668 REORGANIZED CHURCH OP JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS. 



Theological Faculty of the Free University in 

 Amsterdam was placed in the hands of a com- 

 mittee, to report at the next session of the Gen- 

 eral Synod, to be held in 1896. The General 

 Synod comprises about 700 churches. 



REORGANIZED CHURCH OF JESUS 

 CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS, a 

 church organization incorporated under the 

 State statutes of Illinois and Iowa. It is repre- 

 sented in nearly all the States and Territories of 

 the Union, in parts of Europe, Australia, and 

 the Sandwich and Society Islands. The name 

 Latter-Day Saints finds its special origin or sig- 

 nificance among those who trace their religious 

 convictions to the movement that arose in New 

 York State about sixty years ago under the in- 

 strumentality of Joseph Smith. 



At the time of his death there arose aspirants 

 for leadership which rent the Church into a num- 

 ber of factions, among them being Brigham 



Young, who led his portion to the Territory of 

 Utah. The Reorganized Church of Latter-Day 

 Saints was founded by members of the original 

 organization that remained in Illinois and ad- 

 joining States, who rejected the claims of such 

 leaders as Young and gathered around the stand- 

 ard of Joseph Smith, son of the prophet. It 

 maintained as its sacred text-books and stand- 

 ard the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and the Doc- 

 trine and Covenants. The Book of Mormon is 

 considered as auxiliary to the Bible, and. not as 

 superseding it. The Doctrine and Covenants 

 contains reputed revelations through the prophet 

 Joseph Smith, relating principally to church or- 

 ganization and government. 



The Reorganized Church, in thus claiming au- 

 thority for these books, made a marked distinc- 

 tion between themselves and their fellows who 

 departed from them, who took the ground that 



" the living oracles " (meaning their priesthood) 

 should be the standard. Each of the books con- 

 demns polygamy. The Book of Mormon most 

 emphatically condemns it in the following lan- 

 guage : " There shall not any man among you 

 have save it be one wife, and concubines he shall 

 have none ; for I the Lord delighteth in the chas- 

 tity of women." In a suit entered in the Court 

 of Common Pleas in Lake County, Ohio, the 

 following verdict in favor of the Reorganized 

 Church was rendered: "And the Court do fur- 

 ther find that the plaintiff, the Reorganized 

 Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, is 

 the true and lawful continuation of, and suc- 

 cessor to, the said original Church of Jesus Christ 

 of Latter-Day Saints, organized in 1830, and is 

 entitled in law to all its rights and property." 

 There is now pending a suit in the United States 

 Circuit Court of Western Missouri touching some 

 property in that State. The point of law gov- 

 erning in such cases is, that in the event of dis- 

 sensions arising in an incorporate body, those ' 

 holding to the original principles of the body are 

 entitled to the rights of legal successorship. 



As early as 1863 this Church sent as mission- 

 aries to Utah, to combat what they considered the 

 heresy of Young, E. C. Briggs and A. McCord, 

 whose first meetings were held in the parlors of 

 Mrs. Waite, whose husband was at that time 

 Chief Justice of the United States Court in the 

 Territory of Utah. 



The Book of Mormon is held to be a record of 

 the ancient inhabitants of America, principally 

 of their religious affairs. Nearly everthing that 

 has been published about it rests upon the claims 

 that a manuscript written by Rev. Solomon 

 Spaulding was obtained by Smith and his con- 

 federates after the death of Spaulding, and 

 worked over into the Book of Mormon. But the 

 finding of Spaulding's original manuscript by 

 President Fairchild, of Oberlin College, in 1885, 

 settles that phase of the question. President 

 Fairchild, in an article in the "Bibliotheca Sacra," 

 says : " The theory of the origin of the Book of 

 Mormon in the traditional manuscript of Solomon 

 Spaulding will probably have to be relinquished. 

 That manuscript is doubtless now in the pos- 

 session of Mr. L. L. Rice, of Honolulu, Hawaiian 

 Islands, formerly an antislavery editor in Ohio, 

 and for many years State printer at Columbus. 

 . . . Some other explanation of the Book of Mor- 

 mon must be found." 



The Saints maintain a belief in present revela- 

 tion not only to the prophet, but to any of its 

 membership, according to their needs. Revela- 

 tions to the Church that affect the body come 

 through the head of the organization, and are 

 binding only as they are approved by the Church 

 by " common consent." Each quorum or subor- 

 ganization have ample opportunity to discuss, 

 reject, or otherwise act upon reputed revelations, 

 after which they are submitted to a general con- 

 ference, which is a representation by delegation 

 of the entire membership. An established rule 

 to govern in such action is that new revelations 

 must be in harmony with the law, the standard 

 books, the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and the 

 Doctrine and Covenants. Their organization in- 

 cludes apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, 

 and teachers. Ephesians, iv, and I Corinthians, 

 xii, 28, is the Bible basis for their organic form. 



