ordinances of God blameless, he shall inherit eternal life; and Jesus Christ, who was, and is, and is to come, has borne me safely over every snare and plan, laid in secret or openly; through priesdy hypocrisy, sectarian prejudice, popular philosophy, executive power, or law defying mobocracy, to destroy me.
If, then, the hand of God, in all these things that I have accomplished, towards the salvation of a priest-ridden generation, in the short space of twelve years, through the boldness of the plan of preaching the gospel, and the boldness of the means of declaring repentance and baptism for the remission of sins; and a reception of the Holy Ghost, by laying on of the hands, agreeably to the authority of the priesthood; and the still more bold measures of receiving direct revelation from God, through the Comforter, as promised, and by which means all holy men, from ancient times till now, have spoken and revealed the will of God to men, with the consequent 'success' of the gathering of the saints, throws any charm around my being and 'points me out as the most extraordinary man of the age,' it demonstrates the fact, that truth is mighty and must prevail; and that one man empowered from Jehovah, has more influence with the children of the kingdom, than eight hundred millions led by the precepts of men. God exalts the humble, and debases the haughty. But let me assure you in the name of Jesus, who spake as never man spake, that the 'boldness of the plans and measures,' as you term them, but which should be denominated the righteousness of the cause, the truth of the system, and power of God, which 'so far,' has borne me and the church, (in which I glory in having the privilege of being a member,) successfully through the storm of reproach, folly, ignorance, malice, persecution, falsehood, sacerdotal wrath, newspaper satire, pamphlet libels and the combined influcnce of the powers of earth and hell, I say these powers of righteousness and truth, are not the decrees or rules of an ambitious and aspiring Nimrod, Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander, Mahomet, Bonaparte, or other great sounding heroes, that dazzled forth with a trail of pomp and circumstances for a little season, like a comet, and then disappeared, leaving a wide waste where such an existence once was, with only a name: nor were the glorious results of what you term 'boldness of plans and measures,' with the attendant 'success,' matured by the self aggrandizing wisdom of the priests of Baal; the scribes and Pharisees of the Jews; Popes and Bishops of Christendom; or pagans of Juggernaut; nor were they extended by the divisions and subdivisions of a Luther, a Calvin, a Wesley, or even a Campbell; support-
