Great Salt Lake City Feby 19, 1855
Revd. Charles Howard Malcon
Cor: Sec: of Soc: of Inquiry of Princeton | Theological Seminary
Dear Sir. | Your favor of Novr. 25th 1854 came duly to | hand on the 6th instant in which you express a desire to | obtain correct information in regard to our numbers | missionary operations religious views sentiments &c | Merely remarking that we always feel gratified | to give those who really desire it, True information | concerning ourselves instead of being misrepresented to | the world as we usually are by the Public Prints, | I proceed to answer your inquiries in the order in | order in which they stand. |
1st Question: About what number are there now of, | your denomination at Salt Lake? |
Answer: I presume that you mean by Salt Lake our | number in this Territory as there are many | other settlements in this Territory besides Salt | Lake composed principally of our people with | this view in mind I should judge that our | society in this Territory numbered about thirty | thousand. |
2nd Question: About how many Missionaries have you | in Europe |
Answer: of American Elders we have some fifty | besides many hundred | Native Elders- We also | have Missionaries in Asia, Africa, Australia, | and the other Pacific Isles |
3rd Question: Does your Church regard the Book of Mormon | inspired |
Answer: So far as it purports to be we do |
4th Question: How are your Ministers inducted into office |
Answer: Joseph Smith Jun, was ordained an Apostle and set | apart for this Ministry by three of the Apostles of | Christ. Peter, James and John, who were sent | to the earth for that purpose-- they laid their | hands upon his head and conferred upon | him this holy Priesthood and authority with | the Keys of this New Dis | pensation even the dispensation of the fullness of times, and he Joseph | Smith [now] after having thus received this autho | rity and ministry conferred it upon others see | Doctrine and Covenants Page 107 [difficult to read]: It is now done | in the same manner by ordination to the office | to which the persons are appointed by the | imposition of hands setting them apart, to | their particular calling by the authority of | the Holy Priesthood with the blessings thereunto | pertaining in the name of the Lord Jesus | Christ.
5 Question: Does your Church have a Liturgy |
Answer: They do not |
6 Question: What is your means of Worship? |
Answer: We worship God our Heavenly Father in the | name of Jesus Christ by doing his will and | keeping his commandments. In assembling together | on the Sabbath or first day of the week usually | called Sunday and at other times by Singing | Praying and Preaching- By administering the | Sacrament of the Last Supper and other Ordinan | ces of the Gospel. |
7 Question: Is repentance and saving faith as we use | those terms required for admission into your | Church.
Answer: Faith and Repentance Baptism and the Laying | on of Hands by those holding legal authority | for the reception of the Holy Ghost is required | in all cases but, if you understand them as the | world usually do I answer we do not. We consider | honesty and obedience necessary to salvation. | If a man never heard him can he believe and | how can he hear without a Preacher, Faith | comes before repentance it comes also by hearing | the word If when a person does hear the truth and | believes it and is honest enough to obey it and | walks humbly in all [unreadable] and that person we consider will | be [unreadable] the Kingdom of [unreadable]. |
Faith and Repentance must result in works | of obedience and Faithfulness in order to | constitute saving faith or entitle any person to | Salvation and then only because he loves the Truth | for the truths sake and not simply complying with | its [unreadable] for the sake of reward. |
[Unreadable] of [unreadable] setting your designs for not only the Salvation of mankind in the Celestial | Kingdom of our God but also, are calculated to | accomplish his Salvation in a Spiritual and Temporal sense in this world It becomes there | fore not only his interest, but his duty and should | be his delight to acquire it therein. It is essentially | the *** investment a man can make both of him[self?] and | all that he [unreadable] to devote all to the Lord by so doing | he consults his temporal and Spiritual interest in time and also in eternity. |
I am aware that I might amplify upon | your question and say much more and presuming | that you prefer [concise?] and direct answers I forbear | you can learn further in [unreadable] by applying [unreadable] you wish [unreadable] further [unreadable] of [unreadable] hoping that this finds you with [unreadable]
Brigham Young