“Mormonism is spreading faster . . .” Wayne Sentinel (Palmyra, New York) (23 August1831).
Mormonism is spreading faster than anti-masonry ever did, and what is rather remarkable, it is espoused by similar minds. The leaders know better, and so do those of anti-masonry. There is also a similarity in the policy of these two extraordinary sects. The Mormonites denounce those who refuse to join them, and so do the anti-masons.—The only material difference between them is, that the former are seeking money, while the latter care more for office. A man by the name of Davidson has been for some time preaching the Mormon faith in the vicinity of Burlington, Vt. and has already gained quite a number of proselytes in that neighborhood. He professes to be a disciple of one Dilks. of Ohio, and pretends that Dilks has Almighty power, and is equal with God himself! Anti-masons, equally blasphemous, have pretended that “anti-masonry sprung from the throne of God.” This Davidson is represented as wearing his hair long, and professing a great deal of piety. “He preaches that Jesus Christ is a woman and quite inferior to Dilks—that the millennium will take place in 1832.—Philadelphia is the place designated where Dilks is to assemble his followers, and then the rest of mankind are to be swept from the face of the earth, and Dilks and his followers are to inherit their possessions.—The proceedings of this Davidson and the society which he has been enabled to draw around him, who adopt his views, are represented as disgraceful and indecorous to the last degree.” It would be extraordinary indeed, if anti-masonry should be outdone in this particular by Mormonism.