Mormon History
Mormon Schisms - 1884
The Salt Lake Daily Tribune
September 20, 1884
ELDER SMITH.
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Rev.
Alexander Smith of the Reorganized Church of Latter day Saints, spoke to a full
house at the chapel of his sect last evening. He took his text from the 12th
chapter of Nephi in the Book of Mormon, which he compared with the latter
portion of the 6th chapter of St. Luke in the New Testament, and said that he
would have something to say as to the causes which had led a large portion of
the people astray.
In his efforts here he had been trying to show why he and his brother could not
join hands with the people of these valleys. If any person failed to follow the
revelations given by his father, that is no evidence that he was a false
prophet. There were plenty of evidence in his revelations to prove his
authority, and that the judgments which are denounced against the people have
been fulfilled. He quoted from Revelation 10. 5, in which the prophet, his
father, had received direct instructions from heaven in regard to settling the
country in Missouri. In this revelation they were admonished to be at peace with
the surrounding people, and some of the old Saints may still be found in these
places in Missouri, down whose cheeks the tears will course when they hear the
sound of the real gospel again, and recognize the old spirits which animated the
religion of the prophet.
The speaker gave a sketch of the ravages of the war of the rebellion in Jackson
county, and said that many of the old people there say that the Lord has meted
again to them what they meted to the Saints in those early days. He told of the
inconsistencies of one Wm. B. McClelland, who professed the true gospel in the
meetings held by the reorganized Latter day Saints, and would afterwards go out
and curse himself in the street for being such a fool. He then referred to the
experience of T. B. Marsh, who rebelled on account of some difficulty over a
pint of milk, and was excommunicated from the church. In his old age he returned
to a contemplation of the faith. He said that Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer
had both become disconnected from the church, but that they had never gone back
upon their testimony, and all this was in consonance with the revelations given
to the prophet concerning the people, and the judgments they must suffer for
transgression. His efforts are directed, he said, to the redemption of those who
have departed from the primitive faith, and he read further selections from the
Book of Mormon to prove what this faith is, and to what extent the branch in
these valleys had gone astray. The speaker then proceeded to prove that the Utah
Zion was not the one referred to in the revelations of his father, and that
Independence, Nauvoo and Kirtland are the component parts of the real Zion,
which will be built up by the Saints when the true faith is understood. He
denounced in strong language the pretence that his father had ever said that his
people would come and build Zion in the mountains, and cited as evidence the
fact that Brannan took his party by ship to upper California, to which section
all of Brigham Young's movements were directed until he halted here in these
valleys.
The speaker said much else to show that the work he represents is the only true
version of his father's cause now remaining in the world, and that the dominant
church here, is sailing under false colors.