As for the calamitous events of the Church during the Kirtland period, what shall we say of them? Are they to be accounted wholly deplorable, or as part of that experience of the Church which makes for advancement? Unquestionably every experience is of value to an individual or an organization. Some experiences may be sad, and accounted at the time as disastrous; but are they really so? The rough wind which shakes it helps the young and slow-growing oak; for by reason of this very shaking the tree takes firmer hold of the earth; wider spread the roots; deeper down into the soil are they thrust, until the sapling, once so easily shaken, becomes a monarch in the forest, mocks the howling tempest, until its height and frame become worthy of the land and atmosphere in which it grows a giant tree. So may grow a government--civil or ecclesiastical--so may grow the Church, helped by the adverse circumstances which shake it to the very foundations on which it rests. Profitable if not sweet are the uses of adversity. As the winter's wind when it bites and blows upon man's body is no flatterer, but feelingly persuades him what he is, so the adverse circumstances which overtake an organization, such as the Church of Christ, may be very profitable to it. Such rebellions and apostasies as occurred in this Kirtland period of the Church's history but test and exhibit the strength of the fabric. Such circumstances force a review of the work as far as accomplished. The whole is re-examined to see if in it there is any flaw or defect; if any worthless material is being worked into its structure. Hence periods usually considered calamitous are accompanied by corrections of what may be wrong; and the body religious is purified by the expulsion of those whose rebellion and apostasy but prove them unworthy of the Lord's work. Let me be rightly understood here. I am not contending that adverse circumstances, rebellions and apostasies are in themselves good. Whatever may be the over-ruled results to the body religious, rebellion and apostasy spell condemnation and the destruction of spiritual life for the individuals overtaken by such calamities. But so long as human nature is what it now is--weak and sinful--just so long as out of that intractable material the Church of Christ has the mission to prepare men for the Father's kingdom, just so long will there be occasional calamities periods in the history of the Church such as was the year 1837 at Kirtland. But what after all are such periods but times of purification, of cleansing? During the previous years of success in the ministry, there had been gathered into the Church all classes of men. As in former dispensations of the Gospel, so in this last dispensation; the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net cast into the sea, that gathers of every kind of fish; and when it is full, they draw it to shore, and sit down, and gather the good into vessels, and cast the bad away.