around their waists, and a blanket thrown loosely over head and shoulders. Some wear only the cloth, without the blanket appendage. The squaws and girls wear loose dresses and slips, and the boys wear shirts, sometimes with the additional blanket. The small children run about without any clothing. Many of the men have their heads shaved, leaving only a small tuft of hair; both head and face are painted red. Many of them wear red leggings, and red and green blankets abound. They are an indolent tribe. I have seen but two men at work since we came here; one was dressing his potatoes, and the other, an old man, was making arrows.

Our friends Jesse and Sybella Greist have been very kind to us, and they are doing all that they can to make us comfortable. Our presence adds much to Sybella's cares, and for this reason, if no other, it would seem desirable to make our stay as short as may be, in order to get the necessary information. But aside from this I am quite anxious to reach home. Deborah Wharton was quite poorly yesterday, but is better this morning. The weather is very fine, being warm and clear. Seventh-day night and First-day it rained; but with this exception I have not had a rainy day on this journey. The country here is very fine, and a delightful breeze is blowing most of the time.

"We have a council with the Indians this morning at nine o'clock, so I must get ready to go.

With much love, thy husband,

SAMUEL J. LEVICK.

CHAPTER VII.

THOUGHTS ON SPECIAL TOPICS.

MY TWENTY-FIRST BIRTH-DAY.

Thus has ended the thirtieth day of Eighth Month, 1840; it being the first of the week, and the first of my entrance upon legalized manhood. I cannot say that I had been looking forward to it with any more anxiety than to any other birth-day. In fact nearly half the day had passed before I thought of it. I am not one of those who believe that a youth steps from boyhood to manhood in one day; but, on the contrary, that the development is gradual, and that every day is a factor in the transition. I regard not this day as the entrance-gate to freedom, or to such liberty as would absolve me from giving heed to parental advice, or solicitation; for I feel that my status in these particulars is the same that it was a year ago. It is true that I now occupy a different position, and stand in a different relation to the community in which I live, and to the religious Society of which I am a member-as I am now amenable to both of these for my conduct-but I do not expect to change, in the least, my bearing toward either of them, though I do desire to be found walking in more faithful obedience to the law of my Heavenly Father, written in my heart. I firmly believe that this law, as revealed to us individually, and followed by us faithfully, is sufficient to lead and guide into all Truth.

SAMUEL J. LEVICK.

LABORING WITHOUT A CALL.

ADDRESSED TO YOUNG FRIENDS.

"When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of his glory; and before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats; and He shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. and these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal."

It is with me thus to write this day, for my spirit has been bowed, in view of the nature of man's transgression of the law of his God. How insidious are the means used by the old enemy of man's peace, to draw him away from the Lord, his Creator, and thus produce enmity between him and his God.

For you, children, who are in an especial manner the object of his embrace, for you, are these lines penned. My desire for you is that Satan may not have you to sift you as wheat is sifted, and to destroy the seed of the Kingdom that has been sown by the good Husbandman in your heart-hence I feel

to warn you of his devices. The means he is now employing are not those to lead you into any apparently wicked ways; it is not the gratification of your sensual appetites, of your carnal desires, that is leading you astray; oh, no; but a more deceitful course is he taking, by presenting evil in a refined dress, and calling you to the performance of "good works;" even to upholding the glorious principles that Jesus Christ bore testimony to. It is not in breaking the commandments of the law, but in doing the works called for by the Gospel, that the enemy of man is slaying thousands. Oh, see how artful are his ways, for it remains to be true that he is the most subtle of all the beasts that the Lord God has made! He is now trying to teach you that by obeying him, you can do justly, become temperate, plead the cause of the poor and oppressed; yea, even love your enemies, and have a knowledge of God. Thus, dear children, though you see him not, and know him not, is he stealthily leading you away.

Mine eye having been opened to see these things, in the love of the Gospel I write unto you to warn you and to assure you that this seducer is the father of lies; that he is, and ever will continue to be, a liar, for the truth is not in him.

Oh, ye sons and daughters who are thus being led captive, for you is my spirit under deep exercise, and I feel called upon to write to you, and to remind you that the Lord your God is watching over you for your redemption, and that "it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps" aright. The

outward acts of the Gospel may be done in our own will; but to be availing they must be performed in the Spirit of the Gospel; for as faith without works is dead, so likewise works without faith are dead; and here is the evil spoken of; we are resting on works; the activity of the natural man has opened a way for the enemy to come into the mind, and to lead it astray into the performance of labor as a good work. But no work is really good unless it has been blessed; and the Lord will never bless that which He has not called for. I allude to spiritual labor at which you may be toiling, but not receiving any reward.

The cause, dear children, of your being thus led captive by the prince of the power of the air, has been the want of your keeping silence before God. Ye have not waited for Him; ye have not learned patience, one of the great virtues, one of the essential ingredients in the character of the Lamb's followers. I have known this from experience; and I now believe myself bound to write and declare that it is not the amount of labor we perform that will be accounted unto us for righteousness, but in what we do, being done by and under the immediate direction of our Heavenly Parent; and that one of the most important lessons we have to learn in our Christian travel, is that of being willing to do nothing; to be still. "Be still, and know that I am God" was a Divine injunction; and from it we learn that without a stillness of all that would be active, we cannot know God. Such has been the experience of the Lord's servants in all ages;