LECTURE ON MORMONISM.
One of the most striking and significant events of the present century, is the rise and spread of Mormonism. All the chapters of its changeful history possess the interest of the most stirring romance. The incidents thicken so fast, the plot becomes so complex, and withal, the developements are so vast and unexpected, that we hold our breath in continual surprise, in threading our way through the narrative of this singular delusion.
The world has long been familiar with Heresiarchs who have gone off upon some perversion of Christian doctrine: but the schools they have established claim still a connection with the Church out of whose bosom they spring; and the leprous taint has not unfrequently extended from the branch and defiled the trunk. But since the sixth century, no original impostor had arisen, claiming immediate inspiration from God, and establishing a new dispensation of truth. To make this novelty more startling, it was reserved for this age, and for this country, to give birth to the new Prophet: an age advanced beyond all others in the natural sciences, by which imposture may be detected; and a country having the most thoroughly practical population upon the globe. We may, in the sequel, perhaps, find in these very circumstances, which excite our wonder, the elements from which to work out the solution of this great social and religious problem.— But at the first glance, it strikes one with astonishment that in the middle of the nineteenth century, and in this
