The
practice of polygamy had begun, although even to the rank and file of
the Mormons themselves the revelation commanding it was as yet unknown.
Still, rumors had leaked forth. The community, already severely shocked
in its economic sense, was only too ready to be shocked in its moral
sense, as is the usual course of human nature. The rather wild vagaries
of the converts, too, aroused distrust and disgust in the sober minds of
the western pioneers. At religious meetings converts would often arise
to talk in gibberish--utterly nonsensical gibberish. This was called a
"speaking with tongues," and could be translated by the speaker or a
bystander in any way he saw fit, without responsibility for the saying.
This was an easy way of calling a man names without standing behind it,
so to speak. The congregation saw visions, read messages on stones
picked up in the field--messages which disappeared as soon as
interpreted. They had fits in meetings, they chased balls of fire
through the fields, they saw wonderful lights in the air, in short they
went through all the hysterical vagaries formerly seen also in the
Methodist revivals under John Wesley.
Turbulence outside was accompanied by turbulence within. Schisms
occurred. Branches were broken off from the Church.
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