THE CHURCH AT HOME AND ABROAD. JULY, 1892. ACROSS THE CONTINENT. Having made arrangements for the evolution of our June and July numbers, and having commited the editorial supervision of the same to a competent coadjutor, I crossed the Schuylkill at noon of Friday, May 6; halted at the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela until the arrival of a train which left Philadelphia four and a half hours later; and on it crossed the Mississippi before 8 p. m. of Saturday, May 7. On Sabbath, May 8, I worshipped with the West Presbyterian Church, a young and thrifty organization, whose house of worship is five miles west of the edifice on 14th street lately left by the First Presbyterian Church, which was dedicated in 1855, just before the tragical death of its pastor, Dr. Artemas Bullard, and which, one mile west of the Mississippi, was then the westernmost house of worship in the city. That congregation now occupies a beautiful and commodious edifice about two miles further west. Thus steadily westward spreads that steadily growing city, its youngest Presbyterian Church being fully six miles west of the river, and close upon the present western line of the Nor city. But that line is not likely to remain unchanged for many more years. are the other evangelical denominations behind our own in vigorous Church-extension. On Wednesday, May 11, a train of cars, one of which was filled with ministers, elders and women on their way to Portland, left St. Louis, westward bound. About seven o'clock the next morning, we crossed the Missouri into Kansas City, where we were to have three hours to see the sights of that sightly city beside its name-sake, separated from it only by the invisible state line between Missouri and Kansas. Thus what is naturally one city, already great and rapidly growing, is municipally two because it lies in two states. Let the two vie with each other in the strife of our times for more wholesome municipal government, and let the churches provoke each other to wholesome emulation in city evangelization. Dr. Hays, Dr. Backus and others were prepared to make the most of the three hours for showing us the city and what is visible from its heights, but a pouring rain made it more practicable and appro 4 On the Way-In Salt Lake City. priate for them to entertain us with lively and genial conversation in the waitingrooms and broad porches of the R. R. Station. At Kansas City two General Assembly cars were added to our train. Up the Kaw valley, whose fertile farms were green with wheat, which Elders of our company, experienced farmers of Illinois and Missouri, pronounced the most promising they ever saw in May, on through the Capital and other prosperous towns of Kansas, and over its less fertile and uncultivated plains, across its western boundary into Colorado, the next morning found breakfast ready for us, and us ready for it, at Denver-from the Missouri river to this city of the mountains in twenty-two hours! The inmates of our three Assembly cars had been offered the privilege of being detached from the train and left at Denver until evening, and had voted to accept it; but the still pouring rain persuaded us in one car, to go on with the train. The state of the weather, the air full all the time either of mist or of falling rain deprived us of wide or clear views of the successive landscapes, and the ascent was so gradual that we were scarcely sensible of it until, on Friday afternoon, we reached the Ames monument, at the highest point of the Rocky Mountains on this route, 8,247 feet above sea-level. Descending thence, through southern Wyoming toward Utah, some snow fell, whitening the ground where we were, and clearer weather enabled us to see something of snow-covered ridges and peaks farther away, and when on Saturday morning, we awoke in Utah, we found [July, clear sky, bracing air, and scenery chal- I was one of a party of seven-there were several other parties who filled a convenient vehicle, driven by its owner, an intelligent and obliging Mormon, all about the city, through most of its streets, and to the objects of greatest interest to When he showed us the houses visitors. of Brigham Young, he remarked, "You must recollect that Brigham Young had a number of wives." On being asked what number, he replied that the number was sometimes stated as nineteen, but in fact he was married "for time and eternity to seventeen," and to two others "for eternity only." His children were fiftyeternity only." seven. As we passed two elegant dwellings in beautiful grounds adjacent to each other, he informed us that these were the homes of two wives of one man. When asked his opinion upon the question, whether two women thus married to one husband are likely to be as good friends and neighbors as if each had her husband living with her alone, he replied that he had lived in polygamous and in monogamous families, living in the houses of his employers and with good opportunities to observe their life, and he did honestly think that domestic happiness was as great in the former as in the latter. He stated that he himHe also stated self had but one wife. that polygamy is abandoned "for the time being" in submission to the law of the land as interpreted by the Supreme Court. When reminded of his own phrase, "for the time being," and asked whether it was not a final abandonment, he was not prepared, and perhaps felt himself incompetent to answer. He obtained admission for us to the Tabernacle and the Temple. In the former we were most courteously received by an official whose title I did not learn, who gave us a full and clear explanation of that really wonderful structure in which 8,000 people can be comfortably seated. He illustrated its marvelous acoustic properties by letting us hear a whisper and the sound of a dropped pin at a distance of about 200 feet. We also ascended to the roof of the Temple, from which we had a grand view of the valley and its bordering snow-capped mountains, a few of whose peaks retain their whiteness even in summer. the limpid streams of water running along their gutters, from which the gardens are irrigated, electric railroads with their posts and wires in the middle of the streets, with ample drives on both sides, the spacious squares, each including ten acres, are features of this remarkable city which deserve the careful study of all builders of cities and residents in them. I cannot think that whatever is wrong or evil in this city and territory will be more easily remedied, or avoided elsewhere, by ignoring what is good and desirable. It looks to me as if this remarkable people have made some valuable contributions to sanitary and economic science. By observing, honoring and imitating these, we shall not make them less willing to accept our help to the acquisition of any moral and religious truths which they need us to The streets of this city, 120 feet wide, teach them. |