History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

184 THE STORY OF MORMONISM.
and faith must cease not though prayer be unanswered
; and they ask where was the father when the
son called in Gethsemane? It was foreordained that
Joseph and Hyrum should die for the people; and the
more of murder and extermination on the part of their
enemies, the more praying and believing on the part
of saints, and the more praise and exultation in the
heavenly inheritance.
The further the credulity of a credulous people is
taxed the stronger will be their faith. Many of the
saints believed in Joseph; with their whole mind
and soul they worshipped him. He was to them as
God; he was their deity present upon earth, their
savior from evil, and their guide to heaven. Whatever
he did, that to his people was right; he could
do no wrong, no more than king or pope, no more
than Christ or Mahomet. Accordingly they obeyed
him without question; and it was this belief and
obedience that caused the gentiles to fear and hate.
There are still open in the world easier fields than this
for new religions, which might recommend themselves
as a career to young men laboring under a fancied inexorable
necessity.
Whatever else may be said of Joseph Smith, it
must be admitted that he was a remarkable man.
His course in life was by no means along a flowery
path; his death was like that which too often comes
to the founder of a religion. What a commentary on
the human mind and the human heart, the deeds of
those who live for the love of God and man, who die
for the love of God and man, who severally and collectively
profess the highest holiness, the highest
charity, justice, and humanity, higher far than any
held by other sect or nation, now or since the world
began—how lovely to behold, to write and meditate
upon their disputings and disruptions, their cruelties
and injustice, their persecutions for opinion's sake,
their ravenous hate and bloody butcheries!