History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

65
SCHISMS AxnD APOSTASIES.
evening at the Masonic hall. 15
Before a dense audi-
ence, was sung by the choir the first hymn in the
Mormon hymn-book, composed by Parley P. Pratt:
"The morning breaks, the shadows flee,
Lo! Zion's standard is unfurled;
The dawning of a brighter day
Majestic rises on the world."
Then followed speeches by Godbe, Harrison, and
Lawrence, in which the gentiles, who formed one-third
of the audience, were assured that the reformation
would be continued with a purpose that would swerve
not before Brigham and his apostles.
The so-called Godbeite movement, however, though
for a time it excited considerable interest in business
circles, was a matter of small moment to the church
generally, producing little effect on the masses of the
members. The movement in its incipiency was the
immediate occasion rather than the real cause of
Godbe and his adherents leaving the church. No man
can consistently be continued a member of any church
if he persists in refusing to submit to the final decisions
of the church authorities. His arrival at that point
of insubordination is almost always the result of a
growth of greater or less rapidity, and occupying
more or less time in development. Godbeism at first
professed to be an attempt to reform and purify the
church, in part by the aid of spiritualism, but the
reform pretensions were evanescent, quickly fading
away, so that for many years nobody has looked upon
the movement as a religious one in any respect. In
fact with the fleeting religious pretensions the very
name of the movement soon died out, and the prominent
persons connected with it early manifested a skeptical
spirit toward religion of every kind, and directed
their energies more completely into channels of business
and money-making. "I have been instrumental,"
writes Godbe in 1884, "in establishing and
conducting enterprises that have required an outlay of
15 For account of secret, benefit, and benevolent societies in Utah, sea
Utah Gazetteer, 1884, 218-26.