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1、国外英文文学系列 A New Witness for GodTitle: A New Witness for God (Volume 1 of 3)Author: B. H. RobertsPREFACE.Three quarters of a century have passed away since Joseph Smith first declared that he had received a revelation from God. From that revelation and others that followed there has sprung into existe
2、nce what men call a new religionMormonism; and a new church, the institution commonly known as the Mormon Church, the proper name of which, however, is THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS.Though it may seem a small matter, the reader should know that Mormonism is not a new religion. Thos
3、e who accept it do not so regard it; it makes no such pretentions. The institution commonly called the Mormon Church, is not a new church; it makes no such pretensions, as will be seen by its very namethe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This of itself discloses what The Mormon Church cl
4、aims to bethe Church of Jesus Christ; and to distinguish it from the Church of Jesus Christ that existed in former days, the phrase of Latter-day Saints is added. Mormonism, I repeat, is not a new religion; it is the Old Religion, the Everlasting Gospel, restored again to the earth through the revel
5、ations received by Joseph Smith.At a glance the reader will observe that these claims in behalf of Mormonism pre-suppose the destruction of the primitive Christian Church, a complete apostasy from the Christian religion; and hence, from the standpoint of a believer, Mormonism is the Gospel of Jesus
6、Christ restored; and the institution which grows out of itthe churchis the Church of Jesus Christ re-established among men.During the three quarters of a century that have elapsed since the first revelation was announced by Joseph Smith, the world has been flooded with all manner of rumors concernin
7、g the origin of Mormonism, its doctrines, its organization, its purposes, its history. Books enough to make a respectable library, as to size, have been written on these subjects, but the books, in the main, are the works of avowed enemies, or of sensational writers who chose Mormonism for a subject
8、 because in it they supposed they had a theme that would be agreeable to their own vicious tastes and perverted talents, and give satisfactory returns in money for their labor. This latter class of writers have not only written without regard to truth, but without shame. They are ghouls who have pre
9、yed upon the misfortunes of an unpopular people solely for the money or notoriety they could make out of the enterprise.That I may not be thought to overstate the unreliability of anti-Mormon literature, I make an excerpt from a book written by Mr. Phil Robinson, called Sinners and Saints.1 Mr. Robi
10、nson came to Utah in 1882 as a special correspondent of The New York World, and stayed in Utah some five or six months, making Mormonism and the Latter-day Saints a special study. On the untrustworthiness of the literature in question, he says:Whence have the public derived their opinions about Morm
11、onism? From anti-Mormons only. I have ransacked the literature of the subject, and yet I really could not tell anyone where to go for an impartial book about Mormonism later in date than Burtons City of the Saints, published in 1862. * * * But put Burton on one side, and I think I can defy any one t
12、o name another book about the Mormons worthy of honest respect. From that truly awful book, The History of the Saints, published by one Bennett (even an anti-Mormon has styled him the greatest rascal that ever came to the West,) in 1842, down to Stenhouses in 1873, there is not to my knowledge a sin
13、gle Gentile work before the public that is not utterly unreliable from its distortion of facts. Yet it is from these booksfor there are no othersthat the American public has acquired nearly all its ideas about the people of Utah.It may be asked why have not the Saints themselves written books refuti
14、ng the misrepresentations of their detractors, and giving correct information about themselves and their religion. To that inquiry there are several answers. One is that they have made the attempt. Perhaps not on a sufficiently extensive scale. They may not have appreciated fully the importance of d
15、oing so; but chiefly the reason they have not published more books in their own defense, and have not been more solicitous about refuting slanders published against them, is because of the utter impossibility of getting a hearing. The people to whom they appealed were hopelessly prejudiced against t
16、hem. Their case was prejudged and they themselves condemned before a hearing could be had. These were the disadvantages under which they labored; and how serious such disadvantages are, only those know who have felt the cruel tyranny of prejudice.Now, however, there seems to be a change in the tide
17、of their affairs. Prejudice has somewhat subsided. There is in various quarters indications of a willingness to hear what accredited representatives of the Mormon faith may have to say in its behalf. It is this circumstance that has induced the author to present for the consideration of his fellow-m
18、en this work, which is written, however, not with a view of defending the character of the Latter-day Saints, but to set forth the message that Mormonism has to proclaim to the world, and point out the evidences of divine inspiration in him through whom that message was delivered.The author has chos
19、en for his work the title, A NEW WITNESS FOR GOD, because that is the relation Joseph Smith, the great modern prophet, sustains to this generation; and it is the authors purpose to prove, first, that the world stands in need of such a witness; and, second, that Joseph Smith is that witness.The subje
20、ct is treated under four THESES.I.The world needs a New Witness for God.II.The Church of Christ was destroyed; there has been an apostasy from the Christian religion so complete and universal as to make necessary a New Dispensation of the Gospel;III.The Scriptures declare that the Gospel of Jesus Ch
21、rist in the last daysin the hour of Gods judgmentwill be restored to the earth by a re-opening of the heavens, and giving a New Dispensation thereof to the children of men.IV.Joseph Smith is the New Witness for God; a prophet divinely authorized to preach the Gospel and re-establish the Church of Je
22、sus Christ on earth.How well the writer has succeeded in sustaining these propositions, the reader will judge for himself; he only asks that his treatment of the subjects be considered with candor.To guard against error or inaccuracy in doctrine the writer applied to the First Presidency of the Chur
23、ch for a committee of brethren well known for their soundness in the faith, and broad knowledge of the doctrines of the Church, to hear read the manuscript of this book. Whereupon Elder Franklin D. Richards, one of the Twelve Apostles of the New Dispensation, and Church Historian; Elder George Reyno
24、lds, one of the authors fellow-Presidents in the First Council of the Seventies; and Elder John Jaques, Assistant Church Historian, were appointed as such committee; and to these brethren, for their patient labor in reading the manuscript, and for their suggestions and corrections, the writer is und
25、er lasting obligations.THE AUTHOR.CHAPTER I.THE NECESSITY OF A NEW WITNESS.THE very title of this book may give offense. A New Witness for God! will exclaim both ministry and laity of Christendom; are not the Old Witnesses sufficient? Has not their testimony withstood the assaults of unbelievers, at
26、heists and agnostics alike for nineteen centuries? What need have we for a New Witness? Every weapon that hostile criticism could suggest, has been brought to bear against the tower of our faith based on the testimony of the Old Witnesses; and it stands more victorious now than ever, four square to
27、all the winds that blow.1 The testimony of the Old Witnesses has outlived the ridicule of Voltaire, the solemn sneers of Gibbon, the satire of Bolingbroke, the ribaldry of Paine; just as it will outlive the insidious assaults of the German mythical school, and the rationalistic school of critics, wh
28、ich are now much in vogue. Such the confident boast of orthodox Christians.Meanwhile, every diocesan conference rings with the wail over infidel opinions. It grows notoriously more and more difficult to get educated men to take any interest in the services or doctrines of the church; * * * literatur
29、e and the periodical press are becoming either more indifferent, or more hostile to the accepted Christianity year by year; the upper strata of the working class, upon whom the future of that class depends, either stand coldly aloof from all the Christian sects, or throw themselves into secularism.
30、Passionate appeals are made to all sections of Christians, to close their ranks, not against each other, but against the skepticism rampant among the cultivated class and the religious indifference of the democracy.2In the face of these facts, notwithstanding the confident boasts of orthodox Christi
31、ans about the invulnerableness of the testimony of the Old Witnesses, it will be well for us to look a little more closely into the achievements of Christianity, Catholic as well as Protestant, and see if they are as satisfactory when measured by actual results, as they are claimed to be in the ferv
32、id rhetoric of the orthodox special pleader.What is distinctly and commonly recognized as the Christian religion, was founded some nineteen centuries ago3, by the personal ministry of Jesus Christ, and those whom he chose as Apostles. For about three centuries it had a hard struggle for existence. T
33、he persecutions waged against it, first by the Jews, from whose religious faith it may be said to have sprung; and second, from the pagans, then in possession of all secular power, well-nigh overcame it. The beast made war upon the saints and prevailed against them. Then Constantine, the friend of C
34、hristianity, succeeded to the imperial throne of Rome, and external persecution ceased. Christian ministers were invited to the court of the emperor and loaded with wealth and honors. Magnificent churches were erected, and the hitherto despised religion became the favorite protege of the imperial go
35、vernment. From a precarious and wretched existence, the Christian church was suddenly raised to a position of magnificence and power. Nor was it long in playing the part of the camel which, being permitted by the kind indulgence of its master to put its head within the tent during a violent storm, n
36、ext protruded its shoulders, then its whole body, and turning about kicked out its master.4 So did the Christian ecclesiastical power with the civil power. That is to say, that which was at first granted to the church as a privilege was soon demanded as a right; and what was at first received by gra
37、ce, was at the last taken by force. On the ruins of pagan Rome, rose papal Rome, and while the latter power did not abolish secular government, it did make it subservient to ecclesiasticism. From the chair of St. Peter, the Roman pontiffs ruled the world absolutely. Kings and emperors obeyed them, a
38、nd all stood in awe before the throne of the triple-crowned successor of St. Peter.Finally, through the mutual jealousy and ambition of the bishops of Rome and Constantinople, a controversy arose which, in the ninth century, resulted in a great and lasting division of Christendom into two great eccl
39、esiastical bodies; viz., the Greek Catholic or Eastern Church, and the Roman Catholic or Western Church. In the Western Church the secular or civil power continued to be regarded as subordinate to ecclesiastical authority, a sort of convenient instrument to execute the decrees of the church. Hence R
40、oman Catholic Christianity drew to itself all that prestige in the propagation of its doctrines which comes from the authority and support of the state; and though the power of the state was held to be subordinate to that of the church, no one who has read our Christian annals can help being struck
41、with the importance of the civil power as a factor in the propagation of Roman Catholic Christianity. The barbarous peoples who came in contact with the Christian nations, were often compelled to accept the so-called Christian religion as one of the terms of capitulation; and the fear of the sword o
42、ften eked out the arguments of the priests, and was generally much more effective.I think it proper that the above statement should be emphasized by the following proofs:In the year 772, A. D., Charlemagne, king of the Franks, undertook to tame, and to withdraw from idolatry, the extensive nation of
43、 the Saxons, who occupied a large portion of Germany, and were almost perpetually at war with the Franks, respecting their boundaries and other things; for he hoped that if their minds could become imbued with the Christian doctrines, they would gradually lay aside their ferocity, and learn to yield
44、 submission to the empire of the Franks. The first attack upon their heathenism produced little effect, being made not with the force of arms, but by some bishops and monks whom the victor had left for that purpose among the vanquished nation. But much better success attended the subsequent wars whi
45、ch Charlemagne undertook, in the years 775, 776, and 780, A D., against that heroic people, so fond of liberty, and so impatient, especially of sacerdotal domination. For in these assaults, not only rewards, but also the sword and punishments were so successfully applied upon those adhering to the s
46、uperstition of their ancestors, that they reluctantly ceased from resistance, and allowed the doctors whom Charles employed to administer to them Christian baptism. Widekind and Albion, indeed, who were two of the most valiant Saxon chiefs, renewed their former insurrections; and attempted to prostr
47、ate again by violence and war, that Christianity which had been set up by violence. But the martial courage, and the liberality of Charles at length brought them, in the year 785, solemnly to declare that they were Christians, and would continue to be so. * * * The Huns inhabiting Pannonia, were tre
48、ated the same way as the Saxons; for Charles so exhausted and humbled them by successive wars, as to compel them to prefer becoming Christians to being slaves.5In Denmark, during the tenth century, the Christian cause had to struggle with great difficulties and adversities, under King Gorman, althou
49、gh the queen was a professed Christian. But Harald, surnamed Blatand, the son of Gorman, having been vanquished by Otto the Great, about the middle of the century, made a profession of Christianity in the year 949, and was baptized. * * * Perhaps Harald, who had his birth and education from a Christian mother, Tyra, was not greatly averse f