| 296 the gospel has been taken and where there have been converts made. Further than all this, there were many of the old-time Saints, that in the "dark and cloudy day" had gathered unto themselves some idiosyncrasies of character and doctrine, which seemed to them to be regular and proper according to the word as delivered to them, but which after years of wear and tear proved fallacious, or unimportant; and these have had to be assimilated, or absorbed with the whole lump of the law; or the Saints freed from them. This was a work of time. But time has been lending a plastic hand to the effort, and an increased activity and a greater degree of strength have been developed-we have been growing, and from the appearance all round the religious horizon just in time to be ready for the higher position before us as a people.
Pleasant news from London, England, brings the assurance that there, also, the work has assumed proportions of greater stability. The unwavering fidelity of those upon whom the burden has been resting for the past few years; the unflinching persistence with which the elders have maintained the standard truths of Mormonism proper, have at length begun to tell upon the world. The natural result has followed, the men stand more firmly than ever; the principles of the faith are made more honorable, and dearer to them and more bearable and attractive to others.
The church in Utah, now the only opposing element of the church (Mormon) militant that the Reorganization has to contend with, and before which we have stood in warlike attitude for years, must soon face the issues we have raised against her, whether she will or will not. Those issues are being plainly set forth by the elders whom we have sent to Utah, and are receiving the notice of those within and without. It will soon come that we can not be safely ignored; that passive, "masterly inactivity," sometimes good strategy will not avail against the truths we are pushing forward, they must and will be heard.
The work in the Canadas is likely to revive under the administration of Bro. W. R. Kelley and his coworkers; while in the United States at large it is doing well. In every State where the elders have been laboring there is manifest a great desire to hear. In the south and southeast Brn. H. C. Smith, J. H. Hansen, J. W. Bryan, and D. H. Bays have set the foundations of the work, in the old and in many new places, and the spirit of inquiry there is also ripe.
There is a far better understanding between the different corps of workers than heretofore existed, and much that was vexing has been solved, or so near an approximation reached that the intermediate barriers do not separate. But we cannot yet say, "All is well in Zion." . . .
The turmoil of the elements, the rapid changes in public sentiment, the unrest and disquiet in political circles, the strange and universal shaking of thrones and powers are all of them striking tokens indicating that the times of trouble before the end are at hand; and besides this, that the era when events rapidly succeeding each other everywhere indicating the
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