to flatter the pride of this simple people, who might be thought easily persuaded to welcome their ancient, honorable, resuscitated Church. On the other hand, the Mormon apostles take sufficient care that so handsome a compliment to Judaism shall not escape the notice of the Rabbies, the world over—an act of reverence that should subdue the prejudices of this hitherto invincible sect. Meanwhile, all Christendom was to be won by the distinct testimony borne to the Messiahship of Jesus, and the revival of those supernatural gifts which graced the Church in Apostolic days.
The most prominent feature of Judaism, the Priesthood of Aaron, is transferred to this new dispensation, and is curiously coupled with the higher priesthood of Melchisedek. It is distinctly held that a priesthood is essential to the being of a Church; and one writer distinctly implies that upon the completion of their temple, animal sacrifices are to be renewed for the daily sins of the people. Tithes are paid, as of old—the proselyte giving one tenth of his entire substance, and ever after a tithe of his labor, time and income, accumulating a fund for the advancement of public interests. The temple built at Nauvoo, with its baptistic laver, resting upon twelve oxen elaborately carved of marble, sought to emulate the glory and splendor of Solomon’s. Their travels, painfully accomplished through the desert to their western home, find a prototype in the Exode from Egypt, and the long journey of the Israelites, through the wilderness, to the land of promise. The literal gathering of the scattered Jews to Palestine, and the re-establishment of the ancient ritual in its splendor—their conversion by the glorious manifestation of Jesus in the heavens—the assemblage of the latter-day saints in the American Zion—the re-marriage of continents and islands as at the creation, and the casting up of a highway on the united earth, between the two Jerusalems—their being caught. up to heaven, while the earth shall be purged by fire, to descend and remain forever on the new earth—all these doctrines, firmly believed, abundantly indicate the leaven of Judaism pervading the New Church creed, and confirm the position before taken, that Judaism forms the chief basis of the Mormon Church.
