In our own experience with the ministers of the day, we have found them very desirous of evading the great first principles of salvation, by calling for evidence of the truth of the Book of Mormon, which were we to furnish, as might be done, both with regard to internal and external evidence, as well as the researches of travelers accumulating a mass of {227} proof as abundant as can be brought in testimony of anything, yet it would be deemed insufficient. And why? We answer, because spiritual things are spiritually discerned; and as no man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him, even so the things of God knoweth no man but the spirit of God. And inasmuch as the Book of Mormon is a divine record, so assuredly would the individual be unable to discern the same. But he might reply that he believed the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, and was satisfied with the evidence adduced in their favor; yes, and so would he have believed in the Book of Mormon had it been in existence with him and he had been taught to reverence it in a manner similar to the Bible; or we would carry it farther and say, had the person's lot been cast in Turkey, he would have grown up in a full belief in the authenticity of the Koran of Mahomet. But it is not such an evidence as this that can give satisfaction to the Saint of God. Multitudes express their belief and full confidence that Jesus was the Savior of men, but it is a conviction that has been instilled into the mind in early youth, and has grown with their growth; yet still it is not an evidence that will satisfy a child of God. We read that no man can say that Jesus is the Christ, but by the Holy Ghost, and on the same principle no man can speak as to the true nature of the Scriptures, Book of Mormon, or any other sacred record, but on the same principle; we might therefore reason with persons until doomsday, who are not in the covenant, and yet fail to convince them. We see then the absurdity of being led into a snare of this kind; it is neither more nor less than this, as it were laying aside our Priesthood and the duties of it, to endeavor by our own abilities to convince a man that we hold before him the light of truth, at the same time that he has no organs of vision to discern it. But there is a ground on which the servant of the Lord can stand securely; he can speak of the alienated condition of mankind, he can teach the great law of adoption into the Kingdom of God, and he can bear a faithful testimony of the reality of Christianity and of the signs following the believer. He may enlarge on his _knowledge_ of the Scripture by the reception of that spirit by which alone the truth can be known, and if he be successful in securing obedience to the first principles of truth, the work will be accomplished with regard to establishing the truth of the Book of Mormon, as well as every other portion of sacred writ.