“The Book of Mormon is true,” David Osborn heard Joseph Smith testify in 1837, “just what it purports to be, and for this testimony I expect to give an account in the day of judgment. . . . If I obtain the glory which I have in view I expect to wade through much tribulation.”[1] The persecution began very early. Joseph’s mother remembered that “every kind of opposition and persecution” started right after the First Vision.[2] During the period... Read more

    Relax.   For whatever it may be worth, eastern Canada, at least, seems to be surviving this latest lunar eclipse in fairly good shape.  A high percentage of Canadians seem likely, at this point, to live into the new week.   But here’s something to worry about:   “The Iran deal will ignite nuclear proliferation”   Posted from Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada Read more

    Marvel at the wonders of the universe in which we live.   http://www.foxnews.com/science/2015/09/26/nasa-releases-stunning-image-supernova-remnants/?intcmp=hplnws   Posted from Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada     Read more

    “All trembling, I reached the Falls of Niagara, and oh, what a scene!  My blood shudders still, although I am not a coward, at the grandeur of the Creator’s power; and I gazed motionless on this new display of the irresistible force of one of His elements.” John James Audubon Posted from Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada   Read more

    A high point last night was dinner with an Old Order Amish family, Joe and Sarah Miller and three of their granddaughters.  This area represents the fourth largest concentration of Old Order Amish in the United States.   I admire the Amish.  I wouldn’t choose their specific lifestyle, but I admire the consistency and thoroughness of their commitment to their faith, and the simplicity and focus of their lives.  In some ways, they inspire me.   At the... Read more

    Joseph Smith’s honesty seems clearly evidenced as well by his own sacrifices for the cause he proclaimed—sacrifices that become rather more difficult to explain if he was insincere. (His family and those who believed in his message also sacrificed, too.)[1]  He was arrested repeatedly, and, from the very earliest days, he and his followers were subjected to harassment and worse.[2] “The Prophet Joseph,” George A. Smith recalled of the march of Zion’s Camp, took full share of the... Read more

    Vladimir Putin has completely outmaneuvered our presidential naïf:   http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/putin-doctrine-action_1036791.html   And Russia’s longstanding goal of establishing a major warm-water port — a goal that pre-dates the Soviets and was pursued by the czars — is one step closer to realization.   Now that’s change you can believe in!   Posted from Mentor, Ohio     Read more

    Scientifically.   Doctrinally.   Personally, though, I don’t care what they say.  I intend to panic, and to run around screaming loudly and irrationally.   How about you?  Do you have any special plans for tomorrow night?   Posted from Mentor, Ohio     Read more

  We spent an hour or more upstairs in Newel K. Whitney’s store this morning.  Fascinating things have happened there. Presidents John Taylor and George Q. Cannon, Apostles Erastus Snow, Brigham Young, Francis M. Lyman, and Heber J. Grant, and Elders L. John Nuttall and Zebedee Coltrin present. Brother Zebedee Coltrin said: I believe I am the only living man now in the church who was connected with the School of the Prophets when it was organized in 1833, the year before... Read more

    “We are all insane. That is what original sin means. Sin is insanity. It is preferring finite joy to infinite joy, creatures to the Creator, an unhappy, Godless self to a happy, God-filled self. Only God can save us from this disease. That is what the name ‘Jesus’ means: ‘God saves’.” Peter Kreeft   Posted from Mentor, Ohio     Read more