Character Sketch. Appendix A. Sidney Rigdon. Appendix B. Address to the Saints of the British Isles. Appendix C. Storm on Lake Michigan. Appendix D. Rationality of the Atonement. Wives of Wilford Woodruff. Children of Wilford Woodruff. Index. {1} CHAPTER 1. BIRTH AND GENEALOGY, 1807. A Chosen Spirit.--Divine Guidance.--Genealogy.--A Miller by Trade. Wilford Woodruff was the fourth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He belonged to that class of men of whom the Lord said to Abraham, "These will I make my rulers." Of our primeval childhood that ancient Prophet informs us that the Lord stood among those that were spirits and He saw that they were good. Of these spirits the Lord said to Abraham, "Thou art one of them, thou wert chosen before thou wast born." If the Lord knew Abraham and Jeremiah before they were born in the flesh, He also must have known Wilford Woodruff in the spirit world. The latter's integrity and unbounded devotion to the worship and purposes of his God are not surpassed by any prophet of either ancient or modern times. Like those of ancient times, Wilford Woodruff was undoubtedly foreordained of God to a noble mission in life, and to the great responsibilities which he filled with honor and to the glory of God. To him there was a reality of the spirit world rarely enjoyed by men, he constantly felt the influence of spiritual associations which were above and beyond the ordinary affairs of life. That he had an existence prior to this probation in life, he never doubted. He felt that life was a mission to which he had been called and which in the goodness of God he had been permitted to fill. His own spiritual existence was never overshadowed by temporalities or by constant misgivings that so frequently beset the lives of other men. Wilford Woodruff looked upon the brotherhood of men as {2} a natural sequence of his assurance that God was the Father of our spirits in a former life. He understood that prayer of the Savior addressing Himself to His Father in heaven. His own spirit was in harmony with the revelations of Christ. In the light of scriptural declarations and of his own spiritual nature, he was simply here in life in the performance of great duties which had been assigned him before the world was. He sincerely believed that in returning again to the God who had given him life he would have to account for his talents and his time. Speaking of the Athenians, Paul said: "God that made the world hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation."