Report of Mission Conference for Three Weeks Ending September 15, 1906. Though deep in mire, wring not your hands and weep; But yet might rise and be again a man! Dost thou behold thy lost youth all aghast, Dost reel from righteous retribution's blow? And find the future's pages white as snow. Art thou a mourner? Rouse thee from thy spell; PUBLISHED BY THE SOUTHERN STATES MISSION CHATTANOOGA, TENN. PUBLISHED SEMI-MONTHLY BY THE SOUTHERN STATES MISSION Office, 711 Fairview Avenue, Chattanooga, Tenn. P. O. Box 417 A SCRAP BOOK OF MORMON LITERATURE Entered as second-class mail matter at Post Office, Chattanooga, Tenn. are We believe that religion is instituted of God, and that men answerable to Him, and Him only, for the exercise of it, unless their religious opinions prompt them to infringe upon the rights and liberties of others; but we do not believe that human law has a right to interfere in prescribing rules of worship to bind the consciences of men, nor dictate forms for public or private devotion; that the civil magistrate should restrain crime, but never control conscience; should punish_guilt, but never suppress the freedom of the soul.-JOSEPH SMITH, THE PROPHET. The "Reorganized" Church vs. Salvation For The Dead. BY ELDER JOSEPH F. SMITH, JR. No. 2 The most valuable and able article to follow in this and the next issue under the above title, was printed in tract form and copyrighted by the author. However, through his kindness and courtesy we are able to present it to our readers through The Journal. We recommend a careful reading of the same, first, because of the importance of the subject, and, second, because of the proficient way in which it is treated. By way of introduction, we desire to submit an editorial from the Desert News inspired by the appearance of the pamphlet above spoken of. It fits the case so well that we feel prompted to introduce it by way of a preface to the regular article. Under the caption, "The Reorganites," the News said: Elder Joseph F. Smith, Jr., in his little pamphlet on Salvation for the Dead and the so-called "Reorganized" church, refers to the members of that denomination as "Reorganites." The term is new, but, as already pointed out in these columns, it is preferable to the name "Josephites," since they are not the followers of the Prophet Joseph. They might more properly be called Briggsites, and Burleyites, after the gentlemen who founded the sect in 1853 and in 1860 "presented" it to the present head. The "Reorganites" have lately unfolded strenuous activity in the hope of profiting by the onslaught of apostates and traitors upon the Church of Christ. They have actually joined hands with an element similar to that which about sixty years ago caused the murder of the Prophet and Patriarch, and so perfect has the harmony between them proved, that in the general cry of "crucify!" it has been impossible to separate the voice of the "Rorganites" from that of their raving friends and allies. How inexpressibly sad is the spectacle of the leaders of the "Reorganites" arrayed against the faithful followers of the Prophet Joseph! Judas, selling his Master! Brutus, stabbing Cæsar! The Prophet Joseph and his brother, Hyrum, were true as steel to each other. They were one in everything. They labored together, in health and sickness, in prosperity and adversity. We see them together on Fishing River wrestling with the destroyer that went through the camp, until God gave them victory. When Joseph was atttacked, even by his own brother, William, it was Hyrum who stood by him and defended him. When the Prophet went to Washington to plead the cause of the persecuted. Saints, Hyrum presided over the Church. And, when Joseph and Hyrum. were imprisoned in Carthage, one of the last thoughts of the Prophet was: "If only my brother Hyrum were free, it would not matter with me!" Joseph and Hyrum were indeed one, heart and soul! How inexpressibly sad, therefore, to see the descendants of Joseph in the ranks of the bitter enemies of the descendants of his most beloved and most highly gifted brother, because they are as faithful and loyal as was the Patriarch, to the Prophet. Now, what is their complaint? In private conversations and public declarations the burden of the argument is that the leaders of the "Reorganites" have set themselves the task of "pleading the cause of injured innocence." That is the crux of the matter, the central point of their position. They may talk of "law-breaking," of the necessity of repentance, etc., but these are only side movements intended to lead up to the chief point, "injured innocence." And by this they mean that someone has robbed them of their alleged right to preside over the Church. When their arguments are thoroughly sifted, it will be found that they regard the Church as a farm, or the Saints as a flock of sheep, once the property of the Prophet Joseph, to which they have a possessive right, by virtue of birth, and that when the people, under the direction of the Spirit of God, chose a presidency, they became "injured" innocents. That is the sum and substance of the "Reorganite" contention. It is an attempt to perpetuate the error of William Smith, who, in a letter to the Twelve, June 30, 1845, wrote: "I want all men to understand that my father's family are of the royal blood and promised seed, and no man, or set of men, can take their crown." That is, actually, the platform of the "Reorganites." That their position is radically wrong is self-evident. The Church never did belong to any man, or family, and never will. It is God's Church, and He raises up leaders, as He sees necessary. Succession to presidency by birth is not a principle of the kingdom of God. Samuel succeeds Eli, though not of the same family, even. David succeeds Saul, though God might have spard Jonathan for that position. Our Savior, the Captain of our salvation, was of the tribe of Judah, to whom nothing was said of Priesthood, and not of Levi. Nephi succeeds his father, though his older brothers may consider themselves "injured," and apostatize. And so all through the history of the dispensations of God. There is no succession to office by virtue of birth alone The position is fundamentally false, and once established would be destructive of the Church, just as that principle applied to our civil institutions would destroy the government of the American Constitution, also inspired by the Lord. The "Reorganites" need to be called upon to repent of this grievous error into which they have fallen, through a sinful desire for a position which no man can either give or take, but which the Almighty has retained as His prerogative, to bestow in accordance with His eternal plans and purposes. The "Reorganites," in the very name they have assumed, confess that they are wrong. The Lord does not "reorganize" churches. "Behold, I make all things new!" Men "reorganize." Men put new patches on old cloth, and sometimes they endeavor to make a new garment of nothing but old, worn-out, soiled patches. That is the experiment tried by the "Reorganites." But this is not God's way. Whenever a dispensation has ended in error, God has, in His own time, instituted a new. But concerning this last dispensation established through the instrumentality of the Prophet Joseph, the Lord expressly stated that it was to be "everlasting." If the word of God is true, there is no need, or room, for a "reorganization" of His Church. And now the article: The so-called "Reorganized" church, which is so bitter in its antagonism towards the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has claimed from its beginning to be teaching and practicing the doctrines of the Gospel as they were revealed from God through the Prophet Joseph Smith. Its officers declare that they are walking in the footsteps of the martyred Seer; hewing closely to the line, and observing in all things the commandments which were given from God through his instrumentality. without variation, change, or loss of power from all that pertains to the salvation of the human family in this dispensation of the fullness of times. Their foundation is built upon the absurd and misty claim that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which was established April 6, 1830, through the labors of Joseph Smith the Prophet and the will. of God, was "rejected with its dead for transgression of its members," and that the "Reorganized" church is a "new organization"* which God *In a number of articles by Zenas H. Gurley, one of the founders of the "Reorganized" church, in the Saints' Herald, Vol. I, the "Reorganization" is referred to as "a new organization of the Church." This agrees with the statement of the president of that church, in the Saints' Herald, Feb. 17, 1904. Said he: "The Church, using the word to mean the Church rejected, has not been again received." raised up to succeed the original-but as they would have us believe, "rejected"-Church. It is not my purpose to discuss the foolish question of the "rejection of the Church," but to examine the Reorganite position in regard to salvation for the dead; and to show their lack of harmony with the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints pertaining to the dead, as those teachings have been revealed through the latter-day Prophet. It stands to reason that if the Lord rejected His Church with its dead because of transgression, or any other cause whatever, that He would not raise up a substitute church to carry on His work on earth and stil! keep the dead-who could in no wise be held responsible for the rejection -in suspension, and deny to them the privilege of receiving the ordinances of the Gospel by proxy according to the revealed plan of God as it was ordained from before the foundations of the world were laid, as a means of salvation to those who die without a knowledge of the Gospel. To any reasonable mind this truth would need no argument Yet the "Reorganized" church declares that the Lord did this very thing; and in the light of the revelations given to the Prophet Joseph as well as those in the ancient Scriptures, which bear on this subject of salvation for the dead, their declaration is fatal to their organization; it stamps it as fraudulent and their officers as impostors. A church without salvation for the dead, according to the revealed will of God to the Prophet Joseph Smith, cannot be the Church of Christ. When the Angel Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith on the night of September 21, 1823, he imparted to the youthful Seer many truths of the greatest importance pertaining to the restoration of the Gospel and the establishment of the Church which, the angel said, was about to take place. These instructions were of such weight that they were repeated twice more that night and again the following day, in order that this young man, upon whose shoulders the burden of the latter day work should rest, might be sufficiently impressed with the greatness and importance of his mission. Among the instructions given by the angel at this time, the doctrine of salvation for the dead had an important part. This heavenly messenger said that the prophecy of Malachi the Prophet was about to be fulfilled, and he quoted the fourth chapter of Malachi, but with this variation: "For, behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall burn as stubble; for they that come shall burn them, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. *** Behold, I will reveal unto you the Priesthood, by the hand of Elijah the prophet, before the coming of that great and dreadful day of th Lord. And he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to their fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers; if it were not so, the whole earth would be utterly wasted at his coming." (History of the Church, Vol. I, page 12.) At that time the full meaning and glory and significance of this in |