But talented as Sidney Rigdon was, moral, too, and spiritually minded and sincere as we believe him to have been in these early days of his career, he possessed traits of character which neutralized to a very great extent his great abilities. He was vain of his talents; vainglorious of his importance; too proud of what he regarded as his sacrifices for the truth. The very qualities which made him brilliant prevented him from being profound. The fervid imagination which enabled him to clothe with such splendid imagery his speech, made him a dangerous man when called to act with reference to stern and often disagreeable and prosy realities. He was constitutionally unsound. Remarkably gifted in one or two directions, he was markedly deficient in others. He was wanting in soundness of judgment, steadiness of purpose, a high sense of honor. He was moody, petty, jealous, selfish; and in a word, lacked that mysterious quality so well expressed by the phrase, "weight of character." But with all his imperfections he was useful, and for many years was faithful and devoted to the Prophet and the work of God. He was an instrument in the hands of the Almighty through whom was accomplished much good. He endured much for the truth's sake--persecution, poverty, imprisonment, mob violence, almost death. For such men, whatever may be their defects of character,--especially when such defects are constitutional, the effect of temperament--we can have but the kindest sentiments; and only make mention of such defects as they may have possessed in order to bring to pass a proper understanding of events with which they were associated. At Kirtland, Frederick G. Williams, who subsequently occupied an important station in The Church--counselor to the Prophet Joseph in the First Presidency--was also baptized. He volunteered to accompany the Indian missionaries on their journey westward. The Indian missionaries arrived at Independence, Missouri, in midwinter. Independence was then a frontier town; one of the outposts of Anglo-American advancement westward. It was on the line that divided our frontier from the possessions of the red man west of the great Missouri River; and it can be very well understood that its civilization was not of the highest order. Here had drifted many outcasts from society, and there was, at the time of which we are writing, very little regard for God, religion, refinement, or for civilization. As the Indian missionaries were destitute and weary from the extended journey on foot through what, at that time, was at best but a sparsely-settled country, and very much of it wilderness--it was arranged that two of the company who had been tailors should obtain work at their trade in Independence, while the three others should cross the frontier line and enter the reservation occupied by the Shawnees and the Delaware Indians.