| 91 them. They have ever been on sentinel duty, and for them the year agone was full of strife, and they look forward to the passing of the new one with renewed hope, that as they draw nearer to the end of time they may be stronger to resist, and so nearer their final strife and victory.
To some the hours, days, and months of the past year have been seasons of profound enjoyment-rich in treasures of love; mental, moral, and spiritual stores, with a fair proportion of temporal blessings-their lives have passed along upon the stream of time, as floats the richly laden argosy up from her traffic in the Eastern seas, before the pleasant tradewinds. They have learned to watch, without fear; to pray, without dissembling; to work, while yet they waited, and have found in their labor an ever coveted and always prized peace. To them the hours have been golden; the days, but opportunities for good; the months, seasons of restful employment-and now they look back without regret, and forward without fear. The future holds no dread, they have learned the value of to-day-and the ever present is fraught with lessons to be learned, duties to be performed, and these in their accomplishment make the time-past, present, and to come-the ever blessed now.
How is it with us? What does the past hold for us? What is there in the future that we shall fear, or prize, at its coming?
The prospect before us as coworkers is, in many respects, a pleasant one. The work in England, Wales, Australia, California, the Canadas, the Western Midlands, the Eastern, Middle, and Southern States, is going steadily on. Now and then a coworker falls out by the way; some by death, some by apostasy, but the Lord seemeth still to care for his own.
Let us stand by one another. The year 1875 will be one of import in the history of the church and the world. And to be prepared for the times propitious is our duty as men.-The Saints' Herald, vol. 22, p. 16.
The Messenger met its readers with the following salutation:
We greet the Saints in general, and readers of the Messenger especially with a happy New Year. We bid adieu to the past only so far as its experience has been unsatisfactory, the rest of it is memorized and constitutes the light, life, and guide of the present. The past is like an overcrowded museum, choice selections may be made from it. That the present is an improvement upon the past, we need only note the fact that at the present time the original faith of the Latter Day Saints, or gospel of Christ, may be preached in Utah without a guard of soldiers or friends. If such a change has been wrought in ten years in Utah, much more elsewhere. The footprints of the first missionaries of the Reorganization, E. C. Briggs and Alexander McCord, are still visible, and all the "soft soap" of the tabernacle works can not wash them out. If this is really a Zion, then the law of the Lord must go forth from hence; and we see no means here for it to go forth, except through the Messenger. This last
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