more had proved that he was the same unchangeable God and was even then directing the affairs of his kingdom. I felt something like General Warner felt at the battle of Bunker Hill. I wanted to get into the fight, and I wanted to get into the very worst of it, the most dangerous place, so I might be able to show a little valor and love for the Master, who had shown so much for me; and I began to think what would be expected of me as an elder in the church, and then I again began to doubt my ability to do anything. Dear elders, have you had such experiences? I venture many of you have, and will know how much I needed the sympathy and prayers of the Saints. I had never written a line in school; I had never done an example in mathematics; I had never had a lesson in English grammar, and could not parse a sentence; and then I imagined myself standing before the people to preach, and this wrought upon me till I was very nearly destroyed. I was then farming in El Monte, ten miles southeast of Los Angeles, and I had been raised to that profession, and thought I was up to the standard as a tiller of the soil. However, I lost all interest in the business. I bought a house and lot in San Bernardino, and moved my family and located them there; but instead of launching out as I ought to have done, and as I was under obligation to do, I, like Jonah, ran away and went out into Mexico or Arizona, but got sick and came home, as I supposed, to die; and I got so bad that old Dr. Peacock, of San Bernardino, pronounced me a subject of dropsy of the heart, and said he could do nothing for me, this after he had made a thorough diagnosis of my case. Brn. A. H. Smith and William Anderson came and administered to me, and I got better; but when they left I relapsed into the same condition and got so much worse that they all despaired of my recovery. Dr. Peacock said I could live but a few days at most. I also felt that life was fast ebbing away. My heart seemed to be drowning in water or blood, and was struggling very hard, and I told mother that I thought the end was coming, and told her I was not afraid, only that I regretted very much that my life had been so wasted. I saw my mother and sister Nannie, a girl about fourteen years of age, standing with streaming eyes, but could offer no word of hope; but all at once Nannie stepped up to her mother and said, "Mother, in the name of the Lord be comforted, for Joseph is not going to die at this time." She then turned to me, where I lay in bed, and delivered one of the most soul-piercing prophecies I ever heard in my life, and although this was many years ago, it is as bright on memory's page to-day as it was when it was given. She said, "Verily thus saith the Lord, thy sickness is not unto death; for I have a work for thee to do, a mission for thee to perform, and thy voice shall be heard in the congregation of the wicked, and upon the islands of the sea thou shalt lift up the standard of truth. Tens of thousands shall hear thy testimony, and thousands shall be made glad because of thy ministry." These words from a bashful little girl, not yet fourteen years old, were so powerful that it seemed that the very

foundations of the house trembled. I was immediately healed and raised up and praised God and bore testimony to the truth. I went up into the town soon after, and saw the old doctor, and he confessed that it was the power of God and not of man. (To be continued.)

Editor's Corner

AUTUMN LEAVES is published monthly for the youth of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Herald Publishing House, Lamoni, Iowa.

ELBERT A. SMITH,

322 North Prospect Street, Colorado Springs, Colorado.

WASHINGTON AND LINCOLN.

"It is not right that any man should be in bondage one to another.. And for this purpose have I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose, and redeemed the land by the shedding of blood."-Doctrine and Covenants 98:10.

D

URING the month of February we celebrate the birth of two great citizens of the United States-or shall we say citizens of the world? For we do not write of them in any narrow spirit of patriotism; no one nation has exclusive claim upon men who have lived and died in the interests of principles that benefit the whole world.

One step in God's plan of emancipating the race was to dedicate the New World, America, all of America, if you please, both North and South, to liberty. (Second Nephi 1.) All people who were to come here were to be offered liberty; and they were to retain that liberty on condition of righteousness. In harmony with this prophecy, made so long ago, we find that the New World has never been a congenial clime for unconstitutional monarchy. Here have come the oppressed of all nations. To-day, we may say that nationally, the inhabitants of America from Hudson Bay to Patagonia enjoy as high a degree of liberty as they are morally and mentally fitted to enjoy.

Our Canadian brethren on the north are free, contented, and prosperous; on the south Mexico has long been governed by a wise and good president; South America is a land of republics, and to the casual observer, at least, the people there have more personal liberty than they know how to use to advantage.

A history of the onward march by which this condition has been obtained by the various nations on American soil, since the days when Moroni, long centuries before Columbus, raised a flag and called it "the title of liberty," would make interesting reading. But in this editorial we can only consider one or two incidents

connected with the history of that part of the land known as the United States, and with those two great men, Washington and Lincoln.

From the inspired revelation quoted at the beginning of this article we learn that God raised up wise men to establish the Constitution of the United States, and that he did so in the interests of the principle that it is not right for one man to be in bondage to another. The States were free, politically, before the Constitution was drafted and adopted. But they had no strong central government and were rapidly drifting into anarchy and internecine warfares; they were rent with dissensions and jealousies, and unmanageable disorder was imminent. Under these conditions, delegates from the various States met in Philadelphia, and after deliberating an entire summer, adopted the Constitution that was signed September 17, 1787.

Washington was one of the most prominent of these "wise men" that the Lord had raised up for this work, as may be seen by the following quotations:

"It gave it [the convention] great dignity that Washington had presided over its councils and was heart and soul for the adoption of the measure it proposed. His name and quiet force had steadied the convention on many an anxious day when disagreement threatened hopeless breach." (A history of the people of the United States, by Woodrow Wilson, vol. 3, pp. 69, 70.)

""The opinion of General Washington was of such weight,' said Count Moustier, the French minister to the United States, "that it alone contributed more than any other measure to cause the present Constitution to be adopted.' (Ibid., p. 79.)

"The finger of an overruling Providence, pointing at Washington, was neither mistaken nor unobserved; when, to realize the vast hopes to which our revolution had given birth, a change of political system became indispensable. . . . This arduous task devolved on citizens selected by the people, from knowledge of their wisdom and confidence in their virtue. In this august assembly of sages and patriots, Washington of course was found; and as if acknowledged to be most wise where all were wise, with one voice he was declared their chief." (From funeral oration by Richard Henry Lee.)

Fortunately we have it on record that this man Washington realized that God's hand was in the work that lay before the Convention: "It was recalled, many years afterward, how General Washington had stood in the midst of a little group of delegates, during the anxious first days at Philadelphia, while they waited for commissioners enough to justify them in effecting an organization, and had cried, 'Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair. The event is in the hands of God.'" (A History of the American People, by Woodrow Wilson, vol. 3, p. 71.)

Once adopted by the convention it became necessary for the Constitution to secure the approval of at least nine out of the

thirteen colonies in separate State convention, before it could be "established;" the approval of all was secured, eventually, although it was vigorously opposed in several instances, notably by the eloquent Patrick Henry, in Virginia. Again the influence and wisdom of the men raised up for this work is seen: "No doubt, could there have been a counting of heads the country through, a majority would have been found opposed to the Constitution; but the men who were its active and efficient advocates lived at the centers of population, had the best concert of action, filled the mails and the public prints with their writings, were very formidable in debate and full of tactful resources in conventions, could win waverers, and prevailed." (Ibid., p. 82.)

Abraham Lincoln was born February 12, 1809, about twentyfour years before God gave the revelation in which he said that he had raised up certain men to establish the Constitution of the land, about the same number of years after the Constitution itself was signed by George Washington. At the time of the giving of the revelation he was an obscure young man, making a failure as storekeeper and postmaster in Illinois, the Constitution was apparently established, and it may be thought that he was not one of the men there mentioned; yet he was the great war president from March 4, 1861, to April 15, 1865, and presided over the destinies of the nation during the struggle that was to decide whether or not the Constitution should remain established. More than that, God said that he had established the Constitution because it was not right for one man to be in bondage to another, yet the document had remained ineffective in that particular while slavery was a recognized public institution, and it was the hand of Abraham Lincoln that signed the Emancipation Proclamation and set the slaves free. Of that act and the man who performed it and the part that God had in it, Phillips Brooks said in his funeral oration, following the death of Lincoln:

"For such a man there was no hesitation when God brought him up face to face with slavery and put the sword into his hand and said, 'Strike it down dead.' He was a willing servant then. If ever the face of a man writing solemn words glowed with a solemn joy, it must have been the face of Abraham Lincoln, as he bent over the page where the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 was growing into shape, and giving manhood and freedom as he wrote it to hundreds of thousands of his fellow men."

Had the people heeded the revelation given through Joseph Smith, in 1833, in which it was stated that one man should not be in bondage to another, the Civil War might have been avoided.

Had they heeded the revelation given in 1832 the war might have been avoided; in that revelation it was declared:

"Verily, thus saith the Lord, concerning the wars that will shortly come to pass, beginning at the rebellion of South Carolina, which will eventually terminate in the death and misery of many souls. The days will come that war will be poured out upon all nations, beginning at that place: for behold, the Southern States

shall be divided against the Northern States, and the Southern States will call on other nations, even the nation of Great Britain, as it is called, and they shall also call upon other nations, in order to defend themselves against other nations; and thus war shall be poured out upon all nations."

Had the people heeded Joseph Smith's "views on the government and policy of the United States," published to the world, February 7, 1844, war might have been avoided; in that publication he said:

"The Declaration of Independence 'holds these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness'; but at the same time, some two or three millions of people are held slaves for life, because the spirit in them is covered with a darker skin than ours." "Petition also, ye goodly inhabitants of the slave States, your legislators to abolish slavery by the year 1850, or now. . Pray Congress to pay every man a reasonable price for his slaves out of the surplus revenue arising from the sale of public lands. . Break off the shackles from the poor black man, and hire them to labor like other human beings; for 'an hour of virtuous liberty on earth, is worth a whole eternity of bondage!" (Church History, vol. 2, pp. 714, 722.)

The people did not heed. And Abraham Lincoln recognized that the war was a judgment upon them, as is shown by the words that he used in his second inaugural address:

"Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, that the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

That he recognized that he was in the hands of God, the same as Washington and others, to establish freedom and the Constitution, is shown by his parting address to his old friends and neighbors (see Encyclopedia Americana, volume 9) just prior to his first inauguration; he said, "I go to assume a task more difficult than has devolved upon any other man since the days of Washington. He never could have succeeded except for the aid of divine Providence. . . . I feel that I can not succeed without the same divine blessing which sustained him; and on the same Almighty being I place reliance for support."

CORRECTIONS.

In Autobiography of Elder J. C. Clapp, December number, page 540, next to last line of the second paragraph, read Decasia for Lecasia. January number, page 15, eighth line of same article