with these people for one year. During that time I prayed often; yea, several times a week I would go out into the country and pour out my soul to God in prayer. I prayed to him to enlighten my mind, that I might be able to understand the Scriptures. And the Lord heard my prayers and answered them.

At the end of a year, and when I saw the members of the Plymouth Brethren church would willfully pervert the Scriptures and wrest them from their proper meaning, I severed my connection with them. I fully believed that the true Gospel and the true Church were not upon the earth. In a letter to one of my aunts, (a very pious and religious woman) written at this time, I said:

"I do not believe that the Church of Christ is upon the earth today, and I am going to wander about as a pilgrim until I find an organization that will correspond with the Church as it was organized by the Savior."

A few months after this, I heard for the first time of the restoration of the Gospel, to the boy Joseph Smith. As soon as I heard the news I said, "I believe that; for it has been God's way of doing from the beginning." I know that God had chosen the weak things of the earth in preference to the mighty.

The following Sunday evening, I attended a meeting of the Saints. The speaker was Elder David H. Morris, of St. George. I drank in every word as it came from his lips, and my soul swelled with delight and happiness as I feasted upon the glorious principles of truth as they came from the mouth of a humble servant of God.

I determined, however, to put the matter to a test. I would pray to God to reveal to me if Joseph Smith was a true prophet, and had received the ministering of angels, etc. I reasoned thus: "If God has revealed himself to Joseph Smith, then he is surely anxious for all the world to know it; if God has revealed himself to Joseph Smith, then he will reveal to me that he has done so."

Accordingly the following Saturday night (about midnight) I went some distance outside the city, for the purpose of calling upon God. All was silent as the dead. I lifted my face toward heaven and prayed with all the earnestness of my soul to God to reveal to me if Joseph Smith was his prophet. No sooner had I

finished my prayer than I heard a voice-the voice of the Spirit of God-which said unto me, "You did not pray in the name of Jesus Christ; but if you pray in the name of Christ your prayer will be answered."

This was, indeed, a revelation to me; for I believed that I had prayed in the name of Jesus; but as soon as the voice spoke to me, I knew that I had not prayed in the name of Messiah.

I again called upon the Lord, this time in the name of His Only Begotten Son, and ere I had finished my prayer, I felt the power of the Holy Ghost descend upon me. My whole soul was filled with its holy influence, and my frame shook. At the same time I was convinced beyond the shadow of doubt of the truth of the Gospel and the divine mission of Joseph Smith; yea, I could not have been more fully convinced and satisfied, had God Himself descended from heaven, and told me by His own voice that these things are true.

Since that time I have had many manifestations from the Lord-visions, dreams, and revelations. And my testimony is that "God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of him."

THE VOICE OF SPRING.

"There is a tongue in every leaf!

A voice in every rill!

A voice that speaketh everywhere,

In flood and fire, through earth and air;
A tongue that's never still.

'Tis the Great Spirit, wide diffused
Through everything we see,
That with our spirits communeth
Of things mysterious-life and death,
Time and eternity."

THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.

THE ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN VIEW COMPARED WITH THAT OF THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS.

BY PROF. J. H. PAUL, PRESIDENT OF L. D. S. COLLEGE, SALT LAKE CITY.

II.

XI. This kingdom shall finally extend over all the earth.

Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. (Psalm 2.) He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him. (Psalm 72.)

XII. And will be everlasting.

They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations. (Psalm 72.)

His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me. It shall be established forever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. (Psalm 89.)

XIII. The kingdom of heaven was brought unto the Jews and they rejected it.

And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. (Luke 19: 41, 42.)

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! (Matthew 23: 37.)

But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your king? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar. (John 19: 15.)

XIV. The kingdom was taken from them; but there was given the promise of a happier day when he shall come again.

Therefore I say unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. (Matthew 21: 43.)

Behold your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you Ye shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. (Matthew 23: 38, 39.)

XV. That day was to be preceded by apostasy, betrayal of the truth, and persecution.

And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake; but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. (Matthew 10: 22.)

Blessed are ye when men shall hate you * * * for the Son of man's sake. Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of

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you. (Luke 6: 22-26.)

If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. If they have persecuted me,

they will also persecute you. (John 15: 19, 20.)

XVI. Only a few will be found ready for the Kingdom.

Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. (Matthew 7: 13, 14.)

When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? (Luke 18: 8.)

And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. (Luke 17: 26.)

XVII. The revelation of the anti-Christ was to precede the reappearing of Christ. The Saints were warned-

That ye be not soon shaken in mind, nor be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above

all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. (II Thessalonians 2: 2-4.)

XVIII. The people generally should be in a condition of darkness and the church in the last stages of apostasy.

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. (II Timothy 4: 3, 4.)

For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers. (II Timothy 3: 2-5.)

err.

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Thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that make my people The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money. (Micah 3: 5-11.)

XIX. The apostasy was to be universal; the anti-Christ was to prevail till the time of the restoration.

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And they worshiped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshiped the beast. And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies. * And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds and tongues and nations. (Revelation 13: 4-7.)

I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them. (Daniel 7: 21.)

And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it. (Amos 8: 12.)

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And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. (Isaiah 24: 2-5.)

XX. But the Gospel was to be restored to earth by the visitation of an angel; truth should spring out of the earth, and revelation come down from heaven.

And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to everynation, and kindred, and tongue, and people. (Revelation 14:6).