120 PERILS. — MORMON^ISK. 



should undertake to dig down the Wahsatch Mountain 

 range with pick and spade." ^ 



Tiie secret power of the system is the people's belief in 

 the divine inspiration, and hence infallibility of the 

 priesthood. This is a veritable Pandora's box out of 

 which maj^ spring any possible delusion or excess. Said 

 Heber C. Kimball, formerly one of the Apostles : 



' ' The word of our Leader and Prophet is the Avord of 

 God to this people. We can not see God. We can not 

 hold converse with him. But he has given us a man 

 that we can talk to and thereby know his will, just as 

 well as if God himself were present v/ith us." Special 

 " revelations " to the head of the church, even if directly 

 contrary to the Scriptures, or the Book of Mormon, are 

 absolutely binding. The latter says : ^ ' ' Wherefore I, the 

 Lord God, will not suffer that this people do like unto 

 them of old; wherefore, my brethren, hear me, and 

 hearken to the word of the Lord. For there shall not 

 any man among you have save it be one wife ; and con- 

 cubines he shall have none." Yet a special "revelation " 

 sufficed to establish polygamy. Mormon despotism, 

 then, has its roots in the superstition of the people ; and 

 this Congress cannot legislate away. The people must 

 be elevated and enlightened through the instrumentality 

 of Christian education and the preaching of the gospel. 

 This work is being effectively done by the various Chris- 

 tian denominations. It is chiefly to such agencies that 

 we must look to break the Mormon power. 



1 Montgomery's Mormon Delusion, p. 

 ^ Book of Jacob, Chap. II, verse 6. 



