Some history of the Baptists and Mormons in the I-15 Corridor (post 3)

Taken from The Home Mission Monthly:

This is from the Rev. Richard Hartley in Ogden, Utah (around 120 years ago).

 . . . much has been  said and written of late concerning the religious condition of Utah, but only by personal contact and observation can we truly appreciate the appalling evils of Mormonism.  Only as we try to win its adherents to the truth can we measure the intensity of the fanaticism.  Their system combines in one strong bond almost every evil that can control a soul.  The basest passions, the strongest prejudices, the densest ignorance, all oppose the entrance of truth.  Aside from those who are loyal to Mormonism, the apostate element is quite large; and yet, with those who have forever renounced Mormonism and now curse it bitterly, we find an indifference to all religious truth as hard to overcome as the most determined opposition.  Not only has Mormonism given nothing, but it has seemed to burn the religious element out of the natures of those who have believed in it. . . .

. . . Those who know best the power of the Gospel and the weakness of Mormonism, believe that the overthrow of the latter will be a conquest of peace.  There is work in Washington for our law-makers to do, but they cannot reach the root of the evil.  They can treat the symptoms, but not the disease.  The moral atmosphere must be purified, and Christianity alone can do this.