During the summer of 1906 and continuing until the summer of 1907,
a number of Reorganite ministers who were engaged in missionary
work in Salt Lake City and Ogden, were greatly encouraged by one or
two apostates and the local anti-"Mormon" press. Their method of
proselyting was of the usual nature, a tirade of abuse and false
accusation hurled at the authorities of the Church. Encouraged
by the anti-"Mormon" help, they became extremely vindictive in
their references to President Brigham Young and the present Church
authorities. Their sermons were so bitter and malignant--which has been
the character of most of their work from the beginning, in Utah--that
they raised considerable protest from many respectable citizens. Even
non-"Mormons" declared that in no other community would such vicious
attacks be tolerated. It appeared at times that these missionaries were
attempting to provoke the "Mormon" people to some act of violence,
that it might be seized upon and published to the world through the
anti-"Mormon" press that they had been mobbed, and thus capital for
their cause be made of it. Fortunately they were not molested to the
credit of the people so constantly abused. One of these meetings was
attended by a prominent gentleman from the East who was somewhat
acquainted with Utah and her people, he said, in conversation with the
writer a few days later, that never in his experience has he witnessed
such a thing before. "If that fellow"--referring to a Reorganite who
has since been promoted in his church--"should come to our town and
abuse the ministers of our church, calling them murderers, thieves and
liars, as he did Brigham Young and your churchmen, we would kick him
off the streets."
While this agitation was going on, a number of the young people of
Ogden appealed to their stake presidency asking that some reply to
those assaults be made for the benefit of those who were not grounded
in the faith, and in danger of being deceived. Acting on this request
the presidency of the Weber Stake invited the writer to speak along
these lines in the Ogden Tabernacle. The invitation was accepted and
two discourses were delivered, the first, March 10, 1907, on the
subject of the "Origin of the Reorganized Church," and the other
April 28, 1907, on the question of "Succession." These remarks were
subsequently published in the _Deseret News_, and many requests were
received asking that they be published in pamphlet form, where they
could be preserved by those who had to meet the ministers of the
"Reorganization." An edition was therefore published in the summer
of 1907, which has been disposed of, evidently without supplying the
demand, for in the summer of 1909 the orders for the pamphlet were so
great that is was deemed necessary to issue a second edition. In the
meantime a reply appeared in the Saints' Herald, commencing with the
issue of June 30, and ending that of July 21, 1909. This reply will be
remembered more for the unfair way matters were treated and the fact
that the greater part of the evidence was left untouched, than for any
merit in the argument presented. Wherever it was deemed necessary, for
the sake of those who may be deceived, answers are given in this work
in footnote references to the argument set forth in the Reorganite
"defense." However, there was nothing presented in the "defense"
that really required any reply; by reading carefully the discourses
mentioned, the ordinary reader can readily perceive the trickery,
deception and sophistry, of the Reorganite reply.
Part one of this book contains the discourse delivered in Ogden on
the "Origin of the 'Reorganized' Church;" part two contains the
discourse on the "Succession in the Presidency," and part three deals
with the most prominent differences existing between the Church and
the "Reorganization," wherein they accuse us of departing from the
doctrines of the Prophet Joseph Smith. This matter in part three is
added by request of a number of parties who have had to meet the
sophistry of the Reorganite missionaries.
This book is not put forth to replace any other work, neither with the
idea that it will turn Reorganite ministers from the folly of their
ways; but with the hope that some honest soul who have been deceived
may see the light and embrace the truth, and that the feet of the
weak may be strengthened in the path of righteousness that they may
not falter on their way. Neither is it intended to be an exhaustive
treatise in of the subjects it contains; the idea has been in the main,
to present matters that have not been treated elsewhere.--J. F. S., Jr.