Finally, to wander no further from the subject in hand, were the religious leaders of the early part of the nineteenth century, educated to the idea that revelation had ceased; that the voice of prophecy was forever silenced; that the ministration of angels was ended; that the miraculous powers of the Holy Ghost were done away; that the ancient organization of the church was no longer needed; and further, believing that God was a substance merely, without form, without a body, or parts, or passions--were such men, filled with pride which the learning of this world too often infuses into the hearts of those who possess it--were such men qualified to stand at the head of, and become the leading actors in, the Dispensation of the Fullness of Times? A dispensation which was to be opened by the personal visitation of the Father and the Son, followed by numerous visitations of angels, the re-establishment of the church of Christ, with all its doctrines, ordinances, priesthoods, powers, promises and blessings; and ending, eventually, with the full restoration of the house of Israel and the complete redemption of the earth and all its righteous inhabitants? Such a work was too large, too high and too deep for minds filled with false, sectarian ideas. Hence God chose His servants in these last days from men whose minds were unwarped by false education, but men of large capacity; possessing breadth and freedom of thought, of sanguine, fearless temperament: children of nature were they, with consciences unseared by worldly guile, and strangers to motives other than those dictated by an honest purpose; and, withal, full of implicit confidence in God--a confidence born of a living faith in the fact of Deity's existence, and a consciousness of the rectitude of their own intentions and lives. It was these qualities which made the men whom the Prophet Joseph Smith gathered about him, and who were his trusted counselors, remarkable; and of that coterie of men there was not one who more completely united in his own character all those qualities which made the group remarkable than John Taylor. Nor was there one more devoted in his friendship for the prophet, or more zealous in his efforts to spread abroad the glad tidings that the gospel of the Son of God in its fullness was restored to the earth to bless mankind. Neither was there one whose experience was more varied, or whose life was more crowded with thrilling events, or whose position in the Church was more exalted than his. He proclaimed the gospel in many lands; and as the champion of truth, stood ready to meet all who assailed it; and whether he met his opponents in the forum, before a multitude steeped full of prejudice against him, or in the columns of the public press, he was equally successful in vanquishing them by his powerful statement of the truth, backed by a peculiar ability to expose the weakness of his opponent's position.