The Crown of Individuality. XV

424 IMPRO VEMENT ERA . We may find our place in life a little softened from the struggles of the past, some good fortune may add to our equity; the touch of some inspiring friendship may hearten us to new bravery. We may realize that, because of our very illness, in the windings of time, the craft of some great joy has sailed to us along the river of sorrow and anchored in our heart. We may envy the fame, fortune or prosperity of another, unknowing the mortgages of care, responsibility, opposition and worry that reduce the realness of what he has. We might be unwilling to pay a small percentage of the price it has cost him. His net happiness may be really less than ours. A business man may pass through fearful times of stress and storm, trying hard to keep the flag of hope ever flying, watch- ing carefully for rocks of financial discredit, delayed payments and heroic effort— to bring his ship of enterprise safe into harbor. The employees, leaving at the stroke of the bell, may go home and drop all thought of business. They look with envy, perhaps, at his easy position, thinking and knowing nothing of his constant courageous battle. They like the property, forget his mortgages of worry and responsibility and overlook the sympathy and better work and loyalty they would give if they realized — the equity. They who have no children feel that they are the one thing lacking for happiness. Those who have them may concentrate on the hardship of so many to feed and care for ani educate. One may put too much stress on the loss, the other too much on the responsibility. Both may forget the equity. One great reason for much of our manufactured sorrow and misery is that we measure our lives by what we judge of others, not by true estimate of our own. Life in its highest sense is not a competition with others but with ourselves. Have you ever sat in the local train and felt you were making good time? Suddenly the express whizzes by, with a rush and a roar, in the same direc- tion on a parallel track. As you watch this train your own seems not only making no progress whatever but seems actually going rapidly back on the track, nearer to its starting point. When the express disappears you become conscious that your train has really been cutting distance all the time. Of course, we realize it is only an illusion. In our daily life we make similar mistakes that vitalize

THE CROWN OF INDIVIDUALITY. 425 our sorrows and put happiness into a moaning, restless sleep, with wet eyes at dawn, because we — forget the equity. If we have really much to bear, our attitude is making the bearing harder. It is making our power over conditions less, their power over us more. Let a fresh, clear, bracing breeze of optim- ism and new courage blow through the soul. Let us forget our sorrows in remembering our joys; lessen our pain in realization that our imagination is increasing it. Let us remember the equity* the great possibilities, powers and possessions for good to our- selves and the world — still left us. If even then it seems little, throw in great handfuls of hope, purpose, confidence, determina- tion, courage. Let us make it seem greater — until it really becomes greater. We are inclined to regard all happiness, success and sunshine as our due, which we have earned somehow by merely coming into the world and consenting to live here, while— trial, sorrow and pain seem an unjust invasion of our individual rights. The possession that would be the crowning joy of one might be the useless incumbrance or the last stroke of despair to another. We forget the equity in judging ourselves; we forget it in judging others. In our bookkeeping in business we do not let some one's debit of one hundred dollars wipe out his thousand dollar credit; we realize that the man has an equity of nine hundred dollars remain- ing; that he has this amount still to his credit. Why do we not let such justice apply to the acts of others? The friend who has been kind and generous to us for years, who has stood bravely by us in hours of darkness, whose hand has steadied us through a crisis, who should have many golden spots in memory to his credit— may prove weak, may offend us, may even desert us. In our hurt we may let the act of a moment neutralize the years of constancy, truth, and loyalty — one debit cancels in an instant his long account of credits. We make it harder for him, harder for ourselves, by forgetting the equity, by overlooking the margin still remaining to his credit. A little patience, a little tolerance, a little generous waiting and watching before pronouncing final judgment, may do wonders in this weary world.

For years some man in public life may have struggled by consecration to purpose, by loyalty to principle, by faithful adherence to duty, and at last — reached a pinnacle of fame. The world honors him; his life is held up as a model an inspiration to the young, a source of pride to all. But that man may do a wicked thing, and the world is startled by the discovery. Society says, "Now he is unmasked; now we know his real character!" One evil act becomes typical of a whole life. One evil act sub- merges all the good of years of faithful service. Does society ever make one good act the expression of a character? Does it ever let one good act sweep like a mighty tide over a wicked life and bury it forever from sight and mem- ory? That man's character may not have been hidden. There may have been a sudden temptation, one that came when mind was weary, h^pe weak, and body worn, every sentinel against sin, for the time, withdrawn —and the victory was an easy one. Under the compelling power of an act once committed, morally dazed, he may have involved himself further — doing what he could, not what he should. The act was wrong. It was a big, black mort- gage on a life; but the equity, the justice of the balance of good, is his — and we wrong him by forgetting it. Poets, preachers, teachers delight to say character is a mighty structure, put together block by block, which may be ruined in an instant, fall into dust and chaos by one evil deed. It is not so — this is cruelly unjust, untrue. Character cannot be killed in an instant — it is only reputation that can be slain by one act. Great single deeds do not make character —large single evil acts cannot ruin it. Character is built of trifles. The real test is the equity, — the balance of the good over the evil. It may be the Infinite will so judge us; that he will regard no single black act as being our whole life; that he will judge us by our equity, letting good impulses, Irgh motives, faithfulness in little things, true unselfishness, brotherly love, kindness, and exalted ideals, balance, offset and neutralize many of the acts of our human weakness, as we — in our poor human recognition of justice — permit a payment on account to cancel part of a debt. (The next chapter in this series, "Running Away From Life,'' will appear in the April number of the Era. In June, the first article on Little Problems in Married Life will appear.)

Joseph Smith, a Prophet of God. BY ELDER GEORGE W. CROCK WELL. V. For behold the Southern states shall be divided against the Northern states, and the Southern states will call on other nations, even the nation of Great Britain, as it is called, and they shall also call upon other nations, in order to defend themselves against other nations : and thus war shall be poured out upon all nations (Doc. and Cov. 87: 3). That the Southern states were divided against the Northern states I have proved. The war of 1861 to 1865, known as the Civil war in the United States, wds the culmination of an ordi- nance of secession passed by a State convention held at Charleston, South Carolina, December 20, 1860, declaring South Carolina to be separated from the Union forever. Within six weeks, six other slave states had seceded: Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, in January, 1861, and Texas in February. On the 4th of February, 1861, delegates from the seceded states met in con- gress at Montgomery, the capital of Alabama, and formed a South- ern Confederacy, with the title of Confederate States of America, and adopted a flag consisting of three bars— the upper and lower red, the middle one white with a blue field, containing a circle of seven stars. On the 9th of February the Confederate Congress elected Jefferson Davis president of the Confederacy, with Alex- ander H. Stevens, vice-president, thus completing the division of the Southern states from the Northern states. "The Southern states will call on other nations, even the nation of Great Britain, as it is called." During the war of the Rebellion the Southern states did call on Great Britain. Gladstone expressed the opinion that Jefferson Davis had founded a nation.

A number of Confederate cruisers were built, equipped and manned for war in British ports; these almost drove American commerce from the ocean. After the war was over,the United States put forward a claim and demanded of Great Britain damages. This is known in his- tory as "The Alabama Claim." After much controversy a tribunal was chosen which met at Geneva, September 14, 1872, and awarded the United States damages in the sum of fifteen and one half million dollars. And they shall also call upon other nations, in order to defend them- selves against other nations. I hold that this passage refers to the Southern states, and not to Great Britain, as it has been sometimes interpreted. It is a rule that a personal pronoun must agree with its antecedent in person and number. The pronoun they being in the plural number, must therefore a^ply to the Southern states, and not to the nation of Great Britain — that being in the singular number, and the prophet refers to Great Britain as "it" just prior to the pronoun "they." Besides, Great Britain had no occasion to call on any nation at this time, therefore it could not "also call on other nations." Let me quote both sentences together: "The South- ern states will call on other nations, even the nation of Great Britain, as it is called, and they [the Southern states] shall also call on other nations." Did the Southern states call on other nations besides Great Britain? We read in The Library of Universal History, Vol. 7, page 2,858: The relations of the National government with England and France were not pleasant, as both these powers, as well as Spain, had recognized the Confederates as belligerants. The Confederate government later sent James M. Mason, of Virginia, to England, and John Slidel, of Louisi- ana, to Prance, as commissioners. But neither country would recognize the gentlemen in their official capacity. This, I take it, is proof sufficient that they did call on other nations; and that they did so to protect themselves against other nations, is self-evident, else why should they call on other nations for assistance? "And thus war shall be poured out on all nations."