THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS' MILLENNIAL STAR. "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret into his servants the Prophets... The Lord God has spoken, who can but prophesy?"-AMOS No. 1, Vol. XXV. Saturday, January 3, 1863. Price One Penny. NEW YEAR REFLECTIONS. As the scroll of time is being slowly unfolded, and the characters written thereon are revealed to the gaze of mankind, the lessons taught by them are solemn and impressive. The predictions of the ancient Prophets, relating to the times we now live in and the important events of which we are the witnesses, have been spiritualized and commented upon until their purport is buried in a heap of mysticisms and incongruous speculations; while those of modern Prophets, have been treated with contempt by the great mass of that portion of the human family who profess a belief in God and in his revelations. But none the less surely are they all being fulfilled. And whether men try to explain away the point of predictions which threaten the nations with the execution of God's just decrees, for the wickedness found in their midst, or treat those predictions with scorn and derision, will avail them nothing; the purposes of the Lord of Hosts shall most surely be accomplished. The morning of the coming year dawns gloomily over the inhabitants of many lands. Distress and misery sit enthroned in the habitations of millions; and the prospects for the future are dark and lowering in the extreme. "What shall the future reveal for us ?" 0 is the desponding and almost despairing cry wrung from many hearts; and the answer is far from being encouraging to them. In England, so long prospered, so abundant in her resources, so wealthy, and with arms stretched to the east and west that she may grasp the products of many lands to minister to the wants, necessities, comforts and luxuries of her citizens, there is extreme misery, participated in by millions, in her great commercial centre, and felt to a greater or less extent throughout the entire nation. The season of festivity which accompanies Christmas in this land, has been a sad and dreary one to many who have been wont to look forward to it with joyful anticipations. And, though charity has been bestowed with no niggard hand, it has been far from sufficient to meet the demands made upon it. France, too, is suffering severely from the same cause. Her citizens are becoming every day more dissatisfied. Though exhibiting much patience under suffering, it is not to be expected that they can long endure, unmurmuringly, privation and distress. Add to these sources of irritation to the public mind, the fact of excessive taxation to sustain a "war establishment" in times of peace, of which the working classes must bear the greatest 2 NEW YEAR REFLECTIONS. portion through the manner in which that taxation is levied; and the additional fact, that there is little prospect of the cause which produces the distress being removed, and there are sufficient grounds for the fears which men, who are looked upon as authorities among the people, are not slow to express, that the nations are entering upon a time of tribulation and distress, of misery and suffering, fearful to contemplate even in imagination. That opinion is not based alone upon the condition of the two nations named, though anything which should disturb the peace of either would be felt to a greater or less extent throughout Europe, as anything which disturbs the commercial prosperity of any of the great family of nations is necessarily felt by all who are united together by commercial interests. It is not France and England alone which show symptoms of having to suffer great distress at an early day. The whole of Europe is more or less agitated by a revolutionary and warlike spirit: it needs but a spark to ignite the whole mass and set the eastern hemisphere in a blaze of war and carnage as fierce as that now raging in the western hemisphere. That such is the condition of Europe, at the Commencement of the year just begun, is acknowledged by the leading organs of the press, by statesmen, and by men whose opinions are viewed with respect in the world. The picture which is presented to the mind, in contemplating the present state of affairs and the results which may be naturally looked for to flow from them, is one of an exceedingly sombre character; one which is ealculated to strike the hearts of men with fear and fill them with forebodings. The cotton famine continues to exist; the want consequent upon it is daily increasing, and a contingency is threatened, in the event of a supply being obtained, of a complete commercial paralysis, for a season, through the failures which must necessarily follow the game of speculation which has been so deeply played since the ports of the Southern States of America were closed. But the cotton ports continue closed, and the supplies from other sources are scanty and insufficient to meet even a meagre per-centage of the demand, and there is no human proba bility of a supply being obtained from any quarter for a length of time yet. The thousands who are out of employment must necessarily remain so, while their numbers will continue to increase, forming a huge host of human beings bowed down with want and suffering, growing thin and attenuated, enfeebled and diseased, prepared as a ready prey to the first epidemic which may course through the land, and epidemics invariably attend on or follow after seasons of great want and privation. This is true of more than one nation to-day; and so closely are the nations linked together in their commercial relationships, that it must be felt to a far greater extent than many are inclined to admit. It is not that we desire to brood over the miseries of humanity that we again call attention to these facts; it is not because we delight to dwell on scenes of blood and carnage, that at times we point to the premonitory symptoms which herald their approach, and declare that war shall pass through the nations as an overflowing scourge from whose power none shall escape but they who keep the commandments of God; it is not because we love to contemplate the sufferings and calamities which the inhabitants of the earth are fast bringing upon themselves, that we continue to direct attention to them, but, because we feel constantly impelled to raise a warning voice to mankind, that they may be left without excuse if they will not repent and humble themselves before the Lord, but continue to reject the Gospel he has revealed for their salvation. Men look back to the days when the Jews wilfully and obstinately rejected the message and mission of the Son of God, bringing destruction, measurably speaking, upon themselves as a nation, and wonder at their infatuation and blindness; and while they do so, they are, themselves, treading in the footsteps of those whom they thus view with contemptuous pity. Future generations, when they read the chronicles of the times we live in, will have equal cause to wonder at the perverse madness of this generation in rejecting the plain and repeated evidences of the accomplisment of those things which God has spoken by the mouths of his NEW YEAR REFLECTIONS. 3 holy Prophets in both ancient and crown their arms with victory. This modern times. A man who would is the theory of recognizing the overwilfully walk over a precipice where ruling hand of God. If the army be certain destruction awaited him, with defeated, the nation suddenly discovers, his eyes obstinately closed, despite the or its religious teachers make the disrepeated warnings of a kind friend who covery for it, that its people are sinful would seek to dissuade him from the and have angered God; if the army suicidal act, would not pursue a more prove victorious, perhaps through the insane course than the inhabitants of superior generalship of the commander, the earth do now, when they so per- then, they are acceptable in the sight sistently reject the repeated warnings of God! So reason the religious which tell them of the coming future teachers; while the great bulk of the and its calamities. For over thirty people ascribe their defeats to the years the servants of God have been incapacity, and their successes to the untiring in their efforts to arouse the ability of the generals commanding. human family to a sense of their true But, let a servant of the Lord tell them condition before the Lord. They have plainly that they are pursuing a course borne persecution of the most relentless which is corrupt in the sight of Heaven, description, have suffered scorn, indigni- and call upon them to recognize the ties and privations innumerable, but authority of God, to consecrate their their words have been in a great mea- means and their power to build up his sure unheeded. They have been trea- kingdom upon the earth, and his claims ted as impostors or fanatics for their are immediately repudiated. They pains, yet they have foretold, being will own and recognize a God who will inspired of God, in plainness the very not interfere with them or their purevents that are now transpiring. They suits, who will not speak to them, have declared, and have not faltered in reprove them or dictate them; but their testimony, that the misery and they will not have one who claims the distress, the wars and desolations, right to rule, direct and govern them. which are so fearfully inaugurated Still, the principle of the theory alluded both on this and the other side of the to is correct. The nations are sinful Atlantic, should surely befall the in the sight of God; corruption and nations; and they pointed and still abominations are found in their midst, continue to point to the consummation and they treat with indignity those which is decreed. Their testimonies whom God has sent forth to bear rehave not been unsupported. The Lord cord of the truth to them; therefore is has borne witness in power to their gloom gathering over and calamities truthfulness, for their words have been coming upon them, and "the wicked fulfilled in part already; yet the world shall slay the wicked;" in their madgoes on in its mad career, as heedless ness they will destroy each other, beas though God had not spoken by his coming God's agents to execute his servants, and by signs and manifesta- vengeance. But the Lord is virtually tions of his power in confirmation of ignored by the inhabitants of Christentheir words. It is very popular to dom, much as they profess to worship acknowledge, so far as words are con-him and revere his name. They plan cerned, an overruling Providence, to admit that he is the controller of events, and to offer up petitions to him for succour or sound praises to him for successes. Nations will send forth their armies to battle, accompanied by chaplains to pray with and for the soldiery sent to spread carnage and desolation through an enemy's country. If they are successful, Te Deums or praises to God are sung for the victories; if they are unsuccessful, fast-days and seasons of humiliation are appointed, that the Lord may be besought to and scheme, devise and act, take counsel one of another, and put their trust in the arm of flesh, unthinking of and uncaring for God, his power or purposes. The Son of God declared that it would be in the days of his coming as it was in the days of Noah ; men would seek after pleasures and riot in debauchery, would pursue their customary routine of gaieties and cares, of pastimes and business, giving no heed to the signs of his coming. This is verified before our eyes. The human family seem to take pleasure in giving 4 THE REAL AND THE IMAGINARY. a determined and complete servitude to Satan to their own ruin. Still, the voice of mercy is heard, even above the din of contending hosts, crying, "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in goodness;" "Turn ye, turn ye, why will you die?" but they will not heed its urgent entreaties. They continue their downward career and hasten on the consummation of the purposes of Jehovah. They will have the bitter consciousness of knowing, when the horrors of desolation close around them, that they possessed a knowledge of the purposes of God, and yet did not profit by it. We would wish all such to be warned of their danger. It is not enough to know that the Lord is accomplising his designs; the Saints should have with them the living evidences of his favour and blessing-the assurance of his Spirit that they are in the path of duty. Many soothe themselves to sleep in the vain belief that because they are Are the Saints alive to the importance of these things, and preparing for the fulfilment of the prophecies commensu-numbered with the Saints they are, rate with their opportunities? Are they in possession of that living faith by the exercise of which alone they can be preserved from the calamities and distress which they see around them, and which they know will surely increase? While believing that many are, we fear that many, who bear the name, are not in this condition. That faith is the gift of God, and will be bestowed upon those only who seek it from the Lord, who keep his commrandments and strive to live by every word that proceedeth out of his mouth. Many have wrapped themselves up in carelessness, have permitted seasons of prosperity to slip away unprofited by, and have neglected the Lord until his Holy Spirit has been withdrawn from them in a great measure; and, unless they speedily repent, they will find themselves in a worse position than those who never received the Gospel. therefore, secure, even though they may not be as diligent and Saint-like as others of their brethren and sisters. Let all such undeceive themselves. The day of the Lord is near at hand, and his blessings are not to be trifled with. The voice of warning comes to them equally with those who have not received the Gospel, for it comes to all men, that they who will hearken to it may be prepared for His appearing. The Saints, then, and particularly those who are backward and lukewarm, should bow themselves before our Father and God in humility of soul, and seek for an increase of his Spirit, for greater faith and for power to keep his commandments, that they may be preserved through the seasons of fiery trial which await the inhabitants of the earth, and which are even now beginning to be felt. THE REAL AND THE IMAGINARY. BY ELDER GEORGE REYNOLDS. Travel where we may among the various peoples that inhabit this earth's surface, whether civilized or savage, we shall find mankind, as a general thing, to be highly imaginative. The scope of their imagination is, of course, bounded by their intelligence, information or experience, and it is developed and fashioned by their peculiar ideas of what constitutes happiness, endows with power, achieves glory, &c. When we look to ourselves, and there endeavour to find illustrations of the truth of this, most of us will discover, whatever may have been our position in life, our country or creed, that at times we have THE REAL AND THE IMAGINARY. in a thousand ways, it may be, we have allowed our minds to wander from the realities of the present to the vague shadows of the future, as our fancy would frame its development. Undoubtedly, to those who have obeyed the Gospel and yielded to the requirements of its laws, the soarings of these flights of ideality have been removed to other climes, and the consummation has been widely different, since our hopes and expectations have been so vastly altered; for the man whose ambitious ideas would at one time have placed him, in fancy, on the pinnacle of earth's glory, and whose meanderings in dream-land would at times almost cause him to believe there might be a possibility in the revolutions of society of his ideal becoming real, when he becomes a member of the Church of Jesus Christ, sees not these earthly honours in the same light as before, but allows his thoughts to stretch out to the heights and depths of the principalities and powers of the celestial kingdom; or the maiden whose hopes (first engendered, perhaps, and still buoyed up by that taste which in the novels of the day causes every girl to wed an embodiment of all earthly virtues and graces) have been to have a hero of unsurpassed courage and unrivalled manliness for a husband, has by obedience to the truth had these flattering expectations turned into other channels, and looks for perfection from other sources. Still, in either case, to some extent it is only a modification of the same ramblings from the probabilities of common sense to the infatuation of our fancies or the waywardness of our desires. 66 no harm for a ploughman to imagine himself a prince, if he attends to his daily occupation; or for the matron in her mind's eye" to don the robes of queenly authority, if her household duties are not neglected; or the maid to forsake the idea of being either "a doll in a drawing-room" or "a working man's slave," and install herself the heroine of a romance, if it does not unfit her to be the worthy wife of a good man, for our associates will regard us as they have found us to be, not what we might think ourselves fit for; yet, to ourselves there is often a grievous wrong done by giving way to these fancies. This habit, too much indulged in, causes the realities of life to become irksome, and the stern facts of this probation of trial and temptation cause our existence to "drag its slow length along" but wearily, and gives us a distaste for those real pleasures and enjoyments that surround us on every side, if we would only so live as to be able to appreciate their value. Though unperceived by us, these trains of thought, allowed to wander unrestricted and unbridled, will go to mould our character and fashion our dispositions, often giving an instability and vagueness of purpose to our temperament, that is detrimental to our successfully battling with the evils that surround us, and the ever-recurring obstacles that stand in the way of our life being one of undisturbed calmness and prosperity; and placing barriers in the way of our progress, through the line we have chalked out being in opposition to the purposes of our heavenly Father, the whisperings of his Spirit, the counsels of his servants or But, it may be asked, is there any- the things that pertain to our thing wrong in this-any sin that will eternal welfare. In the consideration destroy or evil that will blight in thus of these things we learn one great indulging in fancy? In and of itself, lesson, and that is, to seek for that perhaps not; but it is to the conse- Spirit which emanates from our God, quences, that sometimes are a result of that we may have it for the prompter an over gratification of this desire to of our ideas, the inspirer of our thoughts please our faney, that we must look, and the guide of our motives through and judge by them. It is too often the life. The contemplation of the future case that our ideal is built on a false will do us no harm, but good, if we foundation, raised on erroneous pre- continue to live to-day so that when mises, and, as such, tends to throw an that future shall be the present we may incorrect and unnatural tint of colour-occupy the place in that blessed coning over things as they are, unfitting us to receive the truth or live up to its requirements afterwards. True, it does Own dition of things that we see ourselves in during our waking dreams now; but the fear is that some may, in looking so |