should soon come when," because of the cries and mourning of "widows and orphans" whose husbands and fathers should be slain by wicked hands, "the Lord should avenge the blood of his Saints." And again, in August, 1831, the word of the Lord came to Mr. Smith, saying that "the Saints should be scourged from city to city, and from synagogue to synagogue," and that but "FEW" of those then in the Church should "stand to receive an inheritance."—(See Book of Doctrine and Covenants, page 151 [sec. 63.]) The blood of many hundreds of Saints who have been slain and martyred in this church, is an incontrovertible evidence of the truth of the prediction. Surely Mr Smith must have been a prophet of God to have foreseen not only the rise of the church of the Saints, but that their blood should cry aloud from the ground for vengeance upon the nation who should perpetrate these bloody deeds. No human foresight could have seen the bloody sceneries that were to take place after the rise of the church. All natural appearances in the United States were against the fulfillment of this dreadful prediction. Every religious society throughout the whole country was strongly guarded against persecution and religious intolerance by the strong arm of the civil law. The glorious constitution of this great and free people proclaimed religious freedom to every son and daughter of Columbia's soil: yet, in the midst of this boasted land of freedom and religious rights, where universal peace seemed to have selected her quiet dwelling place, the voice of the great prophet is heard predicting the rise of the Latter-day Church, and the bloody persecutions that should follow her "from city to city, and from synagogue to synagogue." Never were there any prophecies more literally and palpably fulfilled since the creation of the earth. If the foretelling of future events that could not possibly have been foreseen by human wisdom—events, too, that to all outward appearances were very unlikely to come to pass: if the predicting of such events and their subsequent fulfillment constitute a true prophet, then Joseph Smith must have been a true prophet, and, if a true prophet, he must have been sent of God.

Tenth.—There are many thousands of living witnesses who testify that God has revealed unto them the truth of the Book of Mormon, by dreams, by visions, by the revelations of the Holy Ghost, by the ministering of angels, and by his own voice. Now, if Mr. Smith is an impostor, all these witnesses must be impostors also. Perhaps it may be said, that these witnesses are not impostors, but are deceived themselves. But, we ask, can any man testify that he KNOWS a false doctrine to be true, and still not be an impostor? Men frequently are deceived when they testify their opinions, but never deceived when they testify they have a knowledge. Such must either be impostors, or else their doctrine must be true. Now, would it not be marvellously strange indeed, if even three or four men who were entirely disconnected, being strangers to each other, should all undertake to deceive mankind by testifying that an angel of God had descended before them, or that an heavenly vision had been shown to them, or that God had in some other marvellous way manifested to them the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon? If the testimony of three or four impostors would appear marvellous, how infinitely more marvellous would appear the testimony of tens of thousands of impostors in different countries, widely separated from each other, and who never saw each other's faces, and yet all endeavouring to palm upon the world the same great imposition! If many thousands of witnesses do testify boldly, with words of soberness, that God has revealed to them that this is his church or kingdom that was to be set up in the last days, then we have an overwhelming flood of collateral evidence to establish the divine mission of Joseph Smith.

Eleventh.—The miracles wrought by Joseph Smith are evidences of no small moment to establish his divine authority. In the name of the Lord he cast out devils, healed the sick, spoke with new tongues, interpreted ancient languages, and predicted future events. Many of these miracles were wrought before numerous multitudes of both believers and unbelievers, and upon persons not connected with our church. And again, the numerous miracles wrought through the instrumentality of thousands of the officers and members of this church, are additional evidences that the man who was instrumental in founding the church must have been sent of God. The thousands of sick that have been miraculously healed in all parts of the world where this gospel is preached, give forth a strong and almost irresistible testimony that Mr. Smith's authority is "from heaven." Although the great majority of mankind consider miracles to be an infallible evidence in favor of the divine authority of the one who performs them, yet we do most distinctly dissent from this idea. If miracles be admitted as an infallible evidence, then all that have ever wrought miracles must have been sent of God. The magicians of Egypt wrought some splendid miracles before that nation; they created serpents and frogs, and turned rivers of water into blood. If miraculous evidence is infallible, the Egyptians were bound to receive the contradictory messages of both Moses and the magicians as of divine authority. According to this idea, the witch of Endor must have established her divine mission beyond all controversy by calling forth a dead man from the grave in the presence of Saul, king of Israel. A certain wicked power described by John (Rev. viii chap.) was to do "great wonders" and "miracles," and cause "fire to come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men." If miracles were infallible evidences, surely no one should reject the divine authority of John's beast. Again (in Rev. chapter xvi) John "saw three unclean spirits like frogs," which he expressly says, "are the SPIRITS OF DEVILS WORKING MIRACLES, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty." The learned divines and clergy of the nineteenth century boldly declare that "miracles are an INFALLIBLE evidence of the divine mission of the one who performs them." If so, who can blame "the kings of the earth," and these learned divines, and all their followers for embracing the message of these divinely inspired devils? For according to their argument, they should in no wise reject them, for they prove their mission by evidences which they say are infallible. We shall expect in a few years, to see an innumerable host of sectarian ministers as well as kings, taking up their line of march for the great valley of "Armageddon," near Jerusalem, and thus prove by their works that they do really believe in the infallibility of miraculous evidence. Devils can work miracles as well as God, and as they have already persuaded the religious world that miracles are infallible evidences of divine authority, they will not have much difficulty among the followers of modern christianity in establishing the divinity of their mission. But the "Latter-day Saints" do not believe in the infallibility of miraculous evidence. We believe that miraculous gifts are absolutely necessary in the church of Christ, without which it cannot exist on the earth. Miracles, when taken in connexion with a pure, holy, and perfect doctrine, reasonable and scriptural, is a very strong collateral evidence in favour of that doctrine, and of the divine authority of those who preach it. But abstract miracles alone, unconnected with other evidences, instead of being infallible proofs are no proofs at all: they are as likely to be false as true. So baptism "for the remission of sins" is essential in the church of Christ, and when taken in connexion with all other points of doctrine embraced in the gospel, is a presumptive evidence for the