VARIETIES. snow for over two months, which has made it very favorable for the local Elders in prosecuting their labors and travels from house to house through the country districts, which have often been prevented, in former winters, by deep snow. In summing it all up, I can truly say that the Lord is continually blessing the humble endeavors of his servants to do good. The Saints are growing in faith and increasing in good works, and desire to do all in their power to spread the truth among the people. The Saints who intend emigrating in the spring are very busy preparing for the journey, and the prospects are that quite a number will emigrate from Jylland this season. 175 I feel thankful, brother Cannon, for the privilege of returning home to Zion in the spring; still, had my labors been required here longer, I would have been perfectly willing and contented to remain as long as the servants of the Lord, who are placed over me, deemed it necessary. I desire only to work for the building up of the kingdom of God on the earth; and when I return home, I hope to continue laboring for the good of this kingdom. Elders A. Christensen, A. W. Winberg and H. Hansen, join me in love; and praying the Lord to bless you in the discharge of your many and arduous duties, I remain your brother in the Gospel of Christ, WILLIAM W. CLUFF. SUMMARY OF NEWS. ENGLAND.-On the 27th ult. a most animated discussion occured in Parliament on the state of Poland, in which speakers of all parties were unanimous in their denunciation of the tyranny of Russia and the infamous proceedings of the Prussian Government. FRANCE. Various rumours are current at Paris relative to autograph letters having passed between the Czar and the Emperor Napoleon. Doubtless, if such be the case, the condition of Poland is the subject treated on. What position France may take on a question daily assuming more importance and threatening to be the forerunner of a European war, it is at present impossible to say; still, considerable agitation exists in Paris regarding it. PRUSSIA. After a long debate in the Prussian Chamber of Deputies, the motion, recommending neutrality in the Polish question, and that both Russian soldiers and Polish insurgents should be disarmed upon entering Prussian territory, was adopted by a majority of 246 to 57 votes. POLAND.-The insurrection continues to spread, and engagements are of almost daily occurrence with varying success. A late despatch from Cracow states that the Russians have been beaten near Malagaszec, which is now in ruins. contest lasted six hours. The AMERICA. The news from America is rather meagre. The Federals are still rapidly carrying out their designs against Vicksburg, and are working at the cutting of a canal, night and day, to turn the current of the Mississippi, so that they may attack it from another point. The Confederates are strengthening their position at Fort Hudson, and are daily receiving reinforcements. VARIETIES. "Mr. Lecount," wrote a gamekeeper to his master, to whom he was sending a pair of rabbits, "I have the honor to send you a pair of "Tell me," said he to a companion, "how many b's there are in rabbits ?" "That depends upon circumstances," replied the rustic oracle; "how many rabbits are you sending ?" "Two." "Then four b's, of course-two for each one." The gamekeeper continued, well pleased with the assistance,-"a pair of rabbbbits!" 46 SPIRIT OF EVIL.-"I aint going to be called a printer's devil any longer—no more, I aint," exclaimed our filibusterer the other day, in a terrible pucker. Well, what shall we call you, hey ?" "Why call me a typographical spirit of evil, if you please; that's all." Before you set out to pay your respects at the house of an acquaintance, be sure you are wanted there. People, somehow or other, have a way of being confoundedly disagreeable whenever a visitor calls-not having been pressed to do so. Therefore, subinit to the "pressure system" before you begin to feel anxious about paying the respects aforesaid. MARRIED: In Great Salt Lake City, December 25th, by President D. H. Wells, Mr. George Barton to Miss Sene Johnson, both of that city. At Springville City, Utah county, on the 28th December, by Bishop Aaron Johnson, George Williams to Emma Jane Stevenson, both from Birmingham, England. In Great Salt Lake City, January 1st, by Bishop Pettigrew, Levi Garrett, from Philadelphia, to Christina Currie, from Scotland. DIED: In Great Salt Lake City, on the 2nd of January, of whooping cough, William James Brown, son of James and Sophia Lane, aged ten months and two weeks. NOTICE. We lack Nos. 14, 15, 81, 41, 43, 46 and 50 of Vol. XI. and Nos. 8 and 19 of Vol. XII. of the Deseret News to complete the office file. If any of the Elders who receive the News can forward us the above numbers we will esteem it as a very great favor. POETRY. THE ORIGIN AND DESTINY OF MAN. Can man, untaught, declare from whence he came, Or whence ambition's burning, strong desire, Untaught of Heav'n, how vastly worse than vain Yet praise to His most high and sacred name, EDITED, PRINTED, AND PUBLISHED BY GEORGE Q. CANNON, 42, ISLINGTON. LONDON: FOR SALE AT THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS' BOOK DEPOT, 30, FLORENCE STREET, ISLINGTON; AND ALL BOOKSELLERS. THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS' MILLENNIAL STAR. "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the Prophets... The Lord God has spoken, who can but prophesy?"-AMOS No. 12, Vol. XXV. Saturday, March 21, 1863. Price One Penny. A DISCOURSE BY PRESIDENT AMASA M. LYMAN, DELIVERED IN SOUTHAMPTON, SUNDAY, I feel grateful, my friends, for the opportunity I enjoy of meeting with you here, for it is a matter that has been questionable in my own mind for some time, as the term of my remaining in the country is nearly expired; and I sincerely trust that the short time we may be together will not be altogether unprofitably spent. The truth which we have to learn is ever and always the same, when considered as a whole, and, when we begin to contemplate it in the details of its application, it becomes exceedingly varied, and to the untaught mind more or less difficult. The object of all our efforts should ever be, in struggling for the acquisition of knowledge, or in the use of any knowledge we may possess or have acquired, to free the truth around us from everything but its own native simplicity, that it may become the easier of comprehension and have a more direct application to ourselves for our benefit and the benefit of others. People may talk about truth, and when speaking of it, as it presents itself in certain forms to them, may regard it as not having entered within the sphere of religion, but to exist and operate outside that sacred circle. This, however, is simply the result of the influence of our prepossessions, the pre | judices of our education. To become free from every false impression resulting from any influence that may have existed around us, is the object of our labor and living, the reason why we are constituted as we are, however much we may fall short of appreciating this truth that relates so directly to ourselves. It is, then, a course of plain, simple, direct reasoning, that can address itself to our understanding in a way to practically benefit us, that we need. We may be devoted and devout worshipers, and still be guilty of gross idolatry-that is, not worship the only living and true God whom to know is life eternal. We have a notion, perhaps, that there are none guilty of idolatry but they who have an image before which they bow down to worship-that unless this should be their condition they could not be idolators, that Bible reading people could not le idolators! What makes a man an idolator who bows down to wood and stone, to the workmanship of his own hands, the thing he had him self fashioned and forined? It is his bestowing upon that senseless object the adoration and worship that should be bestowed upon God alone; pouring out the soul's richest affections, the heart's warmest devotions in a worship that is, to a certain extent, a lie. What makes it false? The simple fact that he worships as God something that is not God: so there is a falsehood in the action itself. This makes a man an idolator when tried by the standard of the Gospel, which says he must not have any object of adoration between himself and God his Father in heaven. If this course of action constitutes a man an idolator, what is the character of the worship of that individual who does not bow down to an idol of wood or stone, but, perchance, contributes of his means regularly to sustain religious institutions and is scrupulously constant and unremitting in his attendance on a place of worship? Before going farther, let us ask what are the feelings with which thousands of such devoted worshipers perform their worship? In the first place they say they believe in God and in his Son Jesus Christ. But, how do they believe in Jesus? Rather than institute a criticism, let us inquire on this wise, What must I believe to believe in the Lord Jesus savingly, so that my belief may bring me into possession of all that he has promised to the believer ? What I believe will not have anything to do with what other people believe; but if we can ascertain what we must believe in order to be acceptable to the Lord Jesus, and that will be conducive to our receiving the blessings of salvation we will have the advantage of knowing what we ought to do; and if any should see in the light in which we see, and understand as we understand, they will be in a position to be blessed as well as us with the blessings of salvation for themselves. I do not know that there is anything more important to talk about than a belief in Jesus, from the fact that there is so much importance attached to it, not only by the declarations which Jesus and his Apostles made, but by the manner in which it is treated by the world of mankind to-day. If we were to travel out to-day, and make ourselves a part of the various assemblies gathered together for worship throughout this and other lands, we would hear it declared, iterated and reiterated that if we would believe on the Lord Jesus we should be saved. Is this statement The not true? It is true: if we believe on the Lord Jesus as we should we can be saved. Without believing on him we are not saved, and we can never be saved until we are saved by believing on him. How much must we believe, and what are some of the things we must believe in believing on Jesus? I might believe that such a man lived as Jesus of Nazareth, that he was poor, persecuted, hated, smitten and put to a cruel and shameful death; but is it simply believing this that is to bring me within the saving influence of what he said, taught and performed for the salvation of fallen humanity? streets of our cities are teeming with thousands who believe all this and more, yet where do we find them if we follow their footsteps as they urge their way onward through the path of life? There is no deception but which, at times and places, we will find them parties to; nothing so low, mean, grovelling, vile and damning but what we will find them guilty of. We find among them men who should be filled with the spirit of kindness and charity preying upon their fellow-men, regarding their brethren as created merely for the matter of their convenience; and this in a land of Christians, and among a people who profess to believe on the Lord Jesus, and who worship with apparent devotion to their religion! What, then, should we believe? In the first place it is necessary-and this declaration is a general one-it is necessary that we should believe in the Lord Jesus as he was, is and will be. There is a reason why we should not only believe in him but believe in hin aright, and that reason is, that belief in him is the first stepping-stone to the acquirement of that knowledge without which you nor I cannot be saved. The Apostles did not preach merely to get people baptized and associated together as the Church of Christ throughout the earth, but that people should believe in the Lord Jesus because it was needful that they should know him after a time and his Father who had sent him into the world. The Son of God was "a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief," him of whom it was said that the sins of the world were laid upon him. What was A DISCOUrse. the nature of the great burthen that was laid upon him? Why, that he should teach mankind the truth; and the principal, leading truth, that lends the brightest lustre to the constellation of truths which he taught to man was, that he should believe and be baptized and be saved. Somebody will, perhaps, get crazy about being plunged into water that the guilty stain may be washed away independent of a practical application of the principles he taught that man might be raised from a condition of degradation and death to one of purity and life. But God never contemplated such a doctrine; Jesus contemplated no such thing. If he had he would have told us that such was the case. But he did not do so; the Scriptures do not inform us that he said so. He said to his Apostles, "Go and preach the Gospel." In that there is all that is requisite for the salvation of humanity; all that ever was, is today or ever will be requisite in the boundless and interminable future that stretches before us, was involved in it. He said, "Preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; and he that believeth not shall be-"What? Why, what he was betore- damned. Damned because Heaven's fiat was that every soul should be damned? No; but because they are in darkness and in doubt; because their souls are fettered with the bonds of ignorance which binds them with the power of death in regions of rayless gloom. The soul that believes begins to see and realize the dawning of a day that is to grow brighter and brighter from morning's gentle twilight till the source of light reaches its zenith, and its meridian glory is shed upon the emancipated soul, cheering his pathway to endless life and happiness with the glory of eternity. And as he travels on the prospect before him opens with renewed beauty and effulgence; he gathers to himself rich truths from the exhaustless stores within his reach, and continues his career onwards and upwards, ever sustained and blessed by the vivifying power that has been steadily developing his constitutional capacity till he is clothed upon with the habiliments of light and glory a redeemed and exalted son of God. Men 179 were and are required to believe in the Lord Jesus that they might approximate to this condition. The entrance, then, to this great work is belief in Jesus; but, suppose we were to ask our friend to-day, How must we believe? "Why; just as the preacher tells you." But if he were not to preach Jesus truthfully, what would be the result of your believing? Simply, if he be in error you would be in error too; and if he were involved in the results of that disappointment you would be the same. That we may understand how to be believers in the Lord Jesus as he was and is, we will follow the chain of history given us in the Scriptures. It is taught by religious teachers that we have simply to believe in Jesus, that he has laid down his life, shed his blood for us; and that if we do so our sins will be washed away. If this is right we should know of it. We will look in the Scriptures for it; and if we pore over its pages from the commencement till the consummation at Calvary, do we find that Jesus tells us in so much as has reached us that he would shed his blood and that we, by simply saying that we believe in that fact, should be cleansed from sin ? Did he preach such a doctrine to the world? We want to know, for our salvation is at stake. The Scriptures do not tell us that Jesus ever said so. But, did the Apostle not say that he with others were cleansed from their sins by the blood of Jesus? Yes, but there was a wide margin of difference between this Apostle and the bulk of mankind. He believed in Jesus as he had seen him, had been with him and heard his teachings, and had made that belief perfect by his obedience to the principles taught. Thus he believed in him, and became cleansed from his sins by this belief. I would desire to see the world of mankind cleansed from their sins upon the same principle. Let the same obedience have its influence upon the regulation of your actions and mine, and we, as well as him, will know and understand the nature and effects of that belief and be able to testify that we are cleansed from our sins and to declare that Jesus is the Son of God. When the Savior sent his Apostles to proclaim salvation to a fallen world he did not say to them, Whosoever pro |