"Two years and a half had elapsed," he writes further, "since I left Kirtland with my brethren in poverty to go up to visit our brethren in tribulation in Zion. The Saints at Kirtland were then poor, despised, and looked upon by the pomp of Babylon with disdain, and people watched with eager eyes to behold them sink into forgetfulness. But what a change has come! Now I behold a cheerfulness beaming from every countenance, {63} and the scenes around indicate prosperity. The noise of the ax and the hammer, the stir of their bank and market, and especially the presence of the House of God, speak in language loud as thunder that the Saints will have a city in spite of all the false prophets of Baal, and in spite of even earth and hell combined, because God is with them, and His Temple stands in honor of His Kingdom, while Babylon begins to wonder and soon will perish." {64} CHAPTER 8. IN KIRTLAND, 1836. Wilford's First Attendance at Meeting in the Temple.--Called to Speak.--Church's Attitude Toward the Use of Liquor.--Wilford in the First Quorum of Seventy.--Receives Temple Endowments.--Troubles in Kirtland.--Greatness of the Prophet Joseph.--Wilford's Marriage.--Receives a Patriarchal Blessing. The missionary experiences of Wilford Woodruff in the Southern States gave to him a firmness and a comprehension that came from the testimony of the spirit of God. From the day he joined the Church, he was in active service. He was not among those who required special training and who needed the constant guidance of the leaders to keep them within the bounds of the Church. His first experience was in Zion's Camp. He remained a short time in Missouri and then set out upon his mission. His life was therefore governed by the workings of the spirit within him. That spirit was his guide--the rock upon which his faith and understanding were established. His return, therefore, to Kirtland did not subject him to the temptations of evil, nor to the rebukes of the Prophet. He knew that he was about his Father's business and was not swerved by the sophistries of men, or the speculative spirit of those times. When he entered the city, he beheld, to his great joy, the Temple of the Lord. It contained for him grand opportunities. Its ordinances which he so fervently revered gave comfort and consolation to his life. On Sunday the 27th, 1836, he attended his first public meeting in the Temple. He had visited the building previously and viewed with pleasure its sacred apartments. On the forenoon of that day in company with Elders Warren Parrish and A. O. Smoot, he listened with pleasure to the words of Elder S. Carter, and to an impressive discourse from the Prophet Joseph.