prisons--a fact which of itself ought to be
enough to convince the whole world of the divine origin of the message
delivered through Joseph the Prophet. It is clear that doctrines which
are strong enough to keep humanity from committing crimes--to which
every human heart is more or less inclined--must be from God.
It may be asked, who fills the saloons and gambling hells? Who swears
and lies and slanders? Who is proud and vain, lazy and filthy? No
one who has accepted the Gospel in reality--no Latter-day Saint. The
Saints are, as such, temperate, industrious, humble, clean, loving,
forbearing, long-suffering, rejoicing, fearing God; in short, bearing
the fruits of righteousness. Such virtues the Gospel enjoins and such
fruits always accompany its real acceptance.
Could we speak of all the cases where men who were in every respect
worldly, walking in sin, accepted the Gospel and became changed in
every respect, this evidence would, indeed, amount to demonstration.
Thousands are our witnesses to these facts--men who were fallen, on
their way down to ruin and hell--families who have been happy by the
restoration of their fallen ones to virtue, to society and to God.
Finally, has the world exhibited any nobler examples of
self-sacrificing faith, of firmness and endurance under suffering and
persecution than have many of those despised followers of the martyred
Prophet?
True, persecution has been raging against the Saints; but, like the
palm tree, which is said to grow all the higher the more weight there
is placed thereon, they have stood firm; in persecution they have been
patiently enduring, knowing {424} that, after all, God is the Supreme
Ruler, and with this knowledge they have faced all adversity calmly and
risen through their faith and hope far above the plots of those who
know not God.
Such, then, are the effects of the message under consideration. Well
may we ask: Is it possible that such noble fruits of faith, hope and
charity could be produced from anything that men could invent? An
honest inquirer must answer in the negative, "The fruit of the Spirit
is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance" (Gal. v, 22, 23), and it is evident, therefore,
that where these are found the Spirit of God is manifested.
Here, then, we again arrive at the same conclusion: Joseph the Prophet
was sent from God. If he was not, his whole career would be an enigma,
and his work the most profound of mysteries. Then we would have the
problem of a man working a system of peculiar doctrines for the
salvation of mankind, a religion producing the fruits of the Spirit
in accordance with the Gospel of Christ; and all this through whom?
Through mere human wisdom? Or, shall we say through the devil? Can
any rational man for a moment think that the devil, even if he felt
so inclined, could frame a moral system the effects of which upon men
would be purity and holiness? The idea is so absurd that it is hardly
worthy even of suggestion, and yet the Rev. Mr. Lamb has suggested
that the faith of the "Mormons" is possibly due to "demoniacal"
influence--a theological possibility which the reverend gentleman may
have from studying the theology of the Pharisees, who were perplexed at
the manifestations of the power of God in Christ.
No honest man, however good an opinion he may have of the devil, can
honestly believe the adversary of God capable of making men holy and
virtuous. Nor is it possible for mere human wisdom to do it without the
aid of God. Our only alternative is to acknowledge the hand of God, and
humbly bow in obedience to the message delivered through Joseph the
Prophet.