n~ke Stop? of M ormonism
Told by a Delivered Concert Together with a Brief Examination of Some of It’s Principal Doctrines Now Being Widely Taught Rev. John D. N utting of th e U tah Gospel Mission says: “The b ro th er who tells th e following touching story of his deception and subsequent enlightenm ent is well known to th e w riter, who also was conversant w ith many of th e facts as they were occurring and is acquainted w ith several of th e persons named. W ere it necessary to bolster up th e tran sp a ren t tru th fu ln ess of th e account itself it could easily be done w ith affidavits a t every point. The au th o r is one of the thousands who have been deceived into a thoroughly sincere belief in th e claims of Mormonism, simply because th e real facts about th is thoroughly false and fra u d u len t religion were no t known to him. His story is given in th e hope th a t it may help o ther souls to understand th is delusion of S atan .” Bj» D . J. C L A IB O R N E
I was born in South Carolina in 1868, and received a common country school education. I came to New York when nineteen years old. F rom childhood I was inclined to be of a religious dispo sition, b u t date my first conversion to Christianity from th e au tum n of 1887 afte r arriv ing in New York, a t a Salva tion Army meeting, afte r which 1 be came a member of th e Mount Morris B ap tist Church (my ancestors had been Baptists for generation s). I lived a fairly consistent Christian life for some years, and then I gradually grew care less and indifferent, and finally ceased to go to church a t all. Previous to this, I had been married, and God had given us th ree little boys to bless our home. A day came when the two oldest were stricken w ith diph th eria, and th e doctor told me he did no t know w hether he could save them. How earnestly I prayed for God to spare them to me; and He did. Even th en I did no t tu rn from the worldly ways into which I had fallen. Some tim e afterw ard one of them was ru p tu red so badly th a t I h ad to send him to a hospital for an operation. On the n igh t before he was to be sent away he
came and p u t his little arm s about my neck and said, “Papa, I love you.” My fa th e r’s h ea rt was deeply touched, and I prom ised God if my boy came back to me in good health, I would try to be a tru e and useful C hristian again. My p rayer was answered once more, but even th en I did no t go to my church and my pastor as I should have done, b u t was under th e conviction th a t I ought to serve God in some way. I was in th is condition, when, a few weeks afterw ards, I m et th e Mormon elders. They were in my neighbor hood d istribu ting trac ts from house to house, and tak in g every advantage of th e opportunities to ta lk and argue w ith people who were w illing to talk to them . They also held meetings in a h all n ear by, and hearing of th is I went to h ear them . I th e re m et an elder named Charles Thomas, of Provo, Utah. He came and sat by me in th e meeting, and talk ed a t every opportunity during and a fte r th e meeting. Scarcely realiz ing it, I gave him much inform ation abou t my religious condition, and estrangem en t from my church and pas tor. As I th in k of it now, the strange p a rt of it is th a t a t first I felt only
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