1839-04-12-Liberator-Mormon Missionaries

Mormon Missionaries

The Liberator, v9 n15, 12 April 1839, p. 60

Mormon Missionaries. There is now a deputation of Mormon missionaries in Philadelphia. On Sunday week, the Ledger informs us, one of them mounted a stall in the Callowhill street market, and called around him an audience. He was plainly dressed, subdued and gentle in his speech and demeanor, and betrayed in his manner none of the extravagancies which we were led to expect from the Mormon preachers. He commenced by apologizing for addressing his audience from a stall in the market place, saying that he had been disappointed in his efforts to procure a church, and had been forced to resort to that mode of declaring his doctrines to the people. He complained that the tenets of the Mormons had been grievously misrepresented; that they only, of all who professed belief in the Bible had been treated with harshness and cruelty, and protested that, in reference to their doctrine and their conduct, this treatment had been as undeserved as it was unlawful. He said that the original preachers of the christian religion had been illiterate men, who were inspired, and he argued thence that its preachers now should be selected from the ignorant. At first he was listened to with curiosity, but as the crowd increased, the confusion also increased, and from murmuring and tumult, the noise rose to shouting. Of course, he was forced to desist, and after a time quietly retired.—Boston Pilot.