Page:History of Utah.djvu/236



184 THE STORY OF MORMONISM.

and faith must cease not though prayer be unan- swered ; and they ask where was the father when the son called in Gethsemane? It was foreordained that Joseph and Hyrum should die for the people; and the more of murder and extermination on the part of their enemies, the more praying and believing on the part of saints, and the more praise and exultation in the heavenly inheritance.

The further the credulity of a credulous people is taxed the stronger will be their faith. Many of the saints believed in Joseph; with their whole mind and soul they worshipped him. He was to them as God; he was their deity present upon earth, their savior from evil, and their guide to heaven. What- ever he did, that to his people was right; he could do no wrong, no more than king or pope "• o more than Christ or Mahomet. Accordingly taoy obeyed him without question; and it was this belief and obedience that caused the gentiles to fear and hate. There are still open in the world easier fields than this for new religions, which might recommend themselves as a career to young men laboring under a fancied in- exorable necessity.

Whatever else may be said of Joseph Smith, it must be admitted that he was a remarkable man. His course in life was by no means along a flowery path; his death was like that which too often comes to the founder of a religion. What a commentary on the human mind and the human heart, the deeds of those who live for the love of God and man, who die for the love of God and man, who severally and col- lectively profess the highest holiness, the highest charity, justice, and humanity, higher far than any held by other sect or nation, now or since the world began — how lovely to behold, to write and meditate upon their disputings and disruj^tions, their cruelties and injustice, their persecutions for opinion's sake, their ravenous hate and bloody butcheries!