shepherd." The ignorant and fanatical believe all those fables.
The Book of Mormon, although most known, is not the chief book of the sect. The Book o f Teachings and Covenants, containing some of the revelations which Smith pretended to have received from heaven, is regarded by his disciples as a book of the law which God has given this gen
eration. Smith also published other revelations, which are contained in a little book called The Pearl o f Great Price. Much of the doctrine of Smith is a mere repetition of the works of various Protestant sects. He has imitated Mahomet in his infamous immorality by permitting polygamy. To all this his successor has added abominable doctrines on the nature and attributes of God.
Smith organized his new religion in 1830. He could then number only six disciples. The next year, having obtained new adherents, 'he sent elders, two by two, to preach the new doctrine. When the number of his disciples had sufficiently increased, he founded a colony in Missouri, but their conduct induced the people of that State - first those around Independence, where the Mormons had first settled, and then those of Liberty - to expel them from the State. In 1834 the Mormon sect adopted the pompous title of " Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints," and thence the Mormons called themselves Latter-Day Saints, or simply Saints.
Smith and his adepts having acquired, in 1839, a large tract in Illinois, in a beautiful section on the banks of the Mississippi, built a flourishing city, which they called Nauvoo, erected a magnificent temple, now in ruins, and lived there till 1844, when they rendered themselves odious to the people of that State. They were attacked by an ungovernable mob, and the false prophet and his brother, Hyrum, were massacred in prison at Carthage.
In 1845 these persecutions continued and the Mormons, driven at last from Nauvoo, resolved in council to seek a solitary and permanent abode in some fertile valley at the