the Welsh District, which is in a healthy condition, financially and otherwise.

With prayers for your welfare and that of all those who seek to subserve the cause of truth, I remain your brother, CHAUNCEY W. WEST.

NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE DISTRICT.

Newcastle-on-Tyne, Feb. 6, 1863. President George Q. Cannon.

Dear Brother,-Several months having elapsed since you received a communication from me, I thought a few lines from this part of the Mission would not be uninteresting to the readers of the Star. I am happy to say concerning the work of our God, that every thing is still moving onward in the right direction in this district. The Saints are in the enjoyment of the good spirit which brings peace, and each one is zealously striving to do the duty of a Saint and child of God. This is felt by the honest-hearted, and they are led to inquire after the truth, so that numbers are joining the Gospel standard.

Notwithstanding our emigration from this District was quite heavy last season, we have baptised over two for every one who emigrated, and from the exertions that have been and are still being made by the Saints, our emigration, I think, will more than double that of last year. It is satisfactory, indeed, as one visits from house to house among the Saints, to witness their strict economy in the expenditure of the scanty income in order to save a little towards their emancipation from this land of oppressive toil, where every avenue to independence seems effectually and for ever closed. The Saints can now see that if the same economy had been used for fifteen, ten, or even five years past, which is being used now, not one who has been in the Church for that length of time need have been left in these lands to-day; and they seem determined, as far as possible, to make amends for past errors in this matter.

The Priesthood in the District are united with me in doing all they can to spread the truth and sustain the work of God. Much of the good spirit is enjoyed by the Saints throughout the District.

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Many special favors and blessings of the Gospel are enjoyed by the Saints in the gift of healing, &c. One case might not be amiss to mention. A son of Captain A. Stevens, on the 31st of December last, fell from a staging into a dry dock, from twenty-five to thirty feet. He was picked up for dead, and no signs of life appeared for some time. The back part of his head was broken in; the skull was badly fractured. The surgeon candidly told the mother there was no help for her child. But, after the excitement was a little past, the child was anointed with oil in the name of the Lord, and hands laid upon him that he might live and not die, and be restored to his parents' arms in health. All pain seemed to leave him instantly at the rebuke, and in a few days he was lively and at his play, as though nothing had happened. The surgeon told me, a short time after, it was the most remarkable instance of recovery he had ever witnessed. The Saints acquainted with the circumstance are confirmed in their faith, and God receives praise and thanksgiving. The lad is about seven years old.

The condition of the District is healthy and in working order. We all felt much benefited by the instructions and counsels of brother West during his visit in December. A determination is manifested on the part of the Saints to go home to the land of Zion on the first opportunity. Many who have slumbered for years in the cradle of security, have become aroused from their death-like sleep by the awful jarring of distant thunders proceeding from clouds of war with which the whole political sky seems overcast. The cry for bread, the voice of hunger, cold and distress, so universally heard throughout the land, are preaching obedience to the great command, "Come out of her my people; partake not of her sins, that ye receive not of her plagues." May God aid the faithful in their efforts to obey it.

With warm desires for the ever onward march of the kingdom of God, and with kind love to yourself and brethren laboring with you, I subscribe myself your brother in the Gospel of Peace,

JOHN S. GLEASON.

No. 9, Vol. XXV.

Price One Penny.

There is probably no error more common, while there certainly is none more despicable, and few more corrupting and destructive in their results, than flattery. The prevalence of this sin is a sad evidence of the degeneracy of the human race, for it shows a widespread tendency to self-deception, as well as a desire to deceive others, and not only a disposition, but an earnest wish on the part of mankind to appear what they are not, and to pass for being better than they are. So universal is this contagion, that many of the best meaning, though we will not say the wisest among men, are greatly influenced by it, and even some of those more than ordinarily endowed with wisdom are susceptible to its power when displayed in a delicate and refined manner. Flattery is a dangerous and yet a powerful weapon, which sycophants well know how to handle. They study its use, as the soldier does his swordexercise, until they become proficient in all its thrusts and cuts and parries, with this difference, that while we may respect the soldier who studies the practical use of the sword that he may bravely stand forth in the defence of his own and his country's rights, we cannot but despise the designing and cowardly knave, who, to further his own selfish interests or base purposes,

will give such secret, assassin-like thrusts at the moral life of his victim, and, by his deceitful flatteries, destroy his friend that he may build himself up upon his ruins.

The resources of the flatterer are as numerous and varied as the drugs in a doctor's shop, and, like the physician, he studies the constitution, character and disposition of his subject, administers his doses accordingly, and, like him, is very often afterwards able to dissect his victim. If there be a " black art," flattery is assuredly one of its principal branches, for it is certainly one of Satan's most successful modes of warfare. It is the great strategy by which, when bolder attacks have failed, the Arch-enemy of God and man, aided by his allies both in and out of the flesh, by studying and assaulting the weakest point in the citadel of the heart, gains access to men's souls, and leads them, strange to say, willing captives into an apparent though delusive liberty, but into a really worse than African bondage and slavery. It would be amusing, if it were not disgusting and abhorrent, to witness the caution and cunning with which these nefarious plotters against virtue and true progress proceed. Like the boa-constrictor, they

"Drag their slow length along,"

watching their opportunity to pounce upon their victim in some unsuspicious and unguarded moment.

To make a proficient flatterer requires a depth of knowledge of human nature, which, if applied to a better and nobler purpose, might qualify its possessor for eminent usefulness. If they have to appeal to the feelings of the degradedthose who are very low in the scale of intelligence and morality-they will praise the possession and manifestation of mere brute strength, or even of positive vices. Do they converse with the coarse, insulting, tyrannical bully; his abuse of his fellow-beings is an evidence of a noble spirit and of manly courage! Are they in company with the almost equally contemptible moral and physical coward; then, his "cowardice riseth into caution," and is a most praiseworthy and invaluable quality! As they leave this grade of society and take a step higher, then, that point upon which not only so many "silly women" but silly men, or rather fops, 66 are led captive," becomes the object of their praise-viz., mere physical beauty. Beyond this, again, is the truly intellectual class, who are above and would despise the grosser flatteries that please common minds. These are delicately approached with "justly merited praise" for " eloquent sermons," "stirring appeals," "patriotic addresses," &c., &c. Have they to deal with men who have obtained the difficult triumph over even intellectual vanity and weakness, they will seek to flatter them on that very victory, on their great wisdom, their uncommon freedom from selfishness and their "unappreciated" devotion to the truth. In short, no man nor woman, however wise and good, noble and pure, are free from their attacks. They are a species of vampire going about sucking the moral life from society, and it is a pity but what they could be treated as we do vermin, or else either be confined in some asylum as dangerous lunatics, or be made useful in gangs (chain gangs, if you please) upon some of our public works or streets.

Solomon says, "Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful." Men who are striving to obtain a conquest over self, and struggling after the highest mental

and moral excellence, have enough to contend with without having to guard against the insinuating and insidious approaches of such despicable, but really dangerous foes. It is a pity but what there were some law to punish disturbers of the private as well as of the public peace. Notwithstanding that, were we to test mankind by the saying, "Rebuke a wise man and he will love thee," we are afraid but few, comparatively, wise ones would be found among them; still, we are satisfied there are in reality many who secretly detest and abhor the fulsome, although delicate flatteries to which they are compelled to listen, and who inwardly respect and love as true friends those who, while they do not fail to appreciate any excellencies they may perceive in the characters of their friends or associates, still do not shut their eyes to, nor fail affectionately to warn them of any weaknesses or follies they may possess, much less flatter them into a belief that they have none, or that if they have, they are rather to be cherished as incipient virtues than expelled as the germs of future vices. It may possibly be to some extent justifiable to deal with a fool according to his folly," and he who has not and cannot be made to have sense enough to act like an intelligent and wise being, may, perhaps, be led along by appealing to this weakness of his character to do more good to others than he would in any other way; but no man who really loves another will descend to the low, contemptible practice of flattery, and the truly wise man will scorn both the sycophant and his art.

We do not wish to be understood as decrying or condemning all just praise. Men may and do go to extremes both ways. The judicious bestowal of well merited praise is a powerful promotive of virtue, and it is the knowledge of this very power which has led men to so pervert and abuse it by that opposite of true praise, which in English is best expressed by the term at the head of these remarks. We cannot take space to make the distinction plain between the two extremes, but it will commend itself to every candid, reflecting mind. One is the legitimate gratification of a righteous, heaven-implanted desire; the other is the offspring of folly and