| 681 of their predecessors, and to decide for the interests of the church, according to the light afforded by the history of the past, the light of the present, and their prescience of the future, these men of the present believe to be their duty.
"They are, as a class, fearless and free in their discussion of every question with which they have to deal; and there are men of marked piety and ability among the number, able and willing to defend the principles of the faith and doctrines of the church as left us by the first elders, and as found in the books, but unwilling to defend any in wrongdoing,-for this reason they do not propose to defend what they feel assured was wrong in the past. They are willing to stand for the right, but will not exonerate the evil doer; he must abide the consequences of his evil doing, let him be whom he may. They are earnest, and mean to redeem the character of the church from opprobrium, so far as their lives and influence can do so. We do not deem it necessary to name any of them, as their names appear from time to time in the published proceedings of the church.
"That all the men of the Reorganization are not of the character above described is but natural. Coming out of all the factions, and being gathered up from the various cities, towns, and hamlets, where they had waited the passing away of the 'cloudy and dark day,' it is but reasonable to suppose that there should be men of every possible shade of religious belief that could have obtained during those disastrous years in which righteousness seemed to have been forgotten among the children of Zion. These men, uniting with a common object in view, needed intercourse, long and trying intercourse with each other, in order that an assimilation should be possible. Bravely has this work of assimilation gone on, and well and bravely have the men of the present borne the test required. Some, it is true, have failed to bear, and have departed from us. What their reasons were, how much they saw, and heard, and felt, and withstood, we cannot say; nor would we add a single pang to pain of mind, if existing with any of them, or aid by a stroke the departing course of those who cannot walk with these men of the present in the Reorganization.
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