The Mormons in Europe by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jul 4, 1911

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 38, No. 26.

The Mormons in Europe

By Editor

Because of the arrests of the McNamaras and others for the destruction of the Los Angeles Times building, the Socialists propose to make "California a battle-ground." "California for Socialism," says one of the leading Socialist organs, "is the answer the working class is making to the organized capitalist, more especially the steel trust and General Otis, their Western representative, in their cold-blooded attempt to murder McNamara." Whether these men under arrest are innocent or guilty we have no means of knowing. But we do know that there is a large class who believe strongly that they are innocent; there is another large class who believe just as strongly that they are guilty. And between these two classes there will be a strong fight made, not only in the courts, but also through the newspapers. Strifes of this kind are growing both in frequency and in bitterness. The foregoing quotation shows that the Socialists regard the arrest and trial of McNamara as a "cold-blooded attempt to murder." They do not admit the possibility (or at least such is the case with the author of the foregoing quotation) of his guilt. It must be seen that the final outcome of such discussions will be rioting and violence. With the discussions between these two classes we have no sides to take. There is a far greater problem before the world. What do these sure portents of an oncoming storm of violence and rioting signify? Reader, have you ever given attention to all these problems of modern society from the standpoint of plain Bible prophecy? There are many who would sneer at the idea of the Bible taking any of these things into account; but, just the same, this journal for more than a third of a century has been calling attention to how society would more and more come into a condition that would make for violence and strife, and we see how events are driving in that direction. Keep your eyes open to the situation. We have reached only the beginnings. The great storm lies on beyond.

An "arson trust" has just been disclosed in Chicago through the arrest of Leopold Dreyfus, a wholesale clothier. The trust has been operating in Chicago, New York, Cincinnati, and other cities. The trust employs persons to keep on the watchout for business men who are in a hard place for lack of ready cash, and when these are found who are in business distress they are "approached" with the suggestion that for a certain per cent of insurance money together with a certain advance fee, the trust will undertake to have their property "mysteriously" burned down. The owner has nothing to do with the matter except to pay the fee and the percentage. The trust attends to all the details of the burning through its secret agents. Men who can stoop to such base things have certainly reached a very low level.

The Mormons in Europe.

There is a tremendous sentiment stirring through Europe against the Mormons and their propaganda. They have been severely attacked in the Scandinavian countries and also in England. Strange to say, in this latter country they have found defenders. These defenders evidently do not understand the Mormon system. Germany, with her characteristic forthrightness, does not stop to mince matters at all. The Church of Latter-Day Saints is simply scheduled as "an illicit religion," unrecognized by the State. They are not given the privileges that other illegal religions have. Permission to reside in Germany is not refused them; but they are not permitted to proselytize, and public meetings of Mormons are subject to the provisions of the law, which compels the holders of any public meeting to give notice of the same to the police in advance. This is true of other religions, and permission is usually given; but the police always refuse permission for Mormon meetings; and in nearly all attempts to hold meetings by foreign Mormon missionaries, the missionaries are expelled from Germany as undesirable aliens. For instance, on July 22, 1910, twenty-one missionaries, mostly young American students, were given twenty-four hours to quit the country. There are about 3,000 Mormons, it is said, in Germany.

It is a strange thing, a startling inconsistency, what would be a traitorous act, if one saw it clearly, to teach that Christ Jesus, the Saviour of all who are saved, of Jews as well as of Gentiles, of antediluvians as well as of modern Christians, saves one class by one code of character and conduct and another by another code; that He is changeable, and therefore unwise, short-sighted; that the seventh-day Sabbath was all right for forty centuries, but not for twenty; that the Ten Commandments were loved and observed by Jesus our Lord, in the full freedom of love, but they are to us a "yoke of bondage." How such must lose the harmony, the beauty, of the Word! The next thing is higher criticism or Roman Catholicism.

A train wreck on the Santa Fe Railroad near Domingo, New Mexico, on June 9, killed one, fatally burned three others, while many more were more or less seriously injured.