Mormonism Spreading in New Jersey.
According to a correspondent of the Trenton Gazette, the Mormons are making considerable progress in New Jersey. The writer, in giving a description of some of the societies, admits that the members believe in "poly-gamy or the order of Celestial marriage" and he states these particulars:
There are a great many branches of their Churches in this State. They have a Church erected at Tom's river, and another at Hornstown. Elder Curtis, the former Pastor of the Branch here, was a virtuous, in-dustrious, and good man. Although almost deprived of the use of his left hand by a stroke of the palsy some years previous to his death, yet he worked and main-tained himself and family, and was at work when death suddenly laid his cold and icy grasp upon him. He was at Nauvoo, but returned here at the request of his friends, long before "the destruction of that city."
It is true "he had but one wife;" and the Mormons say he never indulged in any of the vices which are so popular, at the present day, in the christian world.
Elder Trecedar, the present Pastor of the Church here, is a good and worthy man, "has but one wife, maintains no concubines, and is beloved of all who know him."
The letter is dated "Cream Ridge" where there is a small branch of the Church.
Some years since they numbered some one hundred and fifty, but the greater portion have moved away.—They are "respectable" and many are "wealthy" and formerly belonged to the Presbyterian and other churches. The doctrines promulgated by the Mormons are believed in and advocated by the greater portion of the community here, (although not embraced) more than any other dectrine.
The belief of these fanatics is thus described:
The Mormons believe in God the Father, (not a God without body, parts or passions) and in His Son Jesus Christ, and in the atonement, in baptism by immersion by those holding the Holy Priesthood for the remission of sins, and in the laying on of the hands of those au-thorized for the gift of the Holy Ghost; in Prophets, apostles, patriarchs, elders, bishops, priests, teachers and deacons; in the Aaronic and Melchizedeck Priest-hood, and in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, such as prophecy, miracles, gifts of healing, speaking in un-known tongues, in faith, hope, good works, virtue and charity, in the administering of angels; in revelations, dreams, visions; the second coming of Christ, the de-struction of the wicked, the first resurrection, the mil-lennial reign of one thousand years on earth, according to Revelations 20th chapter; also in the second resur-rection after the millenium, in baptism for the dead, the literal gathering of the Jews, the building up of Zion; the rebuilding of Jerusalem; in polygamy or ce-lestial marriage, for the time and for all eternity, in the restoration of all things, in a new Heaven and a new earth; in the Telestial, Terrestrial and Celestial globes or worlds; in crowns, thrones, principalities, sceptres, exaltations and dominions in the eternal worlds; that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of the Lord, and died a martyr to truth, and that his blood and the blood of the saints martyred in this last dis-pensation will be required of this nation; that judg-ment and overthrow await the wicked, &c. Indeed they believe too much for me, for they believe ten times more than all the Christian sects put together, yet they make it appear perfectly scriptural and plain, and prove the same from the Bible. They are firm believ-ers in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, and in the Book of Mormons, as God's law written to Ephraim on this continent. Wherever the Elders preach they are generally listened to with marked at-tention.
The writer is evidently a Mormon himself, and prob-ably a priest or elder. The progress of this people—their rapid increase—and the energy with which they propagate their doctrines, and convert the visionary—the deluded and the credulous, are to us incomprehen-sible. It is quite apparent that the school-master has not yet been sufficiently abroad—and that there is yet much room for mental and moral improvement all around us, and danger that we as a people are in this respect retrograding instead of advancing.
