| 87 If you accept this proposal, we can arrange the preliminaries necessary. We await your reply, which we request during this week, or at your earliest convenience.
JASON W. BRIGGS.
ZENAS H. GURLEY.
Members of the Quorum of Twelve in the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.-The Messenger, vol. 1, p. 10.
This challenge was never accepted, nor any response made.
The following letter from Mrs. Avondet, wife of J. Avondet, announces pleasing news from the far East:
OMAHA, Nebraska, December 14, 1874.
Bro. J. Smith: I have just received a letter from my husband, dated at Birmingham, England. Bro. Thomas Taylor invited him and Bro. Bear to stay to conference; they will stay two weeks. They have had a good time, and have found good Saints, good sisters, especially Bro. Taylor and his wife. In connection with Bro. Bear, before they left Switzerland, they organized one branch of sixteen members and ordained one elder who speaks both French and German. God willing, Bro. Avondet will soon be in Omaha. Our branch looks for him with anxiety,-The Saints' Herald, vol. 22, p. 23.
Elder Avondet arrived at home December 25, 1874, and J. L. Bear arrived at home, Agency City, Missouri, December 28.
In the December issue of the Messenger the editor sums up the Utah situation in the following terse manner:
It is conceded on all sides that the religious, social, and moral status of the Utah organization, known as the Church of Latter Day Saints, etc., is monstrous; at enmity with human progress in all directions-a standing reproach to religion and morality-a real moloch, at whose shrine the pure and devoted, the innocent and loving, are sacrificed without stint and without remorse; and it is further conceded that religion, morality, and humanity call loudly upon the philanthropists of every class, sect or party, to aid in the disentanglement of this problem, and for the deliverance of its victims; hence, all these ought to act in unison for the common object, and yet each ought to appreciate the "situation" in order to act their several parts; otherwise the best intentions may only result in is "beating the air."
The strong arm of the government ought to see to it that just laws exist, and that those laws are duly administered; that crime is clearly defined and surely punished; thus establishing justice for all and protection for all; check the overbearing and lift up the helpless and the lowly; and this is all the government, through its officers, can do-all it ought to do, or attempt-and yet this does not touch the great fountain of evil in Utah; it only purifies some of the bitter streams issuing thence.
The liberalists, divided into two classes, scientists and spiritualists, perceive the great evil in its fruits, and the former, in obedience to the logic of their reason, turn the full beams of their philosophy upon the
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