In the year 1905 a monument of polished granite was erected and a comfortable and commodious cottage was built on the site of the Prophet's birth, on the farm purchased by the Church, in Sharon, Windsor County, Vermont. The monument is 50 feet and 10 inches high and weighs nearly 100 tons. The shaft is 38-3/4 feet long, each foot corresponding to one year of the Prophet's life. The cottage is built around the original hearthstone of the old Smith home. On December 23rd, 1905--the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of the Prophet--this cottage and monument were dedicated by President Joseph F. Smith, who, with a number of the leading brethren of the Church and a few Saints, had gone to Vermont for that purpose. The monument contains a written description of the Prophet's testimony and stands as a silent witness of the great work he was called upon by the Lord to perform. [Illustration: JOSEPH SMITH MONUMENT AND MEMORIAL COTTAGE.] For many years past, the Saints had been making settlements in Mexico, and establishing themselves there in good homes. In the year 1912 the disturbances in the country broke out into civil war, and because of the dangers attendant on the fighting between various factions, most of the Latter-day Saints had to leave the country and their possessions and come to the United States. Two new Temples are now being erected, one in Alberta, Canada, and another at Laie, on the island of Oahu, Hawaiian or Sandwich Islands. Work on the Canadian Temple was begun in 1913, and the one at Hawaii was commenced in the summer of 1915. The building of these Temples indicate that the great work for the dead is being energetically carried out by the Church. In the summer of 1914, the great European war broke out, which has caused the death and crippling of millions, and brought misery untold to the nations engaged in it. Very likely this war is the greatest the world has ever known. Nearly all our missionaries have had to be withdrawn from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, and France, and very few have been left in Great Britain and the Scandinavian countries. We sympathize with all these nations, and can only hope that the Lord will make it possible, after the war, that the missionaries will be better able to reach the people with the gospel of peace and salvation.