| 646 does not the language of our Lord attribute to him a very strange way of speaking, and something of a deceptive manner?" the dreadful fires which followed the early disciples seem to have been rekindled, and the ministers of the Latter-day Saints have and do now ask themselves the question on entering their fields of labor, have I grace and strength to suffer for the gospel as they suffered. I am acquainted with elders of this church, who, even in this age of illumination and toleration, have assisted to perform the last task of sepulture to forty of their brethren at one time, who died noble martyrs for the "faith once delivered to the saints." Thousands of men, helpless women and young children, have been forcibly ejected from their peaceful homes, in an inclement season of the year, and no virtuous indignation, no, Christian sympathy was aroused in their favor; yet with all their sorrows, the Latter day Saints would not exchange their faith for any other, for the value of the universe; they know in whom they have believed, and that deliverance shall soon be theirs.
In the New York Sun of the 16th ult., I noticed among some flippant remarks on Joseph Smith the beloved Prophet, an assertion that he was a heartless, unfeeling aspirant, a man without a redeeming quality; it appears to me that such a libellous [libelous] assertion, must have proceeded from very narrow or willfully distorted views. A mere cursory glance at that noble man's life, ought to cover with shame the man's face who can be guilty of such bare-faced falsehood. If such had been his character, would he have invariably stood between his people and death in all their persecutions?-Was he ever assailed by temptation to swerve from the path of the just? if so, it must have been during the late troubles at Nauvoo. To a man if acute sensibility, of warm and generous feelings as were his, it must have been painful to tear himself from his people, the partner of his choice and his children. Assassination he knew was almost inevitable, he saw the grave fast opening before him and was he unappalled? He was. Overwhelmed as a man of selfish ambition must have been, he stood firm a practised [practiced] declaration, that his was that high order of moral responsibility and benevolence to which extraordinary minds alone are attributable. He had laid down his life like a good shepherd for the sheep, the damp shroud and the lonely coffin are his, but his spirit calmly smiles in the presence of Jesus. The "blood of the martyrs shall be the seed of the church," God's nobleman the chivalry of the age, the heralds of salvation, shall be raised up by thousands and fly on the wings of the wind, to the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills, all nations shall hear, and he shall come whose right it is to reign; then in the morning of the resurrection, when every chain that now binds down God's people shall be knocked off, when the martyrs for Jesus, shall at his mandate burst the bars of death, and stand with their sheaves with them upon the earth redeemed, then having passed through all their afflictions, having endured hardness like good soldiers of Jesus Christ filled with those serennial joys which flow supernal from the throne of God, like incense from a censor, Hallelujah! Hallelujah, the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth! Then shall the righteous shine forth in the kingdom of their Father in all the splendor of the regal sun, reflecting forever the celestial rays that hang from the Eternal Presence. God grant to breathe his benediction upon his people, to stretch out his arm to sustain them in all their afflictions, and preserve them blameless unto the coming of Christ is the prayer of your brother in the Lord.
JOHN A EATON.
Boston, Aug. l0, 1844.
CONFERENCE MINUTES.
From the N. Y. Prophet.
Minutes of a conference held in Eaton, Northampton county, Pa., August 6th, 1844.
Meeting being duly called and opened by prayer, Elder Albert Lutz was called to the chair, and elder William A. Moore, was chosen secretary. Brother Wm. A. Glover was called upon to represent the number of members and their standing, which were as follows:
Nineteen members, two elders, one priest and one teacher, all in good standing, two having removed; one an elder, gone to Scotland to preach the gospel.
Elder Lutz then arose and gave such instructions as was necessary, stating, that the branch having never been organized, then proceeded to organize the branch by appointing William Glover, presiding elder; Isaac Dorr, priest, and William Glover, Sen., teacher. Elder Robert Smith arose and said he would make every exertion to spread the gospel in the surrounding country. The following resolutions were offered and read by the secretary, and unanimously adopted.
Resolved, That this branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, uphold and sustain the heads and all the authorities of the church.
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