| 825 nearer the fact, or more properly, the truth of the matter, than when the wise men came to worship Jesus. Matthew says:
"And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.
And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him."
The wise men were warned in a dream and the angel of the Lord warned Joseph in a dream; and the fact is, spirit ministers to spirit, and so we dream revelations, because the angels inform our spirits what to dream; and the eyes of our understandings see it; and the ears of our perception conceive; and lo there is a line of communication from heaven to earth!
And this is not all; who is it that carries the saints' sins to judgment beforehand? Did not Paul write:
"Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after.
Likewise also the good works of some are manifest beforehand, and they that are otherwise cannot be hid."
It is the "divinity," or spirit of God, within us, that performs this duty,
"For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
And there are three that bear witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one."
No wonder, then, that our sins go to judgment beforehand: and no wonder that man gives an account of his own stewardship through life, for this is the sum and substance of the matter: our blood, which is our life, (and wo to the man that sheds it by murder!) and our spirit, which is eternal; and the water wherein we are baptised [baptized], all testify to God of our acts in the flesh; and "the angels of our presence" are the messengers to report the matters: so we are chastened accordingly.-The sins of the wicked follow after, and verily they have their reward.
The angels go in the authority of God. This is manifest from the account of Jacob's wrestling with God:
"And Jacob was left alone: and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day."
But when he prevailed not, he inquired the name of "the man," and got no answer: so he called the name of the place Penay ale: "face of God." The next and most prominent example is, that where Joshua learned the fate of Jericho before it fell by blowing "rams horns:"
"And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, there stood a man over against him, with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?
And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the Lord am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant?
And the captain of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, loose thy shoe from off they foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so."
No doubt the "captain of the Lord's host" told Joshua the plan of taking Jericho and its utter destruction. To verify this we quote the first verse of John's Revelations on the Isle of Patmos:
"The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John."
Perhaps it may be said that many persons dream not at all: to which we reply, so it is, and many people do not believe in God, man, nor the devil; but the time is at hand when the saints will know better and do better:
"And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:
And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit."
But, without going into a particular detail of the offices and duties of the different grades of angels, let us close by saying that the angels gather the elect, and pluck out all that offends. They are the police of heaven and report whatever transpires on earth, and carry the petitions and supplications of men, women, and children to the mansions of remembrance, where they are kept as tokens of obedience by the sanctified, in "golden vials" labelled [labeled] "the prayers of the saints."
INDIAN AFFAIRS.
At sundry times, since the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, came out of the wilderness, statements have been published by said church, to show how the affairs of the Indians were progressing;-and, feeling the same
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