Posted by:
SL Cabbie
(
)
Date: September 28, 2014 04:46PM
John Hyde published this one in 1857 between the time Parley P. Pratt was murdered and the Mountain Meadows Massacre.
https://archive.org/details/mormonismitslea00hydegoogLDS apologists often claim "there's nothing new from the anti-Mormon crowd," and Hyde's brilliant revelations and analyses lend credibility to their claims (one only wishes they would actually read and process what has been published, of course). Hyde points out there were no horses or elephants in the New World before Columbus' time, and there are scores of other equally incredible observations. I was just reminded of the depth of this work when I referenced it for this post (there are other on-line versions that may be downloaded. Google is your friend). I read it a few years ago during those six weeks of utterly horrible winter inversions here, and my concentration skills were way below par. I owe it another reading.
Just as one example, Hyde brings up the Spaulding manuscript and the obvious plagiarisms that found there way into the BOM.
I particularly liked this contrast between Brigham Young and Joseph Smith.
>The whole secret of Brigham's influence lies in his real sincerity. Brigham may be a great man, greatly deceived, but he is not a hypocrite. Smith was an impostor; that can be clearly established. Brigham Young embraced Mormonism in security, conscientiously believed, faithfully practiced, and enthusiastically taught it. As devoted to Smith as Kimball now to himself, he reverenced him as a Prophet and loved him as a man. For these of his religion, he has over and over again left his family, confronted the world, endured hunger, came back poor, made wealth, and gave it to the Church. He holds himself prepared to lead his people in sacrifice and want, as is plenty and east. No holiday friend, nor summer Prophet, he has shared their trials , as well as their prosperity. He never pretends to more than "the inward monitions of the Spirit;" and, not as Smith, to direct revelations and physical manifestations. No man prays more fervently, nor more frequently, than Brigham Young.
(p. 170)
And here's his acknowledgement of Brigham role in history:
>It is not presumption in me thus to direction your attention to this subject. Having made yourself so conspicuous, you have given any one the right to address you. I have spoken to you as a prophet; as a man to a man I now write to you. I admire your genius, but I deplore its exercises. I no more dread your enmity than I fear your priestly anathemas. The slanders your coadjutors may attempt to circulate, I despise. You told the people once "your words were but wing;" as wintry may be safely encountered.
>I confidently believe the time will come when honest men will be undeceived, desert your standard, and leave you forsaken and sorrow-stricken to remorse for the past and terror for the future. To this end I shall labor, and constantly and fervently pray that your power and your system may find a speedy and an eternal grave; that it may be sunk in the oblivion of its own mysteries, and be buried under the mountain of its own ignominy.
John Hyde, Jun.
New York, July, 1857