Then it is that you thrill with the sentiment that life is joyous and full, and "worth living, after all." Indeed, in helping others to know truth, you enlarge your own soul to include the vast possibilities of life that selfish souls never dream of. You yourself are developed-developed as God would have you-in striving to develop others. "Thou that teachest another, teachest thou not thyself." The Missionary comes to know as perhaps few other men that the Savior was something more than an ordinary sermonizer when He proclaimed the great altruistic law that he who loses his life for others finds it in reality. By the giving of one's life, I do not mean necessarily the spilling of the heart's blood; I mean rather the giving of one's time, one's thought, one's anxiety, one's effort, in a word, one's love "for the happiness of love is in action; its test is what one is willing to do for others." These things constitute our real lives, and if they be sacrificed to exalt mankind, then the real life, the divine development is achieved by him who sacrifices. One who thus gives himself for others, and thus in turn gains his own soul, may not command the applause of the world; he may not be a financier to control the stock market, nor a statesman to direct the great affairs of a nation; he may not be an authoritative scientist, nor one of the literati; but he will be more than all these; for however obscure his reputation, however humble his attainments, he will be one of God's noblemen. There is another phase of development of the soul, which a Missionary pre-eminently gains-I mean the power to forgive even enemies, a power which grows out of the great love developed for every child of God. It is true that the abhorrence of sin becomes stronger in the Missionary, but the solicitude for the sinner becomes stronger also. The sin is hated; the sinner is loved. The Missionary learns that the noblest ven geance is to forgive. Many a time, before going into the world as a representative of the Master, on hearing of the illtreatment to which some Elders are subject, he burns with indignation, and with all the dignity of a youth reared in our beloved land of liberty, he declares that he will yield his life before he will budge from the rights. But when once infused with the spirit of his calling, he can suffer all such indignities with a bearing similar maintenance of his to that of our Lord when, on that memorable occasion, He exclaimed, "Forgive them, Father, they know not what they do." Insults do not try his soul; hurled stones call up no desire to retaliate; pushes and blows are borne with patience; for he who is subject to these abuses knows that they are but the opportunities for exercising those attributes of soul which, when developed, make us perfect, as our Father in heaven is perfect. I repeat that he indeed feels in all its force the meaning of the words that the noblest vengeance is to forgive. He will learn to love those for whom he toils and suffers; his very toil and suffering for them will develop his love for them. For love is like faith-without works or acts for the object thereof, it dies. In your work, as in the work of all successful Missionaries, there are some principles specially to be followed, one of the most important of which is to put yourself in the places of those whose course of life you seek to change. You THE SOUTHERN STAR. must imagine their mode of thought, their traditions and prejudices, and then adapt yourself to these conditions. You must respect that which they hold sacred, even though it appear supremely ridiculous to you. Be sparing of sarcasm; be rich in charity. Try to change the ideas and the ideals of men-those ends at which they aim-and then you can convert them. Do not ruthlessly tear down old beliefs, but with sympathetic effort build for them nobler and loftier structures than they already have. As we often say in homely phrase, do not tear down the dwelling of a man, however vile it be, without first building a better for him. Work to change men's ideals, I repeat, for remember that what a man desires and strives for with all his heart, that he will be. But remem 45 mediately she will become the most interesting person in the world for you. How you will prize that old soul! You will be anxious to go again and again to her hovel to bring the words of life. You will praise her to your companions, and feel that she is of greater impor tance than all the rich and great. You will then have caught the true spirit, the Spirit of God, which rejoices in the saving of souls. Well, do you duty. Be wise as a serpent, but without guile. Be faithful in whatever you are called to do. Be willing to do whatever your superior calls you to. Then, I promise you, your days abroad will be truly happy and your experience valuable. And though while you are in service, your home, even if not forgotten, will not draw your ties, yet when you are given honorable thoughts too much away from your duleave to go, your home will become the most attractive, most sacred and blessed spot on earth. world has gone, Now, there is a practical suggestion or two that I want to offer. Dark days will come in your life, as even now, and crises will have to be met. ber that the remedy for all forms of despondency, or as we call it in colloquial Tell me, gentle traveler, who through the phrase, the "blues," is hard work. Work at your duties, work at study, and the clouds will soon rise. The happy man and the man safe from the hurtful influence of Satan is the busy man. "God calls men when they are busy; Satan when they are idle; for idleness is the hour of temptation, and an idle person is the Devil's tennis-ball, which he tosses at pleasure." Pray often and devoutly. Prayer, in connection with work, will be your source of strength. Yes, call on God, and He will show you that He is your shield and exceeding great reward. Indeed, when the sense of responsibility rests on you heavily, and the cares of duty disturb the heart, then you will find that the prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Above all, court the companionship of the Spirit of God. Keep your thoughts pure and your actions righteous, that the Spirit of God shall be pleased to dwell with you. Submit yourself to its dictates. Learn to know its promptings, study under its inspiration. Preach under its influence. Do good as it gives you intelligence and strength. Do these things, and then your years of special service in your Master's cause will be, in one sense, the happiest of your life. To be sure, these years will not be happiest in the ordinary meaning of the word happiness. miss the comforts and the You will solace that only a home can offer; you will miss the fond associations of loving friends; your fare will perhaps be scanty, and your conveniences few; you will feel keenly, if you have never felt before, the divinity and sweetness in such words as still your soul will thrill with joy; you home, mother, father, loved ones. But will achieve that peace that is above all earthly blessings-a sweet and quiet conscience; you will gather in such abundance as you have never known before that truest happiness that springs up along the pathway of duty in God's cause. Yes, you will realize that loved ones are far away, but you will also feel your God in such blessed nearness as to make up for all other losses. to you. And seen the sweetest roses blow, Child, shall I tell where nature has best and fairest flowers? Though small that space, it is more wide It is where those we love abide; Mixed Marriages. Archbishop Corrigan has transmitted to the clergy of the diocese a decree from the Vatican, bearing on the celebration of the jubilee of the Holy year. One effect of the decree will be to make difficult the marriage of a Catholic to a Protestant by a priest in 1900. Mixed marriages, as they are commonly termed, are customarily allowed only by dispensation of the bishops, but for the Holy year this power is suspended. In his circular Archbishop Corrigan says that the Pope suspends special faculties to ordinaries of dioceses, "so that at this season particularly, Rome should be the greater fountain of mercy and spirtual favors of the Catholics of the entire world." This is understood in Catholic circles to mean that only by applying direct to Rome shall dispensations be granted during the year 1900. Appalling Brutality. Miss Slessor, Scotch missionary, who has been 24 years in Africa, has herself saved the lives of over fifty twins. taken from the mother, and if no one When twins are born, they are at once intercedes they are at once taken by the feet and head and have their backs broken across a native woman's knee, in the same manner as one would break a stick. The bodies are then placed in an earthenware receptacle and taken to the flies, insects or animals. Sometimes the bush, where they are devoured by the little victims are put into these receptacles alive and are then eaten alive in the same way. The mother becomes an outcast. If she does not at once take her own life, she has to flee to the bush. If she ventures near the town or village, she must You will no doubt enjoy many an exsee that she does not remain on the path perience that would now seem ludicrous presence, according to their superstition, when any other native is coming. Her You will tramp from door to would defile the place for others. She door almost without hope, for apparently must not drink from the same spring, no one will want to hear you. Your must not touch anything even belonging heart will get faint, perhaps, when all to her own relatives-Missionary Review at once, as if arranged by some good of the World. angel, you will meet at some humble door perhaps a poor old widow who will be willing to listen to your story. Im The test of real affection is patience. Work is a great panacea for a sore heart. NATURE OF THE LAW OF TITHING. prayer. There are blessings attached to each of these important requirements of the Gospel; but if a man would have his Its Requirements have been Widely Ignored-Effects of Obedience to It-sins forgiven, and be allowed to enter BY ELDER FRANCIS M. LYMAN. has determined that one-tenth of our in- My brethren and sisters: I pray that, as well as my brethren, why the Lord the Spirit of the Lord may be with us this afternoon, as it has been so abundantly with our brethren, and that we may have the liberty of that Spirit in speaking and in listening, and profit by what the Lord may please to give us. Time is very precious, and this is a very large congregation, and without the help of the Lord, it is not possible for an Elder to edify this intelligent audience. We have been listening to the instruction of President Snow and his brethren in the various Stakes of Zion, particularly upon the law of tithing, in such a way, possibly, as it has not been brought before the people in the past. There is a time for all things, and it appears as though the time has come when the Latter Day Saints should give particular attention to this important law. The condition of the people individually, as well as the condition of the Church, has made it necessary for the Lord to anonunce through His servants that we must put ourselves right with regard to this principle. Like all other principles of the Gospel, it is vital and very important, and it is not alone that the foundations of Zion may be laid and the obligations of the Church be met, as they needed to be met in 1838, when the Lord was besought by the Prophet Joseph to know how much was necessary of the property of the people for a tithing. It is not an unusual thing for the Prophet to approach the Lord in times of necessity and when it appears plain to the mind of the Prophet that something needs to be done. We could not tell without the inspiration of the Lord what resources there were for the Church to rely upon, but how simple and plain it is when the Lord announces that if Israel will bring in all their tithes and offerings, that there may be meat in the storehouse of the Lord. He will open the windows of Heaven and pour out a blessing that we shall hardly be able to contain. The necessities of the people today in these valleys, the things that we are suffering, the early frosts that have destroyed quite a percentage of the crops of the people in the higher valleys, the loss in the fruit crop, all admonish. us that we need a blessing from the Lord. the into the Church, he must have faith in God, and in His Son Jesus Christ and in the Holy Ghost, he must repent of all his sins, turn unto the Lord with full purpose of heart and sin no more. Then God will forgive him and redeem him from his sins; but not by paying tithing. By the payment of tithing the foundations of Zion are laid, and up to the present time our tithing has been paid to accomplish what we now see done in a temporal way. The offerings also have been generous enough to perform a great work, for we have paid offerings as well as tithing. We have made offerings of our time, in preaching the Gospel to world without purse or scrip. We have made offerings for the building of temples, for the erection of meeting houses and for other public works that have been accomplished among the Latter Day Saints. By our offerings the poor have been reasonably cared for, and if our offerings were as generous as they ought to be, no poor person among the Latter Day Saints would ever have to cry for relief without receiving it freely. But we want our names recorded in the Lamb's Book of Life, and it is not done by the observance of any one principle alone, but to every principle there are special blessings promised. There are, in the records of the Church today, the names of every man, woman and child who has given of their means for tithing. Those records can be scanned and our faith and works can be understood by the Presidency of the Church. And we ought to be known; we want to be known. We want to be recognized, not alone as having a name among the people, but as being faithful, devoted, humble and obedient. Obedience is the first law of God. It is most important that we should be obedient to the word and will of the Lord. You may be certain, my brethren and It was that which entitled the Son of sisters, that any person who is not able God to be anointed above His brethren; to observe this law faithfully and well for He was in all things most perfect will never, worlds without end, be able and obedient. He put not forth His own to observe the law of consecration. The will, but He submitted to the will of the law of tithing is a stepping stone, and it Father in all things, even to the layis a law that will abide forever, because ing down of His life, in order that He a great majority possibly of the children might be indeed the Son of God, the Saof God will not be able to reach the high-vior of the world. He has earned that er law. important position, and through the shedSince President Snow has been talk ding of His blood and His atonement we ing so plainly upon this subject, there are redeemed. By humility and faith have been a class of people who have and repentance we obtain the forgiveness undertaken to take advantage of his of our sins, and are entitled to have our promise to the Latter Day Saints in renames upon the records of the Church gard to this law, that if for the future as members of the Church. But that they would observe this law faithfully fact does not demonstrate particularly the past should be forgiven. There have any very important work that we have been men guilty of breaches of the laws accomplished in sustaining the work of of morality and honesty who have the Lord. By it we are entitled to enter claimed that if they now pay their tith-in, but after we have been recorded members of the Church we must then work It has been discovered, as the records of the Church abundantly show, that quite a percentage of the Latter Daying all their sins will be forgiven them. Saints have entirely ignored this law of President Snow never announced any tithing. Twenty-five per cent. have negsuch doctrine as that. He could not anlected it altogether. What right have nounce such a doctrine as that. But the we in the Church if we are not willing Lord is perfectly able to say to us that to obey the laws of the Church? As well if we will observe this law of finance, might we think of being members in good which we have been under now for over standing and fellowship, if we had failed sixty years, for the future and keep His to receive baptism of the water and of commandments our past negligence of the law of tithing will be forgiven. He the spirit, or if we refused to gather to- is competent also to say that if we wil: gether or to preach the Gospel. Without repent of our sins and serve God with all the law of tithing, as we heard from the our hearts for the future, our sins will President this morning, these temples | be forgiven us; but not otherwise. The could not have been built. What has been done towards the laying of the foundations of Zion could not have been accomplished without the revenue law of the Church. And it is a most reasonable law. I believe that I have discovered, forgiveness of sins is predicated upon out our salvation and earn eternal life, for it is not obtained without earning it. The Lord is not going to give us everything without our doing something. He requires of us a broken heart, a contrite spirit, an obedience to the mind and will of the Lord. And this is reasonable. How generous the Lord is to us when He declares through His prophet, "if from this time forth you will do my will with regard to the law of tithing, the past shall be blotted out." It is not only generous, but it is reasonable and philosophical. The object of the Lord is the salvation of the people, and if He should come out with a revelation today, saying that the Latter Day Saints must square up all their back tithing, do you think they could do it? No. It could not be done, any more than a man could gather up the sins he has committed and blot them out. They are committed, and we cannot change the fact that they are committed. We may be forgiven, we may be redeemed, they may be finally blotted out, if our repentance is genuine and we do not return to our sins again; but it is done through the atoning blood of the Lord Jesus. No man can forgive his own sins, no man can redeem himself from his sins. Neither can any man pay his back tithing, if he has been a member of this Church forty or fifty years and been paying only part of his tithing all that time, and possibly paying none at all. The Lord would not require such a thing, because He knows the Latter Day Saints could not do it. Why, it is all they can do to pay their tithing today. Sufficient for the day is the tithing thereof; sufficient for the day are the offerings thereof; sufficient for the day are the labors thereof; sufficient for the day is the repentance and reformation required of men. They cannot do two days in one. Yesterday has gone forever. We cannot recall it, any more than we can bring to us tomorrow; tomorrow will always be ahead of us. Today is the day of salvation, and the day in which all our labors must be performed. Therefore we want to remember that He hath forgiven the past, thank the Lord. But do not let you or I regret if we have been among that number who have paid their tithing reasonably well, and feel sorry that we did not keep our tithing back so that we could be forgiven. For there is an advantage, there is a blessing and an enlargement of the soul that comes to the man who obeys the word and will of the Lord. It is better that we have done God's will than that we should have need to be forgiven for neglecting it. It is better not to have been a sinner. It is better that our sins should be very light, and not of a serious nature than that they should be deadly sins. It is better that we should live without sin, and be like the Son of God. It is not necessary that we should be sinners. God has designed that we should not be sinners, but that we should live lives of purity and righteousness and walk in obedience to His will, as the Savior did. The Lord desires, just as you desire, every one of your children to be obedient, honest and pure. You do not want them defiled and dishonest, in order that you may forgive them. There. fore I say to my brethren and sisters who have paid their tithing and have little or nothing to be forgiven for in that respect, thank the Lord, and only wish that there was nothing that you had need to be forgiven for, and that you had done the will of the Lord most perfectly. A great many of the Latter Day Saints have done very well. Thank the Lord for what has been accomplished since last May; thank the Lord that the people have listened, and that you have had testimonies in your hearts, as well as President Snow. You are entitled to know for yourselves. Every one of these Apostles knows that President Snow's testimony is from the Lord, for He has told us. We comprehend it most thoroughly: so does every Latter Day Saint who has done the will of the Lord. Every Latter Day Saint who has now decided and determined to do the will of the Lord also knows it. Those who do the will of the Lord in the future shall also know that God has spoken through President Snow. It is his particular mission THE SOUTHERN STAR. and ministry to set right the Latter Day Saints in regard to this particular lawnot to neglect any other and not to say that men's sins will be forgiven them if they pay their tithing. That is a mistake, and only transgressors have concluded that Bishops and the authorities of the Church have no right to handle them now for their transgressions, because President Snow has said that the past should be forgiven. He has only said that the past should be forgiven, so far as the payment of tithing was concerned. Thank the Lord that we may be forgiven for that. Do you remember when the Salt Lake Temple was dedicated in 1893, how everybody was allowed to go in there, transgressors and all, because their names were upon the record and they had not been dealt with? The Prophet Wil. ford Woodruff announced then that the sins of the Latter Day Saints were forgiven them; but who are Latter Day Saints? Who are the men and women to whom President Woodruff referred? Any man who had not repented? No. Any man who had not made satisfaction? No. He was only announcing that the work you and I are engaged in is genuine, and that in our repentance and reformation there was vitality and virtue, and that we were forgiven so far as we had complied with these laws. He never meant that a man who was an adulterer, or horse thief, was to be forgiven because he went into that Temple, without having made satisfaction or having repented. President Woodruff could not say that; no Prophet could say it. The Father could not say it, only upon the principles of repentance, reformation and righteousness-not a repentance for a little season, but to obtain forgiveness for our sins we must sin no more. We must not turn like the dog to his vomit or the sow to her wallowing in the mire, and then labor as but we must reform the Lord directs, then He will gladly for give us, just as He will now cancel our regard to tithing, if for obligations in the future we will do the will of the Lord. Let our names be recorded upon the book of the law of the Lord, where they can be seen and known, and let the conscience of every man, woman and child be clear and free. Why, when we look over the records now, we find men in high positions in the Church who have been very careless and censurable in reNo doubt gard to the law of tithing. may have entered into the Temples of the Lord who have never done a single thing to help erect or maintain them. We want to repent of these things. We need not be afraid in regard to the Church; we have no need to be disturbed or worried in regard to the obligations of the Church. What should disturb us is our 47 whatever the Lord blesses him with-is acceptable to the Lord also. The Lord does not expect a man with one talent If he returned two he to turn over ten. is doing wonderfully well. He does not expect a man with two talents to turn over ten, but four. He expects men to employ their talents and to make good use of them. He does not look with favor upon a slothful servant, because it is wicked to be slothful and idle. We want to be industrious and persevering and see how much we can do in this life with the talents that God has intrusted us with; then we will be acceptable to Him. The widow's mite, thank the Lord, is as large as the millionaire's great amount of means that he may turn over; for out of her little she gives whatever she possesses in order to assist the work of the Lord. Let the Latter Day Saints remember that we have undertaken to strive for the celestial kingdom. We desire an inheritance on this earth when it is celestialized. We expect an inheritance in Zion, but in order that we may have this inheritance, we are not only required to come into the Church by baptism and receive our ordiconfirmation and to nations and blessings, but we are expected to be a prayerful people, a people who will observe the Word of Wisdom, who will live pure lives and keep the commandments of the Lord. We are expected to bear the burdens and responsibilities of the kingdom, temporal as well as spiritual. We are in a temporal world, and this is a church of material things We cannot as well as spiritual things. divide the temporal from the spiritual, the body from the spirit and stay here. They go unitedly, hand in hand, and will do throughout mortality, and then throughout all the ages of eternity. Men are not perfect without immortality and They cannot meet the deeternal life. sign of God without accomplishing what the Lord has laid before us. This is the Lord's work. It is not the work of our brethren who have passed away. They have finished their work here. They have gone to their reward, having earned eternal life. We remain, and we are to prove our faithfulness and devotion and our endurance in the principles of righteousness. The Lord will sustain us; this work will continue; and we will gain in strength and numbers all the time. We are spreading abroad and becoming more numerous in every ward, in every stake, and in every nation where we live. The Lord is working with us, and is handling the nations. He is handling this nation and directing it in its operations to extend liberty among the people of the world. The Gospel will be in the track of religious liberty, and will be carried to every people. I desire to read the 7th verse in the individual obligations to the Lord and 85th Section of the Book of Doctrine and to one another. Deal honestly and Covenants. The preceding verses speak squarely with the Lord, and you will in relation to the duty of the Lord's very readily be able to deal honestly and clerk in Zion. At present the Lord has squarely with your brethren. Let us clerks in all the Stakes in Zion and in all meet our obligations to the Lord, for to the Wards in Zion and the history of our Him we owe life and everything we pos- faith and works is being kept. It is imsess. He has entrusted us with it as stew-portant that these records should be kept. ards, and we want to make good our stewardship. The talents that He has entrusted us with let us turn them over and double them. Do not bury them, nor hide them up, but invest them so that they will increase. The Lord requires this of us. The man who pays his tithing by the thousands or by the hundreds is not the only one that is acceptable to the Lord. The one who pays his fives, his teus, or his fifties-the tithing on and correctly kept. A singular thing that I have noticed here (perhaps you have noticed it as well) is that it is not only necessary that our names should be found on record, but it is necessary that our fathers' names should also be found on record, as well as the names of our children. It seems that when the inheritances in Zion are divided out, those whose names are recorded with the names of their fathers and of their chil REPORT OF MISSION CONFERENCES FOR WEEK ENDING DEC. 16, 1899. dren--three generations-are to be entit-fering and the little difficulties and evil "And it shall come to pass that I, the Lord God, will send one mighty and strong, holding the sceptre of power in his hand, clothed with light for a covering, whose mouth shall utter words, eternal words; while his bowels shall be a fountain of truth, to set in order the house of God, and to arrange by lot the inheritances of the Saints, whose names are found, and the names of their fathers, and of their children, enrolled in the book of the law of God." I have felt it important, not only that I should be faithful, but that my chil dren should be faithful, and also my progenitors, as an evidence that there is sta bility, virtue and integrity in that line of blood; that there is fidelity and faithfulness at least in three generations, who shall be found recorded in the book of the law of God. I am anxious for my kindred and my posterity. I am not satisfied to be alone. I want my family, my kindred and my friends with me; hence I desire to be exemplary and t use my influence with them, that they also may have a worthy record, and not be cast out for apostacy or any other reason, but that together the three generations may be found recorded and be entitled to an inheritance in Zion. It. however, our names are not found recorded in the book of the law of God, we shall not be entitled to an inheritance in Zion. We want an inheritance on this earth. We want a part of the earth for our celestial home and we want to earn Brethren and sisters, you have our testimony in regard to this principle. We know that it is important. It is not a new thing that the Lord should be robbed in His tithes and His offerings. It is not a new thing that the word of the Lord should come through a Prophet. It came through the Prophet Joseph when the law of tithing was revealed. It came through him when the law of consecration was revealed and on a hundred other occasions. Many revelations the Lord gave through him, and they have been written. Hundreds of times has the word of the Lord been given through President Brigham Young, the Prophet and lion of the Lord, and through President John Taylor and through President Wilford Woodruff. There is nothing that the Lord requires of His people that the Memphis... Smyrna 2 Goldsboro... Bay St. Louis.. Bagdad, Shelby Co. Tennessee. N. Carolina. 713 W. 8th St., Cincinnati.. Ohio. will be accomplished. No power on earth can stay it, for it is God's work. Man has not originated it. It is the work of our Eternal Father who dwells in the Heavens. There is power and virtue in it for the salvation of men, and it is true and vital. God bless you, my brethren and sisters. Let us be faithful and endure but for a little season, and our day of rest and peace and welcome into the presence of the Father and the Son will be sure. Amen. DEATHS. Sister Cherry Graham departed this life Dec. 25, 1899, at the age of 73 years, 7 months and 20 days. Sister Graham was a member of the Red Hill branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, located in Green county, Miss. She joined the church in June of 1899, being baptized by Elder Benj. Ritchie. The Covenanters An exchange tells a somewhat remark Prophet of the Lord will hesitate to pre-able story about a religious sect called sent when it is necessary. He is the comes there is a reason for it; there are it. We cannot get it otherwise. As the Covenanters. This sect, it says, excludes from its membership, all lawyers. The reason given is that this unfortunate class of citizens, before being admitted to practice law, are required to take an oath to support the constitution and other laws of the country and state. The constitution, they hold, is an abominable instrument, because it contains no official recognition of God. The government they consider objectionable, too, because it allows divorces, Sunday mail service, and the sale of intoxicants. And thus the lawyers are, in their view, particularly excluded from the blessings of a "Christian" community. We have heard of no other "Covenan ters" than those with whom all readers of Scottish history are familiar, and who were the mighty champions of Presbyterianism, against popery and prelacy. But it is said that these American "Covenanters" are a branch of the reformed Presbyterian body. The fact is of interest because Presbyterians are now, and have often been. busy charging the Latter Day Saints with disloyalty to the government. Is it true, that from their own body has sprung a branch-a division of the church, to which those who swear allegiance to the government are never admitted? There is a form of hypocrisy that attacks others to hide its own defects. It is often found among religionists and is then exceptionally hideous-News, SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF THE PROPHET JOSEPH SMITH. Joseph Smith, the great Prophet of the nineteenth century, and the head under God, of the glorious dispensation of the Gospel, designated as "The Dispensation of the Fullness of Times," was born in the little town of Sharon, Windsor county, Vermont, Dec. 23rd, 1805. Like the parentage of the Messiah and the ancient Prophets, his were poor, in the BY APOSTLE M. F. COWLEY. and veneration for God, and human lib- | taught him to be industrious, temperate, virtuous, God-fearing and honest in all the transactions of life. Those who knew him intimately from youth to the time of his martyrdom in 1844, testify that these noble qualities characterized his life without variation from childhood to the grave. He had five brothers and three sisters, all well disposed, honest, in |