Nauvoo, the Holy City of the Mormons and present capital of their empire, is situated. in the north-western part of Illinois, on the east bank of the Mississippi, in latitude N. 40° 35', and longitude W. 14° 23'. It is bounded on the north, south, and west, by the river, which there forms a large curve, and is nearly two miles wide. Eastward of the city is a beautiful undulating prairie. It is distant ten miles from Fort Madison, in Iowa, is fifty-five miles above Quincy, Illinois, and more than two hundred above St. Louis.

Before the Mormons gathered there, the place was named Commerce, and was but a small and obscure village of some twenty houses. So rapidly, however, have they accumulated, that there are now, within three years of their first settlement, upwards of seven thousand inhabitants in the city, and three thousand more, of the Saints, in its immediate vicinity.

The surface of the ground upon which Nauvoo is built is very uneven, though there are no great elevations. A few feet below the soil is a vast bed of limestone, from which excellent building material can be quarried, to almost any extent. A number of tumuli, or ancient mounds, are found within the limits of the city, proving it to have been a place of some importance with the extinct inhabitants of this continent.

The chief edifices of Nauvoo are the Temple, and a hotel, called the Nauvoo House, neither of which is yet finished. The latter is of brick, upon a stone foundation, and presents a front, on two streets, of one hundred and twenty feet each, by forty feet deep, and is to be three stories high, exclusive of the basement.

The Mormon Temple is a splendid structure of stone, quarried within the bounds of the city. Its breadth is eighty feet, and its length one hundred and twenty, besides an outer court of thirty feet, making the length of the whole structure one hundred and fifty feet.

In the basement of the Temple is the baptismal font, constructed in imitation of the famous brazen sea of Solomon. It is upborne by twelve oxen, handsomely carved,

and overlaid with gold. Upon the surface of it, in panels, are represented various scenes, handsomely painted. This font is used for baptism of various kinds, viz., baptism for admission into the Church--baptism for the healing of the sick-baptism for the remission of sins-and lastly, which is the most singular of all, baptism for the dead. By this latter rite, living persons, selected as the representatives of persons deceased, are baptized for them, and thus the dead are released from the penalty of their sins! This baptism has been performed, it is said, for General Washington, among many others.

It has often been asserted, in the Eastern States, that the Mormon settlement in Illinois had a community of goods; but this is not the case. Individual property is held, and society organized, as in other American cities Not far from the city, however, is a community farm, which is cultivated in common by the poorer classes; but in the city itself each family has an acre allotted to it.

The neighbourhood of Nauvoo is pretty thickly populated, and chiefly, though not exclusively, by Mormons.

The population of the "Holy City" itself is rather of a motley kind. The general gathering of the "Saints " has, of course, brought together men of all classes and characters. The great majority of them are uneducated and unpolished persons, who are undoubtedly sincere believers in the Prophet and his doctrines. A great proportion of them consist of emigrants from the English manufacturing districts, who were easily persuaded by Smith's missionaries to exchange their wretchedness at home for ease and plenty in the Promised Land. These men are devotedly attached to the Prophet's will, and obey his dictates as they would those of a messenger of God himself

NOTE-The Mormons, after persecution from mobs, have removed to Utah (West). Nauvoo is now held by Cabet and his followers (Socialists).

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CHAPTER XV.

ARMENIANS -NESTORIANS-PELAGIANS-PAULIANS-ORIGENISTS QUIETISTS-MANICHEISTS-MOLINISTS-GNOSTICS.

ARMENIANS.

THE Armenians are a division of eastern Christians, so called from Armenia, a country which they anciently inhabited. The chief point of separation between them on the one side, and the Greeks and the Papists on the other, is, that while the latter believe in two natures and one person of Christ, the former believe that the humanity and divinity of Christ were so united as to form but one nature; and hence they are called Monophysites, signifying single nature.

Another point on which they are charged with heresy by the Papists is, that they adhere to the notion that the spirit proceeds from the father only; and in this the Greeks join them, though the Papists say that he proceeds from the father and the son. In other respects, the Greeks and Armenians have nearly the same religious opinions, though they differ somewhat in their forms and modes of worship. For instance, the Greeks make the sign of the cross with three fingers, in token of their belief in the doctrine of the Trinity, while the Armenians use two fingers.

The Armenians hold to seven sacraments, like the Latins, although baptism, confirmation, and extreme unction are all performed at the same time; and the forms of prayer for confirmation and extreme unction are perfectly intermingled, which leads one to suppose that, in fact, the latter sacrament does not exist among them, except in name, and that this they have borrowed from the Papists Infants are baptized both by triple immersion and pouring water three times upon the head; the former being

done, as their books assert, in reference to Christ's having been three days in the grave, and probably suggested by the phrase, buried with him in baptism.

The latter ceremony they derive from the tradition, that when Christ was baptized he stood in the midst of Jordan, and John poured water from his hand three times upon his head. In all their pictures of this scene, such is the representation of the mode of our Saviour's baptism. Converted Jews, or Mahometans, though adults, are baptised in the same manner.

The Armenians acknowledge sprinkling as a lawful mode of baptism, for they receive from other churches those that have merely been sprinkled, without baptising them. They believe firmly in transubstantiation, and worship the consecrated elements as God. Unleavened bread is used in the sacrament, and the broken pieces of bread are dipped in undiluted wine, and thus given to the people. The latter, however, do not handle it, but receive it into their mouths from the hands of the priest. They suppose it has in itself a sanctifying and saving power. The Greeks, in this sacrament, use leavened bread, and wine mixed with water.

The Armenians discard the Popish doctrine of purgatory, but yet, most inconsistently, they pray for the dead. They hold to confession of sins to the priests, who impose penances and grant absolution, though without money, and they give no indulgences. They pray through the mediation of the virgin Mary, and other saints. The belief that Mary was always a virgin is a point of very high importance with them; and they consider the thought of her having given birth to children after the birth of Christ, as in the highest degree derogatory to her character, and impious.

They regard baptism and regeneration as the same thing, and have no conception of any spiritual change; and they know little of any other terms of salvation than penance, the Lord's supper, fasting, and good works in general. Their priests are permitted to marry once only; but their patriarchs and bishops must remain in a state of strict celibacy.

The Armenians are strict Trinitarians in their views, holding firmly to the supreme divinity of Christ, and the doctrine of atonement for sin; though their views on the latter subject, as well as in regard to faith and repentance, are somewhat obscure. They say that Christ died to atone for original sin, and that actual sin is to be washed away by penances,-which, in their view, is repentance. Penances are prescribed by the priests, and sometimes consist in an offering of money to the church, a pilgrimage, or more commonly in repeating certain prayers, or reading the whole book of Psalms a specified number of times. Faith in Christ seems to mean but little more than believing in the mystery of transubstantiation.

NESTORIANS.

This denomination, which arose in the fifth century, is so called from Nestorius, a patriarch of Constantinople, who was born in Germanica, a city of Syria, in the latter part of the fourth century. He was educated and baptised at Antioch, and, soon after his baptism, withdrew to a monastery in the vicinity of that city. His great reputation for eloquence, and the regularity of his life, induced the emperor Theodosius to select him for the see of Constantinople; and he was consecrated bishop of that church A. D. 429. He became a violent persecutor of heretics; but, because he favoured the doctrine of his friend Anastasius, that "the virgin Mary cannot with propriety be called the mother of God," he was anathematized by Cyril, bishop of Alexandria, who, in his turn, was anathematized by Nestorius. In the council of Ephesus, A. D. 431, (the third General Council of the church,) at which Cyril presided, and at which Nestorius was not present, he was judged and condemned without being heard, and deprived of his see. He then retired to his monastery in Antioch, and was afterwards banished to Petra, in Arabia, and thence to Oasis, in Egypt, where he died, about A. D. 435 or 439.

The decision of the council of Ephesus caused many