When that immense multitude joined in our national songs, and the deep-toned organ filled the vast dome the music was very impressive, and the spirit of patriotism manifested throughout was deep and sincere.
As I stood among these simple people, so earnest in making their experiment in religion and social life, and remembered all the persecutions they had suffered and all they had accomplished in that desolate, far-off region, where they had, indeed, made "the wilderness blossom like the rose," I appreciated, as never before, the danger of intermeddling with the religious ideas of any people.

Their faith finds abundant authority in the Bible, in the example of God's chosen people.
When learned ecclesiastics teach the people that they can safely take that book as the guide of their lives, they must expect them to follow the letter and the specific teachings that lie on the surface.

The ordinary mind does not generalize nor see that the same principles of conduct will not do for all periods and latitudes.

When women understand that governments and religions are human inventions; that Bibles, prayerbooks, catechisms, and encyclical letters are all emanations from the brain of man, they will no longer be oppressed by the injunctions that come to them with the divine authority of "Thus saith the Lord." That thoroughly democratic gathering in the Tabernacle impressed me more than any other Fourth of July celebration I ever attended.

As most of the Mormon families keep no servants, mothers must take their children wherever they go--to churches, theatres, concerts, and military reviews--everywhere and anywhere.