The Gospel proposed these blessings at its announcement, and they have been most miraculously accomplished. No other religious system could have achieved such things, nor dared any other Christian denomination venture to send out its missionaries "without purse or scrip," and without a collegiate education, to declare to the people that they had authority from God to administer the sacred ordinances of the Gospel, through which should be revealed tangible evidence and knowledge of its divinity, and of their being authorized to administer it, and take the people from a state of poverty, and lead them thousands of miles, and despite every obstacle, establish them as a comparatively independent people in the midst of a wild desert country. That they found the people poor, friendless and without the means of living, and in servitude not much better than Egyptian bondage, as we found many of them; they would have imparted no cheering news of an approaching salvation from the God of heaven, but could only have exhorted them to be contented and reconciled with their unhappy lot, and in no case must they look for any new revelation or miraculous interposition. What philanthropists have wished to accomplish, and have often attempted, the Lord is now doing on a magnificent scale in this great American Desert. Flourishing settlements, towns and cities are rapidly being built, extending over a distance of five hundred miles in length--hundreds of miles in width, through the untiring energy and perseverance of a people formerly totally ignorant of such labors. In these cities people live in harmony and peace; and robberies, grog shops, gambling hells, houses of ill-fame and prostitution are not known in any of our numerous towns and cities, except in some instances where Christians (so called) possess a footing and influence. Everywhere else this community flourishes without these demoralizing institutions. No one, however, prejudiced he may be, can scarcely avoid acknowledging the palpable fact that this system has conferred miraculous blessings upon thousands and tens of thousands, in the way of putting them in possession of the means of sustaining themselves, after having delivered them from oppression and tyranny little better than African slavery: and no doubt our legislators at Washington, one and all, would give us credit for our indefatigable and successful labors in establishing an extensive and flourishing colony on a portion of our government's domain, formerly inhabited only by savages and wild beasts, provided we would admit this work to be the work of man, and not of God--that it had been accomplished through the artifice and wisdom of man, and not by the power, wisdom and revelations of God.