Go forth thou little book, the Lord will speed thy way. Trample down superstition that may arise against thee; make thine enemies thy prisoners; with thy virtues lodge in the hearts of the people, and may thy funadamental truths dwell there forever.

Translated from the German by , a German Jew.

It may not be amiss, under the present state of things, to say a few words to the saints by way of encouragement, at this time of excitability and rumor. The things that have been transpiring around us have had a tendency to call forth our reasoning and reflective powers; Solomon, who was a wise man in his day, and set his mind to search out wisdom, reflected both upon the good and the evil, and has left us the following useful and instructive admonition, “in the day of prosperity be joyful; but in the day of adversity consider.” We, all of us, have our friends, our connexions, our families and associations; and we find that the ties of friendship, consanguinity, and brotherhood, have indissolubly united us together with a thousand endearing associations; we have embraced the one common faith, even that “which was once delivered to the saints,” we have been priviledged with hearing the everlasting gospel, which has been delivered unto us by the spirit of prophecy; by the opening of the heavens; by the ; by the ministering of Angels, and by the power of God: we have left our connexions, our countries, our friends and homes, at the command of God, that we might come to , obtain an inheritance among the saints, fulfil the requirements of Jehovah, and be instructed in the revelations of heaven. Thus located, and thus situated, in possession of the one common faith and hope, the same prospects and desires, a kindred sympathy runs through the whole body, even the body of Christ, which, according to Paul’s statement, is his church; and no one part of the body can be injured without the other parts feeling the pain, for says Paul, if one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; and if one member rejoice all the rest are honored with it. If the weakest and most feeble of the saints of God receive an injury, if he is opposed, injured or imposed upon by an enemy, the injury is felt by the whole, as being part of the body, and they stand ready to heal his wound, to rescue him from danger, or to avenge his wrong by all legal measures. If this be so in regard to the weakest members, how much more is it the case when he whom God has appointed to be our prophet and guide, is brought into bondage, through the cruelty and oppression of a misguiged, fanatical, and persecuting executive, and an enthusiastic and frantic set of desperadoes, who, regardless of law, of the rights of man, of the principles of justice, and of every thing pertaining to righteousness and truth, would seek to glut themselves with the blood of the innocent; stain with eternal infamy the escutcheons of our , and wither with a deadly blast the fair fields of freedom and liberty, whose odoriferous perfumes have heretofore been wafted on every breeze, and spread health, peace and contentment throughout the land.

If this, to the saints of God, may indeed be called a day of adversity, we shall do well to take the admonition of Solomon, and ‘consider;’ if we see mobocracy and lawlessness prevailing; if we see our laws and constitution trampled under foot; if we see our once happy country bleeding at every pore, and her own sons pushing the dagger to her vitals; if we see those glorious principles of liberty, for which our fathers fought, and bled, and died, trampled under foot by a set of lawless miscreants—and mobocracy, anarchy and confusion taking their place, let us consider that in “the last days peailous [perilous] times should come;” that there should be “distress of nations with perplexity, men’s hearts failing them for fear of those things that are coming upon the earth.” And if rulers and governors transgress the laws of right, trample under foot the principles of justice, and disregard those laws which they have pledged themselves to support by the most binding and solemn covenants, let us consider that ‘when the wicked rule the people mourn;’ and that ‘God sets up one and puts down another, according to the counsel of his own will;’ that all there things are governed by the wise dispensation of Jeho [p. 951]