MORMONISM FROM A MORMON' POINT OF VIEW. 163 



Lake City. The tone of public feeling throughout the neighboring 

 States and Territories is more favorable toward " woman's rights " 

 than it is in any other part of the world ; and, even if this be partly 

 due to a reaction produced by Mormcnism, it cannot fail in time to 

 influence the female electors of Utah. Thus it is possible that a peace- 

 able solution of the difficulty may be found, and polygamy may be 

 abolished, not by external force, but by constitutional action within 

 the Mormon communitj^ itself. 



Meanwhile, this church of the nineteenth century possesses amaz- 

 ing vitality, and seems to carry us back to a by-gone era of belief, 

 exhibiting as it does the phenomenon of a religious sect heartily con- 

 vinced of its future mission and claiming the present for its own. 

 While other churches look to the past for all that is best and truest 

 in religion, the Latter-day Saints regard the present also as a period 

 of miracle and revelation. They expect, in the immediate future, the 

 conversion of all who inhabit their vast continent with as serene a con- 

 fidence as that with which the early Christians seem to have antici- 

 pated the evangelization of the Roman Empire. It may be said of 

 them that in theology they maintain the modern doctrine of continu- 

 ity, rather than ancient theories of convulsion and catastrophe. Ac- 

 cepting, in a literal sense, the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, they 

 apparently entertain no fear lest scientific research should undermine 

 their faith, as they look for a continuous course of revelation, which 

 shall harmonize theology with the general advance in human knowl- 

 edge. 



The title of Parley P. Pratt's recent work, " Key to the Science 

 of Theology," 1874, may seem almost to involve a contradiction in 

 terms ; but it indicates the desire of a distinguished Mormon theolo- 

 gian to keep abreast, if possible, of the scientific spirit of the age. 

 Whether the attempt to do this may have proved successful or not, 

 his policy is surely wiser than that which has frequently placed sci- 

 ence and theology in opposition so direct, that every conquest of 

 knowledge over ignorance has appeared to be also a victory over re- 

 ligion. Indeed, Mr. Parley Pratt is entitled to a welcome from the 

 lovers of free thought, considering how rarely theologians seek to iden- 

 tify the progress of their own tenets with that of humanity in every 

 department of science and art, and how seldom it is that they do not 



" Grow pale 

 Lest their own judgments should become too bright, 

 And their free thoughts be crimes, and earth have too much light." 



To quote his own words : 



" The creeds of the Fathers seem to have been cast in the mould of other 

 ages, to be adapted to a more narrow sphere of intellectual development, and to 

 be composed of material too much resembling cast-iron ; or, at least, not suf- 

 ficiently elastic to expand with the expansion of mind, to grow with the growth, 

 and advance with the progressive principles of the age. For these reasons, per- 



