where the missionaries have travelled, it is equally true that for one case of instantaneous healing of that character which is cited as miraculous by the Mormon writers, there have been hundreds of instances of the sick being administered to in the same way, without any beneficial results whatever, and they have been left to recover by the recuperative power of nature, or the maladies have yielded to ordinary medical treatment which the Church had actually forbidden. This "gift of healing" has also been experienced more in Europe than in America, for the young Saints in Europe have more faith than the older Saints in the very bosom of the Church. Their spiritual nature is worked up to the greatest intensity, and they are always prepared to see angels, behold visions, dream dreams, speak in tongues and prophesy. A large portion of their time in foreign countries is consumed in "rejoicing together," and "building each other up," by glowing testimonies of their experience; but when they arrive in Utah they soon discover that another condition of affairs exists there. The hard facts of a hard life confront them, and the contemplation of heavenly things has to give place to the arduous labours for the necessaries of existence. Many, not appreciating the true causes of this change in their spiritual experience, become discontented, murmur, and apostatize, and those who have been the most favoured, usually become the most dejected and Godforsaken. The ignorant teacher who visits the unfortunate, disappointed, but once gifted Saint, renders his experience still worse by stating in reference to the change which he cannot explain, that "the Lord first greatly blessed him in order to leave him without excuse for backsliding so that He could the better damn him when he apostatized."
The greatest dispensation of spiritual power experienced in the Mormon Church fell upon the British Saints during the Presidency of the apostle Orson Pratt, from 1848 to 1851. The other apostles are more secular than religious, and have a great deal more to do with this world's affairs than with the hopes of the next they have all large families to provide for. Orson also has many wives, but his better education and eminent ability as a writer and reasoner have preserved him more a missionary than a farmer; he is, emphatically, the gospel-
