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short stay in each of these Catholic cities, preached and circulated books and pamphlets. From thence we proceeded down the St. Lawrence, below Quebec then crossing over to New Brunswick. * * * Our labors were hard, yet the Lord was with us, and confirmed the word with signs. following, so that notwithstanding the opposition from rulers, and threats, yea violence, from mobs, we were enabled to plant the standard of truth in New Brunswick, and forty-seven gathered round it during our short stay there who are numbered with us in the covenant. They were organized into two branches both in the county of York. I have just returned from Peterborough. The Church numbers eighty members there, all in good standing, who expressed their determination to uphold the Twelve by a hearty vote, not one dissenting spirit. In an editorial of the Times and Seasons, Dec. 15, 1844, we find the following: "Great numbers of brick houses have been and are being put up, various branches of manufactures have been started, and everything wears the aspect of industry, content and prosperity. * * * As it regards the Church, there never was more faith manifested nor a greater degree of union than exists at the present time. The Church has been more perfectly organized lately in its different quorums; there are fewer dissatisfied spirits in our midst, and peace and harmony universally prevail. *

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The Church is organized for the purpose of saving this generation, and generations that are past. It exists in time and will exist in eternity. This Church fail! No! Times and seasons may change, revolution may succeed revolution, thrones may be cast down and empires be dissolved, earthquakes may rend the earth from center to circumference, the mountains may be hurled from their places, and the mighty ocean be moved from its bed; but amidst the crash of worlds and the crack of matter, truth, eternal truth, must remain unchanged, and those principles which God has revealed to His Saints be unscathed amidst the warring elements, and remain as firm as the throne of Jehovah." On Dec. 26, 1844, the Seventies hall at Nauvoo was dedicated. The services were conducted under the direction of President Joseph Young. The seven Presidents of the Seventies and members of the quorum of the Twelve took active part in the services. There were fifteen quorums represented. President Brigham Young offered the dedicatory prayer. The Apostles occupied the most of the time. The meetings continued three days. "Truly this was a time and season of rejoicing with the Saints. Peace and harmony, brotherly love, kindness and charity. prevailed throughout. The remembrance of this glorious jubilee will never be erased from the minds of those who were participants." We copy the follow

ing from the Times and Seasons, under date of January the 1st, 1845: "Transactions of past times, for at least fourteen years, gives us little assurance that the world is upon the eve of reformation. Event rolls upon event; crime succeeds crime; and fraud follows in the foosteps of knavery; and so we may justly exclaim: As it was in 1844 it will be in 1845! Our warning voice, therefore, is: 'Be ye also ready;' be ready for the times and seasons; be ready for the gathering; be ready for the tithing; be ready to give a reason for your hope; be ready to finish the temple; be ready to leave apostates to themselves; be ready for the events of the last days; and be ready to serve God, according to His commandments."

Elder Parley P. Pratt writes in the New York Prophet of January 1st, 1845, in relation to publishing truth: "We have now three departments, duly appointed by the Presidency of the Church, viz: The Nauvoo office, under the management of Eider John Taylor; the English department, under Elder Wilford Woodruff; and the New York publishing department, now committed to my charge. These three great emporiums of light, truth and news are quite sufficient until the work enlarges and other similar establishments are appointed by the Twelve." Under the last given date a proclamation was issued by Elder Parley P. Pratt, addressed to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints-dated at the city of

New York. The following are a few abstracts therefrom: "First of all I congratulate the Church, and offer a tribute of grateful acknowledgements to Almighty God, for the peace, union and prosperity which now pervades every part of our wide-spread and still increasing society. The Church of the Saints, during the past year, has been called upon to sustain a shock almost without a parallel in the history of man. Murder and martyrdom has been in our midst, depriving us of the society and labors of two of the greatest and best men who ever graced our planet, or the annals. of history in any age. The whole Church has been clothed in mourning and sackcloth, as it were, from the remote glens of the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic cities; yea, more! Europe has felt the shock, and tens of thousands of the sons and daughters of monarchs have literally worn the garb of mourning, and shed the tear of grief over the horrid deeds committed in the bosom of a once free and happy country; dark deeds of blood, at which even the red men of the forest have shuddered with horror. Nor is this cruel martyrdom and grievous loss the only trial the Church has had to sustain of late. The mountain waves of persecution have rolled over her with almost unabated fury. Dark clouds of war have gathered thick around her defenseless head, and threatened extermination, and its thunders have sounded dismal in the dis

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tance. But still she survives the tempest and calmly smiles, majestic amid the warring elements, as with increasing confidence and strength she glides o'er the boisterous sea of life. Nor is an outward foe the only or principal difficulty she has had to encounter. She has been in perils among false brethren, and while bleeding without at every pore, she has been betrayed and wounded in the house of her friends; desertion, apostasy, and traitorism, both at home and abroad, have tried. their utmost to accomplish her overthrow and destruction; she stands, and what is more astounding, she stands in union, in peace, and is increasing in numbers and in faith, and in power and influence with God and man. In all these things we are constrained to acknowledge the hand of Divine Providence; and do express our thanks to Him who has founded, and thus far borne off triumphant, His own kingdom." * * The Prophet Joseph Smith, "conferred on Elder Young, the President of the Twelve, the keys of the sealing power, as conferred in the last days by the spirit and power of Elijah, in order to seal the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers, lest the whole earth

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authority, no sealing blessnig shall be administered pertaining to things of the resurrection and the life to come. After giving them (the Twelve) a very short charge to do all things according to the pattern, he quietly surrendered his life into the hands of his blood-thirsting enemies, and all this to save the people for whom he had so long labored from threatened vengeance. Thus nobly fell our worthy founder and leader in the very bloom of life; and thus the responsibility of bearing off the kingdom triumphantly now rests upon the Twelve."

An epistle of the quorum of the Twelve was addressed to the Church of Jesus Christ, dated at Nauvoo, January 14th, 1845. It states: "There is now in the city eight of the Twelve, all in good health and spirits; our city is progressing, and the work of the Lord is rolling forth with unprecedented rapidity. We have commenced a new year, and the Lord says: 'All victory and glory is brought to pass unto you through diligence, faithfulness and prayers of faith. Beware of ungodly men, who creep among you unawares; they are clouds without water, driven about with winds, and will finally be blown into outer darkness. * * May the grace of our Lord

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This last key of the Priesthood is the most sacred of all, and pertains exclusively to the First Presidency of the Church, without whose sanction and approval or

names of the first martyrs, first Elders and first Prophets of the nineteenth century inspire your hearts to hear counsel, to keep counsel to practice holiness, to live