As the number of believers increased, the establishment of the kingdom of God as a temporal and political power became a subject of earnest discourse, and from the announcement of this literal kingdom up to the present moment there has been an unceasing warfare between the Saints and the Gentiles, wherever they have existed together, for local supremacy. All that follows in the history of Mormonism after the enunciation of temporal sovereignty is but the working out of the Prophet's conceptions of his mission which grew with his years and increased with the success of the preaching of the faith. How far his later teachings and actions, or those of his successor, have been in harmony with the original platform, may well be questioned. Let the student of history determine for himself whether there can be found in connection with the Mormon movement any defined purpose of the Ruler of the Universe, or whether it is aught else than one of those ten thousand mysterious providences which have had a work to perform in human development, and which, after performing that work, have passed away, leaving their impress upon the history of the world.
The reader will readily perceive from the following chapters that Mormonism has contained within itself the elements of a sincere faith, and has thereby captivated the simple, inquiring, religiously-traditioned minds of a certain class of persons; has held them for a time in the expectancy of greater and progressive truths; and that the abandonment of the system by many of its most devoted adherents has been but the inevitable result of growth of intellect and the acceptance of broader and more liberal views of the purposes of a beneficent Deity.
The issues which have arisen in Mormonism of late years, and which have given to it the materialistic character that it now bears, were not anticipated by the early disciples. The temporal, patriarchal government of Utah is a disappointment, not a triumph, for long ere this—according to their teachings—the wicked should have been destroyed from oft the face of the earth, the elements should have melted with fervent heat, the heavens should have been rolled up like a scroll, and the elect should have been far away up in the clouds.
The Apostle Parley P. Pratt, the most eloquent and forcible
