A Nut to Crack

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 19, 7 May 1903, Page 18

A Nut to Crack

In last Saturday's ' TiuipekaTim.es ' (Lawrence), Mr. Hugh Craig, who lately returned lrom a trip round the woild, describes as follows Salt Lake City, the cradle and capital of Mormomsm :

' The city is alive with industries. Everybody seemed to be occupied and very busy ; there were no such indications of poverty as \ ou see in European cities that boast a much higher state of theoretical morality and a lolticr form of religion Morrnonism. even as it exists to-day, may not ... be able to .stand the test of criticism and examination ; it may indeed be intrinsically bad and as a religion a \eiy unholy and unlovely tlnng altogether, but fi om physical and material and worldly points of \ n-w it seems to pan out all right, and as it is represented by tho people and the homes that came under my ob.ser\ation it seems to agree very well indeed with the Mormons '

Ileie is anothei nut lor those callow pulpiteers to ciaek who maintain that the possession of 1 iches by a community is confirmation strong as pi oofs of Holy \\ iit 01 light faith and godly hie, ' If 1 vrab asked,' sa\s Josh Billings, ' what is the chief end of man now a da'/e, 1 should mimegiatly reply • ' Ten per cent " ' Only those who aie badly bitten by the ten per cent, spirit and innocent of all knowledge of tho histoncs of ancient papan Babylon, Egypt, Greece, and Uonie, could senouslv adduce the possession of wealth by a people as an e\ idence oi the truth of its religion. And yet this is a standing- argument oi a class of disputants who hiuc aired their views from time to time in the New Zealand pi ess. There is only one place in the New Testament where a piomiseoi riches is made: it is where Satan showed the Saviour ' all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, and said to Him ■ " All these will I give Thee, if, falling down, Thou wilt adore me." '