The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, September 9, 1900, Page 9

g 4/[\\\\\ IAGAZINE/R “THE LIVES OF THOS PASSE E FOUR MEN EFORE ME * T e of prophets and patr Smith does not bapers very sacrifice justice to their reprehensi- tone of wearin (nly born of much from Lamonl, someness of being doubied. Alexander Smith is man in & pepper-and- a full beard, but it does mot make him He has rather the air He is quick in tional headline: resents such questions the son of his father, and whether every one who becomes a saint must take the name of Smith. Above all, does he resent the Utah Mormons, big, round, genial as wnether he is this branch of the church de- s as perniclous. ““We are a visionary people, big, common-sense looking man, is perhaps the kindest thing to say of those who believe in Joseph Smith, the camp-meeting, rove and ten days of mons and picnic lunches. urse, the patriarch is the feature of look patriarchal. of a well-to-do farmer. action and speech and when he talks of being classed with whose heretical doctrine of ,,/.// (4 prophet. Unbelievers are divided as to whether he was a fraud or a dupe. “Ours is the only church that believes in living prophets and apostles. We believe in rev- elations now as well as when Christ was on ufth. It was revealed to my father that he should found a church, of which he was to be the prophet; and before Re died it was revealed brother Joseph should succeed him as Prophets succeed each other in a direct line, but where a prophet has him that my more than éne son It must’ be revealed which son shall succeed him. Thers were four 6f us boys. One is dead, and the fourth one was In the church until his mind fatled.” Mr. Smith admits that he might possfdly be the next prophet, but it would have to be revealed to his brother Joseph, and not to him The patriarch rophet, seer ch may be & revelator,” but his the ch prophecies, seeings and revelations are for his own personal guidance, and the urch will have none of them. The urch grants that he may have thespow- ar, but it refuses to recognize any reve- lations but those of the official prophet. Alexander Smith says he has had many revelations. Indeed, revelations from God seem as common to him as bl gosstp gathered from his neighbors. It was & revela 1s conversto It ma ange to the unbellever that a “prophet, seer and revelator” whose relation to the church is that of mouthpiece of the Supreme Being. should have spent a his lite trav- t Alexander Smith father's death the tside of the church, seem = no worse th Iy they were no b Tt was In a saloc Smith’s first revelat four young men sat at on the game. An tnto the room, dea Alexander One night each Intent an was brought k and hurt by a voung men played f the drunkard. Smith, 1 befors fate of that g In the fall in t on, wi -3 “the es of these four mer me and 1 other glare ¢ But 1t entered the It was Smith t an influ 1 was to be the leader f the Church ¢ Saints. After the mur first pr 1 had scattered t except which f In 1860 t e A Rpmsiagr touched Joseph Sm You see,” “we belleve In Ghost. that by its formed and directed held the priesthood commanded to ¢« tian church as been lost and ecc any of th It was restoration boy, IlL., where leader The system of t that of the primitiv confusing pun of which is t Smith, and two nder Smit aised to them meet t Jesus Christ Christ had 1 among irches Chr that there R vosend desree of patriarch of three are the seventies, high priests, patriar, ers and deacon: tain number constitutes a there are a Next in imp: the seventies, stitute the trave ject to be call church is full seven quo say, will not take place to earth again There ar quorums, hence the pre: among the Saints, for Ir millennium depends upo t Alexander Smith looks well fed. pepper-and-salt sult is far from t bare. Knowing that all his time voted to church work and that the leaders of the Saints receive no salary, one nat- vrally wonders wherewithal 11 proph- ets and patriarchs be clothed and fed. It Is by volu ry contribution. When- ever a Saint fecls he can afford it he slips a quarter, half-dollar, a dollar or more into the hand of the leader. It Is sald that the Saints have a sort of personal pride In seeing that their priests and bishops and prophets and patriarchs are well cared for. Each- dons patriarch puts down In a book next ering he reads the amov t have who con- v 1 are sub- ns. When the there will be but they been given. Perhaps if Saints are no mors than human this performance stimulates their Wiberality. The or ¥ citizen likes to see his name at the head of a scription list or to read In the paper that he bid highest for a box at the charity circus, or contributed most to the famine Cund. The Saints have always been perse- cuted. There £ their struggles. Alexander Smit} how his father, n about 14 yea age, at- tended a camp-mee York and had a spiritual awakening. The meeting was one of al! denominations and when it ended the differe rches squabbled over the division converts. This set the boy to but ld not decide which He was advised to read his [ ning to a passage In James He that lacketh understand him ask of God, who giveth and upbraideth not.” Alone in the woods prayed. One day an and told him if he w his course would be mad tried to do and was finally the return of the angel, W where to find the plates Hidden aw Cumorah Hill, In West- ern New York, were the records, which to the Saints rm true connectl re many storfe was thought and came to him uprightly is he rarded by id him Hnk between the New World and the Old. They are sald to have been written by the Prophet Mormon, only some claim all, but >n 13 but nts by their phet was storic race that lived in America both before and after the time of Christ; and the book of Mormon even tells of a visit of Christ to America after the crucifixion This record was written on plates of gold, about eight inches long and seven wide, fastened together by three rings. Each sheet was thinner than tin, and the that his name wa More a nick: enamies. At : the last of a pre _— Continued on Page Eleven,