Article May 18, 1907 Issue

Stand on the steps of one of these superb edifices any...

Judge J. W. Deane

Goldfield (Nev.) Tribune

Stand on the steps of one of these superb edifices any Sunday or Wednesday and face the intelligent people eagerly and seasonably attending service, despite storm or weather stress! Watch the leisurely outpouring audience. Take note of their intelligence, manifested in countenance and bearing! They have not heard sermon or dissertation, they have not been carried up to super-heights by entrancing oratory. They have heard antiphonal reading. Verses of Scripture have been read by a man, responded to by a woman with paragraphs from Science and Health. There has been silent prayer and concerted repetition of the Lord's Prayer. Interspersed have been solos and the congregational singing of hymns. Every member knew every line of that Sabbath ceremonial before he left his home. Mark Twain says he does not understand it—do you?

How happens it that failure becomes success, dependence breaks loose from bonds? Misfits find their way into places. Is it mere matter of jest that thousands of excellent people, above average intellectualism, embracing all professions and pursuits, thus concur upon these topics of main concern, erect great and conspicuously beautiful temples, paying every dollar ahead of dedication, and when soon crowded to overflow, build a beautiful other? They do no proselyting. They attack institutions of civilized men. They read the same Bible that is read throughout the world, and at no time in America has that ever been so gnerally read as it is now, for in many an office, in many a desk, is a copy of the Bible, and in the homes of this land this great book occupies its old place, when it was a public boast that the foundation of this government was "faith in God and in His Word."

In the magazines are running denunciations and the defense that denunciations ever call forth. It is sought to show that ideas of such exaltation could not have come from a source so humble as this pain-distracted woman, whose experiences in life were in the main harsh and cruel. It is attempted to present her in almost any stage between that of fool and monster. Her admitted authority in the church she founded provokes the charge of "despot." Without proof that a sentence put forth by her had ever been written or uttered by another human being, she is charged with plagiarism and imposture. The serenity and sanctity of age in no way shelter. Enemies make tools of relatives and beneficiaries seek the exploitation of her private affairs in the courts.

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Stand on the steps of one of these superb edifices any...

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