On the sixth day of April, 1830, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized. And on the twenty-seventh day of June, 1844, the Prophet sealed his testimony with his blood. Joseph Smith was murdered in Carthage Jail when he was in the prime of his life, being only thirty-eight years, six months and six days old. It was just fourteen years, two months and twenty-one days after the Church was organized. Strange as it may appear, our Lord and Saviour was murdered when only a few years younger than Joseph, and both were put to death for the same cause, namely, the establishing of the Church of Christ on the earth, the one in the former and the one in the latter days. Dark and solemn was that day when Illinois shed the innocent blood of the two martyrs, Joseph and Hyrum Smith. They were at the time under the protection of Governor Thomas Ford, who pledged his sacred honor for their safety. But the pledge, which was never meant to be kept, was most shamefully broken, and these two heroic spirits were given up to a professed Christian mob of merciless demons, and they were cruelly murdered in cold blood. These great and good men, servants of the Most High God, of "whom the world was not worthy," were of one heart and one mind throughout all their life, and in death they were not separated. They fled together from the murderous mob to their destined home on high. There, while they bask in the sunshine of eternal peace and love, they testify by their blood to the horrid cruelties that reign in the heart of a wicked and apostate world. There were but four years, ten months and fourteen days between the ages of these noble martyred brothers, Hyrum being the elder. Joseph, on this occasion, voluntarily gave himself up to the strong arm of the law, for he had ever been willing to be tried by the tribunals of his country. At this time, our beloved Prophet was impressed with a sad foreboding somewhat similar to that experienced in Gethsemane by the Saviour just previous to the crucifixion, when he called upon the Father and said: "Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done." The Prophet Joseph said, while on his way to Carthage, "I am going like a lamb to the slaughter; but I am calm as a summer's morning; I have a conscience void of offence towards God and towards all men. I shall die innocent, and it shall yet be said of me, 'he was murdered in cold blood.'" Elder Bates Nobles, now living, authorizes me to say that he heard the Prophet utter those very words. Well, this prophecy of our murdered Prophet has been often fulfilled in the testimonies of the Saints, both among themselves and before the world, as well as by the utterances of the honorable and upright men of all lands, but to its bitter cost, it has not yet been said by our nation. However, we will watch and wait. "God is just is all we say."