In this peaceful country many thousand Saints have already assembled. They have laid out a city called "Great Salt Lake City." In addition to their private dwellings, they have raised several elegant and magnificent public buildings. Many mills are in operation, and factories are also in course of erection. Public institutions for education have been established; one of these the State Legislature has endowed with an annual sum of five thousand dollars for the term of twenty years. Having come "up through great tribulation," they are not forgetful in their prosperity of their brethren who are still in adversity, scattered among the nations. Accordingly they have established a "Perpetual Emigrating Fund," for the emigration of the poor. Many thousand dollars have already been donated for this purpose. As the gathering of Israel from every nation has been decreed by the Lord, this fund has been so arranged as to be increased to millions, by which the poor and virtuous among men can be assisted, and with perfect assurance lift up their heads and rejoice, for the hour of their deliverance is nigh!
In the same valley, and others adjacent, they are establishing other cities; while the country around is appropriated to farming purposes. And thus "the wilderness, and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose." Every thing necessary to their comfort and refinement will continue to flow with the tide of emigration. The wisdom and ingenuity of the industrious will soon enable the sons and daughters of God to be arrayed with the workmanship of their own hands.
Four hundred miles south of the Great Salt Lake City an extensive settlement is being made. Likewise one on the borders of the Pacific Ocean, near to the port of San Diego. They have also organized a State government, called the "State of Deseret," and have now their claims for admission into the Federal union before the Congress of the United States.
That the reader may understand how this people are viewed by the public at large, we subjoin the following extract from an American newspaper:
We wish to call the reader's attention to the new and most extraordinary condition of the Saints. Several thousand of them have found a resting place in the most remarkable spot on the North American continent. Since the children of Israel wandered through the wilderness, or the Crusaders rushed on Palestine, there has been nothing so historically singular as the emigration and recent settlement of the Saints. Thousands of them came from the Manchesters and Sheffields of England to join other thousands congregated from western New York and New England—boasted descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers—together, to establish a colony in the west. Having a Temple amid the churches and schools of Lake County, Ohio, and driven from it by popular opinion, they build the Nauvoo of Illinois. It becomes a great town; twenty thousand people flock to it. They are again assaulted by popular persecution; their Prophet murdered; their town depopulated; and, finally, their Temple burned. Does all this persecution to which they have been subjected destroy them? Not at all. Seven thousand are now settled in flourishing circumstances on the plateau summit of the North American continent. Thousands more are about to join them from Iowa, and thousands more are coming from Wales. The spectacle is most singular, and this is one of the singular episodes of the great drama of this age. The spot on which the Saints are now settled is geographically one of the most interesting in the western world.—Cincinnati Atlas.
In concluding this brief history of the temporal situation of the Saints, we feel peculiar pleasure in being able to leave them in such prosperous circumstances. The wisdom, cunning and powers of men have been exerted to stay the progress of truth and destroy the union of the Saints, but their efforts have only been a melancholy exhibition of their own folly and wickedness, and produced the opposite of their intention. By this practical lesson may all people learn that the purposes of God cannot be overthrown.
Now "the Lord shall comfort Zion, He will comfort her waste places, and He will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody." Isaiah li: 3. For He hath said: "Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee; for, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people; but the Lord shall rise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee, and the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising." lx: 1—3.
As we have traced the history of the body of the Church, we will now very briefly glance at the labors of the Elders during the same period.
We have already observed that those whom God called to publish His Gospel, were not the mighty of the earth—according to the wisdom and learning of the world; but they were honest and pure in heart. Men who "counted all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ;" and to spread abroad this knowledge they made every possible sacrifice. They willingly set aside every worldly interest, the comforts of home and friends, and went forth preaching every where they had opportunity. Whithersoever they went, the Lord confirmed their testimony by His Spirit; thereby thousands were led to forsake their false and discordant religions and become obedient unto the Gospel. By repenting of their sins at the command of God, and being baptized by His servants, who had received a delegation of authority from heaven, they received the remission of their sins and the gift of the Holy Ghost, which enabled them to know for themselves it was the work of God.
As the Lord does not hire but commands men to do His work, He required them to go forth without purse and scrip, and try the world. In accomplishing this work, great indeed were the privations they had to endure. Though many received their message with joy, and gladly obeyed its requirements, many opposed and persecuted. Those "whose craft was in danger," were most bitter in their opposition; but all their efforts to stop the progress of truth only accelerated its speed. "So mightily grew the word of God, and prevailed," that in a few years churches were established in the principal towns and cities of the United States and in the Canadas.