Let others believe all this to be coincidence if they choose, but for my own part there is too much that is significant to assign it to that class of phenomena so conveniently disposed of by calling them coincidents. And I believe that the men who opened the old Masonic Bible at the page containing the blessing of Joseph were unwittingly guided by the powers of heaven, and that the act heralded an era big with promise for the descendants of Joseph--the establishment of a government under which they would eventually attain to the full enjoyment of all that was pronounced upon their great progenitor by the inspired patriarchs, Jacob and Moses. II. America the Land of Zion and of Joseph.[A] [Footnote A: Discourse delivered March 24, 1907, in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City.] Between the fore part of September and the closing days of the month of December of last year, it was my privilege to travel in all about 11,000 miles, chiefly within the confines of the United States. I crossed the state of Nevada twice, and zigzagged back and forth through the territory of Arizona, through parts of Texas and the northern part of Mexico, making in that journey something over 3,000 miles, chiefly within what is known as the arid region of America; and really, during that time, I was almost ready to conclude that the whole of America must be "arid region," so vast it was. Shortly after this it was my privilege to go down the eastern slopes of the Rocky mountains en route for the Atlantic sea board, and of course came in contact with more "arid region." In the eastern part of Colorado, however, and in central Nebraska we began to go into a region of our country that is fertile, where field joins field, and where there is one perpetual succession of cornfields, meadows, pastures, gardens and orchards, with here and there prosperous railroad towns and farming villages. We rode a whole day through such a country; and when we retired to rest we knew that the express train would all night long be plunging through just such fertile lands as we had looked upon during the day, and all the next day it would be the same--and then some. This fertile section of the country was so vast that we forgot the arid region, and were ready to declare that the whole of America must be fertile. Then in eastern Ohio we began entering the manufacturing region of our country, and thence eastward through the whole extent of Pennsylvania, where we were seldom out of sight of the smoke stacks and furnaces of manufacturing establishments, and as we would cross the rivers or run parallel with them we could see acres and acres of coal barges and other craft of inland commerce, while the scream of the locomotives, the whistle of the factories, and ringing of bells were constantly in one's ears. So extensive was this manufacturing region that we began to think that the whole of America must be given up to manufactures. Everywhere we went there were evidences of prosperity in the land.