| 520 united with the household of faith, and bid fair to become valuable as well as reputable members of the church. . . .
I visited the Saints at Wigan on the 17th of January last and found the few that are left there fully alive to the importance of the work, and earnestly endeavoring to work for the Master. . . .
I may here say that we have flourishing Sunday-schools in connection with the churches in Sheffield and Manchester, and in the latter place we have also a "Band of Hope" society,
Lorenzo Snow, of the Utah church, went to prison March 12. The claim is made that he went voluntarily that the case might the more speedily be brought before the Supreme Court of the United States, to which tribunal he had appealed from the Supreme Court of Utah.
The case of George Q. Cannon was called in the District Court of Utah March 17. Defendant did not appear and his bonds were declared forfeited.
March 20 Elder Willard J. Smith engaged in a debate with a Christian minister, Elder Ward, at Tiblon, Kansas, on the following: "Resolved, That the Book of Mormon is of human origin."
March 21 Elder F. C. Warnky debated with Elder Ward on, "Resolved, That the Book of Mormon is of divine origin."
The Saints' Herald for March 22 contained the following editorial, which indicates some of the conditions surrounding the ministerial field:
We are constantly receiving letters from the various fields occupied by the elders, and the branches, stating the desires of the writers, and others whom they represent, that an elder or elders should be sent to labor in the places whence they write. Some of these letters are from brethren and sisters who are living remote from any branch, and who have not heard a sermon by the elders of the church for months, and even years; others are from those who live in branches, some of them for years, and in which there are elders.
Bro. O. E. Cleveland writes from Annex, West Virginia, that the little branch of six, to which he belongs, is widely scattered. He has tried to interest the people and keep the work in motion, but apparently with little effect. . . .
Bro. Cleveland is only one of numbers in similar condition; and the calls are seemingly equally urgent everywhere. Not long ago Bro. James Scott wrote from Indiana, most earnestly pleading that some one would be sent, but especially that either Bro. W. W. Blair or the senior editor
(page 520) |
