Hear the words of Ezekiel, 37th chap., 19th verse: "Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand." It is well understood that the meaning of stick is a book or record, the Jewish custom being to have the law and history written upon a long scroll of parchment, rolled upon a stick. The Book of Mormon is the stick of Joseph. With the exception of the Book of Ether, relating to the Jaredites, who sprang from a colony that left the Tower of Babel at the time of the confusion of languages, the record gives the history of a branch of the house of Joseph, Lehi, the head of the little colony that emigrated from Jerusalem to America six hundred years before Christ, being a lineal descendant of Manasseh. According to revelations given in these days, the overwhelming majority of the people composing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are of the blood of scattered Ephraim, to whose hands the record or stick of Joseph is confided, as prophesied by Ezekiel. We hold that Jesus Christ not only manifested Himself to His disciples at Jerusalem, establishing His fold--His Church--in that region, that His sheep might be protected and fed, but He did the same in other parts of the earth. Is He not the Shepherd of all those who are willing to serve Him? Did He not say to His ancient Jewish disciples, "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature?" He required them to go to every part of the earth that was then known on the eastern hemisphere. This did not include the American Continent. Are we to infer from this that, because of the inability of these witnesses, from lack of geographical or other information, which God, in His wisdom, may have seen fit to withhold from them, the peoples of the great western continent should be left without a knowledge of a crucified and risen Redeemer? Surely this would be tantamount to an imputation of injustice against Omnipotence, as there is no other name under heaven whereby salvation can be obtained except that of Jesus. {213} With the loving Redeemer the welfare of His sheep, or disciples, was His constant theme and anxiety. On one occasion He was conversing on this subject with His Jerusalem flock, when He uttered the following statement, as recorded in John 10th chap., 15th and 16th verses: "As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father; and I lay my life down for the sheep. And _other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold and one shepherd_."