1872 01 08 Brooklyn Eagle-The Eastern District Mormon Church

The Eastern District Mormon Church.

Yesterday afternoon there was quite a large gathering of the "saints" in the Eastern District Mormon Church, when Elder Bywater spoke of the persecutions to which their church had been subjected.

He said that he took pleasure in finding so many present who recognized the Church as the true Church of Christ. This church had been persecuted, and so have I. I have been mobbed and stoned for the faith that is in me, but God has always come to my rescue and supported me and supported me. Indeed, it is well that we are persecuted. If we were let alone by outsiders we might become as bad as they. They persecuted our prophet Joseph—the founder of our Church—when polygamy was not recognized in the Church. Now they persecute us because polygamy is recognized. But it is not because of our system that we are persecuted to-day. It is the accumulations of our industry in the valley that our persecutors desire. Principle is nothing with them. If we gave them our substance you would hear no complaints against us from them. Our persecutors constitute a "ring," and the object of that "ring" is plunder. But God will not permit them to plunder us. The cloud that hangs over Utah to-day will be vanished to-morrow.

Elder McKendrick delivered a lengthy address on the divine origin of the Mormon Church, and claimed that it was more pure than any other organization of the Christian brotherhood.