If the Latter-day Saints are not what they profess to be, one thing is
certain, that no one ever will be able to confute their doctrine by
the scriptures; however imperfect the people may be, their doctrine is
_infallible_. Can this be said of any other people who have existed on
the eastern hemisphere during the last 1700 years? No. Their doctrines
have been a heterogenous mixture of truth and error, that would not
stand the test one moment when measured by a pattern of inspiration;
some disparity could be seen and pointed out--some deviation either in
the organization or in the ordinances of the gospel could be shown to
exist. And now after so many centuries have elapsed, and when human
wisdom has been exerted to its utmost strength, and the most exalted
and gigantic talents displayed to lay a stable foundation whereon to
build, we awake and behold all an empty bubble--a vain show--a phantom
of man's creation, with scarcely a vestige of the ancient _form_, to
say nothing of the _power_. In the midst of all this thick darkness, a
young, illiterate, obscure, and inexperienced man announces a message
from heaven, before which darkness flees away; human dogmas are
overturned; the traditions of ages are uprooted; all forms of church
government tremble like an aspen leaf at its approach, and the mighty
fabric of popular sectarianism is convulsed and shaken to its very
foundation. How happens all this? If Joseph Smith were an impostor,
whence his superior wisdom? What power enervated his mind in laying
the foundation of a church according to the ancient order? How could
an impostor so far surpass the combined wisdom of seventeen centuries
as to originate a system diverse from every other system under heaven,
and yet harmonise with the system of Jesus and his apostles in every
particular? What! an impostor discover the gross darkness of ages,
and publish a doctrine perfect in every respect, against which not
one scriptural argument can be adduced! The idea is preposterous! The
_purity_ and _infallibility_ of the doctrine of this great modern
prophet is a presumptive evidence of no small moment in favor of his
divine mission.