Converted Latter-Day Saints

In 1855, Apostle John Taylor was given a special call to go to New York City to organize and publish a newspaper whose purpose would be to present the doctrines and practices of the Church in such a way as to neutralize the groundswell of anti-Mormon feeling that had been mounting for over a year. He responded with boldness, challenging his critics to prove their charges: "We have said before and say now, that we defy all the editors and writers in the United States to prove that Mormonism is less moral, scriptural, philosophical; or that there is less patriotism in Utah than any other part of the United States. We call for proof; bring on your reasons, gentlemen, if you have any; we shrink not from the investigation, and dare you to the encounter." He then sketched for readers the salient characteristics of a converted Latter-day Saint: "He grasps at all truths, human and divine... He has nothing to lose but error, nothing to gain but truth. He digs, labors, and searches for it as for hidden treasure; and while others are content with the chaff and husks of straw, he seizes upon the kernel, substance, the gist of all that's good, and clings to all that will ennoble and exalt the human family." He went on to affirm boldly: "The omnipotent power of eternal truth will stand unscathed in the view of gathering hosts, and the nations will know that God rules in the heavens, and that Mormonism is not a vague fantasy ... but the greatest boon that could be conferred upon man, the offspring of heaven, the gift of the Gods, a celestial treasure, an earthly, heavenly inheritance, and a living, abiding and eternal reality."