Now, brother, I ask you to stop and make a full pause by way of reflection. How do devoted sectarians entertain the Latter-day Saints? Not surely by a candid exposure of our errors, coupled with a patient effort to reclaim us. "By no means," said a highly respectable deaconess, "Brother Spencer, I would rather have heard that you were dead." She knew in the general that I had embraced Mormonism; but of the true character of Mormonism she was grossly ignorant; and she was actually driven into fits when she found I defended the doctrines of Latter-day Saints. Look at the conduct of devoted sectarians towards the Latter-day Saints, and mark the resemblance to that of ancient Jews to former Saints. The same proscriptive spirit reigns now as then,-- the same spirit that dictated expulsion from the synagogue then, now closes the doors of meetinghouses against us,--the same spirit that closed men's ears against the burning eloquence of Stephen then, counsels men not to hear or go nigh Mormon preachers now. You ask "If the Latter-day Saints are persecuted; if so, by whom are they persecuted?" The answer is a painful one, because it inculpates those who were bound to us by many tender ties. As a people we have been truly persecuted from the beginning. From the moment we embrace this doctrine, in most cases we are virtually banished from friends, and rank, and station, and business. Says the venerated father, "if you have embraced that doctrine, my son, I never want to see your face any more." Says the partner in trade, "if you are a Mormon, we must dissolve partnership forthwith." If such an one occupying an important office of profit and honour does not give up his Mormonism, we will sue him at the law, and calumniate him, and embarrass him until he is ousted and broken up, and obliged to leave our village. We are separated from men's company, while the licentious, and profane, and intemperate are suffered to dwell in peace; while our opposers cherish to their bosom the rankest infidels, they repulse _us_ with disdain; though none can point out ought wherein we differ from the ancient apostles and prophets. Almost daily my eyes behold those who have suffered too much to mention; but I would rather refer you to printed documents, than to attempt a description of the sufferings of our people in Missouri. From forty to sixty of our brethren suffered death, by violent hands, in Missouri, and as many more, in consequence of the abuse and privations to which they were exposed by an infuriated and bloodthirsty mob; and the disappointment, privation, and homeless condition of survivors was very great. Many widows and orphans knew not what to do, having just begun to live in a comfortable and thriving manner. They had almost forgotten their first sorrow of parting from early friends and possessions, when lo! the hideous mob came upon them; at one blow their homes were made desolate; in some instances father