1904, the Tahitian in 1904, and the Turkish in 1906. The Japanese edition is now about ready to print. The book has also been translated into Hindoostanee and modern Jewish, but it has not yet been published in these languages.

OPPOSITION ENGENDERED.

The Book of Mormon contains the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, or the gospel in its purity, and is destined to go forth to all nations. Its message concerns every nation, kindred, tongue, and people; and that accounts for the fact that it has been translated into so many languages. The assertion was made a few months ago by one of our leading men that the Book of Mormon has been translated into more languages than any other book in the world, save the Bible. I have tried to prove or disprove that assertion, but up to the present I have not been able to do either, but I believe the assertion is true. There is, at least, no religious book, so far as I know, that compares with the Book of Mormon in this respect. I do not think that even the Koran, that has been published in so many languages, can compare with it; and when we speak of a book meeting with favor or opposition, there has been no book published in the nineteenth century, or in the whole age of book printing, that has had so much criticism as the Book of Mormon. Alexander Campbell, one of the founders of a Christian sect, was the first man who wrote against the Book of Mormon, and after him thousands upon thousands of books and pamphlets have been issued-sometimes large volumes containing many more pages than the Book of Mormon itself, and in other instances small pamphlets; but all have bitterly opposed that sacred volume. Yet notwithstanding the fact that all these attacks have been made upon it, the Book of Mormon has multiplied and is spreading to-day more than ever before, just the same as the Bible.

There is scarcely a miracle of Christ, scarcely a saying of the Savior that has not been criticized most unmercifully in some age or another, and notwithstanding the literature that has grown up around the Bible, both to defend and attack it, the Bible keeps on multiplying, until millions of copies of the book are being spread broadcast every year.

According to the assertion I have alluded to, the Book of Mormon comes next to the Bible, and we believe that it, like the Bible, will continue to circulate and spread until it will be translated into all languages spoken in our day, so that every son and daughter of Adam may have an opportunity to know something about this great western Bible that was so miraculously brought forth through the instrumentality of Joseph Smith, from the plates or ancient records which were brought forth from the ground eighty years ago to-day.

It is very essential that we should know that the Book of Mormon is true. It is absolutely necessary from the standpoint of

true religion: but also as a historical record, the Book of Mormon fills a most important gap in history. The eastern hemisphere has much ancient history. Think, for instance, of the valuable records preserved in the British Museum, and in fact in all the large museums and libraries in Europe and Asia, also some in Cairo, Africa. Think next of the great Alexandria library which was destroyed by the Turks A.D. 638. It must have contained the most valuable historical relics and writings imaginable. Think also of the great historical collection destroyed by the fanatical Mohammedans at Tripoli, in Asia Minor, at a later date. Yet after all that has been destroyed in the Orient from time to time, the eastern world is rich in historical manuscripts and relics compared with the western world. There are indeed thousands of books which give us historical information of what we to-day call the old world-the eastern hemisphere. It may be proven. however, by and by that the eastern hemisphere is the "new world," and not the "old world” at all but that America is the "old world.”

ITS HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE.

Imagine for a moment that America is the old world, that Adam lived here, that the civilization before the flood was here, and that the flood came upon the face of the earth and swept off all the inhabitants, save eight souls. Then imagine further, the repopulation of the earth on the other hemisphere and follow it down to the period of 1492, when Christopher Columbus discovered America. When he landed in the western world he found the Indians over here, but knew nothing about them; and we have scarcely anything reliable in the shape of history concerning this western world from the days of the deluge till the landing of Columbus on San Salvador. The Book of Mormon fills the gap. It tells us how, after the flood, a man who is referred to as the "brother of Jared," and others with him, came over from the land of the Tower of Babel, and settled here on this western land. The Book of Mormon tells us about that race of people-the Jaredites-how they prospered on this land for a time, but how they finally were destroyed. It tells also of another branch of the human family that left Jerusalem six hundred years before the birth of the Saviorthe family of Lehi. These people settled in South America, but gradually spread to the northern land also. The Book of Mormon thus gives us about three thousand five hundred years of world history, pertaining to the western hemisphere, and thus it fills a great gap indeed-the period from the time of the flood to A.D. 1492.

After that we have no history for eleven hundred years-from the time the Book of Mormon narrative leaves the Nephites slain, around the Hill Cumorah, with the Lamanites in possession of the land, till Christopher Columbus discovered America; but we can easily bridge over that period of time, because Moroni, the last

writer in the Book of Mormon, describes the condition of the people when he closes his record. His narrative foreshadows the condition of the Indians when they were first discovered by the Spaniards. Discard the Book of Mormon and we have no history of this western land from the days of Noah or the building of Babel till the days of the landing of Christopher Columbus. Accept that book, and we have a history of what is now called America, from the beginning of the world till 1492, brief, it is true, but it gives us some very valuable information, and it gives the keynote to the explorations of Christopher Columbus and the Spaniards generally. They did not know anything of the country; but the Spaniards who conquered Peru and took possession of both Americas soon commenced to look into the history of the Indians and when they tried to interpret their hieroglyphics they reached conclusions which tell the Latter-day Saints that the Book of Mormon is true. The study and investigations by the Spaniards prove that such people as the Book of Mormon tells us about did live upon this western land. I shall refer to this matter again, a little later in my remarks.

(To be continued.)

I CAN AND I WILL.

[DEDICATED TO PRESIDENT CHARLES W. PENROSE.]

Logan, Utah.

I can and I will is the song of my soul;

I ride on the waves where the dark waters roll.
No danger can daunt me, I welcome the blast,
The war-guns are booming, no quarters I ask.

My heart is of oak, my ribs are of steel;
A strength in the depths of my being I feel,
That surges and urges me on in the fight,
In the battle of life for the good and the right.
I can and I will is the birthright I claim;
My soul is unfettered, this truth I proclaim.
O join me, my brothers, O speak the great word,
And break all your shackles, be free as a bird.

I can and I will my life-work complete,
Though briers and thorns grow under my feet.
The pathway of roses is not for the brave,
The coward may walk it, direct to his grave.

I can and I will is the cure for the blues.
O try it and prove it and spread the good news.
Let the magical words leap warm from the heart,
Then laugh as you see all your sorrows depart.

I can and I will is the motto of MEN;
Go sing it aloud again and again.
The ring of these words new courage will give,
I can and I will is the song that will live.

W. H. APPERLEY, D. M.

THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS' MILLENNIAL STAR.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1908.

HEALING BY FAITH.

AMONG the signs which Christ declared should follow "them that believe" was, "they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover." (Mark 16: 18). He had already instructed His Apostles whom He had chosen and ordained that they were not only to preach the gospel, but also to heal the sick. In this instance, however, the promise was not confined to those whom He authorized to preach the gospel to every creature, but it was to follow those who believed their teachings and were baptized. It was not the only gift to be bestowed upon believers, but still was very important. That the blessing was enjoyed by many of the members of the Church in those times is made very clear in the writings of the Apostles and in the record of their acts.

Those "gifts of the Spirit" were distributed among the members of the body of Christ according to their faith and the operations of the Holy Ghost. (I. Cor. 12.) As long as real, living, active faith existed in the Church of Christ, healings by the power of God were common among the saints. When that departure from the faith predicted by the Apostles Peter and Paul came to pass, those gifts, sometimes called "miraculous," also departed. For hundreds of years during the establishment of the various forms of religion instituted by men, these gifts were almost unknown in Christendom, and the teachers of the various sects accounted for their absence by stating that they were "done away," or were "no longer needed."

Not until the Lord in His mercy restored the gospel in its fullness through the Prophet Joseph Smith was there a disposition on the part of modern ministers to accept the doctrine of healing the sick as a gift of God, or admit it to be a feature of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Indeed, when the Latter-day Saints announced to the world that all the gifts of the gospel, including the healing of the sick by the laying on of hands, were attainable in the present age, the declaration was received with incredulity and by many professing "Christians" and their preachers with denunciations, threatenings and persecutions of those who testified that these sigus followed believers, as in the early days of the Christian era.

"Fanatics," "impostors," "superstitious knaves," "false prophets,” “wicked pretenders," "servants of Satan" were among the mildest of the epithets hurled against the followers of the Prophet Joseph Smith, because of their belief in the present power of God operating upon the principle of faith. When the saints were driven by armed mobs from the State of Missouri, they were ordered to disband and separate, and no more to organize with bishops and elders and pretensions to the healing of the sick by the laying on of hands. Their houses were burned, their property was confiscated, and many of them were cruelly butchered because of their belief in these doctrines.

But a change has been coming over the minds of many people since that time, and to-day there are popular preachers and some religious organizations in Christendom that teach the possibility of healing by faith and are making it a part of their creed or their service. In America this cult has appeared in several different forms called by various names, and cases of healing through prayer or by the laying on of hands, or by the exercise of mind over matter, or by processes miscalled "science," have been quite numerous, and such as are genuine have been the result of that which the Savior and His apostles called faith. It was by faith, so He said, that the sick to whom He administered were healed. He named no other cause and called it by no other name.

Faith is a wonderful force, a spiritual power, and it is the same yesterday, to-day and forever. Whenever and wherever the gospel is preached in its purity and by divine authority, healing by faith is taught as a part of it. It is a principle of the gospel as much as baptism is, not, however, as an essential to salvation, because "he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved" if he "endures unto the end," while he who has not faith to be healed, but obeys the divine commandments, may gain salvation.

In a recent issue of a respectable Liverpool newspaper, an account appeared of a meeting of clergy and laymen, held at Sion College, Victoria Embankment, London, "with the object of promoting the formation of a central church council for the consideration of questions connected with healing by spiritual means." It was stated on that occasion that the society was formed three years ago "with the object of reviving in the church the gift of healing." A number of clergymen spoke in support of the movement, and one reverend gentleman mentioned a society with which he was connected, founded six years ago and having a membership of seven hundred. A resolution was adopted that the time had come for the formation of a central church council for the consideration of this important subject, and asking the Bishop of London to nominate the members of that council.

The same paper gave particulars of the faith-healing movement in America, where preachers of the Episcopal Church were advocating, by lectures and otherwise, a similar course of action to that