Communications

BROTHER TAYLOR:

SIR-Having just returned from a mission in the east, according to appointment, as I feel anxious while absent to hear from the elders abroad, I judged that others possess similar feelings to myself, and that they would be pleased to read a few lines from my pen, altho' little known to the Saints in general, yet well known to some who would rejoice to hear of my prosperity and success the past winter.

I left Nauvoo on the nineteenth of September last, in company with elders T. Billings, N. Packard and D. Allen, without money "purse or script," and with the intention of spending the winter in holding forth the principles of our religion in New England. Accordingly we journeyed east to the east line of this State, where we found some brethren, baptized by myself two years before, and the prospect of others embracing the truth, led us to hold two meetings, when it was thought wisdom that brother Packard should tarry and preach to them, while we continued our journey east.-Accordingly we continued our journey to Kirtland Ohio. There we left Brother Allen, and brother Billings and myself pursued our journey alone, and in forty-eight days from the time we left Nauvoo we stopped in Hampshire county Massachusetts, a distance of thirteen hundred miles. Here we found, as we expected, ourselves surrounded by men of learning, upon whom no money or pains had been spared to make them polished statesmen, or to give them pre-eminence in the arts and sciences so extensively cultivated in the New England states: yet many of them are filled with superstition and religious bigotry-professing to live in the full blaze of gospel light and revelation; overflowing with wisdom and intelligence-while at the same time a veil of darkness covers their minds, and when we speak of the pure principles of the gospel, or the testimony of Jesus, we find them ignorant and unlearned as to the plan of salvation, as taught by the Apostles.

No persons but an elder of like experience can imagine the feelings of my heart when contemplating upon the scene before me, standing in the midst of a people as above described, and being alone, (elder Billings having left me to visit his friends,) unlearned as to the manners and customs of the east, having been raised in the western states, and having but a small education when compared with those around me of like profession, and knowing them to be filled with prejudice, without any knowledge of our religion, but what they have read in the newspapers of the day, which are calculated to increase instead of lessening prejudice, having never heard the everlasting gospel preached. No Latter Day Saint had travelled [traveled] there to instruct them in those principles that God has revealed in these last days. However the news soon spread that a Mormon elder was there, and I soon received an invitation to preach, which I gladly accepted; and the first discourse I delivered, was in the town where I was born, to a large congregation, who listened with great anxiety, and after meeting was dismissed, a number of persons invited me to leave another appointment, feeling anxious to hear more of this strange doctrine. But a few of the most leading men, and those best skilled in sectarian tactics, said they thought it not best for me to hold another meeting at present, as it was the time of a revival there, and they were afraid it would trouble the minds of some of the young converts. I thought it would trouble their minds too, and having received a very polite invitation to forbear preaching there at the present, I left there and troubled them no more, having invitations to preach in other places, where people were not afraid of their minds being disturbed, but were persons of strong minds and not afraid to investigate the principles of eternal truth, and when convinced, were honest enough to obey the commands of God. As I began to lift my voice on the mountains in proclaiming our principles, the news went from mount to mount, and from hill to hill. The people soon began to be alarmed that Mormonism

had come there also. Some of the people began to search the scriptures to learn the truth of what I advanced. Others searched to find something by which they could overthrow it. While in this situation you may judge of my feelings when informed that elders B. S. Willber and William Hyde were preaching and baptizing about twenty miles north of me.-About this time, also a young elder by the name of Sparks, from New York, came to me and continued with me a few weeks, when we received a line from elder Woolley, stating that he had commenced preaching a few miles east of me. This rejoiced my heart, and I felt to take new courage; for while he was preaching to the citizens of the valley, I continued to blow the gospel trumpet on the mountains.-Thus we wielded the sword of the spirit, until we succeeded in establishing the truth in the hearts of many in that part of the state. I labored in Hampshire and Hampden counties mostly alone, until spring, when I organized a branch in Russell, called The Russell Branch, consisting of nineteen members, one elder, and one teacher, when necessity required me to return to Nauvoo, where I landed on the first of July, and found my family and friends well, and the city in a flourishing condition-the brethren enjoying good health, with unshaken faith in the work of God in the last days. I find on examination, that I have travelled [traveled] between four and five thousand miles, delivered sixty-six public discourses, and baptized about twenty persons. Thus the work of the Lord moves on in Massachusetts, as well as every other state in this great republic; and the honest in heart are rejoicing, while the priests of babylon howl and lament to see their merchandize [merchandise] failing. So I subscribe myself your brother and fellow laborer in the spread of the truth.

L. A. SHIRTLIFF.