The following is a transcription of:
Anonymous
Letter (CHL Call no.: CR 1234 1)
Brigham Young. Newfane
April 3d 1877
Sir. Salt Lake City,
Utah.
You no doubt will be surprized on
the receipt of this letter,
coming as it does from a stranger; but now will be no more so, than
I would have been one month ago at the bare thought of writing you.
Since that time, I have been reading the writings of one who has
been a mormon, and advanced the mormon doctrine for a score of years,
but who, thank God! has forsaken Baal, and his idolatrous worship,
before it was too late. You, who because you will not see, are blind.
Can never know how shocked I was to learn that there was, one
man—perhaps a million—living on this beautiful earth, who
thought the "Sinner," in the garden of Eden, was the Creator of all
things.
Could he who was formed from the
dust of the earth, make
that dust? could he who sinned, be still a God? Sinful man
would be too selfish, to provide a world of beauties for the human
family, unless he could sit enthroned in the midst, and think you,
a Sinful God would do more? I tell you Nay!
Sin, mars beauty, and weakens the
Strong. Our God is not
less beautiful, or His arm less strong than when, with His
majestic power, He spoke the world into being. We read that
God is every where, and careth for all things. Could Adam in the garden,
with that body of dust, hold the waters in his hand—the Sun and
moon in their places? Could he cause the rains to fall from heaven, or
the grass to grow on the earth? Who drew the mantle down, from the
garden of Eden—who ruled the armies of heaven during his stay on
earth, and who, when Death tightened his first grasp, (for the cold
angel came to Adam) ruled Heaven and Earth?
O, wonder, of wonders! that all
had not rolled back into Chaos.
Oh! what a thought—what a religion, for a people living in the
nineteenth century, and this is only a part of the great mormon
doctrine, You perhaps, are not the framer of the whole of this
fearful libel, against the God of heaven, and yet, the
partaker is as bad as the thief; but do not think you can if the keys of Heaven
are placed in mortal hands, it is woman, that
holds them; but you would lock her out and bar the door with a worse
than heathen rite. You would destroy her happiness in this life, and
her soul in the next. Oh! how dare you call, so vile, loathsome,
and heart-rending a practice—a religion? How can you close your eyes,
& sleep, for fear the Judge of heaven would summon you away from
your false worship, and your field of carnage, with your hands duplicated
in some dark Act. I long to lift my heart in prayer, for such an
one; but I dare not, for God has said, there are those we shall
not pray for, and, if I read my Bible aright, the mormon
Prophet and the mormon worship in Utah for the last
twenty years, is not unlike, that recorded in the seventh
chapter of Jeremiah.
If, not for you, I know He will
let me pray
for the poor misguided beings, that have shipwrecked
their faith on a delusive sea, and from the wild mountains of
despair, are wandering back to the blessed fold of King
Immanuel. O may they all be gathered in at last.
But there are those, beyond the
reach of prayer—thousands,
perhaps, who will stand up against you, in that great day
of the Lord. Oh! will you meet them, clad in the filthy rags
of your own self-righteousness—when Jesus died and lives again?
How you will long, on that day, for the cleansing power of
Calvary's precious blood; but Justice, not Mercy will meet
you there—
Prophet of the mormons, you have
power, you have
wealth. In addition to all this—if the sands of earth were gold,
also—if Kingdoms were heaped on kingdoms, until they reached
to heaven—if crowns lay at your feet, thick as the leaves of
Autumn, and each and all could be mine, at the word. I
would not speak that word to exchange my humble lot, and
hope of Heaven, through the blood of a crucified and risen
Jesus! No! No! it would be giving wheat for chaff, as gold and gold, for dross.
I did not intend to write you so
long
a letter when I began. But I have drawn, only a faint outline—
of what the world, and Christian people, think of the
mormon Prophet, and the mormon doctrine—for I can not
command words, to speak as some of them might.
Could it be
the pleasure of my heavenly Father, to bless in the least,
what I have written—because I felt it a duty—I have not
lived in vain.
A. B. K. April 3d, 1877
After perusing this sheet;
from the first, I
wish you to remember, that the writer has no personal
acquaintance with you, or your religion, and if any thing
has been said that is unjust and not in accordance
with your teachings, you are at liberty to send explanations
and proof to
A. B. K. Newfane
Niagara Co
N. Y.
