New Testament.* Every Mormon is bound to submit to this rite for the benefit of his deceased relatives. Its institution seems to have had the same pecuniary object as that of the masses pro defunctis; although the fees demanded by the priesthood for its performance are not stated in the official documents. They tell us, however, that the dead "depend on their posterity, relatives, or friends, for this completing of the works necessary for their salvation"-(XIV. 232.); and that their genealogies will be revealed to the faithful by the prophets in the temple.-(Seer, i. 141.) Thus (says Joseph Smith, in his "last sermon"):-"Every man who has got a friend in the eternal world can save him, unless he has committed the unpardonable sin; so you see how far you can be a saviour." And to the same effect the Mormon hymnist sings: "I am Zionward bound, where a Seer is our head, (XV. 143.) The Chancellor of the University of Deseret informs us, that "unless this is done for the dead they cannot be redeemed."(Spencer, 166.) And the same learned. authority announces that "Peter tells how the devout and honourable dead may be saved, who never heard the gospel on earth. Says he, [St. Peter!]' else why are they baptized for the dead?" "† *See D. C., sections 105, 106. +Mr. Spencer, who here cites the 1st Corinthians as the work of St. Peter, was ordained as a Baptist minister in America, and says that he F This Mormon sacrament is connected with another retrograde tenet, which restricts the due celebration of religious rites to one local sanctuary-" Verily I say unto you, after you have had sufficient time to build a house to me, wherein the ordinance of baptizing for the dead belongeth, and for which the same was instituted from before the foundation of the world. . . . your baptisms for the dead by those who are scattered abroad, are not acceptable unto me."-(D. C. sec. 103.) Hence the mysterious importance attached to the completion of the Nauvoo Temple. The corner-stone of a new and far larger edifice has lately been laid at Deseret, the form of which has been represented to Brigham Young in a miraculous vision. He refuses to reveal its plan beforehand; but declares that, magnificent as it will be, it is only the faint image of that which will beautify reconquered Missouri. "The time will come when there will be a tower in the centre of temples we shall build, and on its top groves and fish ponds."—(XV. 488.) What would Mr. Ruskin say to this proposed new style of ecclesiastical architecture? Mr. Gunnison tells us (from information given him at Utah) that as soon as the present temple is finished, "animal sacrifices for the daily sins of the people” will be offered therein by the priesthood.-(G. 57.) This will complete the return of Mormonism to the "weak graduated at "Hamilton Theological College," in 1829, and held "the first grade of honourable distinction." He complains that his character has been much "villified;" his spelling and grammar could scarcely be represented as viler than they are, by any of his "villifiers." and beggarly elements," of that dispensation which was purposely adapted to a state of moral childhood, "wherein were offered both gifts and sacrifices that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed until the time of reformation." The same retrogressive tendency has led the Mormonites to adopt a system of anthropomorphism which has never been equalled by any other sect, though it was approached fifteen centuries ago by the Egyptian monks whom Theophilus anathematised. Allegorical images, under which the attributes of God were made intelligible to the rude Israelites by Moses, and even metaphorical figures, adopted by devotional poetry in a later age, are interpreted by Smith and his disciples in a sense as merely literal and material, as they would attach to the placards wherein their countrymen describe the person of a fugitive slave. The nature of these materialising dogmas cannot be rendered intelligible except by quotations, which, from their profanity, we would willingly omit. The following is an extract from one of their popular catechisms, bearing on the subject: "Q. 28. What is God?-A. He is a material intelligent personage, possessing both body and parts. "Q. 38. Doth He also possess passions?-A. Yes, He eats, He drinks, He loves, He hates. "Q. 44. Can this being occupy two distinct places at once?-A. No."* *Latter Day Saints' Catechism, quoted in Morm. Illust. p. 43. To the same effect we read in the Mormon hymn book (349): "The God that others worship, is not the God for me; He has no parts nor body, and cannot hear nor see." A local residence is assigned to this anthropomorphic Deity; he lives, we are told, "in the planet Kolob."(Seer, 70. and XIV. 531.) Moreover, as he possesses the body and passions of a man, so his relations to his creatures are purely human. Saint Hilary of Poitiers asserts that some Arians attacked orthodoxy by the following argument:-" Deus pater non erat, quia neque ei filius; nam si filius, necesse est ut et fæmina sit."(Hil. adv. Const.) The conclusion thus stated as an absurdity in the fourth century, the Mormons embrace as an axiom in the nineteenth. "In mundi primordiis, Deo erat femina," is an article of their creed.-(P. 0. p. 1. and p. 15.; also Seer, i. 38. and 103.) No existence is "created;" all beings are "begotten." So the Prophet tells us in his "last sermon" (p. 62):-"God never did have power to create the spirit of man at all. The very idea lessens man in my estimation. I know better." The superiority of the Mormon God over his creatures consists only in the greater power which He has gradually attained by growth in knowledge. He himself originated in "the union of two elementary particles of matter"-(G. 49); and by a progressive development reached the human form. Thus we read that "God, of course, was once a man, and from manhood, by continual progression, became God; and he has continued to increase from his manhood to the present time, and may continue to increase without limit. And man also may continue to increase in knowledge and power as fast as he pleases." And again, “If man is a creature of eternal progression, the time must certainly arrive when he will know as much as God now knows."-(XIV. 386.) This is in strict accordance with the following words of Joseph Smith:""The weakest child of God which now exists upon the earth will possess more dominion, more property, more subjects, and more power and glory, than is possessed by Jesus Christ or by his Father; while at the same time they will have their dominion, kingdom, and subjects increased in proportion.”(M. Star, vi., quoted in Morm. Illust.) An apostle carries this view into detail as follows:"What will man do when this world is filled up? Why, he will make more worlds, and swarm out like bees from the old world. And when a farmer has cultivated his farm and raised numerous children, so that the space is beginning to be too strait for them, he will say, My sons, yonder is plenty of matter, go and organise a world, and people it.” —(P. Pratt, in XIV. 663, and Seer, 1.37.) This doctrine of indefinite development naturally passes into Polytheism. Accordingly, the Mormon theology teaches that there are Gods innumerable, with different degrees of dignity and power. It was revealed to Joseph Smith that the first verse of Genesis originally stood as follows:-"The Head God brought forth |