Comparison Between Condition of Utah and Elsewhere
Elder Nephi Pratt writing from Salt Lake City, May 8, 1884, to Elder G.C. Lambert, says:
“I trust you will not condemn my long silence as wanton, when I tell you that I have served Z.C.M.I. in the capacity of commercial traveler ever since I wrote to you before, and invariably, while on the road, worked much at nights as well as during the day. My last trip through Southern Utah lasted almost eighty days, fifty of which I was so sick that much of my writing was done by proxy, and twenty-five days of which I lay off duty in various places.
“I am persuaded that not much can be done in the way of conversions in nations like Great Britain and our beloved America, where the Gospel has been heard so long and continuously; but it does not matter much to us if our skirts are clear of the blood of this generation. Here in Zion all is well. While murder, robbery, theft, drunkenness, infanticide, debauchery and crimes unheard of are multiplying in every land, we pursue the even tenor of our way, only permitting in one or two of our cities any of the grosser crimes, and that because they are fastened upon us by the honorable (?) Christian judiciary sent here by our parent government against our wishes, or the purpose, among other duties, of leading the ‘Mormons’ on to a higher plane of civilization. While these things are growing among us just as Christian churches are, and are made up of, and patronized by, people ‘not of us,’ Zion is growing in numbers, union, strength, faith and power, resulting in security, prosperity, contentment and peace. Outside of Zion the judgments of the Holy One come thicker and faster year by year, in the shape of railroad accidents, disasters at sea, floods, fires, unheard-of diseases, and innumerable troubles and pestilences; but I need not dwell on these things, for you know them just as I do.”
[Journal History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, May 8, 1884, 8]
[Millennial Star, June 2, 1884]
[transcribed and proofread by David Grow, May 2006]
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